ance. td ameritrade. of this hour of msnbc live. i'm alex witt. i'll see you at noon eastern. right now it's time for "am joy" with my good friend joy reid. >> betsy, is this a wish that is being put forward in your view by john dowd, or is this a

prelude to the president of the united states actually calling on rod rosenstein to end this investigation? >> i can tell you for sure this is what john dowd wants to happen. >> good morning and welcome to "am joy." on saturday during this very show donald trump's personal attorney, john dowd, urged deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man overseeing the russia investigation, to end the probe. now dowd first claimed to be speaking as donald trump's legal counsel. but then he backtracked. >> the one thing i can tell you, that i can break on air is i've been e-mailing back and forth with john dowd this morning. he e-mailed me to say that he hopes i will share with you all that he was speaking in his personal capacity and not speaking on behalf of the president. when he initially e-mailed me this morning, i asked him are you giving me this quote on behalf of the president. he replied, yes, speaking at his counsel. i put that in the story. now he's e-mailing me to walk

that back to say actually he wants people to view this as him speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the president. that's another e-mail i've gotten from dowd this morning. >> in a statement later distributed to multiple news organizations, dowd said he prays, quote, acting attorney general rosen stein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of attorney general jeff sessions and brings an end to the alleged russia collusion investigation, manufactured, he said, by mccabe's boss, james comey based on a fraudulent and corrupt dossier, unquote. he also threw in a quote from "cat on a hot tin roof" which is probably fitting because by many accounts, the tensions over at 1600 pennsylvania avenue are turning into a 21st century tennessee williams drama. dowd's gambit could be the latest distraction from the real plot line, the white house drowning in allegations of

collusion, infidelity, hush money, payoffs and general chaos, or it could be a shift in trump's legal stra gee as the heat from bob mueller's probe moves closer and closer to the oval office. it would take a hell of a playwright to dream this up. joining me by phone is congressman luis gutierrez. >> good morning. good to be with you. >> good to be with you, too. we know you are among more than one member of congress including representative mark pokan who have offered mr. mccabe a job essentially sailing if andrew mccabe would like to come and either work for mark pokan or yourself, and i believe there might be other democratic congressmen coming forward, he could come to work for you and have enough time an tenure to get his full pension. why are you and other democrats doing that, sir? >> well, first of all, because we think it's patently unfair

and political that he was fired at 10:00 at night on a friday night, and it was political. that should not have happened. they should have let the natural course of events play out. but, of course, mr. mccabe's wife, as the president have told us on repeated occasions, is a democrat. what the hell does your wife being a democrat have to do with your public service? i like -- how would i say this to you? i like balance, i like balance in life. i think it would be balance that mr. mccabe, after nearly 22 years of service, who was 26 hours away from pension, and if i can help make that happen and bring some balance to this situation, then i think mr. mccabe should come down. here is how i understand it, and i'm not expert on these rules. you need to have 20 years of service and you need to reach the age of 50.

so he had more than 20 years, 26 hours short of being 50 years old. that should not be a reason. listen, you're going to tell me that jeff sessions, the attorney general of the united states who lied to congress when he went to get confirmed and said, oh, no, i never spoke to the russians, who is part and parcel of this chaotic administration that we have, and donald trump, mr. i tell the truth all the time, are not going to pass judgment on andrew mccabe 26 hours before his birthday? this was mean, vin sickive, a little balance. that's all i'm doing. >> have you heard back from mr. mccabe? >> no, haven't heard back from him. but i hope he comes by and -- look, i'm being very clear, very transparent. if this resolves the issue -- on the other hand, quite honestly, if he wants to stay and work in the office through july 2nd of

2019 which is my last day in congress, he's welcome to come and work. you know i'm on the judiciary committee. i'm one of the proponents of the articles of impeachment of this president and we'd love and we are sure that he could be of great value and great service to us on the judiciary committee. >> very quickly, i want to read you the chairman of the house judiciary committee bob goodlatte had to say. he said i applaud attorney general jeff sessions for firing andrew mccabe prior to his scheduled retirement. mr. mccabe's actions have tarnished the reputation of the fbi. what do you make of republicans, including the chairman of your committee, attacking andrew mccabe and applauding him being fired such that he could not get his pension? >> think about it a moment. the judiciary committee which i'm a member, the chairman who

issued the statement, has done nothing -- although we have jurisdiction over the justice department. we have done absolutely nothing. this is a do-nothing committee where everybody knows bills go to die and which has done effectively nothing to safeguard the constitution. being on the judiciary committee is to safeguard the constitution and the greatest values of our democracy. yet it is the committee that has been completely silent. look. this is an administration that we know, and kbroi don't think funny that we have a porn star attacking the president. i think it's really sad that we have a porn star, but you know what, let me be very, very, very clear, the president of the united states lied to us. he said, oh, i don't even know that woman. we have nothing to do with her, but now he's involved in a gag order to keep her quiet and silent. what is it that the president is so afraid of? joy, it always surprises me

because he's quit to twitter on anybody that he perceives as being a threat or criticizing him. but he doesn't criticize the porn star nor the attorney representing the porn star. i wonder what's there. if the president had to pay $130,000 to a porn star in the united states of america, are there any porn stars in russia he doesn't want us to find out about? >> good questions. like you said, i wish we had a house judiciary committee that would ask some of them. >> we can't. won't, won't, won't, won't do it. but you know what? that's why we're up this morning to ask those questions. thank you. >> thank you congressman luis gutierrez, appreciate you. have a great sunday. joining me nah tash tra bertrand from "the atlantic," matthew miller, betsy woot roof and garrick guster. betsy, you were the star of the show with all the information.

give us the updates you have on the on-again, off-again person, john dowd, is his statement given to you and other outlets operative as a statement on behalf of the president that he wants this probe ended? >> without a doubt. his statement is operative. it's not operative on behalf of the president. the most recent thing he told me is he decided after i published my story that he was speaking in his personal capacity, not in his capacity as the president's lawyer. however, president trump essentially all but tweed tweeted what dowd said, that it never should have started, it was a witch hunt and created based on false pretenses. it seems like everything dowd said overlaps perfectly with what the president said. it just goes a little farther. another thing we know is the president sometimes -- i don't know if this is the case now,

but the president has people in his orbit make statements that go farther than he would like them to to see what response they get. i don't have reporting if the president directed dowd. at the same time we're seeing a huge amount of push back. after my story, a hoet of senate democrats, mike warner, the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee tweeted he was very concerned about the development and that he believes that congress needs to take steps to try to protect the mueller probe. it's very much a live story and at this point we're certainly keeping a close eye on mr. dowd. >> yes indeed. natasha here with me at the table. the term contemporaneous notes became a very important phrase when james comey was fired and announced he had kept notes. those are now in the hands of bob mueller.

