Garret, Bernie Sanders, hes spending the day there in north carolina. Its a place where he did pretty well the last go around. It appears hes trying to recreate some of his 2016 magic. How does he do that in the south . Especially since hes been struggling to win over black voters. Reporter this stop in ashville can serve as a springboard for sanders where he did do well in 2016, getting that base of supporters fired up. There are 20 other candidates in the field that would love to have a committed base of 20 of the vote, which was what sanders has been able to command across the country as hes brought his 2016 campaign into 2020. That does raise questions about if and how he can tweak his message to more to africanAmerican Voters who were so decisive in the 2016 primaries. The next several stops will be in charlotte, orangeburg, south carolina. Sanders does not change a lot of his message. Its part of the reason his supporters like him so much because he has been so consistent. He will be more aggressively taking that message to block voters and hoping to chip away at whats been an enormous advantage for joe biden this race so far, bed rock of his support with black voters. Josh, youre there with mayor pete. The rap on him is hes big on the back story. Hes a millenial, openly gay, military veteran, he speaks an untold number of foreign languages. But the one big hit he takes over and over again is his lack of policy specifics. Now it appears hes trying to counter that, right . Reporter right. For months as Pete Buttigieg was asked where are the specifics. Dont worry its coming sooner or later. He thought democrats hadnt put enough emphasis on explaining their values, who they are to voters before they get in the weeds on policy statements. Now hes getting in the weeds with these 27 position statements on his website, more could be added later. A lot of them reiterate positions hed already discussed on the campaign trail. Repealing the amendment on abortion funding. Moving the country toward single payer healthcare system. Theres one major new position hes taking in the last 24 hours, which is on gun control. He is coming out in support of having gun licensing nationwide. Basically a national gun registry. Thats a position that puts him in line with cory booker and some of the other candidates and among the more liberal positions on gun control, a very pote wy issue. Great point. In the time we have left, youve been on the road for months covering these candidates. Open your reporters notebook and give us a sense of what youre seeing on the ground that doesnt break through on the coverage. Reporter people look at these polls and think those are the positions that folks are locked into. As i talk to voters, i continue to be struck about how fluid this race is. The degree to which candidates are courting voters, but voters are still shopping. Even here at a Bernie Sanders event where folks have been committed to Bernie Sanders for a long time, they say they are still willing to take a look at other candidates. Some of that is driven by the size of the field and how important democrats view it beat donald trump who in 2016 was a theoretical threat to democrats. Now the primary voters, particularly the votes who are coming out this early to see candidates are absolutely driven to get him out of office. Theyre watching for that perception of strength and a perception of who can do that job. I expect well see a lot more movement in those polls to come. All right. My colleagues and friends, thanks to both of you. An update on two counties in florida hacked by the russians in 2016. The fbi had prevented officials, including Florida Governor ron desantis from naming those two counties. Now the Washington Post and politico have identified one of them. Its washington county. Washington county lies in the panhandle of florida. More than three out of four voters there supported President Trump in 2016. Governor desantis said tuesday that according to the fbi, the hackers didnt compromise election results. He also said officials in the two counties are aware of the hacks. Now to a big face off in federal court today for critics of President Trumps border wall. Opponents are scare withiquarin Justice Department officials over whether the president can fuse Defense Department dollars to build a war that congress wont. Pete Williams Joins us. What are the two sides arguing here . This hearing will start in two hours in oakland, california, before a federal judge. Its a lawsuit brought by the sierra club and communities in the southern part of the u. S. What they claim is that basically two points, that the president didnt have the authority to use this money for the pentagon because his Emergency Declaration would only allow the use of military Construction Funds for activities to support the military. And they say that the border wall construction is way beyond that. Secondly, they say the administration is doing something beyond what Congress Allowed them to do. Congress gave them a certain amount of money, they cant go beyond that or use it for purposes other than what Congress Allowed. The administration in response says the president gets wide authority to decide when the military is needed and because he declared the military was needed to assist in the emergency on the the border with immigration, they say that solves that problem. And they say congress has opened the door to this by authorizing 1. 