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. american express open. good morning. welcome to a special edition of "politics nation." we call it 2017, the year of social justice. and indeed it was a year that felt at times, well, like a roller coaster. the events in charlottesville, the fight to remove confederate statues, the nfl against police brutality, jeff sessions at the helm of the justice department and, yes, president trump.

we'll get to all of this. but we begin in that weekend in august when a ral lily of white nationalists at the university of virginia turned into a tragic, tragic weekend. we have a great panel today. a writer for the atlantic. mar maria teresa kuma is the president of vota latina and the host of "the beat" here on msnbc and our chief legal correspondent. and robert strahan, the msnbc analyst who is also a former bush-cheney sr. adviser and vp of communications at the bipartisan policy center. let me go to you first. we claim in the year with a lot of concerns about voter id, voter suppression, the president

saying that he was going to have a commission on voter fraud, criminal justice. we made some movements to deal with police reform with the president obama commission which many of the states moving forward in terms of changing some of the policing, body cameras and all. we came into the year dealing with various issues around mass incarceration. president obama commuted more sentences of low level nonviolent drug offenders than the last 11 presidents combined. and then all of that flips with the appointment of then senator jeff -- senator sessions becoming the chief justice. so the social justice picture changed almost overnight when donald trump was inaugurated president. >> that's exactly right. and this was surprising to some people how much hangs in the balance.

not surprising i think to people who work in social justice and communities of color. because the entire effort is always understood how precarious the battles are and the victories incremental or otherwise won. having said that, there are also parts of the obama legacy that can't be undone overnight. one of the victories that didn't get as much attention was when there was an effort to basically undermine consent decrees for police departments which you and others have advocated as a way to systemically deal with police brutality, there is a judge that said no, jeff sessions, you don't just get to undo it. i think 2017 is a tale of two stories. number one, reinforcement of why it's so important, who is at the top and how the justice department is run and how law and order as we understand it is actually provided for in this country. but also, number two, that the law still matters. the judges are a backstop. the travel ban is an issue that affects people on a civil rights and international perspective.

and the president learned very quickly that this is not a kingdom and that a lot of what he was trying to do is shut down in short order. so to me, it's both sides of that story. >> now maria, we also saw a lot of the immigration reform movement change because of the president with his travel ban, with his demonizing immigrants, with his wanting to build this wall to mexico. i mean, talk about how we did 180-degree turn in terms of daca and immigration rights and, of course, the muslim ban and travel ban. >> that's exactly right. this president started his electoral campaign on the backs of immigrants. he was talking about mexican americans and the rest of the latina community. what he took for granted is for the last ten years, not just the

immigrant community but the environmental movement, gay rights movement, occupy wall street, we've been marching for ten years on how a generation of americans, a younger generation of americans wants to define the rest of the century. and while he keeps trying to push it back and his cronies at the justice department try to fight it back, the election just recently in alabama with doug jones, the wave of a new electoral base coming out and voting for a completely different slate in virginia, demonstrates that history is not on his side. we're strong, paying attention and people are going to continue making sure that donald trump ends up being the progressive organizer because people are not going to stand idly as he tries to dismantle the major institution that's we so desperately believe in and at the same time need to have the institutions to be strong. >> and van, what we saw is that he was that progressive organizer because we started seeing a lot of movements,

marches and certainly i was involved in many of them on the social justice issues. we also started seeing some of the traditional organizations coming back to the forefront. some of the new organizations working together in many ways he united the progressive movement and where a lot of people couldn't get together on their own, he backed everybody into each other. so if it was immigration groups, civil rights groups, whether it was the activist groups in the lgbt community, lgbtq or women's groups, everybody started moving and everybody became energized. >> right. i think you can see with the women's march, you can see with what just happened in the alabama senate race. these were coalitions of both legacy organizations, of newer organizations and younger folks, of people traditionally -- >> there are folks in legacy organizations, by the way.

but go ahead. >> yes, there are. but you saw these groups of people who i think the narrative is always been that they don't work well together. or they have a generational beef. but i think you saw it in these two moments, the book end of this year, you saw people get together to come together and to move an agenda of reenfranchising people, expanding the electorate, of making it so democracy responds to the actual demographics of the people in this country. and those are things i expects will continue. they were important under the obama administration. they become even more important now as people lose faith in other institutions, as other institutions become more and more -- they obstruct the flow of justice. people are looking more and more to these cross line coalitions of people who are building together now. >> now, robert, you are the republican on the panel.

