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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  February 2, 2017 12:00pm-1:01pm PST

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donald trump meeting with executives from harley-davidson motorcycles. they have long manufactured their bikes in the united states. white house press secretary sean spicer said he will discuss how it will be easier to create more jobs in the u.s. earlier today president trump said nothing is off the table when he was asked about possible military action against iran. this comes after president trump and his national security adviser said that they are putting iran, quote, on notice over iran test-firing a missile. we are following the latest from uc-berkeley after violent protests erupted last night over a scheduled speech by controversial breitbart editor. the speech was canceled. the university said fires were set, commercial-grade fireworks were thrown at police. president trump is speaking out about the news, talking about withholding federal funds from uc-berkeley. we'll bring you a full report on that later on in the show. let's begin with a very busy afternoon at the white house. for the latest, i want to bring in my colleague, hallie jackson.
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hallie, you actually asked white house press secretary sean spicer for more information, among other things, about that yemen raid on sunday. what did we learn about that? >> reporter: yeah, interesting because the yemen raid that happened over the weekend isn't necessarily the big driving headline of the day. there are pleasant of those, as we've been talking about all day, from foreign policy on iran, australia, mexico. this is something that came up after president trump talked about the family he had with family of chief owens, the american service member killed in that raid. there were some questions about the planning of this. as you heard from hans nichols, we wanted to find out more about what you call the tick tock. here's what sean spicer had to say. >> it's a fairly common practice for the treasury department after sanctions are put in place, to go back and to look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve-out -- >> language on theasdepartment t you are, in fact, easing
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sanctions, authorizing certain transactions with federal security service. does that not suggest a shift from -- >> no, what i explained, regular course of action. >> reporter: so, that was not sean spicer talking about the yemen raid, as we thought. when he did give the tick tock, he ran down the planning had been in the works for months prior to president trump taking office. instead, we just heard from sean spicer with some discussion over the iranian sanctions -- excuse me, the sanctions against the fsb, the modification, kate, let's call them that. i want to make sure i get my language correct here. those familiar -- experts who are familiar with this particular action describe it as a technical fix, essentially, that allows u.s. exports to enter into russia more easily. that said, it does deal with the fsb. anything it does is going to make headlines, of course, the former kgb. we expect to get more information. saun spicer directed us to the treasury department. we expect to get more
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information in the next hour, kate, about what exactly this means. in addition, the signal it is sending to russia given the relationship that president trump and russian vladimir putin have had or talked about having over the course of trump's campaign. i think that's why you have a lot attention on this first action, technical as it may be, with russia. >> and, hallie, to take a steb back for a second, this all happened because this afternoon we got word that treasury had made a change and people thought at first it might be a very significant change. >> reporter: exactly. >> a reversal of the sanctions against russia, right? >> reporter: yeah. turns out that is not the case. that does not appear to be the case at this point. certainly not from the sanctions against russia, for example, the actions in crimea for the u.s. intelligence assessment of the interference in the election. this has been one where there has been some -- there have been some questions on clarity and what it means. you heard sean spicer kick it back over to treasury handling this. the interesting part is the secretary of the treasury,
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incoming one, presumably steve mnuchin, so there is a lot happening as the administration tries to get its cabinet figured out. we've been talking about the action on the hill. it's still a big story here in the d.c. >> we'll get to that as well. hallie jackson starting us off at the white house. thank you as always. for more on the u.s. response to iran's missile test, i want to bring in admiral james, diplomacy analyst and head dean at fletcher school at tufts university. nice to see you again. i joked the other day we're making this a habit. three days straight now we've caught up? >> my pleasure, kate. there's a lot going on. >> there's a lot going on. and you are well versed in a lot of the subject matter that's coming up at the white house right now. i want to talk about iran first. they asked the president directly if military action against iran was off the table. and the president's answer was, nothing is off the table.
