year and he's going to go into an interview with fbi agents, if you lie once it's perjury. >> thank you both for joining us. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. joy reid in for rachel. >> thank you. thanks to you at home for joining us. rachel has the right off. earlier this month, a couple days into the new year, a very odd and dramatic thing happened in washington d.c. the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein and fbi director christopher wray made an unannounced appearance and the deputy attorney general and fbi director requested the meeting. what made this unannounced meeting particularly dramatic was that at that moment, the justice deputy was in the middle of the this really big ugly

fight with a group of house republicans. a group led by this guy, devin nunes, a republican and chair of the house intelligence committ e committee. because of that, he technically recused himself, he's been leading the most aggressive efforts in congress to try and under cut the mueller investigation. and to try to create alternative scandals that the white house likes better. for months, nunes has been issuing subpoenas that to the justice department demanding they turnover documents. for months, the justice department has been pushing back telling kn telling nunes turning over that information would jeopardize an investigation. undetoured, last month house republicans began moving to hold rosenstein and wray in contempt of congress. and so on january 3rd when

rosenstein and wray showed up, they were there to ask for paul ryan's help. they were hoping paul ryan would get devin nunes to back off. they did not get paul ryan's help. speaker ryan sited with nunes and when they emerged from that meeting, nunes announced the doj agreed to provide access for everything he requested. the compromise appeared to be the documents would not be handed over to nunes, instead, the chairman and a hand full of people from the house intelligence committee would go into a secure room at the doj to review them. there was one document that the doj deemed so sensitive, chris wray on theed to show it to devin neunes himself and what devin nunes proceeded to do is take in classified documents about an on going counter intelligence investigation and turn around and put that information into a set of talking points, a memo laying

out a supposed conspiracy inside the fbi and justice department to undermine the trump campaign and presidency. if you've been watching or listening to right-wing media you know this is all anyone on the right has been talking and tweeting about. the secret memo that will reveal the conspiracy at the heart of the justice department and blow up the deep state. republicans on the intelligence committee voted to make that talking points memo available to the entire house. now, they are poised to vote to release it publicly. the justice department this week called that plan quote extraordinary reckless and also charged that congressman nunes would be violating the terms of that deal they struck earlier this month in paul ryan's office. but devin nunes says nope, that deal does not prevent them from doing anything. as for paul ryan, well, the speaker's office sent us this statement.

quote, as previously reported the speakers only message to the department was that it needed to compile with oversight requests and there were no terms set for its compliance. which i think means paul ryan is saying sorry justice department, he's siting with nunes again. there is one other person that got access to the cloassified documents under the deal. that is the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee adam schiff and he sent us this statement. quote, access to the underlying materials used by the majority to produce the talking points memo was limited to the chairman or designation. the majority doesn't dispute this but makes the claim the agreement did not preclude them from sharing information with other members of congress. if that were true, there was no point to limiting access. the majority is in clear

violation of the commitment to the justice department. so this is pretty remarkable, right? the trump justice department is allied with house democrats in a fight against house republicans and this fight and all the hyper ventilating on the right about this memo, all of this, this is one reason it might be really important. we're in the midst of the talking about firing robert mueller. trump described today as fake news ignited fears donald trump may try to fire robert mueller again. but mueller is not the only person that trump considered firing. according to "the times" another

option that mr. trump considered in discusses was dismissing the deputy attorney general rod j rosenstein. trump has frequently taken shots and still be furious that attorney general jeff sessions recused himself and put rosenstein in charge of the russia investigation. we also know that republicans have been on a mission to discredit fbi and justice department officials who have played key roles in the trump, russia investigation particularly those who might be able to corroborate fired fbi director james comey's testimony that trump pressured him to end that investigation. just tonight, murray reports at foreign policy that trump quote pressed senior aids last june divise and carry out a campaign after learning specific officials were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel robert mueller's

investigation. y we don't know exactly what is in this memo but at "the daily beast" says it targets three people. a controversial republican memo alleging surveillance abuse specifically names fbi director andrew mccabe and rod rosenstein with and james comey and when it comes out, current and former officials are likely to face more criticism from the right over their involvement in counter intelligence work. comey is gone. mccabe is on his way out. he's being retired at the ripe old age of 49. but how about rosenstein? is it his time in the barrel next to use an old roger stone? especially after last night's "new york times" report. all the attention and energy is focused on the attention to fire mueller but what if it's not mueller he's after. >> listening to republican members talking about that

encourage from my point of view fire rod rosenstein and put in place someone that will tell bob mueller privately you cannot look into these issues. you cannot follow the money. >> congressman adam schiff ranking member of the house intelligence committee on this program last month saying it would be even more evident to fire rosenstein than mueller. joining me is former acting general in 1999 when he worked under the justice department under eric holder. he helped write the very rules that allowed for the appointment of special counsels like robert muller and today has a new op ed in the washington post. a normal president would know not to try it. thank you for being here.

