conversation. we shouldn't confuse the pba spokespeople with necessarily every rank and file police officer. the there are a lot of good police officers out there who actually care about creating better relationships. >> we are going to have to leave it there. thank you all for coming in. this conversation could go on. that does it for this hour. "mtp daily" with steve kornacki who is in for chuck todd is starting right now. ♪ if it's monday, it's the economy. at least that's what the president hopes because pretty much everything else in our new poll spells trouble for trump. plus, gun shy. the president appears to be backing down on background checks despite overwhelming support for it in our new poll.

and could 2020 bring another kennedy to the senate? massachusetts democratic senator ed markey could face a challenge from an iconic political dynasty. if it's monday, it's "meet the press daily." i'm steve kornacki in new york in for chuck todd and heading into 2020 president trump is banking on a strong economy. he's making it a key part of his argument for re-election counting on it to help overcome doubts about his style and his conduct as president. in our new nbc news "wall street journal" poll, the president's approval rate sits at 43%. his numbers when it comes to handling the economy, they are 49%. and if that 49% were his overall approval rating, the president might be in decent, maybe even solid political shape heading into his re-election year. but it isn't, and he isn't, and

this poll was taken before stocks plunged last week on fears of a potential recession. that market tumble is tied at least in part to the uncertainty caused by the president's trade war with china. and some of that loss has now been recovered, but the economic jitters are not likely to go away. but the white house and the president say they aren't worried. >> i don't think we are having a recession. we are doing tremendously well. our consumers are rich. i gave a tremendous tax cut, and they are loaded up with money. >> i sure don't see a recession. we had some blockbuster retail sales consumer numbers towards the back end of last week really blockbuster numbers. >> and what i can tell you with certainty is that we're going to have a strong economy through 2020 beyond. >> the fact is the fundamentals of our economy are very strong, and you know it. >> we have more people working in this country right now than ever before. >> the white house says it is not sweating a recession, but

the president is showing some signs of alarm lashing out repeatedly at the fed which he did again today tweeting this. our economy is very strong despite the horrendous lack of vision by jay powell and the fed. but the democrats are trying to will the economy to be bad for purposes of the 2020 election. and he warned his supporters at a rally recently that the market will plunge if he loses in 2020. >> see, the bottom line is i know you like me and this room is a love fest, i know that, but you have no choice but to vote for me because your 401(k)'s down the tubes, everything's going to be down the tubes. so whether you love me or hate me, you got to vote for me. [ cheers and applause ] >> and, while our new poll does have the president's approval rating on the economy as we showed you six point higher than his overall approval rating, 73% of voters who support the

president on the economy but not in terms of his overall job performance, 73% of them say they'd prefer a democrat over the president in 2020. let's turn now to our political experts, gabe, national correspondent for new york magazine, zerlina maxwell, former adviser to the clinton campaign and an nbc contributor, and noah, and an msnbc contributor. gabe, we are talking about that group of voters there who say when it comes to the economy, they approve of how trump is doing his job. but when you ask for an overall assessment of how he's doing the job as president, the number comes in shorter. 49% on the economy, 43% on the overall. what do you make of that gap? >> well, it's obviously a massive gap and not one that we often see when a president is coming up for re-election. if republicans were confident that the president was going to run for re-election on a let's just talk about the economy message, they'd be much more

confident about 2020. he's not just going to talk about how strong the economy. and when he does, if you look at the clip that we just saw from new hampshire, that sort of sounded like a threat and not an actual talking about fundamental strengths of the economy. so the fact that now we see indications that things are not going so well in the future and that we might see a recession coming up, it kind of means that his playbook is running out here. there's a reason that democrats are talking with more confidence about the economy. but they're not willing a recession. that's something that the president is saying again as sort of a threat to keep his backers on his side. >> i was looking back, zerlina, earlier today at our "wall street journal" poll, this time basically eight years ago barack obama heading into his re-election year of 2012. this was the august 2011 nbc "wall street journal" poll. basically his approval rating sat where trump's -- he was at 44%. trump's at 43%. but on that question of the economy performance on the economy, obama's number was down in the 30s. he ended up getting re-elected

