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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  November 17, 2016 4:00pm-5:01pm PST

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jersey i think for the weekend and that's probably where that meeting will take place. it will be interesting to see what the coverage is like, because it will be hysterical. not in a funny way, but in an his terrific w hystherric way. donny and will be back tomorrow, same bad time, same bad channel. sayonara. "hardball" is up next. >> dangerous liaisons. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. well, when it comes to those who might serve inside a trump administration, some of trump's prospective choices could become dangerous nor the president-elect. nbc is reporting that trump is expected to choose michael flynn as his national security adviser. flynn who called for hillary clinton to be locked up at the republican convention has been criticized or scrutinized for his paid speaking engagement at
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a 2015 gala for rt, that's russia's state-run media outlet in moscow. in fact, in moscow, flynn was photographed sitting beside russian president vladimir putin. there he is. trump is also meeting with alabama senator, jeff sessions, who he's eyeing for attorney general, or secretary of defense, according to nbc. today "the new york times" revisiting troubling allegations that arose in a bitter confirmation hearing 30 years ago, which tlumt ederailed sessions' prospect of becoming a federal judge. additionally, politico reports that trump aides have discussed naming sarah palin as secretary of the interior. and "the new york times" says that conservative radio host laura ingraham could join the administration as well. and take this for what it's worth. mitt romney, who's been an outspoken critic of trump all along is meeting with the president-elect for whatever purpose this sunday. meanwhile, on his final trip abroad as president today, barack obama said he hopes president-elect donald trump will change from the man we saw on the campaign trail to the person this country would like
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to see in the white house. >> he now has to transition to governance, and what i said to him was that what may work in generating enthusiasm or passion during elections may be different than what will work in terms of unifying the country and gaining the trust even of those who didn't support him. that has to reflect itself, not only in the things he says, but also how he fills out his administration and my hope is, is that that's something that he's thinking about. >> notice how quiet those reporters are over in germany. joining me now is ely stoeblgs, with politico, heidi przybyla with "usa today,".
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eli, this story about flynn, now, he didn't get much attention, but he did say, "lock her up," that sort of electrifies him as bait. >> giuliani -- >> they all did. it's not exactly general-like. let me ask you about this rt connection. now, larry -- what's his name, larry king writes for rt. people show up -- i showed up on that network one time, i thought it was a larry king network, turns out it's russian tv. is it appropriate for a cabinet member or a potential cabinet member to have been paid by them to give a speech out there, or taken money in any circumstances from the russians? >> they raised a lot of questions about hillary clinton and who she was paid by to give speeches to when she was secretary of state -- >> good for the goose, good for the gander. >> but when you're talking about russia, he is not the only person in trump's inner circle with close ties or an evidence of trail of saying pro-russia statements at least, and acting
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in a way that is much more sympathetic to the russian government, to vladimir putin, than to the current administration's foreign policy. i mean, this is a country that the west has sanctions on right now, because putin took territory in ukraine. and -- >> crimea? >> and crimea! but occupies currently territories in ukraine. so people want to know why this matters, if trump gets in and softens on russia, the west -- the nato sanctions -- >> and supports softening those sanctions. >> if you start taking money from someone, it seems to me that that just impeaches everything you say about them hence forward. you look like the perp gson getg paid. >> right. and considering what a huge issue this was, and this is a big problem with giuliani, too, that's potentially a bigger hornet's nest with rudy giuliani -- >> you mean taking money -- >> former maliceovich government
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in germany. but the prism through which we have to judge all of these appointments is we have to remember what donald trump ran as. he ran as an outsider who had no experience in any of this, but the one thing he was going to do is be a good manager who picks somebody who has a lot of experience. you look at flynn, the one thing that seems to distinguish him from everyone else is that he was loyal. he was the one national security guy of his pedigree who stood up and was loyal to donald trump the whole time. he's got a lot of counterterrorism experience, he's been in iraq, but he's not like a condi ryice or colin powell like feature. >> "the times" has been very active on reporting on this whole situation up on fifth avenue, besides blocking avenue. here's the question, loyalty versus perfection for the job? i think he will lean towards loyalty over perfection on the resume, right? the question is, why is he letting rudy giuliani sit out there, almost marinating over these days, when he could be picking them. he knows the guy, he must have
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made a judgment about him personally, his character, his loyalty. what's he waiting for, fishing with all of these other possibilities on secretary of state? what's up? >> i think what he's waiting on is the idea that really donald trump doesn't like people who lobby for their jobs too much. in some ways, he's back to this position that he had at "the apprentice." he doesn't want people to want it too much. and kellyanne conway said today he really wants people to be private and keep these things secret. rudy giuliani has kind of been out there, in some ways, really walking around, making reporters think about the fact that he might be the secretary of state. now, i think what we talked about and what one of your guests said, this idea about loyalty, this idea about who stuck with him. that's why we see the people like jeff sessions still in the running, even those all of these kind of problematic civil rights issues in the background of his resume. i think the reason why rudy giuliani is staying out there is because donald trump maybe doesn't like the way he's going about getting the job. >> yeah, when it comes to secretary of state, "the new
