that wraps the hour for me. i will see you tomorrow at 5 a.m. a.r.m. eastern for "morning joe." now, steve is in for nicolle wallace, starts right now. >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. i'm steve kornacki in for nicolle wallace. today, growing concern for the president's allies his five days and counting of racial divisive attacks could cost trump the election in 2020 and congressman elijah cummings, this as his aides privately discuss what might happen if trump doesn't let this go. the "new york times" said several white house officials privately scoffed at the idea it was strategy rather than impulse concluding any benefit he might get from revving up his conservative white base could be offset by more moderate voters

in wisconsin and michigan he needs to win a second term. even a few republicans are showing signs of discomfort with trump's attacks on cummings and zangs theirselves with trump's claim cummings is the real racist although mostly avoided criticizing trump's comments directly and we have seen no signs schemishness among his party or alarm of his aides has a chance to get through to the president. several white house officials were uncertain who could intervene with him or if anyone would even dare try. trump himself appears to be in denial of any potential political risks. >> fake news does not report it properly. if the news reported it properly, the right way, like instead of statement like you just made, if the news reported it properly, of all of the

things i've done for african-americans like criminal justice reform and opportunity zones, i think i'd do very well with the african-americans and i think i'm doing very well right now. >> the polls suggest the president has serious struggles on his hands when it comes to appealing to african-americans. a brand new quinnipiac poll say 80% of black voters think the president is a racist. for democrats gearing up for the second primary debate beginning tonight, trump's growing vulnerability on race means an opportunity to mobilize key voters who could make or break the election for him. at the table, bazle spikal, and a reporter from the "washington times," eli, let me start with you, this reporting coming from inside the white house from

around trump circle, i think very interesting. the folks around trump sensing political danger with this attack he has taken on race. the president himself is immune to that message. is that what's going on? >> everybody who works in this white house understands you will not convince the president to do something he doesn't want to do. no point trying to persuade him to take a different tact. you have seen the white house trying to correct around the president. he's not going to apologize, not going to back down andened to talk today about representative cummings and baltimore. you have seen a few efforts for the president to emphasize places he thinks, lines that will resonate nor strongly with african-americans. today, he was speaking in virginia, 400th anniversary of jamestown settlement and worked into that speech, prepared

remarks, but several lines condemning slavery. and last week, a meeting with pastors and elected officials of other states. on the edges, to be able to show that the president -- to beat back at these allegations of racism by saying, no, look what the president just said about slavery because they know they won't get this president off this spot that comes to representative cummings and baltimore, in its fourth day? >> does the white house get him to send these tweets out or what have you, or does that reflect any recognition on sense on the president's part there was more peril than when he was firing off the tweets. >> reporter: the people i talked to the president believes they will ultimately help him and

enliven his base and won't hurt much with the voters who already oppose him and think there's more-or-less a push. they don't want this to necessarily continue to metastasize, this racism charge. i think the president will sign off when people come to him and say, we should temper, he will say okay but not trying to bother to get him to come off the attack of representative cummings. >> do you think president trump is a racist, we showed you among african-americans, the answer is overwhelmingly yes. among all americans, a majority, 51% say, yes, they think the president of the united states is a racist. you can see breakdowns among white voters and we talk about the divide, college educated and suburbanites and folks important to the takeover of the white house.

the college educated, yes, 54-43 and 39% yes for non-college white, 57% no. the president won non-college 40ers by 46 points. lopsided, they're saying he's not racist. his victory margin is 20 points. >> it doesn't go to his benefit and in particular, attacks on khan and the "access hollywood" tape, those incidents put downward pressure on his polls and turned off people that weren't inclined to vote republicans. he doesn't have a lot of people to tell him no. there is a universe of activists who support whatever the president says and say, the president is right.

you have a lot of them that migrated to west baltimore, saying, this is a distressed community. there is a conservative urban allegation. the president isn't advancing it, nearly tweeting his wrath. >> is there any way if there is a republican or conservative out there concerned where the president is going, is there any way to get through to him or is the only way that comes back to them through him, hey, i won in 2016 and everybody said i would lose and making every mistake in the world? >> there is. collective action problem. elected officials in federal government come together, critical majority, a mass, come out and say we disagree with the president. we don't agree with what he says here, hurting our social fabric and it does force the president to back off. when there's just one individual or two, they get the universe of