appreciate you being here tonight. >> privilege to be with you, joy. >> let's talk about you wrote a couple points. the first point and i'll read a little bit, at this moment many wish for legal restrictions in the special counsel regulation that would block trump from pyripyr firing mueller but rules can only do so much. the system depends on separation of power and election of individuals with character and judgment. right now both are lacking. when you write that, which officials lacking character and determination did you have in mind? >> i definitely have in mind the president and i think it's important to take a step back and understand what you call this bombshell "new york times" report actually means. this idea that the president tried to fire mueller. i really do think that we are very possibly seeing the end of the trump presidency as a result of those revelations and those are not words i use lightly, but this is first time i've said anything like this and it is because of two things, one is the legal stuff. we've been talking about.

there is an eninvestigatiopen i for firing comey, for demanding loyalty of everyone around him seems to be incapable of telling the truth when it comes to russia, 19 separate lies about who is meeting with the russians and the like. so you've got the elements of coverup. that's what people have been talking about today. there is a second thing, a non-legal aspect to this, which i think is more important and that is does this person have the character to pick up the words of the op ed to be the president of the united states. trump was asked about whether he was thinking about firing mueller in august of 2017. and he said he quote hadn't given it any thought. he sent his lawyer out, john dowd to say firing mueller has never been on the table, never and it's a manifestation of the media and kellyanne conway said similar things. i can't imagine that a president would say those things after what he did two months earlier trying to fire mueller. i can't imagine advisors did it.

i can't imagine a lawyer to the president bound by ethical rules and so on would say that and not correct the record later on. there is a very severe credibility problem with the president whenever russia comes up and, you know, think about if we knew this stuff before, you've been talking about the devin nunes antics and this memo and so on. if we knew this stuff for the last seven months, it's been a debate trump started with mueller being bias against him and fbi and so on. would have been helpful to know the president tried with bogus three ration nils to fire trump in june and was rebuffed. >> you then mentioned paul ryan and devin nunes. for a president to be held accountable we'll get to in a moment to whether or not he can be held legally accountable, on the political side, the constitution provides impeachment. the speaker of the house sited not once but twice with devin

nunes on a fishing expedition to essentially smear the fbi and attack the justice department. so far, the speaker of the house up to now has not restrained, attempted to restrain devin nunes or impede what he's doing which could result in classified information being sent to the whole house for political use. how can we have confidence it could be the end of the trump administration? would republicans, those republicans i described ever hold him accountable? >> you're right. if you look at the past year what republicans in congress have been doing. james madison wouldn't be proud nor would ronald reagan. there is allegation of very serious wrongdoing. there have been guilty pleas around this and so on and yet, they, you know, act like ostriches. yes, right now they are to blame for this. i hold out hope that when these facts come out and if the

mueller investigation is allowed to proceed that no one will be able to look at this and not say boy, this looks like an attempted coverup at the very least and this is a president who is not shy about his assault on the rule of law. >> very quickly, we don't have much time. you also write there is a concern that rather than just firing mueller out right, that donald trump could essentially put and fire rod rosenstein and put in an assistant attorney general that would slow walk and bleed administration. how concerned are you that could happen? >> i'm concerned. when the president tries to do anything possible to undermine the rule of law wherever he can and if that's pointing different appointees in place, that may be it. we've been blaming republicans but there is one republican we shouldn't be blaming and that is rod rosenstein who has been appointed by republican presidents. he's president trump's guy. president trump nominated him to be deputy attorney general and

put him in that position and now the president doesn't trust him. he's been doing a good job in supervising the investigation and i do think it would be a constitutional calamity if something were to happen ton rosenstein. >> neal, former acting general, thank you for acting tonight. >> thank you. >> let's bring in cory booker co-spore son of co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill. senator, thanks so much for joining us tonight. >> joy, good to be with you, thank you. >> let's start by talking about robert mueller. the bill that you put forward to try to protect robert mueller, how would it change the rules for firing him for what they are now? >> as eluded to, right now the president of the united states can order the justice department to do the firing. there is no real check and balance. it's supposed to be fired for cause but the cause comes back to the president of the united states. we have a real making of the

