>> because lindsey graham can hold his own.od bless lindsey graham right now if you're a republican. i've traveled the middle east with lindsey graham. we've met with refugees at the syrian border and heads of state and kings. lindsey graham would sit across a president who is concerned about donald trump and say, don't worry about donald trump. presidents come and go. senators die in office. and that's his attitude. his attitude is to use the article 1 authority that the founders enjigsvisioned for the senate. and the house has blown its credibility between health care and the russia investigation and we know where the credibility of this administration sits right now. >> well, you being from the other side of the hill, though, on the house, you will not die in office necessarily or not most congress members do. when you look at it, would you be worried about donald trump sitting down with air force one? would you be worried about a twitter funder coming down upon you if you were a member of this freedom caucus, if you were in

unless they change the senate rules, which is what lindsey graham was referring to there.y only have two democrats. he was suggesting a simple majority could move that confirmation process along. how about this, half the time was focused on russia and much of the conversation of folks waiting in line was on russia. first i want to take you to west virginia where i was at democratic senator joe manchin's town hall. i've been in oklahoma, kansas, west virginia, michigan, much of what you hear from people is saying, hey, republican, we want to focus on the broader agenda of donald trump and the russia issue is not the most -- i want to play a sound bite from yesterday. >> first republican president i ever voted for in my life and i will vote for him again. he's one of the best presidents i've ever seen. he's for the working man. i'm a 100% joe manchin man. anybody is crazy to not vote for him. he's for us, just like donald trump. >> reporter: this isn't to suggest that the potential enormity of trump campaign connections to russia to minimize the potential enormity of it, but

>> yes, and god bless lindsey graham.ue is that the house of representatives and the senate are very different when it comes to matters such as this. and the founders of our country set it up specifically that way. it's very clear and has been for some time that people like john mccain, lindsey graham, put national security above partisan politics. i may disagree with a lot of their policies and their issues, but it's very clear now that if this bipartisanship about the process, about getting to the facts, holds true, the senate is going to be the ultimate decider and is going to provide the american people with the truth. >> what do you guys make of this request for immunity, and there's this thought that if they do that it's because we're waiting to hear about a bigger fish which would be the president or pence? >> i think it's standard procedure. if i were flynn's attorney, i'd say let's go ahead and get a blanket immunity. that's the first thing i would do is because everything is so volatile right now. >> so you don'

senator lindsey graham holding a town hall meeting and getting an earful from folks in that state. hillier is live with what graham's constituents were all fired up about. >> good afternoon. lindsey graham had his town hall here. he's become mr. town hall. he's one of the few republicans that's held a town hall. he's held three in this last month. he knows what he's walking into. he addressed right off the top. okay. let's talk about health care, russia. he said we're going to talk about the epa and went right off the top of it. we'll play you one of these bites on the issue of the supreme court. lindsey graham is far from an ally of trump. he voted for independent ed mcmullan last november. where he has stood with trump is on neil gorsuch, the judge up for nomination to the supreme court. much to the ire of this mostly democrat/independent crowd here, he said he'd be willing to blow up the filibuster in order to approve and confirm judge neil gorsuch. here's that bite. >> the democratic members of the senate who want to filibuster this guy, you are taking the senate down a very dan

lindsey graham wrapped up a town hall recently. vaughn is joining me. what are you hearing, vaughn?e awere mostly democrats. a handful of republicans who expressed ire and lindsey graham, particularly over the supreme court. lindsey graham said that he's willing to use a nuclear option which would not require 60-vote filibuster in order to move the confirmation process of neil gorsuch ahead for the confirmation to the u.s. supreme court. another issue that was heard was the affordable care act which, in talking to the democrats in the crowd, gave a head nod to lindsey graham when he believed the only path forward would be working for democrats. another issue in which he crossed donald trump was other on syria. he said that he does not believe that the new stance from the trump administration echoed by rex tillerson and nikki haley this week, there would be focusing on not pushing assad out of the government and instead pushing the military effort on isis. he said he pushed it back and assad needs to be removed. but on the issue of russia, if we could use more hunky dory. ever since

lindsey graham, talk about rowdy there.was quite the bit town hall, shall we say, in his home state of south carolina. he faced all those questions about michael flynn. here's what lindsey graham had to say. >> okay, let's look at flynn. the working for turkey. i don't know how they missed that. so that's something we'll look at, right? manafo manafort, let's take a look at him. let's see what kind of business dealings he has. >> robert, do you think we're going to see republicans distances themselves from the administration and the president? the longer these kinds of questions continue, is that what we're seeing here? >> i think it depends on the state and the polling data. the reality is that a lot of republicans are scared to death that they're going to be primaried to the right come 2018 if in fact they're up for re-election, particularly in the house. there's two things here i think are very important. one, lindsey graham has always been a critic of the president. he's a straight shooter down the line. he was that wit

