good morning. welcome to "am joy." shortly update the public on the ft. lauderdale shooting that left five people dead and eight injured. we'll bring you the latest news when we have it. first, donald trump has repeatedly challenged any idea that russia hacked the democrats in order to help him win the election. cast dispersions on the u.s.

intelligence community in the process. but on friday he met the men who run america's intelligence agencies face-to-face for a briefing on the hacking of the dnc. the intel chiefs believe that russian president vladimir putin ordered the cyberespionage operation because he wanted to do two things. undermine hillary clinton whether that meant preventing her from winning or if possible help donald trump win the white house. those conclusions were made clear in a newly declassified report released on friday. again, russia's goals were to undermine faith in the democratic process and to denigrate hillary clinton to harm her chances of winning or harm her potential presidency. all of which just happened to benefit donald trump. after the briefing, trump gave no indication that at long last he accepts those conclusions. while russ, ina and outside groups are constantly trying to break through the cyberinfrastructure of our businesses and organizations,

including the democrat national committee. there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election. and it's democratic national committee. joining me now malcolm nance, author of "the plot to hack america" former intelligence operative and david corn, washington bureau chief and journalist sarah. thank you all for being here. let's just get to donald trump's refusal to be able to accept, malcolm, the conclusions of the intelligence community even when the head of the intelligence agencies are sitting in front of him telling him this happened. why in your view will he not just accept it? >> i think because when donald trump made his statement on july 27th of last year where he asked for russia to hack hillary clinton and release her e-mails, at that point he went from being an unwitting useful to russia to actually believing that they were working in his, in his

favor. and to admit that now in the face of all the evidence, he would believe that this would delegitimize his presidency. he will fight to the end to not allow this to become a narrative. i suspect in two weeks he's going to attempt to cover this all up and even gut the intelligence community. where he is going is he is pushing this nation to a constitutional crisis of unprecedented magnitude before no one worked in a hostile nation and supporting, to a certain extent, a hostile intelligence service. >> sarah, you have written a lot about and talked a lot about this. just weird affinity between donald trump and vladimir putin and weird symmetry in the way that they talk. one of the things that jumped out to me was this idea that one reason vladimir putin hates hillary clinton so much and wanted revenge against her was for his belief that she, as secretary of state, undermined

the credibility of his election when he was elected again to be the president of russia. and that he felt that she'd undermined the legitimacy of that win. fast forward to friday. this is before he had the intelligence meeting. donald trump said the focus on russian hacking is a political witchh witchhunt and still trying to characterize it as an attempt to delegitimize him. does it strike you, as it does me, that is very similar to the way that vladimir putin approached the reaction to his election? >> yeah, it's similar in numerous respects. of course, putin likes to emphasize what's going on in other countries in order to divert public attention in russia from problems that they're having there. in terms of hillary clinton's role, i think it's not just revenge on putin's part, but pragimatism. because had hillary clinton won the election, you know, she would have definitely kept the sanctions. i think that, you know, she would have gone through with this investigation.

but i also want to emphasize that this investigation into russian interference into the election is still a nonpartisan issue and had hillary clinton won the election, we would still be discussing this. it's not a matter of having this investigation to,ouknow, degitimize trump's win or anything like that. it's a matter of national security. and that's why i think it's very important that we establish that. this is a threat to american safety. as malcolm just sedan unprecedented crisis that is, indeed, a constitutional crisis. that's what i think we should keep foremost in mind as we move forward. >> everyone seems to agree with that, sarah, except donald trump. one of the aspects of this that i think a lot of people don't focus as much on is the julian assan assange factor in all of this. the exchange between john mccain and the national intelligence director james clapper and this is at that hearing on thursday. take a listen. >> the name mr. assange has

popped up and i believe that he is the one who is responsible for publishing names of individuals that work for us that put their lives in direct danger. is that correct? >> yes, he has. >> and do you think that there's any credibility we should attach to this individual given his record of -- >> not in my view. >> so, naved, you have julian assange going before that and doing an interview with very solicited sean hannity saying, no, no, no, the russians are sourced and then you have trump with the following two tweets. this is one from wednesday and one on thursday. julian assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked podesta. why was dnc so careless? echoing what he said to sean hannity. we go to another one trump tweeting on thursday. the dishonest media like saying i'm in disagreement with julian assange. i state what he states, it's up

for the people to make up their own minds. putting intelligence in quotes when, in fact, i'm a big fan. what do you make o all of that? >> well, you know, joy, i mean, look, whenever i come on this show there is a preparation from doing talking points. i think many americans don't understand that when it comes to journalism, whether it's main stream media or not, there is ethical standards. the concept of the public good. it bothers me greatly to see someone like julian assange be extended that same sort of protection and concept that he's a journalist. i mean, clearly, we have the dni. the intelligence community coming out here and saying, look, there is a link. i was hoping they would name that person. but nonetheless there is a part in there about speaking to that, julian assange. very clear evidence that the russians were passing information to wikileaks. i would suspect that julian

assange was aware of where that information was coming from. given the protection and treated as a journalist. we have to come up with this concept that journalism and freedom of speech, someone like wikileaks and someone who can take stolen information and essentially use it against us, not for the public good, but in essence to undermine our election and democracy. this is not okay. you know, you know, someone who worked undercover and i have to say i am glad that my time stopped in 2009 because from snowden on forward i think that my life would have been at risk. i very much worry for those operatives today who have to go out there with the trust that their name, their identity is protected when we have people like assange and people like snowden who are glamourized, frankly, out there. it bothers me immensely, joy. >> david, i think that's an important point. none of this would have proceeded in the same way, let's just say, if it hadn't been for wikileaks being inconduit.

wikileaks enabled the russian to get this information to a certain place. that is to the left. because of the edward snowden situation, the left had been essentially groomed to accept wikileaks as the unvarnished truth in the same way that some on the right accept other sort of nonnews sources as the unvarnished truth. it didn't go through the filter of the main stream media. it had already been set up with the snowden situation, et cetera, to trust wikileaks. are we not paying enough attention to the fact that this nongovernmental actor julian assange who is holed up in an embassy somewhere to manipulate the election as much as the russians were? >> i think wikileaks is really interesting, but i don't think it's critical. we saw a website called dc leaks. we saw a hacker probably more a collective of russian hackers as malcolm has written about passing information to journalists right, left and

middle. and the russians the kgb in the old days used to get information and feed it out through, you know, various media outlets throughout europe. i believe however the russians, you know, got the information, they would have been able to disseminate it. wikileaks ended up being very convenient because it was already established and created this sort of whistleblowing culture if it's coming from russian intelligence. one point i'd like to make, too. is that donald trump, again, is out tweeting this morning. in complete denial and he keeps on saying that these, you know, that the russian meddling, which he doesn't really acknowledge. that the e-mails that came out, the hacks had nothing and no impact on the election. yet, youknow, you could run the tape here at msnbc. again and again and again during the campaign he kept citing the wikileaks leaks which came from russia as proof that hillary clinton was a criminal and was

corrupt and david had a great piece in the atlantic a couple days ago showing how trump was actually, you know, exaggerating. he was taking this material coming out and hyping it and making it sound much worse than it was. he used this material day in/day out as political ammunition against hillary clinton and he said, i love wikileaks. i love these leaks. he called on russia to hack more and now he said it had no effect. he can't have it both ways except he can because that's how he operates. >> sarah, that is an important point. much more effective what wikileaks did and what the russian did in this report. the d.c. leaks is a creation of russian intelligence. they controlled in a lot of ways the outlets they used to get it out and they also had a guy named donald trump that was selling this stuff on stage. selling it at his rallies. he was the chief marketer of the information that wikileaks was putting out. >> absolutely. >> sarah?