constitutional crisis. your president of the united states could be under investigation, could have had people in the inner circle indicted or plead guilty and then decide okay, i'm going to fire that person. we know that would already blow up norms. we know that would already really undermine our democracy and create a crisis. what our bill says is let's create a check and balance by letting the judiciary decide once a president has decided to give that order or someone in the justice department has that the supreme court or a set of judges can give a review whether that action was indeed for cause or unfortunately potentially just for political purposes. >> for our viewers, the legislation proposed by yourself and senator lindsey graham says the special counsel act, special counsel may be removed only after a court has issued an order finding misconduct, incapacity, conflict of interest or other good cause including violation of policies at the department of justice.

are you concerned that most people believe flimsy three reasons donald trump reportedly gave when he tried to fire mueller the first time, that he quit the golf club and been considered for a job at the fbi and that thing. are you concerned that at the current law trump could actually use those kinds of flimsy justifications to push mueller out? >> more than concerned. i'm seriously alarmed right now looking at the pattern of behavior, whether a firing of comey, his intimidation of jeff sessions, on anipenly speaking g not hired him because of his recuse recuse. the way he has these instincts, the tendencies, the way he does which is very reminiscing of dictators of people he ran against, arresting them and convicting them. they make me very concerned he could not only blow up norms but

lurch us into a crisis. >> what would the senate do rather than firing mueller or rather than firing mueller donald trump were to use what the former acting associate general called the death by 1,000 cuts strategy, firing rod rosenstein and putting in place a deputy attorney general, somebody in rosenstein's position that would say you can't look into those areas because they are financial. you can't have that budget allegation and essentially squeeze the investigation through the supervisory power of the deputy attorney general? >> i'm grateful right now that me along with lindsey graham and chuck grassly granted the hearing you see senators on both sides being concerned about this behavior and trying to do rational priudent things. i'm concerned about the champ y -- example you give and many, many weeks of the republican echo machine, 24-hour news

station and more trying to undermine the integrity of the investigation and robert mueller themselves. there seems to be an assault on the process. this isn't just a political proce process. we know many facts now, the russians have tried to undermine our democracy, the electoral process. we know there are people who have been indicted, who have pled guilty to aspects of that investigation and we know this is something to me should take all of us aware. we need to find out what happened and get to the bottom of it to prevent this from happening in the future. this president should allow this investigation to continue, staying away from it and waiting. if he has nothing to fear, if he did nothing wrong, to just let the investigation proceed and be interviewed by the investigators, as well. >> we seen incredibly partisan behavior on the part of people like devin nunes. are you confident in republican senators they will stand with you for the rule of law and not

go back to defending the president as they so often do? >> i want to prevent this from having to come to that point. that's why i push this legislation with lindsey graham. let's prevent the crisis from coming within our republic. it would be a disaster should donald trump do this. we know he has inclinations. you hear all the time people talking about thank god there are adults in the room whether it's secretary mattias, whether it's now white house counsel stopping this president from doing things that most people agree would be disastrous. that should give us all cause for a larm thlarm that we have president willing to trample on ideas and the rule of law and democratic norms. so wein times where we need to reserve and make sure we don't get to disaster moments. >> thank you for joining us to

believe the. >> thank you, very much. >> a little tv history for you. back in the day, breaking news was hand lled differently. if you wanted to get somebody on the phone, you have to pick up the phone and call them on television. what happened next may answer one of the biggest questions swirling around the russia investigation tonight. can a sitting president of the united states be indicted? that's next. each year sarah climbs 58,007 steps. that's the height of mount everest. because each day she chooses to take the stairs. at work, at home... even on the escalator. that can be hard on her lower body, so now she does it with dr. scholl's orthotics. clinically proven to relieve and prevent foot, knee or lower back pain, by reducing the shock and stress that travel up her body with every step she takes. so keep on climbing, sarah. you're killing it. dr. scholl's. born to move. let's team up to get the lady of the house back on her feet.

