and jim clyburn standing right here saying this is worse than watergate.ot sure if you caught that. >> i caught it. >> that is quite the statement from the number leave sdm, somebody who has been up here for a very long time. >> and jake, let's talk about mick mulvaney's democrats, telling i believe it was cbs radio that it was bad form for senator richard burr to subpoena the president's son without a head's up. did no one there on the hill have an idea that this was coming? >> yeah, they did. a lot of people had an idea this was coming. and senators have been at least somewhat aware of the prospect of donald trump jr. getting a subpoena. i will say this, congress is a very prideful institution. and i think some senators think on the trump tower moscow issue and a bunch of other issues don jr.'s comments were not entirely consistent with what is now public. i have no idea. i'm just telling you what my reporting shows. so i think that the senate intelligence committee wants to get answers out of him. so i think that there was some idea that this would come

i understand where clyburn is coming from. is a political process so, you know, viewers shouldn't be confused about this. sometimes you hear some of the candidates for president they talk as if office, you know, maybe you violated the rules and now you have to be removed. it's not that. it's all politics. when jim clyburn says i'd like to hear from him personally, he wants to sort of find out what's going on. that's not going to work. what the rest of minority of his conference is telling him is that they want this on camera. they want to have a public airing of these different issues. they want the public to sort of get energized and get focused on some of these issues. what their leadership is telling them is that's not in the end what brings people to the polls, that's not in the end what's going to sort of keep and maybe expand their majority in 2020 which is of course, what the leadership is focused on. they are going to have to have it out. i think we will see some of it today, but we will see much more of it on the camp

in just a moment, i'll be joined by a top member of democratic leadership, democrat jim clyburn. it's his job to know where members stand on this issue. and today, after mcgahn's no show, the position of many members began to slowly shift. because that move ignited a growing number of house democrats to say enough is enough. >> if don mcgahn doesn't testify, it is time to open an impeachment inquiry. >> the only thing we can do is to start that impeachment inquiry. >> believe that we have come to the time of impeachment. >> the president of the united states of america needs to be impeached. >> i believe that an inquiry into impeachment is required at this point in time. >> we should launch a formal inquiry because then we can get more facts. >> i think that we're going down a road where impeachment proceedings become inevitable. >> i would support it. in the leadership meeting last night, sources tell nbc news that pelosi remains weary of calls to begin a formal impeachment process, and those concerns were aired publicly from leadership today. >> i disagree with the notion that

clyburn makes a good case, says you guys can't agree on anything. compromise is seen as capitulation, like you're giving your head. you guys can't agree that will help stop these kids being held in places that are going to get them sick, held in places for too long. why not? >> i think you should ask that question of democratic colleagues who refuse to have a debate. speak speaker pelosi should have gotten the bill over thursday, debated it thursday night, debated friday. she should have put forward -- >> but that supplemental is filled with things that have nothing to do with the emergency. the asylum rules, reunification, all that stuff, have the debate. but you guys can't handle all of it all at once. you can't even get these kids out of harms way. >> that chris, $4.4 billion supplement, the director of omb vote setup as a letter requested to hill, let's have a debate on that. let's debate it along with this disaster supplement. >> too much time. too much time. deal with the kids right now, chip. you go they're dying. >> fine, well we can have th

and majority whip james clyburn has a message for them. >> mr.y whip, thank you for joining us on primetime. >> thank you for having me. >> let's start with this controversy for the weekend. first, looking at it broad view, do you leave that the president making the comments that he made about the north korean leader in relation to the former vice president joe biden, was it so beyond the pale in your opinion? >> i think it was. one of the first things that i learned in politics is how to respect this country, it's leadership irrespective of what party you may be a member of. most especially when you're traveling on foreign soil. we have always learned not to criticize our president when he is on foreign soil and certainly the president ought not be tweeting insults back to the united states while he is on foreign soil. >> the substance of the matter was the '94 crime bill and the idea that joe biden being for it is going to be an albatros. it was a long time ago. there were a lot of different things going on. you wound up being in favor of this

