Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20181030

Public safety in mind when it implored the president not to come. They write in a letter, President Trump, you are not welcome in pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism. But donald trump did not heed either their requests. In fact, he made abundantly clear in remarks last night hes going to keep hitting the same divisive notes he always hits, no matter what. I was in the headline when they got him, they didnt say bomber found. They talked about trump in the headline. Now, they didnt do that with Bernie Sanders when he they didnt do that with the democrats when other people came out. They didnt do that with president obama with the church, the horrible situation with the church. They didnt do that. They put my name in the headlines. Its when i say enemy of the people, im talking about the fake news, and it is fake. A moment of national tragedy, thats all that matters, Donald Trumps clips. At least eight elected officials refused to accompany the president to pittsburgh today. They cited scheduling conflicts or the desire to pay their respects in a different way. According to the white house. And on the request to denounce nationalism, fox news gave him a chance to do just that. He declined. The word, nationalism, has taken on for the left this connotation of fueling antisemitism, hate, even violence. Do you think that is fair and do you want to further no. Clarify what nationalism means to you . No. To me, i dont have to clarify. It means i love the country, it means im fighting for the country. I look at two things, globalists and nationalists. Im somebody that wants to take care of our country. Im proud of this country, and i call that nationalism. I call it being a nationalist. And i dont see any other connotation than that. Now, as soon as you make any statement nowadays with the Political Correctness world, they make a big deal. Im not a globalist, but i want to take care of the globe. First i have to take care of our country. Here to take us through the days developments, some of our most favorite reporters and friends. Joining us on set from the Washington Post, White House Bureau chief phil rucker. Sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast is back. Betsy woodruff also a reporter at the daily beast is is here. Eugene robinson, Washington Post columnist and associate editor. Phil rucker, let me start with you. The white house, at least the staff level, very much aware of the resistance in the community to the president s visit today. Im sure the president is aware of that as well. Huge embarrassment for the president of the United States to go to pittsburgh this afternoon and not be greeted by the mayor, not be greeted by the govern governor, not beofficials you report they were all invited. They were invited. Think the white house wanted them to be there to greet the president. Its important to the president , this president in particular, that he be greeted with respect. He made such a big deal about president obama going joioverse when sometimes the red carpet wasnt rolled out to him. Hes going to pittsburgh without any carpet at all. Its an embarrassment for him but effort by the president to show some respect, go through the motions of being a consoler in chief which we know and his aides acknowledge privately is not a natural thing for him. He does not sort of naturally show empathy but hes trying to. And it looks like his daughter and soninlaw had to override his circuitry to get him to deliver a statement at all on saturday. And moments later, hours later he was back behind the podium at a maga rally trashing a lot of the people who received pipe bombs in the mail last week. Thats right. Our reporting is is a number h of advisers, not just jared and ivanka, especially jared and ivanka were urging the president on saturday to be firm. To come out and say directly that this was an antisemitic attack, to condemn antisemitism which he was so reluctant to do initially after the Charlottesville White supremacists rally a year ago. And theyve been very much in the president s ear since. Theyre traveling with him to pittsburgh today and are going to be touring the city and doing some of the visits with the president. We should say, sam stein, that the president has landed in pittsburgh. Were going to monitor those events. Were not going to turn around anything that looks like stage propaganda among people that didnt want him there. If he makes any news, we will bring it to you. Sam stein, this idea that his daughter and soninlaw and other aides had to explain an antisemitic attack and its significance to him and his reflexes were to, in the same news cycle, embrace nationalism and his position as a nationalist, is jarring at best. Cynical and twosided at worst. Yeah. It is. He this is the President Trump likes to pit people against each other as a tactical maneuver politically. Its sort of based on a strategy. One of the sort of superficial downsides in this, moments like these, he cant play consoler in chief, he cant flip a switch and expect everyone to go and be by his side as he tries to mourn with these people because hes burnt his credibility on that front. And so, yeah, maybe they had scheduling conflicts but you can move schedules, you know, you can move around especially if light of national tragedies. You could be there. But i think people are a little bit burnt out by this. And i dont think they find his mourning serious. Precisely because he will then turn around in hours and say things like, i dont want to denounce nationalism, or laugh aloud when someone says lock them up with respect to george sor soros. So this is the downside to the strategy, you know, its something he has to understand. The other side of it, its also not been viewed as a third rail of trumpism to attack a victim. While the hurricane in puerto rico was still there wasnt a death count and he was on twitter attacking the mayor of all the local officials except