but in a completely different formula there in terms of what was propelling him. >> i think that obama got a lot of space because he inherited a terrible economy. the fundamentals are strong because i'm old enough to remember that was not necessarily a good phrase to use in the particular movement in 2007 because that was not true at the time. and we saw the economic downturn which essentially meant that average americans were losing their homes and everything they owned and everything they had. and i think that the recovery from that was such an insurmountable task. that's why obama numbers sort of i think obscured the fact that people are allowing him to at least try to get the economy back on track. the difference here is that the economy is the only card trump has to play. he literally has nothing else. his message discipline is great when it comes to the racism. he is absolutely consistent on that front. i think that that's the reason

why you see a number like 73%. because regardless of the fact of whether or not you have a good paying job, we are talking about eric garner all day today it. >> doesn't matter if the police can kill you knowing they can't get in trouble for it. that is actually a side issue if you are your body and your physical being is not safe in this world. >> we've seen with this presidency one of the stories of the political sort of reality of donald trump has been a very tight range in terms of his approval rating. it really on a bad day it might dip into the 30s. on a good day it might get to the mid-40s. it's really been in that range. if the economy were to take a turn for the worst over the next year. does his political fortune go with that? or starting to blamt fed, starting maybe you hear some of the folks talking about the democrats. does it just become another one of those things where the economy goes in one direction,

but president trump's approval stays in that narrow range? >> i think it stays in that narrow range. i suspect that the base is the base and we call it a base for a reason. it is immobile. the number of people who say that they are not prepared to support this president despite their approval of really the signature policy issue pocketbook stuff, that is the biggest problem this white house faces and that suggests that it is immobile even though we've had a pretty good last three years. and we're not necessarily looking absent a shock or something, we are not looking at a very big contraction really. we still have corporate earnings, consumer confidence is really high and inflation and interest rates are low. so really the fundamentals aren't that awful. if there is a contraction it'll be cyclical. unless there is some sort of a shock that really moves people and really comes out of nowhere. then i don't suspect we are going to see a dynamic from the one the president is currently facing. and it is a terrible one for this president. that's bad news for this white house. if they can't change things, then it's going to look terrible in november 2020.

>> one of the other numbers that jumped out at me was you asked about trump's handling of dayton. and it was 52 disapprove, 36% approve. and i'm looking back at our polling throughout the last couple years with him. and every time you've had a moment like that, there was the pittsburg synagogue shooting last october, the numbers looked basically the same. a majority disapproved how he responded to it. >> charlottesville a couple years ago it was even more stark in terms of the disapproval. those are moments in past presidencies. i think there is a famous example bill clinton with the oklahoma city bombing, reagan with the challenger. there have been so many of them the last few years and yet it seems to be worsening the response of it seems to be worsening his political standing. >> no one who knows anything about president trump would expect to take them and use them as unity because his base has no interest in national unity.

but the distance between what he is saying post el paso and dayton is it's like we're seeing two different things. but it's just a different vision of the role of the presidency here. so the idea that he would use those kinds of moments to help himself politically is actually the kind of thing that you think he might be able to conceive of. but it's not really the way that he operate here. he doubles down for his bases. we've talked about exhaustively for the last five years now and that's the ball game. >> i think the difference and the distinction between the obama examples and the president trump example is that the rhetoric of the el paso shooter in that manifesto, i don't like the word manifesto, but in that screed that was released, much of the language mirrored the president's. so it would seem completely ridiculous for him to come out and say i am going to unify the country when i was saying out of my own mouth about brown children on the border mirrors somebody who just massacred

brown people on the border. >> also dan balz made this point of we've been having this conversation about trump going back to the 2016. and "the washington post," trump is following the same limited playbook that got him elected problems are in front of him. meanwhile serious problems are in front of him. he is struggling to find the answers. but, no, it is sort of imagining trump handling el paso or dayton or pittsburg or charlottesville differently and in a way that past presidents would've. it would be a completely different presidency than we've ever seen from him. >> a lot of the pressure come from his comportment. when he was being racist. it was not accepted by the country. the country rejected that. they rejected donald trump up until the moment when james comey intervened in the election

and essentially reminded everybody of hillary clinton's problems. donald trump is now facing an opponent. the entire ball game is going to be making that opponent toxic. rendering his prissy prescriptions, her comportment. former second lady. is that the? former second lady of the united states in man chester, new hampshire, today, made a case. listen to this. made a case for joe biden. and i don't think this is necessarily the official campaign line, but this is basically the message that's coming out of the biden campaign. listen to her say it. >> so, yes, your candidate might be better on, i don't know, health care than joe is. but you've got to look at who's going to win this election. and maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, okay, i

personally like so and so better. but your bottom line has to be that we have -- you may like another candidate better, but you have to look at who is going to win. and if education is your main issue, joe is that person. >> i mean, she's saying it right there. you may not like him the best, but you have to go with him. >> i am laughing just because i feel like i am empathize with the staff that was screaming because sometimes you have staff that say things that don't say exactly what you would like. but i think a lot of democrats are on this page. a lot of democrats have different choices about who they favor in this particular primary. but the bottom line is, is anybody but trump. it doesn't matter if they nominate you, steve. i vote for you. do you know what i mean? and i think that i'm hearing this from callers on my xm show.

