nbc news capitol hill correspondent, kasie hunt, host of kasie d.c. on msnbc, and robert costa, moderator of washington week on pbs. welcome, all. i'm going to give you two takes on john bolton both from conservatives. george will writes this. because john bolton is five things president trump is not, intelligent, educated, art tick lated and experienced, and because of bolton's west wing proximity to a president responsive to the most recent thought he has heard emanating from cable television or a tv, bolton will soon be the second most dangerous american. david french, a nuclear armed iran is far more dangerous than john bolton. a north korea capable of incinerating american cities is far more dangerous than john bolton. the foreign policy debate is frequently between hawks and doves. in the last administration the doves repeatedly failed. it's time to give a hawk a chance. kasie hunt, john bolton, everybody has an opinion. >> everybody does have an opinion. and i think that this is -- you combine this choice and what you may think about john bolto

kasie hunt, john bolton, everybody has an opinion. >> everybody does have an opinion.s is -- you combine this choice and what you may think about john bolton the man and his history with this president's chaotic management style and you have a lot of people who say let's give john bolton a chance really worried about the impact he may have inside the administration. >> bob, bolton doesn't see eye to eye with the president on so many other issues, including the iraq war, but they do see eye to eye on one, ripping up the iran deal. >> and talking to white house officials over the last few days, they say bolton will be an ally of mike pompeo, the nominee for the secretary of state. they're going to be a partnership inside of this administration trying to nudge the president forward. it's not so much an ideological case they're making, a personality mesh with the president. he never got along with general mcmaster. general kelly's influence has faded a bit. pompeo, bolton, kudlow, the tv personalities, the hard-charging types, they're the ones that the president wants at h

>> kasie hunt in pennsylvania tonight. thanks. >>> big news this evening for one of the country's biggest toy chains, toys "r" us informed employees today it will most likely close or sell all of its 700 remaining u.s. stores pending court approval. that would leave some 33,000 people out of a job. the iconic chain filed for bankruptcy in september after struggling to compete with online retailers. >>> let's turn now to the international showdown over that russian ex-spy poisoned with a nerve agent in the uk. late tonight, the white house said it agrees with the uk assessment that russia is to blame, after u.n. ambassador nikki haley condemned russia's alleged actions today as british leaders reveal how they plan to retaliate for the apparent assassination attempt on their soil. nbc's keir simmons has the latest. >> reporter: tonight america's closest ally locked in a confrontation with the kremlin, calling an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council this afternoon. >> the united states stands in absolute solidarity

nbc's kasie hunt has more. >> you did it! you did it. >> reporter: in a district president trump won by 20 points in 2016 -- >> we followed what i learned in the marines. leave no one behind. >> reporter: democrat conor lamb with a stunning upset. what should democrats take away from your victory here in pennsylvania? >> probably just that you got to work really hard and every single vote really does count. >> reporter: it's an embarrassing loss for president trump, who rallied against lamb. >> conor lamb, lamb the sham, right? lamb the sham. >> reporter: opposition to the president has motivated democrats and made it harder for republicans. >> it's a bit of a wake-up call. and i think that you can't deny that and if you do, you're lying. >> reporter: there are more than 100 republicans in congress whose districts are more competitive than pennsylvania's 18th. a huge warning sign. >> you're a republican in a safe seat, you better be ready. >> reporter: lamb was also able to win over voters like retired steelworker anthony ros

joined now by two of my colleagues on the ground here, kasie hunt is in mt. you know a lot about mckeys port. kasie i'll start with you, before i get you to talk. i want to play some voter sound that you've interacted with. let me play that and talk to you about it on the other side. >> who are you going to vote for in the special election? >> conor lamb. >> lamb. >> reporter: why lamb? >> i'm a veteran, he's been in the marines. he's for workers. he's for unions as you can see i'm a union man. >> i think he understands the main street local economy better. i think connor has made a tremendous effort to get the heartbeat of the communities. >> kasies that's just two voters but there you go. a lot of people are -- should we take those two trump voters, voting for the democratic here as some larger sign? >> reporter: i think potentially, chuck, if you combine it what the lamb campaign has been doing. there's -- those two people, dan and elky miller. they're lifelong democrats. he had a 30 plus year as a coal minor. he's union is organizing on behalf of conor la

