tv MSNBC Live MSNBC October 8, 2017 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT
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hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. the president is ramping up attacks against senator corker on twitter. trump says we need people to get the job done. this is after corker equated trump's west wing to an adult day-care center. then there's this, the president may have another staffing debacle on his hands with nbc news reporting that cia chief mike pompeo is being considered as secretary of state. but that's only if the current secretary of state rex tillerson were to bow out. tillerson said that's not
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happening and the white house made it rounds on the sunday morning talk shows to back him up. take a look. >> rex says it's not true. i think the president tweeted last night it was fake news. you're running the story but you're the only ones doing it. so it was between you and the folks who are involved i believe the folks -- i believe the folks who are involved. what would another nfl sunday be without some type of kerfuffle coming from the white house against nfl players? this time it's not completely the players versus the president. the vice president has inserted himself with the veep leaving the game between the colts and the 49ers early after some players took a knee during the national anthem. joining me now to discuss what's happening in the world of politics before we kick off a new workweek, "new york times" correspondent, amy shaw cinder and greg wilson, as well as democratic strategist steve shale. let me begin you. this back and forth with corker
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and the president. why in the world does president trump want to go after bob corker and do so via twitter in such a nasty way and leave corker to only have to slam back at the president? >> i think there are two things going on. one, the president of course is impulsive. he's someone who's emotional, who does not want to be at all seen as criticized. senator corker has been pretty clear he's said that the president lacks -- hasn't shown really the stability and hasn't been presidential enough. so there's an idea that he's personally attacking him. so the second thing going on is that the president is essentially sending a message to the republican establishment and senators who are still in office including those who want to run for re-election unlike corker who say, look, if you try to come after me or criticize me in any way, i'm going to make an example out of you. so in some ways he's basically telling republicans this is my party and i expect senators to back me up when i'm doing things. so i think he's really trying to get the hill to follow him and say, look, tax reform and the
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other things we have to get done, i field you to be in lock step with what the white house wants. >> corker isn't running for re-election and he's unmuzzled and he can let it fly on twitter like he did today with making the statement that someone wasn't baby-sitting the president and the fact what the west wing is an adult day-care center. and that is something that we are not seeing from most republicans. there are certain republicans who have spoken out to try and right some of the crazy that's come out of this current administration. rex tillerson is one of those people, seema. and now we have this moment of whether or not tillerson is going to leave. and he gave that press conference last week where he denied that he ever considered leaving. but he didn't deny the fact that he called the president a moron which was one of the biggest glaring things that stood out. is it -- >> absolutely. >> is it factual to think that
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rex tillerson is currently now considering leaving? >> i mean, obviously we're not the man's head but we have seen the president undercut him and his actions for example in north korea. when the president basically said to rex tillerson on twitter, don't worry about it, you know, i'm dealing with it. so there is a real question, i think also in the global community if the secretary of state, america's top diplomat, has the president's ear. that he has the -- you know, his confidence. so even though like now everyone is saying he's not leaving there's a clear question about the relationship and how long it can continue. >> do you think the relationship can continue the way it is, how we perceive it to be? >> well, i think the difficulty is as we enter the periods of internal crisis that rex tillerson is having less weight with the foreign allies than donald trump's twitter feed. so i don't think it's sustainable. i don't think tillerson is a man who suffers fools gladly. he ran one of the largest corporations on earth for quite
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some time and i think his frustration level is through the roof and donald trump realizes that rex tillerson is never going to be the suckup that he wants him to be. that never runs out into the street that says love me, donald, you're perfect. >> no. meanwhile he's his own man. people will remember the really humiliating dinner that romney had to suffer through when there was discussion about the fact that he could be secretary of state. and this is after mitt romney was decidedly against any type of gop ticket that would have donald trump on it. the job goes to rex tillerson. he's the man in that job and we heard last night the president still giving his support to tillerson. take a listen. >> we have a very good relationship. we disagree on a couple of things. sometimes i'd like him to be a little bit tougher. but other than that, we have a very good relationship. >> so steve, from what you know and people that you have talked to, and the way that this is playing out, obviously, when
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political enemies set somebody else up, they want them to have to deny that they have said something just to get them on record saying that they didn't say the very bad thing that happened. last week we had that press conference with rex tillerson coming out and he doesn't deny having called the president a moron over the summer and said it was just petty nonsense. did he do the right thing? >> well, in some ways tillerson has a stronger hand. i mean, if trump gets rid of tillerson he's got to go through corker to get somebody else confirmed so i think tillerson was smart to, you know, basically save face and to stand on his ground. i mean, he needs to be that kind of person to go out and represent the country. >> but rick, when you look at what tillerson put himself through last week and you know what i mean the way that people will say certain accusations only to make their opposition have to come out to deny a certain thing and get them on record saying the very thing that they say they didn't say.
