i could listen to these friends forever, but we're out of time. my thanks to you all, and most of all, to you for watching. that does it for this hour, i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" with my friend steve kornacki in for chuck starts now. if it's tuesday, the house prepares to condemn the president. outrage is growing over his comments about four congresswomen, but there are late breaking developments about that scheduled vote. republicans also not backing down, now they are trying to shift the focus to the lawmakers he attacked. plus, biden versus the so-called squad. the democratic front-runners fight to show that he represents the heart of the party and that

they don't. if it's tuesday, it's "meet the press daily." good evening, i'm steve kornacki in new york, in for chuck todd. and we begin tonight with some very late-breaking developments amid that escalating fallout over the president's attacks, widely viewed as racist, against a group of female progressive house democrats. tonight, the house is expected to vote to formally condemn the president's comments that those lawmakers, quote, should go back to where they came from. but there is now some high drama on the house floor, after speaker nancy pelosi just called the president a racist on the floor of the house. that caused quite a commotion and quite a bit of confusion. we're going to get to that in a minute. this is a drama that comes as dozens of house republicans have publicly condemned the president's comments, but the president, ahead of this scheduled vote, has now lashed out on twitter with a clear warning to republicans criticizing him or thinking of criticizing him, saying, those tweets were not racist. i don't have a racist bone in my

body. the so-called vote to be taken is a democrat con game. republicans should not show weakness and fall into their trap. president also today tried to steer the fallout from his racist tweets about those four progressive congresswomen and turn it into a referendum on those congresswomen. >> i think it's terrible when people speak so badly about our country, when people so speak to horribly. i have a list of things here said by the congresswomen that is so bad, so horrible, that i almost don't want to read it, it's so bad. it's my opinion they hate our country. and that's not good. it's not acceptable. >> republican leaders facing heat from reporters on the hill, depe defended the president and either tried to blame it on democrats or everyone. >> were the presidents tweets that said go back, racist? yes or no? >> no. this is about ideology.

this is about socialism versus freedom. >> i'll vote against this. >> you are going to encourage your members to? >> it's all politics. >> is it a problem that members are going to vote today to, on your side of the aisle, to support the president in what he said about -- >> i think this party has been very clear. we're the party of lincoln. >> from the president to the speaker to freshman members of the house, all of us have a responsibility to elevate the public discourse. the president is not a racist. the president's not a racist. and i think the tone of all of this is not good for the country. but it's coming from all different ideological points of view. that's the point. >> and house speaker nancy pelosi speaking publicly for the first time about the tweet on the house floor, rallying her troops ahead of tonight's big vote. >> these comments from the white house are disgraceful and disgusting and these comments are rare cycist. how shameful to hear him talk

about those offensive words, words that we have heard repeated about our members, but about countless others. every single member of this institution, democratic and republican, should join us in condemning the president's racist tweets. to do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the american people. >> now, you could hear it there, republicans objecting to pelosi's characterization of the president on the floor as racist and that's led to a major c confrontation that's unfolding right now inside the house. let's kick things off with nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson and nbc's kasie hunt, who is live on capitol hill. kasie, i'm seeing there is a vote taking place right now in the house, that comment from nancy pelosi, republicans moved then to take her words down.

that amounts -- that's a pretty serious rebuke, it's happened to a house speaker once before in the history of congress, it was back in 1984 with tip o'neill, a few minutes ago, steny hoyer, the number two democrat came in and said, essentially, that pelosi had violated rules, but then there's this motion to strike her words and it looks like it's going to fail. explain what is happening right now. there's a lot of confusion. >> well, steve, this is one of those days when c-span really shines and i'm very grateful for our colleagues over there for paying such close attention to the house floor. and this does feel really in the weeds, but it really dramatic, very important and the kind of very emotional dispute that can really leave a lot of hard feelings and effect the politics of how things work up here and i think it's important in the context of this story that we've been talking about. you showed the remarks for which pelosi has now been chastised. and this vote is actually to strike her words from the