so, too, are the notes that andrew mccabe kept. the handful of memos he took, he took notes about his interactions with donald trump. axios reporting last night he's already given an interview to bob mueller and he's handed over his notes to bob mueller. donald trump waking up at 8:22, after a dose of "fox & friends" and tweeted, spent very little time with mccabe, but he never took notes with me. probably at a later date. same with lying james comey. trying to push back on the contemporaneous notes. they don't take notes in front of you, donald trump. they take notes as soon as they leave the room. >> exactly. that's what james comey did. as soon as he left these meetings with drum where he asked comey to drop the investigation into michael flynn and to announce publicly he was not under investigation, comey went into his car and drafted the memos contemporaneously. this is not something he would be in a meeting with trump

taking down notes on what he said. the same thing happened with andy mccabe. it's not clear whether those includes notes about mccabe's conversations with comey in which comey would likely describe to mccabe the conversations he had with the president. not only does mccabe have firsthand experience with the president, but he also is a witness to this investigation because he was communicating with comey. these are two people very important to mueller's probe in terms of whether or not the president obstructed justice. >> we already know matthew miller from the testimony that we've already heard from andrew mccabe that in his interactions with donald trump he was asked who he voted for which seems completely inappropriate. he was chided about his wife and subjected to putdowns about her having lost the race she ran in west virginia. we now have in addition to that, donald trump in his morning

tweet storm at 8:35 a.m. this morning, matthew, tweeting why does mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, big crooked hillary supporters and zero republicans. another dem added, there is no collusion. donald trump apparently thinks only republicans are allowed to work in government unless they're andrew mccabe and they're married to a democratic. >> that's right. you can smell the fear coming through in the president's tweets this morning. he seems to be very nervous all of a sudden about this probe. if you look at the developments over the last few weeks, i think they'd give you some clue why. we found out that bob mueller has subpoenaed his personal business for records. we found out from "the new york times" they submitted questions that will give them some idea what they're looking at. he found out yesterday that andrew mccabe kept memos of their interactions and if they're like comey's, they'll

have inappropriate requests of law enforcement by the president, going back to the first days of this administration. i think we're at one of the most dangerous times for the mueller probe. you have not just the president's anger, nervousness, fear, but you also have these reports in the last few weeks that the president is increasingly comfortable that he knows how to do this job and he doesn't want people telling him no. he shouldn't take rash actions. when you combine those two trends, it puts us on a perilous path and potentially a a dangerous set of actions from the president in the next few weeks. >> there is a sense, eric, that donald trump is sort of unburdening himself from anyone with any common sense in the white house in trying to only get down to people who will do what he says and let him do what he wants. he's also doing some things that are strange for somebody who is under investigation. he's already fired jim comey which is what triggered the mueller investigation. now back to 8:02, wow, watch

comey lie under oath to senator g. when asked have you ever been an anonymous source or known anyone else to be an anonymous source. his favorite source of news, shown on "fox & friends." donald trump seems to be walking into slander against james comey, mccabe, attacking his wife. none of this seems to be intelligent politics or from a legal standpoint. >> it's a minefield for him. we call this consciousness of guilt, joy. when people are being investigated, they act out and they tweet, they send letters, make phone calls asking people to stop the investigation, asking people to lie for them, asking people to pure jer themselves for their benefit. that is consciousness of guilt. when a jury trial occurs, if one occurs for donald trump, these things will be in evidence. everything about this campaign, everything about this organization is a train wreck that we are watching happen and

donald trump is the conductor. he's used to being at the top of the food chain in his organizations. he's used to not listening to everyo everyone. he's used to people kissing up to him. that's why he doesn't listen to people who have common sense. those around him are surely telling him, man, chill out, stop doing this. but he's going to do it anyway. he watches "fox & friends," tweets their quotes, tweets their segments because that is his source of news and they are pandering to him and to their audience for him. >> meanwhile comey is talk, too. he said mr. president, the american people hear my story soon. they can judge for themselves. he has a book coming out. betsy, whether or not donald trump is winding up to firing or forcing the firing of mueller? >> it seems like where he's at in terms of just his view as of the last 24 hours on mueller, he likely feels emboldened by the

firing of mccabe and is almost certainly speculating about it. it's something he's interested? >> what happens if that happens? what happens inside the justice department if that happens? do you think rosenstein will do it? >> i don't think so. i think the president would have to fire his way down the line to find someone who did. i think the president is testing the waters, seeing if republicans push back on him. if he doesn't hear that kind of push back, you'll see him move. >> eric guster, what happens from a legal standpoint? is that an additional obstruction of justice? >> it's obstruction of justice. but he's going to play poker. if he knows an indictment is going to happen, he'll get rid of him. >> last but not least, natasha, will republicans push back if donald trump accomplishes the firing of mueller? >> lindsey graham said this morning it would be catastrophic, the end of his presidency if he tried to fire mueller. that being said, there has been no effort by the republicans to advance this long-stalled legislation to protect the special counsel.

>> we have the house judiciary chairman praising the sacking of andrew mccabe without a pension. we'll be back. thank you all very much. up next, it's march madness at the white house. stay with us. i just got my cashback match, is this for real? yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match

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concerned, i appreciate his commitment and service and i wish him well. he's a good man. >> mr. president, what did you say to rex tillerson? >> rex and i have been talking about this for a long time. we got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things. >> the great rachel maddow pointed out this week, the white house sputing out a different timeline of rex tillerson's firing from what tillerson and the state department say happened. chief of staff john kelly says he called tillerson to give him a heads up and mentioned that tillerson was in the bathroom during the call. the state department says diller son didn't know he was being fired until trump tweeted it. the secretary had every intention of saying. the secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason, unquote. the person who released that statement has now also been fired. joining me, nick schmitt, former assistant chief of protocol at

the white house and rose zoo brooks. there are a few strange things besides the gratuitous detail of him being in the bathroom when he was fired. tillerson used to head exxon mobil, a $500 billion deal on the table before sanctions in 2014 ended the possibility of that deal between the big russian oil company and exxon mobil and then tillerson gets made secretary of state. he has this relationship with putin. he's in there to be sort of a russian asset in a censor a friend. then he turns on russia thusly. this is a transcript of him speaking to reporters on monday about the attempted murder of former russian spies. he said i've become extremely concerned about russia. we spent most of the last year vitting a lot in attempts to solve problems, after a year we didn't get far.

