Down likely from either the u. S. Or iran. And war of words. Jon stewart firing back at Mitch Mcconnell after the Senate Leader questioned stewarts slam on congress for not compensating 9 11 First Responders. Weve never failed to address this issue. And we will address it again. I dont know why hes all bent out of shape. Im not bent out of shape. Im fine. Im bent out of shape for them. These are the first heroes and veterans and victims of the great trillions of dollars war on terror. And good day, everyone. President trump is ready to kick off his Reelection Campaign in florida tonight using his twitter account. The president will be accompanied by the first lady, other family members and the Vice President. The president still faces problems and lags behind all of the leading democrats, especially joe biden in head to head matches at this early stage. The majority of registered voters in our latest poll are expressing uneasiness about four more years with trump in charge. Well be talking to two contenders here this hour, Bernie Sanders and Michael Bennett. Monica, first to you in orlando. Youre seeing a fired up crowd already. Theyve been waiting, theyre anticipating. Orlando is a great venue for him. What are you hearing when you talk to people down there . Reporter thats right, there are actually already thousands of people out here at what the campaign is calling 45 fest. Its a special event here theyve set up outside the venue for tonight where the campaign is expecting around 20,000 of the president s most loyal supporters here as he kicks off his election. He has been basically running already for reelection for the last two and a half years, but tonight hell make it official. I talked to a lot of supporters here who arent just from florida, but also some of the neighboring states. Its interesting to hear about their progression from why they supported him in 2016 to now. Take a listen to what a couple of them had to say earlier here. Hes just for our freedom. We dont want socialistic policy. We want to be free. Reporter any frustrations . None at all. None at all. I hope we have the next four after them and after that i hope his son runs. Excellent job. You guys need to back off and leave him alone. Reporter whats the main reason youll vote for him again . The man reason . Because hes one of the best president s weve had for a very long time. He doesnt lie. I know yall say he does. He doesnt. Reporter any concerns about the democratic opponents and what kind of matchup he might face . They dont have a leg to stand on. Reporter so, andrea, there you have it, thats the mood from some of the supporters. There are still eight hours to go until the event tonight. Its 86 with a feels like temperature of 94 with scattered showers for the afternoon. These are the diehard supporters and are hoping to hear a lot of the same messaging theyve heard from the president tonight. Thank you for those interviews and the weather forecast. Its going to be hot politically as well. Monica alba in orlando. Charlie cook, where do things stand now . The woman said he doesnt lie. The one thing thats indisputable are the misstatements, the lies from president , his team about observable things. But that is not what his die hard supporters youre seeing are hearing. Im not going there. But i think the folks that monica interviewed are absolutely representative that the trump base is fired up. He has no problems within the republican party. The challenge for the president is there are more people that are equally adamant that are never going to support him. He doesnt look good with the swing voters in the middle. Theyre fired up and unified on his side but Everything Else doesnt look so good. The three states that were determinative for whatever reasons, and we can debate those reasons, pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, if the democrats hold those states, regain those states, the battleground looks favorable for the democrats. They have to really screw up. Youre right. Hillary clinton got enough votes to win and they just werent in the right places. In those three states, something was in the water in 2016. In 2018, it certainly wasnt. Republicans went in with two governorships. They came out with zero. They came up short in the senate races and had a tough night in the house of representatives as well. Polling, he averages 42 job approval rating. If the election were held today, yes, he would President Trump would at least lose those three, if not the 27 other states that he carried. And Hillary Clinton would is well ahead in all 20 of her states. Let me share joe biden would be ahead of the 20 states Hillary Clinton carried. And in fact, some of the other contenders as well. As large as the democratic field is, someone is going to rise to the top, if not joe biden, somebody else. And well have some of the other advantages that at least most of the democrats seem to have against the president. One of the things you wrote recently online is that the 2020 Trump Campaign is sure to be vastly more sophisticated and financed than the Dumpster Fire organization. The democrats have to come up with a narrative, have to come up with proposals. There are several warning signs in