Party threw absolutely everything at last nights special election in an effort to keep a deep red district from turning blue. And they failed. Pennsylvanias 18th district is in the heart of what we like to call trump country. The kind of place reporters would go to write their profiles of the working class donors, assembling at diners rallying behind the president a rust Belt Community where nearly 94 of the population is white. Donald trump won the district by nearly 20 points, a huge margin. When he campaigned there saturday on behalf of republican candidate rick saccone, trump came with a message, these are my people. They love me. Because of me, you will win. Theyre all watching. Because i won this district like by 22 points. Thats a lot. Thats why im here. Look at all those red hats, rick. Look at all those hats. Thats a lot of hats. And we just had a poll were more popular now than we were on election day. There should win easily. And hes going to win easily. Hes going to win easily because everyone loves donald trump so much. Not how it worked out. Instead, the blue wave crashed into trump country. Nbc news declaring this morning democrat conor lamb, the an apparent winner what was a very, very tight race. A source tells nbc news the Saccone Campaign will likely ask for a recount but its a very long shot. Republicans are trying to spin the loss in all you ways. Im not making this up, placing the blame on the lackluster candidate and his mustache and they cast lamb as a republican in disguise. Both of these candidates, the republican and the democrats ran as conservatives, ran as pro gun, prolife antinancy pelosi conservatives. I think thats the take away we see here. Well, heres the think. Lamb doesnt oppose abortion rights. If that counts as prolife to ryan, then all of american politics has been upended. Thank you. Lamb isnt particularly conservative having run against the signature policy achievement of the republicans, the gop tax law and ryans spin is especially rich seeing as how republicans spent much of the campaign casting conor lamb as basically nancy pelosi with a buzz cut. His name is conor lamb but in washington, he would be one of Nancy Pelosis sheep. Lamb would join the liberal flock and follow her lead voting the straight liberal party line for at the pels extreme agenda. See . That was what they were say about conor lamb three days ago. Republicans dumped more than 10 million into the race to run ads like that. Hopefully no one was charging 10 million to make that ad. They couldnt buy victory. Even in trump country, there is and chore who is weighing them down. In special elections in the trump era, democrats are outpacing Hillary Clintons performance by more than 12 points. The swing last night was 20 points. While theres a lot of spin today, at least some republicans see the writing on the wall. This is a very toxic environment. And this is a district thats 95 white. Trump won by 20 points. If youre a republican in a safe seat, youd better be ready. Henry olson author of the working class republican, ronald reagan, and leon wolf. Leon, what is your take away . Is this panic time . Its very difficult to put lipstick on this pig if youre a republican. You kind of saw the montage there. If youre looking for a bright light, the honest think you would have to say about lamb is not that he was a particularly skirtive candidate, hes a good candidate. He relates well to the people in his district. Most republican challengers are not going to draw a candidate who is as good as lamb for their opponent. Its worrisome and probably more so are the number of retirements the republicans are facing, redistricting in pennsylvania and wisconsin is going to cost them some seats. The realignment politically may wipe out the gon in north korea and california. Theyre facing a lot of problems going into november for sure. Henry, the biggest warning sign for republicans was this item from politico. Republicans abandon tax cut message in pennsylvanias special election. If you put aside the substance of whether you think it was good or bad policy, put that to the side for now, this was going to be the big winner. I heard republican after republican saying this is the thing we delivered. We got it done. What they found on the ground in this district was people didnt really care. Thats absolutely right. It may excite some hardcore republicans but its not going to move soft former republican leaning voters away. The people who are upset at donald trump who are former Republican Voters are people who are upset about culture, upset about president ial behavior. Theyre upset about chaos in the white house and theres no amount of a tax cut that you can pass thats going to change that. The House Republicans need to look into their bag of magic tricks because tax cuts is not going to work for them. Leon, Kevin Mccarthy was saying were working thinking about another round of tax cuts. I thought, i dont think thats the issue here. No, and you know, i think its most likely youre going to see something very similar to what happened to by clinton in 94 and barack obama in 2010. Its a fairly common phenomenon and might hit trump maybe harder than those guys. At the end of the day, its a fairly common phenomenon. America once we elect a new president and people see what hes all about as in actual governing, they say we need to put the brakes on this a little bit. Probably applies to trump more than even your usual president. That was kevin brady, not Kevin Mccarthy. I do think there is heres my theory of this. I was perusing your book before you came on the air. I think one of the things donald trump did successfully in the primary was connect