brian, of his first campaign, telling people that you need to get out there, you need to get involved. >> veteran white house correspondent chris jansing tonight from our chicago bureau. chris, thank you so much. we'll look for you tomorrow night. that's our report for tonight. my thanks to nicolle wallace for sitting with us last week so i could get away with my family. she'll be back with us later this week, but for now that's my broadcast for tonight. "hardball with chris matthews" featuring a surprise celebrity guest starts right now. streep targets trump. this is "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington where the action is. i come to you tonight in the aftermath of a stunning political event. it was last night's devastating critique on the public conduct

of president-elect donald trump. like meryl streep said and said with great precision what many felt and i needed to be said is that the ends don't justify the means. no matter your political intent, whether it's up in the solar system or left or right, you don't have any right to individualize anybody based on their handicap, whether it's their height or what god created. it's bullying of the worst kind, the strong mocking of the week for a factor that god has left them with. here's streep last night saying such conduct should not be forgotten nor forgiven. >> there was one performance this year that stunned me. it sank its hooks in my heart, not because it was good. there was nothing good about it. but it was effective and it did its job. it was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country

imitated a disabled reporter. this instinct to humiliate when it's modelled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful. it filters down into everybody's life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. disrespect invites disrespect. violence incites violence. when the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose. >> and here's donald trump's usual rage-filled response. quote, meryl streep, one of the most overrated actresses in hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the golden globes. she is a hillary flunkee who lost big. for the hundredth time, i've never mokd a disabled reporter but simply showed him groveling. he has a physical impairment

that affects his hands, and here's what trump said about him and showed. you be the judge. >> right after a couple good paragraphs and they're talking about northern new jersey draws the prober's eye. you got to see the reporter. i don't know what he said, i don't remember. maybe that's what i said. this is 14 years ago. they didn't do a retraction. >> now on the phone is a very special guest, someone who has been very active in politics and very concerned about the direction politics are headed in this country right now, barbra streisand. barbra, what did you think and feel when you watched meryl streep last night talk about a man who is going to be our president mock someone's disability?

>> i thought she said what she said beautifully, and it's easy enough to see the video on line of trump mocking. you just showed it, actually, and i completely agree with meryl. it was a heartbreaking moment and so beneath the dignity of the presidency, let alone any respectful person. i mean, what we need more in this world, i think, is kindness and common decency. and what he did and how he reacts and how he needs -- he had the need to talk back and insult anybody who doesn't agree with him. and that's pretty disgraceful. >> what do you make of the critique that meryl streep made last night that you can push this thing and it becomes the norm? that it's like -- daniel patrick once said you define deviancy downward, this kind of thing becomes the normal political

conversation. >> it kind of does. what's the signal to little children, you know, who watch television and see this is the behavior of the soon-to-be president of the united states, you know? little girls were heartbroken when hillary didn't get to be president. so i think it's what they see. children will listen. i sang that in a song once, you know, and they will see and they will learn. you know, i'm in the middle of having my teeth cleaned, chris. you caught me at a disadvantage. >> i'm glad you're on the phone with us. by the way, i did think it was important that donald trump has said in the very recent past that meryl streep was one of his favorite actors in the country, so certainly his reaction is --

>> that's why you can't trust anything he says, because if you get on his wrong side, he will blast you negatively. >> be prepared. >> do you understand why he had a new year's eve party but he wasn't generous enough to give that to his followers, you know, as a present? he had to charge for it? and then put that money into his club? don't you think that's a little strange? >> well, he's a mixed bag, certainly. barbra streisand, you're so great, you're a friend of mine. i'm so glad you came on shoet tonight. i kay this not just as cultural news or pop culture news, because i felt like you did, that meryl streep said what needed to be said. >> she's a wonderful actress and that he had to denigrate her talent because she spoke out -- as a matter of fact, why isn't he sitting through briefings rather than tweeting this

