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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  February 25, 2017 4:00am-5:01am PST

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we'll see. election day tomorrow in a small but serious way. that does it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow -- no, see you again monday. msnbc live is next. good morning. i'm keir simmons live at the msnbc bureau in london. it's high noon in the uk, 7:00 a.m. in new york. and on day 37 of the trump administration, here's what is happening. new reaction today to president trump's immigration ban and apparently leaked report from the department of homeland security. are the two views at odds? plus the white house clarifying a report about reince priebus and his contact with an fbi official over the investigation of trump advisors and their alleged contact with russia. president trump heads to capitol hill tuesday to address a joint session of congress. what should we expect to hear?
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will it be another campaign-like stump speech and the fate of wikileaks founder julian assange, could he one day end up in a u.s. prison? i'll speak to one of his attorneys in an exclusive ent interview right here on msnbc is live in london. we begin with a live picture of the white house where later today president and the first lady will host the governors' ball while here in london and around the world, an anxious wait to see the trump administration's revised executive order on immigration to the u.s. the white house pushing back on an a. a p. report which appears to challenge the president's theory behind the traveled ban. analysts at the department of homeland security found that citizenship is an unlikely indicator of terrorism threats to the u.s. and that few people from the countries mr. trump listed in his travel ban have carried out attention. all involved in terrorism related activities in the u.s. sincere i can't's civil war started in 2011.
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white house oicials tell nbc the doment is an incomplete document based on open sources and is not the propduct pro ducf the best available information. and a new poll shows where the americans stand on the trump administration's alleged ties with russia. 38% feel president trump's relationship with vladimir putin is too friendly. 53% say congress should investigate alleged contact between the russian government and the trump campaign. and 54% say congress should investigate russian interference in the election. on friday, president trump appeared at a major conservative gathering taking the opportunity to lash out at the common journalistic practice of protecting sources by not naming them. this comes after reports that the white house asked the fbi to publicly refute claims that trump aides were in contact with russia during the campaign. hallie jackson has more.
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>> reporter: president trump on attack in front of fired up conservatives today. will lm back on the campaign trail. same music -- ♪ god bless the usa >> same message. >> movement the world has never seen before. >> reporter: same immediate i can't bashing, railing against what he calls fake news. >> a few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people. and they are. >> reporter: his sfraiks 34r5urly upset over two reports they call false about interactions between reince priebus and deputy director of the fbi. the white house today acknowledging priebus asked the fbi to knock down a story that cam page had been in touch with russia intelligence officials but only after the white house says the deputy director first told pre-pus the story wasn't true. >> i've talked to the top levels of the intelligence community and they have assured me that that "new york times" story was
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grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong. >> reporter: priebus broke no laws by having that conversation with the fbi official despite democratic concerns it may have amounted to political interference and an investigatn to russia's meddling with the election. the white house has denied any connection between the president and russian officials. multiple sources tell nbc news the allegation is look at whether the president's associates had any contact with moscow during the campaign. >> as long as there isn't an indication that the white house is trying to influence the investigations, i think this may be a tempest in the teapot. >> reporter: now more potential fall outin the relationship between the fbi and the white house. the president going after leaks he blames on the agency. and despite repeelatedly crating unnamged sources, teching those too. >> they shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name. >> haley jackson reporting.
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thank you. joining me now, jane tim and kevin cirilli. first the new associated press report about the dh schlts finding that suggests citizenship is not able indicator of a potential terror threat, what does that mean for the seven country ban? >> we know the ban will have to be reworked because the courts won't uphold this. we're likely to see a much more specific ban, something that is easier to hold up in a court of law. but i think this shows us that the government's own intelligence does not stand by the ban as the white house does. and i think that when you say the government, the department of homeland security doesn't have the full information as the white house says in response to this report. that is just messy. it's bad. there is nothing good that says the white house and government are aligned in protecting national security here. they need too come together and have a united front on this issue. and i think the white house is really struggling to get in line with the rest of the government on here about an .