you heard lindsey graham just say that was not the case. we had a briefing on friday and they presented us with no plan. we don't know if it is limited or if there is more. when we asked about the legal authorization, they said they were not prepared to discussion that but they will in the coming days. we don't want a president, any president, to just be able to start a war or launch missiles when they want. there has to be congressional approval. >> you heard senator graham outline what he would like to see, what actions are taken going forward. and i said do you need congressional authorization for that and he says no. if an authorization is on the floor of the senate, sending in a limited number of troops to push the momentum back, would you support something like that? >> you know, we agree these atrocities are horrible, but sheer where we're different. he said the trump administration is aiming for regime change. if assad is doing things wrong, violating international treaties with an authorization we can try to deter him for doing it,

and that you just heard lindsey dw graham say that wasn't the case.had a briefing by the white house on friday. they presented us with no plan. we don't know if it is limited or whether there is more. when we asked about the legal authorization, they said they weren't prepared to discuss that. but they hoped to discuss it in the coming days. again, our system is we don't want a president, any president, just being able to start a war or launch missiles whenever they want. there has to be congressional approval. >> you heard senator graham, he outlined what he would like to see -- what actions are taken going forward. and described sending maybe 5,000 troops and i asked him, okay, do you need congressional authorization for that? he said no. let me ask you this question. if an authorization is on the floor of the senate, that describes what senator graham wants to do, sending in a limited number of troops to basically push the momentum back against assad again. would you support something like that? >> you know, lindsey and i agree the atrocities are h

what you just heard senator lindsey graham say. this is the president's son-in-law but also one of his top advisers. and for this president, loyalty is key. the fact that he's sending jared kirchn -- before his secretary of state has visited iraq just underscores the fact and underscores the fact that devicing a plan to defeat isis is on the forefront. so jared kirchner will be thinking about that as he makes the unannounced stop in iraq. we've seen him essentially have his hand in other key foreign policies. in mexico he's helping to lay the ground work for the critical visit that the president is going to have at the end of the week with the president of china, president xi jinping. he also helps the president work on domestic policy, really highlighting the point that this is one of the president's closest advisers and he is of course family. >> christen welker there in the briefing room at the white house. as the president gets ready for a monster week, the president of egypt, jordan, china later in the week. he's also taken to

. >> frequent republican critic of president trump, senator lindsey graham. >> it was a wonderful signal to send but it's got to be followed up. >> reporter: the former vice president nominee, senator tim kaine. >> to do this without congress, without a vote, i think is a clear violation of the law. >> reporter:nd senator bernie sanders who warns that this atta could lead to a military quagmire. >>> plus, power struggle at the white house. if chief strategist steve bannon leaves, does president trump's populist nationalist agenda leave with him? joining me for inside an analysis are david brooks, columnist for the "new york times." danielle pletka, rich lowry of the national review and helene cooper. welcome this sunday morning. it's "meet the press." good sunday morning. this breaking news before we get to the serious story. there were attacks on two egyptian christian churches this morning. a bomb exploded in a church packed with palm sunday worshippers north of cairo. it killed more than two dozen people, wounding scores of others, according to health officials. hours later a suicide

but within hours, by the end of the day, john mccain and lindsey graham put out a joint statement saying the time has come to end the bifurcation. that those two cannot be -- they're inklinked. because iran backs assad, and as long as assad is slaughtering the syrian civilians, the civilians have no chance of defeating isis or a resolution for a greater syria against assad. >> interesting point you make, kevin. angela, i'd like your take on this. people like to draw this distinction. that we're fighting isis, and isis poses a threat to the rest of the world. the assad regime doesn't. and that's a civil war. the united nations takes that view, by the way, and hence, doesn't do anything about bashar al assad, as well. do you agree with kevin's take, that maybe we shouldn't be -- maybe we shouldn't be drawing such a clear li? that's john mccain's take. >>ohn mccain's take that kin has given us. >> well, you know, why does isis have support in syria? what assad has done to his own population and the past years have fueled recruits for islamic state. therefore, you can't draw a distinction be

