my thanks to donna, tim, steve, elise, most of you to you. "mpt daily" with chuck todd starts now. ♪ it was a whole set-up. it was a disgrace for our

country and everyone knows it. >> unleashed and unchecked. president trump lashing out during -- in the oval office this afternoon seeking the impeachment payback. welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily" and how the president celebrated day after the new hampshire primary. i'm chuck todd back in washington after being in the granite state where the divisions were on full display. we'll get to delegates. that's later in the hour. we begin tonight with the man democrats looking to defeat in november, president trump. in the weeks since being acquitted by the senate of charge that is he abused the power of his office president trump appears to be using that power with an assist from his justice department to exact revenge on some perceived political enemies and try to rescue some perceived political loyal is. the president trump defended the justice department's decision to suddenly intervene in a case of

long time confidant stone. >> he was treated very badly. nine years recommended by four people that perhaps they were mueller people. i don't know who they were. prosecutors. and they -- i don't know what happened. they all hit the road pretty quickly. if you look at the mueller investigation, it was a scam, illegal set up. set up based on false documentation. you look at what happened, how many people hurt, their lives were destroyed and nothing happened with the people that did it. it's a scam. the fact is that roger stone was treated horribly and many other people, the lives were destroyed. >> obviously the president leaves out that none of the people cooperated with subpoenas, none of the people -- most of the people essentially tried to lie or obstruct any investigation. all that part left out, of course. that's a week of impeachment

revenge for president trump. colonel vindman was ousted from the national security council. ambassador sondland recalled. both impeachment witnesses and the sondland thing done publicly on purpose. a former u.s. attorney saw her nomination for a high-ranking treasury post withdrawn. attorney general bill barr acknowledges that the justice department is created something he's called an intake process to vet information rudy giuliani has gathered on the bidens that apparently courtesy perhaps from russian intelligence believe it or not that somehow the justice department's going to deal with. there could be more to come. according to "the new york times" peter baker, there's a key national council -- and career officials transferred out may be gone by the end of the week. senate republicans said they hoped that president trump learned a lesson of impeachment.

obviously everybody perceives lessons learned different ways. he did learn a lesson. perhaps not the lesson susan collins wanted him to learn. >> what message did you learn from the impeachment? >> that the democrats are crooked, they've got a lot of crooked things going, they're vicious and shouldn't have brought impeachment. >> with me now, our own kelly o'donnell at the white house, ken dilanian at the justice department for nbc news. kelly, let me start with you. none of the president's comments are a surprise. i guess the surprise is how comfortable he is while he doesn't directly say it, he implies that, yes indeed, he did intervene in this. >> reporter: he denies any direct conversation with bill barr, for example, but by virtue of being asked and responding, you could argue that that in and of itself is a form of intervention, he had tweeted about it and makes clear he has

strong feelings on this. we saw other presidents confronted with an ongoing investigation back away and not want to even give the appearance of getting involved. that was not the tone here. an of course, we could see from the president's body language, the words, the potency of what he had to say that there was a lot of simmering anger and frustration there and while others have looked at the outcome of impeachment and the russia matter and that and would assume that the president chastened or changed, he was not reflective about his own conduct as you saw. that was one more opportunity to swing at democrats and accuse them of being responsible. also no mention of the fact that roger stone faced a jury and a jury found him guilty on seven counts an we have seen in the past at times when presidents have commuted a sentence or pardoned someone they considered the fact that a jury went through that process. no mention of that here. he was asked, chuck, again if he had any plans to do any pardoning in this instance.

he said he didn't want to discuss that yet leaving that door open. >> kelly, i am curious, i know you have probably asked the questions to different advisers. we know he is not getting advice to do this. the advice i assume he's given is do the exact opposite. you won. don't act like you lost. >> reporter: it's an interesting issue because there were allies who believe that having gotten through the mueller investigation, the russia investigation, without any real criminal vulnerability for the president, without having the impeachment remove him from office, that those are things, how difficult they were politically, personally, he describes his family in pan and some of the same brash and bold behavior that was in many ways part of those other instances seems to have been unleashed in some ways. you could argue that the president feels that he is beyond the reach of these

investigations or that he has convinced himself and his supporters that the roots of those investigations were flawed. that's what he's saying time and time again and now feels he has the ability to try to take out anyone who was a part of that. that seems to be at least some explanation for why there is what some are calling a purge. >> ken, there is just like it's state department and the justice department, you have a real sort of robust nonpolitical group of people, the career folks, and then you have the political folks. i got to think the tension between career and political at justice is probably worse than it is at state right now. >> i think you're right. i was even told by a source of talk of a protest today at the justice department of a walk-out but my source said they urged people not to do that because it was essentially placing a target on their back and identifying themselves as somebody for the trump people to be concerned.