how -- >> don't break out in hives, rev. >> that's why i sat you next to him. but how different -- this is what a lot of people miss and i want to get this to our viewers. how different is the social justice policies of this administration even from traditional mainstream republicans of the past? because i've been out here a long time and i've fought the last two or three republican presidents. i cut my teeth when reagan was president. and then bush sr. and bush jr. and trump is far more radical right in social justice approaches than both bushes and reagan was. >> i don't think, rev, you would ever see george w. bush or george h.w. bush tear apart the country in terms of race lines, nfl, taking a knee. i don't think you'll see junior or senior talk about the confederate flags and saying both sides of the aisle, you're

to blame. that's out of the mainstream. we know that. to your question, that's where this president is completely different. but it i can go back for a second, what donald trump is doing is i just heard the conversation about organizing on the left, barack obama did that on the right for folks on the right. the difference here is i think republicans did a very good job of mobilizing that and increasing the majorities in the house and senate and winning the white house in 2016. the question becomes whether or not the left can do the same exact thing going into 2018. >> you've gone into not only whether or not the left can do that and i think van says how they can do it. alabama showed that. but whether or not they can really make policy legislative change which i want to talk to you about. all of this means nothing if there's not fundamental change or maintenance of the change we did get. >> remember what mitch mcconnell said the day after president obama was inaugurated. our biggest political and legislative victory is to defeat

president obama's agenda. >> it is to defeat what obama did. let's talk about it. my panel is staying with us. coming up, confederate statues being removes across the nation. sure that's a good thing. but the debate for many on whether to do it or not is just getting started.

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ignoring the terror that it actually stood for. after the civil war, the monuments were part of the terrorism as much as burning a cross on someone's lawn. they were erected to send a strong message to all that walked in the shadows about who is still in charge in this city. >> new orleans mayor mitch landrieu's remarkable speech explaining his decision to remove statues honoring the confederacy. from kansas city, missouri, to braidenton, florida, austin, texas and durham, north carolina, removing of confederate statues took place across the nation and some were not happy about it. my panel is back with me. let me go to you first, mr. newkirk and really it started a can you remember years ago when they started protesting confederates on campuses and

evolved into this movement embraced about confederate images. the history of which a lot of people tried to act like they were oblivious to. these statues, these symbols represented people that were fighting to maintain slavery based on race. it's unthinkable whether you get down to it, why would you defend, honoring these people particularly with public funds? >> certainly. you look at just look at the history of when the statues were built and mayor landrieu said there in a speech. they weren't built, you know, over time as people wanted to honor ancestors who fought for the confederacy, they were build during eras when white folks in the south wanted to suppress black people in the south. you look at the statues that

came up in waves as the klan became dominant. and that's a no-brainer. why would people want that in their cities? we thought mayor landrieu's speech was so powerful, we republished it up from north carolina. i see all the statues i grew up with. having grown up seeing people revere people who would enslave my ancestors, i don't understand why people wanted it in the first place. >> but the danger also, ari, is -- and something that you're the expert in legal and legislative side -- is that where all of us were out there and certainly spent time doing it and bringing down the statues and bringing down the confederate flag is that we also start saying, wait a minute, don't bring down the statues and keep policies that really underguard a modern version of what the statues were erected for. so you starting in some cities, oh, yeah, take the statues down

but we'll have voter laws where people can't vote. and i think that the statues were a symbol of what van just said of a policy that was being executed at that time. >> this is the most disturbing part of 2017 and there were elements of the movement that wanted to have this fight is that they felt it could broaden their base. there with people that don't know the history about the jim crow south and deal with state sanctioned terrorism against black americans. that's what it was. but there are people who look at that and say as the president so ignorantly said, well, if you take down this statue, what about jefferson? what about washington? and so what was fascinating, disturbing and hopefully possibly edifying in this debate

this year is get to the pain of revealing the history and if dpoenlt kn people don't know that history, with good faith you did explore it. i brought one jay-z quote for the end of the year from the new album "the pain is real, how can you heal, what you never reveal." and while there are people who are explicitly racist and we saw them in charlottesville marching for the statues, there are a lot of other people who may not -- and i say this in an open mind, as a journalist and citizen -- who may not realize, actually, some of them, how painful this history is and so if statues are one way we explore it, let's explore it. not everyone who likes a historical statue is an automatic racists although we saw them in charlottesville and not every statue debate gets you anywhere with quality of life, justice, or civil rights because we are still talking about history, not today. and so my only hope with this is i thought it was at times a low moment. the president's approach to it

