my thanks to ben rhodes, al sharpton, theres kumar. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts now. ♪ if it's friday, it's "meet the press daily," and good evening. i am chuck todd coming to you live from sioux city in the great state of iowa which is the epicenter of the presidential race right now. 17 candidates are in the hawkeye state today alone with more on the way this weekend i just spoke with one of them. senator kamala harris. in a moment we'll show you what she said about supporting gun legislation in the senate which is a major issue today after the president claimed that he, mitch mcconnell, and even the nra, would support legislation that would strengthen background checks which was apparently news to mitch mcconnell and the nra.

we'll get into that. also coming up, we'll have the latest from the fallout on the administration's immigration raids which have left child welfare services scrambling to deal with children. but we begin right here in iowa at a moment when virdly all of the candidates are descending on this state. there is widespread agreement that it believes the president is effectively a white supremacist. >> do you believe that the president is a white supremacist? >> i believe everything the president says encourages white supremacist and i'm not sure there's much of a disichtion. >> he can't keep trying to stir this up, give aid and comfort, be embraced by the white supremacists but say, ah, but not me. >> do you think president trump is a white supremacist? >> i do. >> is the president a white supremacist? >> he is. >> do you agree? >> i do. >> based on his words and actions, yes, he is a white

supremacist. >> it seems evident to me that seems to be his belief, sure. >> things that he has said would be things that white supremacists would say. >> there are certainly white supremacists that think donald trump has their back. >> -- white supremacist? >> i think you should ask him that question. >> it's pretty astonishing how much the democratic field and a ray of democrats from different flavors of the democratic party, different ideologies all speaking in one voice. here's president trump though speaking with reporters at the white house earlier today reacting to those voices. >> i don't think it helps. personally, i don't like it when they do it because i am not any of those things. i think it's a disgrace, and i think it shows how desperate the democrats are. they tall anybody a racist when they run out of cards. i'm winning at the polls.

they're desperate. they've got lousy candidates. >> folks, right here in iowa democrats may be looking for something of a road map on how to run a campaign against someone they are calling a white supremacist in a way that can win in conservative areas. democrat j.d. shuttlon nearly defeated king. king as you might recall has been criticized by a number of his own colleagues including republican leadership for what they say are racist views and comments about white supremacy. and just a few days ago he announced he was running again. j.d.schulton joins me now at clear lake where the great wing ding fundraiser is happening tonight. they are greeting candidates that are starting to arrive, but i think mr. schulton will bear with us a little bit. welcome to "meet the press," sir. >> thank you for being in my hometown of sioux city, but we've got a special event here.

>> i wish you were here, it's a chamber of commerce type of day. trust me. let me start with this. you ran a campaign against j.d. -- excuse me, against steve king, many even republicans denouncing his views. is that a way to run in iowa? is that a conversation iowans are ready to have, or are they not? >> absolutely. and what we were able to do was get out there to the people and the politics of deviciveness and just hate and it doesn't really play well. even though i know trump won, but what we are able to do is get out there to the people, prove they're trustworthy and we earn votes regardless of their voter history. we got 25,000 more votes than there are democrats in our district. we just broke through that barrier. >> does labelling trump this help you win over these voters?

i mean, look, you had to win people over that voted for president trump. does this make your -- does it -- do you worry that it sounds like you're labelling his supporters that, and is that a line that is just harder and harder to find? >> well, i hardly talked about trump at all to be perfectly honest in our election when we were up against steve king, i had to call out his racism and his hatred absolutely. but when we give oxygen to it, then we lose the issues that really matter here in the 4th district. the second most agriculture producing district in america, we have 55,000 farmers in this district that have their backs against the wall. even if the tariffs end tomorrow, we've got market consolidation and other issues. we've got a half decade of low commodity prices. and at the end of the day we have to call that out. but it's the kitchen table topics that we are just out there talking with voters about. >> i'm curious, do you want to get tough on china, and if you

