The heartland . Were not bailing out any farmers. Could trump voters in 2020 and 2016 elect democrats in 2018 in the midwest . The farmers love me. This is mtp daily and it starts right now. Good evening, im chuck todd here in washington. Buckle up, folks. There is reporting in the New York Times that suggests bob mueller thinks some of the president s tweets might be evidence of obstruction of justice or even witness tampering. And thats not all. The wall street journal is reporting that the Trump Organization cfo, allen weisselberg, somebody we introduced you to yesterday, known as the president s longtime financial gate keeper, is being called to testify before a grand jury in a criminal case involving the president s personal attorney or former personal attorney, who, by the way, has publicly fumed turned against the president , and thats not all. 50 new subpoenas have just been requested by prosecutors in the case against the president s former campaign chief, paul manafort, whose trial, by the way, begins in just a few days. And all of these are developments that happened in just the last few hours. Folks, amid this accelerating frenzy of legal activity embroiling this president and his allies, were also seeing a phenomenon of what you might call creeping authoritarianism from this president and his allies. And this creeping authoritarianism seems like it might be part of an attempt to regain, disrupt or overtake the narrative of legal woes that i just mentioned. The white house retaliated against a reporter yesterday after she did what reporters do. She tried to get the president to answer a few tough questions about russia and his personal attorney during a media scrum. The president s allies in the white house are recruiting members for an effort to impeach the republicanappointed Deputy Attorney general who just by happenstance oversees the russia investigation. The secretary of state just testified before congress in a performance that left Many Democrats and a few Top Republicans with a pretty sour taste in their mouths. The president S National Security advisor is now saying that the russia investigation is a witch hunt, which is a stunning reversal for someone who just last year, this is john bolton, called the crimes that mueller is investigating a, quote, true act of war against the United States, referring to the russian interference. And i havent even mentioned the president s rhetoric this week thaterily invoked George Orwell or the white houses threat to take away security clearances from folks who have questioned the president s loyalties when it comes to russia. Everything i just mentioned has basically happened in the last 72 hours. It is a rare collision of legal battles and Political Warfare involving the president. We have no idea what happens next. Matt miller is an msnbc justice and security analyst. He was the chief spokesman for the Justice Department under president obama. He will join our panel of lee ann caldwell, john harwood, cnbcs editor at large, and Alfonso Aguilar is the president of the latina partnership for conservative principles and former chief of the office of u. S. Citizenship. Matt, let me start with you and the various legal developments just today. First let me start with the subpoena of the Trump Organizations longtime cfo, allen weisselberg, who, by the way, was originally hired by the president s father, fred trump. Thats how far back he goes. He gets subpoenaed in the investigation thats going on in the Southern District of new york. Does that mean all the questions that are asked of him will only involve whatever theyre investigating or does mueller have a piece of him too . We dont know the answer to that, but this every well could ask questions on behalf of another district, on behalf of another prosecutor in the department. Doj does that all the time. I think the interesting thing about the subpoena, weve never seen really the full scope of the sdny investigation. We know obviously it involves Michael Cohen. It involves something to do with Campaign Finance, the Stormy Daniels payments, but its always seemed very unlikely that it is just the Campaign Finance violation that theyre investigating, given the search warrant that they executed. You dont come in that hard against the president s personal attorney unless its more serious than that. So the question for me has been is it also his individual legal liabilities, maybe his taxi business, maybe Something Else or is it related trump liabilities connected to his business in new york. And the subpoena of the cfo of his company would lead you to believe its the latter that theyre looking not just at cohens personal liabilities, but the problems trump has inside his business. And the one other legal question id like you to tackle, so 50 subpoenas for the trial. Common, uncommon, is that a lot, not a lot, how would you characterize that . I think thats pretty common. You know, whenever youre getting ready for a trial like this, you have a big list of witnesses. It doesnt mean hell call 50 witnesses, but you get 50 subpoenas ready to go because you dont know exactly how the trial is going to go. You see how it unfolds. You have a big universe of witnesses. Hell probably end up calling some number smaller than 50, i