and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. ♪ on april 8th, 2015, mr. trump said, and i quote, every republican wants to do a big number on social security. that's not bernie sanders talking. that is donald trump talking. "they want to do it on medicare. they want to do it on medicaid. and we can't do it! it's not fair to the people that have been paying in for years." not bernie sanders, donald trump. >> good morning! i'm al sharpton, and you're

watching "politicsnation." senator bernie sanders has called on the president-elect to keep his campaign promises. trump repeatedly promised not to cut medicare, medicaid, or social security. senator sanders joins me now from burlington, vermont. thank you for being with us this morning, senator. >> my pleasure. >> you have called on donald trump to do what donald trump said he was going to do. do you think he is going to yield to your reminding him of what he said, or do you think that the change is already in motion? >> well, al, i know it is a radical idea to demand that a candidate actually keep his word. i do know that that is a radical approach. but what the heck, you know. and what's important here to understand is trump didn't just

say this in passing. it wasn't in one interview. what he was telling the american people, working people, elderly people, hey, i am a different type of republican. and he mentioned people like paul ryan by name. he said ryan and these other guys want to cut your social security, your medicare, your medicaid. not me! not me! i'm not going to do it. so, yes, we are going to hold trump accountable. in fact, on tuesday, i have an amendment up supported by i believe all democrats, which says just that. we say to our republican colleagues, hey, stand by your leader. keep faith with the american people. he said you're not going to cut social security, medicare and medicaid. let's vote to support donald trump's effort not to cut these vitally important programs. >> and one of the things that i think a lot of the public does not really understand, because a lot of times we talk in beltway talk or pundit talk, is that this seriously impacts people.

i mean, if you put medicare and privatize it in any way, shape or form, or block grants with medicaid or privatize or go back to states deciding in terms of affordable health care, we're talking about millions of seniors, millions of people that don't have means that will effectively be at risk in terms of their own -- >> al -- >> -- health needs. >> al, you're too kind when you say "at risk." there are studies out there, and common sense tells us this. if the republicans do what they want to do -- this is not trump, this is the republican leadership in the congress -- end the affordable care act, throw 20 million people off of the health insurance they have right now, throw 20 million people off of the health insurance, thousands of people are going to die! that's what we're talking about. thousands of people who are sick will not be able to go to a doctor, will not be able to go to the hospital. these guys have no alternative plan. they just want to eliminate the

affordable care act. 20 million people off of health insurance they currently have. furthermore, as you know, people like paul ryan, they want to end medicare as we know it. >> right. >> they want to voucherize it. that means you're an 80-year-old person diagnosed with cancer. here is your $8,000 check, and you go out and find private insurance. now you tell me what kind of private insurance somebody's going to find who has cancer who's 80 years of age. >> none! >> nothing. nothing. >> let me ask you this, though. let's look at the reality of the landscape. this week we are watching as the countdown toward the trump inauguration. given the numbers -- the republicans dominate the senate and the house -- what can democrats do? because everywhere i travel, senator, people are saying the democrats are not showing any backbone. you're one of the few even

standing up fighting. i mean, what can be done in a parliamentary way and what could be done from a bully pulpit way to resist this stuff? >> well, we have got to do everything that we can to resist these horrific nominations that trump has brought forth. i mean, they are the worst. they are almost unimaginable, the kind of people he's bringing forth. you've got a guy who's proposing to head the epa who does not believe in environmental protection, et cetera, et cetera. >> right. >> this is what i am trying to do, is among many other things, i am trying to revitalize the democratic party and get this party to be a party that doesn't simply go out to wealthy people's homes raising money but becomes a grassroots party. and that's why i'm supporting keith ellison to be the new chair of the democratic party. the good news for us, al, is on issue after issue, whether it is raising the minimum wage, whether it is pay equity, whether it is climate change,