again, we have congressman clyburn standing by. jake, one of the things i also found very interesting. beginning of her comments there, speaker pelosi claiming that part of the president's motivation yesterday and in leaving that meeting might be what we talked ak right before she started. the decisions handed down by two separate judges this week with regards to the president's personal finances? >> reporter: yeah. i think there's a lot of things to unpack from that press conference. i think that the president was obviously set off by this meeting. democrats set it at 9:00 a.m. a meeting they freefquently ask for. unpack this. speaker of the house indicated the president's family should stage an intervention, yes, he has engaged in possible impeachable offenses and questioned who's in charge in the white house suggesting the president, in fact, was no in charge and there's another force besides the president's decision-making that is guiding him. these are extraordinary comments for which we see obviously evidenced over the last c

clyburn. the chair -- i love saying chair -- the chair of the transportation and infrastructure committee appropriate to this discussion mr. defazio and ron wyden. democrat.op we came with commitment and knowledge and shared vision of this and spirit of president eisenhower, when he instituted the interstate highway system. it was important for jobs and mobility. it was a national security initiative. and it was bipartisan. lyndon johnson and sam rayburn in the house and senate, president of the united states, dwight eisenhower, we thought we could do something comparable. unfortunately, the president isn't ready for that. thank you very much. [indistinct conversations] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org. [indistinct conversations] >> c-span's newest book, the president's, noted historians rank america's best and worst chief executives. pr

. >> i'm not sure -- >> james clyburn talks about the 3:00 a.m.ne call with bill clinton and the political fight that hey had about supporting hillary clinton in south carolina. >> joe biden is different than hillary clinton. >> putting it out there. >> it was part of the obama-biden ticket. clyburn is enthusism against him. what beat pete buttigieg said about the tweet. this is what he does. put your head down -- >> here's the problem with that. that's what pushed voters away in 2016, the president's edge and impulsivity they worried about with the tweets and the president himself promised, when i get in the white house, i'm going to do a pivot. i'm going to be so presidential and he's still impulsive. >> mayor pete talked about what was effective about the tweets. he said it's a very effective way of commanding the media's attention. that's what it's about. nobody can have a news cycle without him injecting himself into it. they can't control the narrative or what the story is. he takes it back over. that's what the mayor said. that's the proble

we are in a confrontational crisis, jim clyburn said, if we're not in a constitutional crisis. but we're clearly where we have not seen this country before. you worked in the obama administration, cabinet level. what does this do to the rule of law and the regard of co-equals between executive, legislative, and judicial branches, when you have the executive branch down the line saying we're not going to comply with congressional requests even to the point of subpoenas? >> you framed this exactly right. this is about respect from one branch of government, the executive branch, for the other branches. in addition to what you mentioned at the outset, there's two other things i would put on the table. one is the president shifting money to fund a border wall that congress said he could not do. secondly, the president not defending the affordable care act, a duly passed law by congress in the federal courts. when he gets these federal court decisions he doesn't like, he questions the legitimacy of those courts. this is not sustainable in a democracy. we have democratic norms. the br

how would congressman clyburn define it? >> i would define it as a confrontational crisis, so that's exactly what it is. >> so there's your multiple choice. constitutional crisis or constitutional confrntration or the newest option, confrontational crisis. so far we have not had a moment of constitutional crisis. so far we've had confrontations that have been followed by legal processes. for example jerry nadler demands the full unredacted mueller report, the attorney general still refuses to give the report to the chairman and then the committee votes to hold the attorney general in contempt of congress. the house can also go to court to try to have that subpoena enforced, and we would only reach the point of constitutional crisis if the supreme court ordered the attorney general to comply with the chairman's subpoena and then the attorney general refused. the constitution doesn't tell us what happens next. makes no provision for what happens after that. and that is the zone that can legitimately be called constitutional cr

clyburn, to the speaker. i would like to get this done. the only people hurting are the people who are sitting in disaster. the will is great to solve this. i would like to have got it done this week. an offer has been sitting there more than a week. i have not heard anything back. i have gone back to them and told them in a serious manner i would like to make sure we solve this problem and i am more than willing to work through the night or any day and that my commitment is there that we can get this done together. >> puerto rico? >> yes, it did. >> are you confident the president would sign a bill that had money for puerto rico in it? >> yes. i have spoken to the president on this. it has to be overall. we have a lot of problems. we have disasters, an emergency on the border, others. there is an ability to get this done. put partisanship aside. when people are in disaster, it doesn't matter whether you are republican, democrat, green party. this is the moment government should help. putting poison pills -- i go back -- they are doing it

