good night from nbc headquarters in new york. rach ep has the night off. it's a very busy news right here. we're following several break stores including a intriguing new clue about the scope of the special council investigation and the resources being tapped by robert mueller as his work proceed. we're keeping our eye on a definitely go story, at any moment the president could end the obama era policy, dreamers, that were allowed to stay here legally. we're watching what's on the ground in texas. overnight there were two explosions on thear chema chemical plant. there are real concerns about whether there will be more explosions before this the over. what officials are saying about the risk. plus the towns of port arthur

and beaumont texas are in the cross hairs. bow mont a city of 118 thousands people has lost its water supply indefinitely. we begin about the tlup russia investigation into potential obstruction of justice by the president. eye was senator chuck grassley serves as the republican chairman of the senate judiciary committee which is one of the three main investigative committees investigating ties between the trump campaign and russia. if you were watching last night you'll remember senator grassley announced to his twitter followers yesterday, just had a phone call from president trump and he assured me he's pro ethanol and i'm free to tell the people of eye was he's standing by his promise. that call from tlum to the chairman of the committee investigating his eldest son

came less than 24 hours after grassley's committee announced it had set a date to hear private testimony from donald trump junior regarding that meeting he helped arrange at trump tower last summer with the russians offering to provide the trump campaign with dirt on hillary clinton. that was the offer to which he famously replied, if it's what you say, i love it. both the white house and senator grassley's office subsequently denied that either russia or the president's son were discussed on that call. but a look at news reports including several reliably conservative publications show the skepticism with which those claims were seated. that seems warranted because as we've seen before, this is not out of character for this president. last week we learned that trump called two republican senators to vent his frustration with legislation that they were overseeing related to the russia probe. he reached out to senator corker

to complain to him about a russia sanctions bill he had sponsored. he dialed up senator till is from north carolina to complain to him about a bill he was working on that was designed to keep trump from firing robbeert mueller. one aid said he seems he is always focused on russia. we also know these were not isolated calls. that report came one day after "the new york times" reported that donald trump had bee rated senate leader rich mcconnell in a phone call that deinvolved into a profane shouting match between them. he aused senator mcconnell of bungling health care. but he was more animated about the is not leader's refusal to protect him from investigations of russian interference in the 2016 election.

pressuring the republican leader to tamp down investigations could amount to potential obstruction of justice which aemploys not only to fbi investigations but also efforts to, influence obstruction or impede investigative inquiries. mulers investigation into the russian interference had widened to include potential obstruction of justice. that investigation was launched days after trump fired james comey on may 9th and days after the president came out and admitted in a interview with nbc's lester holt that russia had been on his mind when he made a decision to show comey the door. >> he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said,

you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> later, comey's side of the story would be revealed in a series of jaw dropping stories in the pages of the washington times and in testimony that comey laid out the number of times the president this pressured him to he's up on the investigation. >> i understood him to be saying what he wanted me to do is drop any investigation connected to flynn's account of russia investigations. why did he kick everybody out of the oval office? why would you tick kick the attorney general, the chief of staff, to talk to me. this is the president of the united states with me alone saying i hope this, i took it as this is what he wants me to do. i didn't obey that, but that's the way i took itment i don't think it's for me to say the conversation i had with the president with was evidence of a obstruct. i took it as concerning, but i'm

sure the special counsel will work towards what's the intent there and whether that's a offense. >> obstruction of justice was the focus of comey's testimony that day and also june 7th when the director of national intelligence and -- angered investors by refusing to -- urging them to public deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. there are reported incidents of donald trump bringing pressure on public officials to drop the investigation and many of those attempts have been well documented. we know they're being investigated by the special counsel as well as multiple committees in congress. we know they are serious. and tonight we're learning how serious it's being taken by the president and his legal team. tonight the wall street journal is reporting that lawyers for

donald trump have met with the special counsel to lay out their legal argument for why the president did not obstruction of justice. they've met several times with robert mueller and submitted memos arguing that the president didn't obstruct justice by firing former fbi chief comey. one memo laid out the case he has the authority under the contusion to hire and fire as he sees fit and didn't obstruct justice when he fired comey. another why comey would make a unsuitable witness, that he's unreliable in the course of leaks to the news media. thanks for mr. here, one of the -- >> let's go through the legal arg ults that the president's team is making as far as you know. is it limited only to the firing of james comey?