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>> so there s. there's leak at dhs? >> there are a lot of leaks in government. and as much as donald trump likes to complain about the leaks that are in the white house, at the same time as he was railing against that yesterday, he had his own white house officials briefing reporters while saying they could not be named. so part of this is just a function of how government works, that high level white house officials will not use their fronts because they want it to be the front of the white house, not getting personalities involved. but the problem is that the government is not aligned on this. the problem is that white house says department of homeland security doesn't have the right information. i mean, this is a government with the best intelligence in the world. so is who has the right information needs to be sorted out and they need to be on the same page. >> kevin, you heard president trump's cpac speech. he didn't attend last year. it sounded like they were enthusiastic in the wroochroom.
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is that your sense? >> they were enthusiastic, but the question becomes whether president trump can unite the different far,s on tuesday night when he gives his address to congress. i spoke with one tea party official leader after the speech and what he told me, tim phillips from americans prosperity, he told me in are several things that republicans are divided on. and so this white house has not given specifics on policy to the various contingencies within the republican party and that could prove a problem to this administration as it looks to work with the congress in order to implement president trump's legislative agenda. >> jane, the president was highly critical of some media coverage in his speech and a sort time lartd in a white house briefing several media organizations were excluded. nbc news was not one of those.
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but did the white house give any reason? >> well, i think we've seen ever since president trump was then candidate trump on the campaign trail that he has attacked the media, attacked them and used them as a political foe. now, of cose they have said is -- white house press secretary sean spicer said it was due to false report, but this has spread widespread criticism, not just from democrats, but also from republicans and quite frankly also from communications sxermtsxermt sxerptss within the republican party that sean spicer would do this. >> let me ask you kevin about obamacare. his former speaker john boehner this week on his expectations. >> i shouldn't have called it repeal and replace because this won't happen. basically a fix the flaws. >> is that what is going to
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happen or is he misguided? >> they're waiting right now and house speaker paul ryan for the budget score to come back for how much money republicans plan would cost from a budgetary standpoint. but speaker boehner clearly -- former speaker boehner clearly trying to set some sort of marker if you will to lower expectations for just how conservative of a plan they will be able to pass because parts of obamacare are incredibly popular and polls suggest that as much. and so now republicans are facing a political reality with having to fulfill a campaign promise which is to repeal parts of obamacare. you go to some of these more centrist parts of thenited states and they would be up f a tough election fight in 2018 and that will give them a tough political choice about whether to repeat entire thing including those part of obamacare that are popular. >> jane, what about those crowds at the town halls. are they having an influence on republicans or do republicans
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simply think it's kind of organized protests rather than real reflex ction of public opinion? >> absolutely. they don't want their constituents mad at them. the problem with replacing a health care system, it becomes republicancare, trumpcare. all the problems are on them. and i think when they look at the pressure they're seeing in these town halls, when they see these angry mad people who on say what are you doing on this issue, this issue, very informed, very angry constituents no matter whether democratic constituents who didn't vote for this republican senator here or there, it matters that they're there and mad and loud and they're giving these headlines and images that won't help them get reelected in the coming years. >> just look ahead for us to the president's address tuesday. will he stray much from that speech he gave to cpac, another campaignlike message? >> the aides that i'm talking
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with are hoping that this administration will use this as an opportunity to lay out key specifics on specific policy agenda items. this is for all intents and purposes a state of the union address and this is an opportunity for the white house to put behind them some of the communications strategy problems that they have had from the first several week of this administration. >> all right. kevin, jane, thanks so much is for joining us. coming up next, i'll speak with jen robinson the attorney for julian assange. could the wikileaks founder be forced out of asylum and end up in the u.s.? and mixes crisp vegetables with all white meat chicken, and bakes it to perfection. because making the perfect dinner isn't easy as pie but finding someone to enjoy it with sure is. marie callender's. it's time to savor.