congressional record, after it was determined that there was this precedent set in 1984 that said that you couldn't say that something was racist. now, that's likely to fail, so it's likely those remarks will remain in the congressional record, obviously, because democrats control the house, but you're also going to see another vote unfold right afterward, because essentially what this motion and this ruling from the parliamentarian means is that the person who has made these remarks is banned from speaking on the floor at all for the remainder of the day, and of course, you know that the house is about to go into voting on this resolution that will condemn the president's comments as racist and pelosi, of course. so, what we're going to see is another vote to restore her speaking rights. and that's set to take place right after this one closes, it is, of course, still under way. so, you know, what had -- we had

been expecting to be one relatively dramatic set of votes around this issue has now exploded, and pelosi, i think it's important to point out, she said in her remarks that she explicitly had her prepared remarks approved beforehand. you could see some of her aides down in the well kind of on the house floor looking pretty visibly angry about what was unfolding and pelosi herself, i mean, you could tell from just playing the video, as she started talking over the republicans who were shouting, was pretty clearly testy about this, so you and chris matthews are the experts on tip o'neill here on this program, but it is -- it's interesting that this is only the second time that this has ever happened to a house speaker, steve. >> yeah, again, we're listening to you, we have you on the right side of our screen, on the left side, folks can see this tally, real-time, the house voting right there, basically a party line vote. yes, you mentioned, it was 1984,

tip o'neill was the house speaker. a battle on the house floor with newt gingrich. newt gingrich was the republican member of congress. o'neill said to gingrich, what you did is the lowest thing i've ever seen in 30 years in congress. that was considered a personal attack, that's why his words were taken down. now you have pelosi saying about the president, calling him a racist on the house floor, precipitating this. kasie this is all a prelude, a very dramatic prelude, i think, in some ways might be breaking some precedent here in the house, but a dramatic prelude to the vote on the resolution condemning the president. what's the expectation there specifically when it comes to republicans and how they're going to handle that? >> right, well, just very briefly, steve, it's important to say pelosi called the comments racist, she did not call the president of the united states a racist, and that eck copes exactly what this resolution is going to say, that you're talking about, it calls the words in those tweets, go back, condemns them as racist

comments. it does not get into calling the president himself a racist. but even that is too much, it seems, for house republicans, so, i asked kevin mccarthy about this earlier today, whether these comments, in hi view, were racist, he said no. mitch mcconnell stopped short of calling the comments racist, though he did, instead of saying no they were not racist, instead focused on talking about legal immigrati immigration, but in the house, republicans are whipping against this bill. they're telling their members don't vote for it, they're saying, this is all political. this is just about democrats trying to get a political upper hand, it's not actually about the issue at hand and frankly, they're trying to argue that democr democrats -- hold policy positions that are just as bad is kind of how they framed it today at the press conference when we heard from wliz chliz c and kevin mccarthy. here are all the terrible things that these women have done. so, that's kind of how they're trying to frame all of this, but

you know, clearly the examples that republicans have put out of words that democrats have used, they've tried to say those words were also racist, but, again, this phrase, coming from the president of the united states. >> okay, kasie hunt. let's go over to hallie jackson at the white house. so, hallie, kasie sets the scene at the house. republicans trying to get mare members to be no votes, despite a fair number of republicans coming out and criticizing or condemning these words. the question of how many of them will vote yes on this resolution. what's the white house bracing for, what's the white house been doing today? >> well, you've seen it on twitter, steve. you would have seen it potentially here at the white house, because many of these republican leaders, at least half a dozen, we understand, were supposed to come here for a meeting, but because of this, very remarkable, as you and kasie are talking about, floor fight, that didn't happen. they stayed over at the capitol. the president and the white house has told us that meeting is being postponed to a date

tbd, and the president has been very public in trying to make it clear that he wants to make sure republicans stay unified against this resolution, that nobody votes for it, likely not an issue on that front. i will say, steve, no matter what happens from here, i would predict that the president, this white house and republicans will already capitalize on this as a kind of win. you are already seeing that from leader kevin mccarthy, who is tweeting about how nancy pelosi broke the rules, essentially, so, the fact that this discussion and this debate has already gotten to this point, there has to be a vote on whether or not to strike down the words of the house speaker, watch for this to be a talking point throughout the night from conservatives, potentially from president trump and from white house aides about how pelosi essentially got over her skis, if you will, on the house floor, regardless of how it ultimately shakes out at this point. the president, i imagine, was looking for something to seize on here on a day that has been, another day of a lot of fallout, a lot of concern about the