this field of democrats. Well see this sort out a little bit. Most likely next week in the debate. Yeah, i mean i think that its a big field and who knows who comes out of it. But the fact that not just joe biden, but Bernie Sanders runs well ahead of the president and that people that voters dont know so well like elizabeth warren, Pete Buttigieg run evenly with the president. Thats a warning sign. I think if democrats get too i wouldnt get ahead of their skis on issues. I think democrats are in better shape if they let this be a referendum on President Trump. If this is a referendum on democratic socialism, if its a referenda on other things the outcome may not be good. But they need to keep it a referendum on the president. Charlie cook, thanks so much for that. Perfectly teed up now for our next guest. Thanks to monica in orlando. Vermont independent senator democratic president ial candidat candidate Bernie Sanders joins me. The president has been tweeting ahead of his big announcement that next week i. C. E. Will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have found their way into the United States. Now our reporters have not found any new plan on the books. This sounds like the same game plan before the 2018 midterms to fire up his base. Your reaction to his tweet and to his using this rhetoric on immigration right now . I think youre right. I think this is a political statement to his base. Frankly i think its an outrageous statement. Its not what our country stands for and its exactly what demagogues always do. Hell not talk about the healthcare crisis. Hell not talk about wealth inequality. Hell not talk about Climate Change. But he will try to divide the American People up. Hell go after minority people, in this case undocumented people who have very little political power. Thats what demagogues always do. Thats why trump must be defeated. You know, when we look forward towards the debates, the president on twitter today he may or may do this hes talking about live tweeting while you guys are on the debate stage. Whats your reaction to that . Well, im surprised he has the time to tweet. I thought hed be watching some fox tv program. Look, he can tweet all he wants to tweet. But let me just say this, you have a president , who despite what one of his supporters mentioned, is in fact a pathological liar. Hes a racist, hes a sexist, hes a homophobe. He is is a religious bigot. This is a president who is also a phony. Who told his supporters in 2016 hed stand with the working class of this country, and of course he lied. I suspect tonight in his speech hell not tell them he tried to throw 32 Million People off of healthcare. His last budget called for a trillion and a half cut to medicaid. Billions in cuts to social security. He told his supporters in 2016 his tax plan would not benefit the wealthy. He lied. 83 of those benefits are going to go to the top 1 after ten years. At the same time, he views the stock market as the index of how good the economy is. So do a lot of americans. Theyre not looking at the internal problems, the wage despairsti dispari disparities, but a lot of people, his supporters are saying the stock market is up and business the Community Seems to be supportive. How do you combat that . I tell you how the powers of incumbency and hes raised so much more money. In this sense, i think its not just his supporters. This is very often what media does. The stock market is up, the economy is good. Heres a fact. That right now today the average American Worker is making in real inflation accounted for dollars, despite huge increases in technology and productivity the same amount of money he or she made 45 years ago. That sound like a good economy . Today what were seeing is a younger generation. Everything being equal. The millenials. Theyll have a lower standard of living than their parents. Today what were seeing is that over the last 30 years, the top 1 have seen a 21 trillion increase in their wealth. The bottom half of americans have lost 900 billion. Massive income and wealth inequality. Tens of millions of parents living paycheck to paycheck. Those are the issues ill talk about during this campaign and those are the issues the average american understands. I want to ask you about iran. Were seeing increasing tensions. Secretary pompeo is going to be speaking from sent com. Iran is threatening to break out of the nuclear deal for the first time in 14 months, even though the president withdrew from it. We see these hits on the tankers. They say theres intelligence, the brits agree with the u. S. This was iranian proxyied. What do you do right now where iran is arguably acting aggressively, even whoa, whoa e whoa in reaction to the u. S. Policy making. Just a couple of points. First of all, what is absolutely necessary is an objective investigation as to these incidents. The destruction or the bombing or attacking of oil tankers in the gulf of oman is not acceptable. We need to investigate it. You dont accept let me just ask you dont accept the declaration from the secretary of state . No, it dont. It needs to be an objective investigation. As you know the japanese in fact, the owner of the tanker that was attacked disagrees with trump. But heres the main point i want to make. If you look at the recent history of this country, i think we understand that the two worst Foreign Policy disasters were based on lies that came from the white house. You remember the socalled gulf of tonkin incident that led us to increase military involvement in vietnam. I could speak that was my generation. 