my understanding would be that's not the only element of obstruction of justice on the table. >> the memo they submitted to object mueller involved the firing of james comey and why that, in their belief wasn't obstruction of justice. they're making the case the president has a constitutional authority as head of the executi executive branch to staff it however they want. they brought in case law and making the argument that a president can do this and there's really nothing to inhibit him and therefore the obstruction of justice charge is really invalid. but it went on in the second memo to discredit comey, saying he's not a reliable witness. it's clear that obstruction of justice was on the minds of president trump's lawyers that were interested in execute ling this part of the investigation. >> i'm interested in the second piece, the trying to dis -- discredit james comey.

is it your reporting they're going to try in, the rosenstein memo or other evidence in their that comey is untrust worthy as a witness. >> they're trying to say comey isn't that believable, credible, he exaggerates, he's leaked materials to the press, something that he shouldn't have done. so, it's clear that they're trying to say or make the case that basing a obstruction charge on the testimony of james comey would be a foolish thing to do and nothing that would stand up. bare in mind, they have a client in president trump who is somebody who is upset and unhappy with this investigation, repeatedly dismisses it as a witch hunt, sees it as a dragon his presidency and wants it over with. this is a instant the lawyers are trying to meet with mueller and trying to get this behind them. >> and he not only is unhappy

with the investigation he keeps telling people that. he keeps saying out loud that he's angry about the investigation, wants to be protected from it, according to the reporting of his conversation with mitch mcconnell. do you get the since the president's legal team to trying to craft his defense taking into account the fact he fired comey. are they embracing that. >> i'm not sure they're dealing with that question in particular. they're moved narrowly on the firing of james comey is obstruction of justice. they're looking at a broad constitutional discussion. but we're in the early stages of this, and there's that mueller is embracing this argument. the obstruction investigation continues. it's not clear at all that they've accepted this rash al

that the trump lawyers put forward. >> there's been a lot about the tone, when your legal team is fasting off against mueller. do you get the tense the tone the trump legal team is adversarial are they taking a friendly tone toward the potential prosecutor here. >> while president trump's tone has been pretty combative, calling it a witch hunt, raising questions about conflicts of interest that mueller's team might have, we're seeing something different from the trump lawyers. they're much more respectful with mueller. they don't seem to be bringing up conflict of interest issues. they're meeting with him, keeping open a channel of communication. so, we're sort of getting a more contention vibe and tone from the white house and a much more collegial perspective coming from trump lawyers. >> probably wise. peter nicholas, white house

correspondent for the wall street journal. joining us barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor. i want to pick up where we leaf other on the question of attempting to discredit james comey as a strategy to get out of the idea of obstruction. is that, in your view, a smart legal maneuver? >> well, you want to go after any element of the crime or any proof issues or evidentiary issues. that's one of them. it seems to me a uphill battle to discredit jim comey. there are a few things you could use i suppose, if you want to portray his sharing of documents, leaks, if you like, but if you look at his whole body of work, a jury or any fact finder will find him highly credible. i'm not sure that argument will carry a lot of wait with robert mueller. >> let's talk about the

comparative power of pardon. in this idea of inherent power to fire, therefore he could fire jim comey for any reason he wanted, is that enough of a argument to he the get out of a obstruction of justice charge. >> he has the power to fire anyone he wants. comey said i accept the fact the president can fire for me for any reason or no reason at all. that doesn't mean there's no obstruction of justice. i think we're taking a narrow view of the obstruction. that was one example of a long litany of things that might contribute to a obstruction case. there's the february 14th meeting where the president allegedly asked james comey to let this thing go with flynn. there are similar requests to other leaders in the intelligent community. there's the conversation with mcconnell to protect him from russia. i think he's looking at a bigger

picture. and the firing is just one example. although the president has the power to do it, the fact he did it could still be evidence that his goal was to obstruct justice. >> the toughest bit against donald trump might be donald trump. i go back to that lester holt interview where he pro actively explained why he fired comey. is there any way to back out of that as something he's already affirmatively said on the record. >> i don't think so. especially because we all saw it on living color on video tape. i think one thing that's probative. he says it's the russia thing. but a few days earlier he had relied on the rosenstein memo it was because of the way comey handled the clinton e-mail investigation. when you have the conflicting stories, that's what prosecutors came up with consciousness of guilt, i changed my story because the first one didn't look good. the fact the story einvolves is