now, to kasie hunt back at lamb headquarters. please forgive the interruption. ka sir ark kasie, continue. >> of course i can forgive you. i, like the rest of the world, is rivet bid steve kornacki. steve, thank you for playing with your hurt hand. this was never supposed to happen. they were never supposed to win a district where trump won by 22 points. the republicans never should have lost it. they were essentially sleeping when this candidate ended up running against conor lamb, and this is something we've seen in the past sometimes when, you know, there is a wave coming, and quite frankly, the party that's in power gets caught a little bit by surprise. that's what happened here. rick saccone never -- and republican operatives are right, he never really built a volunteer network, he never activated grassroots fundraising. all these committees had to come in from the outside. it costs much more money for an outside group to raise money for ads on behalf of a candidate than it costs for a campaign to do themselves, so conor relied on money he raised himself, a

we'll go to kasie hunt and after kasie, ashley parker. so kasie, you're on. what do you have to report? >> reporter: well, brian, the crowd here is slowly dwindling, still waiting for conor lamb to come up on the stage. one of his supporters said he wanted to thank them, wasn't ready to do one thing or another and asked them to stay put. we have not yet heard from conor lamb. that has not stopped the democratic congressional campaign committee from already declaring victory and calling tonight's results terrifying for republicans. the nrcc, the republican and, has essentially said the opposite. they are digging in, looking to count every legal vote, as they put it. so we haven't seen an official statement from conor lamb's campaign declaring victory or anything like that. like i said, we're still waiting for him to talk. again, brian, as we were talking about before, this is clearly something that shows democrats are in a much different position going into the mid-term elections than they were obviously in 2016. and that enthusiasm gap i think steve kornacki

right now, kasie hunt hosts "andrea mitchell reports." >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," can i get a witness? president trump asked key witnesses about their conversations with robert mueller's investigators. >> this gets into the gray area, where the president is once again creating more problems for himself. he doesn't want to follow the normal advice or customs and procedure that goes on in washington. >>> stormy weather. nbc news learned just how far the president's personal lawyer has gone to keep porn star stormy daniels silent about her alleged relationship with donald trump. her attorney has the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> at some point, lawrence, the president of the united states needs to answer the very basic questions relating to his relationship with ms. daniels. he needs to do so just like clinton did. he needs to do so like gary hart and countless politicians have gone over the last 30 years. >>> in the dark. widespread confusion in the west wing as the president says he will have a tariff announcement later today. surprising even his own staff, who s

kasie hunt picks things up. >> can i keep you for a second. because i think we need to break down what just happened there. >> you can. >> i'm going to ask the forgiveness of my producers for ignoring the script for just a moment before we get started. you just spent several minutes talking to sam nunberg that i worked as well covering this campaign. it was remarkable conversation and i was thinking you should let him stay on the phone there. what did you take away from that exchange and let's just recap for our viewers who may have just tuned in. >> so tam n-- sam nunberg has said he won't appear in front of a grand jury on friday. he had been issued a subpoena for his appearance and a number of documents relating to a number of people within the trump campaign. the trump administration and folks still associated with donald trump. there is ten people on the list. it is steve bannon, rick gates, paul manafort, hope hicks, cory lewandowski, keith schiller and donald trump himself. there are a couple of others. i'm sure you have a graphic you c