whether it is moving toward health care for all, the american people support a progressive agenda, not giving tax breaks to billionaires and cutting social security, medicare and medicaid. so, on next sunday, next sunday, we are going to be holding rallies all across this country for the first time. democratic senators are going to be out in a coordinated way. members of the house are going to be out with the unions, with senior groups, planned parenthood, because they want to defund planned parenthood. we are going to bring people together. we're going to get people calling up, e-mailing senators and members of congress and tell them, no, you are not going to cut social security, medicare and medicaid, and give tax breaks to billionaires. >> i'm going to get back to you on that, but let me push you a little on, since you brought up keith ellison, and we're going to talk to him. we're going to talk to tom perez. if keith ellison wins or if you succeed in helping to bring the democratic party more grassroots, will bernie sanders

then become a member of the democratic party and be a democrat in the u.s. senate? >> well, i am an independent who is closest with the democrats for 25 years. in vermont, we don't have party registration. >> right. >> but let me also tell you something, democrats are going to have to reach out to the many, many millions of people who are independents today. a lot of people, al, are not enthusiastic about the democratic party and the republican party. too many of them are voting republican. >> so it would remain independent with many people and you would remain independent in the senate. >> for now i was elected as an independent in the senate and i will complete my term and stay independent completing this term. we'll cross the next bridge when we come to it. >> when we talk about the democratic party reaching out and doing more, we're talking about reaching out but not abandoning those that have reached out to it. because a lot of people are saying, well, wait a minute, they're talking about reaching out to people, but what about those that were there and that

were loyal? does that mean getting off of issues of african-americans and latinos and women? >> no, no, no, no, no! it means more diversity, bringing more african-american leadership, more latino leadership into the democratic party, more women into the democratic party. we need more, not less. but what we have also got to do is talk about fundamental economic issues. it is not acceptable that the top 0.1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%. that is an issue that impacts everybody. we've got to rebuild our infrastructure, create millions of jobs. we've got to make college -- we've got to make public colleges and universities tuition-free. that's a black issue, it's a white issue, it's a latino issue, it's a native american, asian american issue. it impacts everybody. so al, there is -- and i know, i've been criticized for this, and it hurts me and i don't like it. we need not less diversity. we need more diversity. but we've got to bring our

people together, all of our people, to say that we're going to create a damn government that represents all of us and not just the 1%. and that's how i believe we do it. >> now, you mentioned the mobilization around the country on the 15th. this coming weekend is martin luther king weekend. you know there is a big national march that we're involved in with other civil rights groups with you supporting, i believe nina turner's coming to speak. >> absolutely. >> you will be in atlanta speaking. so, the 14th is the march on washington. the 15th, all of us are saying let's organize locally. so i want to clear that up. there's no conflict. it's complementary. >> no conflict. we're working together on this. >> right. >> you're doing a march on washington. we're doing it locally around the country. we're in this thing together. we don't have time for conflict. we've got to rally the american people. we're going to stand up and fight back in a way that we have never fought back before against

this trump administration and the republican agenda. >> and nothing could be more appropriate than next weekend, which is the martin luther king holiday weekend we're kicking off that saturday. that monday's the official holiday. you marched with dr. king in your youth. i became a youth organizer many years later in his last months of his life. so, the king movement is something that's not politics to us. this is about our way of life and the policies that in many ways mirrors a young teenager, you as a student, geared toward the king movement even at different stages in our lives. and this is what's at stake, are many of the things that dr. king represented that some are going to be paying lip service to next week but are going against the very policies that made martin luther king! >> you're absolutely right. and i am honored to be speaking

as part of the mlk day in atlanta with the king family, and i've been very honored to be invited to be there. but the other point that i would make, al, is you know, obviously, that when dr. king was assassinated, he was in memphis, tennessee, standing up for some of the most exploited workers in the country. these were garbage workers in memphis. >> right. >> and in the last months of his life, what he was working on was a poor people's march on washington of blacks and whites and native americans and latinos. >> yep. >> to demand a change in national priorities, rather than giving tax breaks to billionaires or spending money on the military, the war at that time, in vietnam. he wanted to reinvest in america to improve the standard of living of the poor and working people. that's where he was. >> where do we go from here, that's what he outlined. and that's why i don't know why people are acting like they're not clear on what his economic

