Transcripts For MSNBCW MTP Daily 20180212

Over. If it is monday, chaos theory rules the white house. Tonight, turmoil at the white house and the department of justice. Could chief of staff john kelly and Rod Rosenstein be fired . Plus the senate is set to start a free for all debate on immigration this hour. Its real debate on anir an issue where we dont know what the outcome will be. But is there any chance of a deal . And the republican candidate for congress who voted for Hillary Clinton. How she hopes to shake up the gop. If we continue to have a tone and rhetoric that pushes out minorities and young people and it is unwelcoming to women, we dont have a party in the future. This is mtp daily and it starts right now. Good evening. Im katy tur in new york in for chuck todd and welcome to mtp daily. The resignation of a Top White House aide accused of spousal abuse shows you why this white house is constantly consumed by chaos of its own making. And moments ago the white house tried again to clean up the mess. But they may have made things even worse. Again. Because as is often the case, the president usually cannot help himself but make things worse. This time he once again sided with the men accused of abusing or mistreating women. He said peoples lives are being shattered by a mere allegation. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused. Is there no such thing as due process. As is often the case, the president s comments derailed the white house narrative. This time the white house insists it has, quote, zero tolerance for Domestic Abuse and violence against women. As is often the case, they scramble to get on the same page. Six days later and aides are still trying to nail down just one one timeline for porters exit. Moments ago the white house offered a new one along with a carefully worded statement. We were told this this right here came directly from the president. The president and the entire administration take Domestic Violence very seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigates thoroughly, above all of the president supports victims of Domestic Violence and believes everyone should be treated fairly and with due process. Weve addressed this situation extensively and we have nothing more to add at this time on that topic. As is often the case, the white house digs in. This time they came back to that statement multiple times when asked about the conflicting statements about porter. As is often the case, there is back stabbing as rival factions anonymously blame each other in the press. This time the knives are out for chief of staff john kelly. As is often the case, the Mushroom Cloud kmums the white house agenda. This time it is infrastructure week again. And as is often the case, well lurch to the next crisis. But while the crisis might change, it always does, the leaks and the staff and the drama, the president s lack of selfcontrol and issues with women, voters specifically, will not. Im joined now by Peter Alexander at the white house. Peter, we keep hearing conflicting statements on the time line for jophn kelly. Why cant the white house get the stories straight. It is a good question. This saga is in the second week, the president cant erase over the course of the time. We just heards noted from Sarah Sanders within the last hour or so, one of the points she tried to make was a broadening of the timeline here. Basically trying to clean up the conflicts that have been presented, among others by the chief of staff john kelly. He told nbc news and other reporters last week that 40 minutes after he learned that the allegations against rob porter were true that he was gone. That just simply doesnt jive with the information we had been hearing. Sarah saernds said said that sanders said 24 hours passed from the time the allegations were true and the time he resigned and we announced it to the world. The effort to give a big umbrella so no matter what stories fall under the umbrella it is satisfied by that time line. But i was struck by what you played in the open. The fact that Sarah Sanders came out and pressed by colleagues in the Briefing Room about why the president himself cant say that he supports the victims of Domestic Violence. That he wants to condemn Domestic Violence and outraged by it. She said, simply, she was relaying his words. That he dictated those words to but the reason that rings so hollow for people paying attention to this president and this white house is that this is a man a president with 47 million followers on twitter. Hes tweeted approaching 37,000 times. The president had something to say, if he wanted the world to hear it, there would be a simple way to do it. To say the least of the fact that he has the bully pulpit and when cameras are in there as they were today for the infrastructure announcement, it wouldnt be hard to Say Something on the topic. But as you noted on friday, he said nothing about her or she. He spoke exclusively in a public letter of recommendation to his now ousted former staff secretary rob porter. There is the tweet from this weekend but there was also that impromptu invitation for reporters to come into the oval office to talk about the president last week after the porty story was blowing up. He had to know he would get asked it and he did get asked it and he