this sunday, liberated or besieged? president trump attacking the media. >> they are the fake, fake, ti disg news. >> attacking the russia investigation. >> russia's very unhappy that trump won, that i can tell you. >> attacking the democrats. >> they'll do anything they can to really to obstruct or resist. >> is this a sign the president is feelingin liberated is job or besieged by the growing pressure of the mueller probe? plus, securingr elections. even after top u.s. security officials say this -- >> our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular >> our democracy itself is in the cross hairs. >> president trump says this. >> now, we're being hindered by

the russian hoax. >> so hoax or threat, what does the trumadministration want us to believe? mys guests thi morning, republican senar roy blunt of missouri. democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota and nbc newson na 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 ipart. works great in the primaries, but will candidates pay a price in november? i'll ask long time republican adman mike murphy. ining me for insight and analysis are robert costa, oderator of washington we pbs. helenen cooper. and al cars that and elia ya johnson. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history.

itthis is "meet the press" chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. one of the questions that emerged during the campaign was this. should we take donald trump seriously or literally? well, now he's president of the united states. so are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he says that the mueller investigation that his attorney eneral should stop what he calls this rigged witch-hunt right now. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when hours after his intelligence and security u.s. election integrity for 2018 is still under attack from russia, the presiden tells a rally that the russia investigation is a hoax. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he call f journalisme news and says that the press is the enemy of the people and ca cause war? and what are we supposed to make of the ralliers devoted to the president who heckle arreporter t-shirts that say "f" the media and are we supposed to dismiss them?

or should we take their seriously? president trump supporters say don't take the rally seriously 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 preside's opinion. in other words the president supporters have resortedo 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 hunt, a democrat inspired witch-hunt. >> at campaign rally in ohio last night, the president unleashed his latest series of attacks. >> maxine waters is leading the char. a seriousl low iq person. the fake news media. democrats e obstructionihis. the only t they do well -- they're lousy politicians, they have horrible stupid policies

and they are haters. >> a sign of presideo appears increasingly rattled. on wednesday, mr. trump made his most direct call yet to the end of the muel investigation tweeting, attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch-hunt right now. his lawyer quicklylaimed the tweet was not evidence of obstruction of justice but then argued he could obstruct justice if he wanted. >> if he wanted to obstruct it, he could end i then you'd all battle whether he has the legal right to do that. t i don't think he will. >> reporter: his associates are facing mounting legal general arpy. when money when a friendly party dried up, paul manafort became desperate for cash. raising the question ofwh he agreed to an unpaid job with mr. tr p'scampaign in 2016. at the time, manafort talked about the access that campaign offered. >> they're coming to me to get

involved in the trump campaignt >> people o get involved? >> people want to get involved, yes. wanted to before but didn't have a way rin. >>orter: one republican told "vanity fair" that it's spinning him into a frenzy and then a threat from his former lawyer michael cohen who signalled he might strike a deal with prosecutors and spill the president's secrets. heand special counsel is interviewing more associates of another long-time aide, roger stone. for .months, trump has had one relentless talking point. >> there was no collusion at all. no collusion whatsoever. no collusion.ol no csion. absolutely no collusion. >> reporter: with moun evidence of contacts between mr. trump's campaign and russia, this week thepresident's attorneys tried a new argument. >> collusion is not a crime. m not -- i don't know if it's a crime, colluding about russians. >> reporter: mr. trump said collusion is not a crime but that doesn't matter because there was no collusion. in apr clean-up attnipt, the adration's top intelligence officials held a briefing thursday at the white

house. vowing to combat russian n interference i the midterms. now, just over 90 days away. >> this threat is not going away. >> we're doing everything we cai to have a lete election at the -- that the american people can have trust in. r orter: hours later -- >> we are being hindered by the russian hoax. o>> joining me is roy blu missouri, who sits on the senate intelligence committee. 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, .ometimes i try to ignore his attacks on the pre but this morning he seemed to go yoit overboard with this tweet. i want you to geto respond to it. the fake news hates he saying they are an enemy of tell people only because they know it's true. i am providing a great sernice by expl there to the american people. they are dangerous and sick.

