the scene as they view the statue as representative of slavery, racism and hate. >> think about all those with tiki torches. they weren't historian. more white nationalist protesters arrived and racist chants of white supremacy. during the chaos, one counterprotester desperately, deliberately drove his car into one of the crowds killing an innocent woman and injuring others. that man is white nationalist james alex fields who last december was found guilty of murder and he faces 20 years to life in prison. that man was obsessed with adolph hitler and nazis and the president wants to say it was just historians. the real victim of this tragedy, who deserves better than how the president categorized that day is heather heyer. the 32-year-old woman who died from the blunt force of the car.

an act of hate by just one of the many white nationalists who protested that day in charlottesville, virginia. president trump continues to undermine that hate. but we're not going to allow that to happen here. >> thank you for watching "velshi & ruhle." chris jansing picks up. >> i'm chris jansing in for katy tur. the president is heading this afternoon. he's coming back to the white house after delivering a fiery speech with red meat for the base at the national rifle association convention in indiana. i think it would be an understatement to say the annual nra event is friendly territory for trump who gave his third keynote in a row. and when he hit the stage, it sounded a lot like a campaign rally. the president didn't waste any time lashing out at his political rival and the special counsel investigation. >> america's future has never

been brighter. and yet democrats have never been angrier especially now that their collusion delusion has been exposed to the world as a complete and total fraud. it's been the greatest political hoax ever in our country. democrats are obsessed with hoaxes, delusions and witch hnts. that's what they're upset with. and we can play the game just as well or better than they do. >> trump's nra came after he disputed a key part of the mueller report and he told don mcgahn to fire mueller. >> i never told don mcgahn to fire mueller. if i wanted to fire mueller, i would have done it myself. it's very simple. i had the right to. in the history of my country,

there has never been a president more transparent than me or the trump administration. i let white house counsel mcgahn testify and i let everybody testify. i think mcgahn, excuse me, i think mcgahn was in there for 30 hour. we had 18 people that were trump haters. that includes mr. mueller. he was a trump hater. we finish ed no collusion and n obstruction. we get out the first day and they say, let's do it, again. i say, that's enough. we have to run a country. we have a very great country to run. >> joining me now from indianapolis nbc news correspondent hans nichols white house correspondent ann gurren and msnbc contributor adrienne colrod and rick tyler. so, hans, look, the white house has been relitigating don mcgahn's testimony since the mueller report came out and,

obviously, the chief messenger here is the president himself. so, what is the strategy. what do they think that they can do to make sure that former counsel don mcgahn doesn't go before a congressional panel? >> they can also evoke executive privilege and work through the white house counsel office and make sure he doesn't testify in front of the house committee. the political strategy here is to talk about those no collusion and the democrats are unhinged. i'm glad you mentioned, you did steal my line, a lot of it here today. what we heard from the president is a preview of what the 2019 and 2020 campaign will look like, chris. what's interesting to me is how this president is trying to intervene in the democratic primary. you heard him seize upon the re, mas of joe biden that the boston bomber should be able to vote from death row and the president

seizing on those remarks and saying this is what all the democrats are saying. that's not true. all the democratic primary candidates are in the same position as joe biden. excuse me, bernie sanders. bernie sanders is the only presidential candidate on the democratic side that the president mentioned by name and he's previewing a lot of the arguments that he is going to be using. and in several moments he turned his fire on the media and talked about the fake news and talked about how some in the media are opposed to the second amendment. this was a friendly audience. i think perhaps his biggest line where he got the longest standing ovation had to do with building the wall and him promising to have 400 miles of that wall built by the end of 2020. chris. >> you want to fact check that for us, hans nichols. >> if we're here in 2020, we'll get out there. we'll do it in kilometers for you, chris. kilometers and miles because a lot of times, you know, they like the metric system here when you're talking caliber of bullets you have to know inches and your metric system.

