steve kornacki helps us break down the numbers in a few minutes. >>> jared kushner under scrutiny in the federal probe. multiple officials telling nbc news investigators believe kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry. "the washington post" reports investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by kushner with russian officials. that does not mean they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge kushner with anything. his attorney says his client will be cooperating with their request for information. >>> the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee says lawmakers could take up a bill to increase sanctions on russia as early as this summer. it's significant shift for senator bob corker who as early as this month resisted bipartisan calls for new sanctions. corker says he was giving the

steve kornacki, nbc news and s msnbc national correspondent. john heilman, co-anchor and troublemaker, co-anchor of the book "game change." in washington, msnbc political analyst glenn thrush. chief white house correspondent or the noo"the new york times." phillip rutger for the woe "washington post." you you wwrote the most astonis print stories. glenn, i want to start with you and your piece detailing how the president obsessed with loyalty felt like comey was a rogue operator who could not be trusted as the fbi investigated russian ties to mr. trump's campaign, obsessed with independence, mr. trump was the ultimate loose cannon making irresponsible claims on twitter and jeopardizing the bureau's credibility. what, given your reporting, do you think james comey will make of president trump's comments to lester holt today? >> boy, isn't that a great question? i wish we could get rid of this panel and just have him on, right? >> we tried. no offense. >> everybody's trying. look, i think comey -- my suspicion is comey's voice will be heard at so

our national political correspondent steve kornacki, >> so that was last night, this is tonight, and us live from montana with the gianforte campaign is nbc news capitol hill reporter kasie hunt watching the results roll in on the big board. our national political correspondent steve kornacki, kasie, we'll begin with you, how much were the contours of this race affected by a misdemeanor charge given how much of this race, how much of the vote was in and done and dusted already? >> reporter: well, brian, there are questions about how much this could possibly affect the race giving it about two-thirds of montana voters that cast their ballots early, and we're seeing that reality bear out in the numbers as they slowly start to come in. the mood is sort of picked up here at the gianforte headquarters over the course of the last half an hour or so. as we see that he is sort of maintaining a somewhat, what seems to be a durable lead around five points or so. the numbers right now are tracking closer to what they looked like for the presidential race in 2016 than the most recent governors r

that's how trump is and flynn is kind of survived longer than he should have -- >> steve kornacki we had this -- chris christie confirmed he didn't have michael flynn on the list to be national security adviser secretary of defense it's not like acting attorney general yates was the first one to say i have concerns. labeling her a political opponent today when the former head of his own transition was worried about him seems like a stretch. >> there were a lot of people, you go before any of the questions about russia and any of the questions about the phone conversations were raised there were a lot of people and chris christie apparently included who looked at mike flynn for other reasons having to do with his reputation when it came to management and being somewhat of a hot head, even look he was doing it on behalf of donald trump, you can understand maybe why he turned a blind eye but things on the campaign trail, campaigning for donald trump -- >> led the -- >> is that a right position for somebody with that reputation, that background to be taking? and you have reporting now in

we have a good one, mike allen, the executive editor of axios, steve kornacki national political correspondent for nbc, rob ki mach, served as hillary clinton's campaign manager and jeremy bash former chief of staff at the cia and d.o.d. and nbc national security analyst. president trump has said what he did was for humanitarian reasons but you have said way too dangerous. >> i don't know of any humanitarian reasons that justifies providing classified information to our adversary. this is the intelligence officer's worst nightmare because they recruit human sources and say we're going to protect your life and send your information directly to the president's desk. now it turns out when you send it to the president's desk you may not be able to protect the source's life. >> does it hold any water when the president says i'm looking to work with russia. he never acknowledges that russia on any level is an adver sairty. what could be done in syria, it's not just like russia is on the sidelines doing nothing. they're on the other guy's team. >> i think we're just trying to get the signal straight

steve kornacki, msnbc and nbc news national political corresponde correspondent.nbc contributor, jonathan capehart, and columnist for "the washington post," and juan zarate, also an msnbc and nbc news national security analyst. and we're out of time after all of that. >> go to break. >> okay, jeremy, let me begin with the last conversation we were having. >> and one of the pushback from the white house that your sources were telling you is that the president wasn't even told the sources and methods, therefore he could not have possibly disclosed -- >> we call that the ignorance defense? >> well, i don't know what it's called, but it's wrong. and here's why. there's a lot of classified information that does not have the original sourcing information in it. in fact, if you looked a to the pdb, the president's daily brief, that book given to the president every morning, there's a lot of information there that doesn't have the sources. you would not give that over to the russians. >> can i ask you both a question? what is code? there's something in the fbi reporting a

