i want to alert you to some breaking news. the four congresswomen targeted by donald trump are about to respond to his attacks. msnbc will carry that live. you'll hear what they have to say in just a few minutes. in the meantime, my deep and sincere thanks to you all. your new book "american carnage" is out tomorrow. "mtp daily" with my friend steve kornacki in for chuck starts now. ♪ if it's monday, it's "meet the press daily." good morning. i'm steve karn acri in new york in for chuck todd. and we begin tonight with break news. you are looking live at capitol hill. any moment now we are expecting that group of controversial and outspoken progressive house

democrats. congresswomen alexandria ocasio-cortez, rashida tlaib, ayanna pressley, and ilhan omar. we expect they will be holding a joint-press conference. they will be doing that to respond to the comments that the president made about them earlier today. of course, it was just a few hours ago at the white house that the president went off on these four congresswomen. he accused them of hating the country. he called them socialists. he said they might be communists. he said one of them, quote, hatesews. he said if they are unhappy with the way things are going under his leadership, they can leave the country. the president made these comments while defending himself against charges of racism and xenophobia over a series of weekend tweets in which he suggested that this group of racially diverse progressive democrats will go back to their home countries. we should note three of the four of them were born here in the

united states. group of progressive house democrats, again, about to speak any minute now, has democrats, members of their party rally around them. that has sparked concerns among some on the left that the president is baiting the party to defend this group so that he can paint democrats as too liberal heading into the 2020 election. standing by as we await this press conference, we have nbc's kristen welker. she is live at the white house. nbc's leeann caldwell. that is where the action is shifting at this hour as we count down to that press conference, could start any minute now. so i apologize in advance if i need to interrupt you to go to it. >> sure. >> but set the stage. what are we expecting from these four congresswomen any minute now? >>. >> reporter: steve, we are expecting them to continue to defend themselves, and also challenge the president who they have called out as being racist, saying that the comments that he has made over twitter and previously against them,

specifically are racist comments. there's a lot of things that are happening on capitol hill right now. you have the democrats who had their own infighting going on between these progressive members and house speaker nancy pelosi and some of the moderates. and the republicans are saying a lot of them in the leadership are saying the president just overstepped. he didn't need to get involved in this. this was a strategic mistake by the president. he broke every rule in politics by just standing back and letting your opponents self-destruct. he didn't do that. so, now what we expect at some point this week is a resolution from democrats condemning the president's remarks. of course, this resolution isn't written yet, but it's also going to put republicans in a difficult spot. are they going to stand with the president or not? and so they're going to have to take an active vote on this.

of course, it depends on how this is written on how they haven't come out on a position yet saying it depends on how it's written. but the challenge here for democrats is also to stay united. they have the president who has finally united them after weeks of turmoil within the party. and so if they can stay united in this week against the president, then i think that's going to be pretty successful for them strategically and politically. but as we know, the democrats have been arguing over policy, 40 uf to go on some of these issues. >> it was just a few months ago when democrats had some turmoil within their party over another resolution condemning one of these four members of the squad, steve. so, we're just beginning in this contentious moment on capitol hill in the white house. >> yes. and, again, folks, you can see

on your screen there, the lower right, we are keeping an eye there where any minute now we are expecting that press conference to begin to hear from those four members and again what most directly set the stage for this press conference was what the president said earlier today outside the white house in which he seemed to go out of his way to comment further after his tweets over the weekend to go after these four members. i'll just give you a taste of what he said and what we're expecting to respond to. take a listen. >> all i'm saying that if they're not happy here, they can leave. in one case you have somebody that comes from somalia, which is a failed government, a failed state, who left somalia, who ultimately came here, and now is a congresswoman who's never happy, says horrible things business rail, hates israel, hates jews. it's very simple. they're social gists definitely. as to whether or not they're communists, i would think they might be. these are people that hate our country.

