thank you both. that is "all in" for this evening. rachel maddow starts now. good evening. thanks. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. there's a lot going on tonight in news and in politics in the wake of our big town hall in flint, michigan last night. there was big, stunning and, in my opinion, fairly infuriating new news today in flint that broke in michigan press late today. it's about the state government. the rick schneider administration knowing the water was bad before they said anything publicly. the schneider administration appears to have taken action to protect its own employees from flint's water while they were still telling the people of flint that it was safe to drink. it's my opinion but i find this fairly infuriating.

we'll have that story tonight. it's broken late today. we have the latest polling out that shows a rather unsettled picture on the democratic side. donald trump holding a commanding lead. it remains to be seen of kipping the last debate. this is not a totally unprecedented move by a presidential front-runner. this sort of thing has happened. we don't know how it will affect his lead or the overall course of the race. he's not just opting out of last debate. he is counter programming. that's the event you're looking

at a live shot of here now. we're watching to see when this one will get started. mr. trump is not going to the debate. instead, he's convening his own event at drake university in des moines, iowa. he's calling this a fund-raiser for veterans. although given his past history of trying to wrap himself up in veterans glory when he doesn't seem toll have done that, that assertion should be taken with a grain of salt. we'll be talking live with the red of iraq and afghanistan veterans for america. we'll be talking with him about that event. we'll talk about the way veterans are being treated by mr. trump's campaign and by the campaign in general. paul has had some choice words.

that's what we're waiting to get started right now at drake university in des moines. in terms of the opting out of the debate part of this. there's been a couple of instances in modern history where a front running candidate has opted out of debate. you see mike huckabee entering the room. we're entering mike and one or two other republican candidates to appear tonight at this donald trump event. they are not boycotting the other debate. the other candidates who are expecting to appear at this event are people who were at the kids table, people at the undercard debate. they're work is done. rather than just sit at home and watch the big stage debate, some of the kids table debate kids have decided they will come over to the trump event and do the boycott event and the boycotted event in the same night. why not? it's only a few miles away. cheap on uber.

we just saw mike huckabee. i might need some help from the control to recognize all of them from the kids table. in terms of the decision to boycott, when you're a front-runner, when you're leaving, you do not necessarily want to do anything to change the trajectory that you're on. looks like you're going to win. particularly if you're not a good debater or up against very good debaters. if you're a front-runner it's not out of the question that you might do that. that happened once in 1980. the interesting thing about the wap it happened in 1980 is that was the first ever nationally televised republican primary debate. it was the night before the iowa caucuses in 1980. ronald reagan thought he had

iowa wired. thought he was going to win and also thought that george h.w. bush was a better debater than he was. ronald reagan made a decision the night before the iowa caucuses that he would sit out that debate. the next day in iowa, george h.w. bush beat him in iowa. that was sort of widely viewed in reagan campaign as having been a bad decision that he didn't participate. they think it cost him iowa even if he did go onto win the nomination that year. it didn't really happen again in a high profile way until 20 years later, the 2000 presidential election. george w. bush got in and raised so much money so fast and locked up so many establishment endorsements that he clear cleared the rest of the field. when he was out ahead of the field in 1999 heading into the 2000 presidential race, he made a decision in the fall of 1999 that he would start skipping

debates in new hampshire. again, he was way out ahead. he did not think he was going to be a good debater. he thought if things keep going the way they are going, he would win. george bush skipped out of two debates right before the new hampshire primary and went on in the year 2000 in that republican primary to lose new hampshire. like reagan, he went onto win the nomination again any way. it's a risky thing to opt out of a debate. it's been a good run for the republican candidates. they've had massive audiences for their debates. donald trump hasn't really shined in any of them. i think it's fair to say that mr. trump's prohibitive lead is not necessarily due to his performance in any of the debates. he hasn't had stand out moments