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now to new tensions surrounding julian assange' asylum. one of the two remaining
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candidates in ecuador's presidential election is vowing to go end his asylum if he wins the race. assange tweeted wednesday about ecuador's tough outgoing president accusing lasso of selling out his asylum to the u.s. joining me now, jennifer robinson, member of the legal team for julian assange and wikileaks. thanks for being here. your legal headquarters is just around the corner from where we are now. so let me read you something that wikileaks said about julian assange and the prospect of him going to the u.s. wikileaks said assange faces life imprisonment or death in the united states. is that really what you think would be the outcome if sdwrulian assansdwruassange ended up in the u.s.? >> we are concerned about the nature of the restrictions that would be placed on him should he be returned to the united states. it's obviously a very serious investigation. we know that there is an ongoing
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grand jury investigation. espionage is one of the allegations being investigated and a whole raft of alleged commuter crime e e e er compute. we say of course that the criminal investigation places a great chill on public interest reporting. but as it stands, it is a potentially very long sentence shouldt be sent to the united states and convicted on the potential charges. >> a limited amount that we know about the investigation. what you're saying, it looks quite deeply is what is alleged in relation to julian assange. that's not been made public. >> that's correct. we've had difficulties for the past six years since the glagra was announced at the end of 2010. it's now 6 1/2 years since the investigation started. we know it involves espionage and that it's ever unprecedented size and scale. and we know as recent as just last year because of court documents that were released, the u.s. government is refusing
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freedom of information requests on the grounds that this is still ongoing. so we have very little access to information and the department of justice refuses to give us any information. but what we do know is that it is incredibly serious and it's the reason he has asylum nein i ecuador. >> that said, when chelsea manning had her sentence reduced, there was some expect nation that jewel begulian assad walk out of the embassy because he suggested he would do that. >> and he has continued to stand by that position. our position is this, we put up to the department of just sis show your hand, tell us what this is, let have a xwoesh jags. ourest co-council has reached out and we have nothing. so unless and until the department of justice comes forward with what they have in mind, we're in no better position. so it's up to them. >> it sounds as if there is it a possibility that his hand may be forced. he may be forced out of the embassy because of politics in
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ecuador. >> this is a great concern. >> are you getting ready for that possibility? >> we are preparing potential legal remedies should the opposition come to power in ecuador, but of course he has been granted asylum and that government provides that sbesh national protection and it shouldn't be playing politics with -- you you don't change asylum protection just because of a change of government. that is a grant of status and it should remain the same. >> do you feel his case is stronger or weaker now with president trump than it was say a year ago with another president trump? >> of course we're hoping with a change of approach with the trump administration. this criminal investigation places a great deal chim on national security reporting. and in fact breaches the new guidelines implemented by the kept of justice about criminally
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investigating media organizations. we would expect the new administration would take a different position and we hope that they will do. but of course we remain concerned. while in a grand jury is ongoing, that is why he has asylum, needs to be protected from it and we hope that ecuador will stand by that protection. >> and we have a piece of sound of julian assange talking about the claims that wikileaks was involved in russian intervention in the u.s. elections. let's take a listen. >> the line is that wikileaks changed the result of the election. okay. and if that is true, we're quite happy to have the credit for exposing the corruption and behavior that was occurring in that clinton team and the dnc fixing things in relation to bernie sanders. we're quite happy to accept that. >> does him saying that, effectively saying that he's
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pleased with the result of the e-mails that wikileaks released and perhaps that having an influence on the u.s. election itself, does that have an influence over his status over his ability to be treated fairly in your view by the u.s. government? >> well, look, i think the material that was published by wikileaks was clearly in the public interests. it is in the public interests for to know whether a candidate is saying one thing to big business and another to the electorate. >> but also appeared to help the now president of the united states. >> i don't see how that should have any bearing on the legal position of wikileaks. legal rht o wrong is the same irrespective. and this grand jury should be shut down. >> is that not necessarily how things really work, is it? does it help that -- i guess it's back to the same question. does it help that there is now a president trump rather than president obama in your view.