the one person he perceived to be a protrump elected official in puerto rico. So to not only can he not console them, he it is not a third rail for him to attack them. Thats right. And thats one of the things that makes the Trump Administration so perpetually perpl perplexing. Another piece of this thats important to remember is his denialism about the fact that cesar sayoc, who mailed out the bombs last week, was a huge fan of his own. When the identity of that terrorist was first revealed, trump pleaded ignorance and said he didnt actually see the pictures of himself on the side of the van. That anyone with a twitter account, of which the president has or who watches as much cable tv as he does. Exactly. Whats weird about that is trump complained to Laura Ingraham last night about the fact Bernie Sanders wasnt blamed for the attack on the congressional baseball game, perpetrated by someone who knocked on doors for Bernie Sanders. The difference, obvious i covereded th ethat attack. Within hours of the attack, Bernie Sanders was on the floor of the senate decrying the shooter saying he deplored this violence and acknowledging it was perpetrated by someone who at least in a superficial way had a connection to his campaign. Trump has done the opposite. Hes been in a state of denial about the motivations behind these attackers and thats part of the reason that right now so many people in pittsburgh are not particularly interested in hearing what he has to say. Eugene . Well, number one, how does it show empathy to show up in pittsburgh when the people who are grieving dont want you there . Its the opposite, right . In a moment when day dont want you there. That takes away from the display of empathy. Second, the president , he does divide people as a tactic, as a strategy. Thats his move. Thats what he does. He doesnt do the other thing. He doesnt do the embrace, you know, embrace people move. He doesnt know how to do it. And hes not interested in doing it. And he insists that words mean what he says they mean. And thats not true. Its not true that were ill turn it to facts. The truth isnt what he says they mean or what he pretends that they mean. So when he says the words nationalist and globalist dont have a really, really jarring, if not appalling connotation at this moment, thats not the way people take it. You know, people disagree. New york times writer and editor barry weiss who was with us yesterday is back today. She joins us from pittsburgh. You framed this moment for your community, squirrel hill, as it should be. This is a tragedy that hit home, but this is also about what america says to the world about antisemitism and what the president seems to be saying is i dont care what your local jewish leaders say about me coming, i dont care what the mayor of pittsburgh says about me, neither of them wanted him there today. He came, anyway. Hows that going over in the community . Reporter honestly, the community is really torn. If i told you that my parents are not speaking to each other, its sort of representative of the community here. My dad wanted to sign the letter on behalf of the jews who were saying yes, echoing the rabbi of tree of life, youre president of the United States and we honor the office and its important that you join us, but, you know, my mom wanted to sign the letter by the leaders saying dont come, we dont want you here because of the rhetoric you created for this environment. I talked to tons of jews all over the community today. Most people are just sad that hes sort of dividing the community by showing up because they dont want this moment to turn into as one of them said to me a political circus. We just buried the first of the three people who were slaughtered on saturday. There are lots of people who arent even in the ground yet. And people want to be talking about them and their lives and their values and what they represented. Bari reporter i cant hear, nicolle. Okay. Bari, can you hear us now . Reporter i can, yeah. I know youre busy and focused on your community. The president said in an interview last night, he used the words, tossed around the words you spoke eloquently about our show on yesterday, he denounced globalists again. He embraced the term, nationalist, as a description for himself. Were youdisappointed, surprised, is that another blow or is it more the same from him . Reporter its more of the same. And i think we need to really be focusing on the fact that hes creating, like i said yesterday with you, an environment of sort of conspiracyminded thinking. You know, the idea that people, when i hear the president and fox news talking about how the Migrant Caravan at the border is some kind of alien invasion, okay, people bringing in leprosy and smallpox and other diseases. Its not even an echo of what was said about my people, the jews, when they were coming from Eastern Europe in the 1900s where they were told that they had weak physique and couldnt come into this country. I mean, this is just like, this is a very, very old playbook and the fact that its happening a week before the midterms it is not a coincidence at all. Its the same thing with talking about rescinding birthright citizenship which is an affront to the very plain language of the constitution. Why are we talk bing about these things right now . Theres a reason for it. And its because the president is demagoguing ahead of the midterms. Bari, the letter that your mom wanted to sign, that was from a Progressive Jewish Group in pittsburgh and called on it didnt say the president could never come. It said he couldnt come until he denounced white nationalism. Can you take us to school, talk about how painful that embrace and his refusal to disavow r racism in the instance you talk about and to be cleareyed about the rise of antisemitism in this country. Reporter right. I think theres a very basic thing that he can do, as bill kristol and others have talked about on your show, which is stand up and say, if you are a bigot, if you are