policies are. >> well, al, you know why and i know why, because it's politically safe to say, oh, king was a great leader and he got the voting rights act and he did away with segregation in the south. but it's a little bit harder to say that dr. king also focused on income and wealth inequality, the need to make sure that people had decent wages, that he was anti war. that's a little bit harder for people to talk about. >> let me ask you this before i let you go. we keep hearing people say, well, there's not a real good bench. we don't see a lot of people on the bench to run in 2020, but i'm saying that i've never seen anybody more robust and energetic than bernie sanders. are you ruling out running in 2020? >> al, i think -- look, i'm not ruling out anything, but i think it's premature to be talking about four years from now. right now -- >> but you're not ruling it out. >> no, i'm not ruling it put.

>> that's what i want -- >> but we've got a struggle, al, as you well know, and we've got to roll up our -- >> i just want to know. inquiring minds want to know. i had to ask. senator bernie sanders, thank you for your time this morning. >> okay. >> and again, we're all together next weekend in the spirit of dr. king. thank you. >> thank you, al. senator jeff sessions wants to become the attorney general. one of his fellow senators says no. sherrod brown is next. yeah, so mom's got this cold. hashtag "stuffy nose." hashtag "no sleep." i got it. hashtag "mouthbreather." yep. we've got a mouthbreather. well, just put on a breathe right strip and ... pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than cold medicine alone. so you can breathe ... and sleep. shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. breathe right.

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senator jeff sessions has been meeting with lawmakers this week ahead of his confirmation hearing to be the next attorney general. one senator decided not to

support sessions after meeting with him on wednesday. he joins me now. senator sherrod brown of ohio. welcome to "politicsnation" again, senator. >> good to be back. thanks, reverend sharpton. >> now, senator brown, you met with the attorney general nominee sessions. first of all, what was your impressions? and tell us a little about the meeting. >> yeah, i met with senator sessions on wednesday. he asked to meet with me. i've worked with him on a couple of trade issues, a set of issues i actually agree with him on -- opposition to trans-pacific partnership, renegotiating initiation of the north american free trade agreement -- but he's not nominated for the u.s. trade rep job. he's nominated for attorney general. so i met with him on wednesday. spent probably 45 minutes with him, asked him a series of questions about voting rights, about what he would do on issues like hate crimes and issues like

the consent decree, which is the relationship with the justice department and city government, police-community relations. talked to him about a host of those issues. most importantly, i want to know what he's going to do on voting rights, and i'm very concerned with the court decision on shelby county coming out of alabama. i am very concerned about the scaling back and rolling back of voting rights in my state, in the south, in wisconsin, and that's what ultimately led me to tell him the next day in person -- i believe you do that face-to-face -- that i was not able to vote for him, that i would be voting no on his confirmation. >> you told him face-to-face. now, i want our viewers to understand, you and he were colleagues. it is very rare for senators who served with each other not to support him or her if they're nominated to another position. but you told him because of his stance on voting rights and his

stance on issues like consent decree and all that you could not vote for him. that's a courageous step. but tell me why you think those are disqualifiers for him being attorney general. >> yeah, i don't know if it's courageous. i mean, there's this thing around the senate called senatorial courtesy, and people think that means if a senator wants something, is nominated, you kind of automatically vote for him. i don't buy that. it's never personal. i told senator sessions -- and i call him jeff -- i told him my opposition, my voting against you whenever this vote comes up in the next two or three weeks is of course not personal. it's about his positions. it's not even about the past as much as what i think the future will be. and i know he will be criticized for his past statements and record. that's fine. but for me, it's what he's going to do in the future. i was secretary of state in ohio, as you know, reverend sharpton, for eight years, and i know what you do to expand the

right to vote. we had a golden week in ohio where for a week you could both register and vote for that period where the early voting overlapped with the registration deadline. we had all kinds of different ways to register people to vote. in fact, i got the mcdonald's corporation to print one million tray liners. so if you ate at mcdonald's during about a one-month period, you could sign up and register to vote on your tray liner, on your placemat, and send it into the board of elections. we did things like that to open the system. clearly, senator sessions, and perhaps future attorney general sessions, doesn't believe in that kind of voter outreach and doesn't believe in an open registration system, and i'm very concerned. as soon as the court made that decision, shelby county, that state after state after state, especially in the south, but as you know, not only in the south, began to restrict the right to vote, and that's stuff from the 1960s. that's not -- now, almost

