rather a fireside discussion of politics on a college campus. that's going to wrap it up for our broadcast on a friday night and after this long week, thank you so much for being here with us. have a great weekend and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. so earlier this month, just a couple of days into the new year, a very odd and dramatic thing happened in washington, d.c. the deputy attorney general of the united states, rod rosenstein, basically the supervisor of the special counsel in charge of the russia investigation and the fbi director, chris wray, made an unannounced visit to capitol hill. reporters there spotted rosenstein entering paul ryan's office and ryan's spokesperson confirmed the deputy attorney general and the fbi director had requested the meeting. and what made this unannounced meeting particularly dramatic was that at that moment the justice department was in the middle of this really big ugly fight with a group of house

republicans. a group led by this guy, devon nunes, a california republican and chair of the house intelligence committee. he was a member of the trump transition team. he's been leading the most aggressive efforts in congress to try and undercut the mueller investigation. and to try to create alternative scandals that the white house likes better. for months nunes has been issuing subpoenas to the justice department demanding that they turn over documents related to the ongoing russia investigation. and for months the justice department has been pushing back, telling nunes that turning over that information would jeopardize an active counterintelligence investigation. undeterred by those warnings from the d.o.j., last month health insurance republicans began moving to hold rosenstein and wray in contempt of congress. and so on january 3rd when rosenstein and wray showed up at paul ryan's office, they were

there to ask for house speaker paul ryan's help, hoping paul ryan would get devon nunes to back off. they did not get paul ryan's help. instead speaker ryan sided with devon nunes and he announced the d.o.j. had agreed to provide access to everything he had requested. the compromise appeared to be the documents would not be handed offer to nunes. instead the chairman and a handful of designated people from the house intelligence committee would go into a secure room at the d.o.j. to review them. but there was one document that the d.o.j. deemed so sensitive chris wray opted to personally show it to nunes himself and apparently what nunes then proceeded to do was to take in all of those classified documents about an ongoing counterintelligence investigation and turn around and put that information into a set of talking point, a memo, laying out a supposed conspiracy

inside the fbi and inside the justice department to undermine the trump campaign and the trump presidency. now, if you've been watching or listening to or reading any right-wing media over the pa week you know this is all anyone on the right has been talking or tweeting about, the secret memo that will bring down the whole russia investigation, reveal the conspiracy at the heart of justice department and blow up the deep state. republicans voted last week to make that talking points memo available to the entire house. now they're poised to vote to release it publicly. the justice department this week called that plan, quote, extraordinarily 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 devon 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 speaker's only message to the department was that it needed to comply 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 siding with nunes again. but there's one other person who got access to all those classified documents under the deal the justice department struck with nunes and 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 its talking point memo was limited to the chairman or designee, that's nunes, ranking member, that's schiff and appropriate staff. the majority doesn't dispute this but makes the absurd claim that after reviewing the materials, the agreement did not preclude them from sharing it with any other members of congress. if that was true, there was no point to limiting access to the

materials in the first place. it is in clear violation to its commitment to the justice department. the trump justice department is allied with house democrats in a fight against house republicans. and this fight and all the hyperventilating on the right about this memo, all of this may just feel like background noise given all of the other things that are broken in the russia story in just the past 24 hours let alone the past week. but here's one reason why this may be really important. we are still in the midst of the fallout from the bombshell the "new york times" report that the president gave the order to five special counsel robert mueller in june and on baksd ocked off because the white house counsel threatened to quit rather than carry out that order. that has been confirmed by nbc husba news and other outfits that trump describes as fake news. mueller is not the on person trump considered firing. according to the "times,"

another option that trump considered with his advisers was dismissing the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, and he's said to 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 withbeen on a mission to discredit fbi and justice department official who is 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 wass reports that trump, quote, pressed senior aides last june to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior fbi officials after learning those specific officials were likely to be witnesses again him as part of special counsel robert mueller's

investigation. we don't know exactly what is in this memo nunes put together but betsy woodruff and ackerman at the "daily beast" said, it controversial republican memo specifically names fbi direct -- they are likely to face even more criticism from the right over their development in fbi intelligence work. so comey's gone, mccabe is on his way out. he's be retired at the ripe old age of 49.rosenstein? is it his time in the barrel next? what if it's not mueller he's after? >> listening to republican members talk about a coup and talk about criminal activity in