to a certain part of the Republican Base that isnt really that excited about the supplyside bible and have a bunch of cultural concerns that he spoke to and actually have the sort of impulses about tariffs and protectionism they like. It seems like the republicans have ended up with the worst of both worlds. They dont have that part of the mess and seed to those voters and have a guy who seems reckless in the white house as opposed to the best of both worlds. They cant change the guy in the white house. He can change himself. The last poll that came out in this race, the monmouth poll that had lamb winning by a few points also has tariffs winning in this district. House republicans need to understand the swing voter who can be moved back is the voter who actually wants direct Government Action to help people on the ground whether its gun violence or tariffs to protect american jobs. Supplyside is not a political elixir and not going to save the republicans when it comes around to november elections. Leon, theres Something Like 100 seats that are more competitive than this one at least on paper. Do you think it the Republican Party is ready for the amount of contested seats they might face . Yeah, i mean, think that the one saving grace is, of course, kind of the senateside of the equation is going to be a very difficult road to hoe for democrats for them to pick up two seats which is they would need to take the senate. Privately a lot of people are saying is the house could be a bloodbath if not worse. If so, you have to wonder what trump will be able to be accomplish in the remaining two years of his first term. Thanks for your time tonight. Joining me former missouri secretary of state jason cantor. And msnbc political analyst cornell belcher. Your big take away from last flight . Revolt in the suburbs. You see these suburbs around the urban areas, College Educated moderate, especially women who have been breaking republican over time are turned off by the president. They dont think this president represents tear values. Theyre uncomfortable with that. We can say how great a candidate he was all we wan. Lamb was a great candidate. We dont flip a 20point district without a backlash to donald trump. That is being seen with moderate suburban women in particular. Jason, what i find most remarkable here, the president , they throw everything they had at this race. When it first popped on the map, the race exists because the former prolife congressman tried to get his mistress to have an abortion. When that race first pops on the map, no one thinks its going to be contested. It fliesed you the radar. They toll everything they have at it, the president , Vice President , done junior in the hair net in the candy factory and cant get it done. Democrats didnt run a candidate 15 months ago in this district. Yeah, its a pretty big swing. And what it says to me is that the momentum that you feel out there, its real. To anybody out there knocking on doors making phone calls should know that this is real. Whats happening. Ive been to 34 states campaigning for democrats, speaking to democratic audiences since President Trump took office. What ive seen over and over again is an enormous amount of people who have gotten involved politically for the first in their lives since january 20th, 2017. This is quite real and they can expect more of it. One thing that happens when were analyzing exit polls we slice up the electorate. One thing my sort of first look at the precinct by precinct is what lamb did was he did better across the board. Even in the places that werent his go to democratic strengths, he performed higher than Hillary Clinton had and saccone performed worse. That seems like a key through line. Actually, were seeing democratic performance better than 2016 in a bunch of different subgroups. Not only is he performing in support better but also, this is something that i think you and i have talked about before. Off year elections democratic precincts dont turn out the same as renes. What we saw in virginia and last night, were seeing democrat precincts overperform and just raw numbers. You have more democrats. Thats why virginia, had you an electorate more partisan democrat than it was when mcauliffe won. Youre seeing that across the board. Ive got to tell you in, 2006 when we saw a wave election, we didnt see suburban College Educated women breaking this hardaway from republicans. I got to tell you, if they spent 10 million in that district and lost it, it opens up the battlefield for democrats in a way we didnt see in 2006. Heres my question to you, jason. Someone who has been on the grounds. Is that being channeled effectively with the existing infrastructure and fundraising and organizing to take advantage of the terrain as it currently is constituted . Yeah, thats a great question. The key to taking advantage, everybody says theres this is energy out there. Its simple. You harness it. You ask people to do more than call their member of congress six days a week. Its important, dont get me wrong. At some point people say, my member of Congress Knows what i think. Give them the opportunity to knock on doors and make phone calls. Clearly lambs campaign did that. Whats what we were able to do in virginia and other states where were active. Everybody has to remember, this is not a weather event. This is not something are avs very upset with this president. They are upset with the president. People are upset with their republican members of congress who wont stand up to him. Its not magic. Youve got to do the work. If we keep doing the work, this is going to keep happening. One aspect of this is organized labor in this district where it is