do want to get tough on china, how do you not use political weapons like tariffs if you're trying to get china to cut a better trade deal with the united states, because, frankly, both democrats and republicans seem to agree that they don't like china's trade practices. >> right. well, i mean, the bizarreness of what's happening right now is we're borrowing money from china to pay our farmers to not sell their products to china. and, i mean, we have -- and we look at some of these multinational corporations that they're going to sell their soy beans to china one way or the other. and so i'm out here making sure that it's trying to be iowa farmers that are selling their soy beans to china and not somewhere down in south america. when you have representative king not on the farm committee or the agriculture committee, that's hurting our farmers. we don't have a voice out there, and that's a message that resonates here. i think 2020, we have a huge

opportunity to earn rural votes where we may have not had them in the last few years and even last decade. so that's one thing i'm pushing the 2020 candidates as they come into the district and asking me what worked there, that's what i'm pushing them on. >> well, let's talk about the gun issue. you stopped short, for instance, of supporting the assault weapons ban. that is something that many national democrats, many of the presidential candidates would like to see. you have come out in favor of expanded background checks. number one, do you still -- are you still not there yet on the assault weapons ban? and what can you sell to conservative iowans when it comes to gun regulation? >> well, i think the number one thing we need to talk about is the national notion that it's either the second amendment or gun safety. that's a false choice. there's plenty of room to grow in and come together as a nation. when 97% of universal -- or people in america want universal background checks and congress

can't get it done, that's a failure in our democracy. and one of the things i ran on last time and i'm running again on this time is we, the amount of special interests that dictate our democracy is just disgusting. and so we're trying to get a government of the people by the people and for the people, and the gun lobbying is just one of the biggest examples of how d.c. is not working for districts like this. >> on the assault weapons ban, you stopped short of calling for it in '18. where are you now on it? >> well, i'd be -- i'd consider it, but there's so many different types of assault rifles and what it means to be an assault rifle that i think we need to have a definition of what it is, a true definition of what it is before i can commit to something like that because the last time we had one, you could also buy almost the exact same gun but just a different brand. so i think there are other steps we can do along the way.

but if that's on the table i think it's worth a debate. >> let me ask you big picture democratic party what you hear from voters in the fourth congressional district. are they looking for a nominee that is more about electability or are they looking for somebody a little more progressive? what would you tell a democratic presidential candidate that asked you for that advice? >> i think we're looking for somebody who can build a coalition. and we're the second most agriculture-producing district in america, so we're pretty rural. but at the same time i think there is a huge potential for a candidate to build a what i like to call a dollar general coalition where you have these rural communities that feel left behind, but you have some of these urban areas that feel left behind as well. any candidate who can do both, i feel that's the type of candidate that we really can get behind. >> i think i know what you're trying to say with the dollar general point, but make that

point -- if a community has a dollar general, explain that point again. >> well, yeah. right after the election, i was pretty active talking about how the democratic party has become more and more the whole foods party. and i live in a dollar general district we're very rural and very -- i just want to make sure that we're not forgotten because we need people -- we need to earn votes in the urban areas, absolutely. but we need a yes approach. i feel there is that narrative that if we're going to go rural we can't do that either, but we absolutely can do both and come together. >> i thought i knew where you were going there. i just wanted to get that out there. j.d. scholten, thanks for coming out, and stay safe on the campaign trail. let me bring in our panel of experts, white house correspondent for the pbs news hour, jimmel smith, rolling stone and charlie sykes founder

and editor-at-large and an msnbc contributor. let me start with you. and it was interesting -- and i want to get to the gun debate a little later in the show. it was everything to hear that still seems to be you see that rural urban divide there in the conversation we just had that candidate. but let's talk about this white supremacy issue. it is remarkable how aligned the candidates are on this issue. i am surprised at how aggressive the rhetoric has been. are you? >> i'm not surprised by it mainly because i've been talking to democratic voters across this country who say that they want to hear their party plainly say that president trump is a racist, and that's their opinion. the naacp has been calling the president a racist. so i think what we have are democratic candidates really following in the footsteps of where their constituency also

was. i think there's also this idea that there's been a sort of amassing of different examples in people's minds of the president, frankly, doing things that people say would be in favor of white supremacy. i think when he ran, people thought his rhetoric calling mexicans rapists and criticals was problematic, but maybe he meant that there was a certain sub sect of those people. now what people are saying is when you put together charlottesville, when you put together him calling countries s-hole countries and then you have him going after the squad, the four congresswomen, and then the baltimore tweets, i think all of that got together and people decided we're just going to say it plainly. >> you know, jimmel, it's interesting that the democratic field has embraced going after the president on these issues in a much quicker way than they did, for instance, on the impeachment issue that there is