senator blunt, i know this is not your point of view. i'm not -- but at what point is this rhetoric to the pointre w it should stop in your mind? u well, it's not my point of view. ow, 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 watch tv every day, you could findome things that yo you -- on various news channels you founobjectionable and probably not to be true. the president's rallies people seem to rpond tothat. i would say that. ive not been to one of -- i have tt been to one of the rallies but i have watchm. that's something that a lot of americans identify with. i think all of us who try to e communicate need to real there's some eal challenge ou 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 -- when you cal a group of people you otherwise him the way he's oing with the press, calling them sick, sort dehumanizing them, it makes violence against he press easier to rationalize forsome. that's the concern that many news organizations have right now. >> yes, but you could certainly findeople onthe news saying things about the president that are not appropriate either in terms of the -- >> two wrongs make a righhere? 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 depth psychology that goes on on some news stations every day 'mtoo. >>- 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 television that night.

>> even the president and his daughter disagree on this topic, and, you know, it's not the oay i would ap this. i think not the way you and i stuld approach it. >> i guess the qn is how do you convince the president that this is bad rhetoric, that this is dangerousrhetoric, not just bad decorum? >> i think the president really believes that a lot of the news is not accurlie. >> do you e that? >> and you could certainly --e' tha vast variety of how the same newsd. is repor so somebody is not -- that middle of the road news that people my age grew up with is no longer the l,news. >> w would respectfully disagree there particularly on this show. but i want to ask you to respond to something else. pete waner, he tweeted this about the president and his constant attacks on african-american acts including athletes like lebron james. trump's made the same criticism of black athletes, black journalists and black members of congss referring to maxine

waters, he attacks their intelligence. the closest figure inodn national politics to trump -- george wallace. trump defines the gop. are you concerned that the president is defining the gop as >> well, the gop is not anti-black and when you look at what's happening indhe economy lots of other places. you know, when he says things like low iq about somebody, maxine waters -- > always with an african-american a intelligence. that's what makes a lot of people uncomfortable with what he's doing. think always. i mean, look at what he said about his various opponents in the republican primary. it's not always, but iyos -- i thinve got to be more preful in our society about what you say abople that are different than you. and you know, a lot of things for instance you could say about maxine water but to indicate she's not a bright person is one of them. she is very smart. and very calculating. and grew in st. louis,

missouri, so i served with her in the house. i usually -- >> sods like you embrace her though as a proud daughter of st. louis. >> i embrace her as someone who gave a lot of time toe ublic servd who has a different view point than i do, but it's not based on her factual view of the world. >> let me go to o the iss election security. here was christopher 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 continues to engage in malign 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 not going away. y 're on the intelligence 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 interrence in the 2018 elections based on the briefings you have been receiving? >> i chair the rulescommitte senator klobuchar is my ranking democrat. >> she and i work on that committee together, so those -- which is basically the committee that would have 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 apoach the election systems themselves in 2018 we saw in 2016. i think the one area where both the congress and local officials and the federal governmefi and local als need to be working together is to be sure that whatever happens on election day, there confidence that that's what really happened. i think we are at that point. lots of cooperation between homeland curity. r cyber experts.

state election officials. local election officials that part of the system i feel good aboune >> we stil 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. >> does the federal government help fund that? >> the federal government should actually -- i think we need to be more specific in the future about how encourage states to spend money. we did $380 million basically based on the 2001 standard. i was not actively part of that discussion as it came --it unti ot before the full appropriations committee. i wish we had been more specionc that, but that's money states will hopefully use to make that transition. >> why did you vote against the election securities billth was this here this week? >> there was no elections security bill this bill, but $250 million to go to the st es. >> you want it more specified?