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did tillerson not take the bait on that? or did he not do himself any favors by adamantly denying that he ever called the president a moron? >> the difficulty here is donald trump never forgives a slight. he never forgets a criticism, he never forgets any sort of remark made against him. so no matter what tillerson said that day, you know, if it wasn't that donald trump is the tallest hand somest, smartest guy in the room it wasn't enough. so he wouldn't play the game of abject humiliation well enough so i think tillerson's days are numbered. i think my friend steve is absolutely correct, getting a new secretary of state through a senate that's increasingly uncomfortable with the way that president trump is behaving and governing especially since he's made an enemy of a senator, they can hold -- he's giving tillerson a lot of power. >> and with rex tillerson having that power, seema, we have this
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report coming out that seemed leaked to throw mike pompeo's name in the mix if tillerson should leave. is he qualified? >> he has a decent relationship with the president and those who survive have the decent relationships with the president or who the president has confidence in. but the point about senator corker is so important. the fact that the president is making enemies with this man who is not running for re-election he can do whatever he wants for the next year plus in terms of you know advancing or not advancing the president's agenda, i mean, i'm sort of dumbfounded as to why would the president would want to make enemies with this man right now. >> there's a lot of folks scratching their head about that and the other issues of today with not only going after bob corker, but then the president taking credit for the vice president's walkout at the indianapolis colts/49ers game because there were certain
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players that took a knee and kneeled during the national anthem. and the president takes credit for it, he told pence to do it if such a thing happened. why do you think that this is such a tantalizing debate for them to stay attached to and for pence to insert himself into? >> well, i think president trump really wants to look as though he's in control of the white house. there's a narrative that there's -- that everything around the white house, everything around this administration is chaotic. so when he picks a fight with corker who says there are generals there that are the people keeping this white house stable and when he picks a fiepgtd with other people it's because he wants to look like he's in control. when he talks about the fact that he told pence he had to leave that game if the players were going to kneel knowing there are players essentially that were going to kneel he is saying, look, mike pence as much as people think mike who is a face of this administration, he's the calm person he can go up to capitol hill and make deals. i'm the one who can tell mike pence what to do.
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i think that that is very important for donald trump to say that for himself. but also to tell the nation, look, i'm making the decisions. when it comes to the nfl and why he keeps push at -- pushing at this issue and mike pence is insutsing himself into it's about what america -- what it means to be an american. in this way -- in this way president trump is pointing at the players and saying they're not respecting america. and also i think it's not the idea of pushing back against black lives matter. the president in speech after speech said we needed more police. he said that people that were part of black lives matter that northern not being respectful -- they were not being respectful to law enforcement. and institutional racism and our criminal justice system is kind -- it's a very -- a common sense idea that there are real things wrong with the criminal justice system and people
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acknowledge that. but the president in the campaign he ran made the argument that america is perfect when it comes to the law enforcement. and that people really need to take another stand with the law enforcement so i think that that's why he's continuing to go at this. because it is based -- his base understands this is who the president is and he wants to remind the base that he's the person who ran. >> it's a decisive issue who say that 52% of americans disapprove of the anthem protests and 55% say they disapprove of trump's call to fire the players. seema, is this low hanging fruit that the president can use to kind of distract from the other big issues that are going on? no legislative accomplishments out of the white house. a major issue with north korea. and interior fighting within the gop. >> absolutely. this is something that plays perfectly with his base. you know, as we were talking about earlier we saw this on the campaign trail all of 2017-2018.