sometimes evidence of what's going on in a person's mind. >> if you were mueller and building a case, would it be the firing of comey that to be the central element of the could be instruction or going to mcconnell, why wouldn't you protect me from this, the constant complaints about the investigation, reaching out to members of congress like grassley let's have a chat about things you want in your state. would all those be elements. >> it's all of them t. the firing is one piece of evidence. i think it's the totality of the circumstances. the key element in could be instruction of justice is the corrupt person. why was the person doing this thing. if you can show all the different efforts for trying to persuade various people to stop the investigation, i think you can build the case. i think look at the firing alone is too narrow. >> does there have to be a underlying crime, meaning if

there was no underlying crime and you were just trying to stop a inquiry into something embarrassing, is that obstruction. >> it is. it's a obstruction of the investigation. the fbi or any investigative body has to have a legitimate person for investigating. they may conclude that no crime was committed. but regardless, if there was a effort to impede or on instruct the investigation itself, regardless of the ultimatout come, that's a obstruction of justice. >> lots more to come tonight, including special council robert mueller partnering with another government agencies and expect a policy shift when it comes to protecting dreamers and the latest developments on who are have i, including on the ground conditions in beaumont and port arthur. or, you can take advantage of our best offer ever on an xt5.

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so we've reached a point in this trump-russia investigation where we're beginning to see the contours of the strategy in the office of special counsel bob mueller. in a story posted late this evening, the daily beast reports that mueller has enlisted the irs in his investigation. citing sources familiar with the probe the daily beast reports that the criminal investigations unit of the irs is helping the special counsel. that's the part of the irs that deals with financial crimes, tax evasion and money laundering. enlisting the irs gives the mueller information access to the president ears tax returns.

the thing he's fought since the campaign to keep from becoming public. nbc has not confirm the daily beast story but it makes sense that robert mueller is asking questions about the finances of the vary players in and around the white house and campaign. on the other side, as we've been talking about is the reporting from "the wall street journal" about the way that the lawyers for the president have been fighting the investigation. they've been telling the special counsel that the president can fire anyone he wants so therefore he cannot have committed obstruction of justice when he fired fbi director james comey. on top of that, they're reportedly arguing that comey would make a terrible witness. joining us now is msnbc legal analyst, paul butler. always great to talk to you. so let's start with part one, bringing the irs office of criminal investigations into the case. what does that say to you as a former prosecutor? >> so, joy, special counsel

mueller is putting together a justice league team of superhero investigators and prosecutors. yesterday we learned about the new york attorney general snyderman and today we're learning that the elite unit of the tax division is coming in to look at everybody's tax records. these are the big dogs of white collar prosecutions. they not only know how to follow the money, they know how to make a case and explain it to a jury in a way that makes it want to convict. so i always say we're a long way from charges being brought. but if there's a criminal case, if you're a defendant, the last people you want going against you is ci, the criminal investigations unit of the tax division. >> let's talk about the president's pardon power and how broad his powers would be to protect potential witnesses against himself from prosecution, including for crimes that have been in the irs jurisdiction, things like money laundering and tax evasion. could donald trump potentially

just pardon anyone who may be being looked at by the criminal division of the irs and get them out of contention to be witnesses against him in. >> he absolutely has that power. now, typically a president wouldn't pardon someone who is implicated in investigation against a president himself. but we know from trump's pardon of sheriff arpaio he doesn't follow the institutional norms of the justice department. if good government doesn't stop him from pardoning someone or fidelity to the constitution, he might pardon someone to try to save his own self. but i'm not sure that would be a wise strategy because he only has the power to pardon for federal crimes, so there could still be the threat of a state prosecution. that may be why new york attorney general snyderman was brought in to kind of wave that threat over paul manafort. maybe the pardon of the sheriff

was an attempt to send a signal to other people in the investigation, you know, be faithful, give me that loyalty pledge and i have your back. but the appointment of snyderman or the collaborating with snyderman suggests that's not going to be a winning strategy for the trump team. >> so does it become relevant that the things that we're talking about, particularly the people who seem to need money at some point during the last several years when that became important, paul manafort, jared kushner, is the fact that the meetings were in trump tower, the meetings with the russian banks folks were in new york city, does that become relevant to the investigation? >> absolutely. at this very high level every issue is litigated to the end. and jurisdiction is always key. this is very obviously a federal matter. it's not as clear that it's a state case. and so there's going to be a vigorous contest if there's a

state prosecution brought about whether the state properly has venue. and if so, what state is it, new york, is it washington, d.c. again, that's going to be a really interesting issue. >> and very quickly, if donald trump were to attempt to pardon someone to try to get them out of testifying against him, could that in and of itself be seen as obstruction? >> it could be seen as obstruction as evidence of obstruction in a criminal sense. there the statute requires corruptly trying to impede an investigation. it would look like he's trying to do that. moreover it could grounds of impeachment. obstruction of justice is a high crime or misdemeanor and it doesn't have to meet the technical definition for the criminal statute. president trump if he uses his pardon pow tore get rid of people who may be witnesses, he not only faces criminal charges, he's got to be concerned of a potential impeachment proceeding. >> we're learning more more more. paul butler, appreciate talking to you. thank you.

>> always a pleasure. on day seven of hurricane harvey in texas, first came the raging flood waters. now some are facing a water shortage. more on that just ahead. let's see, there are the wildcats 'til we die weekenders. the watch me let if fly. this i gotta try weekenders. then we've got the bendy... ... spendy weekenders. the tranquility awaits. hanging with our mates weekenders and the it's been quite a day... ...so glad we got away weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. (con artists...) they'll try anything to get your medicare card number.

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tonight hurricane harvey has hit a new milestone. according to the university of wisconsin space science and engineering center, harvey is officially a 1,000-year flooding event. the flood zone is now the size of new jersey.

across houston tonight the flood water is beginning to recede giving us a fuller picture of the devastation. and as the water recedes, it clears the way for rescue workers in houston to go door to door looking for anyone who may still be strand in their home. rescue workers have resorted to hacking through roof to get inside in the search of survivors. there's real concern tonight that the death toll could rise. the other big concern in houston is fuel. there are reports of gas shortages in part because of a major pipeline stretching from texas to the northeast which has been shut down because of harvey. today a local police department advised residents that there is no gas available and recommended that quote citizens stay home and do not waste gas. in corpus christy mere where harry made landfall, vice president mike pence did something the president has yet to do. he toured the devastation and met with the victims. latest estimates suggests that harvey could cost $75 billion in

terms of property and economic losses. fema has a disaster relief budget of $3.8 billion. which raises the question, where will the rest of the money come from. back in 2005 then indiana congressman mike pence launched something called operation offset which many the wake of katrina called for any disaster relief spending to be offset by cuts to the budget. so it's a teeny bit awkward to have the vice president there in texas today when in the past he's been the poster boy for refusing disaster aid unless there are tough budget cuts to go along with it. corpus christi is in harvey's rearview mirror tonight. but port arthur and beaumont are not. this is the view from above, whole neighborhoods under water. port arthur 90 miles east of houston was virtually cut off, major roads swamped. last night we showed you the

port arthur shelter at the bob bowers civic center which flooded. it went under water in 20 minutes flat. tonight officials say that the water is beginning to recede. nearby in beaumont, texas, the urgent need tonight is for running water after both of the city's main water pumps were knocked out by the flooding. that means no running water for the 118,000 residents. it's triggered a run at the stores. the military is working to get fresh water into beaumont in the hopes of avoiding a major public health crisis. when the water pumps went down it closed the beaumont baptist hospital to close. 300 patients have been transferred. and tonight the official say there is no way to know how long the situation will last. we'll be staying on the story as the situation develops.

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that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah! last night at this hour we were waiting for an explosion at the arkema chemical plant in crosby, texas just northeast of houston. that plant has been flooded ant without power on sunday when the backup generators for swamped. they lost the ability to keep their chemicals refrigerated. because of the chemicals that produce there, there's a risk of spontaneous chemical reaction if they're not kept cold. which means fire and explosion. last night before 1:00 in the morning local time the

explosions came and the fire and a 30 to 40-foot plume of black smoke. but now tonight at this hour we're waiting for more explosions. more fire. this was the arkema chemical plant this morning. what you see burning there is the remains of one container of the chemicals. there are eight more on site. and the company fully expects all eight remaining container to explode and burn as well. a 1.5 mile radius around the plant remains evacuated and until the flood water recede, there's little they can do but wait for the chemicals to explode and the chemical to burn off. this is the plant this evening a couple of hours ago. the fire is out for now but again we're waiting for eight more of the container to go. we're also waiting for some clarity on exactly what kind of danger is posed by the smoke from last night's chemical fire and the additional fires we're still expecting.

this morning the head of the federal emergency management agency appeared to suggest that the smoke was so dangerous that it was the reason for the entire evacuation. and the arkem officials sent mixed signals. >> we do what's called plume modelling and that's what we base the evacuations on. by all mean, yes, the plume is incredibly dang lows. >> you don't want to stand in smoke, do you? so the sheriff says it's like a campfire. it's hydrocarbons burning. there's a lot of things made of hydrocarbons. >> the things burning there are no more dangerous than a campfire? >> i did not say that sir. >> people's health. >> you don't want to inhale smoke. that's plain and simple. >> are the fumes nontoxic or are you not sure. >> they're noxious. the talks isty of the fumes -- do you mean the smoke? i don't know the composition of the smoke but it's certainly noxious.

>> you're not going to say they're nontoxic, yes or no. because i think it's pretty important -- it's a pretty important --. >> the smoke is noxious. its talks isty, it's a relative thing. >> it's noxious, it's smoke. you don't want to breathe it in. in the middle of a disaster things are confusing, wires get crossed and today the epa tested the air in crosby, texas and reported there were no concerns regarding toxic materials. the head of fema said he would defer to the officials on the ground. one thing that might held us get a little more specificity is if we knew exactly what was in the plant and how much of it there is. but that is information that you are not allowed to know in the state of texas. not since a massive fertilizer plant explosion in the town of west texas in 2013. after that ammonium nitrate blast which leveled a good chunk

of the town and killed 15 people, texas made one change to its rules about chemical storage. what those chemicals were and where they were stored would no longer be public information. which means when things start exploding, like they are right now at the arkema plant, the people of texas are asked to trust the companies and state officials are telling them the truth about what's happening. and what the danger is. now if you lived near this arkema plant, would you trust the state officials and the same state officials whose only response to a previous chemical explosion was to hide information from the public about what chemicals are spewing into the air. fortunately, there are people who are trying to get that information, trying to fact check the authorities. last night rachel spoke with chronicle reporter who wrote a series of articles last year about the dangers of texas's chemical plants.

he asked arkema to hand over the inventory of chemicals at its plant. arkema said no. today say says they would give him that inventory. joining me is matt dempsey. data reporter for the houston chronicles team. thank you so much for being here this evening. and i guess i'll ask you the obvious question, has arkema handed over their chemical inventory to you? >> they handed over something. it with us not what i asked for. they give me a list of chemicals, just a straight list of the names of the chemicals. i don't have anything about how much of each chemical, i don't have the chemical index code that i can use to research more about the chemicals, i don't know what kind of containers they are in and i don't knee where the chemicals are located on the facility. if you live near the plant

>> if you're somebody who real housewives here the arkema plant who is it that you're supposed to trust and believe to tell you that the air near your home is safe to believe when you're allowed to come back? >> that's a good question. the epa like you said has done some air testing and i they is the fire marshal's officer local authorities will have set up some air monitoring after. i think it's good that the epa did. but honestly from the people i talked to at crosby today, there's a lot of concerns about what's in it, what's in the smoke, is the radius of that 1.5 miles far enough. there is rampant rumor mongering all over crosby about whether things are being done correctly or not. there's a lot of concern about information not getting spread out to the public very much. >> and let's talk about that law. texas passed a law after the 2013 explosion that spewed chemicals into the air that said the public is not allowed to know what chemicals from if the plants near their homes. does that mean that even if health effects were to happen let's say a year down the road, could people then in a lawsuit potentially discover, through

the discovery process what is in the air? >> i imagine they should be able to discover it in a court process. but honestly, in some court cases that we looked at when we were doing the series that you had talked about, there were cases where companies said they wouldn't provide it. they wouldn't provide specific information. in fact there was one case where a worker got pretty severely burned, my colleague susan carol wrote this piece, they sued and tried to get all sorts of information. nobody investigated it, very little investigations were done. the epa tried to do an investigation, like did not get more far with the company involved. so honestly even when it causes health damages to the public or to individuals, it can still be difficult to get that information. and just to be clear, texas didn't pass a law. governor abbott, when he was attorney general, his office made a ruling changes, essentially like they sent out a

letter to everybody saying that we're not going to -- a ruling saying we're not going to provide -- the state is no longer going to provide this information to the public. >> very quickly does that mean -- well have you seen any evidence of maybe second thoughts that maybe texas lawmakers might want to pass a law that changes that? >> i would be very -- i haven't seen any second thoughts. let's put it this way. after the le port incident there was a dupont incident where four workers died. that did not inspire any massive changes in the right to know laws in the state of texas. our chemical series that you mentioned inspired no change by the legislature at all on right to now laws in the state of texas. >> basically if you're a homeowner in texas and you live near a chemical plant, you have to take your chances and trust the company. interesting. matt dempsey -- >> well -- >> i'm sorry. >> governor abbott said in his campaign that people could drive around and ask chemical plants

for what they want. >> there you go. that's a perfect solution. matt dempsey, data reporter, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me on. >> the trump administration is signaling that the president is about to fulfill a campaign promise which would be devastating for some of the most vulnerable people in this country but at least he's really torn about it, right? more on that ahead. nick was born to move. not necessarily after 3 toddlers with boundless energy. but lower back pain won't stop him from keeping up. because at a dr. scholl's kiosk he got a recommendation for our best custom fit orthotic to relieve his foot, knee, or lower back pain, from being on his feet. by reducing shock and stress on his body with every step. so look out world, dad's taking charge. dr. scholl's. born to move. it's time for the biggest sale of the

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donald trump has until

tuesday to decide what to do about dacca, deferred action for childhood arrivals. that of course is the program that coaxed about 800,000 undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. people brought to the united states as children. many of whom have never known any other home. but on tuesday the entire program could come to an end and that's because attorneys general from ten states have threatened to sue the president if he does not end dacca by then. but you know, guys, presidenting is hard and poor donald trump is apparently having a really tough time making his decision. at least that's what anonymous white house aids would like for us to believe. the headline yesterday, trump at war with himself over dreamers. administration officials say he's conflicted between his instinct to be tough on immigration and his personal feelings. at least we know who the real victim is. according to reports from fox news donald trump has until tuesday to decide what to do

those spinning would like you to know he's not so heartless he's going to throw out all these young people right away, they can stay in the united states and keep working until their work permits run out. and then they're on their own. joining us now jose vargas a pulitzer prize winning -- not eligible for the daca program when it began five years ago this month. he's the ceo of a organization called define american. >> that's what's at stake. our moral conscience is at stake, and the president -- look, i would like to believe that his heart, that he really is thinking through this. he's really thinking through the fact that, you know, if daca gets taken away, my friend told me that 10,000 students in about a dozen states in this country would lose their teachers. >> yeah.

>> undocumented teachers, right? nurses. there's about 80 undocumented medical students across this country, right? there's of course undocumented firefighters, police officers, people serving in the military. so we would want people to serve in the military and then be afraid that they may get deported? >> well, let me ask you this question because if donald trump is doing this and he really has made the decision, who would he be -- what constituency would be he serving? >> actually, i brought this fact sheet. if you want to know everything about daca, please go to defineamerican.com/daca. we have here 73% of donald trump voters actually want trump to keep this. so we're talking about, what, 25% of people? >> right. of his supporters. >> of his supporters. >> he's down to about a third maybe of the electorate. >> who is the president really serving by this? $1.2 billion in revenue would be gone because these undocumented daca are working.