>> more specified. i don't nt this to be an annual entitlement. the distapt money and local money on how to spend it. $380 million was whay we were toldmeland security and state officials they needed. it's barely out the door. they have five years to spend it. i want to have things like an audit trail that people have confidence in. lee central thread of the fabric of democracy is peaving confidence that what happened on election day is what really happened. another discussion about all of may have ation that 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 bilfrom hell lindsay graham likes to call it. are you on board? >> i'm o the russians --tions >> his is tougher. >> i haven't lookt his bill yet. i asked the general who is the

cyber command and nsa director in march do you have what you need to respond if we are attacked, you have an offensive strategy. in march he said no. ecessor under president obama said no. this week, he said 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 acrs thatrincipally are doing this kind of activity should listen very carefully to what the general said this week he topic. >> it was a striking comment from him. that we'reo prepared to on offense. senator blunt, thank you. joining me from minnesota, on the other side of the aisle, amy klobuchar. to "meet th press." >> thanks, chuck. >> let me stick to election security there. you heard senator blunt's concerns about the bill this weekal it was essen unmarked money is sort of -- it sounded like that was many of the republicans there.

what would you say in response to tha essentially he is saying, he'd support more money if it's specified for whatt is rather than an annual mientitlement at do you say? the secretaries of state of the states saided they more help and we think it's paramount we a quickly given we have the intelligence heads of the united states government all goe g to the whuse and saying this is happening now. we have a common set of facts and that's why as we move forward i'm glad that we were able to get then $380 millut to the states, 47 states now have their funding for things bulike backup paper ballot we need to get the secure elections act passed that's what myy riend unt was talking about right there. we're voting on that bill finally in committee and that's going to allow us to require

backup paper ballots of the 14 states that either have partial or don't hav them at all. >> right. let me get you to respond to soirthing thetor of national intelligence dan coats said about thison elec take a listen, senator. >> our focus here today is simply to tell the american people we acknowledge the threit, it is real. s continuing. and we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the american people can have trust in. >> h senator,e to say it's the last phrase that sent a f a shiver down m spine. so that we can have a legitimate election. it wasn't a guarantee yet. hew confident are you that 2018 elections are going to be legitimate? >> i'm very concerned that you cod have a hack that finally went through. you have 21 states that we hacked into. they didn't find out about it offor a year and that's onhe reasons that we want to pass or bill so that there's now a requirement that they tell the

individual secretaries of state immediately so they can protect themselves and you have the fact enthat you have the pres undermining this on national tv. still after hisecurity people, they go in front of the world they say this is happening. s that night at a rally 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 lo to see ouis broadened so we start to discuss also the threats to our power grid resystem. the s to our financial system because the russians aren't just stopping at the election equipment. >> is the president's comments undermining national security when he does thet? >> i thinkdo because you have got these people that are our security people. r intelligence people. when he stood next to vladimir putin in front of the world and over the ed with hi intelligence people, it sent that same message to the world.

so i wish he would listen to these people, but what we have right now a common set of facts between at least democrats and republicans in the senate and a common purpose to protect our democ >> all right. i want to get a couple of political questions in here. i'm curious of your response to something cynthia nixon sa at the net roots conference, a gathering of progressives. a lot of 2020 chatter there. but something she said about socialism. i'm curious of your >> the establishment is terrified of that word. socialism. but if we learned one thing from thebama years it's that republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do. so we might as well give them the real thing. >> what do youke of that? where do democratic socialists fit in your democratic party, senator? >> i make of it that she's in a primary in new york state.

and running for office. but what i have seen in o party is that yes, there are divides along certain issues but what i unites u so much stronger, chuck. we have a president in the white house where we need check and balance. we have an administration that is actually do in texas undermining this protection so that people don't get thrown off their insurance if they have a pre-existing condition. that unites us. what unites us is doing something prices.rmaceutical so that instead of what de president giving a speech and seeing their stock go up that we actually bring those prices down. and i sit in those leadersp meetings with everyone from joe manchin to bernie sanders and i see a lot morety uhan i do divide. >> elizabeth warren said something also yesterday. she said the criminal justice system from start to finish is essentially racist. you were a part the criminal

justice system, a former county prosecutor. that's a large charge. i unders there.re she's going is that a fair hit? >> for people who have been victimized and have been a victim of crime, 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 someof the hardest jobs every day. but we know that thereis racism in this system that needs to be fixed. that's why we have started boinstituting cameras, whichut is a great sn. doing things on eyewitness id. i think the solutions are there for us. we have to reform the system. >> senator klobuchar, tha you around, and the mission around, and was able to save two men's lives that night. my first job helped me to grow up pretty quickly. that'll happen when you're asked to respond to a coup. in 2001, i signed up for the air force. two days later, 9/11 happened.

