david axelrod, thank you, david chalian.

back now with david chalian and david axelrod. vid chalian, maggie is very wise and fair to be very cautious and say, look, there's a lot that is not known. but certainly the narrative that donald trump jr. has told from the beginning about it initially being a meeting about adoption and then he changes that story and talks about dirt on hillary clinton, many people pointed to the idea that he didn't know who he was meeting with, which is what he has claimed. if there is in fact an e-mail saying that this is part of a russian government effort and we want you to meet this russian attorney, it does certainly raise questions about did he make the assumption or did he have knowledge that this russian attorney had some sort of backing of the russian government or connection to, which is what "the new york times" has reported. cnn has not independently verified that she is connected. >> and if that's in an e-mail, donald trump's account may be irrelevant -- >> donald trump jr. >> donald trump jr.'s account may be irrelevant because we'l

senior political commentator, david axelrod. jennifer jacobs, white house reporter for bloomberg news. david von drehle, editor at large at "time" magazine who wrote the cover story on donald trump jr. president trump is defending his son. he's saying sort of meeting that donald trump jr. took with the russian lawyer is typical in politics. watch this. >> as far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. he took a meeting with a russian lawyer. not a government lawyer, but a russian lawyer. it was a short meeting. it was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast. two other people in the room, i guess one of them left almost immediately and the other one was not really focused on the meeting. i do think this, i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. >> so, david, clearly has no problem with what donald trump jr. did. he says it's typical opposition research. >> yeah. well, let me tell you, i've been in

we'll go first to david axelrod. d, you have a lot of experience at the white house and you've seen stories snowball before. have you ever seen a snowball this big? >> no, and i don't think we've seen that for decades. i would not want to be they were trying to plot communication strategy. as you know, jim, because you cover the building, there was an attempt tonight white house's part for the previous weeks to have an energy week, in other weeks drive other messages. and the story is consuming them now we've reached this watershed event because, for months and months and months we were told that there's no there-there, and now there it is. and even allies of the white house like charles craft hammer are out and quite critical of them for their handling of this. each successive day the story changes, and that's death. the key to crisis communications is figure out where the story is going and get there first. if there were all these people in the meeting disclose that these people were in the meeting and all the facts

who knows. >> it's so interesting, david axelrod. the definition of what strength and weakness is in this white house is fascinating. the idea that being bombastic is strength, but a guy like reince priebus who is offered multiple opportunities to respond with fire or harsh words for anthony scaramucci, you know, just chooses not to do that, and tries to leave in an elegant way, that's viewed as weakness. one wonders if reince priebus had called in to cnn after anthony scaramucci had called in and bashed back, if the president viewed that as strength. >> it's interesting. the president brought in a general and reince left as a good soldier. i have to say, i think that we all know that president trump is a very narcissistic guy, and i think that strength is something that he sees in himself, and his style is very much -- i call scaramucci "mini me." he's another version of president trump. and president trump probably likes that reflection. i just want to make one point on gloria's reporting. it would be very, very dangerous for the p

jim acosta, april ryan, michael isikoff and david axelrod are back with me. nted to weigh in. jim was saying how much longer the concern would be, how much longer republicans in washington would put up with this. go on. >> yeah, and i just want to offer a little bit of reality check. the fact is that as we sit here today, donald trump's numbers overall aren't particularly good, but his numbers among republicans are very strong, and they've been pretty consistent throughout. the base has stuck with him. there hasn't been as deep an interest in this story among his base. there's been more of an inclination to believe his story, and there's much more of an interest in other things that he's doing -- supreme court appointments and trade and immigration and some of the issues that fire up that base -- fighting obamacare. so, the real question is -- i think there are plenty of republicans on the hill who are dismayed, who would like to walk away from the president, but they're not going to walk away from a president who has 85% approval numbers among republican vote

is it a way of getting rid of sessions from the doj without having to fire him because as david axelrod was just saying i think one of the reasons this week was so significant is i think it's the first time we saw significant cracks emerge between the president and some of his base, someone in his own party, cohorts. some of the base of support. i just mean in the way that conservative media and conservatives on the hill push back what he was doing with jeff sessions. in the way we saw some republicans break with him on health care. there were moments where it was emerging that way. so to get rid of bannon in a time like that would be tough but perhaps the opening at dhs he can play a little chess game. we'll see if donald trump avails himself there's going to be a cabinet meeting on monday. it will be very interesting to see chief of staff kelly handle that meeting on his first day on the job and if jeff sessions is sitting there and the relationship between him and the president. >> he said he offered his resignation yesterday. we don't know what time yesterday if in fact it was yeste

