feels that way. thank you for watching. i'll show you back here tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. eastern. "hardball" with chris matthews starts right now. hour to hour with donald trump. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews up in new york. in his first address to congress last night, president donald trump made a rare attempt to build a wider consensus around his economic nationalist agenda, taking a notably different approach in terms of his delivery and tone. while his policy proposals have not changed, he made several overtures to democrats whom he called upon to work together. >> solving these and so many other pressing problems will require us to work past the differences of party. if we are guided by the wellbeing of american citizens,

then i believe republicans and democrats can work together, our citizens deserve this. and so much more. so why not join forces and finally get the job done? democrats and republicans should get together and unite for the good of our country. true lov for our people requires us to find common ground. this is our mission, but we can only get there together. i am asking all members of congress to join me in dreaming big and bold and daring things for our country. >> of course, this is a president whose behavior since his inauguration has fallen short of the presidential standing we saw last night. argues illegal votes cast by people in the country illegally cost him the popular vote. attacks the federal judges withholding his travel ban as so-called judges. he blames generals for the loss of chief ryan owens in the raid on yemen and he says his critics might be desecrating jewish cemeteries to make others look

bad. that may be why democratic lawmakers aren't buying what he said last night. they say the president's deeds don't match his words last night. >> this president's speeches mean less than just about any others because what he says and what he does, how he talks and how he walks, are totally different. >> he's not a man who is well known for sincerity and it's not clear that what he was saying last night was any kind of an outreach to democrats. more kind of a dare to challenge him. >> this is a guy in a depth struggle with the truth, this is a guy who embellishment is his best friend. he said a number of things last night that just simply aren't true. >> nearly seven in ten americans who actually watched the address last night said it made them feel more optimistic about the direction the country is headed. according to a cnn opinion research poll. robert costa of the "washington post" reports the favorable response by tv commentators even came as a surprise to the

administration. "some sources in the white house are frankly surprised at how pundits are warming to the speech. they say trump has not changed with one big shift in policy, their view is that washington, the media and congressional gop simply wanted trump to tone down and talk up a few normal republican things. so he did." well, there was no shift in policy last night. the president, himself, indicated to reporters prior to the speech that he planned to offer a bold compromise on immigration. we now know that didn't happen. we're joined right now, republican senator roger wicker of mississippi. senator, thank you so much for coming on. i'm just wondering, how do you put together the trump we saw last night who was so presidential in manner and tone, with what we've been getting from him for months now? >> well, it's the best speech he's ever made, in my opinion. better than the one at the convention, and i think the -- trump called for something a little more high toned and some

majestic rhetoric. he was willing to work with the speechwriter and pay attention to what he's being advised and i applaud it and frankly not surprised at the 70% approval right off the bat of the tone. >> is it consistent with what he's been? >> well, i think donald trump is always going to be the person that got himself elected president of the united states, and he doesn't mind mixing it up and apparently the voters didn't mind that, either. but i think the tone was right and, frankly, it also amounted to promise-keeping and doing the things he said he was going to do, but explaining them in a human tone. explaining them in a way that makes a moral case for his agenda. >> what do you make of -- suppose you were -- i know you can't imagine being such a person, suppose you were chuck schumer, the new york democrat, i mean, you can laugh at that, but imagine being him and trump

called him a clown, he called him fake tears. he made fun of him for his reaction to the muslim ban, president's ban on those seven countries. made fun of him as a person. and now says last night before the country, i want to work with this guy. how do you put that together if you're chuck schumer? >> well, i think chuck schumer gives as good as he takes and i've served with him for 22 years. house and senate. and he's no shrinking violet, either. let me just point out, chuck schumer is the leader of the party that has slow-walked nominations for cabinet like no par party's ever done in 225 history -- year history of the republic. so, you know, i think chuck schumer's a big boy and able to take it, but also his rhetoric sometimes stings us on our side, too. >> you know, last night i was taken with carryn owens, of course, the widow of the soldier whose life was just lost.