that's pushed his numbers up. he hasn't been winning. he's just been holding firm. perhaps mr. trump has decided he doesn't want the change the trajectory he's on. perhaps he's decided he's tired. perhaps he decided this is a bold, brave thing to do to defy what everybody else is doing and defy the republican party and guess that everybody might cover him instead. if he were just saying i'm donald trump, i'm doing a campaign rally across town, i think that would be the level of analysis we would be at. there is another element of this, which is that mr. trump is not just opting out of tonight's debate. he is doing a separate event, hastily pulled together that

he's calling a fund-raiser for veterans. that has a long history just in this campaign. he's done there before. we don't exactly know what that will mean in terms of a political matter. it does matter to veterans. we know that because of some of the stances that have been taken publicly by veterans groups. paul made news by saying if iava were offered profits from this event tonight, they would not accept them. it's great to have you here. you've got a lot of attention for saying that. i went through your twitter responses. what has the response been?

>> it's been supportive. i think they feel that veterans have been overly politicized. i think there's a bigger issue here. the days of veterans issues being a place for nonpartisanship and a place of unity. those days are long gone. i think trump's always been a populous. he knows what attracts the huge swath of american people. it's like babies, puppies and vets. to use veterans will appeal. the veterans groups don't want to be u.s. troopsed as pawns. most will decline donations. it's not just from trump but every candidate. we're not going to take money from any candidate. we all need support. we need support. rather than a couple million dollars we would like to hear how will you transform the va.

>> one thing that occurred to me about the specifics of this event tonight, we'll talk more about this detail later on. we don't know where the money is going. he set up a website where the money comes to his foundation and he will turn it around to veterans organizations. seems to me like if candidates, for good reasons or bad reasons, if they do want to raise money for vets as part of their campaign, one of the ways to do that is to say i'm going to charge you, charge you to get into this event. you need to donate x amount of money to one of these lists of organizations. give people about information about how to contact them. that would be less problematic for you. >> if people want to donate, they can do it without going through a political event. we need support from people across america but we don't need

to be used as political props. trump has used this line effectively. it's become the new i'm going to clean up washington. i'm going to clean up the va. sounds great. how are you going to do it? that's the hard part. how are you going to care for women's veterans. how are you going to approach the soup side rate. those are the hard things. fixing the va may be the hardest thing for a president. it could be a defining issue. it's divided the parties. they are very different perspectives. >> there is when you are using it as applause line there's the more moral requirement that you know what you're talking about. >> it's become arms race. it's become i love veterans more than you arms race and now cruz responded and fiorina responded. i'm sure others will do the same. maybe in the end it will be a silver lining we need debates.

there's been no focus on veterans. >> stand by. we'll bring you back in once we hear what mr. trump has to say. i want to bring in nbc special correspondent tom brokaw. thanks for being here. >> great to be here. >> is there important historical precedent? is there good historical analogy for seeing what mr. trump is doing here? a candidate skipping out on the last big debate before voting starts? >> i'm sure whatever veterans group get whatever he raises will be grateful for that. there are overarking needs that the veterans need addressing. it's not a one time event. they're doing the best they can in their communities and not

using it for their own advantage. the veterans come first. i've dealt with a lot of them. i was at texas stadium earlier this year. hay had a group in dallas that raised money for service dogs. jerry jones wanted them to do that so everybody could see what was going on. it was about the veterans and the dogs and the help they could give. that's what they have to stay focused on. >> mr. trump has a website he set up.

it's a website he registered today. the money that he's raising goes to his foundation. if your words he's doing this for his own advancement and not in a transparentally impure way. does that have potential to have political backlash? do people see that transparentally enough that it ends up hurting him because it looks craven? >> it's hard to speak for all the people. he's said some things that we didn't think he could get away with. he is playing a kind of a dangerous game when you bring in the veterans. they should have a sacred place in america.

they need to find the veterans in their town. there's a lot of them in small towns who came back wounded, got a lot of attention at the beginning. now they are home with their wives and wives are having to carry the big struggle and so are the children. that's the way to get things done. do you think they're capable of moving the debate forward and in substance that paul was talking about extracting from these candidates plans and promises that might meaningly move forward the issue about how to support veterans and reform the va and those things. there's not been a lot of details spelled out. >> we've just lot tom brokaw's details spelled out.