would guess. John harwood, what are we seeing how should we be paying attention to the current story right now . Its like everything the president is doing with the creeping authoritarian is clearly just about protecting himself on russia. I dont think hes embracing the idea of authoritarianism, hes just trying to protect himself. At the same time, this mueller thing keeps slogging. Between Michael Cohen and alan we s al id be petrified right now. I think mueller is coming for him hard, the Southern District of new york coming for cohen. Cohen is getting ready to cooperate, theres every sign that hes going to do that. So if youre the president , what do you try to do . You try to distract, you try to attack the investigators, you try to attack press, you lie. All of this is standard issue behavior for President Trump and i suspect its going to get more intense the more threatened he feels. The one thing that ive been curious about and matt and i were actually talking about this earlier today is i dont quite understand this lengthy tease by Michael Cohen about is he going to flip or not. I dont understand it either. He sent that signal weeks ago. If he was trolling for a pardon, donald trump gets that. If he was signaling to bob mueller and the Southern District, im ready to cooperate, they get it. So i dont understand why nobody has gotten off the dime and figured out exactly where he is. Because if he does cooperate, you would not think hes going to be publicly releasing tapes in this manner. Look, i do agree. The president clearly doesnt like to know that hes being investigated. I dont know if he feels cornered or he feels like theyre trying to corner him. The frustration here is that he needs to understand that an average investigation of a special counsel lasts about 900 days. This investigation is into 450 days. Were not probably halfway over. And they Just Announced theyre postponing the summit at the white house with putin until january because he hopes that this will be over by the end of the year. Thats not going to happen. This is going to continue. So, look, in terms of however, i find interesting that mueller is saying now theyre looking at the tweets. Obviously, and weve mentioned it in the show before, when youre under investigation, you dont want to talk publicly about the investigation and this is exactly what the president has been doing in public statements and tweets. At the same time, Rudy Giuliani makes an interesting point. This is about obstruction of justice. When you obstruct justice, you do it in private. Well, he made that point. Ill going to get in just to tease the next segment, youre doing a very good job of helping. I want to unpack this because that is a question. What are they looking at. An individual tweet is done in public, but is the pattern suddenly something here and thats fascinating. What do you make of the pattern. Youre a lawyer. Right. You have to show an intent, a criminal intent to actually obstruct. The president calling it a witch hunt all the time . Some might argue thats intent. But youre the president of the United States, youre making public comments. The other thing is if youre doing it privately, destroying information. Its funny, leeanne, alfonso says the president seems to bring it up at odd times. He just brought it up, russia and the investigation while doing his trade talk. Take a listen. They analyzed every word. They say did he say that . Could it have been . Did he Say Something positive about russia . I think he loves russia. A that was the tariff speech, by the way. I just thought id let people know. Have we ever seen trump stay on topic for his entire speech . It doesnt happen. Hes obsessed with these issues. Hes obsessed with russia, hes obsessed with the mueller investigation. One of the things thats interesting with the weisselberg development is one thing we havent seen is his tax returns, hes very protective of his financial dealings. So i think this is another thing that will just get under his skin. If his net worth leaks out and it is what a lot of people assume it is, which is it dont have not much. It dont have ten zeros, you know, it might only have eight zeros or seven. Correct me if im wrong, but i assume that bob mueller has those tax returns. He should already have them. Matt miller, correct me if im wrong, but in something a case as complicated as hes doing, how easy or hard would it be to subpoena tax returns of people that are subject of an investigation, particularly when you have so many Financial Transactions involved . Its very easy. You have to get the permission of the tax Division Within doj and go to a judge in private and ask permission to get them from the irs. By the way, donald trump would never even know if mueller had his tax returns because he would have gotten them not from trump, not from his accountant but from the irs. So it would be unusual, i think, if he doesnt have them. Matt, sticking with you here a second, the Rod Rosenstein stunt that mark meadows, jim jordan in the house, it does seem that they backed off forcing a vote, probably because they knew they didnt have the votes. Jeff sessions quickly decided to say, you know, how much he stands behind rosenstein. I know you still, former Justice Department