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welcome back. data download time. as wear the end of the primary season one story has e en dominant in state after state. mocratic turnout surge. just this week the pew research center released numbers showing that through the june primariesi 13.6 m people had voted in democratic primaries. that was a whopping 84% increase over the 2014 midterms through the same period. while10.4 million voted in republican primaries. by the way that's an increase over 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 some understandind of how engae two political party bases are at this point in the cycle. the fact that moreeople voted in democratic than republican primaries 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 don't tell the whole story. let'ste go s by state. look at california. 2014 democratiprimary voters

were up 84% compared to 30% for republicans. and in nine out of the ten districts seen as batt grounds in california by the cook rt, the increases were bigger than those on the republican side. but there is some good news for republicans in that stat. they still produce more overall votes in those battle ground districts. ohio, they paint a complicated picture as well. the democratic turnout increase was greater than the republicans but republicans still held the advantage in the raw number of votes cast in ohio. in fact, in four that state's five battle ground congressional districts, democrats saw aer bincrease but in all five, it's the republicans thattill had more votes cast overall. potential sort of buffer there for the gop. now, let's go iowa. this may be the most interesting set ofav numbers weseen. the democrats saw a massive increa in turnout. 152%, and republicans saw a steep drop, 35%. now republicans wrgt to

that this was because of a lack of contested races down the ballot. let me tell you, privately, some iowa republicans areg mutter the word tariffs as the explanation for dampeng rural turnout. look, all of which is to say this. the big bump for demoats is noteworthy, but still hard to know what it will mean for november. clearlthere's enthusiasm, but is it enough to get them over the top? but at the very least these national numbers offer some evidence at p thiint the democrats do have an edge going into 201r. novem into 201r. novem when we come us. into 201r. novem when we come 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.

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paneli here. and also joining the pel, clint watts. welcome. we are going to divide this panel up a little bit of politics and a little bit of tech. the con gtradicting or denying. the president is tweeting about the infamous trump tower meeting and he says here, fake news reporting, a complete fabric cation that i am concerned about the meeting m wonderful son, donald had in trump tower. it went nowherend i did not know about it. it is the president admitting that his son had aeeng with russian operatives to get dirto

illary clinton. >> we spent a week, my colleagues and i reporting side the white house, talking to officials, the prclident's e friends and he may not be ncerned about what happened at the meeting but he is concerned about the legal scrutinyg com close to home. his son in the. spotlig you have all of these forces coming together as the president is facin mueller making moves, possible subpoena if he declines the interview. >> what is going on withhe president. >> we knew before that the president was concerned about the meeting, concerned enough to get white house staff involved in creating a response. >> something white house staff is hpy about. >> now we know it is not true, but we see the president was going crazy o twitter all week.

he is behaving sort of like a commenter on a wrsite rat than the president of the united states. and the excuse we get from the white house is these are just hisio op. he doesn't have the luxury of merely opining. his opinions have ramifications. these are things he dsn'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 obstruction of ju here? >> when i read that tweet, i looked back at the articleor

impeachment for nixon. it was all abo obstruction of justice. lying or misleading to investigators. it had to do with trying toti date those in the justice department of the fbi, cia in participating trying to get those in the justice department to support his point of view. that was t crux of the impeachment. when you look at these tweets, there is no doubt in my mind, bob mueller looking at these twee y. >> know, it is fascinating, 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

tweet 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 thingus i saw. there is a lot of discomfort in defending him blanketing anymore. if you are not going to criticize him, you defend him. >> a president now re-defining what the presidency. in the past, that statement is taken as the united states. not takingli it as , about you if the president said something in the past, that was in many ways a directive, as a government, you go out and do that. what you haveow is the administration, that seems to be in so many way at war -- war is

