tv Andrea Mitchell Reports MSNBC October 27, 2017 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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as stephanie said, where did this hour go? what a busy hour it has been, but thank you for watching us. i'm ali velshi. >> you weren't sure there? >> i had to think for a second. >> you're ali velshi. i'm stephanie ruhle. we'll see you tomorrow for our special edition of "velshi & ruhle." right now peter alexander picks up on "andrea mitchell reports." >> right now on andr"andrea mitl reports," friends with benefits? plenty of questions as the puerto rican governor orders an investigation. bernie sanders arriving on the island this hour demanding answers. for millions that are still without power more than five weeks after the hurricanes hit. >> it's hard. i don't wish this on my worst enemy. it's just hard.
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i've been here through other hurricanes, but this was the worst. the jfk files, a newly revealed memo from then-fbi director j. edgar hoover says the public must believe lee harvey oswald acted alone, but the president orders the lon long-delayed and sealed records delayed even longer. >> you can't imagine a more disorderly release of these documents about a turning point in history. breaking her silence. actress rose mcgowan delivering a powerful speech to a conference of women about her decision to open up about alleged sexual harassment by hollywood producer march vharve weinstein for 26 years. >> i've been harassed, i've been
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maligned, and you know what? i'm just like you. good day, i'm peter alexander in this friday for my friend andrea mitchell. we're in washington where president trump is meeting with his latest cabinet secretary to face tough scrutiny. the questions this week surround interior minister ryan zinke and the question to replace an electric grid in montana. they have a total of just two full-time employees. puerto rico's governor says an initial audit that he requested from the territory's office of management and budget will be released today and that there will be, in his words, hell to pay if any wrongdoing is found. joining me now, msnbc's kristen welker, and gabe gutierrez, my friend in puerto rico.
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kristen, we'll start with you. the administration navigating a lot this week. we have the gop infighting, the opioid crisis headlines the president made yesterday. how are white house officials explaining how this deal came together? >> reporter: well, look, they make the point that it was the governor of puerto rico who signed off on this deal. let me tell you where things stand at this hour, peter. two house committees as well as a federal watchdog group have opened up an investigation into this deal. here is the issue. the issue is it prohibits any review of labor costs or profits, and that has raised a number of alarm bells. fema issuing a statement demanding answers, saying based on initial review and information from prepa, that is the electrical company of puerto rico, fema has significant concerns with how prepa procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable. now, whitefish, the company, says, look, we welcome the investigation, but they're also
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raising the stakes a little bit, peter. let me read you a tweet. we have about 400 linemen rebuilding power in your city and 40 men just arrived. do you want us to send them back or keep working? company officials expressing they have experience in this mountainous region and arguing that the price was actually lower than what some competitors were offering. all of that at stake as the president sits down with his interior secretary. undoubtedly this will be a key topic of conversation and hopefully we'll get to ask press secretary sarah huckabee sanders about all of this, peter, when she has her daily press briefing a little bit later this afternoon. >> about 2:30 this afternoon. thanks, kristen. gabe, fema notably released a statement saying the electric power company, prepa, made this decision exclusively. the governor spoke a few minutes ago. what did you hear and give us the reality check of what's going on on the ground right
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now. >> reporter: hi there, peter, good afternoon. yes, as you mentioned, all eyes right now are on prepa. the governor just spoke a few minutes ago during this news kom conference, but he actually said he hasn't received that audit and hopes to receive it by the end of the day. he has not taken a stance of whether this contract with whitefish energy was aboveboard or not. it really rests with prepa as someone who was awarded the contract and the head of prepa remains defiant. he says, if i had this to do over again, i would, that there is nothing illegal there. and anything we hear is gossip from the u.s. there is a lot of questions being raised from congressional investigators and the office of puerto rican money and budget. that's expected today. other federal investigations are expected along the way. we should mention here in puerto rico, 73% -- 73% of this island
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remains without power more than five weeks after hurricane maria. 20% does not have running water. they're not so concerned with this particular contract with whitefish energy, though some have questions about it, they really want to know when the power will be back on. peter, before the hurricane, we were hearing it could be four to six months before power is restored. now the questions are, will it be much longer? could it be up to a year? the governor said he expects to have 95% of the island back with power by mid-december. there is a lot of skepticism that that will happen in that time frame, peter. >> thank you both so much. retired lieutenant general talked about hurricane katrina's aftermath. i appreciate your time. you voiced criticisms of the initial government response to the destruction in puerto rico. i just want to get your sense of how this is being handled right
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now, both by the federal government, and frankly, by the organizations in puerto rico. they're supposed to be facilitating the assistance. how do you view it? >> well, we still have a problem with scale and having the adequate ability to handle logistics on the island. things suddenly got better in the last week since the national guard. the great national guard from all the states stepped up and sent enough teams in to set up distribution points, but i still sense we have a problem with distribution with enough trucks. and to get enough bridges, the type of bridges that can reestablish some of the 40 bridges that are down in puerto rico. great teams on the ground, they just need more of it and put temporary bridges in. on this issue of power, i think this is coming back to a fundamental problem the way the government is approaching the recovery in puerto rico. >> what is that? >> we had a great lesson learned