hey, john, they hate our country. they hate it, i think, with a passion. >> so kristen welker it sounds like that event where the president was speaking today, that was a separate event it. >> wasn't even clear he was going to be saying anything publicly about this. instead, he spoke extensively on this subject, obviously in some very inflammatory terms right there. now we expect to hear these four congresswomen come out to defend themselves and to take issue with what he's saying right there. is this what the white house wanted? is this how they wanted this day to end? >> reporter: i think it's what the president wanted, steve. that event, as you point out, was initially aimed at highlighting things thash made here in -- that were made here in america, the u.s. economy. yet president trump wound up answering a number of questions about his tweets, which are widely being called racist. look, there is a divide here between what president trump tweeted over the weekend and

senior administration officials. president trump defiant, you see him defending his comments there. i think, steve, he sees this as an issue that will energize his base. he's of course entering a tough re-election campaign. we have seen him dabble in this type of rhetoric in the past. enter the race and culture wars and use that to really spin up his base. but how do senior administration officials see it, steve? i'm spent the day pressing everyone who comes before the press on his tweets. that's not what they want to be talking about. mark short earlier today wanted to be talking about trade and the economy, the u.s. mca, which is set to replace nafta if it were to pass through congress. instead he wound up answering a number of questions about this, trying to defend the president. same thing with stephen mnuchin earlier today. this has really overshadowed the white house. and does it complicate the white

house's ability to work with democrats on capitol hill to try to raise the debt limit to get a budget pass, some of these things that are must-do items when we get into the fall. so, politically speaking i think president trump is not afraid of this fight. i think he sees it's something that could politically energy his core supporters. but it's also something that makes it more difficult for administration officials. we started this weekend, i should say, covering the fact that democrats were fighting. and now we're covering the fact that democrats are very unified in their condemnation of these tweets by president trump, steve. >> yeah. and, kristen, that's a very good point. let me go back to leigh ann on capitol hill. so heading into weekend through much of last week, all of this discussion about this strife within the democratic party within the democratic caucus that was reaching the public there between this group of four

congresswomen, between the speaker nancy pelosi. do you have any sense now as we await this press conference, is nancy pelosi, is the democratic leadership, are they involved in the message we're about to hear from these four congresswomen? has there been coordination there today? has that relationship changed just because of what the president's done in the past 24, 36 hours? >> reporter: so, steve, everyone's still gathering coming to capitol hill for the start of the week. nancy pelosi just arrived to the capitol a few moments ago. we haven't heard from her yet in person on these latest tweets. but what we do know is she is standing behind her members over the weekend she tweeted that the president wanted what she thought all along, to make america white again. and so this absolutely unified the democratic party that was really struggling to stay united, not only on a policy component but also not letting their fights spill out into the

public. it was getting very personal, and there were even issues of race devolving in the democrats in their own infighting. and so this is completely changed the subject and changed the focus away from them and to the president. that's why some republicans are so frustrated. they're telling me privately that the president just can't not be involved in a controversy that he always has to insert himself into it. and then it distracts from what republicans are trying to do on a policy standpoint confirming judges and winning back a bunch of seats, not only in the house but maintaining the senate in 2020, steve. >> okay. leigh ann and kristen, please stay with us. and, again, we expected initially that this press conference was going to be beginning at 5:00 p.m. we are going to keep our eyes on it. >> you see all the reporters in the room there. as soon as it begins, we will

pick it up, let you hear what those four congresswomen have to say. as we do continue waiting for it though, i'm joined by charlie sykes. and with me here on set we have beth fui, senior politics editor. zerlina maxwell, former adviser to hillary clinton and an msnbc political analyst. charlie, let me start with you. we heard leigh ann talking about this. the reaction from republicans initially as these tweets came out yesterday, there wasn't much in the way of reaction. this afternoon started to see some republicans, i noticed will herd, one of the most vulnerable house republicans. he barely won re-election last year. he strongly condemned what the president had to say. but i note before we came to air, i want to put this up. steve, republican senator from montana, he put this tweet out

within the last hour. he said montanans are sick and tired of listening to anti-american, anti-semite, radical democrats trash our country and our ideals. this is america, we're the greatest country in the world. i stand with donald trump. so there, charlie, you have a republican u.s. senator, no criticism at all of the president. all the attack on these four democrats in a simple statement of i stand with trump. how many are you going to hear on the herd side and how many are going to take the danes' approach? i think that will herd is going to be an outliar. you have seen this. look. the president, though relishes this kind of fight. and i don't like to attribute three-dimensional chest to the president, but there is a sort of reptilian cunning. he thinks he can get away with