kasie hunt on capital hill, the vote on this so-called omnibus is set to start pretty soon, which means the votes are probably there to pass this thing, right? what's happening? >> reporter: typically, yes, that's considered to be a good sign, hallie. eight unlikely they would put this on the floor if they weren't confident they could get it done. it is a broad bipart son deal that lifts spending across the board. it's more spending for defense, more spending for domestic programs. it removes that sequester that we have talked so much about over the years. it's got some democrats accusing republicans of being willing to bust the budget when they're not running the show taken has some conservatives actually concerned about issues like immigration, for example. mark meadows telling "the washington post" that the president didn't get his wall in this negotiation. there of course is no daca fix also. they've essentially punted on that, not going to do daca or the wall in this. this has the house speaker paul ryan not necessarily openly peeved at conservatives, but he did take a little bit o

take back the house got one seat easier after republican ryan costello of pennsylvania told nbc's kasie huntning for lee election, opting to drop out citing the political environment. the congressman calling the move a, quote, deeply personal decision. said the very angry environment within politics and alleged hate from the left forced his hand. however, it was just days ago the supreme court paved the way for a new congressional map in pennsylvania that made the congressman's own district more democratic than before. >> apple has proposed 13 new emojis to represent people with disabilities. in collaboration with organizations like cerebral palsy foundation and the national association of the deaf, apple said it plans to offer greater representation in the emoji universe. the emojis could include characters like a guide dog, people using canes and wheelchairs or hearing aids and prosthetic limbs. they are calling it an initial starting point so here we are, every time we see the launch of new emojis, good to see this group represented. >> we all use emojis and have fun using it. thanks for

. >> kasie hunt. >> i think the test here for the republican party and republicans in congress is goingbe at what point does this dam break. i say that because if you talk privately to these republicans, they will say -- it's an acknowledgment about how they really feel about president trump, if they were not doing what they were doing behind the scenes, if they were not building some trust with the president by not attacking him publicly regularly, everything would be worse. so much worse. and i think, you know, that's a theory of the case that ultimately could be proven to be basically a fraud. if the president essentially says i don't care anymore about whatever it is you happen to think, despite this relationship that we have built and we have seen the president do that repeatedly. >> right. >> with people in his inner circle, but at the same time, they feel -- they're in a political box on the other side as well. >> but to wrap up this segment, things really started to speed up over this weekend and you can feel it. you feel the pressure here in washington. and i think on the heels

nbc's kasie hunt has the latest after being up all night. good morning. >> savannah, good morning to you. this was an incredible nail-biter overnight. it was county by county, precinct by precinct. but this is a place that voted for president trump by over 20 points and then a democrat really never should have been able to win. right here in the heart of trump country. >> it took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. >> democrat conor lamb with a stunning upset over republican rick saccone. >> we didn't take a single vote for granted. rick saccone is a competitor and they were going to make this a real fight and we were more than willing to make it a real fight ourselves. i'm proud of my team. >> nbc declaring the candidate the apparent winner early this morning in a western pennsylvania district that backed president trump by 20 points in 2016. >> we need republicans. the whole world, remember that, they're all watching. this is a very important race. >> the president even traveling to pennsylvania, in the campaign's final weekend

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. >> that is kasie hunt right there. my colleague with some headlines coming out on her show. ryan costello of pennsylvania telling her he's not running for re-election. the latest in a long list of those calling it quits. we'll show you some of these maps. his district is totally different than it was a couple weeks ago. take us through his reasoning here. it does look different, right? >> reporter: dright. his district has changed. his district, which is in the philadelphia suburbs starts to look a lot more blue. maybe as much as ten points more favorable towards a democrat. that was a competitive district. it got a lot more favorable for democrats. that's not the whole story. he also has a young family and he's a moderate republican. he described how squeezed he feels as a moderate republican in this environment. take a listen. >> it is very difficult though for what i would call your centurist republicans. no matter how much you speak out, those who don't support the president, it's not going to be enough for them. at that moment in time you get pro-trump republicans bothe

kasie hunt joins me from washington. >> chris, thank you very much. it's 11:00 a.m.est and 2:00 p.m. here in washington where fire and furry is reportedly engulfing the white house. a white house still trying to explain president trump's call with russian president vladimir putin. here's why. details of that call including the fact that president trump ignored the guidance