>> that's right. i think one other thing that needs to be mentioned is that trump does not stand alone. trump has a team. trump's team has been heavily involved with russia and fairly questionable ways. you could look at people like manafort and flynn and manafort could be national security adviser and ask about their connection to putin. this is not a matter of trump as an individual. this is a matter of trump as a team of his connections and his financial connections and financial benefits that he and others on that team may have made. that together with this propaganda apparatus is what this interference is about. i hope that in the next two weeks especially, you know, our hearings and our government officials are more forth right about what in what capacity did these advisors serve and what kind of connections they have. as we know, manafort was under fbi investigation for his connection to russia.

that's a fairly significant thing. i hope we hear more about that in the days to come. >> carter page who was responsible for changing that plank in the rnc platform and roger stone who bragged openly about having direct connections to julian assange and that he had these previews of what wikileaks was going to bring out. it's worth asking if anyone was aware. very interesting questions. malcolm, naveed and david will be back. sarah, thank you very much. coming up, trump's oil drilling big money nominee for secretary of state. stay with us. ♪

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>> could senator rex tillerson, donald trump's nominee for secretary of state. if he does not agree with your assessment and if he does not see what you and others see with regard to russia, does he have your vote? >> he'll have a harime getting my vote because it's clear. concerns over russia's interference in the u.s. election still have no small role in next week's confirmation hearing for rex tillerson to be trump's secretary of state. close ties with the russian government and exxon mobil ceo he struck a $207 million deal with russian-state own oil company. tillerson's confirmation hearing is scheduled to start on wednesday. joining me now is a top democrat on the committee that will hold those hearings. senator carden, thank you so much for being here. >> good to be with you, thank you. >> thank you. let's get right into the questions that you plan to ask rex tillerson. what do you think is the most important thing that the american people should want to

know? >> well, i think his relationship with russia as the ceo of exxon mobil and in the role of secretary of state whether he'll represent america's interest. the sanctions are a regime was very important on our response to what russia did in evading ukraine. we have legislation. i will be leading next week that will strengthen those sanctions. as we know mr. tillerson was not excited about the first round of sanctions. how will he view what russia did to the united states? that is, the cyberattack on our election system clearly has been now confirmed. how will mr. tillerson respond to additional sanctions that congress would like to see him pose against russia. >> if he does not agree, if he echoes donald trump, his soon to be boss. would-be boss in saying that he is either vague or not sure he accepts the conclusions of the intelligence community regarding russia, will you vote for him? >> well, quite frankly, there is no disagreement. russia attacked us.

there's no question about it. they tried to influence our election. that is not subject, i think, to debate. the facts are pretty clear. what do we do about it? how do we protect our selves and what actions do we take against russia? yes, very important to hear mr. tillerson's assessment of what russia has done and how he intends to defend america against that type of cyberwar fare. >> to be clear, if he does not accept those conclusions and if he gets in front of you, gets in front of your senate committee and he's not sure russia did it and he starts to sound like donald trump, will he lose your vote? >> well, he'll lose a lot of credibility if that's what he says. i am going to withhold judgment on how i'm going to vote on his confirmation until we get through the entire confirmation process. i will not have the litmus test of one particular question or answer. i will tell you, extremely concerning to me if he doesn't recognize the seriousness of what russia did to the united states. particularly recognizing his

previous responsibilities and his friendship in russia. so, that would raise very, very serious questions. >> very quickly. there is a move among some members of congress to force the movement of the united states embassy in israel to jerusalem. will you ask rex tillerson about that and what would you hope to hear in response? >> well, congress has gone on record that the capital of israel is jerusalem. we recognize that's the capital. whether we should physically move embassies deals with a lot of diplomatic issues, including conversations with israel and our arab strategic partners in that region. so, that's a matter that really needs to be dealt with in a diplomatic matter. and i think he may be asked how he would go about sizing up and recommending to the president whether we should, in fact, move our embassy. >> last question. donald trump tweeted on friday his favorite communication that he is asking the chairs of house and senate communications top

intelligence shared with our nbc prior to him seeing it. it sent a bit of a chill i think through most folks who think the intelligence community should not be intimidated by an incoming, would you support such an investigation? >> look, no. we have a very serious attack by russia against the united states. let's not try to distract from the seriousness of what happened. we know that they tried to influence our election. that is now been established. what do we do to protect ourselves moving forward? this could be used against the trump administration. it could be used to influence future elections. it could be used to implant false information about a world leader our general or a business leader in an effort to compromise that individual's effectiveness. this is a very serious challenge against the national security interests of the united states. we've got to protect ourselves and take action against russia.

we hope president trump will lead that charge. but i can tell you those of us in congress that have a role here, we're going to be extremely active and do everything we can and we will be raising these issues during the confirmation hearings. >> we'll leave it there. senator ben cardin, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> the senator with other members of maryland's delegation will be questioning rex tillerson. oh, also, he will be -- i'm sorry. i have to tell what you're going to be doing. you will be at the university of maryland medical center to address concerns on aca. we will be following up with you on that. back with me now are malcolm, nance and naveed. you gentlemen had a chance to listen to senator cardin. well, i'll just get your take on it. naveed, let's start with you. do you think the democrats have taken hard enough line on whether or not they're going to require rex tillerson to definitively accept the findings of our intelligence community before they agree to vote for him.

>> it's hard to say. i know mr. tillerson is at least agreed to put his assets in a blind trust, which i assume is perhaps a good first step. but, you know, again, i have to go back with the congressman. are we going to require litmus tests? i think it's definitely a question that has to be asked and very concerning that he has connections, financial connections through exxon to russia. i don't know exactly how we can ascertain who has worked essentially their entire adult life in the corporate world for exxon can truly be independent of that and act in the country's best interest. that is going to be a tough one to determine, i would say. >> malcolm, an article kathleen parker did if obama is a muslim is trump a russian spy? a lot of people entertained the possibility that somehow barack obama was sneaked into the country having been a secret kenyan muslim and was illegally

the president of the united states. but you don't seem to have very many people willing to ask some very basic questions on why donald trump has this great affinity for russia. when it comes to rex tillerson, do you expect democrats to be more skeptical than they have been about donald trump's own affinities? >> first off and foremost, donald trump's asseritations about the president of the united states being a kenyan muslim terrorist who secretly sneaked into the united states 50 years ago has no basis of fact. there's no evidence. rex tillerson has a paper trail a mile long. it is incumbent upon the congressional hearings to determine whether his personal interests will benefit an agent, will benefit a foreign power. does that foreign power have the ability to influence him through his financial holdings. even if he devests himself, the question out there is going to be, will they be able to manipulate invisible strings on