the race card because he has in the past going back to the birther controversy, the ban on muslims, the fine people in charlottesville, the attack on the mexican-american judge. he knows that his base will back him, and he knows he won't pay much of a price for the republicans. and quite frankly, i understand -- there is no question about it, this is a racist tweet. there is no point litigating that because it is raw industrial racism, and the president has trafficked this in the past. but one of the things that i think he wants is he wants these four congresswomen to be the face of the democratic party. he wants to bait the democrats into unifying but unifying around them because he and people like senator daines want to make that what 2020 is about. so to a certain extent that the cynicism of the president has a certain cunning to it, and the fact is that i'm guessing he's

sitting back in the white house and he thinks this is playing out pretty well for him. >> we were talking to kristen welker about that too, the fact that is this what trump ultimately wanted when he went out of his way for make all these comments earlier today. is he getting what he wanted? we're all waiting to hear what these four congresswomen have to say. >> we've got a president who is going into a very tough re-election. we got that polling out of the weekend. showing the top democrats on the 2020 side, biden, kamala harris, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, all beating president trump. his popularity is at 45%. he's never been above 50 in the entire history of our polling around him since he had been president. he knows he's got a tough fight. he was even tweeting about fake polls. he's doing what he did in 2018, go into the race wars, go into the culture wars. he was talking about this caravan that was going to come up from the mexican border and come over into the country and take it over. that didn't work. >> it was a strategy that failed and democrats actually retook

the house. but he felt that he was on to something. he feels he's on to something here. these tweets and his comments come as he, you know, said he was going to start a bunch of i.c.e. raids over the weekend which don't look like they necessarily materialized the way he flagged. he's going right into the heart of where he feels that his base is going to respond to him, that democrats have some vulnerability. and this is where he's going to go with this. >> so, zerlina, it raises an interesting question. obviously, we will find out what they have to say here in a minute. but if there's something to this idea that this is a calculation, at least partly a calculation on the president's side where he's just going to sort of use blunt force and expect that that will be returned his way and it will be this battle of passions and somehow. if that's the calculation here, it does seem to me just that there is an opportunity here for these four democrats to take a

step back and claim a high ground here that's not ideological, that doesn't get into, you know, any specific issues, any kind of a debate there. and just as i have a right to be in this debate, i'm an american citizen. >> right. it's called human decency. i think the president operates under the problemis that black people don't vote. i have a problem with this entire framing of the fact that the president is doing this to rile up his base. yes, that's true. everything you said is true. but who cares, right? i mean, if he feels like this can rile up his base, is that something that we as american citizens should say, well, he's doing it for a reason, it's a good reason, it might help him win an election. i think that as citizens, that at least operate in this space of being moral human beings to one another and believe that everybody should be treated equally as it says in our

founding documents that this is wholly unacceptable behavior and should be called out as racism every single time. we cannot call it inappropriate, we cannot call it vile. we cannot call it inacceptable. we have to call it racist because racism, what follows racism is racist policies. so what we saw the president say were racist this weekend, he we also saw his administration do things this weekend, the failed i.c.e. raids which was something that was basically racist terrorism and making them have to walk around with their passports. even if they are americans ises and have no issues. and then you saw issues of the christian vice president turn himself on human beings that are caged on our southern border. and who cares whether or not donald trump thinks this will work with his base. i think as american citizens we have the duty and obligation to call it out and say it's unacceptable in the leader of our country. >> speaking of leader of our

country as we wait for this press conference to begin, he may well be waiting along with the rest of us. the president tweeting several tweets here, i am just looking at them for the first time myself. we will never be a socialist or communist country. if you are not happy here, you can leave. he puts that in all capital letters. it is your choice and your choice alone. this is about love for america. certain people hate our country. >> for black people, it wasn't our choice. >> let me ask you, i was hearing this in the 4:00 show before us as well. the idea that this president is fixated on what he sees as his base. here's the four congresswomen. let's take a listen. >> well, first i want to say thank you to all of you for