are we able to get that back? i could see he was still speaking. we'll go back to tom when we get that. that's a drag. he's hosting this event called a veterans event. we're not sure who donald trump is raising money for tonight nor do we know how much money is expected to be raised. here comes mr. trump. we don't know how long he's going to speak or how substantive these remarks will be. let's see what he does. this is his counter programming to the debate. [ applause ] >> that's so nice. thank you. we love our vets. thank you. sit down.

we had about 24 hours to put this together. it was very, very quick. we're here for some very special people. we'll hear from some of them. this is an honor. this is a real honor. i didn't want to be here. i have to be honest. i wanted to be about five minutes away. i've enjoyed that. i've enjoyed that. all the online polls said i've done well with the debates. you have to stick up for your rights. when you're treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights. you have to do it. whether we like it or not, whether it's something we want to do or not and that's what our country has to do. an example around, the way they have been treating us with all of this horrible, this deal is one of the worst deals i've ever seen negotiated under any circumstances and we just take it. we have to stick up for ourselves as people and we have to stick up for our country when we're being mistreated.

remember that. i have to go a little step further and say that fox has been extremely nice the last number of hours, actually. they've wanted me there and they said how about now. they called a few minutes ago. how about now, can you come over? i said hasn't it started. we thought we would let them start and we wanted to be about 15 minutes into that hour so that by now they're all tuned in. look at the cameras like the academy awards. this is like the academy awards. this is the academy awards. we're told we have more cameras than that do. that's really an honor of our vets. they have been very nice. they wanted me to go and apologize. they did apologize. they could not have been -- once this started, there was nothing i could do.

i don't know. is it for me, personally, a good thing, bad thing. will i get more votes? will i get less votes? nobody knows. it's for our vets. you're going to like it. we raised over $5 million in one day. that's not so bad. you know, my whole theme is make america great again. we wouldn't have been here if it weren't for our vets. our vets are being mistreated. illegal immigrants are being treated better than our vets. it's not going to happen anymore. once this ball started rolling, we couldn't stop it. you see the house is packed. this took place less than 24 hours. we had less than 24 hours to do this. i said i'm not going to do the debate out of respect for myself. it would be wrong.

i love iowa. i'm here. we got to do something. i didn't know we were going to raise 5 million. we actually raised close to six. i have to say, a lot more to come. we set up a site, www.donaldtrumpforvets.com. they raised almost $500,000 just today. i think this money will continue to pour in. we have some incredible people. i have to call out a lot of folks who gave some money. we'll have somebody come up to speak who is an incredible speaker, but much more importantly it's the subject. we have to talk about people that made a lot of money. they wouldn't be here. carl gave $500,000.

one quick phone call. richard, a great builder in new york gave $100,000. donald trump, another great builder in new york, now a politician, i can't stand this. a politician. i don't want to be called a politician. all talk, no action. i refuse to be called a politician. donald trump gave $1 million. [ applause ] >> the fisher family of new york gave $75,000. [ applause ] howard lawberg, a great fan and friend of our family, $100,000. a very, very rich man in new york, a very good friend of mine, a very good person. he wants to be anonymous.

all his life he was out there. i said could you give me a million bucks. he said tell me. i said it's for the vets. he said you got it. is that good? he wanted to be anonymous. he's changed. you know who i'm talking about. two years ago -- >> trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. >> it really is too crazy. i tell the story, i love protests. i love protests at my rallies. this is a beautiful place. we have thousands of people outside that weren't as good as

real estate. we have thousands of people outside trying to get in. we set up cameras, screens. we have everything. i will tell you, you look at that. i love the protesters in the big arenas because the cameras never move. they're always on my face. i say to my wife, stand up. she has to suffer through it. nobody covering them. look at this. it's crazy. i say, how did i do? she said you were great. were there many people there? i said what do you mean, it was 21,000. it was in alabama, mobile, alabama, we had 35,000 people. we get the biggest crowds by far. much bigger than bernie. i have to say he is second. no other republican. we get the biggest crowds.

