know how to sort out because they are the kings of that, not us. >> what he's doing is about the mirror. he's playing to "fox and friends." he's playing to himself in the mirror to a certain extent. and that is really terrifying because there's no reason to believe there's a strategy any of this. >> and this is the no strategy. we use diplomacy first. >> there's no one in the state department. that is all in for this evening. rachel maddow show starts in with joy reid. >> congratulations on the big launch to the book. that's really terrific. you don't even need luck because you have skichlt thank you so much to you for tuning in this hour. i'm joy reed in for rachel tonight. rachel will be back tomorrow. happy almost tax day. tax day is tomorrow, the 18th. it's usually april 15th but this year the date fell on a saturday. this year the occasion was larjd with large gatherings to protest the president's refusal to release his tax returns. the houses turned out in chicago, sacramento, atlanta, d.c. null new york, and west palm beach near r-a-lago, well as many other cities. ey were r the most part peaceful. violence did break out in berkeley, california, where 21

people were arrested as protesters clashed with hundreds of trump is not. but on the whole they were peaceful. they were also well-attended. maybe not the largest marches ever, but a clear demonstrations that this movement has real staying power and the issue of his taxes is not going away. protesters were determined to make sure the tax issue remains part of the political conversation. saturday's showing did just that. what we saw over the weekend ensured the issue remains an issue putting the white house press secretary on the defensive. >> is the president going to release his tax returns? >> i think people understand how successful the president has been. we're turned same audit that existed so not guilty has kpangd. >> will the president authorize the irs -- >> i think the president's view has been very clear and the american people understood it when they elected him in

november. >> is it time to say the president is never going to release his tax returns? >> we'll have to get back to you on that. >> i mean, really? >> really. >> so he may? >> i said i'd have to get back to you on that. he's still under audit and the statement still stands. >> in all likelihood he's never going to release them. but the political heat that the white house is facing over the issue also seems unlikely to dissipate either. the heat will keep coming as a direct result oftism on the ground. it's the enthusiasm we've continued to see following the election. immediately after the inauguration we saw those enormous record setting crowds at women's marches all over the country. constituents have showed up demanding answers from members of fwrechlts many members of

congress have begun avoiding meeting constituents altogether face to face, while those who do like tom cotton in arkansas and dean heller in nevada are getting an earful. >> i'm wondering if you'll take

and u.s. relationship will further be strengtdened and build a high level to investment stun guards and to the asia and pacific region that is free and fair trade rules. to rectify our fair trade and practices in the region, japan and the united states agree to further our mutual cooperation. being mindful of wtos that dispute cement procedures, japan will push forth. japan u.s. authorities to work

ever more closely including foreign affairs as well as general counsel office which was newly formed. on the cooperation on economic and structural policy area, japan and u.s. will actively use three pronged approach of fiscal monetary and structural policy agreed at g 7. and will discuss the ways to lead a balanced and strong growth. views will be exchanged on international economic and financial developments and we'll work closely. one sector of cooperation such adds high speed rail and energy,

various themes were japan could incorporate would be taken up. japan and u.s. economic relationship will be deepened or multifaceted front along with the pillars of japan u.s. economic relations will leap forward significantly in japan and u.s. together will lead strongly. economic growth of asian pacific region as well as the rest of the world. also vice president pence and i agreed to hold a second economic dialogue meeting by the end of this year at a mutually convenient time. to further deepen japan u.s. economic relations and to build a new history of bilateral relations going forward. vice president pence and i will continue to have constructive dialogue. thus far, looking at japan u.s. relationship, we started with friction, but for the very first time it's no longer friction, but based on cooperation now.