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are you closer to getting what you want i guess. >> i think there are political reasons and legal reasons why the trump administration should take a different position. it was free speech the grand jury investigation. the persecution of quickie leaks ought ougto end. we'd like to see the new administration would take a new approach. >> it's interesting now to see the president talks about anonymous sources, talking about leaks, complaining about those which wikileaks advocates. they are in favor of leaks. >> wikileaks doesn't actually -- wikileaks was set up to counter unnamed government sources leaking. so of course the ghoechgovernme when it suits them, but wikileaks is a counter to the whole fake news narrative and concerns about unnamed leaks because leaks provides the documents. they have 100% record of verification before materials are authentic. people with can see for themselves exactly what the documents say. so we're not relying on unnamed
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leaks. you can see for yourself. and in the age of fake news, that makes wikileaks increasesly important. >> but what the president is talking about appears and we don't entirely know, but he seems to be using the term fake news to kind of describe spin, not just completely made up stories. and some people would say that that is will what wikileaks perhaps in-ed a verts ternntly t involved in during the election campaign. >> that is not spin. wikileaks publishes documents. you can see the documents for yourself. that allows people to see through the spin and to see the information themselves from the source. in effect wikileaks counters that problem. >> what kind of conversations do you have inside the organization about whether you are if you like being manipulated by russian source for example or a russian aided source to affect the elections? >> as a lawyer who advises
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wikileaks externally, i'm not presumptive to those organizations nor am i involved in the editorial process except to say is that they publish what they receive provided they can verify it's authentic. that is their policy. will now, the "new york times" has also said that they would publish the same material. had they received the podesta leaks, they would publish them. >> wikileaks never got anything about donald trump. >> they called for and as i've been informed by wikileaks, they didn't get anything news worthy. >> i guess it's, you know, it's a different world now, right? wikileaks many years ago appeared to be if you like on the side of the liberalists. now it appears to be on the side of the trump administration. what is the truth in all of that? >> in all fact, wikileaks has continued to do exactly what they have always done which is to publish material in the public interest that they receive.
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irrespective of the politics of the situation. having represented wikileaks for now more than 6 1/2 year, i've seen them be the darling of the progressive press at times when fox news called for julian to be killed by drone strike. now you have him be lauded by fox news as a hero. now, wikileaks is not doing anything different. they will finicontinue continu material that will cross conservatives, but they will continue to do what they have allege done. >> how long can julian assange stay in the embassy? is he in a very small room or just a few rooms? you can't live -- it's been years now. >> he's been in the embassy for more than 4 1/2 years. in circumstances the u.n. have said amount to arbitrary detention. they have called upon the u kchlgt of sweden to release him and pay him compensation. his health is deteriorated. but given the difficult circumstances, i think he's doing incredibly well.
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but the situation has to end and it's weren't hands of u.s. administration to end the situation. >> do you think it will end soon? >> i certainly hope it will. >> jennifer robinson, thank you very much for coming in and spending a saturday with us. all right. president trump's travel ban, it may be blocked, but still affect goi i ing the lifts of ordinary people. we'll show you one specific example that might surprise you. this is the silverado special edition. this is one gorgeous truck. oh, did i say there's only one special edition? because, actually there's 5.
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not just airline purchases. seems like a no-brainer. what's in your wallet? draft document from the department of homeland security is appear to go undercut the president's travel ban. plus how the first ban is still impacting people around the world. hear from a schoolteacher kicked off a flight to new york just last week.
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welcome back. i'm keir simmons in london at the half hour, here's what we're monitoring.
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much of the plains in the midwest are waking up to a blanket of snow and at least four have been killed. iowa, nebraska and minnesota saw blizzardlike conditions and more than a foot of snow. note is done for now and much warmer temperatures expected throughout the weekend, but as the system moves east, there are threats of severe weather in the mid-atlantic. yet another story that highlightses confusion the travel ban is creating, a math teacher who is a muslim was on his way to merk beingamerica on trip and he was ordered off a clektsi collecting flight in iceland despite the fact that he is a british passport holder. here is a snapchat video of when he was kicking off and he reflects on what happened afterwards. >> just been kicked off the plane, not going to new york.