very low. widely condemned by many people. but what we need to do is play it forward to figure out why is it so important to reveal the pain and to understand the sanction racism that is in these statues. >> talking about that pain, robert, it's also personal. several years ago as you probably read, a newspaper reporter found out that owners of my grandfather was the strom thurmond family. well, i looked at strom thurmond photos differently. when they talk about pain, they don't realize that we're talking about something in ancient egypt or biblical days. we're talking about my grandfather's daddy, i knew my grandfather, was owned by these people and you're going to glorify them and take my tax dollars to pay for it and to pay to keep the park that they give to workers and all to glorify

people that oenld wned us. >> what's chilling is that there were a lot of people romanticize the past and the glory days of the civil war and of the confederacy and so forth. a the love folks, i have a couple friends in alabama who were e-mailing moefr te over th couple weeks, many conservatives. you know what, robert? i'm not a racist but i wish we had different america. i wish we could make america great again. what does that mean? let's peel back that onion. >> i'm not a racist but i'm going to support racism. >> yeah. let's peel back that onion. >> so what does being a racist mean? >> right. to ari's point, let's have a conversation. sometimes it's going to be a little emotional here. but let's have a real conversation about the policies and about the president who augments some of the discomfort that people are having. >> i never said this on tv before. but the first time i ever saw you speak was 17 years ago. you came to the university of

michigan where it was discovered that one of the state school, one of the organizations had all this racist material memorabilia. and you came. you gave a fiery speech and one of the sayings i remember you said there is, yes, you have the right to call me an epithet or a bad word. but you don't have the right to ask me to pay for it. i remember you said that a long time ago. >> i'm still saying that. >> who is paying for the statues. >> and 17 years ago, i was 25, right? >> looking great. >> maria, when you look at this and you look at how people erected that just absolutely ignored the statue of liberty that welcomed people to this country, now we're reversing that and act as though none of this happened. i mean, and the america that many people come from are the shores seeking a better life and get in and find out we're erecting slave owners. we're turning our back on with the principles of the statue of

liberty. i mean, how do you reconcile this? >> i think we -- for the majority of americans what these statues represent is basically some sort of cultural exploitation of a people that was never fully appreciated. and it's a form of intimidation. the fact that we actually have to have this conversation in 2017 and recognize what we are actually trying to define. who are we going to be in the next 100 years is i think is very in large part because of the obama presidency, he made us move forward and trump came in to office and trying to move us backwards. the majority of americans are saying not on our watch. whether it's the fact that so many people came out and protested charlottesville, whether it's the fact that we are tumbling down the confederate statues, whether it's the fact that when we had an nfl football player take the knee, the majority of the folks in power expected him to capitulate and instead there is

a force of americans saying he is speaking truth to justice. and we're not going to let that happen. when we look at the statue of liberty right now and we're literally having a schizophrenic conversation of who we are as americans, our identity is the immigrant one. however we came. en that is our strength. and that is our promise. and we have to make sure that we continue to fight for that identity because that is what at the end of the day is this power of ideas that is constantly regenerated through the immigrant experience that allows us to continue to lead. we have to remember that. right now, reverend, it is a dark time for american latinas in this country. we have our children having to go into schools and be bullied every day, to come home and have really hard conversations with our parents. >> the knock on the door. >> afraid if they're going to come home and whether or not their parents are going to be there. this is not who we are. we have to have a frank conversation with each other. just as we have fellow americans standing up for each other when

it comes to black lives matter, we have to make sure that our allies and americans are standing up there just as righteously for the immigrant community. that is fundamentally our origin. >> plenty still to come including a new generation of professional athletes taking a knee to express their political and social outrage.