immediately. within days, i believe the first state acted. and that's just outrageous. i mean, that's just not what we are as a nation. and perhaps donald trump believes that, that the right to vote should be restricted from some of his comments, but i don't want the head of the department of justice, the most important of the country, i don't want him or her -- him in this case -- to be that person with those values. >> you know, when you think about this coming weekend is martin luther king day weekend, next monday's the holiday, big march in washington on saturday, around voting rights and criminal justice, to think that senator sessions, who's from selma, alabama, where dr. king led the famous march that led to the voting rights act, would sit and say that he would not support the, and protect as attorney general these voting rights matters that clearly have expanded and made the rights

more available to everyone, is really something that a lot of us going to king day weekend are wondering whether or not what dr. king stood for is at risk here. >> yeah, you look at the progress from the '60s, from voting rights and civil rights in '63 and '64, and the progress we made as a nation, and then '65, and where we've gone. and to begin, to roll this back like we saw in state after state this year. i was one of the two leaders of a delegation of about 90 members of congress to mark the 50th anniversary of selma. senator scott of south carolina, republican, and i led a delegation of i believe 95 house and senate members to join the president in selma back in march of this past year, marking the 50th anniversary. or two years ago, a year and a half ago, i guess. >> yeah, 2013. >> yeah.

and to think of what happened there, and jimmy lee jackson and all the people dying and john lewis walking across the bridge, and we're about to have an attorney general from that state -- and again, it's not personal -- but attorney general from that state who opposes those efforts just breaks my heart. now, how do you vote to confirm somebody that's going to take us back on voting rights? >> does this lay a challenge to others of your colleagues in the senate, democratic and republican, that they will have to deal with and explain how they could vote for someone who's taking these positions? >> well, i think that's going to be a question. i had a long conversation with cory booker yesterday about this, and he's clearly going to -- i mean, i'm not speaking for him, but he's going to be very involved in this. i don't -- i just want to say to colleagues that, you know, senatorial courtesy, because our nominee is a senator and kind of a friend for a lot of people --

many of us have worked with him. i don't agree with jeff sessions on much. i said i agree with him on trade issues mostly and we've worked on some trade enforcement actions together. but you don't vote for somebody just because he's a senate colleague and you have something called senatorial courtesy. you vote based on, not even entirely his past, you vote on his future and what an attorney general for the next four years is going to do. and i want somebody that wants to expand -- it's pretty simple to me -- you want somebody who is going to expand voting rights, not restrict and restrict and restrict, as we've seen coming out of that shelby county court case and all of these ultra-conservative state legislatures, that for many reasons are restricting the vote because they know it's mostly going to affect young people, older people, people of color, lower income people. that's who was always blocked out. i testified in northern district court when i was secretary of state in the 1980s in oxford, mississippi, on behalf of the

naacp with them as a secretary of state to expand voting rights. my mother grew up in georgia. i know the history, not as well as you do, reverend sharpton, not as well as john lewis or real pioneers, but i've watched it, i've seen it, i've seen it up close, and it's clear to me that expanding voting rights is the key. >> you would think that senator sessions would have known it coming, being born in selma. but i'm glad to see on this morning that senatorial courtesy does not trump constituency accountability in your case, and hopefully, others. and i use the term trump it with pun intended. thank you for being with us. >> of course you do. >> senator sherrod brown. >> thank you, reverend sharpton. good morning, thank you. coming up, my interview with the man who wants to be the next leader of the democratic party, labor secretary tom perez is up next.

