i'll check 'em out. get to know geico. and see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. this sunday, liberated or besieged? president trump attacking the media. >> they are the fake, fake, disgusting news. >> attacking the russia investigation. >> russia's very unhappy that trump won,hat i can tell you. >> attacking the democts. >> they'll do anything they can to really to obstruct or resist. >> is this a sign the president is feeling liberated in his job or besieged by the growing pressure of the mueller probe? plus, securing our ti els. even after top u.s. security officials say this -- >> our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis. >> our democracy itself is in e cross hairs.

>> president trump says this. >> now, we're being hindered by the russian hoax. >> so hoax or threat, what does the trump administration want us to believe? my guests this morning, republic senator roy blunt of missouri. democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota and nbc news national security analyst clint watts. also, the trump loyalty test. hugging president trump has become the republican go-to strategy. >> then mr. trump said you're -- i love that part. >> it works great in the primaries, but will caes pay a price in november? i'll ask long time republican adman mike murphy. joining me for insight and analysis are robert costa, moderator of washington week on pbs. helenen cooper. and al cars that and elia ya johnson. welcome to sunday, " it'seet the press." >> from nbc news in washington,

the longest running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd.un >> goody morning. one of the questions that emerged during the campaign was this. should we take donalp seriously or literally? well, now ohe's presidethe united states. so are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he says that the mueller investigation that his attorney general should stop what he calls this rigged witri-hunt t now. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when hours after his intelligence and security chiefs say that the u.s. election integrity for 2018 is still under attack from russia, the president tells a rally that the russia investigation is a hoax. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he calls journalism fake news andy sahat the press is the enemy of the people and can cause war? and what are we supposed to make of the ralliers devoted to the president who heckle reporters, wear t-shirts that say "f" the

media and are we supposed to dismiss them? or should we take their anger seriously? president trump supporters say don't takely the reriously or literally. they're just "wrestlemania" like entertainment. the white house says don't take the president's tweets seriously or literally they're not policy. they're just the president's opinion. in other words the president supportersave resorted to excusing his behavior as opposed to attempting to defend it. it's hard to know whether we're supposed to take that seriously or literally. >> the russian witch democrat inspired witch-hunt. >> at campaign rally in ohio last night, the president unleashed his latest series of attacks. >>e axine waters is leading charge. a seriously low iq person. the fake news media. democrats are obstructionists. the only thing they do well --

they're lousy politicians, they have horrible stupid policie and they are haters. >> a sign of a president who appears increasingly rattled. on wednes y, mr. trump mads most direct call yet to the end of the mueller investigation tweeting, attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch-hunt right now. his lawyer quickly claimed the tweet was n evidence of obstruction of justice but then argued he could obstruct justice if he wanted. >> if he wanted to obstruct it, he could end it. then you'd all battle whether he has the legal right to do that. but i don't think he will. >> reporter: his associates are facing mounti legal general arpy. when money when a friendly party dried up, paul manafort became desperate for cash. raising the question of why he with mr. an unpaid job trump's campaign in 2016. at the time, manafor talked about the access that campaign

offered. >> they're coming to me to get involved in the trump campaign. >> people want to get involved? >> people want to get involved, yes. wanted to before but didn't have a way in. >> reporter:one republican told "vanity fair" that it's spinning him into a frenzy and then a threat from his former lcoyer michael n who signalled he might strike a deal with prosecutors and spill the secretst' and the special counsel is interviewing more associates of another long-time aide, roger stone. for months, mr. trump has had one relentless talking point. >> there was no col.usion at al no collusion whatsoever. no collusion. no collusion. absolutely no collusion. >> reporter: with mounting evidence of concts betweenr. trump's campaign and russia, this week the president's attorneys tried a new argument. >> collusion is not a crime. i'm not -- i don't know a crime, colludingabout russians. >> reporter: mr. trumpisaid collusio not a crime but that doesn't matter because there was no collusion. in a pr can-up attempt, the

