meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion between moscow and the trump campaign. michael g. flynn, the son of mike flynn, has come under scrutiny at least in part for his work on behalf of flynn intel group, his father's firm. let's get right to carol lee, national political reporter and one of the bylines on the big scoop, as well as jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon. now a national security analyst. carol, talk about your story. >> well, as you mentioned, we -- four current and former u.s. officials say that robert mueller is zeroing in on michael flynn's son and his work in particular with flynn intel group. michael flynn was someone who has always been by his father's side. he has traveled with him on trips, including one to moscow in 2015. he served as his chief of staff and was very deeply involved in what flynn intel group was doing. and we already know that michael flynn sr. is under investigation and investigators are looking at his connections with foreign governments, particularly russia and turkey. and so this just adds another dimension to what we publicly know about this investigation. and it also, some legal experts believe it could put pressure on michael flynn to cooperate with the investigation which some believe is one of robert mueller's goals. >> carol, we know at this point that collusion existed in that don junior agreed to a meeting where russians promised dirt on hillary clinton. that is in and of itself collusion but not necessarily a crime. can you talk about what potential crimes the special counsel could be looking at. is it possible that mike flynn jr. purerjered himself when fir asked? what type of crimes could they be honing in on. >> we know with michael flynn sr., for instance, did he tell the truth to the fbi? did he, you know, were his business dealings with foreign governments that he didn't initially report, were they on the up and up. was there anything that was, you know, nefarious about those? and you have in flynn jr. somebody who is very deeply connected to those same -- that same work because he worked side by side with his father at his lobbying firm. so there's things like that. and then, obviously, flynn jr. was a controversial fixture in the campaign. he served on the transition, although then eventually he was no longer with the transition. so he was -- has also close ties with the campaign and the presidential transition. >> jeremy, broaden the lens for us. one of the scandals mike flynn jr. was involved in involved the circulation of fake news. can you talk about what other kinds of activities would draw the attention and turn you into a subject in an investigation like this? >> well, unquestionably, mike flynn jr. wasn't involved in spreading fake news in particular as carol noted at the end of her story about this so-called pizzagate issue involving some outlandish and, frankly, irresponsible claims that there had been some criminal activity at a pizza location in washington involving officials associated with hillary clinton's campaign. that's the pizza parlor frequented by a lot of young families in northwest washington where someone came in with a gun and tried to shoot up the place. so part of his instigation of fake news resulted in violence. i think the larger criminal issue really goes to whether or not he was an unregistered foreign agent and whether he was doing the bidding of foreign governments, the government of turkey and the government of russia, without registering with the justice department and declaring himself as an agent of those governments. >> so you bring me to the second big headline of the day. elijah cummings wrote a letter in which he questioned or pointed out that mike flynn sr. failed to disclose a trip he made to the middle east to promote a joint u.s./russia, saudi-financed program to build nuclear reactors in the arab world. he omitted this trip in these foreign contacts from his security clearance. he also reportedly was paid for representing and didn't disclose the $25,000 he received from this group. this was a policy that he, you know, at least helped move through the policy process during the transition. can you talk about where someone could commit a crime or get entangled with the law in those kinds of activities? >> well, mike flynn sr. here we're talking about was going to be national security adviser. he came national security adviser and, therefore, was eligible for the highest security clearance available. and when he filled out his security clearance forms, he had to disclose contacts he had with foreign government officials, as well as his foreign travel and foreign contacts. and if he did not do that, the clearance form itself which you and i have filled out for our respective government jobs, makes clear that that is a violation of federal law. now, look, some people are sloppy, but when you add up sloppiness upon sloppiness, upon sloppiness, it seems to look a little more purposeful. a little more like an effort to evade scrutiny by those responsible for branding him with security clearance. >> with all the benefit of your reporting, i want to ask both of you to put into context what we know about red flags raised by sally yates about mike flynn. she went to the white house counsel. she suggested that he might be vulnerable to blackmail. she testified to that under oath. i wonder, carol, your reporting about mike flynn's son. the reporting about donald trump's son. the reporting about paul manafort's son-in-law. tell me, as someone who is expert in what investigations, the rhythms of an investigation, what