Transcripts For MSNBCW Kasie DC 20180319

Serious upset in trump country. New polling just out today shows why pennsylvania could be just the beginning. But we start with a restive weekend in the white house. That is an understatement. Andrew mccabe fired hours short of his retirement, and he kept his receipts. Reportedly handing over notes on the president to the special counsel. The special counsel subpoenaed the Trump Organization as the president s lawyer wondered aloud whether isnt it time for the special counsel to be ended . And now the president is fuming on twitter. Why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, crooked hillary supporters and zero republicans . Worth noting that mueller, james comey and Rod Rosenstein are all republicans. So, with that out of the way, the president went on to golf at one of his properties, and across the globe the russian elections went off without a hitch. Vladimir putin running for another term as president , winning another term as president. If he completes it, he will have held power in one way or another for nearly a quarter century. We have quite the set of by lines with us tonight. White house bureau chief for the Washington Post nbc political analyst phil rucker. Pete williams. Reporter for the New York Times, michael schmidt. Jonathan swan and staff writer for the atlantic natasha bertrand. Thank you all for being here tonight. I hardly know where to begin from the events that have unfolded over this past week. But, pete williams, can you layout for us what exactly is going on behind the scenes at the fbi . Theres so much noise, so many accusations flying. But cut through it. What are the most important things that we should be focused on here . Well, i think the most important things are the work that chris wray is trying to do to sort of reshape the fbi. Now, the whole thing with Andrew Mccabe, remember, was sort of set in motion before chris wray became director. And what we saw as the maturation of that in late friday. It all began with in october of 2016 when Andrew Mccabe did an interview with a reporter for the wall street journal who was asking about, he was trying to check out what he had heard which was that the fbi was slow rolling an investigation of the clinton foundation. So, he called the fbi and said, is this true . Mccabe authorized talking to him to say, no, its not, that the fbi was pushing ahead, but they were getting resistance from the Justice Department. The meantime, after the election, the Inspector General, the Justice Department decided to do an investigation of how the fbi did the whole Hillary Clinton case and found out about this, and what were told now and the trouble we have here is none of us have seen the Inspector General report that triggered the mccabe firing. But what weve been told is when mccabe was asked about this, he didnt tell the truth and thats why they fired him. There have been some republicans out today saying its possible that there is and even adam schiff who is a democrat saying, we havent seen the report youve put out and there could have been cause. Thats the trouble. We just dont know. I will say this, though. A lot of the things that weve heard out of the white house the past few days about mccabe and about the whole russia investigation have nothing to do with what we are told is the reason that mccabe was fired. The whole question about the russian meddling and everything else, other things that theyve raised have nothing to do with his very singular surgical reason they got rid of him. The statement from mccabe i thought was stunning where he essentially said, look, this has become political. I told the House Intelligence Committee that i could back up james comey and therefore ive been fired for political reasons. He has really latched into comey in sort of to make the argument that hes done nothing wrong here, so sort of say i am a victim of trump. And its sort of an interesting political play. Mccabe is much more skilled than your average fbi agent. Its sort of knowing how to be a politician. Hes a good speaker in public. And hes sort of taking a comeyesque way. He kept memos just the way comey did. And hes sort of banking on that as a way of trying to flex from what could be some damaging things here in an Inspector Generals report. He was pointing out to me before we came on set, the most senior career person at the Justice Department signed off on this and thats not a political person. Right. Phil rucker, takes us behind the scenes at the white house over the past couple of days. The president s lawyer, john dowd, comes with a stunning statement taking on the special counsel in a way that is really a marked departure from the strategy they had applied so far. Thats right. The strategy all along had been not to antagonize mueller. You notice President Trump never mentioned mueller by name in his tweets about the russia matter. That seems to have shifted. It started with john dowd, the president s personal attorney issuing a statement saying the Mueller Investigation should come to a close. He initially told the daily beast he was speaking for the president. He quickly backtracked, no, no, im speaking