And the attack on u. S. Soldiers in africa, Chuck Schumer and republican senator lindsay graham. Plus that republican civil war. There has not been a more destructive presidency than george bushs. More evidence that the Republican Party is showing signs of splitting in two. And in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, we asked female senators to share their me too stories with meet the press. He closed the door. You know, i have a story. And he looked at me and he paused and said well did you bring your knee pads . Remarkable stories about what happened to the powerful women early in their careers. Joining me for insight is tom friedman, robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post. And helene cooper, correspondent for the New York Times. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, celebrating its 70th year. This is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. This was a week when attention should have been focused on real life issues with consequences. But it was a side show around that niger battle what President Trump reportedly said about one of the Fallen Soldiers that the dominated headlines and the erosion once again of civility in our politics. The serial battles that President Trump engages in with democrats, the media and even members of his own party. Appeared to prompt two former president s and a former president ial nominee to lament the lowering of the National Discourse in the age of twitter and by implication at the person they believe is responsible for it. The latest twitter cable catnip soap opera began that President Trump has made a point of calling and comforting the families of American Service members who died in defense of their country. If you look at president obama and other president s, most of them didnt make calls. A lot of them didnt make calls. I believe we can an ugly week when even condolences to gold star fallen families i didnt say that. She knows it. Frederica wilson said that your guy knew what he signed up for. He doesnt need to talk about what people sign up for. That is unconscionable. Mr. Trump rather than going out himself sent his chief of staff to clean up the mess. It stuns me that a member of congress would have listened in on the conversation. If you want to get into the debate with a four star marine general i think that thats something highly inappropriate. Last night, all five living former president s gathered in texas to raise money for hurricane relief. And an effort they are calling the one america appeal. The heart of america without regard to race or religion or Political Party is greater than our problems. Mr. Trump taped a video message as well. Through this effort all five former living president s are playing a tremendous role in helping our fellow citizens recover. It was a show of unity after a week in which president s bush and obama broke the expresident s club code of silence and indicted President Trumps brand of politics without ever mentioning him by name. Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seem more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication. If you have to win a campaign by dividing people youre not going to be able govern them. Echoing another rebuke, this one by john mccain. For the sake of half baked spurry louse nationalism while trying to find scapegoats. And mr. Trumps former chief strategist steve bannon did respond on a blistering attack on friday night and he called for open revolt inside the Republican Party. President bush to me embarrassed himself. He has no idea whether hes coming or going. Just like it was when he was president of the United States. Theres not been a more destructive presidency than george bushs. As for the president himself he only responded directly to senator mccain. People have to be careful because at some point i fight back. Yeah. You know, im being very nice. Im being very, very nice. But at some point i fight back and it wont be pretty. Well, joining me now is republican senator Lindsey Graham from south carolina. Good morning. Lovely morning. I know you always love being on here on weeks like this. You were tough on candidate donald trump. In fact, i think right before you got out you called him a race baiting xenophobic religious bigot. You heard what president bush said. Where are we . Well, he won, i lost. President bush is still popular in the Republican Party. But donald trump couldnt have won without rejecting the last 16 years really when you think about it. There were a lot of people like bush running in our primary and all of them got creamed and clinton was not the greatest candidate but if president obama was what the American People would wanted to continue then trump wouldnt have won. So id say to both former president s i admire president bush a lot, president obama i dont think get why President Trump won. You dont understand why he won . I think i do. What you just said you didnt think. I think you dont think i think president bush im more in the bush camp on foreign policy. Right. Mccains speech was about we are not going down the bannon road. When you look at whos around President Trump hes got more people like john mccain and Lindsey Graham so im hopeful, but in the primary he rejected basically the bush model of foreign policy. And in in the general election, base but thats on substance. Thats fine. But when did civility become an ideological issue . When did this idea no, its more important to be pugilistic or more important to land that punch. I would argue thats what both former president s were getting to. They were not trying to get ideological here. Mccain, part of the discourse when he came down the escalator, the first thing that President Trump talked about was pretty tough and he won. What does that say about us then . It means that we want somebody whos not traditional. That were sick and tired