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-- i'm sorry, 2016. this plays incredibly well to the base. there's puerto rico and people not having access to water and food or to, you know, the aggressi aggression towards north korea which he hinted at on twitter and through cryptic statements and this turns people's attention to one area. >> a lot of crying wolf, wait and see, a lot of teases. but this we know where the president is. he also tweeted a little bit while ago about fema and first responders are working hard on hurricane nate. very much under control, exclamation point. you can read into what you want. thank you all very much. coming up next we'll talk more about hurricane nate. this has been a system weakened. it's now considered a tropical depression. we'll take you live to alabama, take a look at the damage and there's still issue about storm surge. we'll talk about that. stay with us.
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a collective sigh oaf relief from the coast of louisiana to alabama as nate has weakened from a category 1 hurricane now a tropical depression. the storm knocked out power to thousands of residents and caused significant flooding and officials are relieved it was not as devastating as had been predicted. but storm surge is still going to be an issue. for more on that nbc's gadi schwartz is in dauphin island, alabama. it looks like bright skies and a clearer picture for sure. >> reporter: definitely, bright skies, a clearer picture but also a long walk for residents out here. let me show you what i'm talking about. this is the boulevard here on dauphin island, you can see it's been flooded out. in fact that military vehicle down there it got stuck earlier. so up into here is where vehicles can pretty much make it and then all the way down here you've got earth movers. but then you see that man down there. he's walking that is what's
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happened for people that are trying to get to their homes. in fact, just over the ridge it's hard to see with the haze, but that over there that is about four miles of this type of situation. about three to four feet of sand in this area. and thomas, i want to show you something else over here. one of the things that the residents said that they were happy that this hurricane didn't pack as big of a punch as they were anticipating. they said one person said if you had to have a hurricane, you wanted to have a hurricane like this one. one of the things that they had learned in past hurricanes is to build up these berms like this. so everywhere there was a berm it was protected and they didn't see quite so much flooding in the streets. but then when the berm would have a little break in it, you would see quite a bit of washout. so this is something they're dealing with today. they have earth movers all up and down this way and then about from here to there, it's taken them about two hours to do, but you see there is some significant progress being made. but still, that thing stretches
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four miles down. so it's probably going to be a couple of days, possibly a week before they're able to dig all this out. >> gadi schwartz, thank you very much. nearly one week after the deadly shooting rampage in las vegas, people from all walks of life, they're coming together in an effort to unify and heal the community. the outpouring of love that i they're showing for those lost we'll take you to the growing memorial near mandalay bay. but first, how jason aldean honored the victims, last night opening up "snl." ♪ ♪ no easy way out ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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[ stirring music playing throughout ] there's another missing woman. the killer calls himself "the snowman". he's going after women that he disapproves of. he's completely insane. anyone can see they're trying to hide something. you can't force the pieces to fit. [ distorted voice ] mister policeman, i gave you all the clues. [ distorted voice ] by the time you read this, [ screaming ] [ distorted voice ] i will have built a new snowman. [ gasp ] the snowman. rated r.
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this is hard. it's -- it's hard. really is. hopefully we'll recover. but it's hard. >> you just see how tough it is for people living in las vegas, clearly struggling to come to grips with the new normal after the shooting outside of mandalay bay and this marks one week since the first shots rang out.
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still no motive for why the shooter took 58 lives. investigators are still trying to piece together this puzzle but the city and complete strangers alike are making sure that those who lost their lives are never forgotten. >> reporter: dozens of people in the hospital, still some in critical condition and our thoughts and prayers for them as well as this tragedy continues to play out here. but the bottom line this is a show of vegas strong, a show of compassion, a show of a community trying to come together to lift each other up during the incredibly difficult time. >> here to support everyone. it's so different when -- [ indiscernible ]. >> so close to home? >> yeah. makes me feel more a lot more love for people. >> evil unfortunately is a part of our life. but we want to make sure that we show love and just to reach out to everybody who is hurting. >> reporter: thomas, back to
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you. >> ron allen reporting in las vegas. thanks so much. straight ahead a return to identify politics, a new movement of black identity extremists have fueled a rise in aggressive behavior towards police officers. where did this come from? we'll break down the fact from fiction. we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork, your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you too. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges.