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york times," your paper, yamiche, said that the president-elect had growing reservations about giuliani, who for $40 eagerly stoked news of his possible appointment. here's what kellyanne conway did say when asked on "morning joe" if giuliani's public lobbying for the job has hurt his chances. >> is there any way, shape, or form that that is the way to act, to run your mouth? >> i think these conversations are always best in private, particularly when you're forming a cabinet and senior staff, which is why i don't say too much about myself. he would command a certain presence around the world if he were secretary of state. but as someone who's highly involved in transition, we have long short lists for every position. >> well, now we've got a problem with flynn, who's taken the money from the russians, not a good move if you want to be the tough negotiators with the russians. we've got sessions. let's talk about sessions, jeff sessions. let me get back to yamiche, your paper has been active on that front, too. jeff sessions, an alabama senator, if he is picked for
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trump's cabinet, it wouldn't be the first time he faced a confirmation hearing in the senate. when nominated to be a federal judge 30 years ago, in 1986, "the new york times" reported that sessions referred to the american civil liberals union and the naacp as, quote, un-american. he also called a prominent white lawyer a, quote, disgrace to his race, for representing black clients. and other witnesses said that sessions joked and thought that the coku klux klan was okay unt he found out they smoked pot. whatever that means. those allegations were enough to torpedo his nomination. he said at the time, that he considered the matter settled. let's watch this. >> issues that have been raised before the judiciary committee have been heard and argued and settled. that matter is over and i have no further comment about it. >> you know, i want to put this in context, this was 30 years ago in the deep south, it's alabama, but there are some of these questions that are accredited to his race sounds
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like a hundred years ago, a disgrace to his race or whatever that was. that is a problem for me. but what do you make of this, yamiche? is this a thorny problem or a doomsday situation for him? >> i think given what donald trump has been filling his cabinet with the appointment of steve bannon, this is probably more thorny. i think when you think about jeff sessions' background, he once told an african-american man, even though he denies it, an african-american man that he should really be careful about how he speaks to white people and he called him boy. so really, this is -- if he became the attorney general, i can see so many families that are waiting for the doj to come up with solutions to the investigation of their family. you think about eric garner and the case of him being choked, basically, on staten island. there are so many families that i talk to say that they're just very scared of who's going to be the head of the doj, who's going to be in charge of this. and perhaps someone like jeff sessions, we can put into context it was 30 years ago in the deep south. but if he's talking like this and joking about the naacp as
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being un-american, that's really a problematic thing. but whether or not it's going to keep him from being appointed is a whole another thing. because again, we talked about the idea that donald trump is really into loyalty. and he was the first senator to go out there and take the risk to endorse donald trump. and he was out there on the campaign trail for him. and donald trump really values that. >> yeah, i guess my view is i do know sessions and i do think i've got problems with him, too. but i also -- i risk being too judgmental about 30 years ago. will the public, will the senate hearings, when they look at him, hold that up as a major problem for him? those comments like calling somebody "boy," an adult african-american? >> i think this could really build, chris. and i say that because it's not in a vacuum. this is coming as the trump organization, the incoming administration is looking at how our streets are becoming a powder keg based on this racial narrative that began during the campaign, that really exploded with the appointment of bannon. and now despite all of that, they've done nothing, really, to
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publicly try to calm those fears. and instead, they start careening towards another appointment, where you have this type of baggage. what does that tell the american people about your intentions? >> how far is a guy like trump willing to push the envelope? it's one thing if you're a liberal and pick a person who's relatively conservative on law and order, you might get away with it. but if you're way out there with bannon and breitbart, and pick somebody who looks like they might be an old segy, you've got a problem. >> and when kellyanne conway says we have long short lists, what she's saying is, we don't know right now. there's a lot of uncertainty up there, because the people who have been the most loyal to him, they might have confirmation problems, they may exacerbate bad narratives that are out there already. these nominations coming after a campaign from a president-elect who's already enflamed racial divisions in this country, the democrats are going to have to decide where they want to fight. >> yamiche, i should say an old segy, but begins to look like. when you pull this stuff out,
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that's what it looks like, it does. because it looks like he was certainly one of them back then. but he's also a guy who's extremely tough on illegal immigration, to the point where, this is going to be the guy that takes on immigration, the problems in the streets with police right now. and the questioning of who's really looking out, with true authority for law and justice, not just taking a side, this is a tricky business. what do you think? >> well, this is very tricky. but i've been talking to republicans of color, and there are a lot of african-american and hispanic republicans that are very upset about the appointment of steve bannon. and to see jeff sessions then become attorney general or head the department of defense, that would really, i think, even within the republican party, that would send a message that donald trump is saying, i'm not going to be the president of the united states of america, in that he's really going to his base. just looking at the numbers, you only got 8% of the african-american vote. even if it is him digging in deep, he's thinking, you know what, my base was overwhelming white and these appointments are going to be the appointments that i make, because this is what my base wanted.