president trump and william barr both saying they didn't confer about this decision to pull back on the sentencing recommendation but my reporting is they didn't have to because barr had installed a loyalist as u.s. attorney. as you said, he pushed out the existing attorney. he was supervising this case. they put in timothy shea and i'm told raised questions about the sentencing guideline. the line prosecutors rebelled and filed the document but barr and his minions at the justice department weren't having it and they don't have to tell tim shea to make the changes. he knows where the president is on this and the president by criticizing this roger stone conviction, what he is saying there is any of these convictions and that flowed from the mueller case are invalid. the question is does william

barr the attorney general of the united states believe that? he s he acting on that to essentially lessen the damage to the defendants? >> jerry nadler claims that bill barr will testify at the end of march. barr is duck congressional testimony, hasn't he? >> 100%. look, if he does testify that's incredible fireworks because he will be asked about any number of these things. you know, i mean, putting him under oath to talk about the -- just the mueller letter, for example, his letter mischaracterizing the mueller report, so many actions he's taken appearing to benefit the president and compromise the justice department. >> you know? supposed to show up to the committee hearings. call me a bit skeptical if it does happen. >> you should be. >> kelly, ken, thank you both. with me is senator sheldon whi

whitehouse. senator whitehouse, given what has happened over the last two weeks and given, frankly, whatever we want to say, the legislative branch is lessened in the eyes of the president, what can you do? >> well, i think that the american public is still out there and the house still has oversight power and subpoena authority. i think on our side in the senate it is unlikely the chairman wants to cross president trump or put any of trump's cabinet into the line of fire or under oath in a committee hearing where they'd have to testify truthfully so i think the senate's not a place for much action here but the house still has a job to do and the tools to do its job so it ability over for these guys after the stunts they have pulled. >> look. if a career justice department official came to you and said,

what do i do? i'm seeing this. but i got to protect my job. i'm worried about going to the inspector general. it feels as if you heard our reporting from ken dilanian. talk of a protest and fear to self identify. you'd get a scarlet letter of some sort. it is insane that i'm asking the question but how -- we're here. what do you do if you're at justice? >> one way to do it is just keep your head down and do your job. if you're seeing things really wrong, you can do what whistle-blowers did at epa and we got rid of him based on whistle-blower information in our committee. i think you will see over under pompeo at the state department a lot of brewing resentiment and rebellion so that the political

work is done by secretary pompeo and here at the justice department which should never be this way, we are seeing the firewalls that protect prosecutions from political influence from being completely overridden by this administration. and when it gets to the point where you're through the protections about -- going to career staff turning in the badges because they're so offended, that's a really loud alarm bell that america should attend to. >> are we at the point where we cannot trust a political appointee to be in charge of justice? do you think we have to change the way we do this? create a cia, fbi, federal reserve approach to appointments for attorney general? figure out some distance from

the executive branch of some sort? >> well, so far you have the inspector general and they have done a pretty good job. you have got the office of professional responsibility which has not accomplished much but still there and in theory mostly independent. you have the career staff who are in a position to blow the whistle on things that they think are wrong so i'd want to let it play out further before i start suggesting other changes. you have to remember the department of justice has been there for decades and since attorney general mitchell and the nixon administration has by and large done a pretty good job. when karl rove and w. bush started to mesh with it all ble their face and led to attorney general gonzalez being fired basically. forced to resign. so i think it's too early in the game to say that the department of justice can't heal thyself

but certainly the administration of attorney general barr is a serious problem for the ethics an the integrity for the department of justice. >> will you believe any criminal charges that are brought against james comey and andrew mccabe? >> you'd need to take a very, very close look because they're clearly in the realm of political targeting. and so much time has gone by. >> all right. i know that's what you think and that's what maybe a lot of the public would think. but what if -- what's there to --