administration's top intelligence officials held a briefing thursday at the white house. vowing to combat russian interference in the midterms.0 now, just overys away. >> this threat is not going away. >> we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election at the -- that the american people n have trust in. >> reporter: hours later -- >> we are being hindered by . e russian ho >> joining me is roy blunt of missouri, who sits on the sceate intelligommittee. so we we want to get into some election security issues. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> before i get into that, sometimes i try to ioreis attacks on the press. but this morning he seemed to go a bit overboard with this tweet. i want you to get you to respond to it. the fake newsates he saying they are an enemy of tell people only because they know it's i am providing a great service

by explaining there to the ple.ican pe they are dangerous and sick. senator blunt, i know this is not your point of view. i'm not -- but at what point is th rhetoricnt to the p where it should stop in your mind? >> well, it's not my point of view. you know, i see the media -- the press every day in the capitol walking through -- to my office, to the floor, lots of questions. generally really good questions. i do think there's so much news out there it's harder to focus in if you're a part of the media than it may have been at one time. if you watchv every day, you could find some things that y you -- on varus news channels you found objectionable and probably not to be true. the president's rallies people seem to respond to that. i would say ive not been to one of -- i have not been to one of the rallies but i have watched them. that's something that a lot of americans identi with. think all of us who try communicate need to realize there's some real challenge out

there of who believes what we say and how we say it. whether that's you or me and, you know, the president communicates in a different way than -- >> but at some point, calling -- then you call a group of people you otherwise hi way he's doing with the press, calling them sick, sort of dehumanizin them, it makes violence against the press easier to rationalize for some. that's the concern that many news organizations have right now. certainly t you could find people on the news saying things about the psident that are not appropriate either in terms of the -- >> two wrongs make a right here? i mean the president of the united states is the leader of the free world. >> i don't think so, but there's a lot of in depth psychology that goes on on some news stations eveday too. >> i'm -- i'm not condoning that. but i guess does -- so that's the -- so the president should go ahead -- because he doesn't like a blogger that shows up on cable televisi that night.

>> even the president and his daughter disagree on this topic, and, you know, it's not the way i would approach this. i think not the way you and i would approach it. >> i guess the question is how do you convince the presidt that this bad rhetoric, that this is dangerous rhetoric, not just bad decorum? >> i think the president really believes that a lot of the news is not accurate. >> do you believe that? >> and you could certainly -- there's a vast variety of how the same news is reported. so somebody is not -- that ddle of the road news th people my age grew up with is no longer the news. >> well, i would respectfully disagrul there partly on this show. but i want to ask you to respond to something else. pete waner, he tweeted this about the president and his ctnstant attacks on african-americanincluding athletes like lebron jame

trump's made the same criticism of black athletes, black journalists and black members of congress referring to maxine waters, heir attacks t intelligence. the closest figure in modern national politics to trump -- george wallace. trump defines the gop. are you concerned that the president is defining the gop as anti-black? >> well, the gop is not anti-black and when you look at what'sening in the economy and lots of other places. you know, when he saysli things low iq about somebody, maxine waterss -- >> alwth an african-american and intelligence. that's what makes a lot of people uncomfortable with what he's doing. >> i don't think always. i mean, look at what he said about his various opponents in the republican prlwary. it's nots, but it's -- i ieink you've got to be more careful in our s about what you say about people that are different than you. and, you know, a lot of things for instance you could say about maxine waters, but to indicate she's not a bright person is not

one of them. she is very smart.ti and very calcu. and grew up in st. louis, issouri, so i served with her in the house. i usually -- >> sounds like you embrace her though as a proud daughter of st. louis. >> i embrace her as someone who gave a lot of time to public service and who has a different doview point than i but it's not based on her factual view of the world. >> let me go to the issue of election security. here was ristopher wray and dan coats at the white house a couple of days ago. here it is. >> russia attempted to interfere with the last election and malign s to engage in influence operations to this day. >> we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. >> this threat is t going away >> you're on the intellence committee. i assume you have heard many of these same updates probably with more specificity than we have.

