and steve kornacki, as well. let me come to you, because i know you've got a lot of sources inside this administration, a lot of folks you have been talking to. is it true that spicer last night was telling folks that he would walk if they hired scaramucci -- >> yeah, according to sources that i spoke to. spicer said last night, when he found out the news that scaramucci was going to be named communications director, that he had been offered the job, said, i will resign if that happens. my sources didn't believe him at the time. but ultimately, he went through with his word. he said he couldn't work with scaramucci, because scaramucci -- not that he had anything against him personally, but that he didn't know the job. he didn't know what was necessary to do that job. he didn't have the experience to do that job. he said it was a lot bigger than anthony scaramucci expected it to be. and he wanted someone with more qualifications. this was kept in a tight hold, this decision. i mean, scaramucci had an hour and a ha

. >> coming up the in the wake of historic low poll yum yum numbers for president trump, steve kornacki at the big board to wonk us through the numbers. >>> as you perhaps woke up to a new round of polling is just out, showing the president's job approval hovering around 40%. some less. here to help us break down the new numbers is our national politico correspondent steve kornacki at the big board steve. >> brian it may abdifferent way of looking at the poll numbers everybody has seen the headlines. these are the four out in the last day or two. as you said hovering around 40%. if i didn't tell you who the president was i just say a first year president these are the numbers in the middle of the first summer we'd say naes a disaster. as you can say historically that's what what it looks like at this point donald trump lowest numbers of any of the modern predecessors by a far. this is terrible terrain to be in if you're a president except is in really what we should be comparing donald trump to? here is what i mean. one year ago tonight july 17th, 2016 when dwas candidate donald trump,

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steve kornacki, thank you for that. kasie hunt in washington, thanks to you, as well. >>> loni chen is a research fellow, and mcroy is editor of forbes opinion, and foundation for research on equal opportunity. both former advisers to mitt romney's presidential campaign. we also have here dr. natalie azar, nbc news medical contributor. natalie, let me start with you. can mitch mcconnell save this plan? >> yes. first of all, as you said, chris, thoughts and prayers out to senator mccain and his family. great american hero. i take all of these developments as a positive. i think it's pretty clear from the smoke signals that mitch mcconnell has the 50 votes to proceed to the floor with this bill. if he didn't, they wouldn't have the votes anyway. >> do you think that these poll numbers, that steve just went through, are basically not having any effect as republicans make these decisions? >> yeah, i don't think so. and the reason why, chris, the polls they really care about are the polls of republican voters. and the polls

national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc steve kornacki. beast" sam stein. also with us, nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. before we get to the russia meeting, joe, what do you think the biggest development politically is, domestically over the past 24 hours in terms of health care? was it the failure of the plan itself? >> well, yeah. it is really hard to ignore what donald trump said in that clip coming in. bragging about having a 48-4 record with republicans. that's not how it works. anybody been in washington for more than a day understands that's not how it works. that's the tally of somebody who lost. that would be like hillary clinton going around saying, i'm sure she does to friends, i really won. because i got 3 million more votes. that's not how things are scored in the 2016 election an it's certainly not how things are run in the health care debate. the fact is donald trump did a terrible job selling health care because he department really try to sell health care. he abused house republicans that went out online fo

tell me why steve kornacki is wrong, why rules matter. >> oh, i think that he's right about trump supporters not leaving him, and that was something we were very aware of in the clinton campaign. you couldn't let a voter get bought into him because once they have, it's going to be very unlikely to turn them off. what we found is that it's not necessarily an economic plan that he's offering that voters find compelling, but it's he shares their world view, and he val dagts their world view. and that is something that is very meaningful to them. and i think that's something we have to understand about the way voters are thinking these days. it's not along the lines of, you know, policy or agendas that i think we used to approach this. now, where i think he's -- i don't know that steve is wrong, but where the republicans should be more concerned is it shouldn't take -- they shouldn't be basing how they treat this president on how he does with their voters if they're concerned about the long-term health of the country and of the party. this is a president that is not just not up to the job, but d

here to help us break down the new numbers is our national political correspondent, steve karn kornackibig board. steve? >> brian, maybe a different way of looking at the poll numbers, everybody has seen the headlines. these are the four out in the last day or two. as you said hovering around 40%. if i didn't tell you who the president was, and i just say a first-year president, these are the numbers in the middle of the first summer, we'd say, that's a disaster. as you can say historically that's what what it looks like at this point donald trump lowest numbers of any of the modern press sesors, basically by far. this is terrible terrain to be in, if you're a president, except, is this really what we should be comparing donald trump to? here's what i mean. one year ago tonight, july 17th, 2016, when it was candidate donald trump, we, right here at nbc news and "wall street journal," we had a new poll come out. historically terrible numbers, the worst we'd ever seen for a candidate. a year ago tonight, the headline about donald trump as a candidate, never had a nominee of a major party

and good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews tonight. new revelations about the trump campaign's meeting with a russian lawyer last sum ver again raised doubts of the evolving account of donald trump jr. who attended that meeting on the promise of kremlin-source dirt on hillary clinton. this morning, nbc news reported that there was another, a previously undisclosed person also in the room that day, russian-american lobbyist, a former soviet counter-intelligence officer who is suspected by some u.s. officials of having ongoing ties to russian intelligence. he denies any current ties to russian spy agencies. however, senator chuck grassley and a republican noted in a let tore the department of homeland security back if april quote that mr. rinat akhmetshin apparently has ties to russian intelligence. this brings the total number of ar tis pants to at least six t. sixth person there was a translator this report comes after donald trump jr. said on tuesday he would come clean and there was nothing more to say. >> i'm more than happy to be t

good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthe matthews. the spicer show over t.house press secretary known for his combative stance with the press was mocked by "saturday night live" and other late night show, they became a form of must-see television, his performance at the podium was reportedly criticized by the president, himself. spicer's message

