and the revolving door at the white house. plus, of course i could. that's how anita hill responded when asked if she can vote for joe biden if he were to win the democratic nomination. why those comments may prove to be consequential for joe biden. several candidates are heading to south carolina where for some the primary could prove to be the end of the road. thanks for in joing ing us. for the president's 73rd birthday he's opening fire over the multiple controversies he finds himself in. pushing back from his own comments that he would accept information from foreign governments. >> nobody's going to present me with anything bad. if i was -- of course you have to look at it because if you

don't look at it you're not going to know if it's bad. how are you going to know if it's bad? you give it to the fbi or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. >> the commander in chief putting on his hr hat. sarah sanders steps down after two years as press secretary. and he's talking about the future of kellyanne conway after a federal watch dog recommends she be fired. we've got a lot of people to break this down with. hans nichols is at the white house. gabby orr is joining us along with michael steele and former chairman of the republican national committee, and glen kirshner, nbc legal analyst. hans, there's a lot of adjectives you can use to describe the president's interview this morning as it relates to his comments on foreign interference.

>> reporter: it was a 50 minute interview the president gave. it's part of the president's strategy of trying to dominate every news cycle. you remember, the week started off on monday with the president calling in to cnbc. on tuesday he had that rally out in iowa. he always finds time to talk to reporters. wednesday it seemed like we had more engagements than we could have imagined. he was trying to explain his evolution on what he would do if foreign intelligence handed him harmful information. and he went from maybe he'd alert to the fbi to absolutely he would do it without any question. so that's been the evolution of the president. the backdrop to all this has been the abc interview they keep teasing out. we've heard a lot from president trump this week. and we're just at the beginning of friday. we'll see how else he filters his way into the news cycle. >> he's now adding conditionals into that, saying, of course

you'd call the fbi if certain things are met. right? >> reporter: right. if it was harmful. he hasn't really answered. you and i have talked about this in the past. he hasn't answered whether or not he would accept information from a foreign intelligence or any sort of foreign source if it were accurate and were beneficial to his campaign. because that's the very thing that his own son was soliciting with the 2016 campaign on hillary clinton. he seems -- even with all these caveats there still seems to be a carveout for the president on what sort of information he'd find acceptable to accept. >> the president went on a little bit more in this interview about this issue of foreign interference and what he would and would not expect. i want to play you a little bit of that. watch. >> one thing that's different with the president, i had dinner with the queen, i had -- met with the prime minister of the uk. i was with the head of france. i was with the head of all these

nations and i constantly am. constantly talking to them. and, you know, that puts us in a -- we have many, many conversations. and i'm just thinking, gee, if they say we don't like your opponent, am i supposed to put the president of france, am i supposed to report him to the fbi? you know, i'm in a little bit of a different position than a lot of other people. >> michael, does that explain satisfactory for you the president's comments? no. this is so typical trump. trump told us what he thinks and what he would do in that interview with george stephanopoulos. anything after that is a lie. it's not what he believes. it's not how he'd behave. reparse, and maybe he's going to explain it and this is the conditions talking with france and not norway. i guess there's a difference between france and norway in that scenario. the fact of the matter is the president's already told us that he thinks it's okay for him to

violate federal law. all right? to engage for political purposes in getting information he thinks would be beneficial to him personally and to his campaign if it came from a foreign adversary or even a foreign friend. if the president of france in the oval office talking with him said i don't like your opponent, and i happen to have a little something something i can share with you, his view of it is, well, should i report that, too? we were talking about nato five minutes before? yes, you should. >> what's been interesting though, michael, is that over the last 48 hours on capitol hill, there are not that many republicans who are espousing the same view as you. does that surprise you? >> no, it doesn't surprise me. because they're, you know, stuck to the president's hip. they feel that the only thing that matters to them is controlling the united states

senate. and getting reelecting. everything that goes to the core of what this country has been about, the rule of law, the support of institutions like the fbi, cia, et cetera, those things are secondary. it doesn't surprise me we didn't hear the kind of aggressive pushback. here's the thing and you know this from covering this president for -- since the beginning of his run for the presidency. there are no consequences. whatever the president says, whatever the president does, there have never been consequences for his actions. he's defied subpoenas. what's the consequence? nobody is being halled off to capitol hill. the house isn't commanding secret service or other law enforcement officers to go in and haul those individuals who have been subpoenaed. how is hope hicks coming to a closed door hearing being represented by white house counsel. that's unheard of. there's no pushback. there's no consequences for what