for myself, not for the president. Donald trump has done this before where hell have surrogates, his spokespeople, his advisors to float bold ideas to test them in the market place. I have no doubt that trump had something to do with that statement. I cant imagine he would put the statement out trump wasnt okay with it. Its what trump believes. Ive talked to a number of senior white house officials over the weekend who said the president for a while now has wanted this investigation to be over. He thinks its becoming a giant fishing expedition. And then again today and late last night we saw tweets where he invoked muellers name and really ratcheted up the aggression. Jonathan swan, what do you know from your reporting about the president s mood kind of behind the scenes in all of this . People his mood is variable. Thats like a vast understatement. People say, you know, hes fuming and often hes just watching tv, like often its him in realtime tweeting from tv. Last week, he was positively giddy. He had been on the rampage with the North Koreans where he told john kelly to shove it with his organizational principles, it was trumps white house. And was careening around the building doing what he wanted. This stuff gets under his skin, particularly when you see reports that talk about the Trump Organization or anything that starts to encroach upon his personal business dealings. Right. Thats when steam really starts to go out of his ears. And also whenever he sees people that he does care about, like hope hicks in the news, thats another thing that kind of triggers him. Well, and john dowd had been described in reporting that several of you around this table had done, as somebody who was calming the president down by saying, this is all going to be over, first by thanksgiving or christmas, then the new year, obviously now still going. And we have trey gowdy was on Fox News Sunday this morning with an interesting comment from about john dowd, mr. Trumps lawyer in which he called for an end to the mueller probe. I think the president s attorney frankly does him a disservice when he says that and when he frames the investigation that way. So, to suggest that mueller should shut down and all he is looking at is collusion, if you have an innocent client, mr. Dowd, act like it. Natasha bertrand, if your client is innocent, act like it . Its a really fair point, and that is something that, you know, the president should take to heart as well with all of his tweets over the past two days, slamming the Mueller Investigation. It really raises questions about, you know, whether or not he is laying the groundwork to kind of fire the special counsel. I think that with regard to john dowds statement yesterday, it doesnt seem like it was entirely premed traited. Premeditated. These are lawyers that came on to represent him as part of the special counsel investigation. These are lawyers known for kind of playing fast and loose. We saw john dowd and ty cobb have a loud conversation at a restaurant one day last summer about the investigation. Ty cobb of course has been known to go off in emails on reporters, myself included. Now we have john dowd who kind of issued this statement to the daily beast, at first saying he was speaking on behalf of the president and then saying that he was only speaking for himself. And ty cobb, of course, would not comment on the record to me, i think it is safe to say this is not something he anticipated and something he had actually consulted with the other lawyers about. So, whether or not i think that jonathan was right when he said that perhaps all of this is kind of just trump watching tv. And perhaps john dowd filling his mind a little bit with, you know, negative thoughts about the special counsel. But it doesnt seem like anything entirely kind of planned at this point. John . Its also worth pointing out, john dowd, to give viewers a sense, this is a guy who writes his emails in purple comic sense. He quoted cat on the hot tin roof from tennessee williams. Which you pointed out was on Turner Classic Movies last night. Reference this part of the scene equals the bureau, this part is comey. This is not your usual sort of lawyering that were seeing, to say the least. Pete, what do you know about these lawyers . Youve obviously theyve been in this orbit, your orbit for many years. Its Wishful Thinking the Mueller Investigation was going to be over by thanksgiving or christmas. Im not sure its going to be over by this thanksgiving or christmas. We certainly hope so. Its going to go until he figures he doesnt have anything more to go for. The idea they would try to calm down the president with that hopeful eventuality was unfortunate. A pipe dream. Michael schmidt, you reported this week special counsel bob mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization in whats the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly from the president s businesses. President also told you over the summer that prying into his business, his finances, could be a red line. Mueller is looking at your finances and your familys finances unrelated to russia, is that a red line . Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is . I would say yes. By the way, i would say its possible i sell a lot of condo units and somebody from russia buys a condo, who knows. I dont take money from russia. What would you do . I cant answer that question because i dont think its going to happen. And you and maggie haberman, michael, are reporting trumps lawyers got a list of questions from the mueller team. Whats the rationale there . They are still working on this negotiation, right . Thats the thing about dowd. For the past few months dowds most important job on the daytoday basis has been negotiating with muellers office about the interview. What are the terms going to be . How long is it going to go for . They dont even want the president to sit down. Theyve been having to deal with the president who really wants to go and explain himself. Now dowd has to come back to the table with mueller, who he just said over the weekend should be shutdown, and come to terms on this interview. And i think the white house i mean, i think the president would really like to sit down because he sees that as sort of the end to this and he thinks hes his own best spokesman and he can really explain t. The lawyers see it as a huge problem. I was lucky enough to sit with him in july. He starts talking and he doesnt stop. By the way, on that red line business, looking at the questions again refreshes my memory. If they look at your finances unrelated to russia. So, i dont know what we make of whether the subpoenas last week are, in fact, crossing the red line. Its sort of a faultily built red line. As we saw under obama, the whole red line thing is a bit a mirage. A bit contrived. So, i dont know, i wish we could go back and drill down a little bit more on the red line. Pete williams, there is some new polling out from nbc news wall street journal that shows the fbis Approval Rating with the public dropping, 5 since january, when it had seemed before as though they were becoming more popular. And it is still, you know, we should point out, positively viewed way more than most other institutions more than the press, for example. For example, and the congress and the president for that matter. What is your sense of what the danger is to the fbi here . And, you know, as somebody who has covered it for many decades, how extraordinary do people in the fbi feel this moment is . So, on the first question of whats going on with the polling, its interesting because i had been watching it over the past i went back and looked at our own nbc news polling. It steadily had gone up. I suppose we started polling around the time of the whole church Pipe Committee thing when the fbi was in serious trouble. It is interesting it is rising. Clearly the fbi is worried, that they need public confidence. They need people to come to them. They want people to have confidence, that they can tell the fbi about trouble. And, by the way, you know, there was this whole screw up about nicolas cage, this florida shooter. Im told by the fbi since that happen, since the fbi mea copa, the numbers to the tip line is up. Thats a positive sign. Phil rucker, what do you see as the next iteration here . Theres been a lot of reporting and speculation about who may be the next to go in the white house. The members of congress, there are renewed calls for potential legislation to protect mueller. How far do you think the president is going to take this and how quickly . I dont know. Its interesting. In congress we see some vocal calls to protect mueller, but there is actually legislation to try to protect him that has not come to the floor. It does not have the support of the Republican Leadership of either chamber, either the house or the senate. I dont know in that changes this weekend. But i think the president is sort of testing out how far he can go. He clearly wants this to end. Hes bothered by the russia investigation. He feels like its a cloud over his presidency that is really inhibiting his ability to get some things done and his ability to have credibility with the majority of the american people. So, hed like it to be over. I dont think hes actually getting to the point where he would pull the trigger and order the firing of mueller. That would be a huge, a huge move that as many Lawmakers Said today would spark a constitutional crisis. And there are many calls from democrats to say get out in front of that crisis. Pete williams, thank you for your time tonight. We appreciate you coming in. There is so much more to come, as you have gotten a taste here. Did a Company Owned by trump take advantage of facebook profiles . Well look at that. Trump has new fiergz and new hirings power the rumor mill. As we go to break, it was another break neck week of news, the flight of the bumble bee takes us through it. And some breaking news in the Stormy Daniels saga. Shes offered to give back the hush money, that 130 grand. That is breaking news from theresa may. The British Government has identified the likely source of the poison. Breaking news today. House republicans ending their russia probe. Good morning. Weve got breaking news. Rex tillerson is out as the nations top diplomat. Stormy and her lawyer set a deadline of noon today to respond to her offer. The white house has fired the john mcindee its Election Night in southwestern pennsylvania. Right now the race is too close to call. Just another tuesday. We have some breaking news here in washington. We are now declaring connor lamb the winner. Students threaten to walk out of their classes. Stormy daniels talking about a possible donald trump deposition. Larry kudlow is set to replace gary cohn. A Senior Advisor to hud secretary ben carson resigned today. In Treasury Department is finally sanctioning russia today. Breaking news now. Mr. Mueller is now subpoenaing subpoenaing the Trump Organization itself. The president is about to remove National Security advisor h. R. Mcmaster. Was she threatened in any way . Yes. Was she threatened physical harm . Yes. President trump is expected to call for the Death Penalty to punish some traffickers. Russian hackers are targeting the u. S. Power grid. Jeff sessions has just fired Andrew Mccabe. I understood early that facebook was how donald trump was going to win. Twitter is how he talked to the people. Facebook was going to be how he won. And facebook is how he won. I think so. I mean, i think donald trump won, but i think facebook was the method. It was the highway in which his car drove on. After mr. Trump won, Cambridge Analytica said it was key to the victory, but parscale said he never used psycho gravgs. He said it doesnt work. So, you didnt use it because you didnt think it really worked as opposed to you didnt use it because you thought it was wrong, that its manipulative or sinister or something . I dont believe its sinister. You just dont think it works . I just dont think it works. Want to dig into new reports that Cambridge Analytica, a firm backed by millions of dollars from the Mercer Family and contracted by the Trump Campaign harvested some 50 million profiles from facebook during the 2016 campaign. For their part Cambridge Analytica said they fully complied with facebooks terms of service that no data obtained by a thirdparty was used for the 2016 Trump Campaign and all the data in question was deleted. But on friday night ahead of the storys release, facebook announced it was suspending Cambridge Analytica. Natasha, can you help us walk through why that happened and what are the most this is as everything weve been talking about tonight, an incredibly complex narrative and web. What should we be focused on right now as it relates to the Trump Campaign . Well, the Trump Campaign has attempted to kind of distance itself from Cambridge Analytica. They said they never used any of the raw data that cambridge had compiled for the campaign itself. They said they relied mostly on Republican National committee voter files for that. But it is i think it is really important to remember that this was a this was the result of a 15 Million Investment by the mercers who were huge backers of the Trump Campaign and trumps presidency and steve bannon, of course, was on the board of Cambridge Analytica. They provided all this money to the firm in 2014 in an attempt to figure out how to profile voters and target them with ads. Now, this is not, you know, this is something that facebook, of course, has had to answer to because back in 2014 when they were trying to get all of the voter data, they did an experiment basically and they had 270,000 facebook users kind of consent to have their data taken by Cambridge Analytica, but there was a loop hole and Cambridge Analytica managed to obtain the voter data user data of 50 million facebook users. Now the question is, was any that of data despite what the Trump Campaign says, was any that of data that was essentially siphoned off from facebook without users consent used during the Trump Campaign. That interview that Brad Parscale gave to 60 minutes how it was pivotal to the Trump Campaign victory could be discovered if this data was used in the campaign without the users consent. Jonathan swan, can we talk about facebooks role in this for a second . They seem behind the 8 ball. I feel like a broken record on this. Understanding their political position now and their role in the system and, you know, quite frankly marco rubio was on meet the press saying these companies have too much power. This seems like a rolling snowball of pain for them. It has been because Mark Zuckerberg has always historically been of the view that this is a completely open platform and i cant be responsible for anything that happens on it, effectively, that was his default based position. Hes sort of been dragged step by screaming step from there to now where we have this sort of recognition across the organization, it is no surprise they came out with that Statement Last night. They now at a high level in that organization, very, very concerned about whats happening on capitol hill, about the scrutiny on them, about the role they may have played in the election, about what happened on their platform with russians and other bad actors using their platform. So, it is caused this huge internal reckoning, but they still havent really gotten ahead of these things. Its always reactive. Its always reactive. Mike