Just two republicans you were hearing from. Now as the president returns from his working vacation, and prepares for a campaignstyle rally on tuesday in phoenix, arizona, a brand new poll shows that his approval numbers in three states that he won have now fallen below 40 . This as north korea issues a new Nuclear Threat to the u. S. The rogue nation saying it is now ready to mercilessly strike as it accuses the reckless u. S. Of driving the two countries to the brink of nuclear war. More on that in a minute. First, we begin in bedminster, new jersey, where the president is sending the final day of his working vacation, neefby in bridgewater, boris, the president returning to the white house, not there for long, though . Reporter thats right, jim. The president s 17day working vacation to bedminster, new jersey, wraps up today. Hes heading back to washington, d. C. Tonight. As you said, he is heading to arizona this week on tuesday. Hes going to take part in some kind of tour in yuma. No clarity on specifically what hell tour but we know later that night he heads to phoenix for a rally, and the white house has been reeling, as you said, jim, from the president s press conference last tuesday that received Harsh Criticism from both sides of the aisle. Many in his own party are now urging the president to be more inclusive in his language, and specifically, at this rally in phoenix, someone to see him take a much more conciliatory tone. One of the president s critics, john kasich, governor of ohio, was on state of the union with with we j. T. Jake tapper. The president is our president. We want him to be successful. People around him have to get to him including his own family to say, okay, you need to show leadership. You need to bring the country together. Youre going to go to phoenix and make a speech, fine. Thats your right. You can go there. Hes got free speech just like the rest of us have, but when you go, try to use that as an opportunity to Say Something thats going to bring people together. Reporter now, some have actually gone further than that, jim, including the mayor of phoenix. Over the past several days theres been speculation that the president might use this rally as an occasion to pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio, heavily criticized across the country for racial profiling in the state of arizona. The president himself said it was something he was considering. Heres a statement from the mayor of phoenix, greg stanton, who writes if President Trump is coming to phoenix to announce a parton for Sheriff Joe Arpaio it will be clear his true intent enflame emotions and further divide our nation. It is my hope he delays his visit. No indication from the white house the president has any intention of delaying this visit and no indication whether he may pardon the sheriff. And traveling with the president. President trump facing his fair share of heat this week over his response to the charlottesville violence. It wasnt just democrats. Republicans adding theirs voices to the chorus of criticism too. This morning, several Lawmakers Said their word on the sunday shows. Where i want to look now is, what are we going to do to deal with the fundamental issues we have in the country . The issue of race. The issue of police and Community Coming together and developing policing methods that can unify. You know, anyone thats committing violence ought to be condemned. Anyone. Theres no justification for it whatsoever and we cant allow the commander in chief to somehow equate the handful of people that would make those protests violent with any kind of sentiment that condones White Supremacy or neonazism. Well, i think what he said on monday was fantastic. Would have been even better had he said it on saturday. What he said on tuesday was really challenging. What the president should do before he says something is sit down and become better acquainted, have a personal connection, to the painful history of racism and bigotry of this country. It is not just fellow politicians who are disay pointed in how the president is handling his job today. A new poll of rust belt states that helped push President Trump into the white house show that his approval be in numbers are dropping to new lows. Key. Below the 40 mark. The new nbc news marist poll surveys in three states trump won in 2016, key states, in michigan, 36 of adults approve of his job performance. In pennsylvania, just 33 . Same in wisconsin. Of course, you remember what a key role those states played in his election win. All of them surprises, really, taking them away from hillary clinton, the dell. Discuss this now with our panel, julian zelizer, a political analyst and historian at princeton, university. Tanxena porter and a former governor. Trump supporter. We should mention this poll was conducted after the violence, the unrest in charlottesville. Were just seven months into the president s term and yet were three and a half years nearly from the next president ial election. How key are these approval numbers right now today . Well, theyre important, because republicans are not looking at 2020. Politically theyre looking at 2018. And theyre trying to figure out what impact might this have on the midterms, and some republicans are also trying to figure out what impact do the statements from that press conference and other statements hes made have on the reputation and image of the gop more broadly . So i think poll numbers are significant, even if they come very early in the presidency. Andre braugher, do you sense nervousness within trump the team . Look at numbers and see concern between 2018 and 2020 . I dont know about concern. Rather have poll numbers going in anything but the opposite direction. When i supported donald trump i wanted to see somebody come in and make substantial change. What hes got to do more than anything now is make sure he works with the members of congress, and so if they get down on him and he cant get his agenda faspassed, thats where real