>> okay, so, david, lindsey graham never minces wrorords. but your thoughts on that?did president trump change perhaps a global view of him because of what he's done? >> i think michael is on to something in that we really don't know if the president has transformed himself to a sort of quasi isolationist america-first foreign policy president to a more traditional reaganite republican foreign policy president. we're going to have to see how he handles the middle east and asl as asia, et cetera, going forward. what i can tell you is that republicans on the hill, including lindsey graham that i spoke to on friday, felt very reassured that the syria action means that trump is abandoning a lot of what he campaigned on from a foreign policy perspective. they really appreciated the fact that he took a leadership role in the middle east for the united states, and that he put russia on notice that if they were going to be complicit with bashar al assad and his use of chemical weapons, there were going to be consequences. one of the things that a lot of lawmakers were really

you have lindsey graham, you have senator graham, you have john mccain, a lot of people saying, you knowe with this decision. in some ways it seems like a 1 yan f -- 180 for them. what do we make of that? >> this is something for john mccain and lindsey graham, their foreign policy, they are harsh, harsh critics of obama's nonintervention in syria, so so it shows this is a high priority for them. and that trump, you know, is someone who can defy expectations. there's a very good chance incomes week lindsey graham and john mccain will hammer him on his russia ties or something else. but this syria air strike has been popular with large parts of the establishment in both parties. >> have to live it there. thank you for your time today. >> thanks for having us. >>> the nation's improving job picture over the first three months of the year. how much president does president trump deserve and will continue? so much lobster, so little time. at red lobster's lobsterfest any of these 9 lobster dishes could be yours. so don't resist delicious new lobster mix and match or lobsterfest surf and turf

destruction on his own people. >> and in the wake of this, how interesting do you find senator lindsey grahamen a vocal critic of the president, saying he's likening himo nald reagan. what do you think comes from this? >> maybe that's linds graham's way of saying -- handing out an olive branch, i'm not sure, but what he was trying to say is i support the president and his actions and feels like he's on the right track. >> okay. i understand you retweeted neera tanden who came out outspoken against tulsi gabbard. do you think this is building against her, what will come from this, or also is she articulating her own personal thoughts or those of the people who put her in office? >> i have no idea, but i doubt the average american thinks assad had nothing to do with chemical weapons or we should have an independent investigation to find out if he did. look, you've got to trust the people on the ground. i trust doctors without borders. i trust amnesty international. do i always agree with amnesty international? no, but i do trust there are people on the ground who have seen this. she has also ma

steve: do we have the sound bite with lindsey graham? we have that sound byte with lindsey graham.ber of airplanes and other things last thursday; right? but we didn't completely destroy the runways because donald trump himself, president trump tweeted out those are easy to fix and go ahead and fly. as soon as they were able to patch them up, what do they do? they took off. here's that symbol. lindsey graham. >> here's what i think assad is telling trump. fu. he's making a serious mistake because if you're an adversary of the united states, and you don't worry about what trump may do on any given day, then you're crazy. steve: the element of surprise is very effective. brian: right and that's senator mccain and senator graham are very concerned that we're going to tolerate the existence of assad and let him get away with what happened over the last eight years. i think they're both extremely happy that this administration sees assad and isis in that region is something that has to be addressed and not ignored. steve: and john mccain himself said he doesn't have to come to congress

this is what lindsey graham had to say. lindsey graham, of course, a big critic. here's what he's saying now. >> i think he was repulsed as a human being by what assad was capable of doing. the children really moved him and all i can say about this president, he has the instincts of ronald reagan in many ways. he's an emotional man but he's also a very smart man. i think he feels that he did the right thing by those children. >> i'm just trying to figure out, jonathan, going forward, what this is going to mean for his relationship with republicans on capitol hill. when you have lindsey graham, john mccain, marco rubio, i mean, these guys were merciless in their criticism of donald trump on foreign policy and other areas but specifically foreign policy in the campaign. is this going to change things going forward? >> well, if you take actions that are moving in the direction of conventional republican foreign policy, you are going to win the approval of john mccain, lindsey aham, marco rubio and most republicans in the senate with the exception of rand paul. you're

clayton: hundreds liberals getting hostile it is a town hall target senator lindsey graham why? supreme court pick. >> i am going to vote for judge gorsuch i think he i highly qualified. >> i am not going to allow president trump -- to be denied the same opportunity that every president has had for 200 years, because you are mad. clayton: senator graham slamming democrats plan to filibuster calling the move a very dangerous path. heather: people note very happy in the audience, president trump not giving up on promise to repeal and replace obamacare now vowing to make a deal with the democrats, cheryl casone from fox business, here with details, good morning. >> good morning, yeah president trump is threatening to well yet make a deal with democrats if his party can't get agreement on health care reform together. interview with "financial times" published yesterday president said quote if we don't get what we want we will make a deal with the democrats we will have in my opinion not as good form of health care but going off to a very good form of health care, and it will be a yo