schmidt, one thing behind the scenes, the suggestion is facebook is cooperating extensively with mueller and his investigation. How interested is bob mueller in these kinds of story lines . I think hes very interested because the problem that mueller has is that whenever he closes up shop, if anything comes out that he didnt look at, hes going to look like he missed something. So, hes going to turnover every rock to make sure there is nothing there. So, there are so many different tentacles of this. The social media part, the collusion part, obstruction part. If youre mueller, you have to look at every little piece because there are so many accusations about so many different parts of it. And you have to be able to safely say at the end of the day, you looked at it all. Or you could be embarrassed in the end. Michael schmidt, natasha bertrand, thank you both so much for your time tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Just ahead, senator Chris Van Hollen joins me live on set to talk about how how domestic drama is shaping our standing abroad. First well get a report from Richard Ingles in moscow as Vladimir Putin wins yet another term in office. No need for a the New York Times election needle this time. Plus, last week we tried to figure out what really happened when russians attacked an american position in syria. Now richard has exclusive reporting from inside syria on what really happened and why dozens of russians were left dead. Thats next. I have antivirus, but my computers still slow. Thats not right. Maybe if i reboot. Whats with all the popups . Why does it keep on crashing . This is taking forever. I think its time for the fixmestick. Fixmestick is a plugin virus removal device. Its the smart, simple, safe way to clean your computer yourself. With fixmestick you dont have to replace your computer. It helps you keep your files, and your privacy. Fixmestick reboots your computer from a system on the stick, so that it can remove the malware that got past your Antivirus Software. Its the smart, simple way to clean an infected computer, with a whole lot going on inside the stick. [computers sound] alright, this computers powered down. Lets reboot from the stick, and start scanning. Fixmestick contains 3 independent scanners, and connects to more in the cloud, for fast and effective detection of the latest threats. I thought so this one got around the Antivirus Software not a problem. Were on it. Todays viruses sabotage the computers they infect, like a burglar who gets into your house, and deactivates your security system. Once your computer is infected, its far easier to clean it with an external device. Thats what makes fixmestick so effective. Ok, i see spyware, trojans, keyloggers, and here it is, the rootkit the fixmestick is like having your own it department in the palm of your hand. And because it connects to the internet, its always up to date. Coffee were going to need some more coffee down here. Anyone, coffee . Advanced technology in an external device has enabled people all over the world to get the upper hand against viruses and malware. Try it for 30 days, and see for yourself why more than a Million People trust fixmestick to keep their computer fast, clean, and safe. Call us today or visit us online. I dont want to lie down. I refuse to lie down. Why suffer . Stand up to chronic migraine with botox®. Botox® is the only treatment for chronic migraine shown to actually prevent headaches and migraines before they even start. Botox® is for adults with chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting 4 hours or more. Its injected by a doctor once every 12 weeks. And is covered by most insurance. Effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Dont take botox® if theres a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. With the botox® savings program, most people with commercial insurance pay nothing outofpocket. Talk to your doctor and visit botox®cmsavings. Com to enroll. Election day has come and gone in moscow, and to exactly no ones surprise, Vladimir Putin has once again been elected president. For more, lets bring in nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent richard engel. Richard, we knew there was never a doubt about putin winning. Is there anything that stood out to you about the results or we should be paying attention to here . Reporter well, i think you should be very much paying attention to what is going on here. It means we have six more years of Vladimir Putin to start with. He got, according to the results that have been coming in, over 75 of the vote. There have been widespread allegations that there were voter fraud, that there was ballot boxing stuffing, the Electoral Commission says they were individual localized incidents. But putin does have support and hes already set the tone for what his agenda is going to be. If you listen to his speeches recently in his public events, hes made it clear he wants to use these next six years, if not longer than that, to confront the west. He sees the west right now, particularly the United States, as weak. He sees the u. S. Is in turmoil and that this is an opportunity for russia to spread its