too strong a word, but at conflict. you saw that with that extraordinary press conference at the white house where you haveis top national security advisors presenting what seems to be a reasoned case. sort of presse conferehat we have in the past where we have g officials talbout interference in the election and presenting all of the evidence. and hours later, you see wha president trump did. so this is not, you know, it feels l se we all using the ordinary definition of a presidency. >> that tweet was incredible in two ways. if our bosses tell us you should o something, you take it as an order. but jeff sessions 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 going to have an election that is legitimate. how big a concern is this threat. >> people don't trust institutions and elected official if there is just one state that can't audit and verify through a back up it tells all of our >>versaries, just hack in one data. ow easy is it? >> very easy. go in and easily break into digital machines. and just creating this provocations, just hit a database. and the states can't defend on this. >> y did it in the senate committee 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. onald trump is this deep state super hero, or john f. kennedy jr., they don't believe he dead. >> this is super cheap, and whether it is political interference s orocial manipulation, ts gives everybody the ability to push a false head. this idea that there is a secret source inside the intelligenc 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?

youmplify q anon. iere is so much fake news the u.s., they don't need to create mistruths. >> it is not just russia amplifying.aw you said you the president -- >> wl -- just a minute. there are merologist, too. q is 1 th letter, and it is a code word. you said you noticed another thing at the rally with the number 17. >> if you research this, it is absurd. and they have these numbers they come up with. the president himself has believed in conspiraciesor b his political career was launched when he came on to that birtherism with presidentbama.

there is not expectation that the president is going 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 this group ow people, all remember also how everybody, our government kept place inda ne where all the aliens were incarcerated. a lot of people now believe that 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 th administration, it

gives a credibility thaurer feats t feats -- feeds the idea that pogovernment is not sd to be trusted. >> we saw senator mccain before, he turned to the crowd -- >> he is not a muslim. >> and shut that down. the leader of the country. >> thanks very much. when we come back, enter stage left,he progressive democrats line up to speak up. line up to speak up. just as oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (vo) people with type 2 diabetesci are d about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven?

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of speakers at this weekend's netroots nation conference in new orleans. it's billed as the largest annual meetup of progressives in the country. ande it's this year as a bit of audition of sorts for todemocrats who are lookin shore up support from the liberal base. >> these past 18 months have t demonstrated te people in power are no match for the power of the people. >> it's time for us to let people know that what we're seeing in this 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 iday. ould say to these politicians if you don't think impeachment is a good idea, if it's too divisive, then what's your plan? >> a free and open internet is 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 an attack 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 president joe biden, bernie sanders a my previous guest amy klobuchar were among those who skipped it. w wh come back, "end game" and the one thing that republicans have learned what they have to do if they want to run for higher office. run for higher office. coming up, "end game" run for higher office. coming up, "end game" just another day on the farm. or is it? this farmer's morning starts in outer space. where satellites feed infrared images of his land into a system built with ai. he uses watson to analyze his data with millions of weather forecasts fr the cloud,

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if you're a republican runninse for office tays 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.or the differencehem -- 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 pence. >> my friend, martha mcsally, she's the'real deal. shtough. >> 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 criminak illegals andthem home myself. that last someone a nominee

for governor of georgia. m mike murphy i ad guy for the week. good to see you, sir. >> good to be here. >> all right. dswant to put up to two sets of primary one is in florida. here's one that is frankly a traditional republican primary attack ad. take a look. >> washington is full of bad ideas and phony politicians. ron desantis and his huge tax increase fit right in. >> tax ad, that seems like a big one. here is desantis and the ad e is running right now in his primary. >> everyone knows my husband r desantis is endorsed by president trump. but he's also an amazing dad. ron loves playing with the kids. >> 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 t. mike, trump trumps taxes. >> ye

in the old days when ideological issues drove the republican t primary, t hit was -- it would be a devastating one in the republican primary but now because it's all trump all the time andbe issues hav pushed out for this cult of personality, think about this. you have a guy t running in republican primary for governor of florida, a state surrounded by oceans. talking about federally building a wall essentially in texas. and guess what? n the primary it's going to work. e it's totally flipped script. putnam, this was his moment and one trump 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 overlo who's cser to trump. watch. here's ad number one from johne james th canada. >> well, sandy pence her uses e same insults to disparage trump -- >> i can't speak at a fourth grade level like he does.

