comedy" starts thursday, february 9th, 10:00 p.m. eastern. looking forward to that. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett out front" starts right now. "out front" next, breaking news, trump versus mexico. the meeting between the two leaders canceled, trump considering a major tariff on mexico. is the white house walking it back? plus more breaking news, the white house promising more executive orders on the way tonight. cory booker is with me tonight to respond. and trump's mar-a-lago club just got a lot more expensive. the fee to join now doubled. profiting from the presidency? let's go out front. good evening. i'm erin burnett. "out front," the breaking news, the war over the wall. the president now battling not just mexico but members of his

own party. first the white house press secretary suggested and then seemed to be open to negotiation, but talked about a hefty tax on imports from mexico. they said it would pay for the wall. today republican leaders said the wall could cost anywhere from $12 billion to $15 billion. trump's first diplomatic controversy playing out on twitter for the world to see. trump fired the first shot tweeting in part if mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting. mexico's president hit back with this tweet -- in spanish -- this morning we have informed the white house i will not attend the scheduled work meeting for next tuesday with potus. a short time later, president trump getting in the final word. >> the president of mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week. unless mexico is going to treat the united states fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be

fruitless and i want to go a different route. we have no choice. >> that different route a possible 20% tax on mexican imports. it's a stunning number. it would affect cars and food and a lot of other things. already that suggestion getting some big pushback from republicans. senator lindsey graham tweeting, simply put, any policy proposal which drives up costs of corona, tequila or margaritas is a big-time bad idea. mucho sad. trying to make light of frankly what isn't a light matter. leila santiago is out front live in mexico city tonight. i want to start with jim acosta live in philadelphia where the president spoke earlier today. jim, this is an incredibly quick upping of the ante. what more is the administration saying about this? first they came out with a 20% tariff. >> reporter: that's right. confusion coming from the white house over trump's perhaps to have mexico pay for that wall on

the border. earlier today press secretary sean spicer talked to reporters and said the president was considering a 20% tax on mexican goods to reimburse for the cost of the wall. then within the last couple hours spicer at the white house called reporters back in and said that was just one of several options that are being looked at at this point. even the white house chief of staff reince priebus came into the room and emphasized the reporters this was just a buffet of options is what he called it, that they're looking at. as for this canceled meeting between donald trump and enrique pena nieto, the president of mexico, you'll recall earlier today here in philadelphia when he was speaking to that gop retreat, he said it was a mutual decision to scrap that meeting. that is in contrast to what enrique pena nieto said, he called the white house and canceled the meeting. some of the congressional

leaders here, among them mitch mcconnell, he said lawmakers are looking at ways to pay for that $12 billion to $15 billion price tag for the wall. he said he'll let president trump deal with the diplomacy and fallout, which is what he's dealing with tonight. >> now to leila santiago "out front" live in mexico city. pretty stunning development the mexican president had to save face. what is the reaction there to him cancelling his trip to meet with trump over the wall? >> reporter: he's really being aplaued here, and it's because a lot of mexicans say they just don't want to be bullied, right, there's a lot at stake here and they want to be able to have a bit of dignity when it comes to the back and forth between these two countries. right now, president enrique pena nieto really sort of needs that. let me put it into perspective. president donald trump talking about approval ratings in the upper 30s right now and for

president enrique pena nieto, his approval ratings are at 12%. according to the latest polls. there needs to be for him sthang that sort of restores faith in the mexican people and this may be it for him. remember, all of this went down as mexico had a top delegation in washington, d.c. they are expected to return tonight so i suspect president enrique pena nieto will be listening to what they have to say, what their take-away is, and then we'll have to wait and see what comes next in this sort of war of words on twitter. >> thank you very much. "out front," jorge ramos, anchor at univision news and vision. you heard president trump. he said it would be fruitless to meet with the mexican president enrique pena nieto. do you agree with president trump at this point? >> well, absolutely not. president nieto was in an

