Doors in the most sensitive of security positions. Every american should worry. Coming up this hour, former secretary of defense leon panetta and Senate Armed Services maybe tim kaine. Beyond hope. The president s closest aide hope hicks is the first former Trump White House official testifying since the Mueller Report but under serious restrictions under the white house exerting executive privilege. It just takes us to the court, wastes the taxpayers dollars and youll see the president say this is taking too long. The reason its taking too long is because its a team of obstructers. Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. President trump is in flr thori this hour after that raucous reelection kick off in orlando and touting a big fundraising ha haul as well. The Trump Campaign brought in nearly 25 million in less than 24 hours. But will his loyal base be enough to fight off a democratic challenger in 2020 . Joining me now nbc chief White House Correspondent hallie jackson, msnbc political analyst peter baker and msnbc political analyst rick tyler and joel payne, an advisor and director from the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign. Set the stage in florida. That was raucous, it was old time music, at least seven hits against Hillary Clinton. And the witch hunt cries, but whats how does he sustain this . There were no new ideas. Reporter well, thats the question, andrea. Ill be honest with you, watching the rally i felt like i was in 2016 covering then candidate president trump. The difference the president ial seal on the podium. And the conclusion of the Mueller Report, neither of which had happened in 2016. But yeah, this was the free bird of rallies. The greatest hits, the president going after familiar faces, including Hillary Clinton. You mentioned he went after her seven times at least before ever mentioning anybody who actually is running come 2020. Why is he doing this . Its pretty clear, andrea. The president is making the bet in order to have success in 2020 hes got to get his base in essence supercharged. Get them fired up, get the people standing behind him in those red make America Great again caps out to vote again. He and his Campaign Team are feeling like thats what worked for them last time around, its whats going to work for them this time around. The president hit on the similar themes. Immigration, for example. He talked about department of justice issues that he perceives as being problematic. The regulations that are in place, all things we heard in 2016. There was one other big difference now, and thats donald trump is not running on what he would do, hes running on what he already has done. Hes the president. Hes the guy who went into the swamp and tried to change things. What were going to see play out over the next 18 months is not just how do you sustain that as you asked, but are his supporters and are other voters going to buy that this president actually did what he said he would do. There are certain things that the president has a leg to stand on there. Tax cuts, for example. That is going to be something youll hear a lot about on the campaign trail. Youll hear about the regulations the administration has rolled back and the executive orders theyve put forward to undo the obama era legacy. Beyond that, how do democrats get at that . The democrats have some hope at least in florida, according to a new florida poll. Joe biden up above donald trump by nine points. Bernie sanders, six points. Theyve got some advantage. Trump won florida by a point plus or so. Trump is being beaten by the top contenders of the democratic nomination in florida. And he cant afford to lose florida. Losing florida is would be donald trump won by trying to thread a needle by throwing the needle into the air. He wants to do that again. His only way to do that is to denigrate his opponents. He doesnt have a message. His rally last night was talked about Hillary Clinton. Over and over again. He doesnt have a vision for the country. He doesnt have a vision for peace in the middle east. He didnt have a vision for to keep the job creation going. Frankly, the job creation doesnt look much different than it did in the obama era. The last 28 months of the obama era produced more jobs than donald trump has in his first 28 months. What is different . Im not sure he can pull this off twice without a message. And peter baker, when we talk about message, people feel that the economy is doing well, more people than not even though we still have the wage disparity and all the other problems rick was just referring to. The stock market gives them that sugar high if you will. He doesnt talk as much about the economy that im sure his advisors would like him to. Lets play a little bit of the rehash last night and talk about it on the other side. President xi, terrific president , great leader of china. Spoke to him this morning at length. Well see what happens. Were either going to have a good deal or a fair deal or were not going to have a deal and thats okay too. People are pouring in. Weve stopped them. As i said i we have other people helping us, including the country of mexico. Lets see how it works out. Well come up with the cures to many, many problems to many diseases, including cancer and others. And were getting closer all the time. That is as much of the message but let me show you hope hicks finishing her testimony, unless its just break for a while. We see her leaving that hearing. She was testifying under an assertion of executive privilege. Peter baker you know better than anyone how close and important she was to him. We dont know until they come out of that meeting and we get some guidance from some of the questioners whether or not this was a breakthrough moment or just more of the same stonewalling. Well, look, theres been obviously this big fight went to president and congress over testimony and documents as they investigate various issues. The president tweeting again this morning that hes been unfairly tweeted. He said in the last few days hes been treated more unfairly than any president perhaps since lincoln. And hes decided hes going to wage war with congress over questions whether hope hicks testifies or not. She was his chief communications person. A very close advisor, very important to him. One of the few people he relied on while she was in the white house. She was there for key moments, including the response to this story about the trump tower meetings. Theres a lot you can imagine lawmakers would like to ask her. The assertion of executive privilege is going to be tested in the courts and well see how far it gets. The president has had a tough time convincing courts their executive privilege applies when congress has an investigation underway. And joel payne, one of the things that happened last night also is the appearance of don jr. , who is a major surrogate and very popular with the base. But this is part of what he said in going after joe biden. Lets watch. The problem is, joe, youve been in government for almost 50 years. What was the good one last week . Remember joe biden comes out, well, if you elect me president , im going to cure cancer. Wow. Why the hell didnt you do that over the last 50 years, joe . Take a deep breath, everyone as i am. So we all know about the family tragedy of beau biden. And clearly joe biden has been talking about a cancer moon shot treating it the way jfk chose, getting to the moon and doing a major ten year investment. If he becomes president that would be his focus, one of his big focuses. Take it from there. Having the president s son and nam namesake. Its a forecast over what were going to see. The president has been clear hes going to take off the gloves. I dont care there were any fluflu gloves with this president. Hallie talked about how it reminded her of 2016. This is a negative perception of a america. The president is relying on the idea of supercharging his base, of radicalizing his base. He radicalized the senate, the house, and hes radicalizing people across the country who supported him last time. Theres no strategy to reach out to bring others in. You know, when barack obama was running for reelection in 2011 and 2012, he had a record for three years he could call back to. And he could talk about the things he wanted to do to reach out and bring on republicans and moderates. This president has no plan. Do you want to jump in . Despicable human being would call out a person who lost his son to cancer about cancer. And i just dont have any words for this anymore. Its just despicable and disgusting. And peter baker, how do you think it plays politically . Does that work for them with the base or with anyone else . Well broadly i think his yeah. I think broadly his message last night is reinforcing this us against them kind of tribal politics, right . Its not just that we disagree with the other guys, its not blue and red. Theyre out to get us. Not just to get me, they came after me to the audience last night on my finances, on my campaign, my family. Theyre out to get you, too. Theyre out to get us. Its the elites who are profiting from a corrupt system and i get in there and disrupts it. Thats more i think of his vizervi visceral appeal. Its important to his base more than immigration, tax cuts and more than any particular attack on the democrats. Theyre coming after us and we have to stop it. Briefly, thats why nancy pelosi is so worried about this impeachment strategy . Reporter right. Its going to end up firing up the president s base. Remember, they elected him and put him into office feeling like he was the underdog. Thats a Common Thread i heard again and again for people coming out to support donald trump before he was elected president. If he can paint himself as an underdog, it might end up firing up his base even more. Hallie jackson, thanks so much. Peter baker, rick tyler, joel payne, thanks for being with us today. On june 26th and 27th you know it, one week from today, the first president ial debate taking place in miami moderated by lester holt, savannah guthrie, chuck todd and rachel maddow. The event will be broadcast live across nbc, msnbc and telemundo and streamed on nbcnews. Com. Coming up, who is in charge . President trump pick for defense secretary abruptly withdraws at a critical moment. Leon panetta joins me next here on Andrea Mitchell. Stay with us on msnbc. On Andrea Mitchell stay with us on msnbc. Woman on phone discover. Hi. Do you have a travel card . Yep. Our miles card. Earn unlimited 1. 5 miles and well match it at the end of your first year. Nice im thinking about a scuba diving trip. Woman ooh gasp or not. You okay . Yeah, no, im good. Earn miles. Well match em at the end of your first year. Yeamno kidding. Rd. But moving your internet and tv . Thats easy. Easy . easy . Easy. Because now xfinity lets you transfer your Service Online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. Really . Really. That was easy. Yup. Plus, with twohour appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. Now all you have to do is move. That thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. Its just another way were working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. And the fallout today at a time of world crisis from the departure of acting defense secretary patrick shanahan. His exit coming only after reports of the Domestic Violence surfaced from his familys past. Usa today first reported that an fbi Background Investigation was looking into a violent domestic dispute from 2010 between shanahan and his then wife kimberly in which both claim to police they had been punched by the other. Shanahan told usa today, quote, i never laid a hand on my then wife. In a separate incident in 2011 the Washington Post reports the couples then 17yearold son william used a baseball bat to, quote, brutally beat his mother leaving her unconscious with a fractured skull. Two weeks later according to the paper shanahan sent his exwifes brother saying his son had acted in selfdefense writing wills mother harassed him for three hours before the incident. Its difficult to relive that moment. I have believed wills attack on his mother was an act of selfdefense or in any justified. For that matter, you know, i dont believe violence is appropriate ever. And certainly theres any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat. President trump has replaced shanahan who came from boeing with no military experience with a new acting pentagon chief, secretary of the army, mark esper. Leaving the pentagon without a confirmed cabinet leader since four star retired general james mattis quit in december. Joining me is leon panetta, who sir has all bases covered. Very good to see you. This is a time arguably of crisis. Iran, elsewhere in the world, the china trade deal. To say nothing of whats been going on on our southern border. And we now again dont have a pentagon chief. First of all how did this kind of vet fail . He had been previously been come rchlnfirmer or so ago for Deputy Pentagon chief. No question that the vetting process in the white house has broken down because the whole purpose of vetting is to insure that that kind of information is brought forward, brought to the attention of the president. If it works right, what happens is you avoid the problem of sending a nomination to the hill and then embarrassing both the president as well as that candidate. So its pretty clear to me that since this was a criminal event in one instance, that the fbi surely must have had this information. They must have had the information the first time that pat shanahan came up as deputy and they surely had it this time. Why they took so long, why the decision took so long is really something that indicates that the white house just doesnt have any kind of viable vetting process to make the decisions it has to make with regards to candidates for the highest offices in our country. Now, the fbi also has to be held to account. The fbi shouldnt the fbi have told the white house and if they did and were overruled then you have a more serious problem. Arent those questions that Armed Services committee has to ask . Well, theres no question that there are a lot of questions a lot of serious issues here that are involved. Because as i said, the vetting process broke down. What did the fbi know . Did they present it to responsible people . Were there judgments made to by pass that information in the hope it wouldnt come forward . What about the senate itself . Normally, a Senate Committee does its own investigation as well with regards to individuals. Thats something thats always taken place at least in my experience. What happened when the senate did not do it . And to a large extent, you know, part of the responsibility here is also with secretary shanahan. Because if his reason is he didnt want to bring his family through this turmoil and i understand that. This is a sad and tragic event. But thats something he should have known for a while and should have raised it early on rather than going five months as acting secretary and not coming to any kind of conclusion until it was about to go to a hearing on the senate side. And from my experience in talking to people within the last 24 hours who had top secret clearance, former spouses are always interviewed by the fbi. Its automatic. Theres no question. There fbi, at least in my experience with regards to background checks does a very thorough background check that looks at every aspect, talks to individuals in their background. So i dont think theres much question here that the fbi had this information. What they did with it, who made the judgments with regards to that information, i think are questions that have to be asked. Secretary panetta, i want to ask you about having so many acting secretaries. Weve gone through the list. Ill show you the list, well scroll it if youve got return video. So many key departments, homeland, defense, acting chief of staff, acting u. N. Ambassador, the nominee is having a tough hearing right now as we speak. Acting i. C. E. Director. Throughout the administration. One of the issues is especially at the pentagon and others, when youre an acting secretary, you cant bring in top officials. You cant bring in and get confirmed in the secretaries, your own team. Youre acting. Youre temporary. And that stalls all kinds of things down the line. From your experience in so many cabinet appointments but most importantly the pentagon. What do you see happening because of these vacancies . Well, the problem is this administration is hollowing itself out with regards to leadership on this acting basis. They dont have permanent people being appointed to these positions. And very frankly, if youre secretary of defense, the reality is if youre just acting its viewed as a temporary position. And you have to make important judgments, you have to deal with the military who are all career individuals. Youve got to be able to develop strategy. Youve got to speak with one voice. Youve got to ultimately face the president of the United States and possibly tell the president that the decisions hes thinking about are not the right decisions with regards to our National Security. So it demands that the secretary of defense and for that matter any cabinet secretary, has to be confirmed by the senate. Has to be permanent. If youre acting, its going to automatically weaken your ability to really represent particularly in this instance, National Security issues to the white house and to the world. That credibility of that secretary is going to be under question not just with the white house and not just with the hill, but also with the world. Now, to that point, the president said i like actings because he can have more flexibility. But that is exactly the point. Thats the problem. Lets talk about the world and iran. Now theres been a rocket attack near the iraq headquarters of exxonmobil. The workers were evacuated. There is evidence according to mike pompeo the secretary of state and others in the administration that iran in some proxyifo proxy form is responsible for these aggressive actions. What should our posture be . Well, you know, theres no question that tensions are increasing on both sides. Both sides are trying