ayman, great to see you, my friend. thank you much. after days of democrats dominating the headlines, president trump looking to take back the spotlight for himself. this morning waking up after rallying his troops in battle ground ohio and mocking kpbdz for their attacks on a different president. >> the democrats spent more time attacking barack obama than they did attacking me practically. >> the president tweeting today about one congressman he's been going after. after steering clear, he's been attacking all week. >> we can name one after another. but i won't do that. because i don't want to be controversial. >> on the other side of the aisle, the 2020 democrats fighting for a spot on the next debate stage. the 8th candidatedownsing she just made the cut.

big stories of the day. i want to start with kelly o'donnell at the white house, garrett haque, leigh-ann caldwell on capitol hill, and contributor adrienne el rod for hillary clinton's 2016 campaign. kelly, i want to start with you. the president waking up back at the white house today. he's going to be talking a lot of different topics when we see him this afternoon >> yes. he will do some of the things that a president can only do using what is referred to as a rose garden strategy, the powers of the presidency. he is doing counter programming of the democrats going after some of those potential candidates, trying to size up the democratic field as he rallies his own base. we saw how the president used cincinnati as his back drop to criticize some of their strategies and techniques as candidates. as well as looking at how we can see how the president is stacking up in the state of ohio. one of those must-win states for

not only republicans but democrats believe they can regain there as well. first, let's take a listen to how the president looked at his competitors in a very trumpian fashion. >> sleepy joe biden, who has no clue what the hell he is doing. >> great pocahontas. >> bob mueller. that was a beauty. he was sharp, wasn't he? >> reporter: of course robert mueller not a competitor, but the mueller investigation is a back drop for so many of the democratic counties who believe that is one of many reasons they think that the president is vulnerable for re-election in 2020. let's take a look at a recent poll in the state of ohio where there are vulnerabilities for president trump when you stack him up against some of the democratic candidates. joe biden in particular showing strong against a slice of voters in ohio. some of the other democrats not faring as well or going neck and neck with the president.

we will see president trump definitely putting focus on ohio. one of those midwest beltway states that certainly democrats believe they have work to do. they need to reach those who voted for barack obama. but then turn to president trump in 2016. so that's part of what we'll be watching. the president wasn't getting all the chanting in that got him in trouble a week or so ago. he did not shy away from drawing contrast with some of the democrats and making fun of some of the democratic style and format itself. hallie? >> kelly o'donnell at the white house. while president trump was out in the midwest, a lot of democratic candidates heading all the way out west getting ready for the next debate already, right? >> reporter: a big labor forum today. a lot are descending, campaigning in early states that

often gets overlooked. of course they are all looking ahead to the next primary calendar, the debate in mid-september in houston, texas. we learned amy klobuchar is the 8th to qualify. the next two closest candidates are probably andrew yang and julian castro. they are getting close, trying to close the gap on fund-raising. it is now august. this is historically, notoriously the slowest month for campaigning and for fund-raising. it is hard to generate interest for the candidates in politics when folks are on vacation, when kids are not in school. most of the country is not paying as close attention. that's part of the reason i am still in detroit. cory booker held a bigger than usual, more higher than produced than usual rally last night, trying to squeeze every drop possible out of the post debate bunk.

amping up their television appearances, prying to get everything they could out of all the eyeballs ws we enter the long, hot, slow campaign. >> you sound super psyched about it. leigh-ann caldwell, you have democratic candidates trying to show their faces. elijah cummings in the waeug of these attacks over the last, what, six or seven days now. he is now out talking about an attempted break-in at his house that happened hours before the president first started tweeting about him. this is new just coming in just a couple of minutes ago. what can you tell us? >> from hallie, that's right. elijah cummings has not been very vocal. but the president, once again, tweeted this morning, and this is what he said. he broke his silence saying really bad news.