she'll say they never show the crowd. i said what do you mean? i realize they never turn the camera. i always say, i figured maybe they are fixed, these are new cameras they can't turn. the only way you find out they are not fixed is when you have a protester. you can have protesters up in top and they are turned around sideways. they turn. they don't want to show the crowd. it's one of those things. we have a rich man from new york. a good guy who has become a little reclusive, $1 million. he's a great guy. [ applause ] we have another unbelievable man, ike from marvel. he did such an unbelievable job. one of the great, great money of our country in terms of business and talent. he's giving ike and lori $1 million.

jj from florida and from cleveland, he's man who made a lot of money in cleveland. does a good job and a fantastic man, $50,000. thank you. another great friend of mine, one of the most brilliant men you'll ever meet. he doesn't do that for a living. he makes money for a living in every way. you cannot make a deal with this guy and come out on top. it's impossible. in fact, i'm thinking about him for china. how about him negotiating for china. china, this year in trade will make over $500 billion in terms of our trade deficit, $500 billion. that's no partnership. i'm a free trader. we have to use our head. i have the largest bank in the

world. i'm not blaming the chinese. i'm not angry at them. i'm angry at our politicians. why should we be losing in trade deficits $500 billion a year. it's not going to happen. if i took a guy like this, put him this charge. his wife is so incredible. would you both come up. mr. and mrs. phil ruffin. come on up. come up. come up. he sold it a few years later and made plenty of money in between

for $1.3 billion. when he gives a million it's like ten cents. just say a couple of words. [ applause ] >> thank you. i'd like to introduce my wife, alexander. donald and i have been friends for some 18 years and business partners and about two years ago i said, donald, if you ever run for president, i will give you a million dollars. well, he ran. i gave him a million dollars. he sent it back. he said i can't take your money. i couldn't believe it. in any case, he's a great man. i'm very happy. my wife and i will donate $1

million to your charity. thank you. [ applause ] >> he actually sent me a million dollars. he said there's 10 or 20 more of them if you want it, if you need it. i just can't stand it. you know i'm self-funding my own campaign, right. there's a guy, believe me, a fantastic guy. my father said everything my boy touches turns to gold. what happens is i turn all this money down. they're calling and calling. they want to give me money. being number one, they all want the control you. they want to give you money and now they call you.

remember i gave you $5 million. i tell the story about the ford plant and the nabisco plant. all my life and i'm turning down millions. i was in iowa in a different location. we had 4,000 people. i went to those people, i said listen, i don't feel good about turning down money. my whole life i'd been greedy. i grabbed all the money i could get. now i want to be greedy for the united states. it's true. i'm in this beautiful place and the crowd is lovely. we have the most incredible people in this country in iowa but in this country it's like a movement going on. the cover of time magazine this week is a whole thing. it's a cover story. they're cover the story. i said i didn't know they were

doing the story. it's a movement. i said to the crowd, let me ask you this one thing. i promise you i won't be influenced. could i take all this money. everybody went crazy, no, no. it was only one guy. he was in the back corner of the room. he was a crooked guy. he said it was okay to take it. i don't want anything to do with that guy. i feel a little bit foolish not taking the money. jeb bush -- he's debating right now. he's probably looking for he. he's saying has anyone seen trump? where's trump? where is he?