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they wanted someone who was extreme on immigration. they wanted someone who was really into extreme vetting when it comes to muslims. that's also probably what's gong on with donald trump. >> well, the sermon is leadership. he's got to discern where to make his fights. i want to ask you all, any thoughts about romney? is this for real that he might be looking at him for a high cabinet position? >> i look at this as a reporter and take note of what the narrative was yesterday, which was that the trump campaign isn't picking people based on qualifications, they're picking people based on loyalty and doing this stalinesque purge, so what do we want to do on day two, show that that's not what we're doing. it could very well be a trial balloon. you also saw nikki haley come in there, schedule an appointment, another person who was a very outspoken critic of donald trump. you know he's talking to all of these people. they're all kind of making this makeup go-arounds, and maybe he invited them to visit. >> it's one thing to throw hud or hhs to somebody, throw it to state, throw it to romney, one of his biggest opponents who was outs there backing evan mc
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mcmullin, give many a break. that would be one of the ruthless things i've seen a politician do, if he puts romney in there and dumps giuliani. >> it's tough to think of mitt romney now going and kissing the ring of donald trump, after everybody has that -- i think he had that very memorable press conference, where he really went and really attacked donald trump, very pointedly. so i think it's also remarkable that maybe donald trump is getting a little bit -- feeling good about the fact that now all of these people have to come and ask him for jobs. i think that could also help, if he does get appointed, to make him feel like, now i have the power and you have to bow to me. >> i can understand that. that fits the bill, doesn't it? it's nice to be king. anyway, heidi przybyla and yamiche alcindor. hillary clinton makes her first public appearance since her defeat. tonight, i'll ask hollywood director and political activist rob reiner how democrats should do, what they should do in this
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age of trump. plus, the "hardball" roundtable tonight on what we know about donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, who could be the true center of power in the next presidency, if it's legal. can you name your son-in-law? also, the immigration headliner, advisers are looking for ways to create a registry of immigrants from certain muslim countries. and now a trump supporter suggests the forced internment of japanese americans during world war ii provides an excellent precedent for that policy. you don't believe this stuff. united states government, by the way, admitted that those internment camps were wrong and apologized for creating them. finally, let me finish with trump watch for this thursday, november 17th. this is "hardball," the place for politics. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even mer-mutts. (1940s aqua music)
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fears among u.s. allies issuing this message for donald trump. >> if you're not serious about the job, then you probably won't be there very long. because it will expose problems. and i think the president-elect is going to see fairly quickly that the demands and responsibilities of ast president are not ones that you can treat casually. >> that's forboding. and we'll be right back. one of millions of orders on this company's servers. accessible by thousands of suppliers and employees globally. but with cyber threats on the rise, mary's data could be under attack. with the help of at&t, and security that senses and mitigates cyber threats, their critical data is safer than ever. giving them the agility to be open & secure. because no one knows & like at&t.