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>> reporter: he's a math teacher from swanzee and he was on his way to america accompanying some students on a school trip. he says he recorded this footage after he was ordered off the connecting flight and refused entry into the united states. while his colleagues and pupils have flown on to new york, he's spending the night at the airport. >> i can't believe this is happening. >> reporter: he eventually got a flight back to the uk and back at school inleswales, he reflects on the experience. >> i was shocked. i thought this isn't real. but i could see more and more faces and they all must have been thinking he's a threat. >> reporter: he was ordered off
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the flight two week after president trump imposed a ban to citizensf search mven muslim majority countries. the ban had been suspended by the american courts and he's a british passport holder. >> just got to the u.s. embassy. they pretty much denied me access and gave me countless numbers but they won't work. >> reporter: he tried and failed to find answers at the american embassy in iceland and he's still wondering why he wasn't how eallowed to fly. >> of course you request is to do with because i'm muslim, is to do with my race, my name is mohammad. i hope it's not. >> reporter: president trump is to unveil a second streamlined version of his travel ban later this week. but his stay in iceland suggests the chaos and confusion caused by the first one is continuing. and it also casts doubt on assure answers from tas
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sure as sure answers that all british passport holders would be free to visit the united states.sure answers that all british passport holders would be free to visit the united states. >> and he says he's never been to any of those countries that are named in the muslim ban. meanwhile in the u.s., the associated press published a three page draft from the department of homeland security that seems to contradict the claims made by president trump that this kind of an immigration ban would tackle terrorism. let's talk more about the president trump's immigration plans. let's bring in peter vincent, general national policy and former immigration and customs enforcement official. pete, i nts with a to ask you about the draft from the department of homeland security i just mentioned. is this document accurate, does
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citizenship really mean a potential terrorist? >> it is of course a draft. and the department o homeland security has walked back that drafa bit. however, in my experience with both the department of homeland security and the department of justice, i can say that after studying terrorist organizations and terrorists themselves, that citizenship is certainly not a dispositive factor when trying to determine whether or not an individual is likely to commit a trirs ac terrorist act. religion is also not a dispositive factor when determining whether or not someone represents a threat. >> can you speak to what we just heard there, which was a report by a uk broadcaster about a case where a guy says he hasn't been to any of the countries involved, still got turned around. does that kind of publicity have an effect 00 seon sentiment aro the world and does it worry you? >> it does worry me. it's unclear to me at least a particular reason why that
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individual, that gentleman, was not allowed to continue on his flight to the united states given that he is a british citizen, was born in the united kingdom and was traveling on a british passport. he doesn't also appear to have had any recent travel to any of the seven countries that are the subject of the executive order. what this does unfortunately is create real confusion, i dare say chaos, and frankly insults and offends many of the partners that we have around the world that are joinedith all of us to fight the scourge of extremism. >> and how important are those partners? >> they're incredibly important. even in those countries named on the january 27th executive order, the united states, united kingdom and europe has very trusted partners in 240es countries that we work with to battle the likes. so-called islamic state, al qaeda and he will shabaab among
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others. and so the fact these countries were singled out does not certainly help our cause. to be fair to the trump administration, the obama administration and the bush administration before also looked at these plaarticular countries as safe havens or areas where designated terror organizations could operate with some immunity and therefore trained individuals to carry out terrorist attacks across the globe. but we do ourselves no favor when we insult people based on their nationality or religion. >> so is this an extension effectively of the obama policy or why has the president chosen to target people based on their passport? >> it's not an extension of the obama policy whatsoever. the obama policy that i was involved with actually focused on the visa waiver program, the 38 countries that have reciprocal agreements with the united states to allow visa-free