the fbi, that will encourage the president to think he can fire mueller with impunity or perhaps even more pernicious from my point of view, fire rod rosenstein, put in place someone who will tell bob mueller private live you c privately you cannot look into these issues, you cannot follow the money. >> congressman adam shift on this program last month saying it would be even more pernicious to fire rod rosenstein than to fire bob mueller? is that true? what would happen if trump did it anyway? joins us now is the man who helped write the rules that allowed for the appointment for special counsel like robert mueller. he has a new op-ed "yes, he can fire robert mueller but a normal

president would know not to try it." you wrote a couple of points in this op-ed. "many wish for legal restrictions that would block trump from firing mueller but rules can only do so much. institutions are often what matters. our system depends on separation of powers and character and determination and right now both of those are lacking. which of those did you have in mind? >> i definitely have in mind the president. 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 the 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's an open investigation by mueller of trump for obstruction of justice for firing comey, for demanding the loyalty of everyone around him, seems to be incapable of telling the truth when it comes to russia, 19 separate lies about who was meeting with the russians and the like. so you've got the elements of cover up. that's what people have been talking about today. there's a second thing, a non-legal aspect to this, which i think is even more important and that is does this person have the character, to pick up the word of the op-ed, to be the president of the united states. trump was asked about whether he was thinking of firing mueller in august of 2017 and he said he, quote, hadn't given it any thought, and he sent his lawyer out 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 a president would say those things two months earlier, i can't imagine

a lawyer to the president who is bound by all sorts of ethical rules and so on would say that and not at least correct the record later on. there is a very severe credibility problem with the president whenever russia comes up. just think about it, if we knew all of this stuff before, you've been talking about the devon nunes antics and this memo and so on. if we knew all of this stuff over the last seven months, the last seven months have been a debate that mupresident started about mueller being biased. >> bin order for a president to be held accountable, and we're going to get in a moment to whether or not he can be held legally accountable but on the political side, the constitution provides impeachment but we already know the speaker of the house has sided not once but

twice with devon nunes who is 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 attempted to restrain devon nunes or impede what he's doing. he's given him an open door which could result in sensitive information being sent to the whole house for political use. how then can we have confidence that it can be the end of the tr trump administration. would republicans ever hold him accountable? >> i mean,or right. if you just you just look at the past year and what republicans in congress have been doing, james madison wouldn't be proud, nor would ronald reagan. there is allegation of very serious wrong doing bit the president and campaign, there have been guilty pleas around this and so on and yet they ask like ostriches. i think they are partially to blame for this but i hold out hope 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. >> and very quickly, you also write there is a concern that rather than just firing mueller outright that donald trump could essentially fire rod rosenstein and put an assistant attorney general in place who would slow walk and bleed the mueller investigation. how concerned are you that that could happen? >> well, i am concerned. i think this administration and this president tries to do anything possible to undermine the rule of law wherever he can and if that's putting different appointees in place, that may be it. yes, we've been blaming republicans but there's one republican tonight i don't think we should be blaming and that is rod rosenstein, who has been appointed by republican presidents, including by this president. 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 to rosenstein. >> thank you very much for your time tonight. >> let's bring in senator cory booker, a member of the judiciary committee and he's co-sponsored a bipartisan bill to protect special counsel robert mueller from being fired by the president. >> it's so good to be with you. thank you. >> let's start with 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 from what they are now? >> as alluded to earlier in your segment, right now the president of the united states can order the justice department to do the firing, there's no real check and balance. it supposed to be fired only for cause but the arbiter of who that cause is really comes back to the president of the united states and we have a real making

of a constitutional crisis, that a president of the united states could have had people in his inner circle -- we know it would blow up norms and undermine our democracy. so our bill says let's create a check and balance of that power by letting a judiciary committee, once a president or a supreme court or judges can give a review as to whether that action was indeed for cause or unfortunately potentially just for political purposes. >> and just four -- the legislation proposed by yourself says the special counsel independent protections act -- a spouns may be removed only after a course has issued an order finding misconduct, dare election of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest or other