a tweet and it comes down around their shoulders. >> remember the khan family in 2016 and those individual episodes, go back in time it seems like donald trump's political world was collapsing playing out. you had a bunch in the 2016 campaign. his polls would take a hit and political obituary written and then fade into the collective memory and he ended up just barely winning on election day. could that happen again here? >> of course it could happen again. he wouldn't get the majority of the vote but our electoral system is configured in precisely this perverse way it is possible he could squeeze out another freak victory. although i think it's interesting after this election and calamity of election, there was nationwide rethinking, what

have we missed? there were a lot of people saying we have not properly gaged the economic despair in the heartland and economic angst si in the country. that is real. trump believes he won because of racism. he believes he won because he was willing to say terrible things about immigrants and muslims and people of color and the archie bunker demographic responded to that. he believes that about his base. he believes far more than hillary clinton ever did, even when she used the word "deplorables," it's donald trump who truly believes his base is deplorable. >> i want to give you two charts.

this is the turnout rate among black voters in four elections. you see the two elections democrats won, obama, the turnout rate spiked, 65, 27%. fell in 2004, kerry narrowly loses and clinton narrowly loses. barack obama running did do a touch better of kerry and clinton, 82 the 90s. kerry and clinton into the high 80s. very high support for obama and very high turnout, democrats were able to win those elections. when you look at what trump's doing, the logical thing is that will fire up black voters and get them to turn out in 2008 and 2012. what michelle is pointing out, is this really different than what donald trump was doing in 2016, when the black turnout rate was 59.5%? will it make a difference next

time around? >> he is conflating economic nationalism and ethnic nationalism. there are some who don't think he's racism, since the community is monolithic. there are many that doesn't like the immigration reform. we've been here a long time. where is the support for our concerns. i know trump's team says it's not impulse, strategy. the impulse is strategy. when he's lashing out at elijah cummings, he's saying i don't care about support from the cities because i get the support from rural america. instead of just doubling down on his base he can dip into coalitions and rip apart some of

that, including african-american. i don't think it works at the end because i believe what comes out on the other side is a tremendous amount of support against him including those suburban voters who have gone with him initially and i think will come back to the democratic fold and flip counties in michigan and wisconsin, even though they're doing better, some are looking a bit more because they feel the tone and tenor of this president is not where they want to go and for other counties, actually losing population and still losing jobs. there is a sense what trump is doing may have worked in 2016, but a slippery slope in 2020 and may not win the end of the day. >> we always talk about the combined margin error is 75,000 votes in wisconsin and michigan. let me bring it back to you.

the whole talk is, is it strategize or impulse, is describing a white house apparatus, as noah was saying, a republican party apparatus, forced to take out its phones every morning and see if he tweeted something new and whatever direction he decided to go in and come wake up a coherent grand purpose explanation for it. is that really the dynamic going on right now? >> yeah. you're describing reverse engineering with this administration and congress. the white house officials that will say this isn't strike, they're saying they've had no role in crafting a strategy because the president doesn't consider a whole lot of folks sometimes when he acts. he sometimes starts something as he did here, seeing a segment on television and having already had an itch to scratch going after cummings given the oversight subpoenas the last

month or so and he saw the segment on television and started tweeting and not a lot of conversation with staff. there has been policy of this and strategy and which way to go. generally, this is a president who acts on instinct and asked people what they think, the end of the day, when he feels something emotionally, he will react from it accordingly. we have seen that from the start and the entire republican infrastructure, campaign and rnc, they are all taking their cues from this president and finding to come up with ways to buttress his message on the backside. >> michelle. >> i want to say quickly, what eli said before, i don't know if you heard me try to suppress a laugh. think what a degraded state this country is in when his aides say, no, he can't be racist, he opposes slavery. that's the best they can do to

make an affirmative argument for this president having any concern for minorities in this country. it is such a farce. we all sit around here and talk about it in terms of strategy and in terms of the election. that is important but i think it is important to acknowledge what a national catastrophe it is to have this ranting lunatic who holds so many of the people and so many of the cities that he purports to lead, in kind of complete contempt. >> even worse, there are a lot of voters that will listen to that and say, my god, he's right, he's the next best thing since lincoln and we have to find a way to manage that and run against it. it's scary. the bar has been lowered so much our president can get up there and say, you know what, slavery was bad and you should thank me for that. >> where this will end in 2020,

we talk about trump's base and does this resonate and fire them up. there was a significant number of voters in 2016, significant and crucial, he wouldn't be president without them, said to our exit pollsters, we don't like him and don't think he's confident but we don't like his opponent either and they voted for him. these are not all people responding to his message. the reluctant trump voters, what's the line for them? thank you. when we come back, now or never for many candidates on that debate stage tonight who need their breakout moment to stay alive. get it or will we be saying good-bye to them soon. a preview and questions about qualifications and partisanship, the next pick for national intelligence, john radcliffe

