basically only the donor class can get what it wants. so you need the people. you need a movement. you need unlikely voters, which is what bernie is counting on. but you also need an ability to get things done. >> sam seder, heather mcghee. i could talk about this with you guys forever. it's fascinating. thank you very much. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thanks, my friend. >> you bet. >> thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. the republican party chose louisiana governor bobby jindal to give that party's first response to a state of the union given by president obama. the first state of the union, or joint address to congress, at the time of the state of the union. after president obama was first elected. the response from the republicans that year was bobby jindal. it was a memorable state of the union response for governor jindal but not necessarily in a good way. remember the volcano thing? incidentally, former governor bobby jindal is now unemployed. he has termed out of his time as louisiana governor and been replaced in that job, and he has

dropped out of the republican race for president this year. so now i don't know what he's doing. the year after bobby jindal the republican party picked bob mcconnell to respond to president obama's state of the union. governor mcdonnell has still been -- has since been convicted on multiple felony corruption charges and sentenced to years in federal prison. he's currently awaiting a united states supreme court review of his conviction. after that start the following year the republican party started doing something new around the state of the union instead of just having an official response by the republican party they started doing an official response plus some other pseudo-official response. that third year of the obama presidency it was paul ryan, now speaker of the house. he gave the official republican response. but what most people remember from that year was that was the first year that in addition to the official republican response there was also an official republican tea party response. and the tea party one that first

year was given by michele bachmann. although she was mostly looking off into middle distance because apparently they did not line up the teleprompter with the camera. that was sad. the following year at the state of the union it was the governor of indiana who gave the official republican response. his name is mitch daniels. he's out of politics now. but the official republican tea party response that year was by herman cain. mr. 999. the year after, that 2013, the official republican republican response was a very thirsty marco rubio. the official republican tea party response that year was rand paul. and rand paul apparently liked doing that so much that the next year in 2014, although he wasn't picked to give either the official republican republican response and he was not picked to gift official republican tea party response, that was done by senator mike leigh the following year, instead in 2014 rand paul decided that he would do his own official republican rand paul

response. so that year, 2014, state of the union response by the republican party. another one by the tea party republican party, and another one, a third one by republican rand paul. so by 2014 there were three republican responses to the state of the union. even though the state of the union itself has not changed very much, the way the republican party responds to it has grown weirder and more fractured over a very short period of time to the point where this year i think they kind of just went off the cliff into raw unfiltered obscurity. the official republican response to president obama's state of the union speech this year was by republican governor nikki haley of south carolina. mostly memorable because governor haley used that official republican party platform to take a totally unveiled shot at the republican party's presidential front-runner, donald trump. she essentially cautioned the country against voting for donald trump. and it was an official republican party speech.

we later learned that her speech had been cleared with not only the party itself but also with the top republican in the house and the top republican in the senate. so it was kind of amazing in a way, right? the republican party in that official setting, that formal and approved and signed-off-on official setting saying don't vote for our presidential front-runner, resist the appeal of voices like donald trump's. well, in addition to that, in addition to the nikki haley speech, which was controversial for exactly the reasons they knew it would be controversial, in addition to that it didn't get as much attention as it did in years past, but this year there was also a republican tea party response to the state of the union. there was nikki haley's address for the republican republican one. but the tea party republican one was given by a guy you've never heard of. his name is wayne allyn root. huh? wayne allyn root. i had to check twice to make sure that's the order of the words. but that is.

wayne allyn root. if you want a sense of the schism in the republican party right now, the divide right down the middle of that party, this is a very clear way to show that because the official republican republican response to the state of the union was nikki haley saying don't vote for donald trump. the official republican tea party response to the state of the union was given by this guy wayne allyn root, who today debuted as a warm-up act and emcee for donald trump campaign rallies. >> i'm supporting donald j. trump because donald understands this isn't a picnic, this isn't a golf match with muffy at the country club, this isn't badminton, this is a war. you and i love trump because we know he'll go to washington and break it. he'll upset the apple cart. he'll derail the gravy train. he'll be a bull in a china shop.