he's taken $128 million. people that i know like him, killers. they put up $5 million, $8 million. they're not doing that for their health. when they put in 6 million, 45 million, 1 million. they want something for it. when you see these horrible deals, the politicians aren't that stupid. you think they're horrible. you say how is it possible that iran just got $150 billion from this country in one of the dumbest deals ever. they just went out. the first purchase is 114 air

bus jets, not boeing jets. >> front-runner speaking tonight in des moines, iowa and turning into his standard stump speech. he's speaking a couple of miles away from where the rest of the republican field has been holding the last republican candidates debate before the iowa caucus which are in four days. here's what i want to say. it's okay. good-bye, mr. trump. good-bye. that felt great. with my mind, i'm willing you that power at home. disappear. it's like a mute button for your mind. i think this is worth understanding. donald trump is counter programming and having his own

event in the same town starting at the same time competing for the same attention. this is is going on here. do you remember last summer when donald trump was fairly new candidate on the campaign trail. he shocked everybody by racing to the top of the polls as soon as he announced he was candidate. he said something absolutely terrible about an american hero who spent five years being tortured and imprisoned in north vietnam as a prisoner of war. even people who cannot stand him as a politician rightfully honor his service in the almost unimaginable lengths that he went to to serve his country. this is what donald trump said about him. >> i supported him for president. i raised a million dollars for him. i supported him.

he lost. he let us down. he lost. i never liked him much after that because i don't like loser. frank, let me get to it. >> he's a war hero. >> he's in the war hero. he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. >> he's not war hero. i like people who weren't captured. that was last summer. never an apology for that. donald trump, at the time he said that he was the new front-runner for the presidential nomination. people were up in arms about this guy who never served a day in the military. john mccain, five years a prisoner of war was not a hero of war. that would not be fatal error, that would be a fatal public image error. you say and shock people so much you're sort of never heard from again. with donald trump, it didn't work out that way. one of the small size bar stories that should have been

our first inkling is there was this weird support in what he said about john mccain. this feuding has nothing to do with mr. trump high regard for the military. he's a supporter for the u.s. military. mr. trump hit back. like john mccain got what's coming to him. donald trump was right to call him not a war hero. take it from us. we're veterans. it wasn't the biggest story around that time but it was this interesting side bar. the state from this group, veterans for a strong america.

side bar at the time. it ended up becoming a few weeks later when things were really picking up steam. in the new york times scooped some of the juiciest quotes about a biography for there prump. they were quotes be mr. trump characterizing his own time at a military themed prep school. characterizing that time as being equivalent to him having served in the military. donald j. trump who received draft deferments told the author of an upcoming biography that he always felt i was always in the military because of his education at a military themed

boarding school. mr. trump says he endured the rigors of military life. my number was so incredible. it was a very high draft number. i never had to do that, but i felt i was in the military in the true sense because i dealt with those people. by those people he means the other people he went to prep school with who were not the military but who did wear fancy outfits that made them look like majorettes. they were publiced september 8th. that same day, mr. trump decided that he was suddenly feeling a little shy about showing up to the next republican presidential primary debate. that same day that the new york times published the quotes about him not being in military but thinking he was, that same day he wrote to cnn and demanded if they wanted him to participate, they would have to pay him $5 million to do so.

he also insisted that all profits be donated to veterans organizations. a list of which he would provide to cnn. it kind of pushed the story about him thinking he was this the real military pushed that out of the headlines for a day. ultimately, we don't have any indication that mr. trump ever bothered to send the list of veterans organizations to cnn nor did cnn pay him $5 million, as a booking fee. ultimately mr. trump decided to show up any way. this is really it got weird. i think this is what explains what happened tonight because the night before that cnn debate in september when donald trump discovered this new found arder for veterans causes after being caught out in his embarrassing effort to make it seem like testifies a veteran, the night

before that debate did a fund-raiser. doing a fund-raiser is normal for any other candidate but not normal for him. he's self-funding his campaign. he said he's not taking donations. went to a battleship and did a fund-raiser. not for himself but for veterans for a strong america. that random thing which nobody had ever heard of before but which put out statement after he attacks john mccain saying john mccain deserved it and they were on his side for picking on the pow for not being a real war hero. it was such a strange night. the night before that debate. he's demanding the proceeds of of the debate go to veterans. >> boy, oh, boy.

