Nancy pelosi. The president is in japan on state business and see nemesis is girding for the impeachment fight. More and more democrats and at least one republican are rearing to have. In the meantime, the speaker seems set on a strategy, engage, embarrass, and repeat. Go aheading t goading the commander in chief and going after a sensitive topic, his manliness. Like folks say, it takes a woman. Im going to be very calm because i dont want them going out to the press and saying i was anything but calm. I was extreme calm, very much like i am right now. And of us the sad when i watched nancy all moving, the movement and the hands and the craziness. And i watched. Thats a person thats got some problems. I pray for the president of the united states. I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country. Joining me now to help score this fight, sophia nelson, former house government reform and Oversight Republican Committee counsel, and a contributor to think on nbcnews. Com, dean obeidallah, radio host and contributor to the daily beast, and michael hardy, executive Vice President and general counsel to the National Action network. Let me go to you first, sophia. It seems the president is always rattled when he locks horns with House Speaker nancy pelosi. Is it that hes intimidated by a strong, smart woman . Come on, reverend al. You know the answer to that question. Remember during the president ial debates in 2016, he referred to secretary of state clinton as a nasty woman. He loves to denigrate women. This ones crazy, ones nasty. Hes always got something to say, so absolutely President Donald Trump has never liked to engage with women. And we can talk about low iq, he called omarosa a dog. Hes not kind to women, and we all know what he said on that entertainment tonight tape. I think that nancy pelosi is winning because she comes across as being its almost like a mother to a child. You know when you mess up and your mom sends to you your room and says im so disappointed new and nothing hurts worse . Thats how she handles him. She says shes praying for him and needs an intervention and then he goes crazy and starts saying all kinds of things and getting kelly ann to back him up. Attorney hardy, what should not be missed in this is that they were meeting about infrastructure, something that is needed. I travel all over the country, streets and bridges and tunnels and other parts of the infrastructure of this country is crumbling. And they were to meet to talk about bipartisan way they could deal with the broken infrastructure of the country. This is serious. As well as as it does provide jobs. He storms out in three minutes saying end these investigations. From a legal perspective, what is he doing if hes telling them he will not move forward with legislation, not move forward with his duty as president , unless they end investigating him . Hes setting himself up, rev. Hes responding and nancy is manipulating him because hes going into a meeting that really would benefit him in a lot of ways to really engage on the infrastructure question. More importantly, though, if he always is saying that why are these investigations going on, then hes really in a way further kind of putting the spotlight on the fact that maybe there was obstruction there because he certainly has been obstructing with regard to the subpoenas that have been happening and to the directives hes been giving some of his subordinates. Maybe he is covering up and he responded just the way she wanted him to. It seemed, dean, that this was set up, his walkout. He had posters and things celebrating his achievements, even putting one in front of the president ial seal, something that weve never seen a president putting his accomplishments over the seal of the presidency. Is he starting to unravel because this seems like desperation. We just call it thursday at this point. All trump does is unravel. His twitter feed goes crazy. You talked about ropeadope earlier. All i can think is down goes trump, down goes trump because nancy pelosi was effectively able to troll him to a point where not only was he upset, trump world was upset. Fox news put out that edited video. Rudy giuliani shared the doctored video. Sebastian gorka made a bizarre video defending donald trump. Theres a history that nancy pelosi has with donald trump. Trump has donated to the ccc in 2006 when she was one of the leaders. Maybe he respected her. But he cannot deliver on infrastructure. He cannot get the republicans to approve 2 trillion to fund it. Thats what this is about. So he had to leave that meeting to save his face. So it was not about coverup. The democrats were already investigating trump, various committees. He cannot deliver, he did not want to be embarrassed by that. The night before the meeting he wanted to shift gears from infrastructure to the new nafta agreement because he knew he couldnt blideliver. Its not her, its hi. Hes a failure, he cant even lead the gop. Youre seeing, sophia, the drum beat get louder and louder. One republican now saying lets move on to impeachment. As he makes these very bizarre and dramatic moves, impeachment seems to be more and more something that is resonating around the house. She had to meet with the caucus and say lets be strategic here. Reverend al, twhofrlo things the democrats have to do. The time has passed for mueller to testify in public and the house judiciary chairman have to be firm that if he testifies, its going to be in public before we the people. Thats number one. Number two, its past time for impeachment hearings to start. Remember with watergate, lets go back in time. This was not something that was a fatit accompli. The public became informed. Right now all we do is have a bunch of misinformation being put out by the white house and the president. Theres a bunch of fighting on social media about whos lying, who colluded, who didnt, who obstructed. The American People need things broken down for them because theyre busy, theyre working. Theyre