59,000 brave young men never came home from that war. Tens of thousands died, committed suicide, got into drugs when they came home. That was based on a lie. Then you look more recently at the war in iraq, which i oppose because i did not believe cheney and i did not believe john bolton. I did not believe the bush administration. Again, based on a lie that Saddam Hussein and iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Let me just say this, ill do everything i personally can as a United States senator to stop the United States attacking iran. If we go into a war with iran, this will be an asymmetrical war which will go on and on and on. There will be never ending wars in the middle east. It will make the war in iraq look like a cake walk. So we have got to do everything we can to bring the antagonists, saudi arabia, which is a brutal dictatorship, together with iran. Bring them together. Use the power of the United States to work out a diplomatic solution, not a military solution. Youre going to be on a debate stage next week facing off for the first time with joe biden. Whats your strategy going against the frontrunner . Well, you promise not to tell joe . Promise not to tell. All right. If thats the case, look, joe and i are friends. Ive known him for many years. I thought he was a very good Vice President. But joe and i have a different outlook on the world. We have a different voting record. Joe voted for the war in iraq, i voted against the war in iraq. Joe voted for a lot of what i consider to be disastrous trade agreements, nafta, pncr with china. Cost us millions of good paying jobs. I helped lead the opposition against those trade agreements. Joe voted for the deregulation of wall street. I strongly opposed that. Heres what i believe in terms of 2020. Joe wants to beat donald trump and i want to beat donald trump and every democratic candidate understands how important it is that we defeat donald trump. I happen to believe that the only way we defeat trump is through a large voter turnout. You create excitement. You get young people and working people involved in the political process. The only way i know how you do that is you talk about the real issues that impact peoples lives. Healthcare is a human right. We need medicare for all l. We have to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour. Weve got to make public colleges and universities tuition free and substantially reduce student debt. You want to get young people involved . Their generation is hurting. Theyre overly in debt. You got to talk about Climate Change in a bold way. Because the scientists tell us we have 12 years to transform our energy system. My view is we win when we bring out large numbers of people, when we tell the truth that trump supporters, about his lies. When we fight for criminal justice reform, fight for immigration reform, create excitement at the grass roots level. Thats how we win. I think those are the issues were talking about. As you know, many of the polls the last five polls that were out there had me beating trump by at least nine points. Sometimes double digits. We can beat trump if were prepared to talk about the issues impacting working people and get them involved in the political process. Senator, one of the candidates who is talking about issues more than anyone is elizabeth warren, your colleague. Also against wall street, against big business. Many of your issues, yet shes moving up in many of these polls and youve been losing some altitude. So elizabeth warren, does she have the formula, rather than you . Im not going well, you have to ask elizabeth warren. Elizabeth is a long why do you think shes being so successful . Some of the polls have me doing a lot better than l elizabeth warren. Polls, depending on the polls. One polls i would stress is the last five polls has us running far better than anyone else since biden. In one poll were running better than biden. If the American People are looking at the candidate who can defeat trump, ill hope theyll give serious consideration to our candidacy. Senator Bernie Sanders, its always a pleasure. Thank you so much. See you in miami. Okay, take care. Thanks, a lot. Coming up, tensions escalating as the pentagon announces 1,000 more troops are being sent to the middle east. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports, stay with us right here on msnbc. Stay with us rit here on msnbc. I dont keep track of regrets. And i dont add up the years. But what i do count on. Is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Boost® high protein. Be up for life. Right now, secretary of state mike pompeo is meeting with u. S. Commanders overseeing forces in the middle east at sent com in tampa hours after the pentagon announced its sending 1,000 more troops to the region. Today, irans president rouhani said his country will not wage war, but it is threatening to break out of the nuclear deal by ramping up nuclear fuel production. Iran has been obeying its limits. Joining me now is courteney cubey and Jake Sullivan, the former National Security advisor to Vice President joe biden and a Top State Department official under president obama. Welcome back. Youve been talking to the military, what are the 1,000 troops going to significantly accomplish . Is this force protection . What is their mission . Reporter yes, thats right. Its force protection. Its defensive. So this is in response to what the military sees as a continued stream of threats from iran. And attacks that they blame iran for. The most recent ones, the two tankers that were attacked last week. There have been a series of attacks against u. S. Ally, saudi arabia. Both by missile and uavs, drones. These are the kinds of troops who will come in to shore up these defenses against these attacks. Well probably see things like additional troops to patriot batteries, probably additional isr or intelligence gathering. Things they can use to stop, to thwart a possible attack. These attacks we heard from patron shanahan last night, we heard the attacks are ones theyre concerned about, both air, land and sea. Think about the threats weve seen. The tanker attacks at sea, in the air there are the drones and missiles that have been fired by the Houthi Rebels into saudi arabia and there have been missiles fired at u. S. Drones. At land, one of the threats we havent heard much about is from the shia militia groups in iraq. So these additional 1,000 troops keep in mind, this is a small percentage of the total force thats in sent com. These troops will be there for defensive and force protection, andrea. Thanks so much. Jake sullivan, when we look at iran, first of all questions, Bernie Sanders just raised as to the credibility of the intelligence or the way its being interpreted. Second of all, what is happening inside iran . On the first question i think what senator sanders said is right. We need an objective investigation into what happened here. Unfortunately, what weve seen is an administration thats lied time and time again about important issues, including National Security issues. So they simply dont have the credibility. That said, the attacks in the gulf of oman do bear the hallmarks of Iranian Forces or proxi proxies. It wouldnt surprise me if an investigation found they were behind attacks. Is it perhaps those you negotiated with are losing strength because we withdrew from the newauclear deal . No doubt the compbinatibinat Trump Administration has taken is i give you an example, the Trump Administration imposed a foreign terrorist label on the iranian guard corp. That empowered the irgc inside iran. I think theyre calling the shots more today isnt that a recipe for disaster . Were seeing theres no better word for it than recipe for disaster. If iran follows through, it will be closer to a nuclear bomb in the coming weeks than it was in january of 2017. If iran continues to disrupt shipping in the gulf youll have seen an escalation of something that wasnt a problem before trump took office. Then, of course, theres the broader issue of the United States being deeply isolated from its allies and being forced to confront this threat by itself. Jake sullivan, thanks so much. Coming up, first responder. Jon stewart slamming Mitch Mcconnell for his comments about the 9 11 victims fund. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Watching anl reports on msnbc. Hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. Mno kidding. Rd. But moving your internet and tv . Thats easy. Easy . easy . Easy. Because now xfinity lets you transfer your Service Online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. Really . Really. That was easy. Yup. Plus, with twohour appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. Now all you have to do is move. That thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. Its just another way were working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. Welcome back. Jon stewart last night with his friend, Steven Colbert eviscerating Mitch Mcconnell after the republican leader dismissed stewarts passionate advocacy to permanently Fund Compensation for 9 11 First Responders. It comes a week after stewart testified on capitol hill for the ailing firemen and police victims, 18 years after they answered the call of duty. The republican leader questioned why stewart was so upset. Weve never failed to address this issue. Well address it again. I dont know why hes all bent out of shape. Im not bent out of shape. Im fine. Im bent out of shape for them. These are the first heroes and veterans and victims. If youre busy, i get it. Just understand the next time we have war or youre being robbed or your house is on fire, and you make that desperate call for help, dont get bent out of shape if they show up at the last minute with fewer people than you thought were going to Pay Attention and dont actually put it out. Joining me now is nbcs White House Correspondent crustkriste welker and margaret cossin. You wrote about this this morning, talked about it on the today show. Weve covered jon stewart and these First Responders. What