him as secretary of state. will he act as a patriot for america first without any question or will he pull his punches when dealing with an adversary of this nation? there is a litmus test for rex tillerson. his confirmation hearing. he will as a person who has a recipient of a top secret sci secret security clearance. if congress doesn't hold them to that, then it's like someone recently said. the constitution is just a piece of paper. if you don't enforce its laws. >> the democrats are in a position here to do some strict oversight. let's see if they can stand up to it. there's an interesting quote from john mccain talking about tillerson. quotes him whether or not he would support tillerson's nomination. sure, a realistic scenario that pigs fly. that's very interesting. john mccain is good for the quotes. nave naveed, one other person up for nomination. mike pompeiio he is saying ben

gaunzy is worse than watergate. does that give you confidence that he will be a good cia director? >> i have to agree with malcolm on this. these people are just so had uninspiring. i don't know what else to say. the one thing that i can say that has come out in the last day that hasn't gotten much coverage that the outgoing president has at least said our election stem is critical infrastructure. i hope that the president continues to see that through. look, mike pompeiio, i think that you're going to have very clearly a restructuring of the intelligence community. look, part of that may be good, but the other part that we want to return to is this concept of the cia being america's, you know, major intelligence agency. and i'm concerned that he is going to especially become someone that has an abundance of power over the intelligence

community. look, we're coming into a brand-new president who has been very vocal about not trusting the intelligence community and looks at it as being partisan. look, i've said this numerous shows on the other show, joy. the job of intelligence is not to determine policy. it's to analyze information and to present it to decisionmaker. it's difficult. we need people in there who are going to represent america's interest, but also be able to communicate to the incoming president and represent that intelligence. and i'm concerned that, you know, we haven't seen those people come forward yet. >> very quickly, last word to you, malcolm. does it concern you that one of the people who would be involved in that restructuring is a guy who got washed out of dni mike flynn who will not be subject to confirmation hearings? >> well, yeah. it's very concerning. it should be concerning for everybody in the intelligence community. mike flynn was essentially relieved of command. he was forced out of his

position. that is a disgrace for anybody. ever since then he has been retweeting neonazi propaganda and written a book which aspoa y rare world view that includes north korea and venezuela. it's going to become very concerning and he is going to attempt to push back and do vendettas against the people that put him out of the intelligence community and they're going to push back very hard. let's touch on mike very quickly. when he becomes director of central intelligence if he thinks benghazi is the worst thing that ever happened in the history of america, they're going to drop those files on his desk. the cia officers who were in benghazi that day acted with courage and to the best of their ability. and fo people were killed. but the moment they take office, they're responsible for the security of this nation. and if americans die on their watch, they are the ones who are

going to be held responsible. you can't blame it on barack obama and hillary clinton. the game is going into their court and they're going to have to play it. >> we will definitely be very happy that we have malcolm and naveed around to help us analyze it. thank you we appreciate you being here. >> thanks, joy. we are keeping an eye on an upcoming press conference in florida. later, trump and the mob. stay with us. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even mer-mutts.

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we are waiting an update from federal local officials on the shooting in ft. lauderdale that left five people dead. many questions remain on why this happened. aman joins us with the latest. >> let me start off with the scene behind me. not too far away from where i'm standing that we're expecting the news conference from law enforcement officials as well as the broward county sheriff office. in terms of the operations the airport resuming operations by the end of the day. we expect full airport

operations to resume and that is a very important development here for folks here. we heard that from the governor rick scott who briefed reporters on this ongoing investigation. the bottom line yet and this is the question on everyone's mind esteban santiago the man allegedly behind this shooting and everybody wants to know what his motivation is. that's what the focus of this investigation is about right now. they are trying to piece together not just the short-term background, but in terms of the long-term background. his mental health. they're trying to interview family and his girlfriend in anchorage where he was living before he made the journey to ft. lauderdale. they're going to go through his e-mails whether this was a mental health issue or a terrorism-related attack or whether there was a fusion of both at some point. we do know from the initial investigation that law enforcement officials have told nbc that he had reported to an fbi agent that he was under some

kind of mind control by the central intelligence agency forcing him to watch isis videos and ultimately concluded he was not at risk or was not a risk to society. so, the case, as we understand it, was ultimately closed. another part of this, obviously, is going to be the victims and how they recover. we know there are eight people who remain in the hospital. victims of this shooting. still undergoing life-saving surgery according to governor rick scott. joy? >> thank you very much. and coming up, donald trump's new year's eve bash. the tale of joey no socks. straight ahead.

>> i'm not saying the mob doesn't exist, but they want to keep it low. they really want to keep it low. the last thing they want to do is meet with donald trump and have 500 paparazzi taking pictures. >> that was donald trump in 1999 and this is trump today.

video obtained and published by "the palm beach daily news" shows trump ringing in the new year with a convicted felon with suspected mob ties who goes by the name joey no socks. his attorney told buzz feed news that he has never been a friend of john gotti nor has he ever had a relationship with "the mob." back in 1995 an assistant district attorney who was prosecuting him for art theft told "new york magazine" that an informant talking him to gotti during a chance encounter in court. the informant overheard gotti telling him he would take care of the da. his past came back to haunt him and donald trump because of questions of mob ties from trump's own past. mother jones david corn recounted the history of trump's connections to organized crime. when asked about his links to the mob, trump has repeatedly made false comments and

contradicted himself. he has flat out lied about these relationships even when he was under oath. senior adviser for the democratic coalition against trump. you may know him from trump leaks all over your twitter feed. david, i'm going to go to you first because we have your reporting in that intro. trump's ties to people. we'll put up a few of them. kenneth shapiro and sullivan who leased prompt to trump in atlantic city. you got a guy named robert who is a high roller at trump casinos and also apparently mob connected and paul castellano who supplied the concrete, not the steel from steel country. are these ties incidental? are these people he did business with and knew socially? what is the connection, david? >> most of those that you put up are people who he did do business with. and, you know, some people say

eonstruction work in new york city in the '80s had to do business in atlantic city in the '90s had to do business with the mob because mobbed up territories. but what's really important here is that donald trump again and again and again has lied or not told the truth about his connections with these people and the best example i've put in that story that you promoed there is that he was deposed in 2007 in a case in which he was suing a "new york times" reporter about a book he had written and he was asked in that deposition, have you ever had any associations with mob people? and he said, under oath, no. not at all. i haven't. two years earlier in an interview to the same reporter he was asked about his early dealings in atlantic city and the two people you mentioned showed up there who he leased

his initial property for, his first casino there. and in that interview he referred to both of them as mob guys. one was a small-time mobster and the other guy might have been involved in the plot to kill jimmy hoffa. so, you have this direct contradiction when he tells people he knows he's working with mob guys. but then when it comes up under oath, he says no. >> hold on,guys, ott, i want to get you guys in in a second. we have to go to this press just for a second. ft. lauderdale, florida, where officials are providing details on the airport shooting that left five people dead. let's take a listen. >> we are in the process of notifying their family members and loved ones. we have concluded the interview of the suspect. the suspect remains in custody and is currently held at the broward county jail on federal charges. we are working very, very closely with the u.s. attorney's office and this afternoon the

united states attorney office will issue a press release in regards to the charges that the suspect will be facing. we are conducting interviews and investigative leads and numerous locations. not only here in south florida, but really throughout several other locations in the united states. we've conducted roughly 175 witness interviews. we've recovered video, physical evidence and we continue to pursue every investigative lead. we have not ruled out anything. we continue to look at all avenues and all motives for this horrific attack. and at this point, we are continuing to look at the terrorism angle in regards to the potential motivation behind this attack. at this point, i'd like to introduce the director of the airport. >> thank you, george. morning, everybody.