we know he will investigate and prosecute the thieves and frauds who have ripped off you, the american taxpayers. he will root out the incompetent bigshot bureaucrats and bring them into the boardroom and he'll say, "you're fired!" and you and i know he'll do that on day one. can you imagine what donald trump will do on day two? >> wayne allyn root. i think he is a self-help author or something like that. he gave the tea party republican response to the state of the union this year. he is now the opening act for donald trump at his campaign rallies. this was him in vegas today talk about what donald trump would do on day one of the donald trump presidency. now, incidentally, just as an aside, if donald trump does get the republican nomination and he does win the election, he gets elected president, so if there is going to be a day one of the donald trump presidency, it would be exactly one year from today. whoever the next president is going to be, donald trump or anybody else, this time next year will be -- this will be the end of their first full day in office. i'm ready for you guys. if you're trying to wrap your head around the kinds of forces aside, if donald trump does get the republican nomination and he does win the election, he gets elected president, so if there is going to be a day one of the

donald trump presidency, it would be exactly one year from today. whoever the next president is going to be, donald trump or anybody else, this time next year will be -- this will be the end of their first full day in office. i'm ready for you guys. if you're trying to wrap your head around the kinds of forces that are marshaling to support front-runner donald trump in his presidential campaign, i feel i should also direct you right now to wayne allyn root's latest op-ed, which he published on the glenn beck website today. the title of the op-ed is "get ready for president donald trump." here's the lead. this is so great. this is how it starts. "the stock market is crashing. the economy is in reverse. sarah palin is back in the headlines. and hillary clinton is in freefall. all the ducks are falling in place for donald trump." those poor ducks.

all the ducks are falling -- see, it's slippery out there. the ducks do not have good footwear for icy conditions. even when they're not trying to move, they're just trying to stand in place. but the ducks are falling. the ducks are falling in place. poor ducks. and while we're on the subject of standing still but still finding a way to fall down, let's also spare a thought for poor jeb bush. because in the nightmare that is jeb bush's flailing presidential campaign it has now happened to him again today. one of the fascinate things about the jeb bush for president campaign this year. and it's different than everybody else in the race. it's a jeb-specific thing, but it keeps happening. it's the way his supporters and particularly his donors have been willing to talk incredible smack about him and his campaign to reporters. this keeps happening over and over and over again over the

course of this past year since he got into the race. there have been repeatedly direct quotes from jeb bush supporters and donors talking to the press about how terrible and disappointing jeb bush and his campaign are. and the latest installment of this pitiful little soap opera is published at politico.com today. look at headline. "the bush blame game begins." nobody's voted yet. but that's the headline. "the bush blame game begins." one donor's quoted basically begging for jeb bush to drop out of the race, i think. to stop the bleeding or something. the quote is this. "it's painful because we're watching something happen that no one envisioned happening. we all wanted it to be jeb, but if it can't be jeb, at some point doesn't reality have to set in?" the focus of this latest hit piece by his own donors is how disgusted jeb bush donors are not only with his performance as a candidate but specifically with the performance of his super pac, which of course has raised more than $100 million on his behalf and which so far has spent almost 60 million of those

dollars to try to elect him or at least to improve his image. and some of the criticism of the jeb super pac is a little anodyne, basically descriptive. "multiple advisers to the right to rise super pac concede privately that the $40 million spent on positive ads aimed at telling bush's story so far have yielded no tangible dividends." some of it is just like we're unhappy kinds of quotes and descriptions like that. but then there's also the fairly lurid stuff. apparently, a few weeks ago the jeb bush super pac put up these billboards in a few early voting states. they are very, very simple. no background. no picture. standard font. the only detail there is that little small print thing you that see in the rectangle at the bottom. that's just like the legally required tag that says who's paying for it. that's it. the only other thing, the only thing it says on the billboard is this quote that is attributed to jeb bush.