as steve kornacki was just pointing out. those from districts who did vote for hillary clinton will be the prime targets. and you heard the channel and the derision on the house floor when the final passage was going through. and it was similar to what the democrats end durd when, endured it. >> somebody we both know lost a former, the university of pennsylvania professor right now, marjorie. >> who likes trump, who doesn't, and that's an interesting debate that will go on for the next four years. >> i can see a lot of working class, what we called reagan democrats voting for attitude. and then going home to their spouse and saying how does this affect us? >> what president trump said, this is a victory for them. the fact is, we look at it like a sporting game. who wins, who loses, who is likely to get killed in the next election. any one of us can go home and get a phone call from an emergency room having a sick relative and then we see where the rubber hits the road. and we don't know how this will affect anybody. we don't

steve kornacki will be along with those. we'll all talk about them in just a moment. ...just go to bed" new aveeno®... ...positively radiant® overnight facial. get the benefits of a spa facial... ...overnight. aveeno®. "naturally beautiful results®" >>> you know what else they say aboutt my people, the pulse, they say i have the most loyal people, where i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters, okay it's like incredible. >> one of the most referred to quotes of the campaign for good reason. president trump during january of last year during the gop primary making a claim that made jaws drop at the time. at the time he had a double digit lead in the polls over his primary opponents. much has been made about the recent drop in his approval numbers. but has anything changed with the trump base? there's only one person who can get this question. and that is our national political correspond end steve kornacki at the big board tonight. >> brian, yeah, let's look at this. these

>> all right, steve kornacki, the only man who has been awake as long as i have today. we were both on the "today" show. now you are stuck joining me at the table. >> the homestretch. >> exactly. steve is going to join the panel when we come back. on september 9, 2010, pg&e learned a tragic lesson we can never forget. this gas pipeline ruptured in san bruno. the explosion and fire killed eight people. pg&e was convicted of six felony charges including five violations of the u.s. pipeline safety act and obstructing an ntsb investigation. pg&e was fined, placed under an outside monitor, given five years of probation, and required to perform 10,000 hours of community service. we are deeply sorry. we failed our customers in san bruno. while an apology alone will never be enough, actions can make pg&e safer. and that's why we've replaced hundreds of miles of gas pipeline, adopted new leak detection technology that is one-thousand times more sensitive, and built a state-of-the-art gas operations center. we can never forget what happened in san bruno. that's why we're working e

that is the question here. >> steve kornacki will be our man back here in the studio tomorrow night withfirst look at returns. steve, thanks very much for your reporting tonight. >> sure. >> when we come back, all the investigations into donald trump. we'll look at the one that seems to stand out from the others. ♪ let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. >>> ranking member of the house intelligence committee adam schiff revealed today the house intelligence committee has not yet spoken to russia special counsel robert mueller. presumably there will be time for that. with us tonight is jill wine-banks, one of the special prosecutors during the watergate scandal, former general counsel notably to the united states army. and jeffrey smith is with us, former general counsel of the cia and of the senate armed services committee, who also worked at the state department and the pentagon. counselors, thank you both for coming. jill, i'd like to start with you. did i hear you correctly last night say, and i'll put it a little differently, in effect, if i stop time, if i stop t

steve kornacki will be along with those. we'll all talk about them in just a moment. long ago, an empire was born evony the original empire-building game that started it all. so what became of this legendary game? well... it just arrived on your smartphone! evony download it now and play for free! >>> you know what else they say about my people, the polls? they say i have the most loyal people. did you ever see that? where i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters, okay? it's like incredible. >> one of the most referred to quotes of the campaign for good reason. president trump, january of last year, during the gop primary making a claim that made a lot of jaws drop at the time. at the time he had a double-digit lead in the polls over his primary opponents. much has been made about the recent drop in his approval numbers, but has anything changed with the trump base? there's only one person who can get this question, and that is our national political correspondent steve kornacki at the big board tonight. steve? >> h

come back anytime. >> thank you. >>> steve kornacki with numbers. >> the latest here. right now. you see it is a six point lead for gianforte. we are exactly where we are the last time i was on. what we are waiting for is the same-day vote. out of missoula, big democratic area, especially out of billings, yellowstone county. we want to see if there was any kind of surge on election day away from the republican towards the democrat. that is the only hope of democrats right now. they are down three runs in the bottom of the ninth if you want a baseball metaphor. but what could save them now, if there was a same-day surge. we still don't have same day vote. >> we are expecting a lump sum or a really long night. >> if we get one of these counties to come in and no change i think that tells us what has happened, the republican will be fine. but if we get one of these counties in and there's a change here, there's a twist on election day, then we could be in vefor a very long night. >> with you at the board i feel there is something all right with the world. that is our broa

thank you, steve kornacki. >>> when we continue, the new reporting today about what the president's staffed to do on this foreign trip. when you have allergies, it can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. luckily there's powerful, 24-hour, non-drowsy claritin. it provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. live claritin clear. no need with thending thcars.com app when on the lot, scan a vin to pull up all the info you need to help get the price you want. start scanning today. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. ♪ pressure. i feel it everyday. but at night, it's the last thing on my mind. for 10 years my tempur-pedic has adapted to my weight and shape, relieving pressure points from head to toe. so i sleep deeply and wake up ready to perform. ♪ now through june 11th, save $600 when you buy select tempur-pedic adjustable mattress sets. find your exclusive

steve kornacki thank you for that look at the numbers.lter isaksen is still watching all of this and listening from new orleans. walter, have you tossed out every rule you ever learned in covering politics? do old rules not apply to this president? >> well, certainly this is something we have not seep before. but there's a larger historical trend that's been happening, which is a deep polarization of the american people, and also a polarization in custom the parties have split very much on idea logical lines. what trump did is not only capte e republican party from the regular republican establishment but tap into an anti-establishment resentment that was pretty strong throughout america. and whether that divide is both rural versus certain urban areas or along partisan lines, it's a deeper, more fundamental divide than i've seen, you know, since the 1960s. >> walter isaksen, a joy to have you on our broadcast. thank you so must have. and i only ask that you please say hey to everybody down there for me. >> let me say one thing quick. you

steve kornacki killed it in the break. that wraps it up for the hour. many thank yous. steve, mike.ou tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. i'll send you to d.c. to see my colleague, chris jansing. >> thank you. a lot happening this hour in washington. republicans looking at defeat in the eye on a second go at health care reform. >>> house speaker paul ryan expected to tell us any minute now, will republicans find enough support to have a vote this week? even as the president confuses a critical part of the bill, coverage for preexisting conditions. the puzzling 24 hours at the white house. president trump seeming to o outstretch both arms. offering to meet kim jong-un. surprising the staff by inviting the president of the philippines to the white house. today he is set to speak by phone to vladimir putin. >> it's like one of the amusement parks you visited as a kid. you go from the whirling tea cups to the roller fauxescoaste the funhouse. you don't know which way is up because of the president's statement. >>> the head of united airlines testifying before congress. >>> this morning, another video

we'll hit pause and a tease that could have been written by dan himself, steve kornacki will tell ushat the odds are for republicans to keep the house. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. your memorial day weekend is very important. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. find great deals now at booking.com. booking.yeah! what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ >>> our own steve kornacki picks up this conversation right where we left out, with special election fever. steve? >> yes, you were just talking abou

nbc national correspondent steve kornacki. yahoo! news anchor and rush russia expert, biana. and also in the witness protection program with me, michael steele. i have to start with you, because i feel -- i'm going to get to your piece because i think it hits the nail on the head in terms of some of these political professionals in trump's white house and the keepers of the campaign flame, if you will. were you surprised to see mcmaster say trump felt hamstru hamstrung, ties with russia? >> i think he's trying very hard to maintain his own credibility while also defending the white house. there have been moments where he seemed to come to trump's defense in a very rousing way. that tape right there viewed to me as he was confirming that trump called comey a nut job. >> i don't know that there's any other way to look at it. >> you go back to the initial stacandal and the sort of follow-up was, oh, he didn't reveal the source. in fact, i think mcmaster said the president said -- >> i have that. i have that. biana just mentioned -- we have that. mcmaster saying he didn't reveal

steve kornacki, nbc and msnbc national political correspondent. chief legal correspondent at msnbc, ari melber. and matt schlapp. i was dismayed today, matt schlapp, going to you, back by popular demand, fan favorite. for a president so obsessed with how he's covered in the media. >> right. >> there's not one person other than i think we can agree, a very uneven performance from kellyanne conway last night on cnn, there wasn't anyone, not the author of this memo, not the attorney general, not anyone from the justice department, not arguably any of their supporters in league circles. i don't know, i'm sure they have some, right? why wasn't anyone defending this decision? >> they don't really do rollouts. that's now how this works. they make announcements. >> to say the least, their staff didn't know. >> you know this, senior staff often know big decisions but the rest of the white house staff aren't going to know. >> you think the whole senior staff knew -- >> there were plenty of times in the bush administration i learned what happened by watching

steve kornacki, clearly it's all about politics.me what this means. >> yeah, take the incident with the reporter out of it. we were already looking at this race as a test of donald trump a few months into his administration, is there slippage. so look, donald trump won montana by 21 points. that was the margin last november. you see if you're a democrat, the good news you take from this, the silver lining they say, it was trump 2 is points in november, we knocked it down to six, that's a swing of 15 points in our direction. >> and he was replacing a republican seat. >> this is one that the republicans have held since 1996. but it does elect democrats from time to time and democrats thought this is the kind of climate with the republican president who's controversial, maybe slipping a little bit in the poll there would be an opportunity. what lessons can it tell us? a couple of things jumped out at me. trump country, we're talking about the counties where trump got 80%, 90% of the vote, we've wondered is his base slipping a little bi

steve kornacki is here. john, columnist for the "new york post." and correspondent steph ruhle. we had pete king seeming to dig in. he seems to be on the defend no matter what side. >> it's 4:30 eastern. let's wait to see what happens at 5:00. >> right. >> because the stories keep dropping at 5:00. so i don't want to say that your show is going to be the news on the show will be preempted by future events. but it's getting very worrisomw. sort of like how in 2008 during the financial meltdown, 1:00 in the afternoon, the market would start going into this triple dip. that's what it's feeling like now. so we don't know where it's going. >> we keep saying, you know, we hasn't even sent any tweets out. great. so the cuffs are on. he's not tweeting but i assure you, in the dark of night when the trump comes out, he's going to be back on the -- >> the trump. >> -- the twitter, back on that twitter. when you saw him speak at the coast guard academy straight-up going no one has been treated as unfairly as i have. he's only digging in. if you're a republica

catherine rahm rampel, and steve kornacki.ie, start by telling us how the white house recalibrated after the last failed attempt to get this done to yield this different outcome today. >> i think the big recalibration that we saw happen was after the first attempt at health care didn't even make it onto the floor. the president was really willing to walk away. he talked about moving on to tax reform, an issue that he feels personally a bit more passionately about than health care reform. part of this was just getting his head around the idea that this was important to the party and important to his -- to his start as president to go back to the drawing board on health care. and then i think you saw the president to some extent be less heavy handed in public with his dealings with lawmakers. he was real hely critical of the freedom caucus in the first go-around on health care. you didn't see that from him as much this time. he was working the phones in private. but a lot of this was left to staff at the white house and the lawm

msnbc's steve kornacki is here. navigating the republican factions in the senate may be more complicated than getting it through the house, right? >> yeah. it took them two shots to get it through the house. they did it by the skin of under teeth. let's look at the senate. all sorts of different factions on the republican side. bottom line, keep this number in mind. three. they are not going to get any democrats votes. then three republican no votes in the senate would sink this thing. they can afford two defections, anything more and it sinks. let's taking through what some of the different faction looking for here. start here the sort of libbertarian wing, rand paul. they want full repeal of obamacare. they don't want subsidies or the government working with insurance companies. they are the free market purists on this. they are off on the right. on the other ends, collins, murkowski, moderate republicans here they don't like the idea of defunding planned parenthood. that's in the house bill. that could be a show

steve kornacki has more on how the election actually played out.eresting stuff. >> all right. well, republicans, the bottom line is, they get the win that they wanted. the result they wanted out of montana. greg gianforte will go to congress now. he defeats rob quist in that special election. republicans will say, that's the story. a win is a win is a win. democrats will try to sell this as at least a moral victory and something that could be significant heading into the midterms in 2018. why? democrats say, look, donald trump won this state by 21 points last november in this election, it looks like a seven-point margin, a seven-point victory for the republicans. so, democrats will say, hey, we ate into the trump margin. this is progress. if we could cut 14 points off the trump margin everywhere, we'll be in great shape in 2018. of course, republicans would say, hey, this is was an open seat race, different dynamics. if democrats were going to win this thing in montana, number one, they needed bigger numbers here. college town, university of montan

steve kornacki, great to have you here. joining me with reaction from capitol hill is democratic congressman from michigan, serving on the financial services committee. good morning. >> thanks for having me on. >> house speaker paul ryan issued a statement this morning. quote, elections are about choices and montanans made their choice, electing gianforte to respect them. he has real-world experience. he will bring the experience to congress where he will be a valuable voice. will you welcome him to capitol hill? >> well, he is going have to prove himself, to be honest with you. the impression he has made, his first impression, is that of a person who can't answer a tough question and decides to physically attack and assault a member of the media and then lie about it, and only apologize when it was determined that there was actually audio that proved that their lie was false. this is not a good way to introduce yourself to the rest of congress. the way i look at it is i will give him a chance to prove himself and to prove

steve kornacki is standing by. >>> thanks for that, ali.afternoon, everybody, steve kornacki live in new york. a lot going on. topping our agenda, comey answering back. >> you may think we're idiots. we're honest people. we made judgments trying to do the right thing and i believe even with hindsight we made the right decisions. >> so why did james comey release that letter about the hillary clinton e-mail investigation just days before the election? and why did he never say anything about the investigation into

let's go to msnbc host and political correspondent steve kornacki standing at the big board. it's only a flesh wound getting it through the house, according to the republicans. talk about how difficult this will be getting this through the senate? >> the process of actuall getting this into law, the republicans still have a long way to go. let's take an overview of the process. here's good news if you're a republican. you did get it through the house. people wrote you off as dead at one point. you did get it through the house, and obviously, it moves onto the senate. what mike vacarro said, if they get it through the house. let's say they have to moderate it. . let's say it's more money on the high-ff risk bill. you've got two different versions of the house. you have the house version and the senate version. they have something called the conference committee. they'll try to merge the bills. you have to get through the conference committee and then you have a merged bill. let's say the merged bill has more of the senate version than the house version. now you have a new prob

. >>> for more on this, i want to bring in our national political correspondent steve kornacki. we have the entire day for voters to head to the polls, but as garrett was saying, many votes have already been cast. what do you think happens now? >> that is the big wild card in this. the 11th hour surprise in politics. not really what it used to be in the age of early voting. these are the headlines folks in montana are waking up to today on election day. as garrett mentioned, a month ago, they mailed out more than 350,000 ballots to voters in montana. you can have the ballot automatically sent to you for every election. yesterday at the close of business, 259,000 had already been returned. that was before any of this came out in the news. typically, 80% to 90% they send out get returned. what does that mean? you can expect about 300,000 votes by mail will ultimately be received. a lot of them were probably in the mail yesterday and today. 300,000 votes basically all of them cast before this news broke. what does that mean in the scheme of things? you can see the early vote, that

steve kornacki. the assault charge, does it change the race in any measurable way? i mean i guess it's still pretty early to tell. >> it is fascinating. you see some of the headlines here. this what is people in montana are waking up all over three newspapers across the state rescinded their eppers doment of gianforte today. in the old days this would absolutely be a game changing occurrence. it's not the old days anymore. we're living in the age of early voting. so here's what happened. they mailed out a month ago more than 350,000 ballots in montana. as of close of business yesterday before anybody heard anything about this assault on the reporter more than 250,000 had been returned. here's the other thing, usually it's about 70 -- about 80 to 90% of these that get returned so there's probably tens of thousands in the mail. you're probably looking at 300,000 votes already cast before this happened. what does that mean in more practical terms? early voting has been getting more and more popular with every election in montana. last year two out of every three votes

steve kornacki is standing by. >>> thanks for that, ali. good afternoon, everybody, steve kornacki live in new york. a lot going on. topping our agenda, comey answering back. >> you may think we're idiots. we're honest people. we made judgments trying to do the right thing and i believe even with hindsight we made the right decisions. >> so why did james comey release that letter about the hillary clinton e-mail investigation just days before the election? and why did he never say anything about the investigation into trump world? intense grilling of the fbi director today. we're going to break -- why did he never say anything about the investigation into the -- we're going to break that all down for you. >>> it looked like it was on the brink of collapse yesterday, 24 hours later, a very different story right now u for that republican obamacare replacement plan. word that there could even be a vote tonight. >>> rounding out our agenda, obama's big announcement. >> although we had a formal bidding process to determine where the presidential