my name is mark gale and i'm the airport director for the ft. lauder hollywood airport. once again, i want to start by expressing our condolences and sympathies to those who lost their lives here in the horrific event yesterday. >> that is the airport director that's talking now. before you heard from the fbi updating on their progress in investigating the shooting in ft. lauderdale. let's go back to the subject at hand. i want to get scott. you have written a lot in trump leaks about late '80s to early '9 os when he was having a lot of financial trouble. ms like a lot of the russia ties and a lot of this sort of mob activity dovetails in that same period. have you been able to make any connections between his financial problems and some of these nefarious characters he was around? >> thank you, joy. one of the key things to note is that his father was tie would the mob. and during a senate testimony at an nha hearing he admitted that there was 25% ownership of one

of his companies by the mob. donald trump in regards to the concrete we found out he was willing to pay more for that concrete just to make sure that the unions stayed what he said "stable "was the word. so, i think he accepts the fact that the mob exists. whether or not he has direct business dealings with them is not a question. it's very clear that he has. he has long-standing ties since he was born with the mob. so this goes back decades. it's not something that has just popped up overnight. this also extends, obviously, as you saw, that's a russian affiluted person with the mob. i think it's worldwide, and not just here to keep an eye on. he has extensive ties with the mob and a lot of his funding has come through the mob and a lot of his work associates have been directly with the mob or in the mob itself. >> david, it does beg the question why this was not

highlighted more artfully or more vigorously by the clinton side during the campaign or even by other republicans during the primary. it does seem like donald trump's history, which is easily findable. a lot of this stuff is in, you know, stories that are still online that you can look up right now. i wonder why none of this has come up more. do you think at this point with him now about to assume the presidency, is there anywhere that this goes if we find out that he has connections, for instance, to russian mobster. an operation out of trump tower. where does this go now that we have this info? >> that is a good question. you can ask tha of 12 different or maybe more subjects about donald trump and his past. i think there was a lot of good reporting done on some of thiz pa past ties and business dealings before the election. but they weren't -- these subjects were not given sort of the e-mail serve, you know,

approach or treatment. they didn't seem to dominate or play much of a role during in the campaign. i do think, you know, the fact that he just continually lied about this matter and told false statements. you played him telling tim russert in 1999 when he was considering a run for president under the reform party ticket denying any associations with the mob. you know, months earlier that same year he had practically bragged to an ap reporter for an interview on another subject saying, yeah, i had to deal with the union. i had to deal with the mob. and, you know, as if he's a tough guy. so, he clearly has this long record of insisteconsistent statements on this and just part of the trump history now and if i were working for the fbi or the justice department, i might and working on organized crime activities or certainly anything involving the russian mob given the other issues out there, i'd

be a little concerned. >> little concerned, especially since your new boss, you know, who comey helped to put in office will not look kindly on any investigations like that. scott, on the question of why this matters now. do you have a concern that some of these connections that donald trump built up over the years whether it's the russian connections or these mob connections could end up radiating into his presidency and into policy areas where the average american ought to be concerned? >> you know, i think that people need to know that what's a lie and what's not. and that's why trump leaks exists in the first place. we're american run. we get all of our documents obtained legally and everything's posted publicly on twitter. i think exposing his scandals will make it clear that we can focus on the policy. and the garbage that they're going to try to pour out because a lot of these things will be distractions. we cannot afford to have these

distractions. we need to focus on the policies at hand. so, as long as we can get these out of the way, i think that he's going to be under watch and these not going to be able to do as much. but if we want to talk about a mobster, i think donald trump is one of the biggest mobster. his business practices are that of the mob. he met with the fbi before he built the casinos in atlantic city and he said, i don't want to tarnish my family's good name. i don't want to do anything involving my family's name. and he definitely has no interest in telling the truth about this matter. that's the bottom line here. >> he is definitely reflective because you look at him and you look at him, very similar. >> billionaires that are coming and taking over the country here. so, what are we turning into? >> we are glad that david and scott are here to watch it all unfold and investigate it so we can have you back on the air to

talk about it. thank you very much. >> appreciate it. we have been lisening to sae latest briefing. that briefing continues down in florida. coming up in our next hour, congressman keith ellison is here to talk about his run for the chair of the democratic national committee. first, chuck schumer says this is the accountability congress. really? which has its drawbacks. guys, know anything about this missing inventory? wasn't me! the cheeks don't lie, chet... irresistibly planters.

>> this will be an accountability congress. chuck schumer is now the democratic leader of the united states senate. it will be up to him to stand up to majority leader mitch mcconnell and to donald trump. schumer has already said the democrats are willing to work with trump on issues like infrastructure, a far cry from mcconnell in 2010 when he said the single most important thing we want to achieve is for president obama to be a one-term president. let's bring in national spokesperson for moveon.org. democratic strategist chris.

i will do a round robin. we're willing to work with trump, but is that the smart political strategy for democrats, careen? >> no, i think they need to resist at all corners. they need to stop donald trump. he is a threat to our democracy. we already know that he wants to disenfranchise millions of voters and senate democrats need to realize this is not business as usual. we are in a different place and they can't treat it as such. and, so, they have to really lay their bodies on their track and stop the donald trump train. period. stop. >> yeah. this is a political matter, chris. same question. >> i think the problem i have with the so-called i guess schumer strategy is i still don't know what the democratic narrative or message is going forward. what are we fighting for? what's different? how are we going to reach those voters we didn't reachnd mobilize the voters we didn't

mobilize? i guess saying you're going to work with trump and oppose trump sounds okay, i guess. but i'm not sure it's reaching anyone or moving anyone and at the end of the day what we have to be focused on is, you know, the mid-term elections and that next presidential. how do we get people engaged in what democrats believe. and i still don't have any idea that democrats have figured even come close to figuring that out. >> and, crystal, same question to you. does it inspire loosely mid-term voters that are not so reliable. do they get inspired by the message we're going to work with donald trump if they're democrats? >> i agree with chris on this. look, you have to resist donald trump, especially on the areas where he is discriminatory and quite frightening. right, if there's something we can do on infrastructure, let's do it. but let's not do it on the backs of working people and make it a corporate give away the way it's looking like it's going to be. but you have to resist trump and

you also have offer an alternative. just saying we'll wait around for trump to screw up is not a strategy. you have to actively say we heard your message and here's our alternative. and that's the piece thatroom i'm not hearing from schumer or pelosi or any other party at this point. >> we have some things on the table that people will have to deal with right away and they start with planned parenthood. i will start with you on this. it is not just trump but paul ryan and this congress eviscerate the safety net. planned parenthood would lose funding as part of the democrat repeal. >> they need to make sure that doesn't happen. this is the other thing that trump will have to deal with. a lot of the things he talked about will have to go against the far right policies that mcconnell had been pushing for years. he said i don't want to touch medicare. i don't want to touch social

security. >> what if donald trump opposes privatizing medicare. where do democrats go? do they stand with donald trump and say the president is right. does that help them politically? >> they stand where they have been standing. we'll fight paul ryan and republicans to not privatize medicare or social security. whi which is what they have been doing. >> let's go to chuck schumer. go on, krystal. >> run reone reason why what th republicans did was so effective and devious they reject the idea that the federal government can work. so, when they were obstructing the president, it was serving two causes. it was not only stymying him and keeping him from having a victory. it was also making a case to the american people that the federal government doesn't work. obviously, we have a different perspective. so, i think we have more credibility if we come like the president did with an openness on health care.