this sh a very important juncture where we are opening up a new page. thank you so much. vice president pence, please. hello. depu deputy, thank you for your hospitality and friendship and the kindness you've shown us in the effort that begins today. i thank you for your tireless work to strengthen the bond between your nation and mine. it is an honor to be back in japan on my very first visit to the asian pacific as vice president of the united states, i had to come to japan. i bring greetings from it will president of the united states, president donald trump. and earlier today on the

president's behalf, i had the honor to meet with prime minster abe tom reaffirm the abiding friendship and enduring alliance between japan and the united states. the united states/japan alliance is the corner stone of peace, prosperity, and freedom in the au asia pacific. and under president trump, america is committed to strengthening alliance to strengthen for the benefit of our people and for the benefit of the world. already the bond is growing stronger. prime minster abe was one of the first leaders president trump hosted at the white house. continued their meeting at the southern white house and i can attest personally they have forged a good personal relationship which is already beinnefittg both of our nations. their relationship truly demonstrates the extraordinary respect that president trump has

for our critically important ally japan. today, as we have for more than half a century, the united states and japan stand united in defensive democracy and the rule of law. not only in this rouge, but all across the world. tomorrow, i will speak from the deck of the uss ronald reagan at the naval base. a tangible sign of unity with japan and united states unyielding commitment to peace and security in the aush pacific. under president trump, united states will continue to work with japan and all our allies to confront the most ominous threat posing this region of the world, the regime in north korea. and will let me be clear, our commitment is unwavering and our resolve could not be stronger. as president trump told abe at the southern white house, i say

on his behalf to all the people of japan, in these challenging times, we are with you 100%. in the face of provocations across the sea of japan, people of this country should not that we stand with you in the defense of your security and prosperity, now and always. the united states will continue to work with japan, our allies across the region, and china to bring economic and diplomatic pressure to bear until north korea abandon nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but all options are on the table. nevertheless, president trump and i have great confidence that together with japan and our allies in the region, we will protect the peace and security of this part of the world and achieve our shared goal oaf a nuclear free korean peninsula. now, security is the prosperity.

promoting prosperity is the main reason i had the privilege of meeting with your deputy prime minster. at the direction of trump and abe, today deputy prime minster and i have the opportunity to formally launch the dialogue. with the opportunity to deepen bilateral ties and foster jobs, prosperity, growth on both sides of the atlantic. building on a strong foundation that is the prime minster said, our economies have been intertwined for generations and in is a new day and new chapter in relations between the united states and japan. every day though, our nations already exchange goods and services that improve people's lives and help businesses on both sides of the pacific succeed. japan is the united states fourth largest goods trading partner and fourth largest goods

export market. japan is one of america's leading investors. japanese foreign direct investment in the united states now totals $400 billion. second most of any nation. you know, i saw that firsthand backing in my old job when i was governor of indiana. how trade and investment between our countries can be beneficial to us all. in 2013 and again in 2015 i led a group of indiana businesses here to japan to foster closer economic ties, create jobs, and spur opportunity and growth. today the u.s. japan economic dialogue seats the very same objectives for both of our countries in ll. it signifies presidenttrump's commitment to strengthening economic relationship with japan using a bilateral approach. today's meeting with deputy prime minster was a opportunity for us to broadly discuss how we view the dialogue structure and

goals. the prime minster and will i agree it will focus on three key policy pillars. the first is common strategy on trade and investment rules and issues. under president trump's leadership, the united states seeks stronger and more balanced bilateral trade relationships with every country, including japan. our goal is simple, we seek trade that is free and we seek trade that is fair. this requires breaking down barriers, leveling the playing field so american companies and exporters can enjoy high levels of market access. second pillar involve s economi and structural policies. president trump believes both the united states and japan can enact progrowth and scene fiscal monetary and budgetary policy. key to both of our long-term success. final pillar is what we call sec

torl cooperation. the president and i are confident we can find new ways to expand. american and japanese businesses have much to offer each over by working together. we can ensure that our two nation's economic leadership grows even stronger in the years ahead to the benefit of all of our people. this is an important day for the partnership between the united states and japan. and i'm deeply humbled to be a part of it. u.s. japan economic dialogue will provide us with a new forum to address the economic issues that are crucial to long-term success. the relevant u.s. agencies the department of commerce, the department of treasury and u.s. trade representatives office will lead discussions for each of these three pillars focusing on concrete economic results in the near terms and reporting back to my office. the deputy prime minster and i look forward to receiving input