what we saw is a pivot to be more aggressive. this is very concerning to me and others, there seemed to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is. if, in fact, this attack in the uk is the work of the russian government, this is a pretty serious action. then he releases a strong statement on monday attributing responsibility for the nerve attack to russia saying from ukraine to syria and now the ukraine, russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting for open disregard for the sovereignty of states. do you detect a shift away from russia with whom he had been such a good friend? >> i think clearly. tillerson's big mistake when he accepted the job of secretary of state, he thought he was being hired to actually do a real job, look at the facts, make his best judgment and so forth. he didn't realize that trump was looking for a yes man and a suck-up, not a guy who was going to actually look at the evidence and make decisions based on it.

i don't think tillerson was a good secretary of state. i have lots of criticisms in particular about how he handled the internal side of that and the building itself and the staff there. but i do think he seems to have made an honest effort to call it like he saw it with regard to russia, and donald trump did not like that one little bit. >> the timeline suggests he was fired because of what he said. they're trying to juggle the timeline. do you read it that he was fired because he made that strong statement against russia? >> on the one hand it seemed clear for quite a while that tillerson's head was on the chopping block and it was only a matter of time. anything could have set trump off. on the other hand, recent events including the firing of andrew mccabe at the fbi 24 hours before he was eligible for retirement and so on, certainly add to a picture of a president who is particularly sensitive right now to everybody who is critical in any way of his handling of russia.

so it's entirely possible that that's the thing that finally set trump off. on the other hand, trump being trump it could be that he didn't like the why tillerson combed his hair. >> or that he called him an f'ing moron. >> that seems to be something for everybody. he's going to have to fire a lot more people. >> rosa was charitable in saying he wasn't a good secretary of state. the general read is that he was a terrible secretary of state, maybe one of the worst we've ever had. do you comport with the idea that he came in thinking he was a real job? i heard that he came in to dismantle the state department. >> i think he came in thinking he was going to do a real job. he and the president never got along, as we've seen in the reporting. in my talking to former and current state department officials, i think the general sentiment is with tillerson leaving now, he's leaving the department broken, operationally, organizationally, we have a number of key

ambassadorial posts around the globe not filled. a number of undersecretary, assistant secretary roles not filled. we've seen that vacuum of leadership for the department, for our key allies across the globe, it's usual that we fill those spots and move forward and hopefully secretary designate pompeo can work closely with the white house because they do have that relationship. let's put forward qualified experienced individuals in these roles so we can move forward. >> do people think the dismantling was deliberate and tillerson went in to wreck the state department on purpose or that he was incompetent? >> i don't think he was incompetent. you cannot be an income at the present time person to run exxon mobil. however, he did a restructuring initiative, they cut about 2,000 jobs over the last year.

so i do think it was deliberate in a sense. going forward, i think they need to take a good look at the priority positions we need to fill with dedicated career individuals who know what they're doing as we move forward in this complicated world. we have the president meeting with the north korean leader. who is going to lead those talks on the state department side? who is going to brief them up on that? so you're seeing it across the board. >> rosa, that presumes that the white house wants to have a functioning state department, wants to do typical diplomacy. the way we're set up right now, rex tillerson as secretary of state had not fully implemented the sanctions that were overwhelmingly passed by congress. it seems when it comes to russia, what the white house wants is a secretary of state who will do nothing when it comes to russia. >> i think the white house had a rad cat critique of not only the

state department, but the entire executive branch of the government, which is that it's full of time-wasting people who sit around and don't do anything, we need to get rid of them, we need to be efficient. i don't think tillerson thought he was wrecking the state department. i think he mistaken by believed we get rid of these lightweights who sit around and do nothing, we'll make it a better state department. i think what he missed is nobody would deny there is waste in the federal government, but what he miffed when it comes to diplomacy, all that talking, that's what you do, gather information, talk to people. that's the slow painful hard work of diplomacy and that's what we have no ability to do right now. >> why would any young person coming out of college with a degree related to foreign service go into the job at state right now? >> absolutely. watching the news, seeing things the president tweets, what you saw with mccabe over the weekend. anyone who has the interest in

going into public service i think at this point, it's very hard for them to look and say, wow, i want to go into this administration, i think that's going to affect us for the next decade at the state department and across the government most likely. so no, i don't see why someone would. >> they can't get quantity or quality at this point because of the way they are. rosa brooks, nick schmitt, thank you very much. have a great sunday. it's election day in russia for what it's worth, but the focus of the free world is on poison. that's next. does this map show the peninsula trail? you won't find that on a map. i'll take you there. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop.

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a military grade nerve agent in europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance. there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of mr. skripal and his daughter and for threatening the lives of other british citizens in salisbury. it is essential we now come together with our allies to defend our security, to stand up for our values and to send a clear message to those who would seek to undermine them. >> russia is going to the polls today, no surprise, vladimir putin is set to win another term as president. just days after the uk kicked out 23 russian diplomats and russia responded by expelling exactly 23 british diplomats, all in the wake of russia's attempted assassination of a former spy in england. sergei skripal was poisoned along with his daughter yulia.

while the u.s. joined other western nations in a statement condemning russia for the att k attack, this is the best donald trump could muster in response to a blatant assault on america's closest ally. >> it sounds to me like it would be russia based on all the evidence they have. >> joining me is author of the book "the future is history," vladimir care muir sa, and nbc news correspondent keir simmons. i want to bring some of what we were talking about on camera. how should we in the west be looking at this election? it feels like vladimir putin is trying to be president for life and probably will succeed. what are we to glean from the fact that roush is still going to the polls. >> first of all, we should president call it an election. it's not an election in any sense of the word. a lot of people are going to the polls because, as horrifying as

it is, as humiliating as it is, it is their only chance to say anything to power. they can cast a protest vote, and some people do and feel profoundly humiliated by it, and some people have chosen to stay home because they don't want to participate in legitimizing this ritual. it's also completely robs you of agency. a lot of people went and voted for vladimir putin because there was a huge get-out-the-vote effort. everything was turned to getting people to go out to the polls because vladimir putin's main political opponent, the anti corruption activist has called for a boycott of the elections. >> vladimir, you, yourself, have been subjected to the rath of the putin regime, yourself twice poisoned. now you have this attack, not inside russia, but inside the uk, which it's not clear they

haven't done that before. but why in your mind would they take a chance on enraging the nato alliance so close to this sham election? >> frankly, what's new here? we know there has been a strangely high mortality rate in recent years of people who in one way or the other have crossed the path of the putin regime. the bulk of those instances have happened in russia. i have to say great britain has come a close second. we know the notorious case, the name of lit vinnen in co-and now the case of sergei skripal, the problem is the british authorities have never really responded. it took the widow of alexander litvinenko to force a public inquiry.