i didn't expect that. joel and the group called and said would you come over and speak. i'm here for a certain reason. it's called tomorrow night. i got here and they ask a couple of days ago would it be possible to say a few words. an endorsement from your group with so many veterans. hundreds of thousands of veterans. i really appreciate that. i did not expect it. >> your group with so many veterans. hundreds of thousands of veterans. veterans for a strong america is not a group made up of hundreds of thousands of veterans. in fact, veterans for a strong america does not appear to have any members other than joel who you just heard mr. trump refer to. as best as we can tell, he's it. there's no real way to join them. they don't have hundreds of thousands of anything.

after we were first to report on the weirdness of this supposed veterans fund-raiser in september, it quickly emerged that the irs revoked this group's nonprofit status last year because they hadn't filed tax returns in three years. the group has since dissolved themselves as an organization. they are no longer veterans for a strong america. they are now vets for a strong america. on their certificate of incorporation which we dug up, you can see right there, quote, checked off the corporation will not have members. at the time he did this event for them, you couldn't join them. not a membership organization. the latest filing said they had $30 in the bank and $300 in debts and obligations which appeared to be owed to another group that was just this one guy, joel. here is this one man

organization that donald trump, republican presidential front-runner is doing a giant battleship fund-raiser for. it have so weird. we bothered them for days trying to figure out what happened. the campaign gave us a statement about the event and what it established. they said mr. trump and the campaign had no knowledge of any issues associated with the group or their chairman. nor does this campaign know what the group intends to do with the money raised that night. we asked them specifically do you know how much money you raised that night. the campaign said no. please ask veterans for a strong america. we asked them further, did veterans tell you what they would use the money for once you give them the money. answer for the trump campaign, no. they had no idea who this guy was or what the organization was. the candidate said they had hundreds of thousands of

members. they actually have zero members. they have no idea how much money they raised or what the money was used for and because the group had its nonprofit status revoked, it was arguably illegal for donald trump to raise money for that group in that way in california on eve of that debate. that's what is going on here. once again, we have donald trump, still the republican presidential front-runner, and low these months later he feels like he wants to squirrel out of the debate. just like the last time he tried to squirrel out, this time he's also playing the veterans card as his way to do it as if him skipping this debate is noble and helps veterans. the founder and ceo put out this news.

if offered they will decline donations from trump's events. we need strong policies not to be used for political stunts. we're still not sure where any money raised tonight by mr. trump is actually going to go. let alone how much money he will raise. his campaign did launch this website. it generally asks for donations to support our veterans. where is that money going go that's donated through that website? all we know is that it's going to the donald j. trump foundation. who knows, maybe the donald j. trump foundation will turn it around and all donations will go directly to veterans needs as it says very vaguely on that website. if you're trying to figure out what's going on here, just consider this. a, donald trump has done this before. b, we have no idea the first money went.

and c, it was registered as a website this morning. it was registered in the cheapest possible way. that website url expires in one year. it expires one year from today, at which point mr. trump or president trump will decide whether he wants to renew that website and keep playing this particular trick or let it fade away. meanwhile, the real veterans organizations will keep sloging away day after day doing really hard work that needs to be done needing money for that cause. they'll keep doing it whether or not anybody is using them as a political stunt on any one particular day. we sent two women into a real guys night out to see if they could find the guy who uses just for men. it's me. >>no way. just for men gives you a natural gray-free look. just lather in. in just five minutes. great-looking hair, made easy. just for men.

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>> but once this started it's for our vets there was nothing i could do. i don't know. is it for me personally a good thing, a bad thing, will i get more or less votes? nobody knows. it's for our votes and you're going to like it because we raised over $5 million in one day. over 5 million. so that's not so bad. you know, my whole theme is make america great again and that's what we're going to do and we wouldn't have even been here if it weren't for our vets and our vets are being mistreated.