strong, where you had the Steel Workers and mine workers both working for lamb and a vision of what has been eviscerated in a lot of parts of the country where what formerly was a presence of organized labor on the ground you dont have. It can be speak to blue collar whites in an important way and in the rust belt, theyre a very important part of the democratic coalition. They showed muscle in this past election in a way that you we havent seen in a long, long time from labor. And if they can replicate that through the rust belt, i think democrats can do really well. A lot better this time around with blue collar whites than we saw in 2016. How much, jason, do you think the underlying structuralen conditions are going to sort of are baked in, how much does what happens in the next six months matter . Well, what happens in the next six months matters a lot. What has to happen in the next six months, weve got to execute and do the work. The Structural Conditions are people see a rez the basic deal that will President Trump made with everybody was you dont like me or the way i treat people but its made me very successful. Ill do that for the country. Its not like people said, oh, thats awesome. A lot of people said, well im willing to give that a try. What happened was they still dont like him. Hes still not nice to people. Now he just does it for himself. Thats the Structural Condition is that thats the big thats the bigbee trail of trump that people dont talk about. Hes not looking out for the little guy. Hes not doing that. Hes looking out for himself. One of the remarkable things, youve got a situation in which the top line economic numberses in gdp growth and employment should be favorable to the incumbent party. Even with that, it is not. Were i advising republicans, it would be warning signs. Thanks for being with me. Still to come, across the country today, students of all ages walked out of schools taking part in remarkable gun violence protests across the nation. Can these scenes precipitate real change . Well talk about it ahead. Next as the president cleans house, the latest threat to the Justice Department by way of Jeff Sessions in two minutes. Sometimes a cough gets in the way of a good nights sleep. Thats when he needs vicks vaporub. Proven cough medicine. With 8 hours of vapors. So he can sleep. Vicks vaporub. Goodnight coughs. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. There was another alarming turn in the president s attack on the american Justice System today. Former Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe may be fired before he can officially retire because an internal fbi review is recommending it according to the new york times. Theres a recommendation from the internal disciplinary review. Heres the thing. It is hard to know if that is why he may lose his pension or if its because hes been a wilvillain to donald trump who made clear mccabe should be fired and complained he was about to retire with full benefits. Mccabes pain sin seems he is married to a women who ran for office as a democra the decision was to allow fbi officials to speak critically of Hillary Clinton. The final fate reports to Jeff Sessions as his reports of his dismissal continue to surface. More what donald trump is up to, harry lipman in the department of justice, former attorney general. This is the entire conundrum of this president. On the one hand, an internal review that seems to indicate mccabe may have misled investigators about allowing his people to the press and should be fired for it, on the other hand, the president has been railing against him and it is hard to trust the good faith here. What do you make of it . Its impossible to trust it because the fact is, yes, there was an internal review but the process has not run its course. The process provides for another step for mccabe. Thats review at the attorney general level. Thats what happened if you recall with john yu at least as controversial figure on the left as mccabe is on the right. He had his final review and opr issued disciplinary recommendation. That recommendation was lowered. That is part of the process here. There is no way they can force him out by sunday which is what theyre trying to do. Unless they short circuit that process and that means no way they can do it unless its by political pressure from the very top based on spite and mean spiritedness. Thats interesting. What im hearing from you you view this as a jam job. That trump tv has been railing against mccabe. Youve got the process that hasnt played out yet. The white house sort of berating the ag and how sessions might be next to go. Basically this is the white house attempting to get this done via vendetta. 100 jam job. Again, because of the timing. In a couple months, if the process had played out as theyre claiming it will, he had had the sort of chance that john yu had to make his case and the professionals in the department had dismissed him, that would be one thing. But here that hasnt happened. We havent run the full course. Theyre using it as a shield to try to shoo him out of there. Jam job is the exact word. So heres a bit of reporting from gabe sherman at vanity fair. Things resolution in tumult at the white house. Two republicans in regular contact with the white house there have been talks trump could replace Jeff Sessions with epa administrator scott pruitt who would not be recused from overseeing the russia probe. Your reaction to that in. Would that be the classic trump move . For sessions to oust mccabe absolutely cementing his reputation as loathed within the department and then reward him by firing him as he had done say to mitt romney or chris christie. It