a racist, if youre an antisemite, if youre a white nationalist, i dont want your support. Instead, hes doing something more than playing footsie with these people. And its just, you know, thats whats happening. Those are the facts of whats happening right now. But, you know, i know a lot of people are saying that the whole Jewish Community doesnt want him to come. The truth is the Jewish Community is torn. There are people including some family members of people who were killed im hearing who do want him here so its a painful thing. It sort of tells you everything, right . The fact that the president of the United States coming to a community is so divisive. I mean, i cant think of something think about when george bush who was certainly not popular in manhattan came to manhattan, went to ground zero after 9 11 and took out that blow horn. People were unified by that. The idea that a president coming to a community is just such a divisive thing and you have our local politicians not want to be associated with him. That tells you something about the moral credibility of this president. You didnt want today to be turned into a circus by donald trump. Weve been asking you about donald trump. Talk to me about what this day means to you and your community and talk about the victims. Give them some airtime. Reporter yeah, so i went sorry. I went to two funerals this morning. One for dr. Jerry rabinowitz who im sure you talked about on this network. He was the family physician who treated patients, especially with aids, before when other people would turn them away. And there were just people from every walk of life, not only from our community, but all over the city who were at his funeral. Then i went about a mile away to the funeral of cecil and David Rosenthal who were basically as someone put it at the funeral the unofficial mayors of the city. And someone said, you know, if they werent intellectually disabled they would have been the actual mayors. And i think that that was really, really true and moving and they talked about sort of the purity of their souls and the fact that neither of them had an ounce of hate in them. And for them to be gunned down, someone with so much hate in their heart, was just the ultimate act of cowardly violence. Bari, thank you so much. You moved us again. Come see us when you get back. Reporter thanks, nicolle. New york times reporter and writer bari weiss joining us with pittsburgh. Sam, i want to give you the raft worden o th on this conversatio i want to keep it on what bari was talking about. People need to understand the type of people that go to temple on a saturday. Im the reformed jew which is not as serious as a conservative jew. The people who do tend to go on saturday are people who are not just religious. They tepnd to be the philanthropic types, want to help out in the communities and be. Part of a Larger Community which is what brings them to the temple to begin with. People like the doctors, the community leaders. Theyre there for people in times of need. Theyre there for people who need help. And this is who the gunman was targeting. It wasnt individuals. It was a sense of Community Bound together by a covenant, a religion, by love for each other and tore that apart. And it takes a skilled politician and a real leader to actually repair those wounds. And what were seeing now is that we dont have someone able to do that. Its not easy. It takes a lot. It doesnt just take a speech. It takes a commitment. And we dont have that right now. And its incredibly sad. Its incredibly sad. Pittsburgh steelers were there at one of the funerals that bari described trying to fill that vacuum. Well look for that video. Its incredibly moving. Youre right. These were leaders of their community. Thats what we need more than ever right now. After the break, we are going to focus on and bring you the latest on the rightwing war in justice, it now includes a plot to pay women to lie, lie about Robert Mueller. Well tell you about the effort to smear the man overseeing the russia investigation and the conservative activist allegedly behind it. Also ahead Chris Matthew joins us with reaction to todays unfolding event in pittsburgh and ground truth on one of the mostwatched races in the country, cruz versus beto. Obama and biden to the rescue. How the former president and former Vice President are trying to boost democrats in the midwest. Well take you inside their campaign strategy. All those stories coming up. Au, we really pride ourselves on making it easy to get your windshield fixed. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. 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The prop c plan is supported by the democratic party, teachers, and mentalhealth professionals. Vote yes on c. Big corporations pay for it, not you. Look what shes accomplished. She authored the ban on assault weapons. Pushed the desert protection act through congress, and steered billions of federal dollars to california projects such as subway construction and wildfire restoration. She. Played an Important Role in fighting off. Trumps efforts to kill the Affordable Care act. California news papers endorse Dianne Feinstein for us senate. California values senator Dianne Feinstein we may have reached the ugliest chapter yet in trumps allies war on justice. Nbc news has learned about an alleged plot to smear special Counsel Robert Mueller with false Sexual Assaulting accusa n accusations. Our own tom winter reports, multiple reporters were contacted over the past few weeks about a woman who said she had been offered money to say she was sexually assaulted by mueller. The reporters each independently determined the assault allegations were a hoax and that the woman appeared to have been offered a significant amount of money to make that claim. The bizarre plot began to unravel around the same time fringe conservative jack berkman began ranting on facebook that he is investigating Sexual Misconduct and alcoholrelated allegations against mueller. The notoriously mediaaverse special counsels Office Released a rare statement saying, when we learned last week after allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the fbi for investigation. Joining the conversation now, former u. S. Attorney joyce vance, and here at the table, New York Times reporter mike schmidt. Mike schmidt, theres no connection as with the mail bomber, as with the shooting at the synagogue, between donald trump and the alleged incident, but donald trump, you reported that donald trump and his legal team have made smearing bob mueller part of their legal strategy. Yeah, but this theyve really struggled to undermine mueller throughout this entire thing. The biggest punch that was landed was last year when it came out there were these Text Messages between these two agents that were, you know, negative toward trump. Otherwise, they really struggled and mueller has gone through a trial now. There was all this talk in trump world and manafort world that there were these killer motions that were going to take mueller out, going to upend him and destroy the Justice Department investigation. Theyve now gone through a trial with manafort, gotten convictions. Manafort has pled. In a sense, theyre pitching a shutout. You can see where in the desperate move, one side that has nothing really to throw would do something so, i dont know if its unusual, but certainly its unusual. And you got a call from the i got an email you got pitched. I got pitched. Describe it as it was. Okay. Fine. Im sorry if im laughing because its serious, but jack berkman is not serious. I got an email along with a lot of other reporters from a woman who wasnt alleging Sexual Assault, she said she had been offered money to allege Sexual Assault. Very different. By bob mueller. We looked into this woman, there was no internet history of her, we couldnt track her down. She refused to talk at all about it. We sort of put it to the side wondering what was going on. She mentioned jack berkman, an associate of jack berkman, was offering the money. Jack berkman for people who are uninitiated, i pray you are uninitiated, is a conspiracy theorist, selfpromoting republican lobbyist troll. He latches onto random causes in hopes of getting himself in front of a camera. He has put Sexual Assault allegations against other people before only to have them blow up in his face because it turns out to not be true. One remarkable instance that i remember, my first interaction with jack berkman was and this guy is a lobbyist, okay . He introduced legislation around the time that michael sand, first openly gay nfl player to be drafted, h he introduced legislation at the time that would ban openly gay men from playing in the nfl. This a lobbyist, not a lawmaker introducing a bill. It was absurd and more absurd the fact i ended up finding out jack berkmans brother was gay. I called up jack berkmans brother about, it said im ashamed of what my brother is doing. Thats where we are in this Robert Mueller saga. Were talking about this, its the kind of accusation that can ruin someones life. They were peddling Something Like this and even their coconspirator, the woman, had the, i guess, wherewithal, to confess to reporters on the phone that she was being offered a lot of money to smear Robert Mueller. Its a really curious hamhanded kind of an effort to attack Robert Mueller. One thinks that whats going on here is this. Even the president at this point has to know it would be politically unpalatable to fire bob mueller with no reason, so whether the president is involved or not, we dont know that. Theres no reason to believe he is. But these folks on the far right are coming up with the sort of an allegation that if true would certainly be a reason to remove bob mueller. What this is is a thinlydisguised effort to derail an investigation thats inching ever more close to the oval office and the president. And donald trump was asked about that by Laura Ingraham. Here he is talking about his new cozy relationship with Rod Rosenstein. Lets watch. Why are you and Rod Rosenstein such good friends now . It seems like everythings been settled. Look, i do get along, but this should have never there should have never been a special counsel, in my opinion. Its an illegal investigation, totally. A lot of people agree with me. A lot of people on your show and on other shows agree. There was no collusion. There was never any collusion. The written questions to muellers answers to his questions its ridiculous i have to do anything because we didnt do anything, but we will probably do something, yes, where well respond to some questions. Covering this makes where are the answers to the questions . Oh, when are they going to get back to him . Yeah. The president said, well probably do something, yes, where well respond tole so questions. So after the midterms, they say theyre going to send their responses back. Were now almost entering a year of negotiation s back and forth between the president s lawyers and mueller about an interview. And now the latest development is that, you know, responses are being written. Its just this thing that has soaked up a lot of time and energy in the media. Im not sure the president will ever sit down and answer mueller why not . You report on the list of questions, the beginning of the year. Either there arent answers that they can live with, or the answers imperil the president. As has been written in the press, as was in Bob Woodwards book, the president s lawyers dont think hes capable of doing an interview without making a false statement. And if mueller has shown anything, its to have a quick trigger on false statement issues. And has charged several people with them for things that maybe they wouldnt have charged for. So the president is not someone whos obsessed with the facts and if youre going to go before bob mueller, you better be obsesseded with the facts. Not obsessed with the fact and hes watched almost everyone that has come into Robert