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as former supreme allied commander of nato, when you hear that, you think what? >> i think that the pgt is in the midst of preparing a series of options. let's back up a bit. what we saw just the other day was mike flynn, general mike flynn, come out and say, iran, you're on notice. >> that was just yesterday, by the way. >> he did not draw any red lines -- exactly. so, now what is happening is a series of options, kate, which will probably start with diplomatic action to economic action to cyber, to special operations. all the way up to violent strike. that set of options will come to the white house. that's when we need to have a strategy. it's one thing to have a file cabinet full of options, picking the strategy is the hard part. that's what's coming. >> republicans have praised this today as a hard line, taking a strong stance. as a military guy, how do you
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read it? >> i think that's correct. and here i'm going to take you to the persian gulf where we've seen a whole series of incidents of irani maritime assets, takin our soldiers hostage, coming close to our ships, firing shots. that behavior has to stop. i think the administration is correct in taking a hard line against that, when you couple it with the launch of the ballistic missile. i think it is time to put iran on notice. we have to build a strategy not just say they're on notice. >> let's switch to australia. the white house spokesman saying president trump was extremely upset with the deal, as he called it, made in the obama administration, which allows 1200 or so refugees to a reply for status to come from island camps in the pacific and resettle in the united states. he was disappointed. he thought it was a, quote, horrible deal.
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why did the u.s. under president obama make this deal or this arrangement in the first place? >> kate, it's part of a broad strategy for the united states to back up our allies so that when germany, for example, takes in a million refugees, which they have over the last couple of years, kind of stands to reason that we would take in at least a few thousand. australia is dealing with tens of thousands of pacific refugees. it's part of an alliance structure where we try and share burdens. i don't think it was an unreasonable number at all. as long as the people are undergoing the vetting properly, i think it was appropriate. and i hope the deal ultimately goes through. the australians stand with us. >> i think people maybe forget about the military alliance that we have. they are contributing great numbers of personnel to some of the joint operations we're involved with. >> indeed, they are.
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and when i was supreme allied commander and had responsibility for afghanistan, i would often visit the troops, the australian troops in afghanistan. a very, very tough neighborhood. they took a lot of casualties, a lot killed in action. remember, their population is a tenth of ours. they have stood with us, not only there but throughout with blood and treasure. we owe them balance in that relationship. we should keep that in mind. >> so the blunt phone call s what one senior administration official told hallie jackson it was, a blunt phone call the president had with the australian prime minister and this notion throughout the day today that president has said, i'm going to look at this again and, you know, indicating they may rethink this deal to offer refuge to these folks, these 1200 people. what does that mean for the relationship with our key ally? >> i think we have damaged it, but not broken it. i think it's worth noting that
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our new secretary of state, rex tillerson, walks into this and i assume he was thinking he'd be dealing with iran and russia, north korea. instead, we've got some mending of fences to do, not only with australia, one of our key pacific ally, but evidently with mexico as well. so, we've got work to do on our friend side of the base, even before we work on the opponents we have to deal with. >> admiral james stavridis, always great to have your perspective. thanks so much. >> thanks, kate. for five straight days now, fighting between russian-backed separatists and ukrainian troops has been growing more intense. this is the largest offensive by russian-backed forces in months with civilians often caught in the middle. nbc's foreign correspondent lucy cavanaugh is tracking all of that from london. the u.s. state department calling for a return to a cease-fire. what's the likelihood of that? >> hey, kate.
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certainly a question asked by civilians called in the cross fire. these are the deadliest clashes since december. not clear what led to the escalation but both sides pointing the finger of blame at one another. the reality is this war has become something of a lef reg point, certainly for russia, and to some extent kiev, too. ukrainians are concerned about washington's softer point to russia. they can point to this theory that the kremlin can't be trusted by washington. for russia th is cou be a signal to washington that moscow is the real power-holder in this region and the u.s. needs to offer concessions if it wants peace in ukraine. was the announcement we heard out of the white house today a concession? not according to the white house. one thing, though, that's worth noting is a return to a full-blown war does not necessarily benefit russia. president trump already floated the idea of lifting sanctions. we have today's announcement.