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i know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election. i am too. more than i can ever express. i know this isn't easy. i know that over the past week, al of people have asked themselves whether america is the country we though it was. the divisions laid bare by this
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election run deep. but please listen to me when i say this. america is worth it. our children are worth it. believe in our country, fight for our values, and never, ever give up. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was, of course, hillary clinton, in this case, urging her supporters last night to keep fighting. she spoke at a charity gala in washington for her favorite charity, i believe children's defense fund. it was her first public appearance since conceding the election last week. clinton grew emotional as she spoke about the struggles her mother had faced as a child abandoned by her parents and sent to live with relatives at a young age. clinton says she wished she could go back in time and comfort her, her mother. let's watch. >> i dream of going up to her and sitting next to her and taking her in my arms and saying, look, look at me, and listen. you will survive, you will have
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a family of your own, three children, and as hard as it might be to imagine, your daughter will grow up to be a united states senator, represent our country as secretary of state, and win more than 62 million votes for president of the united states. >> that was nice. i have learned along the way somewhere, i guess from my wife. rob reiner, thank you. because i think we men have learned along the way that mothers have a tremendous influence on their daughters and their daughters all their lives want to live up to the expectations of their moms. my wife's like that. i'm sure you know about this. it's so -- it's something we're not even into, the power of the mother and the daughter. anyway, your thoughts about this emotional time. >> and i think it's unfortunate. it's really unfortunate that we don't have our first woman president. because i do believe that women have a greater love of life.
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they cherish life more than men do, in a weird way. they're not as easily as willing to throw it away. and i think it would have been, it would have been very good for this country to have the first woman president. >> you and i don't know what it's like to have a human being come out of us. that's quite an experience, to have a baby. >> that's right. and we also don't know what it's like to have a human being growing inside of us and nurturing a human being. and i think, you know, unfortunately, we've got a situation, you know, where we've got a misogynist, you know, in the white house. we've got a racist who's also anti-semitic. and i know people don't like to, you know, hear those terms -- >> is he really anti-semitic. where'd you pick that up? >> well, yeah -- >> where'd you pick that up? >> yeah, and i'll tell you why. because it doesn't matter whether you are discriminating against a black person or a muslim or a latino, or a jew.
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if you are comfortable with the fact that there are groups who hate muslims, hate jews, hate latinos, hate women -- if you are comfortable with having those groups support you, and you don't in a forceful way, say, this is not part of who i am, then you are basically the jewish police at the warsaw ghetto. you're condoning it. and i've never heard donald trump ever say that he was against any of those groups that are supporting it. >> let's talk about the complexity of that. because in his, i don't want to say the old, some of my best friends are or any of that stuff, but his son-in-law is very observant. he's jewish, and his daughter has converted, you know, looks to be his favorite daughter, perhaps. so that's all happening around him. he's also, you know, i get the feeling that he's going to be very pro-israeli. i don't know if that clicks with you or not, coincides with your thinking about him, but i think he's more complicated than that. he's talking about picking -- some of these guys he's talking about picking -- john bolten? >> i go back to the jewish
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police at the warsaw ghetto. yeah, there are jews that were fine with -- you know, saying, it's going to be okay, you know. march through germany, it's going to be fine. there are people like that and there are people who have economic interests that don't have anything to do with holding up certain moral interests. now, look at what's happened in this country. and you've talked about it. i've heard you talk about it, chris. you have, you know, you had the voting rights act, the civil rights act, the voting rights act, the loving versus virginia in 1967, and things were moving in a very good direction. it was difficult, but it was moving in a good direction. and then you had in the '70s, with all in the family, we shone a light on racism. then you had the '80s and the '90s and stars on television, oprah winfrey, stars in tv and in movies, and culminating with the first african-american president. and at that point, i think, what we didn't understand is that that racism that exists in our
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country, which had been submerged, all of a sudden, through donald trump and giving a megaphone, starting with the birther issue, unearthed all of this racism that has bubbled to the surface. and it's very disturbing to think that the first african-american president is followed by somebody who is supported by the ku klux klan. very, very disturbing. but in a way, i understand it. because we're fighting the last battle of the civil war. it's the white nationalists hanging on for dear life, and threatened by the idea that the country is moving away from them, and is becoming more diverse. and that's what we're talking about here. so, you know, we can't sugar coat this. this is really, really rough stuff. but, we do move forward. and sometimes you take two steps forward, one step back. and it's not a straight line. and this, in a way, i think, has shown america where we are and what racism pervades underneath.