i thought that was -- the most honest communication i ever saw last night, when she looked up to heaven to talk to her lost husband. how could anybody not love that humanity and love? >> it was a tough moment. >> i just spr a hard time with the president here because i think he -- at the same time he's paying tribute to this loss, he's blaming it on the generals. i mean, presidents, aren't they supposed to say the buck stops here, i'm the commander in chief, i made the call? there are casualties in war. that's what war's about. people shooting at each other. you know, it's part of the cause. if you get through it, wonderful. if you don't get through it, you were a sacrifice for your country. why's he out there blaming the generals? even though he's part of this wonderful event last night of remorse, i don't get why he's blaming the generals. explain. >> chris, okay, you said that four times. i really didn't hear that. i think he said that the generals have said this was a successful raid -- >> they said they -- >> disrespected -- >> he said the generals lost them. he said the generals lost them. >> well, okay. i don't think he's blaming the generals.

obviously, we lost -- we lost a troop. that's sad. we lost an expensive piece of equipment. and that's regrettable. >> okay. >> he also said that my advisers say we had success and that we got -- >> that's a -- look, i'm -- >> -- important information. >> anybody that pays a price like that should get credit for whatever's achieved. look at this. here's the president speaking about chief ryan owens in a fox news interview this week. the president said it was the generals who wanted to conduct that raid in yemen and said they lost ryan. watch what he said. >> this was a mission that was start eed before i got here. this was something that was, you know, just -- they wanted to do. they came to see me. they explained what they wanted to do. the generals. who are very respected. my generals are the most respected that we've had in many decades, i believe. and they lost ryan. >> what do you make of that? >> okay. i don't read into that that he's

blaming the generals. maybe not the best choice of words, but, you know, he was comp lelimentary of the advice t he got. he said that they achieved valuable information and so if you call that blaming the generals, it's not a characterization i would make. perhaps he should have said it a little better but i don't think he's harped on that p. the point is last night, he's complimenting the troops, talking about their bravery and he brought the widow of a fallen soldier and we gave -- we gave our tribute to her on behalf of all the people who stepped forward and volunteer. >> we all agree on that. thank you so much, senator wicker, for coming on. i agree with you completely on that one. i'm joined by u.s. congressman seth of massachusetts, served four tours as a u.s. marine in iraq. meagan murphy, editor at

"bloomberg businessweek." i want to go to you. what he said last night in his presidential behavior, fine. he was on good behavior. i look at him day-to-day, hour to hour and put it all together. and when you have -- when president kennedy had to take the hit for the bay of pigs and should have taken the hit because he made the call, he didn't blame it on ike, didn't blame it on the generals. he should have. he took the hit. that's why we liked him. most people liked him in history and why his numbers went up, in fact. last night the president -- the other day, fox news, a favorable setting, said, no, they made the decision. he said they made the decision and yet he did make the call because he made it at dinner that time with jared kushner there and steve bannon, him over dinner. and i don't understand why he's trying to slough off being commander in chief. >> i don't understand it, either, chris, and let's be clear. this is not reading into what he said. to say that he blamed the generals. he blamed the generals.

for the loss of petty officer owens. when i was a platoon commander in iraq, my job description was very simple, you're responsible for everything your platoon does or fails to do and president trump clearly doesn't understand that about leadership or about responsibility. he's not being sponlresponsibles not being presidential. look, this is a from a guy who's had five deferments. look, people think it's a big deal that i have a lot of deployments to iraq. this guy has more deferments than i have deployments. so i don't think he understands much about what it means to be commander in chief and that's a problem for our national security. >> meagan? what do you make of -- it's very hard to put him together. i'm going to say something at the end of the show, he liv hour by hour by hour and each hour has nothing to do with the hour before. he puts out word he's going to make a major compromise on immigration yesterday, tells all these anchors of all different points of view and attitudes and then he doesn't do it because it's irrelevant what he did an hour ago.

with trump it's always whatever i'm saying this time, this hour, that means something. everything before it, chuck schumer's a clown, he's a fake tear man, everything -- oh, let's do business. i mean, everything seems to be liberals knocked over those cemetery head stoestones to mak look bad and moves on. >> dory and nemo around the fishbowl. immigration, in particular, yesterday, that was a purposeful bait and switch. >> why? >> a few hours of positive news coverage. imagine -- >> it was dishonest. >> it was dishonest, no question. imagine the policy shift had he'd announced that last night that he actually would support allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in this country which was the central plank of his entire candidacy, the thing that rallied his base the most. what is surprising, i think, is just how we are still falling for it for lack of a better word, and -- >> you know, it's a funny thing, oh, damn us, we believe the words spoken by our president. when are we going to get over that? >> i think that what people --