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if this heavy fighting continues, this could force president trump's hand in a way that hurts moscow. we heard from sean spicer today. he insists there's been no shift in policy toward russia but there have been some signs to the contrary. you mentioned the state department calling for a cease-fire but it was interesting to look at the language in the statement they issued. no criticism of russia. to direct criticism of the separatists, which is a stark departure from the way in which the state department responded to these kind of things in the past. a sign, perhaps, that america's approach towards russia could be heading in a new direction. as far as what's happening in ukraine, will the fighting enter the -- its sixth day tomorrow, the outcome is going to be very telling. >> lucy, thank you. up next, the state of virginia intervenes in the fight against president trump's immigration ban. joining a lawsuit suing trump and his administration over the executive order. the commonwealth is calling it unlawful and unconstitutional. virginia's governor is going to join me right after a quick break.
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plus, later in the hour, i'll be joined by katie couric, our old friend hosting a ground-breaking new documentary chronicling the gender revolution, exploring the complexities of gender in our lives. >> i had to grieve bill. it took me a year to do that. and kate gave me that time that i needed. it was very important to her that she was not go forward with a transition until i was comfortable with it. and this was something that we were going to do together. i just woke up one morning after praying about it and asking for guidance, and i woke up one morning and i said, okay, i'm ready. let's do it. burns its way into your day... ...i hear you. when that pain makes simple errands simply unbearable... ...i hear you. i hear you because my dad struggled with this pain. make sure your doctor hears you too. so folks, don't wait. step on up. and talk to your doctor.
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this order is unlawful,
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unconstitutional, and unamerican. action is required. >> virginia attorney general mark herring announcing virginia would join a lawsuit against president trump's executive order that targets immigrants. the lawsuit was originally filed by lawyers representing a pair of brothers from yemen and dozens of others detaed at dulles international airport northern virginia last weekend, a detention that sparked protests at the airport. governor mcauliffe addressed the protests that night and joins me. last night there were court documents filed in this case that the state of virginia joined. it indicated maybe you're working to resolve this or segments out of court. can you tell us about the status of the lawsuit? >> well, we've heard just -- we've heard through the grapevine these two individuals who, as you know, their papers
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were invalidated and sent out of the country at their own expense. we're being told, we can't validate it, but we're being told the u.s. government is trying to bring them back into the country, which would moot the lawsuit. saturday i was informed there was a family at dulles airport in virginia, no access to a lawyer, no information. so i called the attorney general and said, let's get up to the airport. we demanded to know some answers to the questions. we found out there were two children with u.s. passports. so, this is a much broader issue, kate. this is not the america we know. the value system that our nation has been founded upon. and i'm very concerned about the actions that have been taken. it was put together very quickly. the borders customs folks, the dhs on saturday were clueless to be able to answer our questions. why were these people not given access to lawyers? it is unconstitutional it violates the first amendment, the fifth amendment. it goes counter to the
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establishment clause, the due process clause, the equal protection clause. we in virginia have filed suit. i'm very concerned, kate, what this will do to our nation. as you know, i'm very concerned about how it affects national security. i think isis is now using this as a tool for recruitment. i'm very concerned about what it's doing to our economy. i have already been informed of site visitsto virginia that now have been canceled because people are scared. not from those seven countries. this is affecting muslims all over the globe. i just got back from a treated mission to oman, to kuwait, uae, qatar. these countrieses have major u.s. military bases and they are not going to take the risk of coming to the united states of america. so i think it is going to have a crippling effect on our economy. further, i'm worried about higher education. we have some of the best institutions in the globe, university of virginia, virginia tech. i talked to one of those presidents today. a student cannot get back into this country. we have faculty, students all over the globe.
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they're not able to come back and they're not going to leave this country. so, this is clearly unconstitutional. we cannot tolerate it. 236 years ago right here in virginia, in yorktown, virginia, we ended the tierney of one king. 236 years later we're not allowing another king in this country. it was ill-conceived, it was rushed and he needs to reverse this executive order. >> let me ask about what president trump said today at the prayer breakfast this morning. he was referencing the phone calls, apparently referencing reports of his calls with mexican president and australian prime minister that had to deal with the refugee issue. here's what he said in terms of being tough on immigration and refugees. >> we have seen unimaginable violence carried out in the name of religion. acts of wonton slaughter, horrors of a scale that defy description. terrorism is a fundamental threat to religious freedom.