>> by defendants in the criminal proceedings that could reveal a lot of documents that show that these were ginned up criminal prosecutions, cooked up in the white house council's office or imaginations of donald trump. and then ultimately, a judge who has supervisory authority over the judges that proceeded before them and it would not surprise me if some of the cases if the worst began to come true, attract the attention of federal judges watching things being done wrong in the courtrooms. >> if you had one on one time with bill barr and he gave you some rational explanation for his behavior, could you give him the benefit of the doubt? >> not any longer. i think he should go. i don't think he can credibly lead the department of justice after episode after episode

after episode. the flynn reinnocencing debacle going on right now. this episode with roger stone causing career people to abandon ship. the phony anti-trust investigation they launched against the car companies that they have since had to withdraw. over and over you see political errands run by the department of justice and the guise of enforcement. that's just wrong. >> nothing he can do or say now -- >> badly wrong. >> nothing he can do or say now in your eyes that shouldn't lead to resignation at this point? >> saul had an epiphany on the road to damascus so maybe it's possible but he has a record that's at this point pretty impossible to defend in terms of him as a standard bearer for the ethics and integrity of the department of justice. >> senator whitehouse, you always have an intriguing sense of humor. i hope the viewers appreciate it as much as i do. thank you very much. >> thank you.

up ahead, a closer look at the fallout of the justice department. we have a couple of legal experts who have served under both democratic and republican presidents. that's next. later, fresh off a new hampshire win. does that really make bernie sanders the front-runner? we'll debate that later in the show. give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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his family, his wife. his children.

nine years in jail. it is a disgrace. >> welcome back. that was president trump this afternoon. i'm joinedth by a group of top legal experts. ben wittis, john bellinger, and barbara mcquaide. i want to go through something here. roger stone s convicted of one count ofic obstructing, five counts of making false statements to congress and one count of witness tampering. a jury convicted him there. john, especially on the issue of witness tampering, you prosecutors don't like that. right? that is another level of -- whoa, whoa, whoa. one thing you lied but another thing to get somebody else to lie to us, too, right? t >> to be clear, i spent four yearsur in the justice departme in the criminal division and coordinated our cases, i wasn't

so much doing i the prosecution but absolutely right. we don't like witness tampering. the real concern here, though, is the president then trying to interfere with the ultimate charges. >> barbara mcquaide, would you have asked for seven to nine? >> yes. you know, in the eastern district of michigan where i practiced, the presumptionive sentence is sentencing guidelines. there is a manualen to calculat thean guidelines. there was enhancements for threatening physical harm of a witnessys and causing interferee in the investigation. as a result of roger stone's false testimony and lies and tampering, he kept documents and witnesses away from the congressional committee so under thosel guidelines, the calculation is sevengu to nine years and see no factors. in addition, as he awaited trial roger stoneri did all kinds of

judge's gag order including hosting an gun. >> so, ben, why do you think that barr, has gone this far? because in some ways barr actuallyys i feel like until no haske actually tried to -- trie to walk a t line here. on this one he is not walking the line. he is diving right in. >> so he did what he knew the president wanted. whether he did that because he saw a tweet or whether he did it because he intuited before it, the first question you have to ask is, why is the attorney general of the quite weighing in on what should be in a sentencing memo from the u.s. attorney's office? right? this is the kind of thing that doesn't -- >> how low level? not supposed to get to him? >> think how many of those memos get filed every year.

barb, how many of your sentencing memos were personally reviewed by the attorney general? >> yeah, probably, you know, in a given year, zero to one. >> yeah. >> zero to one. how many would you have written? >> oh, over -- thousands of defendants in a year. >> basically one tenth of a percent. >> highly irregular circumstance that the attorney general is interested in whether he is within the guideline range or not in the g memo and then that case just happens to be the second case because the same thing or something similar happened with flynn which involved the defendant's convicted or pled from the mueller investigation which the president hates, people who are personally acquainted with, worked for or worked with the president in an investigation that he rails about in public on a regular basis. and so, you know, the president

can say we didn't consult in advance and bill barr can say we didn't, you know, i did it before the tweet. but there's just no doubt about why this happened. it happened because the president cares about these cases and he sent that message. >> john, let's tap into your national security expertise here. essentially what the president is saying, because the two fisa warrants were considered, were sort ofer nullified if you woul nullify anybody -- i mean, is there any normal connectivity here or is this just like a that happened there and this should happen and nothe really connect? >>ea yeah. i don't know whether the president is connecting those thoughts or not. he isgh unhappy about the investigation. >> he is trying toy ab lean on hey look, that was illegal. >> absolutely. very clear rules on both the justice department's side and od the white house side. i itenforced these rules in bot

