a call for congress tols investigate allegations against the president timed to the state of the union now just two hours away. as for our special coverage it, continues with msnbc all night. the special coverage starts at 8:00 p.m. i'll be part of that fact checking the speech afterwards. more importantly right now it's "hardball" with chris matthews. the state of the dysunion. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york. we're two hours from president trump's first official state of the union speech. the message will be about national unity he said tonight "unity is the what i'm stliving for to bring the country together." it is the president who obviously has done more to divide the country than just about anyone and he and his rallies are smoking resentment against the fbi and justice

department. the white house pressured the white house to fire his fbi director. trump verbally berated mccabe last summer and mocked his wife for losing a state election in virginia. bloomberg reports john kelly has told junior justice officials is the president is unhappy with that department. according to "the washington post" trump flaind complained about not being able to give orders to people at the justice department who obviously he calls my guys. then there was the decision yesterday by republicans on the house intelligence committee to release a politically charged memo that is meant to raise doubts about the people investigating the trump's campaign possible collusion with russia put together by devin nunes who obviously has spent the past year acting like a paid employee of the president. the justice department sent a letter to nunes calling the release extraordinarily reckless and said the department is the unaware of any wrongdoing related to the fisa process, one

of the central claims of that memo. republicans and democrats today were sharply divided on his committee's decision to release that memo. let's watch that. >> this has been his mission, protect the white house, throw up distractions. the fundamental problem remains, and that is he is a proxy for the white house. you can't run a credible investigation that way. >> i read the memo. i believe it should be released, yes. >> why do you think republicans released the memo from the committee? what was the purpose of it? >> i don't know. i don't know if this is some kind of sick game. >> i think nothing would be better, harris, than if the president of the united states tonight walked down the hallway right behind me, stood on the floor of the house of representatives and handed to our speaker paul ryan his consent to the release the memo. i just think it would be classic trump to do it during the state of the union tonighton kick things off. >> wow. joined by joy reid host of "am joy" on weekends, heidi

przybilla, nbc news correspondent. that's so great. former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele. thank you, sir. i'm going to start with joy and work to michael. joy, it seems they're impeaching the impeachers, they no longer defend trump, don't defend him on possible collusion which looks real and possible obstruction which looks very real. they've said we can't play defense anymore. so let's attack the impeachers. >> it's extraordinary to watch the republican party, the sort of self-described party of law and order, the party of blue lives matter literally decide that they are than investigate russian interference in the election, rather than pay attention to the potential that the president of the united states obstructed justice even if he's their own party, they've decided to wage war on federal law enforcement. it's pretty extraordinary. if you're in black lives matter today you have to think this is interesting. when people said police police

officers, don't kill us, they said you hate law enforcement. now you've got the republican party sitting inside the house of representatives and waging war on federal law enforcement just to protect donald trump. >> there are white collar criminals in prison. they have a little group. that doesn't mean they won't be joined by some of this crowd. heidi, it seems like we can't defend this president on facts. it's all about crushing mccabe, crushing rosenstein, crushing sessions. of course, already having crushed comey. >> there are two options, one is as you achtly named it last night, the slow rolling saturdays, slow motion saturday night massacre where the president is trying to actually go after and fire, push out anybody who can provide a check on his power and take over this investigation. that's one option. the other option, equally serious and more likely is that he is just trying to discredit whatever mueller comes out with,

there is now an insurance policy that at least 30% of the american people who obviously are the dyed in the wool supporters will disbelieve the facts that are put before them. and that is what is happening with trying to discredit mueller, mccabe, possibly now rosenstein. >> let me go to michael. michael and i sherry know a reverence for this country and its institutions. we are proud of them. we're proud of our free press. be pains in the butt but we're proud of them because sometimes we're the pains, at least i am. we're proud of an independent judiciary and the united states accepts its the membership among nations since the days of franklin roosevelt. we protect little countries like kuwait. we believe countries have rights to sovereignty. and all this stuff is being attacked by this new president who obviously i don't think he's actually a republican. he's playing the part. he comes in there and goes after the institutions which have been carved out since 200, 300 years out. hard cultural development.