and the quote is "donald trump is unhinged." by jeb bush. now, one thing you would expect for something like that in this day and age is that people would start photoshopping that because it's really easy to photoshop something that has no pictures, no background, it's just plain white text on a colored background. you're basically begging for people to photoshop it. that's why you might have seen these anti-jeb bush pranks messing with the billboard. instead of saying donald trump is unhinged one person changed the jeb bush quote to "has anyone seen my turtle?" somebody else changed -- i'm sorry about this one. somebody else changed it to this. uh -- yeah. and you might expect people sort of profanely pranking a candidate like that for having put up a billboard like this. what you would not expect is for jeb bush's own donors, the people who are not just supporting him but who are putting money where their mouths are and who are trying to pay for him to become president, their donors would also do this

sort of thing. apparently, the way jeb bush donors responded to this billboard, the donald trump is unhinged billboard-s that they did their own photoshop of the billboard to change it to this. it's also a quote. but the quote here is set all our donor money on fire. and the quote is attributed to mike murphy, who's the guy who runs the jeb bush super pac. maybe jeb bush has some sort of secret in store. maybe jeb bush has some actual loyalists who won't talk smack about him to the nearest reporter in a back pocket somewhere and he's going to roll them out later. i don't know. i can't imagine how this is going to work out well for jeb bush. the latest iowa poll just out from cnn today has him at 3% in iowa, which means he's tied with mike huckabee there. the latest new hampshire poll from cnn, it's okay. that one has him in at least double digits. and that one poll at least in new hampshire he's tied with

marco rubio for third place in new hampshire. donald trump at 34. excuse me. ted cruz at 14. and then jeb and marco both tied at 10% support. maybe that's huge news. maybe jeb will pull off some great upset or he'll do unexpectedly great somewhere else. maybe he'll even win in south carolina. south carolina republicans keep saying on background that jeb bush is being underestimated in south carolina, that the bush family has always had south carolina wired in republican primaries and jeb will be no different. and maybe that will happen. maybe he'll pull that off. doesn't feel like it, though, does it? jeb bush was supposed to be the establishment choice in this election. that's why rich guys dumped over $100 million on him before he'd even done anything in the campaign. in this election he's supposed to be the establishment guy. he's supposed to be the person who republicans would ultimately settle on after they spent some time flirting with the more extreme candidates or the more kooky candidates and they came to their senses and decided to go with the establishment guy like they always do. it was always going to be jeb.

he would be the establishment backup. now less than two weeks from iowa it's becoming clear that the establishment backup guy, that role, the guy who everybody falls back on because they think the other choices are too crazy, now that establishment role is apparently going to be played by donald trump. friday night, "washington post" reporter robert costa broke the news on this show that multiple mainstream big dollar republican party donors were so disgusted by the prospect of ted cruz doing better in the presidential polling that they had decided to suck it up and start supporting donald trump despite all of their misgivings about him and even bad things they'd said about him in the past. the "hill" newspaper yesterday followed that reporting with a lot more detail. a number of other mainstream big dollar republican donors who were not just willing to give blind quotes, they were willing to put their names on that same

sentiment, saying whatever misgivings they'd had in the past, whatever misgivings their friends might have had about donald trump at the beginning, they deciding that he's the one, they're going to support, they're all coming around. and it may be that these donors and old school republican types are warming up to donald trump. they may be liking more of what they see in donald trump. it may also just be that they're having the opposite feeling about the guy who's next to trump in the polls, senator ted cruz. bob dole, former republican presidential nominee, trent lott, former senate majority leader, iowa governor terry branstad, the current governor of iowa. utah senator orrin hatch who's the senior republican in the senate right now, they all in the last few days have given explicit on the record quotes saying they believe ted cruz in particular would be an absolute disaster for the republican party and that republicans must not support him. he would be the worst choice. senator richard burr, currently serving senator from north

carolina, was described by the associated press today as having recently told supporters at a campaign fund-raiser that if he had to choose between voting for his fellow republican senator ted cruz or voting for bernie sanders, he says he'd vote for bernie sanders. according to the associated press, "senator burr did not appear to be joking." so jeb bush is trying to stay above water, amid this tide of hate and disloyalty and derision from his own supposed supporters. donald trump is currently surfing a wave of hate for ted cruz, which by contrast i suppose is bolstering mr. trump's image, lessening the resistance to him particularly among big money donors and big names in the republican establishment. that said, here comes another big wave of hate in a different direction that is due to crust and break tomorrow morning. "the new york times" says jonathan martin reports tonight that tomorrow morning a group of what he calls conservative