good friends with james clyburn who's third in line for house democrat leadership. he's a respectable person. i think nancy pelosi has really made some misguided steps here. she's losing it with her caucus, and she takes no responsibility about her comments of a cover-up before she's supposed to meet with the president. if you are in sales, you know you soften up the client before you ask for money, you know that, right? am i the only one that watches madmen on netflix? do you think i'm betty draper or robert sterling? [laughter] >>, no i think that pelosi came to table ready to do a deal. i think she knows the power's in her court, and i think she knows the pressure's on the president to respond because democrats have been cranking out bills, and the gop have really failed to this point to do what they need to do. kennedy: come on, man, that's so partisan. >> i felt the same way. i thought it was rich of nancy to recommend someone for an intervention. kennedy: i just love it that they're calling each other crazy the president is so stable. good. >> if we do, we wil

they're clyburn fellows. them now are running the presidential campaigns that the 20-some-odd presidential candidates have in south carolina. so we are really leading this whole new south as we talked about. and i hope to be a part of that story with this campaign. >> in terms of all those multitudinous democratic presidential candidates who are running this year, obviously you're being showered with some attention in south carolina. that does provide among other things opportunities for democrats in the state to latch themselves to national candidates. is it constructive thus far this year? do you feel like the democratic party gets south carolina, that the candidates are talking to the right people, making the right pitches, doing the right amount of listening in the right kind of places? >> they are, rachel. i am so proud of the campaigns that these candidates are running. they are going to every part of south carolina. so they're not just going to columbia and greenville and charleston, the big cities. bu

here's what house majority jim clyburn said compared to what he said this morning, before the president's planned blow-up. >> if you did a secret ballot among the democratic caucus, yes or no on impeachment, what would the majority likely be? >> the majority would be no. the vast majority would, in fact, support impeachment. just not now. >> so there you go. both statements can be true, as you can hear there. is the mood in democratic leadership changing on impeachment? joining me now, someone who was inside that wild white house meeting today and also the number two house democratic leadership. maryland congressman and house majority leader hoyer. nice to see you, sir. >> chuck, good to be with you. >> let me just, look, you were an eyewitness. tell us what happened. >> first of all, it was a sad d day. we were prepared to do the business and the campaign campaigned on infrastructure, we campaigned on infrastructure. we had a meeting three weeks ago. frankly, not much has changed. we were conducting oversight hearings as we think is our responsibility. at that time, we were investigating

clyburn: 30 seconds. this legislation takes meaningful steps to control the spiraling prescriptive drug costs by expanding access to generic drugs so patriots don't have to choose between lifesaving medications or other necessities like rent or food. democrats are addressing crucial health care needs. we stand to protect the health care of american citizens, and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey reserves. the gentleman from oregon is recognized. mr. walden: i'm honored to recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. guthrie. mr. guthrie: i rise in opposition the h.r. 97. i wish i wasn't giving this speech. as my colleagues know, i have a bipartisan track record here in the house. i have been proud to work with on emocratic colleagues issues such as aleds i'mers and work force development. last congress i had two bills that pass the house. both my colleagues know that i take bipartisanship and our responsibility to get things done for ou

clyburn: 30 seconds. this legislation takes meaningful steps to control the spiraling prescriptive drug costs by expanding access to generic drugs so patriots don't have to choose between lifesaving medications or other necessities like rent or food. democrats are addressing crucial health care needs. we stand to protect the health care of american citizens, and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey reserves. the gentleman from oregon is recognized. mr. walden: i'm honored to recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. guthrie. mr. guthrie: i rise in opposition the h.r. 97. i wish i wasn't giving this speech. as my colleagues know, i have a bipartisan track record here in the house. i have been proud to work with on emocratic colleagues issues such as aleds i'mers and work force development. last congress i had two bills that pass the house. both my colleagues know that i take bipartisanship and our responsibility to get things done for ou