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i'm kasie hunt. we're live 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern every sunday from washington. tonight, the president campaigns in pennsylvania, but there is new reporting out he's already getting cold feet about the republican candidate. we'll take you inside the remarkable race with former governor ed randall and boyle and costello. >>> and anthony scaramucci joins us as more and more trump campaign insiders like hope hicks find themselves outside the white house. >>> and just out tonight, brand-new reporting

i'm kasie hunt. we're live 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern every sunday from washington. tonight, the president campaigns in pennsylvania, but there is new reporting out he's already getting cold feet about the republican candidate. we'll take you inside the remarkable race with former governor ed randall and boyle and costello. >>> and anthony scaramucci joins us as more and more trump campaign insiders like hope hicks find themselves outside the white house. >>> and just out tonight, brand-new reporting on the future of ivanka trump and jared kushner in the white house. but first, the president begins the week with major wins for his agenda, signing his tariff plan and announcing a meeting with kim jong-un. a potential breakthrough, but also a huge gamble. but in the background the advancing mueller investigation. the public melt down of a former staffer on live television, the exit of gary cohn, and reports trump's lawyer paid alleged hush money to an adult film actress. sometimes you want to get away from it all. sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your nam

i'm kasie hunt. we are live from washington every sunday. tonight, spring cleaning in the trump administration. rex tillerson gone. andrew mccabe, gone. is the special counsel far behind him? and what about other key members of the trump administration? senator chris van haul enjoins me live to talk about what all of this means as the foreign policy obstacles mount for the united states. >>> plus, democrats pull off a serious upset in trump country. new polling just out today shows why pennsylvania could be just the beginning. but we start with a restive weekend in the white house. that is an understatement. andrew mccabe fired hours short of his retirement, and he kept his receipts. reportedly handing over notes on the president to the special counsel. the special counsel subpoenaed the trump organization as the president's lawyer wondered aloud whether isn't it time for the special counsel to be ended? and now the president is fuming on twitter. why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, crooked hillary supporters and zero repub

kasie hunt joins me from washington. >> chris, thank you very much. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. here in washington where fire and furry is reportedly engulfing the white house. a white house still trying to explain president trump's call with russian president vladimir putin. here's why. details of that call including the fact that president trump ignored the guidance of his national security team leaked to the press. it's just the latest chapter in an ongoing saga that's seen trump show an unusual amount of deference to a leader who is barely more than a dictator. the big question we're asking today, why does this president feel the way he does about vladimir putin? >> i think he's afraid of president of russia. the russians may have something on him personally that they could always roll out. >> what is the president thinking? we're congratulating him for hacking into americans' voting? >> what he's demon london poisoning people with nerve gas, that's a criminal activity. i wouldn't have a conversation with a criminal. >> there's substantial evidence tha

be sure to join kasie hunt at 7:00. but first, up next, it is "meet the press." come on dad!her! parents aren't perfect, but then they make us kraft mac & cheese and everything's good again. are you reluctant to eat in public because of your denture? try super poligrip® not only does it hold for 12 hours to reduce denture movement, it also helps provide better bite, seals out 74% more food particles, and enhances your denture fit. in fact, 95% of super poligrip® users surveyed believe it makes them feel more confident eating in public. eat, speak, and smile with confidence. try super poligrip® today. >>> this sunday, crisis, chaos and confusion at the white house. one of president trump's closest aides out. his son-in-law, under fire. his attorney general, defying the president. now mr. trump is reportedly

right now, kasie hunt hosts "andrea mitchell reports." >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," can get a witness? president trump asked key witnesses about their conversations with robert mueller's investigators. >> this gets into the gray area, where the president is once again creating more problems for himself. he doesn't want to follow the normal advice or customs and procedure that goes on in washington. >>> stormy weather. nbc news learned just how far the president's personal lawyer has gone to keep porn star stormy daniels silent about her alleged relationship with donald trump. her attorney has the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> at some point, lawrence, the president of the united states needs to answer the very basic questions relating to his