being here today, and i want to send a message of gratitude and thanks to the solidarity that we have received from every corner of our country. from our colleagues to our neighbors, we are grateful for your solidarity, your encouragement, and your support in the face of the most recent xenophobic bigoted remarks from the occupant of our white house. i will always refer to him as the occupant as he is only occupying space. he does not embody the grace, the empathy, the compassion, the integrity that that office requires and that the american people deserve. that being said, i encourage the american people and all of us in this room and beyond to not take the bait. this is a disruptive distraction

from the issues of care, concern, and consequence to the american people that we were sent here with a decisive mandate from our constituents to work on. everything from reducing the cost of prescription drugs to addressing our affordable housing crisis, to ensuring that the american people have more than health insurance but health care.

test and, yes, making sure that families stay together. i also would like to just underscore the fact that despit the occupant of the white house attempts to marginalize us, please know that we are more than four people. wer ran on a mandate to advoca for and represent those ignoreds left out and left behind. our squad is big. our squad includes any person committed to building a more equitable and just world, and that is the work that we want to get back to. and given the size of this squad and this great nation, we

cannot, we will not be silenced. and now i'll invite representative omar to offer a few words as well. >> thank you, congresswoman ayanna pressley. this country was founded on the radical idea that we are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. and, yes, we have a long way before we fully live up to those values. it is for this reason precisely that we have to take action when a president is openly violating the oath he took to the constitution of the united states and the core values we aspire to. as martin luther king said, all we say to america is, be true to what you say on paper.

i believe this is a pivotal moment in our country. the eyes of history is watching us. rightin now the president is carrying out mass deportation raids across this country in each one of our districts. right now the president is committing human rights abuses at the border, keeping children in cages, and having human beings drinking out of toilets. this president, who has been crediblyha accused of committin multiple crimes, including colluding with foreign government to interfere with our election, this is a president who has overseen the most corrupt administration in our history and pursued an agenda to allow millions of americans to die from a lack of health care while he transfers millions of dollars in tax cuts to corporations. this is a president who has said

grab women by the pussy. this is a president who has called black athletes sons of pitches. this is a president who has called black people who come from black and brown countries shut holes. this is a president who has equated neo-nazis with those who protest against them in charlottesville. this is a president who has openly violated the very value our country aspires to uphold. equality under the law, religious liberty, equal protection, and protection from persecution. and to distract from that, he's launching a h blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the united states of house of representatives, all of whom are women of color.of

this is the agenda of white nationalists. whether it is happening in chat rooms or it's happening on national tv, and now it's reached the white house garden. he would love nothing more than toth divide our country based o race, religion, gender, orientation, or immigration status., because this is the only way he knows he can prevent the solidarity of us working together across all of our differences. the only way to prevent us confronting the problems our country is o facing, whether its health care, climate change, student debt, or our endless wars. this is his plan to pit us against one another. this ison how he can continue t enrich his friends and distract

us fromnd the detrimental polics thatim his administration is pushing forth. so we can either continue to enable this president and report on the bile of garbage that comes out of his mouth, or we can hold him accountable to his crimes.ab turn a blind e to eye of the multiple crimes he's accused of. we can stand while he violates people's basic human rights, and the responsibility -- the responsibility that his administration has for the deaths of children on our border. or we can take action. i have not made impeachment central to my election or my tenure, but since the day that i'venc gotten elected, i have sd to people, it is not -- if he will be impeached, but when.