>> well -- >> this administration has clearly shown no willingness to not be -- >> okay. >> -- less than truthful with journalists, not be less than truthful to the american public. the bar was so low last night. stringing together a cohesive narrative, cohesive speech. he had a good moment. there was no -- >> i'm not a theater reviewer. >> chris, look -- >> -- sitting at sardy's at midnight, good demonstration there, great emotional range. i don't care about that crap. he's president of the united states. he aught to be consistent. back to you, congressman. >> look, i mean -- >> what do you think of agan -- i want t though knknow the tribute. go ahead. >> the president managed to put together a series of complete sentences from a teleprompter without offending half the wo d world. because the bar is so low, we think that was a great speech. america has never been more pessimistic about a new president in modern history. so it's no surprise that people think his speech was okay, but

this is not presidential. it's not leadership. and we don't have a plan for any of the things he actually talked about. >> well, the markets, you know, the big money markets appeared to react favorably to the president's speech last night with the dow, well, posting a gain of over 300 points and closing at an all-time high. look, it's over 21,000. having just said last month he inherited a mess from obama, the president, again, emphasized that point in his address last night. here he is. >> we must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited. 94 million americans are out of the labor force. over 43 million people are now living in poverty. and over 43 million americans are on food stamps. more than one in five people in their prime working years are not working. we have the worst financial recovery in 65 years. in the last eight years, the past administration has put on more new debt than nearly all of the other presidents combined.

>> you know, congressman, he's operating like he's walked into something really bad. barack obama walked into the worst recession since the great depression. he saved the country. tripled the stock market. got the unemployment rate down to about 5%. going by any measure, he saved this economy and he acted like obama was a disaster. of course, he set the bar low. he's saying he's starting with trash, he's going to turn it into gold. >> no, that's absolutely right. once again, we're just falling for trump's lies if we actually believe that. president obama completely turned around this economy and a lot of things that he wanted to do, like invest in infrastructure, one of trump's priorities, were stymied by the republicans in congress. so, you know, president obama really did a remarkable thing with our economy, with our country, with our military as well on the fight against isis, and president trump is just trying to set the bar low because he knows that he doesn't really have a plan for any of these things he talked about last night. >> you know, it would be nice, meagan, if he had said obama got us at least gradually out of

these two wars we were in. and was the republicans that got us in especially into iraq. but it was so partisan last night. he had -- he couldn't say anything against -- he couldn't discuss russia last night. >> no. >> he didn't discuss the middle east and his one-state solution prospect. i mean, the terrible thing, he just walked away from all the bad stuff last night. >> i think the foreign policy, there was nothing there, no russia, no middle east. on the economy, as seth was just saying, this was an example, 94 million people of people out o the labor force, that is patently untrue, includes retirretir retir retirr retirrys, includes students. there still are some issues of people getting into that labor force. but 76 straight months of private sector job growth under president obama, the unemployment rate as you said halved. you know, a plan to put in place, how to get more women into the workforce, how to really boost growth through jo s training. so far we've heard nothing about that from the trump administration and heard nothing about it last night. >> it was amazing to watch the

republicans last night. what do you think of your republican colleagues, congressman? the guys he made fun of physically, made marco rubio look like a dunce with water spraying all over, made what's his name, i can't remember all the nicknames, you know, cruz, you knows, lyin' ted, you know, every name he made fun of these people. little marco. and they're all clapping their little hands like ducks out there. it was -- what -- they have no pride? what do you -- i'm asking you to say something you don't want to say. your colleague, republican colleagues, are just unbelievably docile. >> well, let me say this. i have never seen the house of representatives more physically divided than it was at that speech last night. >> i know. >> i've been here for a couple of state of the unions with president obama. even, you know, at the end of this term where the country and the congress was quite partisan. >> yeah. >> and yet democrats and republicans always sat together. you didn't see that at all last night. >> i know. >> and the sad thing is there are things that the president could have talked about. you know, the job recovery under