jobs that ies had. when i was a career lawyer in the justice department, we had very clearme guidelines that although we shared a certain information with the white rmhouse, we didn't tolera any political interference. when i was the legal adviser for the national security council in the first term of the bush administration, very clear rulei and needed to know certain information from the justice j department, you know, if they're investigating a foreign tleade we needed to know that, but the president did not interfere. this is a very clear line that the president does not interfere in criminal investigations. >> if criminal charges are brought against james comey and andrew mcoccabe i guess it woul come through a form of violation of national security, ty classification, things like this. what could the l charges look le if they came up with something? >> looks like at least for james comey, investigating him for leaks so unauthorized disclosures. these are rarely, rarely

prosecuted. i can tell you because i was on theou receiving end at the juste department, we get hundreds of referrals from agencies who say, oh, this information is leaked. but the number of cases actually prosecuted incredibly small. >> how many pursued? >> very, very, very few. >> tell me about what your understanding of how the rank and file are feeling at justice right now. >> well, i don't know about those who work therel, but i ca tell you how many i of the alum that i talk to on a regular bases are feeling about it, feeling that this is a dark day at the justice department. we cared about adherence to the rule of law and enforcing the law without fear or favor and the idea that these career prosecutors carefully decided what theyre wanted that sentenc recommendation to be and no doubt consulted with the u.s. attorney in that memoil publicly, went on record

saying that sentence to be seven to nine years an then next day having the superiors saying that's that too high. file something to say we're changing it is offensive, especially when the only thing thates seems to have changed between monday and tuesday was a tirade by president trump on twitter and so t something we'r proud of and very sad it came to that. >> ben, if the feds came to you tomorrow with some charges, a subpoena, this or that, how easily would you find a lawyer to go ahead and charge politics to it or -- i mean, it feels like what we are seeing here is going to embolden people to say this is partisan t or a trump supporter. i shouldn't have to do that subpoena. how likely to see more people like the credibility of the justice department being lowered so much that people don't take subpoenas seriously? >> look. people already don't take subpoenasak seriously, includin the president. right?

who has prevented a whole bunch of his staff and cabinet officers from complying with congressional belittled justice department investigations in a fashion to encourage people like, for example, roger stone not toer cooperate. is he -- does his serially doing that increase the number of people likely to respond that way? of course it does. >> politicize the justice department one way, people respond politically. thank you all for sharing your expertise and experience. make way for the moderates. we got big take aways from the new hampshire primary. b ♪ ♪

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do you feel like a front-runner? >> we won the popular vote in iowa and new hampshire. we'll do well in nevada, very well in south carolina. and in california on super tuesday so we think we have put together the coalition that we need in order to win the democratic nomination and defeat donald trump. >> welcome back. that is the big question hanging over the democratic presidential primary after last night. bernie sanders now the bona fide front-runner or does he just sit atop a fragmented field? for now. of course, he doesn't lead in delegates. sanders did do what front-runners do in new hampshire, he won the most

folks. things could have looked differently if buttigieg and klobuchar didn't split the moderate vote an without the big debate performance of klobuchar buttigieg might have won big last night. according to exit polls, sanders best group of new hampshire is voters 18 to 29 and very liberal but those were two of the smaller pieces of the democratic elect rat last night. very liberal new hampshire democrats made up 21 pisto% of voters. same story by age. the sizable majority of voters last night 45 and up and they broke for buttigieg and klobuchar, again essentially splitting the vote. also the sanders margin of victory so small last night that he and pete buttigieg earned the same number of pledge delegates from new hampshire. remember, delegates, popular vote means nothing at the convention. despite the tight finishes, it is buttigieg who's on top in the

overall pledge delegate count which is the number that matters the most. this is the rules that everybody knew going in. so to borrow a phrase of the decision desk it is too early to call in the question of who the front-runner is. there is not one. we need to revisit after the contests in nevada, south carolina and super tuesday because the answer may be a candidate or folks of buttigieg, klobuchar, bloomberg, biden continue to duke it out and fragment the moderate lane. up next, the man that could play kingmaker, congressman jim clyburn will join me next. there's a company that's talked to even more real people

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we just heard from the first two of the 50 states. two of them. not all the nation. not half the nation. not a quarter of the nation. not 10%.