from the agencies other the coming months and we have agreed to meet again by the end of the year to discuss the progress in each area. president trump and i are confident that working with prime minster abe and deputy prime minster, we will open a new chapter of opportunity and agreement between our people. the president is working tirelessly to create forward momentum to deepen bilateral economic partnership with japan and today's announcement is a reflection of that. we are grateful that prime minster abe and deputy prime minster share our goal of a mutually beneficial economic relationship and we look forward to working with them through the u.s. japan economic dialogue to achieve our vision of equal partnership that creates jobs and prosperity and growth in the united states and in japan on an equal basis. we have before us the historic opportunity and today i say with

confidence based on our first discussion we will seize this will opportunity. we will take this moment to strengthen the ties of commerce and friendship that economist between o exists between our people and i believe we will usher in a new era of prosperity for ourself and future generations. a closeness between our people best described with the japanese word and does not have a coronary in the english language. i learned it a while ago as governor of indiana i had the opportunity to understand and appreciate the more than 250 japanese companies that had decided to make indiana home. the word is kozuna. and reflection of a close relationship. a relationship of understanding and of mutual respect. i can't help, but feel today we're renewing that relationship. on that foundation as we initiate this important u.s./japan economic dialogue. so thank you again mr. deputy

prime minster for hosting me here today. i look forward to this work with great anticipation: >> we would like to invite questions. let us start with japanese media. >> translator: let's take a question from the japanese press. please raise your hand and state your name before asking a question. >> i am from nhk. i have a question to ask both. trump administration declared they would withdraw from tpp and great attention drawn to what is going to be the u.s. trade policy going forward. a nominee said that in the actual area, japan will be the first to target. so what will be the trading negotiation going forward

between japan and u.s.? what is the outlook? are you looking for concluding japan u.s. in the end. >> thank you. now, can i answer your question first? well, at the economic dialogue this time as the common strategy on trade and investment rules and issues, free and fair rule based trade and investment is an indispensable value and action principal for realizing the growth and prosperity not only firefighter japan and united states, but for the rest of the global economy as well. and on this, once again, vice president pence and i were able to confirm this. and based on that, having a good understanding about the situations underway in asian pacific is important to that japan u.s. should lead the rule making process in the region.

i think it's very important and we've been discussing that concretely not only to strengthen trade and investment flow bilaterally, but also japan u.s. can play a role in spreading high level fair rules. over asian and the pacific region. we would like to strengthen the aspect of japan alliance. we've been discussing that. and looking at japan/u.s. economic relationship it used to be described with icti. we started with the word friction and it used to be the symbol, but no longer. we are now in the year of cooperation between the two countries. it's not a matter of which side say what to the other side, from the big picture and strategic point of view, we would like to

seek the best shape and form of bilateral framework and find a significance and have a goods counteractive discussion and i think we were able to mark our first step toward that, thank you. >> thank you for your comments mr. deputy prime minster. in response to the question, let me say with great respect to those who worked on the trans-pacific partnership in the past, the tpp is a thing of the past for the united states of america. the trump administration has made a decision and taken steps to formally withdraw on the trans-pacific partnership and that will be our position going forward. today marks the fact united

states is determined here to reach out to partners to at least begin to explore the possibility of expanded economic tu opportunities including trade on a bilateral basis. president trump truly does believe that it's in the interest of the united states of america to negotiate trade agreements on a bilateral basis. that creates a framework within which countries can better assess whether the deal itself is a -- what we call arraement. today what the deputyrime minster said so eloqutly is today we're beginning a process of an economic dialogue. the end of which may result in bilateral trade negotiations in the future. so, but we're beginning that conversation today.