would put on display so many of the characteristic called qualities of the president. And pruett has proven himself to be an absolute water carrier for the president. It would be an absolute tour de force. You wouldnt think things could get much lower an the department of justice. This would be the test of that. We have watched the president in the open attempt to subvert the independence of the department of justice at every turn from firing comey and telling him to let flynn go to berating the attorney general to telling his White House Council to fire mueller and direct mueller to be fired, berating rod rosenstein. He has not been it appears not been successful particularly, not gotten rid of mueller, but the question is how long that wall holds up. Right. And have some bricks already fallen. Youre right. Some of the big signature items he wants to achieve still are left undone. But you know, a 40year career guy, real standup fellow to everyone who worked at doj resigned yesterday citing the problems at the department, morale is really abysmal. Hes done a lots to make the department and the bureau feel that they rel completely unappreciated and even reviled. I wouldnt say that hes done no harm yet. Harry litman, thanks. The high stakes collision course between the u. S. , britain and russia. Michael isikoff and david corn and their new book russian roulette. After this. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, working, just like it should i knew at that exact moment, whatever it takes, wherever i have to go. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors that work together. When a patient comes to ctca, theyre meeting a team of physicians that specialize in the management of cancer. Breast Cancer Treatment is continuing to evolve. And i would say that ctca is definitely on the cusp of those changes. Patients can be overwhelmed. We really focus on taking the time with each individual patient so they can choose the treatment appropriate for them. The care that ctca brings is the kind of care ive wanted for my patients. Being able to spend time with them, have a whole team to look after them is fantastic. I empower women with choices. Its not just picking a surgeon. Its picking the care team, and feeling secure where you are. Surround yourself with the team of Breast Cancer experts at Cancer Treatment centers of america. Visit cancercenter. Com breast i we worked with pg eof to save energy because wenie. Wanted to help the school. They would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didnt cut off the light. The teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. So they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. We actually saved 50,000. And thats just one school, two semesters, three girls. Together, were building a better california. Sharply escalating tensions between nato allies including the United States and russia. Theresa may expelling 23 Russian Diplomats in retaliation for a clem cal attack on a former russian agent on british soil this month. And u. N. Ambassador nikki haley said this was a defining moment. The United States believes russia was responsible for that chemical weapons attack. Nato and russia appear to be on a high stakes collision course thanks to a chain of actions the most significant is the russian sabotage of the 2016 election. That is the subject of a new book, russian roulette. The authors david corn and Michael Isikoff join me now. Its a really good book. Thanks. Lets start with, you lay out this spectrum of what putin was up to. Part of the thing coming into view, this was not you got a lot of irons in the fire and were fussing with this. There was a lot that went into this operation. Yes. And we report for the first time that in 2014, there was a kremlin official talking to a u. S. Official working in russia and who told him for the first time, secretly, he wasnt a spy but he was giving intelligence to the americans that putin was interested in waging a massive Massive Campaign to undermine liberal democracies, Democratic Institutions in the west and the United States that would include information warfare, social media activity, propaganda, and we saw that in 2016. We saw it evolve. And it was on all those fronts. Its brazen and putin saying im at war with the west secretly and with whats happening in the uk, he is again repeating what hes done in the past but stepping over some very basic norms and unlike what weve had in this country in response in terms of the trump administration, theresa may is saying wait a second here. What are we going to do about this. There was a statement by the white house rather strong. It agreed with the uk basicay. One of the Big Questions here is, theres different ways to view trumps views of putin. One is that he likes all kinds of strong men. You know what i mean. Autocrats. He was on the campaign teenage. One at toe crat to another. He was praising kim jongun. The guys tough, killing his brother, killing that. He has a personal disposition and affection. One is that this is part of some quid pro quo. You guys report about the history the two of them have and the admiration. How this evolved. Yes, there is affection for a fellow autocrat or somebody who acts like an autocrat. But there was something more here and we go back, we start the book with that Miss Universe pageant in 2013 when trump goes to moscow. And why else is he there . Whats really motivating him . Hes trying to do a business deal. And for the first time, he has a partner air ras aglayer rove, the billionaire Russian Oligarch known as putins builder who had partnered with him on Miss Universe and can partner with him on a trump tower moscow. And