this president does. and that starts with the republican leadership, unfortunately in the senate they're not be there to do that. it falls to folks like nancy pelosi and others. it gets caught up in politics and the president says y'all work that out i'm going to continue to flout the law. >> the chair of the f.e.c. felt compelled to put out a statement explaining to just like the world that that's breaking the law. accepting dirt from a foreign entity, soliciting is not legal. she was on this network on "morning joe." i want to play for you what she had to say. >> there seemed to be a little bit of confusion on this point, which confused me because it's actually a matter of black letter law. it's pretty straightforward. anyone in the united states is not allowed to accept anything of value from a foreign national, particularly a foreign government in connection with an election. federal, state, local, any

election in the united states. >> what would the ramifications of this being given how clear weintraub was there? >> there have been no consequences yet. when the president tells you he would commit a crime to try to win the 2020 election by accepting dirt from a foreign adversary, believe him the first time. because the walk backs sound a lot like when he got caught speaking his mind at helsinki and saying, putin said he didn't interfere, so i don't see why it would be russia until he changed it when there was an uproar to i don't see why it wouldn't be russia. >> let me clear about something. because there is a difference i think -- this gets us -- we don't want to be in the echo chamber. folk whose watch fox news, they hear that democrats did something similar by hiring christopher steele as part of this company they brought on

board. there is a difference -- by the way, the trump campaign hired a british company, cambridge analytica as well. there's a difference between hiring a foreign vendor and getting foreign entities to solicit information to you than offering it up on a foreign candidate. >> there is a difference. what we saw with christopher steele he was a long time informant. he was a british intelligence officer. he was somebody whose reliability had been vetted. and you know what? it's okay for the united states to work in conjunction with foreign governments and intelligence services to protect the united states. what's not okay is to get information from russia, china, north korea to try to unfairly gain an advantage in the political election. they're two different things. >> he hit it out of the park. here's the key thing about

people who are now trying to parse this with hillary clinton and christopher steele. christopher steel, guess what he did? he went to the fbi and told them everything that he was finding out. he did the one thing the president of the united states said he may or may not do. that was go to the fbi, based on the information and the contacts he had with a foreign agent. >> it's not just the fox interview with the president. the president in that abc news interview that continues to come out talked about don mcgahn. insisting in contradiction to mcgahn's testimony he did not distri direct him to fire mueller. he was yeah the president directed me to have mueller fired. the president is not under

threat of perjury. >> if he was he would have racked up countless perjury charges. don mcgahn sat with mueller under the penalties of perjury and unloaded. he gave up the president hard for 30 hours and said the president told me to fire mueller and when i said no the president told me to lie about it. and create a false document about it. that's both the criminal offense and an impeachable defense. i know we're saying, congress, too much process, not enough progress. they're trying to follow a process that will allow the courts to weigh in and say just as the courts have already said twice, once in d.c. and once in new york that these house subpoenas are appropriate and must be honored. don mcgahn will testify to congress and it will be devastating when he does because he was telling mueller the truth. >> somebody else who was cited

in the mueller report is sarah sanders, specifically for the exchange i'm about to play you. somebody else who is a friend of ours, michael sheer. >> what's your response to these rank and file fbi agents who disagree with your contention that they lost faith in director comey? >> we've heard from countless members of the fbi that say very different things. between like, e-mail, text messages absolutely. >> 660? >> i have heard from a large number of individuals that work at the fbi that said they're very happy with the president's decision. >> that wasn't true. talk about as she now is two weeks from departing her position, a new press secretary presumably will come in if the president chooses to hire one. what that role now needs to look like and how credibility does or does not play a part in that? >> i think credibility is one of the biggest factors here in

terms of why she's leaving. it's been difficult for her to earn the respect of any member of the press corp after we saw that play out. sarah sanders is going to go back into the private sector, potentially enter into a different government position. that's going to follow her. if you look at the comments i believe she told your network yesterday, she said that now that she's leaving this position as white house press secretary she's going to have a lot of time to sort of reflect on her time in the white house and those moments that captured the public's attention. i suspect this is one of those moments that is going to stand out and be a cause of regret. we saw this with sean spicer. he wrote a book in which he describes some of the moments in which he had these exchanges where he was asked today l lie came to regret those. i think this is something that sarah sanders is going to be confronted with upon leaving the