illegal immigrants are treated better in many cases than our vets and it's not going to happen anymore. >> republican presidential front-runner donald trump speaking tonight hosting an event as a result of his manufactured spat with fox news instead of doing the last debate before iowa he's doing this event that he says will benefit veterans groups. one of the groups has come out and said they won't take money from this event is offered is iraq and afghanistan veterans. in some ways even if candidates are being exploited, does it help -- does it create a better climate for you guys that somebody's talking about vets at all? >> it doesn't necessarily create a better climate, but i think it creates an opportunity. i'm here talking to you tonight, but it's creating a toxic environment. part of you answer is early is yes we've gotten support, but

nasty attacks. >> from when we said we're not going to take his money. >> we're not endorsing anyone. we wouldn't take money from bernie sanders either. we're a nonpartisan organization. our members are diverse. we said we're not going to take money and they have descended on us on twitter and phones and jamming up the hotline and it's a nasty tone. that's actually a plea to him. >> is it an organized thing? >> i don't know. you can see it on twitter. we have social workers who take calls from veterans in crisis and their phone lines are being hit by this. >> these are trump supporters? >> yeah. all we did was say we're not going to take your money. the the american legion we've said it publicly and a lot of vets groups are saying it privately and we thought it was important to say keep it out of

this. they can donate to us by finding us online. there are 22 million veterans in this country. they are a diverse voting group so i think they are watching and they're watching both parties. many are independent minded so maybe everybody will now start to play them. maybe they will talk to us about specifics, they will get down to brass tacks and maybe moderators will ask questions about it and that can be a good thing in the end. >> if there is an organized group of people or even a disorganized group of people going after iava on this, you can give them my number. >> we can handle it, but i hope they send it in another direction. >> it makes me mad. i'm mad on your behalf. .

are you fully stocked up? >> we are -- we are not. we are blessed enough to have a health navigator, but we do not have a school nurse. >> you do not have a school nurse? >> we do not. none of our schools do. usually that responsibility falls on our saekts. i give medications. we make do with the staff that we have who have devoted with serving our children. >> flint community schools do not have nurses right now? >> we do not. >> one for the entire district. 6,000 kids, 9 elementary schools, one nurse total in a community where all the kids in town need extra support and attention because they were all just exposed to lead poisoned tap water. that was a moment in flint last night where i could feel the recoil from all of those in the room who weren't from flint and everybody in the room knew that.

today there is some news that more school nurses may be coming to flint. today the lenl slater proved $28 million and they did designate several thousand dollars of that money to hire nine school nurses for flint's public schools. so there's that and may it come to pass. late breaking news about how the state of michigan responded to this disaster while it was under way and in the throws of it. this has been reported today. it's something that happened basically a year ago. flint residents were still being told that the water was safe. january 21th of is last year officials came to city hall to assure the people they were on top of any problems with flint's water. flint residents came to that meeting and shouted complaints. they held up jugs of brown water.

one of the treatment experts told the people in that room that they should hang in there. flint residents still being told at this time that it was fine for them to drink this water. but what the officials did not say at that meeting was that two weeks earlier the state government had started shipping bottled water to the state office building in flint. the administration had started shipping coolers of water to the state workers so they wouldn't have to drink the tap water. the free press first reported this day based on e-mails. dtmb, that's a state agency that oversees state office buildings, is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor so you can choice which water to drink. the coolers will come today. january of last year.

the administration all last year was telling the people of flint that everything was fine and there was no danger from their tap water, but the people who actually worked for the snyder administration were getting sent pure clean water to drink. everybody else in flint hang in there. amazing. if you lived in flint, would you trust the state government to fix the problem there now, to tell you when it's safe to give your child a glass of water? the folks i met yesterday were incredibly warm, but they were suspicious of anybody telling them that things were okay and they ought to relax and the more you learn what they have been through over the past two years when they've been told everything was fine and it was not, and in some cases told that by people who knew it was not

fine, it is easy to see why they are suspicious. it doesn't count as paranoia when you live through what they have lived there. it's friday, january 29. right now on "first look," the insults were flying as donald trump said he skipped the fox debate out of respect for. and newly revealed video of the shooting death and arrest of the oregon protesters. the cdc calls the zika virus a pandemic and creating a travel warning for everyone not just pregnant women. and a bank robber stopped cold at a door, and sinkholes taking over and olympic sized distraction from michael