guy, behind the scenes what is what do the rank and file justice folks who are sort of the apolitical types, the ones that report to rosenstein and sessions, how do they handle all of this . You know, theres a little bit of dichotomy. If you go back to may of 2017 when comey was fired, there was practically a rebellion against both sessions and rosenstein for their role in that firing. Rosenstein has rebuilt his credibility with the rank and file quite a bit. You hear a lot of people giving him credit to standing up to the president and standing up to congress. It doesnt mean hes always gotten it right. Im one of them that thinks hes turned too much over to congress. But they give him credit for standing stuff. Sessions is the opposite. You hear from people why doesnt he stand up for himself, why doesnt he stand up for the work we do when he gets attacked by the president. Then when he does things like this speech the other day, where he comes out and repeats lock her up, instead of defending the department and saying, you know what, thats not how the Justice Department works in this country. Were past demoralizing, i dont think anyone is demoralized anymore, its just more frustrated with him at this point. Leeanne, why didnt jordan and meadows force this vote . Because they didnt have the votes. They only had 11 members cosign on to this impeachment bill resolution. If they lost, then the issue would be over and so they didnt want to risk that. They did make history. The first effort to impeach a public official for doing his job with integrity. Thats whats going on here. The truth is were talking about it. It brings attention to jim jordan. Its all designed to give jim jordan something to talk about. Hes announced today that hes running for speaker. Right. Steve scalise said he would have voted for it, john harwood. Paul ryan said he wouldnt. Kevin mccarthy didnt say a word about it. What do you have to do if you want to be the leader of the House Republicans . Well, look at that caucus. Steve scalise knows where the sweet spot is. Paul ryan has known where the sweet spot is. Hes leaving and hes trying to preserve some patina of statesmanship here while hes doing it. But Steve Scalise is looking for votes. This is not going to happen. Its not going anywhere. But it does tell you something about that competition. Yes. Yes, it does. I thought that was an interesting tell from scalise today. Im tabling this with you three. Matt miller, ill let you go, thank you very much, sir. Up ahead, is it possible that anything in President Trumps tweets can and will be used as evidence against him . Thats next. Friends, colleagues, gathered here are the worlds finest insurance experts. Rodney mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. The list goes on. How about a discount for long lists . Gold. Mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. Its a gift. And jamie. Present. Together we are unstoppable. So, what are we gonna do . Insurance. Thats kind of what we do here. Sweat the details. Noticing what most will never notice. Its what you do. When the thing youre making. Isnt a thing. Its your reputation. The allnew ram 1500. Comfortably, the most luxurious truck in its class. And why more people are switching to ram than ever before. But behr premium stain y can weather any weather. Overall 1 rated, weathers it all. Find our most advanced formula exclusively at the home depot. Welcome back. President trumps favorite Public Relations tool may now be used against him. The New York Times is reporting that the special counsel, robert mueller, is examining President Trumps tweets about attorney general Jeff Sessions and former fbi director james comey. Those tweets of course came as the president reportedly pressured both sessions and comey in private about the investigation. Like allegedly asking comey for his loyalty or trying to persuade sessions to reverse his recan you s recusal from the russia probe. So mueller is looking at whether those can be witness intimidation. Rudy giuliani dismissed the interest in President Trumps tweets telling the times if youre going to obstruct justice, you do it quietly and secretly, not in public. Im wondering if the president loves how public Rudy Giuliani is on introducing new ideas. His attempts have been quite public, whether its misleading white house statements, floating pardons or the tweets. Im joined now by Danny Cevallos who is an expert more on the defense side of things. Good to see you, sir. Good to see you too. So could it be used, how would you use it. Is the words in a persons tweet as definitive to you in a court of law as a recording . Yes, they can be admitted. The first problem is you have to they n authenticate the evidence. You have to demonstrate it is what it purports to be. If i try to introduce a computer printout of a web page or a tweet, then im going to at least need some evidence, some testimony to say that, hey, that comes from my account or some me metadata or some computer evidence showing that it came from my computer or my iphone. If you can authenticate the tweet, theres no reasons why tweets are not statements like any others that might be against your interests that get introduced against you when used in court. Lets go way back before any