comments that he made, and this is something that he might be able to point to and i would predict -- again, i don't have reporting based on this, i haven't heard anything, but just in my years of covering this president and knowing how he would look at something like this, i do think that is what you could see happen. >> okay. hallie jackson at the white house, kasie hunt on capitol hill, thanks to both of you. with me now, we have eugene scott, political reporter for "the washington post." jonathan lemire, ap white house reporter and msnbc analyst. and jennifer palmieri, communications direct forfor preside president obama and hillary clinton. and noah rothman, an msnbc contributor. noah, if we assume democrats are all onboard voting for this, what do you expect in terms of republicans? how many do you think will vote for this resolution? >> i'd be shocked if you wouldd. in general, this is going to be a party line vote. i don't suspect anybody's really

going to remember the high drama that we witness here in a couple of days, but this is a metaphor here, a disunion over what was otherwise a pretty unifying event for democrats, is indicative of perhaps, a leading indicator of what we can expect from the democratic party moving into 2020. this was all borne out of democratic in-fighting. this is all a result of the president trying to take advantage of in-fighting between the quote unquote squad and democratic leadership and cbc and the progressive caucus. there was a lot of in-fighting that was only temporarily mull if ied by the president's intervention. that goes away after this resolution passes. this news cycle moves on. but the in-fighting remains. >> i think there is also the question here, the in-fighting, noah says, remains, but the politics of this you hear all the different theories that are out there. that this is a strategic move on trump's part to try to elevate these four congresswomen, make democrats really around them, make them the face of the democratic party, you'll have democrats saying, hey, if republicans side with donald trump, even if they don't side

with this, he's the head of their party and now their party's identified more with this kind of rhetoric, that's going to turn off voters republicans need in 2020. >> right, i mean, i think that there's -- it's a little bit of a mess, like, yeah, democrats are going to continue to have in-fighting. i would rather have democrats fight amongst each other and battle out and have debates inside our party than have a party that, you know, we saw mccarthy say that the republican party's the party of lincoln -- this party is the party of trump and we don't have anyone that will stand up to the republican party. so, democrats have to -- i mean, that's what we do. we fight amongst ourselves, but that's a far healthier party that just stands behind trump and every racist act that he does. i know that trump wants this fight, he wants this fight in 2020, he wants white voters to think that they are not welcome in the democratic party, that's what he would like people to falsely believe, but democrats have to -- we can't walk away from this fight, so, you have to speak up very loudly and

clearly, call out what he does, but at the same time, say to all voters, all working class voters, white and nonwhite, that he's not doing anything to make your life better and, you know, our nominee is going to be able to do that. so, you have to walk and chew gum, you have to call out the racism but be able to make your case to voters that absent forever whatever trump is offering, you have a better plan for the country. >> john, especially as we see republicans potentially in this vote rally around the president on this, what is your sense? you are very plugged in there in trump world. is this something that was done initially with a strategic intent or was trump just kind of shooting his mouth off and now he's going with it and so is the republican party? >> from our reporting, last week, certainly, the president was aware of this democratic in-fighting and tried to seize upon it. on friday, when he spoke at the white house, as he was leaving the white house on the south lawn, he defended pelosi, he

went after a couple of these congresswomen, suggested they were being inappropriate and unfair. he almost tested the line, if you will we've seen him do that before. he'll say something, he likes it, he comes back to it. he did this on sunday with the tweets, which crossed all sorts of lines and racist in their content. and what we've seen now, of course, is, there's no backing down. so, yes, there was somewhat plan here but it was also instinct, it was reactionary. the tweets were borne sunday morning not because he had a strategy meeting, but because fox news did a segment on the squad 20 minutes earlier. he sent out the tweets and went out golfing for the day. when he came back and gotten silence from republicans, he doubled down. that night, the next day with more tweets and of course all of his remarks yesterday, too. so, now this is a fight that he wants to have and there's no question to your earlier point, he is trying to elevate these four congresswomen, to make them a significant face of the democratic party. he hasn't really had a foil since hillary clinton. nancy pelosi to some degree has played that role, but i think he