problem lies. A lot of this other stuff will go away. One of my strong suits in the General Assembly and as lieutenant governor, i made big friends with certain groups, black caucus, one of my best groups when i needed things passed. Come off the podium and talk to them. He needs core groups of supporters working with him to get his agenda passed and that is key more in the battleground states, people like kid rock, numbers going down, may discourage him. Important in secondary aspects of what the president wants to get done. Do you see the president doing the opposite of the advice you just gave him there, andre . You talk about reaching out. For one, hes attacking his own republican colleagues, you know. Mitch mcconnell, Senate Majority lead are and certainly not building bridges with, for instance, minority voters in terms of his handling of charlottesville. Does that concern you in particular, or more, most immediately for his agenda . Donald trump is a brave guy and he does a lot of things that are not what we would all expect. Hes had a good week and a bad week. I would say this. In 2000 donald trump didnt do real well in the Real Estate Market but learned substantially in the licks he took. He was able to turn his business what he had learned from failing times and really capitalize on a bad market. So i hope the bad times he had this past week, hell learn from those and capitalize on the opportunity to unite this country, unite the two parties to try to Work Together on common things like a dialogue. I thought john kasich was so good this morning talking about making sure that people that felt like they were down trodden had a piece of the pie. We Work Together for goodwill and john kasich did an excellent jon conveying a conservative message that all of us feel the hurt, want to do better and want to make sure nobody feels like the Republican Party supports the kkk or hate groups, because we dont. And i want to ask you, senator tim scott in addition to Governor John Kasich added his voice to the chorus of gop criticism of President Trumps handling of charlottesville. Ill play this tape from state of the union. Strong words. I want your reaction. As we look to the future its going to be very difficult for this president to lead if, in fact, that moral Authority Remains compromised. Thats a republican senator there, tanxena, saying that the president s moral authority is compromised. How damaging is that for, particularly, in the africanamerican community, but beyond that as well. That youre seeing really significant comments coming out of this past week, particularly from people in the gop. After the last election, not this past election, the last election of president obama, the gop had to really do a, an analysis and came out actually way report saying how much they needed to get better at connecting with and communicating with communities of color. Women voters, et cetera. And marginalized communities. Weve seen theyve got the opposite way. Zigged instead of zagging. And in addition to that you also see that the president himself is inconsistent on his messaging when it comes to this. A late response. Then what some people say is a decent response. Then we get the press conference on tuesday. So i i think we have to take americans intelligence pretty seriously, and understand that its a little insulting to assume we can pivot back and forth on issues so fundamental to american democracy and society and racism is one of those issues. People have memories. Right . And emotional issues, the ones that tend to stick. Julie, ill ask you this after the 2016 election there was criticism of the democratic party, of the standard bearer, hillary clinton, and other candidates. The strategy and criticism from within the party for going too far. Leaning too heavily on identity politics. Do you see a danger here of of over346 sizes, if thats the right word, purely from a politically strategic perspective. You heard steve bannon in an exit interview, quote unquote, this week saying republicans would benefit in his view if the democrats went entirely down that path. Do you see dangers there . Maybe. But i dont think the democrats want top listen to Stephen Bannon for advice. I think to be clear, not just Stephen Bannon gave that critique. You heard it from democrats as well after 2016. Some of these issues characterized or dismissed as identity politics are often social rights politics. Its about racial equality, gender equality, about the rights of immigrants. Ideas that have been really at the core of Democratic Politics since the 1960s. And im not sure the right kind of move is for democrats to abandon those or even to dismiss those. Its true they have to pay more attention to the economy. Its true they have to look at how many middleclass americans feel insecure, but i think they are on to values that have been pretty important. This week revealed why. When the president moved in the wrong direction, addressing what happened in virginia. Also, if i could jump in please. The final word. Running short of time. Identity politics is often used to describe only talking about communities of color. This election cycle, administration and Stephen Bannon in particular relied heavily on white identity politics. We need to sort of examine what were saying, and when talking about whose country were taking back. And all of these other sort of euphemisms used throughout the campaign and beyond. How about american identity politics . Correct. We can agree on that. Julian, andre, tanxena, thanks for joining mu. Coming up, a sharp, new warning from north korea right as the u. S. Prepares for military exercises in south korea. Just across the border. This comes as one former president ial candidate says it is time to take out the rogue nations missile systems. Details, right after this. People confuse nice and kind but theyre different. Its nice to remove artificial ingredients. Kind never had to. We choose real ingredients like almonds, peanuts and a drizzle of dark chocolate. Give kind a try. [l vwho can turn the worldan jeton with her smile . S who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile . Well its you girl, and you should know it. With each glance and every Little Movement you show it. Youre gonna make it after all. It takes a long time to get to the top. Youre gonna make it after all. But with americas best youre gonna make it after all. Bumpertobumper limited youre gonna make it after all. Warranty, the allnew Volkswagen Tiguan will be there every step ow of the way. I love you. Love you too, dad. I will love you in the morning when the dew is on the ground will love you. Man hey, good luck dad, dad, your tie when the sun is rising we have breaking news. Sad news to report today. Kmeed ya comedian jerry lewis is dead at the age of 91. Best known for roles like the nutty professor and the signature slapstick characters during a run with dean martin and also, important to remember, a humanitarian. Hosting the annual muscular dystrophy telethon for many years. A true legend sure to be remembered. Reporter born in 1926 and became known to the world at jerry lewis. The zany, but lovable, fool in films such as the bellboy and the nutty professor. Lewis hit it big at age 20 teaming up with another young entertainer dean martin. Dean was the virile, macho, i was the monkey. I knew we had lightning in a barrel. Reporter martin and lewis became one of the most popular comedy teams in history. Thousands of soldout performances 16 hit movies and duz dozens of radio and tv appearances. On his own lewis signed a tract with paramount in 1959. At that time, the large effort contract ever between a studio and performer. Lewis went on to act in and direct shows for several decades and later offered this advice to fellow entertaining. Be a hit. Score. Get the audience laughing and happy. Thats the secret. Of success in this business. Reporter he didnt just make audiences laugh. Lewis used his fame to make a difference taking up the fight against muscular dystrophy. For more than four decades his annual labor day telethons helped raise more than 1 billion for research and treatment and almost ended with his signature song youll never walk alone. Walk on with hope in your heart and youll never walk alone reporter lewis struggled with his own Health Problems over the years including prostate cancer, type i diabetes, Pulmonary Fibrosis and heart disease. A long, long grueling ride. Ive ingested more than 24,000 pills. Reporter through it all, he kept his sense of humor. You better laugh at it. Because theres the alternative is not funny. [ laughter ] indeed, sad news not just for the Entertainment Industry but for the country. A legend i think many grew up with. Learning today that jerry lewis died peacefully at his home. He was surrounded by family. He had seven children through his life, and, of course, a legend on the stage, on the screen, and in humanitarian causes as well. Joining me now on the phone, comedian Penn Gillette tweeting out this picture when the news broke. Him there with the legend. Penn, thanks for taking the time to join us today. I just want to ask you yourself, someone whos an entertainer, a comedian what do you remember most about jerry lewis . Well, you know, you always have to say, no matter how much you want to talk about what a humanitarian he was and you have to lead with the word funny. I mean, i didnt get to spend much time with jerry as i wanted to, and always very emotional, that much of a hero and legend, but i remember flying with him. You know . On the airplane flying to vegas, i think from l. A. And every Single Person anywhere near him was just laughing hysterically. Glasses in his mouth and doing physical comedy and just yelling, and just crazy and full of life. When he was, you know, in his 80s. And just making the whole airplane happy. That little clip you had of him saying, make people happy, make people laugh, theres a sense where a comedian being on all the time is supposed to be a negative thing and i guess it can be, but with jerry, he was our all the time and that made life worth living. You mentioned it there. With jerry lewis it was the timing, the voices, the characters. But he was always such a physical comment. The falling, just the facial expressions. Really unforgettable. Yeah. He just was completely, was completely funny all the time, and was kind of very, very pure, a very, very pure way. I mean, just he was just deeply funny. Every second. When i first met him i kind of tried to be cool and kind of a hes the old school, were the new school. You know . Way back then. You just couldnt do it. I felt a piece of my hole childhood, everything i considered funny was built by jerry and because ive been part of a comedy team for 42 years, martin and lewis, you know, teller and i studied everything about them. Watched every single appearance we could see. Listened to everything. Watched all the movies, every comedy team, theyre an important part of america and i mean, the biggest there ever was. They are the biggest most Important Team and only lasted ten years. Ten years that changed everybody. I was going to ask you that. Particularly you, as someone whos made his name as part of a comedy team. A partnership. What you learned from, well, from jerry lewis. Certainly from the Famous Partnership with dean martin, what you learn from their partnership and what yourself and fellow comics learned from him. What were his innovations . You know, you could really you dont even have to get abstract about this. He invented techniques. He invented the, you know, the video tap that allowed, allows people in movies to direct them. He is the one that allowed us to watch playback in film. He invented that. Theres a lot of just ways that comedy movies are made that were entirely invented by jerry lewis. You go into the bellboy, and the errand boy and the caddie. Well, in caddie he didnt direct. Once he starts directing himself, all your kind of comedy collector performers,