no hesitation on hitting the president personally on race on this white supremacy issue while we saw -- we've seen hesitation on the impeachment issue. what's your sense on that? >> well, i think there's two things, chuck. i think one you have the most loyal constituency in the democratic party are african-american voters. one, you're trying to appeal to them. and you're trying to make sure that they're in the fold. i think there are a lot of candidates in the field who are having trouble in that department. so and that's number one. number two is, frankly, you see the president having a direct effect on the people who are perpetuating this violence and white supremacy is an ideology that requires violence in order to succeed. and so you have people who are going to court and presenting in their cases before court not just the people who are committing these mass shootings but also people like cesar sayoc, the bomber who presented in court saying that the

president basically told me to do it. the man who slammed a child down on the ground and fractured his skull in montana at a rodeo said basically the president told me to do it. and so you have people who are committing violent acts basically because in their minds the president is giving them instructions, and the president's rhetoric is having a violent effect. so i think it makes sense in their minds for them to go ahead and say these things. >> charlie sykes, what are suburban republicans hearing in this conversation? >> well, this is a scary situation for a lot of them. i think a lot of them have made that bargain, when it came to the president's boarishness and his lies, as long as they got the conservative tax cuts and everything. but i think what you're seeing happening now is exposing the flaw of that bargain because did they really sign up for a

president who might be arousing and inspiring domestic terrorism or racism. in all this question of is the president a white supremacist or not, i would think about it this way. i can't dive into the tangled mess of donald trump's soul so i don't know what he is, but i think he can be judged by what he does. and he has encouraged and aroused white nationalists, and he has incited some of them to these acts of violence. so i hope we don't get sidetracked into this question of what is donald trump as opposed to what is donald trump doing and what are the effects of his behavior because i don't think there's any question about all of that. and i think that's got to be really frightening for republicans who are looking around and going, okay, so a couple of weeks ago we thought this was a solid strategy for the base but we could get wiped out in the certain among women and in the suburbs if in fact this image takes hold. >> you know, yamiche, emmanuel

cleaver, congresswoman from kansas city, missouri, he admitted that when he came out for impeachment, calling for impeachment, he said i can't say the attack on elijah cummings didn't have an influence on me. and it makes me think that in the last ten days, you know, if the attacks on elijah cummings motivated emmanuel cleaver to go from sitting with pelosi on this issue to essentially going in another direction, what is the last 72 hours do these democrats that are sitting on this edge? >> i think the pressure just keeps mounting and mounting. and, frankly, a lot of people are fed up. the president has in some people's minds, really continued to push the buttons in this country that are division, that are racial incense activity, that are in some people's minds racist. so i think what you have is members of activities, i just came back from dayton, ohio, and of course that shooter was not linked in the same way as the el

paso shooter was to the president's rhetoric. but what you have is a city that has embraced proimmigrant policy. so i talk to people about that. and there are people who are fearful for their lives. this is not just people wanting to see the president make policies or change something that might be a little bit different. what people have are people saying i don't know if i can send my kid to school because he might get shot for being a mexican or he might get shot for being muslim. that is that palpable fear that i think congressional lawmakers are starting to react to. >> jamil, can you still work with this president on a gun control legislation if you think his rhetoric is putting american citizens in danger? do you see where i'm getting at here? and this is where i'm wondering in his disconnect with democratic lawmakers. on one hand they call the president a threat. on the other hand they're not ready -- can you reconcile that?