g beginning to identify areas that we can enhance and strengthen the economic interaction between our two nations. and at some point in the future, there may be a decision made between our nations to take what we have learned in this dialogue and commence formal negotiations for free trade agreement. i'll leave that to the future. tell you that these discussions are very much a reflection of the president's view that negotiating at arm's length at a bilateral basis with nations is best path forward for the united states and best path forward for the nations with whom we enter into such agreements and i think on the days ahead you'll continue to see the united states work on a bilateral basis with countries around the world to expand opportunities for us and the world at large. >> now the question for u.s.

media. le let me defer to mr. mark. >> thank you. the question from josh roguen with "the washington post." >> thank you very much. vice president pence, you said the united states will increase democratic pressure. we heard abe say he agrees with that. japan also places paramount importance on the need to seek a diplomatic effort to achieve a peaceful resolution to the crisis. my question is what exactly must north korea do, what are the conditions for beginning that dialogue and what form should that dialogue take and f deputy prime minster, president trump during his campaign often called on japan to share more of the burden for common defense and pay more for u.s. security presence here in japan. what specifically is japan prepared to do to respond to president trump's call?

[ speaking foreign language ] >> thank you, josh. >> denuclearization of the korean peninsula has been the long standing policy of the united states of america of south korea, of japan, of china, and it's been the long standing policy of nations across the world. for more than a generation, we've seen the very failure of dialogue at large. first we remember the agreed framework of the 199s, then we remembered the six party talks and with good-faith efforts around the world, again, and, again, north korea met those efforts at resolution with broken promises and more provocations. that's why we've said the era of strategic patience is over.

and president trump has made it very clear, policy of the united states of america will be to reach out to our allies in the region here in japan where i just had a productive conversation with prime minster abe on this topic. yesterday in soerng wheuth korei met with officials of the assembly. president trump recently met with president xi and president of china reaffirmed china's commitment to a nuclear free korean peninsula. it is our belief that by bringing together the family of nations with diplomatic and ecomic pure, we have a chance, we have a chance to achieve our objective of a nuclear free korean peninsula. all options are on the table and there they will remain. president trump and i and our administration believe the most

productive pathway forward is d dialogue among the family of nations that can isolate and pressure north korea into abandoning permanently and dismantling its nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile program. as president -- as prime minster abe said today in our brief conversation, dialogue for the sake of dialogue is valueless. it is necessary for us to exercise pressure. and the united states of america believes time has come for the international community to use both diplomatic and economic pressure to bring north korea to a place that it has avoided successfully now for more than a generation. and we will not rest and we will not relent until we achieve the objective of a denuclearized korean peninsula.

>> "washington post" i my english hearing is still good enough, but if i may say in japanese. >> translator: well the economic dialogue, tpp, whether the tpp can be made as a foundation for a dialogue going forward is that what you said? no. completely different story. then my english hearing is absolutely wrong. >> would you remind r the question again? >> president trump during his campaign often called on japan to share more of the burden for common defense. and pay for money for u.s. security presence here in japan. what is japan willing to do to respond to president trump's calls for a better deal for the

united states in the u.s./japan security relations. >> i think i got a picture. response in japanese is okay. right? >> translator: now, responding to your question, well, let's look at japanese defense, just the other day, mr. james mattis, your defense minister called me, came to japan with occasion i had opportunity to talk with him. looking at host of nation support. host the nation support came up as a topic and he said that

japan is behaving like a textbook case. 75% is paid to host nation. 40%. 30% to germany and 20% to italy. i think the whole picture was understood by general mattis and just when the cabinet was formed to look at the defense expenditure, how it is being allocated. the navy is the crucial area where more budget allocation has been done followed by air and the land. i think this is the most appropriate allocation of the defense budget. so ever since inclusive of general mattis and other military personnel of the united states as with regard to the japanese defense or discontent, at least no message have been

given to us from the united states as far as i know. so we will continue to make mutual effort and try to share the information as much possible going forward and particularly look at the eastern china sea and korean peninsula and sea of japan. certain friction might arise so information exchange is particularly important. intelligence sharing and information sharing has to continue in an appropriate manner. first of all because of the situation we are in. so with this we would like to conclude the joint press conference. please stay where you are until both gentlemen leaves. >> advised to keep sitting until the vice president and prime minster leave the room. thank you.