president obama has been amazing, but now it's time to talk about how we adapt to the new economy. you know, how we deal with the fact that a lot of jobs haven't gone to mexico or overseas, they've ghoen to one to robots, been automated. we need to have a plan for everybody in america to be involved in the future of work, in the new economy. that's what we ought to be talking about. >> i'm glad you are. i'm glad you're in the congress. thank you, seth noulton and your service to the country. thank you, meagan murphy. coming up the trump/putin connection. we learn today the fbi made a deal with the mi6 guy who completed the dossier on trump's alleged ties to russia, how seriously the fbi has been taking those allegations and taking that report. all coming up next. the dossier. plus, oprah for president? okay. okay. oprah winfrey admits she's reconsidering possibly running for president under the near ary anybody can win. she's one of several nontraditional prospects right now for 2020. and tonight, the "hardball"

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stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. tonight at k9s eastern, join brian williams, andrea mitchell, me, myself, for a special look at donald trump/vladimir putin and the unprecedented questions that continue to dog the president about the russian connection. from russia's hacking in our election, to trump's refusal to say even a bad word about his russian counterpart. we're going to try to get answers from the biggest experts around the country. that's the putin/trump power play tonight. there they are together. they sort of look alike with that grimace. look at that. we'll be right back. because, actually there's five. ooohh!! aaaahh!! uh! hooooly mackerel. wow. nice. strength and style. it's truck month. get 0% financing for 60 months

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ally. do it right. i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ welcome back to "hardball." questions about donald trump's ties to russia continue to dog this administration while the president made no specific mention of it, of course, last

night. here's all we've been offered right now to come into the question of what was in the elephant -- what was elephant in the room last night? let's watch. >> america is willing to find new friends and to forge new partnerships where shared interests align. we want harmony and stability, not war and conflict. we want peace wherever peace can be found. america is friends today with former enemies. >> wow. nbc news yesterday confirmed that the fbi reached an agreement to pay christopher steele, the mi6 former agent, to continue his investigation into donald trump's alleged ties to russia. steele's the former british intelligence agent who compiled that unsubstantiated dossier on donald trump's alleged ties to russia. which was made public in january, of course. according to nbc, steele, his name is christopher steele, began that investigation on behalf of trump's political opponents back in june of last year. and decided tohare his findings with fbi in ly. by september the fbi expressed their interest in his reporting

and in october, here's the key, the news, they agreed to pay him to continue his work but steele ultimately pulled out of the deal. according to the "washington post," "the fbi's arrangele with steele shows the bureau considered him credible and found his information while unproved to be worthy of further investigation." joining me right now, congressman adam schiff, democrat representative from california and ranking member on the house intelligence committee. congressman, what do we have hard right now about a possible trump or trump associate role in encouraging the russians to interfere in our election? what do you got hard? >> well, chris, yeah, unfortunately i can't go into the evidence that's being -- >> do you have something hard you can't reveal? >> i can't reveal that, chris. >> you can't reveal that you have something? >> you know, i have urged the chairs of both committees and i urged it of myself and the other ranking member as well as our

other members of both committees not to be discussing the evidence we have. i can tell you that we're going to be receiving our first testimony on the counterintelligence investigation fairly imminently. that will, i think, shed some more light in terms of what leads we need to chase down. i can tell you, as of a few minutes ago, we have reached a written agreement, the minority and majority in the house intelligence committee, that we will investigate allegations of russian collusion with the trump campaign. that will be very much a part of our investigation. so we're committed to doing it and as the democratic members, we are going to ensure in every way that we can that that investigation is thorough and if we get to the point where we don't fe we can do that job, we're not being permitted to do the job forhater reason, either within the committee, or because the fbi pushes back and won't share information with us, we will be public about it, but we have a commitment to do that investigation and i don't think

we should prejudge where it will lead. >> how long will you -- this is a political question, but this is politics, how long will you go in your investigation without getting hard evidence of collusion by the trump people. >> well, and here's what -- >> how long, three months, five months, a year? at some point, do you have to -- i'll ask you openly, do you have to say we haven't gotten anything hard yet, we got to drop this? we can't just keep investigating to investigate. >> yeah. well, you know, certainly we could get to that point, but let me say something also, which i think people really need to understand. i say this as someone who was for almost six years a prosecutor with the u.s. attorneys and who handled a lot of complex white-collar prosecutions. these kind of cases, investigation of this magnitude, will take time. if this were any other kind of investigation, you may just be poring over the documents, themselves, for weeks before you even identify which witnesses to bring in before the grand jury or in this case before our investigative committee. so it will take time. the allegations are serious.