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i think there's blame on both sides. you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. and nobody wants to say that. but i'll say it right now. >> so president trump as we have seen has been adamant that both sides were to blame for the deadly violence in charlottesville instead of completely denouncing white supremacist groups but in the days before the alt-right rally the fbi was warning about a new domestic threat based solely on race. in a memo obtained by foreign policy, the fbi claimed a new black movement, this black
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identity movement of extremists with concerns of police brutality against african-americans would rise against the police officers. refers to the dallas police shooting. the term black identity extremist is entirely new and foreign policy couldn't find more than five google references to that tell and all were law enforcement documents from the last two months. without a larger ideological connection race seems to be the basis of linking these often individual violent acts to groups like black lives matter and echoes the fbi's long history of targeting black activists. joining me now attorney and former deputy chief from the department of justice, tamron miller. professor and contributor of "cosmopolitan" magazine, and errol suthers.
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let's talk about the term black identity extremists. where does it come from and what is the myth about the concrete ideology behind it? >> it does not exist, this is an attempt by the jeff sessions justice department together with the fbi under a trump administration to reinstate the counterintelligence program that was begun in the 1950s. to target at that time communist folks. eventually they targeted martin luther king and also were responsible for killing folks like fred hampton and other members of the black panther party. this is not a thing that exists and it's deeply troubling in a sense that yesterday at the university of virginia, richard spencer brought another group of people back into the aftermath of charlottesville to march again. what you have is the justice department trying to misdirect our attention so that folks are not thinking about the ways in which white identity politics is
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really driving this moment. white anger, white nationalist and white supremacy and trying to blame the african-americans and black folks who are in the streets saying we deserve to have justice and we deserve to have this system work with us and that the constitution tells us that when the system doesn't work for us we have the right to defend that's not identity politics. that's using the constitution to do what it should be doing. >> meanwhile t trump administration is constantly seeking an antagonist. whether it's from outside of their own party or inside their own interior walls of the cabinet or as we have seen today with bob corker. but tamara, explain is it common for fbi to miscalculate and unify individual events to create what could look like a pattern that often gets miscast? >> certainly not in my
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experience. at the justice department it was very, very clear certainly since the 2001 patriot act definition of -- what domestic terrorism is and that's threats to intimidate a civilian population. the black lives matter movement cannot be equated with the domestic terrorism and that's what's troubling to me. >> but if the fbi is looking into this or we have the doj trying to label something in a new and mysterious term is this going to give it some type of heft in a fake news world, in a fake news environment that people are prone to hit retweet, send or share? >> what's very important to know and remember is that words matter. when i was teaching civil rights at the fbi academy at the justice department i will tell you that we train police and we are very careful with the language that we use so that way these concepts are not driving
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unreasonable uses of force. so words matter. it's very, very troubling when we paint a lone wolf, you know, police re -- you know, retaliating shooters as part of a broader movement. and that's simply not what the black lives matter movement is really about. it's not -- >> errol, let me ask you though, of your experience of being a former fbi special agent, what is the calculation that goes into trying to create patterns of behavior that then can be linked to a certain group? >> well, thomas, the cool collation that appears to be connected to this report is one that's conflating or at least examining the number of officer in the line duties and now suggesting that there's a black extreme i movement connected to that. last year we had a 63% increase in the officers killed in the
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line of duty but let's talk about the terminology. extremism is at the very core intolerant so those pushing this movement do not display any acts or ex"open housspouse any toler. we have a very interesting and diverse collection of ideology targeting police officers. since 2010, we had attacks on officers who were people -- sovereign citizens. 2014 we had anti-government people, we had michael johnson in dallas and baton rouge respectively who are alleged black nationalists. if you look at the period of reporting since 2009, 83% of the shootings with police officers is 77 incidents involved the right wing. so if we're going to have policies and actions and reports that suggest we should be looking at something we should at least follow the data. >> so when it comes to the black