thinks at least for now, until there's a 2020 favorite on the other side, that this is who he can battle with, this is who he can make seem like this is representative of that party, thinking that will help his base get excited and turn out. >> eugene scott, it's an interesting question, too, just in terms of the conversation about what trump might be trying to pull off politically, how this might play with his base in 2020. and i think of -- there's a couple different examples there, i'm trying to sort out how this might play out myself, and you could think back to the closing days of the 2018 midterm campaign and trump was talking so much about the caravan and really leaning in on hard on those cultural themes and the idea was, this will motivate the base, this will get them out and of course, republicans lost 40 house seats in the midz teterms 2018. well, he did get himself elected in 2016, then again, in the final eight to ten days of that campaign, he was actually very quiet on twitter and very much on message, at least relative to trump how much he ever is on message. how do you -- do you think this

plays well with the base, or do you think that's overstated? >> well, what i do know is that trump trying to elevate the squad as faces of the democratic party could actually play well with the democratic base. you have to remember that just a few weeks ago, i'm sorry, just last week, comments were made to "the washington post" that made it seem like that leadership of the democratic party was not listening to and giving opportunity to speak to some women of color lawmakers who are younger. and if you talk to voters, they felt that these were words that they should pay attention to, and they began to doubt whether or not leadership in the democratic party wanted to hear their voices. but when you look at the screens these past few days and you constantly see that these four women are leaders or at least influencers in the democratic party, that could motivate turnout to increase among black voters, among latina voters. and this is what hillary clinton needed in 2016, quite frankly, in some states, and if these people believe the democratic

party has people in positions of power and influence who look like them and think like them, they may show up in 2020 in ways they haven't in years past. >> and again, we've just been keeping an eye on the action on the house floor. right now i can tell you that vote they're having, you can see it up on your screen there, a motion offered by republicans, they said, hey, you just ruled that pelosi was out of line. her words were out of line when she said that the president of the united states' words were racist. they've crossed the 2018-vote number, so, the vote is failing. the vote hasn't closed yet, but it looks like it's going to fail. noah, let me ask you this, because the other thing i noticed yesterday, looking at the statements we saw from republicans, trying to figure out are they going to follow the president, are they going to condemn him? there was a broad appetite to make the squad the face of the

democratic party. there's a hunger by republicans to run against them, to run against their politics, but also a sense that, hey, the way trump is trying to do this is going to turn off more voters, potentially, than attract. >> yeah, this doesn't -- so, whatever the president's base s is, it's a relatively small segment of the general voter population. the rest of the voting population, including many registered republicans hates this. they don't like the tweets. they really despise when the president says something that's nakedly racist. it makes them defensive. it makes them feel like they are condoning this. they don't like it. one of the confusions, i think, among democratic party is they believe white nationalism is the scythe guice, it is not. it unifies the democratic caucus. on friday night, house democrats were attacking representative ocasio-or tez's chief of staff. that sort of thing doesn't happen, and that kind of disunity helping the party.

now they're unified. secondly, as we said, alienates republican voters and now makes republicans squeamish. plenty of republican senators are saying this is racist. the president's position is t diminished. none of this -- if there was any foresight in this, it all backfired, and there was no foresight in. this is the president stepping on his own feet. if democratic disunity, this is another one where republicans should say, we are in real big treble. >>noah, jennifer, jonathan, eugene, stick around. i'm going to bring in a member of the house democratic leadership, massachusetts congresswoman kat lynn claherin. thank you for taking a few minutes. let me just ask you, first, translate for all of us what exactly is happening on the house floor right now, because we saw the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, on the floor of the house reading from that resolution, saying the president's words were racist, we saw an objection from

republicans saying they want to take down her words. we saw a one-hour delay, steny hoyer appear to say her words did violate house rules, but now we see this vote to strike her words failing, going down. what exactly is happening right now? >> steve, it's good to be with you. let me tell you exactly what is happening. once again, we are seeing the gop decide to attack democrats instead of standing up and saying to the president, it is not okay to make racist attacks against sitting members of congress. it is not okay to say there are good people on both sides in charlottesville. it is not okay to have a muslim ban. it is not okay to try and continue to divide the american people instead of working for american families and putting their interests on the table in congress and at the white house. >> what -- this is getting -- we