trying to take care of their families. Theyre not trying to do what were doing 24 7. People could get the information by watching the hearings in realtime, i think that that shifts the responsibility to the senate that if the house does impeachment, reverend al, the republican senators, trust me, they like their reelection more than they do President Trump. If public sentiment were to shift and there was a shift there, i think thats when you begin to see some movement. And then its something that i think is viable. Right now its not, but i think it can get there. When you see judges say that theyre not going to allow his financial records not to be turned over, and when you see that there was a deal made today to stay until the appeals, but the exchange for that was an expedited court calendar, to the average person watching at home or whenever they are tonight, what are the legal implications of that for the president if there is something in these financial documents that now may be boirordered by a judge . Whats at stake here legally for the president . There may be something there. A lot of people want to see whats in those financial records of donald trump and what may be there for the congress to further substantiate a reason to move towards impeachment. Including if he was getting foreign monies from sources that may compromise some of his decisions as president. Thats compel right, and others that have been dealing with him maybe as a result of them knowing that he is the president and benefits that they may receive as a result of patronizing his businesses. Some reports of the number of republicans that have been using his facilities, you know, throughout his term. So i think thats a concern for him. Once that goes in, i think as sophia just said, if they move forward with these hearings and you have mueller coming forward and you have others coming forward to give their testimony, that really begins to set the deadline and the Movement Towards a decision to impeach or not impeach. Dean, when you quoted my opening about ropeadope, it remind me of the 74 ali foreman fight where ali used to dance fighting as a boxer, just laid on the ropes and foreman punched himself out. And ali knocked him out. Right. Is nancy pelosi laying back and letting him punch himself out with antics like he pulled walking out in three minutes and having signs over the rose garden and in front of the president ial seal . I think on some level hes letting him selfdestruct but shes helping the whole way. The idea of calling for intervention and yesterday trump saying you see how mean she was to me . The victim of donald trump is remarkable. To people who are progressives or moderates, this would be a sign of weakness, but for some reason on the right, victim hood is a currency that works because many feel like their victims because of race or religion theyre being discriminated, not being treated fairly on social media. My show is on the progressive channel. Almost exclusively, but not exclusively, people want an impeachment inquiry to begin. Not an unanddown vote, the same thing with kenneth starr. Impeachment inquiry went for two to three months. Well see the evidence. And democrats at the end say not enough to draft articles of impeachment, i respect that. But i think they will, frankly, and that gives time for the media to focus, america to focus, to be informed whats in that report, obstruction, witness intimidation, and what trump did by accepting help from russia knowingly. I dont know if there will be a family intervention as the speaker suggested, but i can recommend the family at least get him a passifier. More to come with sophia, dean, and michael later in the show. Coming up, in the rampup to the 2020 Democratic Candidates are increasingly courting the black voters. But instead of hopeful rhetoric, one contender is using hopeful policy to woo the constituency. Thats after the break. Fter thek bleech aww awww its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft for the win win. You know reliable support when you have it, and that dependability is what we want to give our customers. At comcast, its my job to constantly monitor our network. Prevent problems, and to help provide the most Reliable Service possible. My name is tanya, i work in the Network Operations center for comcast. We are working to make things simple, easy and awesome. We are one month away from the first televised debate for the 2020 democratic president ial candidates. As they prepare for that event, theyre also trying to figure out how to attract black voters. Some pound the pavement, shaking hands in black communities, some hold a number of town halls geared toward issues that directly impact minorities, and some appear on radio and tv programs like this one, using them as a platform to demonstrate their awareness of the plight. But senator Elizabeth Warren is taking a different tact. She highlights in a new piece, shes highlighted about her moves of letting policy proposals, not just words, do the talking, according to an extensive piece in the atlantic. This week she put forth a plan to forgive outstanding Student Loans and to make public colleges tuitionfree, a proposal that would undoubtedly lift up future generations of black americans better than any public event would. With me to discuss this, adam harris, staff writer at the atlantic, and author of that piece about warren, and erin haze wac, specializing in race and ethnicity. Let me go to you first, adam. In your piece, which was very interesting, you talk about specific policy. As you know, we had most of the candidates at National Action networks definition, and even there Elizabeth Warren was very heavy on policy that directly addressed the inequality impact of some things to africanamericans. This tact, is it working, and why do you think shes gone this route . So it does seem to be working. Youve seen over the last couple of weeks a noticeable growth in her poll numbers. One of the reasons i wanted