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on october 20th, 1973 they had to cancel the airing of "the tonight show" for good reason. >> "the tonight show" will not be seen tonight so we can bring you the following nbc news special report. >> i read in one of the newspapers this morning, the headline defiant. i don't feel defiant. >> good evening. the country is in the midst of

the special watergate prosecutor cox because of the president's action, the attorney general resigned. elliott richardson who was appointed attorney gel real last may quit saying he cannot carry out mr. nixon's instructions. richardson's deputy has been fired. he refused in a moment of constitutional drama to obey an order to fire the special watergate prosecutor. in my career as a correspondent, i never thought i would be announcing these things. >> i never thought i would be announcing these things. that was john chancellor in 1973. the night richard nixon fired the man in charge of the investigation. this was the front page of the "new york times", nixon discharges cox for defiance, apologize accomplishes watergate task force. >> here is the thing, it turns out his task force didn't stop

investigating watergate. it actually kept going even after cox was let go. the night of the saturday night massacre, the special prosecutors' team trekked down to the office to make sure their documents and evidence were secure. the fbi sealed up the space to make sure nothing was tampered with and then the investigation just kept going. soon the investigation got a boss. before he took it he made sure it would not happen to him. >> he accepted the prosecutors's job reluctantly after the white house assured him he would have complete freedom and said he's confident not suffering the same fat fate. >> i am not anticipating a disagreement will be reached. one of the matters i searched

for and wanted was complete independence in this under taking. >> put a pin in complete independence. that was leon jaworski's condition taking the job and once he got it, he got to work. hi inherited the team and evidence they put together. after looking at the evidence stacked up against the president, leon started asking questions. can you indict a sitting president of the united states. in 1974 he got advice on that question in a memo from his staff. they told him yes, you could in fact indict the president while he was still president. quote, if the president were placed so much apart from all other citizens he could escape the determination there was probable cause, one can only imagine how much greater the public would be. for us and the grand jury for an appropriate express of the

assessment would not only be a departure from the responsibilities but dangerous president damaging to the rule of law. ultimately, richard nixon was not indicted and wanted to let impeachment run the course which of course led to nixon's resignation and pardon by president gerald ford for any and all crimes he might have committed. it's an interesting question into the current president is reaching a critical mass. we've had presidential impeachments and pardons but never in the history of this country has a sitting president been criminally indicted. can a sitting president be charged with a crime? if so, what would that look like? joining us is a former assistant special watergate prosecutor under cox and leon jaworski. you worked for both of them. you kept on working. >> kept on going. the next day after the saturday night massacre to let people in

the white house know we were open for business. i was making calls and keeping appointments. >> you told me you were in the front row of the announcement. >> there is also the group of the staff you saw me coming out. i looked a lot different. i had a lot more hair and was a lot younger. >> let's revisit the question. apparently in the case of watergate, it never got to that but the determination was nixon could have been indicted for crimes. fast forward to 1998 and impeachment of bill clinton, ken star write as memo in 1998 he said hits properit's proper anda grand jury to indict for not official dutys, in this country, no one is above the law. do you concur? >> that's right. you got a justice department regulation that wouldn't permit the prosecutors to do that but -- >> what is that regulation? >> it's a regulation of the department. it's a department practice they are not going to indict a

sitting president. >> a grand jury can indict the president but the justice department would not go forward with it? >> the justice department recommends indictment. it's not like the grand jury is going to do it on their own. >> right. >> but if they did, i mean, then you would have an argument in court by the president saying he's a sitting president. his time would be taken up to a great extent having this sit through pretrial proceedings and a criminal trial and it should wait until he finishes his term of office or is impeached. the legal issue is not decided. the bottom line legal issue is the president is not above the law. he is not king george. in 1776, he made a determination that we were going to be run by a constitution and by laws. we did something pretty radical at that point. we got rid of the king. we have checks and balances and

the president has to provide evidence as he's going to be required -- >> let me stop you there. one of the things people are concerned about, donald trump is a norm breaker. he doesn't agree he has to abide by rules and norms. what if a subpoena is issued to president donald j. trump he has to produce evidence and information for the prosecutor and simply says no? >> the prosecutor will go into court and he'll be directed to produce it. i'm sure if this goes to the supreme court under usv nixon, he's not going to have a choice but to provide evidence. >> could donald trump evade all of this by pardoning himself? >> i don't think that would work. i don't think the pardon power extends to the point where if you have a conflict of interest, whether you pardon your relatives, whoever it is and yourself, i just don't think any court would say that the pardon power is included. there is such a body of law that

has grown up about conflict overinterest thatovef interest, i don't think the supreme court would provide that. >> are you saying that donald trump could be presented by a court from pardoning jared kushner or his son? >> sure, article three, section three, the president has to abide by and execute faithfully the laws of the united states. that doesn't mean he can go out there and use them for his own purposes to evade the law and to put himself above the law. and i think there would be a strong argument that any such parten would not be enforceable. we never had this happen before. >> and we never tested whether or not that would hold up in front of the supreme court, which donald trump named the person that gives republicans the 5-4 majority. >> don't forget the supreme court and nixon was 9-0 forcing him to turnover the tapes. >> the plot thickens. special watergate prosecutor,

thank you so much. >> thank you. we have a lot more to get to on this very busy friday night. stay with us.