does the cumulative impact of flynn sr. being a potential target for plaqblackmail and th sons of three men involved in all of these questions being of interest to special counsel bob mueller tell you about where bob mueller's probe stands today? >> i think it tells you that he is turning over every rock and looking everywhere. very methodically going through and looking at anything that could have had touched any aspect of the trump campaign and possible collusion with russia. you know, this is -- we learn more and more every day. it seems as jeremy was talking about, you know, what exactly was going on in terms of michael flynn in particular. and just how robert mueller is drilling down on all these different aspects of russia's meddling in the election, particularly now the social media aspect of that. it tells you that he is very methodically and calculated, building a case that we only have a very small window into what it looks like. >> jeremy, let me give you one more on the same topic. sally yates warned them of blackmail. i don't know the last time someone had to make that short trip to 1600 pennsylvania avenue and warn the white house that a sitting national security adviser could be a target for blackmail from russia. put that data point in context with the man's son now being a subject in the mueller probe. >> two things really about that late january warning from sally yates to white house counsel dan mcgahn. the person entrusted with the national security secrets, the national security adviser, was going to be the secretary of leverage and blackmail by the russian federation. that's astounding itself. what did the white house do about it? they kept michael flynn in the job for 18 days and only fired him when the press began to report on this warning. that shows that the white house counsel and even other senior officials in the white house were unperturbed, not bothered at all by the fact that mike flynn had these conversations with russia and that russia had this leverage over him. >> carol lee, thank you so much for spending time with us. jeremy is staying put. set us up for reaction from the white house, which is exact lie where this conversation goes next with nbc news's kelly o'donnell who joins us. glen thrush is a white house reporter with "the new york times" and an msnbc political analyst and robert costa, national political reporter with "the washington post," also an msnbc political analyst. kelly o., how is the white house responding to the widening of the mueller probe and what seems like a honing in on more specific subjects and targets and persons of interest? >> well, the white house itself is leaning on a sort of structure they set up to bat all of these questions away from 1600 pennsylvania avenue to the outside counsel here. so no direct comment from sara sanders when asked about this saying that outside counsel should speak to it. they aren't talking about this. clearly the white house wants to keep attention on things like the president having bipartisan talks with lawmakers and others to try to get something done. not wanting russia to be in the headlines. it is also interesting in that familial quality to this investigation with the son of general flynn, the president's own son brought in and being questioned by at least the investigators on the senate side as well as the president's son-in-law who has a senior level position in the government. for a president who has led family businesses throughout his life, to have the investigation have this familial complex, difficult set of facts where you have obligations and pressure points that could be so useful for those who are conducting the investigation, when you have the drama of family members being ensnared in something, at least as they are being probed, that is something that the trump white house would have some sensibility about. the dynamics of a family business and the pitfalls. but no specifics yet on this new development, the new great reporting from carol lee and others on the team. >> glen thrush, i want to bring you back in time to the testimony that jim comey delivered about donald trump asking him to just let things go with mike flynn. let them go. he's a good guy. it seems it would have gotten to the point where he might have needed to ask an fbi director to let things go with his son as well. what were the flynns up to, and was donald trump aware of the potential for mike flynn jr.? the other mike flynn, the younger one, to have been a subject in any investigation into potential collusion with russia? >> i guess we should call him twitter mike flynn. >> pizzagate mike flynn. >> pizzagate mike flynn. >> look, i don't know what the president knew about flynn. i can only harken back to what they said during the transition when mike flynn the younger got into trouble for the pizza stuff and the president and his team said they didn't know what he was up to. they didn't know he was on the payroll. that turned out not necessarily to be the case. the one thing i would say is the danger here for the president with flynn, as with paul manafort isn't necessarily what these guys did. it's what these guys are going to talk about. and when you throw flynn the younger into the picture here, you have just another person who is able to tell his side of the story and talk about his communications with people who are closer to the president. now, remember, as we have reported here, the person -- the people who essentially offered the job to mike flynn sr. were jared kushner and ivanka trump. so this goes to the very center of the president's administration. so