in south carolina, secretary of moments,e of the great i go to jim clyburn's office. reconstruction congressman on his wall, he could fill a whole black history lesson. step-by-step,, the redemption nest, the former indeedrates, the south rose again, and they disenfranchise those black men. and they did it in such a clever way. the 13th and 14th and 15th amendments are ratified, right? you can't get rid of them but you can go around. there were state constitutions, which then unfolded over the next 16 years in each of the confederate states. polls when they establish taxes, comprehensive tests that only a law professor could possibly understand. you want to know how dramatically affected the state constitutional conventions were, louisiana won the majority of black states. in 1898 before their state constitutional convention, had 130,000 black men registered to vote. the new constitution was ratified 1898. by 1904, that number of black men registered to vote had been reduced to 1342. men voted 2000 black during the reconstruction period . the last reconstruction congr

clyburn the chair of transportation infrastructure committee. mr. defazio. and the top democrat on the finance committee and the united states, senator ron wyden. so we came with heft, commitment, knowledge, and hopefully a shared vision of greeting this great jobs , iniative for our country the spirit of president eisenhower when he instituted the interstate highway system. it was important for jobs and mobility. it was a national security initiative, and it was bipartisan. lyndon johnson and sam rayburn in the house and senate, president of the united states, dwight eisenhower. we had hoped that we could do something comparable. unfortunately, the president is not ready for that. thank you very much. we have been listening to speaker pelosi and minority doder schumer, and improv news conference where they responded to the earlier comments from president trump in the rose garden. there was supposed to have been a meeting between those people today to go forward with an infrastructure plan. apparently president trump went into the room and said it would not

. >> did you talk to jim clyburn and who else? >> city hoyer and nancy pelosi. we were briefed by all three of them. >> did they say the same thing about the president's demeanor what the speaker said and chuck schumer? >> that's correct. the president appeared agitated and erratic and the whole thing seemed staged. and three weeks ago the president indicated to us that he wanted to have a real discussion to try to enter into a bipartisan infrastructure deal, and now he appears to be super sensitive based on the fact that we're calling him on the notion that his administration is clearly engaging in a sustained and systematic coverup. >> yeah. >> so i got to ask you, you know, she has said, nancy pelosi has said he needs an intervention. congress could intervene with impeachment. justin amash called for the president's impeachment says that pelosi is talking out of both sides of her mouth on the issue. does he have a point with that? >> no. we haven't ruled anything in or out. we're going to follow the facts, apply the law, respect the constitution, and see wher

jim clyburn was still noncommittal today. >> there is no need to do anything that might turn out to be stupid. >> he used his strongest language yet telling reporters it's the longest, broadest cover-up in u.s. history. though she denied feeling pressure last night. a tipping point may have been reached with don mcgann's subpoena today, the second after william barr's refusal to testify earlier this month. that combined with unrelenting pressure from the caucuses. >> they need to be there. >> the first republican defection. that may have helped or spoke nancy pelosi's hand and so have her meeting with jerry nadler last night. his opening remarks before a witness eat read like the road map to impeachment that many democrats said the mueller report was intended to be. "he then told him to tell the american people something that was not true. he asked them to deny those reports publicly. he then again refused the president's order. he reviews the president's order to lie to the american people on the president's behalf." >> if tomorrow's meeting does result in impeachment proceedings, one

jerry nadler, chairman of the judicia judiciary, adam schiff, clyburn. they want to impeach him. they're going to keep driving that. you have others on the hard left of the democratic party. i get an e-mail a day about impeachment. >> dana: do you think the republicans have a good chance of winning back house districts that they lost in 20189 midterms, in districts trump won by ten in some place? do republicans have a chance to win back those seats if they go for impeachment? >> why do you think nancy pelosi is not moving forward on impeachment? she knows she will lose her jury if she gets these democrats to go out there. the harvard harris poll, 65% of the american people say stop it. >> dana: enough. >> big majorities of independents and near unanimity among republicans, as you'd expect. but she's not dumb. she knows she could lose her majority in the house in 2020 or at least see it squeezed down to a very small number. >> dana: good to see you. >> good to be here. >> dana: spotlight turned on nancy pelosi after robert mueller exits the stage. so can she keep her caucus togeth