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high-end golfers thriving and at the high end, golf is through the roof. it's very hard to get into the really good clubs. we had many people in washington that are top, top officials of government. >> one top, top official that was not a member at the time. special counsel robert mueller according to the white house in 2011, mueller then fbi director resigned his membership at trump's virginia golf club after getting into a dispute over membership fees. it was hardly a dispute at all. mueller reportedly requested a refund in accordance with club rules and never heard back and he's not alone. last year a florida judge ordered trump to pay over $5 million to former members in a case over disputed membership fees at his florida course. in the latest "new york times" blockbuster. the paper report that trump ordered mueller fired last june. one of the president's ration ns

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and that's why we'll always drive a subaru. in 2010 during an interview, donald trump junior bragged in 2011, the trump organization explored building golf courses in russia. what about russian investment in trump golf properties? the prospect of whether any elicit money was used to fund trump golf properties in scotland and ireland was raised this past november but glen simpson of fusion gps. he testifyed to congress that trump's massive investments at a time when banks would not loan him money had always been a mystery to him. quote, so we were able to get the financial statements and they don't on their face show russian involvement but what

they do show is enormous amounts of capital flowing into the projects from unknown sources. at least on paper it says it's from the trump organization but hundreds of millions of dollars. and these golf courses are just, you know, they are sinks. they don't actually make any money. quote, there is good reason to believe he would have had to have outside financial support for these things. and it's true, trump's course is in scotland and ireland, the only ones for which detailed financial information is available show huge losses. trump's course in ireland lost millions over the past two years and in scotland trump poured nearly $200 million into his two courses without either of them turning a profit. so, where did that investment money come from? on a trip to scotland, candidate trump paid in straight cash. >> the hotel, i didn't even put a mortgage on. no debt, no financing.

i didn't want financing because it's so special. i just did this out of cash flow and we just have an absolutely zero debt property. >> i did this out of cash flow, zero debt. as glenn simpson said, there is no direct evidence it came from russia. today we rushed out to the trump organization for comment about glenn simpson's allegations and they responded quote, the scotland and ireland project was with funds from the normal business operations over the course of more than a decade. given mr. simpson's history of making false claims, it's shocking, yet not surprising the media reports on allegations as anything but fiction. maybe you can chalk it up to pure fiction though of course, there is an awkward and inconvenient fact that the president's second son eric told a golf journalist in 2013 oh, yeah, all the money came from russia. a story the golf journalist

james todrecounted last year. >> when i first met him, i ask him how he was -- this is the journalist in me. what are you using to pay for the courses? he sort of tossed off he had access to $100 million. >> 100 million dollar. >> so when i got on the cart with eric, setting off i said eric, who is funding, i know no banks because of the recession, the great recession have touched a golf course. nobody is funding any kind of golf construction. it's dead in the water the last four or five years and this is what he said. we don't rely on american banks. we have all the funding we need out of russia. i said really? he said yes, we have guys that really love golf and are really invested in our programs. we go there all the time. >> after that interview in may, eric trump denied those comments calling them categorically untrue. he said we have zero ties to russian investors but that

journalist stands by the story. mueller is examining a broad range. seems like trump golf wouldn't be the worst place to start. watch this space. >> golf is dog reing really wel. i tell you what, golf -- we're very high-end golf. rodney. bowling. classic. can i help you? it's me. jamie. i'm not good with names. celeste! i trained you. we share a locker. -moose man! -yo. he gets two name your price tools. he gets two? i literally coined the phrase, "we give you coverage options based on your budget." -that's me. -jamie! -yeah. -you're back from italy. [ both smooch ] ciao bella.