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from katrina. president bush assigned a senior statesman to lead the federal all-government recovery effort. there is another office in washington, d.c. he worked across government to make sure the recovery was handled right in louisiana and mississippi. that is missing. the theme of bureaucracy is not designed to handle this type of recovery in this type of situation. >> i don't want to interrupt you, but just bottom line, give us your gut. you hear about whitefish holdings. this company only around a couple years, two or three employees, since then they've stepped up. is that the way business should be working? is that okay? >> no, this is not going to sit right with fema. there are a lot of things fema has done that i thought was
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quicker and bigger, but one thing they do well is contracts. this company might think they'll get that money. fema will claw that money back. if the contract wasn't done right, they'll be dancing ought the way to the graveyard. this will not work. this contract, the way it was let, the size of the company, no past performance, working for the government, this is not going to work. it won't work because it's not designed to work that way. it's designed to be fair and all full disclosure. this thing did not have full disclosure. from day one i tweeted to the governor, you better fix this or you're going to end up like the mayor of new orleans, in jail. because that's what happens to politicians, not because they did it but because people start lying about it. >> the general gave his administration a 10 out of 10 when asked about their efforts with the recovery in puerto rico. how do you grade it? what's your reaction to that sort of take? >> well, let's see, we still got -- not everybody has water.
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we got people drinking from epa sites. we still don't have all the distribution points up. i'm not going to argue with the president. he's got to deal with that with the person he's seeing, the mayor, in the morning. i don't think the people of puerto rico would grade it as a 10. maybe a 10 on a scale of a different height scale, but this is not right. we can do better, and i think the president's intentions are good, but his cabinet hazlet him down. his cabinet has not come to him and said, hey, we need to scale this up. his cabinet has not decisively engaged and the congress and the senate ought to be a damn shame for allowing this to go on without proper sealing. we've got the energy department, fema, the department of justice to allow this contract to come out, and what it puts in their mind is who the hell is in charge down there?
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they don't have a fixed chain of command to make those kinds of decisions. that's why they need a recovery czar or a senior statement to go down there and run that. >> general, you may have just answered this, but in a last thought, the number one thing the president could do today that would help satisfy some of your concerns to help deal with the situation in puerto rico is what? >> find him a senior statesman, a retired governor, senator or congressman that knows how the government in washington works because they're going to have to pull that money out of washington and they're going to have to guide their governor on how to do things in what order priorities. they need a senior statesman down there as opposed to an authority official coming out of fe fema. >> thank you, i appreciate your comments. vice president mike pence visiting an air force base in north dakota at this hour. he's going to heighten their nuclear capabilities. in the meantime, general mattis
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is touring the demilitarized zone and meeting with south american troops. >> as secretary of state, tillerson has made clear our goal is not war, but rather the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the korean peninsula. >> nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel is there with more on what this means. richa richard? >> it's pretty clear that president trump is putting north korea on the front burner. he's making a trip there next week. he plans to stand up against kim jong-un and stand up against their nuclear program. today secretary mattis was in the so-called demilitarized zone. don't let the name fool you.
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it's anything but a demilitarized zone. it's perhaps the most militarized region in the area. it is one of the most tense places in the world where the two countries and the u.s. in the mix are facing off against each other, with north korea on the one side and south korea and the united states on the other. defense secretary mattis went up to the area, staying on the south korean side, of course, and was issuing tough statements against north korea, against kim jong-un, saying they oppressed their people, but saying the u.s. wants to pursue a diplomatic solution, doesn't want to push this into war. wants to resolve this in a way that leads to the denuclearization of north korea. but kim jong-un has repeatedly said for him that's not an issue, that it's a non-starter, that there will be no denuclearization of his country, that he wants to push it
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further. in fact, north america reiterated threats to carry out -- just today reiterated threats to carry out more nuclear tests. why this could all come to a head during the trump visit? because president trump -- first of all, we don't know what he's going to say. the expectation is he'll say something quite strong against north korea, and he's going to say it by being backed up with his mom. there will be two u.s. aircraft terror groups in the prison during the trump visit. in addition to that, there are about 32,000 troops on the peninsula right now, so if president trump makes incendiary statements against north korea and north korea decides to respond with a provocation of its own, things where i am right now could become even more tense than we've gotten used to.