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here we go. it is the second round of the democratic debate that starts tonight in the motor city. an especially important night for some candidates on the outer edges, it could be do or die. you have mary ann williamson,

pete buttigieg and the heavy hitters, bernie sanders, beto o'rourke and john hickenlooper and making his debut tonight, steve bullock. in double digits, warren and sanders, talk about how they will handle being up there tonight and shadow cast by the front-runner not on the stage tonight, joe biden. he will be there tomorrow night and will anyone try to bring him into it. garrett, we see the scene being set up behind you there. let me ask you about elizabeth warren somebody last time around sort of on her own when it comes to top candidates in the polling, not on the stage with biden and not on the stage with harris and sanders. again, biden not there tonight. did warren and her campaign, do they like that she hasn't been up there with biden yet and gives her a chance to build her

own identity or do they want a shot at that? >> they're a slow build. you can't win the mantle of this race and progressive alternative to biden at this point. each sanders and warren's campaign acknowledge the other will be in this a long time, ideologically aligned. not a lot of tries to swing at each other. the strategy is stay in your lane, defend your policy, introduce yourself and not make any unforced errors. that's been a hallmark of the warren campaign so far. once she got past the ancestry claim she has not had a bad news cycle in terms of an unforced error or through her campaign. if they can keep that streak alive tonight there will be more

opportunity in the field. a smaller field. >> warren and sanders, there's a sense they're in each other's way, similar message, neighbors, rather. there are differences between the coalitions right now. >> actually think, in rooms like this, people tend to see them interchangeable or going for the same demographic. their voters are different people and different second choice. it's not as if most warren voters put sanders as second choice and vice-versa. a lot of second voters have biden as second choice and warren voters have harris as second choice. her voters tend to be more college educated, more super attuned to politics and the news. they don't really gain very much by knocking each other out. right? it's not as if bernie were to

drop out tomorrow, not as if his voters would automatically gravitate to harris. i would be surprised to see them going at each other. >> there is an argument warren in this steady rise has done more damage to buttigieg stuck there in single digits. he has similar demographic appeal. in terms of the democratic race right now, they have biden out in front by about 20 points. this breakdown by race among white voters, biden in place comfortably. look at that. among african-american voters, 1 out of 4 votes next year will come from black voters in the democratic primaries. joe biden is lapping the field a couple of times. >> long history with the party african-americans have had and his relationship with barack obama. i think that starts to fade over time as the field win nos a bit. the truth is, there are a lot of

african-american voters that say, you know what, i'm willing to forgive some of his past policies as long as he seems contrite and explains it away. a lot has to do with the other candidates. a lot of african-american voters, young ones that don't necessarily trust kamala harris and her prosecutorial background, it's important, some of it may be misguided but i understand where that comes from. there's healthy distrust of bernie sanders because his campaign hasn't necessarily been particularly diverse and a question about warren's electability. i don't know how true that is in the long run. some of the same issues elizabeth warren has bernie has. biden is one they know and that carries a tremendous lot. >> the other is the criteria to get into these debates will change after this, when we come back in the fall for new

debates. polling thresholds will be raised. looks modest on paper and looks like it could knock out half the field in terms of qualifying. a lot of candidates tonight have to stand out and get noticed. looks like beto o'rourke is bringing guests to the debate, several black men who kneeled to the national anthem. i guess cnn is going to air the national anthem. i'm seeing speculation, will candidates kneel to get attention. what will candidates down at zero or 1%, do they have any stunts? >> reporter: i don't know about stunts. i standard beto o'rourke if he will kneel and they laughed at me that that is too big of a risk for them but it brought him to the national stage defending the right of athletes to kneel during the senate campaign. that could reprice the issue of

what they liked about him in the first place. beyond the four at the ecenter f the stage tonight, only four have qualified for september. everyone else has to make a name. amy klobuchar, a sitting u.s. senator just reelected has to be frustrated by her position in this race might try to make some moves. what does steve bullock does? how does he not just become the montana guy that replaced eric swalwell and how does he not identify himself in this group and makes an argument against medicare for all that has driven the debate tonight and tomorrow night. he has really only this one shot having not been on our debate stage a month ago. those are two of the ones i see who have both the need to really differentiate themselves and political dexterity to do so. look at john hickenlooper who