just compressed sympathy for porter, not for the the victims. So this is the second time in a row so Sarah Huckabeesanders statement is glaring and questionable with that context. Peter alexander at the white house. Peter, god bless you. You have quite a job to do out there. Thanks. Lets bring in tonights panel, john la mere with at Associated Press, zero lena maxwell, the director of programming at sirius xm and john pot hor its, a contributor and New York Post columnist. Is it wrong to ask if somebody in the white house is lying . Not at all. I think what is interesting about this is the president s tweet controversial tweet is something one should have no problem hearing from the president of the united states. People shouldnt be destroyed by allegations, due process is important. But this is a guy who spent a year on the campaign trail as you know better than we do, shouting lock her up about Hillary Clinton not exactly speaking about her rights to due process and the process by which one would find out whether she was or was not guilty of committing a crime so it comes out of his mouth or fingers in a seeming like a disingenuous thing to say. And this applies in the campaign and as long as he is in the public eye, im the rubber and youre glue and whatever you say about me, it bounces off of you and sticks to you. And something that could shed light on him and he turns around and used it against his opponent. Are any heads going to roll because of this . This is john kellys toughest moment since hes taken the job. His hold on his position is the shakiest it has been. We know from our reporting at the Associated Press the president is calling outside of his Kitchen Cabinet and throwing names out there who could be another chief of staff. Kevin mccarthy or mick mulvaney. And the president does this from time to time. He evaluated his senior staff constantly when they are making bad headlines thax doesnt mean a change is imminent. But what is new is the faith of the staff, the other members of the west wing has been shaken in kelly. They felt like that the timeline has shifted here so many times. Including when kelly called a meeting on friday morning at white house and offered a new fairi narrative of when he found out about porter and dismissed it which was contrary to those in the white house and there were people that left afterward that were upset about it. They said Sarah Huckabeesanders is broadening the time line. John kelly said this was taken care of in 40 minutes contradicting the statement he released that night. But i dont understand why the chief of staff could say 40 minutes and the White House Press secretary can say with a straight face it was 24 hours. Well she lies every day, katy. And we watch that every day. And what she says does not match up with the facts frequently. But i think the more important point is don mcgahn knew before this for a long time because the fbi was alerted immediately when they went into the background check. So for me, it is less of a question of when john kelly knew because that is more in the recent headlines. Don mcgahn knew this for a year and he knew and his staff knew and they had the photographs and so why did he not do anything about that at the time, particularly because this is two scandals, one involving Domestic Violence and another involving security clearance. The white house had a credibility problem for a while. This is another example of the credibility problem but it is also bigger than that. This is not a quibbling over policy details. This is about a man who was accused of beating up two wives. A man not only wasnt reprimanded or kicked out of the oval office or white house, he was given more responsibility. He was handling the nations top most secret. Donald trump kept saying and i dont say this with any hint of irony, he said he would hire the best people. Are folks out there watching this white house observing it, regular voters, are they thinking to themselves, these are the best people or are they thinking, god the media has it out for all of them . Well i think the people once again, we have a situation in which the people who are supportive of trump are not going to break from trump because a guy on his staff beat up his wives. Trump didnt do it. Trump is a nice trumps wishing him well out the door. Maybe you shouldnt do that, maybe he should. Youre all piling on. It is six days of piling on. Enough already. I think the interesting thing is the psychology in the white house which is fair to say, based on what weve heard, that at some point porter was confronted by somebody or talked to by somebody and he said i didnt do it and they said fine. Okay. And that is it. That is all. That is is all he needed to do is say he didnt do it and it was like great, you could continue being staff secretary without a security clearance, which remains the thing that is missing from a lot of the discussion. There is no way that he performed that job without a security clearance legally. That is to say i do not i dont think it is possible for the staff secretary to have handled the documents in the white house which is his job without handling documents that he was not supposed to handle and that was okay. Doesnt the president have to okay that in order for him to handle that briefing with an interim