influence. And i think thats what were going to be seeing russia do starting now. If not sooner, if they havent already started it. To that point, richard, i want to ask about other reporting youve been reporting. A terrible bloody story. You went to the u. S. Base in syria attacked by russian mercenary forces. Can you tell us about the tensions between the u. S. And russia on that front . Reporter so, its one of the strangest and probably most mysterious incidents of the syrian civil war. Syria is in chaos right now and Different Countries are opportunistically grabbing territory. The turks have grabbed land. The Syrian Government is taking area. The u. S. Still has 2000 troops in syria, mostly special forces. A lot of these are not often discussed, very little access is given to reporters to visit these troops. And russian mercenaries are on the ground. They went to grab resources, and in the process got into a fire fight with u. S. Troops. Were traveling inside Eastern Syria on an exclusive trip with u. S. Special forces. General Jonathan Braga tells us this rural at the rain was isiss hard land and that the extremists have been driven y back. But now there are fears the u. S. Could end up in a direct conflict with new adversaries, russians. We drove to the conoco oil and gas refinery, now a u. S. Base. Its the first time reporters have been here since american troops came under attack on this spot last month by 500 fighters, including russian mercenaries. An International Incident shrouded in secrecy until now. So, on that night we started receiving artillery rounds right where were standing up to 30 different artillery rounds. Reporter the general said he immediately picked up a hot line to the russian military. So, you called and said stop this . Yes, i did. Reporter what response did you get . Those are not our forces. Reporter u. S. Forces were unconvinced. Braga said they gathered in this building to launch a counter strike, reigning down artillery and air strikes. 2 to 300 of the Russian Force was killed. Is that accurate . Thats close to what we know. Were you concerned about war with russia . We were concerned. Reporter the russian mercenaries were from the wagner group linked to yevgeny known as putins chef. They captured intercepts complaining about their heavy losses. They tore us to pieces, put us through hell said one. The yankees made their point. And it seems the mercenaries havent given up. General braga took us to the edge of the base, pointing out to where similar forces have come back. Hope it doesnt happen again, but if it does, well be ready. Reporter now, the kremlin continues to insist that none of these soldiers none of these mercenary forces were russian soldiers, not part of any official army, not part of the russian army. But russia has acknowledged that a small number of russian nationals did die in the attack. Kasie . Richard engel, thank you so much for for your great reporting. I appreciate your time tonight. Joining me on set, democrat senator Chris Van Hollen of maryland. Senator, thank you for being with us tonight. Appreciate it. Thanks, kasie. We have quite a bit to talk about. In slightly broader lens and richard was focused on a remarkable story in syria. I want to talk to you about russian influences on our elections and what is happening here at home. The events of this weekend, the president tweeting at bob mueller by name for the first time, do you think this is a significant turning point . And have you and your colleagues discussed trying to take more dramatic action to protect mueller in the wake of these tweets . I think its a very dangerous sign. As you said this is the first time the president has gone after mueller by name. It comes on the heels of reporting that the mueller team has subpoenaed documents from trump enterprises. It sounds like the white house and trump is getting very, very paranoid about whats going on. And as many have said today, if youre not really worried, if youve got nothing to hide, why are you getting so upset about this, right . If youve got nothing to fear, you should have nothing to complain about. But yet the president is acting very guilty. Do you think that mccabe was fired for political reasons . Hes essentially saying this is all political. Or do you think there could be a justifiable cause for him to be removed from his post . I think it comes in a very political context. We wont know the facts, but heres what we know. We know the president of the United States for months targeted the number two person in the fbi, someone who served for 21 years. And the president demanded that he be fired. And then we have the attorney general who the president has also threatened to fire, fire mccabe. And then you have all these tweets by the president of the United States. You dont that is not the normal behavior in a democracy. That is the kind of behavior you see in authoritarian regime. Putin just won an election, surprise, surprise. That is the kind of thing you would expect to see from a russian dictator, not a United States president. Speaking of putin, you are working with some of your colleagues on measures to try and avoid russian meddling again