is Mitch Mcconnell missing here about the fact that 18 years after this is not properly funded and isnt funded long term for firefighters and police and their families who are dying . Reporter its the outrage jon stewart would argue is missing. The argument hes making is why do they consistently have to come back to the table to try to get this funding we authorized . What they want to do with this current bill is effectively to have it go through 2090. Currently the claims would effectively run out in december of 2020. And jon stewart made the point last week, andrea, in that impassioned plea, why was he speaking basically to an empty room . Why arent there more people who are there to actually show that they support this . Now of course this did pass through the House Judiciary Committee and its expected to pass through the full house. And i spoke to an aide who works with leader mcconnell who said, look, we have addressed this in the past, well do so in the future. Basically underscoring what you heard there from leader mcconnell. But again the frustration on the part of jon stewart and so many of those First Responders is that they keep having to come back to the table and ask for this to be authorized. It keeps getting done at the very last minute, andrea. And time is what they need. Because, you know, one of those firemen came just before his 60 plus chemo session when he should not have been traveling. Kasie hunt spoke to senator schumer on the hill. Reporter Mitch Mcconnell was quoted as saying about jon stewart and the 9 11 First Responders that he doesnt understand why jon stewart is so bent out of shape. Everybody jon stewart said hes not bent out of shape, hes bent out of shape on behalf of the First Responders. Do you understand why hes bent out of shape . They have delayed this process, theyve limited it. We asked for permanence a while ago. They said only five years. Weve asked for so many things. This should have been done and accomplished several years ago. Ryan, isnt this whats wrong with washington . Yeah. How can the senate not follow the houses lead now and get this done . Of course theyre going to. This is the battle between tjon stewart and Mitch Mcconnell. This time the Irresistible Force is going to win. Not only does jon stewart have the cause of rightness on his side and great compassion and argument behind him, he has the man we just heard, chuck schumer. Who is a democratic leader from the senate and a senator from new york. The combination will get it passed whether Mitch Mcconnell thinks it is or not. Its such an asymmetric fight in that Mitch Mcconnell has no emotional quotient. For a highly moral cause, jon has a sense of humor, which he showed on Steven Colbert last night. I was hoping youd pop from underneath the table the way he did. He explained it so well. Then he says youre busy not doing your job. And thats why you cant tend to this tragedy. The thing you dont have in this one is time. Because its ticking for people who arrived there at that hearing having just completed 60 rounds of chemotherapy and shouldnt be traveling at all. Jon stewart testifying last week, lets reprise for anyone who did not see the passion of his testimony. Im sorry if i sound angry and undiplomatic. But im angry and you should be too. Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity. Time. Its the one thing theyre running out of. They did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity, humility. 18 years later do yours. Kristen welker, this is such a clear moral argument. This is the second time jon stewart has in recent years at least even come up with these First Responders. And how can they say 18 years later this should not be a permanently funded this is a rounding error on the budget. Were going to just complete this for a moment because secretary mpompeo has come to te microphones. Lets listen to the latest about iran. If were to deliver on the state department on the president s diplomatic objectives we have to be tightly woven. I appreciate generals mackenzie and clark and their teams spending time with me. We had extensive conversations about tactical, strategic levels of work between our organizations to make sure when we present options, alternatives, policy recommendations to President Trump, were doing so in a way thats coherent and consistent and leads the president to a fuller understanding of the challenges and opportunities connected to decisions he makes. We certainly as i said spoke about challenges in iran. We talked about the sent com decision that secretary shanahan and the president approved to move 1,000 more americans into the theater to make sure were in the position to do the right thing, which is to continue to work to convince iran that were serious and to deter them from further aggression in the region. Its been our mission since the beginning of this administration to convince the regime not to move forward with their Nuclear Program and not to continue to engage in the development of missiles and the other activities theyve been engaged in. Its why we put in place the Pressure Campaign thats been ongoing for a year and a couple months. Its been very effective. And now we need to make sure we continue to