shane harris, danielle pletka, cornell belcher. to get to the significance of cohen's actions, not with what's in there in a minute, but before i wanted to get this rigged election thing. maybe this is me coming back from my nine-daybreak, but i have a feeling this smells like something that's coming back, where he's suddenly saying the russians are colluding and all this stuff. the president loves to complain about things that are rigged. in fact he's done it so many times we've got a scroll. this is what he has said has been rigged. the gop primaries, the gop delegates, the democratic primaries, the general election, the russia investigation, the clinton investigation, the rig. the election investigation. the clinton investigation. the federal court system. the polls. media is rigged. the federal economy. the emmys were rigged. and whatever the system is. the system is also rigged. he's now saying this. we're kind of laughing at it, but he's literally, if he's telling you no, the elevator didn't go down, it went up. >> and his ba

danielle pletka of the american enterprise institute. nbc news senior political editor, mark murray, and susan page, washington bureau chief of "usa today." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning. we do have a lot to get to today. the troubled nuclear talks with north korea. president trump's upcoming nato meeting. and that planned one-on-one with vladimir putin after the nato summit. i have my interview with mr. trump's lawyer, rudy guiliani on the latest on the russia investigation and the michael cohen developments. and, of course, biggest of all, it's president trump's announcement tomorrow of his pick for the supreme court. he's doing that in prime time. but let's begin with a story that has the entire world's attention. and right now it looks like it could be a good news ending, at least. the effort under way right now to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach. they're fighting weather

affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" here on msnbc and tonight's panel, danielle pletka, an nbc news contributor, jonathan lemire, an nbc news contributor and heather mcghee, senior fellow at demos action and also an nbc news contributor. andrea, let's start with you. you were able to break the news to the dni in the moment, vladimir putin is coming to the white house. your reaction to that and the interview as a whole. it was remarkable. >> what was so remarkable was that, first of all, he honestly did not know that putin had been invited. he acknowledged that he would certainly recommend that there not be a one-on-one again without note takers, that he did not think it was a good idea. still does not know what took place in helsinki in that private meeting, has not been fully debriefed. there have been some comments by the president, but they don't fully know and don't know certainly how to counteract what is being said in moscow. he said that he did not know in advance that foreign minister lavrov from russia and ambassador kislyak were going to the white house that d

and joining us now is danielle pletka, senior vice—president for foreign and defense policy studies atforjoining us. you listen to that press conference —— danielle. did donald trump say anything during the press conference, and result will matter here, did he say anything that will encourage vladimir putin and russia to act in ways, to act for the better? so, that's a really important question. you need to divide between what the lord trump said and what the united states is going to do. —— what donald trump said. so, no, idon't think going to do. —— what donald trump said. so, no, i don't think there is anything that formal trump said that would have suggested to vladimir putin that he will need to rein it m, putin that he will need to rein it in, stop his interference in syria and cyber activities in the united states and elsewhere. none of that. 0n the other hand, we also made no commitment to russia, and i think that, thank god, is quite important. so, you have made the point that actually, during the course of the trump administration, sanctions have been ratcheted up against mos

let's bring in tonight's panel, danielle pletka, david ignatius and carol lee, national political reporter who doesn't just contribute here, she works here full time for nbc news. carol, thank you. mr. ignatius, you wrote about this this morning, so i'll let you tee off here. i feel like there's two conversations. dani and i were talking about this in the green room. try to have a conversation about the issues with nato and subtract trump's personality, but let me start the conversation this way. why is the president doing this so publicly? >> i think this was the diplomatic version of trash talking. i think he has convinced himself that destabilizing friends, adversaries, people in our political culture works for him. i think every time we go, oh, my gosh, he didn't do that, i think he probably thinks this is going the way i want. i think he went to brussels determined to pick a fight. he sat down at breakfast and action bam, these very intemperate sharp comments to call germany captive of russia is extraordinary. but i think he did it to put people off balance. the formal agreements seem

eugene robinson, the bureau chief of "usa today," susan page, danielle pletka, and mark murray.elcome, all. let's start with supreme court. what we're learning this morning is that the senate republicans have a preference. they would prefer less of a fight. raymond kethledge. thomas hardiman. susan page, those who are two mitch mcconnell prefers, essentially, kavanaugh is too much of a paper trail, and amy barrett would spark a culture war. >> he is associated with the last republican president, right, with george w. bush. who knew that would be a liability with the next republican president? the argument for barrett is the same for and against. she'd spark a culture war. some republicans think it'd be great. the question is, will president trump think that, as well? she's 46 years old. that's an asset. name her to the court, she's confirmed, she could be there four decades. >> eugene robinson, let me put up -- each one of these has a conservative concern about them. sort of, as susan mentioned with brett kavanaugh, it is the bush connections. one called him the low-energy jeb b