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apparently, there is yet a new standard now, which is to not confirm a supreme court nominee at all. i think that's something the american people simply will not tolerate, and we'll be looking forward to receiving a supreme court nomination and moving forward on it. >> senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is sounding absolutely appalled at the notion that democrats would block a nominee for the vacancy on the supreme court, which is interesting, considering he wrote the playbook on how to do it, because the very same day that supreme court justice antonin scalia died, mitch mcconnell was already vowing to make sure his seat stayed empty. only an hour after scalia's death, mcconnell issued a

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the democratic national committee will choose a new chairman next month. the leading contenders for the job are minnesota congressman keith ellison and labor secretary tom perez. the honorable tom perez joins me now from washington. good morning. >> good morning, reverend. it's great to be with you in my personal capacity. >> thank you. now, let me ask you, we've known you when you were in the justice department leading civil rights, we've known you as president obama's secretary of labor. why do you want to be the head of the democratic national committee, tom? >> you know, reverend sharpton, this is one of those where are

you moments in american history. we're at a fork in the road. this is -- with donald trump about to take the white house, this is a battle for the heart and soul of our nation, who we are as a nation. i've been a fighter for progressive values my entire life, and after this election, after the shock wore off, i asked myself, how can i make a difference? that's been a question that's animated my entire adult professional life. how do i make a difference in the lives of folks who are the underdogs living in the shadows? and i think that the head of the democratic national committee has never been more important than it is right now. we need someone who can inspire people. we need someone who can speak to every stakeholder in the party. we need someone who can take the fight to donald trump and we need someone -- >> let me press you right there. >> sure. >> because you say that it's an important position, but many people feel the democratic party's no longer important, that we fell short in the campaign, that we didn't reach a

lot of people, we abandoned some of the base. how are you going to make the democratic party relevant to democrats again? >> absolutely, by getting comeback to basics. my roots are in local organizing. we've got to organize and organize and organize, reverend sharpton. we overlook that. organizing is not going to a church every fourth october and saying vote for me. we've got to build a 50-state strategy, plus the territories, plus the district of columbia. we've got to invest in the long haul. i want the democratic party to be the party of ideas, the party of innovation, the best organizers in the country. i want them to be coming to the democratic party. i want every state to have that ability to recruit candidates so that we can make sure that this party is not a party of the east coast and the west coast, it's a party everywhere. that's what we have to do. >> you know, when i look, tom, at the election results from the general election, and i see, i

believe less than 15,000 votes could have moved michigan another way. >> right. >> i mean, that should be embarrassing to the democratic party. that if you've got a city like detroit and you couldn't come up with another 15,000 votes, and it goes on and on and on. it was some of these key electoral votes -- now, mrs. clinton got 2.8 million more of the popular vote than trump, but in some of the electoral states, it was a matter of lack of connection and organization. i mean, what's wrong with the party? >> absolutely. well, we need a party that's robust in all 50 states. we need to invest. when i first got in this race, my first conversation was with the state party chairs, because i firmly believe that we succeed only insofar as we build a strong party in every state. and by building a strong party, i mean we have to be well organized. we have to do persuasion. i'm a big believer in data

analytics, but there's no substitute for persuasion, getting out there, going to that kitchen table, understanding what keeps people up at night, making sure that we have good organizers who are listening, making sure that 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 at voter suppression -- we don't have a director of voter empowerment at the dnc, and if i have the privilege of being elected, we will have one, because -- >> we don't have a director of voter empowerment at the dnc? >> that is correct. >> in the middle of this fight around voting rights? >> that is correct, and that's why we have to change this, and i know we can. we need to make sure that we're out there doing the persuasion, whether it was detroit or whether it's rural america. howard county, iowa, where president obama won by over 20 points and donald trump won by

20 points. and so, we've got to understand that voter. how do they vote for barack obama and then vote for donald trump? we've got to communicate that message. and i think it's a universal and optimistic message of inclusion and opportunity. and that's what my life has been -- >> inclusion without abandonment, though. because a lot of people, when we hear them say we want to reach out -- and i get it -- to joe the plumber that you can't take for granted the base that you're leaving. and i think that that's important. i need to ask you this before i run out of time. >> sure. >> how do you look at the proposed new secretary of labor that has been nominated by president-elect trump? his pick is andy pozner, who is the ceo of hardee's and carl's jr., who even said one time he likes automated workers. they don't file discrimination