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we're finally supposed to get a look at secret government files in the assassination of john f. kennedy. the government expected to release more than 30,000 documents, but as you've seen in the last minute, trump bowed to pressure from the fbi and cia, revealing only about 2900 files, delaying the rest for the course of the next six months. today the president tweeting on the the topic saying, jfk files are being carefully released in t end, there will be great transparency. it is my hope to get just about everything to the public. i'm not sure we'll get to bob kennedy and the mob in this conversation, but let's start if we can with j. edgar hoover. talk about the fbi director j. edgar hoover and some of these documents. the day immediately after kennedy was shot, his top concern was that americans thought they had the assassin, they had their man.
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>> apparently the ballistics and the fingerprints all matched up with oswald. it was the fbi that made the case, it wasn't the local dallas police. they knew he was responsible for the killing. they also knew this. this was november 23rd, the day after the shooting. this was a memo about oswald being in mexico city meeting at the soviet embassy there with a kgb officer, and the kgb officer's responsibilities included assassinations. that would raise some eyebrows, don't you think? and the next day, you had seen this memo, apparently there was a letter he had written to the soviet embassy in washington. he was undergoing all kinds of conversations back and forth. some had to do with getting his wife's visa extended, but others were letting the soviets know he was under surveillance because he was part of this castro group. there's other interesting stuff i dug up. i always wondered, for instance, how did jack ruby who shot
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oswald get so darn close? >> what did you find? >> i found there were guys who said ruby had a good "in" with the dallas police. the reason for that is ruby ran a nightclub. in the '60s, the sleazy nightclubs would hire what they called "b" girls. they would buy men drinks, but they were all watered-down drinks, spending money at the bar. the police protected ruby. they never bothered him with this operation, so he had a great in with them. i was up very late with this last night. >> i have no doubt you were. >> the bobby stuff is very prime to read. >> what's the takeaway? >> the takeaway is i understand why bobby thought the mob may have been involved in killing his brother. because he firmly did believe in
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the warren commission, his brother always said the same thing, he always had in the back of his mind, wait a minute, i'm going after the heir to al capone in chicago, the hit man, the godfather, i'm going after him. the whole time all the way through the '50s -- >> the ultimate retaliation. >> then a.g. was using the irs is get him like they had gotten capone. then, wait a minute, he gets notified that the cia had cut a deal to kill castro. he also finds out jackie's brother is having an affair with judith dexter -- judith campbell. it all was wrapped up in a retaliation against him. >> in all the documents i saw a phone call that a british reporter said he received, i think, 30 minutes before the shooting took place, to call the u.s. embassy in london, that
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there was big news coming? >> at least one of those guys was a drunk. i don't know about that stuff. there is a lot of after-the-fact claims they knew something before the fact. >> that's the challenge as you read through this, because lots of people, the stories are good. >> but we knew that hoover knew there was a possible connection with the soviets. he knew from documentation here, as you pointed out, the 23rd and 24th, there were no communications. he was pro-castro. he also visited the castro embassy back in oklahoma city. >> the secret service didn't open up a protective file until the day of the assassination here. i want to get your take on the delay. we've been waiting 54 years and now we have six months to go? what do you make up of this
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holdup now? is there too much concerned or should i have doing something differently? >> the u.s. government has a penchant for secrecy. they hide things that they accident a soviet spy after the soviet union. they let it be thought that may maybe. lynn led it out. we would have been better off learning this stuff right off the bat. >> this will be a and bob kennedy and a lot of this is mob stuff and fears he may have had something with it. >> people want me to talk about this. >> i didn't do that on purpose. >> i recognize that. watch chris. i suppose he'll have more to say
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on this tonight than he did. 7:00 p.m. actress rose mcgowan making an impassioned call to action in her first public appearance since charges against the movie mogul made extra points. that's msnbc. our recent online sales success seems a little... strange?nk na. ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. they're affordable and fast... maybe "too affordable and fast." what if... "people" aren't buying these books online, but "they" are buying them to protect their secrets?!?! hi bill. if that is your real name. it's william actually. hmph!
