Congress does not return until this is for middle income people, and all middle income people, and 10 and we will put it in next week. And the naked truth, the leader of turkey calling the murder of sjamal khashoggi savage. And he was doing the best to make the saudis squirm. And good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington where President Trumps midterm strategy is clear, divide and conquer. He is road testing the message across the country starting with the mondays raucous rally tuesday for ted cruz, and laundry list of misstatements have the Fact Checkers working overtime today. Joining me now is geoff bennett, and nbc political analyst phil rucker, and Washington Bureau chief and usa today bureau chief susan page who interviewed the president exclusively last night on the trip to houston. And jof, to you first, the caravan claims of going to washington and the caravan coming, and take a look at part of what he had to say. Go into the middle of the caravan and search. And no, no. Take the camera and go into the middle and search, you will find ms13 and middle eastern and everything. You know how the caravan started . Does everybody know what this means . I think that the the democrats had something to do with it, and now they are saying, that i think that we maid a big mistake, because people are seeing how bad it is. Geoff bennett, do some Fact Checking first of all on the caravan, and the middle eastern influence or the democratic influence in starting the caravan. And in the way that the president so casually and implicitly links the middle easterners with terrorists is as problem problematic as offensive, and we saw the president there say to the reporters gathered there on the south lawn and i was among them, take the cameras to search and go look for the ms13 and the middle easterns and we have been there for days, mariana atensio and gabe ute yars, and they report they are middle central men and will and children. And so to the say that this is democrats for who start theed a all of this, and if that is true, and the democrats would try to orchestrate this, they would not do it a week or two out from the midterm election, and these images that we are seeing, this i am told close to the person of the president thinks it crystallizes this argument, and the pitch he is making to the supporters and this racialized fear, and stoking the fear about the immigrants and the crime and the terrorism, and this is what he thinks works for him more than he thinks that it would work for the demdemocrats, andrea. And susan, in your interview with the president he said it is a blessing in disguise to show how bad the laws are, and the democrats are responsible for that. And he will send as many troops as they need. And you cant send the troops south of the border, and you cant use the troops to be sent because of the well, i am not clear that he is sending the troops to the bo border, but he is saying that it is helping the republicans in the election, because it is scary to see them coming across mexico and to the southern border, and as phil noted in the excellent story in the Washington Post it is easier to motivate people to come out to vote by fear than the satisfaction of how thing s hs done. It is stunning that the president acknowledged that to you, susan, and phil, your reporting is that the fear factor is potentially going to work for them, and they know it. Yeah, it is a clear decision to focus not only on what the president sees as his big accomplishments in Office Starting with the tax cut bill from last december, but to stoke fear and to remind people about immigration as a key issue, and tr trump has been keeping an argument of the campaign trail that you cant have the wall or the harsh immigration crackdown that he supports without more republicans in the senate and without holding the republican majority in the house, and the pitch you will see day after day after day until the 6th. And it is clear that the tax cut message is not working adds well as they have perceived. And so this is from yesterday. You wanted a tax cut by the first, and congress is not in session. No, no. We are putting in a resolution in the next week or week and a half a resolution where . We are giving income tax reduction of about 10 . Where are you signing an executive order . No, no, through congress. We want to have time to do the vote. We will do the vote after the election. We will be putting in a 10 tax cut for middle income families. And it is going to be put in next week. Kevin, we are putting in next week, the the 10 reduction in middle income taxes, next week. Okay. He promised it in front of 22,000, and i dont need that, and he promised it to me, and that is good. That is of course, the chairman of the house ways and means, but congress is not in session. Congressman brady is right there in texas, and all of the members are out campaigning and they call it district work periods, and there is no bill written. Phil rucker, you cant put a tax cut through congress by resolution. No, you absolutely cant, and congress has to be here to vote on a tax bill, and it is not like they can fly in for one day and vote on tax, and this is one tof the most complicated issues that lawmakers deal with and it could take weeks and months to arrive at a tax cut plan and the only person in washington who seems to know about the plan is President Trump himself, and he has limited details, and there is no real information here. And geoff, this is clearly a strategy that the white house thinks is working, and there may be clear evidence that it is working from the polling in terms of the enthusiasm. Post kavanaugh, we have seen a rise in the president s numbers up to 46 , and that is a high for him in the nbc