i'll talk to our republican senator leader john barrasso of wyoming. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, democratic pollster, white house correspondent for pbs news hour, and republican strategist al cardena. 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're going to get to the big political news of the week in a moment, but we're going to begin this morning with president trump's visit with north korea's kim jong-un at the dmz. it was an historic first as the two agreed to resume their efforts at a nuclear agreement. >> good to see you again. i didn't expect to meet you at this place. >> the president then walked over the border, briefly, becoming the first sitting u.s. president to step into north korea. afterwards, mr. trump spoke to reporters. >> it's just an honor to be with you. it was an honor you asked me to step over that line. i was proud to step ov

joining me now, the nuer three republican in senate leadership, john barrasso of wyoming. "meet the press." h>> thanks foring me. >> that photo. >> sad, tragic. >> is there anybody to blame for this death? how do we prevent this? why didn't we prevent this? >> i'm a father. i'm a doctor. you never want to see this. we see this -- i think ians very importthat is published. the thing is that there are many more dying just trying to get to the united states, taking that very long and dangerous -- i don't blame anyone for this. we have a system incentivizing people to take a long, dangeroul trip where peo are getting trafficked, raped, murdered, used for trafficking drugs. we need to stop the incentives that tell people if you get oure, we're going to keep you here and give y more things. we need to do -- and look, there's bipartisaninegislation rogress with lindsey graham and dick durbin to try to seay, let's have people whwant to come here for asylum apply from where they are. let's make sure children can stay with families a longer riod of time so we can adjudicate some of

lou: you're seeing jodi ernst, mitch mcconnell and john barrasso, that's the leadership team.d them, i mean, you're looking at -- look at the grin on their little faces. i have never seen such minuscule political figures on capitol hill in my career as are represented in the those images you're looking at right now. harmeet, your thoughts? >> well, i agree, lou. it's very disace pointing. and i think the senators seem to be acting more in their own self-interests in terms of getting reelected and their donors than what the constituents who put them into office care about. american workers care about this issue, american taxpayers care about this issue, and i'm glad to see that the president is standing firm. i hope he does that. the other bad thing about this is seeing the party members attack the president when he's abroad conveying the -- lou: they're cowards. they're cowards. >> it's very unfortunate. lou: if those people -- can we put that picture up again? i just -- could we, please? of the leadership of the conference in the senate? i mean, if, you know, if brains and pr

john barrasso, john thune in the back. these people are the ones selling out this president, and i want every american to see just who it is that is trying to commit, first of all, they're committing political suicide because they are refusing to support this president. they didn't pay much attention to what happened in the november midterms last year. everyone who did not support this president lost their seat, that's why the democrats are in control. it's going to happen again. and to see these people stand up and question the president, these are the geniuses who got us in this mess, tom. these are the same people who push these nonsense chamber of commerce open borders, illegal immigration, you know, by any number is just fine. it's their policies that have followed, and they question the president? it's outrageous. >> no, i agree with you. and, you know, it's not like the democrat party isn't doing enough harm to this country. lou: right. >> now we've got a few republicans jumping on the bandwagon. if you talk about t

john barrasso, john thune in the back.se people are the ones selling out this president, and i want every american to see just who it is that is trying to commit, first of all, they're committing political suicide because they are refusing to support this president. they didn't pay much attention to what happened in the november midterms last year. everyone who did not support this president lost their seat, that's why the democrats are in control. it's going to happen again. and to see these people stand up and question the president, these are the geniuses who got us in this mess, tom. these are the same people who push these nonsense chamber of commerce open borders, illegal immigration, you know, by any number is just fine. it's their policies that have followed, and they question the president? it's outrageous. >> no, i agree with you. and, you know, it's not like the democrat party isn't doing enough harm to this country. lou: right. >> now we've got a few republicans jumping on the bandwagon. if you talk about the d

senator, john barrasso, republican, wyoming, thank you, sir. appreciate you being with us. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: sure thing. more immigration news. i.c.e., the immigration people, criticizing washington state's new sanctuary state law and giving examples of why they say it's so bad. ash? ashley: very disturbing. okay. let's take what seattle has done or washington state and oregon, for that matter. very strong law saying not only should you or you should ignore the requests from i.c.e. but you can't even tell them you are releasing a criminal illegal alien. they gave seven cases. the case of ramos, he was released from jail and within months dismembered a victim. another was arrested for charges of murdering his wife. there was an illegal immigrant released without anyone knowing, convicted of raping a wheelchair-bound seattle woman twice. he raped her a third time before they caught up with him. this is just three examples. it goes on and on and on. what really bugs me about this, the democratic governor in washington state says this. we

i want to bring in senator john barrasso, republican from wyoming. mr. senator, you sit on the energy and foreign relations committees. if it turns out that iran is responsible for this tanker attack, how do you think we should respond? >> well, i think they are responsible for this. we know that iran with their activity iies in the world, mak the world less safe, less secure and less stable. the straits of hormuz where this is happening, 30% of the world's oil goes through that area. it is our energy dominance that we have in the trump administration that made a huge difference for the united states but we need to continue to show our power and our force around the world, and the president has done that, and that's the way you prevent additional attacks like this one and the one they had last month. stuart: i do want to leave thim for this, mr. senator. the senate is going to try to advance the president's border funding request next week. he wants $4.5 billion. is he going to get it? >> i believe that he will, if the immigration system is broken, it ha

. >> reporter: wyoming senator john barrasso is now pushing legislation that would restart the licensingocess the obama administration put on hold almost a decade ago after opposition from a bipartisan group of nevada politicians. >> i have concerns about the science here. >> reporter: senator catherine cortez masto of nevada has been fighting yucca mountain. >> part of the infrastructure that's necessary is to build all of the rail lines that need to come across nevada, across this country to bring it there. a lot of those rail lines and the shipment would come through the heart of las vegas. >> this will be a bottleneck for all of this radioactive waste if, in fact, yucca mountain does go through. >> it's a bottleneck. two shipments a day for 50 years. i mean, it's crazy. >> reporter: cortez masto invited us along on a rare visit to the tunnel, hosted by william boyle from the department of energy. >> how good of a site is this for the country's nuclear waste? >> well, the department felt it was good enough that we submitted the license application in 2008. >> do you agree with that su

for more on what's ahead at tomorrow's meeting of presidents trump and xi let's bring in senator john barrassorman of the republican conference great to see you today. >> thanks, becky. >> so what do you think? >> i think it's a positive, i think that there's going to be good work done, but it's not a done deal yet. i know that american workers benefit from smart trade, i know that there are great opportunities, but we know that china cheats if it hadn't been for the tariffs these discussions wouldn't even be happening china steals our intellectual property, this he limit their markets to our -- our production, all of these things make it harder for americans so do tariffs matter yes. is it important to have them yes. but they are not an end in itself we need to get the solutions because we all benefit, i think, globally from portrayed. >> -- moretrade. >> there seems to be bipartisan support on what president trump has done in terms of cracking down on china and playing hard ball because of all the evidence that they are not playing on a level playing field. we are getting deeper into an elec