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it must be stopped and it will be stopped. may not be pretty for a little while. it will be stopped. >> so, it may not be pretty for a little while, but this is what we have to go through, is their argument, in order to be a safe country. >> you know, kate, we have vetting in our country. we've done a very good job in this country. we don't want anyone to come to this country who will do harm. and under eight years of president obama, we did extensive vetting to protect the folks, to protect the folks that live in this country. all of a sudden, donald trump gets into the white house and all he is doing, i'll be very clear, he's hurting our economy, he's instilling fear with people, and he is inspiring those exact individuals and groups of individuals who want to do harm to this country. so, his rhetoric and his talk is very counterproductive. we are a nation of immigrants. unless you are native american, but in 1607 when those three trips came from england, they
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came here to jamestown, virginia. they were not turned away. we have been built by immigrants. he has got to stop this rhetoric and talk. he is talking down erica. i've had eugh listening to him talk down erica. clearly, after four years of president trump, the slogan make america great again, it's going to be so true. we are great today but i'm very concerned about his actions, what it has done to this nation and will continue to do. he needs to reverse his action. immigrants have built this country. he does not have instances where all of a sudden these people are flooding into the country because we have a good system in place to protect the united states of america. and it has worked for years here. >> virginia governor terry mcauliffe, nice to have you with us. >> thank you. coming up, after reports th th that president trump threatened to send troops after bad hombres. now the white house saying this
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a u.s. official is pushing back on a on the phone call between the president trump and mexican president nieto. the ap says president trump says he warned nieto he was about to send troops to stop bad hombres. they said the president was being light-hearted and the president never threatened to bring in the military. i want to bring in gadi schwartz down on the bored in nogales, arizona, talking to folks who live near the border. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, kate, incredibly, we just saw somebody jumping over the fence. they came over to the united states and they came back over. in fact, i asked him to talk to us. eas he's on the other side. we wanted to ask about the bad
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hombre comment. i'm going to do a little translation. he doesn't want us to show his face. he came to the united states and then jumped back over. i want to ask him about what president trump said about bad hombres. [ speaking spanish ] what do you think of that? [ speaking spanish ] he says they're lies. people aren't coming over to hurt people. people are coming over to better their lives and basically trying to get work. [ speaking spanish ] what do you think about trump sending over the military possibly to mexico? [ speaking spanish ]
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he says the drug war is never going to end. he says it's not going to work. he says that the cartels are doing that to feed their families. [ speaking spanish ] how long did it take you to jump the fence? [ speaking spanish ] five, six seconds to get over it. [ speaking spanish ] and he says that they cross back over very quickly as well. do you think a wall will stop it? [ speaking spanish ] he says that until the united states helps mexico and gets mexico some jobs, this is going to continue. he says it's never going to stop. that's one of the opinions we've heard. that's down at the border crossing where people were crossing legally, they had
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papers. we did find some support for donald trump. one woman says she thinks the mexican drcartels are out of control. they doesn't trust knee tnieto. we've also talked to people who are absolutely horrified by the idea. they say that it is an overreach. they say that it is completely out of the question and they think it would escalate the situation between the united states and mexico. so, those are just some of the opinions you're hearing out there. again, this man right here, he jumped over the border, went back over. he says that's never going to stop, wall or not. >> gadi, so interesting to get that sort of live perspective from someone who just tried to cross. thank you so much. i want to reiterate our reporting on this. from a u.s. official. that this comment made by president trp apparento the president of mexico on a phone call was made, they said, in a light-hearted way, not a serious way. it was more of a joke.
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just to note that. coming up, we are going to hear from the trump opposition. leaders from the media to government to civil rights to social justice. how are they planning on standing up to an administration in washington that they so vehemently oppose? which battles are they going to fight? our chris jansing joins me with that right after a quick break. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing.