the baltimore house of elijah cummings was robbed. too bad. well, hallie, that is in fact, true. elijah cummings's house, there was an attempted burglary early saturday morning. elijah cummings's office confirms that and puts out this statement this morning giving a little bit of details. they say an individual attempted to gain entry into my residence at 3:40 a.m. on saturday. it says he was notified of the intrusion by a security system, and he scared the intruder away by yelling before the person gained entry into the residential portion of the house. and so, hallie, what's important to note is that this attempted burglary actually happened before the president started tweeting about elijah cummings early sunday morning. these are all the details we had. we were just notified. we will give you any more update

we have once we do have it, hallie. >> we appreciate that. thanks to the both of you as well. aid generadrienn adrienne, let me start with you. what we are hearing from allies of former president obama about the strategy of democrats. president trump seizing on that. are the 2020 candidates giving donald trump ammo here? >> i think they are had he, hallie. this was a missed opportunity for a lot of democrats on the debate stage this week. look, there's a lot to draw contrast with in the democratic primary. of course if you are running to seek a democratic nomination, you have to draw contrastpponen. the real competitor here is donald trump. i wish, especially on the health care debate, that more democrats had gone onto that debate stage and said let's make it clear, donald trump is the person who wants to take away the health care. we may disagree on policy

differences. some of us want to build on obamacare. we want to protect health care as we know it. instead it turned into an inter party fight. that's how democrats came out of that debate looking like they were -- had more disagreements on health care than not. >> we saw president trump go after some of the front-runners, people who got a lot of buzz like joe biden, kamala harris, elizabeth warren who seemed to have good nights this week. amy klobuchar now announced she will make it on stage. castro might be close to getting on stage as well. there is a slew of other candidates who may not make the cut. now is the time to win or not? i covered the republicans this time in 2015, 2016. boy, people thought they would start dropping off quick. it didn't happen for a while.

>> the second quarter of the off year is the hardest to raise money. people are on vacation in august. people are not paying that much attention. not only have they not qualified, they have a difficult time qualifying but they have a difficult time raising money. i have to tell you, hallie, if a candidate has not qualified or has not qualified for the third debate, it will be that much harder to stay in the race. not because you didn't qualify but you can't raise the money to stay in or build infrastructure. of course you have to spend money to get on the ballot in some states. ballot access is everything when you're running in a primary. so there may be a few exceptions. but if you cannot get on the third debate stage, i don't know how you can justify going on. >> adrienne, always great to have your perspective here with us. thank you so much. >> thanks, hallie. >> other news developing, new concerns the u.s. is eubarrelin

toward a new arms race. the u.s. is officially withdrawing from the decades old treaty with russia that stopped both sides from developing missiles. courtney, let me start with you. this is not altogether unexpected. the trump administration has been signaling for a while they wanted to make this move. put into this context for us here. what does it mean? >> you're absolutely right. they intended to withdrawal from this decades old inf treaty which bans ground-based ballistic missiles that fly a shorter distance, intermediate range ballistic missil missiles.ons over the last six months that russia was moving back into compliance. it is not just that they were not allowed to develop missiles but they were not allowed to deploy them. russia has been in violation of this treaty for years now. it is not a surprise they

wouldn't be willing to not only stop developing but pull back hundreds, if not more, missiles they have deployed around the world, hallie. >> what are the implications here? do you see a jump start in a new arms race? >> we are officially in a new arms race. today donald trump killed ronald reagan's treaty and gave a gift to vladimir putin. when somebody breaks the law, you don't repeal the law. that's what donald trump just did. he removed any limitations on putin's ability to build hundreds and deploy hundreds of these missiles. this is a gift to vladimir putin. and a stab in the back to european allies. this was a corner stone of their security. and it opens 77up a new front wh china. this administration wants to build new nuclear weapons to counter china. we're about to test them later this month. china is going to counter that. we're off to the nuclear races. >> the u.s. is planning a test

flight of a weapon that would have been prohibited in the next couple weeks. >> he was berating the soviets for violating a treaty. he didn't work for six months. he worked six years to bring the soviets back into compliance and eventually succeeded. as john bolton said, we are using these violations as an excuse to get rid of a treaty. . >> do you think putin is happy today? >> he is happy. he gets to do whatever he wants and the u.s. takes the blame. he widened the rift in the u.s. nato alliance. >>. >> they just conducted a third missile test in north korea. something i asked the president about yesterday. watch. >> can you still negotiate -- >> sure. these are short-range missiles. we never discussed that. we discussed nuclear. what we talked about is nuclear. those are short-range missiles.