intellectuals are going to issue an anti-donald trump manifesto. this is an effort left by the conservative magazine "the national review." the anti-trump manifesto that's due out tomorrow morning reportedly plans to argue that mr. trump "poses the most serious peril to the conservative movement since the 1950s-era john birch society." that's the characterization by jonathan martin tonight in the "new york times." the "times" did get one quote specifically from the "national review," which i think is supposed to be emblematic of what they're going to argue against him in this manifesto tomorrow. "donald trump is a menace." "donald trump is a menace to american conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it under foot on behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the donald himself." so that's fun. donald trump said at his wayne allyn root event tonight that he's planning on unveiling a new donald trump tv ad tomorrow which he hinted would actually be an anti-ted cruz ad. parts of the anti-ted cruz "donald trump is a menace." "donald trump is a menace to american conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it under foot on behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the donald himself." so that's fun. donald trump said at his wayne allyn root event tonight that he's planning on unveiling a new donald trump tv ad tomorrow which he hinted would actually be an anti-ted cruz ad. parts of the anti-ted cruz

republican establishment are now saying they will support donald trump if only to keep ted cruz from winning the presidential nomination. other parts of the republican establishment will tomorrow issue what they're literally calling a manifesto to try to stop not ted cruz but to try to stop donald trump at all costs, even if that means supporting ted cruz. not ted cruz. yes, ted cruz. this is fun. i mean, it's weird, but it's fun, right? i mean, the republican race for the presidency this year is turning out to be kind of a baseball game. but it's a baseball game where everybody's got a bat. and there's no pitcher and there's no ball. and there's no bases. and there's no gloves that you would catch a ball with because why would you need to? it's just people with baseball bats. out in the field enclosed in a fence swinging at each other. the last one standing wins? we're going to be right back tonight. we've got a little bit of an exclusive that i have to tell you is coming up. i said last night that we were trying to get a clarification or a follow-up statement or an affirmation, something, some additional comment from senator bernie sanders about something that he said on this show tuesday night. which has now led to days of criticism from his rival hillary

clinton. it was his comment about some liberal groups that endorsed her being, quote, establishment. that led to a lot of criticism from those groups that he labeled as such. and from senator clinton and from her -- excuse me, from secretary clinton and her which has now led to days of criticism from his rival hillary clinton. it was his comment about some liberal groups that endorsed her being, quote, establishment. that led to a lot of criticism from those groups that he labeled as such. and from senator clinton and from her -- excuse me, from secretary clinton and her campaign. i said last night that we were seeking additional comment on that subject from senator sanders. senator sanders has now given us that response. it is kind of a clarification of sorts. i think it will change the whole way that fight is being fought on the democratic side. we've got those remarks from bernie sanders here exclusively tonight, ahead. stay with us. cry-proof, stay-proof look? neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena.

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a lot of news to get to tonight. as this big blizzard bears down on a huge swath of the eastern seaboard for this weekend and for friday d.c. announced today they're going to be closing the whole d.c. metro system for the

whole weekend ahead of this storm. but as a lot of the country is fixated on the path of that storm tonight, we have truckloads and trainloads of news to get to tonight, including news that i did not see coming out of flint, michigan that broke late tonight. that story is moving really, really fast tonight. we keep planning something like at 2:00 in the afternoon and then replanning it at 4:00 in the afternoon and then having to replan it right before we go to the air p right before we go to air. because that is moving so fast right now. we've also got a bit of an exclusive tonight that i just mentioned from bernie sanders. word from him tonight about something that has been a little controversial from his campaign this week.