impossible situation. say that you want to build a fence in your house and then you pretend to force your neighbor to pay for it. that's exactly what president trump was asking for from president enrique pena nieto. i'm no friend of president pena nie nieto. i think he's been a terrible president. he has no support. his government is full of corruption and violation of human rights. but he didn't want to be seen as a wimp. he didn't want to be seen as a weak president. he had been humiliated twice by donald trump, first last year in mexico, and then yesterday when his foreign minister was in washington. so, no, that's the only option that mexico had. >> and so, you know, as you know, a lot of people even in trump's inner circle, through this campaign they said the wall is a rhetorical thing. it cheerily is not. it is real to donald trump. i know you're saying president enrique pena nieto didn't want to be seen as a wimp, but did he

make a mistake shutting down communication with trump? now obviously trump is upping the ante with this threat of tariffs. >> the fact is that mexico had no option. many people in mexico think of donald trump as a bully and the only way you have to deal with bullies is confronting them. that's the only way. they tried many different ways. they tried mexican diplomacy and it didn't work. so now the wall seems to be a reality but president trump has remined us time and time again he's very smart and a businessman but i wonder if he's sha smart and such a great businessman, how come he wants to build a $12 billion to $15 billion that is useless and will be paid with taxpayers money, because mexico won't pay for it. it's useless because almost 40% of all immigrants come by plane weather a visa. he wants to build a wall that won't work for immigrants and for drugs you have people like el chapo who are going to build

tum tunnels. if he wants to stop immigration, he better try something different. >> to that point, eddie lavandera traveled the whole 2,000 miles of the border for our show and found pretty powerful video which you're well familiar with. but place where is the wall just ends in the middle of open terrain, right? a sandy area, some scrub on the edge of the desert in another case, numerous tunnels that go beneath the wall. is there any wall -- putting money aside, jorge, is there any wall that could stop tunnels or ladders or people who are determined to come across that particular border? >> it is simply impossible. immigration is a problem, supply and demand. as long as we need undocumented immigrants in this country doing the jobs nobody else wants to do, they'll keep on coming. >> when you say mexico won't pay for the wall, obviously trump is saying he'll put this 20% tariff on mexican imports.

this is something he can do without congressional approval. there are various ways to make mexico pay for the wall that mexico can't control. that would be one of them. what will mexico do about it? if this is what happens, do they respond in kind? can they afford to do so? what does mexico do if he'll build a wall and put a tariff on and mexico pays for it? >> it seems trump wants to declare martial war and if that's the case, americans better be ready to pay thousands of dollars more for their cars, tvs, dishwashers, for the super bowl. mexican avocados will be incredibly expensive. i don't remember going back to history since mexican-american war in 1848 that this's been so much tension as the what we're seeing now and it's completely unnecessary. again, mexico is not a u.s. enemy. immigrants are not the enemy. the wall won't work. and i wonder why donald trump is doing exactly this. i really can't understand it. >> jorge, thank you. i really appreciate your time.

>> thank you, erin. "out front," mark preston our senior political analyst and jamie gangel our special correspondent. mark, trump tripling down, he has left no room to do this any other way without losing massive face himself. right? you can't build the wall and have americans pay for it. can't do that. where does the administration go now? if they're going to start talking about tariffs, mexico can respond in kind. americans will feel pain. >> i just spoke to a senior trump official close to the president and they said as far as the 20% discussion, they said, listen, that is one of many different things we're thinking about doing, and that we are working with paul ryan up on capitol hill to try to figure out a funding mechanism in order to make this happen. but as jorge ramos just said and as you just mentioned as well, if you put a 20% tariff on goods coming in from mexico, that is going to hit the pocketbooks of americans here. and they are going to feel for

it. so in many ways they would be paying for that wall because mexico companies will be putting tariffs back upon us. >> that is the whole thing about this, and this is why it becomes about who's going to save face in one scenario, but it's stunning this has escalated this quickly. you now have -- they're not going to meet. pena nieto isn't even coming here. >> this is classic donald trump. diplomacy by tweet. and while the state department folks in foggy bottom, i'm sure their heads are spinning, this is what we've seen trump do time and time again. don't forget, he started his campaign about the wall. he's not going to let go. i think the question is the he going to learn from this or is this going to be an example of diplomacy to come? is this the art of the deal or is it going to turn out to be a disaster? >> so, mark, jorge ramos gave a pretty stunning statement there. he said things haven't been this