talked about this with kasie hunt. there's a level of sort of about khanna here, obscure house procedure. what exactly happened. is it or was it before this house a violation of house rules for a member toll s say somethi that the president said was racist? is that a violation of how rules? >> my understanding is that was the ruling of the parliamentarian. but let's not let the arcane rules of the house distract us from what's really happening. we have the president, who has made blatant, racist tweets against four sitting members of congress, using language that has always been used historically when we are trying to suppress people of color. just the other night, john lewis said, when he was marching in civil rights era, they would

always chant to him, go back to where you came from. this language is specific. and we know what it means. and we know what it says to all americans. that this president is willing to use racism to divide, to distract, from his policies that are putting the 1% ahead of everyone else. and what we have today is the gop using very detailed, arcane rules of the house to try and somehow defend this outrageous behavior. it is not okay. it is not okay for the president, it is not okay for the gop to be trying to use these rules to give him cover for blatant racist comments. >> what are you expecting, first oaf a of all, again, we are seeing a delay here. this vote tonight, is it still going to happen? when is it going to happen? and what do you expect? what do you think, from your

republican colleagues there on the other side of the aisle, how many do you think are going to cross over? >> you know, i remain hopeful that some of them, we saw a handful of republicans actually say, this goes too far. this is -- it's not within how we conduct ourselves. it doesn't live up to our american values to have the president of the united states making these blatant tweets. so, once again, we're going to put it before the gop. i believe we will vote on this tonight and i believe it will pass. and it's a condemnation of a president and those who blindly support him and i'm not talking about people who voted for him, but people in power here in congress who continue to make excuses for the most outrageous behavior. and just say it's all okay. maybe it violated a parliamentary rule. what's important to families at

home is who is fighting for them? and i can tell you, it is not this president and it is not his enablers in the gop. >> again, let me just -- it's a parliamentary rule, but it does seem -- i imagine it strikes people as maybe a little surprising that there is a parliamentary rule in the house that no member could say of the president, hey, something the president said is racist. that's the genesis of this -- of this sort of delay on the house floor right now. i'm just asking procedurely, is that a rule that right now you're in the process of challenging or changing, is that what we're seeing happen on the house floor right now? >> no. what we're seeing here is just that acting out. it's a strange term, but it's called striking the words. it would remove those comments from the official congressional record. and then we'll probably take another vote to allow nancy pelosi to continue to be able to address congress today. so, there will be two procedural

votes, but we shouldn't get lost in the process here. what's important is what is happening with this white house and this administration. and the way they continue to try and distract us and divide us so that we don't see what they're really doug, which is not working for the american people, not making sure there is a path of opportunity forward. whether you are black, brown, asian, white or native american in this country. that's what democrats are working for. our for the people agenda is called that for a reason, because we are trying to restore those issues, those issues around economic security for families, to congress, to break through the hold of special interests, and this president's obsession with continuing to give wealth and power to only the wealthy and the powerful. >> okay, congresswoman katherine clark, democrat from massachusetts, thank you for

joining us. and again, you can see that vote, 231 no votes now on the house floor, against -- votes there against striking speaker nancy pelosi's records from the record, words where she called the president's words racist. are the numbers adding up to trouble for joe biden? why the latest polling result s could be an early warning sign. going to head over to the big board next. going to head over to the big board next oh, that's too hot. act your age. get your own insurance company. carlo, why don't you start us with a little bit of cereal? you can spread it all around the table. and we're gonna split the warm hot dog. and i'll have a glass of grape juice to spill on the carpet. oh, uh, do you want some to spill? act your age. get your own insurance company.

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all right, welcome back. the democratic race in 2020, we talk about joe biden as the front-runner, joe biden is out in front in the democratic pack right now, although his lead is tenuous, and he owes that lead to one group of voters in particular. let's take you through exactly what we mean here. so, first of all, let's see if we can get this to work. let me see if my friends in the control room can pull it up. this board seems to have died. here's your first national poll. this is today, this is "the morning consult weekly" national poll. joe biden is in first place, 32% of the vote, double-digit lead. nationally ahead. but where it starts to get shaky for biden is, we don't have a national primary. we go state by state. take a look at the most recent polling out of the first state to vote. iowa, the iowa caucuses. biden leading at 24%, less than ten-point lead there, single digit gap. kamala harris behind him.