so it is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery out of our constitution. it's time for us to impeach this president. so now we're going to have alexandria ocasio -- congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. l >> good afternoon, everyone. i'll try to keep things as ke brief, i guess, as i can, but who knows when i get on a roll, right? when i was a little girl, my father took me to the reflecting pool here. wefl were on a road trip from n york to florida to visit family. and i've told this story before, but it was my first time ever visiting washington, d.c., and it was my only time visiting

washington, d.c. for years, if not decades. and he rested me on the side of the reflecting pool and had my toes dip in the water, and he had me look at the washington monument, had me look at the capital, had me look at the entirety of the capital of our great country. at everything and he pointed to all of it and he said, this belongs to all of us. this belongs to you and it belongs to me. and so the first note that i want to tell children across this country is that no matter what the president says, this country belongs to you. and it belongs to everyone. and today that notion, that very notion was challenged. this weekend that very notion was challenged. so i am

not surprised when the president says that four sitting members of congressit should, quote, go back c to their own country when he has authorized raids without warrants on thousands of families across this country. i am not surprised that he uses the rhetoric that he does when he violates international human rights and takes thousands of children away from their families..ir i am not surprised that he has turned our public education system under thetu leadership o betsy devos into a cash cow to enrich himself and his friends. i am not surprised when he corrupts via the secretary of transportation. i am not surprised at what he's doing. but i also know that we're focused on making it better because we don't leave the things that we love. and when we love this country, what that means is we propose the solutions to fix it. we love all people in this

country, and that's why we believe health care is a human right. we love all children in this country, and because we do, that's why we fight for education for all children through college. and so we'll stay focused on our agenda, and we won't get caught slipping because all of this is a distraction. it's a distraction from what's most important and from our core values as american citizens. with that, i'll hand it over to rashida tlaib. >> thank you so much. thank you to myai sisters in service. thank you all so much for being here. as we all know, the recent tweets and words from the president are simply a continuation of his racist xenophobic play book. we cannot allow these hateful actions by the president to distract us from the critical work to hold this administration accountable to the inhumane conditions at the border that is separating children from their loved ones and caging them up in illegal horrific conditions.

i represent the third poorest congressional district in this country,io one made up of worki people who have been targeted by this adds morgan stanley and their actions and words are hurting them today. i was elected to fight for them. fight for the 13 congressional district. they sent me here to congress to fight back against the corporate assault and the corruption in our country. this means supporting an impeachment inquiry of this president and his actions by the administration and his appointees. sadly, this is not the first nor will it t be the last time we hr disgusting bigoted language from the president. we knowe this is who he is. and we know that he and his administration ared constantly engaged in actions that harm residents and american people in our country. many members of congress have called for o his impeachment because of his utter disregard and disrespect of the united states constitution, and despite this and other many attempts to distract us, i remain focused.

we remain focused on holding him accountable to the laws of this land and accountable to the american people. i urge house leadership, many of my colleagues, to take action to impeach this lawless president today. and now we'll takele two or thr questions. mary will go first. >> thank you very much. the president today said that many people agree with him and support these hcomments. i'm wondering if you can speak directly to thoseak supporters the president and explain why thesean comments are so harmful and hurtful. and on aan personal note, if yo can discuss the conflict of the impact of these comments? your ou had to up security? are youou receiving increasing threats? >> i would just say that the experience that he offered is in contradiction to the experience that i have every day, including in the airport on my way here. there were many people who approached me and who said, i

disagree with some of your policies. i'm an independent. i'm a republican. but i think what he did was wrong. and he won't apologize, but i am going to apologize. so i have experienced nothing in the wake of those comments. again, but words of denouncing these xenophobic bigoted words. but, again, this is a distraction and we should not take the bait. we can sit here and continue to recycle his hateful rhetoric, of which i cannot feign surprise, or inflated outrage because he is, if nothing else, predictable. what we are focused on are the hateful policies that are draconian and oppressive and life-threatening and family separating that is being rolled out by this administration every day. >> omar in particular, all of

you, can you o respond to some thend president's specific clai, most notably that you're a communist and that you're pro al qaeda? >> you might have noticed how when he said go back to where you came from, there was an uproar through the -- through all of our communities because every single person who is brown and black at some point in their life in this country heard that. now, when he made the comments, i know that every single muslim who has lived in this country and across the world has heard that comment. and so i will not dignify it with an answer, because i know that every single islamophobe, every single person who is

hateful, who is driven by an ideology of other-ing as this president is, rejoices in us responding to that. and us defending ourselves. ien do not expect every time the is a white supremacist who attacks or there is a white man who kills in a school or in a movie theater or in a mosque or in a synagogue, i don't expect my white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not. and so i think it is beyond time, it's beyond time to ask muslims to condemn terrorists. we are no longer going to allow the dignification of ridiculous,