of the status quo. Whether it be in obama or bush and that people felt so bad about their government they had nothing to lose. They were going to pick a guy that was rich, that liked being rich and he says im going to make you rich. A guy that says im being involved in everybodys business except ourselves and guess what he won. Look at this week. You ask yourself why couldnt he take the high ground. The condolences. Look, its not about to me, business the customer is always right. In this the grieving widow is always right. Im sorry. I dont care i ask i ask you why didnt he take the high road. This all started when he was asked do you reach out to the four fallen families . And then he brought up president obama. Being around President Trump a lot lately, i know he loves the military. General kelly tried to give him advice about how to talk about the things and President Trump may have delivered it inartfully. If president obama was on the end of the phone and i was in the car, i wouldnt have politicized it like congresswoman wilson. Theres no winners here. Right, the American People that have four young men willing to do this. That would be willing to go and leave their family to a place out in the middle of nowhere to fight terrorists so they dont come here. I would urge President Trump lets talk about the four soldiers, why they did what they did. And all of those like them. All right, i want to know, i think people want to know why they were there. And what were doing there. Im going through a quick time line here. Because we dont know a lot. On october 4th we were told after this happened that it was kind they were there to do counterterrorism training. October 5th it was a reconnaissance patrol. We were told they were to establish relations with local leaders. John kelly on october 19th, just three days ago said i know a lot more than im letting on but im not going to tell you. John mccain had to threaten a subpoena to get john mattis to come talk to you briefly. What more can you tell us about whey we were there, what we were doing. Well, theyll brief us next weeks. I got a little insight of why what they were doing. I can say this to the families. They were there to defend america. They were there to help the allies and prevent another platform to attack america and the allies. Senator mccain is frustrated rightly so. We dont know where were at in the world militarily and john mccain is going to try to create a new system to make sure that we can answer the question of why we were there, well know how many soldiers are there and if somebody gets killed there that we wont find out about it in the paper and john mccain and i think general mattis will come one a new process, i hope. You used some alarming words when you said we dont want the next 9 11 to come from nighter. Youre making this is part of the same war you authorized in 2002. 2001. That the same war that you authorized that was that we thought was about afghanistan. Then it turned to iraq. Then its been used for libya. For syria. And now were in another continent. Yeah. I dont think the forces inside of niger, the isil affiliated forces can teak the United States but what happened in afghanistan you had a government that fell. Replaced by the radical organization, taliban that invited the International Terrorists in and be their welcome guests. I worry about africa it becomes the new platform that people can come to. Its where the terrorists will come, after you defeat them in syria and in iraq and afghanistan. And there are some groups within this system of terrorist groups in africa that would attack our allies or the United States. So theres no victory here. No. I say this because this is a week we got raqqah back. Thats the irony. So we make a substantial progress against isis in syria and in iraq. And yet now its whack a mole and now theyre popping up here. This goes to ten years ago over, pushing al qaeda back and then they reformed with a new name. Its a generational struggle. If you dont think its a generational struggle you dont understand the war. If you think its in the middle east you dont understand the theology. It is spreading throughout the world. Particularly africa. If you think its going to be done in a short period of time if you take off memes of how you fight this war, theres an authorization to use force tomorrow, and i would have voted against i because the war is now morphing, its going to places that we havent heard of before. To the American People. Well use whatever means we need to, with partners to destroy them. And whatever time it takes it takes. Most are not ready but i am. Sounds like youre arguing no, but by the way youre in the minority, right . I dont know. Im arguing that the current authorization as long as its related to radical islam is enough. But the military determines who the threats are. They come up with the engagement policy. If we dont like what the military does we can defund the operation. I didnt know there was a thousand troops in niger. John mccain is right to tell the military, with no limitation on time or geography you have to tell us more. Before i let you go, you have come on this show numerous times and said russia needs to be punished. You passed a tough sanctions bill and passed it in july. The president signed it in early august and there was a deadline of october 1. Its now the 20th and the sanctions have not been implemented. Why . I think the Trump Administration is slow when it comes to russia. Never they have a blind spot on russia. And i cant figure out why. When does that become circumstantial evidence to you . In 16 they interfered in our elections, but in 18 and 20 theyre coming back against us. Did what they did in 2015, did that act to the act of war . How do you respond to Cyber Threats . Were not well together as a nation in terms of of the threats we are facing from the