Of the aisle. Volume ii of this report was not authorized under the law to be written. The racial divide, donald Trump Doubles down on his inflammatory language, attacking a leading democratic congressman. The city of baltimore and the reverend al sharpton, while Republican Leaders all stay silent. Calling me a troublemaker. Yes, i make trouble for bigots. I made trouble for him with central park. I made trouble for him with birtherism and im going to keep making trouble for bigots. A fathers grief. A mass shooting at a Food Festival in california leaves three dead, including a 6yearold boy. I lost my son. Theres nothing i can do except try to be with him until i can put him in his resting spot, wherever that is. Good afternoon. Im Ayman Mohyeldin in for Andrea Mitchell. Congressman ratcliffe, President Trumps pick to replace dan coats. The announcement coming, as can you imagine, via twitter. A potential Administration Position in recent months, made a big impression with his interrogation of former special Counsel Robert Mueller in last wednesdays judiciary hearing. Watch this. Respectfully, director, you didnt follow the special counsel regulations. Respectfully, by doing that, you managed to violate every principle in the most sacred of traditions about prosecutors not offering extra prosecutorial analysis. I agree with the chairman this morning when he said donald trump is not above the law. Hes not, but he damn sure shouldnt be below the law, which is where volume two of this report puts him. Joining me now, nbc news correspondent kara lee, david g ignatius, chuck rosenberg, former fbi official, u. S. Attorney and msnbc political contributor ben rhodes, former National Security adviser in the obama administration, allstar panel to break this down for us. Weve seen some reporting in the New York Times that primary republicans, including the chair of the Intelligence Committee, richard burr, theyve got concerned about ratcliffe being, quote, two too political for this position. What are you hearing from your sources about the president s affinity for the congressman . Well, its clear that the congressman made a good impression on the president you outlined in the interim. And i think thats going to be the white houses main argument to the senate for confirmation, is that here is a guy who can connect with the president. Understand what the president wants. Its the president s choice. I do not expect him to have serious confirmation difficulties. There will be flags raised, though. And not least because dan coats, frankly, is beloved by many of his senate colleagues. He is a twotime senator and last of the kind of old guard to serve in the trump cabinet. The last of the socalled grownups around him in the National Security cabinet and there will be senators, burr included, who want the white house to think carefully about that. David theres an interesting aspect to all of this. Theres some uncertainty about who will bridge the gap between coats and ratcliffes confirmation. Interestingly enough in the president s tweet there was an announcement that a new acting director would be announced. Some were expecting sue gordon. Thats not going to be the case, according to the president. What does this mean, david, in terms of the overall shakeup that the president is trying to bring to dni . Im afraid its politici politicization of the job, director of National Intelligence was created so as to reduce political mistakes, disorganization, the factors were seeing that contributed to 9 11. This was one of the great reforms. Sue gordon, currently the number two to dan coats, is one of the most respected officials in the Intelligence Community that i know of. She ran the directive support at the cia, the organization that rents the safehouses, the runs the shooters through Company Agents and very clandestine missions. Shes the real deal and people trust her. The idea that donald trump is going to move her out of the way, not simply to put in congressman ratcliffe, but some other person as acting dni, i think, will disturb people in the intelligence workforce even more than they already have been disturbed by what theyve seen. Kara lee, i want to play you a sound bite picking up on what david and ann were saying about the character of dan coats, why he was so respected. You were there at the as pen institute where he talked to Andrea Mitchell. He had that famous or infamous line about talking about Vladimir Putin coming to the white house. People came to me, dan coats came to me and said it was russia. I spoke to putin. He said its not russia. I dont see why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. Im wonder iing, when you wah that in helsinki, what was your gut reaction, watching him validate Vladimir Putins assessment over yours . My thoughts there were that i believed i needed to correct the record for that, and that this is the job i signed up for and that was my responsibility. So to hear a Senior Intelligence official say i needed to correct the record talking about President Trump in helsinki, that speaks to the personality that dan coats was but it sheds the light into the differences between these two men. That was the real flashpoint in the relationship between President Trump and dan coats. It