nonsense and in a rating war with arnold schwarzenegger? i don't know how we're going to take, you know, four years of this. >> we're going to have to. barbra streisand, thank you so much for your long-time -- >> can i go back to getting my teeth cleaned? >> yes, thank you. thank you. i didn't expect all that information, but she's great. anyway, senior political reporter harvey, jenna. i watched the thing last night and i was like a big wind-up. she's talking about trump and she's talking about that awful thing he said about that reporter, and he did physically make fun of the guy and everybody knows it. >> and that was why that stood out and really should have stood out more during the campaign, because chris, one of the first front page stories i did for usa

today is whether trump is actually a clinical bully. because so many people had these feelings about him. what i found was that while in most cases he's not because he's picking a fight with co-equals, people who have some kind of social status, in the case of this disabled reporter -- >> lion's head, crooked hillary. >> it's abuse of someone with less power. this reporter is someone with less power, and that's why people felt this is bullying. the bigger societal question is why so many people in our culture were drawn to this type of behavior feeling like it's strength. >> why do people go to bullies? to vote for him. why did trump feel like he had to do his usual narcissistic rage number here and go back at her when it was over. it was a television show. move on. >> donald trump cares about his image more than any politician i've ever seen, which means a

lot. having spent time in his office, for example, he's got so many awards to himself but not enough wall space to put them on that they're all stacked up on his couch. there is no place to sit because he's got so many awards. now, in terms of speaking as a bully, having gone to his rallies, he said at his rallies, i am your voice. let me be your voice. i am the voice of the voiceless. i am the voice of the silent majority. but those people, i give them enough credit to have not voted for him to pick on a guy like surge kovalesky. they wanted him to be the bully against the chinese and the mexican criminals, so forth and so on. they didn't want him to bully a defenseless person like that. >> anyway, donald trump called meryl streep overrated, but janice, when you interviewed the future president back in august of 2015, not a million years ago, you asked him who his favorite actresses are, he told

you, quote, julia roberts is terrific, and meryl streep is excellent. she's a fine person, too. closed quote. he changes. he fwets rough. >> one of the things i thought about today, and i was in the room with the golden globes, how much this must have insulted him. this was someone who was the toast of the golden globes in 2007 when he attended with melania. i was looking at photos this afternoon. he was with alex baldwin, he was with jeff sooker, he was at the universal party. he was on top as host and executive producer of "the apprentice." he loves hollywood. way back in august of 2015 when i interviewed him, we were his first magazine cover. think about that, the hollywood reporter. this is a community that he loves and has for many, many years loved him back. and i think that rejection by the finest actress in hollywood, the finest actor in hollywood, there's no disputing that, had to really have stung. meryl streep has so much

gravitae. she is so beyond the real deal. this isn't johnny depp, this is meryl streep. to have this go on in this room, the psychic pain was probably overwhelming. >> you can say what you want about meryl streep whether you like her or not, you cannot say she's not great. she plays different people. she plays -- ann winter was unbelievable in "the devil wears prada." liking, disliking, rooting for the young girl rooting against her. last week chuck schumer calling him a clown. that's pretty strong. last month he attacked a local union boss who took issue with some of trump's statements on jobs as doing, quote, a terrible job.

>> if you look at his wife, she was standing there. she had nothing to say. maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. >> she was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. >> take a look. you take a look. look at her, look at her words. you tell me what you think. i don't think so. she gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. >> this guy bush, he's like low energy, right? >> lyin' ted and little marco. as i say, crooked hillary. crazy bernie. he's a crazy man. i was being hit by pocahontas. that's elizabeth warren. i said, mitt cannot run. he choked like a dog.

and he walks like a penguin onto the stage. have you ever seen -- like a penguin! >> well, let's divide this. a person's character, i guess, in politics today certainly is fair game. you can talk about, if you want, lion's head, crooked hillary. to get into these things about the guy being short like little marco or the guy having a physical defect, or, you know, even the penguin. i have to tell you it's hilariously awful, but it's awful. he's gaining political strength by bullying people with their sort of birth defects, if you will. >> like i said before, it's so perplexing. >> why would people vote for a guy that's a bully? >> they're drawn to that. part of it is our primitive -- going back to our primitive instinct of heirarchical power and that's why it's so upsetting to so many people. we're going to look back at the republicans' cynical

strategy of just saying no. now democrats may be using that playbook for the next four years. this is "hardball."