the base is just opposed to trump. and right now we are pushing our candidates on the democratic side to at least speak to the issue we care about. >> it's not just the anybody but trump aspect. what she seems to be saying there is, hey, you may not even like joe biden that much. you may like somebody more on health care. but you need him because he's the only one you know is going to beat him. is that resonating with democrats? >> well, joe biden's winning, isn't he? obviously the numbers are not necessarily trending in the direction that he might want them, to but he maintains a fairly large lead in terms of national polling and that gets you somewhere. he is raising a lot of money still. the other folks are trying to bring him down. this is essentially the message that he's been making on the campaign trail for the last few months now. he is saying i am the one who's going to win. but it also takes the turn of what we were just talking about. donald trump is going to be fairly brutal here, but the line that joe biden says is american people know me. basically the point he's making is he is not going to be able to

drag me down the way that he dragged hillary clinton down. now are democratic voters going to continue to buy this? we'll just have to wait and see. >> is abandon this sorrow tone and say, they tried to push me to the left in the primary and i didn't go. that's why you can have faith in me and support me and not worry about the economy. you are getting all the good stuff, just none of the tweets. that is the message he is going to run and i think it's going to be a very effective message. but i think it's good afternoon turn off a lot of voters. >> i don't think it's going to turn off democratic voters. what i think the democratic people in milwaukee who stayed home, i think that the difference in this particular election cycle is the demographics are actually beginning to shift like they will be by 2045 a majority nonwhite country. so if democrats want to build that obama coalition that was successful two times in our recent memory, then they need to have a message that is explicit

for that constituency. and it's not i'll just be moderate in the middle and not speak of power opposed to racism and white supremacy. >> there are about 47 other democratics who might have something to say about that. but it's striking to see i think jill biden make that case for joe biden. it's devoid of much poetry. it's, hey, you may not like him, but you need him. the majority of americans tell us they now want background checks. but president trump appears potentially to be backing down on his call for stronger background checks. we will get a response from a democratic lawmaker next. funds with lower expense ratios than comparable vanguard funds. and the industry's first true zero expense ratio index funds offered directly to investors. plus, we have fidelity mutual funds with zero minimum investment. how many other firms give you this much value?

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[ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. welcome back. our new nbc news "wall street journal" poll shows broad support for some gun control measures. and democratic leaders are frustrated today as president trump appears potentially to be walking back his recent support

for background checks on gun buyers. take a listen to the president's change in tone over the last two weeks since the shootings in dayton and el paso. >> there is nobody more pro-second amendment than donald trump. but i don't want guns in the hands of a liunatic or a maniac. people don't realize we have very strong background checks right now. you go in to buy a gun, you have to sign up. there are a lot of background checks that have been approved over the years. but just remember this, big mental problem and we do have a lot of background checks right now. >> senate minority leader chuck schumer slammed the president today saying, quote, we have seen this movie before, end quote. inevitably he backtracks in response to pressure from the nra and the hard right. these retreats from president trump are not only disappointing but also heartbreaking.

democratic congressman raja krishna moortdi is live with us. the suggestion certainly seem to be out there that he might be in line with background checks. you see this new statement. what do you make of his position right now? >> i don't know. i don't think we really know what his real position, but we know what my voters and my constituents and most americans believe, which is we need, for instance, universal background checks now and the support is just off the charts. it's nearly universal. and, you know, as a parent of three kids, i think, you know, one of the tensest moments that you can get these days is one of those alerts on your phone that, you know, there's been a mass shooting in your area because you fear it's your school. and now we see bullet-proof backpack sales skyrocketing. that's just not a place where we want to go. >> the last time there was a