on set with me steve kornacki, political correspondent for nbc and msnbc and robert traynham, a former advisor to the 2000 bush campaign. jeremy, kellyanne conway already said this morning it is totally inappropriate to question the timing of president trump taking this action. but for you, what was the most shocking, what happened, why it happened or the timing? >> well, what was shocking to me was that the president would move against the one federal investigation that actually could hold his inner circle in criminal jeopardy. remember, stephanie, there are three federal investigations, one by the republican-led senate, one by the republican-led house and one by the career professionals at the federal bureau of investigation. it was only that last investigation, the one that comey was heading up, that had both the resources and the criminal prosecution power. those other two investigations don't have those things. only comey had those tools to really put the clamps on trump's inner circle and try to figure out whether there was any ties between his team and the russian federation. an

keep watching because msnbc will bring back steve kornacki. e going to be updating those numbers all night. have fun, steve. thank you very much. our political panel is next to talk about why a republican victory may actually be the beginning of a whole new set of problems for paul ryan. with huma and your doctor to maintain your health. because in 5 days, 10 hours and 2 minutes you are going to be 67. and on that day you will walk into a room where 15 people will be waiting... 12 behind the sofa, 2 behind the table and 1 and a half behind a curtain. family: surprise! but only one of them will make a life long dream come true. great things are ahead of you when your health is ready for them. at humana, we can help you with a personalized plan for your health for years to come. you know how painful heartburn can be. for fast-acting, long-lasting relief, try doctor recommended gaviscon. it quickly neutralizes stomach acid and helps keep acid down for hours. relieve heartburn with fast- acting, long-lasting gaviscon. when you're close to the peopl

nbc news national political correspondent, steve kornacki. republican strategist susan delpersio. reverend al, host of msnbc's "politics nation." i wanted to bring you in sooner, i wanted to bring you in when you started nodding at everything charlie sykes started s saying. how can we all nod to decimation of the soul of a once great political party even if you didn't agree with them, but still watch it get worse? >> i think that we nod because we agree that this is not the conservative movement or the republican party that we all knew. even though we disagree. i remember when i was a kid growing up in new york, i used to go to the set to watch them do firing lye ining line and i was a certain level of intellect, a certain level of grief and there was a standard. to go from that to what we're seeing in trump to a guy body slams somebody who's elected to congress in montana, what are we showing our kids and what has done this to the level of respectability of the republican party and republican candidates? i mean, even -- even though you want to fight on issues, you want to word th

. >>> joining glenn and me on set, steve kornacki, nbc news national correspondent.ice, also an mns msnbc contributor, a former spokesman for the nsc in the obama administration. and ari melber. jill abramson with us. donna everest, former democratic congresswoman from maryland. bringing the girl power in remote. thank you, ladies, for being with me. i want to go back to this idea of the tapes. ari, i know we separate out the legal from the political, but how is it possible that the white house on day six is not answering whether or not there are recorded conversations of these meetings with jim comey? >> well, there are admissions that can be damning and the refusal to admit or deny i think, itself, is damning. if you want to give sean spicer the benefit of the doubt, he may not know. he may not be getting clear guidance or facts from the president that he serves. >> that's a great point. i mean, white house staffers, even in the bush white house, were sometimes on a need-to-know basis and sometimes the press secretary wasn't read in so they wouldn't be in that situ

steve kornacki, they appear to be paying a terrible price politically right now. by double digits. 16 points and donald trump's poll ratings collapsing to 36%. this again before the debacle of yesterday and all the lies that have been spewing out of the white house n the west wing over the past 24 hours. >> if you just want to look at the politics of this. there's two things that have to concern republicans here. one is baked in whenever your party gets control of the whourks the house, the senate, the midterm is going to be rough for you. there's two particular things here that are unique to this presidency, i think. number one is just the activism you're seeing on the democratic side. the activation of the democratic base. this certainly this news about comey, this is going to heighten it. we saw it with health care and with about 20 or 30 different things since president trump became president. just the fact of donald trump's present ha pushed democrats to get really, really involved, really, really sort of eited about politics but the second thing is the natur

up next, my friend and colleague, steve kornacki. >> good afternoon, live in new york. agenda, hillary is back. >> i'm now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance. >> hillary clinton with her fullest explanation yet of who and what she blames for her stunning defeat in last november's election. >>> also on the agenda, here we go again. >> the purpose of our bill is to get more choices, to lower prices while preserving the protection for pre-existing conditions. >> the second time around a republican health care replacement bill making its way through the house and the second time around again it could be on