they involve not only the issue of collusion that we're talking about, but also what was the u.s. government's response when we learned that the computers of the democratic party had been hacked. we want to investigate also did the intelligence community reach the right conclusions about the russian involvement and motivations? when did this possibly go from a foreign intelligence-gathering operation to an information weaponization program? we need to look at all of these issues and i understand, believe me, i feel the urgency. i hear that urgency every time i'm out in my district or anywhere else. but if we're going to do this right, it means that we need to be thorough about it and, again, i think we'll know fairly soon whether we're going to have the cooperation that we need to do this right. and if we don't, if the fbi, for example, says we're not going to share with you what we've investigated, we're not going to tell you what leads we've pursued, we're not going to do it, notwithstanding how open

they were about the clinton investigation, then we'll have a problem. that will mean we can't do our job and we'll have to say so. but i think we ought to test what we can conduct an independent investigation. we augts ought to try to pursue bipartisan basis and follow the evidence wherever it leads. >> you're intent on this investigation. let me ask you if you can put some meat on that without giving away anything. do you, in your mind and heart, right now, believe we have to have an investigation as to the possible engagement by the trump people with the russians? >> absolutely. and the reason i feel so strongly about this is we know the russians use a variety of tactics and have used a variety of tactics in europe including obviously weaponization of data like we know occurred here, but also blackmail, extortion, compromising people. they have used collusion with the natives of different countries in europe. they've used all of the things that are the subject of our concern here.

our very democracy was attacked and the democracies in europe are being attacked. we're in a global war of ideas of aing ing toing t ing ting i. if anyone has been compromised, we need to know it. if anyone here has broken, u.s. persons or campaign people or others, have violated the law in collusion with the russians, they ought to be brought to justice so there's ever reason to do a thorough investigation here. >> thank you, u.s. congressman adam schiff of california. joining me, ken delaney, nbc intelligence and national security repoer. it's going to be hard to get an answer here. i want to be fair here. investigations can go on forever. ken starr went all over the place, fishing expedition after fishing expedition. we don't live in a country like that. a police state where people are constantly being investigated. any case, if trump is on the level here, offering it as a possible, he and his people are

going to say we're going to short circuit this thing, give you everything we got, answer every phone call, every document we have, make it clear we were not engaged with the russians. shou could they possibly shorten this effort and get it down to a month or so so they can get beyond it if they're innocent? is that possible theoretically? >> i don't think so, chris because this -- >> can't establish your innocence. >> right, can't prove a negative, right? >> that's a problem for somebody -- i'm trying to see it from their sides for a few minutes here. what do they have to do to prove their innocence? what can they do? >> i don't know that they can because it's all about trump aides who made trips to russia, what did th who did they meet with -- >> isn't that something you can do pretty fast with passports? >> yeah -- i don't see it. first of all, you're dealing with a sophisticated foreign intelligence service, right? i mean, the allegations in this christopher steele dossier, you went through the timeline very well a few moments ago, are stunning. they -- that dossier alleges

trump and his aides engaged in a well-developed conspiracy with a russian state to undermine american democracy. they're completely unproven, right? >> yeah. >> the fbi found them credible enough to agree to pay christopher steele to continue to investigate that. the fbi is investigating that. we don't have visibility on what they're checking, what they've disprov disprove we know they've found evidence of contacts between trum associates and russians and they're further investigating those. >> we don't know what that means. paul manafort has a client over there, the ukrainians. how do we know some of this is commercial? i'm trying to be devil's advocate to find if this isn't a witchhunt, fishing expedition, look what ken starr did, fished around and fished around with whitewater. there was nothing to whitewater. then he found monaco. is that what we're advocating here to get trump? >> well, there's a circumstantial case, right, we have -- >> i'll explain. >> we have allegations of these connections and a president who's never found a bad word to