today $5 million became $80 million. the federal government's response to michigan's first request for help in dealing with the lead poisoning disaster in flint. president obama this weekend signed over $5 million worth of federal help for emergency relief. that means things like bottled water and water filters, et cetera. $5 million in federal help. today the president went much further. he announced that $80 million is on the way to help fix the water system in flint. the president told a national conference of mayors today that the situation in flint in his words is inexcusable. >> in last month's bipartisan budget agreement we secured additional funding to help cities like yours build water infrastructure. we're going to have that funding available to you by the end of next week. and that includes more than $80 million for the state of michigan. our children should not have to be worried about the water that they're drinking in american

cities. that's not something we could accept. >> in addition to that big jolt of new federal funding that the president announced today, late tonight the head of the federal environmental protection agency announced a sweeping set of changes in direct response to the lead poisoning of flint. the epa has faced criticism for not stepping in more forcefully when they realized flint had much higher levels of lead in its water which they realized almost a year ago now. if was an epa whistleblower, one employee acting on his own who issued a warning about high lead levels in flint. he did that last june. when that one employee took that extraordinary step basically outside of the chain of command at epa, the epa's region the director told flint officials at the time that this warning from

this one guy from the epa, that was just a preliminary draft, it shouldn't have been released. now tonight that regional director is out. that regional director has resigned. and the epa's administrator, gina mccarthy, has accepted her resignation. the high-ranking epa official who was in charge oversight for michigan when flint was poisoned he had she has handed in her resignation effective february 1st. the epa also announced today a series of steps that they say governor rick snyder is required to take now to deal with the crisis in flint. epa administrator gina mccarthy has given the governor one day to confirm that he will comply with this order. she also announced that the epa will do its own sampling of lead levels in flint and will post the results online for the public. she's also instructed all staffers at the epa to speak up and speak out whenever they see a problem like the one that just happened in flint. this is a very interesting new change that reflects some soul searching at the epa. if epa employees see "a substantial threat to health or

if the epa could act to help or if other authorities appear unable to help or if high and sustained public attention is possible, if they run into a situation like that they are to blow the whistle right away." new rule at the epa. "this policy is effective immediately." in michigan today there was this rash of headlines declaring that congress would be holding a hearing on the flint crisis. the united states congress. this rash of headlines that said governor rick snyder was going to be called to washington, he would be forced to testify before congress about flint. and that would be a huge deal if it were true. if that was what was happening, that would be a big deal. that's not what's happening. first of all, nobody's being told to testify. nobody's being subpoenaed. rick snyder was one of several people congress, or at least a part of congress, reportedly would like to hear from on this topic. so those headlines very quickly got revised. rick snyder was being invited to a congressional hearing. but then it turned out that the person requesting this supposed hearing is a democrat. on this one subcommittee of the oversight committee. and when you are in the minority, when you are a democrat in a

republican-controlled congress, you're not allowed to call hearings. only the republicans who are in charge can do that. so yes, this is this one democrat on that subcommittee saying we would love to hold a hearing on that subject, but nothing has actually been scheduled. rick snyder i guess could be invited to talk to congress, sure. but he has not been so far despite headlines you might have seen on that subject to the contrary today. of legionnaire's disease in and around flint, an outbreak that took place in 2014 and 2015 but we just learned about it last week. in fact, the governor said he just learned about it last week. between june 2014 and october of last year genesee county where flint is, they had 87 cases of legionnaire's disease. at least nine of those people died. legionnaire's disease, it's a respiratory disease that's caused by water-borne bacteria. and the spike in that disease in genesee county, it started two months after flint switched its water source to the flint river

in april of 2014. in a new report on this legionnaire's outbreak that was issued today, michigan's health department says it "cannot conclude that the increase is related to the water switch in flint, nor can we rule out a possible association at this time." what we do know as of today is that the state knew about this spike in legionnaires' as of 2014 and officials discussed the possibility it could be related to the water switch in october of that year. we also know the state health officials thought the outbreak was over as of the spring of 2015. after 45 cases and five deaths. in march 2015 they said, "this outbreak is over." but then thereafter, that was in march -- excuse me, that was in may 2015.