." ♪ >> good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. well, donald trump is not done., he derailed washington's focus on health care by firing off crude tweets about the iq and looks of "morning joe" host mik mika bryzinski. trump also signaled a new direction on the

good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthe matthews. the spicer show over t. white house press secretary known for his combative stance with the press was mocked by "saturday night live" and other late night show, they became a form of must-see television, his performance at the podium was reportedly criticized by the president, himself. spicer's message was occasionalally undermined hours later, rumors have been out for weeks or months. the ends came with the white house communications director. anthony scar interest amucci arc long-time wall street financier and loyalist who served on the team. spicer has threatened to quit, chief of staff reince priebus opposed the move. the president, though, chose him anyway. in an interview, sean spicer downplayed any tension in the west wing, take a look. >> he wanted to bring if new people, and after reflection, my decision was i recommended to the president i give an thoin and sarah a clean slate to start from. >> today the newly named white house pressing is sarah huckaby sanders red questions on spicer and scaramucc

." ♪ >> good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. well, donald trump is not done.esterday, he derailed washington's focus on health care by firing off crude tweets about the iq and looks of "morning joe" host mik mika bryzinski. trump also signaled a new direction on the health care fight citing with a number of conservatives focusing just on obamacare then dealing with the question of how to go about replacing it. notably that approach contradicts what the president said in the past. he urged previously congress to simultaneously repeal and replace the health care plan. we'll have more on that reversal coming up. we begin, though, with the big twitter fight. today mika and joe returned to their show and offered rebuttals to what he said yesterday. >> i'm fine. my family brought me up really tough. this is absolutely nothing. but i think for me, personally. but i am very concerned as to what this, once again, reveals about the president of the united states. >> he had calls and texts and e-mails, we're okay. the country's not. this is one of the most dangerous time

we have mike barnicle, msnbc's steve kornacki, mark halperin and policy editor sam

and good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews tonight.ations about the trump campaign's meeting with a russian lawyer last sum ver again raised doubts of the evolving account of donald trump jr. who attended that meeting on the promise of kremlin-source dirt on hillary clinton. this morning, nbc news reported that there was another, a previously undisclosed person also in the room that day, russian-american

let's take a listen to what democratic governor, john hickenlooper, told steve kornacki last night. >> i think we're spending way too much time as democrats worrying about russia and i think we should stay on the policy issues. maybe the russia thing is trying to distract voters so they're not going to be so agitated and begin to pressure the senators who are trying to make up their mind about whether to support this new senate health care plan. >> congresswoman, do you think that the governor has a point there? how much do you think this matters to middle america? do you think there's a tipping point at which it becomes of much greater concern? >> well, i do. if we continue to get more and more evidence and it moves down the path to impeachment or resignation or whatever, there will be more concern. right now in my district health care is the number one issue, so that's certainly the case. the people who don't like donald trump think -- were not surprised, he'll make a deal with anybody. the people who do like it think it's overblown. so i believe that we want to focus on jobs and he

joining us is a former senior adviser to marco rubio and nbc news national political correspondent, steve kornackiout it on your appearances here about the durability of his pace. but the softest part of the kohl russian looking for results and may -- coalition are looking for results and they may see the endlessly bad news cycle. >> they may and i'm not sure we can articulate fully what it is his base wants. we can ask is it this issue or that issue, but watching the poll numbers tell me i don't know we can answer that. today is july 17, 2017. go back to july 17, 2016 we had a brand-new poll. he had historically low numbers. no candidate has been less popular on this day a year ago, his favorable rating was 27%. so you can't win with that. the republican party as a whole was running 22 points behind the democratic party on the image. on the question of donald trump's views mainstream? 60% said no. his approval ratings that's roughly the same range his support fell in last year. we looked at it, republicans said, you know what, not only is it a bad campaign but a losing campaign. he'll lose a big

this was a scripted speech, steve kornacki, but the hope that you could have at this point is that heor it and continues to stick to this trip. we haven't seen that in the past t. worry is when he gets off script what happens, but certainly during this speech there were some lines drawn that seems substantive. >> i think that's right. i think in the content this is different speech we seen and herd him deliver before. there are two ways to interpret. the other with donald trump, you have to consider here, who is the audience, how did he begin this speech? it was notable by citing the political speech from polish americans saying how honored he was by that you think the message from murkel, he wanted to go there around deliver a defiant message to her. maybe he felt the polish government having been behind the scenes has been kind to him murkel and other governments have been, this might be the donald trump saying some things he wanted to le cipro indicate with kindness. we'll see. if he delivers the message in a different context. i think that's the key. >> one of the more troubling t