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and hopefully, this will move us forward in the future. >> well, it is a dialectic, i completely agree with you. i've given a speech like that to an african-american newspaper in philly years ago. and i believe it's a war and a war goes on. it goes back to the civil war and the know-nothings. there's always this left versus right. it's not that neat, but it is a battle about values and who we are. rob reiner, i've always considered you an unhyphenated democrat who knows his values. thank you. that's a good thing, by the way. thank you so much. up next -- who reads the newspaper all the time, ahead of me, even, in fact. the power behind the power. we'll talk more about donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, and if bringing him into the white house would violate the nepotism law -- the anti-nepotism -- you can't hire relatives. anyway, watyou're watching "hardball," the place for politics. and power plants account for more than a third of energy-related carbon emissions. the challenge is to capture the emissions
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i'm milissa rehberger. here's what's happening. the associated press is reporting that donald trump has offered longtime supporter lieutenant general michael flynn the position of national security adviser. the nsa job does not require congressional approval. director of national intelligence, james clapper, is stepping down next month. he says submitting his resignation felt pretty good. clapper planned to leave his post at the end of president obama's term. and hundreds of workers at o'hare international airport have voted to strike ahead of the thanksgiving rush. they include baggage handlers and cabin cleaners. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." well, "the new york times" reported this afternoon that donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, has consulted lawyers
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about the prospect of joining his father-in-law's white house. "the times" says mr. kushner, at 35, was often described as a de facto campaign manager. mr. trump has been planning to return to his private businesses after election day, but on the morning mr. trump won, he began discussing a role in the white house. mr. trump is urging him to join, according to one of the people briefed. a strategist shared by steve bannon, and reince priebus, who was named chief of staff. kushner is consulting lawyers, because there's a federal anti-nepotism law. for answers on whether president-elect trump's son-in-law can play a role in the white house, let's start with nbc justice correspondent, pete williams. if there is an anti-nepotism law and it exists, why doesn't it address this character, kushner? jared kushner? >> well, what the law says is a public official can't hire a relative, including a son-in-law, in a federal agency.
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that's the key word. is the white house staff an agency? the answer is, chris, that nobody knows for sure, but the answer is probably not. the courts have said that for other purposes of other laws, the administrative procedures act, the freedom of information act, the white house staff is not an agency. and in the lawsuit that was brought against hillary clinton's position on the clinton task force in the '90s,s that went up to the court of appeals here. it didn't decide that question either. it decided that case on another basis. but it said, the white house staff is probably not an agency. they noted these other decisions. and they said, you know, even if the nepotism law applies, which it probably doesn't, but even if it does, it says, you can't put these people on the payroll. well, a spouse, a relative could work for nothing. so, the legal experts i've talked to from both parties, legal scholars, say the answer is probably, yes, he probably
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could work and it wouldn't violate the nepotism statute because it wouldn't apply. >> who rules on this, pete, and when would you get a ruling? can you get prior review from a court? how does trump know if he's breaking the law? >> you have to ask lawyers in advance. courts don't offer advisory opinions. and there's a question of who would sue? who would have standing to sue. what would have to happen, the president would make an executive decision, somebody who's harmed by that would go to doubter and says, i know this jared kushner guy is advising the president and has no business being there. but you couldn't go into court after he becomes executive assistant and say, i don't like that. >> you are our pan, pete. let's bring in the "hardball" roundtable, ruth marcus, perry bacon is an nbc news political reporter, and michael narski is columnist with the daily beast. what's the most troubling thick right now, of all the dangerous liaisons he's got, a guy with
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old-time southern attitudes about race, really does seem that way. i don't know if it was an active segregationist, but he was there. and he has this general that likes to make money from the russians, the russkis, we used to call them, and then we've got perhaps president obama, who never liked this guy, is being brought in on a sunday to talk about whether he might like a job. what's going on here? >> i do not assume mitt romney or nikki haley are joining the administration. i assume these are trial balloons to be just reach out to other parts of the party. mitt romney really criticized donald trump harsh to the campaign. i would say, in terms of the picks, jared kushner, some amorphous white house job, i'm not sure how important that is compared to steve bannon, running that website and the things he said. if jared kushner was chief of staff or national security adviser, i would feel differently. but i want to focus on steve bannon and chris cobeck, the comments he's made -- >> we'll get to that in a
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minute. >> let me talk about that. do you think there's any chance he'll be like jonah and the whale. all this pressure from people, including the words you just spoke there, is going to be too much? he's going to have to upchuck steve backup. we can't handle this guy. >> i don't think that at all. i think he'll keep bannon, absolutely. >> with all the hatred? >> all the more defiantly for as long as he possibly can. he'll keep bannon for as long as he possibly can. >> he bawants to be known as th change president. >> bannon is the kind of change trump is perfectly fine with. he's going to stick with him as long as he can. and this highlights a big job for the democrats. bannon, kushner, all these guys. if hillary clinton had done similar things as president-elect, the republicans would be all over it. the democrats need to be all over this stuff, from day one. >> let's go back to that question. chuck schumer has a different approach. he says, let's find the areas we can work together. i look at infrastructure,