whats so attractive about aclayer rove, hes close to putin. What is trump obsessed during that trip . To meet with putin. He asks everybody around him, is putin coming, have we heard from putin yet. He tweets will he be my best friend. This was all in trumps mind as best we can tell. It all fits together. He wanted putins blessing for this deal he was forming with putins build and saw an opportunity for a real business deal he wan ford many, many years. He knew that you cant do a big tower in moscow without the approval of the government. So people have been wondering why he is so positive about putin. I think its his aspirational affinity with a strong man. I think he was smart enough to realize that you capital get these deals done if youre dumping on the guy for his human rights records, for the treatment of gays, from a regime in which journalists are murdered. That copies on into the campaign in 2016 where yet again, theres another deal on the table while he is a president ial candidate to build a trump tower once more. So when he goes on the shows, hes praising putin while his lawyer Michael Cohen who is in the news for other things these days is dealing with phi a former felon dee felix sater trying to get a deal which would have to be approved by the government. He has alternative motives, psychological and financial that have driven him. When we put this all together in the book, it looks kind of stark. A lot of stories came out enter meant tently. One after the other, the pattern is not so hidden. I should point out on that first drumpf power deal, what happened to it . There was a letter of intent signed in moscow. Donald trump jr. Is put in charge of the project. Ivanka flies over to moscow in february, 2014 to scout potential sites with amin. Whats going on at that time . Putin is annexing crimea, intervening in ukraine. The u. S. Imposes sanctions. Hes engaging in some of the most reckless aggression. What happens as a result of that . The deal is killed. You know, and from when you want to look where did trump get his view about sanctions on russia, the sanctions il killed his business deal. It helps explain the positions he took later during the campaign. David, you published the first piece about the steele dossier in mother jones during the campaign. Uhhuh. Im going to ask you both this question. I want you each to answer. There are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who think the tape exists. The infamous kompromat tape referred to in the steele dossier. I mean that in a profound sense. There are people who think there is something really messed up that has come that has happened and people who think, you know. What is your thinking about that . Well, in the book. Is the tape real . In the book we detail Donald Trumps 36 hours, whatever it was in moscow. And we show that its probably, the Time Available for this was short. It was very short. And we also report for the first time that Christopher David steele who wrote the dossier has been telling associates that he thinks when it comes to that particular allegation, its 50 50. He believes that the big picture items that there was some russian effort to cultivate and coop trump was there. I think he hit the number on that earlier than anybody else. We also report there are People Associated with trump who have talked about him taking other trips to russia where he engaged in wild activity that might lead him to lead the russians to have compromising material. The pee tape is not the end of the story i think and right now no ones been able to prove it exists. Im with Christopher Steele on there. 50 50 is about the best. It is unfortunate and actually rather deplorable an allegation that the guy who brought it forth can only say is 50 50 ever got into the public sphere in the first place. That said, you know, its worth noting that trumps chief alibi on the pee tape is Keith Schiller who has told congress, yes, there was an offer to bring prostitutes. He was the bodyguard. The bodyguard, yeah. He declined it. And he declined and said we dont do that sort of thing. It so happens that Stormy Daniels who has been in the news of late has said her principal liaison to getting in touch with donald trump was Keith Schiller. She would call him, he would set up meetings in the hotel room. You identified how the a plot and b plot come together. The book is called russian roulette. Still to come, the dinette set that ben carson cant seem to shake. An update on the best people running the government ahead. And the president chose his latest hire from the as seen on tv section. Next. Oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. Thing 1 tonight in the first year of the trump administration, the president s nominee for Supreme Court has his hearing before the senate which produced this semi hilarious Lindsey Graham moment. I think youre a man of the law. And i really want to congratulate the president to pick you. Quite frankly, i was worried about who he would pick. Maybe somebody on tv. But President Trump could not have done better in choosing you. Ah, that is good comedy because filling the most important positions in the u. S. Government with people you saw on the boob tube would be lol ridiculous, right . Thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. Today the white house announced the president s new top economic adviser will be longtime Cnbc Television host larry kudlow. The announcement apparently came as a surprise to larry kudlow. I didnt know that. I wasnt watching tv this morning and the president called. And he said, its out. Because i dont think he was intending to put it out till tomorrow or friday. And i said oh. And he said