struggled as well but in part because of his own ability to make those tight political arguments when the moment calls for. i don't know if he has that extra gear tonight. >> the montana guy who replaced eric. we talk about lanes all the time. that has to be one. there's an interesting dynamic and four or five registering in the polls people are talking about and the other 20 and throwing in.tom, who may not be here? >> the dirty secret is not primarily african-american, whiter and more educated. they pop pu late twitter but don't win democratic primaries. african-american voters is what wins you the nomination. that's what kamala harris did taking a dent in his support but

it has faded. we have a progressive bidding war on that stage. they're bidding amongst themselves and not communicating with voters they need and only each other. once they realize this is highlander and can only be one of them, that might show a threat to joe biden. >> kamala harris' attack on joe biden does seem to have helped her but does seem to have faded. you mentioned young african-americans, does that help her more with white liberals? >> i think it did. an attack on a front-runner, made her seem incredibly presidential particularly voters not that familiar with her. there are a lot of voters, particularly african-american voters unsure about her. in terms of white liberals and progressives, there are a lot of african-americans don't fit in

that description. many tend to be very moderate and there is the appeal for joe biden. it launched her into the top floor and she's remained there. that is really important. even if she doesn't become the nominee she is on the short list for vp, not to say she should be relegated to that. staying in the top three or four, once they get to iowa, if she can get a ticket out she is in good shape. >> we will see tomorrow, biden and harris, a rematch for them? tonight, 10 other candidates on the stage. thank you for joining us on the stage to help us preview that. good luck. after tonight, is donald trump gearing up for another pick. his pick for national intelligence might not have the complete support of the president's party, next. president's party, next. today's merrill can help you get there

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donald trump's latest pick for national director is facing headwinds. congressman john ratcliffe is largely unknown among those who would confirm him an already narrow path to confirmation due to questions whether he might use the position to advance trump's political interests, coming from comments like this one on fox news. >> i think the first thing we need to do is make sure we don't do what the democrats have done. they accuse donald trump of a crime and try to reverse engineer that accusation. i will not accuse any specific person for any specific crime. i want a fair process to get there. what i do know as a former federal prosecutor, it does appear there were crimes committed during the obama administration. >> some republicans have been hesitant to come out in support of his nomination. the cool reception from members

of the president's own party reflected the split at hand for what is supposed to be the most nonpartisan job in washington, mr. trump selected one of the fiercest political warriors. melanie is joining us. thanks for joining us. the math of the senate where this will take place, 53 republicans and 47 democrats. that means if all the democrats were against this, a bit of an if, let's say that, four republicans coming out and saying no to this could sink it. is that a realistic possibility right now? >> it's definitely going to be a tough confirmation battle for sure. the reception we have seen thus far is republicans are very lukewarm on ratcliffe. they're worried he is way too political for this nonpartisan post. he is someone out there, one of trump's warriors and criticized the fbi and russia probe and cast doubt on the idea which the intelligence community has said,

that russia interfered in our elections on behalf of the trump candidacy. number two, they're worried about hiss qualifications. he's only been on the house intelligence community a few months now. there's now new questions thanks to reporting from abc and other outlets whether he was misrepresenting his resume. they said even though he was appointed of chief of national terrorism for many north texas he actually did not put any terrorists behind bars despite claiming otherwise. that raises serious questions about not only his qualifications and whether he's being honest and something senators will definitely dig into when this vetting process gets under way. >> interesting to look at some comments or lack of comments for some senators. you get a sense with this job and things said about outgoing dan coats, outgoing dni, the job occupies a different space in washington supposed to be a

little bit above politics. this is somebody the president is appointing but does seem to be giving initially pause to folks who might otherwise give the president his man. >> this main that role is utterly terrifying because he's such an ideologue and dan coats has been out there trying to raise the alarm about potential russia and other foreign attacks on the 2020 elections. to have somebody who will instead spin the intelligence to trump's liking to the public and probably to trump himself, somebody who seems to have no regard to the underlying facts of intelligence gathering, to have somebody like that in that role, i think it would have seemed inconceivable couple years ago. it's the sign of how in neuroed we have become to this administration. we're going to see just how much

every republican has fully capitulated to trump, because i'm sure most of them know this would be a disaster. but they've also shown themselves completely unwilling to stand up to him. >> some of the names, four republican defections theoretically could sink the nomination. richard burr, susan collins facing a different election in may and rand paul, sometimes a wild card and marco rubio and ron johnson. how do you look at the prospects for confirmation. >> ratcliffe will be able to make his case to different senators. he is not taking it down now, a bad indication. the senator said it was very lukewarm, as we said earlier, this is a position that should be dispassionate and above the frey and they are displeased with this nominee.