thank you very much, david axelrod.rd to your special, "the axe files" on cnn at 10:00 p.m. tonight. [music playing] across the country, we walk. carrying flowers that signify why we want to end alzheimer's disease. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? what if there were millions of them? join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's. register today at alz.org/walk. fomy doctor recommended ibgard. abdominal pain and bloating. now i'm in control of my ibs. nonprescription ibgard- calms the angry gut. i have to tell you something. dad, one second i was driving and then the next... they just didn't stop and then... i'm really sorry. i wrecked the subaru. i wrecked it. you're ok. that's all that matters. (vo) a lifetime commitment to getting them home safely. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. >>> someone looked to one man to help him find the right path. >> bottom line is everyone in this room, including myself, we got a story to tell. you're going to tell

let's bring in david axelrod. ax, thanks for joining us.ant to listen to president trump about taking on the ms-13 gang. >> they prey on children. they shouldn't be here. they stomp on their victims. they beat them with clubs, they slash them with machetes, and they stab them with knives. they have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields. they're animals. >> obviously the ms-13 gang is horrific, they're violent, they do a lot of the things that the president said. but from a political messaging standpoint, what do you make of the language the president is using here to talk about ms-13? >> well, i actually thought, jake, when i first started hearing the tape that he was talking about a white house staff meeting. i didn't realize he was talking about this. but, look, he obviously -- he is pandering to bases, and as you point out, this is a horrific issue, but he's pandering to bases. we've seen it. and so this is not unusual. but i think that -- and perhaps by being even more vivid, he

about where this was all going. >> david axelrod, david gergen.sode, ax files with john lewis tonight at 10:00. up next, donald trump treated to pomp and circumstance in paris this morning. why that might just be the most effective strategy for wing over this particular president. take a look at the president's trip. plus this moment, very, very lengthy handshake. we'll be right back. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked other. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. where are mom and dad? 'saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico! goin' up the country. love mom and dad' i'm takin' a nap. dude, you just woke up! ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. the unpredictability of a flaree may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i

david axelrod will give us the bottom line next.se tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites - so you save up to 30% on the hotel you want. lock it in. tripadvisor. >>> what did president trump know about his son's meeting with the russian attorney, and when did he know it? let's get to the bottom line with cnn political commentator, david axelrod. these are the questions of course, david, investigators are asking now that it's come to light about these e-mails that don junior released and there is all sorts of conflicting reporting and stories out of the white house about the timeline here. what do you see? >> well with be part of the conflict has been created by the president himself who has said various things about when he learned about these e-mails. did he learn just a few days ago as he was saying originally? or is it a few weeks ago as has been roar been reported now. we don't know. but the key question is whether he knew about the meeting in the first place. it is really hard for me to believe that don junior was acting o

david axelrod, mike an dantonio and jason miller. david, why quit now?of events for sean spiceer or do you think it had to do with the hiring of scaramucci? >> well, anderson, i would say of all of the pools that develop in washington, all of the betting that goes on, i think one of the most prominent was exactly how long sean spicer would last. some people had, you know, easter, some people had july 4th, some people had labor day. i don't know anybody who had christmas, because this has been a very, very difficult relationship from the beginning. it is hard to speak for this president because you make representations presumably with his approval, and then he will take it in a completely different direction, often cutting you off at the knees, costing you your credibility. so i don't think that spicer was terribly comfortable over time in that role. and then, you know, scaramucci ostensibly will be the communications director in the white house. now, his whole background is in finance. he has no background in white house communications. jen sake is sitti

and former senior obama adviser david axelrod. david, this is just one more -- again, i hate to use that cliched term, but drip in this russia story. how big is this? >> well, it's obviously big for jeff sessions. it impugns him in a way at a time, as you point out, that is very, very inconvenient because he seems to be on the rocks as it is. i think he will argue what he has, which is these are uncorroborated and there's no verification of them other than the representation of kislyak in these cables. it is interesting, as you point out, that he has moved the goal posts. so he's now saying, we didn't talk about interference in the campaign. but if he was having conversations with kislyak as a representative of the trump campaign, giving him a sense of what trump would do as president and indicating that he would take a different approach to issues like sanctions, that seems like a big thumbs up to moscow if they were considering how deeply they wanted to invest in this campaign. so it could, giv give, in the s run, the president t