trial. Theres no question mueller is looking at these tweets and has already reviewed all of them and does so on an on going basis. They are a glimpse into the mind of the person making those statements, the president. And it almost helps you with a timeline, right . If hes tweeting, maybe i ought to look at that day, who did he meet with, things like that. So lets go through a few of these tweets and let me get your take on this. So may 12th, 2017. Trump tweet. James comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. This is literally days after comey is fired. Right. How would you handle this evidence . Is this evidence of obstruction . How would it be used as evidence of obstruction . If you look at that tweet and then the tweet that preceded it about comey before comey was fired, that first one talked about how comey or hillary was aided by comey. It was somewhat benign. But now you get into this the nastier tweet after comey is terminated and you start putting all of these together to show that, number one, trump is probably putting up some kind of implicit threat. Comey better hope there are no tapes. Its even more so if there are no tapes. What if its just a bald threat for comey to keep it quiet. If it was something to induce comey to remain silent, especially in the face of any duty to speak, like, for example, in front of a grand jury or congress, then these are the kinds of things that mueller will find very interesting, irrespective of whether or not theyre eventually way down the road sought to be introduced at a trial. Could you remember, there was one controversial tweet that did border on whether it seemed to be that he did and all of a sudden his lawyer said, no, no, no, no, no, i wrote it, i wrote it. Maybe my favorite tweet of the year. John dowd, yes. So i guess my question is why couldnt the president s lawyers at any point in time just make that claim. If not the lawyer wrote it, dan scavino wrote it. Could you create enough reasonable doubt about whether he authors his own tweets . The reason that tweet that was supposedly authored by john dowd, the reason that is such a dangerous practice is that in certain circumstances, the words of someones attorney can be imputed to the client. So that is a risk right there. But secondly, it tests the bounds of credibility if john dowd authored this tweet. First, it contained misspellings. Second, it contained what would be a very damaging statement as to criminal liability because it included the words Michael Flynn lied to the Vice President and also the fbi, which if true suggests that President Trump was aware that flynn was lying to the fbi, which is a crime. So whether its authored by trump or his lawyers, it makes the lawyers look just galactically incompetent if they were authoring tweets that suggest criminal activity. So you dont think it will be difficult for the prosecution to authenticate this. But let me ask you another question. You heard Rudy Giuliani say if youre going to obstruct justice, you wouldnt do it so publicly. I mean is there a part of the code that im unaware of that says obstruction of justice has to be done in secret . You have to obstruct intentionally, but you dont have to obstruct in secret behind closed doors. Fracally spe thats the way it usually happens. So constantly saying muellers probe is a witch hunt, if you have the questionable Constitutional Authority about firing him . I think a creative prosecutor could take what you just said and make that obstruction. Then they have a decision beyond that. Beyond just saying this fits into a theory of criminal liability, they have to ask themselves can i prove this beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury in my particular jurisdiction. So, yes, you can any creative prosecutor could take those facts and say that they constitute obstruction, because especially they constitute some form of intimidation. But it has to fit within the seven or eight or so statutes that address obstruction. You need an existing investigation or proceeding. As long as you have those elements, then you might have a crime. I know its possible to obstruct Justice Without the crime actually having happened, but let me ask you, how much weaker is an obstruction case if you cant prove the central crime . As a criminal defense attorney i would say you have a point there. But there are so many highprofile prosecutions and then lowprofile prosecutions that we never hear about of section 1001 and thats making false statements to investigators. Martha stewart is a famous example. So the doj and u. S. Attorneys have no qualms at all about charging someone with a crime. In fact, i have to give them credit, they have to. They have to enforce this law. They have to prevent as a matter of policy people coming in for informal interviews and just lying to investigators. So it is true that in the United States there may be no underlying crime, but if you choose to come in and speak to investigators and obstruct justice by fabricating evidence or lying, then that is a separate crime even if there is no underlying crime. And it probably has to be that way in order for the doj to do business. Well, obviously this trial, if it ever happened, would be a political trial since its not a normal court