it isn't just writing it down in the declaration of independence or constitution. you have to realize what is independence is and believe there is an independent judiciary and believe in these things. he's dumping all over them like they're jump. he doesn't have any respect, this president for any institution that i can tell or anybody who obviously has a position in one. >> no, i mean, there's no allegiance for loyalty to them because he does not fundamentally believe in them as per se entities. the justice department, fbi, the state department, cia, we've seen how he's responded to the each of these institutions over time. and i think fundamentally it goes to this idea that was lifted up by steve bannon backdooring the transition about the deconstruction of the administrate stiv state. everyone always thought this was the card that bannon was carrying and in fact, it's not. it is fundamentally the philosophy of the president of the united states. he shows it by his arrogance and

his lack of concern about the impact his arrogance and his actions has with respect to the men and women who obviously serve in these institutions. they're not -- for him the loyalty brand is a one-way street. he expects the fealty and loyalty to him and when people carry out their jobs that may be in contravention of that, you see how it plays out, chris. >> you know, joy, with all his ugliness about third world countries, he shows some of the attitude of say a third world dictator who obviously just laughs at institutions. if i got an opponent, an opposing tribe i'll just get rid of that guy. just have him arrested or beat him up in the street. his attitude is i have the power. >> that's right. an oughtcratic regimes we normally send election monitors to, their attitudes towards someone who obviously runs against them is lock them up. >> or ginn up a phony crime.

>> their attitude towards law enforcement are you can't tush me. i work for me. their attitude toward the legislators is you work for me. donald trump has all of those attitudes. >> he's right in the case of devin nunes. >> i was just going to say. >> he biebs like he's paid him. >> go beyond that. paul ryan. >> why is ryan doing thering? somebody, a lawyer friend of mine bugged me on the other day. we all have people that call us. he said how come you let charlie dent off the hook because charlie is a moderate republican. why don't you say to charlie how come can you let this guy ryan let nunes run around with his memos? >> because paul ryan it appears either is a lackey and a flunky just like devin nunes is or paul ryan is so invested in what he can get from the donald trump. remember, donald trump is the person who obviously sells the base on paul ryan's agenda. paul ryan wants those tax cuts for the rich. paul ryan wants donald trump's

right hand with a pen in it and doesn't care. >> i mean, we know -- i worked for one of these speakers in the house. it's a constitutional office. it's a greater office than senate majority leader in the line of success. there's there because the founding fathers wanted it there. to think you work for the president? >> as you he's afraid. they've gotten the big prize. they've gotten the tax cuts through. now it's about short-term political survival. he's afraid this president will turn on the republicans who obviously are standing there in the rose garden with him on a dime if they start to go against him. and this next election. >> the lion's club, the rotary club, the chamber of commerce, all the burgers back home are thrilled because they got a big tax break. >> and the members of congress. >> they've been paid. therefore, somehow the speaker of the house has somehow done his duty as a steward of their interests.

therefore, they'll put up with trump and nunes and the rest of this. >> it's not even that. they're afraid he will cannibalize him. that they will go down with him in the next election. >> you have to remember the republican party at the base level, there's a shrinking pool of people who obviously call themselves republicans. what's left, seven in ten of them believe trump is a good role model for their children. >> whose terrible poll was that? >> quinnipiac university. >> it's not the minnesota multifamultfacic test. >> the republicans understand it's his party. we're moving in the direction where you have a coequal branch after government that has subordinated itself. >> if you think of your 7-year-old or 10-year-old and your parents say be like donald trump. don't button your coat, stick your stomach out, have your tie

eight feet long and walk around like you own the world. is that what you're supposed to act like? what do they mean by that role modelling? >> what they mean is the thing that got him elected ultimately that had such a cross section of americans that we thought certainly communities of americans we thought would never support the president from african-americans to hispanics to women. and what that was was his fight, his moxy, his willingness to go and shake the system by its throat. that still resonates for a lot of voters out there across the country. and to paul ryan and to mitch mcconnell and others, they hear it every weekend when they go home. they are tethered to him because they're tethers to him by their base. those base republicans who obviously remind them you got to help the president carry out the things he says he's going to do. >> let's go through the smell test tonight. the president will say tonight he's extending an open hand to work with democrats. according to his advisers and he