security clearance. That is what he did with Jared Kushner. The white house has not told us whether or not President Trump allowed it allowed the waiver to ensure that rob porter had access but he did that for gerald kushner. What does it say about the white house regard for classified information to you . As somebody who covered multiple white houses, what does it say about their desire to protect classified information, their regard for the nations top most secrets. You may recall that classified information was a significant part of the 2016 campaign. Really. I didnt know that. This is news to me. And it seems the actions once taking office flies in the face of the rhetoric during the campaign. And this is this seems to be a white house that at times has sort of cut corners. We know that chief kelly has was bemoaning the loss of rob porter because there they have had difficulty bringing in competent aides into the white house and with a reputation rather stellar and kelly was fond of him and he was performing in his role as staff secretary doing a good job. So the white house is pushing back against some of the timeline issues in terms whf when mcgahn found out and they flagged something and he didnt have the details. But they said he would be subject to blackmail because of that. And the white house dismissed that. And same thing with flynn. Why is it okay because you are doing a good job for me, we dont care if you are susceptible to blackmail. If they are careless from a president ial daily brief, this is raw intelligence. So the people that i know have dealt with it over the years see things that make their hair stand on end. It turns out dont pan out but the chatter, things they are hearing and being captured on signal intelligence and stuff like that, about possible plots and things happening and one of the reasons this is under close hold is not just because you dont want someone to be blackmailed but you dont want this to get out. It is unverified. Some is some is just like bits and pieces of conversations overheard and you could cause National Panic if this information is retailed around the white house and somebody tells his wife and then his wife tells somebody else. It is like a classic game of telephone and then a piece of news emerges that scares the nation half to death. We saw something we saw this thing in hawaii where for 37 minutes people in hawaii thought we were about to be hit with a intercontinental ballistic missile. We live in a time in which secrets the way stuff is handling could have real devastating real life consequences. 377 days Jared Kushner hasnt had a security clearance and is there reason to believe he will ever be one. No. Because he to update his form add over a hundred contexts three times. No, i dont think it is up loaded because they flagged something substantial which is why he does not have he still does not have the clearance. And hell never be fired because he is the soninlaw. Those at the formerly fbi, the one thing you do not do is lie to the fbi or mislead the fbi or submit a form not entirely true. We will see where that goes. That is certainly a big question that remains open tonight. Well see how long it will remain open. Jonathan, zer lena and john, stay with us. Ahead, the turmoil inside isnt just inside the white house. Excuse me. It is also rocking the department of justice. Can Rod Rosenstein be the next to go . The latest nbc news reporting coming up. Nothing like yesterda. Trails are covered. Paths arent what they used to be. Roads nowhere to be found. and its exactly what youre looking for. welcome back. The white house isnt the only part of the Trump Administration in the midst of a staffing shakeup and a leader in leadership limbo. At the Justice Department there might be new reason to question whether or not Robert Muellers boss might step aside or be fired. Rod rosenstein is in charge of overseeing muellers wideranging probe and sources tell nbc news that one of the reasons his top deputy quit was because she was worried about having to oversee muellers investigation herself. Joining me now is National Security and justice reporter julia ainsley. Julia, this is your exclusive scoop. Last week we were told she got the job at walmart. Is that the whole story. That is not the whole story as as as it never is. This is a result of rachel brand being unhappy at the Justice Department for months. She was complaining about feeling unsupported and not enough key positions filled and she was seeing the tea leaves when the president was being critical of Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein and if he were to get fired, she would be next in line to oversee the mueller probe. That wasnt a position she wanted to be in. Shes been a long time attorney at the department of justice. Shes a conservative but she served under george w. Bush and barack obama. And that just wasnt a political hot spot that she felt like she wanted to jump into and when this walmart job came along it was something she jumped at the chance to do. Julia, doesnt that imply Rod Rosenstein might be on his way out, sooner rather than later . So that is definitely the question ive been asking my sources. The one piece of that is that this had been in the works for a while. So it might not be that her departure signifies there