if no reaction happened before, the point of view of the people doing these things, why not continue. as they say, it's better late than never. hopefully now the british authorities will respond in a proper way, by passing a law that is already in the books in five countries including the united states and a law that stipulates that those people who engaged in these types of abuses of international norms, in human rights violations, in corruption, will no longer be allowed to come to british soil, use the banking system or bias sets in the uk. i want to say a few words about the so-called election you spoke about. this is of course not a real election. for the several hours now that the polling stations have been open across the country, several activist groups, opposition movements, including an open russia movement has been monitoring the violations, we've seen ballot stuffing and

carousel voting, these violations are not that important because the basic factor of this so-called election is lack of choice. there were two -- you know, if the question is whether this election is rigged or not, i think we can say this so-called election was rigged long before the first polling place was even open. there were two major opposition figures planning to publish vladimir putin. one was the leader of the russian democratic organization and the other was the anti corruption activist who campaigned all across the country. neither is on the ballot. boris was killed three years ago on a bridge in front of the kremlin. and the other was deliberately blocked from the election by a trumped-up court decision. it's not difficult to win when your opponents aren't on the ballot. putin will receive 75, 80%, they

have no more meaning than the 89% by mubarak. when people in the west repeat this kremlin propaganda that vladimir putin is so popular among russian citizens, it's important to remind ourselves that the so-called popularity was never actually tested in a free and fair election against genuine opponents. the obvious question, if you really are so popular, which are you so afraid of a real election? >> you have this statement that came out from the uk, france, germany and even the u.s. joined in on thursday about the poisoning. let's go to that, this use of a military grade nerve agent, a type developed in russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in europe since a second world war. that's not 100% clear. buzzfeed last june looked at 14 deaths inside the uk that were linked to russia, that were

suspicious, written off as suicides or accidents, et cetera. even in the u.s. there are new questions about a former russian official who was killed or who died in washington, d.c. on the eve of a planned meeting with the u.s. justice department according to new acts who cast doubts on the u.s. having written off that death as an zpt. there are these questions of whether this was the first time it's been done. i think to vladimir's point, you have the west playing this sort of game where they treat putin as this legitimately elected figure, deal with him as a legitimate figure who is in the u.n. with him and try to chastise him as he's suddenly done wrong. has the entire west gotten it wrong when dealing with putin not as an outlaw? >> there's a shock horror, intelligence agencies with notable exceptions will at times resort to assassinations.

when britain expels 23 russian diplomats, many of whom will have been themselves spies and russia does the same in ekts change, the fact that there are russian spies in britain and british spies in russia is kind of a gentleman's agreement. one of the trs questions is what is the thinking inside the kremlin because, for example, it's possible to look at this and consider whether someone like vladimir putin is trying to think three steps ahead. perhaps, and i don't know this, but perhaps he felt as if britain had too much effective intelligence in russia at this point and decided he could legitimize this, he could have this happen and that the consequences of him being able to remove british diplomats from russia would be beneficial for russia. maybe he's trying to split the

alliance, split the west, cause more chaos, and in a sense that statement has helped to push against that, if you like. but words are words. the question, as your other guests have suggested, is what actions will be taken, and particularly for russia it is financial actions that have a real effect. what the west has really struggled with with russia over a long period of time is trying to engage with russia and not to descend into another cold war. vladimir putin has made pretty clear some time ago now, in a speech in munich, for example, that his view of relations with the west are pretty fixed. so to try to unravel that perspective from president putin i think has maybe been a fool's errand. >> indeed. i heard a quick yes from masha that we're getting it completely wrong. i'll ask you for an afterward.

thank you all. coming up in our next hour, the latest development on the stormy daniels lawsuit and the shadowy group using facebook to manipulate american voters. more "am joy" after the break. i'm not a bigwig.

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is putin a friend or foe of united states. >> i think that's something russia has to make that determination. they have to decide whether or not they're a good actor or bad act per. you can see up until this point, we're going to be tough on russia until they decide change their behavior. >>s the would you say equivocates on russia, even since officially targeted russia for targeting the cybergrid for the last two years. the next guest said trump has nearly not gone far enough when it comes to russia. general mccaffrey tweeted, reduction lar rereluctantly i have been concluded that president trump is a serious threat to u.s. national security. he is refuses to protect vital u.s. interests from active russian attackses.

joining me now is retired general mccaffrey. thank you for being here. i've been watching msnbc three times longer than i've been working here. and you've been a consistent voice on this network. i understand consider you, sir, to be a very noninflammatory speaker. you said reluctantly you've concluded that the president of the united states is a serious threat to national security and under the sway of mr. putin, that raised my alarm. i immediately text might producers. can you elaborate on that, sir? do you believe that donald trump is compromised by the russians? >> i don't know what's going on. the situation is simply astonishing there's no question that mr. putin in particular is an active threat to u.s. security interests as well as those of our nato allies. it's not just hacking of our election. hacking of our power grid, it's also direct armed confrontation in syria.

interference in u.s. security operations in afghanistan. threats to the baltic states. threats threats to poland. active combat operations in eastern ukraine. the list goes on. by the way, i might add that u.s. am baes nikki haley has been clear as is secretary mattis and h. wrnchts mcmaster. so, the other voices in the administration has been sense only but i cannot understand why president trump simply won't respond to this guy who is an active -- an active criminal oligarchy in russia which is hostile to u.s. interests. >> you know, we had rex tillerson potentially fired for issuing a strong and accurate statement in the wake of the attempted assassination of a former russian spy inside the uk. have this really terrifying story of russian cyber attacks

on our power grid. meaning that they could come in and switch off our power plants inside the united states. and then, of course, you have murders, buzzfeed rotting on the murder of a former russian media czar, and these murders taking place, not just potentially in the uk, but potentially inside the united states. this man was ruled an accident or suicide but in washington, d.c. is there a non -- you know, inflammatory explanation for why an american president would not respond to that, with some sort of declaration that we are in hostilities with russia? >> well, none that occur to me. now, the intelligence community, u.s. intelligence community and our allies have been unequivocal that these are active investigations. that attempted assassination of the russian and his daughter in london, simply incredible. that was a signature

assassination. putin is apparently saying to the world, i'll come kill you wherever you are, if you oppose me. i might add one of your earlier guests said quite clearly, the biggest victims of putin's criminal oligarchy are the russian people. these magnificent physics, ballet, literature, and in terms of their soldiers, they under now again the control of a dictatorship. >> before we go, should donald trump be removed as president as a result in your mind being compromised foreign power? >> oh, i think that's way beyond where i am right now. i just want to point out unequivocally, the commander in chief, of the intelligence source and services must confront russian threats to u.s. national security and he's not doing it. >> general barry mccaffrey, very sober speaker and information, thank you, sir. >> thank you, more "am joy" after the break.