lindsey graham, senator graham had in essence is rephrasing what president nixon called the mad man theory and president trump has said virtually the same thing in terms of saying he wants to be unpredictable. president nixon's theory was always make them fear what the american president can or cannot do or will do and that he's unpredictable. that had great results for president nixon in terms of his relationships with china. the soviet union and ending the war in vietnam. unpredict ab unpredictability is good if it's deliberate. the bottom line here is we're all trying to figure out did these strikes work. if the goal was to send a message, it didn't work because nobody understands the message. if the goal was to degrade serious capability, it didn't work because we didn't degrade the capability. if the goal was just to deter them from using chemical weapons, we just don't know yet and we'll have to wait and see. >> if you'll recall president obama and national security adviser suz advis adviser. >> at some point we're going to have to stop using president obama's administration as a pun

you've had people like lindsey graham say this basically is covered by the original amuf after 9/11. think that's the real big question. we have these critics, moorkarc rubio and the hawks particularly saying this is clear as mud on what tillerson is saying versus nikki haley. if they want a more robust response, then what are they willing to do in terms of voting. >> and presidents change. especially when first tested. a new president gets tested on the world stage, they often end up throwing a lot of stuff they said on the campaign trail overboard. i'll read this from peter baker. to the extent this a trump doctrine is emerging, it seems to be this. don't get roped in by doctrine. i think that is what we see. he is a transactional person. he's looking at this one chris -- crisis at a time. can you do that? can your own team figure out what they should prepare for? this is syria, chemical weapons. what about at the end of the week north korea launches another missile. >> exactly. there was a lot of relief and support offered by other foreign policy establishment in washington and ar

lindsey graham says obama. lou dobbs says we have to have a conference. >> i'd go lindsay one betterd and says they are two for the price of one. i agree we should eliminate syria's air force. i've always felt one of obama's worst mistakes was allowing russia to build an air base in syria. i tell the russians to clear out of that airbase so they don't become assad's air force. >> bill: so you would take military action against assad now. that's a pretty strong deal. >> it's a shift for me.'s i haven't favored that before but i think the president really said that today when he said his -- they crossed many lines. >> bill: ambassador, thank you, we appreciate your time tonight. we're going on the road again. "the tip" moments away. one>> factor to be 23. spend stuff here show sister and, milk, and waters. in in a moment we'll talk about that one. old-school life in the same lame the best nonselling nonfictione country.y. as for seven days in the marketplace, old-school has sold more than 100,000 copies. we thank

lindsey graham is happy. everybody sit tight. up next the administration says iran is complying with a nuclear deal and then compares iran ambitions to those of north korea. mixed signals for sure. but why? [ music stops suddenly ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for minor arthritis pain, only aleve can stop pain for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. thank you. ♪ come on everybody. you can't quit, neither should your pain reliever. stay all day strong with 12 hour aleve. [ male announcer ] imagine what you wear every day actually making your body feel better... that's exactly what tommie copper does for people everywhere. they call it "wearable wellness," and tommie copper has infused it into everything they do. why not experience the difference tommie copper can make in your life? go to tommiecopper.com, enter your e-mail to become part of the tommie copper community, and get 15% off your entire order, plus free shipping. life hurts, feel better. when they thought they s

it is something senator lindsey graham says will happen. >> this will be the last person that will belibuster. which was in effect in the teen 48. because the senate traditions are going to change over this man. reporter: the nuclear option is a procedure that would lower the threshold for his next he votes needed to end the filibuster to a simple majority 51. this is actly what democrats did in 2013 when they controlled the senate and a change president to end republican filibusters on executive branch nominees. an up or down vote on judge gorsuch most likely will come friday. back to you. nicole: adam shapiro, thank you. president trump will hold a townhall meeting at the white house to discuss ways to improve america's business climate. topics expected to include tax reform and what it means for business investment. one of the factors holding back the economic recovery. the meeting comes as the admin is duration shifts focus to tax reform and possibly major investment in it or structure after the gop health care plan was pulled when it failed to win enough support in the house of r