iowa, that's a volatile electorate out there. brand new poll out of new hampshire. we show you again, 24% for biden. there's bernie sanders, he won new hampshire big in the 20816 primary, within five points of biden, so is elizabeth warren, from next door massachusetts. warren, sanders within five points of biden there in that cnn poll in new hampshire. so, a close race there. now, go to south carolina. the first in the south primary. different story. biden's advantage here, more than two to one over his nearest competitor, bernie sanders, 35% for biden, only 14% for sanders. why is biden doing so much better in south carolina than he is in new hampshire, than he is in iowa? take a look. you can see the breakdown here. south carolina by race, among white voters, joe biden at 25%, among african-american voters, though, you can see, joe biden at 41%. significantly better. in south carolina, remember, well over half the electorate in the south carolina democratic primary is going to be

african-american. more than 60%, probably, and wi biden with a massive lead. so, it's why biden is ahead in south carolina in a way that he's not in new hampshire and iowa and it's why biden enjoys the advantage still nationally in the polls, because he's been doing significantly better among black voters than among white voters. we see it in south carolina, we see it nationally and it is a big question going forward in this campaign, that advantage that biden has with black voters, it is so important to him. can he maintain it? well, ahead, joe biden, he is sounding off on the so-called squad, as he makes the case that his brand of democratic politics is the future for the party, no, sir necessaot necessarily their. more on this. ot necessarily thei. more on this you ted savings on select ford models, plus earn complimentary maintenance through fordpass rewards. it all adds up.

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welcome back. president trump and his allies are constantly making the trip that the so-called democratic squad is the face of the

democratic party. but as the 2020 battle wages on, former vice president joe biden is making the case that he's a counterweight of sorts to the squad members and the majority of the democratic party is more like him and his views. >> i didn't run saying i'd never talk to republican, i didn't run saying -- and so, the vast majority -- aoc is brilliant and the other three women we're talking about are really smart, but they are the exception rather than the rule. if you listen to the guys and women in your business, they say, that's the majority of people who got elected. we need that kind of energy, but that's not the majority of democrats who got elected last time. >> and joining me now is nbc news correspondent mike memeli. he has been following joe biden. mike, i'm tcurious, coming out f that first debate, the racial politics that came out of that, the controversies around that, are we seeing any kind of adjustments from the biden campaign from the first debate, heading into this second one, what are you seeing from him and

his campaign? >> yeah, steve, i was in new hampshire with the vice president last week, and the thing i think we see the most from him is really digging in deeper in terms of these differences with his opponents, especially his more progressive opponents on policy, trying to make clear that electability argument. he was asked about his climate policy over the weekend, and he said, i have the most far-reaching policy that's within reach. i thought that was sort of an a perfect imkaps lake for how he views this. it's great to see medicare for all as it's been proposed by the candidates, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, but his argument is, i'm proposing things that can actually get done. joe biden talking a lot about what he did in the midterm elections, that he campaigned for some 69 candidate s in 24 states, those were the races where you had to beat a republican incumbent or a strong republican challenger in a purple or red district, and the,ment here being that, you know, he's closer -- basically,

you can put it this way. joe crowley is much more of a joe biden democrat, the person that lost to alexandria ocasio-cortez. but that's where his team has been arguing to me for months, where the majority of democratic voters are. you can look at our latest poll, too, which shows, yes, a slight plurality of democrats want a candidate that is more aligned with them on issues than who can beat donald trump, but it's much lower than it was in 2015. this is about who can get things done. they feel they're on the right side of that and he's much more active, i would say now, in making that case to voters directly. >> you say they think the majority's there, do they have fear, though, do they feel, you know, there's a risk there of pushing -- he couches it by saying, look, she's brilliant, they're terrific, but do they have fear of a potential backlash there? >> yeah, i think, in fact one biden aide said they don't like the idea that this is biden against aoc, that he went out of his way to praise her, to praise

the energy that she's bringing into the party, but even in the past, before that debate performance, aoc was critical of him on his climate policy. he took advantage of that moment to put himself into what they think is the mainstream of the party. so, there's more candidates in the democratic primary running to the left, running to own that progressive lane, that they think it only opens up that space more widely in that center lane among democrats. there's a little bit of backlash they're willing to take on, that they do think there's a more moderate swath of democratic voters and will play a big role in the primaries. >> mike memoli, thank you for joining us. and ahead, we're going to have a lot more on the big 2020 stories today. our experts are coming back to the table. stick around. nd