chris? >> point well taken, hans nichols. thanks so much. i want to start and i'll come back to it in a little bit. rick tyler, i just want to start you're here with me, which is great. the president loves conflict and he loves to go after the democrats. we're just starting, i think, but give me your take. we are just starting to see a little sense of what his messaging is going to be for 2020. hey, 20 the more the merrier, as far as he is concerned. >> donald trump's strength is defining his opponents that is branding. he did that in the 2016 presidential nomination for the gop. and he's already done it, as you see, with joe biden, which i think he's most worried about. calling him sleepy joe. what he doesn't have a message or rationale for election. i didn't hear that today in his speech to the nra. even with the nra, their most

important legislative item for the first two years of the trump administration was reciprocity of conceal, carry licenses and nobody, it was not moved on at all. so, look, i don't think the nra is going to endorse or get behind any of the democratic candidates so he's probably pretty in safe territory. but if you look at the economy at 3.2%. which is an extraordinary number. a lot of defense spending in that number. but it's still, it's an extraordinary number. low unemployment. this president if he could stay on message about the economy, because that's where people vote. he could be in the 60s, 50s, he's not. he's in the lowest approval rating of his presidency and he's never gotten out of the 40s. >> which brings me to something that was written in politico exactly to your point. i'll read it here. he needs to let go. trump's allies urged him to shut

up about mueller. white house allies are starting to worry that trump's inability to move on to other subjects or at the very least stick to playing up mueller's conclusion that his campaign did not engage in a conspiracy with the russian government is doing more harm than good. one former trump campaign official described the president's post mueller volley as a complete and other disaster. so you have to wonder, ann, is he prolonging any disaster and is there real concern that you're hearing within the white house because they know that he's going to say what he is going to say and no one is going to tell him anything different. >> chris, you're absolutely right on that last point, in particular. yes, there is concern among some of the president's advisors in and out of the white house that he is focused, overfocused on the mueller report and revenge. to the point that he steps on his own message repeatedly. but that's nothing new. he never lets anything go.

and the people who know him best know that. and know that he will continue to dwell on this to pick the scab. and there is a part of his base that wants to hear it. the idea that he's in there fighting and to the degree that he is able to brand the entire russia investigation as a democratic attempt to push him out of office. a coup, as he called it today, at the nra speech. there are a lot of people around trump who see that as a base motivater and something that keeps the president's energy up. keeps him in the fight and to that degree, they say, fine, go ahead. let him do it. >> speaking of a fight, adrian, interesting to hear him talk about age. he's the young guy, never felt better. joe biden is the old guy here. >> yeah, i mean. it's clearly obvious that donald trump sees bernie sanders,

kamala harris and joe biden the top three people i think he can see challenging him in this race. but i want to go back to something that we were just talking about earlier about the base. and donald trump's base. he is doing absolutely nothing. and he's not done anything since he has become president to expand his base. and that is the problem here. you go in front of the nra and go in front of conservative groups and rally them and get them excited and talk about building a wall and the second amendment and the mueller report. he is doing nothing to expand that base. >> it's interesting to me, adrienne. to your point, he keeps going after don mcgahn, somebody who has been a well respected republican attorney who in the mueller report is presented as somebody who is incredibly credible. and he's trying to paint him basical basically, right, as a liar. >> exactly. and i mean, typically, it would

be hard to really give any sort of rationale as to why he's doing this. but we can understand he wants to keep the mueller report in the news, chris. he wants this to continue to drive the agenda because to the point we have all been talking about. go out and deliver a message to his base that democrats are trying to kick him out of office. no collusion. and trying to kick him out of office. this is wrong. you know, this is an that will re-election chances and not do anything to drive the support among independents and certainly not going to do anything to expand his base to moderate republicans. so, in my view, his strategy is only to his own peril and we also know how much he loves to go in front of crowds. he feeds off the energy that he gets in some of these crowds and doing absolutely nothing to expand that and you only win elections when you can expand your base and get over that 50% threshold, which he has failed to do so far. >> the president was asked to the white supremacist rally in

charlottesville. the protest that turned deadly. that one young woman was killed, heather heyer. here's what the president said. >> if you look at what i said, you will see that that question was answered perfectly. i was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument of robert e. lee, a xwrgreat gener. whether you like it or not, he was one of the great generals. and many people thought of the general. they think that he was maybe their favorite general. people were there protesting the taking down the monument of robert e. lee. everybody knows thatt. >> this unconventional president ann gearan even more unconventional by thinking that robert e. lee could be a positive campaign surrogate for him. i don't know. >> yeah. you have to -- it's hard to wrap your head around in a lot of

ways. obviously, what the president just did right there is a total whitewashing of what happened in charlottesville and his own response to it. he must know that. yes, there were people at the charlottesville rally who were there because they did not want to see a monument, a statue taken down. but there were also people at that rally chanting jews will not replace us and other racist and hateful slogans and that, obviously, is the hatred and the energy that came out of that rally that is inconvenient for the president to talk about now and the reason that joe biden uses charlottesville as a shorthand for the things that president trump has said and the things that at least the people, some of the people who support him appear to believe that biden says he's running against. >> exactly, rick.