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republicans usually are too tight-fisted to spend any money on anything. democrats aren't trusted to spend the money. now we might have a weird chance to get something built in this country gagain. what do you think of that? schumer is a smart dealer. >> schumer is a smart dealer and it's smart to find ways to work together when those are ways that are consistent with democratic values, and if you could really create -- >> well, spending money is a democratic value. >> yeah, well -- >> i know that one. >> if you look at the details of trump's infrastructure program, it's not as much spending money as giving developers tax breaks. so take a look at that. but can we -- i need to have my say on jared kushner and why we should care about that one, too. here's the thing. jeff sessions, i think i covered those confirmation hearings. that's some really disturbing stuff. but, he's been a senator for a long time now. his colleagues are not going to be against him. bannon, repulsive, i think is the word that comes to mind. kushner really disturbing. because pete is probably right on the law, but whether or not
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this is technically a problem under the law. the intent of the nepotism law is to keep folks like that from being official advisers. and -- >> why is it any different to have valerie jarrett going around like -- what do you call it -- what do you call it, a come sor, people who have tremendous authority beyond their formal pay grade? >> well, we do have a law that makes it clear that relationship, whether by blood or marriage, to the president, does make a difference, number one. number two, trump has told us that he's going to solve, i have air quotes, his conflict of interest problems by letting his kids run the business. now you have kid, ivanka, running the business, while her husband, who benefits from her wealth and from those things, helping to run the country. that just doesn't work. >> i don't know how that's going to work. that's a can of worms there. even if donald trump doesn't make any phone calls to trump
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organize, he picks up the newspaper, and sees some hotel's been sold in uzbekistan or something and says, who sold that hotel and calls up donald jr. and say -- >> this will be easier, you can say, jared, who sold that hotel. >> this is a can of worms. >> let's not forget one thing about jared, also, no specious, no remote experience -- >> like, who? like the president? >> well, other people had experience in different levels of government. >> i like dr. carson say, i don't know how to run anything, but he was running for president of the united states. i can't do hhs, but can i do president. the roundtable is sticking with us. it shouldn't be funny, but it is. up next, these three will tell me something i don't know and this is "hardball." about your m, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain,
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or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. ♪ well, if you want to sing out, sing out ♪ ♪ and if you want to be free, be free ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to be ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪ and if you want to be me, be me ♪ ♪ and if you want to be you, be you ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to do ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪
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we're back with the "hardball" roundtable.
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ruth, tell me something i don't know. >> well, i didn't know this until i looked it up today, that anti-nepotism law we've been talking about, it was passed in 1967. everybody thinks that the impetus for it was unhappiness with jfk's hiring of bobby kennedy, to be his attorney general. there was no congressional debate on this, at the time. no legislative history. and one of the people who was responsible for the loss said afterwards, it wasn't that at all. it was there were a bunch of members of congress at the time had their wives on the table. >> do you know where the word came from? it was like anti-nephewism. they would have sons, and would call them their nephews zplp you've heard about the trump/obama vote. people switching from trump to obama. but the big switch was you didn't vote at all in 2012 and then you voted for trump. apparently for every one trump/obama voter, there are five people who didn't vote at all in 2012, who then came out of the woodwork to vote for
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donald trump. that's how he got these big margins in these rural counties. >> that's what he said he would do. >> and he did it! >> you talked briefly about -- >> voila! >> yeah. you talked briefly about schumer and infrastructure and these kind of matters. this is a big issue right now in liberal circles. to what exstent are the democrats going to stop and say no, to what extent are they going to be accommodating to trump. i think liberals will end up being kind of disappointed in this welcome and there's one thing to keep an eye out on. 2018 elections, ten democratic senators in red states, what we must now call red states. >> does that encourage them to deal? >> i think deal making on specific things. >> spending democrats, democrats like to spend. >> build it and they will vote. >> huh? >> build it and they will vote. >> that's from the movie. ruth marcus, thank you, perry bacon, and michael tomasky. we'll be right back after this. and at progressive, we let you compare
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sometimes progressive isn't the lowest. not always the lowest! jamie. what are you doing? -i'm being your hype man. not right now. you said i was gonna be the hype man. no, we said we wouldn't do it. i'm sorry, we were talking about savings. i liked his way. cha-ching! talking about getting that moneeeey! talking about getting that moneeeey! savings worth the hype. now that's progressive. well, today we learned that ohio congressman tim ryan, who was here on the show last night, has decided to challenge nancy pelosi, for leadership of the house democrats. ryan comes from the youngstown area of ohio, an area filled with the kind of voters that helped donald trump win that election last week. the vote on the house democratic leadership positions will take place november 30th, coming on, and we'll be right back.