375 billion. The pentagon says that it would spend up to 6 billion total under this Emergency Declaration over the following years to build about 265 miles of wall and about 60 or so could be be built by the end of the year. The two sides here, the two parties that brought the lawsuit are asking the judge for an injunction to stop construction right now. I dont think its likely the judge could rule from the bench today. I suppose thats always a possibility. The sides are asking for an immediate temporary injunction rather, and judges usually take time to issue those. But if he did, the plaintiffs are asking for a nationwide injunction. Theyre asking basically for two things, they say stop the wall construction in these specific areas because of potential environmental problems, but also a nationwide injunction that would stop it everywhere its being built under this Emergency Declaration. Well see on when the judge rules. Quick question, congress, members of congress in both chambers are on the record objecting to the president s declaration. Does it bolster the governments argument or the opponents . The opponents cite it as fodder for their side. Congress has the right to say no, you cant do this and pass legislation to stop it. Of course, the president can veto that. Congress is clearly on the record here. And the sierra club and the parties on their side say this is just further evidence the administration is doing Something Congress didnt authorize them to do and the president is exceeding its powers. Thanks for your time. President trumps border wall is the focus of an eye opening new piece in the Washington Post. The president reportedly is micromanaging the project, frequently shifting instructions and driving up the price. The president s main obsession . The design. Quote, he prefers the slats painted flat black to absorb heat in the summer. Trump told one group of aides that it could cut the hands of climbers. Ashley parker is a White House Reporter and noah rothman is associate editor for commentary magazine. Both are msnbc analysts. You wrote that one goal was to balance Public Perception im going to read back to you what you rote of hiS Immigration as hard line. When i talk to people in the administration, you come away with a sense that the point of hiS Immigration proposals, the cruelty and severity, thats the point of it. The family separation policy. The president wants to paint the thing black to make it hot. How do you think thats going to play in an Election Year when the president s proposal he laid out yesterday was a Campaign Document . Thats right. What youre seeing there in what the president has said previouslypreviou previously is the inherent tension in that white house, which is you had Jared Kushner who was tasked with helping with the immigration proposal. Hes a more moderate down the middle. You have Steven Miller who is very hard right nationalistic in hiS Immigration views. You have a president who does believe in a very severe tough approach to immigration. He wants that big beautiful wall as he said. He wants people rounded up and deported as quickly as possible and he feels the pull of 2020. He understands there are voters he needs to win over. Youre sort of seeing him make a move in that direction, but to me the real question is does he stay there or when ann coulter tweets she doesnt like the plan, does he pull back to that hard right position . The power of the ann coulter tweet. You heard our Pete Williams report about that lawsuit. What do you think is going to be the result of all this . I hope its an injunction and its a pushback from the courts doing the job the legislature would not. They did say pretty definitively, although they couldnt pass it in a veto proof majority that it was a usu asurpitation of authority. This reset on immigration from the president makes a lot of sense. They have the base. They have the hard line immigration voters. Now theyre going after something thats a little bit more moderate, a little bit more se sente centri centrist. Theyre not creating momentum for a legislative approach to this. Its not ann coulter thats going to be the problem, but the crowds. When he gets before his crowds in the 2020 cycle, hes going to return to his the stuff that really works for them, which is usually hard line immigration r rhetoric. Marine one is landing there on the south lawn. The president coming back from here in new york city. He was here for a fundraiser. Hes going to speak later to an association of realtors there in washington, d. C. Lets get back on topic. I want to read for you what Mitch Mcconnell had to say. I look forward to reviewing the president s proposal. Mitch mcconnell can be a man of few words, but this is a tepid response. Whats your read of the response to the stuff that President Trump had to say yesterday . Thats what is so striking. Leader mcconnells response was so lukewarm. Hes the only person who leads the only part of congress that the president s party controls. So if you dont have him sort of enthusiastically on board, its going to be a tough climb. Our understanding is that republicans are tepid about this proposal. They like the president , they want to help him largely. They understand immigration is a problem for their party, but they felt they didnt get a lot of details for this plan. Some of the questions they asked, they didnt feel satisfied with the answers. This is not legislation. This shis a plan and messaging document. Even if they were wildly enthusiastic, they could sort of take it up and attempt to make it law. Great point. Will herd, his district runs across the texas border. Heres how he described his dissatisfaction with the president S Immigration plan. We need to be addressing the humanitarian crisis were dealing with at the border. Ashley was talking about leadership. Hes rank and file and hes not on board either. Yeah, so theres a lot of consensus for actually doing something on humanitarian issues. Its really incremental and marginal and would make very few Interest Groups happy. Thats the sort of thing they could get done. Theres appetite for Something Big but nobody knows what that means. If you were to do something small and incremental you could pass legislation ahead of 2020. Setting up the big reform package is going nowhere. He does put his finger on where congress is but its not where trump is. Great point. Thanks for your time, appreciate it. Still ahead, investigating the investigators. In his first tv interview since becoming attorney general, bill barr focused on the start of the Mueller Investigation, not the conclusion. Escalating tension with iran. Well talk to a veteran whos been on the ground in combat near the Iranian Border and what war with iran would really look like if it happened. Iran would like if it happened. Chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. 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Access netflix, prime video, youtube and more, all with the sound of your voice. Click, call or visit a store today. New questions today about the Mueller Investigation being raised by attorney general bill barr. In his first tv interview as attorney general, he told fox news he stands by his decision to investigate the origins of the russia investigation. Been trying to get answers to questions, and i found a lot of the answers have been inadequate and i have also found that some of the explanations ive gotten dont hang together. People have to find out what the government was doing during that period. If were worried about foreign influence for the very same reason we should be worried about whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale. Lets break this down with paul butler, Georgetown University law professor, msnbc an list and a former federal prosecutor. You heard barr say the answers were inadequate. Whats your take on the attorney generals comments . This attorney general is the attorney general of President Trumps fantasies. He takes trumps bizarre conspiracy theories and puts the power and prestige of the Justice Department behind it. Lets remember how this started. It started would trumps lie that the Obama Administration was spying on the Trump Campaign. We know that never happened. So then it turned to focusing on carter page, who was a Foreign Policy advisor to the Trump Campaign. And we know that during the campaign, the fbi had probable cause to think that carter page was working with the russians. And not only that, they also knew that russian intelligence had identified carter page as someone who might be recruited to be a double agent. On that basis, they went to the fisa court and got a warrant that three judges had to sign off on and it had to be renewed every 90 days. Had to get approval from the Deputy Attorney general. One of those Deputy Attorney generals who approved it was Rod Rosenstein who remains the Deputy Attorney general for the next few days. Thats how the investigation started. And so when barr says he thinks there was spying, all ebbs hesg is echoing trumps talking points. Hes acting like trumps fixer. I want to play something he said about Robert Muellers work. Were you surprised he came back with no recommendation on that obstruction charge . Yes, that surprised me. How come . The function of a prosecutor is to make a call one way or the other. I talked to democrats, democratic lawmakers who make that same point. Do you think the attorney general is right . Did the special counsel fail to carry out his responsibilities here . Well, what the special counsel says in the report is that he was very aware of the department of Justice Policy that a sitting United States president cannot be indicted. So he was respecting that policy. At the same time, he said he did find ten different episodes when there was substantial evidence that President Trump had committed obstruction of justice. He went on to make the point that after trump leaves office, he can be charged with a crime. Then he said that one reason he took so long and the Mueller Report is 400 pages long, is that he wanted to preserve evidence while memo