lindsey graham had a slightly different view of it. here is what he said to our chuck todd on "meet the press." >> here is what i think assad is telling trump by flying from this base. i think he is making a serious mistake, because if you're an adversary of the united states and you don't worry about what trump may do on any given day, then you're crazy. >> pretty provocative from lindsey graham. >> it is. and my reaction is who is provoking trump more. is assad provoking trump by doing this or is lindsey graham, who long wanted deeper u.s. intervention in syria, who was really critical of barack obama and now is pressuring trump to go deeper, do more to try to push assad out of power, is he using this as an opportunity to try to go after trump's pride, to try to say, hey, you can't let this guy push you around? i mean in other words graham maybe is sort of the instigator here because graham doesn't want to see these strikes that we saw the other night just on this one airfield to be the end of the story. he thinks there should be a m

for example, lindsey graham.s take a listen to him. >> you know, this guy, i think he was repulsed as a human being by what assad was capable of doing. the children really moved him, and all i can say about this president, he has the instincts of ronald reagan in many ways. >> what do you think of that statement, sir? >> well, i think it's really great that we finally have somebody taking some tangible action over there, and i'm glad that senator graham agrees. we've been through many years of mythological foreign policy. remember benghazi was a movie. remember, we can deal responsibly with regimes like iran when we come to find out we should have already known we couldn't. and so -- or that we got rid of chemical weapons in 2013 in syria and we apparently did not. so i think it's time to take some measured, careful actions which show the world that the united states is back on the field, has pads on, is ready to play this foreign policy out to protect our interests. >> but to what extent, because we had 59 tomah

here's lindsey graham.e a listen to this. >> i think he was repulsed as a human being by what assad was capable of doing. the children really moved him and all i can say about this president, he has the instincts of ronald reagan in many ways. he's an emotional man, but he's also a very smart man. i think he feels that he did the right thing by those children. >> the instincts of ronald reagan. what's graham's angle here? >> well, graham is, along with john mccain and tom cotton and marco rubio and some of these other senators who were praising donald trump for this action from the hawkish wing of the party and they want to see a harder line taken against assad, but they're never going to be satisfied because donald trump is not, as far as i can tell or foresee at this moment, going to push as hard as they would like him to. i mean there was a debate inside this administration before the strike about really what good would it do. there's a recognition, and steve bannon is a part of this wing in the administ

you wrote about lindsey graham, lindsey graham strategy was to have a girls name treating tricking progressivesinto thinking they're the first transgender president. >> obviously that did not work and he said support was limited to lindsey graham. >> so now he has taken on a different role since the election and has a big voice. >> he is much better doing what he did. as many of these people were better. but he is willing, the guy that i really appreciate is john mccain the thing is, i like john for a while, it is hard not to like him in person. but they say john is so crazy and then i went on a carrier embark. i flew out on a can't supply claiming caught the tail hook and i got rocketed back off after a few days. i went out there and i watched carrier pilot slammed on the carrier. and in heavy seas, i was on the theater roosevelt, the big stick is a color, we are copper hundred miles out. the seas were so high, the flight deck on a carrier is about 60 feet or something above the waterline. spray was coming over the bow, that's how big the waves were. they landed those planes and they did it at

. >> are you concerned, speaking of the house, and you saw senator lindsey graham or herd him say, they're off in a ditch somewhere. senator feinstein is concerned what's happening over in the house, that she expressed in the same way the same support for this house -- for the senate intelligence investigation you're doing, but she's worried that the house mess is going to put a stain on the senate investigation. how concerned are you about that? >> i think the opposite. it's pretty clear the contrast -- it's pretty clear the contrast here. the senate committee, burr and warner, had a joint press conference last week. they basically locked arms and said we're going to go wherever the facts take us. i think the american people can depend on the senate intelligence committee investigation to be done on a bipartisan basis and to go wherever the facts lead us. >> so basically, what you're saying is that the president's description of this investigation is fake news, nonsense, phony, total scam. those are phrases he's used since he became president on this. they don't apply as far as you're con

lindsey graham the republican from south carolina. thank you. shannon. >> shannon: we've got a big show for you this morning. rand paul and u.n. ambassador john bolton and orrin hatch. >> bill: and we'll see where everything's going today with the republicans on the hill. so stand by for all that. in the meantime, this is a big story yesterday. new details today on the suspected bombers. the death toll rises in the subway attack in russia. we'll tell you about the manhunt and suspected motives and the identity of one of the attackers. >> shannon: and horror in syria. dozens killed on a suspected chemical attack on innocent civilians and attacks on those treating the survivors. >> bill: and the hill getting detail on the republican plan to replace obamacare. can the white house get enough lawmakers on board this time? >> when it comes to repealing obamacare in my view, failure is not an option. for six years republicans have been promising the american people if you elect us we'll get this done. i think we have got to get the job done. what's the