ridiculous statement. >> some of you made comments that the president took issue with that weresi controversial,o you thinkre that some of those comments made, if they were inflammatory or controversial, this situation would be different? he specifically directed some of those same comments before. >> can you repeat that? >> the president took issue with some of the comments some of you have made on a host of issues and turned them back around. had those comments not been made, whether they were controversialet or not, if you perceive them as controversial, would it have been different, he wouldn't have the fire power to turn it around? >> i will take this. i think alex has a great answer for this. i'll let her finishr it. every single f statement that w make is from a place of extreme love for every single person in this country. it is part of the mandate of why

we ran for office and why we got elected. every single person wants to make sureso that they have peop in theha halls of congress thats fighting to make sure that they have health care, that they have an education that is suitable in the united states, that they have access to proper roads and bridges, that they have access to clean water and clean air. every single person here in the united states knows that we are fighting every single day to create a more perfect union and to fight on their behalf. now, when people say, if you say a negative thing about the policies in this country, you hate this country, to me it sort of speaks to the hypocrisy, and alex and i were talking about this. whenlk the president ran and unl today, he talked about everything that was wrong in thiss country and how he was going to make it great. and so for him to condemn us and to say we are unamerican for

wantinger to work hard to make this country be the country we all deserve to live in is complete hypocrisy. absolutely. and i don't think it would have changed anything because, first of all, he made statements that were blatantly untrue. so whether he was citing comments or note citing commen, if he didn't have what he wanted to say he would make it up. this president operates in complete bad faith. he does not operate in good faith. and so that's one thing. but second to the previous question as well, weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy. this president does not know how to make the argument that americans do not deserve health

care. he does not know how to defend his policies. so what he does is attack us personally. and that is what this is all about. he can'tll look a child in the face and he can't look all americans in the face and justify why this country is throwing them in cages. so instead he tells us that i should go back to the great borough of the bronx and make it better and that's what i'm here to do.nx >> thank you all so much for being here. we really do appreciate it. thank you very much.o >> okay. and that is the end of the press conference we have been watching live there. very much anticipated throughout this afternoon. you had those four freshmen democratic members of congress. rashida tlaib, ayanna pressley, ilhan a omar, alexandria cortez.

you have been listening to, the group ofin progressive democrat. they were responding to the president outside the white house. the president simplyit tripled down ont twitter comments he me telling thisen group of congres women to go back to where they came from. those comments have been widely denounced as invoking racist tropes, asst being xenophobic t reactions to what we just heard. i'm joined again by charlie sykes, susan del percio. you were suggesting before this press conference that maybe this was a bit of strategy on trump's part to try to sort of isolate these four members, make them the face of the democratic party. what kind of -- what did you make of theof presentation they just gave there? >>av well, i'm glad they made t point that dissent does not mean that you do not love america. this whole notion that if you criticize the government that you should love it or leave it was never applied, by the way,

to donald trump when he was criticizing president obama. there is something fundamentally unamerican about that. so i'm glad they made that point. but keep in mind that donald trump -- by the way, i agree with everything serlina said, this needs to be condemned, it needs to bebe condemned across e board. it is a momentd of historic ugliness in american politics. buter understand how donald tru operates. he picks his opponents. he loves the idea that it's donald trump versus these women, theseth minority women. he wants them to be the face of the democratic party. now, there is a certain ugliness, there is a certain cynicism about it. but i'm thinking he'ssm sitting back in the white house and he's thinking, mission accomplished. also, the moment of unity the democrats have is not over yet and they will unify the democratic party. but you heard very full throated endorsements of impeachment and that, of course, is going to be a point of tremendous contention with the democrats.