then thereafter between may and october of last year turns out it wasn't over. there were another 42 cases and four more deaths. again, this legionnaires' spike in and around flint is not conclusively tied to the switch of the flint water supply but if it does eventually get tied to that, if the switch to the flint river and the unsafe way in which they did it not only caused the lead poisoning but also caused this legionnaires' disease thing, then the toll that we're talking about so far, the human toll from that policy decision made by the rick snyder administration, the human toll is more than 6,000 kids lead poisoned in michigan plus tens of thousands of adults exposed to lead in michigan and at least nine deaths so far and counting. joining us now from flint is tony dekoupil, national reporter for nbc. he's been looking into >> well, the first thing is just how big it is and the timing that you pointed out p i want to give people an idea of the scale

here. 87 cases in this county. that's about nine times bigger than the average national outbreak. per capita. it's bigger than that massive bronx outbreak that we covered last year. it's more lethal than that outbreak. there's not even a record of anyone dying of legionnaires' in this county we could find over the last five years. so this is huge. the state says they can't be certain it's related to the water but at the same time they can't rule it out. well, i talked to five different doctors and researchers today and they are all sure as they can be that there is a connection. and researchers from virginia tech in particular virginia tech researchers have been on the ground here throughout the lead crisis. they've been leading that charge. they were so sure that there would also be a legionnaires' outbreak that they wrote a grant for it.

bacteria really loves iron. just like we have vitamins that makes our body strong, makes bacteria strong too. legionnaires' grows as a result. so there's this do-si-do. there's the lead and researchers expect to see the legionella and now they fear their convictions have come to pass. >> you talked to five different researchers who say they're all sure that they feel like this must be -- that the legionnaires' must be also linked to the water switch. obviously, that is -- that's compelling but they've got to prove it presumably in some more conclusive way before they can try to get help to deal with it? is it being -- is somebody trying to make it a conclusive link? >> well, here's what's so frustrating about, this and this is also in the state report today. they will never know for certain that this is a result of the switch -- the switch of the water source. they'll never know for certain because the state didn't take the proper cultures and they admit this in their release. they didn't take the cultures necessary to definitively trace the source of the outbreak back to some environmental cause. so we will never know for sure. there are victims' families who we've talked to who would like to sue.

we can look at multiple lines of evidence and that's what these researchers have done but they will never be totally sure. >> wow. msnbc reporter tony dekoupil. this part of the story is so unnerving i can hardly stand it. this whole story is so upsetting that this piece of it is not only fatal -- >> i think -- i think we also need to let people know that this is a warm weather illness. so right now watching in a hospital in flint you're going to be fine most likely. but here's something unnerving that i think we really do have to add. is the problem over? is it done today? we are not sure. the testing has not been done. a task force has not been convened. it is not conclusively determined that the problem, the threat has passed, rachel. >> msnbc reporter tony dekoupil. tony, thank you. really appreciate you being there. we've got much more ahead tonight including that big news i was just talking about a

moment ago from the bernie sanders campaign. stay with us.

capitol hill is, as the term suggests, a hill. it's one of the bigger and therefore better hills in washington, d.c., in fact. which makes it absolutely perfect this time of year for sledding. the only problem is that sledding is illegal on the u.s. capitol grounds, including on that really good hill. last year, though, in a totally excellent form of civil

disobedience, dozens of rogue sledders took to capitol hill and essentially dared the capitol police to come arrest them while they were having so much fun. the capitol police responded by hanging back, not arresting people. everybody was happy. a good illegal sledding time was had by all. and it had an effect. that civil disobedience and the support that it good resulted ultimately in the law being changed. sort of. ahead of this winter's first big storm congress actually stepped in and passed a bill not to make sledding legal but to suggest to the capitol police that they continue to hold back on enforcing that particular law given that sledding's so much fun. and so with a massive blizzard now bearing down on d.c. tomorrow, u.s. capitol police have actually put out a formal statement saying they are not planning on enforcing the sledding ban on capitol hill. just so you know. who said congress can't get anything done? direct action gets the goods,

like it always does. happy sledding.

