a late-night tweet from trump tonight shows he doesn't get it. he's claiming the press didn't know he had business interests

after the show, one of its stars read a statement to pence written by the show's creator, linwell miranda. here's part of that. >> president-elect pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at hamilton american musical. we really do. we, sir, we are the diverse america who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us. our families, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir, but we truly hope this show hads inspired you to uphold our values and work on behalf of all of us. all of us. >> well, donald trump responded, as you might expect, with a series of angry tweets. quote, our wonderful future vp, mike pence, was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of "hamilton," cameras blazing. this should not happen if cast of "hamilton" was very rude last

night, to a very good man. the cast and producers of "hamilton," which i hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to mike pence for their terrible havior. trump also answered a question about the incident over the weekend. >> mr. trump, are you still upset about "hamilton"? >> they were very inappropriate. >> well, today the actor who read the statement, brandon dixon, told cbs he wouldn't apologize. >> when donald trump tweeted that this was harassment of his vice president-elect, your response was? >> i simply informed them that harassment or rather, conversation is not harassment, you know? and i was really appreciative that vice president-elect pence stood there and listened to what we had to say. >> the president-elect is demanding an apology. >> i heard. >> we assume that no apology is forthcoming? >> there's nothing to apologize for. >> joining me right now, "the

washington post's" robert costa, steven cortez, a trump supporter and foerp adviser, korean colerain rine jean pierre. i thought what the cast had to do was fine by me. i thought they did it very professionally and respectfully. they made a point, about diversity. the booing was low brow. it was the booing of an elite audience that paid 800 bucks to be there. they were dumping on a fellow member of the audience. it was inappropriate behavior, low brow, from beginning to end, but i'm with the cast 100%. how do you split it? >> chris, i have to tell you, i don't know that we can excuse the cast, ever. >> you go for it. >> i think you're exactly right that 99% of americans, by the way, could never afford to be there in the first place. and both audience and cast, i

think, live in a cultural bubble of new york city. and yet talk condescendlying to the vice president, who was just elected by a country that they don't understand, frankly, very well. and they don't understand the economic angst that exists out there in america, which i think was the primary impetus behind this revolutioat the ballot box. >> you don't consider that cast elite, do you? a lot of those people would have a hard time. let me tell you about showbiz, my kids are in it. being able to afford an $800 ticket is what those kids normally does. they can't afford to get in there. they're working their butt off. >> but that doesn't mean they're not in a cultural bubble of new york city. i think that is important here. >> well, it's not elite. >> whether you're in a bubble or elite or not, if you hold the rostrum. imagine going to church on sunday, going to church yesterday, and having the preacher or the priest call you out, and you have noed y -- you know, he said that was a conversation, the actor. that's not a conversation. that's one-way. that's dictation. that is me calling you out and you have no ability to

effectively respond. >> i thought mike pence was a genius, the way he handled it. your thoughts? >> look, i think that free speech, it should be everywhere, right? it applies everywhere. whether it's on twitter, to broad kay, to the streets, to the white house. and donald trump lecturing anyone on bullying is just a joke. and so what's happening here is that he's using this as a classic misdirection. it's a diversion to talk about the real issues happening right now with his transition campaign. and also, him going to twitter, he uses twitter like a jedi mind trick, right? it's like, here's a shiny object. i'm going to distract you, i'm going to manipulate the media, so we're not talking about what's happening, actually, which is, the conflict with his business, when it comes to his administration. >> your thoughts on this, robert? you've covered this guy for a year at least, now. is trump just using this as a shield, this culture war?

to shield the fact he had to pay a lot of money in the trump u. case, or is he the kind of guy who thinks there's a real culture war and benefits from it. i think he's as canny as a fox. he wants this fight because he knows the new york elite at that theater are not america and he can take them on. your thoughts? >> as a public figure, he's always been more comfortable coming through things as political theater, as an actor, in a sense. embracing confrontation and the fight. he's of the culture more than he is of any political ideology and this is his natural mode. >> what do you make of the fact the audience booing mike pence. no one asked them to do it. they did it, free speech, they had the right to do it. no doubt about that. the cast members knew what they were doing and they were professional. lin manuel wrote the scrip for that admonition. his only opportunity to play this card was how to react. tell me how it fits into his