do that so that we ultimately get the opportunity to convince iran that its not in their best interest to behave in this way. We all have to remember this isnt just two and a half years or five years, this is 40 years of iranian activity that has led us to this point and to reestablish deterrents is a challenge but one i know the Trump Administration is sup to. Were working hard every day both in the state department and the department of defense and all the elements of the United States government to achieve that. With that im happy to take a couple questions. Yes, maam . [ inaudible question ] almost certainly. President trump had sent president abe to take a message of his to the leadership in iran. These are messages for the leadership. I think the iranian people are being misserved by that leadership. Were engaged in we have been engaged in many messages, even this moment right here. Communicating to iran that we are there to deter aggression. President trump does not want war. And we will continue to communicate that message while doing the things that are necessary to protect american interests in the region. [ inaudible question ] when are we expected to see that . Well continue to provide Additional Information about those attacks. We shouldnt focus on those two attacks since the beginning of may there are over a half dozen incidents. Some thwarted, some not thwarted. I saw chancellor merkel say she thought there was strong evidence that iran had engaged in this activity. Well continue to work with partners all around the world. Its worth reminding everyone here, you have china that depends enormously on energy transiting the strait of hormuz. You have south korea, indonesia, japan, all of whom have an enormous interest in insuring theres freedom of navigation throughout this waterway. The United States is prepared to do its part, but every nation that has a deep interest in protecting that shipping lane so energy can move around the world and support their economies needs to make sure they understand the real threat. The real threat to their interest and their countrys economies if were not successful in doing that. It falls within the opraiterg theater of central command. What do you say to the families of the men and women who work within those commands about how they should prepare themselves for what may come over the next year or two . Id say thank you to them for their service to the nation. Many of these young men and women are talented, capable, aggressive. They have put us into place where we have the opportunity to deter iran. What id say is what id say to everyone who is engaged in this kind of service. America is deeply appreciative. Were providing them with the resources they need to be successful to continue to engage in the activities in a way that will deliver good outcomes and to thank them for their willingness to take this ultimate risk, that every Service Member faces. I remind my diplomats around the world, they too, face threats to themselves and to their families. When i get a chance to talk to those officers at the state department, those diplomats, i tell them the same thing i like to share with the families that are here at sent com. Thank them for their amazing professionalism and their willingness to serve america in these challenging times. You said many times the u. S. Is not seeking war with iran. President trump said this week he would consider going to war over the iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Is that something that was discussed here today at sent com . Can you give us details as to on sunday you said military options were something thats being considered. Can you give us anymore details . One of the purposes of my visit was to make sure were coordinated. The responsibility achieving the Strategic Outcomes that President Trump has sent forth falls on all of us, but the state department has the first o oar in the water. We need to make sure we have the ability to respond if iran make as bad decision, if it makes a decision to go after an american ve interest. So we talked about broad range of issues here today across all of that spectrum. I know that the soldier sailor and airmen are ready to respond to any threat that iran should present to the u. S. We talked about each of those and how to make sure wed prepare those options for the president of the United States. Whats the advantage of coming here to tampa to talk with generals rather than talk with generals at the pentagon and should your trip here be a message to iran . So i talked with generals at the pentagon all the time too. These are not exclusive options. But it was important for me to get into the headquarters where a lot of this work is doing. It made sure we didnt have to send a bunch of folks up to meet me in washington. I got a chance to meet with not only those two leaders, but their teams today. And they got a chance in turn to hear how the state department is thinking about the problems and how were delivering deterrents in the region and reinforcing the strategic objectives of the United States. It was important for me to get here so i could talk to broader range of leaders and hear all the great work theyve been engaged in. Ill take