youre on the air. And he said im looking at a picture of you. And he said very handsome. So trumpian. Think of that for a second. Larry kudlow on cable tv wasnt watching tv but the president with the busiest job in the world was. Kudlow served in the reagan administration, was chief economist at bear stearns. There is more to his resume than tv talking head but the president does appreciate that qualification in his recruits. From Reality Stars to relatively unknown figures with questionable doctor rats. The message i have, its a simple one. Its a bumper stick, the era of the pajama boy is over january 20th. And the alpha males are back. Apparently not back for long. He lost his job. But trump tv is a pipeline for trump hires. He considered replacing sean spicer with kimberly guilfoyle. Fox friends coanchor Heather Nauert was hired to be state Department Spokesperson last april and she just got a promotion despite having zero Prior Experience in diplomacy, trump installed her as the acting undersecretary of state after firing the prior one undersect along with tillerson yesterday. She is now the fourth highest ranking official at the state department which means in just 11 months is, less than a year shes gone from fox friends to number four at the state department. I really want to the congratulate the president to pick you. Quite frankly, i was worried about who he would pick. Maybe somebody on tv. Weve got damning developments today in the case of ben carsons 31,000 dining set. You may remember when news first broke late last month about the furniture purchase, secretary carson claimed ignorance. A hud spokesman saying at the time that he didnt know the table had been purchased but secretary carson didnt have a problem with it, and he was going to keep it. However, we also found out a former top hud official was demoted after claiming carsons wife demanded she find money to purchase furniture above the 5,000 limit mandated by law. Then after more digging by reporters carson said he and his wife did participate in the furniture shopping but shocked by the price, he said he wanted to buy used furniture but wasnt allowed. So he was as surprised as anyone to find out that a 31,000 dining set had been ordered and requested the order be cancelled. Today, new emails obtained under the freedom of information act revealed the carsons were directly involved in selecting the 31,000 dining set. One referring specifically to print outs of the furniture they picked out. And others revealing the wife candy was involved scheduling an appointment with an interior decorator reviewing options and pressuring staff to find more money for the redecoration despite hud staff and lawyers counseling against making any purchase over the limit. In carsons defense, 31,000 is less than the 43,000 cost of a soundproof chamber in Scott Pruitts office or a 139,000 for interior secretary ryan zinkes office doors. But there may be more can dal in carsons future according to Stephanie Rhule who tweeted the dining reply furniture may be setting the table for his last supper. Next a look at the remarkable scenes across the country today as thousands of students walks out of school. The strengthening movement protesting gun violence after this. Successful people have one thing in common. They read more. How do they find the time . With audible. Audible has the Worlds Largest selection of audiobooks. Books like peak performance. And endurance. Books that energize and inspire for just 14. 95 a month. Less than youd pay for the hardcover. With audible, you get a creditamonth good for any audiobook. If you dont like it, exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. Audible members use the free mobile app to listen anytime, anywhere. On the go. Or in the car. The audible app automatically keeps your place, no bookmarks required. So youll pick up right where you left off, even if you switch your phone. To your echo at home. Get more books in your life. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. Listening, is the new reading. Text listen 12 to five hundred five hundred to start listening today. In an ideal world, the 20 first graders and ken der gardeners who died in sandy hook would be in middle school today. In an ideal world, 58 concertgoers who were gunned down in las vegas would have returned home to be with their families. And the 17 victims from Stoneman Douglas would probably be eating lunch at school right now and the only thing theyd be worried about is a test for next period. That young man with thousands of students who walked out of their classrooms in protest. More than 3100 walkouts were scheduled from washington, d. C. To colorado. High School Students in atlanta took a knee. These kid the outside of los angeles want to let Congress Know that theyve had enough of their inaction against gun violence. As someone who has been involved in protests and marches and social justice action, what were you thinking watching these kids today . In i was very impressed that they showed a real diversity in involvement. I think when we saw, not only marches in the suburbs, but when we saw the bronx, these young people have shown something that i have not seen in a lot of the organic movements, and they have defined goals. Theyre talking about legislation. Theyre not talking about overthrowing something as much as saying, were going to make government work. And i learned growing up in the aftermath of dr. Kings assassination as part of his organization, that if you dont have defined goals, can you not decide how to gauge victory, because you really havent announced youre after anything. So theyve shown where they want to go. They came to new york and