of law trial and so the politics of this might matter as well. But the legal aspect you have covered quite well. Much appreciated, sir. Thank you. Up ahead, President Trump bets the farm with controversial tariffs. But could they endi upsetting of a bluer wave in the heartland . Guys, i know its so hard to trust but youve got to be strong. Remember janet . She got cash back shopping with ebates and hasnt been skeptical since. Whered the money come from . Stores pay ebates. Psh psh then ebates pays you. Psh psh psh psh psh psh psh psh psh and theyll send you a check. Psh oohh sign up for free. Shop your favorite stores. Get cash back. Ebates. Something to believe in. Join today for a 10 bonus. Welcome back. Tonight im obsessed with one word, a word weve all been using and using wrongly. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Meddling. Russia did meddle. Russians meddled. All of this meddling or whatever you want to call it with russians. If it hadnt been for you meddling kids. Thats meddling with an m . Vladimir putin is meddling, right . No. M Merriam Webster defines it as to interest one self in not ones concern. Lets not sugar coat it. Thats what happened. By the way, it was a crime. So i say its time to stop calling what russia did meddling. Meddling feels pretty small, doesnt it . Meddling feels weak. Meddling sounds like what youre annoying neighbors or inlaws do. Not mine, i love you. Not what i conniving autocrat does. So what should we call what russia did. Interfering . Thats pretty passive. Attacking . Some think thats too violent. Maybe we need to stwengtinvent word, putinizing. No, that gives putin too much credit. Most your suggestions using unmeddling because when it comes to calling russia out, we simply cant be caught in the middle. Let your perfect drive come together at the lincoln summer invitation sales event. Get 0 apr on select 2018 lincoln models plus 1,000 bonus cash. To give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you dont. Ill take that. [cheers] 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. New ensure max protein. In two great flavors. Our farmers are patriots, and theyre saying the president is doing the right thing. These are incredible people, and you know weve given them a little help yesterday. Were giving them help. We will not let anybody bully our wonderful american farmers. Welcome back. That was President Trump at a steel mill this afternoon in illinois defending his administrations sweeping tariff package. Some Midwest Farmers that nbc news has talked to this week are not pleased with the fight over trade and the trump administrations plan to compensate farmers by sending them billions of dollars in tariff relief. I dont think the 12 billion is a solution. I think its a bandaid for a temporary fix. Im looking for a longterm solution being some good free trade. Its a temporary bandaid to the big problem, which is getting our exports back. I would rather sell my crop at a better price and not take any sort of government payment as a subsidy. Might be the tariffs or his performance next to Vladimir Putin in helsinki, but President Trumps poll numbers are taking a beating in the midwest. Our latest round of polls that focused on the midwest has the president s numbers stuck in the 30s in three states that are impacted by tariffs, wisconsin, harley davidson, michigan, steel and cars, and minnesota, corn and soybeans. And it looks like those lagging numbers are tainting the Republican Party at large. Our poll has voters in those three states preferring a Democratic Controlled Congress next year. A blue wave could be looming in farm country. They didnt touch iowa where democrats have been revitalized a bit. Joining me now, robert leonard, news director for knia and krls, radio stations in iowa. He had an interesting oped this morning in the New York Times. The panel is back. Mr. Leonard, let me start with you. Welcome to the show, sir. Thank you, chuck. So the issue of tariffs, has it made the Republican Party vulnerable, President Trump vulnerable, or is it much or are we overhyping it . Youre not overhyping it at all. Nobody is overhyping it, i dont think. The entire iowa delegation to congress, our governor, all republicans except for congressman dave lobesack. They advised President Trump very early that tariffs are a very bad idea. They werent for this at all, they knew it was bad. Chuck grassley, joni ernst in particular came down pretty hard saying dont do the tariffs, and they went ahead and theres going to be immediate implications. People arent going to be able to theres going to be lost farms, a general hollowing out of Rural America because people have notes due january 1st and theyre not going to make good on them. Just to remind people, i mean donald trump blew Hillary Clinton out in iowa. One of my favorite stats of 2016 is that Hillary Clinton lost texas by less than she lost to iowa. So rural iowa turned out in huge numbers in what was americas sort of best swing state indicator in the midwest for decades. Has President Trump lost those farmers yet, or no . He hasnt lost a lot of them, but he will lose some when it hits their pocket books. When your friends and neighbors are losing their farm because of tariffs, its going to be hard