wall strewa journal poll that came out sunday, and now, weminishing of enthusiasm or a rise of the republican enthusiasm. And we will drill down on that in a moment. And how are you confident that the plan and the strategy as it exists is going to work for you in 2018, and they said it worked fine in 2016. And the president said that he would introduce a resolution. A and this is not law. And so he wants that cut fresh in the minds of the voters and more likely Establishment Republicans going to the the poll, and less incline and more motivated to go to the polls around the cultural issue s ts the president is pitching, andrea. And in line with what phil ruck r and others have been reporting in terms of the themes of the rally, take a look at this from the president in nevada saturday. And we dont want the sanctuary cities, and they are rioting now. Rioting, phil . Not in california, and people may be opposed to sanctuary cities, but not mass riots as the president is imagining. Susan, when you are on the air force one with the president , and you are questioning him, and challenging him and how does he respond to facts that contradict his claims . For instance, when we talked about, the issue of believing the saudi story on to murder of jamal khashoggi, he said that he thought that it was a plot gone awry which is consistent with what the saudis are trying to sell, but most of the leaders are opposing, and i said to him, what about bringing a bone saw into the em bbassy, and doesnt that indicate a deliberate attempt beforehand to murder him . And he said, do you know that there was a bone saw . And i said, well, i dont personally know, and it has been reported and he said, well we will know more in a couple of days. Well, of course, he has the cia director there and we will learn more, but the question becomes, will he accept the intelligent analysis which is going to confirm what has been reported. And what will he determine to do after that, and even after we know what happened, and in our interview, he was skeptical about the idea of cutting off armed sales. Susan page, congratulations on the reporting, and phil, as well from the Washington Post, and geoff bennett, thank you very much from the white house. And coming up the former mayor of san antonio, and colleague of president Obama Julian Castro joins me. We are two weeks before the midterm election. Im Andrea Mitchell. Success is a numbers game. And youre not going to win if you keep telling yourself to wait. The more often that you choose courage, the more likely youll succeed. The most inspiring minds. The most compelling stories. Download audible. And listen for a change. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Thats it . Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Unstopand its strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. Which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. Well almost anything. Leave no room behind with xfi pods. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Click or visit a retail store today. And in that caravan, you ve have some very bad people, and you have very bad people, and i cant let that happen to the country, and it is not. I am talking to a lot of people, and they are going to form a wall, a different kind of wall, and get one built, and we need to get one built fast. Fast. We need to protect our borders. We dont have borders, we dont have a country. President trump now floating a new plan to build a wall before his long promised border wall, and a final sales pitch to supporters in texas last night. And joining me is hulian castro, the former secretary the of housing and urban development under president obama, and author of his book an unlikely journey. And you know the country so well, and you have been traveling so much now with the new book, and lets talk about this pitch, and whether this is going to work as the president tries to demonize the caravan. Yeah, you know, andrea, it is this is, you know, i would say unbelievable, but he has lied so much over to the course of his presidency that it is completely believable that he is trying to pull out all of the stops, telling lie after lie after lie about who is in the caravan, about his supposed middleclass tax cut that is not going to the happhappen, and th amounting to fearmongering with the issue of immigration. He is trying to create a very sharp boogeyman like he has in the entire tenure and hoping that it is going to the translate into the some juiced up base. And the problem is that though that the enough people can see through it now. And do you think so . Do you think that the democrats are able to counteract this, because this is only basically a couple of days old, but this caravan is clearly going to be the overriding theme now. He is return oing to ting to thd fr frankly the migration from latin america to the border of mexico is playing right into his hands. But i dont know that it is, andly tell you why. This is Proof Positive that donald trump has bneen a total failure when it comes to immigration. He promised us, and he went out there and said that if we abused the families by taking away the little children from the families that it would deter more families from coming to the k country, and this is not true. So even if you are out there, and you are republican, and independent, independent, and you have concerns about, about immigration, and you are willing to believe that maybe separating children from their families may have been okay or the right thing to do, he said that he would do that, because he was going to deter folks from coming, and in fact, it did not work at all. So, i think that people can see through fearmongering and trying to pit people against each other and scapegoating