>> so is it small potatoes? >> that was your question. that was a good question. that was a terrible answer. because what he just gave is a green light to north korea to continue these tests. the president is confused. they are nuclear capable short-range missiles. it's true, they can't hit us. they can hit troops in south korea, cities in south korea. he is like the glenn close character in fatality attraction. he will not be ignored. his agreement with the u.s., this is his way of getting that leverage, getting that attention. >> joe, it is always a pleasure to have your important perspective. courtney kube, you have a busy day. we'll sew you on "nightly news". the family of eric garner is waiting to hear the fate of the officer who put him in a deadly choke hold.

>> he should have been fired right on the spot. i think he should have been fired until the investigation was done. check out a live look at wall street. dow done 200 words. investors move. but the real question, how will they respond to the tariff fight against china and more importantly the way china is today this morning hitting back. today this mniorng hitting back. this is not just a headache. this is not just a fever. this is not just the flu. it's meningitis b... and you're not there to help. while meningitis b is uncommon... once symptoms appear, they can progress quickly and can be fatal... sometimes within 24 hours. before you send your teen to college... make sure you help protect them. talk to your teen's doctor... about meningitis b vaccination.

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>> people are flooding back into the job market. >> that was larry kudlow, the white house economic adviser, reacting to this morning's jobs report. wall street, as you can see, not quite as positive. the dow has been falling steadily the first 45 minutes of trading. employersed add 164,000 jobs in july. that was a little bit shy, about 1,000 jobs shy of what was3.7%. you as a whole?e from axios. >> they don't tell us a lot new about the economy but reinforce labor force slowing from 2018 to

this year, really slowing down. really the entire economy. and when you look into sectors like manufacturing, transportation, and particularly retail, you're seeing a real defined slowdown. actually a loss of jobs in some of the sectors. >> when you talk about what else is affecting the economy, dion, there is a back and forth of a trade war. china is out promising counter measures in opposition to president trump's tariffs. he is putting into effect september 1st. put this in layman's terms of someone who is going back to school shopping. >> you should probably go now, sooner than later. the idea of these tariffs is basically it's just a tax. imagine adding 10% tax to all these new things. the big thing about these new tariffs is that these are going to hit consumer goods. the things you actually go out and buy. everyday afternoon things. most of the tariffs so far have

been on inputs. things that go into making things. for example, the lead that goes into your pencil, the graphite, rather than the pencil itself. the tariffs are going to the pencil. . >> and not the textile. . >> exactly. >> president trump on the south lawn yesterday seemed to indicate, hey, there's still a little time after the tariffs go in. maybe we will get negotiations done. are you optimistic this can get resolved in the next few weeks or now? >> that's the thing. wall street is getting significantly less certain that this is going to be resolved. that's why you are seeing the selloff today. the other worrisome thing is people are starting to look at this as, oh, is this a negotiating tactic. whereas last year that thought was a good thing. this year people are saying, okay, a business owner, i'm trying to invest, start a new business. i need to buy new manufacturing equipment, new plant, invest and higher this many new workers.

they are putting all the things on hold. they don't know when he will take the plans and institute the tariffs or if he is talking trash. texas instruments had blowout earnings last week. a week before that they were put on hold two years buying and starting a new manufacturing facility in texas. so, again, you're seeing that throughout the economy for a number of businesses. they're not sure what to do. >> dion, thanks for that. appreciate you on the show. >> appreciate you having me. coming up as well as developing. a new report on plans to get troops out of america's longest-running war. our chief foreign correspondent joins us with more on what you need to know. us with more on whu need to know do your asthma symptoms ever hold you back? about 50% of people with severe asthma have too many cells

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you know who will be inside that courthouse we're looking at? r. kelly. we will learn if he can go home before his trial starts.