what's your level of concern about interference in the 2018 elections based on the briefings you have been receiving? >> i chair the rules committee, senator klobuchar is my ranking democrat. >> right. >> she and i work on that commit -e together, so those which is basically the committee the legislation for election security at hearings that were public on this topic. i thought the most helpful thing in terms of thinking about this year's elections that director wray had to say was we're not seeing the level of activity trying to approach the election systems themselves in 2018 we saw th 2016. i thinone area where both the congress and local officials and the federal government and local officials need to be working together is to be sure that whatever happens on election day, there is confidence that that's what really happened. i think we are at that pointat lots of coopn between

homeland security. our cyber experts. onate election officials. local elec officials that part of the system i feel good about. >> we still need some paper ballots. we have some states that don't have a backup paper ballot system. i think it's langford and klobuchar together on this. where are you on this? >> i think we should have an audit trail. >> doeshe federal government help fund that? >> the federal government should actually -- i think we need to be more specif in the future out how we encourage states to spend money. we did $380 million basically based on the 2001 stdard. i was not actively part of that discussion as it came- until it got before the full appropriations committee. i wish we had been more specific on that, but that's money states will hopefully use to make that transition. >>hehy did you vote against election securities bill that was this here this week? there was no elections security bill this bill, but

$250 million to go to the states. >> you want it more >> more specified. i don't want this to be an annual entitlement. the distapt money and local monepon how tod it. $380 million was what we were told by homeland security and state neficials they ded. it's barely out the door. they have five years to spend it. i want to have things like an auditrail that people have confidence in. the central thread of the fabric of democracy is people having confidence that what happened on election day is what really happened. another discussion about all of the information that may have led voters to that decision, that's where the russians appear to be more vigorous this time than last time. >> well, final question here. the sanctions bill from hell as lindsay graham likes to call it. are you on board? >> i'm on board with sanctions the russians i -- >> h tougher. >> i haven't look at his bill

yet. i asked th cyber command and nsa director in march do you have what you need to respond if we are tacked, you have an offensive strategy. in march he said no. his predecessor under president obama said no. this week, he sa yes. >> i did notice that. >> that is a big step in the right direction and the russians, the chinese, the north koreans, any of the other seven actors that principally are doing this k of activity should listen very carefully to what the general said this week on the topic. >> it was a from him. comment that we're prepared to go on ofnse. senator blunt, thank you. joining me from minnesota, on the other side of the aisle, amy klobuchar. welcome back to "meet the press." le thanks, chuck. >> let me stick toion security there. you heard senator blunt's concerns about the bill this week. it was essentially unmarked money is sort of -- it sounded

like that was many of the republicans there. what would you say in response to that? essentially he is saying, he'd support more money if it's specified for what it is rather than an annual semientitlement what do you say? thee secretaries of st the states said they needed more help and wethink it's paramount we act quicklyiven we have the intelligence heads of the united states government all going to the white house and saying this is happening now. we have a common set of facts and that's why as we move forwardat i'm glad t we were able to get the $380 million out to the states, 47 states now have their funding for things like backup paper ballots but we need to get thre elections act passed that's what my friend roy blunt was talking about bght there. we're voting on thl finally in committee and that's going to allow us to require ap

backup ballots of the 14 states that either have partial or don't have them at all. >> right. let me get you to respond to something the director of national intelligence dan coats said about this election. take a listen, senator. ur focus here today is simply to tell the american people we acknowledge the threat, it is real. it is continuing. and we're doing everything we n to have a legitimate election that the american people can have trust in. it's ator, i have to say the last phrase that sent a little bit of a shiver down my spine. so that we can have a le.timate electi wasn't a guarantee yet. how confident are you that the 2018 elections are going to be legitimate? >> i'm very concerned that you could have a hack that finally went through. you have 21 states that were hacked into. ey didn't find out about it for a year and that's one of the

'sasons that we want to pass or bill so that theow a requirement that they tell the al secretaries of state immediately so they can protect themselves and you have the fact that you have the president undermining this on national tv. still after his security people, they go in front of the world they say this is happening. he says that night at a rally in pennsylvania that it's a hoax. so that concerns me. but at the same time, there are some very good people working on it. i'd love to see this broadened out so we start to discuss ao the threats to our power grid system. the threats to our fincial stem because the russians aren't just stopping at the election equipment. >> is the president's comments undermining national security when he does that? >> i think they do because you have got these peopleouhat are security people. our intelligence people. when he stood next to vladimir putin in front of the world and