suits. i mean, we're talking about this guy being secretary of labor. i mean, you're not here in your capacity as secretary of labor, but as a dnc candidate, dnc chair candidate, how do you look at a guy like this becoming secretary of labor? >> donald trump talked about i'm going to lift your wages, i'm going to raise your living standards. you know, the nominee for labor secretary is a plaintiff in the suit challenging our overtime rule. i believe that the minimum wage in this country needs to be $15 and we need to raise it. and you know, in states and local governments that have done it, they've moved forward. he's an opponent of raising the minimum wage. and so, when donald trump is speaking to people through his nominations, he's saying something totally different than what he said on the campaign trail, because we need to be lifting wages and having people across government who understand that we've got to help empower workers. we can't turn back the clock on

civil rights at the justice department. we can't turn back the clock on labor rights at the labor department. we can't turn back the clock on protecting our environment. we've got to move forward. and whether you live in detroit, michigan, whether you live in ferguson, whether you live in rural iowa, what i have been about all my life is opportunity, lifting you up. and that is what i hope to do if i have the privilege of being elected to dnc chair. i've been fighter all my life and i hope to take this fight to the democratic party and making sure that we can build a party that works for every person in every zip code. >> well, a fight is what they need to do, and they need to get off the mat first before they fight. the honorable tom perez. thank you for your time this morning. >> it's a pleasure to be with you. up next, a tale of two speeches -- president obama's farewell address and donald trump's first post election news

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president obama will give his farewell speech on tuesday in chicago. the president has a lot to be proud of. the economy added 156,000 jobs in december, making it the 75th consecutive month of job growth, the longest streak ever. the day after president obama's farewell address, president-elect trump says he will give his first news conference since the election. joining me now is corrine jung, national spokesperson for moveon.org, and susan del percio, republican strategist. susan, will donald trump hold a

press conference? >> very good question. >> and then what will he say? i mean, he hasn't had a press conference for a while. he certainly has to deal with the russian hack issue and his alleged connections or lack of, i'm sure he will say, to russia and his kind of, what is it, bromance that many of us feel he has with putin. but he also has to deal with what the president says on tuesday in his farewell address, and he's going to have to deal with any number of issues, including defending some of his nominees -- sessions and others. >> well, like you said, we'll first see if he actually has one. i do believe he will have one before he is president of the united states on january 21st. but that being said, i don't think he's going to attack those issues the way you just proposed them. i think really what he is going to use this as a means to show his business involvement, what he's going to kind of divest his interests from. obviously, we're not going it

see tax returns, but i think he's going to use this to explain to the american public where he is. what i also hope he is is gracious to the current president, just enough -- you know, you don't have to agree with president obama on the issues, but he was there for eight years, he's leaving, and the president-elect just should be a little gracious going into, again, trying to build some goodwill, because this is still a very divided country. >> but corrine, you know, gracious to the president, the outgoing president, who's leaving him a sound economy. >> exactly. >> an economy with job growth, an economy that clearly, he saved the auto industry and other things. i was at his farewell party the other night and he would not tell any of us what he's going to say in his farewell address, but i'm sure he will be outlining a lot of the things he achieved. do you think that the nation will have, in watching his farewell address in chicago, where he came from as a

community organizer to the president of the united states -- do you think americans even in this divided atmosphere will see it as a moment of pride to see what could happen in this country and what this president did for the country? >> i think that's exactly right. i mean, president obama is also one of the greatest orators of our time when you look at the president. and yes, he'll be going back exactly where he started. and so, i expect him to talk about, you know, saving the country from the great -- from the brink of -- pulling us back from the brink of great depression, putting millions of people on health care, saving the auto industry. and i think he'll look back and talk about that a bit. but also, we have to remember, he did this under unprecedented opposition from the republican party and without any real scandal. so, the president has a lot to be proud of. we have a lot to be proud of. and i think he'll lay that out and he might make some subtle digs on trump, but i think it will be much more about where the country is now and where