Muellers net be charged and ultimately plead guilty and cooperate. Its interesting, when i was looking at the interview, he always talks about no collusion. He never talks about obstruction. He never i spend a lot of my time on obstruction. I always find it funny. I understand collusion is the issue, the thing the country looks the most at but the real threat to him is obstruction. And im not sure if he appreciates that. It doesnt have the same syntax. Collusion comes off the tongue. Like an betsy then we want to get joyce the last word. To be fair, he mentions the obstruction issue from time to time but isnt fixated on it the same way. We have to remember a huge part of the way the president thinks of mueller, dictated by primetime fox programming includining shows like Laura Ingrahams that dedicated hours and hours and hours of programming time to arguing argument the that have not held up in court. Thats how the president thinks about it, not based on what his advisers are telling him. Joyce vance, he also papers over in the interview Laura Ingraham, his relationship with rosenstein whos been maligned more on fox news than perhaps anywhere else including by laura ingrah ingraham. What do you make of the fragile peace between donald trump and Rod Rosenstein . He understands what has to happen for investigations to move forward. And i think that hes likely walking a very careful line that involves upholding the oath he took to uphold the constitution. You know, he has a president that hes responsible to who lives in this alice in wonderland kind of a world where as soon as the president says theres no collusion, well, thats the definitive answer. We dont investigate, we dont have prosecutors and agents who do their job, we just take the defendant at face value. I dont think Rod Rosenstein buys into that sort of an approach to Law Enforcement. And time will tell if that keeps him safe in his job beyond the midterms. Joyce vance, mike schmidt, thank you so much for spending time with us. When we come back, Chris Matthews joins us hours before he sits down with texas Senate Candidate beto orourke. That is next. If youre 65 or older, even if youre healthy, you may be at increased risk for Pneumococcal Pneumonia a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that can disrupt your routine for weeks. In severe cases, Pneumococcal Pneumonia can put you in the hospital. It can hit quickly, without warning, making you miss out on what matters most. A single dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from Pneumococcal Pneumonia. Prevnar 13® is approved for adults to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause Pneumococcal Pneumonia. Dont get prevnar 13® if you have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. 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Au simply because he wishes they were true. Hes done this repeatedly without consideration for the law and political practicalities and has an even greater incentive to do this on the eve of the 2018 elections because he feels like his ace in the hole message on immigration is being overshadowed. This is why hes calling the caravan an invasion and thats why hes sending 5,200 troops to the border just before the midterms. Even though the last caravans Asylum Seekers simply surrendered themselves at a port of entry. Chris matthews joins us from texas where trumps hardline immigration message is usually a sure thing. Chris, the most remarkable thing with beto orourke, who youre sitting down with tonight, i cant wait to see that, is he rejects this whole frame. He doesnt get trapped eped in old debates. Gillum does that in florida, too. How is that what do you think that race really looks like on the ground there in texas . Reporter well, its clearly wa you said in the setup, its clearly an amazing strategy to go head to head with trump. I mean, basically saying, okay, you can talk about the caravan and now today youre talking about the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship. You can go all the way with that. Im going the other way, were a better country that than. We are a welcoming country. We are a country which includes and always included people of hispanic background from mexico especially. Its always been part of our country especially in texas and im going to challenge you on the morality of this thing. I mean, it really is not a carving election, its not one side hedging and moving toward the center and the other one moving toward the center. This is allout an allout moral fight i think in texas. And what beto really i think became known for at a national level, among people that dont pay close attention to politics, was for hugging those thirdrail cultural issues. He made comments about the kneeling during Football Games that were so they borrowed from obamas playbook. I thing thats where a lot of the comparisons to obama started. What do you make of that high ground that almost the michelle obama, when you go low, well go high, playbook . How has that worked for him . Reporter well, its not so much hes avoided politics. Hes taking a 180 position on the politics. He has said very dramatically, and i think heroically, that taking a knee is a statement of your free speech. Its a statement of belief in america and your political views, your philosophic views, your racial views, are well up to this country and this country is well up to it. That americas about stating your political views, about defending your ethnicity and your right to speak out. If you think and know, for example, as africanamericans, many do, that theyve been mistreated throughout history. He just says, im going to compete on that argument, im going to challenge you, when you say they have no right to speak, im going to say they have a full american right to speak and im proud of them doing so. Its not just im above politics. He joins them in the debate. Thats whats so dramatic about it. He says, okay, you want to fight about immigration, lets fight about