hey, if you have a plan better than obama care, let's hear it. we'd be happy to repeal it if we had something else on the table. >> but you live in the state of kentucky where matt beven did get rid of people's health care and i think republicans feel like they can get away with it. in a state like kentucky, if paul ryan goes in and eviscerates medicare and those minors' health benefits for blawhat are democrats going to do about it? how do they fight it and convince kentucky voters they are on their side? >> absolutely. you've got to fight it and convince people that they've been had, essentially. i mean, this man came in claiming to be a savior telling people here that coal industry jobs were going to come back. he was lying. there is no plan for that. immediately after the election mitch mcconnell came out and said, well, even if we change course on the epa, those jobs are probably not going to come back. you have to do that work of

convincing people they have been had. you also, though, also have to offer an alternative. recognize the legitimacy of the economic concerns that were expressed in this election, even while rejecting the underline racial concerns that were part of this, as well. but you have to have an alternative and resist trump at the same time. you have to walk and chew gum. >> chris, what does that alternative look like? >> i'm not sure. if you're talking about obama care. i mean, the alternative is not a really good one because depending on the process -- >> the alternative is medical for all. >> we have to look at this from a political perspective. if the republicans try to do this through budget reconciliation, there is not going to be much that the democrats are going to be able to do to stop it. so, part of this is going to be to try to figure out and expose a brutal reality. when you take something away from people, it is far different

situation politically. here you have a policy that is clearly helped millions of people who didn't have health care. whose children or family members had pre-existing conditions. so, there is a political consequence that we have got to expose once the republicans go down this path. >> and our last word to you on this. you worked with moveon.org that exists to make republicans pay a political price for doing things that people don't like. is that what is going to happen? let them do the bad thing and highlight it. we have to go. save that answer. you guys are coming back in our next hour. i have gone over time, which i often do. up next, congressman pete ellison joins me live. more "am joy" after the break.

good morning. welcome back to "a.m. joy." as a new republican-controlled

congress prepped for their white house takeover. but the moment was overshadowed by the party's surprise decision on monday to try to weaken the office of congressional ethics. an independent body created in the aftermath of several high-profile scandals. on tuesday, donald trump criticized the move on twitter calling the watchdog unfair. but adding that congress had far more important things to focus on. trp still supported the republicans' argument for the office's power but took issue with the timing of the move. hours after that tweet, house republicans dropped their plans to gut the ethics office and media never want to miss the opportunity swooped in giving trump the credit for strongarming his own party to making good on his vow to drain the swamp. that's not really what happened. lawmakers reversed course after receiving thousands of phone calls from angry constituents and the outrage over the gop's attempt to gut.

that generated those phone calls hours before trump weighed in. so, we are here to set the record straight. this victory is for the people who called, e-mailed and tweeted at their representatives and held their feet to the fire. joining me democratic congressman keith ellison who is running for chairman of the democratic national committee. thank you for being here. in person. >> well, you know, we're here in new york and good to be with you. >> i want to talk to you about that very point. you are a politician, lawmaker. explain to the people just how sensitive political leaders are to phone calls and e-mails to their office. >> this is one of the most important lessons to learn in your democracy. calling your congressman actually works. it does. >> do you get a ton of calls? >> we get a ton of calls but when they start concentrating on a particular subject, we focus our attention on that subject. i mean, the thing is, i had folks call me on horse slaughter, for example, and we

got to dig into it and figure out what's going on. but when it's a big topic, immigration, ethics reform. when it's a big topic, you know, minimum wage, stuff like that. we really do drive based on what our constituents are telling us. i tell people, you know, every single member of congress and every state legislature and city council knows who put him in office and who can take him out. if you exert your power, you can make a big difference. >> and it's more powerful than a trump tweet, for instance. >> well, politicians see the light when they feel the heat. not just some trumpster over there. matter of fact, the president can't do much to or foror members of congress. they can do veto threats, that's powerful. but members of congress are pretty jealous about their own power. and our line of accountability is to the district. >> article one of the constitution. let's talk about some of the issues at issue in your race for dnc chair.

let's start first with the bernie sanders. we have to get that off the table because one of the arguments fox has a great article about it. a lot of people making the article that one reason to choose you that bernie sanders supporters feel they would have gotten something in the bargain. sanders supporter early and that you would represent that point of view. is that an important thing to do or what do you make of the argument by a lot of clinton sporers who say, wait, they're not democrats. we need to take care of democrats first. >> well, bernie supporters are democrats. i'm a democrat. but i supported both because i believe we got to have inclusion. can we send anybody away? we need every single person, democrat, potential democrat, independent, green party member. we need them all because, you know what, we live in the era of donald trump. and he is already moving quick, the foreclosure king of treasury and the anti-public education person. the climate denier at epa. there is no one we have to

waste. so, my message is one of unity. all my fellow candidates in this race are friends. i love them and i honor their service. but i must say that no matter who wins and i really believe i should, we are all going to have to work together because there is a greater issue here and this is the welfare of the american people. >> let's talk about another fundamental issue that i hear more than anything else in my twitter feed that people want to see the democrats fight. not say we'll work with donald trump if dot, dot, dot. should they work with trump or fight trump at every turn? >> fight trump at every turn. if there was a second we wanted to work with him he proven that was a bad idea by appointments. he has shown what he wants to do. big-time wall streeters in there than anybody thought he would. getting people with, you know, nefarious ties that he's associating with. his cabinet, for example, has in the midst of a rental housing

crisis, he picked somebody who knows nothing about housing. ben carson. >> neuro surgeon. >> we're a a point where he has made very clear we had noommon ground. it's our job to fight trumpism. but not only just to verbally talk bad about it, we've got to go to the neighborhood. to the vfw halls, the union halls, grocery stores and hair shops and talk to people in detroit and flint, but also in kentucky. both. we have to talk to both and explain to people not only the damage that he's doing to them taking away their health care won't even work on fixing the water crisis. but, actually what we would do which is to help make government work for them. >> now, you brought up another very important point which is this question of whether to go searching for core republicans. white working class voters are republicans for the most part, even some who may have voted for barack obama a couple of times. whether democrats should go looking for them and trying to

get them to come over or turn out their vote. look, if democrats had turned up 50,000 more votes in detroit in philly and milwaukee, hillary clinton would be president right now. which is the priority if you're dnc chair? >> well, you've identified the short-term answer to why we lost. those three states. but we have a longerterm problem. which is that we lost 535 state house seat in the last five years. governorships and, so, you're right in the short term, but in the long term, we really have to go 50 states and we've got to go 3,141 counties. we have to get granular and into the neighborhood and use local people to go talk to their neighbors and we've got the dnc should help them do that with money. with data, with tools, technology, live stream. everything. that is how we're going to win. we've got to invest in the whole country and stop ignoring the people who we know will vote for us or won't vote for us and

we've got to go talk to everybody. >> one of the things that one of your opponents tom perez who is going for dnc chair said for the dnc to fly fund the voting rights component in the dnc. an office devoted to voting right, if you didn't hear about it. do you agree with that idea and how would it work under keith ellison as dnc chair? >> i agree with tom on this. tom and i are friends, by the way. like a friendly game of basketball. i'm trying to win, but no matter who wins, we're going to be buddies anyway. here's the thing, we absolutely have to fund that. but, let me tell you, i am the one who has dealt with voter suppression on the ballot. in 2012, republicans in minnesota tried to put a voter i.d. amendment on our constitution which would require a very restrictive government issue i.d. for you to vote and my campaign and i'm in the so-called safe blue seat dedicated our campaign to defeating it. people ran polls and said, keith, it's polling too good. we can't beat it.