is a change in the past week but there has been pressure on rosenstein for months at the Justice Department. Weve seen a lot of that publicly. We know that the president blames the attorney general Jeff Sessions for recusing himself and allowing the appointment of muler and it seems the pressure is building for months. Same kind of pressure on the fbi and led to resignations there. And that is something that rachel brand was responding to and were seeing it play out as very experienced high level people start to leave their positions and just say, im not doing this any more. Sarah flores at the d. O. J. Said all of this is false and frankly ridiculous. What was specifically false in your report, according to d. O. J. I think the Justice Department is doing something that they do quite often and we see this from the white house where they push back on Anonymous Sources but we stand by the reporting, i stand by my reporting. I spoke to three people who know rachel brand well and speaking with her for months and understand the factors that led to the decision. Often we get pushback on Anonymous Sources but it is difficult to do any reporting in this town. No one wants to come out and speak on the record about the reasons that would lead to a decision like this, especially if it has to do with the political reasons. So it is the world we live in. Especially in this climate. Why would you want to put yourself out there to become a target practice for this administration right now. Julia ainsley, thank you and great job reporting as always. Thank you. Ahead live at the senate floor where the showdown over immigration is underway. Whatever gets 60 votes will pass. Could this be the way our democracy was meant to work . Mom . Dad . Hi i had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. But what a powerful life lesson. And dont worry i have everything handled. I already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. Which is so smart on your guys part. Like fact that theyll just. Forgive you. Four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. We started talking about daca and well produce. But if the democrats want to make a deal, it is really up to them. Because we want really tremendous Border Security but we have to have democrat support for daca and they are starting that process today. Welcome back. That was President Trump today setting the stake for an immigration situation in congress. That is about to get wild. And in just a few minutes, the senate is set to kick off what is expected to be a free wheeling immigration debate on the floor. It all stems from a promise Mitch Mcconnell made to the democrats at the end of last months government shutdown. But it is unclear what will happen here. Senators will eventually have the chance to offer different kinds of amendments and hope they get 60 votes. We dont know where it will lead. But in a way this could be watching our democratic process in action. But even if the senate does manage to pass something, it is unclear, totally unclear what will happen in the house. This immigration issue is forcing democrats and republicans alike to decide how much they are willing to give up to get a deal on daca done. Joining me now is republican congressman carlos core bella of florida. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Hillary clinton won your district by 16 points in 2016 and you voted yes on the budget deal last week. If you vote yes on that, why should anybody they they could have your vote or your confidence in an immigration vote . Well, something changed last week. And that is that Speaker Paul Ryan gave us a guarantee that immigration legislation, including a daca fix would be taken to the house floor. Would be debated and considered. Now this is significant because all of us who remember 2013 and 14 remember the senate acted and they passed a massive comprehensive immigration bill and this time is different. The scope is smaller. But then the house simply refused to act. And Immigration Reform died that year. We now know that the house will not refuse to act this time. That we will have a debate. We will make an attempt to pass immigration legislation. And that is a major development, especially considering what happened last time. So that is why i decided to move forward and support this budget agreement. Which had a lot of priorities for south florida as well. But i felt confident and comfortable for the first time the house was actually going to have the opportunity to advance immigration legislation again, including the fix for dreamers which is critical for me. So paul ryan promised you they will bring something to the floor. Can you elaborate any more on that in. Well, look. He cant make any guarantees just like Mitch Mcconnell cant make any guarantees. Well Mitch Mcconnell guaranteed to bring it to the floor for a debate. Is paul ryan going to guarantee that. The speaker guaranteed there could be immigration legislation on the floor. What exactly that looks like we dont know. Of course katy, you know the house operates differently than the senate. It is more structured. So there will be legislation. I hope that it is something that is somewhat similar to what the white house has put forward and that is open for amendment. That way we could have a robust debate just like