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almost half of all americans think president trump is moving too fast in addressing problems facing this country, that according to a new poll out today from gallup. 35%, a little more than a third, think he's been moving at about the right pace. 10% say he has not moved fast enough. nbc's chris jansing spoke to a roundtable of leaders from various groups who are generally opposed to president trump. >> the trump opposition. >> about what they do in light of the last, what, 12 days. 13 days? >> they're worried about the whiplash. they're worried about -- there are so many things, so many
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people are opposing that they won't focus, they won't take this energy we've seen on the streets every single day since the inauguration. there's been some sort of anti-trump protest. so, the conversation is, what do you do with that? here's part of the conversation with people who are in the trenches every day. >> we have mr. chaos in the white house. someone who is impulsive, someone who is badly throughout through, surrounded by people who are amateur hour. >> so much has been coming at you. it's been coming so fast that it's hard for folks to stay on what's important first. >> f democrats in congress, in partic, how much do they fight? do they fight every single one of these things? >> i would say not myself fight on the judge, personally. i would say save your pow toert next judge and focus on refugee, on immigration. >> does everybody agree with that? >> the supreme court is really, really important, particularly those fighting in the racial justice space.
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>> can you just pick the fights you win? >> you can't just pick the fights you can win because that's based on being opportunistic, not in being organic and true to your values. >> i would agree with that. if the aclu only brought cases we were sure we were going to win, there wouldn't be that many cases. >> you look at jeff sessions being attorney general of this country, and go back to racial justice, we're scared. betsy devos, major problems in terms of education. we have no choice but to resist in multiple spaces at once. >> the other thing that's coming out here is a question about managing expectations because i think it's critical that we not sort of collapse every time there's a setback. because this is a long haul kind of thing. >> if you look at every critical civil or human rights vick toir in this country, it was a loser. it was a loser in the polls. it may have lost in the courts. it may have lost at the legislature. but we persevered against life
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threatening and life-taking events and we won. >> we can't just lay down without showing opposition. at least it's on the record that we stood up. >> i think what you're seeing now at a grassroots level are people who haven't been active, who feel threatened, coming out to have their voices heard. as the establishment democrats need to step up, hear that, amplify that. >> i didn't hear anything you say you're depending on congress. >> no, no. >> we kissed them off a lng time ago. >> so interesting. i've heard a lot of people say to me, you know, is there a clearing house for opposition? is there a place to go to kind of funnel that activity? >> that's what they talked about. they say they're not worried about not one sxral message, because like we've been talking, we're only a couple weeks into this. for them they do think they need to start to have a narrative. that narrative they want to put around the real life stories. who is this affecting? put a face to what they think the destructive nature of these
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policies are. what we are seeing for sure is groups that never worked together coming together, but the question is, will there be one big person, one big thing that leads them in the direction they want to go. they acknowledge the problem with congress is, for democrats, they just don't have the numbers. >> right. chris jansing, thanks so much. you can't have a conversation about those opposing trump without inviting senate democrats to the conversation. joining me now, snore jeanne shaheen of new hampshire. thanks for being with us on a busy afternoon. >> nice to be with you. >> you tweeted this afternoon, senator, you wrote, president trump derides our close partners and allies but remains silent on russian aggression in ukraine and poisoning/deaths of putin opponents. you've credit sidesed his cabinet picks, his executive orders. what concerns you most about this president? what keeps you up at night? >> that he doesn't seem to appreciate his words as president, his tweets, that
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they're taken seriously not just by people in the united states but around the world. he doesn't care what his actions mean to people. just as his executive orders over the weekend and the numbers of people affected by those executive orders, who are going to be harmed by the executive orders. i think there is no appreciation for that. and for how -- how antithetical to american values they are and how incompetent ently they were impmented. >> can you ask you about australia. the white house saying their only concern is their safety and security of this country. >> well, president trump has consistently attacked our allies. he has dissed them in very many
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ways. on this deal with australia, this is something that i think nobody -- president obama, nobody who represents this country would do any kinds of deals that they thought was harmful. so, i don't think that's the issue. i think he's again consistently anti-immigrant. it's unfortunate because we have so many people who have fled the syrian conflict. and the refugees that are coming into this country are vetted by multiple entities outside of the united states before they ever get to the united states. they're women, they're children, they're primarily disabled. and so they pose very little threat to america. >> senator jeanne shaheen, democrat from new hampshire. we know we have to let you get to your next appointment. thank you very much. violent protests erupt at uc-berkeley concerning a speech
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because no one kills germs better than clorox. we have new developments on that violent protest overnight on the campus of uc-berkeley. authorities say agitators joined what was a nonviolent demonstration against a planned appearance by breitbart news editor milo yiannopoulos. his critics say he makes commence about minorities. president trump responded today by threatening to cut off federal funds to the university. . tweeting, if uc-berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on people with different point of views, no federal funds? republic barbara lee fired back, president trump does not have the right to blackmail a university. joe, a new statement out from the university?