say about vladimir putin. on its face, there are very suggestive circumstances here and but now the issue is, you know, can you get behind what the russian intelligence services were doing? you know, presumably they were very careful, if, in fact, they sought to compromise americans. and they used encrypted communications and used cutouts. so as adam schiff just said, this is going to take a long time and they may never be able to clear anyone. that's going to be the interesting -- will there be a report at some point? you know, in they don't charge anyone, will they have to account for what they did find or didn't find, chris? >> no wonder trump's fighting it. it will go on and on and on and may not even clear him. what's he gain from having any kind of long-term independent prosecutor doing this? >> it's -- >> if he can't prove his innocence under any circumstances because it will just drag on, this is the problem with policy, with politics. of course, the democrats want to investigate, investigate, investigate, just like the republicans want to investigate clinton over and over and over again. until they finally find something. if they don't, they move on and look around for something else. let's go after benghazi, les go

after the next thing. >> you're raising really good points. >> they never end. >> sure. but in fairness, this is a counterintelligence investigation. >> yeah. >> this is about fundamental questions about, you know, did americans cooperate with a foreign government? after all -- >> it's a great question. there's been no hard evidence of a trump person involving themselves in fixing this election campaign. has there been any evidence of that involvement? >> i've seen allegations and not evidence. you're absolutely right. >> i think we got to stay where we're at on this. anyway, innocent until proven guilty. we're getting deeper into this trump/putin connection, of course, two hours we're going into it, our special report "the trump/putin power play." we're going to be tough. up next donald trump made the jump from celebrity businessman to the whousz and now other celebrities are talking about prrunning for president including oprah. imagine that campaign in 2020. this is "hardball" where the action is. oh...not the smooch method! come on...

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i never considered the question even a possibility, i just thought, oh. oh. >> right. because it's clear that you don't need government experience to be elected president of the united states. >> that's what i thought. i thought, oh, gee, i don't have the experience. i don't know enough. i don't know. now i'm thinking, oh. >> yeah. right? well, okay.

>> that's showbiz. welcome back to "hardball." that's of course the great oprah winfrey today admitting she's sort of considering the possibility of actually running for president in 2020, if 2016 taught a lot of people anything, it's someone with absolutely no experience serving in the government, the military, really anything to do with public, could be president of the united states in the first run. anyway, oprah isn't the only celebrity whose name has been floated by the celebrities around the democratic ticket next time. according to "hollywood reporter" disney ceo bob igor told friends he's considering there are nudges he might make a run for president in 2020 as a democrat, of course, and since con sulsulted with michael bloog who did a lot of thinking, himself, about making the leap from the board rom room to the high office. mark cuban, billionaire rival, owner of the dallas mavericks basketball team, a rival of donald trump, and also campaigned heavily for hillary clinton. he's also hinting he might make a run. he gave a coy answer to the "business insider" telling them, "we will see." this came after president trump tweeted at cuban saying "i know

mike cuban well. he backed me big-time. i wasn't interested in taking all his calls. he's not smart enough to run for president." cuban retaliated by tweeting this e-mail which reads "everyone else is afraid of you. i like to challenge you. like you said, i may go after that job someday and could be against you." whoa. will these candidates actually run? do they stand a chance? joining me right now, "variety's" ted johnson. ted, the only thing that gives credibility to all this stuff about these big shots changing their feel and all of a sudden becoming professional pal, i remember the scene in the late great white house correspondents' dinner, trump in the crowd, see him with the camera on him, getting really, really ticked because obama was making fun of him. making fun of what he did for a living on "the apprentice." it's all the word, the legacy now, he decides to run at that moment. out of sheer anger. and people like mark cuban seem to have this weird billionaires club rivalry with trump. i don't quite -- i guess i get it. these guys, they're in the same

romper room in the billionaire category. what do you make of these people actually talking up a run? >> well i think it's simple, they're looking at trump, if he can do it, i can. they may have dismissed this out of hand, like oprah, she seems to not be rejecting the whole idea. but i have to say, there's something that they -- that is different about an oprah winfrey or a bob iger, maybe less so about mark cuban. trump had the advantage of having this kind of scrappiness. he had the experience with the new york tabloids. he went up against them. he did this for years and years in new york. so he had a very good savviness with the press and with the negative press. these other figures often are protected by armies of publicists and they're very carefully stage managed. so the big question is, you know, how would they do when they actually got out there on