i don't care about odds. i care about what's right and what's wrong. we set out to defeat it and we got help along the way and we ended up beating it at the polls. you can beat voter suppression at the polls and in the courts. both are important. the dnc chair, however, is primarily focused on electoral outcomes. although we will fight him in court, too. >> we'll keep it here. now we got you and we won't let you go. we'll take a quick break and more with congressman keith ellison, next.

>> going to that kitchen table and understanding what keeps people up at night and making sure we have good organizers that are listening. making sure the democratic party is at front and center in protecting the right to vote and you and i have talked about this many times. in many states, these efforts

had voter suppression. we don't have a director of voter empowerment at the dnc. if i have the privilege of being elected, we will have one. six candidates are leading. you just heard labor secretary perez. and you can catch the rest of that at 8:00 a.m. eastern. my guest congressman keith ellison of minnesota and he's back with me. so, how do y beat tt guy? he's got supposedly the obama world, right? and he is, you know, he's labor secretary, et cetera. what is your argument why you and not tom perez? >> well, as i said, i admire tom perez. but i'm the only one who had the kind of electoral success that we'll need to get back to majorities all over the world and in congress and at the ballot box. i've got myself elected eight times. there are no, zero republicans statewide in minnesota. why? because i jack up the vote in my

district. so, because i turn out the vote, i outperform the democratic average in my state by about 60,000 votes. if i hadn't done that, minnesota, we would have beat them by 42,000 votes but i outperformed the democratic average by about 60,000 votes. the fact is that if this job is about getting democrats elected, unique in the field in doing it. also, i raised money. i've been able to -- i've given over a million to my state party and raised money for the other candidates. so, in the core proficiencies of the job, resource raising and getting dems elected, there's no one running who does it like i do. >> you managed to do that while being in the crosshairs of trump world. being black and being muslim. do you think it's important -- would it be an important statement for the democratic party to make to proactively put somebody who is black and muslim in the dnc chair or would it cause controversy, division?

>> for me, it doesn't matter, right? because i am as i am. i can only be what i am. so, i jt go forward fighting to focus on what the voters need. what the base democratic voters need. not on myself. it's not about me at all. and, so, even though i am what i am, it's never been a barrier to me getting elected. my district is 63% white and yet i talk about racial justice. they support me year after year because they know that i care about them. i fight for them every single day. and let me tell you, it is a heartbreak to have to leave my congressional seat if i win the dnc race. but i will, even if i don't want to, i will. because what does it serve my constituents now for us to be a little blue dot in a red seat. we've got to shift the playing field so that we got people in the majority in the minnesota state senate and house and in kansas and missouri and michigan

and all over the country. because these people are moving with right to work for less laws and they're trying to strip obama care from people and they're doing all kind of bad things across the state, including trying to pass these photo i.d. laws, which i think are nothing more than voter suppression. look, democrats have not gotten hip to the fact that republicans identify voter suppression as a core strategic goal. we have not identified voter expansion as a core strategic goal and if i'm the dnc chair, we will. and we'll be fighting to just increase it by, not just say what is the minimum that we need to win. we will say that the vote and the ballot and democratic participation is the right of every american and we'll bring it to him. >> i will come back to the muslim issue in a minute. quickly what you just said did the dncerr by not fighting voter suppression more vigorously? >> did the dnc, all of us democrats, including me, could

have done more. should have done more. i have a record of fighting voter suppression. >> and i want to -- one of the other issues that people who are your distracters who try to use against you is the fac tha you were a supporter of faircon and nothing negative. the million man mark is a pretty positive thing. how do you answer those who throw at you. >> who is god in my political thinking, i say, well, "a" philip randolph and ruston and martin luther king and i say paul wellstone, hubert humfry. a black woman who help found the democratic labor party in minnesota. asking me about the gentleman you mentioned doesn't do anything to help people understand where i'm coming from. so, at the end of the day, it's distraction, it's diversion and just a way to try to defeat my candidacy. >> also a way to divide you with

jewish democrats, right? >> the democratic party enjoys 71% from the jewish community absolutely need it. fundamental and important to our success. we value and prize our jewish support from the democratic party. and we know republicans don't like it and they're going to try to wedge it. but what i say is let's hang together. we have more in common and we're going to stick together. >> what is the most important change that you would make to the dnc as chair? >> we would reorient the whole institution toward voter turnout. 365 days a year in every single district in the country. we would not rely on tv advertising as much. >> that's okay. >> we'd use it, but be more focused on field door-to-door, neighborhood neighbor to neighbor. we would go into rural america. we would go into -- we'd go into the blue states that we know we have. you know, in california we really go, we go there to fund-raise but they have had an

excellent run of progressive success the. let's lo at some of their ideas. same thing here in new york. we go there and say, hey, can you fund the campaign? but we don't say how is it that you're able to pass laws that really enhance human life. and we need to adopt their organizing tools. so, that's the real key that we would determine. >> how do you get people under 40 to care about politics and how could you do that? >> well, they desperately do already, right? i have two young people. i almost called them kids. two young people who used to work for me. as of a few weeks ago. one is fully, now he's representative fooly and erin gay woman who's married to the love of her life in a suburban district in minnesota and people don't care about none of those demographics. they care about the fact that she kicks down doors for them. she is a minnesota state

legislature. i said, what is your long-term goal? they said, hey, we want to do what you do, man. i said, you know what, we're going to make it happen. we trained them and got them the skills they needed and now they are state legislatures, public servants and i couldn't be prouder of them. but this needs to happen all over the country. young people need to be put in charge. not just hired as a staffer, but running the show. that's the way we're going to win. if i am dnc chair, a lot more young folks on the dnc board. we're going to keep our institutional memory. people don't need to be afraid of that. we're going to keep folks who know where they have been around the block. but we are going to invest ourselves with new energy. give a budget to the young democrats to make sure they're organized and on campus all over this country and we're going to have a special new relationship with young democrats of america who are past college, but not yet into mid-life. so, we're going to -- we think millennials are a big deal. if you look at all the folks. my son is running for city council.

his name is jer emiah ellison. he got inspired by standing up for issues. >> making his pitch for dnc cha chair. thank you so much for being here. good luck on that dnc chair race. >> you bet. coming up some "a.m. joy" favorites are finding a home in the trump administration. you do not want to go away.

every day we get another glimpse into the future donald trump administration and it's not pretty. the latest additions to donald trump's, florida attorney pam bondy will get an unnamed gig in the trump white house. bloomberg reported as much this week. you remember her from the time the trump foundation illegally gave her campaign a $25,000 donation. after which she declined to

investigate alleged fraud at trump university. but new york attorney general did investigate and trump settled the resulting lawsuit and others for $25 million. although he admitted no wrongdoing. "the wall street journal" reports that david malpass under secretary of affairs at the treasury department. you remember him from when he was the chief economist at bear stearns until 2008 when the firm unfolded the massive collapse that brought on the great recession. he wrote this piece just months before titled "don't panic about the credit market." bill stepian. his previous claim to fame was when he was fired from the administration of new jersey governor chris christie over the 2013 bridgegate scandal. prosecutors say he knew of the plan to close two lanes of the george washington bridge in an act of political retribution

against the mayor of the town at the western end. an act in which may have been a factor of ending chris christie's chances of the presidency and bringing on humiliation. he was not criminally charged for his role and he denied having any knowledge of the lane closures, but just in case, you might just want to take a train over the next four year physical you're not a trump friend. after the break, trump's pick to be the top officer. stay with us.