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♪ the bottom line here is our position, joy has always been the same. it has not wavered. she should be permitted to speak to the american people. the american people should decide who's telling the truth. good morning, welcome back to "am joy." well, it should come as no surprise that the scandal rocking the television president is unfurling a lot of the hotly anticipated drama. filled with allegations of cover-ups, hush money, physical threats and an attorney who is quite the media maven.

meet entrepreneur and race car driver for stormy daniels. the adult film star suing president trump over the agreement she signed but trump did to keep quiet about their alleged affair. the late on friday, attorneys for trump filed paperwork claiming daniels is on the hook for allegedly $20 million for breaking the secret agreement. that comes aflurry of media appearances. >> was she threatened in any way? >> yes. >> was she threatened physical harm? >> yes. >> we have been approached by six separate women who claim to have similar stories of that or that of our client. >> he lined to state who threatened his client or the nature of the threats. instead, teasing that more will emerge than the clip to "60 minutes" that has yet to air. >> is her life threatened? >> again, i'm not going to

answer that, people have to tune into that on "60 minutes." >> i'm not going to get into the relationship. again, that's what the interview is for. >> details surrounding that she's going to discuss that on the "60 minutes." michael avonotti. has trump finally met his participate. of the beat, michael singleton. and writer and comment trart and msnbc legal analyst. i'm going to start with you. we were talking on the break about politics and how showmanship and showbiz plays into it. when it comes to donald trump the disadvantage that robert mueller has is that he can't talk. the disadvantage that the fbi guys have, there's a limited amount they can say. when it comes to this fight with this former porn star stormy daniels donald trump is fighting a very media savvy attorney on tv all the time and he's talking and seems to be winning.

>> yeah, obviously a disadvantage to donald trump that he talks too much, he talks like a guilty person. i think it says something about where we are in history that a sitting u.s. president who as a reminder won over 80% of the white evangelical vote is pursuing a $20 million lawsuit against a private citizen for something that he alleges never happened. >> right. >> so, thinking, seeing people can presume at this point, yes, there was an affair that took place between stormy daniels and this president. i don't mean to stomach the s l salacious details of it. it matters with the law. if he does it or someone from the entourage physically threatened his woman. and we've seen behavior from donald trump and his attorney, as in the past 30 years in the public eye. i think that's a challenge for him to navigate. there are a lot of questions. does this give credence to the

russia probe. the trickle-down allegations that was in the russia probe about the peeping tape that he call it. so i think this is something that people are go to be paying attention to. and it impacts our democracy. and the fact that his attorney is the person who represented hulk hogan who's name is charles harder. the puns in this story wright themselves. i think we can guarantee that the documentary on this presidency is going to be split in 30 different parts maybe a netflix series. like is that o.j. series. let's talk about the first points. i want to come to katy in a minute. but i want to talk about the base of this absorbed in the motel through fox news a self-contained bubble of information where donald trump can never do wrong and always write. this is the attorney talking

about the potential physical threats to a young woman that donald trump claims he never had any kind of affair with. >> does your lawsuit contain allegations of threats against your client? >> yes. >> it does. does your lawsuit, as it's currently submitted to the court contain details of what ms. daniels has, whether she has text messages, photos, videoing and other corroborating evidence? >> no, we have not set forth details. >> does she have such? >> i'm not going to answer if she does. >> what if he does, like the saga of monica lewinsky and the blue dress. we heard about the outrage of the people on the right. where is the outrage right now? >> i think, joy, we're living in historical times. the way we understand the know the presidency is being

drastically transformed under the conservancy of donald trump. those same individuals who rallied against bill clinton april decade ago during his issues. now, look if this is just something that occurred with the president before he was in office, before he was running then why get why some would want to ignore it. we have to keep in mind that there was over $130,000 that was paid out towards the end of his candidacy. just a week before the pledc presidency, to me, that does admit some form of guilt. so, i think those individuals have to set aside their personal agenda for why they support the president and recognize what we're seeing, joy, is not in sync with the values or morals that they portray to represent. i think evangela athink evangel

of licegitimate macy. i think that's the inspectsatat that we should maintain. >> was the hiring of this guy named chris harder. the jokes do sort of write themselves. this is him talking about this new tough lawyer that's been hired. if you're an supposedly innocent man, donald trump is stacking up with lawyers he likes to sue. here he talking about mr. harder yesterday. >> i have no reason to district mr. harder. the new attorney. i'm sure he's a very fine lawyer. he got a great result for hulk hogan. there's no question about that. joy, i have a saying and it goes something like this, don't tell me the cases you've won, tell me who you've beaten. >> that's a pretty good quote. this is the cases who chris harder has won and who he has

beaten. he represented melania trump in suing a reporter in "the daily mail" in an article that suggested that the official first lady worked as an escort. they were forced to retract it, the daily mail was. and there was also a lawsuit who sued gawker. if donald trump her had anything to do with this porn star he's sure lawyering up with people who have experience with people who have done things. >> and charles harder is no stranger to the trump family. why in the world if drch trump has claimed he's had no relationship with stormy daniels and nothing to do with the settlement agreement. why has he hired eye lawyer who said it was going to pet the federal court.