met with us in action network. They went to chicago. A lot of them have shown a maturity, even though theyre younger, it makes me very hopeful. I think sometimes gun violence is very targeted. Sometimes the National Movement doesnt look like that. But there was a Coalition Today across all kinds of racial categories and socioeconomic categories. Thats gun violence getting the national headlines, but today you saw students from across this country from all demographics stepping forward, raising their voices. And our program that we have in new yorkers against gun violence, our students were participating. They know this moment may not have come from them. Explain that. They are experiencing gun violence in their neighborhoods on a monthly basis. They are not in schools that have a huge news event, massacre. No. The press does not come running to them when they lose their loved ones of but now that they see that this is a moment in time when students are getting attention, theyre not going to step back. Theyre going to step forward. And thats what they did today when they walked out of their schools in new york city and across the country. I think were in the midst of an incredible protest cycle or protest wave. If you add it all up together, think about the movement for black lives. Over the last several years, the protests that were often seen as a bit differently than these protests. Absolutely. There werent a lot of brands getting on board. Schoolteachers in west virginia, not just protesting but going on strike, which is a very, very hard and risky form of collective action to take. I think theres been the ground laid for this home. The thing movements do is force issues on the agenda. I want to interject quickly, for some of these students, they were taking significant risk. Some schools were very happy and celebrated. Some were threatened with detention. Students in concord, california broke through a gate after they locked gates around campus. I saw people on twitter students who were locked down in their rooms taking a knee. Kids were taking Real Disciplinary risk. I think thats true. And it showed they were determined. But i think the point i was going to make after dorian is that thats why today was so hopeful. I remember when i was a kid, 13 or 14, we had all of these movements. Antivietnam war, sds, black power. And the result was, they remained so fractioned, Richard Nixon won that november. What we saw today, if we can come together, even though we may not all agree. We may not listen to the same music or go to the same place, it is the broad base that will in many ways change the politics of this country. The nra is there day and night. The folks on the other side may not have a walk out, but they know what theyre doing and they have a number and the contact even though everyone in albany or state capitals, the challenge of moving that into something more concrete and lasting. I think we have been work and building up the foundation for though moment since the sandy hook massacre. That was like a real disjunctive moment. It was. You saw americans coming forward forward. They were galvanized. And we have seen state and local legislatures enacting laws that are meaningful and effective. And now americans realize that until we see change at the federal level, 30,000 americans are going to continue to die, not just in mass shootings, the suicide rate is going to ten to go up. So, until i think that americans are willing to come forward at the polls and vote accordingly, we will not necessarily see meaningful change in congress. Part of the remarkable maturity you spoke about, they are talking about solutions that dont increase incarceration, that dont exacerbate racial disparities. Theyre talking about the danger of having more armed police in schools. There is analysis being brought to bear here. Theyre being intersectional without using the term, in a sense, of bringing together issues of race and class and gender and generation and age. Its so helpful, because the other element is to recruit new people to the fight. This is an entirely new group of young people in this fight and will be in this fight for a long time. And secondly, how do they maneuver around entrenched interests and opponents . So i dont think its insignificant that in florida last week, an imperfect bill passed, but it dethroned the power of the nra. Thats a huge moment. I think it also shows that, you know, many of us that have come out of communities and are in communities where this is normal, as he said, where you have gun violence almost all the time. Look at chicago, look at baltimore. This has given a lot of those young people as dr. King used to say, where you become maladjusted, because you cant adjust to gun violence. Those kids said today were no longer going to accept this as normal. If you get a chance to look on social media, theres amazing photos. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. That is all in for this evening. Tonight, donald trump returns to the white house where staffers dont know what comes next, who may be next to go, including prominent cabinet members, or why anyone would want to join season 2 of this particular show. New reporting on Stormy Daniels and a lawyer for the Trump Organization apparently involved in the arbitration to silence her. And is Jeff Sessions about to fire trump nemesis Andrew Mccabe days before he earns his pension for 20plus years at the fbi . One of the reporters who broke the story standing by for us as the 11th hour gets under way. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters, day 419 of the trump administration. The president appears to be engineering a transition, a