mode of reaction? was it a cover-up of his trump u. giveaway, where he had to pay the money. he lost. he lost that case. he had to pay. or is it something else? >> trump's sitting there in trump tower tonight, and he's got steve bannon at his side, son-in-law jared kushner, but it's the bannon relationship that's key. you look at breitbart and how they engage with political theater and how they go after their opponents. this is something that trump is not walking away from. he has -- he wants to be full i immersed, not just on the policy, but in the culture. not in the traditional pat buchanan culture sense. this is someone who wants to use the divisiveness in the culture to his advantage. >> here's what mike pence said yesterday on fox. >> my daughter and i and her cousins really enjoyed the show. "hamilton" is just an incredible production.

when we arrived, we heard a few boos and we heard some cheers. and i nudged my kids and reminded them, that's what freedom sounds like. and -- but at the end, i did hear what was said from the stage, and i can tell you, i wasn't offended by what was said. i'll leave to others whether that was the appropriate venue to say it. >> do you think, carrine, this is all a setup to get him to be president. that's what a president would say. i brought my daughter and her cousins, and it was a cross cultural thing for a conservative from the midwest. he did walk in, not enemy territory, but different territory for him. he was trying to reach out culturally to see something he had heard about. it wasn't conservative culture, it was new culture. >> i agree, it was new culture. and i think to say that the staff or the performers of "hamilton" are elitist, you have to get to know who they are and

read their bio, and you wouldn't -- that's not what you would get from that. but i think, chris, the thick is, if you look at what happened last week, we learned so many -- there was so much conflict of interest. there was the meeting that ivanka trump sat in with the japanese prime minister. you know, while they are doing, you know, trump does business in japan. there was -- we learned that during the campaign, whale he was hammering at hillary clinton about her foundation in saudi arabia, he was actually doing business in saudi arabia, too. so there was so much that happened in just one week. imagine what the four years of a trump administration -- >> what he accused the clintons of doing. >> that's exactly right. >> i'm sorry, steve, you wanted to say something? then we'll go to "saturday night live"? >> i think there's a double standard that americans see. and it would be this. it's a hypothetical. if this same scene had unfolded in 2008 with then president-elect obama, do you

believe in all honesty that this cast, would they have lectured him, at the time, he was vehemently against same-sex marriage, would they have lectured him in the same manner they lectured mr. pence? i don't believe so. and i think that's evidence of a double standard and i think it's part of the reason why we won this election. >> let's look at this, "saturday night live," who no one would accuse of being conservative, also got under donald trump's skin this weekend. here was part of their opening sketch with alec baldwin as trump. >> we've been stuck fighting isis in jabat, al nusra, for six years now. so when we found out you had a secret plan, it really energized us. >> that's right. a plan. very secret. >> well, whatever it is, we're really looking forward to hearing it come january. it's only seven weeks away, so, let's save some lives together, sir. >> tremendous. love it.

thank you. >> okay, right. here we go. here we go. big plan. big plan. google "what is isis." >> well, trump tweeted yesterday, i watched parts of "saturday night live" last night, it is a totally one-sided bias show, nothing funny at all. equal time for us. well, it is funny, i'll give them that. let me go back to steve on this. i want to go to costa. robert, my friend, is this the beginning? i get the feeling we're all in the middle of a reality show. all of these candidates trooping forward, doing their jumps and elephant hand stands, whatever he's asked to do, including mitt romney, they're all pretending they like him and dying to get jobs. he could do this right through christmas? this is a hell of a show. he'll bring every republican wannabe in to see him. >> we're seeing a show, but

let's look at at really happening politically. you have a president-elect who hasn't had a news conference, he brings in all the network executives today, is dismissive of the press coverage of the campaign, he's sitting there make all these cabinet picks, he's having a highly orchestrated video come out about his first 100 days. at the same time, he's got all this cultural distraction. "snl," fighting with hamilton. this is how trump operates. distract, make it about the culture, but at the same time, he's not talking to the press and making all these conservative policy plans. >> i think he knows what he's doing. i think his part of the country might be a little bit bigger than the "saturday night live" audience, but we'll see. he's duking it out with these people and it's always, you talking to me? he wants to fight. robert costa, thank you. thank you all. tomorrow on "hardball," i just got the word that trump's campaign manager kellyanne conway is going to be here on "hardball."