really sided with him over the intelligence people, it sent th same message to the wor so i wish he would listen to these people, but what we have right now is a common set of facts between at least democrats and republicans in the senate and a common purpose to protect our democracy. >> all right. i want tget a couple of litical questions in here. i'm curious of your response to something cynthia nixon said at the net roots conference, a gathering ofss proges. a lot of 2020 chatter there. but something she said about socialism. i'm curious of your reaction. >> the establishment is terrified ofalhat word. som. but if we learned one thing from the obama years it's thatbl reans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do. so we might as well give them the real thing. >> what do you make of that? where do democratic socialists fit in your democratic party,

senator? >> i make of it that she's iewa primary inork state. and running for office. but what i have seen in our party is that yes,here are divides along certain issues but what unites us is so much stronger, chuck. we have a president in the white house where we need a check an balance. we have an administration that is actually down in texas rm uning this protection so that people don't get thrown off their insurance if they have a pre-existing condition. that unitesus. what unites us is doing something about pharmaceutical prices. so that instead of what the president did giving a speech andg see their stock go up that we actually bring those prices dow and i sit in those leadership meetings with everyo manchin to bernie sanders and i see a lot more unity than i do divide. >> elizabeth warren said something also yesterday. she saidhe criminal justice system from start to finish is essentially racist.

you were a part of the criminala justice system former county prosecutor. that's a large charge. i understand where she's going there. is that a fair hit? for people who have bee victimized and have been a victimmef c they need a criminal justice system that works for them. i have worked with a lot of very good prosecutors and police officers that do some of theob hardests every day. but we know that there is racism in this system thateeds to be fixed. that's why we have started instituting body cameras, which is a great solution. doing things on eyewitness id. i think the solutions are there for us. we have to reform the system. >> senator klobuchar, thank you for coming on. sharing yourews. ♪ i was able t, turn the aircraft aroud the mission around, and was able to save two men's ves that night. my first job helped me to grow up pretty quickly. that'll happen when you're asked to respond to a coup.

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primary seasontory has been dominant in state after state. the democratic turnout surge. just this week the pew research center released nuers showing that through the jne primaries, 13.6 million people had voted in democratic primaries. that was a whopping 84% increase over the 2014 midterms through 10e same period. while million voted in republican primaries. by the way that's anncrease er 2014 as well but only a 24% increase. to be clear, primary elections are very different animals from generals but the numbers do provide at least understanding of how engaged the two political party bases are at this point in the cycle. the fact that more people voted in democratic than republican rimaries so far in 2018 it flips the script from what we saw in 2014 which of course was that big wave year for republicans. but the national numbers tell the whole story. let's go state by state. look at california. 2014 democratic primary voters were up 84% compared to 30% for

republicans. and in nine out of the ten stricts seen as battle grounds in california by the cook report bigger than those on the republican side. but there is some good news for republicans in that stat. hey still produce more overall votes those battle ground districts. ohio, theyat a complicated picture as well. the democratic turnout increase was greater than the republicans bueplicans still held the advantage in the raw number of votes cast in ohio. in fact, infour ofhat state's five battle ground congressional districts, democrats saw anc biggerase but in all five, it's the republicans that still had more votes cast overall. potential sort of buffer there for the gop. now, let's go to iow this may be the most interesting set of numbers we have seen. the democrats saw a massive increasernn t. 152%, and republicans saw a steep drop, 35%. now republicans want to argue that this was because of a lack of contested races down the

ballot. let me tell you, privately, some iowa republicans are the word tariffs as the ural nation for dampening turnout. look, all of which is to say this. the big bump for democrats noteworthy, but still hard to know what it will mean for november. clearly there's enthusiasm, but is it enough to get them overth top? but at the very least these national numbers offer some evidence atin this p the democrats do have an edge going into 2018 into 2018 when we come ba us. into 2018 when we come ba it's what this country is made of. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today. because where there's a y, there's an us.