kelly recruited girls and women for sex and moved them across state lines to cut off access to friends and families as a means to control them. r. kelly is expected to plead not guilty. they are disgruntled groupies. ron mott has been following the story. do we have any idea whether in fact, r. kelly will get out on bail? >> if they listen to no bond here in illinois, he is probably facing an uphill battle to get a bond agreement to get him out of federal custody. the hearing is expected to start in a few minutes. r. kelly was not able to get in touch with his attorneys. an attorney sent a letter to the court saying where is my client? we saw him in that footage there, getting off the private jet, into the vehicle. the marshal service said check the bureau of prisons website to

see where he is. he checked it and it showed him in custody here in illinois. we see him on the ground there in new jersey. so he is facing a slew of charges here. a number of charges there in new york, including racketeering. if convicted on all of these counts, 200 years in prison. >> ron mott, come back to us if you get any news in the next hour or so. a big deal developing in america's longest-running war. several reports say the trump administration is getting ready to pull back thousands of troops from afghanistan. officials tell the "washington post" in exchange for concessions as part of ongoing peace talks. it comes after two more soldiers were killed in the country this week. all told, 2,216 service members have been killed since the war started in 2001.

richard engel is tracking this closely. what do we know? >> the source directly familiar with the negotiations tell me reports are accurate, that the u.s. is prepared to withdraw troops in exchange for concessions from the taliban. but you have to look at the broader context here. the u.s. is trying to get out of afghanistan, end the longest war in u.s. history. the u.s. went to war in afghanistan after 9/11. osama bin laden ordered the a, ta in the united states. the u.s. demanded the taliban hand him over. the taliban refused. the u.s. invaded over through the taliban and is still there. so the negotiations right now are to try to get the u.s. troops to leave afghanistan. there are about 14,000 u.s. troops. and to have negotiations directly between the taliban and the afghan government. what the u.s. is proposing at this stage is to scale back its presence, to go from around

14,000 u.s. troops to 8,000 or 9,000 u.s. troops in exchange for concessions from the taliban. they would agree to a cease-fire. they would have to negotiate directly with the afghan deposit. and would have to put some guarantees in place that it will continue to negotiate in good faith. but the problem is, we have also been speaking to taliban negotiators and effectively they feel they have the u.s. on the ropes. they don't want a single american soldier to remain in afghanistan. the u.s. is proposing these confidence-ing about measures. a scaling back of the u.s. presence there in order to speed up negotiations, to push the afghan government and the afghan government directly together to talk. but frankly, when we speak to the taliban, they think that they have fought this long, it has been an 18-year war, now that the u.s. is effectively

suing for peace, they think they have the upper hand. . >> how can the taliban be trusted to follow through on this? . >> well, many people say they can't be trusted that they are biding their time, that the u.s. wants it more than they do. that the u.s. -- that the trump administration wants to get out, wants to end the longest war in u.s. history, which is continuing to bleed american troops, cost a tremendous amount of money as well. they have been waiting. they can wait a few more years. the u.s. will scale back and eventually leave. and they point to reports like this one, in exchange for verbal concessions, the u.s. is willing to significantly reduce its presence there. taliban feeling pretty good right there. >> president trump has talked about the war in afghanistan frequently. i know you know what he said about it as well. how significant of a step would this be? this would be -- already it's a big deal although it hasn't happened yet.

but this into perspective. >> so the longest war in american history launched after 9/11. u.s. troops have been there. there have been proposals to keep american troops in afghanistan for decades to come like u.s. troops are in some european countries like they are, still in korea after the korean war. but the taliban doesn't want that. so now the u.s. is looking for an off-ramp, offering not minor concessions. quite a significant concession, offering to pull back thousands of troops in exchange for what? in exchange for promises for the taliban for a cease-fire to negotiate with the afghan government. they will find that problematic. afghan women are terrified what will happen if the taliban do return. when we speak to tphoerbgdzs they have a certain swagger. they say we want all the troops out.

their willingness to stick to their word, to turn over a new leave and build a new afghanistan for all afghans. >> appreciate that. >> still ahead, the republican off-ramp. the only african-american republican in the house of representatives announcing he's not going to run again. he's not the only one. more and moreirense are looking for that way out. so the gop's attempt to reclaim and diversify out of reach? the pwhreul leadership hangs in the balance. the resignation is supposed to be effective this afternoon. there is one big problem. as of right now, there is no designated official to succeed him. overnight the legislature delayed the confirmation hearing of a new secretary of state who is supposed to replace the embattled governor. a live look at san juan. they are meeting now for a public hearing. they might hold a vote.