to talk to her was essentially to find out why she placed so much emphasis on this wealth gap. She examines housing policy and how theres disproportionate impact on black families. Its not an accident that black families have a harder time building wealth. So she wanted to her campaign is putting an intentional focus on race and wealth in america. One way theyre doing that is through this Higher Education plan, the debt cancellation and the free tuition is a noticeable amount of press. One other really significant piece of that is this 50 billion fund for hbcus and minorityserving institutions to lift up and address that historical legacy of discrimination in america. Erin, adam referred to the race wealth gap. I think that one of the things that has been missing, and when we talk about the have and the have not and the 1 and the 90, they are not the same in terms of race because the class gap, but theres also the race class gap because you see in the black community, even under a sound economy, were still doubly unemployed than whites. Youre in the going to solve the problem without addressing the racial aspect. Absolutely, reverend al. I think that this is exactly what were talking about when we talk about communities of color and the issue of economic anxiety. Theres definitely a race angle to that that candidates are highlighting, at least the ones attempting to reach out to communities of color, really tying together issues of class and race, whether it is Kitchen Table issues from education to the economy to health care. You know, there are racial components to all those and racial disparities, to be specific, that voters are wanting to hear from candidates about how they will specifically address if you want their vote. Adam, what has been the reaction to white voters to this . Because there was a time that people were afraid to deal with these issues saying they would get backlash. What has been the response of white voters to this . And does this also run contrary to those that are saying we dont need to deal with identity politics in, in fact, she is dealing exactly with the identity of how people of color are treated differently and get different results than other americans. So there is a strain of the Democratic Party that does kind of have a concern about placing too much emphasis on identity politics, but i think a lot of candidates understand that black voters are a large contingent of the democratic voting base, and its important to, especially in early states like south carolina, to kind of emphasize that gap. Over the last, you know, several years, youve seen Democratic Candidates kind of play to black voters, going to hbcus, talking about black issues, but whats shifting where youve seen warren kind of being a pacemaker on introducing policy that directly affects this legacy of discrimination, youve also seen senator Bernie Sanders who recently introduced the Thurgood MarshallEducation Plan thats looking at segregation in k12. Candidates are focusing on this policy because theyre understanding that black voters play such a Critical Role in their ultimate success. Erin, this is all in the context of probably the most polarized president weve seen in our lifetime, and where you see people marching to defend confederate statues, where you see continued engagements of Law Enforcement against people of color, where you have the rhetoric of the president himself that has been divisive, calling african nations shole countries. In the context of such racial climate, set in many ways by the tone of this president , this seems almost necessary, if not going over the boundaries of yesterdays politics. Today it is the politics. Absolutely. And i think that that is because there is an understanding that whoever emerges from this very crowded democratic field is going to have to face a president who has repeatedly relied on a racialized playbook. So they know that is probably something thats going to come up again in 2020, so the thought that race is a topic that can be avoided or is just going to go away is just not true. And so what we are seeing with a lot of the white candidates as well is that several of them are also exploring issues of white identity, just at identity. That is why we are seeing already early in this primary contest that race is really a major focus heading into 2020. Now, adam, we also saw this week where the governor of virginia it was inconclusive whether he was in the photo in his yearbook in School Wearing a blackface, whos a democrat. Were seeing the expressions of bigotry and racism everywhere in that context. Elizabeth warren is the first one coming in with policies. Does this challenge show they have to put substance on the table . I think it does. Were still very early, so one of the things that senator warren is kind of banking on is that by releasing this early, she becomes kind of the pacesetter here. As the campaign wears on and shes going into this first debate talking about these issues, she has detailed policy to accompany them, whether thats Maternal Mortality or housing discrimination or Higher Education. Other candidates will be required to say, okay, what is my policy or why dont i have a policy there . That was kind of one of the things early on with free college. Do you support free college or why do you not have an answer . By presenting this many policies that deal with racial discrimination, she puts in front of the other candidates this ultimatum to decide whether or not they have something substantive. Thank you, adam harris and erin haze whack. Will President Trump apologize for his conduct . Ill explain his involvement next. Next aceuti driven each da in a country built on fostering innovation. Here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. And a new therapy that gives the blind a working gene so they can see again. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. Now for my weekly memo to President Trump, who even decades before his time in the white house was ca