cause. most people believed that he quit his golf club, that he had been considered for a job at the fbi. are you concerned under current law, jump could use those allegations to push mueller out. >> looking at the pattern of behavior, the firing of comey, his intimidation of jeff sessions and speaking of not wanting to hire him because of his recusal, his authoritarian tendencies, the way he do i with is very reminiscent and talking about arresting them and conflicting them. this is someone who time and i'm again is showing atore tearian-like tendencies. they make me very concerned that he could not only blow up norms

but launch us into a constitutional crisis. >> and what would the senate do if rather than firing mueller, donald trump was to use what was called the death by a thousand cuts strategy. essentially firing rod rosenstein and putting into place a deputy attorney general who would say you can't look into those areas because they're financial. you can't have that budget allocation and essentially squeeze the investigation through the superadvisory power of the deputy attorney general? >> well, i'm and remember chuck grassley granted our bill a hearing that you see senators on both sides of the i'll being concerned about this trump behavior and trying to do rational, prudent things should that eventuality come to be. i'm concerned about the example that you give, as well as the

longstanding effort now trying to undermine the integrity of this investigation and the integrity of robert mueller themselves, there seems to be an assault on the process as opposed to letting the process take its course. we know many facts right now. the russians have tried to undermine what is most sack tsa about our democracy. we know that 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 so we can prevent this from happening in the future. this president should be allowing this investigation to continue, staying away from it and waiting. if he just let the investigation proceed and be interviewed by the investigators as well. >> we've seen some incredibly partisan behavior on the part of

those like devon nunes. are you confident they'll stand with you -- >> let's prevent a constitutional crisis from happening to come to the bear within our republic. it would be a disaster should donald trump do this and we know he has these inclinations. you hear all the time talking about thank god there are adults in the room, whether it's secretary mattis, the white house counsel stopping this president from doing things that most people agree would be disastrous. that should give us all cause for alarm that we have a president so willing to tramp upon democratic principles, ideals swens the rule of law and democratic norms. so we are in perilous times, in my opinion, and we need to put the checks and balances in place to reserve and make sure we don't get to those disaster

moments. >> senator cory booker. back in the day breaking news was handled a little bit differently. if you wanted to get someone on the phone, you had to literally pick up the phone and call them on national television. . this was one of the most "connick breaking news stories in history. can a sitting president of the united states be indicted? that's next. why make something this intelligent... (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.

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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 head line "cox defiant." i do want to say i don't feel defiant. >> good evening. the country is in the midst of

firing the special watergate prosecutor cox. because of the president's action, the attorney general resigned. elliott richardson, who was appointed attorney general, 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 watergate investigation, archibald cox. this was the front page of the "new york times", nixon discharges cox for defiance, abolishes 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 new boss. his name was leon jaworski. he did not want the job but before he would take it, he made sure what happened to archibald cox would not happen to him. >> jaworski accepted the prosecutor's job reluctantly after the white house assured him he would have complete freedom and said he's confident he's not suffering the same fate. >> i am not anticipating a disagreement will be reached. on the other hand one of the matters i searched for and

wanted was complete independence in this undertaking. >> put a pin in complete independence. that was leon jaworski's condition taking the job and once he got it, he got to work. he inherited the team and evidence they put together. after looking at the evidence stacked up against the president, leon started asking questions, like 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 one that's all the more relevant now that the obstruction of justice inquiry into the current president is reaching 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 nick ackerman under archibald 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 starr writes a memo in 1998 in which he said it is proper and legal for a grand jury to indict for not official duties 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?

>> except the justice department recommends indicts. 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 having to sit through a criminal trial and that it should wait until he finishes his term of office or is impeached. that's the practical issue. 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. so 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? >> then 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 u.s. v. 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 of interest, i don't think the

supreme court wouldn't apply that to a case where someone is so blatantly misusing the -- >> >> wait a minute. are you saying that donald trump could be prevented 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 pardon 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 in nixon was 9-0 forcing

him to turn over 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. and had twin boys. but then one night, a truck didn't stop. but thanks to our forester, neither did our story. and that's why we'll always drive a subaru. no one burns on heartburn. my watch! try alka seltzer ultra strength heartburn relief chews. with more acid-fighting power than tums chewy bites. mmmmm...amazing. i have heartburn. ultra strength from alka seltzer. enjoy the relief.