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welcome back to a special edition of "politics nation." we call it 2017, the year in social justice. this year we saw an american footballer's campaign of protest against police brutality and racism that rippled throughout the united states and sparked demonstrations beyond the national football league. at the center of the movement, then san francisco 49ers quarterback colin kaepernick who knelt down during the national anthem to voice his opposition to police brutality that disproportionately targets african-americans and who chimed in, of course, it was president trump. joining me now, my distinguished

panel. maria teresa kuma, msnbc chief legal correspondent and host of "the beat" and former bush-cheney aide robert rayhoun. i remember when i was a teenager in operation breadbasket, youth director for reverend jesse jackson. i met muhammed ali. i knew him all the way to his passing. i even was able to talk to him not long before he passed. and, you know, he was suffering from parkinsons. i bring that up to say that i watched him in the years he could not fight because he refused to go to the war, indicted, sentenced to jail and went all the way to the supreme court and was able to win his fight and was reinstated into the ring. so what a lot of people miss, ali literally changed how we

dealt with law. because he protected the law of people that were not christian having their religion respected and regarded. and he was reinstated. colin kaepernick, of course, wasn't facing xbral jail in any. that i think we have not finished this unless laws are changed and unless colin kaepernick goes back on the field. giving him awards he deserves that. but we should let it in there by saying he's man of the year next. we need to, like ali, say wait a minute, he needs to not only be reinstated. what he took a knee for and what all of us were marching before he took the knee and set the climate that brought it to his and others attention, laws must be done. otherwise, we're not equal to what ali and them did. they changed and affirmed laws and put him back in the ring where he regained lhis title.

>> you're drawing the line between the ali precedent which says you have this religious freedom. this is america. you may have a religious view that changes your ability or decision to fight and everyone knew ali was tough. i mean was so powerful. it wasn't about whether he was ali tough, he is tougher than everyone. but he had a religious objection, a objection to foreign policy. and as you say, he gave up a lot for that. at one point -- >> he was indicted. he served five years in jail. >> so tremendous courage. i think your historical comparison to kaepernick raises the other side of why it's harder to win some of the victories because they're not always done through government sanction where even though the government is powerful, we have a working system. it's a travel ban as we mentioned. it's down. kaepernick, though, it's not the government alone although the president put a thumb on the scale. it is this economic capitalist

discrimination. and so the bigger question becomes absent a court case, absent a judge to make it this way, are we going to live in a world where oh, yeah, you have free speech rights. but you can be effectively corners and stripped of your job because of, what? you don't have to agree with him. a lot of people have different views of this. the question is whether you have a free speech right to make this view or will you be so hurt by the government or by basically job discrimination if you can prove it. that's a debatable point. is that it? is effacing job discrimination? >> and that's why we can't leave it there with just some awards. and i think, van, the one that fits right into it in my intro, i remember some of the guys that raised me in the movement said that dr. king and fred shuttlesworth combed the south find the right town to have the showdown on public accommodations and they chose birmingham because they knew connor would fight. well, donald trump with his tweets, with his acrimony has

really been the one that helped to bring this issue front and center because he tweeted it when everybody was moving past it. and he is the guy that just can't stop and he plays right into it. it's almost like talking about ali rope-a-dope. if you lean back, he's going to keep swinging. and he'll punch out hopefully. >> yeah. you mentioned dr. king and dr. king's most poignant pieces of rhetoric he made is talking about the twin, the evil twins milita. i think kaepernick's protest was actually a blend of that which ali fought which is abroad and domestically. and that linked to capitalism. that is actually all embodied in the nfl. and so you think about a guy protesting the embodyment of all these things. and then the president no way trump sees that. no way trump sees anybody

challenging the nexus of all these things and doesn't get involved. so i think from the moment trump became a viable candidate from the moment he hit the trail, from the moment he became the republican candidate, any protest like this, he was going to be involved in trying to put his finger on the scale, trying to use this as a cultural war. i think this found maybe the perfect avatar to fight against in trump. >> that's right. >> now you know what is interesting to me which again a lot of people in the media has never brought up and certainly have never questioned trump, trump brags about he was friendly with muhammed ali and someone should say to him, how could you have befriended ali and demonize colin kaepernick? >> i think in his mind, there's a difference. he's my friend. this is nothing to do with politics. he's my friend. it's similar to a lot of people say that african-american is my

friend but i let them in the house but not upstairs. >> so he had the right to stand up to a war, not go to the military, get indicted and sentenced but kaepernick does not have the right to take a knee saying that people are being killed all over this country because of the color of their skin. and he can't see how -- >> i don't think the president can deduce from either/or. i think ari is right. his analysis is really good and to the point. there is another court here and that is the court of public opinion. what the president has tried to do and failed to a certain degree is tried to stoke his own base with this stuff. i don't think it's coincidence that these are all african-americans when it came to the two gentlemen, the basketball players from ucla and so forth. he is trying to make great again to a 1950s america. and stoking his base as much as he possibly can. there is a reason why he says merry christmas. there is a reason why he says make a difference. there is a correlation there. >> and that feeds right into maria what you've been saying about how he has turned schools