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who used expedia to book the vacation rental which led to the discovery that sometimes a little down time can lift you right up. expedia. everything you need to go. so if two is a pair and three is a trend, then what's six? in this substance, six may be a message to the republican party that the non-trump wing wants out. as six republicans in just the last two weeks, announced their retirements. including will hurd. he's the only african-american republican in the house. the only gop member to represent a district on the border. but he's not running for

re-election next year. let me bring in were toer republican congressman from south carolina, mark sanford. congressman sanford, thanks for being back with us. >> my pleasure. >> let's talk about some of the retirements. four of the people that called out president trump for racist tweets. two of them are now retiring. do you see this as donald trump related here? >> maybe on the margin. i think a lot of it is, in will's case, a tough district. 55% is hispanic. if you have a president signaling some of the things he has, it's a tough district in and of itself given the fact that it swung back and forth over a number of election cycles. he raised more than $5 million. the idea of having to do that all over again with the headwinds makes it what it is. roughly 13 retirements have

announced thus far this congress. and part of it, at least on the republican side, is 10 of the 13 are republicans. it's apparently a lot less than being the minority than the majority. >> frankly, it's tough to get pack in the majority if you're losing some of these members in difficult districts. like hurd's, for example. the houston suburban district is a top target for democrats as well. does this make it harder for the gop to get back in the majority? >> it does. but it is not an impossible equation. if you look right now, there are 20 democrats sitting in sea out there on the republican side given those 20 seats held by democrats currently. and i think republicans will make a hard push in that direction. but, to your point, do retirements like this one, pause this is a tough seat to hold for republicans, does it make it tougher? yes. >> i'm old enough to remember when people talked about somebody like will hurd as part of the future face of the republican party, right? you have 197 republicans in the

house. 13 are women. 2 of those are retiring. we talked about will hurd, the only black member of the house of representatives that is republican is retiring. you have a lot of white republicans left. a lot of men left. what does this say about where the party goes from here? >> it needs to branch out. to state the obvious, some of the president's rhetoric is destructive. it's harmful not only in selling a message but building a party. if we dwindle to being a party of white men we have a real problem given the treadlines within our country. >> can you branch out with donald trump as the leader of the party? >> i said what i said which is why will hurd said what he said and susan brooks and others have said what they said. . >> you have talked about what you said about president trump. one of the things you have said

is you may in fact, end up challenging him. what is it going to take for you to make the decision to go up against him. this hasn't changed your mind the president's attacks against african-american lawmakers, what's it going to take for you? >> well, it's certainly a impounding effect. not just comments like that. he's going to sign a budget deal that is disastrous. if you're a conservative republican. $2 trillion added to the national debt going forward and a third of a trillion the next two years and suspend the debt ceiling, which is to say to give a limited credit card balance. so i think there are a number of things. but to state the obvious, it's a daunting -- i mean, gargantuan huge task give to get your arms around. i'm talking about the nuts sand bolts of how you would do that.

and i have a couple weeks here to go. >> what is your timeline? end of summer, end of september? what? >> yeah, no. not end of september. you are running out of time at that point. >> right. >> but certainly end of summer. >> all right. hope to have you back august 31st. former congressman mark sanford, appreciate you coming on the show. a win in new york for the president and fight for his tax returns. why that celebration may be short-lived. 9 latest move by the manhattan d.c. to get to the bam of the hush money payments. that's next. hush money payments. that's next. as your life grows, so do your needs. ♪ and with bank of america and merrill, the benefits you get can grow, too. as a preferred rewards member, you can enjoy priority service and exclusive discounts... so your growing life can be more rewarding, too. ♪ what would you like the power to do? ♪

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the business that bears the president's name may be seeing new legal troubles on the horizon. we're talking about the trump organization. manhattan prosecutors are doing more than talking about the trump organization. they are now issuing subpoenas against it. they want documents related to those hush money payments made to two women, including of course stormy daniels, who you see on your screen, the adult film star. the payments of course were made in 2016 by candidate donald trump and his lawyer michael cohen in what was first reported by the "new york times". whether or not senior executives filed false business records about the hush money. an attorney for the trump

organization responded in a statement which reads in part, this is a political hit job. it's just harassment of the president, his family, and his business. joining me now is former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, cynthia oxney. are trump org people correct is this presidential harassment? >> no. a response to a grand jury is not a press release by a lawyer. it is a response to the grand jury. they are requesting documents and they should get them. the frame of this, here we are in new york state. we don't have attorney general barr to intervene. we don't have the olc memo to protect the president. and we don't have a pardon power. >> the most -- you know tom. he is one of our folks here at msnbc news. it would be a misdemeanor, right? michael cohen is sitting in prison right now. what are prosecutors hoping to get out of this? >> well, the statute falsifying

business records is a misdemeanor unless you falsify business records to cover up some crime. then it can be a felony. when you issue a subpoena like this, it is almost like you're pulling on the yarn of a sweater. you might start out getting relevant documentation that has to do with falsifying business records. as you pull on that sweater, what do you find? tax fraud? what do you find? insurance fraud. what do you find? money laundering. sometimes you go in on a search warrant and you're looking for child porn. you might very well find 5 kilos in the kitchen. they often lead to more. ask paul manafort. federal prosecutors dropped it recently. what does this mean for how the president and his allies and his attorneys could respond to this. does it change anything? i think they refuse to provide the documents.

and then there will be a fight. that's what they do. they refuse to follow normal legal responsibilities. my guess is what we will see is a battle which ultimately my guess is, the prosecutors in new york will win and the documents will have to be turned over. >> good news for the president at least temporarily. a federal judge blocked the state of new york from turning over donald trump's tax returns if requested by congress. can you walk us through what this means basically for this attempt by members of the house to get their hands on or get a better look at the president's financial records? >> yeah. it's sort of an interesting case. what happened is new york state passed a law that says they can turn the tax returns over to chairman neil at house ways and means. the house has not asked for the tax returns. but trump's lawyers have gone in prospectively and filed a

lawsuit that in d.c. that says you can't turn over the tax returns unless you tell us first. so what's happened is there is a court battle in d.c. about something that has never happened, that nobody has asked for the tax returns at this point. and chairman neil said he doesn't want to ask for them through new york state because he is interested in getting the federal returns because they are teeek was the judge in the d.c. case said we will brief on this. nobody do anything. i'm not sure what i'm gng to do. nobody turn anything until i brief on it. new york is saying, hey, this should be in new york. this is a new york law. these are new york tax returns. if anything happens, it will be in new york. the house is saying, whoa, we didn't even do anything. and the trump people are suing. so it is just to kick the can down the lawsuit down the road at this point. we won't know anything until september. >> i imagine we will see you in. thank you very much for that. appreciate it. let's stay in new york because we could get a big

decision on the eric garner case any any minute. nypd officer, the man who federal officials opted to not charge in the death of garner, we'll learn whether he should be fired from his job by the nypd. today a judge will issue a preliminary decision is. she's going to give that decision to garner's family and the police un job thation that' representing the officer. we just heard from mayor de blasio saying he does not know what the decision is. he doesn't know, but he says he will speak with members of the media had this comes out. after it's announced, we expect the two sides to have up to two weeks to respond to the judge's findings before she sends her final decision to the police commissioner. that's the timeline. let's get to the story on the ground here. as we've made very clear there is just the start what's happening today, right, of a process into what happens to this officer?