>> i don't think you can, chuck. i think you'd be wasting your time. i think this president is dead set upon extracting concessions from his perceived political enemies. that seems to be his priority above public safety. i think really when you look back at newtown, for instance, you see what the democrats did there is that they more or less wasted the urgency of the moment by engaging in task forces in more or less kind of doing listening sessions and all this stuff and they kind of, you know, wasted the urgency of that moment. >> the urgency, yeah. >> they really need to kind of really do what trump is, you know, known for, which is go with the executive action. and really he's not going to do that. he really wants to now do legislation that is going to extract all this immigration concessions or gun control concessions or what have you. and he's really just about trying to make democrats pay. that's really not about

legislating. that's about, you know, payback. >> i want to get more into that conversation. but i'm going to sneak a break in because it's a perfect segway. we are going to talk about this debate about guns after the break. so you guys stick around. up ahead, a bit of my interview with senator kamala harris. are we actually on the verge of some sort of gun control legislation that gets passed in both houses of congress and what she would like to see congress do if she's elected president. and the white house says they are making a push to combat online extremism. but that's about all they are saying. we'll have much more to come on "meet the press daily" from sioux city, iowa. eed. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana!

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frankly, we need intelligent background checks. okay? this isn't a question of nra, republican or democrat. i will tell you i spoke to mitch

mcconnell yesterday. he's totally on board. he said i've been waiting for your call. he is totally on board. and i really believe that the nra, i've spoken to them numerous times, they're really good people. they are great patriots. they love our country. they love our country so much. and frankly i really think they are going to get their -- >> welcome back. president trump says he has, quote, tremendous support for tightening background checks on gun violence. but despite what he said, neither senate majority leader mitch mcconnell nor the nra is actually on board. i did sit down with california democratic senator and presidential candidate kamala harris and i asked her what she's expecting about the gun debate in congress that'll take place in september and what she would do about it if she's elected president. you're going to go back to the senate in september it looks like and actually have a gun proposal. >> yeah. we should go back before that. >> and mcconnell is saying you're going to vote on something. >> yeah. >> do you take the red flag law

if that's all you can get? or do you just keep -- i know you can do better, but if you can't get in -- are you one of those take what you can get? >> on this issue i'm going to tell you i am prepared when elected to actually take executive action if congress doesn't -- >> constitutionally? >> yes, you can. and so i will, one, put in place a comprehensive background check. i will also make sure that -- >> do you think you can do that executive order? >> yes, i do. i also will put in place a requirement and fund the atf to put greater enforcement into taking the licenses of gun dealers who violate the law. do you know 90% of the guns that are connected with crime are sold by just 5% of the gun dealers? they need -- we need to take their licenses. and then third i'm prepared by executive action to ban the import of assault weapons into our country. >> you can see much more of my conversation with senator kamala harris this sunday on "meet the press" on your local nbc

station. we hit the gambit of issues on our bus. we'll have more on the president and the republican party to do something on guns, and whether this time will be any different than any other times before where we thought something was afoot. that's ahead. hmm. exactly. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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country, and i think they're getting increasingly furious with the government that works better for the gun lobby than it does for the safety of our children. >> welcome back. that was elizabeth warren with my colleague ali vitali about 130 miles east of us here in humboldt, iowa. we told you everyone is in iowa today. trust me. and as we heard with kamala harris, democrats on the trail are pressuring mitch mcconnell to act on gun legislation. they say they have the bulk of voters behind them. yamiche, jamil, and charlie are back. jamil, let me start with you because there is a fascinating split that we are seeing more inside the republican party that we use to see in the democratic party on the issue of guns, which is a rural/suburban split. you have the rural leader john boraso, mitch mcconnell from the smaller population very skeptical, red flag laws. and then you have your marco rub years john cornyn from more popular states who said, uh-oh,

the gun issue doesn't play the way it used to. >> that's exactly right. if in fact, you know, will they act on all of this. it'll be a sign that they recognize the real threat because let's face it up until now it's been all about base politics. but i, unfortunately, chuck, i've seen this kabuki dance. and frankly this issue comes down to two things. it comes down to donald trump and it comes down to the nra. will donald trump defy the nra, is he willing to move? if donald trump decided to take a strong position, we've seen his ability to get republicans to flip on all of this, but we've also seen that the nra has an incredible capacity to reel him back in whatever his instincts might be on this issue. >> yamiche, this is your beat. you've been on the white house beat from the beginning with him. why does this -- is this parkland all over again?