move i think a concerted move toward background checks back in 2013 in the wake of the sandy hook massacre, it did not make it through the senate it. >> needed a certain number of votes. that was the manchin-tomey effort. there were too many loopholes in that if it had been enacted. would that criticism apply to what democrats are trying to do right now to get something through? would it require leaving some loopholes in place? what would a background check law that democrats authored look like? >> well, the background check bill that passed out of this house on a big vote is called hr8. and basically what it would do is extend background checks from not only current commercially federally licensed firearms dealers but also to gun shows, internet sales and private sales. and so it basically closes a lot of loopholes in the sense that, you know, if you were to purchase a weapon over the

internet or at a gun show, you would not be subject to those background checks. so those are the major loopholes this closes. >> we mentioned chuck schumer a minute ago, the democratic leader in the senate. he is basically saying now that from his standpoint democrats in the senate will not sign off on this so-called red flag law, any kind of red flag legislative effort without the senate also taking action on the background check bill that you're talking about there that democrats passed out of the house. does the flip side of that apply to you in the house? is a red flag law a no-go unless the senate does something on background checks? >> i think the red flag law could be a component of a package of bills. the but i think that an essential component would have to be these universal background checks. i got to tell you among my constituents, this bill is just incredibly popular. people want it now. they want something now. this is substantial and it needs to be done now.

>> i guess we mentioned 2013 when background checks got a vote there in the senate, and it didn't get through. i remember covering that at the time. the polls looked the same about 90% support among all americans. i mentioned it was just in the wake of that terrible sandy hook massacre. there were all sorts of predictions that anybody who had blocked background checks back then in defiance of 90% of the country would pay a rice in 2014 -- pay a price. and republicans made major gains and the folk who's voted to stop background checks did not get voted out of office. is there a reason why this hasn't translated into a political backlash now and why would it be different now? >> unfortunately the reality there's just been a lot more mass shootings since then. not only have been more mass shootings, but now we have this toxic mixture of domestic terrorist groups possessing weapons of mass violence, these firearms. then you have el paso and similar episodes.

and so i do think that perhaps, you know, more people are reconsidering this issue than even before, and, you know, just for instance a quinnipiac poll i just saw showed that 97% of gun owners now want universal background checks. so you have to ask why, you know, universal background checks aren't being passed and people ask that question and it appears to be that, you know, gun companies want to sell more guns, and that's the reason, and they're representative of the nra is pushing opposition to this bill. >> democrats control the house, republicans, the senate, presidential election is heating up. dozens of scores of your colleagues are calling for impeaching this president. realistically, by the end of this fall, do you think there will be gun control legislation that makes it through congress and is enacted into law? >> if it's going to happen, i think it probably would happen in september. and i think that it's going to

partly depend on where the president stands. unfortunately a lot of my republican colleagues in the senate or and in the house but essential senators are waiting for the president to provide them cover and they don't want to be primaried or, worse, attacked by the president. and so i think that that's probably going to decide whether or not the universal background checks bill goes anywhere in the senate. >> all right, congressman, thank you for taking a few minutes. >> thank you. and ahead, the 2020 unpopularity context. we've got some new numbers that show voter who's don't like president trump may not hold their nose and vote for him this time around. we are going to crunch those numbers. head over to the big board and show you what i mean. that's next. ext.ressive park! ♪ children: yeah! announcer: ride the totally realistic traffic jam. ♪ beep, beep, beep, beep children: traffic jam! announcer: and the world's first never bump bumper cars.

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polling profile. it's one of the reasons, one of the critical reasons donald trump was able to get just close enough in the national popular vote and get over the top in those three states, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. it wasn't so much that voters liked trump because his unfavorable number was even worse than hillary clinton's. it was that hillary clinton's was bad enough that it created just a narrow enough path. that is one of the questions that is hanging over the 20 election. this is what hillary clinton's polling profile looked like on election day 2016. what's going to happen to the democrat who's on the ballot on election day 2020? are they going to end up just as unpopular as hillary clinton? so take a look at a new nbc "wall street journal" poll. and you start to see these are the positive/negative, pretty similar question here, positive/negative scores for the leading democrats. there is elizabeth warren. you see slightly more negative than positive. there is bernie sanders more negative than positive. here is one where there's been a big shift this year, a big shift

since he got back in the political arena. joe biden more negative than positive. 34 positive, 38 negative. you see the trend there that is developing among democrats a negative sort of -- a negative personal image. and again 43/5 is where hillary clinton handed on election day 2016. but remember we say donald trump was unpopular too. donald trump wasunfavorable score on election day 2016 was 60. so 60% of voters didn't like trump. 55% didn't like clinton. that means a heck of a lot of voters didn't like either major party candidate. how did those voters break on election day? they didn't like clinton and they didn't like trump but they voted anyway. and here is what they did. they broke decisively for donald trump by nearly 20 points. in some of those key states i am mentioning, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, it was even