the agreement he never signed. you're you're backing yourself in the corner, donald trump. that you were supposed to be a party to that agreement, that you failed to sign that agreement. so that may have invalidated that agreement. >> this one woman, she and vladimir putin are the two people donald trump will not criticize. no matter what will she says or does. she's out there attacking his trolls on twitter. he says nothing about her, she's not know funny nickname. it turns out that the attempts to silence stormy daniels started not in this last election, but in 2011, according to "the washington post," michael cohen, trump's heavy of a lawyer interceded in 2011 to prevent porn star stormy daniels from airing her story about an alleged affair with donald trump telling the agent who arranged for publication that he could harm her career. so, he's been afraid of this

woman for a long time. >> yeah, i wonder what stormy and putin have on trump. god bless stormy daniels and her fantastic lawyer. i don't think there's two better people to take on the president but, the poetic justice, you can imagine of a porn star bringing down this president of the united states? i am here for this story. you know something that's also important to remember, everybody is forgetting, despite what everybody knows about trump's marriage. he is a married man. does anybody remember melania trump? the one thing stormy daniels has done is not only expose the shadow of the presidency that donald trump's presidency is but also the shadow of the marriage that he and melania have had. in many ways stormy daniels has completely diminished and made the first lady of the united states completely irrelevant and

it continues on the pattern of donald trump disrespecting women. >> you know, when bill clinton allegedly had affairs, hillary clinton was asked by reporters to answer for it. she had to sit on "today" show and answer for her husband's infidelity. she was made to. before he was elected and after, answer questions even up to the time she was running for president. there were democrats as well making her answer for his alleged infidelity and his unalleged unwanted sexual advance of this woman. why has the media left melania trump alone? >> well, i think hillary clinton made herself available. i don't think melania has made herself available the entire tenure as first lady. i think we bring up a good point of the marriage. we don't know if there's a prenuptial arrangement with it as well? >> you mean an infidelity

clause. >> well, as evidenced not one by two but three baby mamas in the headlines right now. when wife number one came out and called herself the real first lady, melania stooped and made a statement about it. other people may have been more dignified. but in this reality tv, the white house, the baby mama number three responded to baby mama -- you know, it looked like the real housewives battle of the white house. >> yeah. >> yes, i think if melania doesn't ever have to come out, she will face these tough questions but i think like ivanka's interview, she asked if she believes her father's accusers. she said it was an inappropriate question to ask a daughter. but you're not just a daughter, you are one of the most important unelected officials. and she's going to have to

answer some of these questions. i don't think she will. i don't think we'll hear a lot of responses but even a book from melania. if donald trump survives the next two years i'd like to see the women whoever his opponent will bring to the debate stage just as with hillary clinton that her husband allegedly had extramarital relations with. >> indeed, indicatety, we had a reporter on yesterday that said she was threatened after reporting on the alleged marital rape of melania trump. >> we're lawyers but we have to abide by rules of professional conduct and states which have a bar license. and it's a really important thing to think about the timing of this case. allegedly, right, this happened with stormy daniels back in 2006. but when was the first time that we saw a settle agreement? 2016, on the eve of the presidential election. and that timing is crucial because we've now heard in 2011,

michael cohen, the big bully himself was trying to shut up stormy daniels. well, why? because president trump was flirting with the idea of running for the presidency back in 2012. but when did it actually become a real threat to president trump? right before he was elected. so, that is why that is key. it's crucial to think about what was the value or the consideration that was given to stormy daniels to be able to keep her mouth shut. and whether or not that was the real basis for the entry into the settlement agreement. we'll see whether it goes to arbitration behind closed doors or whether or not we'll get it out in a court of law. >> well, if there are six more women, we'll keep on doing this story. we'll be back later. thank you very much. don't book anything on weekends we'll have to have you come back probably every weekend to discuss this until it comes to an end. up can go up, i will tell you why you should pay close attention to something called cambridge analytic ka. that's next.

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♪ i understood early that facebook was how trump was going to win. twitter was how he talked to the people. facebook is how he won. facebook was the message, the highway on his car drove on. >> this week, we learned a little bit more about how your top source for baby pics and

engagement photos turned into a battleground. facebook has banned cambridge analytica. a firm that ran the data operations. after a report surfaced that they accessed the private information of 50 million users without permission. steve bannon was once its vice president. last fall, special counsel robert mueller asked for the e-mails of any cambridge employees who worked on the complain. christopher wylie described how the firm weaponenized personal data to wage a culture war. >> we would know what kinds of mess 5aging you'd be susceptibl to. including the framing, the topics, stone, whether or not it's scary, that kind of thing. websites would be created. blogs would be created, whatever we think this target profile

will be receptive to. we will create content on the internet for them to find. then they see that, and they click it and they go down the rabbit hole. >> in a statement to nbc, cambridge analytica denied it. joining me now. and i want to start with another byte from mr. wylie who spoke to the guardian. this is how cambridge analytica went about gathering up all of your data. take a look. >> if you joined the app, i would not just see your facebook profile, i would see all of facebook profiles of everybody that you're friends with. we would only need to, you know, touch a couple hundred thousand people to expand into their entire social network which would then scale us to most of america. those profiles were used as the basis of the algorithms that became the foundation of

cambridge analytica itself. >> you know, gabriel, mr. wylie has said in a sense cambridge analytica developed psy psychographic profiles. downloaded and gave their data. but facebook gave all of their friends data who didn't give permission. so they're building these profiles and using that to target you with just the think that would get you to change your mind. this is psychological warfare. how is it legal to be done through facebook? >> well, really, joy, you raise a good point. the regulation is a complete gray area. it's the wild west as facebook has slowly come to acknowledge. they're just happy to rake in the money from the advertising platform that they've created. they're not altruistic. they change because the governments revoke or say you can't do this.

in facebook, the american people have decided even after all of their data is sold off and used against them they're still happy to use facebook. now, this is making the case that the government needs to take some action. >> yeah. and that's talk about what the trump campaign actually got out of cambridge analytic. under the guidance of brat parspars parseadd le. it involves voter burnout, buying $5 million in television ads and determining where trump should travel. the man who used cambridge analytica is now going to be running the 2020 trump campaign. how worried should americans be? >> brad parsecal who directed

it, in terms of election in terms of harvesting 50 million profiles on facebook in order to target voters better. i think one aspect that looked really interesting the person who created, sort of the liaison to develop this software was a russian-american based in st. petersburg there has been more reporting done on cambridge analytica's tice to russia. we found out in 2014, that this oil company was asking the parent company, how can we learn more about the political targets of american voters. there was a lot of confusion surrounding by a russian oil company wanted to know how to target voters in the united states. so, these ties to russia go back and they've been vehemently denied by cambridge analytica. >> i think there's a lot of speculation, this has not been corroborated. but somehow if the russian state

government and actors got ahold of these facebook profiles, they could augment, amp lal fi by putting this bot army behind it which would be a force multi that pli and with steve bannon who is a campaign chairman on the board of cambridge analytica. and you have michael flynn. and that stands out to me, michael flynn who was the foreign national security adviser was an visor. taking money from the kremlin sitting at the table with vladimir putin. i want to go to a byte on what chris wylie said on what bannon in particular wanted out of this relationship. >> steve wanted weapons for culture.