>> senator lindsey graham who is a republican from south carolina said he will be convening a hearing in the coming weeks regarding russian interference in the u.s. election. with regards to general flynn, we are now learning he did not disclose that he was going to -- that he was meeting and talking with russian officials. this story continues to evolve and continues to percolate in the halls of congress. scheduled fors later this week but there will be anoer hearing about russian sanctions. that will add fuel to the fire about this ongoing investigation. david: thank you very much. for more on the trump administration's tax cut, let's bring in mark domes. great to have you here. >> it's great to be here. two-partt me ask you a question -- what do you expect to see from the white house tomorrow and what would you like to see? >> we think we will not see very much detail at all tomorrow. nick mulvaney said there would be more detail in june and taxes are really complicated. be thousands of pages long so we expect to see broad parameters tomorrow. in the past, tax reform has been broug

senators john mccain and lindsey graham releasing a joint statement. is where totion from here. article was written, saying some are calling for the strikes to can and you for the military action to continue. was clear is he was trying to distinguish himself from barack obama. >> him with his right-wing allies. >> some supporters very upset. seek congressional support on this. the republican senator rand paul has written a pretty angry article on fox news's website. law orident is above the above the constitution. i said so when it was barack obama and i will say so when it is donald trump. trump has effectively up ended his foreign policy in syria. promise, campaign something he made clear many years ago. he was tweeting against military action. many people see it as a betrayal of this promise. been tracking has thousands of alt-right reactions to this decision. he has been retreating them. one,t to show you this "president trump for in less than 100 days. steve bannon might as well come back to bright heart to supervise the coverage of world war iii." anchor: jared kushner mad

lindsey graham join us now. good to see you this morning, senator.arse that out for us, preemptive strike. we need to do whatever we have to to obliterate the north's ability to come after us. would that mean us taking military action first? >> as a last resort. here is what i believe. i believe if they had a nuclear weapon on top of it that could reach america they may use it. do you think that's possible this guy would actually attack our country if he could? >> shannon: you and secretary kelly are the ones i've heard say you think it's possible before the end of donald trump's first term as president. >> i do. if you believe as i do and general kelly it would be a mistake to allow him to have an icbm to reach america there are two ways to stop it. diplomacy using china to get them to stop developing it or use military force. i prefer diplomacy. i had dinner with the president last night. a great dinner. i am impressed with his commander-in-chief skills here. he won't let this nut job in north korea develop a missile with a nuclear weapon on top to

there is no bigger hawk out there than lindsey graham.e understands that if you cut the state department funding, you have got to buy some more bullets. there are some new voices on this as well. anyone who has listened to todd young, the new senator from indiana, boy, he is a strong voice when it comes to these accounts. just a few extra advocates in the senate can make a difference. victory in the short term would be parity, but in the long-term we have definitely got a handful of people who understand the value of these nonmilitary tools countering what our adversaries and rivals are doing. >> yes, sir? right here in the middle. >> rick tillman, board member of the arms control administration. president trump apparently decided very quickly, without consulting congress or our allies on this attack. doesn't this make an argument for the legislation that would require the president, before he launches the first nuclear strike, to consult with congress? sen. murphy: i'm not as familiar with that piece of legislation as it should be, and i

. >> lindsey graham said it was wrong to take it out on judge gorsuch. >> it says more about the senate that it does judge gorsuch. >> after feinstein, senator leahy, and mark warner so they were voting no, delaware senator chris coons became the 41st democrat, enough to sustain a filibuster. >> i will be voting against cloture unless we are able as a body to sit down and find a way to avoid the nuclear option. >> there was a clash when ted cruz suggested this is pure politics. >> it's the action of a handful of left wing billionaires spending money to organize activists on the ground that are, in effect, holding democratic senators hostage. >> the democrats are afraid of being primaried. >> this has been building up for years. all i can say is, what goes around comes around. >> republicans say they were forced in the position, making the case that democrats would not have accepted any judge picked by president trump. utah senator orrin hatch blasted democrats. >> it's pathetic. they are so stupid that they pick somebody. we have no alternative than to do what has to be done. >> today's

should it be chemical weapons or should it be if he -- if he deploys barrel bombs like lindsey grahames? >> exactly. when you hear somebody like sean spicer say something about barrel bombs and then he just walks it back, the white house walks it back right away, again, it's confusing people. that's not the leadership we need out of this country. the world is looking at us. this president took on that responsibility and he needs to act responsibly. his team neets ds to get their together. this is not a one off situation. >> where is the red line? where should the red line be, congressman? >> well, the red line should be that assad is someone who is a tyra tyrant and should not be there. >> let me ask you this. the government's view is that assad and his regime were behind the attack. your democratic colleague was on cnn last week and said that she was skeptical. she was skeptical that assad was behind it. do you share that view? >> well, i think that assad was behind. it i think it's consistent with who he has been as a tryant and a leader of a country, but at the same time we need th