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senate democrats are gearing up for a fight next tuesday when attorney general nominee jeff sessions becomes the first of trump's cabinet picks to take the hot seat. but the resistance to sessions has already begun. on tuesday, six protesters from the naacp were arrested after staging a sit in at session's office in mobile, alabama. the same day former massachusetts governor duval

patrick sent a letter recommending against session's nominee as ag. back in 1985 as a member of the naacp legal defense fund patrick helped defend three black voting rights activists whose sessions was prosecuting on voter fraud charges during his time as a u.s. attorney. patrick writes in his letter to use prosecutorial discretion to attempt criminalize voter assistance is wrong and should be disqualifying for any -- joining me now, thank you so much. you are just the two people that i would dream of talking about on this topic. and may i start -- i will start you, cheryl. when the list came out of the people who will be testifying, democrats only get four people. two days, four people to testify about jeff sessions at this confirmation hearing. i was quite disappointed that your name wasn't on it.

you do have michael mukasey and larry thompson and cornel brooks and a former dreamer and u.s. veteran and you have commissioner of the u.s. commissioner on civil rights. and then you have founders of two civic organizaons. dna saves. were you asked to tesfy and if you had the opportunity to testify, give us a short version of what you would say. >> well, let me start with the short version of what i would say, but preface it by saying that i think that both cornell brooks, the president of the naacp who you talked about at the top of the segment who was arrested the other day and who is a civil rights attorney himself. and david cole, the legal director of the aclu will do an excellent job laying out the

legal issues that and the history of senator sessions as it relates to civil rights law. so, i think that we are in good hands. to be honest, i'm more concerned about local voices being heard. that is african-american alabamans. i had hoped that maybe there would be someone from alabama who is familiar with senator sessions who would be on the list. but there's not. i think it's very obvious what has to be said and what probably will be said, which is that the question before this committee is whether or not senator sessions record in public life of nearly 40 years, probably more than 40 years, democrnstras that he is fit and prepared and qualified to be the law enforcement officer of the united states and for our purposes to be the chief enforcer of the nation's civil rights laws. senator sessions record suggests, in fact, quite the opposite. you alluded to the perry three prosecution in 1985. these were three black voting activists represented by the

naacp legal defense fund. two of them, albert and evelyn turner were very close lieutenants of martin luther king and they were prosecuted by senator sessions and when he was u.s. attorney. they were acquitted. but this has not been forgotten and, in fact, that case and other statements made by the senator was one of the reasons why in 1986 the senate judiciary committee would not move him forward when he sought to be a federal district judge. so, the question then is what has happened since then in senator session's record? when you look at that record, that record does not look like a man who turned away from that awful history and who became a civil rights champion. instead that history reflects someone who voted against the violence against women act. someone who voted against the lily led betr equal pay act. someone who resisted the effort to place aican-american judges on the federal bench. someone who, as we know from this year, has supported a

presidential candidate who has engaged in conversations about muslims, about mezcxican americans. who suggested that a judge of mexican american decent could not be impartial in his case. many of you may remember senator sessions saying similar things when justice sotomeyor were at her hearings to sit on the supreme court. when you look at that record over the course of 40 years, congress has to answer that question. the senate judiciary committee has to answer that question. what in this man's record suggests over 40 years that he should be entrusted with being the chief enforcer of the nation's civil rights laws. >> i highly recommend people read duval patrick's letter. he would have been a great person to be on that panel. dr. barber, what concerns you most? you know, the history includes sessions having prosecuted members of the naacp for helping people register to vote. is it voting rights that concerns you most about his record or something else? >> that's so fund.

al, joy, to our democracy. and so glad to see our president standing up in alabama and others. but on monday interfaith clergy, muslims, christians, jews, we're doing a moral action. faith in public policy in washington, d.c., and then in the senate building. because jeff sessions, when you look at his pastnd his present is quite problematic when it comes to the issue of civil rights. in his past, he tried to put civil rights activists who were fighting for voting rights in jail for 250 years. that's the same at the time we went -- he had supported the shelby decision which gutted the voting rights act. he has been a part of upholding, fixing the voting rights act for over 1,200 days since june 25, 2013. he has spoken against the voting

rights act at the very time that courts all over the country and in the south where i'm from in north carolina, federal courts are ruling over and over again that these legislatures without preclearance are engaging in the worst kind of voter suppression that we have seen since the days of jim crowe. we had 800 or more less voting sites in 2016 election. hundreds of thousands of votes were suppressed across this country. so, jeff session had a racist, political ideology. now, they're trying to say it's just political ideology. but he has a political ideology that is race driven. he is like james crowe esquire. and to put him over the justice department would be like putting the fox over the chicken house. he, the leopard has not changed his spots. now, after saying that, his

policy on immigration and the way he thinks about immigrants. his policies on religious freedom. his close ties we've seen with white supremacists. this is problematic. and for those of us in states like north carolina that are battling extremism every day in an attempt to roll back voting rights. the last thing we need is a haasile u.s. attorney general who is hostile to the constitution and hostile to protecting the very mandates of that office. >> i want to play just for our audience who, you know, maybe not been around at that time or not paying attention to it. ted kennedy back in 1986 at the confirmation hearings where jeff sessions was not approved to be a federal judge. i want you to hear him for a moment. this is the late ted kennedy talking about jeff sessions. >> mr. sessions is a throwback to a shameful era, which i know both black and white americans thought was in our past. inconceivable to me that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a u.s. attorney,

yet alone a united states and federal judge. i believe a disgrace to justice department and he should withdraw his nomination and resign his position. >> you can see a young joe biden there sitting next to him. fast forward to an exert from a letter. their ongoing concern. some of us have concerns about misguided prosecution of voter fraud in 1985 and consistent promotion of the voter impersonation fraud about support fo building a wall along and robust drug policies that have fueled mass incarceration. questioning of the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change is repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and minorities and the lgbt community. sherrilynn i would add to that when i speak to affiliates with black lives matter the question what would happen if they were to re-create in the 1960s where john lewis went out and