you're watching breaking news we've been following. press conference between the vice president and the deputy minister of japan. of course talked about north korea, an economic conversation they were having. talk first and go through my motes and talk you through what they covered in regards to north korea. this was vice president's first visit to asia pacific. said their alliance together with the prime minster of japan is very strong and that it's based on peace, prosperity, and freedom. he said the u.s. will work with japan and south korea to confront north korea. they want north korea to abandon all nuclear arms and all options though are on the table. in regard to north korea, vice president mike pence went on to say that the denuclearization of the korean peninsula is of paramount important and the era of strategic patience is over, but together with asian nations, with diplomatic and economic

pressure, they want to get north korea to abandon any nuclear arms that they do have, but, again, he reiterated. all options with north korea are on the table. they also launched the u.s. japan economic talks. which they talked about in that press conference earlier. japan the fourth largest trading partner to the united states. fourth largest goods exports to the united states. strengthening the economic partnership with bilateral talks. they've talked about a three prong strategy they're going to take a free and fair trade agreement as you remember the u.s. is taking steps to abandon the ttp which is paramount to japan so talking about that free and fair trade agreement is very important to them. also economic structural policy they're setting up togetr and sec torl cooperation.

they're hoping with chi log over the next year or so they can come to a fair agreement. they are confident they'll get concrete economic results between the two countries, and, again, tpp question coming up over and over again. talked about how they'll be meeting again by the end of the year to see accomplishment made in regards to the conversation taking place. and, again, you are watching breaking news. coming out of japan. vice president mike pence meeting with the deputy prime minster of japan. talking about north korea which has been on the hot list. driving home all options are on the table. they want to enforce first any sort of economic pressure along with dialogue with asia pacific countries to try to force north

korea to abandon any sort of nuclear arms that they currently have. we're going to have more headlines at the top of the hour. now back to regular programming. > as you watch the political situation unfold. remember they invested in turkey every sense of the word. liberty mutual stood with us when a fire destroyed the livi room. we were able to replace everything in it. liberty did what? liberty mutual paid to replace

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nfl 1969. the threat was not only coming from the soviet union, but also communist china. the thought was that had missile to reach the united states. to counter that threat, spent billions of take a look at how it worked. >> the enemy missiles do get through, the smaller sprint missiles are fired. the sprint should intercept the enemy missiles at a range of 25 miles and an altitude of between 50 and 100,000 feet. it explodes within a half mile of the incoming missile and is supposed to be render harmless. an explosion at 50,000 feet would not be a problem but the area immediately below would receive fire blast. if sprint made its senate just above the ground the number of cachets from blast, fire, and radiation would be great. even if this worker perfectly the pending con seeds an attack wod lee many americansead.

>> so that was the missile system that the pending developed to protect the u.s. from a nuclear attack from china or the soviet union. note the old timemy amazing drawings used in that package to illustrate how the defense system work. over the years much has changed on how we do graphics on tv, the anti-ballistic missile defense system really hasn't changed all that much. america's interest in missile systems reached a peak with star wars when the reagan administration was upping the ant ty. that fizzled out when the berlin came down. but there were other countries who had zwroind nuclear arms race. decades after signing the armistice that paused the korean war in 1953, the government in north korea began to bill its own deterrent flushed with memories.

u.s. nuclear bombing of hiroshima in japan in 1945. and the threats offize hour to do the same thing if they didn't stan down. as they started to make progress, there emerged back door arms race where we were not just worried about china and soviets, but north korea too. in 2014 the obama administration realized since the eisenhower era the u.s. has sent $300 billion on anti-ballistic missile systems. we had not really made great strides in protecting the u.s. against including a threat from unstable and erratic north korea. in 2014, the obama administration reportedly started investing resources in stepping up the pending's cyber and electric missile program.