white house. in terms of what this position looks like going forward, the president is going to need to find somebody who will be an attack dog in 2020 and comfortable with knowing after whoever he ends up running against. at the same time as we've seen with the stories that's following kellyanne conway you have a press secretary who will be put in a tough position because they can't go after whom ever the democratic nominee is. >> i think we have time to quickly play these here. kellyanne got partisan. here they are. >> the water seems warm. welcome to dive in along with, i don't know, 10, 15, 30 other democratic candidates. i would ask him a couple of questions today as he runs from my native new jersey. one is what's wrong with the

candidates that are already in there? what's your objection to kamala harris running? i've yet to see any type of -- presidential timber. i just see a lot of presidential wood chips. what happened this weekend is equally unimpressive. amy klobuchar who seems to be a nice person, except if you're on their staff. i've always known her to be minnesota nice. >> any chance there are ramifications for what the office of the special counsel, not the mueller office, is accusing her of? >> if there are any consequences it would probably come as a surprise to most people who have been watching this white house. she has essentially personified loyalty in the donald trump era. that's something the president puts a high price on. he talked about that today in his fox news interview where he said kellyanne conway is loyal, as soon as i heard him say that word, you know, as i was watching that interview --

>> you knew, right? >> right. there's no way that she's going to face consequences for these violations. >> thanks to all of you for this rock and roll first bit of the show. michael steele, stick around, you're coming back. coming up, it's far from an endorsement, but still kind of a significant statement. anita hill says she would be open to voting for joe biden. >> i don't think it has disqualified him. he's a perfectly capable for running for president. >> might those provide political cover for joe biden? dangerous escalations and tensions between the u.s. and iran. the pentagon releasing new images. officials say iran is behind the attack on two oil tankers in the middle east. why it's fuelling fears that both sides could be heading towards the brink of battle next. be heading towards the brink of battle next

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in her first television interview since vice president joe biden entered the presidential race, anita hill told andrea mitchell if it came down to biden versus donald trump come 2020, she'd pick biden. >> i'm not even sure that anything i've said is actually hurt joe biden's campaign. he still is leading in the polls against donald trump and really all the other candidates for -- on the democratic ticket. >> can you conceive of voting for joe biden if he turns out to be the democratic nominee against donald trump? >> of course i could. >> hill added she did not think

that biden's handling of her testimony in the clarence thomas supreme court hearings disqualified him from running for president. she said she'd rather focus on his plans for the future. leah, thank you very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to get your overall take away from this. do you believe this helps, i don't know, smooth the way a little bit for joe biden ahead of the debate by tamping down some of the pressure he's faced about his handling of the hill hearing? >> so i don't know that it helps biden so much as it doesn't hurt him. in essence, you know, professor hill has given joe biden a blueprint for, you know, tamping down on some of the major, if not some of the most major challenges he's going to face going into primary season. namely she has said this isn't simply about petty grievances or

saying that somebody is kme unredeemable. instead has offered a way out for him to essentially make good on past wrong doing, but also to, you know, look forward and to say this is about i have learned, i have changed, i apologize. here's my blueprint or my policy, here's my agenda for the future, particularly around these issues of sexual harassment, around believing women, around how you treat these issues. she's laid it out, you know, thrown the gauntlet down in a lot of way. >> i want to play more of what she said about being future looking. do you think that there is room for change when it comes to the criticism of how biden handled that hearing? is there room for that sort of narrative, if you will -- i hate that word -- to shift. is if baked in? >> of course there's always room for candidates to change. that is the nature of campaign season, of prime season, of the general election. the question is whether or not joe biden is going to do that. and what we've seen in the

past -- actually what we've seen most recently is that there has been some hesitancy on his part to address and acknowledge what he did in the past and then to make significant shifts in terms of policy, outreach, in terms of proving to voters and proving to women that he has what it takes. so we know, you know, there is an opportunity there. the question remains, is he going to act on that opportunity? >> you talked about and anita hill talked about being forward looking. i want to play for you what she said when she wanted to hear more from the candidates. >> for me, it's a matter of what i want all of our leaders to say. and that is after almost three decades now of having discovered the problem of sexual harassment, with people understanding that it's a serious problem and it's so prevalent. i really want our leaders to stand up and say what happened in 1991 will never happen again.