the senate will have this week and probably next. And have a consensus product that could hopefully get to a cop Front Committee and within a matter of weeks, we could have legislation on the president s desk that for the first time ever, since dreamers and the dream act was debated for the first time in 2001 in congress, were going to have the opportunity to deliver for these young immigrants who deserve a future in our country. A matter of weeks. You sound confident. The two polls on this issue are very far apart. The immigration advocates and daca and conservative base and in the house, why are you confident there is a deal reached and if the senate comes up with something, do you think the house should take up what the senate decides on in a bipartisan way . So, ive always believed there have been two major obstacles to getting Immigration Reform done. Number one, congressional leadership and the fact we did not have a commitment from leadership in both chambers on the majority side that we could proceed. We have taken care of that. We have that and we feel very good about that. The other major challenge is the extremist on both sides. For some on the left, nothing will ever be enough. And they dont want to compromise at all. Same smith on the right. They start using the term amnesty and try to derail this. That is why im hopeful that in the house we do have the opportunity to consider bipartisan legislation. That would be ideal. If the senate could pass something and then we could consider it in the house, even if we open it up to amendment and then go to a conFront Committee, that would be wonderful. And by the way, as you kind of alluded to earlier, that is the way our democracy is supposed to work. Legislators are supposed to be allowed to present their ideas and have them debated and voted on and some will win and some will lose and that is fine. But for a long time weve been prevented prohibited from having this debate. That is why im feeling better and im taking the wins that we get every single day and celebrating them. Lets talk about compromise. You said a moment ago you want to see Something Like the president has laid out. Like the white house has laid out. They have four pillars, daca is one of the pillars. The other are an end to an end to what they call chain migration which is what others call family migration or family reunification and ending the visa lottery and all of the funding for the border wall. Surely youll have to compromise on one or two of those things to get some of the moderates on board. Where are you going to compromise . Well that is right. And i dont support the white house outline entirely. But i do think it is a sincere effort to find a middle ground. I do think it is okay, katy, for example to shift our immigration system more towards a meritbased economybased system. I dont want to do away with family reunification. Certainly my family has benefited from that. So we want to keep that. But if we can make a slight shift toward a more meritbased system, i think that makes sense on the diversity visa lottery, move that over to the merit system while giving preference to some of the countries, that could be an idea and on the border, i think 25 billion is too much money but i think most american support strengthening security at the border when we know that drug traffickers are so active there. So this is the challenge. Everyone is going to have to be willing to give something. And by the way there are other priorities on the legalization side that i think could be included. Here in south florida the tps issue is very important. And we want to help haitians, hondurans, salvador or nicaraguans that have benefited for decades. These are people that are intergrated and assimilated and they deserve to stay in our country because they are contributing to it. So there is room to grow the deal on both sides and i hope that were allowed to do in the house and as leader Mitch Mcconnell is allowing his colleagues to do. We wish you well on trying to find a bipartisan compromise and the country works better when we have bipartisan compromise. I want to ask you one last question. This is on the issue of the white house and the current controversy, the rob porter controversy. Are you satisfied with what youve heard directly from the president of the united states, the words that have come out of his mouth or the very least the things that hes typed with his fingers on his twitter account addressing the victims in this scenario, in this scandal . No. I think the president certainly has to express the solidarity that i think most of us feel with these women who are clearly victims. If someone is being falsely accused, that person needs to speak up and explain why that is the case. But as long as all we hear is silence, we need to be in complete solidarity, our hearts need to be with these women. There is no room for Domestic Violence at all, whether it is against women or men or anyone. Why doesnt the president say that himself. People say that the president is shaped by his own experience. He clearly has stated many times that hes been falsely accused. So he doesnt want to rush, i think, to judge any of the people. But whether we condemn these people or not, which i certainly do unless they come out and defend themselves and say that the allegations against them are false and show us why they are false, the president at the very least should come out and express some solidarity for these victims. They are victims of new victims of Domestic Abuse in this country every day. And i think all of us, especially those of us in elected positions and positions of leadership have to be express explicit about condemning it and show solidarity and support for anyone who is or was a victim of adoption abuse. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. And shes republican, shes conservative and she voted for Hillary Clinton. The congressional candidate who has a strong message for the gop. That is coming up. You were mad. To progress. To not just accept what you see, but imagine something new. At invisalign®, we use the most advanced teeth straightening technology to help you find the next amazing version of yourself. Its time to unleash your secret weapon. Its there, right under your nose. Get to your best smile up to 50 faster. Visit invisalign. Com to get started today. Ancestrydnand now,y 69. With more than 150 ethnic regions to connect to. Its the perfect time to find out where your greatness comes from. Save 30 at ancestrydna. Com. 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Ahead, with the first midterm ballots being cast, republican candidates have to decide how hard to hug the president. Coming up, hear from one republican who is going in the opposite direction. And talking about how she voted for hillary. That is next. Ids. Music tech . Every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why at safelite, well show you exactly when well be there. With a replacement you can trust. All done sir. Grandpa looks great tech thanks for choosing safelite. Grandpa thank you child bye tech bye saving you time. So you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace at planters, we put fresh roawhich has its drawbacks. An, guys, know anything about this missing inventory . Wasnt me the cheeks dont lie, chet. Irresistibly planters. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Welcome back to mtp daily. Republican lawmakers will have to answer for President Trump at the ballot box in november. But republican candidates will have to do so even sooner. The 2018 midterm primary begins in texas on march 6th with early voting starts there next week. Recently chuck spoke to one someone in a crowded field of 18. Yes 18. Volkswage republicans in a red district outside of austin, texas. One way shes standing out, shes openingly tell openly telling folks she voted for Hillary Clinton. I think every election is a choice. Perfect is never on the ballot. As a woman, i couldnt vote for candidate trump. Ive been telling people this. He is the president , he is the leader of our party and im proud to stand shoulder to shoulder when hes governing with conservative principles. But i reserve the right to call outin civility when i see it and that is the biggest prat form of my campaign, restoring respect to the political process and i wish more of our leaders in washington would praise the policies but criticize the politics of it. Okay. You can praise the policy and criticize the politics and do what jeff flake is doing. He criticizes and votes with the president. Yep. So what if you want the president to change his behavior, what does supporting him and all of his initiatives while shaking your finger at him, what does that do . It is not just about criticizing the president , it is calling our leaders to better politics. Im not running against the president or to change the president. Hes setting a tone. There is no doubt. He is setting a loud tone. Yes. When i talk to voters i talk about civility and respect, they say thank you. The voters back home are interested in getting things done and problem solving but standing on the ebldges and screaming isnt worked. Would you have voted for the obama skinny repeal. Probably. You were on the fence. Yes. Im concerned with letting obamacare crumble under itself. Without a replacement. It is a problem. A problem for Small Businesses in my district. So you might not have voted to overhaul obamacare without a real alternative. I think we have to have an alternative. Fair enough. Neil gorsuch. I think so. Moving the u. S. Embassy from israel. Yes. That is something weve been promising for a long time. So i guess the question is, when does the president or anyone incivility cause you to say, i agree with you on this issue, but you are so offensive to me personally, i cant do. It here is what im worried. The future of the Republican Party. When i look out in the audiences at the Republican Party faithful events it is much older and more anglo audience. And i believe that our conservative policies work, but if we continue to have a tone and rhetoric that pushes out mine minoritieso and young people and unwelcoming to women and so im looking at the future saying we might get shortterm political gains but if were going to be welcoming, we have to change our tone. The number of people that sort of speak out now is smaller and smaller. Yes. Because the voters the base voters of the Republican Party said, you know what, weve changed were not going to hold you accountable any more. There is a total flip among the evangelicals. Well that is a concern to