two. two. the fight to end donald trump's presidency is just beginning. >> welcome back. that was joe biden last night not in new hampshire. where he came in a disappointing fifth place but south carolina. biden appears to be staking the campaign on one state. south carolina, banking on his african-american supporters in that state to revive him after back to back losses in iowa and new hampshire. joining me now is democratic congressman from south carolina, he is also the house majority whip, jim clyburn. always good to see you, sir. >> thank you very much for having me. >> before i get to politics, let me ask you about the president and the justice department and let me ask you the question this way. was there always some fear that if you impeached him and he was acquitted that he might feel emboldened like this? >> we think the whole country felt that way but does that mean

you should not do what you came here to do. and that is to be the third part of this government. the congress, the executive and the judiciary. we have certain responsibilities as a body to do oversight and we have to perform that and we did that and it's kind of interesting but all the senators seem to say those i have heard from that the house did its job. and i am very proud of what we did and i should not think we should worry about the consequences. do your job. we did our job. >> so if you think the president abused his power again, do you think if it means you pursue impeachment you have to pursue it again? >> that's what i think. the question is, whether or not the congress or the house feel

that way. but that's how they personally feel. >> yeah, okay. let me talk politics with you and ask you this. i know you're not going to endorse until at least after the debates, the next couple of debates. are you definitely going to endorse? do you think it's important to endorse or a point to say, you know what? boy, the feels too fragmented. i will let the voters sort it out? >> well, i may do that but i doubt that. my promise has been not to endorse before the debate in south carolina which will be on the 25th. so if i were to endorse it would not be before the 26th of february which will be three or four days before the primary. >> how does one earn your endorsement? what are you looking for? >> i'm not looking for anything.

i know if i endorse i know exactly who i would endorse and i have known for that for sometime now. >> that's interesting. so you know who you're going to endorse. could that person lose your endorsement in the next couple of weeks? >> i guess that person could but i'll just wait and see. i've got a one, two, three. i know who's number one on my list. if number one does something that i think is unseemly, i may go to number two. >> does it matter how these folks performed in iowa and new hampshire and nevada to you? do you think that poor showings in other states will have an impact on your decision? >> no, sir. not my decision. it may have some impact on the candidates but not me. i know all of these people, i have known them for a long time.

i won't judge any one of them on any one performance or any one result or maybe even two results. i know these people. and i know exactly how they shape up with me. >> when these candidates call you up, i'm sure they're asking you advice on the issues that they should be talking about in south carolina. so let me ask you this. whether it's pete buttigieg, whether it's bernie sanders, joe biden, amy klobuchar, when they ask you, what issueth? >> i tell them what i think they need to know. i have talked to every one of them. every candidate called me and asked for my advice. the candidates call and ask me to do appearances with them, i have done it. i went to my alma mater south carolina state, did an evening event with elizabeth warren, with cory booker. i have done an event with joe

biden. and i have done them with amy -- not an event but i met with amy klobuchar. i know them. and i am going to be as helpful as i can possibly be. i have two daughters who are very active down in south carolina. and a grandson that's very active. my grandson is working very hard for mayor pete and my two daughters, his mother and the other daughter, they're working very hard for any candidate that asks for their help. >> are you concerned about joe biden's standing right now? >> i'm concerned about the party. joe biden and -- i'm also concerned about the other candidates and how they conduct themselves because we want to win in november. we aren't interested in this -- these preliminaries to that extent. we want them to conduct themselves in a way that will be

productive for november. >> congressman clyburn, you have ginn people that like to read tea leaves a lot to read. you have been very careful and yet people will try to read a lot of -- read in between the lines there. fun to talk to you between now and the south carolina primary. thank you for coming on and sharing your views, sir. >> thank you for having me. >> you got it. back with the roundtable to break down where the democratic race goes next. >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood.