>> and i thought it was interesting, too, that she spoke, she said in that interview with christine blasey-ford, either during or after the kavanaugh hearings just last year. >> yes, so absolutely. i think, again, this is about being forward thinking and ink thbi thinking about proactive policy solutions. what changes are warranted in terms of behavior? it's one thing to kind of engage in these things -- this is what professor hill has been pointing out. if gauging in these things at the time. what are you going to do about it in the presenct. that's where the gauntlet has been throw down. it's not virtue signaling, but instead what are the concrete steps and policies that people are going to do that candidates are going to do. and in this case, joe biden, to actually show that you are forward thinking and that you do have an understanding of how, you know, issues like gender,

sexual harassment, how sexual assault, how these things function in the present. >> thank you so much for joining us on the show. appreciate it. you can see more of the interview with anita hill coming up next hour. still ahead, democratic candidates are heading to one of the states that might make or break their campaigns, south carolina. who is facing a steeper climb? carolina who is finacg a steeper climb?

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we're just 12 days away from the first democratic debates of the 2020 season right here on msnbc. you can see it on news news and telemundo june 26th and 27. there is the stage, you're looking at it. the dnc, naming 20 candidates who made the cut and who get a chance to set themselves apart from the crowded field of presidential hopefuls. two of those candidates on the hunt are senator elizabeth warren and senator kirsten gillibrand. out on the trail in new hampshire, alli vitale.

>> reporter: so right now we're here in franklin, new hampshire with kristchristian gillibrand. she is trying to gain traction in this state. we know that she made the debate stage but what is she going to do to capitalize on that? elizabeth warren is pitching a new policy plan. the goal is to boost minority businesses and to close the racial wealth gap. she's planning on doing that with $7 billion in grants to new small businesses. she's giving those to households with less than $100,000 in wealth. the goal of this all to just close that racial wealth gap and help boost minority owned small businesses. this is ahead of the black economic alliance forum in south carolina this weekend where she is going to be making that all important pitch to voters of color. huge voting bloc there in south carolina. i have to tell you, the

interesting thing in talking to voters here is i know we're all excited about the debate and who is going to be making the stage. in talking to voters on the ground they're excited they have a chance to see these people up close and in person and see for themselves what it's all about. they're excited about the debate, they're going to watch. but for them here in new hampshire and these other early states they have an opportunity to ask these candidates questions and see what their candidacy is all about. >> live there in new hampshire, thank you. you heard her mention the black economic conference tomorrow in south carolina. a new survey from the group hosting the forum shows that black voters are very uncomfortable or have reservations about those candidates. you can see them here 27% for buttigieg, 33% for warren, 31% for booker. joining me now is the executive director of the black economic alliance and tiffany cross,

co-founder and managing editor of the beat d.c. thank you for being here. what are you hoping to hear from each of these candidates this weekend? what do you think they can do or say to win you and your group over? >> thank you, it's great to be here. we put on this forum to make sure that the black economic issues that are front and center for black voters are a major part of the conversation of the cycle. we're confident based on some of the polling that we've done that black voters are really hungry for economic plans that speaks specifically to the issues that are top of mind. for example, right up there with college affordability and healthcare, was the issue of job benefits. we know that over the next ten years black unemployment is set to go over 20% if we don't retrain the black workers who are overindexed in low paying,

low skilled jobs into the jobs of the future. and so all of the candidates that will be talking to us tomorrow are going to need to speak concretely about how they're going to address these issues. >> do you think that's why when we look at some of the numbers that your group put out this week, do you think that's why some of these candidates, many of them, are having a hard time breaking through to african-american voters? >> well, i think black voters are going to be like many other voters, focused on the issues. but we are -- it's early and i think what you're seeing is that a lot of these candidates have room to grow in terms of getting familiar with the electorate. and so we have a correlation between how familiar candidates are with how comfortable they are. and so i think that the more that the candidates articulate the plans that they have for addressing these issues, the more voters will be comfortable with them and the more they'll get traction with our voters. >> it's interesting, tiffany,

when she talks about specific plans. we just talked about senator warren's plan. pete buttigieg is out with what he's calling the douglass plan. you would imagine -- is it fair to say that might end up helping them change some of those numbers we've been talking about and get more support among people of color? >> yeah, i think you have to earn america's vote with everybody. i think we have to get out of the habit of describing like, the black vote. it's not homogenous another. in the same way white suburban moms care about different things. you have to disaggregate black voters as well. what those voters value in south carolina may be different than those in new york do. mayor buttigieg's plan speaks to