. >> casey hu kasie hunt, appreciate that. kelly o'donnell, there will be another meeting apparently on school safety today. what do we expect from the president and what do you think we'll see? >> reporter: two key words. closed press. you think like wh unlike what we saw with lawmakers, there time it won't include cameras. and we didn't yet have a roster of those who are invited except we know from some of our reporting that there are families who have been affected by school gun violence who will be in attendance. the president has been branding this as school safety which is certainly a term that is relatable across the plilt spectrum, getting away from some of the more charged terminology of the gun debate. the president has been willing to poke even his allies as well as seemingly court some of the democrats on this issue. when we look at what he tweeted, here is some of what he may have been doing to try to turn down the volume a bit by appearing like he is in a listening phase. many ideas, some good, some not good, eme

. >> well, that was the news that broke two nights ago right here on msnbc on kasie hunt's show.an congressman from the philadelphia area not running for re-election in 2018. boy, if that isn't a blow to republicans in their effort to hang on to the house. it's not just the story of costello. he embodies a much bigger story when we talk about battle for control of the house. let me take you through what i'm talking about. this is costello, this is his district in the philadelphia area. here is the key in pennsylvania. already coming into this year, we knew he was going to be in danger. we knew this would be a competitive district. we're talking about the suburbs here. we always say the college educated higher income upscale voters traditionally republican in the age of trump though, maybe not so sure on the republican party. this is a district hillary clinton won in 2016. coming into this year, costello was vulnerable. in pennsylvania, remember, they had that court fight. they changed the district lines a couple weeks ago in that state. suddenly, what was already a very difficult

and they might want to listen to retired steel worker, anthony ross, who spoke to our own kasie hunte democratic party and why connor lamb brought him back on board. >> why did you leave? >> the democratic party? because they forgot the working people. >> what do you think democrats in washington should learn from connor lamb? >> they should come back to the grass roots and go up and down these streets and come in these diners and find out what reality really is. >> kasie joins us now from capitol hill. and as the dust settles, kasie, what are the behind closed doors conversations like on the hill? what is the feeling about the real-world implications of connor lamb victory? >> the reality is, republicans got caught completely flat-footed here. they didn't pay enough attention to their nominating process. they ended up with, quite frankly, rick sa cone, who claimed he was trump before he was trump. he's extraordinarily conservative and actually doesn't line up with trump in some areas on questions about unions and entitlement programs. and that's really how connor lamb won this race.

. >> we're going go to kasie hunt at the candidate headquarters. kasie is at lamb headquarters. kasie, what is the feeling there? >> well, lawrence so, far as you can see, it's been a real party, especially for a house race. i've been to a lot of these events. most advertisements go you've go to a house race party and it's significantly smaller. however, the mood has modulated through the night because as you all have been talking about and steve kornacki has been tracking so intensely, this has narrowed. and at this point the crowd does not know what to expect. at the end of the day, it's important to underscore what your panel is just talking:00. that this is still an incredibly dramatic swing. and when we talk about what this means for the mid terms in the fall, and when you hear the words democratic enthusiasm, that's what you're looking at here in this room. these are people who are incredibly invested in a house race that, remember, this district is not going to exist in november. because of gerrymandering. and the court decision that threw out the gerrymandered districts

i'm kasie hunt. we are live from washington every sunday.ring cleaning in the trump administration. rex tillerson gone. andrew mccabe, gone. is the special counsel far behind him? and what about other key members of the trump administration? senator chris van haul enjoins me live to talk about what all of this means as the foreign policy obstacles mount for the united states. >>> plus, democrats pull off a serious upset in trump country. new polling just out today shows why pennsylvania could be just