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lives movement and how it's been described or characterized or misunderstood in a way, but also contrasted by either violent images that we have seen in more urban areas, how can they separate themselves from saying we are part of a peaceful protest? we are part of this mission, but this is a behavior that is not associated with us. >> so look, black lives matter has disavowed all of the acts of violence against police officers. i think it really matters for us to say that in the 21st century police officers have been the safest that they have ever been in the history of policing in this country. i don't actually believe that there is a targeting of police officers as any kind of organized movement. i do believe that police officers risk their lives so that's one of the things that happens in terms of doing their job that you have casualties. there is not a movement to harm police and that movement -- if
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it exists certainly isn't being led by the movement for black lives. the other thing to say is that the movement for black lives put out a series of policy positions in 2016 that talked about education, that talked about reforming the criminal justice system. those are things that some of those points were adopted as part of the democratic party platform and part of the bernie sanders campaign. so this movement is trying to move propositions that will help all americans particularly black folks and what is happening is that this administration is deeply invested in mischaracterizing this as an attack rooted in identities and it's a way to then misdirect our attention from how the trump administration and how sarah huckabee sanders and how jeff sessions deploy white identity politics to whip up fear, that there is a race war that black folks are creating or brewing and that's untrue. one of the things that really concerns me about this is i'm a professor in the africana studies department. when we think of the history of
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the surveillance programs they don't just target movement activists which is deeply abhorrent, but anyone that teaches ideologies that they find antithetical to the world that they want to have. everyone should be concerned about when the government tries to target it most eventuallierable citizens. >> so when we look at what the memo is demonstrating a target on this black identity extremists, shouldn't there be -- we haven't really seen it, if this is something that they're trying to crack down on the opposite of white supremacy and a crackdown on that especially when we witnessed and had to live through charlottesville, the death of heather heyer and the forewarning they had of what could happen out of that day
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because of the animosity that had been demonstrated leading up to that by white supremacy groups? >> well, this report from the fbi terrorism unit was just published two months ago. beginning of august. and that's the work that's the culmination of a lot of work over months i would suspect but clearly we should be targeting violent criminals wherever they are and white supremacists are domestic terrorists. just like the ku klux klan and those who espouse terror and fear to change the policies of the entire social systems so here we know that white supremacists are not good people and only their lives matter, no one else's lives matter. really it's the black lives matter 2. it's not that that the black
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lives matter left, but we wanted to make sure as we're looking at police shootings, this is the movement. and it's a peaceful protest, it's first amendment activity and certainly nothing that should be concerning the terrorism unit in this way in my judgment. >> when we talk about the public debate of what tamara's pointing out why this should be concerning to the terrorism unit for the fbi, what is the mission? what is the doctrine of how they're supposed to investigate and have mission purpose for terrorism? >> well, the doctrine has always been and should continue to be to focus on those organizations that espouse violent extremism. we don't have an organization that's espousing this kind of belief and we need to go forward with that kind of doctrine. there was a congressional hearing scheduled for september 12th that was canceled because of hurricane irma, i was asked to submit a statement for that hearing. i wanted to share the fact that we share a threat here in the
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united states that's home grown and diverse. if you follow the data, you will see that the threat being proposed in this report is not the one of most concern. >> when we think of -- here we are just a week after what happened in las vegas. the largest mass shooting on u.s. soil. the loss of 58 people, over 500 people being sent to the hospital. and we have not yet figured out a motive for that. but it is definitively terrorism. >> well, it is not definitively terrorism until we find out a motive as you defined. this individual, paddock, continues to be an enigma to the law enforcement community. there are a lot of things being put together now. obviously the investigation is ongoing but to have it go this far without a solid ideology or
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extremist belief we can point to with him is challenging. we have gotten so used to a social media footprint by these attackers that in 28 to 48 hours which can conclude something or we get a manifesto or a note or someone who knows him and we've got none of that. so it's ongoing, i'm sure we'll find out what it is. there's a cognitive opening in his life that predisposed him to violence and find out what it is and we can put the puzzle pieces together. >> i want to ask you to stick around. we'll be back with more in just a moment. and also we'll talk about the politics of sports and how there is identity politics displaying out on the gridiron. the vice president walking out today of the colts/49ers game because players kneeled during the national anthem. we'll dive into that and is it really just theater playing out for the vice president all at the hands of president trump?
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over the weekend protests have continued around the country as white nationalists have gathered for a second time in charlottesville, virginia, last night. to protest the removal of confederate statues. and while the president has been silent in denouncing yesterday's demonstration, he and the vice president have been very vocal about the nfl protests surrounding the flag and the national anthem and earlier today, the vice president walked out of the colts/49ers game, while president trump continued to kind of ignore the right wing demonstrations and then condemning and congratulating the vice president for doing what he did. saying that he encouraged pence and the second lady to do so if he was there for that. now, pence on friday said he was
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traveling to indianapolis after visiting las vegas to comfort those that were victims and those who lost loved ones in the massacre last week but he was traveling to go to indianapolis to witness the peyton manning ceremony, the retiring of his jersey. this special moment that was going to happen during halftime. pence did not stay for that. he left and went back to the west coast for a fund-raiser. i want to bring the panel back in with me. and brittany, we did see the tweet, the potus and i will not dignify any event that disrespects our military, our flag, our national anthem. he's inserted himself into what was an improv moment for president trump at the rally of luther strange on the friday night before he lost the
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election to moore. we remember where this was born, and what he did last season and kaepernick and drawing attention to the police brutality. but this was born out of a improv moment of president trump in louisiana. why do you think they want to keep this alive, brittany? >> you know, look, i think that what i'm deeply disturbed by is that we have two white men in the name of white supremacy and white nationalism closing ranks. they keep on mischaracterizing the protests. our flag and our constitution stand for the right of citizens to -- when they're being led by oppressive governments. that is how the americas were created as form of dissent against the british government and citizens who are vulnerable have the right to take the knee. what is even more appalling is that the president want stand up against white supremacists because as jamel said many weeks ago he's a white supremacist himself, i think we should say
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that. i think his record of rhetoric and policy bears that out. and so this is why he's not speaking out against richard spence e but what this equates to and amounts to is that there is freedom of speech for white men who want to espouse white nationalism, but no freedom of speech that the president and his vice president feel they should respect when it involves silence and taking a knee. there is not even any speech being spoken by the football players. they're taking a knee and choosing not to stand. that's a fundamental american right and when the president does not defend the right of all citizens to express their views in whatever form they have, then we are on the path to fascism and it's quite dangerous and everyone should be enraged. i certainly am. >> i want to bring in national correspondent peter alexander at the white house. it's a wild day of different tweets from the president. he weighed in here saying that this was his idea for the vice president to do. and also you had reporting about the traveling press pool and the
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instructions that they got when they were at the field in indianapolis. >> yeah, i mean the bottom line is that the white house obviously isn't going to say yes, this was a preplanned event. but it appears that there's good reason it wouldn't be surprising for the vice president to be going to see a san francisco 49ers game in indianapolis that he would expect the former team of colin kaepernick that the niners would take a knee. the reporters who were traveling with the vice president were told to stay in the van as you were noted because they were told there could be an early departure from the game. but the bottom line here and the perspective of the white house they view this as a political winner. it's something that the president feels strongly about. they feel americans support him on this issue. the issue specifically being that the nfl players should stand during the flag. i got into a heated back and forth with sarah huckabee sanders the press secretary when this first became an issue a matter of weeks ago.
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she said that the president stands for our soldiers our military and our country and stands for the flag and i said, doesn't he also stand for first amendment for which we didn't get a very good answer to that question. but the bottom line is i don't think this is something that's going to go away. i think it's something the white house feels reflects for their base well on them. with all of the other distractions right now, all the other topics including the fact that the president is still looking for his first major legislative victory, trying to find a way forward on health care, on tax reform, this is one simple narrative they think reflects well on them. >> you make a great point, as sarah pushes back on what this debate is really about. there are americans that can't forget the way that trump treated a gold star family or the way that he currently treats senator john mccain and what he said about him being a prisoner of war. so it's this contrast and conflict of confusion that they try to spin us all around with and we know that this is a winner as you point out.
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cbs news put out a poll with 52% of americans saying they aren't in line with the protests that is going on. and 55% feel that the president is out of line for what he's doing. so with a split -- kind of electorate, split feeling in america this is kind of low hanging and easy fruit for the white house to pick at, peter. >> and just to punctuate that thought, what's striking and some people -- speaking to strategists on both sides of the aisle over the course of the last 48 hours on this one in particular what was striking what they noted to me this is in the wake of the terrible shooting in las vegas and the police spoke after visiting with the medical professionals and the survivors of that awful night and spoke of unity and desire for americans to come together. a lot of people viewed this issue as a very divisive one. it seemed i think for many to be just so soon after that for the sort of white house to wade in to this issue once again. a lot of people view that as a divisive not a unifying effort
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by the commander in chief. >> peter alexander at the white house for us. thank you very much. tamara, let me bring you back in on the point that peter is talk about and the attempt at unity from the white house and point. using moments to clarify where we can be unified and setting fires to demonstrate places we can't be unified and they don't want to accept an responsibility for an injustice they might perform from the people's house. >> i would like to echo the comments made by my other panel members here. i'm a retired air force lieutenant general jag. i defended our country, our flag, i'm an immigrant as well. i was adopted from korea.
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i understand and respect our flag, but i also understand the values that this country holds deer. people should be able to express their discontent and discord peacefully, that's what first first amendment protects. i stand for my flag, but we should all from the right to protest peacefully. we have many other things in this country that are more important to be worried about it seems to me. >> i want to give you the final word on this. these are issues that they hit people in vulnerable spots and they cause reactions out of people that might already be on the bubble of willing to do something or perpetrate something harmful because of unfortunate evented in their own life. so from a perspective of the fbi, and their work their, how
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unhelpful is this? and encouraging could it be so people that are willing to do something like we saw in charlottesville or like we just saw last wiek in vegas. >> we live in a democratic society, and as my colleges have mentioned, i choose to stand for the flag, however i respect the right to stand for those who choose not to. if we want to talk about extremism, it's about moral absolutes. it's able intolerance. it seems that someone who will not tolerate someone taking a knee espouses a certain degree of extremism. i would say with the rallying going on, there are officers that do not agree with the organizations, but they're sworn to protect those people so they can up hold the first amendment.
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and remember that tolerance is so important going on from here. >> straight ahead, we will give you a update on the recovery efforts that are happening in puerto rico as not just fema is there, but because of the fact that the mayor is asking for help, the mayor of san won, and the people there are in such a desperate need, they are taking on the challenge. bethany frankle will join me next. el like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! "we got a yes!" start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done.
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if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both symptom relief as well as remission.
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infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. while not reported with entyvio, pml, a rare, serious brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. if your uc or crohn's medication isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach. i want to update you on puerto rico as we approach nearly three weeks after the major hurricane hit. folks outside of fema are stepping up to help. one of them is bethany frankle.
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she is an entrepreneur, a tv star, and founder of bestrong. a initiative for families and women in crisis. we had fat joe on, who is also trying to help people in puerto rico. we know people with ties there, what inspired you to charter planes, take victims and items to the people of puerto rico. >> it sort of just started as me saying i feel helpless, and people around me saying you can't go there, you're crazy. and i'm like why can't guy there. i chartered the first plane and i was going to fill it. then i got in touch with a charity called global empowerment mission, and they could load the plane. and then i met a woman, nicole from dallas, who was so connected in puerto rico and then we were able to unload the plane.
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my friends and people that i know that are wealthy i said would you like to sponsor a plane. now about 30 planes have gone in and out. but even in a big plane, you can get 180,000 pounds on it. now i am negotiating, it's not really a financial negotiation, i'm working out the terms with united way to send 10 million pounds to the u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico. that's like $30 million worth in relief. now moving into cargo and carnival cruise lines and things like that. >> what have you seen on the ground there? >> it's terrible, it feels like a third world country. people waited they waited 2 1/2 hours to get food. i have heard from children's
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hospitals with no supplies. i have a army now, they know the mayors of the town, and the death toll is way higher than we're hearing, we just have not had all of those deaths confirmed. some are dead and they can't even get them out. >> we know because of the deaths atranscritributed with the store is so many more because people have become ill or died in the hospitals because they didn't get proper stream. >> we will go back to puerto rico when we get this cargoship there. it's a major under taking. it's much harder than all of my businesses that i have run together.
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this is crazy and you meet such incredible people that help. i'm working with people that i have never met. some of these people are people i have never ever met. >> you're connecting the dots, and if anyone ever tells you no, you tell them no. we'll have updates throughout the night right here. this sunday, after las vegas. another mass murder, the biggest ever in the u.s. and another debate over whether to debate gun control. both parties in their usual corner. republicans -- and see we're not going to talk about the activity. >> we can have that discussion at another time. >> and democrats. >> if we don't act now, when will we? >> when is the right time? >> this morning my interviews
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