jim clyburn, house majority whip, said this morning he thought that would be the week of june 4th.right before i came on the air i talked to a senior house democratic source who said that that's what clyburn and jerry nadler, chair of the judiciary committee, are saying but the speaker has not yet signed off on that. here's the other thing that's happening. nancy pelosi really knows how to get under the skin of the president. you know, she says that he wants to be impeached and that's not where they are. so the longer that they keep this kind of hanging out there like this sword of damocles, that probably infuriates the president and keep in mind they have to work out something on a debt ceiling agreement sometime this summer, steve mnuchin, treasury secretary, was up here yesterday pushing that hard. he said that twice in the past three days. they also have to figure out a way to fund the government. i asked the speaker this morning how do you do that, he's going to need democratic votes. you know, she said ask the president, it's really up to him. the other issue here, i asked ke

james clyburn, majority whip, someone who i have interviewed, i saw him on another network talking ab had that sort of back away language. he's not going there. is there an opportunity here for the president to defeat this, does he lift this spirit of, i'm not going to let people talk or go forward with that? >> it's difficult. by not letting them talk, it gives the democrats the opportunity to drag this out as long as possible and then say the president is not cooperating which gives us the reason to open peachment proceedings. >> harris: why does that lead pelosi to get to the word cover-up? >> i don't know. i can't answer that. it does make me scratch my head. you heard the president in the rose garden talk about the accessibility that he has undeniably give ton the investigation. so the point -- >> very deniable. >> 500 witnesses. >> he hasn't given that. one tune he had to really cooperate, he wouldn't answer most -- >> harris: he did, in writing. they did sit down. >> he wouldn't answer the questions. >> harris: why didn't mueller try to get him to sit down? who are you to say m

and from south carolina, jennifer clyburn, the director of the center for the education equity of african-americandents at the university of south carolina. welcome. we appreciate you weighing in on this. it's an important time as we head towards 2020. j.d., i'm going to start with you, you've hit the ground with several candidates like bernie sanders, kirsten gillibrand. the des moines register sent reporters across the state to find out what voters are interested in hearing from. healthcare, climate change, education, and all sorts of things like that. when you're talking to the candidates, as you see them come to iowa, is this registering with them? are they giving the voters what they want to hear? >> absolutely. we have such a wide variety of candidates. i think there's something for everybody in the field. so i told every candidate if you're willing to come to western iowa and listen to me talk about agriculture i'm happy to show you around. it's been pretty successful so far. >> in your politics you've host host host host host hosted kamala harris and others. >> we've hosted so many candida

clyburn. chair of the -- i love saying chair. the chair of the transportation infrastructure committee appropriate to this discussion, mr. defazzio and the top democrat on the finance committee in the united states senate, ron widen. so we came with commitment, with knowledge, with hopefully shared vision of creating a great jobs initiative for our country and the spirit of. eisenhower when he instituted the highway -- the interstate highway system. it was important for jobs and mobility. it was a national security initiative. it was bipartisan. lyndon johnson and same rayburn and the house and senate, president of the united states, dwight eisenhower. we hoped we could do something comparable. unfortunately the president isn't ready for that. thank you all very much. >> well, it has been a war of words to say the least so far this morning. it started with speaker pelosi coming to a microphone and saying the president is engaged in a cover-up. the president then coming out to the rose garden and standing at the microphone and let

but i need nancy pelosi and jim clyburn and steny hoyer to do their job as leaderships of this caucusorth these impeachment inquiries. the reason being, the president is not above the law. same thing happened with nixon. over time, the american public -- the more and more came out, the american public got on board. right now i think there is an absolute case for obstruction of justice that's been laid out. so what if it doesn't get through the senate. the fact is do your job in the house and we'll deal with that later. >> robert mueller didn't find obstruction of justice and didn't find collusion and the fact that justin amash did, great. but he -- >> he didn't not find it. he laid out a case and said it's up to congress to decide. >> well, but that -- again, he didn't find it -- he didn't make the conclusion that it was, number one. >> he also didn't say it wasn't. that was very -- >> he said he was -- according to the office of legal counsel, a sitting president cannot be indicted. >> the reality is it's hard to obstruct justice when there wasn't an underlying crime to obstruct. >>