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panelists here. and also joining the panel, clint watts. welcome. we are going to divide tnes up a little bit of politics and a little bit of tech. these con gtradicting or denyin. the president is tweing about the infamous trump tower meeting and he saysre, fake news

reporting, aab completec cation that i am concerned about the meeting my wonderfuln, donald had in trump tower. it went nowhere and i did not know about it. it is the president admitting that his son had a meeting with russian operatives to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> we spent a week, my colleagues a i reporting inside the white house, talking to officials, the president's close friends and he may not be concerned about what happened at the meeting but he is c about the legal scrutiny coming close to home. his son in the spotlight. you have all of these forces coming together as t president is facing mueller making moves, possible subpoena if he declines the interview. >> what is going on with the president. >> we knew before that the president was concerned about

theeeng, concerned enough to get white house staff involved in creating a response. >> something white house s is happy about. >> now we know it is not true but we see the psident was ining crazy on twitter all week. he is beh sort of like a commter on a website rather than the president of the united states. and the excuse we get from the white house is these his opinions. he doesn't have the luxury of merely oping. his opinions have ramifications. these are things he doesn't have the luxury of simply blurting out. >> you are our designated lawyer on this panel. when you saw the tweets.

should stop this witch hunt right now. bob mueller is totally conflicted. first of all, did you think he was tiptoeing to obstructi of justice here? >> when i read that tweet, i looked back at the article for impeachment for n.ni it was all about obstruction of justice. lying or misleading to itinvestigators. ad to do with trying to intimidate those in the justice dertment of the fbi, cia in participating in this. trying to get those in the stice department to support his point of view. that was the crux of the impeachment. when you look at these tweets,

there is n dou in my mind, bob mueller looking at these tweets. >> you know, it isfascinating, you now have a white house and his lawyers, and they are no longer defending him, they are simply trying to explain him. this is how they handled the this week. >> it is not an order. it is the president's opinion. >> he used the word should, not the word must. >> and the same thing i just saw. there is a lot of discomfort in defending blanketing anymore. if you are noi to criticize him, you defend him. >> a president now re-defining wh the presidency. in the past, that stement is taken as the united states. noaking it as policy, about

you if the president said something in the past, that was in manyay a directive, as a governme, you go out a do that. what you have now is thead nistration, that seems to be in so many ways at war -- war is too strong a word, but at conflict. you sawt t with that extraordinary press conference at the white house where you have his top nional security advisors presenting what seems to be a reasoned case. sort of press conference that we have in the past where we have officials talking about terference in th election and presenting all of the evidence. and hours late you see what president trump did. so this is not, you know, it feels like we are still usinge th ordinary definition of a presidency. >>hat tweet was incredible in two ways.

if our bosses tell us you should ydo something, take it as an order. but jeff session didn't respond that way. it is amazing that subordinates don't take it as an order. >> you heard dan coats, we want to have a legitimate election. what he didn't say is we are goingo have an election that is legitimate. how big a concern is this th at. >> people don't trust institutions and elected officials. if there is just one state that can't audit and verify through a back up, it tells a of our adversaries, jus hack in one data. >> how easy is >> very easy.

go in and easily break into digital machines. and just creating this provocations, just hit a hetabase. and states can't defend on this. >> you did it inco the senate ittee and it is the social media interference. a new phenomena this week that we had to explain to the public. q anon. in the dark recesses of social media. q anon takes one conspiracy and puts it all together. donald trump is this deep state super hero, or john f. kennedy jr., they don't believe he is dead. >> this is super cheap, and whethert is political interference or just social manipulation, this gives

everybody the ability to push a false head. this idea that there is a secree source insidentelligence community. now we are talking about them leaking information? this plays into the narrative that you can't trust institutions. so what do you do? you amplify q anon.th e is so much fake news in the u.s., they don't need to create mistruths. >> it is not just russia amplifying. you said you saw the president -- >> well -- >> just a minute. there are numerologist, too. q is the 17th letter, and it is a code word. u said you noticed another thing at the rally with the number 17.