and white nationalists converged on washington jubilant in their victory. alt-right, he did it, to describe his ideology. according to "the new york times," quote, spencer railed against jews and with a smile quoted nazi germany. he said america belonged to white people who he called the children of the sun, a race of conk congers. reporters at the atlantic

captured the reaction at the close of spencer's speech. >> hail trump, hail our people, hail victory! >> well, you saw those arms up there, the nazi style. a former reality tv star tila tequila tweeted a picture of herself in the nazi salute. ryan lanza of the trump transition team also released this statement. president-elect trump has continued to denounce racism of any kind and he was elected because he will be a leader for every american. to think otherwise is a complete

misrepresentation of the movement that united americans from all backgrounds. let's start with richard. we trust your organization. this big meeting over the weekend is the kind of thing that i think deserves note from everybody. and it shouldn't just go by with the people who did the nazi salute. everyone should know what's going on. what is this group up to? this national policy institute, with what looks like a white national crusade going on within our borders? >> that's exactly right, chris. and it's a scary development and trump and bannon have given them a new platform. you know, these groups used to exist on the fringe of society, you know, breitbart has given them a platform for their ideas. and trump has been their champion, ever since he came down that escalator at trump tower and called mexicans rapists.

so they see a kindred soul in trump. they see a champion in breitbart and bannon and they're feeling their oats. >> what do they want? if you would go to a police station and report a crime they did, what is their motive in life? what excites them about trump >> richard spencer is very clear. he wants an ethno-nationalist state. he wants a white america. he believes in peaceful ethnic cleansing. he wants a state that's built on very different principles than the declaration of independence. those are his words. >> how do you get people who are african-american, jewish, whatever, leave peacefully from this white world he's created? why would anybody leave their own country? >> i don't think that they would. and i think that that's one of the dangers here. you know, we're seeing, you

know, around the country now, a lot of trump people not just talking or a lot of people in trump's camp, but also lots of racial incidents. you know, we've tracked almost 900 at this point. i think it's a very disturbing thing that we're seeing. >> give us a thought from your >> no, but it brands itself as a white nationalist think tank headed by richard b. spencer, who has become one of the leaders of the white nationalist alt-right in this country, which is a fancy, dressed up term for white supremacist. these leaders include jared taylor and -- >> what do they call for in politics? what do they want as first steps? >> much like the other guest was saying were, their ideal vision for america would be transforming it into an ethno-white only state. >> that's not working out, too well, is it? >> no. >> what are they doing to change the direction of the country?

>> the thing they like about what presidential candidate and now president-elect trump has said he would do as president is muslim ban, kicking out the immigrants, mexicans are rapists. political correctness is bad. these are things that support his white nationalist supporters and why they've been drawn to him for over a year. >> tell me about your view of bannon.

2016. picking a cabinet. we see the contestants parade before us. one at a time they present themselves at trump tower or at his golf course in jersey. trump has got their number that have killed him. they had their chance now they just want a job from him, some prestige to win the presidency

themselves, their second failure to keep it from here. what does america think of these guys marching and parading who now gets to say you're hired. is rudy giuliani losing out to mitt romney? is giuliani up for national intelligence or is this all to keep it exciting, to give it a little drama, like the apprentice. winner when they landed and tell the loser to get lost. not even johnson could get away with this kind of ego trip. trump is making a an ever growing to show how much they won his approval. have you noticed how the more the list of possible candidates grows?

every day they encourage him to add to the list to keep it going, this new reality show of his. we are a country absorbed by the ring master the acts, making the elephants climb up on their hind legs. you can't make this stuff up, folks. that's it for "hardball." join me tomorrow night. see you then. my hygienist said the most random thing. she said i should think of my teeth like an apple. it could be great on the outside not so great on the inside.

her advice? use a toothpaste and mouthwash that strengthens both. go pro with crest pro-health advanced. it's uniquely formulated with activestrength technology to strengthen teeth inside and is better at strengthening the outside than colgate total. crest toothpaste and mouthwash makes my whole mouth feel amazing. advance to healthier gums and stronger teeth from day one. my check-up was great.

>> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. over the next 72 hours, there's been a constant stream of people meeting with trump at his jersey golf resort and at trump tower in manhattan.