bad between the u.s. and mexico since the mexican-american war. that was 1848. and he also used the words commercial war. that's a pretty significant thing to say because if it's true, it doesn't just affect our trading partner, it obviously is something that would set the stage for all of the trade deals that are about to be renegotiated. >> certainly going forward too. if you look at mexico, another stunning thing he said which was not repeated enough is mexico is an ally, not our enemies necessarily. quite frankly, folks with mexican her tanl are woven into the fabric of the united states. but to your point, a we go ahead, every other trade deal, will it go along these lines where off a dictation from the united states saying this is it, or else. in diplomacy and negotiating, that doesn't necessarily always work. >> and there is no way for mexico to agree to pay for this wall. there is no way for them to negotiate and say we'll pay for this but not that.

they can't agree to pay for a wall that the united states wants to build to keep mexicans out. they can't. >> right. and here -- i would like to see the thought bubble on top of speaker paul ryan's head when he's agreed, you know, trump came to him and said we need to find money to do this and he said okay. republicans -- the wall is different. it may have to do with homeland security, immigration, but they're fiscal conservatives. this is not what they want to be doing. what we're seeing is for a little while republicans are going to let him run with it. but between this, the infrastructure bill, they're really concerned about this. and privately they're shaking their heads and they're very concerned. show me the matchup. where is it going to come from? >> big spending. populism, not conservativism. thank you both. next, breaking news, the trump administration vowing more executive orders imminent.

are they legal? and steve bannon saying the media should keep its mouth shut calling reporters, quote, outright activists, one of the nicest things he said. trump set to launch an investigation into voter fraud. senator cory booker respond tonight. he's my guest.

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mone hundredts thousand times a day, sending oxygen to my muscles. again! so i can lift even the most demanding weight. take care of all your most important parts with centrum. now verified non gmo and gluten free. breaking news, a freeze on refugees coming to the united states, source telling cnn the department of homeland security has suspended all staff trips to interview refugees abroad. that's interview process they do to decide who gets to come to the united states. this breaking news coming as we're awaiting an imminent executive order from the president that would include a temporary ban on all refugees and a suspension of visas for citizens of predominantly muslim countries. sunlen serfaty is out front.

>> reporter: for president donald trump's first day in office it has been a flurry of activity, signing one executive action after another. >> minimizing the economic burden of the patient protection and affordable care act. >> reporter: from health care. >> see if we can get that pipeline built. a lot of jobs. >> reporter: to reviving the keystone pipeline. >> we've been talking about this from the beginning. >> reporter: to immigration. putting hi signature on 11 executive orders and memorandums. >> since taking office, i have taken major contractual steps to restore the rule of law and to return power to everyday americans. and even though it's only a few days we've done it in record numbers. >> reporter: of trump's actions, four are executive orders. by comparison, president obama had signed five executive orders in his first week. george w. bush zero. while clinton had signed two.

but are they executive orders, actions and memoranda all for show or a sign of real change? it's a bit of both. legal experts say actions like these need to have some root in a statute or in the constitution, but that doesn't mean they won't be challenged. on obamacare, trump is setting in motion the takedown of the affordable care act. >> on my first day in office i signed an executive order to roll back the burdens of obamacare and pave the way for real reform like health savings accounts that empower individuals to choose, to customize plans that is truly right for them. >> reporter: while the order contains a broad mandate for the heads of agencies to minimize the economic burden of obamacare, it doesn't specify any single action that would be taken. truly ending obamacare needs to be done by congress. >> our legislative work starts with repealing and replacing obamacare. >> reporter: on immigration, trump is directing the department of homeland security to build a wall along the