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small business saturday is our day to get out and shop small. a day to support our community and show some love for the people we love. and the places we love. the stuff we can't get anywhere else and food that tastes like home. because the money we spend here can help keep our town growing. on small business saturday, let's shop small for our neighborhood, our town, our home. on november 26th, get up, (all) get together and shop small.
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[burke] hot dog. seen it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ welcome back to "hardball." donald trump was elected to the white house.
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who may come to the country to commit acts of terror, specifically muslims. trump told yahoo! news that he would consider registering muslims in a general database. a month later, he proposed a total ban, and then here's the candidate himself, trump. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states, until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> well, a lot of people wondered how he would implement these proposed changes. according to reuters, one transition team member in the current secretary of state, kris kobach, says that the trump administration in waiting is considering a registry for immigrants from certain muslim countries, based on a 2002 program. and carl higbee, a trump supporter, asked if the plan was constitutional. here's what he said on fox news. >> we've done it with iran, back a while ago. we did it during world war ii with japanese, which, you know,
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call it what you will -- >> come on, you're not proposing that we go back to the days of internment camps, i hope? >> no, no, i'm not proposing that at all, megyn. >> i'm not saying that. >> that's the kind of stuff that gets people scared. >> the president ordered the expulsion of 120,000 people of japanese ancestry. in 1998 under reagan, the u.s. government paid reparations to japanese americans. in 1991, the first george bush offered living survivors a formal letter of apology, as well. for more, i'm joined by carl higbee. let's go to carl on this thing. first of all, i think, let's talk to the substance and then the precedent you talked about. do you think we should go back to keeping a database, keeping figures on who comes in the country from mostly islamic count countries? >> sure, and to the comment
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megyn kelly made, i was shocked when she brought up the camps. i was not alluding to that at all. i was talking about the halting of immigration and we did that in 2002 to 2012. so quite keep america safe, i'm not afraid of people who are outside this nation, what i'd really like to do is keep america safe. there's plenty of pretty good muslims out there. 1.6 billion of them. most want to be peaceful and part of our society. we welcome them with open arms. we want to keep an eye on the people who are coming in because it's very impossible to vet them right now. >> is it fair to use the term "registration" like they used to talk about registering members of the communist party? is this thing you believe is appropriate? registration, not just keeping an eye on people, making them affirmatively register as potential trouble? >> yeah, we use register like it's a bad thing. register your car, most states like connecticut, my own, we have to register our guns and a couple things. if we have to keep tabs on people, yeah, i'm okay with
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that, as long as it keeps america safe. >> dalia, your response that. that's wrong with what he just said if you think so? >> well, what's wrong, when he had this conversation yesterday with megyn kelly, what he said is there's precedent and the precedent we all assumed and i think she assumed correctly, the constitutional precedent is the 1944 case of carmatsu. that case is absolutely constitutional. he's right. it's never been overruled. that case also stands as the blackest mark for civil liberties in american history. antonin scalia, himself, no liberal, held out coramatsu and the dred scott case as the two most shameful in constitutional history. when he says there's precedent for this, there's precedent, that doesn't mean normatively it's something we should do. >> what would you say about mirror mirrors? >> it's something we look at as despicable. >> one is the illusion to the japanese internment, internment. internment.