jim clyburn the democratic whip indicates they will probably do that on june 4th.ut i spoke with a senior house democratic source who indicated that the speaker has not made up their mind on that yet. this back and forth between the president and house speaker nancy pelosi, that's pretty bad. i asked kevin mccarthy, the house minority leader on two occasions today whether he thought the president's conduct in the meeting on wednesday was presidential, whether he should have shown himself that way and mccarthy both times dodged the question. chuck shumer in the past 90 minutes or so has indicated that he thinks they have to figure out a way to get back on track, deal with infrastructure. keep in mind, they have to raise the ceiling this sum -- debt ceiling this summer also figure out a way to fund the government. elizabeth: it's sort of like brace yourselves for another 18 months of this poisonous rhetoric. you know, the democrats, the law making going on, they're running at half the rate of the prior congress year to date, just 17 laws enacted from this congress; r

. >> the question, though, is if you listen to speaker pelosi, jim clyburn, you know, a number of otherssteny mowehoyer, the cautioning you travel down that road and impeachment proceedings, you do so at your own peril. you do so at the peril of the voters at large who are saying and watching what's going on here, okay, are you going to do this or are you going to advance the agenda of the american people? >> to that point can i just read, this struck me in the wast post yesterday, this is from lisa slotkin. she writes, i believe in checks and balances and the constitutional division of powers but i also know that i got stopped in the grocery store constantly and what people are asking me about is the price of healthcare and prescription drugs. i think the perception is washington is more focused on checks and balances than they are on actually helping people's pocket books and kids. >> no we. it's in the polling, too, as to what issues voters put at the top of their list -- >> and we're already in a presidential campaign. what's going to happen here is they are all but being goaded into

we'll talk about the border and house majority whip congressman james clyburn of south carolina aboutd we'll have an exclusive interview with democratic presidential candidate congressman seth moulton of massachusetts about his struggles with posttraumatic stress after fighting in iraq. it's at 9:00 a.m. and noon eastern sunday morning. you can follow me on facebook and twitter @jaketapper. you can tweet the sho show @theleadcnn. we actually read your tweets. our coverage on cnn continues right now. have a great weekend! i'll see you sunday morning. >>> happening now, breaking news. annoyed and frustrated. rather than relishing the ultimate battle with democrats, president trump is said to be worried about the impeachment threat. a source says he's annoyed and frustrated by the ongoing russia investigations and does not see impeachment as good thing. >>> transcript released. the justice department releases the full transcript of a call from president trump's then-attorney to a lawyer for michael flynn, pushing hard for information about flynn's discussions with robert mueller. is it a

. >> subl clee, although i've heard from the number three jim clyburn who says he would be willing to transcript is released. do you not want to go through with this because you're concerned with the political ramifications if you do? >> no, i think the speaker has been clear that politics shouldn't guide a decision to impeachment and it shouldn't guide a decision not to impeach. at the end of the day, as you know, impeachment for the house is that we functionally are the equivalent of the grand jury. we have to gather the information and present that information ultimately to the american people and then to the senate, should articles of impeachment be voted out of the house. we have to gather the evidence. >> one of the things you would need in the senate if it ever got there was republican votes. it would help you politically if you got some republican votes in the house. congressman amash was asked about whether or not there are more republicans and listen to what he said very quickly. >> by the way, a lot people think i'm right about the mueller report, they just won't say it. th

you go to the clyburn fish fry. at some point as the weather kols off and we get closer to halloween, i think this is going to cool off a lot of minor candidacies and we'll have a real sense of who is going to be the real candidate. >> check out jamal's piece on "the hill." >>> also happening on the 2020 campaign trail within the next hour, kirsten gillibrand is hosting a roundtable with women in atlanta talking about the wave of abortion bans. it's an issue as you know is quickly moving the the center of the 2020 campaign on both sides of the aisle with the democrats running for president coming out hot against alabama's near total abortion ban signed into law overnight. >> it is wrong and it is unconstitutional. >> this is outrageous. this is an assault on human rights. >> this is an all-out assault, all-out attack by the republican party. >> it's wrong and we will fight back. >> it's absolutely, absolutely disgusting. >> shaquille brewster is? atlanta. here with me, msnbc contributor betsy woodruff from "the dail