in the 2018 elections. What do you think that the country should be doing at this stage . And is the president doing remotely enough . So, the president is doing virtually nothing, right. He finally ordered some sanctions on some russian oligarchs, but only after Congress Overwhelmingly passed legislation saying he had to do it. And when they finally did it, they put sanctions on people who had already been sanctioned by president obama, or already indicted by mueller. He has said that he has not ordered the head of nsa to take steps to try to prevent meddling. The state department has been allocated tens of millions of dollars to come up with a plan to prevent russian meddling. They havent spent one penny. So, the president has done nothing. Senator rubio and i have introduced legislation to try to prevent, to deter interference in our next election. And every one of the president s own intelligence heads has said, be prepared, because theyre going to do it. So, its very simple. We would say within 30 days of the election, the director of National Intelligence reports to congress. Have the russians interfered or have they not . If theyve interfered, they cross a trip wire and automatic nonwaivable tough sanctions go into place. Not against some oligarchs. The russian banking sector. So, if youre putin and youve been reelected and youre thinking of interfering in the u. S. Elections, you will know if you get caught this time, you will pay a very big penalty. Assuming the president of the United States, of course, believes their Intelligence Community assessment. The one i want to switch gears with you a little bit. We have not tonight touched on another huge story this week which is the special election in pennsylvania and what that the signals that sends you. What everyone thought was going to be a really tough job this year defending a lot of red seats as the chairman of the dfcc, what was your top take away from the lessons out of pennsylvania 18 . Conor lamb ran against red seats, against pelosi. He ran against key bread and butter Kitchen Table issues. He said the paul ryan republican budget is going to cut your medicare, threaten your social security. Republicans tried to play up the big tax cut. People of pennsylvania recognized the tax cut went overwhelmingly too big corporations and that they were going to have to pay the price at the end of the day whether its cuts to medicare, whatever it may be. So, that did not work on the republican side. So, you had, you had our candidate winning a congressional seat that trump won by 20 points despite the fact that trump came and campaigned against him. Trump is actually 0 for 2 in campaigns where he actually showed up. One is pennsylvania and he showed up on the florida alabama border trying to defeat doug jones. Very close, very close. A win is a win. And 0 for 2 for trump. When he shows up, he obviously is not as persuasive as he thinks he is. Who are you most concerned about of your incumbents, joe manchin, heidi, Claire Mccaskill . I know theyre fighting really hard. Theyre great incumbents who have fought for their states. We look at the folks in states that donald trump won. I mean, just like you would look at pennsylvania 18. In a lot of these states that trump won, weve got candidates, we have incumbents who are standing up every day for their constituents and they always take the position that if trump wants to do something good for their state, theyll work with him. But if hes going to undermine something important to their state, if its going to undermine medicare, theyll fight him. We also have pickup opportunities in nevada, arizona, tennessee. We have a big race going on obviously in texas. And we have candidates in all these other races. So, look, you see a lot of momentum out there, but you also have many more months to go to get to election day. I almost want to ask you, is democrats taking back the senate more or less like umbc winning the entire thing. Are you the only person in america selecting them to take the championship . Im not going to make any predictions. You have umbc going all the way. Theres your bracket. What did you know the rest of us didnt know . Is this a Hometown School . Im a loyal marylander. Ive been there many times. They have a great school spirit. And in this case, freeman, the president of umbc, has done a great job putting them on the National Radar on academics. Hes obviously getting a lot of attention right now. They have a game tonight against kansas state, so ive been tweeting already at the senators from kansas, asking if theyre ready for the retrievers. Theyre going to take the wild cats tonight. Nobody here, though, change the channel. Although we can report, i believe, that unc has now lost to texas a m. Mark warner owes me not a beer, but a case of beer for winning in that bracket, that round. Senator chris von haul en, thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Good to be here. When we come back well sort through the help wanted ads at the white house. Could you address the main headline of the story you called the president a moron . If not, where do the reports im not going to deal with petty stuff like