to go into the voting booth and cast a vote for him, cast a vote for republicans in the midterm. One of the things that people forget is that iowa had 31 or 33 pivot counties. Those are counties that ballotopedia has said voted twice for obama, thats a third of our counties almost, we have 99, and those they went for trump. Two times voting for obama and then going for trump. It could flip back real quick. John harwood, look, the one family of network that is focusing on this more than anybody is cnbc. The disconnect in washington between particularly the ag tariffs versus metal tariffs, number one. The ag tariffs are having an Immediate Impact that i dont think the president understood. Right. And i think if the president actually believes that people are happy with what hes doing, hes delusional, because about the only people who are in favor of what hes doing on these tariffs and the welfare payments to farmers as a result of the tariffs are maybe john baron and john miller, because, you know, yesterday i enter viewinterview who are they . Oh, i gotcha, it was a punch line. Mick mulvaney yesterday, budget director, i interviewed him and said does this policy make any sense . And he said im not the president , i didnt decide it. Nobody is in support of this. He was he took those tariffs, hit the economy over the head with a hammer and now hes putting a little bandaid on the wound that hes created. The marist polls show theyre a window into the fallout. Look, he had gotten a lot of support and good will from his base in iowa, in illinois, with the tax reform. But i think this neutralizes the impact of tax reform. I mean i think theyre going to be hit by this, and now hes announcing 12 billion in a bailout. Thats not enough money to compensate for the money those farmers are going to lose, and thats something he doesnt understand. By the way youre a conservative republican. How does that feel . Terrible, terrible. Not only its a bailout, but also youre choosing sectors of the economy. Winners and losers. Exactly. Tariffs is the one issue on the hill that republicans have repeatedly and continuously criticized the president over. Its the one and are comfortable doing it. And are comfortable doing it. Theyre actually willing to come out and Say Something public low, its not just privately. With this 12 billion of aid, this goes against republican orthodoxy on multiple levels. Theyre calling it welfare for farmers. And the token phrase on the hill these days is trade, not aid. Republicans are saying this over and over again. Our farmers want a market to be able to send their goods to. They dont want a bailout. So let me put this in political terms, robert. Youve got the most heated race in iowa statewide is the governors race. It doesnt have a senate race, but the house race is there. But let me tell you, Governor Reynolds obviously with the president today, how much does this complicate her . I would assume fred hubble, the democratic nominee there, the tariffs are a gift to him. Yes, i think that thats true. I think that this is going to have impacts for republicans all the way through the state. Its a pretty interesting thing. You have to ask you know that sonny purdue knows the 12 billion is nothing, so you have to ask why are they doing it . Are they doing it to try to get people through the midterms . You have to i have to think thats the only reason that theyre doing it is hoping that they can spin it into doing something for farmers to get them through the midterms. But if you cant if youre not going to be able to pay your loans or your neighbors arent, thats not going to help with the midterms. What would you what are the farmers they know theyre going to have a hard time changing trumps mind. What do democrats have to do to get them to listen to them, or was it simple low ny now that h clinton is not there, they might listen to a democratic message. Well, a democratic message would have to be clear and lay out exactly what democrats would do differently about trade. Its been very interesting the demonizing of nafta and tpp because every large manufacturer, and we have some in my county that i spoke with, every farm organization, every leader, they really thought nafta and tpp were very important and were working well for our communities. Sure, there were things to be tinkered with, but nothing that needed to be completely thrown out. But trump and hillary, you know, bailed on it and its thats very different from what i was hearing from our professional farming organizations and our manufacturing leaders. We need to get back to Something Like that with open markets. You bring up an interesting point because youre right, if the democrats are racing to the left on trade and racing away from the president , maybe no one is left to be free traders. Anyway, robert leonard, thanks for joining us. Much appreciated. Thank you. Up ahead, these three are sticking around. Is this man the next speaker . Congressman jim jordan launches his campaign to lead the house. Did he just give democrats fodder to win it back . When my hot water heater failed, she was pregnant, inlaws were coming, a little bit of water, it really it rocked our world. I had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. We called usaa. And