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>> golf is doing really well. i tell you what. golf at the end, we're very 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" bla

blockbuster, the paper reports that trump ordered mule are fired last year. so, what are we gonna do?

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in 2012 during an interview with latvian tv, donald trump jr. bragged that 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 during the campaign, candidate trump said he paid in straight cash. >> the hotel, i didn't even put a mortgage on. no debt, no financing. no anything. i wanted to do that with

turnberry. 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 japs james dotson recounted 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. he said, well, we don't rely on american banks. we have all the funding we need out of russia. i said really? he said, oh, yeah, we have some guys that really, really love golf and they're 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 his story. we know mueller is examining a

broad range of his businesses. watch this space. seems like trump golf wouldn't be the worst place to start. >> golf is doing really well. i tell you what, golf -- we're very high-end golf. i think we! make a u-turn... u-turn? recalculating... man, we are never gonna breed. just give it a second. you will arrive in 92 days. nah, nuh-uh. nope, nope, nope. you know who i'm gonna follow? my instincts. as long as gps can still get you lost, you can count on geico saving folks money. i'm breeding, man. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. this is food made to sit down for. slow down for. put the phone away, and use a knife and fork for. and with panera catering, it's food worth sharing. panera. food as it should be.

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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 president's orbit concerning allegations made by the president about his sexual misconduct. that person is steve wynn, known for building some of the most iconic buildings on the new york strip. there the sheer magnitude of reporting. wall street journal reporters reached out to 150 people that worked or work for steve wynn. dozens of people told of behavior that cumulatively amount to a decade's long

misconduct by mr. wynn like suggest uf comments -- suggestive comments and demands including very vulnerable people in very run valuable jobs. "the wall street journal" also reports that steve wynn exposed himself to a massage therapist in one of his spas before he instructed her to perform a sex act on him. and wynn resorts said they have never fielded any complaints about steve wynn on the company's anonymous hotline. nevertheless, after that report was published this morning, wynn's casino company shares tanked. the market value of wynn's resorts dropped by over $2

billion. now the massachusetts gaming regulator has opened a review of wynn resorts. so this is a pretty big, fast-moving news story in the business world but it also has widespread political organizations. steve wynn is a one-time rival-turned friend to the current president. but he also the finance chair for the party. he was a bit of a weird pick for the rnc, making donations to republican and democratics. he's supposed to lead the fund-raising for house and senate candidates for republican elections in the fall. right now they have only a razor thin majority in the senate and are facing the threat of a major blue wave according to pos but

t -- polls but the rnc has yet to comment and their big meeting is taking police next week in washington, d.c. is the rnc going to keep steve wynn in charge of all that cash they're going to need for house and senate candidates. not to mean that dean heller is up for reelection this year and he's one of senate's most vulnerable republicans right now. steve wynn and his wife have donated tens of thousands of dollars to dean hiller over the years. joining us now is the "daily beast" white house reporter who is writing about the rnc staying silent on the wynn allegations. >> they haven't commented?

>> as far as i know. and we have been trying to get this out of them all day now. >> 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 ethically consistent here they would come out with a statement this is beyond the pale for us, these allegations and we would like to sever our relationship with steve 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. -- his ties? >> i don't have 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 republicans 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 cynically 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 may be hoping to break. stay with us. 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.

and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost. boost high protein nutritional drink has 15 grams of protein to help maintain muscle and 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d. boost high protein be up for it 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 infomercial. that was then arkansas governor bill clinton hosting the democratic response to president reagan's state of the union. it's right up there with some of the most famous or infamous state of the unions of all time. in 2009 it was then rising star bobby jindal.

>> good evening and happy mardy gras. >> in 2013 it was marco rubio. with his own version of bottle of watergate. so be chosen to give the state of the union response can put a damper on stardom. but on tuesday, the democrat response will be delivered by someone whose name might ring a bell, representative joseph kennedy the third. the three-term congressman from massachusetts. 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 think you read a -- >> i read an amazing book about it by somebody you might know. his name rhymes with lawrence o'donnell. >> you can still find it but you have to climb over the piles of michael wolff's book. we have michael wolff here with us tonight.