there are some, especially republican senators like lindsey graham and john cain, who would like to seehose boots on the ground, who fundamentall think that taking care of the commendation of this problem. kevin: you made a great point of bringing up senators graham and mccain. what about lawmakers who want more answers about, as you say, the answers for what this administration is going to do on foreign policy? do they have any avenues that they can pursue to get more answers? ben: i think one of the keys here is going to be seeking an authorization for the use of military force. the is something administration and sean spicer has said they don't really think they need. the president is basically using his war powers as the commander-in-chief year. in congress, a lot of folks want to come out to see whether they are happy about what happened in syria or if they works. they are going to force the situation where they legally authorize the use of force for what the president can do and establish contours about what he can and can't do and how long that can go on. i think that's going to

flynn has become so identified with the controversy voters in south carolina listened to lindsey grahamo find out what really happened. >> we're going to talk about the flynn deal. it's getting weirder by the day, isn't it? >> and just other indications about concerns about the russian investigation are expanding outside of washington. the associated press has a new poll showing of those contacted more than 52 said it's time for an independent investigation impaired to just 23%. that, of course, will take a lot longer, halle than those on capitol hill. >> chuck todd is moderator of "meet the press." he's with us. chuck, good morning to you. >> good morning, halle. president trump is calling this story fake news, you've got republicans like lindsey graham saying they're not going to ease up on the investigation. new revelations about mike flynn. let me put it this way, it's opening day in baseball, what inning are we in with russia, chuck? >> i think we're only in the second or third inning at this point. look, the senate investigation is going to be methodical and it's going to take mon

nigel farage and lindsey graham. it, greg gutfeld, after a unicorn. the internet is obsessed with there carley shimkus has them for us, awesome, to try this morning. awesome. we love free food. ♪ dear predictable there's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say: if you love something... set it free. see you around, giulia ♪ ed: adidas sent a marketing email after the boston marathon it's the subject line that sparngd outrage has the company apologizing this morning. ainsley: here with that and the day's other top trends is fox news headlines 24/7 reporter carley shimkus. they weren't thinking. >> poor choice of words coming from adidas. the company sent emails with this running line you survived the boston marathon. so, a lot of people, of course, were reminded of the boston marathon bombing, of course. and a reaction pouring in so swiftly on social media. let's

lindsey graham have been comments. as soon as the name susan rice gets mentioned, rand paul is jumping in and saying there's something suspicious about this because the name susan rice is in involved. do you have any guidance you can give us about why that name sets off republican washington the way it does? >> well, i think, i don't have to tell you, lawrence, we're living into an extraordinary partisan time. if anything the partisanship has deepened in the trump administration as a result of all these controversies. it may be related to the lingering controversy over benghazi. who knows exactly why she sets off these reactions. what i can tell you in this case she was simply doing her job and it would have be, frany, irresponsible to not take a look at some of these communications in part to -- remember this, too. we only have one president at a time. during this period of time, the obama administration was still in charge and in an unusual transition, the trump administration, to be, was actually conducting foreign

that's why republicans like senator marco rubio and senator lindsey graham say we should be concernedy do republicans look away from this when it should be a bipartisan concern? so if you combine that in difference with the fact that now they look like they're stonewalling, it's more of a headache making the investigation more consequential and bring more heat, drag it out through the months when he's trying to accomplish big ticket items. he's exacerbating a situation that maybe he colluded and he's trying to cover it up but if he didn't, it's time to come clean. >> shepard: so you're saying maybe they colluded and they're trying to cover it up. if that's the case, we're in a different place. >> if that's the case, they're going to be found out, as we know. the fbi is looking to the russia connection for almost a year now. and the congress is looking into this. the congress knows all about michael flynn. former deputy attorney general sally yates is going to come in a few days and testify in open session in congress. she's the one that went to the trump administration and said we bel

now you have the subcommittee from judiciary lindsey graham's pursuit as well. so it shows you that you've got three tracks here going. almost competing tracks talking to the same people. where does this lead? clearly the investigation's going to go on for some time. senator graham says he's alsoed in michael flynn. this particular issue, sally yates had said her concern was that he might be blackmailable by russia because of things he does. things he did in the past. we're not sure what that is. and senator graham wants to know exactly why that is. he wants to pursue it through his subcommittee as well. >> as you know, based on what sally yates told the white house, he event ually, flynn, ws dismissed by the president after only a month or so on the job. thanks for your reporting. lots of developments to discuss with our panel. we have our cnn military analyst retired air force colonel scedrc leighton. policy and business reporter. you worked with general flynn on the joint staff back in 2008, 2009. so what's your reaction to the news that he may have not follo