wasnt just that moment but another moment in aspen where he seemed to mock the president about having a potential meeting with president puten at the white house. The president was really angry about that. There was a flareup. It wasnt the first time. This was really a relationship that was fraught from the start. Dan coats when he first came in, and my colleague, Kelly Cobiella and i reported on this, that he was really close to resigning when President Trump said he would withdraw from syria. Vice president mike pence asked him to stay on until the summer, which is now. There were other points he got frustrated with the president and the president got frustrated with him. He thought that he didnt respect him, that he was kind of crazy. Early on one of the first things the president asked dan coats to do was find evidence that former president obama wire tapped him and dan coats wouldnt do that and was baffle ed by it. Its been a rocky relationship for many months, for basically his entire tenure. Were seeing the ultimate result of that. Finally coming to a boil. B ben, im curious to get your thoughts on this. Obviously, this white house runs on a very different frequency than the one that you served in. What are your concerns, as a former deputy, National Security adviser on the inside, of having a team that includes people like john bolton, mike pompeo and potentially someone like john ratcliff, all of them considered to be highly political, highly partisan, advising the president on so many Critical Issues on National Security here and abroad . I think its very concerning. I used to be in the president ial Daily Briefing every morning and i can tell you every morning, jim clapper, who was dni for us, would tell president obama something he did not want to hear. Something going wrong around the world, a problem with our policy. If you dont have intel people who can speak truth to power youre not going to make good decisions and youre also not going to be trusted around the world. The rest of the world will doubt the credibility of the findings of our Intelligence Community if they think that the Intelligence Community just sang what the president wants. Imagine if theres an incident with iran and this dni, the new one, has to come out and make the case to the world on behalf of President Trump. Thats not going to have the same credibility with the International Community that we need. That should be very concerning to americans. Lets talk, chuck, about what david mentioned, the increased politicization and the morale factor, if you will, of the Intelligence Community if someone like John Ratcliffe is confirmed. Rank and file workers there not to be partisan. Does ratcliffe need to prove in order to get confirmed by the senate you know him a little bit. Can he possibly be an unbiased leader of such an important Intelligence Agency . I do know him, ayman. We served together as u. S. Attorneys. If you asked me a couple of days before the mueller hearing what i thought of john, i would have told you although i dont share his politics i thought he was a decent man. That hearing unnerved me. I thought it was incredibly disingenuous what he did to bob mueller and, by the way, i thought he was flat out wrong. To davids point and bens point, the Intelligence Community not only has to be perceived as apolitic al, it ha to be apolitical. Intelligence is not political. Its not left, right, democratic or republican. Intelligence is just our ability to collect the best information and present it to the decision maker. And so i hope john rises above the politics he displayed at the mueller hearing. I hope hes better than that, and i hope he grows into the job. I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I hope im not wrong. We talk a little bit about this in the First Response to this in terms of his confirmation process. Republicans have been silent on so many other controversial issues that the president has talked about, whether its race, attacking members of congress. Are we likely to see enough members of the Republican Party potentially stand up and say no to an appointment of John Ratcliffe in such a position . I dont think so. I expect that if he is he will be the nominee, that the white house will make an argument for him that the president should have the cabinet members he wants and absent some external factor, which we have seen come up in other confirmation fights, you know, something about ratcliffe himself, his background, Something Else that derails it, i do expect him to be confirmed. David, let me get your thoughts on appointing somebody without experience in the Intelligence Community. He does sit on the Intelligence Committee in the house. Not having the Institutional Knowledge of the broader american intelligence agencies, in your experience of reporting, have we ever seen somebody achieve such a highlevel position without having that kind of experience . What could that mean to, excuse me, understanding how the intelligence agencies and Community Works at large . I cant remember anybody who had this really complete lack of direct background. Perhaps as a u. S. Attorney, some cases. I think the Intelligence Community, for better, sometimes for worse, does kind of run on its own. It has its own