you can't -- by the way, the motion that every campaign does it, david axelrod who ran obama's campaignhave ever heard of anything hike this. i base in on 34 years of experience in campaign -- >> congresswoman, when you were running, you had gotten an e-mail from an intermediary saying the russian government is backing you and there's a russian government attorney that would like to meet with you, would you have had that meeting? >> i would have been shocked, because i was just running for congress. >> but would you have had that meeting? >> look, politics -- >> would you have had that meeting? >> it would shock no one, especially you, paul, to know politics is a tough and dirty business. >> you might have sat down with somebody from the russian government -- >> i do not fault donald trump, jr., for his -- >> with all due respect, you haven't answered the question. >> it's a very high stakes political campaign. i do not fault him for doing this. this is a nothing pickle, to use van jones' term, on a nothing burger. >> i'll take that as a no -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> politics is ful

i think david axelrod is right about the law. >> david axctioxeaxelrod floate maybe this could work inmoving forward and being stalled on capitol hill. >> i think that would go down as the glass has full. there was a report out for the cbo that the trump administration had overestimated growth by several trillion dollars and it's a damning report that will get absolutely no attention. i'm not sure the way you want to bury bad news is by having worse news. that doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me. i don't think anyone in the white house is saying thank god we have this russian spy scandal because the fact that health care is frozen is not getting as much attention. i don't think that at all. i think they would like not to be in the situation and i quite agree with david. the fundamental essence of crisis communication is figure out where the story's going and get there first. don't let it drip out. the fact is they violated those rules and i think they violated them because they weren't being honest with each other about where this was all going. >> thanks very much. you can see

i would agree with david axelrod that his viewings out there may not win you some of the big presidentialnds. but that's only one way to find out. >> this is also a major question for democrats right now. there's starting to be a realization that trump is very vulnerable, but there's nobody on that horizon that could replace president trump. >> they've got some made for tv interviews on that trip. >> all politics is local. thank you for joining us on inside politics, see you back here tomorrow, same bad time, same bad channel. mark berman in the chair after a quick break. >>> hello, everyone. i'm john berman in new york. wolf blitzer is off today. a north korean missile launch has raised the stakings for a possible nuclear crisis. in a cnn exclusive, u.s. officials say the two-stage missile launched by north korea is a brand new weapon that has not been seen before. barbara starr joins me now. what have you learned? >> reporter: what u.s. officials are telling me is they have not seen this missile before. when they initially looked at it after the launch, they thought it was a missile the

i think you are this from david axelrod, they said they had a lot of money, they had a tremendous financial and they certainly had an unpopular opponent and they still lost. i think there's a lot of frustration. to their credit, i think they are finally moving forward. i think finally they are now focused on a message that get traction, and economic message about jobs, about wages, about infrastructure. >> is a disinterest message? >> it's very centrist. are you alienating the base? they see bloodsport and going after strum, responding to trump tweets. i think now, this is a more centrist approach as you are saying. the question is, does it get a response? obviously jesse doesn't think it gets the response because the republicans always small government, less taxes, it's easy to understand. this message gets immediately mocked by republicans as sounding like papa john's, better pizza, better ingredients, so we have a better job plan. it may be that this is what democrats need. >> the democrats need something. they obviously -- they've run out of ideas and candidates, and no money. they've g

let's get the bottom line with cnn senior political commentator david axelrod.'s listen to some of the moments that stood out most from the press conference this morning. >> i think it could very well have been russia, but i think it could well have been other countries. and i won't be specific, but i think a lot of people interfere. i think it's been happening for a long time. it's been happening for many, many years. now, the thing i have to mention is that barack obama when he was president found out about this in terms of if it were russia, found out about it in august. they say he choked. well, i don't think he choked, i think what happened is he thought hillary clinton was going to win the election and he said let's not do anything about it. >> so in the same, you know, few moments he said, you know, i think it was russia but it may have been others as well and he didn't go after russia. but then he went after the president, his predecessor, former president obama, for not going after russia. what do you make of it? >> well, yes, it was inconsistent. i mea