protested and even if they were beaten by the local sheriff they could call upon the justice department to come in and essentially be the caval calvar how concerned are you if jeff sessions is the head of the justice department? >> joy, i'm so glad you raised this because every american needs to be concerned about that. may take for granted what it would take for eric holder to fly down to ferguson and sit down with parents and families. what it meant for loretta lynch to fly to baltimore and sit around the table with community leaders and reassure them of the justice department's engagement with the issue of police involved violence. when we don't have that, we'll see something quite different. and this is why i think this of all the cabinet positions for african-americans is the most important one. the department of justice and the attorney general has control over so many of the elements of the criminal justice system that

affects our lives and the federal bureau prisons and the justice department and everything we have been talking about and concerned with around policing reform. the pattern and practice investigations in baltimore. the investigation that is ongoing in chicago. what we learned from ferguson. all of that falls under the department of justice. this is a nominee who has said in the past that he doesn't believe in consent decrees. he thinks consent decrees, well, the department of justice is a party. i know this because we're co-counsel with them in many of those cases. the department of justice that negotiateates the decent decree in the pattern and practice case after the justice department has been investigated. is he going to be committed to using the power of justice to do that? is he going to abide by the obligations of desegregation cases that bind the department of justice in southern school districts. these are all critically important questions that we have to have the answers to and we

can't pretend that just because he's a senator that they know him, that there should be, you know, comedy and friendship. this is aboought professional investigation of someone who seeks to have the keys to one of the most important pillars of our democracy, the rule of law. >> and last point to you, reverend barber, then you as an activist do part of the moral monday forward. what should activists do in the event that he is elected? what should activists do? >> well, the recent clergry are stepping up and while we're going as clergy into the senate and the heart of this issue is because trump ought to pull the names, senator sessions ought to pull his name out and the senate ought to reject his name. we're talking about a man who is anti, the principle of the constitution being hired to be the enforcer of the constitution. now, the first step you know, joy, towards mass civil disobedience you first always deliver and attempt to do the

right thing. if not, then you're prepared to do disobedience and whatever else is necessary. we believe this is wrong. he might have the politics of racism, but he does not have the politics that should be a part of the american democracy process at the highest, law enforcement officer in this country. it is wrong and we have to stand against it with our deepest moral valus and use every to do it. and if he does somehow become appointed, we should be prepared to stand against his actions every day because they would be wrong for america and they would take us backwards rather than forwards. >> reverend dr. william barber and sherrilynn. i regret that we will talk about this a lot over the next four years. let's see what happens. maybe the power of moral persuasion will convince the trump administration to think differently. tha thank you, both, for being here. >> thank you, joy. coming up at noon, the latest on the deadly airport

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tomorrow on "am joy" republicans are looking to kill obama care and planned parenthood in one felt swoop. planned parenthood suseal richards will join us live. we'll also speak with tom perielo the virginia congressman who just upended the governor's race by throwing his hat into the ring. also a preview of president obama's successful eight years in the white house and some expectations for tuesday night's farewell address. > up next, who won the week? more "am joy" after the break. fd not back. it's looking up not down. it's feeling up thinking up living up. it's being in motion... in body in spirit in the now. boost. it's not just nutrition. it's intelligent nutrition. with 26 vitamins and minerals

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we are back and now it's time for our panel to tell me who won the week. who won the week? >> the intelligence community. they are finally vindicated after the declassified report came out yesterday.

it has proven that donald trump is indeed putin's manchurian candidate. they have all the bars on their chests, the american people trust them. >> i liked hers. maybe i should take hers. i'm going to bring my perspective from the commonwealth of kentucky here. this was the last legislature in the south that was still held by democrats. it was actually the last legislature in a state won by mitt romney still head by democrats. that all changed this fall. and it won't surprise you to learn we've had a raft of truly terrible legislation rocketing through the house and senate here. we've had provisions targeting women, mandatory ultrasound, 20 week abortion ban. more to the point of who won the week, i think big business won the week here because you've had a whole lot of bills targeting workers, this is going to be, again, the last state in the house that didn't have right to

work. you've had the prevailing wage law repealed and a provision that currently allows unions to deduct dues from workers' paychecks. that ability will be also be gone. aggressive ly attracting. >> it's predictable what republicans do in these states. it's predictable. >> the national democratic party hasn't done much. they've given up. >> absolutely. and this is to our earlier conversation, something they've got to change. maybe the next dnc chair will change it. we'll shall see. who won the week? >> democrats did by default. >> that's sort of sad, chris. >> i'm sorry. i'm being brutally honest. >> you're keeping it real. >> keeping it real, that's right. you have basically trump going to war with the intelligence community. that's a good way to start your presidency in a few weeks. then you have the republicans in

the house, you know, basically on their first day having to basically walk back their decision to try to destroy the ethics office. which speaks to the whole idea about draining the swamp. you know, this goes back, i think, to the earlier point we were discussing, if this is us hoping that republicans fall on their face every day, that's great and we'll get joy out of it. but that is not going to save or move the democratic party forward. we've got to oppose the republicans with conviction and passion when we have to and we need to. clearly whether it's on obamacare or other issues. we've got to propose a vision that connects with voters and speaks to all those folks that we didn't reach or we didn't mobilize in that last election. we need that message. i still have not heard a real serious discussion about it. we are so fixated on trump and here's the brutal reality. he's going to be there for four years. we've got to be as fixated on fixing the democratic party. >> you had a thought?

>> i agree with chris on many levels. but we have to remember that we did win the popular vote by almost three million people. so i don't want us to get stuck on having to reach out to folks who felt disenfranchised because they're losing the identity. that's what that's about. no, but we can't forget that. we can't forget that. we need to continue to talk to the rising electorate. the millenials, african-americans and brown people, latinos. >> 100%. >> i don't want to get stuck in that oh, you know, we have to also message to the rust belt. when, you know, we won the popular vote. >> yeah, but there's one thing -- >> can i just say. >> chris and then crystal. >> we need to be really honest about something. all right. we've lost over the last eight years over a thousand seats if you include the legislatures, governorships, house seats

senate. we have got to be sincere and real. i know you're talking about the popular vote. it's a bigger dynamic and bigger challenge. we've got to be really honest as a party about where we are. >> i totally agree with you. a lot of that was we need to go back into the states and work on messaging and talking to people. >> 100%. >> show up and in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania and bring beyonce at the end. crystal, very quickly. >> yeah, to that point, 60% of the country right now is under complete control of gop governor, house, and senate. so we have got to look with clear eyes at how devastated the party is across the country. not just at the presidential level but everywhere. >> i don't know if you -- very quickly, one word, who do you support for dnc chair? >> keith ellison.

>> perez. >> chris? >> i'm keeping my options open. i want to hear from all the candidates. >> absolutely. what they say. >> chris. the strategist, again -- first off, i tell you guys -- i should always vote for crystal ball because i'm a kentucky colonel. >> i'm from kentucky. >> i am too. >> you too? we have to have bourbon shots later. the actual answer to the question of who won the week is micha rosado. there she is, this is how it happens, this is how it goes down. one of our fabulous young staffers. this is her last day on the show. she recently had a birthday. she has so many reasons to celebrate. we're super proud. she's going into the education world. those who are going to be benefitting from her presence are very lucky. i want to thank you you, love you girl. thank you all, that's our show for today.

be sure to check us out tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern for more a.m. joy. chanel is waiting in the wings. more news at the top of the hour.