one more. Anything to say about that . I dont have anything to add to that. Ill say only this, it is the case in may we had over 140,000 Illegal Immigrants enter into the national unlawfully. We have to insure we have sovereignty and security at our southern border. Every action the administration is taking is designed to do that. President trump has been very clear. We work i worked personally on an arrangement with mexico now a week and a few days ago. Im confident that we will get that under control. Its important. Its important for americas National Security that we do in fact achieve that. Thank you all. Secretary of state pompeo in tampa at sent com. Back with us now Kristen Welker and Jake Sullivan the former National Security advisor to Vice President joe biden and state department official. Jake, he said theyll continue to work with partners around the world. He was asked about communications. He said one of the communications is what im doing now, there were communications through abe and he mentioned that china has a strategic interest in keeping the strait of hormuz open for oil trade. You were involved in two years of secret back channelled diplomacy with iran about the negotiations went hubble and started. How do you assess what kind of diplomatic back channel talks or overtures are taking place right now . Well from the outside it looks like on process the administration is working really hard. They sent a message with Prime Minister abe of japan to iran to offer to have some kind of talks. Apparently the omani with whom you worked to get to iran . They facilitated the negotiations that led to the interim deal that led to the Iran Nuclear Deal. On the process side, the administration is putting out a lot of feelers. They have held to these list of 12 demands that mike pompeo spelled out last year, which essentially amount to iranian surrender. At the end of the day, if the United States wants to pursue coercive diplomacy, it needs the diplomacy half of that. That will require some compromise on the part of the United States. Not on the fundamental issue of denying iran a nuclear weapon, but on broader issue of the parameters of the greagreement. What about the credibility of john bolton, and mike pompeo. When they say iran has done something, given what happened back with w. M. D. And given this administration and given a lot of the bluster, frankly from the commander in chief about iran . What is the credibility with World Leaders . Well lets start with the fact that the United States pulled out of an agreement it negotiated with World Leaders. Lets continue with the fact they imposed sanctions over the objections of our partners. Then we have a history that claiming at adversaries of ours has done things when its come to light they hadnt. In this case, odds are iran did this. This administration cant have its word taken at face value, that undermines our National Security. The president is about to go to a g20. The europeans have been suspicious of his intentions. Hes going to be meeting with the chinese leader as well. This is a very important moment, a moment of opportunity. But youve got john bolton, a real hard liner on iran and mike pompeo. Reporter President Trump spoke with xi jinping earlier today. Youre absolutely right. Its against that backdrop that the president is dealing with this crisis with iran and also with north korea where the talkswitalks have fallen apart. Its a challenge for President Trump. Its a test of his decision to pull out of the Iran Nuclear Deal as jake is breaking down. The United States european allies have become quite skeptical of the United States, but how to move forward given the u. S. Is no move forward given the u. S. Is no longer part of this agreement and iran seems poised to blow past the political benchmarks. This is escalating and will be a key test for President Trump as he prepares to head to the g20 summit next week. Thank you so much. And joining me now, democratic senator president ial candidate Michael Bennett of colorado, author of a land of flickering lights restoring america in an age of broken politics. Michael bennett, welcome. Thank you so very much for being with us. Thanks for having me. First i want to ask you to react to iran, the announcements of a thousand more troops deployed. You see the secretary of state appearing at sitcom. He could have gone across the river to the pentagon. Usually we hear from the secretary of defense in announcing military issues. What do you see going on here . I think it is more reality tv out of the Trump Administration. These guys have an amazing ability to sound arrogant and weak at the same time which is i think the way secretary pompeo is sounding, the way donald trump sounded. As you were talking about with Jake Sullivan, they dismantled the iran deal that had put iran a year from being able to break out to a nuclear weapon. Every Intelligence Agency in the world, including ours, said iran was now a year away from being able to do that. Today, theyre saying theyre negotiating their negotiating objective is put iran a year from being able to break out a nuclear weapon. That had been accomplished. They have now provoked a crisis. One day the president says he