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welcome back. as we digest the results of last night's primary we are looking ahead. so let's bring in the panel. charlie cook of cook political report. nara tando em. i don't know why some people, i feel like the only people going out on the limb and calling bernie sanders a front-runner, they have other reasons. feels like no front-runner right now. one person leads delegates, one person has a lock on a chunk of the party. >> i'll willing to take some guesses. i think i know who the nominee's going to be. >> oh well. go for it. >> michael bloomberg. the thing is, you can -- >> that's a pretty bold statement far guy yet to appear on the debate stage, for a guy who has ever debated. a real set ofcandidates.

that's a big statement. >> i know. i'm looking at, for a party that is obsessed with beating president trump, i think they'll be really jumpy about going to bernie sanders. i think there are enough things, if you said pete buttigieg would be president of the united states someday, i believe that. but you know, when you're 38, you ought to be 48. you look 28. mayor of south bend, indianapolis. and i don't think there's much of annate gay, in the democratic party, but there is a skittishness. do you want to take a risk? >> i will say there. i look at them all. i could make a risk case on all of them. right? everybody has a big, a big gaping hole somewhere. >> i think that the vast majority have americans would support a gay candidate.

i personally don't think that's an issue in the democratic primary for him. >> my son would say it's youthful my son, my 12-year-old. the young guy? they'll never trust a young guy. >> usually we go with the young guy. i believe the issue in the primary is people are definitely shopping. no one is assured. no one is definite. senator sanders has a strong group of support. he hasn't been building that support. he did well yesterday, but not as well as did he a couple years ago. and so i think what you're really seeing is a lot of shopping. you see candidates rise really quickly. the fact amy klobuchar three weeks ago was at 5%, did so well, is it an indication that people are jittery and testing candidates. >> i buy that. >> she's being test driven. >> and i think there's interest

in mike bloomberg. people haven't seen him on the debate stage. and i will say that pete buttigieg did very well. he's not well known and he came in second. >> bernie has an operation that knows how to get 25%. can he get to 30, 35? >> right. buttigieg looks like he has an operation that will last a while. it is everybody else i'm not sure of yet. >> i think that's fair. >> i have to come back to your bold prediction. i think bloom has the same issue mayor pete does. he has to prove just like i think mayor pete who is the prove that they can compete in diverse populations. i think if mayor pete, if he can compete and do well in south carolina, i think a lot of that

naysaying about him begins to go away. >> what is do well? expectations are here. second place isn't enough? >> if he comes in second in north carolina, all bets are off. >> 40%, they're going to go with a very progressive. >> 40? where is 40? >> there's no evidence that warren people go to bernie. >> i bet they do. fundamentally they don't care as long as it is somebody who can beat president trump. and for klobuchar, i think, you don't scale up from having virtually no campaign, no infrastructure. you can have money gushing in. you can't spent it well. >> here's the issue when i think the bloomberg thing. is that a bloomberg/bernie. is that your final two? the bernie people are relishing that. it allows them to definal

bloomberg as trump at the same time. you're asking democrats, you're pulling the tent so much it may rip in the middle. >> i thought it was a very important thing. something i very much applaud. when senator sanders was asked on sunday if he would support michael bloomberg, a lot of people were worried, he said yes, i will support him. >> bloomberg said the same thing. and senatored sanders -- >> absolutely. he said he would ten to spend money. i appreciate there's division, booing of candidates, something i'm not so used to seeing. and i think that one thing that is central about this race is it is not 60% that is focused on electability. it is 70%. senator sanders is making that argument with everyone else. if mike bloomberg can make the case that he is electable when

he's never debated. >> he could have skipped the caucuses and done south carolina and new hampshire. >> no. it's a conversation we've had. i think iowa and new hampshire don't mean what they meant a decade ago. i think moving forward -- >> iowa seemed to have an impact on pete buttigieg of the. >> well, did it? who is the front-runner? is he the front-runner? and the problem is -- >> i don't understand how bernie is considered a front-runner. has the guy that had more people showed up to the polls. highest turnout ever and his percentage went down. not up. his total number. >> and the new voters voted for buttigieg and klobuchar. >> i don't put nevada and south carolina in the same conversation. let's put $2 billion in all 17 republicans in 2016, primary, general, that was $1.5 billion. $2 billion.

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that's all for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." if it's wednesday, there is a whole new chuck todd cast ready to load. good evening with ari melber now. >> we have been developing how democrats say they're making progress, holding bill barr accountable.

later, some major updates in this fluid 2020 primary. lots of important stories. we begin with the scandal rocking the white house. some are calling it the tuesday night massacre. tonight donald trump basically couldn't if he issing to improper intervention in the criminal case of his longest serving aide, roger stone. >> i want to thank the justice department for seeing this horrible thing. they saw the horribleness of a nine-year sentence for doing nothing. nine years for doing something nobody can even define what he did. >> that is a remarkable statement. this adds to the evidence of a