immigration. You want to fight about taking a knee in the nfl . Lets fight about it. Hes not going away from politics. Hes saying im going 180 from you, buster, and im going to beat you. Its very dramatic stuff. Hes also in the fortunate position of the stakes being higher for the other party. If ted cruz wins, even if its remarkably close, it will be a sigh of relief, but it will still be remarkable that a democrat came so close to him. If beto wins, it will be the upset of the night. It will be all were talking about for weeks and weeks. If he loses, think hell still have crafted some sort of playbook for democrats to run on in red states. What are they saying in the state about the stakes next tuesday night for both men . Well, ive only got here im not going to say i know more about this state than the brief 24 hours ive been here, but its clear that he wants to win. This isnt some moral victory hes after. He wants to win and should. This is like jack Kennedy Early in his career taking on the heavyweight, henry cabbott lodge. One way you get your way to the presidency, beat someone big early on or halfway up. He needs to win. I dont understand people who say you can run for other offices after you lose. I dont get that, never seen that before effectively done. Neither do you, nicolle. Theres no such thing. You win at one level then. You go to the next level. If you lose at one level, try again for another statewide officer like governor or the other senate seat, you win there then you move on. Thats the way its been inside politics. If you outside of politics like trump, the rules dont apply. You dont have to win anything to run for president and win. Thats the deal. Youre absolutely right. I want your thoughts, though, on the events unfolding in pittsburgh this hour. Donald trump there over the protests of the citys mayor and many of the citys jewish leaders. Your thoughts. Reporter ive never seen a president so unwelcome. Ever. Because usually people who are grieving, however we say if in our traditions, our religious traditions, they welcome any si sign of sympathy or empathy. Trump is not welcome today. His timing is off. Under jewish tradition, they bury people very quickly. Thats the way its done. Even in the conservative tradition. And clearly hes got his timing off. And it looks exploitive because of all the hateful things hes been saying about invasions. The language does sync with some of these violent haters. Its unfortunate that people talk in the same language as murderers, but thats what it is. This is calling people, caravans and calling them invaders and theyre not bad people trying to come to the United States. Weve all come to the United States. Most of us except native americans. We all came here one way or the other. We were brought here. And the idea that something evil by trying to get here is r ridiculo ridiculous, morally ridiculous. Thank you, Chris Matthews. No one has said it better all day long. Im going to pop popcorn, pour a big glass of mommy water and watch you at 7 00. Reporter i know youll be there, nicolle wallace. Hardball college tour live from the university of houston with beto orourke, one of the allstars, best stories, best races of this entire midterm. Stop whatever youre doing and watch Chris Matthews with him tonight. Still ahead, president obama and former Vice President joe biden are back on the campaign trail in key states with a specific goal in mind. New reporting about their strategy. Thats next. chime [narrator] meet sharks newest robot vacuum. It powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. One dock, two sharks. The shark ion robot cleaning system. I am sick and tired of this administration. Im sick and tired of whats going on. Im sick and tired of being sick and tired. I hope you are, too. Three times three times this past week, the forces of hate have terrorized our fellow americans. For their political beliefs, the color of their skin, or their religion. Folks, this is not who we are. We need to recognize that words matter. Words matter. Phil, you and i laughed a little bit when that started, but thats how people feel. Thats how democrats feel. Theyre exhausted by this president. Yeah. Biden is channeling the frustration and the anger, the fury, that a lot of democrats feel. He also, by the way, made it to wisconsin, which is important. But hes clearly trying to position himself to be the leader of the democratic party. And hes trying to galvanize the voters, the women who came out in the womens march two years ago, to make sure that that energy stays all the way through tuesday next week. Its funny, i wrote a piece pretty early on in the trump a era, presidency, about how as a tactical matter he uses exhaustion. And i talked to all the associates of his in the business world, the people with him on the campaign, and the general gist was donald trump is willing to endure more agony, more pain, more b. S. , whatever you want to call it, so long as he gets his way and essentially his opponents just tire out and say, okay, do it, just lets move on. Give me a days rest. And so, yeah, people are exhausted, but whats proven true, alternatively, is that the amount of engagement that were seeing right now is also through the roof. So people are exhausted, but theyre also incredibly excited and they view this election as a turning point moment. The democratic message, and i think it was a real mistaken National Media frame that there wasnt one, there has been one all along. Its been focused on the issues. Right now what hes doing, that is the mood of not just the democrats, of the 60 of americans who cant stand this president and his conduct in office. Exactly. And these tragic events over the last week have are just the sort of exclamation point on that. I mean, theyre just, like, enough, enough. This is wrong. Were headed on a wrong path. This is not who we are. I think its a powerful message, and i will also note that trump does exhaust you, but joe biden doesnt get tired. You know . I mean, he is one who doesnt he is the democratic sort of everready bunny who always has the energy, always has something to say. Not that he would necessarily be a tremendous candidate in 2020, but hes always going to be out there. Hes ever going to be pushing. We just had the pictures up from another group who is not exhausted. Thats those protesting Donald Trumps presence. Those are the protesters in pittsburgh. Protesting in and around the community where 1 1 people were gunned down in a synagogue on saturday. Betsy, what biden lets listen for a minute to this. You can hear them singing. Its an unbelieven image that were looking at. These are peaceful protesters. Walking along. Grieving. Grieving about the tragic death of 11 of their neighbors in a synagogue on saturday. And protesting the presence of donald trump, the president , in their community today. Holding signs that say stop hate. Vote. No hate, no guns, no trump. Is this the democrats closing message, Betsy Woodruff . Certainly seems like an effective one, if it is, but this clearly isnt a partisan protest. Right. Ive spent the last two days talking to folks in the federal Law Enforcement space including a number of conversations about the president s rhetoric and how to make sense of its relationship to attacks like the one we saw in pittsburgh. And one thing i heard multiple times from former senior federal Law Enforcement officials and people who work closely with federal Law Enforcement, tease are not partisan people. Right. Not democratic activists. Not anybody volunteering on a 2020 campaign. Is that they have sincere concerns that the way the president talks about some of the issues facing our country has the result of inciting violence. Again, this is from people in the Law Enforcement space. Right. People in the political activism space. Phil rucker, this is something that we talked about around the time that the president was at war with the Intelligence Community. That calling the Intelligence Community nazis does not help them do their job. Were still listening to this protest behind us. These are protesters in pittsburgh, protesting the president s visit in their community. Hes there to pay respects to the 11 people who lost their lives on saturday. But phil rucker, this moment in politics, whether democrats or republicans like it or not, is very much the backdrop against which voters, those who havent voted early, and we see record numbers of people who have done so, this is a backdrop against which voters will go to the polls on tuesday. They will have to decide if all these things are just a coincidence. If this political moment, we said this yesterday, was one we were hurdling toward. Whether donald trump had been elected or not, the effect of social need kpmedia, effect of n news outlets on all sides of the debate. This is the moment in which people have to decide who they want to control the house and the senate. Thats exactly right. Youre going to see a juxtaposition because you see these images coming in from pittsburgh right now. Tomorrow night, trump will be in ft. Myers, florida, for his first of 11 rallies in the final 6 days of the campaign. He has said he has no intention to tone it down, in fact, hes going to tone it up. Sarah sanders yesterday said hes going to punch back, hes going to keep drawing contrasts. Hes going to keep on the attack. Thats his intention. Thats what he thinks is the winning argument. Hes going to be calling, i assume, continue to call the democrats the party of mobs, be ut y but you look at that footage, that is not a mob. That was a very peaceful protest. People singing. Children, adults, older people, black, white. Everybody there. Carrying signs protesting hate. Hate. Thats the most frequent carried sign that i saw there in pittsburgh. You know, in terms of trumps plans for the next week, he doesnt have a choice. He cant do the other thing. I mean, he cant be embracing. He cant reach across the aisle, reach to americans who dont agree with him. Hes just not capable of that, and so he, again, its the wedge. Its riling up the base. Thats his only play. Whether or not its his best play, its his only play. Sam stein, the democrats seem to have taken the last two years to do more than i think some people gave them credit for doing. They seem to have addressed the asymmetry in President Trumps political tactics. Youve got gillum in florida who manages to run against his opponent ron desantis in a trumpian way. Im not calling you a racist, im saying the racists think youre a racist. They have figured out, beto orourke is another one, taking this National Anthem issue which i think people struggled with for a long time. They didnt want to seem unpatriotic, to be frank. But some of these candidates issue, which people struggled with for a long time, they didnt want to seem to be unpatriotic, but some of the candidates have figured out how to run against trump and trumpism. I think its sort of like any major league sport, you try to copy the winning playbook. To a certain degree, democrats have recognized that something that benefited trump was this notion, this perception he was authentic and unapologetic in his own believes. Democrats obviously have different believes but now we see the Andrew Gillums of the world, Beta Orourkes of the world saying im not going to back down from this position even if im running in a state like texas where it may be particularly unpopular. There are other democrats not doing that. For instance, we have Claire Mcaskill who put out a statement yesterday where she kind of embraced the idea of the caravan of migrants needed to be turned around. This will give us an interesting case study. Not every race is the dame. Theyre all different, obviously, but we have democrats running in two Different Directions and im curious to see how it plays out, whether it you get support from your base or have cross appeal. One thing that will be answered that night, donald trump, president s are usually more cautious around midterms. Most president s try to make clear its not a referendum on them because that usually doesnt help them, president s dont usually prevail. Donald trump not so much. Hes told everyone a vote for the midterm candidates is a vote for him. If hes rejected or lose the house, that will be a rejection of trumpism by his own words. He actually said im on the ballot. Hes on the ballot in spirit though not in word. Results wednesday morning, that will be a referendum on his presidency, he will be either completely emboldened to do what he wants to do or it will be a shellacking. He also said he wont be to blame for the loss. Hes on four sides of every debate. We will sneak in our last break. 