i don't think necessarily that these particular inkremtsal developments are going to blow up the case but what we're looking at here is the more stuff you get against the flynns, the more innocent of they'll have to testify against people who are closer to the president. >> kelly, let me bring you back in. i understand the white house at this hour responding. >> yes, this story has gotten the -- sort of the awareness of the white house. >> we love it when that happens. >> this does not impact the white house to any extent with regard to its continuing cooperation with the special counsel. that coming from the white house lawyer who has been brought in to deal with interacting with these probes. so he has the title special counsel inside the white house. and the message he's trying to send is that it has been his job to cooperate. if mueller requests documents or other investigative entities. we're talking about congress and so forth. that he provides whatever is appropriate in terms of how he's interacting. so what they're trying to suggest here is that nothing to see, nothing has changed. continuing to cooperate. probably legally, that's the most they can say at this point but it does officially give a white house response. today sara sanders was also asked one of the last time the president spoke to the elder michael flynn and the statement from sanders was not in a long time and so we don't know when that happened. of course, he was dismissed in february. it's been six months. we don't know if there's been any additional contact. i had asked that question along the way as well. and no one has been saying there's been any direct contact between the president and flynn in quite some time. but ty cobb, the president's lawyer, brought in, added to the team because of the russia investigation, says it will not affect the cooperation with the special counsel. >> and jeremy bash, that's a peculiar thing to say because, again, they are rebutting something that no one suggested. i think the nbc news reporting is simply that. mike flynn jr. is a subject in the investigation into collusion between the trump orbit and russia. so please help me make sense of this statement, and you now have the president's son, the president's son-in-law, his former campaign manager's son-in-law and his former national security adviser's son all under scrutiny by special counsel bob mueller. not a coincidence for the white house. >> no, it's not. and i do think that part of what bob mueller may be trying to do here is trying to understand whether or not mike flynn jr. committed any federal offenses or whether or not he merely is a witness to federal offenses. and it's possible that, for example, during the time that mike flynn sr. was national security adviser and during the transition when he was having those conversations with ambassador kislyak, did he share anything with his son? after all, whom he had worked with closely -- >> who he had sauough sought a clearance for. >> how unusual to seek a security clearance for a child. >> if he's not playing ball with bob mueller, it's a standard tactic. let's go to somebody else who knows and in this case, it's his son. >> robert costa, let me bring you in on this. i want to ask you, i'm sure that you've got reporting along the same lines, if it's true. behind the scenes in the west wing, president trump continues to rant and brood about former fbi director jim comey and the russia investigation that got him fired. the mueller investigation is hitting ever closer to home for trump and he's using the tools of his office to try to undermine the special counsel's future findings. his allies plan to vilify mueller the way white house counsel treated starr. that seems like it would hit a snag. i talked to one of donald trump's lawyers yesterday who called him a truth seeker, no ken starr. he did not put him in this category and this is one of the trump campaign's own attorneys. >> the special counsel bob mueller has kept a low profile. while his hires have become public knowledge, particularly those who work on financial crimes, he's otherwise stayed out of the news which makes people in the west wing somewhat nervous. what i'm also hearing is that there was a plan earlier in the summer for the white house to be more aggressive in going after the special prosecutor. because of some of the tumult in the president's legal circles we've never seen a coordinated effort. there's this tough talk behind the scenes but you really don't see this white house going all out at this moment, an as the president broods. >> one of the tools they are using, is the press secretary podium. what do you make of the increasingly aggressive posture that sarah huckabee sanders is taking from the podium against comey going so far as to suggest he might have committed crimes. >> for ms. sanders and others who have held that job, they often say behind the scenes that part of that role is reflecting the president, reflecting the president's moods. so they don't want to get too far outside of the line of where the president's thinking is at the moment. and she in a sense, represents an avatar for how the president is grapple with these issues and so when she has this kind of approach in her presentation you can assume based on my conversations and others' reporting this is the kind of thing the president is saying to his staff. >> glen thrush, let me give you the last word in this block. you worn of the masters of white house tells. and there is a pattern, whenever this investigation heats up, the president does something that harms himself. when the