the political stage a? and i think it would be pretty eye-opening for them once they got out in. >> do you think they get the trump connection with the zeitgei zeitgeist? that's his great strength. he whistles into the exact mood of the country at the exact moment and says what's appropriate to that moment and how he keeps people interested in him. i think that is a talent of a sort. what do you think? >> oh, sure. sure thing. oprah winfrey obviously would come in with enormous advantages. >> people like her. >> the money -- >> that's a start. >> people like her, the money advantage. she has an -- she's an inspiring personality. she comes in with a lot of positives into the campaign and obviously one of the world's biggest celebrities. however, you know, if she ran as a democrat, she would face a democratic primary where she would have to say, hey, i'm a billionaire, but i get you. i get the working class conce s concerns. because all signs are that is going to be what this democratic primary may be about, who can really connect with the working class and allow the democratic party to reclaim that mantle as

the party of the working class. >> i know politics, and every election is about fixing the problem we have. i think oprah, not that she's a serious candidate, because she doesn't want to be probably, is empathy. right now we have a president who has no empathy for regular people and their problems. he doesn't connect with pain. he doesn't feel the pain of the people he makes fun of. he has no empathy. that's oprah's strength. i've watched her for decades. she connects with women, what vr their ethnic background, whatever the gender is, she connects with people's real challenges in life. that's what we need in this country, a little empathy. thank you, ted johnson, for coming on the show. you're smart about this stuff. up next, president trump softened his tone last night. of course. what about h command of the facts? the "hardball" roundtable is comi to look at what trump got wrong in last night's address. you're watching it, "hardball." y by helping you get more out of life and medicare part d. now with zero-dollar copays on select plans...

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since my election, ford, fiat-chrysler, general motors, sprint, softbank, lockheed,

intel, walmart and many others have announced that they will invest billions and billions of dollars in the united states and will create tens of thousands of new american jobs. >> anyway, welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump last night bragging taking credit for the creations of tens of thousands of jobs already. the "associated press" fact check team reports, "it's unlikely trump is the sole or primary reason for the expected hiring he cited last night. many of the announcement, actually announcements, reflect corporate decision that predate," catch that word," his election." it's one of many examples last night of the joint session of congress that fact checkers claim was inaccurate or an exaggeration. "washington post" chief fact checker glen kessler writing "p trump's address to congress was filled with numerous inaccuracies." hd roundtable, catherine, opinion writer with the "washington post," nick cofessore, political writer for "the new york times."

sabrina, political reporter with "the guardian." i want to start with the jobs he created, catherine. i noticed when it comes to the casualty in the yemen operation, the generals, i inherited that. >> yeah. >> and when it comes to any -- >> success, a thousand father, all of quhwhom are donald trump >> there's a lead. >> look, it's not in these company' interest to fight him on this right? it is in record. there are plenty of news stories showing that many of these decisions were made well before he was known to be the victimer victor -- >> why is he claiming he did it? >> well, it's good for him. i was going to say, it's also good nr for cheese compani for these companies, right? want him to think they got him to bow to their will. >> he knows his hardcore base of supporters don't trust the media that pointing out these decisions were made prior to the election. they fundamentally don't trust fact checkers and think that they're biased and so he hopes

that he can persuade a fraction of the american public he is, in fact, creating jobs because that will be critical to this never-ending campaign that donald trump is in. >> the thing about it is, nick, the -- he made this, what do you call it, the -- what's the favorite number? he talks about the country being -- the carnage. everything is carnage. his description of the country was probably better used for, say, april of 2009, when obama came in. >> right. >> everything is going to hell in a handbasket, i'm coming in to save the day, yet the unemployment rate -- a lot of jobs are under what people doing for a living ppt economy is so much better than tstit was. a lot of indicators are way up. now he says i'm walking into a trash pile. >> look, the economy was growing at a huge clip when he first came into office. what he is laying out is a rationale or pretext for his policies. in the trump world view, crime is out of control. immigrants are coming across our borders.