u.s.-mexico border. >> the secretary of homeland security, working with myself and my staff, will begin immediate construction of a border wall. >> reporter: even though his campaign promise of having mexico pay for the wall seems to be put on hold. >> pay us back? >> yeah, absolutely. 100%. >> so the american taxpayer will pay for the wall at first. >> all it is is we'll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we'll make from mexico. >> reporter: but for now funding from the wall has to come through congressional appropriations, which is bound to set up a legislative fight. >> the point is we are going to finance the secure fence act, which is the construction of the physical barrier only the border. >> now he's saying well, we'll find $14 billion to build a wall which won't work. you sort of step back and say what in god's name are we doing and what are we talking about? our relationship with mexico is important. >> reporter: we're expecting an executive order from the president tonight and that to be

on voter fraud. he wants that investigation. the white house abruptly canceled that signing. what happened? >> reporter: this is interesting because all morning white house officials for saying yes indeed he would be signing this executive action in the oval office this afternoon. and then you had the situation where the pool of white house reporters were gathered outside the oval waiting to go in and as you said that was abruptly canceled at the last minute. white house aides say he will likely sign it on friday or saturday instead so certainly a postponement of this. the official word sean spicer is blaming the time. he said they returned from philadelphia late today and that president trump had several other meetings on his agenda he needed to get to. but notable that while they are blaming the time here, according to our records, trump was only 24 minutes late. erin? >> thank you very much. "out front" now the former senator and former presidential candidate rick santorum and matt millen, from the obama

administration. can the president govern this way? it seems he can do a lot of thinging without congress, tariffs on mexico, halting refugees. the lists go on and on. >> he can't many the long term. he can issue executive orders but what we've seen in the last few days he made a lot of unrealistic promises during the campaign and wants to show he's doing something so he's putting forward these executive orders. a lot are just really press releases masquerading as executive orders. the wall is a great example. that executive order won't do anything to build the wall. he still has to get funding from congress. what he's doing is raising expectations again and when he comes back and isn't able to get any funding, which i think is likely to be the outcome, he'll have a big backlash from his supports on his hands. we keep seeing reports that members of his own cabinet aren't seeing the orders before they're released. they aren't being well vetted. that's obviously what happened with this investigation of voter fraud that they were going to order. didn't have it ready in time,

probably found last-minute problems. it's governance through chaos. you can campaign that way, you can't govern that way. >> senator, can president trump execute on everything that he has been signing? obviously he's been signing a lot of these executive orders without anyone in place to implement them in the immediate time frame, doesn't even have a cabinet. can he execute? >> in part he can. i think it's a misstatement to suggest that the order on the wall is something that he has to wait for congress. there's available funds. right now that he can direct to begin the building of wall. there are funds there. there's an authorization by congress that was passed ten years ago to build the wall. i was there, i voted for it. it hasn't been adequately funded because the prior administration didn't want to do it. yes, he can get the ball rolling but to complete the wall and do the major part of it he'll need appropriations and you heard paul ryan and mitch mcconnell said we'll provide some money. they won't build it in one year

or one month. it will take several years to build this wall out. but they can begin the process. that's one. the affordable care act is another. has he started the ball rolling on repealing obamacare, yes, he has, by giving states flexibility and by having the existing regulations not enforced that are in place. >> this is the way it always is and why many are disgusted wby washington, it depends on which side of the aisle you're on. here's what paul ryan said about president obama in 2014 and what he said today about donald trump. both comments are about executive orders. >> he should not try to go it alone with unilateral actions with executive orders. he should sit down with the new congress and find out where we can work together. president obama uses pen and phone and executive orders to exceed his power in our perspective. everything that president obama did by executive order this new president can undo.

we would like to see these things undone and we'd like to see power restored to the people in the states not the federal government. that is what this new president is doing. >> it's awful when president obama is doing it but great when president trump is doing it. >> two things. what paul said was correct and what donald trump is doing is undoing what president obama did, which did exceed his authority, particularly on immigration. he had no authority to do that. in fact, the courts have knocked him down for exceeding his authority. that's one. two, he's doing executive orders consistent with what congress would like to have done. as opposed to being frustrated by congress and not being able to get things done then going over congress' head and doing executive orders. executive orders work very well to get the ball rolling if you have a congress, which he does in this case, that wants to cooperate with him. >> matt? >> i think there's a lot of hypocrisy here. george bush issued more executive orders than president obama did and we never heard from republicans complaining