me as a daughter of a minister. That i think we have to we have to hold our leaders to higher standards. Do values standard. Absolutely and they should matter. And what is a disqualifier. Absolutely. But it wasnt that. It was decades of behaviorme an were paying attention to issues around Sexual Assault and it is not the only reason im running but we need more women at the table talking about these we havent elected a woman in texas in and whether it is kay bailey or it is amazing there is new blood in the system. Ultimately do you think in november this election people should be thinking about issues first or values and this the civil issue . Where does it weigh on you. For me it is about what kind of country do i want to be in. Do i want to be in a country where people are welcome, where we can talk about our ideas without screaming at each other and disagree but be agreeable. All of the things i was taught growing up, were not holding our leaders to the same standards we hold kindergartners to and that is appalling. I dont have my own children but i have nieces and nephews and i respect to treat people with civility and respect. I would be remiss if i dont ask you about the president s daca and the changing of immigration for the daca deal plus the wall, as a texan, do you want to see the wall. I think the wall is a metaphor. Most people in texas know were not going to have a physical barrier along the 1200 mile border. There is a wall in some places. I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and ive been flying in a dps helicopter seeing there is no place in the river. Were not going to have a wall but we need to be tough at the border and not letting criminals into the country but we also have to be realistic about the economic need for immigrants. So i think a comprehensive aprove is the approach is the right approach. Is the president too restrictive. I think it is important that we vet people properly and i think i get concerned if the vetting is focused on a persons religion. That does concern me so i think we need to make sure were looking in realistic terms about who we let in the country but also knowledge that we need a vibrant immigrant population to grow our economy. Jennifer, well leave it there. It is a unique dynamic that you bring to this race. We shall see. Quite the message Texas Republicans send and you are the nominee for the republicans, thanks. Ahead, could america be ready to negotiate with north korea . That is next. There are two types of people in the world. Those who fear the future. And those who embrace it. The future is for the unafraid. Welcome back. After a frostien counter at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on friday between mike pence and the sister of kim jongun, it now appears tensions could be thawing. Vice president pence told the Washington Post in an interview that he had two substantial conversations with south koreas president during his trip. And that the u. S. And the south agreed on terms for further engagement with the north. That could mean direct talks between the u. S. And north korea without any preconditions. But while the white house said theyre willing to sit down for talks, the u. S. And our allies wont stop imposing sanctions on kim jonguns regime until it shows clear steps toward denuclearization. So any potential talks would happen while sanctions pressure continues. But at the same time, secretary of state Rex Tillerson said today that it is too early to say whether the new developments are the start of a diplomatic process. It is too early to judge. As weve said for sometime, it is up to the North Koreans to decide when theyre ready to engage with us in a sincere way, a meaningful way. They know what has to be on the table for conversations. Weve said for sometime that i think it is important that we have were going to need to have some discussions that precede any form of negotiation. This new day. Looks nothing like yesterday. Roads nowhere to be found. And its exactly what youre looking for. If you have moderate to severe or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Tell your doctor if these occur. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Our mistake, i think, you cannot just run against donald trump. And it is the job of we democrats to put together a strong cohesive Economic Group of proposals aimed at the middle class and those struggling to get there. What do you think of that, democrats not just running on a we are better than donald trump it just wasnt successful in 2016. Democrats have to look at who is the base of the party and winning races for them. Oh, its black women, its women of color, its not necessarily the when i working class voters that voted for donald trump and will continue to vote for donald trump. We need to try to target and get people out to the polls as opposed to persuading people who may have racist views that will never vote for democrats. 