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travel into the united states. the united states was concerned with the phenomenon that impacting europe right now, foreign fighters returning battle hardened warrior 24s tha have left their countries of national origin to travel to some of the seven countries. and the obama administration simply wanted those individuals that had traveled to or in some cases that were citizens, dual citizens, of four of those countries to go through a more formal visa interview process where they sat down qwi a u.s. counselor official and they were asked about travel those countries. most of course diplomats going to the country to aid and assist with refugees. so it created a dynamic where they could probe as to why an individual had traveled recently to those countries. what the trump administration has done at least in the january 27th executive order that will be in some form or shape reissued is really focused on
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those particular countries above and beyond the visa waiver program issue and really looked at them as sources of terrorism and threats. >> all right. peter vincent, we really appreciate you joining us. thanks very much. democratic party is about to vote for a new leader. in our next hour, a look at why this race is so close. plus, the sounds of cpac. what to make and what you heard from the president's chief strategist spoke this week. >> we have a team that is grinding it through on what president trump promised the american people. and all of those promises will be implemented. every tv doctor knows that
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if you look at the lines of work, i kind of break it out into three buckets. first is national security and sovereignty. second is what i refer to as economic nationalism. the third broadly line of work is what is deconstruction of the administrative state. >> we are fighting the fake news. it's fake. phony. fake. i call the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. they are the enemy of the people. they have no sources. they just make them up. they make up sources. they're very dishonest people. >> donald trump taking aim at the media at cpac friday. hours after that speech, the white house took action that drove home the president's point. joining me now to talk all about this, a zerlena maxwell, former direct attorney of progressive media for the clinton campaign. joe wilkins, former aide to george h. w. bush, and rick
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tyler, is also former spokesman for the ted cruz campaign. i want to ask you about the associated press report that the homeland security department found insufficient evidence that citizens of seven muslim countries included in the president's travel ban post a terror threat to the u.s. this was in a draft report that the white house is calling incomplete. zerlena, will this change anything for the new travel ban that we expect the president to announce next week? >> i don't think it will change what the administration itself does. but what i do think is that it will increase the amount of people in the american citizenry who come outnto the streets to oppose this travel ban. because i think that every argument that the white house has put forth in terms of the reasoning behind the travel ban has been debunked by the facts and that includes the department of homeland security saying look, the terrorists that are attacking our country, san
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bernardino for example, had nothing to do with the seven cubs that you're banning an entire religion coming into the country from. so it's something that i think we're going to see more protests about because we don't want to ban an entire religion from coming into the country. that's fundamentally unamerican. >> after the president's speech at cpac that we heard there, the white house barred journalists from the "new york times," krand politili cnn and politico and other media o outlets. the white house says every media format has being a assess to the information that came. other administrations have on occasion excluded certain journalists in the past. but joe, does it make any sense to you? what is the strategy here? >> it's certainly unprecedented, but really i think a strategy on the part of the president and his team to really control going forward their message. and also to publish media outlets that don't play the way they want them to play. this is -- maybe it's happened in the past, but in my lifetime,
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this is really unprecedented for media outletshat are well-known and well regarded to be kept out is justunprecedente. so this is a move by the white house to kind of punish folks who aren't playing the way they want them to play. >> rick, is that right? is it unprecedented? and what effect does it have in your view? >> well, it certainly is. i actually think joe is being generous. i think this is far worse actually. the reason you would talk about the fake media all the time is because you want to discredit the media. and it's beginning to feel very preemptive to me. that is there is something in a future story that's coming, believe it or not, that they want to make sure that the reporters who are reporting it are questioned. and i think people do that anyway. but it's a little bit too much and it seems as if we're favoring some news outlets over other news outlets.