that's what he wanted. and we offered him a way to accomplish what he wanted to do. which was -- which was change the culture of america. >> and kurt, having worked for breitbart, change the culture of america and change it into what? >> steve has talked be his goal of destroying, deconstructing the administrative state of this country. tearing down the pillars, whether free press, mainstream media, establishment of political parties that's his goal all along. he wants to use social media and facebook to wage that war. to target people manipulate them. to advance the idea really of feeding them their brand of news what we would call fake news and infiltrate how they think. >> infiltrate how they think to turn people into what? what does he want people to believe in? will he wants people to be soldiers in his army of disruption. against sailing against everything that is normal, and

establishment, he wants to use these people to amplify their rhetoric. the thing that stands out this data, 50 million profiles and information that cambridge has has clearly been shared with bannon, with breitbart and the trump campaign. these data sets are out there. we don't know how far they go, who has control of them, is brad going to use them in the coming campaign because he haven't been destroyed? >> indeed. the other people given access to them, russian oil companies. we now have in "the new york times" a russian oil company was interested in targeting american voters. we're sending them stuff about political targeting. and he said he added that they just don't seem to be interested in how they can be used commercially. why in the world would they want this data? >> clearly, we know in russia,

the state is enter defiintertwi of the big business in that country. >> and we also have, natasha, news from the daily beast, wikileaks is also connected to cambridge analytica. one of the leaders wrote that he reached out to julian assange's missing 33,000 missing e-mails. >> i would add there's still a lot we don't know about the trump operation. we know a number of people connected to the campaign who will paid by llcs and shell companies to conduct social media work. we still don't know what the content of that social media work stands out. one name that stands out, a michael flynn kind of guy, brought in before the campaign. he was put on the list of potential witnesses to kind of figure out who this guy is, whether or not he was connected

to cambridge analytica. and why he was paid via a venture capital firm by the trump campaign that was perhaps used to shield the content of his work. so the social media saeaspect o trump's campaign during the election is shrouded in secrecy. >> yeah, brad is running the campaign. and there's talk that jared kushner is going to have a soft cushion. and you're getting the old crew back together. >> and now without bannon. >> well, bannon is in political exile, but he's also in france, italy, trying to build new alliances with the political parties going on there. after the election, they went on this global tour promote what they were doing how they did it in the u.s. with trump, and trying to sell others. >> wow, manufacturing world consent worldwide.

thank you, guys. up next, more reaction to stormy daniels and the mccabe firing. later in the show, a political assassination you need to know about. don't go away. ♪ ♪ there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future... and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. ♪ ♪ the future is for the unafraid. wemost familiar companies,'s but we make more than our name suggests. we're an organic tea company.

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♪ i think the president's attorney, frankly, does him a disservice when he says that and when he flames the investigation that way. chris, if you look forced jurisdiction for robert mueller, first and foremost what did russia do to this country in 2016. that's extremely important and has nothing to do with collusion. to suggest that mueller should shut down and if he's suggesting collusion, if you have an innocent client, act like it. >> he weighed in this morning as the morning presidential defeat storm, back with me, tiffany kloss, michael newton. and let's listen to

representative gowdy and whether or not president shutrump shoul interfere with him? >> i can tell you, let him do his job. folks we've interviewed there's no evidence of collusion. that's the best i can do. executive branch investigations have more credibility. they have more tools and that's what i think my fellow citizens ought to be waiting for and have confidence in. not congressional investigations that are run by guys running for the senate in california who have never met a camera that they didn't fall in love with. >> more tools, interviewed more people as well. there's been a very limited pool of people that the house intelligence committee even bothered to talk to. what do you make of trey gowdy who is retiring saying what he's say? >> that's equivalent to a shot of vodka. what i mean about that that's when they get their liquid courage and start talk big to the president. while in office, everybody checks in with him.

and i think they have to let mueller work. i don't want anyone to feign surprise when this president starts to go after rod rosenstein or robert mueller. we just saw what happened with mccabe. set to retires, fired two days before then. hopefully, he will listen to trey gowdy, i doubt it. i think it's going to be a war with the fbi to try to discredit them. it's irony. and do you remember when barack obama was in office, and everyone criticized him for not being stuff enough on russia? >> yeah. >> like, i mean, it's ridiculous the stark contrast. it's the same exact people making those comments then. and today have been radio silent on the way this president has handled that foreign adverse sorry. >> at the same time, the feel of people who are critical to donald trump and critical and

golf buddies, here's lindsey graham on cnn earlier today being asked whether or not that. >> are you worried the president is prepared for the firing of mueller? is it-t su it sure looks like that by his defeats. >> that would be the beginning of the end of his president we're because a rule of law nation. >> marco rubio on "meet the press" earlier. >> he should have been allowed to finish through the weekend. that said, there's an inspector general report that's due. and work that's being done. and after he retired that group would have indicated wrongdoing or something that was actionable. there are things that could be done after the fact. 48 hours, i would have certainly done it differently. >> that was marco rubio talking at firing of about drndrew mcca.

he's 50 today. they talk a good game, do you think they would take any action? >> they have to, joy. this does appear to be political retribution on the part of the president. we have to figure out if jeff sessions did this because he wanted to do a favor for the president or get into good graces with the president. or did he really do this based on the office of the inspector general's recommendation that mccabe should be fired? we don't know. and unless and until we see some type of report from the i.g., i think a lot of people are going to believe it was political retribution. look, joy, this is not normal. we're seeing from this president he has fundamentally changed the way leadership, as we know it in this country, should be done. the government we have, joy, should be no more or less than the government we deserve. what i mean, evangelicals, democrats, republicans and the voters, with our willingness to

speak up what we know is wrong and unjust, that would determine the forward for our country. we hope that people like marco rubio and others continue to speak out against things that are detrimental to our country. donald trump has put the values that we maintain and hold as a society at risk. and we cannot allow one individual to bring this country down. presidents come and go. this country has to maintain beyond that. >> but when is your party going to do anything about it? lindsey graham said if he ordered the firing of mueller it would be the beginning of the end of his presidency? do you really believe your party would live a finger to end the presidency? >> no, joy, i don't. too many republicans have been able to put aside what is absolutely immoral of this president. the list can go on. they see that they have the legislation that is in their favor. but i think they forget to realize, they serve the people.