remember, there was one day after the parkland shooting donald trump sounded like a guy that was ready to even -- was even open to a new assault weapons ban, and literally one la pierre phone call later and you got an executive order on bump stocks. >> i think it's hard to tell. i was in ohio talking to people who survived that shooting, and people there told me, you know, we might be focused on trying to figure out what we can do in our state because we don't think washington is going to make any big changes. i remember covering newtown and thinking after having 20 small children shot to tenth death in schools that everything would shift. what we saw was not a lot of action. so i think what we have is a president who is often moved by his emotion and what he's seeing on television. so as a result he came out saying, you know, i want to be able to do something background checks might be the thing that we can get behind. but a lot of this i think is because there was a whole weekend of covering shooting

victims of covering mass shootings, of explaining to people how big it is. i think the nra's hold on the president has been, and really frankly on the republican party has been pretty clear. and the only republican that we're seeing move away from that was mike turner whose daughter was across the street. so that's why he was personally moved. >> jamil, before we went to break, you were talking about very eloquently about what you thought was a missed opportunity by the democrats that they sort of, how they handled it post sandy hook. there is going to be -- it is clear republicans want to pass something because they want to be able to say they pass something. how cooperative should democrats be? what is your sense of do you take -- and this is the question i had put to senator harris. if a red flag law is all you're going to get that, does aid suicide prevention, it's not something to be dismissed, but it doesn't necessarily perhaps address these shootings. do you cooperate or do you keep

fighting? what do you think democratic activists want to see? >> i think they want to see -- i believe they want to see the fight because republicans have tell graphed what they actually want to do. they want to continue to fight the culture war, frankly. they want to continue to blame this on violent video games. they want to continue to stigmatize the mentally ill. they want to continue to deflect when the, you know, manifestos coming out blaming, you know, attributing this to white supremacy and blaming mexicans for immigrating here. things like that. they want to deflect anything and everything away from what actually happened. so, you know, when we talk about the actual causes of the event, you know, the republicans don't actually want to engage with the real. so i think when nancy pelosi is hesitant to engage on an assault

weapons ban, i think folks are going to want them to engage in a fight and i think they are for not going to be satisfied unless people on the hill and the house and the senate go full boar. >> jamil, very quickly i was curious. i don't know if you noticed in the interview with j.k. scholten. here is somebody in obviously a red-leaning district. that's your typical conservative democrat that's nervous about the assault weapons, that could have an effect on nancy pelosi, couldn't it? >> certainly. i think that -- and i would correct him on one point. i don't think there's a whole lot of whole foods in urban districts in which i grew up. >> touche. >> but when you look at some folks like mr. scholten, i think he has to understand that there are a lot of folks who are in democratic districts throughout the country who are going to be pushing him as well as much as he is going to be pushing them. so i think that they are going to have to learn to work together. >> charlie, the issue of the nra

in its current weak state, they have a leadership, i think they lost their chief lobbiquist. it's a huge scandal that they're dealing with, a financial scandal of some sort of and yesterday on the show betsy woodruff, a reporter for "the daily beast" said it's -- because they're desperate for a fight, they need the cash badly that despite what president trump said, they can't afford -- they're so dispat for cash flow they can't afford to sit out even a red flag bill. >> no. she's absolutely right about this. yes, the nra is torn apart, is racked by scandal. but a cornered animal is often dangerous and not in a mood to compromise. this is a fight that the nra lives for. and people ought to understand that there still are a lot of second amendment supporters out there who are not extremists who don't buy everything the nra

says. but their goal is to frighten them that democrats want to steal their guns that they are hostile to their right of self-defense. and this is something to keep in mind. this is why you have some of the conservative democrats who are saying, sure, let's do the background check, let's talk about high capacity magazines, let's talk about red flag laws. but when you start talking about, you know, mandatory gun buy-backs or the banning of certain weapons, that's the red meat that the nra is hoping to feast on over the next year. >> and if i could -- >> go ahead. i was just going to say the president that in his speech that struck me the most was mental illness pulled the trigger not the gun. that tells me exactly where the president's mind was. >> right. that's a good point. and we can't underestimate arguably there was no interest group that was more important to donald trump's primary campaign and ability to hang onto that nomination more than the nra.

yamiche, jamil, charlie, stick around. up ahead, hundreds have been detained. but what happens now to the families most impacted by this week's massive i.c.e. raids in mississippi? we are live down there with new reporting next. we'll be back with more "meet the press daily" live from sioux city right after this. er this. ♪ -i'm sorry? -what teach here isn't telling you is that snapshot rewards safe drivers with discounts on car insurance. -what? ♪ -or maybe he didn't know. ♪ [ chuckles ] i'm done with this class. -you're not even enrolled in this class. -i know. i'm supposed to be in ceramics. do you know -- -room 303. -oh. thank you. -yeah. -good luck, everybody. fill up for the chance to win free fuel for a year. that's one of thousands of prizes in the shell great gas giveaway! fuel rewards members are automatically entered when they fill up at shell.