. >>> joining us now is the number three house democrat, the majority whip, james clyburn.an, thank you very much for being with us this morning. as the whip it is your job to count votes inside the democratic caucus. i want to know from you, we see two dozen or so house democrats now publicly calling for impeachment, how many democrats in your caucus do you think would support the opening of an impeachment inquiry? >> well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. the vast

jim clyburn was still noncommittal today. >> there is no need to do anything that might turn out to bejority leader steny hoyer used his strongest language yet telling reporters it's "the largest, broadest cover-up in u.s. history." though she denied feeling pressure last night. >> are you going to increase president done my pressure to impeach the president and your? >> a tipping point may have been reached with his subpoena snubbed today, the second after attorney general william barr's refusal to testify earlier this month. at that combined with unrelenting pressure from her caucus' rank-and-file. >> the president of the united states of america needs to be impeached. >> in the first republican defection. >> i think it's appropriate. >> may have helped force pelosi's hand. may have her meeting late last night with jerry nadler. today his opening remarks before an empty witness seat read like the road map to impeachment that many democrats said the mueller report was intended to be. he quoted from the report. >> the president then told mr. mcgowan to tell the american people somethin

jim clyburn, the house majority whip, just told reporters that's what he expects. the first week of june, now recall that bill barr, the attorney general, has already been -- the house judiciary committee has voted to hold him in contempt. don mcgahn did not appear at a hearing. despite facing a subpoena, he has not yet been held in contempt, but that could happen soon. they're discussing allowing committee chairmen in the future to simply allow votes to happen in their committee to hold individuals in contempt without having to get back to the full house to have the vote as well. those efforts still moving forward. at the same time, there are a lot of questions about what legislatively can happen. there's a major disaster relief package that is pending in congress right now, and that there's squabbling is raising questions about whether they can actually get this through before lawmakers leave town for the memorial day recess. i caught up with some republicans yesterday who are concerned about the stalemate and say both sides need to rise above this tension. >> wh

and the president -- some of the president's inner circle and james clyburn said they were for this and now the high drama. and i think back to when i was covering bill clinton when he was president of the united states, and tom delanie was his biggest ant og industry -- antagonist and they worked on the budget and they had a budget surplus and they worked on s-chip and they worked on the earned income tax credit and they worked on several items even in the midst of impeachment. so there is a precedent of a president -- >> getting work done. in the midst of the worst time of his presidency. so, again, it is about the american people. it is not about a temper tantrum or about congress. it is not about the president. it is about working for the american people. power means service. serving people. not sitting back and having a tantrum. so at issue, if he doesn't get things done, the american people will speak. it is just like almost when we had the government shutdown. it took those who were at the airports to say, we're not having this for things to change. >> right, enough is enough. >>

but i need nancy pelosi and jim clyburn and steny hoyer to do their job as leaderships of this caucus and bring forth these impeachment inquiries. the reason being is because the president is not above the law and mueller laid this out. we saw the same thing with nixon. what happened? over time, the american public, the more and more came out, the american public got onboard. and i think right now there is an absolute case for obstruction of justice that's been laid out. and so what if it doesn't get through the senate. the fact is, do your job in the house and we'll worry about that later. >> what's your take on all of this? >> first of all, robert mueller didn't find obstruction of justice and didn't find conclusion. and the fact that justin amash did, great -- >> he didn't not find it. he laid out a case and said, it's basically up to congress to decide. >> well, but that -- again, he didn't find it -- he didn't make the conclusion that it was. so that's number one. >> but he also didn't say it wasn't. that was very clear. >> he said that he was, according to the office of legal co

actually sway her, or if she's still going to feel that it's apparent she and others close to her, jim clyburn, steny hoyer, debbie dingell among others who believe she is in the right, that this is politically potentially devastating, andrea? >> and in fact, peter baker, we look at the trade-offs here, they would have a better legal standing to get some of the unredacted, some of the redacted, rather, parts of the mueller report. they could get other subpoenas, because may look for favorably on demands if it were beginning of an impeachment inquiry. that congress has a legitimate purpose here. that said, the politics are all on the president's side and no way, as pointed out repeatedly, no way this is ever going to get passed the senate. opening an inquiry making them the targets, helping him with his base and die in the senate. >> right. the important number to remember is 20. you need 20 senate republicans to break with the president in order to reach the two-thirds majority you would need to convict in an impeachment trial if it got to the senate. it's conceivable obviously the house would