more stark. people who didn't like either candidate broke for trump. >> it was just enough to get him in there. and so a long way of saying check this out right now. these democrats starting to get negative personal scores. trump's are still negative. we talked about this at the start of the show. but here is one change we are starting to see in the polling. the voter who's now say they don't like trump and they don't like biden in, 2016 trump was able to win voters like that. in our newest poll, here is our generic ballot. the generic democrat leads trump by 12 points. one of the reasons for instance in this poll voters who don't like biden and don't like trump by about a 7 to 1 margin, they are now breaking for the democrat. they are now breaking against the incumbent president. it's early, a lot can change. but that's one of the biggest wins donald trump was able to win in 2016. voters who didn't like either candidate held their nose and they voted for trump. right now the earliest indications is those voters may

have a different attitude towards trump in 2020. that's something we are going to be keeping a close on between here and election day. ahead, a potential 2020 battle also brewing in the bay state in massachusetts democratic senator ed markey could be getting a chong from a kennedy. what that could mean for democrats there and everywhere. that's next. democrats there and everywhere that's next. wow! that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa! 30 grams of protein,

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we needed markey in this senate now more than ever. and here's why because he's a leader, he's a fighter, and he is a true progressive. >> welcome back. elizabeth warren today throwing her, quote, full support behind her senate counterpart, ed markey. the endorsement comes amid new reporting from the new york times and politico that congressman joe kennedy iii is considering a primary challenge next year against markey. if that happens the faceoff between the 73-year-old long-serving lawmaker and the

30-year-old descent of a political dynasty could be a high-profile race. stefany murray is the author of politico's massachusetts playbook. she was the first to report. she joins us from boston. and garks zerlina, and noah are back here with me. and, stephanie, let me start with you. it would normally not be news that one democratic senator endorses his or her democratic colleague for re-election. but it's not every day that a member of the kennedy dynasty is essentially out there publicly flirting with taking on that senator. this elizabeth warren endorsement of ed markey today, what is it going to do to the possibility of this joe kennedy/ed markey primary? >> reporter: well, i think we're going to have to see what's going to happen. kennedy isn't in the race yet. someone close to him is telling me that he's going to weigh it over the next few weeks and make a decision. but i think kennedy getting into this senate primary could

totally change the landscape of the race and it would make a lot of folks in massachusetts politics and in national democratic politics choose sides. >> it's interesting the question, and you remember it was ted kennedy running for president in 1980 who was tripped up by that roger mud question, why do you want to be president. the question is going to be asked to joe kennedy. he's been in washington for four decades on every sort of critical key litmus test, he's probably in alignment with where the sort of the party regulars are where the party base is. idealogically any clue, any sense what the justification would be for kennedy going after markey? >> well, it's going to have to be a generational argument if he does do it. they align pretty closely on a lot of policy issues. they are both progressives. they are both democrats. but what you have to look at here is markey's age. he is 73 years old. if he were to win another term, he would be almost 80 by the time he's out of the senate and he would living room certainly retire. that would be a huge giant

primary for an open senate seat. there is so much political pentup in massachusetts. >> we always ask this every time a new kennedy emerges on the scene or one of the kennedys decides to make potentially a move like this. but the name kennedy in massachusetts, the mystique, the political magic, is it still there? is it diminished? where does it stand right now? >> well, a few weeks ago kind of in the middle of july he put a poll out into the field testing him versus markey in a senate matchup, testing favorable lines, unfavorable lines and a source close to him told the boston globe that he was a little bit ahead of markey in that poll. and for somebody who's not eave running for senate yet, that name recognition definitely put him over the top there. >> i am curious about this. zerlina, we were saying democrats are so focused on taking out donald trump. massachusetts is not going to be

in play in a general election. but a kennedy going after a u.s. senator in a primary would be a big deal. is there an appetite in the democratic primary in that kind of fight next year? >> i think there's a dialogue. that is a conversation that we've been having not just since 2018 but even before that because you have a number of people morgan harper who went to college in boston is running against an incumbent, joyce batey in ohio's 3rd district and that is kpescontroversial. you should be able to run in a democratic primary against an incumbent because that's either going to push that incumbent to the more progressive left end of the spectrum in terms of they're actually going to have to fight for it and they can't just be complacent. but also to demonstrates the fact that a lot of these folks don't have any challengers especially in congress, not necessarily in the senate, obviously. but i think that democrats, primary, other democrats is something that we have to get