welcome back in "hardball." i want to read this statement. this is from the house ethics manual. federal law at usc 3110 generally prohibits a federal official, including a member of congress, for appointing or recommending for appointment or promotion any relative of the official to any agency or department over which the official exercises authority or control. the statute defines a relative for those purposes as an individual who is related to the public official as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepsister,

stepbrother or half sister. with only 11 days left in president obama's term, some will look back at his service as inspirational and historical. polls show that roughly or nearly 57% of americans agree and view president obama positively. his job approval rating was recently at 56%. so he's cruising in the high 50s. but don't forget he was accused of being a liar, a despot, a king, and the end did not come soon enough. >> he wants to say i'm not legal.

not true. >> our political priority in the next two years should be to deny president obama a second term. >> he thinks he can just win what he wants and go around congress. we don't have kings. >> i ask president obama not to divide us further by acting like an imperial president. >> and trump comes along and says birth certificate. he gave a birth certificate. whether or not that was a real certificate, because a lot of people question it -- i certainly question it. >> anyway, the gop threw up road blocks, and according to robert draper, on the first night of his inauguration, strategists got together and figured out a way to put the brakes on obama's agenda. they said, quote, the republicans had agreed on a way to show united and unyielding opposition to the president's

ideas. win the spear point of the house in 2010. jab obama relentlessly in 2011. this topic is kind of unpleasant. it says basically we're going to undermine the guy, accuse him of being an illegal immigrant, and as trump would say, nobody knew him in school. trump kept that up until like a week before we get into the fall, then he sort of skipped away from it one friday afternoon. nobody else has been treated like that as president in our lifetime. nobody has gotten that screwing. your thoughts. >> well, the election and reelection of president barack obama suggests much about the possibilities of this country. but it does not ignore this country's present and its past. what that means is we are yet

wrestling with our racial demons. so where your politicians call into question not his birth certificate but his citizenship, and as a consequence, his legitimacy. in so doing, they're not calling into question merely his legitimacy in terms of being president but our legitimacy, the legitimacy of african-americans as citizens of this republic. and that is not a new story in this country. it is a longstanding story in this country. so the way he's been treated has been a matter of not only personal disrespect but racial, categorical disrespect and only with respect to african-americans. let me note this. but disrespect to our country. because when president trump puts his hand on the bible and takes the oath, he then becomes our president. president barack obama was our president a full eight years, everyone's. >> thank you, cornell william brooks. when we return, i will finish with trump watch. this is "hardball."

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trump watch, january 9, 2017. like many last night, i watched meryl streep talk about donald trump. she did it well. is it okay for a public figure to make fun of the way god made someone? every night here when i'm thinking about what i should say, how i should approach this job of covering the next president, i think about that. should i go after him like a bully like miss streep did last night and let that guide everything i say about him? should i impune him as a person? should i be like the nuns? i didn't want to be like a nun. the guy is a mixed bag. i like what he said about building the country up, about infrastructure, more of it. i agree that we don't have effective control in the nation. most of the nation is devastated

by international policies, including trade. that being said, i'm not going to let him get away with talking about illegal immigrants and mocking the disabled. i like to think meryl streep wants human decency. i've said it all along. we need a good man, especially a good man sitting in abraham lincoln's seat. we'll be back tomorrow night. see you then. un-stop right there!

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>> son-in-law-turned-trump senior adviser. the implications of jared kushner's new white house job. >> confirmation is going great. and the all-night action to save obamacare with the leader of the democrats. senator chuck schumer and senator cory booker. and is this really why democrats lost? >> there was one performance this year that stunned me. >> the conservative bubble and meryl streep when "all in" starts right now. >> somebody like meryl streep is also inciting people's worst instincts. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes.