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What’s next for the student-led movement for gun reform?

Thousands of students took to the streets across the country on Saturday to rally for tougher gun control laws as President Trump continued to shake up his legal team amid an ongoing Russia investigation. But will there be political ramifications in the months to come? NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Jeff Greenfield joins Hari Sreenivasan to break it down.

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  • HARI SREENIVASAN:

    It has been another busy weekend in the political world to help us sort it out as it is our NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Jeff Greenfield who joins us from Santa Barbara, California. Jeff when you see these kids and what they've been able to accomplish and I'm talking about the students that never get in the March for Our Lives – protests that happened yesterday all over the world – do they have what it takes to make this a longterm and sustainable agenda item for even this coming election?

  • JEFF GREENFIELD:

    I will answer that question in mid-November. There is no question that not just the size of these demonstrations but the nature of them, unlike past demonstrations, there were not divisive messages. But the question you're asking is does it have staying power? Will young people who were able to come to Washington or march in their cities six months from now will they be registering people? Will they be getting people to the polls to vote for candidates who support them? And you know if that happens then this is going to be something of really significant importance if the energy of all these people turns into political action, It will up end all the expectations about the fall because you're seen you would be seen an involvement that you know that the pollsters until a few weeks ago haven't even calculated.

  • HARI SREENIVASAN:

    All right let's turn our attention to the White House and the legal matters that are dogging President Trump. He seems to be shuffling his legal team around in some ways the people who are kind of tried and true lawyers that are that understand how Washington works aren't really on that team or aren't volunteering to be on it. And then on the other hand there are the ones who are pretty good on TV. So it's almost seem like there's sort of two there's the court and then there's the court of public opinion.

  • JEFF GREENFIELD:

    And and let's not forget that one of the quote TV lawyers Joseph diGenova just today. Turns out he can't be on that team because there are conflicts involving who he represents that are in some way or other related to these probes. What that tells me and this isn't the first time we see this as an a sheer managerial level this White House is at a level unlike anything I've ever seen. And I don't mean that as a compliment. How you could not vet a high profile lawyer in what may be a very significant case and not realize that this lawyer is conflicted. It is simply beyond me. And if this is how the White House intends to pursue its legal role with respect to Mueller that that doesn't signal good things for the White House.

  • HARI SREENIVASAN:

    All right and finally we have different kind of legal case is a case of this merger of AT&T and Time Warner. It's pretty consequential and it's been fairly buried in the avalanche of news that seems to come out of Washington.

  • JEFF GREENFIELD:

    Right. The trial just started this week and it could be incredibly consequential in terms of the whole media landscape. In brief, AT&T wants to buy Time Warner. AT&T is a pipe it brings satellite and cable to the Internet in about 25 million homes. Time Warner produces what goes through the pipe: news the entertainment, HBO, CNN if you watch the Final Four run up yesterday you watch on a Turner Network. Justice Department is saying this would be too big a company. It could threaten competition. But what Time Warner and AT&T are arguing and this is a significant part is look we may look big but we're being threatened by the real monsters – Netflix Apple Google and Facebook. And so what they're going to be arguing is what looks like a move toward dominance and it might have been 10 or 20 years ago given this media landscape, we're doing this to survive.

  • HARI SREENIVASAN:

    All right Jeff Greenfield joining us from Santa Barbara California thanks so much.

  • JEFF GREENFIELD:

    Thank you.

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