about that. it was only when obama started issuing executive orders they disagreed with you heard a lot of criticism. there's nothing wrong with issuing executive orders per se. if they exceed the president's power, of course those will be challenged in court and ultimately the courts will decide. i think what we've seen here is these executive orders, they're bad ideas, bad policy, and ultimately i think a lot of them just really are press releases. that obamacare executive order doesn't do anything to get the ball rolling. the immigration executive order promise ls 10,000 new ice ice agents. he can't do that by executive order. congress has to do that. it's a press release masquerading as policy. >> thank you both very much. of course when he says no more refugees he can do that. we'll talk about that with cory booker coming up. next, trump's chief strategist steve bannon speaking out in a rare interview. wait till you hear what he has to say. and senator cory booker on trump's claims of voter fraud, his executive actions including refugees and whether he agrees with senator bernie sanders who

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breaking news tonight, president trump's chief strategist telling the media to keep its mouth shut. in a rare interview, steve bannon telling the "new york times" of all places the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. he can'ted you're the opposition party, not the democratic party. the media is the opposition

party. brian stelter, curt bardella and bill krystle, chief of staff to vice president dan quayle. we'll get to that, highly relevant. brian, this is obviously pretty stunning. this is one of men who has the presidency calling the media the opposition and doing so repeatedly. >> the media is not opposition party. on one level he's making an important point, though, talking about the press needing humility in this moment, needing to understand trump's voting base, telling zwrermy diamond, we all need to listen more to america, probably his central point. great point. on another level, this is highly inappropriate for a top administration official to be describing the media as the enemy. we heard trump say he's in a war with the media, now steve bannon calling it the opposition party. highly inappropriate. >> bo, let me ask you, because the conversation was initiated

by banning he was going to talk about sean spicer and some of the claims he's made that were untrue in recent days including voter fraud numbers, crowd size at the inauguration. what bannon said was he think that's a banal of honor, questioning his integrity. are you kidding me? the media has zero integrity, zero intelligence, and no hard work. >> sensitive guy, bannon. a snowflake, really, right? poor guy, he's in the white house, they've been there five, six days, looking forward to four years. six months he's editing a fringe websi website now in the xhous white house hnd's so insecure and his botsz donald trump is also too. all they can do is attack the media. they should treat with this contempt. let's go ahead and debate issues and see who wins the debates. sean spicer having a good week

with all the id yossi? let's not get away from trump. he spoke at the cia saturday. oh, sean spicer had a bizarre press thing. true. but what was sean spicer defending? a statement from the president of the united states. what is bannon doing? repeating something the president of the united states has said. he's the insecure narcissist in the white house who thinks he can intimidate and bully people and criticize them. >> curt, you've worked with bannon. he gives an interview to "the new york times" which -- maybe not the top but certainly up there of institutions he thinks is the opposition he dislikes or hates. what's his strategy doing this? >> i think it's interesting, one, off situation where the people who are so critical of the media are also hungry and thirsty for their approval and their acceptance and their coverage. number two, what's really happening here, i think trump and bannon believe their best road to success is creating chaos and creating an opposition. in the campaign they had the luxury of 17 other republican

primary candidates, running against president obama's record and of course against hillary clinton. now that's gone and they're empowered they need another boogeyman to create to run against and they'll make the media that person. >> part of a perpetual campaign. that's what we've seen the past week. >> the media force donald trump to go to the cia saturday and give most inappropriate remarks i've ever seen a president or any senior person give. did the media force him to invent a crowd-sized event or make up the voter fraud stuff? i don't think the strategy will work very well. >> they seem to think it will be effective saying it is the media. why would it check a petty fact? >> it creates confusion. when we fact check the crowd size issue suddenly we're in this small debate. and i do think there is an element of this about confusion, about chaos, about not knowing what to believe and thus believing nothing. that is something we've seen in