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it's not internment, that's burying somebody. that is one issue we agree was a bad experience. do you agree with thereat, carl? >> 100%. i was shocked when megyn brought it up. >> that's not the way it was reported. it sounded like you brought it up. >> that's why donald trump won the election, the mainstream media falsely reports a lot of things. >> i'm trying to do my job here. you don't even want to defend that. i agree with you. the united states government really apologized for that and the american people did through the government. so let me go back to dalia on the question, should we keep a database or registration of people coming here, for example, from syria or from anywhere? saudi, iraq, any of those wonderful places. what do you think. >> well, this is the trick. the trick is to get around having a registry that's based on religion. we do it on -- >> no, it's not, it's based on coming from those countries. >> right. with a country of origin. >> what do you say of thoat?
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>> just so happens 24 out of the 25 countries that were on the list of suspect countries happened to be majority muslim countries. so let's be very clear that we are talking about a proxy for keeping muslims under a separate kind of scrutiny. this isn't just a list of other countries. this is a list and north korea that's the 25th, of countries that are majority muslims. so let's call it what it is. >> where's the terrorism coming from, where's terrorism coming from? >> thank you, chris. >> well, i think, chris, we just have to be honest if we're going to have heightened scrutiny for muslims, we're going to have to allow all the other things -- the other thing that's important -- >> i'm just asking you, where's the terrorism coming from, where should we be looking out for terrorists from? >> the terrorism comes from all sorts of places. we have people that are french nationals, we have people all over europe, we have people -- it's not -- >> what are they swearing allegiance to? >> go ahead. i want you to debate this. go ahead, carl. >> what are they swearing allegiance to?
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not swearing allegiance to france but an extreme fraction of islam, that represents a very small portion of the entire religion, but they are nevertheless a muslim problem within the overall benevolent religion of islam. >> let me ask you, carl, about this -- >> if you have a problem -- carl, if you have a problem with people in france who are swe swearing fealty to a muslim entity, your program doesn't screen them out. >> they all came from that area. >> carl, i agree. let me ask you this. how do you avoid making people who are islamic -- that's their religion, their nationality is american. they came here, they were born here, they want it be american. they're americans in most cases. how do you not make them feel like outcasts when you start registering them. >> can't be afraid. we're not fputting you in camps or any of that stuff. any falsehood saying share going to do that is fundamentally false. this is one of those things that's been blown out of proportion. we're talking about people coming into america that want to be part of our society. we want to keep tabs and make sure they're not mart of the bad
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guys we're trying to keep out. >> this will be a debate in the country. thank you, carl higbie and dalia l lithwick. when we return. the saints and the panthers, what do you guys expect tonight? >> i think you're going to see wide open football. both coaches play it like it's a football game. pull out all the stops. >> drew brees threw for 400 yards in the first game. i expect him to flthrow almost 0 yards this game. >> start your weekend now with thursday night football, saints and panthers on nbc and the nfl network.
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visit pge.com/safety together, we're building a better california. trump watch, november 17th, 2016. awaiting the next appointment from trump tower, i've been thinking back on how we got here. to this extraordinary upset in the electoral college. let me start with what happened 16 years ago at the millennium,
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then it was one state in the end seemed to decide it all, florida. we all noted how things would have been simpler if ralph nader wouldn't have campaigned. then al gore would have won florida, won in the electoral college, won the ball game. let's look at the impact of the third-party candidate this time around. look at the states that made the difference this time. florida with its 29 electoral votes, pennsylvania with its 20, michigan with 16, wisconsin with 10. that's 75 electoral votes in all. in every one of these states, the number of people who voted for third-party candidate gary johnson well exceeded the difference between trump and hillary. every one of these states saw clinton losing to trump by far less than the vote that went to johnson. a candidate who had no real chance of winning. i do not know why people vote this way. this clearly is the right, clearly their right. why is it their choice? do they care out their vote, their choice of whom to vote for affects the outcome? if not, then the vote for a third-party candidate makes perfect sense. but if they do care how their choice of whom to vote for
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affects the final outcome, why don't they get serious and simply and courageously vote for the person they intend to be president? it could spare the country from picking a president through unintended connsequences which s not the best way to do it. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> let's no question in my mind, she would win this election without any problem if comey had not been the republican operative that he is. >> those are strong words. >> i believe it. >> a harry reid exclusive on how trump won, the outbreak of post-election hate, and his concerns for democrats going forward. >> if we're going to just be dancing the, whatever you dance with donald trump, we're -- we might as well just have the trump party. plus,