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i have been silenced for 20 years. i have been slut shamed. i have been harassed. i have been maligned, and you know what? i'm just like you. because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society, and that cannot stand, and it will not stand. [ applause ] >> in the face of unspeakable actions from one monster we look away to another, the head monster of all right now. the scarlet letter is theirs, it is not ours!
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we are pure! we are strong! we are brave and we will fight! >> powerful words from actress rose mcgowan making her first public appearance in detroit since making those sexual harassment charges against movie mogul howard weinstein. it comes as howard weinstein is now suing the weinstein company, demanding his e-mails, personnel file and other documents to help in his defense. joining me now is clair atkinson, nbc's senior ed torit nbc's stephanie goss. she didn't mention weinstein by name, but it's obvious who she is talking about. in many ways this is becoming an empowering moment for women speaking out in this opportunity to make sure no other men go unnoticed in the harassment they have committed. >> she's one angry lady.
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she's calling for women to name and shame men which is something that's been happening this past three weeks since she made the initial allegations against harvey. she talks there about being silenced for 20 years. she, of course, signed a nondisclosure agreement with the weinstein company which prevented her from talking about these allegations for a long time. now she's coming forward, she's named harvey, she has accused him of rape. that's an accusation that the weinstein company and harvey have denied. and so in my reporting just these past few days, i've been asking folks in hollywood how they're responding to the possibility that there were more accusations, more allegations, and folks are telling me, we're looking at these, we're looking at what we have on the books right now and if these ndas might be broken. i think we'll hear a lot more of
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those men she wants to shame. she's kind of become like this hero of the feminist movement. >> that image right there as you see all the accusers on the screen is so dramatic. stephanie, as you mentioned, 91 women. harvey weinstein says, any allegations of non-consensual sex has been denied by mr. weinstein. but it seems like there is power in numbers right now, not with just mr. weinstein, but increasingly with others. >> there is a power in numbers, and there is also a safety in numbers. it's also not just the numbers, it's the names of the people who have come forward. you look at ashley judd, who was one of the bigger names in that "new york times" article. then soon after you had gwyneth paltrow and angelina jolie, the two biggest names in hollywood. in that kind of environment, i think women felt they could come
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forward and tell their stories. i also think, when you talk about these sheer numbers, whether it's hollywood or other industries, we have women sitting back and saying, what happened to me was wrong, and i've known it was wrong for years, but this kind of gives them a platform to step up and say something about it publicly. >> at a hollywood industry breakfast, stephanie, this had taken place yesterday. this is what an actress had to say. >> it was henry viii. it was the royal court. if you wanted to eat at the table or, you know what i mean, be part of it, then you kept your mouth shut or you could be beheaded if you opened your mouth. >> it's impressive as she speaks about this and it gives a better idea of what the consequences were, the way women felt in these moments and why frank formal so long they may have been afraid to speak, no? >> definitely. a couple things to point out. when you had the graphic up of the 70 women, you notice there
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are still a number that are blocked out, and not just in hollywood but in other industries, peter, and we've seen it in recent weeks. women coming out and not naming themselves. they may be doing that because personally they don't want to be in the public eye, but there is also this fear of retribution. and until you have a situation where our industry, hollywood, usa gymnastics makes it clear to women who feel that this has happened to them, that they can tell their stories and that it is okay and that their careers aren't going to be hurt, then this problem will still exist. peter? >> clair, you know, it's not just harvey weinstein, of course, but more than 300 women now say director james toback, a name a lot of people may not have heard before, but that he sexually harassed them. there are other accusations against movie figures, former director mark halperin, formerly worked here at msnbc. these are powerful men. but as we've seen from the women coming forward, the harassment
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increasingly, it appears, wasn't just about sex but simply about control. >> absolutely. you see the situation where in hollywood there is a lot of people who want to fulfill their dreams in whatever way they can, and you have a powerful guy like this director. i'm hearing names constantly of bigger hollywood figures who mayor may not be accused of harassment in the coming weeks. in this guy's case, the numbers are so overwhelming, but it feels like everybody he spoke to he had some problem with. i think the thing to point out, the thing that seems very different in this particular instance and the ones that have emerged these last few weeks is that companies are shunning them, they're saying, we don't want to do business with these people, and until the allegations are cleaned up, there are real economic sanctions that these people are feeling now, and that's, i think, a sea change. >> clair and stephanie, i
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appreciate both of you speaking about this important topic. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, one nation overdose. some doctors on the front line to the opioid epidemic say the president's public health emergency declaration doesn't do enough to tackle addiction. we're going to speak to baltimore's health commissioner about what more needs to be done. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. a triangle solo? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sam and yohanna saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪
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i had a brother fred. great guy. best-looking guy. best personality, much better than mine. but he had a problem. he had a problem with alcohol. and he would tell me, don't drink. he was a strong guy, but it was a tough, tough thing that he was going through. but i learned because of fred, i learned. >> that was the president speaking personally about his experience with addiction yesterday after declaring that public health emergency to combat the opioid crisis, drawing both praise and, frankly, concern from health advocates. many believe the move is a step in the right direction, but there are concerns the declaration could fall short. nbc's kate snow has more. >> we're the experts. we're the ones than. >> reporter: at the weekly family of addicts meeting in dayton, ohio, they're encouraged the white house is taking notice but not sure the leaders really get it. >> half the people think
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washington doesn't really understand what's happening in dayton. >> reporter: they would be happy to show the president around, though. >> he could come to my hood and ride around with me and see what it's like every day. >> the president. >> i can see what it's like outside our window every day. drug deals right out there in front. >> the supply is so great in dayton that you can drive down many, many roads in in city and they will give you free samples of drugs. >> i think the problem with rehabs around here and the treatment that people receive, the compassion is not there. >> reporter: the overwhelming message from this room to the president, when loved ones are desperate for help, it's hard to find treatment quickly. >> she's been struggling for 15 years. >> reporter: buck came to the meeting with his stepdaughter, t tana spragg, whose 11-month-old was born dependent. >> there is six to eight weeks' wait to get into any inpatient
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treatment today. if they have a crisis at 5:00 on a friday, come back monday. how is that helping anybody? they could be dead by then. >> reporter: the president's commission on opioids notes only 1 in 10 people with substance abuse problems get treatment. >> i can't do it on my own. i'm tired of seeing my kids like this. i am addicted to heroin. >> reporter: so you're saying the government needs to realize people need help faster. >> i would go right now if i could. >> that was kate snow reporting. joining me now is baltimore city's health commissioner who is leading the fight to end opioid use in one of the country's hardest hit cities. this is dr. nguyen. your reaction to the president's declaration yesterday. what questions do you still want answered and do you feel any
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progress was made by the announcement yesterday? >> i was surprised and disappointed. i think a lot of us was waiting for something that was a lot more than what we heard. the sad stories are one thing, raising awareness is important, but we were waiting for a national deck lalaration of staf emergency that comes with it a specific commitment for funding, not repurposed funding, but new funding. imagine if there are 150 people daily dying from anything else, from a natural disaster like a hurricane or dying from ebola, there would be no question that there would be a national declaration and billions of dollars devoted to this effort. >> so the bottom line for you, obviously, without any additional funding coming. we know from the funds that exit in these emergencies it presently has about $55,000 in it. what the president announced yesterday will allow a shifting, less regulating where the money goes, will allow states to do more with the money.
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why is that inefficient? >> we have so few funds as it is. taking away from existing funds will take away from existing priorities. in baltimore city, we are out of something as basic as the medication norcan. >> i issued norcan to every addicted person in our city, and therefore we have delayed this problem for several weeks. this definitely shouldn't happen in the middle of a public health epidemic. we know what works. >> the president talked about purchasing really big advertising. some people have compared that derisively to the "just say no" campaign, the reagan era. do you think a campaign like that, though, could have real value? >> we should focus on
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prevention, but we also need to think about the millions of people who need treatment and can't get it. i often tell my patients they can't get treatment for another two weeks or a month. you would never say that to anybody. sorry, you're dying of a heart attack right now. if you're not dead within three weeks, come back. we also should be fighting stigma and talking about addiction as the disease that it is. >> what are some of the unique strategies that in baltimore you've engaged in to try to deal with the crisis you're witnessing firsthand? >> the blanket prescription for narcan is so important. i've given narcan to so many patients, and i can see how someone who is overdosing right now will be saved in a couple seconds just by getting this lifesaving medication. it's not addictive, it's safe, it's immediate acting and everybody should carry this medication with them. we've saved over 100,000 lives just by everyday people carrying
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this medication with them. these are some of the efforts that are reflective that we need more funding for. >> in the pharmaceutical industry, what information does big pharma have now, and what should be doing? what should they be pressed to do? >> the pharmaceutical industry was repressed on getting here. they heavily pushed opioids which partly got us to where we are now. they have a responsibility for helping us get out of the crisis, but i would say that right now what we need is additional resources. it could come from industry, but we absolutely need that commitment from the federal government. this should be treated in the same way as any other emergency of this type of scale where hundreds of people are dying a day. >> dr. lena wen is the health commissioner in the city of baltimore. dr. wen, we appreciate your time and good luck to you. >> thank you. coming up, total rex.