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award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century. and welcome back. our experts are back with us. euge eugene, noah, jennifer and jonathan. weir talking about biden and the message -- i don't know if moderation is the right word, but you hear him in that clip we played in the last segment, trying to draw distinctions between his brand of politics and the brand of politics of the squad. we're talking about trump trying to elevate them. emily says the biden campaign believe as majority of democrats are there, where his message is. how receptive do you think

today's democratic party is to that? >> i think it's probably better for him to not pick a fight, but point out where he difers from the more liberal wing of the party, because then he's proactive, he's not a sitting duck, otherwise we might be talking right now about some democratic candidate that hit biden on something, but instead, we're talking about a fight that biden started, so, you want to be on offense like that. they get some collateral damage, for sure, right? you don't -- there are no clean hits in politics. there's going to be a backlash. i think he probably could thread this needle a little better. rather than seeing, she brings a lot of energy to the party, which maybe you could say they're bringing new ideas to the party and we should have a debate about those ideas, that might be a more respectful way of talking about the leadership these women are bringing to congress, but i don't think -- it's not fun, because if you want to be the nominee, you

wasn't to brick tng the party together, but it's probably -- it's probably a smart thing to do, but they got to be worried about those iowa numbers and those new hampshire numbers. i think you're going to see lead changes pretty quickly, where he's not at the top of the pile, you know, we're going to see that probably happen this summer. >> and that's -- >> so, it's -- this is a real, like, all, you know, regulators are off this racerace. it is a dynamic race. >> when you start falling behind in the polls, you stop looking like that, and there's always that cascade risk there. >> yes. >> the other issue, and you jeu let me play you a clip from the interview, joe biden on "morning joe" and one of the things he was asked about was that debate performance, he had, that moment in particular with kamala harris on the stage, and one of the takeaways that some people had was that, hey, joe biden, if he struggled in that moment, is he going to struggle in a general election debate against donald trump, or conversely, if kamala harris excelled in that moment,

would she excel against donald trump? in terms of the broader electability concerns, this is what biden had to say today. >> i realize that some concluded that because i didn't respond very tough back to her, how can i take on trump? i've never had any trouble taking on anyone, from trump to putin. come on, donald, come on, man. how many push-ups you want to do here, pal, you know? i mean, jokingly. come on, run with me, man. >> what do you think of that? i think a lot of democrats, we see these polls, electability matters to them, however you want to define it. biden is really running on that idea. the second debate, the performance he turns in, it seems particularly important for him. >> it do think it's important, and i don't think most people walked away from that debate thinking biden could not take on trump. i think they walked away thinking harris could.

that encouraged democratic voters to look at other options and we have seen bumps in polling that harris received after that debate. i think what biden will have to do is convince some of the voters that he may have lost, although maybe not that many, that he is the best person to take on trump moving forward and he'll have ample opportunity to do that with multiple debates moving forward. >> what do you think, jon, in terms of, we're following right now, tonight, the house is going to vote on this resolution about donald trump's words, we -- donald trump trying to elevate the squad here, is there a constituency in the democratic party that looks to biden and says, he's a good counter to that? >> has a nickname ever caught on as quickly as the squad? >> one syllable. >> just because it's easy. in terms of this, there's a lot -- there's energy in the democratic party certainly on the left, and we have seen certain candidates, elizabeth warren's rise, in particular, speaks to that, and just the fact that she's run a really good campaign after a stumble at the start. in terms of the democrats, the

issue is, what is that swath of people that just simply want, is it -- they want to win, yes, but it is a, quote, return to normalcy, do they want to go back to where it was? and biden is trying to capture that argument, though it's a argument even though that's a dangerous one. you never want to be seen as the candidate going backwards. i think that uproar about his comments about the segregationist senators he worked with. some of it is, i'm not sure the democratic party is interested in bipartisanship. they want to take the fight to donald trump and want to have their shot after what they've been beaten up in the last two years from the white house and reeling from their defeat in 2016. i think it's unclear to this point whether his message is going to be where the energy in the party is. >> you still hear him in that interview. he's not in the same terms as before. he got in trouble on the