>> joining the conversation, editor for bloomberg business week, megan murphy, correspondent steve kornacki and "new york times" political reporter and msnbc political contributor megan montessori. how much of this is just chickens coming home to roost? was this something that was inevitable considering the current climate in this country? >> i don't think it was inevitable. i think when you look at this, he needs to isolate the behavior of one man, greg gianforte, and allegedly body slamming a reporter. as one montana newspaper said in pulling its endorsement of him said this isn't behavior we would accept in a bar fight, let alone when a reporter puts a microphone in your face. it's depressing this happened, but the level of discord we're in. we had a week where 22 people were killed in a suspended terrorist attack. we had the united kingdom condemning donald trump for intelligence leaks. we had a cbo score on a bill that shows 23 million more americans could be uninsured. we have the latest development on a travel ban that could affect thoands of people on visas. and a physical assault o

steve kornacki, susan is a republican strategist and my best friend on mondays, and with sirius xm. steve, let's start with you. senator leahy, not telling his democratic colleagues what to do but as someone so senior in the potter, it's a big deal. >> it is where the energy is in the democratic party. not just, oh, we're concerned about the trump presidency. it needs to be resisted. so talk about impeachment is probably going on naturally grow. i think he is being responsive toward energy in his party. but yeah. it is not a question in terms of actual movement. it is a question of, if the yats to take back the house in 2018, a question of how much, how prominent will this be in the 2018 campaign? will you have democrats running for the house in 2018 actively saying, lebt me, electricity us and we'll do that? or disavowing it? if you're on the trump white house, a republican with the white house, you're saying, hey, donald trump, you may have a problem. you need to be more invested in the mid terms because a democratic house could cause some serious problems for you. >> senator leahy

. >>> i'm steve kornacki.nda, the jimmy kimmel test. >> i ask, does it pass the jimmy kimmel test? i want it to pass the jimmy kimmel test. >> a late-night host could be a new obstacle for republicans as they try to dismantle obamacare. we'll tell you about that. >>> also on our agenda, the long and winding road. >> president is focused on getting it right, not getting it fast. i think we saw the mistake that the democrats made by trying to force and rush this through. >> republicans have cleared one major hurdle in their quest to replace

. >>> i'm steve kornacki here in new york. we have news to tell you about.ve be following this special congressional election out in montana. greg gianforte republican candidate has been declared the winner of this race by the the associated press. i should tell you nbc is not making an independent call but the the associated press has called it. i have been looking at the numbers. we are starting to get votes that were cast today. not just early votes. it does look like a fairly convincing victory for greg gianforte. we have been alerted that the winning candidate is expected to speak any minute there out at his headquarters. this will be the first public remarks that greg gianforte has made since being engulfed in what has become an international controversy over the last 24 hours with the audio recording that emerged of him attacking, seeming to attack a reporter for the guardian newspaper who had been asking him about his position on health care reform. the big question heading into this election was whether that last minute revelation and controversy wo

steve kornacki is a national correspondent. they have worked hand in hand with the, with four presidents in the past. >> the deputy chief of staff and bush 43's chief of staff, mat was the chief of staff, the director of speech writing, and anita dunn was the communications director. guys, damage assessment. how bad with these new developments? we have the "washington post," "the new york times," does this make it worse than it was for him. >> i think you have the two there that you're talking about. the "new york times" and the "washington post." i think one brings a lot more specificity. the "new york times" and the reporting of what donald trump said in the meeting the other day. the key element. in story is that the white house isn't disputing it. so then it becomes a question of the white house, trump defenders coming one an interpretation of this. they will try to offer as more benign than what i think it sounds like the a lot of people. here you have a very specific account of words that were said to the russians and you