>> if you research this, it is absurd. they have these numbers they come up with. the president himself has believed in conspiracies before. his political career was launched when he came on to that birtherism with president obama. there is not expectation that the president g isng to speak out on q anon. people inside the circle see the q signs, but they believe this is the republican base, this is the trump base and they have a deep suspicion of the republican base. are you concerned? >> i have lived in thisroup of people, we all remember also how everybody, our government kept place in nevada, where all the

aliens were incarcerated. a lot of people now believehat these actual people in government, this is very different. now, it's people in government undermining the country. and by not denying this at high levels of the administration, it gives a credibili that further feats t feats -- feeds the idea tt government is not supposed to be trusted. >> w saw senator mccain before, he turned to the crowd -- >> he is not a muim. >> and he shut that down. the leader of the country. >> thanks very much. when weome back, enter stage left, the progressive democrats

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welcome back. around here it's never . bit of audition of sorts for democrs who are looking to shore up support from the liberal base. >> these past 18 months have demonstrated that the people in power are no match for the power of the people. >> it's time for us to let people know that what th're seeing i country doesn't reflect our spirit. what we're seeing in this country doesn't reflect our potential. >> i'm not waiting, i'm running against donald trump today, every single day. >> i would say to these politicians if you don't think impeachment is a good id d, if it's tisive, then what's your plan?

t >> a free and open inter truly one of society's great equalizers. >> don't waste a minute of your time feeling daunted that donald trump has a base of die hard supporters. so did richard nixon before he resigned. >> we've got to embrace the unshakeable tree that ack on one of us is an attack of all of us. you bet. >> just as notable as what was said maybe who didn't show up in new orleans. former vice presidente biden, bernie sanders and my previous guest amy klobuchar were among those o skipped it. when we come back, "end game" and the one thing that l republicans harned what they have to do ifhey want to run for higher office. coming up, "end game" an this endangered species is getting help

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if you're a republican ru ting for offise days there seems to be one rule and a very simple one -- president trump, love him or lose. tennessee's diane black lost a bid for higher office. this is not a good year to be in the republican primary, but five others have won primaries for statewide office. the difference for them -- an endorsement from president trump a real one. other republican candidates have noticed the trend. that the closer you are to mr. trump, the closer you are to winning. here are some ads from those who got the message. >> i'll proudly stand with our president and mike y pence. >> mfriend, martha mcsally, she's she real deal. e's tough. >> supported by president trump. >> i call diane black, you came through, diane. >> i got a big truck, just in case i need to round up crndinal illegalsake them home myself. >> that last someone a nominee for goveor of georgia. i

mike murph my ad guy for the week. good to see you, sir. >> good to be here. >> all right. i want to put up to two sets of primary ds. one is in florida. here's one that is frankly ait trnal republican primary attack ad. take a look. washington is full of bad ideas and phony politicians. ron desais and his huge t increase fit right in. >> tax ad, that seem like a big one. here is desantis and the ad he is running right now in his primary. >> everyone knows my husband ron desantis is endorsed by president trump. but he's also an amazing dad. ron loves playing with the >> build the wall. >> he reads stories. >> then mr. trump said you're fired. i love that part. >> look, i didn't cut out all the issue parts of that ad. mike, trump trumps taxes. >> yes. in the old days wheneo gical

issues drove the republican primary, the tax hit was -- it would be a devastang one in the republican primary but now because it's all trump all the time ande issues hen pushed out for this cult of personality, think about this. you have a guy running in the republican primary for governor of florid a state surrounded by oceans. talking about federally a wall essentially in texas. and guess what? in t primary it's going to work. >> it's totally flipped the script. putnam, this was his momente a ump tweet. i'm going to -- i want to go to michigan senate here. you love michigan. the home state of yours. so here is -- they're fighting over who's closer to trump. watch. here's ad number one from johnj s the canada. >> well, sandy pence her uses the same insults to disparage trump -- >> i can't speak at a fourth grade level like he does. >> john james supporters the

commander inch f. >> sandy had to do a response ad on trump. here. >> john james was busted using deceptively edited photos of sandy penceler. >> he left out calling the president a smart and remarkable talent. i'm a conservative business man who stands with and voted for president trump. >> yeah. it's like a stalin trial now. you know? unbelievable. you know, what you wore -- a collectivist, tie,ou you're of order. but the problem is when al and i tre doing republican politics when you run primary you want to line up the issue profile you can use in the l election. >> like you're the tax cut guy. you -- >> yeah. you're the small business guy, you're going to fix schools you want to go at the swing voters and now you come out of this thing fm the trump church in the republican primary with a big trump halo. but in the general election ha