is weekend in the midd of north korea's birthday celebrations for their founder, kim il-sung, they attempted to launch a ballistic missile. the launch failed within seconds. even though all signs pointed to north korea taking a sick stab at a nuclear test this weekend, they didn't do it. and why? well we don't know. but since president obama reportedly ordered this shift in strategy to begin investigating cyber and electronic sites, one particular north korean intermediate range missile has had a failure rate of 88% this past year, which raises the question, did the u.s. have anything to do with this week's launch failure. did the program have anything to do with north korea's decision not to try another nuclear test? and does this new strategic shift ensure a safer united states or does it carry its own risks? joining us is david sanger, noshl correspondent for the "new

york times." thank you for being here. >> thank you, joy. >> what can you tell us about the status of the u.s. attempt to use cyber technology to scuttle north korean miflgz? is it enough to have maybe saab tajd this test that they tried? >> it may have been used to sabotage the tests. it's very hard to tell very any individual test because there's so many things that can go wrong with a test. you could have american sabotage, you could have bad welding and manufacturing. north koreas don't exactly follow osha rules and they don't have the best quality control in the world. for any individual test, it's very hard to know. but as we spent the eight months investigating that led up to that story that you showed up on the screen which ran last month in the narcotics, we did find these highly increased failure rates after president obama ordered this increase in

attacks. the statistics are hard to come by in part because the program itself is so classified. but there's an unclassified part of the effort because the whole program is andrew fairly public pentagon effort called left of launch. if you consider anything that happens right up to the launch and those wonderful old pictures that you showed and drawings, boy, those are real classics. those are classic right of launch, after it's launched you go and incept it and we've spent $300 billion since the eisenhower era. it just doesn't work very well which is why the president ordered this effort for left of launch trying to sabotage the missiles prior to their liftoff.

>> in the piece we showed that you wrote about, you cited it could be simple incompetence. do we put too much stock in the polish for them to attack california and not enough focus on what they can do right on the korean peninsula, specifically that they could attack seoul. >> they can attack seoul with both nuclear and nonnuclear assets. and this is the reason this problem hasn't been solved in the past 20 years. the distance between the northern and the demilitarized zone where you saw mike pence visiting earlier today, and downtown seoul, one of the most prosperous cities in asia, is about the distance between baltimore and washington. so it wouldn't take much for the north koreans just with conventional artillery to completely destroy seoul.

it's gotten worse because seoul like every other major city that you know, has had urban sprawl, and when you land in seoul these days, notice there's suburban houses being built right unear the north korean border which still made it even easier for the north koreans to hit them. >> how smart is it in your view. it seems the trump administration is outsourcing the solving of this problem to china. is that going to work? >> i suspect it probably won't. they're not first administration that believes that the chinese are the key to it. it depends on whether the chinese are truly willing to cut off the two things that keep north korea alive, one is the financial transfers, and the second and more important is an oil pipeline that runs from china into north korea that provides so much of their energy. so the chinese interest here is

in maintaining the status quo. they don't want to collapse north korea in which south korea and its forces and maybe our forces go right up to the boarder. they are not interested in seeing the united states right up on the chinese border. and they are not interested in seeing north korean refugees pour into the country. and that's what would happen. >> the unsolvable problem much north korea. david sanger, national security correspondent for the "new york times." thank you for your time tonight, sir. more to come tonight. stay with us.