is going to blow up iran. The next day he says, i dont want regime change in iran. The inconsistencies, i mean, andrea, i see it every day on the floor of the senate where republicans in the senate have absolutely no idea how to interpret what the president of the United States is saying. I have no doubt that iran, china, russia, syria, everybody in the world, our european allies are just as confused about what the u. S. Intentions are and when youre confusing, bad things happen. The reality is the iranians have done terrible things in the region and continue to. Theyve been successfully prosecuting the vacuum that was created way back when we invaded iraq, based on faulty intelligence having to do with weapons of mass destruction and as long as they dont get on fox news i think they can basically do what they want. And thats not how we should be engaging either from a diplomatic or National Security point of view. Its like opposite day around here. No republican president has ever behaved this way on Foreign Policy. No democratic president ever has either. What are we to make of the prtz of the United States saying that he needs the chinese to help him in the strait of hormuz and to Say Something like that publicly instead of taking care of our National Security and our security interests in the region. That shouldnt depend upon the chinese. How do you democrats distinguish yourself . We have the debate next week. You are on night two. You have a chance at the acknowledged frontrunners. How do you distinguish yourself . I think that the way ill distinguish myself goes by telling the truth to the American People, which is why i wrote that book the land of flickering lights which is about the last ten years. You have had the stuff on earlier about the First Responders in new york and the failure of congress to be able to deal with this in a timely way. This book shows you that that actually has been the way we have done our work over the last ten years and its been a pathetic episode for the, in the United States history. And my view of that is, there is no way well be able to move the country forward as long as Mitch Mcconnell and the Freedom Caucus continue to be able to immobilize the federal government and tyrannize the American People with their ideology which is at this point so far outside the main stream of conventional republican american thought that i think we need a Broad Coalition of americans, democrats, independents, and republicans to fix this broken politics we have here. There is no other way to do it. It is going to be very hard, a real challenge, but if we want to save this exercise in selfgovernment thats what were going to have to do. Senator, the president is now promising a big roundup of undocumented immigrants next week. Sounds timed to his Reelection Campaign launch tonight. How do you make the connection on this immigration issue . I think it would help if the president hadnt provoked a crisis by shutting down the Refugee Centers all over the world. I think we could work with our allies in this hemisphere to have a refugee policy where we would all be working together to try to deal with this problem. Diplomacy is what we need. We do not need to be scaring to death the families in my old school district, for example. Senator, please come back soon. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Look forward to it. A good start on a conversation, senator. And on june 26th and 27th that first president ial debate taking place in miami moderated by lester holt, savannah guthrie, jose balart, chuck todd, and rachel maddow. It will be streamed on msnbc news. Com. News. Com gunk, wear, corrosion and friction. That helps keep your Engine Running like new. Its fuel for thought. At panera, our salads with peakseason berries. Creamy avocado. And a dressing fit for a goddess. Come taste what a salad should be. And order online for delivery right to you. Panera. Food as it should be. Weve had a busy edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Thanks for being with us. Remember to follow the show online, on facebook, and twitter michellereports. Here is ali velshi and stephanie ruhle. Thank you. Have a fantastic afternoon. It is tuesday, june 18th. Coming up this hour on velshi and ruhle markets surge. President trump moving markets with one single tweet. The dow reacting to the president s plan to meet with chinas leader. Plus, america is sending 1,000 more troops to the middle east after last weeks oil tanker attacks but does the evidence support retaliation against iran . And trumps threat. The president promising mass arrests of undocumented immigrants next week just as his 2020 Campaign Officially begins. Lets start there. President trump is preparing to head to florida today to launch his Reelection Campaign with a rally at orlandos amway center where supporters lined up 40 hours ahead of tonights event. They are calling it 45 fest. There has been a major focus on the promises not kept from the president s 2016 campaign. His wall is unbuilt. The debt is expanding rather than being paid down. The Affordable Care act has not been replaced. A Senior Member of the president s 2020 Campaign Sees those unfulfilled promises, wait for it, as a