>> john james supporters the commander inie >> 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. >>t's like a stalin trial now. you know? unbelievable. you know, what you wore -- collectivist, tie, you're out of order. but the problem is when al a were doing republican politics when you run the primary you want to line up thessue profile you can use in the general election. >> le 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 from the trump church in the republican primary with a bigmp talo.

but in the general election democrats all hate trump and among independents he's mostly upside down. what is the magic light sword ncomes anor around your neck in the general. >> but so much of this is stylistic. they want to be seen as pugilist like president trump but i'd logically they're talking about trade but not the hard-line on trade and imgration on the me way as president trump. they talk about build the wall, they know they need the enthusiasm, but not the samef kind republicans. what the as redefined party does. let me show you the endorsement tweets and it's sending a message of what trump's republican party is for.li ry, border security, vets, tough on crime. you don't hear taxes. don't hear national defense. not reagan like. you don't hear morality stuff probably for obvious reasons. >> lk, the dye is cast.

they're the general, they're going to win or lose with him and moving along with the general in order to try to win theec elon. it's a high risk. high reward or a high punishment siation. and th 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 referendum on him 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 swingstates with trump is so big, there's no easy way out of it except building ad time machine finding a courage a year ago. that ain't going to happen. in the north dakotas of the world, this strategy will pretty but in the swing states it's a lot tougher. the funny thing, the great irony, if you look at who trump

ls toencers d likes to endorse with his tweets it'ser those whod in the military, so it's weird. he's kindto of reachinhe persona better than his own with these endorsements. >> you want to jump in? >> previous presidents didn't jump into primaries in their own party, but trump has a strong record jumping into primaries which is why theseatrimary cand want his endorsement. i think he's 10-1 in republican primaries that he's -- 9-1 in the ten pmaries that he's jumped into. i think mike is exactly right.s republic want his endorsement in primaries where the base likes trump but among independents, he -- democrats -- among independents 22 point advantage for democrats right now. which makes eme trump endot in the primary a very vulnerable -- puts republicans in a vulnable position. >> we're talking about the republican divide. boy, did i learn something from

netroots nation, helene. the democrats areabout to their own little fight in the party. amy klobuchar didn't look like she was comfortable about answering the warren the criminalustice systems racist trump to bottom. they're about to go through their own trumpian like experience. >> they're going to have thwi same issue a the republican party and -- the primary situation we are having right now. it's so fascinating becauseit feels as if we're seeing political science 101 the same stuff that gets you out of -- to gets you to win thear prwhen you have to go so far to the left or the right is what can you weigh you down in the general election that's amplified this year and the democrats 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.

they'rn doubling d on the kamala harriss and the elizabeth warrens andynia nixon. you are seeing this clash right now. i mean, they were throwing spit wads at mark warnergo months so it's going to be -- i think it's just going to be fun to wainh. >> it's to be fun. >> the left is so crowded. '18. summer think of all the people competing for that progressive mantel.an keep eye on tim ryan, mitch landrieu, could someone from the center -- landrieu is right up the center in 2019, 2020. >> mike, i feel like we're headed to something you have trump and his base. you may have elizabeth warren and her base. here, this is who we are and you in the olmiddle,your nose and pick a side. is that how the 2020 race is going to be? >> yeah, normally a card trick, pick any card you don't want. there's no distribution system. we are not build for 7-up to be

number one, it's coke or pepsi. that's the distribution. th's hard to run d party candidate and then you end up in the electo wl collegeere you have to ask the two parties to put themselves out of business. my bet isha you'l 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 the democratic side 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 lee about his new film "black klans men". and we'll be speaking with ron stallworth. a that for today. we'll be back next week. 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" faceok page.

a number of mass shootings multiple deaths and at least 28 wounded in a bloody weekend in chicago. >> an earthquake str es a tourisstination. the casualty count rises. >> china calls out president trump over the infamous trump tower meeting.>> charlotte rae who played mrs. garrett on different strokesas died. >> a sea of dogs in california hanging 10. early today starts now. i'm frances