into where we are easily seeing people bullied if they're from another nation. and he's really created this kind of acrimony that is unamerican. >> well, that's where he feels like he's on top. but in reality, let's not forget, he was kneeling long before donald trump was in office. he was doing it under president obama. the president tried then -- president trump tried to take this as a personal insult and tried to do as robert said, cut into a cultural war, really lean into it and trying to actually say that by taking a knee it wasn't talking about police brutality. he was trying to say it was unpatriotic and against the flag. and the american people pushed back. they recognized that is not what was happening. and he is unfortunately very talented nfl player that is now jobless and i believe he's actually trying to sue saying, look, there is nfl collusion. the more he can expose that and say these are the liabilities of

standing strong and speaking truth is real. >> we have to use that economic leverage ari is talking about as well as the legal. otherwise, history will say that we didn't do what the ali generation did. don't go anywhere. i have to take a break. i'll come right back. still ahead, the impact attorney general jeff sessions has on voting rights, criminal justice, and lgbtq rights during his first year in office. we'll be right back.

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i'm back with my panel discussing the year in social justice. and now we want to focus on attorney general jeff sessions. from his crackdown on illegal immigration to his reversal of the obama administration policies on criminal justice and policing, sessions seems to be methodically shaping the justice department. why? to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard line views. all of that while the public is engaged in the on going investigations into whether the trump campaign coordinated with russia during the 2016 elections. let's go back to the panel. ari, many of us opposed the

appointment of jeff sessions. many of us that head national civil rights groups vehemently opposed it. he called out a meeting with us and he clearly said to all of us sitting there in the naacp, urban action network, legal defense fund, i'm not participating in these voter rights lawsuits including the texas lawsuit, the justice department was plaintiffs about voter id and other areas of voter suppression, north carolina and others. and it led to many of us rallying and i helped to coordinate 5,000 ministers and rabbis and lgbt people to march. you remember the ministers march in august of this year where we marched from martin luther king's statue to jeff sessions' justice department. with all the drama, he is methodically already privatizing use of federal prisons.

he's already made real moves in withdrawing some of the voter rights claims. we are seeing them chip away in this area more than any area that will have ramifications for a long time to come. >> i think you put your finger on it. we look back at this year, jeff sessions is the single person at the center of everything in the donald trump administration. number one, he is the person who oversaw the firing of jim comey. number two, he is the person who claims to be recused from the russia investigation but still is in it. he said he didn't have key meetings with russians and he did and that hasn't been addressed. that is international. then you go to what you say domestic, he is the one person in the cabinet who has a duty to be on the president's political agenda. nothing wrong with other members of the cabinet saying i'm here to do what donald trump wants. that's how i see my job. that's right. whether you like it or not. he's the one that is, as you

know from working with attorneys general in both parties, has an obligation to the laws. the civil rights laws are on the books. the voting rights laws aren o o the books. if people don't like it and want to work with the republican congress to change it, that's their right. we're a nation of laws. i have gone to court and dealt with laws i think are good or bad. you have to deal with them. the danger here as you articulated is on a host of issues, the travel ban in court, sanctuary cities which judges set back the sessions' policy, war on drugs and civil rights and voting rights, is this an attorney who attorney general pushing beyond what he want the as a senator? i think the jury is still out on that. i think there are a lot of bad signs. this is interesting to watch. maria, of course, can speak on this as well. this is an area where they have a view. we don't like sanctuary cities, fine. but their attempt to take money that would be otherwise appropriated to them on

unrelated places is something that a judge said this didn't get enough attention. a judge said, no, you don't have that power. so that i think is going to be the test going into next year is jeff sessions working within the law or smacked down by judges who say the ag should be within this law. >> maria, that whole thing of the judge slapping his hand down saying he didn't have the power, the legal challenge, these are the kinds of things that really a lot of the public is not hearing. they are really going against written law when you look at what they attempt with sanctuary cities and other moves. >> that's right. the justice department is trying to strong hold and change the law by trying to withhold federal funding for the cities and also for the police modernization. they don't like the rules that are set. they don't want to play within them. let's also dig a little deeper into what sessions is doing along with the white house and they are basically currently stacking the federal bench with young lawyers that espouse a certain viewpoint that is very

non -- you would say is bringing a political runs into the way the laws are exercised. that is something that everyone should be concerned about. these are lifetime appointmentes. the other thing we should considerparts. the other thing is clearly a war on the poor. he has been very much an the forefront of asset forfeitures. this thing he oversees is through the trump's voting fraud commissioning dismantling access to the polls. believe it or not, one of the recommendations from the commission is to increase the voting age from 18 to 21 because they see a tsunami of young people about to exercise their vote in 2020 and we want let that happen. >> now, let me go to you, van, on this. maria raised something very important. the appointment of federal judges and a supreme court judge they denied the appointment of

president obama. if another one opens as long as he's in, he feels that -- and he's been able to get them through the senate with almost unparalleled speed. i think a lot of people are not looking at their stacking the courts with some of them lifetime appointments even if we see the democrats take the senate or the house or the white house in 2020, those judges are going to be sitting there the rest of their lives. >> i don't think a lot of people realize we are staring down the barrel of a very new legislative legal court era. we're looking at not just a supreme court but the lower courts can, as well looking at a department of justice bringing in new lawyers who are going to be around for a long time. both sides of that. you look at just voting rights. in the post shelby county versus holder era, it's in the courts

and the doj to be vigilant in making sure local and state laws do not disenfranchise people. when the doj and the courts are of the opinion there is no more disenfranchisement, what happens if a court does say now upper courts have to preclear what you do when this he say it's fine. >> when you deal with lgbtq and wip's rights, we're on the brink of seeing all of that go another way. the other part of that that bothers me, robert, is that in my lifetime, you know, everyone had a plan whether they were republican or democrat. >> you mean running for office? >> everyone that was president when they were running for president. nixon had a black capitalism plan. i didn't agree but it was a plan. they don't even have an announced plan. they have an ideology of we're going to bring it back to the good old days.

the good old days are the horrific days for many of us. >> i think donald trump was very clear last year saying everything that president obama stood for i'm against. donald trump was clear by saying if i win the white house, i'm going to be for less taxes, period. did he have a policy agenda about with the urban community? take a look at every republican president's in my generation, george w. bush, compassionate conservatism. george h.w. bush, a thousand points of light. what's different about this president is he ran on his personality and won. >> won the electoral college. >> okay. but he is our president. full stop. >> he's the lawful president. >> i have to go. >> people talk about it like -- he got fewer votes. >> he didn't have the majority. thank you to maria teresa, thank you to ari, of course, my friend

and s soul brother and to robert and thank you to van. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. soul brother and and thank you to van. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. soul brother and t and thank you to van. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. no matter how the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

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of 2017 has been a year that reminds me when i started as a youngster in the movement. in 1967, i reached the age of 13. i was youth director of operation breadbasket. there was the anti-war movement

raging. there were uprisings in many urban cities. there were all kinds of activist groups. 50 years later, we see the same. but in '67, we did not coordinate those groups. we fought each other for space rather than change. and the results were in '68, richard nixon was elected president and conservatism became the order of the day. this year, we marched. i led some of the marchers myself, calling on the continuation of the fight for justice and police reform, fighting against what was going on with immigration rights, lgbtq rights. as well as gender inequality. the question is can all of this can from motion to movement, to go from fighting each other for

space to standing together and respecting each other for change. for what we have been able to achieve. 2018 is the 50th anniversary of will the assassination of martin luther king jr. and robert kennedy. we can honor them by really building a movement for change rather than just having motions of our discontent. the challenge is on us. the mantles are on all of us from various and diverse backgrounds. it is up to all of us to lead and advocate what we were born for. it's been one year of a lot of motion. let's see if it leads to a year of concrete movement. that does it for me. thanks for watching. don't miss next week, our seventh annual awards where we

celebrate the best and worst in 2017. and give awards to those who deserve it. mean highway, keep the conversation going. like us at facebook.com/politics nation. i'll see you back here next sunday. good morning, i'm alex witt in new york. i want to take you to mar-a-lago and have you listen to the president. it is his christmas eve teleconference with members of the military. take a listen everyone. >> and tremendous. always underappreciated. the military families, the greatest people on earth. we have five deployed units joining us today, one from each branch of our armed forces. i want to welcome colonel chuck lombardo and all of the soldiers of iron brigade deployed i