authoritarian climate s and it' worrisome to see any administration do it. >> kurt? >> one of the things to remember is when you go back and look at the tone and tenor of breitbart under bannon's watch, it was very adversarial, confrontational, attacking the mainstream media as much as they could. and then candidate trump comes along and starts adopting that style and now he's kratch ratch up to a new level. what came first? i think bannon did. in his mind, he got elected and this type of messaging won. if you don't like the way the table is set, turn over the table from house of cards. whether it's the cia or executive orders or crowd sizes they'll barrage people with content and controversy because they think that's what works for them and where they're most comfortable fighting. >> bannon referred to himself as darth vader which he's done

before. that was dick cheney's nickname. i said this would come around. i know from talking to steve bannon he's proud of this whole darth vader thing. he leeks it. he said darkness is good, dick cheney, darth valentine's dayer, satan. it only helps us when they get it wrong. the question is how powerful is steve bannon in the trump inner orbit? >> he certainly wants to give impression of power and that's what the bravado is abt, that he's like dick cheney, as if he was secretary of defense or a serious policymaker in the house of representatives and two different administrations, three different administrations as dick cheney was. let's see how powerful he is and how well they do in foreign policy. how are they doing in mexico? the border tax won't happen. the big story today being obscur obscured, the house and senate republicans meeting in philadelphia, they won't pass a lot of trump's agenda. they're not in favor of the border. serious people looking at the unnecessary fight he picked with mexico, tweeting something insulting about the president of

mexico and had to cancel his visit, if you're a serious republican, you could be conservative or moderate a hawk ak dove, this is crazy. the notion that they are winning or have had a good week, maybe some people in the media think it's confusion, i think it's very destructive. >> we have to be careful. we should not be intimidated by this kind of talk but we have to be careful. bannon's right when he says it only helps us when they get it wrong. when we mistakes. it plays into his goal. >> that's true. >> small mistake but a great exhibit number one. >> next, president trump waisting no time signing a dozen executive actions in his first week. my next guest cory booker says trump must be stopped. how does senator booker plan to do it? plus trump's mar-a-lago resort got a lot more expensivexpensiv. it doubled. now $200,000 to join. it was $100,000 before he won the oval office. is he profiting from the presidency?

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breaking news, president trump praising the mayor of miami-dade in florida half ordering county jails to comply with the president's crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, the cities that refuse to turn over people in this country illegally to authorities. he said -- other people are threatening to defy him. kyung lah is out front. >> we are americans! just like you! >> reporter: defiance to the white house's executive order on sanctuary cities comes not just from the street bus city mayor, from chicago.

>> we're going to stay a sanctuary city. >> boston. >> if necessary we eel use city hall itself to shelter and protect anyone targeted unjustly. >> reporter: los angeles. >> you can't use federal money as a gun to the head to change some other policies. >> reporter: l.a.'s mayor says federal funds weave through nearly all city services. law enforcement, schools, veterans care. >> i'm talking to all mayors in the krun country. >> reporter: will they unite to draw a line in the sand? >> we have. we want the federal government to protect those who have temporary legal status and we want the overall system to be fixed. >> reporter: one thing that many mayors of sanctuary cities say is broken, undocumented immigrants being held in local jails until federal authorities come to deport them. many cities argue the extended detention is unconstitutional and costly. trump's executive order demands cities follow federal rules or federal funds will stop.

the president is fulfilling a campaign promise after the death of kate steinly. she was killed by an undocumented immigrant released from a local jail in san francisco even though federal agents targeted him for deportation. >> for these families it's been one injustice after another. but that all turns around beginning today. >> reporter: some estimates more than 300 cities and counties are so-called sanctuary cities, while it's unclear exactly what federal funding the order would cut, san francisco estimates it receives $1 billion in federal funds. new york nearly $9 billion. new york's mayor telling cnn if trump pulls funding his next punch will come to court. >> we'll go to court immediately for an injunction to stop it. >> reporter: that's being echoed by major city mayors who are democrats, also expected to join in the legal challenge the state of california again a state led by democrats. the state has already hired