clyburn, chair of the -- i love saying chair. chair of the transportation infrastructure committee appropriate up to this discussion, mr. defazio and the top democrat on the finance committee in the united states senate, ron weisen. we came with hechlt ft, commitment, knowledge, with hope of a shared vision of creating this great jobs initiative for our country. in the spirit of president eisenhower, when he instituted the highway, the interstate highway system. it was important for jobs and mobility. it was a national security initiative. and it was bipartisan. lyndon johnson and sam rayburn in the house and senate, president of the united states dwight eisenhower. we had hoped that we could do something comparable. unfortunately, the president isn't ready for that. thank you all very much. >>> welcome back to the program. you're watching the leaders of the senate and house. if democrats continue their investigations, the president said, there will be no conversations about infrastructure or the big issues. speaker pelosi return

clyburn, the chair of the -- i love saying chair, the chair of the transportation infrastructure committee appropriate to this discuss, mr. defazio, and the top democrat on the finance committee in the united states senate, ron wyden. so we came with heft, with commitment, with knowledge, we hoped with a shared vision of creating this great jobs initiative for our country. and the spirit of president eisenhower, when he substituins the interstate highway system. it was important for jobs and mobility. it was a national security initiative and it was bipartisan. lyndon johnson and sam rayburn in the house and senate, the president of the united states, dwight eisenhower, we had hoped that we could do something comparable. unfortunately, the president isn't ready for that. thank you all very much. >> well, joining me now, peter alexander, nbc's kelly o'donnell on capitol hill, joyce vance, former u.s. attorney and an msnbc contributor, matt miller, former chief spokesperson to attorney general eric holder and an nbc justice and security analyst, "usa today" washington bureau chief, susan pag

rick scott, james clyburn spoke to me on this subject. very differing views on whether the u.s.ilitary should be involved. i want your reaction to this, sir. do you think our presence there would make a differentens? >> oh absolutely i was on the venezuelan border on wednesday. this is pure genocide. maduro is killing his own citizens. you can see how many people are already killed. genocide going on through starvation. neil: are you in the camp we have to help them out even if it involves military help? >> no, i'm not. i think we have to help them out. i would hope we would try to do what we can to influence the government down there to do right by its people and hopefully find folks down there to align ourselves with. but i am not interested in any kind of police action at this moment. neil: what do you think? you have two opposing views here, one advocating american military involvement, the other very leery of it. your thoughts? >> first of all the president, the executive branch has an obligation to be ambiguous on this. one the ways to avoid using military force is to leav

supporter of lgbtq rights throughout his career and speaker pelosi and steny hoyer and representative clyburnand i thank my lgbtq caucus co-chairs who have shown extraordinary leadership and means friends and partners in this fight. i want to thank our colleagues in the senate for their extraordinary leadership and we wouldn't be here today without the determined advocates and allies in the lgbtq community who bnded together to fight for dignity and equality under the law. throughout my life, i have seen firsthand the struggles that many in my community have achieved, the right to live freely without fear of persecution and discrimination. nd many felt was impossible. we are about to vote on this legislation which has the bipartisan support of 241 members of the house is an achievement. it was not easy to get here. only four short years ago that the supreme court struck down the defense of marriage act allowing members of the lgbtq community. don't ask don't tell was the law of the land until six years ago. and this administration is attacking the lgbtq community. together, we are stronger. w

clyburn, i love saying chair, the chair of the transportation infrastructure committee appropriate to this discussion, mr. defazio, and the top democrat on the finance committee in the united states senate, ron wyden. so we came with heft, with commitment, with knowledge, we hoped with a shared vision of creating this great jobs initiative for our country and in the spirit of president eisenhower when he instituted the highway, interstate highway system. it was important for jobs an mobility. it was a national security initiative. and it was bipartisan. lyndon johnson and sam rayburn in the house and senate, president of the night, dwight eisenhower, we hoped that we could do something comparable. unfortunately the president isn't ready for that. thank you all very much. [reporters shouting questions] neil: there you have it. the two branches of government, the executive, legislative, are essentially not talking to each other. they're not going to deal with each other. they're not going to so much propose a single piece of legislation with each other. democrats say they came to the wh