so, again, i thought they handled themselves effectively, but don't be under any ill ustians donald trump is back on his heels having just watched that. >> it was interesting to me, susan, because of the four there were two different messages. i think they were alternating throughout that press w conference. you heard ayanna pressley go first. she said pointedly at the beginning, don't take the bait, she was d saying. that's the important thing. and then sheor seemed to pivot pretty explicitly to a number of issues, prescription drugs, the situation at the border, and she tried to be elevate -- saying, let's get back to the issues we were sent here to deal with. let's not take the bait.le that was the message i heard from her. i heard that a little bit from the initial answer as well from ocasio-cortez. she had a line iro wrote down, e said, we don't leave what we love. i thought that was an interesting line. but you didou hear a different message particularly from ilhan omar who accused the president, she said credibly accused of crimes, including colluding with a foreign government. she ended it with a call to impeach him. >> it was funny, when i was

listening to congresswoman omar, at first i was like, oh, my gosh, she's going there, she used the p word, s-hole country, not abbreviated like i did. i was taken back. wait, thosen are the words of r president. >>rdof right. >> so we shouldn't be shocked that she said that, first of all, because i know already on twitter it's getting a lot of play. we should be shocked thatng our president saidck it because she was quoting him. one thing we know aboutin donal trump, he will not only set a dumpster n fire, he will jump io it to distract from his administration's failures. i think these women brought togetherk a pretty good succin message. i think they showed that they are strong, and that what's interesting, originally this weekend we were all talking about how their differences with leadership. i think they said, hey, we're with you as the democratic party, but don't think we're backing down. we still have this issue of impeachment we want to tackle so beware. it kind of went a lot of ways. i think in the end they also got a lot more credibility for

having handled this press conference. >> but let's pickup on that, beth, this question of impeachment. because that's been hanging over the lastat couple of months her. multier is going to be appearing any day now -- in a little bit, i should say. two s of these four members explicitly said, go forward with impeachment at this press conference. i have comes who are looking at -- democrats saying, how do we respond to this? we had lyanne reporting saying they had this idea of a resolution. does this t create new momentum among democrats there in the impeachment direction? >> it's funny, steve.fu as i was listening to ayanna pressley, we're not going to take the bait, we're going to talk about prescription drugs and fixing our immigration system, to me i was hearing nancy pelosi saying this is how you dog it. don't take the bait. don't gethe distracted. focus on the issues. focus on thehe policy. that's why we're here. so that to me was very nancy pelosi. but then when ilhan omar and rashida tlaib -- nope, that's where they are defying their speaker and insisting on this

very large audience this is the only resolution. so it is a very double edged sword here. it was an endorsement of unity, an endorsement of moving forward that got these guys elected, but it was very clear from ilhan omar and rashida tlaib they are not going to take that off the table no t matter what nancy pelosi wants. >> it seems, serlina, there is always that dlim a. whether a republican opponent or demo point, when he starts getting personal. when he said earlier today, how do you respond to is that? do you try to elevate yourself and make him look really small? i was picking up it seemed certainly with ayanna pressley that's what i sensed she was trying toi do, i sensed ocasio-cortez was trying to do that. or do you come back attr him ju as hard?k it sounded like omar perhaps had that instinct. >> what did she say that was a personal attack on thement? i don't see impeachment, just to be clear, as an a personal attack on the president. j that's their constitutional obligation to hold this administration accountable for

perceived crimes which were outlinedcr in the mueller repor. she didn't come out and call the president names. she didn't say he should go back to the country which his parents immigrated from. we have to be careful when we say that they're, you know, not necessarily rising to that level of ayanna pressley when none of them attacked the president personally. none of them called out his patriotism. what i saw today was four patriots -- >> omar said ecko lewdhe collud- >> the mueller report says -- to be clear, we all read it. he said he was not going based on the definition of collusion under criminal statutes, but there were absolutely crimes outlined in the mueller report. ifle we're using just the specic definition of collusion, there was plenty of examples where there was collusion, but not criminal conspiracy. make that distinction. >> we can put this aside for