>> absolutely, hallie. because whatever we hear today, as you point out, it's going to take two weeks before it gets to the police commissioner's desk. and he is not bound to take the recommendation of what he receives today. can he come up with his own decision on what the new york city is going to do. but it is a case that has captured the attention of people not only here in new york but all across the country. this morning, eric garner's widow spoke about her thoughts in this case. just listen. >> we need to call attention to all these police officers and they need to be held accountable. the city needs to be held accountable for the police that they hire. but just stay tuned and the garner family is not going away until we get what we want. and that's justice. >> and for the family, they are saying that they would like to see this police officer removed from the police force following that video that all of us saw of

a bystander who took pictures of eric garner who was being detained by police after he was illegally selling single cigarettes on the street. and he was caught in a hold and his last words were, i can't breathe. he said that for over 11 times struggling to get air. now, this officer who is engaged in what is considered to be an illegal chokehold, he disputes that. he says he was not attempting to put eric garner a chokehold. the medical reports kind of differ saying that what happened to eric garner was a combination of what the man's arm around his neck, his health, the fact that he had a heart condition, he had as ma, all asthma and maybe why the department of justice failed to render any decision against garner as you well now. and the fbi also did not file any criminal charges against the police officer in this case as well. so now it's up this deputy commissioner here in new york.

the trial's commissioner. we'll see what she has to say as we expect that that decision is going to be released today, sometime today, hallie. >> and to pick up on something you said. mayor de blasio is on the radio right now saying that the most troubling part of this, he says, is that the justice department decided to do nothing. de blasio has come under fire for this in some corners of the city, right? >> he absolutely has. many people are saying that the buck stops at the mayor's office, at his desk. and during the democratic debate that was held earlier this week, de blasio came out amid protests that were in the auditorium of i can't breathe, i can't breathe, de blasio complained about the fact that the justice department did not file any charges against the police officer. and he said to everyone that you can expect in the coming days a decision is going to be made that justice is going to be rendered in this case. what that means, we're yet to see exactly what that means. the family has its own decision about what it means for them for

justice. they want to see the police officer fired. but that's not the decision that everybody holds. some think that the police should not be held responsible for this and the justice department seems to have gone along with them. but we don't know what's going to happen. but we hope to find out in the coming minutes this morning. >> yeah. i know you'll be right on top of that. come back as soon as you hear word. thank you so much. still ahead on this show, the stakes doubling for the next democratic debate. steve kornacki is at the big board look at that much smaller number of contenders who made the cut so farnd who's probably out. plus, we're talking with newly declared candidate tom steyer about his plan to get in on the action in a little bit. but first some sad news to share with you from the kennedy family. a granddaughter has died at the family's compound in massachusetts. "the new york times" stating two people close to the family reports that 22-year-old saoirse kennedy hill died in an overdose. nbc news has not confirmed that

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check it out! now you can schedule a callback or reschedule an appointment, even on nights and weekends. today's xfinity service. simple. easy. awesome. i'd rather not. time now to get a look at ha our sources are saying. eliza colonel lips, political reporter at the "wall street journal" is joining us now. it's great to see you. >> good to be here. >> you are working for "the wall street journal" and this morning your

>> they are. we worked with a group which analyzes social media data. basically after the first two 70s debates theyt one thing we really interesting is that in both of the june and july debates they found using their methodology, had is a host of different things, hundreds of accounts that had bot-like characteristics. it can't be fully proven but they were pushing racial content toward kamala harris, who is black. twitter says they have different methodology and they're not seeing the same pattern. so there is some conflict here. but story full is finding through their methodology which looks at a host of things that this could be happening and we saw this in 2016. >> i was going to say, an indication that this is a story that's not going away and an issue that's not going away anytime soon. >> exactly. >> thanks for coming on. that does it for this hour of nbc live. i'm headed over to the white house where chris jansen, i will sigh you there in a little bit. >> thank you so much.

i'm chris jansen in for craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters here in new york. president trump amplifying his attacks against urban cities and lawmakers at his first rally since those send her back chants. and while he may not have named the squad directly this time, his racially charged fire aimed at cities was clear. plus a gutting trend for the gop. congressman will hurd, the only black republican in the house announcing his retirement, becoming the sixth to quit in the last two weeks. why it's sending shockwaves through the party. and making the steaage. half the democratic field has reached the stage to makehe