last round of questions heated up, he claimed that obama had tapped his wires. whenever this gets close to the family and the family of friends, the sons of friends, four of the sons of either him or people around him now under scrutiny by bob mueller. what do you think sort of that slow boil is like from the president's state of mind? >> i think robert described it perfectly. he is wanting people to advocate for him really fiercely. sarah huckabee sanders has quieted down the briefing room. interesting thing to note. far fewer reporters are congregating in the briefing room. when spicer was around, people showed up for the spectacle. >> we didn't recognize half the people in the room. will you explain that? >> sarah has cooled the room down. it's a classic move by a really smart press secretary. >> but is nothing happening? is she giving real information or just -- >> she's not -- i think she's doing a little of both. on the mueller investigation, it is interesting to me that's the one thing if you look at her reading from notes, she's clearly agreed with the president ahead of time that's what they want to say, and i personally, from a pr perspective, from a tactical perspective, think it is incredibly unwise. they've had a really good couple of weeks. why talk about this at all? why pick a fight with hillary clinton? this is classic donald trump. he's tweeting less but i think they've actually done a pretty g good job since kelly is around cooling things down. trump is risking heating it up again. >> things are heating up with chuck and nancy. i expect that tweeting will keep up. my thanks to kelly o., glen thrush and robert costa. jeremy stays with us. when we come back, a new report out this afternoon says that russia's effort to influence voters through facebook and other social media is red hot. a red hot focus of special counsel robert mueller's investigation. also ahead -- is this just the tip of the iceberg for facebook? "new york times" reporter scott shane and the co-founder of ricoh kara swisher weigh in. and live to hollywood, florida. a tragedy at a nursing home that lost power due to hurricane irma. six people are dead. now a second nursing home in the area is being evacuated. after brushing, listerine® total care strengthens teeth, helps prevent cavities and restores tooth enamel. it's an easy way to give listerine® total care to the total family. listerine® total care. one bottle, six benefits. power to your mouth™. trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief. i spent three months after the election covering trump voters. i asked every one of them where they obtain their news and which sources they trusted most. the answer i heard from voter after voter, facebook. we are joined by scott shane whose piece in today's "new york times" is under the headline, purged facebook page tied to the kremlin spread anti-immigrant bile. kara swisher is also here at our table. the executive editor of the tech news site rico. you broke the story last week about russian agents buying ads on facebook. let me read a quote from your piece. the notice went out on facebook last year calling citizens of twin falls, idaho, to an urgent meeting about the huge upsurge of violence toward american citizens by muslim refugees who had settled there. the inflammatory post originated in russia, not in idaho. the first example to come to light of russian agents trying to conjure a political rally on american soil. you heard one of the most interesting things about your piece, thank you for being with us, is that you heard from the mayor of the town where the russians tried to plan a rally. >> yeah, he sounded sort of beaten down by this whole issue. he said that they've had what he called a robust debate over immigration for two years. and he's had an unwanted attention from a number of far right sort of conspiracy minded websites, including infowars. and so that this was sort of the last thing he needed was to have the russians calling a meeting in the city council chambers to supposedly oppose immigrants. but this was a part of a broader campaign by the russians on facebook and twitter to create fake accounts, many of them designed to resemble americans, american activists, to get their message out and to sort of sow discord in the u.s. during the election and indeed after the election. >> we covered your piece last week about russian accounts, purchasing $100,000 in ads on facebook. you have now got this piece where russians were trying to -- not just russians but people with ties to the kremlin trying to organize political rallies in american towns. tell me where you view those two developments. do you think there's -- mark warner yesterday described it as the tip of the iceberg. where do you see the role that facebook played in our election last year? >> we don't know the whole picture. we don't know how many of these fake accounts that were on facebook and twitter and what effect they had. my surmise is that even if this was a fire hose of information, the kind of organic information coming from both sides in the election in a very polarized country was more like a hurricane. so i'm not sure that the russians had through social media a huge impact on the debates during the election. but i think what's so interesting about this is that it's very clear that vladimir putin's information campaign in the u.s. had all these different facets. hacking, democratic targets, getting private e-mails, getting confidential documents, leaking those out. also using overt propaganda sites, russian sites in english like rt, the tv network, and website and