they greeted me as they always do. Sergeant baker, how are you . They were on it. It was unbelievable. Having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa now thats a privilege. Were the bakers and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Welcome back. Tonight in meet the midterms President Trump is on his way back from touting his trade agenda in the midwest. But as we showed you, our new poll is showing a red alert for a blue wave against the Republican Party in november. Lets start in wisconsin. As we mentioned earlier, our poll has scott walker down, ready for this, 13 points in his bid for a third term. Its his Fourth Campaign for governor. The dtop democratic candidate i tony evers. This is sensational for someone whos been through two elections, a recall and epitomizes what the Republican Party brand was at least before donald trump. In the senate race Tammy Baldwin has a doubledigit lead as well against both potential challengers. In minnesota, tina smith is up 14 points on her likely opponent, karen helsley. They both have to get through their primary contests. And in michigan, Debbie Stabenow has a substantial lead over john james and sandy pensler. Take all of these numbers with the polls showing President Trumps Approval Ratings in these states in the 30s and its not hard to see the warning signs of a blue wave coming back to the midwest. Well be back with more mtp daily after this. Is is not clo. This is a car protected from storms by an Insurance Company that knows the weather down to the square block. This is a diamond tracked on a blockchain protected against fraud, theft and trafficking. This is a financial Transaction Secure from hacks and threats others cant see. This is a patients medical history made secure while Still Available to their doctor at their fingertips. This is an asteroid livestreamed to millions of viewers from 220 miles above earth. This is ai trained by experts in 20 industries. Your industry. Hello. This is not the cloud you know. This is the ibm cloud. The cloud thats built for all your apps. Ai ready. Secure to the core. The ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business. We carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. And we walk so that one day, there will be a white flower for alzheimers first survivor. Join the fight at alz. Org walk. Well, weve got some breaking news on supposed russian efforts to possibly interfere in the midterm elections in some criminal way. The daily beast is reporting based on a forensic analysis that Russian Hackers targeted Claire Mccaskill of missouri as she began her 2018 Reelection Campaign back in the summer of 2017. This reporting comes just two days after President Trump claimed Russian Hackers might try to help democrats in the midterms. The panel is back. Leeanne, nbc hasnt totally confirmed this story yet. The daily beast, this is this one area of reporting that they seem to be very deeply knowledgeable about in this. This has sort of been one of their signature type of stories. Claire mccaskill, it was interesting. She said shed have more to say about this next week after they went over this. But its a pretty detailed story. It doesnt look like its some pr stunt. No. But this also goes into the warning signs that the Intelligence Community has been given about this not only happened in 2016 but its going to happen in 2018. And the reason why its so important that the president has not given the support of the Intelligence Community to continue to investigate this, yesterday two members of congress, senator cantwell, senator graham sent a letter to President Trump asking for an overview, an investigation into not only hacking of the electrical grid, but others are also talking about, look, what are you doing for oversight . What are you doing inside your administration to ensure that this hacking doesnt take place . In the elections. And they havent gotten any response yet. And so theres no answers that congress is getting from the administration on what sort of oversight, what theyre looking into, what sort of money are you spending on this . And so this is a big hole that were now seeing is going to be very vulnerable. John howard, i actually cory gardner to be aggressive, the type of guy that would do what marco rubio, pledge to say if this stuff shows up, were not using it. He seems to be doing more than his party in the senate. And the United States. Last week, he was asked, same thing that got Caitlin Collins barred from the rose garden yesterday, and said are the russians continuing to attack u. S. Elections . And the president said no. Now, later they said he meant no, as in no questions. But that is not shes never something hes never done before as president. So the president is he has not taken heed to dan coats warnings as leigh ann referred to. Blinking red light. Exactly. And i would expect cory gardner would try to separate himself from the white house stance. He says, id label he would say id label russia stayssponsored terror, its a political form of terrorism of some sort. Theyre going to continue. Whats incredible is that we get this information right after the helsinki meeting where mr. Trump is trying to say that we have a new relationship, things are going to be much