democrats al trump and among's independents ostly upside down. what is the magic light sword becomes an anchor around your neck in the general. >> but so much of this is stylistic. they want to be seen like president trump but i'd logically they're talking about trade but not the hard-line on trade and immigration on the same way as president trump. they talk about build the wall, they know they need the enthusiasm, but not the same kind of rublicans. >> trump has redefined what the party does. let me show you the endorsement tweets and it's sending a message of what trump's republican party is for. military, border security, vets, tough on crime. you don't hear taxes. don't hear national defense. no reagan like. you don't hear morality stuff probably for obvious reasons. >> look, the dye is cast

weyire the general,th'r hego in general in order to try to win the ection. it's a high risk. high reward or a high punishment thsituation. an election is going to be decided by donald trump. >> but mike, let me reverse -- let me defend the strategy here. which is that the president says, hey, look, it will be a anyway.dum on hi rather than run away from him, i'm going to saddled with him whether i like it or not. is this oddly maybe a way to at least minimize your losses? >> you know, i get that. the problem in swi states with trump is so big, there's no easy way out of it except building a time machine and finding a courage a year ago. that ain't going to happen. in the north dakotas of the world, this strategy will pretty much wor but in the swing states it's a lot tougher. the funny thing, the great irony, if you look at who trump

likes toencers d likes to endorse with his tweets it'sho thoseerved in the military, so it's weird. he's kind of reaching to the persona better than his own with the endorsements. >> you want to jump in? >> previous presidents didn'to jump i primaries in their own party, but trump has a strong record jumping into primaries which is whycahese primary idates want his endorsement. i think he's 10-1 in republican primaries that he' -- 9-1 in the ten primaries that he's jumped into. i think mike is exactly right.bl repuicans want his endorsement inth primaries wheree base likes trump but among independents, he -- democrats -- among independents22 point advantage for democrats right now. which makes the trump endorsement in the primary a very vulnerable -- puts republicans in a v lnerable position. >> we're talking about the republican divide. boy, did learn something from netroots nation, helene.

the democrat ar about to their own little fight in the party.y klobuchar didn't look like she was comfortable about answering the warren the criminal justice system is racist trump to bottom. they're about to t gough their own trumpian like experience. >> they're going to huee the same is with the republican party and -- the primary situation we are having right now. it's so fascinating bause it feels as if we're seeing political science 101 the same y stuff that get out of -- to gets you to win the primary when you haveoo so far to the left or the right is what can tiu weigh you down in the general el that's amplified this ycrr and the des are having the exact same issue. where you have this war and you have the progressive wing and the left -- you know, the left of the left have been so pissed off ever since 2016 anyway. ey're doublingown on the kamala harriss and the elizabeth

warrens and cynthia nixon. you are seeing this clash right now. i meanthey were throwing spit wads at mark warner months ago. so it's going to be -- i thinus it'sgoing to be fun to watch. >> it's going to be fun. >> the left is so crowded. only summer'18. think of all the people competing for that progressive mantep. an eye on tim ryan, mitch landrieu, could someone from the center -- landrieu is right up the center in 2019, 2020. >> mik i feel like we're headed to something you have trump and his base. youza may have eth warren and her base. here, this is who we are and you in themiddle, hold your nose and pick a side. is that how the 2020 race igo g to be? >> yeah, normally a cardri, pick any card you don't want. there's no distributiosystem. we are not build for 7-up to be number one, it's coke or pep

that's the distribution. it's hard to run a third party candidate and the you end up in the electoral college where you have to ask the two parties to put themselves out of business. my bet isoul have somebody trumpian, but look, i do think if we have a bumpy midterm the whole trump thing in '19 could be a whole new ball game. on thede democratic s the muscles on the progressive side. >> i'm going to pause it there. we got to do real politics today. before i go, a quick programming note. tomorrow night, lester holt will sit down with director spike leu his new film "black klans men". and we'll be speaking with ron stallworth. that's all for today. wewl be back next k. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." you can see more "end game" and "postgame" sponsored by boeing on the "meet the press" fabook page.

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