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. i want people to know that if they come into the united states illegally, they're getting out, they're going to be brought out. and this serves as a very good deterrent. if people come into our country illegally, they're going out. >> welcome back. that was president trump defending these mass immigration raids this week in mississippi. they targeted undoimted workers at seven food processing plants, not the companies themselves, by the way. nearly 700 people were rounded up in the single biggest one-state sweep in u.s. history. more than 300 are still in

custody. schools and child protective services were never given advance warning of the raids in order to keep the operation secret. that meant some children came home from school to find their parents missing. some people couldn't even get into their house. some parents had been released from custody, but others were still detained. meanwhile federal authorities are still not saying whether business who's employed these workers would be facing any consequences. sort of the most head-shaking part of this. my colleague gabe joins us live from jackson, mississippi. so, gabe, number one, who's in charge of these children right now? >> reporter: and that is a big question, chuck, that we keep asking all day. the answer is many of the children are now being taken care of by other family members. for example, some of the children may have had one parent detained and so now they're being taken by the other parent. but all the parents, all the families we've spoken with today say that they have no access to their loved ones and really have

no idea where they are. we are told 400 people are still being detained in facilities here in mississippi and in louisiana, chuck. >> and explain why the government hasn't really been able to explain why the companies themselves, they won't say whether the companies are going to be charged with any crime, they're not explaining why the companies themselves aren't the first ones targeted. why is it that the workers were targeted before the companies who did the hiring? >> reporter: and that is what many people here are asking as well. now the companies have come back and said that they are cooperating with law enforcement. two of them say that they used the everify program to weed out the workers -- that's how they used that government program to hire them. but there is no firm answer. they can't come back and say, you know, how so many workers if they are in fact undocumented, how they were able to be with these companies for so long. and federal authorities at this

point are not giving any straight answers whether these companies might face criminal charges. they have said it's an ongoing investigation, but if there is any -- you know, if you look at precedent, it's very rare that companies that employee undocumented workers on the large scale face any consequences, chuck. >> was there any -- have you been able to find out from any of your sources in government, was there any -- is there any regret having done this raid this week, given the heightened fear factor many hispanic-americans have post el paso? >> well, chuck, if you heard the president today, it seemed that he not only called it a deterrent. at least from his demeanor, he said that he was watching some of the videos that was coming out of here. and, chuck, you have to remember this is what, you know, many in the trump administration or trump supporters, they voted for this. they see the, you know, when you talk about immigration, this is

something that they wanted. they do not want to see undocumented immigrants in this country. and as painful as it is for some of these families, they think it's just something that needs to happen. but what i can tell you, chuck, here these local communities in and around jackson, mississippi, the scope of this has really just shocked some of these people here, some of these communities. we spoke with the local superintendent here that said that yesterday more than 100 children in his small school district were absent. several dozen absent today. there is a palpable sense of fear in these communities, and they really don't know where this goes. many of these children are still searching for their parents and will be for weeks to come. >> gabe, as you just pointed out, the president made it clear he does view these actions and he wants them public because he believes they're a deterrent. anyway, gabe gutierrez on the ground for us in mississippi. coming up, the white house urgently called on combating