not themselves, not special interests, but the people. as i said earlier, presidents come and go, joy. the aftermath, whether good or bad, guess who has to clean it up? all of us. and it's not going to be an easy job. >> indeed. indeed. i want to pivot now to talk about what republicans are willing to do, potentially, to block the elevation of donald trump's new choices to lead the cia and to lead the state department. mike pompeo. mi miss haspel connected to that, here's rand paul saying he would stand in the way. >> you're saying you would do everything you can to block the nominations of mike pompeii owe and gina haspel. >> i'll do what ittic thats. >> i think it's he's an outlier. >> do they think anything to be dutifully appointed for the senate, maybe rand paul ends up

filling a filibuster but they end up with it anyway? >> it's great that rand paul is saying all of this stuff, is he going to have the backing of his party? and it's interesting just like you tell a child not to do something, i have so much anxiety, joy, what trump is going to do to mueller. just when you tell a child not to do something, i feel like he's going to do it even more. he's surrounding himself with yes people. that's what he wants. that's what he did with tillerson replacing him with pompeo, who everybody nose is aya man. it worries me, who are we replacing? trump is very good at firing people. this morning on "face the nation," bob corker said he expects trump to pull out of the iran deal by may. what are we going to replace that deal with? yes, we're firing people but we can't surround ourselves with people who say yes, but what comes after yes, sir? >> yeah, it looks like they may

be replacing people in congress. a new poll just released this morning, should congress be controlled by democrats or republicans. 50% democrats, 40% republicans. another poll number, do you have a high degree of interest in the upcoming elections? 60% of democrats. 54% have a high degree of interest. 57% of clinton voters, high degree. thank you to, all. >> we here at "am joy" want to wish a very happy 99th birthday to mr. tom franklin. grandfather to our belinda walker. look at that great picture. up next, more "am joy." and your approval rating... goes here. test drive the ztrak z540r at your john deere dealer

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despite the music and dancing this is not a happy occasion. ♪ the festa's in the streets of sean paolo to mourn the murder of a prominent politician once described as a tires social warrior. the biggest march is in her hometown of rio de janeiro.

this is the woman whose city has such outrage. a voice for policecity. >> the story of mariel franco is starting to garner attention all around the world. franco, a 38-year-old city council member in rio de janeiro, brazil, was killed along with her driver on wednesday night, in what many suspect was a political assassination. franco gained attention in brazil for her no-holds-barred style of politics, her vocal criticism of police violence, in a city where scores of black men are killed, many by the police every year. this was franco less than one month ago, speaking about the military police takeover in rio.

joining me now is daniella gomez silva with the university of texas at austin. daniella, thank you so much for being here. tell us a little bit about m marielle franco and what kind of impact she was having in brazil. >> thank you for having me. it's a pleasure to talk about these issue and thank you for the opportunity to make marielle's voice echo in a certain way. marielle was a young leader. she was 38 years old. she came from a really tough favela unit and she had a history of activism in her

community, and later political participation. she was the fifth most voted councilwoman in municipal elections in rio de janeiro in 2016 and she had more than 50,000 votes. so you can imagine the representation of a woman, a black woman, from the hood, from the slums, basically, having 50,000 people voting for her and giving her the power of representation. because they saw their reflection of her. so, for us as black activists in brazil, especially those who were welcoming with marielle directly, what is not my case, but i know people who are really close to her. it's like marielle's death, it's in a certain way, our death as well. >> let's show some video of marielle on wednesday night. and this was literally just before she was kill. she was speaking at an event

she'd organized about black women's empowerment. it was actually broadcast on facebook live. they're women from all over the world, including the united states who were there, who were with her just before she was -- she was killed. amnesty international has now called for an investigation of this death. do you believe, daniela, that this was essentially a political hit? i mean, she was shot, i believe, eight times. she was shot in a car. her driver was also killed. shot in the head multiple times. do you believe that this was a political assassination? because it appears the government is trying to say something else. >> of course, it's not possible to believe anything else. the investigation just realized, just discovered that the bullets that shot marielle were bullets that were stolen from the federal police of brazil and that were involved in another mass murder in the city of sao

paolo, in the state of sao paolo, two years ago. where more than 18 people were murdered by police officers. >> yeah, and i want to -- >> so marielle had -- i'm sorry. >> no, go on. >> so marielle had a history of denouncing violence against the people in the favelas. she was talking about the violence practiced by the police. she had -- she wrote her master's about the pacify needs of the police that occupy the favelas in rio de janeiro, especially in her own community. so all the denounce that she was doing, on saturday 10th, march 10th, she had another denounce about crime that was committed by some, like police officers in another community in rio de janeiro. so she was in the front against police violence and against these officers who were actually

not good police officers. they are actually practicing police abuse. >> and i want to -- >> so it's not possible for us to think something else. >> and i want to just point out that brazilian former public security have pointed out that 3,345 people have been killed by police officers including off-duty in 2015. i want to, before we go, you're in austin, where we just witnessed several package bombs distributed that have killed two black victims, one victim who was latina, but the thinking is that the package was not meant for her. anything that you're learning there in austin about that? >> yes, of course, we are all afraid here, scared about that. and one thing that that hasn't come, it's that it's not a coincidence that people who die in brazil, because brazil it's not only marielle. we have 83 black people die in brazil per day. and those bombs here coming

specifically for african-american communities in austin. >> yeah. >> and -- so, that's really -- that is really something that we need to consider. and even, of course, we need to respect those -- the victims that -- hello? >> yeah. i'm sorry, we might be losing you. >> yes. >> i did hear you. i apologize. yeah, no, we had a little bit of a sound connection, but i think you've spoken loud and clear. there's a reason they call it that. daniela gomes da silva, thank you so much for your time. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. more a."a.m. joy" after the bre. ( ♪ ) try something delightfully doable with new marie callender's delights. introducing a new take on comfort food, like our baked turkey meatloaf in a roasted red pepper sauce, that's only 300 calories. because eating well calls for marie callender's delights.

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that is our show for today. thanks for watching. "a.m. joy" will be back next saturday, 10:00 a.m. eastern. up next, my friend, alex whitt has the latest. and i wish we could all be california girls, but you are. >> i know i am today. wouldn't it be great if we were here together. the kind of fun and trouble we could get into. thank you, joy. good day to all of you. i'm alex witt here in los angeles. high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. in the west. here's what's happening right now. escalating attack, president trump rails against special counsel robert mueller today in a series of stark and pointed messages is, but there is a warning from a leading republican. >> if he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency. >> a number of voices, in fact, today wondering whether the president is laying the ground work to oust the special counsel. plus -- >> certainly be able to show the facts supporting the issue of