economic prosperity. he's had trouble gaining traction with all voters of color, particularly in the black community. we have to acknowledge that means you're not a viable candidate. you have to be viable with all communities of color. >> you make an important point. we've heard on this show and in my conversations with folks about the idea that no, the african-american vote is not like a monolithic bloc. do you think that's why somebody like cory booker who does need to do well in south carolina to stay alive is spending less time there than snaenator harris? >> there is a false understanding perhaps that, you know, south carolina is -- >> where the black vote is? >> exactly. cory booker is a member of the community and he knows better than that. look, he's done a lot of work in iowa and beefed up his team there. i don't think that's necessarily not a smart strategy. i think booker's challenge is the message is not resonating with the community. like, we cannot pretend. he's hesitant to say this

president is a racist. i don't know what's in his heart. all evidence points to the contrary. one thing voters of all hues value is authenticity. when people feel like there's a disconnect there's going to be a problem. but look, the black economic alliance forum, all candidates aren't going to be there. they have i think four -- >> right, four candidates will be there? >> yes. we'll have four candidates there. i'll also just say that our poll actually was a nationwide survey. and so we looked at black adults around the country from rural greenville, south carolina, to, you know, philadelphia, atlanta, los angeles, around the country. and there was consistent findings around the fact that these key economic issues are really what's motivating voters. and so i don't think -- i think that, yes, we're doing this forum here in south carolina for

all of the reasons the lwhy sou carolina is important. but our findings really reflect a general black population and a general black community sentiment around what the priorities should be. >> certainly. i definitely think economic priorities resonate with everyone. i want to ask because there are the four candidates who are coming, is there a reason why senator harris isn't participating in the forum? eric swalwell who doesn't get a lot of attention, but he's been something who has been trying to resonate with voters and has focused specifically to african-american policy. is there a sense of what was going into the thinking of these candidates, whether they wanted to participate or not? why did some people choose to show up? >> sure. so we focused on the top tier candidates who had crossed the 3% threshold in the early states. that led to seven candidates who were invited. vice president biden, senator

harris and sanders are not joining us. it's exciting we were able to get four of these candidates to focus on these issues. and to lead the way, as you mentioned. pete buttigieg rolled out the douglass plan. that's the kind of agenda setting we were looking to do with this forum and hopefully will incentivize the other candidates who are with us or not to put forth a similar effort. and of course, we do intend to engage in dialogue with candidates who were not at our forum. and so we're looking forward to having a robust conversation this cycle. >> speaking of robust conversations, thanks to both of you. i appreciate it. up next, the new evidence from the pentagon that officials say proves iran is behind the attacks against two oil tankers in the middle east this week. why it's raising concerns the u.s. and iran are hurdling towards a military confrontation. here's how jeremy bash described

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video over t video overnight. officials say, if you're watching, you can see where it's lit there, this shows an iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from one of the tankers. there's another shot there. president trump also put the blame square on iran again in that interview this morning. watch. >> iran did do it. and you know they did it because you saw the boat. i guess one of the mines didn't explode. and it's probably got, essentially, iran written all over it. >> bill neely is following this developing story from london. bill, talk us through what we're hearing about this video and the response from iran who keeps saying we didn't do it. >> reporter: the response is really interesting. let's start with the video. it's what a detective might call strong but circumstantial, not conclusive, not perhaps the smoking gun in the gulf. so we see it here. u.s. central command says that's an iranian revolutionary guard

boat and it's removing a mine that's attached by magnets. it's taking it from the side of the ship and putting in the iranian boat. it says iran is simply removing the evidence. there are two photographs that show what the u.s. says is that mine attached to the side of tanker. now, remember the video was taken several hours after the incident. interestingly, iran has not reacted to the release of this video. indeed, the video didn't feature on the state tv news in iran in the last few hours. iran, however, did react angrily to secretary of state pompeo's news conference in which you said he blamed iran because of the mines, the expertise that would require, the similarity to the attacks last month. iran's foreign minister tweeting rather angrily the u.s. jumped immediately to make accusations against iran without a shred of factual or circumstantial

evidence. remember, he tweeted that before the video was released. and he said the u.s. was acting alongside israel and saudi arabia to sabotage diplomacy. today, the water was made even murkier when the japanese ship owner said the filipino crew told him that what hit the ship wasn't a mine. he said it was hit by a flying object. something came flying. i don't think there's enough here, even if the u.s. wanted it, to begin military action. it's that gray area of asymmetric warfare that iran and russia love operating in. >> bill neely, that's an important point. thank you much, appreciate that. up next, was it a hint or was the president being careful? donald trump's interesting answer to a question about his vice president mike pence and his political future. next. sident mike pence and his political future next hmm. exactly.