he's having dinner with john mccain and lindsey graham tonight on the the white house.e interesting. >> they have been some of the president's detractors. it will be interesting to see what comes out of this because it has been across the board. you can count on lindsey graham and john mccain to cause friction. >> it looks like a lot of national security issues the hard lined views the president is accepting some of them. >> i wouldn't have described them hard lined, but more mainstream or traditional republican. when he gets into house and has to govern, he's not as far from mccain and graham as he may have thought he was. >> it's a good idea for the president to be meeting with these senators. >> sure. i think the president should meet with as many folks on who l capitol hill as he can, especially because this president hasn't been having this kind of experience before in his life. just learning the history all through conversation like that could be very helpful and informative to him in his own decision making process. >> totally agree. all right. that's a good conv

lindsey graham said there will never be a 2200-mile billed period.come symbolic of better border security. my question to remains. are you talking about a giant cement wall? there's a lot of people in america think this is as an wal wall. >> harris: some areas need offense. >> meghan: you thought it was a wall. a lot of americans think it's an actual wall. now my interpretation is that we talk about fencing and drones in higher security? to me, that's a cyber wall. >> sandra: the president has gone on the record saying it's going to be a mix of things. delaying the funding for this ambassador, to those who voted for him, he did promise that wall. >> meghan: i'm sorry, -- >> john: this is the ronald reagan metaphor that we talked about sitting on the hill. if it has to have a wall, it will have a big door. i think people understand he was talking about his view on illegal immigration. a wall is not of a big deal. in the next election, there will be substantial enhancements. >> harris: the president may want to reiterate some of those things so that ev

i heard lindsey graham, whom i admire a lot, say he was going to vote to break the rules because it's not fair when the democrats get their judges and the republicans can't get theirs. give me a break. merrick garland never even got a hearing. that's not the only reason to vote against judge gorsuch. but i'm just saying the rules are the rules. the democrats are using the filibuster that the republicans have used hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. those are the rules. you cannot whine and complain about one party using the rules as a minority party when the republican party did the same thing in the minority. live with it and move on. >> it's simply not true. the republicans have never use ed a filibuster to block a nomination. what happened with merrick garland is a long standing president in the last juror of a president's term you don't get the chance to fill in a very important 30-year term for a candidate. >> where did that rule come from? >> it's a long standing precedent. >> no, it's not, senator. let's go by the constitution. you said about president trump and i woul

lindsey graham said that while he liked karen handel's chances in the runoff, the very fact that ossoffclose to 50% should be a wake-up call to the republican party that they need to do more to reach out to moderate voters across the country. bret? >> bret: john roberts live on the north lawn. the lack of a decisive victory in georgia is a o'clock for -- as a roadblock. doug mckelway it looks at a party at many experts consider to be in trouble. >> coupled with last week's victory in by rob estes, the failure by jon ossoff to crack the 50% mark -- >> y'all ready to flip the six? >> in a world where republicans controlled the white house, both houses of congress, supreme court's thoughts, and within two-thirds of statehouses and 31 governorships. >> they were clear going into this election, they said their goal was to get over 50%. they came up short. >> democrats suggest the closest of the two special elections give them hope to close the gap. >> i think democrats are very pleased with these first few special elections. we are running anywhere between 15 and 20 points above where we ran

today the town hall meeting, senator lindsey graham responded to concerns about flynn who was seeking immunity in the russian investigation. >> i really didn't see this one coming. flynn said himself, if you request immunity, you must be guilty. >> with kelly o'donnell reporting, monday they'll begin the first closed door interviews. a list of 20 witnesses the committee wants to see. >>> to a developing story in colombia, the province is in a state of emergency after a land slide killed nearly 200 people. heavy rain caused rivers to flow flow. causing the river to slam into the city that borders ecuador. 200 people are still missing. the colombian president has deployed troops. >>> still to come, investigating arson in atlanta. we're learning about the man accused of setting an sbaet on fire. plus, fighting immigration enforcement with technology. the digital tool for immigrants and its connection to the bay area. >>> more worm weather on the way. we'll have some patchy to go. so the seven-day forecast has a little taste of sum summer for your sunday. i did everything i could to make