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why the secretary of state says some days he just wants to curl up into a ball. this is a moment you'll want to see. that's the next scoop on "dreen a mit -- "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. when i received the diagnosis, i knew at that exact moment, whatever it takes, wherever i have to go...i'm beating this.
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president trump and his republican detractors have gone to their respective corners today taking a break from a week of public feuding which could be things to come for a party of uncertainty. we want to get the inside scoop from ashley parker and "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. both msnbc contributors. this is like a romney reunion here, the three of us were in the backseat of a bus not too many years back. jeremy, i'll sta with you. you talk about the existential threat that the tlump movement poses to these more traditional lawmakers right now. how are those lawmakers gearing up? what are they doing to combat this and prepare themselves from what's going to be a unique rupturing moment? >> it's totally appropriate you bring up romney because romney i think is the example of the republican party that no longer exists. i mean, it exists but it's not the party that is wing elections now. and it's the party that --
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>> at risk. >> completely. what you have are these traditional senators, like roger wicker, who could not be a more classic, conservative chamber of commerce, grow your military spending type of republican, now aligning himself so closely to the president, tethering himself to the president because he's terrified of a challenge fry marry from the right which he may well lose. >> john cornyn saying he backs roy moore. that took a lot by surprise. this number two republican backing this outsider. >> an insurgent outsider who really acts like a big middle finger to the political establishment. and somebody who has said some pretty crazy things -- >> enough that jeff flake said i could never support this guy. >> how many sitting senators say
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they won't support roy moore? i'd be surprised if we hear any. >> the senate republican leaders helped by this experience they went through in 2010 and 2010 with the tea party. did that help them or do they need to view this new wave of grievance a little differently? how can they better prepare themselves? >> i think we're waiting to see the answer to that. one thing striking in that rose garden press conference a little while ago with leader mcconnell, he sort of invoked those lessons from 2010 and 2012 and said, you need to nominate candidates who can win. winners stay and make policy and losers go home. it felt a little like an appeal to what the president understands, which is winning. they are trying to present another 2010 and 2012 who appeal
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to the populous base but this is happening in the era of trump, where maybe those can daylights can fare better in a general election or maybe they can't but it's tougher for the establishment to run against them because everyone needs to embrace the president. >> the democrats have their own problems here. it's not just the gop dealing with issues right now. one is you have don't ers like tom stier who wanted impeachment to be the message, the pitch to voters. the president writes wacky and totally unhinged tom steyey who has been fighting me and never wins election. >> is this idea of impeachment the top agenda item to sell? is that a workable way to go on offense? >> there really is something much an existential crisis happening in both political parties right now. you have the republicans who nominated somebody who is not
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republican and a democrat who almost nominated somebody who is not a democrat in bernie sanders. so, there is a real ground swell of anxiety, anger at the establishment and voters who want to see things shaken up. you know, is impeachment going to be the answer? i don't know. you tell me, how does that happen? i mean, i know how impeachment happens if democrats take the house. how do you remove the president from office with 67 votes in the senate then you're left with president pence and that's more palatable? >> it's a frustrated view. this was in switzerland yesterday. it featured the secretary of state. here it is for those who missed it. >> yeah, some days i feel like i need to do that. >> what are you talking about? you're on a hot mike. >> you're on a hot myth miike.
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that was a pretty good moment there, wasn't it? >> yeah, it was a perfectly candid moment. you know, based on all of the news reports, but i also think it's striking because with this secretary of state -- i'm a lot of secretaries of state dealing with tough geopolitical problems have had this feeling but this one has that feeling from his own president. i think that's what makes it so different. >> from his own president. his president communicating it outloud routinely on twitter. nice to see you. more ahead on "andrea mitchell reports" right here on msnbc.
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that will do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports ", craig melvin is up. >> craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. power play -- now questions about that $300 million contract given to a small company with big connections to turn on the lights in struggling puerto rico. what do we know nearly 54 years after president kennedy's assassination? secret case files released but how many are actually new and what do they reveal about one of america's defining moments we did not know before. fighting back. actress rose m
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