>> joining me now is msnbc political contributor and former deputy national security adviser ben rhodes. white house correspondent -- i'm sorry, geoff bennett. and nbc political analyst phil rucker. white house bureau chief at "the washington post." and nbc political reporter shaq brewster. msnbc legal analyst maya wiley. sorry if i got all the names messed up, but first of all, geoff bennett to you at the white house. the president reacted only after ivanka trump and other republicans expressed some discomfort with the way this was playing out. >> that's right. some republicans on the hill sending word through the vice president they were trying to convey this message that they didn't want this send her back chant in much the way that lock her up had become a rallying cry. so you saw that was one of the reasons why the president tried to disavow the chant, although as you rightly said in the damage control that he both mentioned and we heard from kevin mccarthy, the house republican leader yesterday, just doesn't hold up to the facts. but one of the reasons, andrea, in my conversations

cynthia alksne, paul butler and ben rhodes are back with me. ben, you're first this time there was a lot of information gleaned there by the chairman adam schiff from the special counsel about the role trump people played here in terms of colluding, a lot of it. >> yeah. and that exchange is the whole ball right there, chris. the trump campaign welcomed this attack from a foreign adversary, sought to benefit from it, built a campaign strategy around it, and here we are. and here we are facing an ongoing threat to our democracy from the russians. and cynthia is exactly right. mueller can't directly direct congress to impeach the president but he has basically punted it into their lap, here's what i found. what are you going to do about it? and let's be clear, chris. if this doesn't at least merit an impeachment inquiry? what does? >> i agree with that. >> we have an attack on our democracy from a foreign adversary. a foreign adversary that's going to do it again. a and if the people who did this pay no price for it, there is no accountability, wh

thank you, donna edwards, jeremy, michael steele and ben rhodes. coming up, how did they find this stuff? from mar-a-lago, 1992, a little sleazy here, shedding light on the relationship. it looks pretty intimate there. look, look, look, pretty close between him and epstein and accused sexual predator jeffrey epstein. what was going on in trump's great gatsby days when he was holding those parties. >>> plus, william barr and wilbur ross in criminal contempt. is this another symbolic gesture by democrats or will they ever find a way to hold the trump administration truly accountable. >>> and trump's schoolyard attacks. when he is accused of something like racism, he tries to turn the tables like on a schoolyard. the number of times trump used that baby defense. much more ahead. stick with us. i went straight to ctca. after my mastectomy, it was maddening because i felt part of my identity was being taken away. when you're able to restore what cancer's taken away, you see that transformation firsthand knowing that she had options that she could choose

they're trying to big one didn't they dress one of them a big one they have dressed one of them ben rhodesin the short time that we have left let's look ahead to the next presidential election next year. what kind of democratic party do you think is going to be capable of beating donald trump with his massive following is dominance of the airways is dominance of social media which proved so devastating in the last presidential election what kind of democratic vote is going to be able to i think contrast with the current. the massive following is 40 percent he is the most unpopular us president to run for reelection in my life he sets the news agenda very good at 3 then doesn't they dominate is that it takes a look at what they do have to live with the world as it is or doesn't check the democratic party just routed down from republican party exit from the scene we won 40 seats in the house yeah and won by the largest popular vote margin in the history of mid-term election the largest democratic victory in the house since watergate. voters in the european parliament elections have shaken of

attorney and msnbc political contributor ben rhodes, former national security adviser in the obama administration, all-star panel to break this down for us. we've seen some reporting in the "new york times" that primary republicans, including the chair of the intelligence committee, richard burr, they've got concerned about ratcliffe being, quote, two too political for this position. what are you hearing from your sources about the president's affinity for the congressman? >> well, it's clear that the congressman made a good impression on the president you outlined in the interim. and i think that's going to be the white house's main argument to the senate for confirmation, is that here is a guy who can connect with the president. understand what the president wants. it's the president's choice. i do not expect him to have serious confirmation difficulties. there will be flags raised, though. and not least because dan coats, frankly, is beloved by many of his senate colleagues. he is a two-time senator and last of the kind of old guard to serve in the trump cabinet. the last of the so-called grow

. >> your thoughts on that criticism of ben rhodes? >> i don't take much of what he says seriously.out lying to the press, creating an echo chamber. he's bitter that the deal that he spent so many years working on has now been basically destroyed. by this president. and he's doing everything he can to try and resurrect it. including apparently, basically mouthing the propaganda of the iranian regime it's difficult to know where the rhetoric from ben roads and that of the aia toll a begins and ends. if you read the tweetses. they're similar to the messaging. >> christian, what do you make of russia bailing out of the treaty, moscow has been violating for years they say. >> it's disappointing, more russian cheating on international agreements. i understand their national interest in doing so. i think they're more about china and the need to develop enter kneeled yat nukes if you're next to the aggressive country with more than a billion people, expanding its military capabilities rapidly. nuclear weapons make a lot of sense for that. but nonetheless, we should take it as a wakeup call

. >> ben rhodes on donald trump's brazen politicization of american intelligence

and ben rhodes an msnbc contributor and former adviser to the obama white house. your reaction?i think it is pretty evident what trump's re-election strategy is going to be. particularly over the next two years the democrats control the house. he has no real legislative agenda right? what is he going to run on? he'll try to stoke up the fears and grievances of his base. he'll try to make the people he thinks are most unacceptable to his base, the face of the democratic party. that's these four women of color in the democratic caucus. he is going to try to gin up turnout on his side by having rallies like this. >> will that work for women who have been in office for six months who a week ago nancy pelosi was basically telling maureen dowd, these are just four votes. they're not the voice of the party. >> look, stephanie, i think what donald trump has accomplished is he has unified house democrats. previously there were some issues about a small number of house freshmen mostly who were concerned about the direction that the caucus was going and, look. donald trump through basicall