another time. i think tonally -- >> i don't think so. i think>> that's actually a perception thing. i did not hear the same thing that you did, so maybe that's just a difference of opinion. i did not hear anything personal in terms of attacks on the president. >> again,at i'm not saying -- >> and i don't say that -- >> the point i was trying to make there and the difference i was trying -- if we heard it differently, we heard it differently. but what i heard was when you said patriotism wasn't questioned. it certainly did sound like with omar when she said he had credible evidence that he colluded -- had been accused colluding withed a foreign government -- i took that as patriotism. >> those are facts. >> it -- his patriotism, that is just outlining facts which were documented in the mueller report. >> susan. >> well, there's a lot to unpack there. again, to serlina's point, there will be people hearing two different things after this pressle conference. i want to not lose fact of the

focus just t going on to the won in the press conference, but losing fact of what donald trump did yesterday and today. and his blatant acts of racism andac bigotry, and how he choseo put his fear and basic pathetic being ahead of this country yet once again. and i think these women did a very good job with organizing their thoughts. i agree with you, steve. i think that there was an interesting conflict of, oh, we should not be distracted? oh, we're going to impeach him. there is a conflict there. and i do think president trump will use these four women again and againhe and again so say th is the democratic party and try and scare americans. americans should not be scared right now. theyri should be proud. they can disagree with these women on every single policy they have, but they should be proud that we have the diversity that we have in this country, and this president should do

nothing to stop that. >> okay. susan, serlina, beth and charlie, thank you. more breaking news. we'll be right back. ing news we'll be right back. ♪ that a speaker is just a speaker. ♪ or - that the journey can't be the destination. most people haven't driven a lincoln. discover the lincoln approach to craftsmanship at the lincoln summer invitation. right now, get 0% apr on all 2019 lincoln vehicles plus no payments for up to 90 days. only at your lincoln dealer. we carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. and we walk so that one day,

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he live tweeted effectively the press conference, including this tweet just as they were getting started, which reads, quote, we will never be a socialist communist country, and then in caps, if you are not happy here, you can leave. it is your choice and your choice alone. this is about love for america. certain people hate our country. again in all caps. sometimes it's instructive to see how many tweets the president is sending out, and it speaks to the level of the controversy, steve. president trump has been tweeting since about 6:00 a.m. this morning, and it's continued tlou throughout the day. he was pressed on those tweets during an event on the white house south lawn when he defended his comments saying, look, i was saying what a lot of other people think, and then continued to tweet while those four congress women were speaking. so clearly he has his eye on this very closely. i go back to something that i said earlier in your broadcast, steve, which is that for the president, he sees this as something that is going to energize some of his core

supporters. at the same time, you can see that even he recognizes this controversy continues to bubble up. it is unifying the democrats. there have been a lot of infighting between the democrats, the so-called squad who just spoke, and democratic leadership frankly, house speaker nancy pelosi. now they are all on the same page, denouncing president trump. the question becomes how many republicans are going to come out and denounce his rhetoric. lindsey graham earlier today saying that he really should aim higher, rise above it, stick to the script, stick to the issues that people care about. some other republicans came forward, will hurd, for example, but not many republicans, steve. so you can bet they're going to be pressed on this in the coming days. and then, of course, house speaker nancy pelosi planning to essentially denounce the president's rhetoric. that could force republicans to go on the record and say how they feel about this type of language, steve. >> okay, kristen welker at the

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and before we go, we'd like say a quick congratulations to nbc's own andrea mitchell. it was announced today that andrea is going to receive a lifetime achievement award at this year's news and documentary emmy awards. in a statement, the academy president said, quote, andrea mitchell's groundbreaking career has earned the respect of journalists around the world who aspire to match her standard of

excellence. she is an icon. congratulations, andrea. and that is going to do it for us here tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press" daily, and the beat with ari melber starts right now. good evening, ari. >> good evening, steve. we are live in washington tonight with a special show including a fact check on donald trump's failed fear play book. and later the new clues about bob mueller's upcoming testimony. but our top story begins with breaking news. take a look at this visual. four members of congress, four american citizens, four duly elected members of the u.s. house of representatives. each elected in the wave of 2018, which was itself largely a rebuke to president trump and trumpism. you are looking at what we just saw, what just happened here in washington that is being seen around america. representatives ilhan omar, alexandria ocasio-cortez, ayanna pressley and rashida tlaib speaking out together to rebuke the psi