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this is prudhoe bay, alaska. it's about 650 miles north of anchorage, right on the northern edge of the state. they've got a pretty big oil field up there, about 25 million gallons. it's a big hub for oil and gas exploration. and this is a government in box in washington, d.c. where you can find 170 public comments. the comments come from industry, oil and gas companies, steel manufacturer, chemical corporations and the like, and they're all writing the federal government to tell them about regulations that they do not like. that they say makes their job harder. they're doing this at the invitation of the president of the united states. right at the start of his term, donald trump asked tell what's you don't like about the federal government. specifically, what rules don't you like?

and we -- maybe we'll change them. the president opened up that suggestion box. and this weekend "the washington post" cracked the lid open. and what is sitting in that box right now is interesting and potentially really revealing what the trump administration has planned. "the washington post" oreports that the administration got a flood of recommendations on what federal rules should be tossed into the shredder, everything from mixing paint, sick leave for government contractors, to getting rid of electronic injury and illness records. most of the friendly tips target epa regulations. they make up almost half of what is sitting in that comment box right now. "the washington post" flagged one comment in particular from oil and gas giant bp. bp, they of the infamous deepwater horizon oil spill disaster of 2010 is politely asking the federal government on shiny letterhead to make it easier for them to drill for oil and gas in the gulf of mexico. they want their drilling leases to be long sorry they don't have to review them as frequently and

fill as much paperwork. please and thank you. meanwhile, up in alaska, bp, the same company that wants government assistance to make it easier to drill for oil spent the weekend frantically trying to plug a leak that had been spewing crude oil and natural gas at their prudhoe bay drilling site since friday. how is that for timing? it took them for than two days to plug up the leak. we still don't know how much spilled out or what caused the leak. bp has not said. nevertheless, with one of their wells going haywire in alaska, here is bp asking the government to make it easier for them to drill, baby, drill. these industries, these for-profit outside stakeholders, they have the president's ear by way of these public comments. the question is will the president give them what they want?

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okay. fair warning. we wore out our bleep bleep bleep ty bleep machine making this next clip for you. it is close to family friendly, but it still does have what your mother might call language. and it has so many bleeps. >> i want to tell congressman schiff and the rest of them, hey, listen [ bleep ], quit saying roger and i -- and i'll never use cussing in 22 years, but the gloves are off. listen you [ bleep ], what's

your [ bleep ] problem? you want to sit here and say i'm a [ bleep ] [ bleep ] russian? you piece of [ bleep ], you [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. listen, kid, you [ bleep ] crossed the line. get that through your [ bleep ] [ bleep ] head. >> so when alex jones unleashed that tirade of bleep ty bleep bleep bleep, the first challenge was how to make it playable on basic cable there was some talk at the time that jones might have broken the law with threatening members of congress with that rant. while it can be a challenge to take jones seriously, in the trump era you have almost have to. he does have some access to the white house. the same loud who said the sandy hook massacre was staged with actors playing the victims, the same bomb thrower who pushed the phony pizzagate story that led to a real gunman shooting up pizza place in washington, that alex jones scored a coveted interview with the president-elect back in december.

and while it's still hard to take him seriously, we at least have to take serious the fact that someone who is basically an internet troll has access to the white house. and now there is this. jury selection began today in travis county, texas to decide a child custody suit being brought by the ex-wife of alex jones. she says, quote, i'm concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of congress. he broadcasts from home. the children are there watching him broadcast. the defense put up by alex jones' attorneys, the same one jones himself has made on air. quote, he is a playing a character. he is a performance artist. and maybe it is just the political equivale of pro wrestling where performers put on the leotards, ramp up the over the top characters and pretend to break each other's bones. but is that really what americans want from their

president? really? the alex jones trial is expected to last a couple of weeks in austin, texas. i wonder if the president will weigh in. watch his twitter. that does it for us tonight. rachel will be back tomorrow. and i will see you next weekend on my show "a.m. joy." and now it is time for "the las. i'll see you on my show "a.m. joy." "first look" is up next. the cleveland community in mourning. right now the nationwide manhunt continues for a murder suspect who police say posted video of a brutal killing on facebook. plus, tax returns revisited. the white house is still siding to explain why the president's tax returns will not be made public. >> democrats trying to put their party back together. senator bernie sanders and dnc perez launch a national tour aimed at strengthening the democratic party. good morning, everyone, it's tuesday, april 18th. i'm alex witt