this is kasie hunt asking conor lamb about the president and rex tillerson earlier this morning. >> you i don't real wily e any comment on that either way. i've been very focused on our voters here. they overwhelmingly want me to work with the president where it benefits us in if western pennsylvania. i'll be more than happy to do that. >> reporter: conor lamb over the last week, ali, has refused to do television interviews up until those words you just heard because it's very careful waters in which he's trying to tread when it comes to around support for the president. i've talked to plenty of democrats and republicans here who still stand by president trump. they say they'd vote for him again but they're going to vote for conor lamb. they say he's taken the high road and think when he gets do congress that he's able to work. the question is to what extent are other democrats in november able to kind of follow a similar path as conor lamb is? >> vaughn, thanks very much for your reporting there. the nation will be glued to this news as it comes s out tonight the results of the news in

let's do it the, on msnbc, kasie hunt. and willie geist in new york.the conversation, as we saw, political reporter for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst robert costa, he's the moderator of "washington week" on pbs. and staff writer for the "atlantic," natasha bertrand. she's an nbc news and msnbc contributor. welcome aboard. >> thank you. >> willie has the top story. take it. >>> as the president is tweeting about hillary clinton and joe biden, he may be trying to throw up a smokescreen about this story. president trump met the snow day yesterday tweeting his defense of his congratulatory call to russian leader vladimir putin. he wrote this "i called president putin of russia to congratulate him on his election victory. in past obama called him also. the fake news media is crazed because they want me to excoriate him. they are wrong. getting along with russia and others is a good thing not a bad thing." he continued "they can help solve problems with north korea, syria, ukraine, isis, iran and even the coming arms race. bush tried to g

i'm kasie hunt. we're live 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern every sunday from washington.ennsylvania, but there is new reporting out he's already getting cold feet about the republican candidate. we'll take you inside the remarkable race with former governor ed randall and boyle and costello. >>> and anthony scaramucci joins us as more and more trump campaign insiders like hope hicks find themselves outside the white house.

i'm kasie hunt. we are live every sunday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern.onight a certain interview with a certain porn star. we'll talk about stormy daniels' allegations plus the new kids on the block. we'll talk about the new trump foreign policy and legal teams. and a trump oracle warns of even more changes to come. >>> and later, my interview with democratic senator claire mccaskill who has some frank words for hillary clinton. and tells the national party she doesn't care what they think. >>> and from generation to generation, movement to movement, we'll talk about an inflection point of protest in washington with civil rights icon john lewis. but first we are awaiting the video of stormy daniels' interview, but tonight cbs has released the transcript. some of it is what you might expect, the claims of stormy daniels, a successful porn star who said she and donald trump had sex once in 2006. they met, she says, at a golf event in tahoe. according to daniels, they stayed in touch. daniels claiming trump even made her watch shark week in 2007 in a hotel

i'm kasie hunt. we are live from washington every sunday.dministration. rex tillerson gone. andrew mccabe, gone. is the special counsel far behind him? and what about other key members of the trump administration? senator chris van haul enjoins me live to talk about what all of this means as the foreign poli

kasie hunt. oh, yeah. three times this morning is a record. >> going to get the t-shirts on. reporter jeremy peters is with us as well. washington bureau chief for usa today susan page joins us. also with us member of the senate arms and finance committees, top ranking democrat on the homeland security committee. senator of missouri running for re-election this year. claire, good to have you on board. >> good to be here. >> how's the campaign. >> campaign is great. i actually enjoy. >> this is what you do. >> this is what i do. it's really hard work. i've moved around missouri with a vengeance and i will continue to do that. try to -- and i love that part. i love actually going into the very small communities and sitting down and walking in the diners and talking to people about what they're angry about. and what they're frustrated with. >> what are you hearing. >> what is really missing, everybody in washington is mi missing this. health care cost and health insurance cost. that is the notion of the republicans came in and said we're going to repeal and replace. and we're go