of the folks with a failed policy, and it is so convenient that this comes up two weeks before the election, and it is like the middleclass tax cut, and nobody knows about. The folks last night in houston, basically doesnt know what the president is talking about this tax cut that he is saying that he is going to be passed is an admission that the first tax cut that they passed was not for the middleclass but the wealthy. And so we have a president who is going at unprecedented lengths to lie to the gin up the ba base. I dont believe at the end of the day, it is going to overcome the skepticism that a vast majority of people have about h him, and how much he has failed over the last 18 months. In the book, as unlikely journey as a mexican american, i had common history with the people seeking asylum, and many folks forget that their own lineage can be traced to a different land and their own survival depend ed on the empaty of strangers. At the same time, a lot of the latinos and we are seeing the enthusiasm among latino early voters, but at the same time, do you worry that the la ttinos an including the people documented of latin american background are going to be fearful of voting and fearful to government they have seen i. C. E. And other agencies take . Well, i mean, it does concern me, of course sh, that republic in texas and other places have gone out of their way to create roadblocks for a lower income people, and people of color to vote whether it is gerrymandering or the voter i. D. , sure, the rhetoric out there, i think it is a concern, becauset may chill basically peoples willingness to interact in any way, whether it is voting or filling out the census with the government, and so it needs to be and should be a concern, but i also believe and i believe that the poll reflect ed on sunday that there is enthusiasm that is growing, growing interest among the latinos to vote in the election, and that is a good thing, because the stakes are high, and not only for the latino community, but for all of us, and as president obama said yesterday in nevada, this is the most important election that we have seen in a long time, and young people, and latinos and others need to get out to vote. Thank you for being with us today, former secretary castro. And the president does not hold back of the premeditated murder of jamal khashoggi. door bell rings its open hey. This is amazing. With moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay . Even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications havent worked well enough. And it helps people achieve control that lasts. So you can experience few or no symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. 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He called on the saudis to extradite the 18 suspects that i have name and send them to turkey, and still claiming that he has strong evidence, but refusing to give the details. This is Surveillance Footage of a man wearing Jamal Khashoggis clothes Walking Around istanbul on the day that the saudi journalist was killed. They say this body double is a member of the hit team. And joining me is the retired admiral of the allied commander, and also, ambassador to nato joining us. And a lot to talk about. We will talk about Vladimir Putin about to hold a News Conference with john bolden in getting out of the imf treaty, and first, jamal khashoggi, and admiral, so much at stake here, but no sign that the u. S. Is going to punish saudi arabia. Hardly. The irony of this is to think of erdogan as a defender of free press, and he has put more journalists behind bars per capita than anybody i can think of. And the committee to protect journalists, and the most journalists are held in turkish jails in 2017 than any place in the world. Yes, and in is about a larger geopolitical move between turkey and saudi arabia in the region, and in between erdogan who has taken a position supporting the qataris and finding his way potentially to one side of the deal on one side or another. And it is strange that it is dribbling out so slowly, and there is a game afoot behind the screen. And ivo, the outrage of the americanbased journalist being mu murdered in this fashion with a finally a belated admission from the saudis, and the president of the United States sending all kinds of mixed signals. Yes, and the president and the saudis are trying to limit the damage. They want to get on as fast as they can to go back to the relationship they had. This is a hiccup in the relationship as far as both sides seem to be concerned. It is not and it has been taken seriously in part, because the press has made it impossible f for the president not to take pit seriously, but much more needs to be done to really deal with this fundamental affront of human rights. And the president is exploding the numbers that he is claiming from the arms deals and other deals. They said in riyadh in the summit of the spring of 2017, 450 billion in corporate deals and plus 110 in arms deals and only 14. 5 billion of arms deals have been pledge and not contract and the number of jobs is just totally exploe ploeded. And i wanted to dig into to your expertise of the short and mediumrange missiles in largely euro europe, and landmark agreement of reagan and gorbachev which sett the start of the new s. T. A. R. T. Treaty, but john bolten in moscow blowing them up telling the russians that we want to give out of them and giving russians the huge advantage of cheating on the edge of it, and they will be the here rose and we will divide nato. Yes, and remember the geography, because they own this cal caliph of leningrad, and the russians are doing high fives right now with this. And we need to address the russian violations here, but pulling