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>> the university is basically blaming this destructive behavior on a small group of people, more than 100 people, who were wearing all black and using what the school calls paramilitary tactics. in a statement the university says, uc-berkeley condemns in the strongest possible terms of actions the individuals who invaded the campus, infiltrated a crowd of peaceful students and used violent tactics to close down a talk by milo yiannopoulos. we deeply regret that the violence undermined by this group. now, last night the university felt it had to cancel an appearance by him after protests turned violent. windows were broken, there were reports of fist fights and students were forced to shelter in place for a time last night while police tried to get everything under control.
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yiannopoulos posted on fay book saying the violence was not in protest to his ideas. this happened last month at another uc school, uc-davis. as you mentioned, the president weighed in on this, bringing up the possibility of cutting funds to berkeley. in response to that, california's lieutenant governor garch newsom took to twitter saying, as a uc regent i'm appalled at your willingness to deprive over 38,000 students access to education because of the actions of a few. uc receives millions of dollars from the federal government, direct toward research, student aid and health care. as for the protests, the university said it went to extraordinary lengths to try to make sure the speech did happen. in the end they felt it wasn't safe so they ended up canceling it a couple hours before that speech was supposed to take
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place. >> joe, thank you. coming up, sean spicer today asked about the possibility of an executive order on what the white house called religious freedom. what that would mean for the lbgtq community. kate couric joining us on the preview of a phenomenal new documentary called "gender revolution." no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. luckily, the geico insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance. everything stolen was replaced. and the hooligan who lives down the lane was caught selling the stolen goods online. visit geico.com and see how easy it is to switch and save on renters insurance.
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vanessa and j.r. have two kids. eli is 6 and ron any is 5. both born male but at the age of 4, their youngest son told them she was a girl. >> when they were in preschool, her and her brother would dress up in costumes and dresses and whatever they wanted. >> many little boys did that. they played, they played princees. by the time ronny was 4, tt was gone. that wasn't a part of who he was. >> with ronny it was a phase. >> with ronny it was a phase. with eli we had a different kid
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when that dress was on. >> that is just part of national geographic's new documentary "gender revolution" which seeks to explore the complexities of the transgender communities here in america and abroad. you saw journalist katie couric takes viewers on that journey along with her. she's here now. nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> i stayed up late watching it last night and i was riveted by this documentary. part of it is you are taking us along on a learning curve, right? i think a lot of people don't really understand gender identity. >> right. i started out the documentary by talking about the fact that i grew up in a very by binary world, it was girl, boy, pink, blue. for people it's hard to wrap their heads around this new definition of gender and how gender is on a spectrum and
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intersex i explore because that gives us the underpinnings to the biology of gender. i wanted to understand these new concepts myself. i take viewers along as i sorts who are at the epicenter of this changing world. >> and parents too. that was sort of other theme. >> right. as we saw, the fords right there. they have a daughter named ellie. >> which you do as well, right? >> we just saw her transgender little girl. at 8 years old she said i am a girl in my heart and brain even though she was born biologically a boy. there are parents all over the country who are dealing with this. they're parents in your kids' schools probably, in many elementary, junior high and high schools across the country. >> you mentioned the community of kids who are born with what they call inter-sex. >> right. >> you look at the decisions parents have to make about surgery and intervention, because the thinking on that in
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the medical community has shifted. >> right. it's starting to shift. i still think their standard operating procedure among many surgeons and hospitals across the country when a baby is born inter-sex, that is with quote-unquote ambiguous genitalia, oftentimes to normalize them, they'll have surgical intervention at a very young age. 11 months. inter-sex activists think it's mutu[ muted ] al ating surgery. and it's not a decision the doctor should make for a child. >> i want to play another clip if we can. this is a couple who you meet who had been married for 45 years. they had two kids. and the husband at the time tells his wife, i want to transition to living as a fee meal. >> an orthopedic surgeon. he does tell her late in life,
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as you said, close to the age of 70. he has felt like a woman his entire life. >> i said, i don't know how to tell you this, but all my life i have believed i am a woman and i'm female. and that i am therefore transgendered. i looked at her, and she started crying. and i thought, now what do i do? you have to understand, all my life i believed my life would end the moment another person discovered this. so here i am sharing this secret, but i am thinking, now she is starting to cry and i am thinking, this is it. it is over. she said, well if you told me you had cancer and were going to die, how would i deal with that? if you told me you were gay and have affection for men, i have nothing against that but where would i fit into that picture. you still love me and she said yes. >> what did you learn.