i mean, remember when reince priebus assessed the fact that republicans needed to expand their base and now it seems like a defense of the confederacy is where it's going. >> and, of course, postmortem suggests that the party is and dead and i would suggest it is. the other issues he's trying to work through has done this rather brilliantly. he has staked his candidacy solely on the fact that he's the person who is best positioned to beat donald trump and went right at him. by bringing up charlottesville. we're now all talking about charlottesville, again. the president doesn't figure out how do i not talk about charlottesville. we get to see on screens, tiki torches of white supremacist and he's associating himself with that. and, so, i think biden has done a brilliant move here. >> rick tyler and adrienne is sticking with me.

still ahead this hour, even as he rallies at the nra reports of turmoil inside the massive gun lobby. details on the nra's problems with money and influence. plus, who is the one man outside the white house president trump turned to as the russia probe clouded the west wing? what made him finally say no to the president. sort of. but, first, as we have been saying. joe is a go for 2020. but rattling some of the wide democratic field.

>> on a philosophic basis, it is about moving to the future. it's not about re-creating what we did. it's about taking the same decency in the philosophy that we have that political philosophy and taking it into the future. >> that was the former vice president just a few hours ago and we're already seeing today how joe biden's official entry into the presidential sweepstakes has shaken up the race. at least six of his democratic opponents are trying to raise money off his entry like cory booker pretty straight forward saying it makes things tougher for an underdog campaign like ours and bernie sanders going so far to take an early swipe at biden's quote, fund-raiser in the home of a corporate lobby t lobbyist. two months out from the first presidential debate, just how nasty could the partisan

fighting get? we well, joining me now to talk about it mike memoli and back with me former clinton campaign senior adviser and msnbc contributor adrienne elrod. big picture, if you were advising one of the candidates that are struggling at the bottom of the pack right now booker or castro or hickenlooper. do you go after the front runners and be aggressive and get yourself noticed or bernie sanders whose brand is to stay away from corporate money to pull that off? >> that is a really good question, chris. it is still very early on in the race. a lot of polls are still reflective of name i.d. and there is still a long ways to go in short. i would look to the first debate to draw my contrast message and it's smart for cory booker and castro to try to raise money off of joe biden getting into the

race because he is the funts s are front runner and establishment candidate. we experienced that when i was on hillary clinton's campaign 2008. if you're trying to draw a contrast, hey, i'm a little guy here and trying to raise money. joe biden has the capacity to raise a lot more money than i can. help me out here, donors. it does make sense. we still have a long ways to go and i think until that first debate takes place in the democratic primary towards the end of june, we are not going to really know where the contrasting is until we see the people on the debate stage. >> so, mike, is it going to be bernie versus biden, largely at least until the first debate this summer. does joe biden feel like that is where he has to go. tell me about the thinking there. >> i think as we saw in the rollout of biden's campaign yesterday, he wants the fight to be biden versus trump. that direct to camera announcement video taking the fight immediately to the

president. but also interesting, i was one of the few reporters at the fund-raiser that the vice president had in philadelphia last night and it was a very interesting moment where he, again, reinforced the idea that the stakes of this election are so high. and in fact, i'll read a quote from him. never been more at stake and whether it's me or anybody else. i hope that whoever replaces the president in four years that will look at this as an admiration. people who paid a lot of money to see joe biden last night might concede he might not be the nominee but we have to rally around that person to beat donald trump. >> will he step back and bernie keeps going after him or other candidates are going after him, is he willing to let that happen and stick to that strategy? i'm runing against the president of the united states? >> it does seem in this very early stage, the vice president does seem to not necessarily want to mix it up with democrats and we saw that yesterday, as well, when we tried to ask him some questions about whether or not he thinks some of the candidates have those jobs.

but i think we will see his campaign engage in that discussion and on the subject of online fund-raising and those donations, we should get some news very soon, in fact, how the vice president faired in the first 24 hours and how much he was able to raise from online donors and say, yes, i can raise the big money and i have this grassroots support, as well. >> we'll come to you the minute you get those numbers. adrienne, of course, a full out biden versus bernie ideological fight, if it comes to that, could create an oep pg for tpen other 2020 dems, whose messages are in between. how do you find room for someone? >> i hate to keep harping on the debates but that is where we find the major contrast here. >> did i hear mike say he has the number? >> this is breaking news and we

can announce first here. the biden campaign is announcing it raised $6.3 million online in its first 24 hours. >> more than beto and more than bernie. >> more than any other presidential campaign. 90% of all online donations are under $200. a real litmus test for these campaigns. how much are you raising in the hundreds rather than in the thousands. they received donations from all 50 states and u.s. territories and that the average online donation was $41. so, there, the biden campaign, i can assure you, was very nervous about this new litmus test and they're very eager now to get the message out that they succeeded and feel very confident to raise money online. >> were they nervous about it or determined to make sure they had it in the bag before he announced? >> you could say there was some expectations game going on. digital infrastructure, they were starting from scratch. we saw a lot of these other candidates, especially in the senate, they had recent

elections. they had been cultivating their online donor bases for years. joe biden was coming into this pretty cold. he was last on the ballot himself more than a decade ago. so, they devoted a lot of time and effort in the last few weeks leading up to the campaign to try to get up to speed as quickly as possible. definitely a sense from the advisors in the days leading up to the kickoff, we'll have to wait and see what happens. >> so, are you impressed, adrienne? is this just something we in the media talk about and maybe some, you know, real political addicts are watching closely. but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't tell us anything or does it? >> chris, it tells us everything. mike just nailed it. this is something is the biden campaign was very worried about in part because they didn't have the list that bernie sanders has. bernie has been cultivating his list since he ran in 2015. came in a major advantage and joe biden was starting from

scratch. he outperformed every candidate so far which his campaign thought it would be the hardest type of donation to raise is very, very significant. and it tells you, chris, that there are people across the country, people who are only able to give $40 up to the max out donation. those people are giving to joe biden's campaign in numbers that exceed the rest of the field. so, i think it's very impressive. i think this is a huge win for biden. and i think it really lays the ground work going forward in fi terms of the type of campaign he is going to run. a very smart team and very experienced team in place and i think these numbers reflect that. >> so, elena, what is the headline in politico be biden beats beto and bernie. you want that big headline. you want to say, i got into the race as the frontrunner and here's why i'm the frontrunner? >> i think you're absolutely

right, this is the headline on politico. he was able to beat the rest of the field. like mike and adrienne said, fund-raisers are much more an indication of momentum. this will serve as a foundation for him going forward. people he can keep going back to and really shows that, you know, even though the polls certainly show a lot about name i.d. at this point, shows there is real momentum behind him actually getting into this race and that's exactly the headline that biden folks want coming out of this first 24 hours. >> we talked about this earlier on in the program, but i think it's worth playing. the president who seems to be taking delight in joe biden being in the race. here's what he had to say. >> mr. president, how do you beat joe biden? >> i think we beat him easily. >> mr. president, how old is too old to be president? >> well, i think that i just feel like a young man.

i'm so young. i can't believe it. i'm the youngest person. i am a young, vibrant man. i look at joe and i don't know about him. i don't know. >> is he too old? >> i would never say anyone is too old, but i know they're all making me look very young. both in terms of age ask i think in terms of energy. i think you people know that better than anybody. >> so, shortly after he said that, joe biden was on "the view" and was asked about it. >> look, if he looks young and vibrant compared to me, i should probably go home. look, everybody knows who donald trump is. and the best way to judge me is to watch. see if i have the energy and the capacity and, i mean, it's just, you know, this is show-me

business. >> elena, some reporting that the president fears biden. he certainly doesn't sound like it or acts like it of course. >> politico said last night that donald trump is most worried on taking on joe biden. he wants to comment about him and sort of engage in some back and forth here. in part because he's most concerned about facing up against the president. and we're facing up against the vice president and former vice president and that's why we're seeing him act this way and respond this way. >> elena schneider and mike memoli and adrienne, thank you. much appreciated. we have been following the breaking news as the president was heading to the nra russian gun rights activists and maria butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison. she pled guilty to conspiring against the united states back in december after russian

influence on the republican party by infiltrating the nra. it is, of course, another negative headline for the gun rights lobby, which has been plagued by recent reports of dramatic financial instability. but the group still got the president and vice president to indiana today for that annual convention. >> i'm a champion for the second amendment and so are you. it's not going anywhere. it's under assault. it's under assault. but not when we're here. not even close. >> joining me now, nbc news intelligence and national security ken delainian and adam winkler who is author of "gun fight the battle over the right to bear arms in america." ken, let's start in court and tell us what happened there. >> chris, we heard from maria butina for the first time, this russian agent who had pled guilty and she essentially issued a tearful apology to the judge and said that she didn't really mean to do anything