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trump lawyer arranged $130,000 payment for adult film star's silence. trump lawyer used private company to pay porn star stormy daniels. the president and porn star, enough to make a stockbroker blush. but that is just the way the news is these days, especially when it comes to covering the current president of the united states and today the wall street journal dropped another explosive but important report, this time about another person in the orbit about his sexual misconduct. that person is steve wnguyen known for 3wibuilding some of t most iconic buildings on the new york strip. there the sheer magnitude of reporting. wall streert journal t journal reached out to 150 people that worked or work for steve nguyen. dozens of people told of

behavior that cumulatively amount to a decade's long misconduct by mr. wynn like suggeignificant suggestive comments by demandsw incident outlined by the wall street journal he summoned a man curist to his office and demanded she have sex with him until he did. it later says he settled with her for $7.5 million. it alleges he exposed himself to a massage therapist that worked for one of his spas before demanding a sex act be performed by her. wynn resorts said they never fielded any complaints about him on the company's anonymous hot line.

nonetheless, his casino company's shares tanked. the market dropped by over $2 million. now they have opened a review of wynn resorts. it has widespread political implications. he's already a famous billionaire and one-time rival turned fred to the president but also the financial chair for the republican party and he was a bit of a weird pick for the rnc. he's made donations to democratic and republican organizations. now he's a prolific republican donor. he donated $833,000 to joint fund-raising committees. and he's supposed to lead the fund-raising the fall.

they have a razor thin lead. but the rnc has yet to comment on the allegations made against the finance chair. and the big winter meeting is next week. so is steve wynn still invited? is he still in charge of racing the cash he's going to need. not to mention his home state senator is up for reelection this year. democrats think they can flip his seat. steve wynn and his wife have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign. what happens if steve wynn is pushed out of power. joining us now is the daily beast white house reporter. who's writing about the rnc staying silent on the allegations. as of now they have not commented on the allegations?

no one at the rnc. >> as far as i know unless nbc or msnbc has some statement i do not. we've been trying to get this out of them all day. as far as i know they have not commented on this. which would be at least a little bit less conspicuous than it is now if they hadn't gone all in after the immediate aftermath of the harvey weinstein allegations and hitting the democrats and the dnc, as they should have, for the harvey weinstein money they've gotten over the years. now harvey weinstein donated significantly less to the dnc than steve wynn did to the rnc. so it stands to reason if, this is a gigantic if the republican party and rnc wanted to be ethic

cli consistent here they would come out with a statement this is beyond the peal fael for us,e allegations and we would like to sever our relationship with steve wb wynn and give back the money he has lavished on us and our campaigns. >> just in 2016 he gave over $1.2 million. just also by way of contrast, john ross was tweeting earlier today he's given about $200,000 in the past to the nevada democratic party in the past. so that giving pails in comparison. let's talk about dean heller because i would presume he's a very big recipient of that money. how much of a relationship is there and how much pressure do you think dean heller is going to come under to move away from steve wynn or sever the days. >> i don't know the numbers in front of me, but the republicans and there are many, steve wynn

is the finance chair of the rnc, that's no small thing. that's a much bigger role in the republican party than harvey weinstein had in the democratic party. but those who have personal ties to steve wynn, including the current president, should be asked and have their feet held to the fire regarding their ties to this guy. if their position is these are just sexual misconduct allegations and we don't need to sever ties or give back money until all of this plays out in a legal setting. that begs the question why didn't you treat the democrats and harvey weinstein with the same benefit of the doubt. it seems as if the gop is acting sin cli here and does not actually care about sexual abuse of women. >> the president of the united states and the head of the republican party does happen to

have quite a few allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against him. maybe that's part of the problem. thank you very much. >> thank you so much for having me. one more story to get to tonight about a curse one democrat mccabe may be hoping to break. stay with us. (engine starting up) ...when it can get by on looks alone? why create something that stands out, when everyone expects you to fit in? it's simple. you can build a car, or you can build a cadillac. come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac cts. get this low-mileage lease on this 2018 cadillac cts from around $469 per month. visit your local cadillac dealer.

we have just heard the president of the united states address our nation. and by the way, mr. president, happy birthday tonight. >> got to love an info meshl.

that was then arkansas governor bill clinton talking about ronald reagan's state of the union. in 2009 it was then rising star bobby gen bobby jindal. >> good evening and happy mardy grass. >> in 2013 it was marco rubio. with his own version of bottle of watergate. so be chosen to give the state of the union can be difficult. but on tuesday, the democrat response will be delivered by someone whose name might ring a bell, representative joseph kennedy the third. his great uncles were president

john f. kennedy and senator ted kennedy. his grandfather was robert f. kennedy. at the time he was one of the great hopes of the nation. bobby kennedy was killed two months and two days after dr. martin luther king jr. so sending him to do the response on tuesday could harken back to 1968 when everything seemed possible. so can this kennedy harness that and break the state of the union reply? now it's time for "last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening. >> i will see you tomorrow on your show. >> absolutely. >> i enjoyed hearing you speak with so much authority about 1968 when you were not alive. but i know where you got that. i