95% of them are working in school, 54% bought their first car. >> there's a story that somebody sent to you. i'd love you to tell the audience. >> we're collecting people's stories. if you have daca, please share your story. this man from north carolina, a rural town, sent us a story. he said i was brought into this country at 3 years old despite the mental struggle of being undocumented, i was able to work my way through a private college without a single loan or government grant to study four years of mathematics. i earned private scholarships and worked overnight jobs to pay for my tuition. today with daca, i work in the fraud department for a bank, preventing americans' money from being stolen through financial crimes. the lack of a document should not define me. there's so many daca people right now who are so worried and anxious. they're all over my twitter feed i think we have to know that we are more than pieces of paper.

i think we have to know this is way more than about being legal. i mean president trump just pardoned joe arpaio. this is not about legality. this is about what does this country want to do to these young people? >> and let's not forget that the president is married to an immigrant, which is the ultimate irony. jose antonio vargas. please go to jose's writing on twitter and send your stories to him. we're going to talk more about this this weekend. thank you. appreciate it, my friend. all right. shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave.

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so anyone who's paid attention to donald trump over the years knows that he's a man who's rather fussy about his decor. he likes a particular color. gold! and he has a very particular aesthetic when it comes to historical objects. >> did you choose the colors? >> i did. >> gold? >> i did. i chose pretty much. but those chairs have been here for a long time. >> do you get to choose what paintings go in here? >> i do. some of them come with the office, like the picture of george washington. that's andrew jackson. they say his campaign and his whole thing was most like mine. that was interesting. that's the great andrew jackson. >> he chose the colors. gold! so that was donald trump soon after he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the united states, giving his pals over at "fox & friends" a tour of the oval. trump showed off his big portrait of the man he calls the great andrew jackson, which he had tacked up in the oval office because donald trump just doesn't like andrew jackson. he like likes andrew jackson.

>> jackson's life was devoted to one of very crucial principle. andrew jackson who a lot of people compare the campaign of trump with. he also served as commander of the tennessee militia. tough cookies. tough cookies. had andrew jackson been a little bit later, you wouldn't have the civil war. he was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. we have andrew jackson. andrew jackson. the great president andrew jackson. >> trump loves andrew jackson so much that he visited old hickory's house in march. he laid a wreath on the tomb. andrew jackson is kind of like donald trump's spirit animal, which is important to remember when you consider the fact that andrew jackson's face is in the process of being removed from the front of the $20 bill for good. last year before president barack obama left office, he and his treasury secretary decided to boot jackson off the front of the $20 so they could put

harriet tubman there instead. harriet tubman was an abolitionist during the civil war. she was a union army spy. she risked her lifetime and time again to help free enslaved people. she rescued dozens of enslaved african-americans by the underground railroad. she is a bona fide american hero. it would be a huge deal for this country to have someone like harriet tubman grace the $20. and yet today donald trump's treasury secretary dumped a big bucket of cold water on the whole thing. >> your predecessor supported the idea of removing andrew jackson from the $20 bill and putting harriet tubman on. do you support that idea? >> let me just comment on, you know, ultimately we will be looking at this issue. it's not something that i'm focused on at the moment. but the number one issue why we change the currency is to stop counterfeiting. so the issues of why we change it will be primarily related to what we need to do for security purposes.

>> but certainly there are cultural aspects as to decisions we make as to who's on what bills, right? >> again, people have been on the bills for a long period of time. this is something we'll consider. right now we've got a lot more important issues to focus on. >> mm-hmm. much more important issues to focus on. so in the last week, we have seen this administration focus on a whole host of things from pardoning joe arpaio to potentially ending daca, to defending the president's response to those violent pro-confederacy protests, and the latest, considering major tax cuts for corporations. even as a deadly hurricane continues to wreak havoc on a major american city. and in fact nothing has stopped the trump administration from focusing on the things that they've wanted to do. they even found time to market hats. and yet today, the trump administration is too busy to say whether or not they're committed to taking andrew jackson off the $20 bill and putting harriet tubman on, something that would take almost no time at all to simply tell us. whether in their view harriet tubman has earned a place on the

currency. perhaps if there was a harriet tubman hat that the re-election campaign could sell. that does it for us tonight. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, joy. >> good evening, joy. let me translate. steve mnuchin for you, joy, on this matter. >> please do. >> his actual answer really meant, i had no idea that was even a thing. you mean they're going to change the $20? when were they going to tell me? and, oh, by the way, harriet tubman has absolutely no chance of appearing on anything in the trump administration, including even on a wall anywhere in a building of the trump administration. >> yeah. well, you know, she's doing an excellent job, harriet tubman, and she's getting recognized more and more. >> not by this group. i think we can have complete confidence that the obama administration proposal will not