. >> that to discuss and more we have cnn's political commentator david axelrod. good morning, david. >> good morning, alisyn. >> we heard this report before from maggie haberman but not out of his mouth that attorney general sessions should have known before he ever took the job that he was going to recuse himself. >> you know, alisyn, most presidents would mark the six-month anniversary of taking office by looking back at their accomplishments over the last six months. the president instead called reporters in to issue a series of grievances, and the first and most notable grievance was his own attorney general, his own appointee. it was really remarkable. we haven't seen anything like this since watergate, a president essentially at war with his justice department. he not only dissed sessions who did the right thing by recusing himself to protect the integrity of the justice department but also rosenstein, his deputy, who he suggested was not objective because he came from baltimore and there aren't a lot of republicans in baltimore. well, you know what, there a

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. >> david axelrod, how do you see president trump playing a role in this decisive moment right now? he clearly wants, he wants repeal and replace of obamacare, but where do you see him playing that role? >> well, question is how much influence does he have that the particular juncture? he's at war with his attorney general who's a popular member, who was a popular former member of the senate, his communication's director is waging war on his chief of staff. seems like he's got a lot going on over there at the white house right now. and i don't know -- i think -- increasingly, i think these legislators are making you mentioned the house. they were burned once already. they were burned by the president. they voted for a bill. the president had a celebration at the white house and then decided that the bill was mean and that bill is not going to become law. i think everybody will proceed with great caution here. i think a lot of the senators are weighing whether they want to continue this process or stop because they want to venture more and end up getting burned. >> i do think there i

joining us is x files host david axelrod and dana bash and gloria borger. obviously, gloria, this is very devastating news for senator mccain and for his family. very tough news to hear. for everybody, really. he was first elected to the senate in 1986, which is more than 30 years ago. i mean, for the impact he has had, and continues to have on the senate is not to be overstated. >> it's remarkable. don't forget, he ran for the presidency twice. as he told me, he once came in second place, which wasn't good enough. and, you know, john mccain is a fighter. and i think we all know that, all of us tonight. and, you know, this is a man who survived the fire on the forest, shot out of a plane, was tortured five years in a p.o.w. camp, melanoma, two presidential campaigns. and dana and i have been talking to folks close to mccain who say he's been on the phone talking about his statements on health care, and continuing to work. if i know john mccain, he's going to want to get back to work as soon as possible. and want to continue to do what he does best, which is

. >> it reminds me of something that david axelrod said to us i think probably around august 2009, andose people? like they're bashing us every single day, and david laughed and said, you should have heard how tough they were on the bush administration. it was vicious. and that's a grown-up talking, saying it's what marlin fitzwater wrote about 20, 30 years ago, which is they never give you a break. they hammer you. that's the press' job. they go after you and challenge you, and that's something that this administration has not gotten from day one. >> honestly, i've never seen more lies come out of a press office, i mean, blatant lies, unimportant lies that kind of point to a bigger problem. which is really disturbing. but when i was -- when he was talking about cursing his way into the white house every morning it made me think of how he caused you the curse on the air. >> we're not talking about that. >> oh my gosh. >> that was back in the day. the same thing happened to "the washington post." they claimed the administration was happy with your coverage at all. you know, the bush adm

listening to what he had to say, david axelrod the other day in an interview had this to say in pushbackt about the president and his actions suggest to you that he is in the tradition of a famed, notorious segregation? >> i think for the record, the voter registration records. that's a form of harassment. >> dr. king, your thought. >> well, first i would like to say my president is leading the charge for civil rights today for the little unborn persons in the world who have a right to live. i'm director of civil rights for the unborn and i say that everybody civil rights count around the world to the tune coming young, old, sick, elderly, babies and a woman everything. the president is certainly fighting for civil rights. with african-american leaders and everyone there is supporting. i believe president trump might agree that we are defending america. you're supporting him. as the african american museum for example, he was knowledgeable of much of the history when we stopped and looked at the slave manacles them things. he said this is terrible. you can't do that to people. president

david axelrod asked representative john lewis about the election.ald trump. >> despite the fact that he got the requisite number of electoral votes, he often uses the word riddle. you think the election was rigged in his favor? >> well, i truly believe to this day that this election was rig interested in his favor. clayton: rigged in his favor. >> that means we won. i respect john lewis. he has been an icon of the civil rights for 40 years. if he were called. that person would be called a racist. not only did donald trump win. not only was it the requisite number of electoral votes as david said. he far surpassed what the requisite number walls. no one prevented hillary clinton from going to wisconsin or iowa or ohio or pennsylvania or michigan. all out places that she could have gone to to campaign. todd: when does this end? >> listen, the democrats never want it to end because they have no message, they have no narrative. they have no leader. if you asked right now who is the leader of the democratic party, there is no consensus. if the leader is