wrong. her motives were pure. but the judge really didn't buy it. the judge handed the prostitution a total victory. handed down the 18-month sentence which is exactly what the prosecution asked for. wasn't a spy in the traditional sense but that she was the national rifle association in order to influence the trump administration and even talk in court records that she believed that russia could have some influence over who was the secretary of state in the trump administration. no evidence that that was true but indicative of where her mindset was. she got 18 months in prison. she has been given credit for nine months time served and after that deported back to russia, chris. >> ken, thank you for that. so, while that court appearance was going on while the president was heading to talk to the nra we want to talk more about where that organization is right now. let me read to you, adam, what

the associated press is reporting. that the nra does not release detailed membership numbers, but has repeatedly said in recent years that it has about five million members. the tax exempt organization filings with the irs for 2016 and 2017, the most recent years available show combined losses of nearly $64 million and income from membership dues plunged about $35 million in 2017. adam, what is going on with the nra? >> well, the nra is imploding right before our eyes. suffering from major financial problems by the evidence you just cited and also going through a major divorce with its primary messaging arm and working with innthe nra and responsible for most of the messaging we associate. a big battle going on in the board of directors and a real division in the nra today. >> and that division is often between the members. you look at the polls after

things like new town happens and things like the pulse nightclub and what their membership is talking about and what the organization will or won't support. there is often, to your knowledge, any discussion about being more moderate? what is going to happen there? because it's not sustainable, right? if they don't have the money, it's not sustainable. >> well, it does seem that the nra's financial problems have been associated, at least temporally with the rise of the new rhetoric. the nra used to be all about guns and gun rights and expanded political agenda to talk about trumpism and antiwelfare and antihealth care and these sort of more outrageous position that find their expression have eliminated a lot of members of the nra who think the organization should be about

battling guns and not about battling leftists. >> they were often to raise money and put out fund-raising blasts because of barack obama, they don't have that now. they have a president who three years in a row has gone and be their keynote speaker. >> that's right. even the gunmakers have been suffering. a trump slump in the gun business because gun sales were down 10% in the first year of trump president's daens becaupr. trump has limited and taken away people's guns. that is to say the bump stocks thatt the atf recently banned and the nra and gun rights movement is doing well on other fronts. the supreme court has two new strong votes thanks to president trump and they'll be there for another 30 years. >> is the major impact? i just wonder how you sort of spin what is obviously a close association with the president of the united states. i mean, "new york times" wrote

so definitely some bad news and there has been some major success with donald trump. >> that's right. the nra major thing was to get the supreme court. and the supreme court had hillary clinton replace the two judges who seats have become vacant over the last two years and clearly would have been a majority on the supreme court. much more skeptical of gun rights and more welcoming of gun control than the two justices that donald trump has appointed. don't forget all the lower court judges, too. the federal courts are now filled with judges who are going to be hostile to gun control. >> adam winkler, good having this conversation. thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. up next, new claims the president turned to an ally outside the white house to help set up road blocks in the russia probe. biopharmaceutical researchers.

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>> never told don mcgahn to fire mueller. if i wanted to fire mueller, i would have done it myself. i have the right to. mueller finished out his report. no collusion. and no obstruction. >> that was president trump on the lawn of the white house today again denying he tried to influence the special counsel investigation or tried to fire robert mueller. but the mueller report doesn't align with the president's version of events. instead, testimony provided by trump's former white house counsel don mcgahn details

multiple incidents in which he demanded he let mueller go. today, the "washington post" dives into what happened next. reporting that a frustrated president went for help to a former campaign operative hoping to use him as a back channel to influence the investigation. quote, trump turned to the one person he could long count on to do his bidding. cory lewendowski described by senior white house investigators. joining me author of the "post" new book matt and msnbc contributor barbara mcquaid. matt, i will read a little bit of what you wrote. lewandowski had repeatedly proved his loyalty to trump. he had signed on with the campaign when new york mogul and followed the mantra and when he

was fired from the campaign, he appeared on television that day to praise trump. i wonder in this context, matt, did trump look at him and think he's absolutely going to get this done for me? >> yeah, the isis is a guy who s lawyer as loyal can get in the trump world. at the time trump asks him to deliver this message to sessions who isn't even in government and that's so critical here, right. because mueller sees this as trump turning to someone who is just going to be loyal to him. who actually isn't sort of in the chain of command, but is outside of it and that in some ways makes it more nefarious. not taking an act that people can judge and maybe have a good motive, he is turning to an outsider for this kind of back channel plan to get a message to sessions to limit the scope of mueller's investigation. and it's important to note, cory

lewandowskin who you described as the most loyal is uncomfortable with this plan and doesn't ultimately carry it out in the way trump wants. but that does seem why trump turns to him, that's why mueller believed trump turns to him. >> barbara, let me read that peacea a passage. substantial evidence indicates that the president's effort to have sessions limit the scope of special counsel's investigation to future election interference was intended to prevent. the timing and circumstances of the president's actions support the conclusion that he sought that result. so, a lot of people read that and say, is that not obstruction? >> it absolutely is obstruction. i think one thing that is being overlooked about robert mueller's report is with about eight of these 11 episodes he chronicled he finds the evidence of obstruction are satisfied. what he doesn't do is decide

it's his place to recommend charges because a sitting president cannot be indicted. i think that william barr's letter suggests that robert mueller thought, i have some evidence on one side and some on the other and i just cannot decide. that is not what i read his report to be saying. what he says is it is not for us to decide because a sitting president cannot be charged and even if we were to recommend charges, it would be unfair to the president because he can't even go to court to clear his name. so, what we're doing inside is preserving that evidence for congress or future prosecutors to decide what to do with it. >> well, again, let me read from your article, matt. the episode which discomfitted even some of trump's most loyal advisors was read by some of the clearest. but senior justice officials

took a more skeptical view, which informed attorney general william p. barr's later conclusion that trump could not be charged with obstructing justice according to people familiar with that thinking. what do you think about that description and how it all went down, barbara? >> i think it goes back to that 19-page memo that william barr wrote last summer before he became attorney general. he has a legal theory that robert mueller rejected but william barr's theory is that a president cannot obstruct justice as a matter of law when he is merely exercising some power he has as a chief executive under the constitution. firing an fbi director or issuing orders about what should happen an in investigation cannot as a matter of law constitute obstruction of justice and that high-level officials at the department of justice agreed with him on that theory. robert mueller rejects that theory and says the president has a duty to exercise power

certainly, but cannot do so corruptly. the law be faithfully executed and not just it be executed. i think this comes down to a legal difference of opinion and not a factual one. i think factually evidence of obstruction here and that is a matter of difference of legal opinion, which i think robert mueller concludes is not a valid defense for the president. >> we're almost out of time and i'm not trying to be your l publicist here but fascinating to read the mueller report and people who have been closer to it and follow it much more closely and the reason we see these articles coming out because as you read it, you come to understand more and more and more about a lot of the incidents in context, but also some things that didn't get focused on in the first couple days after it came out. >> yeah, absolutely. we have been doing that here at the post to be my own publicist for a minute. we published the mueller report as a book and i think it's so important for people to read as

i go through this. i'm on my second close pass and twice through obstruction. i see new things and i'm like, whoa, that didn't get attention on the day of. this is one of those episodes and that's why we chose to report it out and see what the justice department was thinking and see what mueller was thinking. so many of these and i would really encourage people to read the whole thing for yourselves. watch msnbc, of course, but read this thing for yourself. >> matt, well done. publicist. and barbara, always great to talk to you. thank you, both. the president, by the way, also now refuting his administration paid north korea for the release of otto wa warmbier. >> we did not pay money for our great otto. there was no money paid. there was a fake news report that money was paid. i haven't paid money for any hostage and i've gotten approximately. i think it's 20 or 21 out.

we don't pay money for hostages. the otto case was a very unusual case, but i just want to let you know, no money was paid for otto. >> the president there, by the way, you can read it yourself, misrepresenting the "washington post" report yesterday claiming north korea issued a $2 million bill to the united states for warmbier's medical care and demanded a u.s. official pledge to pay it before warmbier was let go. the 22-year-old was let go and sentenced for stealing a poster in north korea. efforts to secure his release began under the obama administration but warmbier was ultimately released after trump took office. he was returned home in 2017 in an unconscious state and died days later. his father says his son was beaten to an inch of his life. during the latest nuclear summit in hanoi this past frez kim jong-un denied being involved and the president at the time

said he took him at his word. next, the measles outbreak in america goes from bad to worse. now, quarantines on college campuses. we'll be right back. the doctor's office might mejust for a shot.o but why go back there when you can stay home with neulasta® onpro? strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. in a key study neulasta® reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1% a 94% decrease. neulasta® onpro is designed to deliver neulasta® the day after chemo

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. nearly 200 people are quarantined in los angeles right now after possibly being exposed to measles. the areas in question, some of the biggest schools in southern california. ucla and cal state l.a. joining me nbc news correspondent molly hunter. i understand you just got an update on the number of people quarantined at ucla. what did you find out? >> good afternoon, that's right. we literally just got a statement from ucla. we now know only one student has been kwarquarantined, and 50 students and faculty, their immunity status is not confirmed. i'm literally just reading this statement. all are self-isolating. cal state l.a., 20 miles away, we believe that 200 students and faculty and staff members are kwa quarantined. reasons the numbers are changing is because a lot of people are unconfirmed. the status is unconfirmed. basically, as soon as the news about any kind of exposure came out, the schools reached out to

anyone who may have come in contact with the students. we're in front of the one of the buildings where the infected student is known to have taken classes. the university officials went straight to anyone who might be in class at the same time to confirm their immunization status and the reason so many people are in quarantine is simply probably not necessarily they have been exposed to it or they're carrying it but their immunization status hasn't been confirmed. >> is there nervousness on campus? is it sort of business as usual? what are you seeing as you're talking to students there? >> let me show you, actually. it's about lunch hour. you can see how busy it is. this is completely business as usual, back to normal, sunny day here in l.a. everyone is outside. we did speak with students earlier, and there wasn't think nervousness. it's interesting, of course at ucla, these are really bright kids, they know bright kids, they know they need the measles vaccination to enroll.

that was a law put in across the uc systems in 2015, and they trust the vaccine. we talked to a couple of kids that said, yeah, look, we have been in the building. we know there's a student infected. we've gotten vaccinated. students who are not sure are getting tested and the health officials and the health department here on campus are of course working with university officials to tell kids, hey, if you don't remember, if you're not sure, go get it checked out and get a booster. it's not going to hurt you. >> do you have an idea if people are taking advantage of that. it's interesting to note from a political perspective, the president has in the past talked about vaccinations and possible links to autism, of course, which flies in the face of what the cdc says. now he is saying they have to get the shot, the vaccinations are so important. how strong is the push and do they know yet if it's been successful? that's exactly right, so the cdc, the surgeon general and now president trump are all on the

same page today. the cdc director was all over twitter yesterday making a huge plea to both doctors, communities and also to community leaders. chris a lot of the reasons that we know people don't get vaccinated are either personal beliefs, possibly religious believes or of course the anti-vacc movement. all we are hearing from the cdc and the president is get vaccinated, these vaccinations works. if you don't get vaccinated, 90% of people who don't get vaccinated will contract the disease. the answer is simple. go do it. >> molly hunter, thank you so much from los angeles. one more thing before we go. a federal court has ruled the state of michigan must redraw dozens of legislative and congressional legislative districts. a three judge panel, the state republicans drew district maps in 2011 violating democratic voters constitutional rights, essentially strategically wrapping district lines in a snake like fashion through republican strongholds.

the state now has until august 1st to redraw at least 34 districts for the 2020 election. the ruling also mandates michigan hold special state senate elections in 2020 instead of 2022 as scheduled. now, getting this done won't be easy for two reasons. number one, republicans remain in control of michigan state legislature, and they are already vowing to appeal this case to the supreme court. two, michigan now has a democratic governor who will be required to sign off on any new district maps. yesterday's decision is the latest in a series of lawsuits alleging unconstitutional gerrymandering in a dozen states. the supreme court is currently considering whether to sit limits on partisan map making and believe me this isn't going away. it's once every ten years you have a chance to redraw those lines. that's going to wrap things up for this hour. i'm chris jansing in washington, ali velshi will pick things up after a quick break.

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i'm a champion for the second amendment. that's what donald trump told a crowded room at the national rifle association convention in indianapolis. marking his third speech as president at that annual event. the nra played a key role in the 2016 election throwing its full support behind trump. today, president trump repeatedly emphasized his commitment to the organization rallying nra supporters to help with his ree lerlection bid and