you know, right and left. to kill and murder and maim and pillage. it's a way of creating a rationale and a pretext for the policies he wants to do which is mass deportations and -- >> you think he's going to engage -- why did he drop the story yesterday afternoon that he's not going to do the mass deportations? he's just going et rid of felons -- >> he created hours -- he created hours of poz psitive coverage about a potential shift in immigration, did this on the campaign trail as well. >> did he lie? >> the pivot never came. >> did he lie? >> yes, because there was no shift. in fact, as neck poiick points softer terms he still laid out the same case that immigrants are primarily criminals, or terrorist s in order to bolster support for his plans to build the wall and to crack down on immigrants in this country. >> they're all taking our jobs apparently. >> you know what the problem with journalism is today, you have reporters notepads and write down what somebody says. this is big problem now. he said something he didn't intend to do, filled the notepads of all the

anchorpeople, right, web hen th reported it, that's why we're fr there, he didn't do it. >> he did it in background after trashing reporters for using other anonymous sources. >> you're right. >> i've not seen that done very often. >> he used to have unnamed sources he would send to hawaii and say they're digging up some really interesting stuff about barack obama -- >> his own spokesman to page six, made up his own persona. who's he kidding on this stuff? >> exactly. next, the roundtable is sticking with us. up next, these three will tell me something i don't know. be right back. but then i realized there was. so, i finally broke the silence with my doctor about what i was experiencing. he said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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>> i'm here in new york, but down in washington they're bracing for the earliest bloom of the famous cherry trees along the tidal basin. that's because a -- look at that, global warming. the average -- you can see the trees in full peak bloom by march 14. i think these are stock footage. anyway, the peak bloom before that record was march 15. now it's moving up. climate change is slow but real. we'll be right back. (vo) this is not a video game.

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states to allow this. >> why would he say such a thing? >> well -- >> i wonder. >> it's bizarre, right? what the law says is that you can't sell a product into another state that undermines that state's law. states rights. >> states rights. >> so in honor of the president's speech, i was curious, what was the longest state of the union ever, you may remember this one, clarissa? it was bill clinton in '95 for an hour and a half. >> take us in a different direction the operative who ran bernie sanders's campaign is mulling a run for congress in a swing district in the des moines area. that's interesting because this will be the first real test, or one of the first tests of this movement and the future of the democratic primaries. >> thank you catherine, nikon necessa nick confessore and sabra siddiq siddiqui.

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trump watch, march 1, 2017. i'm up here in new york. i've been up here a lot over the years and should have noticed a connection between this city and the man who's now the president. one thing you noticef you take cabs in manhattan is all-news radio, it gives you the sries bing, bing, bing, a holdup in canarsie, the mayor is under fire for the horses in central park, subway fire in green point. bing, bing, bing, updates again and again, this is the news this hour, an hour later this is the news this hour. it's like listening to donald trump. this is what i have to say this hour, not an hour ago this is not news, that's news. that's what i'm saying right now

is the news this hour, there's no past, not even an hour ago, no future, that's an hour from now. there's only the news this hour. well, that's donald trump's world. he spent years saying that president obama was an illegal immigrant, he said he had detectives in hawaii digging up amazing stuff. he have said chuck schumer was a clown then an hour later said he's fake news or fake tears chuck. he said terrible things about marco rubio now he's on the team this hour. he said this generals lost chief ryan owens in that yemen operation then last night he spoke as the commander in chief. he said the media is the enemy of the people then used this emt to spread word he was compromising on immigration then he forgot that, that was not the news this hour. i watched him do this through the campaign, say thing that dropped them in the next transmission. then we gotten a hour of president trump acting presidential. another hour with the man who lives in hours, forgetting the hour before. what's coming the next hour of donald trump? no one knows. i'll bet not even he knows. that's "hardball" for now in this trump world. thanks for being with us.

"all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> a new national pride is sweeping across our nation. >> the agenda of the president's address "nationalism with an indoor voice." >> i have ordered the department of homeland security to create an office to serve american victims. >> plus -- >> they lost ryan. >> the commander-in-chief passes the buck. >> this was a mission that was started before i got here. >> my guest tonight,raq war veteran and u.s. senator tammy duckworth. >> he's the commander-in-chief, he needs to take responsibility for the raid. then, the latest attempt to quash the russian investigation. the complete lack of consensus among republicans on obamacare. and the real hbcu scandal that has nothing to do with couches. >> i certainly meant no disrespect. i didn't mean to have my feet on the couch. >> when "all in" stars right now.