cyber arena. But russia is going to get worse if not better at mr. President , go after russia because theyre coming after us. How are you going to hold them accountable if they dont implement the sanctions . I think the president is beginning to understand the threats we are facing each and every day. Thanks for coming on. No four letter words this time. The day is not over. Fair enough. Well see what the next guest thinks. Joining me now is Chuck Schumer of new york. Senator schumer, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good morning. All right, i want to start actually with niger. As the Senate Democratic leader have you been briefed . Not yet. I hoped to briefed early next week. Why not . Was jack reed briefed . No, i dont believe he was either. He sent a letter along with john mccain demanding they come in and brief him. I understand that. I guess if you get this briefing and you heard what senator graham believes this is part of the larger battle against radical islamist, the cultlike spread of it. Now taking place in africa. What does this mean for the war authorization . Senator graham didnt know we had a thousand troops in niger, did you . No, i did not. What it means for the war authorization is i agreed with senator paul that we ought to look at this carefully. We are in a brave new world, you know. There are no set battle plans. You dont declare war and then fight three weeks later. But having said that, the constitution says congress has the power to declare war and if youre in a long term war congress ought to keep that ability. So we need to reexamine this, were on a aumf that extends 16 years from right after we were attacked at the world trade center. So i would be reexamining it. Absolutely. No easy answer, but we should look at it. The answer we have now is not adequate. Is this how do you describe it any other way than never ending war . Well, look, terrorism and technology has allowed terrorists to do bad things to us. Our military is very, very good and thats why were having such success in syria and iraq. But we have let me stop you there. But we have to keep at it. Why is that considered a success . I say this way because it seems, okay, we had success in afghanistan until we didnt. We had success in iraq until we didnt. We had success raqqah and then all of a sudden its popping up in central africa. The point i guess is how do you define success . Because it seems these short term victories are just that. Short term. Well, two years ago it looked like the isis would have a caliphate. When they had territory, they can get money out of the big cities, mosul and raqqah and the others. They cant do that. Can they still try to hurt us . Yes. We have to do everything we can to stop it. To say we havent won the war isnt to say we havent had some successes. All right. Move to health care. It seems like the democrats are more enthusiastic about the bipartisan deal between senators alexander and murray than the republicans are. So let me ask you this. Its clear that they want the administration wants a little bit more in this deal in order to get these payments back. These subsidy payments back to the Insurance Companies in order for low income what are you are you willing to do more . Look, this is a good compromise. It took months to work out. It hasnt it has the majority. It has 60 senators supporting it. We have 12 republicans and i would urge senator mcconnell to put it on the floor immediately this week. It will pass, it will pass by a large number of votes and thatll put pressure on the house. That prevents the premiums from going up 20 even more in some states that falls on everybodys back. If republicans think that if premiums go up theyll avoid the blame, if senator mcconnell thinks that hes wrong. For the substantive reason preventing the premium going up, number one. And number two, the republicans should come with a bill, and we should pass it and pass it now. You can say it i wont pass it unless this happens or that happens. We can get together in a bipartisan way. The president had urged it originally. He called both murray and alexander and said, come to a solution. Then they come to the solution and the right wing attacks it and he backs off. Thats the whole problem, the president not leading on issue after issue. He should stop tweeting and start leading. Roll up the sleeve, solve problems, dont attack socalled enemies. That will reduce the debate you pointed out. Let me ask you on health care, the issue of creating Association Health care plans. He did an executive order on and something to become a part of this deal. To loosen the regulations. The democrats are not a majority in congress. Dont you almost have an obligation that you probably have to give a little bit more since, you know the republicans are the ones in charge. We gave on copper plans, you know . The republicans always wanted copper plans. These are minimal plans. We didnt like it. I remember during the Health Care Debate president obama didnt like it. That was a big concession. You cant negotiate a deal, shake hands on the deal and then say, ill do it only if you add this. Then the other side says, well, then add that. Then the deal collapses. We have one now. You let youre not budging, theres no movement . Are democrats done negotiating . We have a very good deal. Mcconnell should put it on the floor. It will pass overwhelmingly. If ryan puts it on the floor you didnt answer if youre done. Are you willing to talk . We have an agreement we want to stick by it. Are you willing to talk or no . We are sticking to the agreement we have. Put it on the floor. See if it fails. Dont just i mean, youre asking me to negotiate against myself. I have been around long enough, i dont do enough. Fair enough. Let me ask you about deals with the president. It looked like you had a deal on daca. Yeah. Now it appears the dela