that. Is it true, did you call him a moron . Jake, as i indicated earlier, i was asked about that. Im not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff. Do you understand by not answering the question, some people thought you were confirming the story. I think ive answered the question. You think you answered the question . Ive answered the question. Perhaps Rex Tillersons original sin, reportedly calling the president a moron, and then never explicitly denying it. Joining us at the table, joining us at the table to take us through the revolving door of the u. S. Trump administration, jonathan bennett. Of course Jonathan Swan and philip rucker. There was so much news this week i almost forgot Rex Tillerson was fired. Early in the week. I dont know about you. But what is the next sort of shoe to drop here . I mean, it seems like theres a couple first of all, there are a lot of rumors. Youve been reporting on some of this about h. R. Mcmaster and others that the president has said im close to having the cabinet i want which suggests he still needs to make some changes. I think there is trouble ahead for pompeo and gina haas pel on the state and cia on the hill. Even further problems. What do you see as the next step in this story . The president doesnt have the team totally in place that he wants. We were told friday at the white house that there were no personal announcements at this time, but this is a new week. Something new could happen. Well see. We know that hes still mad about a number of bad headlines sort of optics problems that some of his cabinet secretaries have had. That doesnt mean theyre going to get fired necessarily, hes not happy about the way David Shulkin handled things at federal affairs. He was told he made a decision to fire h. R. Mcmaster, to remove him as the National Security advisor. We reported thursday night the white house then sort of said, no, no, no hes not going anywhere just yet. It might be the president takes time to orchestrate that move. He wants to line things up and avoid humiliating mcmaster. Clearly hes decided his days are number. Jeff bennett, where is nbcs reporting right now on, you know, where the president stands on mcmaster, also john kelly . There were some reports he was on his way out the door, then some reports that was actually inaccurate. Yeah. Interestingly the unsermon ious way Rex Tillerson was fired by tweet, that was really unsettling to the Trump Officials he likes to refer to as his generals. John kelly, hr mack master and defense. That led to john kelly thinking he was next on his way out the door. Thats what he told people in and around the west wing. Now it stands kelly is on thicker ice than mcmaster, than ben carson, than David Shulkin. Kelly, as jonathan has reported, has given indications that he will be at the white house for a bit longer. But interestingly, in so many of these issues it is not an issue of competence. It is an issue of personality. Personality clashes between the president and his top aides. With mcmaster, you have a guy who is aggressive, relentless, he is also a scholar, in army parlance he likes to lecture a lot. It rubs the president the wrong way. Jonathan, you were a behind the scenes kind of meeting with john kelly no, i wasnt. You werent, i apologize. You were the one who wrote about it. I was there but you agree to it. Tough talk. Trivial the contents of his off the record conversation. You can talk about it. So, yes, you agreed to nothing. So, what happened . Mont sumas revenge . Kelly had a couple reporters for an off the record, among other things and brought it up and mentioned rex was on the toilet wa stomach bug when he was told he was getting fired. Why do that . Why say that . Im told he said it in a sympathetic context, his dad died, and it was a strange detail to share with reporters. He also in that same meeting said the president the president himself is probably responsible for a large number of these stories about chaotic stuff, changes, because the president talks to people outside. And it circulates back around. That was another thing he mentioned in that conversation. I promise i wont ask you about any of this off the record things you agreed to. Thank you for coming on tonight. Appreciate it. Back after this. Kacie dc. Casey kasey kacie casey kacie d. C. Can i just ask you 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 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, just like it should can i just ask you something . Do like your job . I do now. I spend most of it getting screamed at while climbing into an escalade. I do like visiting good school and worksheets and occasional stinky four whites. Well, secretary devos, do you really want to say that . Oh. Another tweet storm f the oval office. President trump lashes out at Robert Mueller by name, drawing rebuke from his own party. Plus, fall yot from the firing of Andrew Mccabe. Now a number of democratic lawmakers are offering him employment. And in austin, texas, two men injured after a bomb went off and police say it may have been triggered by a tripwire. Its the fourth explosion this month. Good morning, everyone. Its monday, march 19th