better. Hes taking advantage of you. She should be more responsible. He had confidence in both sides. Exactly. So its amazing. Were starting to see this with trump kind of change his narrative on russia, right . But im not surprised. I dont think anybodys surprised. I did promise we were going to what i was surprised on was the wording of his Dear Colleague letter. I thought, if i were a democrat running against an incumbent member of congress, id be using jim jordans words. Congress has not held up its end of the deal. We can change that, its time to do what we say. A member of the Republican Party is saying the republican majority in the house has the failed. Yeah. How does a republican incumbent run for reelect me, so i can fail thats what they do, right . I dont understand this messaging by jordan. He wrote the script for democrats running. But also, this has been jim jordans m. O. The whole time, fighting against the establishment, fighting against paul ryan. Whats interesting bringing this back to trump, you have mccarthy running for speaker, trumps favorite california republican, who has raised tons of money trying to keep the republican majority in the house. And then jim jordan, an unapologetic supporter of the president. Is trump going to get in the middle of this race and give his nod to one of those two people who have both been super loyal to him . That could split the Republican Party as well. Ive got to say, i am surprised, given the fact that jim jordan did not fight the establishment on the ohio state wrestling team, i am surprised that he, with a straight face, is going out to pursue the speakership. There are a lot of people in the same situation who would have resigned by now given the number of people who have complained that he ignored what was happening to them. Its kind of shocking. And he is acting as if it doesnt exist, and its a media issue. Right. I just think hes giving fodder to the democrats here. What do you think . I agree. But i dont think hes really running for speaker. If that happens, he wants to influence that race. But he could be minority leader. Do you think thats what hes running for . No way. The base is going to blast the establishment. For losing. For losing because they were not conservative enough. You have mark worker the head of the republican steady committee who wont support jordan has speaker. Its the tortoise. Steve scalise is not running for speak. Leigh, john, alfonso, thank you. This is not a bed. Its a hightech revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed. It intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both comfortable. And snoring . How smart is that . Smarter sleep. To help you lose your dad bod, train for that marathon, and wake up with the patience of a saint. The new sleep number 360 smart bed, from 999. Smarter sleep will change your life. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. We all want to know you know, the new, new thing. With xfinitys retail stores, you can now see the latest. Want to test drive the latest devices . Be our guest. Want to save on mobile . Just ask. Want to demo the latest innovations and technology . Do it here. Come see how were making things simple, easy and awesome. Plus, come in today and ask about xfinity mobile. A new kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Visit your local xfinity store today. Well, i promised you yacht rocked, and i cant help but getting into yacht rock. And we were having this huge debate, if you dont spend time on satellite radio, you will have no idea what im talking about. But if you do, ask yourself this. Do sticks belong in yacht rock or not . Would you allow sticks to be on yacht rock or not . Only for the people that listen to yacht rock will find that halfway amusing or halfway offensive, depending on your view of strucks. Its a controversial call for anybody over the age of 40. Anyway, were running out of time. Thats all i have for tonight. Weve got a lot more going on tomorrow with mtp daily, a deep dive on maria butina, some of us have noticed would actually be the same age as the fictional grandchild of philip and elizabeth from the americans. Throwing that out there. The beat with ari melber starts right now. Thank you very much. The man who might know more about donald trump than anyone else is his money man, who did his taxes, who bought his boats and helped run his company when donald trump became president. And that man is now being ordered to speak to the feds. That is a true bombshell when it comes to these investigations. The story first broken by the wall street journal, a longtime executive subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury. Heres what you need to know. This article reports that he is considered a witness and this is regarding the criminal probe into trumps former lawyer and selfdescribed fixer, Michael Cohen. So that is a separate investigation than mueller. They can be related. Its possible the man has already testified. The wall street journal report does not state when he is scheduled to talk or if he already has, let alone if it would be secret grand jury questioning. Theres a lot of ground to cover. We do know that beyond the family trump business, he reportedly handled personal matters for trump, paying