sputnik. and then you have this activity on facebook and twitter. you know, i think what's most significant about this is that the russian efforts will clearly be back possibly in 2018, certainly in 2020. you know, it just shows the kind of breadth and focus of their use of all these different information media to get their message across and to essentially mess with the american political process. >> carol, let me bring you in on that. you reported last week that facebook was going to come under scrutiny by bob mueller, and i believe i read today about senator warner's interest in facebook. talk about how facebook is dealing with its new reality that they are viewed as being of red-hot interest. >> they are red-hot interest. why wouldn't the russians use facebook. everybody does. and that's why they're there. it's sort of like, why do you rob banks. that's where the money is and everybody gets their news from facebook. as much as facebook tries to deny it's a media company. it's a new media company but it's not a benign technology platform they like to put out. facebook tends to slow roll all of these things and initially mark zuckerberg, the founder and ceo said there was no impact on the elections and then maybe a little bit and then wrote a long, long essay. okay, maybe there's some problems happening. >> around the time he was seen on tractors. >> and the news on tractors -- which i don't understand, but okay. more to the point, they are the ones that release the numbers. they wanted to get ahead of this story. they're realizing very clearly that this is going to be a problem if people are going to focus on the medium that created this situation. even if it was small, $100,000, maybe, who knows how much it is. same with twitter and google. think about all these. >> you and scott have both said something that strikes my political ears like nails on a chalkboard in terms of political vulnerabilities. scott said it's not a matter of if russia was using these tools. it's to what extent. you said it's not the size of the ad buy. that the russians bought ads. that the russians were using facebook -- >> why wouldn't you? >> we have gone so far from trump saying, i don't know any russians. that it's now a known tool that russia would be the propaganda tool. >> it's the greatest media platform on the planet. you said you asked people? there's no proof of it. it's 60%, 70% of people get their principal news from facebook. it may be from "the new york times." it may be from rico or other places but facebook is an -- >> it's an aggregator. >> it's more than that. it directs people. shows you what you see. and it's our window into the world. twitter is sort of a more chaotic version of it, but it's still the same thing. >> so i've noticed the social media companies, this is without any expertise in the industry, were slow to respond after charlottesville to pull down the white supremacist accounts. they pull down terrorist accounts after a terrorist attack happens but that's usually how we find out who did it. we find the suspects' twitter accounts. now they're slow to engage and i wonder how that squares with their desire to be viewed as part of the good guys. >> they always want to be part of the good guys. they're not rich at all. they act like they have no power. of course, they are the most powerful people on earth really. what they tend to do is they're libertarian, they do that. they go, oh, we shouldn't do this, but they have a responsibility. they absolutely have a responsibility. when they have spam problems, boy do they fix those. they know how to fix that. so it's a really -- it is a difficult issue and not something we want to say take it down. there are issues around free speech and facebook has promised people that they can post anything and, look what happened. they can post anything. >> jeremy, i wonder if you can put this conversation in a broader context of how russia rolls. >> sure. i think it really boils down to their means and message. in terms of -- >> and their audacity. i keep thinking it's our lack of imagination that we didn't protect ourselves against disinformation from the russians on facebook. why didn't we think of that before they did? >> putin came up with a diabolically ingenious plan here to use three avenues. one is mass media. his second is cyberhacking which we've talked about. hacking into the dnc and dumping the e-mails. and to recruit people wittingly or unwittingly to work on behalf of russia. that harkens back to our mike flynn conversation of earlier. that's the means. in terms of the message, it's important to come back to this. you referenced, what are some of the messages they're prying to promulgate. not just pro-trump or anti-hillary. also to sow discord. the whole idea of weighing in on immigration is really to try to get americans to be divided. it's to try to get us to roll up the draw bridge and not play on the international stage. that goes to russia's objectives. >> having kara swisher, scott a here. we're going to follow the sad news. six are dead from a florida nursing home that lost power during the storm. the hollywood, florida, police chief said they believe it may be related to the loss of power but they immediately opened a criminal investigation and said they aren't ruling out anything. and new this hour, another nursing home with more than 110 residents is being evacuated from north miami as a precaution after one of their air conditioning units failed. nbc's gabe gutierrez joins me now outside the nursing home in hollywood, florida. gabe, what's the latest? >> hi there, nicolle. some