one of the reasons i wish there were more democratic

debates this year is that on the democratic side of the race as we have closed in on iowa the campaign has taken on a harder-edged and tougher tone between senator bernie sanders and former secretary of state hillary clinton. and particularly in the last couple of days that is mostly because of a dispute over endorsements for hillary clinton from some big name progressive organizations. and that whole dispute started right here. literally on this show. here's how senator sanders answered my question about those endorsements on tuesday night. >> i would love to have the endorsement of every progressive organization in america. we're very proud to have received recently the endorsement of moveon.org. we've received the endorsement of democracy for america. these are grassroots

organizations representing millions of worker. what we are doing in this campaign, it just blows my mind every day because i see it clearly. we're taking on not only wall street and the economic establishment. we're taking on the political establishment. so i have friends and supporters in the human rights fund, in planned parenthood. but you know what? hillary clinton has been around there for a very, very long time, and some of these groups are in fact part of the establishment. >> that was senator sanders speaking on this show on tuesday night. both senator sanders and secretary clinton are very pro gay rights and very pro choice. so this is not a fight that is about big black-and-white policy differences. but it nevertheless has become a big black-and-white fight. >> i was proud to be endorsed by the planned parenthood action fund because of the work i've done for so many years to defend women's health. and i was proud to be supported and endorsed by the human rights campaign because of the work i've done to end discrimination against the lgbt community. [ applause ] and i've got to tell you, i was somewhat confused when senator

sanders said, well, planned parenthood and the human rights campaign, they're part of the establishment and that's why they're supporting hillary clinton, because it's all part of the establishment. i thought, boy, i wish it were. i wish we weren't fighting all the time to protect women's rights, to protect women's health. if it were part of the establishment, that would be time for all of us to just quit having to work so hard and defend it and fight for it. well, that's just not the case. we have to keep working to make sure people are not taken advantage of, not stripped of their rights. and the republicans want to do all of that. >> so after this fight erupted on the democratic side and these groups that endorse secretary clinton came out and said they were upset by how senator

sanders had characterized them, i said last night here on the show that we wanted to check back in with senator bernie sanders to see if he thought that his remarks had been misconstrued or if he wanted to clarify his remarks or if he wanted to reiterate them. senator sanders was not available last night. he was campaigning all day today in new hampshire. but we were finally able to catch up with him today to get his response. msnbc's kasie hunt had a chance to ask him one on one when she met him in new hampshire. and this is really interesting. this is what he had to say. >> you made some remarks to rachel maddow on msnbc the other day and you put planned parenthood and the human rights campaign, some of these other groups, in the category of the establishment. do you still -- >> no, i didn't. that's not what i meant. the question was that -- that's not what the question was. the question was the endorsement. >> mm-hmm. >> i am a very, very strong supporter of planned parenthood. i think they are doing a fantastic job on the very difficult circumstances. very strong supporter of naral.

strong supporter of human rights fund. and i have i think a 100% voting record for all of these organizations. what i said in response to a question about endorsements is i think -- what i meant to say anyhow, is that sometimes the grassroots are asking how does it happen, that somebody has a 100% voting record in support of your issue and doesn't get endorsed and that sometimes the leadership of an organization may look at the world a little differently than the grassroots. but in terms of those organizations i know we're a week out of an election and the clinton people try to spin these things. i am a fierce supporter of planned parenthood, naral, and gay rights in this country. >> and they are not part of the establishment? >> no. they're standing up and fighting the important fights that have to be fought. okay? >> planned parenthood, naral and others are not part of the establishment.

senator sanders clarifying saying that's what he meant, telling kasie hunt that those groups are standing up and fighting the important fights that have to be fought. he describes himself as a fierce supporter of those groups. so does that end this fight on the democratic side? is this all just one big misunderstanding like the way every episode of "three's company" always worked out in the end? jack's not really gay. joining us now is kasey hunt, msnbc's political correspondent. thank you very much for your time tonight. i hope i didn't just blow the whole plot of "three's company" for you before you had a chance to finish. >> not at all. >> so senator sanders today, obviously you had that conversation initially with me on tuesday night. his campaign before that conversation with me on tuesday night, had put out a statement using the term "establishment" specifically i think about the human rights campaign endorsement. so it wasn't a total surprise that he went there. is he really saying this has been misconstrued, this is not