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>> i've always been fascinated by the partner of these people, when they make the decision, how it affects them as a couple. what a learned from linda was that she loved her husband and now loves what i guess people would call her wife. i asked her quite directly, does this mean you are a lesbian? does it change your sexual orientation? >> one think this documentary points out is sexual identity and gender identity are separate things. one has nothing to do with the other. >> i have to ask you about the climate right now, what you may have heard from all the people you'veeen interacting with in the lgq community. it came up at the press briefing at the white house this morning they might pass an order with what the white house calls religious freedom. there is concern in the community, people you talked to in this documentary about how this administration sees them. >> i think there is a lot of fear, concern, nervousness and
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anxiety. there is a lawsuit on the transgender bathrooms coming up later this year. i think the movement is pretty galvanized thanks to social media and support from a lot of different families. they are letting their voices be heard, and i think that the genie can't be put back into the bottle in terms of these people are here, they need to be integrated into society and they're going to make their voices heard whatever happens. >> did you find yourself understanding the other point of view? because you raised it a couple of times in the documentary. >> yes. >> that there are people out there who think this is all kind of political correctness run amok. >> i tried to channel and be a proxy for viewers who may not be familiar with the topic. but we do the science aspect as well, kate. there are real biological factors that play into gender
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identity. androgens or testosterone in utero when the brain is being wired. this is a real thing. it's not like, oh, i think i'll change gender, it sounds like that would be fun. this is an agonizing decision for children, parents and adults. as you know, kate, from your reporting, the suicide rate among transgendered individuals is 41%. this is really a public health issue and a matter of life and death for these families. so, you know, i try to ask questions and inquire, hearing the voices of people who didn't feel comfortable with this. but i think it's a fact of life, as i said. and you know, i think that people need to get accustomed and be more accepting and tolerant -- >> and learn about it. >> -- of people who may be different. when push comes to shove as you saw, they're all just people trying to do the best they can for their kids, to love and
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protect them and support them. >> i would encourage people to watch the documentary because i think it is very educational. katie, thank you so much. great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> global anchor at yahoo news. you can tune into the education channel monday night at 6:00. >> tonight chris matthews hosting a special live town hall in washington, d.c., about president trump's first days in office. chri explores how president trump's aggressive agenda is already reshaping life in america from his supreme court nomination to the protests in the wake of his executive actions. don't miss it. power and the presidency. tonight. 7:00 p.m. eastern only on msnbc. or fill a big order
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tomorrow. 3:00 eastern, noon pacific. you can find me on snapchat. i just snapped with katie couric on twitter and instagram. up next, steve kornacki. good afternoon. live, day 13 of the first 100 days. topping the agenda, dumb deals. >> we're taking advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. it's not going to happen anymore. it's not going to happen anymore. >> donald trump's very unorthodox foreign policy under scrutiny. transcripts reveal new tensions with old allies. trump defending his tough tone. also on our agenda, his secretary of state now on the job. >> well, my first day is here. i am on the job. hi. i am the new guy. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> rex tillerson, stepping into the state department, and

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