breaking news in the science that governor rick scott put out a statement and his office said yesterday afternoon the facility in question repo reported to state officials that they did have power and access to fans and spa coolers provided by memorial health care. that's the hospital that's right next door. so this is some, you know, interesting news in the sense that all day we've been thinking this facility had lost power but throughout the day we spoke with a neighbor, as well as some of the relatives of those residents of the nursing home who suggested that this facility did, in fact, have power. and there was some issue with perhaps in the second floor it had gotten extremely hot. several of those relatives of the nursing home residents said that there had been fans there on the second floor but again, now the question is, why were these patients, these nursing home residents not evacuated sooner, and why did it take until this morning for the facility to call authorities? police said that they arrived on the scene some time around 6:30 or 7:00 this morning and again, now at least six people are dead. more than 115 were evacuated. and we saw those just heartbreaking aerial pictures of those residents being evacuated in wheelchairs and on stretchers. now we're waiting to hear from the facility perhaps what exactly happened here. but again, governor rick scott's office says that the facility had reported to state officials that they did, in fact, have power yesterday. >> gabe, i wonder if you're hearing anything at this hour about whether or not this tragedy, six lives lost, other people, obviously, in a lot of distress by the evacuation or by the conditions there. i wonder if you're looking at a statewide sort of closer look at all of the most vulnerable populations? this is what jeb bush kept him up at night when he saw a hurricane come through. he suggested in the days after it's the most vulnerable citizens at risk for the longest periods of time. has the state marshalled any resources from other parts of the state or at the federal level to check on all of these vulnerable, elderly populations? >> that's certainly something that's going to come up. and i know the mayor here in hollywood has issued a check of all similar facilities in this area. that happened throughout the day today. but certainly this is something that was a major concern in the aftermath of hurricane irma with more than 15 million floridians without power at some point. this was a concern. these vulnerable populations, elderly populations. but there is a lot of questions here with regard to this particular case because it appears at least according now to the state, that this facility did, in fact, have power. so the question becomes, what happened overnight in the overnight hours where, despite the ac unit, did it perhaps break at some point? we just don't know at this point. and that's all part of this investigation which the police chief said is a criminal investigation. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you for spending some time with us. when we come back, back to russia and donald trump's raw nerve exposed. dental professionals recommend using an electric toothbrush. for an exceptionally fresh feeling choose philips sonicare diamondclean. hear the difference versus oral b. in a recently published clinical study, philips sonicare diamondclean outperforms oral-b 7000, removing up to 82% more plaque and improving gum health up to 70% more. its sonic technology cleaning deep between teeth. from the most recommended sonic toothbrush brand by dental professionals. switch to philips sonicare today. philips sonicare. save when you buy now. haven't you ever wanted phsowatch your step.ry? 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(upbeat dance music) (bell ringing) the memos that comey leaked were created on an fbi computer while he was the director. he claims they were private property. they clearly followed the protocol of an official fbi document. leaking fbi memos on a sensitive case, regardless of classification violates federal laws, including the privacy act, standard fbi employment agreement and nondisclosure agreement all personnel must sign. that's pretty clean and clear that that would be a violation. >> so what do you want to see happen? >> that's not up to me to decide. i'm certainly not an attorney, but i think that the facts of the case are very clear. >> sarah huckabee sanders giving the public a taste of what president trump is fuming about privately, according to new reporting from axios. behind the scenes in the west wing, president trump continues to rant and brood about former fbi drctsor jim comey and the russia investigation that got him fired. axios adds the mueller investigation is hitting ever closer to home for trump and he's using the toofls his office to undermine the counsel's future endeavors. he plans to vulify mueller the way the clinton white house treated ken starr. jonathan capehart for "the washington post" and sarah fagan, also cnbc contributor jeffrey pollack, a democratic pollster and muc duhame, a former adviser to governor chris christie. sarah, let me start with you and this white house's inability to tell the president to have a temper tantrum behind closed doors or get a punching bag but not to use the podium to smear and defame jim comey. >> they've had a really good couple of weeks, the white house, given the president with general kelly seems to have started to get out from underneath his own bad press. and here they are again. >> a couple good -- it's funny you see it that way. he's basically burned paul ryan and mitch mcconnell and chosen -- >> well, he's -- >> he's humiliated -- >> the politics -- >> it's relative, right? >> it's relative. that's the right word for it. the politics long term for him aren't good, you're right. but presswise, you know, he's had a good handling of these hurricanes. for the most part. he has cut a deal with the democrats, which most voters like. they like to see republicans and democrats coming together, regardless of the facts behind the scene. and so he's hit a bit of a stride on a relative basis. yet today we're now talking about jim comey again which they should never utter those words from the podium again. >> they can't. >> it's very clear headed analysis from a republican that it counts as a good two weeks for this white house. he hasn't messed anything sup the bottom line and he hasn't opened up any new fronts on twitter. i guess we don't rate him on a bar. the voters do. they elected him. what do you make of reupping this war against comey? >> this is donald trump going back to his original self. back to basics. his original self. we have known for a long time this is the one thing, the russia investigation, and this is the one person, two people, jim comey and bob mueller who are getting under his skin. he is very, very irritated by what's happening. and he can't help himself. jonathan swann is reporting as you just pointed out, he's ranting and raving behind the scenes, which is not uncommon for a president to rant and rave behind closed doors and to staff. but he takes that ranting and raving and puts it on twitter and as sarah was just talking about, we go from talking about the great press he got last week for cutting the deal with chuck and nancy back to his efforts to undermine an investigation that he strongly -- i am getting inside his head, but he believes is going -- >> sorry. >> it's a horrible place. that is going in directions that he doesn't want it to go in and he finds dangerous to him. it's all about him. >> this idea he did a deal with the democrats is a bit of an exaggeration. he kept the government open with a plan preferred by the democrats. it's not really like they made any great lasting legislation that's going to keep all of our -- >> but did cut the republicans out. that's the point, right? >> what did democrats make of that? >> democrats believe that chuck and nancy, we're all calling them by their first names now, i'm in trouble, probably, are doing the responsible thing of trying to keep the gft open, and that is their responsibility. the republicans are sitting there left on the side. the notion that we're looking at this, look, hurricanes harvey and irma have knocked hurricane trump off the front page. and that's why he's had a quote/unquote two good weeks. >> the federal response has been strong. >> i'm not demeaning the response at all but the reality is in terms of controlling him. now we're on comey who used to be his bestie. used to be his friend. now the guy is obsessed with russia. he wants to talk about it. he wants to try to convince senators not to talk about it. he's all over it. he's obsessed. >> one of the things that frayed the relationship between this president and mitch mcconnell and paul ryan was he was enraged they weren't protecting him from the russian probes. nobody can protect him from the investigation as they describe bob mueller as a truth seeker. >> donald trump expects this amazing amount of loyalty but doesn't give it in return. he expects loyalty but it's one-way loyalty. he shows no loyalty to mitch mcconnell and paul ryan but expects them to do some favors for them. eventually they'll pass legislation that's good for donald trump but not because they're doing him any favors. they're doing what they think is responsible. when you don't have -- >> so you think paul ryan and mitch mcconnell feel like they've been set free? i think the strength of what schumer and pelosi did, it was their idea. >> not set free in that donald trump has tremendous strength still within the republican base and the trump voter still matters and that matters to republicans who don't want to be primaried in two years. they don't feel they owe anything to him. it's going to be doing it because it's on their behalf or their voters' behalf or their caucus. >> when does that start? >> flake and howard. they are, in fact, the punching bag for the president. >> and jeff flake is one of the most conservative members in the entire u.s. senate. somehow has donald trump voters against him n he's become this poster child for the anti-trump movement. >> this is donald trump and steve bannon bullying republicans because they didn't act like employees at one of his beauty pageants. when does this become principled for republicans and they say simply, enough. >> it's starting to get to that point. >> what's the evidence? he did a deal with the democrats. >> he did a deal with the democrats, undercut them. there's going to be long-term repercussions. you'll see it in tax reform and other deals that unfold in the coming months. but, look, it's worth noting the house and senate passed a resolution that effectively, you know, criticized his response to charlottesville. led by republicans. now it didn't name the president, but -- >> do we have that? can we put that up? it was a rebuke. and a republican aide said its intent was to get the president on the record on white supremacy and racism. >> that's right. >> extraordinary. >> it's pretty extraordinary that republicans who control the floors of these chambers allowed that to go through when their sitting president. i would harken to bet that had some of these -- this deal not get cut and other things that have happened, tweets and primarying a senate, threatening to primary a senator, that may not have happened. so much more to talk about. stay with us. we'll be right back. it's "your business" of the week. when disaster strikes, will you be ready? robert rising, owner of new york slab wasn't. a fire tore apart his custom furniture shop and he lost almost everything when he discovered he had the wrong insurance. find out how he rebuilt his business. watch "your business" weekends at 7:30 on msnbc. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? 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(scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. so you can get business done. you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals... for the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. ensure, always be you. wheyou wantve somto protect it.e, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here. this inot this john smith.smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana medicare advantage members. no, it's this john smith. who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. at humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care that's just as unique as you are. no matter what your name is. this nation responds to moral authority. when we believe that our president has the entire nation's best interests at heart, his comments tuesday erased his positive comments on monday started to compromise that moral authority that we need the president to have for this nation to be the beacon of light to all mankind. this made very difficult for this president to lead if, in fact, that moral authority remains compromised. >> republican senator from south carolina less man a month ago. today was at the white house meeting with the president. how the "new york times" described that congressional measure unanimously passed last night sarah mentioned. condemning violence in charlottesvil charlottesville quote speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell majority leader introduced the measure as a joint resolution which require as presidential signature. two republican congressional aides involved in the process said the intent was to put the president on the record calling out white racism by name." this afternoon confirming the president will sign the resolution and our panel is back. we hit pause when you were about to burst into song. >> okay. look, as an american i think it's great that the congress passed a joint resolution that the president is going to sign it. the fact that the congress, that the house of representatives and senate found it necessary to even pass a resolution, and that it was news that the president was going to sign it is a travesty. the reason why they did it is because the president seeded his moral authority when he went into the lobby of trump tower and completely stripped the moral authority from the presidency when it comes to america's original sin, and, to me, that is unforgivable. you can do all of these things to try to make up for it and try to tell people and show people that that's not your heart, but we know from just the eight months of the trump presidency, when he is speaking off the cuff as he did in that press conference that tuesday, that is the real him. >> the real trump. >> you can't get rid of that. >> the problem for republicans like bob corker in the aftermath said he thought the president lacked the stability and competence for the office he held. >> there are moments when the entire country is hoping the president -- when they voted for the president, hoping the president does the right thing with the aftermath of september 11th or after a hurricane, disaster or a moment like this. you want somebody to speak with moral clarity and they don't. even people who don't support the president or root for the president, don't agree on policy, they want him to do the right thing because we're all americans. we got into this to make america a better place and are looking for the president to articulate our greater selves and i think it will ultimately haunt him a long time. >> and donald trump, off -- i want to cite steve bannon, when we're having conversations about racial things, racial strife i don't remember the exact words a benefit to the president, to republicans, a benefit to the politics of what donald trump was elected on. >> he's wrong. >> he may be, but it is intenti intentional. >> in my mind means not on prompter. >> oh, fine. >> and i think -- >> a strategy. >> the lexicon we refer to off the cuff is real. >> yes. >> what you're saying that was the real trump. what he reads off the prompter is what the grown-ups make him read. so i guess my question to you, sayrrah is, can you put back in the tube that which is real? >> it's very difficult, because he showed his stripes, and you really just hope it was a poor moment and it's not what he really thinks. >> what do you think? >> well -- you know, i'd like to think the president doesn't believe that these people marching in charlottesville were fine people. i think, a rally of white supremacists by definition you're not a fine person, have made a bad judgment call, and he should have not equivocated on that. >> and troublesome, i think people, on the republican side, worry that it's calculated. even if he doesn't agree with the beliefs, those moves are calculated politically. >> we have to sneak in one more break but be right back. dad: molly! trash! 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