former u.s. attorney general eric holder. he is outside counsel. his job to face off with the white house. we did see a tweet from the top lawmaker in this state directed clearly to the white house, "see you in court." erin? >> thank you very much. "out front" now the democratic senator from new jersey, cory booker, great to have you with me tonight. on this issue, president trump brings up the case of kate steinly shot and killed by someone in the country illegally and of course many americans feel for the suffering her family is going through. why is the president wrong to want to stop the protections that enabled her killer to be in the u.s. in the first place? >> first of all, when i was mayor we had any violent felon arrested for some action of violence, we would hold and detain that person, so often people want to use the extreme case. i don't think there's a mayor in america who wouldn't want to get violent people off their streets. but what often happens is you get somebody detained for a minor nonviolent issue and then

you're asked to do what's called a voluntary detention of somebody just because their name matches an immigration database. imagine if you're an american citizen and about to be released but say wait, immigration asked us to hold you for a day, two, three days longer, that's unreasonable and against my values, american values to detain somebody who's se they m to be somebody that's undocumented. we have a very good federal system that says local law enforcement should not create an environment that actually creates more danger, more crime where local law enforcement is trying to enforce-fce-fed ral immigration laws. that endangers communities because you have immigrant communities afraid to report crimes or cooperate with law enforcement. there should be a distinction. donald trump is making our communities less safe.

>> i want to ask you about some of his other executive orders. he wants an investigation into voter fraud. was supposed to sign that tonight, it's delayed. he said 3 million to 5 million people could have voted illegally in the election. what's your reaction to that? >> stunning and deeply offensive given the challenges we've had with voting in our country's history. we are a nation that wants free and unfetered voting. you're more likely to be struck by lightning in america than to have in-person voter fraud. what he's saying is wrong and outrageous and i think doing the bidding of those who want to undermine voting. what we do know we have in america is a problem with voter suppression. we've seen this in places like north carolina where a federal judge has said these laws were narrowly tailored to affect certain communities and stop them from voting. now we have president donald trump and soon to be god willing, hope we can prevent this but soon to be attorney general jeff sessions who are

not going into that office with this idea that we have a real problem with voter suppression in states like texas and north carolina writ's been documented and where the justice department used to be partners in going after that. but instead they're going after a fiction ta ultimately will play again into the hands of these kind of lies that donald trump is blatantly spreading. absolute lies. >> one of the things that was said that was untrue was that he said he had the largest ever inaugural crowd, which on many levels is a very petty thing. i want to bring it up for one reason specifically and that is because senator bernie sanders, your colleague, today questioned donald trump's mental state because of this claim. i wanted to play for you what senator sanderin eers said. >> i don't have to tell anybody here that our country today faces enormous problems and that we have a delusional president.

>> a delusional president. do you agree? >> i don't understand why the media is treating donald trump with kid gloves. these are not untruths or alternate facts. these are lies and propaganda. by not calling them by what we are, we have a person in the highest seat in the land -- >> i want to interject. on this show we called that statement a lie because it is a lie. i don't take the kid gloves at least to be fair but please continue. >> this is lies and propaganda. we have seen the president of the united states and his officials repeatedly lying to the american public and pushing out what can be called, seen in other regimes throughout history, propaganda to mislead the public. he needs to be called on it and we as an american public should not accept a president that routinely lies blatantly to the american people. >> do you think he's delusional? >> i don't know his mental state. what i know is he is a liar, repeatedly so, someone who is repeatedly lying to american public and pushing propaganda

that has an agenda that is not in concert with honor or with the facts. >> so he is expected to sign another executive order that i know you care about. banning refugees for up to four months. tonight he is saying why. in an interview with fox news that was completed a bit ago, he said we've taken in tens of thousands of people we know nothing about them. they can say they vet them. they didn't. they have no papers. how can you vet somebody when you don't know anything about them or have no pap rs? how can you vet them? they can't. talking to senior officials in places like jordan, they will acknowledge this, they cannot vet these people, they don't know who they are or where tay ear coming from, what their politics might be. why is donald trump wrong about this? >> he's wrong again and we are america, our statue of liberty has said for so long -- it's called the mother to exiles. what this is is a violation of something we've been able to do for generations. the refugee immigration status,