he's taken it in the last eight years. >> but where people support him, they will certainly i think share that point of view. but at the same time, he's leaving the presidency without a democratic president, without a democratic house, without a democratic senate, losing ten statehouses since he came in, gubernatorial houses, losing over 900 state legislators. so there is a lot of work to be done. and that's not to take away the fact that he is entitled to this speech and he should say whatever he wants to. >> but those are party concerns. i don't know that they're national concerns. and i think you're right, the party has a lot to answer -- >> but there is a national concern. i think we could probably all agree -- >> but his concern, though, karine, is that with all you and i and others may feel that was great that the president achieved and could have done a lot more, had he not faced this wall of obstruction that started the night of his inauguration. >> right, when they -- in d.c., yes. >> it is true, susan's point, that they're turning over the

country to a republican senate, congress, and a president who's appointed nominees who are vowing to try and erase everything president obama did, from the affordable care act to voting rights or the fight against voter suppression. i mean, we are seeing a total repudiation of most of the things president obama did by an incoming administration that has power. >> yeah, i totally agree. you just laid it out very well. i just want to touch on one thing. the speech, the farewell speech he's making, most all presidents have done it, except for i believe george bush sr. it goes back -- >> george washington. >> it goes back to george washington. >> i think he should do it. i think it's an important speech to me. >> i just want to make sure he is allowed to have this speech and he should have this speech. >> of course. >> i just want to put that out there. but i don't think the president will go away after january 20th. he's been very vocal, talking

about redistricting in 2020, and how that's important in building the party and as a national issue, as you mentioned, susan. so, he will be vocal, especially as we talk about republicans who want to repudiate everything that he's done. and so, i think that's going to be really important to see what the president's going to do. >> he's not going away, susan, as my mother used to like to say -- i don't know that he'll use the line, but every good-bye ain't gone. i think he'll say farewell, but not bye-bye. i think he'll still be very much a presence. >> absolutely, but he may step away for six months to a year, use that time to organize and decide really what issues he wants to tackle. but i think he will give some room to the incoming president. i wouldn't be surprised if he does that. and he shouldn't go on the attack right away. he should step back. he should connect with a really -- he needs to reach out to a lot of people across this country to come back with an agenda that's worth fighting for. >> i think if you're talking

about taking health care away from millions of people, deporting millions of people, he's going to have to defend -- >> yes, but he can't look like -- [ everyone talking at once ] >> well, if he does it, many of us will be defending the people that were impacted by it. >> he's not going to sit back. >> i heard you say, susan, wednesday morning's press conference by mr. trump, if he has it that he should be gracious. >> he should be. >> it's refreshing to see a word of faith on sunday morning. thank you both, though, for being with me, karine jean-pierre and susan del percio. up next, how you can help protect dr. martin luther king's dream. afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine.

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i grew up in the martin luther king movement. when i was 12, i joined his new york chapter. when i was 13, he was killed, and i have been committed to that cause ever since.

sometimes my elders had to slap me in to say that's not king-like, but what never changed was his fight around voting rights, his fight around criminal justice reform, his fight around economic fairness. that's why to do what dr. king wanted done, to celebrate his day, do something king-like. thousands of us will be in washington that saturday to kick off that weekend at 9:00 at the king monument, the monument that sits there to remind us about a dream of an american that will work for everyone and a man that gave his life for that dream. be active. do something king-like saturday. meet us in washington. and then on sunday, as senator sanders said on this show, organize locally, not around party politics, not around our divisions, but around the

principles that king stood for, which would save the soul of this country. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next sunday. now? excuse me. again? be right back. always running to the bathroom because your bladder is calling the shots? you may have oab. enough of this. we're going to the doctor.

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hey, there! good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it is 9:00 a.m. in the east, 6:00 a.m. out west, and here's what's happening right now. we've got some breaking news. a truck used as a weapon with deadly force. this time, soldiers are the target and we've got the latest developments. outrage from the family of the airport shooting suspect. the brother of esteban santiago asking why he was allowed to keep his gun after talking to the fbi. new ethics concerns looming over the trump cabinet nominees as senate confirmation hearings are set to begin. plus, the legacy of president obama and what he means to so many americans. many tell us what it was like to see himin