the republican senate is not a rubber stamp for donald trump. they have forced nominees before them and forced out judges put before them. if they are dissatisfied with this nominee, i suspect they will. at least four can help avoid a protracted detrimental confirmation fight. it wouldn't surprise me, however, the president does usually get the nominees he wants. it is his prerogative. if it is the fight he wants to have. republicans would be well-advised to push back a little bit because as you said, i agree it needs to be occupied by a professional and not partisan. >> just yesterday the president spoke to reporters about the prospect of his nominee being nominated. >> i think john ratcliffe will do a phenomenal job if he gets approved. i hope he gets approved. i think we need somebody like

that, strong, that can really rein it in. i think as you've learned, the intelligence agencies have run amuck. >> the kind of senators we're talking about, wild cards who maybe fancy themselves more institutionalists, maybe more willing to say no to this president, does that pitch work for them? >> after mitch mcconnell decided to kill bills related to russia interference, i don't put it past any of these senators no matter how tenuous their re-election is to do what the president wants to do. it is terrifying. i am at a place, if the president says he wants this and presidents typically get their nominees, i imagine the leadership and other senators, as long as they're not directly in their face and protest at the front door. he auditioned for the job during the mueller hearings. we all saw that.

as long as you have members of the house and senate willing to do that in front of donald trump consistently advertise and audition for him, people will fall in line. that's what will happen. >> folks remember, maybe their introduction in some cases to ratcliffe, was that a factor to him getting this nomination, what he did with the mueller hearings? >> he had an infamous line even though the president shouldn't be above the law, he shouldn't be below it either and he had met with ratcliffe a few days before. now, he auditioned for the united states gnat and that will be a tougher audition than trump. you are sticking around after the break, rumblings on impeachment, democrats not giving up so easily on that. giving up so easily on that. ♪ limu emu & doug

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the count is now up to 112. literally in the last couple of minutes, 111 to 112. 111 democrats and one independent in the house who say they support launching impeachment proceedings against donald trump. as our guest, michelle goldberg notes, even more significant than the growing number of calls for impeachment is the lawsuit filed demanding access of grand jury material from the mueller investigation says the committee is conducting an investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment. in other words, the judiciary committee would oversee any potential impeachment announced with surprisingly little fanfare that impeachment inquiry is already under way. melanie and the table back with us. that includes michelle. michelle, they are doing on the judiciary committee and lot of work that would go into an

impeachment investigation. in terms of the power it has and the calendar, is it likely it would turn into an impeachment? >> i think it's going to be. let's say the house voted. if nancy pelosi did what a lot of people are asking her to do and start an impeachment inquiry, it would be the house voting to tell the judiciary committee to begin the investigation. instead, the judiciary committee is beginning the investigation on its own. impeachment inquiry isn't a term defined in the house rules or constitution. in the past, you had in the bill clinton impeachment you had the house voting to tell the judiciary committee. with nixon the judiciary committee started its work and the house passed a resolution of support. it's not as if there is a template how this has to be done. in a way this is a quay strategy for some of the difficulties of

impeachment and start the process to legally demand these materials and hopefully compel testimony from don mcgahn and hope hicks. they are imagining a series of high profile hearings in the fall maybe analogous to water gait. if you're going to make people take that potential perilous vote, take it after all the information has been gathered. >> there is a congressional calendar, congressional recess through labor day at this point and lawsuits just to get the information the committee is speaking. this is what jackie speier, a democrat from california, she supports impeachment. this is what she says about the realities of the calendar. >> if we don't take action come september 1st, we should shut it down because we can't do anything at all. i feel strongly we should but i think we're running out of time. >> melanie, i'm curious, what

are you hearing from democratic leaders there on the house side in terms of that question. when i've heard democrats talk about the kind of impeachment they might pursue of donald trump, they talk in terms of watergate, not like bill clinton that took 10 weeks. it's 10 months. realistically that puts you into the middle of a reelection year. >> nancy pelosi says, i'm not trying to run out the clock but there is a clock. they don't want to run a tricky impeachment in an election year and don't want to be seen as overpolitical. especially if they can beat him at the ballot box. they feel the window is quickly closing and they have to get it done by the fall. the august recess is important for the democratic impeachment caucus. if they don't build momentum