10 of the support from white women, though, has been knocked off according to a Washington Post abc news poll. Again, polls, polls, polls. I dont really trust any polls but that would suggest that the white women voting bloc which he won in 2016 might not be any longer. The situation is the incumbent party is supposed to do badly in the midterms, right . Determi democrats only need 24 seats to take control of the house. It used to be oh, my gosh, how could they do that. They won 32 in 2006. Republicans would be 63 in 2010, 52 in 1994. So midterms are supposed to be good for the out party, right . And trumps numbers are low. Theyre in the high 30s, low 40s. And i would say this in general terms. If the democrats do not perform well in november, the entire political discussion of the last two years, which has been the crisis in the Republican Party, will be nonsensical and meaningless, because it will be the Democratic Party we will be looking at in a position of near, you know, catastrophe. If they cannot convert this series of elections into a victory in 2018. I think russia will not hack the 2018 elections and impact the outcome in some of these jurisdictions. I think that thats a big factor. We literally skip over it. We act like russia did not interfere in the 2016 election and that all of the facts and all of the analysis lines up, when that is something that was actually unprecedented. Democrats also clearly need to put forth a positive message. It cannot just be about being the antitrump. I think there are dangers if they simply run on the idea of impeachment. But in 2016 you were there with me. You saw it all unfold. Do you still trust that up is up and down is down . This president has a way of throwing off the gravitational pull. Normal rules of politics do not always apply to him. The fact that its how many months away until most of these midterms, and i think that there are so many plots twists and turns ahead of us. We dont know where the russia investigation will be by then. We dont know what the economy will look like by then. We dont know if the crisis with north korea escalates to the point we may even have some sort of military confrontation. So there are lots of things that can change between now and then. Certainly at this point, if you were to go by history, we can expect democrats to pick up a lot of seats. This is a president whose poll numbers whose numbers are historically bad. But the lessons of history dont always apply to him. But russia didnt hack other elections. But he is not on the ballot. Although he represents the party. But its just a simple fact of the matter that democrats do not have an enormous haul here to win the house back. Now, if they win the senate back, which is almost as close to impossible, we will be seeing an unprecedented wave. If they cant win the house back after a near decade in which democratic seats in the house and the senate and in statehouses and in localities, democrats are in the worst position they have been since 1928. If they cant recover, as i say, the real question will be how is the Democratic Party going to pull itself out of a tailspin. The last question, zerlina, why do you keep bringing up hacking . Why are you sure it wont happen in 2018. I think it might happen in 2018 and well look at the democratic message as the reason democrats werent successful instead of trying to prevent the next hacking. I would also say gerrymandering impacts the outcome of these elections so democrats have to way overperform in order to win back the 24 seats in the house. Lets see what the Supreme Court says about gerrymandering. John, zerlina, johnjohn, good to have you guys. Ahead, sports fan chuck todd inducted into the hall of fame. You heard me right. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. To help you grow and protect your wealth. Lets team up to get the lady of the house back on her feet. And help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks yaaay the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Always be you. In case you missed it, chuck todd is a very big sports fan. A very big sports fan who was just inducted into the hall of fame. But it wasnt in cooperstown or canton or springfield. Chuck received the alumnus of Distinction Award from the Miamidade County Public School district this weekend, earning him a place in their alumni hall of fame. Yep, chucks road to political journalism began in south florida at Miami Killian senior high. But while this wasnt exactly a sports award, he did spend a lot of time in high school on the field. Thats where young chuck was a french horn player, oh, my god, look at chuck. Look at him, its adorable. A horn player and a drum major earn himself a scholarship that would land him at the George Washington university in todays. As you know, he stuck around town right after that. Hes there to this day. Chuck isnt one to toot his own horn unless its of the french variety, of course, so the mtp daily team will do it for him. Congratulations, chuck, on a very well deserved honor. Thats all for tonight. Chuck, the man of the hour, will be back in the chair tomorrow with more mtp daily. Meanwhi meanwhile, the beat with ari melber starts right now. Ari, i did not look that adorable in my high school photo. Im trying to think of something nice to say. I think thats probably not true but as a journalist i suppose i wasnt there. It was awkward. Ill post it online. Its awkward. Well, then youve kept it awkward all these years. We begin with developing news on the story the Trump Administration tried to bury it over the weekend. Why did the number three official at the Justice Department leave after just nine months on the