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strike. >> welcome back. that was president trump on monday calling on social media companies to help identify shooters before they can strike in the wake of last weekend's shootings in both el paso and dayton. today, four days after making that pledge the white house hosted a meeting on the issue. but president trump who was attending fundraisers in the hamptons was not there. we'll have more on what happened at that meeting in just a moment. ntly. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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as we just said had white house hosted a meeting on what tech company kz do to predict and prevent mass shoots. representatives from facebook and google were there. president trump auz not. an msnbc contributor and tony, let me start with you. what was this and who at the white house convened it? >> right. this was about the white house operationalizing the things the president said earlier this week and the goal was to have the conversation about online extremism that many in the white house hadn't really been having until the events of the past couple days. so from the tech industry we saw representatives from companyinizecludinging amazon, facebook, google and microsoft and twitter and among the things they discussed is technological tools but some technology that might flag warning signs for the

major events so there can be a response before they turn deadly. >> 8chan wasn't there. none -- neitherer was reddit. is that a missing piece here? i mean google, twitter and facebook. in some ways this is not where the stuff is spreading as fast as it is only the darker side of the web, no? >> they're doing a lot to combat online extremism. and there's another camp of sites like gab, for instance, which has become a havenb for the alt-right and 8chan where you can often find conspiracy theories and hateful, racial screens and so forlgt. and those two sites weren't present. it's not like you can invite somebody from 8chan. this has a founder that lives internationally. it's not an established company likic a facebook for example. but it does suggest the problem is bigger than major social

media companies and they're going to have to get creative to solve it. >> what does government regulation look like of social media companies on this issue? because that first amendment ska big hurdle. >> i don't think it's actually going to be very much possible. frankly i don't think there's a way the government can crack down on these companies and still value the first amendment properly. you're going to have a lotf of resistance from companies like ours, like in the press that are going to be frankly ways i think that government can misuse regulation against the press if in fact they with were to enact it. i think it's really tricky for them to put something in place. >> charley, is this a case where it's going to take public pressure off these private companies to do something because of what jumeal just said? because that's the part of this i can't get my arms around is

how do they craft something that doesn't violate the first amendment? >> that is it the difficulty and i think civil libberitarians ou to be very concerned what this administration might do in bad faith. if they really wanted to do something about spreading this online, there's something they could do five minutes ago. maybe the trump campaign could pull some of those 2,000 ads that use the word "invasion. "we sometimes look for the technical fix when it's not right in front of us. if we didn't have the president of the united states describing immigrants as vermin that are coming to replace us. this is the kind of thing that gives oxygen to hate, to this white nationalism. and so yes, fine, it is necessary to have a conversation about what these tech companies should do. but there's this over layoff

hypocrisy that the trump white house is looking to them for a solution to the problem that trump himself has fed so dramatically. >> you know the fact that the president wasn't there in some ways is emblematic on how many of these issueses. i think the staff does think they have to do this. but if the president prioritized it, he'd be there. >> i think the president's action for some is going to seem as though he's not very serious about this issue. i think when we're looking at social media and the regulation oof it, you have to remember government moves so much slower than social media companies. we saw when the founder of facebook went to the hill. law makers, in many cases didn't know what kinds of of questions they should have r ask and law makerers were learning about how facebook functions in the middle of the hearing 237 i think there's a disconnect.

also the critics of the president will say he's talking about video games, social media, mental health and when he talks about gun law a changes and every country has those rob lms but not the mass shootings and it's because america has more guns than any other country and republicans frustrated with this, even if the president is interested in genuinely trying to change social media, democrats are focusing on guns are the common denominator in most of these cases. >> these companies are worried sometimes as much about a p.r. back lash as anything. are they inventivized to do something on their own? and what about the fact you have the australians, new zealand, many countries in europe who don't have to have the first amendment getting in the way that are really pressuring these can companies to do more. could we see more done because off what other countries push

these companies to do? >> right. some of it is pr because they don't want that backlash 237 they truly believe they have to makic the platform as better place because if they don't, users will flock to another website. and we've seen regulators around the globe taking action in instance wheres the u.s. government either can't or won't and so new zealand has proposed things, europe, australia. and in europe they're talking about regulations that would require companies to take down terrorist content and flag in an hour which is quite fast. and so the companies are fighting and they don't want regulation and insist they can do this on their own. >> i always thank you for your

extees. >> thank you all. that's all we have. we likely sent a big thank you at american kitchen and sushi bar. sunday "meet the press." and the secretary. good evening, ari. >> we have a lot to get to and trump himself profiting off undocumented workers and pressure that appears to be working as trump and mcconnell crack open the door to new gun control legislation and impeachment proceedings have been done and wor