during this recess, it won't happen on capitol hill. >> that's when you hear to the impeachment side. remember in 2009, the tea party folks showed up at republican members town halls and it really built the energy there to oppose the push for obamacare, at least on the obamacare side. could you see some of that this month? >> you possibly could but that doesn't change the fact lawmakers aren't in town. every time some new democratic member says, i support impeachment and there is breathless analysis and what this says about the nature of the coalition. the closer it gets to august the easier to come out for impeachment because nothing is going to happen. leadership is against it explicitly on the house side and implicitly on the senate side. nobody wants to start it and have the president acquitted with a republican senate. nobody is going to be held

accountable by an impeachment committee that won't convict and they're trying to guide them to save them from themselves. >> i think there are a lot of very serious democrats trump's corruption and disloyalty together is a form of accountability even if the senate doesn't -- >> but i think that's absolutely right. a lot of democrats come up to me and say could we please just hold this president accountable? what they'll do is they'll have multiple avenues to get to something that mayirrors impeachment without saying the word or going through the formal process. perhaps you build up the number of supporters to a tipping point where you get that formal vote. but you don't have to saddle both members of the house and senate and the candidates. we can't talked about them. the candidates with having to answer these questions on the trail. >> that's the other sort of interesting wild card in all of this. we talk about nixon and clinton, second-term presidents in both of those cases. this is a president that has to face the public again in a year.

melanie, thank you. we've got to squeeze in a short break. the state of california putting some muscle between it's calls for trump's tax returns. is this a good idea? will it succeed? we'll take a look at that, next. ? we'll take a look at that, next. r wife to meet you at the doctor. because you didn't have another dvt. not today. we discussed how having one blood clot puts you at risk of having another,... ...so we chose xarelto®, to help keep you protected. xarelto®, is proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical trials, almost 98% of people did not have another dvt or pe. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of blood clots. while taking, a spinal injection increases the risk of blood clots, which may cause paralysis- the inability to move. you may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising.

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while i'm under audit, i won't do it. if i'm not under audit, i would do it. while i'm under audit, i will not give my taxes. >> that has been president trump's excuse when it comes to

his taxes and not making them public. california and its governor, gavin newsom, today throwing down the gauntlet. the governor signed a new bill that would force candidates to turn over their tax returns or they won't get on the ballot in california, the primary ballot, a move politico is calling a politically explosive and du dubious attempt to pry loose trump's records. bazil, you don't like the president, you're a democrat and you've run a state party and you don't like this law. >> i don't. it seems like it's a law catered specifically to donald trump so i understand the importance of it. but i just have a feeling that that begins a slippery slope. does that mean if you start talking about down ballot races, you're running for city council and have to produce your taxes. do you have to be wealthy and have good credit just to run for

office? i think it shames poor people and poor candidates. i don't like it because i don't like the precedent. >> the slippery slope argument. anybody want to take up the case for this at all? michelle? >> honestly, i feel like this country is in a state of emergency and we have a president who is compromised in many different ways and lied to the country about his finances. so almost any legal means to get those tax returns, which he's been resisting at every turn, whether be it through the ways and means committee, through new york state passing a law to release his taxes, i think all of that is good and in order. this it seems like a dangerous precedent, a legal leap, and i'm not sure how much it even ends up accomplishing because he's not competitive in california anyway. >> noah, yes or no, president trump's taxes will be turned over because of this law? >> yeah, no. legislators can pass unconstitutional laws if they want. it makes the judiciary's job a little more difficult, but

everybody in this audience should think about what would happen if texas decided to pass a law saying you can't get on our ballot without releasing your long-term birth certificate. who are you talking about there? >> we'll be right back after this. g about there? >> we'll be right back after this at subaru, we're taking on distracted driving [ping] with sensors that alert you when your eyes are off the road. the all-new subaru forester. the safest forester ever. ♪ as your life grows, so do your needs. ♪ and with bank of america and merrill, the benefits you get can grow, too. as a preferred rewards member, you can enjoy priority service and exclusive discounts... so your growing life can be more rewarding, too.

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my thanks to basil, michelle and noah. that does it for this hour. i'm steve kornacki in for nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts right now. well, if it's tuesday, democrats are about to take the stage in detroit. but front and center is president trump and the firestorm over his racist tweets. plus tonight's fight isn't just between candidates. it's a high-stakes battle for the direction of the democratic party. progressive or pragmatic? and a confirmation controversy. the general tapped to be the nation's number t