segregationist senators talking about how he could work with folks he still had political disagreements with. you still here hey, i can work with republicans and across party lines. >> if you can't work with your chairs can respectively, you're not an effective senator. that might aggravate the twitter left but that is the case. i really don't think that joe biden is in a pad bogs. he's opening the aperture for liberal policy pro appearance introducing a public policies. he's not promising to remake the productive economy from the ground up. that frustrates people who can afford to frustrate. his electability argument should be drawn out. it is this. wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan. it's not establish a brand-new coalition or drag georgia and arizona into the coalition. it's not remake the wheel. re-establish the joe biden,

obama coalition. that is an effective mess and for democrats who only want to win. if they say we're going to win or risk it or a bigger broader progressive agenda, they'll go with win. >> eugene, do you think controversies, charlottesville in 2017, now you have the president's fweets these four congressmen. when trump goes down this road and stirs up this type of controversy, does that have an effect what kind of candidate and calculation democrats are making in terms of how best to take him on in 2020? >> absolutely. i think we know that voters on the left especially voter of color are looking for a nominee who is going to be aggressive in combating the rise of white nationalism we have seen occur under the trump presidency. when biden came out in his announcement video attacking trump because of his response to charlottesville, when you see folks on social media responding to the president's tweets, it's communicating to the democratic base that if you are looking for

someone who is not afraid to address this issue of making america great again not being the most inclusive message, i am that candidate. and so i think the question that some of the candidates who perhaps have not been as proactive in responding to the conversations we've been having in the last few days is how are they going to convince voters that they can return things to the way things were before trump got in the oval office because that's what so many democratic voters want. >> and jen, if not biden, we have these questions on electability. i sue another poll asking democratic voters who is most electable. biden overpolls had his polling support in the best position to beat trump. who do you think besides biden is in best position to make that argument to democrats? >> so there's someone who hasn't gotten a lot of attention, steve

buck lock of montana. he's somebody who has won in a red state three times and gotten a lot of progressive things done with the legislature. if america got a good look at that guy, they would like him. if biden starts to look inevitable, you brought that up before, that's his strength. so the problem for him is it possible his support really drops at some point because of if he doesn't look like he's inevitable. then beto o'rourke could have a comeback in the second debate. we're set up for that, too. people thought he didn't do well the first debate. >> i saw him down at 2% or 3%. let's see if it doesn't go down that much. eugene, john, jennifer, noah, ahead, one giant leap. jennifer, ahead, one giant leap. in 2010, i signed the giving pledge to fund good causes. then i left my business to combat climate change,

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five, four, three, two, one. zero. all engine running. liftoff. we have a liftoff. 32 minutes past the hour. lift up on apollo 11. >> we take it for granted now but think back to a half century ago and how daring, how inconceivable that was. it was around this type, 6:00 in the evening 50 years ago tonight the three astronauts of apollo 11 just left earth's orbit and their destination was the moon. the ambition astounding. television graphics were great

for 1969, baby not so much today. nbc news spoke with neil armstrong, buzz aldrin and michael collins before the launch. >> i can't help but feel a sense of humility with the challenges that will be placed in our hands tomorrow. >> my expectation is that it will be a very successful flight and i wouldn't be going along if i didn't feel that way. i would be much happier to talk to you about it in depth after the fact rather than before. >> and america watched, the world watched and no one could know how it might end. of course, we know how it did end. one small step, one giant leap, one moment forever ensconced in the history of time and space. and that is how we recall apollo 11, a mission to the furthest reaches that brought us closer to understanding. it's a feat that for a single moment brought america and the world together.

a moment that piqued our collective curiosity about what else might be out there. apollo's rocket will be pointing toward the heavens just as it did back in 1969. call consist us all to seek answers in the great beyond. and that is all for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press" daily and the beat with ari melber" starts right now. >> live in washington where there has been an absolutely scorched earth and raucous debate on the house in floor today over formally rebuking trump's go back attack. a federal judge has banned roger stone from social media and news on the doj's handling against the officer who killed eric garner. we begin with breaking news. at any moment tonight, the united states house of representatives will begin formally voting on condemning the sitting president for