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The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. Proposition 11 proposition 11 is a vote to protect patient safety. It ensures the closest ambulance remains oncall during paid breaks so that they can respond immediately when needed. Vote yes on 11. A brandnew report that dropped while we were sitting here with the Washington Post White House Bureau chief has more details on Robert Muellers investigation into robert stone, his interactions with Donald Trumps campaign and the potentially suspicious timing of wikileaks release of hacked emails that hurt hillary clinton. So i am going to read some of this, this broke while we were all here. Special counsel investigation into President Trumps longtime ally roger stone is pressing witnesses about Stones Private interactions with Senior Campaign officials and whether he had knowledge of politically explosive democratic emails. This seems to get at the heart of the collusion question. On friday muellers team questioned steve bannon, trumps former chief kpcampaign strategt about the wikileaks alleged emails allegedly hacked by russian operatives. This phil rucker, seems to be the story that a lot of people were expecting that would confirm, Robert Mueller, whos already charged 13 russians with a conspiracy to effect and impact the 2016 election is simply looking for one more dot to connect the Trump Campaign or trumps associates would that conspiracy, this would seem to be it. The stolen emails and timing of their release and their knowledge of that. Potentially. And mueller has really zeroed in on roger stone, the president s former political adviser who had actually boasted about his interactions and knowledge of wikileaks, honed in on that. Hes not only interviewed steve bannon, by the way, hes interviewed other special counsel team interviewed other Stone Associates including gentleman roam corsi, a known conspiracy theorist, according to bob cafosta and others at th post. It shows how much mueller is doing. We think hes gone dark because there have not been public announcements or big, splashy indictments this fall but the special counsels office is very much plotting along, building their case, and there could be some activity after the election. Roger stone has said publicly that he thought he was next in muellers sights and he looks like he might have been right. Steve bannon has been in before, i believe that was reported by multiple news organizations. What does it suggest if he went back, not indicate but suggests for sure, suggest mueller gained new information that he needed to present to bannon the allnew information he had when he first interviewed bannon and it was months and months ago . This would be an indicator that the probe is obviously constantly getting more detail, that it needs to corroborate with additional witnesses, one of the Big Questions mueller has been trying to assess with everyone he interviewed is whether or not hes telling them the truth. As he gets more material from different witnesses, from people adjacent to any potentially criminal activity, that can inform his understanding of whether or not of the people spoken to. Im not sure if it was reported by bannon, but it was possible paul man aford, in that trump tower meeting, flipped. Bannons first interview was long before Paul Manafort started cooperating with the investigation. We dont know if he gave him any relevant information but its possible looking at the time line. Its just a reminder how little the actual public knows. We dont know anything. We had it feels like a fire hose of russia Mueller Investigation of anything and probably just have a little droplet. Its remarkable what it can be. Dont rain on my droplets. I have a little bit more of them. But we know to your point, we know so much less. And to the point earlier, we know so much about the collusion question than we do about the obstruction question. The collusion question is what donald trump denies every morning, seemingly randomly on twitter. Its the caravan and fox news. By the way, no collusion, folks. It is his obsession. And this is the story that gets what you and carol enig described in the story a couple mondays ago is the beating heart of the mueller probe, this question of coordination, conspiracy with the russians. Thats exactly right. The president has different definitions of collusion sprn th and conspiracy than Robert Mueller does. He thinks did i personally do anything . Right. The vast array of Campaign Officials and family members and others who represent trump in form form or fashion. Were out of time. But i thank you for spending the hour with us. That does it for us. Im nicolle wallace. Mpt daily starts right now. Hi, nicolle, im waving from the foot floor. I will photo bomb you. If its tuesday, the president is in pittsburgh. Good evening, im chuck todd at nbc news election headquarters right here in new york city. Welcome to mpt daily. At this hour we are monitoring the president s movements in pittsburgh, where he, along with the first lady and others, just arrived at this weeks deadly shooting at the tree of life synagogue. As you might expect, there are protesters as some local officials, including the mayor, wanted the president to at least delay his visit. But,