up next, my friend and colleague, steve kornacki. >> good afternoon, live in new york. topping our agenda, hillary is back. >> i'm now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance. >> hillary clinton with her fullest explanation yet of who and what she blames for her stunning defeat in last november's election. >>> also on the agenda, here we go again. >> the purpose of our bill is to get more choices, to lower prices while preserving the protection for pre-existing conditions. >> the second time around a republican health care replacement bill making its way through the house and the second time around again it could be on the brink of failure. what could it take to get this replacement bill through? is it as good as dead if it makes it to the senate? and also how about this, calling for a shutdown. >> that's what's necessaryo do to fix washington d.c., that would be a good shutdown. >> president trump saying that, quote, a good shutdown may be just what washington needs to get its act together. republican leaders have some things to say about that. we

i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews tonight.mp is finishing up his first overseas trip as president. he's heading back to washington tomorrow and also back to the center of a gathering storm. the headlines shadowing him during the trip, the day president trump left washington. that was last friday. "the new york times" reported, he had told russian officials that firing fbi director james comey had taken pressure off him over the russian pre.

. >>> i'm steve kornacki. topping our agenda, the jimmy kimmel test. >> i ask, does it pass the jimmy kimmel test? i want it to pass the jimmy kimmel test. >> a late-night host could be a new obstacle for republicans as they try to dismantle obamacare. we'll tell you about that. >>> also on our agenda, the long and winding road. >> president is focused on getting it right, not getting it fast. i think we saw the mistake that the democrats made by trying to force and rush this through. >> republicans have cleared one major hurdle in their quest to replace obamacare. that's the good news for them. the bad news, they got five more biggies they got to clear. we're going to break that perilous political path that they face, we'll break that down in just a minute. >>> also rounding out our agenda, is it political suicide? >> republican leaders are trying to do this to affordable health care. i'm tom periello. >> democrats think they have been handed the keys to an electoral bounty, but are they getting ahead of them

here onset, political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc steve kornacki and staff writer at the nighers not really good. >> not good for trump. that is. let's start with phillip. a lot of intrigue this weekend about what is actually going to happen in the white house. all the stories coming out of the white house and west wing are not good. take us inside there. >> well, what you have is a president who is just fuming. he's very angry with the news coverage over the last few weeks. views the comey situation as a public relations problem for him. he's been doing a lot of post mortum interviews with aides to try to figure out what's behind negative headlines. >> he's calling in staff members and interviewing them when they went out. >> skrindividually and actuallyd what they told him -- did what they were told to do and then he goes and lester holt and just blabbers completely different story. >> exactly right. the president seems to think that the system failed him in the white house, that his staff failed him. he's actually the one picking which buttons to choose in every single instan

i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews tonight. donald trump is finishing up his first overseas trip as president. he's heading back to washington tomorrow and also back to the center of a gathering storm. the headlines shadowing him during the trip, the day president trump left washington. that was last friday. "the new york times" reported, he had told russian officials that firing fbi director james comey had taken pressure off him over the russian probe. "the washington post" reported that investigators had identified a current white house official as a, quote, significant person of interest. then on monday, the post reported that trump had asked senior intelligence officials back in march to push back publicly against comey's comments on the investigation. on tuesday, former cia director john brennan testified that he saw intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and trump campaign associates that warranted further investigation. then yesterday, nbc broke the news that jared kushner, that o

. >>> and msnbc's steve kornacki joins the discussion. >> i hope he doesn't scream again. >> who?- >> why was he so mad? freaking out right now. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen! what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the national medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity? [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today...] ♪ [...rumors of the new discovery...] what if we lived in a world like that? (crowd applauding) ♪ we know a place that's already working on it. ♪ explore your treatment options with specialists who treat only cancer. every stage... every day.... at cancer treatment centers of america. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts then you're a couple. think of all you'll share... like snoring. does your bed do that? the dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. so

. >>> nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki is with us with a closer look at the contenders for the next fbi chief. let's see who may be on top of the list and who the dark horses might be. >> we have a big list. more than a dozen, a couple different categories we can put these in. politicians. this would be unusual, basically unprecedented to have an fbi director who comes from the ranks of eld cornyn, texas republican senator, he's supposedly part of the process, the criticism is there is supposed to be a wall between the fbi and politics. this could be a fight if trump went with any of these names. much more traditional, somebody who fits the mold a department of justice background, michael garcia of new york, he fits both of those. so that's somebody traditionally you might look rat. you heard lindsey graham. you heard him say you want someone who can get a running start who's either already there or nose that background. andrew mccabe is in the background. the problem could be the question of loyalty to trump. he backed comey last week. would trump want to turn around a