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we talk about some outlets are fake news. it looks like a discrediting campaign that's preemptive to me. i'm very concerned about it. >> if you like, the best form of defense is offense strategy? >> yeah, exemcept we're supposeo have a white house that's transparent. we're supposed to know what's going on. we're not supposed to control the outcome of news by trying to manipulate reporters. look, i know hundreds of reporters that -- reporters are not going to be manipulated. they're going to report the news. i think, look, everybody is biased and reporters are biased too, but i do think their bias preeminently is for news. so this action by the administration to sort of cut out the press, which is the people's view of what's going on, i think should concern everyone. >> zelina, that's right, isn't it, though? are we being a little holier
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than thou in the end? all journalists have an opinion, all opinion makers try to control the message? >> well, certainly, but i think to rick's point essentially what this administration is trying to do is preemptively undermine any news that they don't like. and right now what they don't like is for investigative journalists to look into the ties this administration has to russia. what michael cohen was doing. what felix sader was doing, what roger stone was doing. paul manafort who was in trump tower. what were these aides that were inside of the trump campaign and now some of them are in the administration, what ties do they have to russia, what communications did they have throughout the campaign? that is what the news media who was banned from the gaggle this week had been reporting on that the white house doesn't like. and so to rick's point, i think it is a preemptive strike. it's to undermine the news media
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before essentially the other shoe drops. so to me it indicates that there's something there they don't want us to find out and that's why we need to stay in the streets, stay in the town halls, pushing back on congress, because that is where the checks and balances are going to come from. congress needs to do a transparent, independent and bipartisan investigation. it should be a special prosecutor. it should not be jeff sessions, the attorney general, who was a loyal trump ally and was inside of this particular campaign. and so the people actually have to put the pressure on this administration -- or, excuse me, the people in congress to ensure that we get to the bottom of this. that's why i think they're attacking the news meetdia who will shine the light on what happened. >> we heard from steve bannon on thursday. people listened closely because it's pretty rare to hear him speak like that. a stark message about economic
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nationalism. what do those things mean? >> basically it means that, one, he has the ear of the president because this is what the president is talking about over and over and over again and this is what helped the president to win the election in the fall. and he's just going to double down on making sure that donald trump carrie through and mak good on all of his campaign promises. this, of course, is one way to ensure that you retain your base and they want to retain the base of the party. the base that got them the win in november. but i don't know that it's any kind of a way to enlarge your base of support. to bring in new people and reach out to people who are feeling disenfranchised. i don't know that this does any of that. it certainly helps you to retain your base but doesn't help you to grow your base. i think the message going forward is donald trump will stick to his campaign promises, he'll try to deliver on what he promised in the fall campaign and that's where they're headed whether anybody likes it or not.
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they don't care about the criticism, they don't care about the demonstrations, that's what they're going to do. that's bannon's message and that seems to be donald trump's message as well. >> rick, how did you interpret those words from steve bannon? it seems like even with a republican president, we're still seeing a battle for the heart of the republican party. >> well, it would be nice to see the president get out of campaign mode and into governing mode. i actually liked the second half of his speech quite a bit. there's a lot in there that conservatives could rally around and be excited b i don't like the term economic nationalism because as a conservative, conservatives are free traders. although steve bannon said that they were going to have individual bilateral trade agreements, and i could be for that. he talked about national security and we certainly would like to make sure our country is safe. we've got to go about it the right way. >> zelina, the president heads
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to congress tuesday. what are your expectations? >> i think it's going to be more of the same from donald trump. it's certainly going to be unorthodox because that's who the president is, but i do think there's an fouopportunity for democrats here. if he comes out and he's just lying like he has been doing since the beginning of his administration, i think there's a moment for a "you lie" moment like we saw with joe wilson and president obama who was not lying at t time. so i think there's a moment for democrats to actuall put forth a counter message to what the president is saying. i think that that's going to resonate with people because essentially his approval ratings are underwater right now and so we're going to see members of congress in his own party start to step up and contradict him if they feel like it's going to impact their races, the fact that he's so underwater in his approval ratings. >> all right, thank you all so much for that enlightening
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conversation. appreciate you joining us again. all right. that will do it for this. i'm keir simmons at the msnbc bureau in london. thanks for watching. next we'll talk to jill abramson, the former executive editor of "the new york times" about the decision to block certain media outlets from a white house briefing friday. my colleague, thomas roberts, picks it up from new york at the top of the hour. have a great day. . oh, did i say there's only one special edition? because, actually there's 5. aaaahh!! ooohh!! uh! holy mackerel. wow. nice. strength and style. which one's your favorite? come home with me! it's truck month! find your tag for an average total value over $11,000 on chevy silverado all star editions when you finance through gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer.
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blue-emu continuous pain relief spray, it works fast and you won't stink. hi, everybody, good morning, i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. 8:00 a.m. in the east, 5:00 out west. on our radar this hour, day 37 of the trump administration with the president spending the day right there at the white house after making a headline speech at cpac yesterday. the president already up and tweeting his followers sending out his first ones. the doors are opening for the fourth and final day of cpac where the volatile issue of immigration will be a major topic this morning. meanwhile to the south at the democratic party meeting in atlanta today, a n