momentum. The analysts who report up the chain to the director of National Intelligence, the Mission Managers who run each component of our intelligence collection take their jobs seriously and pride themselves on pushing back any kind of attempt to steer analysis for political direction. So he will face some pushback from people in the Intelligence Community, in the odni structure if he tries to steer it trumps way. I think the basic point i would make is this is a big job. It requires judgment. Our Intelligence Community is essential in this period of terrorism and other instability. And you need somebody who is comfortable and competent at the top. And were just going to have to see a lot more from ratcliffe in the confirmation process to have that confidence. Finally, ben, your thoughts on this as well in terms of the importance of having somebody with the Institutional Knowledge of some of the intelligence capabilities and the work of the u. S. Government in terms of how it impacts the decisionmaking processes that this president on issues like north korea and iran, when youre surrounded by a lot of what would be considered hawkish viewpoints on some of these regional areas of tension. Well, first of all, as david said, the Intelligence Community is sprawling. Youve got the nsa, cia, elements of the fbi. You have all the military intelligence components and to come in without any real background or expertise, and how to manage that sprawling enterprise, i think, is a huge gap. If you look at the history of who has been dni, weve never had someone whose basic qualification for the job was that they appealed to the president because they shared their political agenda. And we know president obama President Trump, sorry, will be shopping for intelligence that validates his world view. Looking for intelligence that maybe russia isnt interfering in our election, looking for intelligence that north korea is not continuing to build nuclear weapons, which they are. What concerns me is that this person, ratcliffe, does not have the experience of managing this degree of intelligence collection and analysis, and also he seems like someone, based on that mueller performance, who is going to go looking for what the president wants to hear. And that is the opposite of what you want in an intelligence leader. And i think it bears serious scrutiny from, obviously, democrats in the senate but also republicans, such as senator burr. This should be a tough confirmation process. I dont think this is the kind of person you want in that position. Well see how all of this does play out if, in fact, he does go ahead with that appointment. Kara lee, ben rods, chuck rosenberg, thank you for your time. Racially charged attacks on members of congress, this time accusing Elijah Cummings of being racist. This is Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. Mitchell reports only on msnbc. Especially when your easily distracted teenager has the car. At subaru, were taking on distracted driving [ping] with sensors that alert you when your eyes are off the road. The allnew subaru forester. The safest forester ever. Make ice. D be mad at tech thats unnecessarily complicated. But youre not, because you have e trade, which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad. Get e trade. We really pride ourselves on temaking it easy for youass, to get your windshield fixed. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace Xfinity Mobile is designed to save you money. Whether you use your phone to get fit. Or to find the perfect gift. Youll use less data with a network that auto connects to millions of wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. Saving you hundreds of dollars a year. The best network. Best devices. Best value. And now get 250 dollars back when you buy an eligible phone. Its simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. President trump sparking another political firestorm again, steering debate over race after his latest attacks on a democratic member of congress. This time, the president taking aim at House OversightCommittee ChairElijah Cummings, who has initiated several investigations into the trump administration. The president lashing out in a tweet storm saying cummings district in baltimore is, quote, a disgusting, rat and rode enterinfested mess, adding no human being would want to live there. He took it one step further, calling cummings racist without any explanation. His respon a scathing response, its better to have a few rats than to be one. And a new attack against reverend al sharpton this morning, calling sharpton a con man. He fired back during a News Conference in baltimore. He attacks everybody. I know donald trump. He is not mature enough to take criticism. He cant help it. But he has a particular venom for blacks and people of color. Elijah cummings district is the most well educated and middle class aspiring district of blacks in this country, and he doesnt even know what hes talking about. Eugene scott, Jonathan Capehart and charlie sykes, editor in chief of the the balwirt. The governor of maryland has come under criticism for not responding forcefully enough. In fact, what he just said, he says the comments are just outranlgs and inappropriate. Enough is eno