used to. otherwise we're going to have people in congress which is longer than i have been alive, steve, and perhaps some of the issues that are the most pressing and important to people who are my age, ed markey is not going to be able to relate to them. there needs to be a generational shift at some point. >> i'm from massachusetts, and i grew up hearing stories about the ed markey 1984 senate -- he had been an eight-year member of the house in '84, backed out, waited, got there 30 years later. but that generational component, we do see that. >> we see it in massachusetts. i am old enough to remember the 2018 elections when ayanna pressley made this exact argument in boston. then won. >> it was a generational argument and that was a democratic primary. we were having the same exact debate. she successfully won. listen, i think a lot of people in massachusetts are fairly confident that kennedy would win this if this actually became a

one on one. they think that he would basically run anything he ran for because of that name in massachusetts right now. obviously we will see how the contours of that will shape. today she cut this not today she didn't do this endorsement today, was a few days ago or weeks ago that she did this for him. so he is trying to say to kennedy, listen, i am serious about running, i don't want this to be happening here. but you're right, this is a much broader argument that's happening in the democratic party. it's just very interesting to see elizabeth warren who is trying to sort of be a generational change candidate even though she is a little bit older in the presidential race being used as sort of the defender of the establishment in massachusetts shows a little bit of the divide that's happening there. but there are huge national implications there. >> you're right. it does say i think a lot about the energy in the democratic party as you say. we showed this clip from jill biden earlier potentially to mod

ar rate that energy. to think pragmatically about the national race in 2020. we played that clip earlier basically telling democrats, hey, you may not like a certain candidate, but if they have the best chance to win against trump, you got to go with them. here's a little bit more of what she had to say. this was a few hours ago. >> i know that not all of you are committed to my husband. and i respect that. but i want you to think about your candidate, his or her electability and who's going to win this race. and so if you're looking at that, you've got to look at the polls. and, you know, a lot of times i say, oh, you know, polls don't mean anything, but if they're consistent and they're consistently saying the same thing, i think you can't dismiss that. i mean, you all deal with facts. >> noah, i just wonder as a basic matter of political strategy to embrace the message

of read the polls, my candidate's running better than any of the others. is that a good political? >> it can land atonaly to people like us to sift through messages. but when you say this subtext out loud, actually kind of works for you. and the president has been doing that for the last four years. it always jars us to hear him say, you know, this is the message literally i care. that's what he does. and it really does work. it's effective communication. so i don't want to overinflate its influence either. i don't suspect that this is going to be something we are going to be talking about in a month or twochl but briefly to elizabeth warren's gamble here. this is essentially something that she's endorsing that logic is that there is a hierarchy here. this is an institutional process that we have to abide by. i don't know how this party reconciles that message with also telling somebody who is the face of the party the two years

ago. >> all the lines are crossed here because you mentioned that -- elizabeth warren was neutral in that one. she didn't have kapawan. anyway, stephanie murray, we'll have you back as it unfolds. gabe, zerlina, noah, thank you as well for being here. ahead the rising threat of white nationalism in america. what can we do now to prevent another attack?

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kapaw it can't be a laboratory for terror. we've stopped that, and we have a very, very good view. i mean, some things are going to be announced over the next couple of weeks as to what happened, who's been taken out. a lot of people have been taken out that were very bad, both isis and al kida. >> welcome back. that was president trump yesterday talking about the future of afghanistan, one day after a suicide bomber killed 63 people in kabul, an attack that isis claims responsibility for. 27% of americans are very worried he also co-wrote a washington

post column, whielt national terrorism is an equal threat. thanks for joining us. >> thanks. >> pickup on that op-ed, white national terrorism is an equal threat to isis. explain that. >>pl the fbi director, assistan director of the fbi in charge of counterterrorism said the same thing to the congress. the majority of mass casualty attacks since 9/11 are from domestic threats, white nationalism movements from the extreme right. so it's a significant threat in the country. the point in that op-ed we wrote is obviously the tactics we use against isis would not be used against this threat militarily, but other things we did against isis, including building a large coalition of international partners to share intelligence, to connect dots, to work with the tech sector here in silicon valley to make sure na extremists cannot propagate online and coordinate. those are things that we can do