the entry program takes a year to two years, and this is a vetting process that frankly involves our intelligence agencies. to say we have no capability of doing it and reducing the potential that anything could happen or that things could happen is just wrong. and so if snb wanted to come in and do us harm, there are easier ways to get into this country from student visas to visa waiver programs. >> fair point. >> this is just a wrong assault on people who are the most vulnerable, who are the most persecuted on the planet earth. we are the united states of america. this is not a time to allow terrorists to make us turn our back on our values. we should be doubling down the truth of who we are as a country. and so for him to try to create this fear that a year to two year process involving the intelligence agencies, involving fbi, involving even the u.n., that often our children and kids and women, this is just so

wrong-headed and such a betrayal of the truth of who we are and who we claim to be in the world. we should be a beacon of light and hope. we're allowing other countries who have the same concerns for terrorism to out-america us because they're stepping up to the plate during a time of rye cy sis and welcoming persecuted people. >> senator booker, thank you very much. i appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you very much. next, trump hotels reportedly planning an expansion, a trump resort doubling fees. is trump already profiting from his presidency? as a control enthusiast, i'm all-business when i travel... even when i travel... for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations-

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the trump already profiting from the presidency? jason carroll is out front. >> reporter: billed as the greatest mansion ever built. on its website the mar-a-lago home page features a picture of donald trump and promises prospective members will get access to a royal lifestyle. the president in a tweet calling it the winter white house. >> such an honor to have you all at marla fwoe. >> reporter: now it's going to cost new members a lot fmore moe their chance to rub elbows with the president. the membership fee $100,000 six months ago doubles to $200,000. the managing director of trump's private club in west palm beach, florida, tells cnn the club had always intended to increase that fee and that the president had

nothing to do with the decision. the director saying the initiation fee was actually $200,000 in 2007 but says due to the poor economy it was cut in half to $100,000. once the economy turned around, he says, the decision was made last year to return that fee to what it used to be. september 2016 it was increased to $150,000 and january 1st this year it went up to $200,000. the director saying i don't want what the fixation is, it's simple. >> i think the optics of this are terrible. it looks like he becomes president and they are really going to try to financially benefit off of this. >> reporter: larry noble also takes issue with possible trump hotel expansion plans. this after the ceo of trump hotels told bloomberg news of its hopes to expand beyond the five locations across the country to 26. and that would include not only

the brands luxury locations but also newer lower-priced hotels as well. when asked if trump hotels are planning a major expansion, a trump hotel spokeswoman says we see significant growth opportunity in the united states for both our hotel brands. there were many calls for trump to divest from his businesses once he became president and to put it into a blind trust. trump did not. his lawyer saying in part it would be too complicated. instead, he publicly announced he would turn over management of his company to his two sons, donald jr. and eric, and a trump executive. for some, that is not enough. >> it looks like he's selling his name or looks like his companies are selling his name to increase the size, increase the number of hotels, to increase themar-a-lago. that doesn't look good. i don't think his supporters want to see that type of thing. >> certainly you can't argue the optics on this.

>> i think -- >> he wins and the fees double. >> right. but look, what team trump has done is they've hired these team of ethics lawyers going forward to help out. they've hired a chief compliance counsel to sort of look at red flags. the problems critics say with this guy is that this is someone who's already a trump insider. he's worked for the trump organization for years and years, so they question how can he be objective going forward. of course team trump says he's perfectly able to do the job. >> all right. jason karl, thank you. we'll be right back. try alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. they don't taste chalky and work fast. mmmm. incredible. can i try? she doesn't have heartburn. alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. enjoy the relief.

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ed lavandera has been touring the wall to be built. anderson cooper is next. another big night because of what the trump administration did today but also what it was expected today and did not, action on donald trump's election fraud claims, being postponed until tomorrow or saturday. president trump did however clash with mexico's president over the border wall and who will pay for it. his spokesman floated a plan to fund wit a 20% tax on imports from mexico. the top adviser said we should keep our mouths shut. more on that tonight. that and the white house asking four top career officials at the state department the leave. another big day. we start with mexico and cnn's jeff zeleny.