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president trump raised a couple of eyebrows when he talked about whether he'd back his vice president as the party's presidential nominee once he leaves office. listen. >> barack obama has said he's not going to endorse joe biden at this point. if mike pence runs for president

in 2024, does he have your automatic endorsement? >> well, it's far -- look, i love mike. we're running again. you're talking about long time. so you can't put me in that position. >> michael, listen, to be fair, that seems like a pretty standard, you can say response from a president five years out from the next potential election. i don't know there's much there there but kwhawhat's your sense? >> i think you're right. i don't know what the point of asking that question was. maybe to draw some contrast thinking trump would say something different saying absolutely, i'd back my vice president versus what barack obama said about joe biden. i think the president fooled them and gave an honest and appropriate answer. he doesn't know what the field will look like. he doesn't know if his vice president will be running in

2024. i suspect if we're at that point in time you'll hear the president say exactly what he just said. let me wait and see how this plays out. >> it does raise the interesting thought experiment of what the republican party, what the gop looks like when it's not led by donald trump. there will be a point when that happens either in 2020 or 2024. what does this look like to you. >> then it becomes does mike pence carry on the trump legacy. as joe biden is doing, remember, i ran with this guy. i'm with him. there's going to be battle. it will be an open battle within the republican primary and a battle over the party of trump versus the republican party. >> do you think it continues to lean toward trumpism or is this no going back?

>> i think it will lean toward trumpism. i think it will be on the vice president to carry that mantle should he get in the race. >> i guess in five years we'll be talking ining about that. >> i met with speaker of the house nancy pelosi on may 20 just before a major showdown at the white house stalled a possible deal to improve the country's infrastructure. >> i pray for the president of the the united states and i pray for the united states of america. >> we spoke about democracy. >> right there. see right there. that's where the first amendment is alive and well. >> and family. >> now i have seven grandsons and two grand daughters. >> oh, my gosh. >> most importantly, her relationship with the current

president, donald j. trump. >> is he fit to be president? >> the american people elected him president. not been to popular vote but electoral college. i respect the office he holds. i think i respect the office that the president holds more than he respects the office that he holds. i do believe we must hold him accountable. >> you can watch more on headliners sunday at 9:00 eastern only here on msnbc. ♪

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it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. presidential hopefuls are all over the country as they get ready to hit the debate stage in miami. vaughn is all over the country joining us from las vegas. that's his stop today on his road trip talking directly with voters about what matters most to them. the most enviable job in the next two weeks. what are you hearing in vegas? >> reporter: good morning. we made our way from california through the central valley through agriculture territory of the united states. what may come as no surprise, you hear a myriad of issues. here is a few of the folks we met along the way. it's 105 in california central valley and there's not a lack of

issues that folks want discussed. >> you have like five or six kids, it's hard to see after medical needs when they need to go to the er or go see a doctor. >> i see a lot of things in the street. i think we should be doing a lot more for the veterans. >> what issues do you want to hear them talk about? >> immigration. >> it's sad they think they should be left oaf there on the border. it's not right. >> reporter: we're crossing into nevada. state number four continuing on the western swing talking to folks. >> the most important issue on your mind. >> stop the walls. >> i feel a lot of the struggles with the teachers not being paid enough. >> truly, there's no problem getting a weapon in our society. >> top issue on my mind is civility. >> as somebody who voted for trump in 2016, considers himself quite conservative, how does the civility question play into your

decision? >> i want him to shut up. >> does it make you less inclined to vote for him? >> yes, it does. >> reporter: this is a state that's not only important to democrats during this primary process, it's one of those early voting states. kamala harris will be here this afternoon. hillary clinton won the state by just 28,000 votes back in 2016. that last gentleman you heard from, he said he is looking at this democratic field. will be watching this democratic presidential debate. it's more than a democratic audience. can you also win over the folks around these parts. >> we'll be looking for you from your next stop. make sure both hands right on the wheel. 10 and 2. thank you. appreciate it. that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. andrea mitchell reports starts now with a guest appearance from kristen welker. >> great two hours. what a marathon. >> great preliminary hour for

you as well. >> let's do it. digging in the dirt. president trump try toies to cly his assertion he would accept assistance from a foreign government in the upcoming 2020 election but is he clear enough in. >> of course you have to look at it because if you don't look at it, you're not going to know if it's bad. how will you know if it's bad? of course you give it to the fbi or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. tender box. the president blames iran for the attack on two oil tankers after the u.s. military releases ha is said what is said to be new video evidence. >> if any of those get aimed at american ships and american ship gets hit, we could see the situation totally escalate and we could be anotht war. having her say. in her first television interview,