what i meant, i want to take this back? he sort of defended it and took it back when spoke with you. >> he did. he sort of took issue with the framing of your question but then said unequivocally that these groups are not part of the establishment, which i think it was an acknowledgment to a certain extent that this had become something of an issue for him, something he did have to clean up. you look at guns, for example, another place where that's happened. >> kasie, do you have any sense from being out there on the campaign trail and from spending time particularly around bernie sanders supporters as you're out there on the trail, do you get any sense that this is sinking in, that this fight between the campaigns, and it's a pretty sharp-edged fight between the campaigns, is something that is motivating or bothering your average new hampshire voter

who's out on the campaign trail to see their candidate? >> well, look, i think the way this fight between hillary clinton and bernie sanders has suddenly exploded is just the evidence that frankly the media is catching up to the narrative that's been going on on the ground. i spent a lot of time talking both with bernie sanders supporters who had come to see him in new hampshire but also to mainly students who were around us but trying to decide whether or not to go see bernie sanders. and even if they weren't super engaged in politics they all said, you know, my friends are really into bernie sanders and when you ask them what is the baseline of what you know. if you know one thing about bernie sanders, what is it? and if you know one thing about hillary clinton, what is it? they almost to a person came back and said, well, bernie sanders seems like an interesting guy who says what he thinks and hillary clinton comes across like she's calculating everything. the political environment on both sides of the aisle right now is such you that do not want to be the person that's coming across as calculated. and i think you see that in the way both bernie sanders and hillary clinton are treating this word establishment like this is such a dirty word. hillary clinton today was out basically saying bernie sanders is more establishment than i am, he's been in congress for 25

years, i was only in office for eight years. i'm less establishment than he is. that's kind of a difficult argument to wrap your head around, but that's where we are in this democratic race. >> she also got it when she didn't get her expected crowd response when she said i wish planned parenthood was establishment. wanting to be establishment sounds like an epithet even in that context. thank you very much, casey, appreciate it. >> thanks, rachel. nice to see you. >> much more ahead. stay with us.

>> congressman kilde has been dealing nonstop with the giant water crisis in his city of flint. he's also just had to fly over to germany to welcome a u.s. marine who's been imprisoned in

iran for four years. amir hekmati, he's from flint. and today, he finally got home. >> it's great to be back in flint, my hometown. i love this city, i love its people. thy they've been so good to me and my family. happy to be home. it's been a very long road, a very long journey. unfortunately many have travelled this road with me. but despite all the difficulties, thank god, thanks to everyone's support, everybody from the president, congressman kilde, everyday americans, i'm standing here healthy and with my head held high.

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republican front-runner donald trump has been campaigning the last several days with sarah palin. mr. trump, however, is due to hold a press conference in just a few minutes, which i think we will have here when it starts, depending on when it starts and if it is going to be something in which he is likely to make news. i shall also tell you that the national review, conservative magazine has just in the last few minutes, launched its anti-donald trump manifesto, which they're hoping will dominate political headlines in the morning. stay with us.

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we not only alert you to identity threats, if you have a problem, we'll spend up to a million dollars on lawyers and experts to fix it. lifelock. join starting at $9.99 a month. the blishment donors are deciding they can live with donald trump because the rest of the field, particularly ted cruz is so unappealing to your average republican establishment rich guy. that's been the theme all week. well, now the "national review" just published the front cover of what they say is their manifesto for this election, and this is it. against trump. so national review is itself a major part of the establishment of the republican party and the conservative movement. half of the establishment may be moving towards trump, but a big

part of it is against trump. this goes live in about a minute. they're hoping this is going to dominate the headlines on the republican side of the politica. "first look" is up next. it's friday, january 22nd. right now on "first look," tens of millions in the storm's path. thousands of flights already canceled or delayed. preparing for a historic nor'easter, and where it will hit the hardest. in the race for president, ted cruz coming down hard on donald trump, saying the billionaire would make deals with democrats. and the donald fires back. >> but here's a united states senator, republican, doesn't have support of one other republican senator. there's something wrong there. >> but trump now faces a growing list of conservatives lining up against him. a case of excessive force as a motorcyclist is awarded 180 grand after a traffic incident. plus authorities need your help in