to prioritize and protect the american people. and right now it's not being done. american leadership really counts in these sorts of things. after the christchurch shooting in new zealand some months ago, about 20 countries around the world c and eight of the major technology companies got together to sign a joint declaration about working together to get this type of extremism off the internet consistent with rules and regulations, and the united states refused to sign that declaration. so there's a real void here and i think it just increases the threat to the american people. >> you say consistent with trying to get this information out -- off consistent with rules andsi regulations. how much tension and how much conflict has this area sort of explored? i know it's a new thing for a lot of people. how much tension and conflict do you think there is going to be between principles of liberty between principles of free expression, and the kinds of threats you're talking about here? >> well, you know, when we started the campaign against isis in 2014, they almost had the run of social media.

i mean, it was just amazing what was on twitter and youtube and face buick you book. we worked with the technology companies. we said, look, here are the types of things you look for that are inspiring attacks a rourchd the world. they actually did an incredible job to get the stuff off of their sites. twitter has taken down well over a million isis affiliated handles. they continue to be good at mii. there are a lotgo of similar tys of extremism and recruitment that comes from other types of terrorist organizations includingis extremism here domestically, domestic terrorist organizations. it's a dialogue between government and social media organizations is important, is appropriate. the technology companies hereorn silicon valley want it. they claim that they're really not getting much cooperation from washington. nd i think that that's a problem. i think we really all have to work together here. you know, you can connect the dots between attacks in charleston just south of here in southern california and some of the most recent attacks that happened in el paso and attacks that have happened around the world. in new zealand, in norway. these groups are increasingly

interconnected, and it's the type of thing that we have to have a kind of whole of government, whole of society effort to try to combat. it's not going to stop every attack, but it's important. of course, the gun -- obviously access to high-power, high velocity assault weapons is also a significant problem here in the country which the president says he's now committed to trying to get after. i hope that's true. but the point is we have to really prioritize this. if you don't prioritize it, you really don't getor ahead of the trend lines. the trend lines right now are quite alarming as is being reported by the fbi. >> well, while those discussions are taking place, while a strategy is being formulated whether it's by the government, whether it's by the private sector, whether by a partnership, what can we next? what can we expect as americans? i know it certainly seems and feels as if the frequency, the intensity of these is picking up. over the next year, two years, do you expect we're going tot e even more?t do you expect theev frequency wl pickup even more than we've seen?

>> this is a real question for public policy. it depends on what our government and governments do. it's an important and critical issue of the national level in congress, but n it's also increasingly important issue at the state i and local level. you know, there are a lot of credible voices now, such as admiral mike mullen, who is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under president bush and under president obama who wrote a compelling op-ed in the atlantic saying these types of assault weapons have no business being in theve hands of civilia. the police chief of dayton, ohio, after the terrible shooting there, said the exact same thing. so i think we really have to look at this. during the ten years of the assault weapons ban, there was only a couple mass shootings in the countrban expired, there ha almost two dozen. so the access to these high-powered high-velocity weapons combined with this threat of extremism and the tendency to self-radicalize

online which a phenomenon now we have to take seriously creates a nexus that puts north koreans in danger. it takes leadership from the white house and from the congress. we obviously have not seen that. and also takes, i think, local and state governments to fill the void. so, look, the only hope here after these terrible events and the memory of these victims that our governments can really begin to take thisca seriously. >> all right. brett mcguirk, thank you for taking a few minutes. appreciate it. >> thanks, steve. >> all right, we'll be right back. >> all right, we'll be rigt back every day, visionaries are creating the future.

so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. he borrowed billionss to homes donald trump failed as a businessman. and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. he hasn't changed. i started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. i'm running for president because unlike other candidates, i can go head to head with donald trump on the economy, and expose him fo what he is: a fraud and a failure. [it's funny what happens when people get together. holiday inn. holiday inn express.

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and that's all for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press" daily. and "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. good evening, ari. >> thank you, steve. we have a lot to get to tonight. president trump claims anyone worried about the economy is out to get him. a former top trump aide promised to help maybe a primary against him in 2020. later we're joined by the iowa teacher making headlines for confronting her republican senator about gun control. we begin tonight with donald trump lashing out insisting that warnings of a potential recession are part of some sort of conspiracy to hurt him personally. now, we know trump struggles to tell the truth. this story shows how he may assume others are automatically taking the same tack. he treats everything as