today at lunch his message today will be about unity. let's watch. >> what should we expect toochbtd from your standpoint? >> a lot of reports i think have been accurate. you'll see a very upbeat very positive speech. he is going to start to reach across the aisle a little bit. we'll talk about the successes we've had in the past year. >> wants the american people to understand he's for them. he wants to uplift all americans and show these he supports them. it will be one of those speeches when it's done, people are going to be proud to be part of this american country. >> and can the president play the role of a conciliator after a year of actions he's mocked democrats who obviously are weak on crime, bullied critics and the media, engaged in twitter fights with football players and rappers. he's some of what he said in the last month alone mr. uniter, here he is. >> the libel laws are weak in this country. if they were strong, you

wouldn't have things like that happen where you can say whatever happens to your head. sloppy steve is looking for a job. everything i do is 100% proper. welcome back to the studio. nice to have you. >> when they have no collusion and nobody's found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you'd even vin an interview. >> i'm not a racist. i am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. >> i really believe the democrats want to shutdown to get off subject of the tax cuts because they've worked so well. >> are you going to talk to mueller? >> i'm looking forward to it actually. >> mr. president -- >> why did you fire robert muwa robert mueller. >> fake news. >> i think i shake things up. the country had to be shaken up. >> as you said stable genius, your words. >> i am a stable genius. >> i watched him come to the presidency telling the crowds to basically beat up the protesters. wasn't it great when the cops

used to bang your head. why don't they bang your head on the roof of the car when they put them in the car. his whole thing is about bullying and getting the little guy, the weak person in the room when they know the protests are are outnumbered. it's always about playing your strength against the little guy. now he says he's mr. conciliatory. >> i'll give you a little vignette how democrats feel about that will little token of friendship that he's going to extend tonight. pelosi was in a meeting today and she said look, if you don't have anything nice to say are you going to yell out, you think you can't contain yourself, don't comment. that's how so many democrats feel tonight and chuck schumer is already on the record within the past few weeks saying that he just doesn't feel like he can deal with him anymore. he's not an honest broker. the dance that was done on than daca deal and the humiliation of democrats coming down the road to the white house thinking they

had a deal and then having tom cotton show up there and. >> perdue. >> and slam the door in their face, the faith is gone. that's a really bad thing, chris. because a lot of republicans feel like they need the president in order to give them cover to cut some kind of a deal. so i don't think that's going to -- >> nancy would hold the football up? it isn't going to be. >> and donald trump does want unity. he wants everyone in the united states including democrats, congress, media, you, me, everyone else to line up behind him as if he is the absolute ruler of the united states and give him absolutely no opposition. that's the kinds of unity he believes in. >> he has the right and privilege and humanity to the change everything about himself tomorrow but he's not going to do it. >> michael, last thought to you. this brig a doon tonight, this once a year thing where everybody comes out and dances together, i don't think it's a good sign of things to come.

>> this will be a tough speech for a lot of people in the country because of how this all has been set up. we've seen and heard one thing. the president is going to say something else. for a lot of people it's not going to be believable or credible. and for one real central reason. joy touched on it and you did, too. tomorrow morning will be another day. there will be another tweet. and there will be another moment for trump to further his particular interests as opposed to the interests of the country. >> i think it was scarlet o'hara who obviously said that first, tomorrow is another day. thank you joy, heidi. we don't usually quote scarlet o'hara. thank you heidi pris billla, a member of our team now and michael steele. thank you, sir. coming up, trump's slow motion saturday night massacre. first trump, then comey. then he ordered mueller fired. yesterday, he ran comey's deputy out. now the knives are out for rosenstein. there's a clear pattern just like nixon. trump and his allies are

knocking off the key players notice russian probe. is this the way to act if you're innocent in the if you're innocent, why are you doing this? plus the democratic response tonight. how should the party respond to the most lowest rated president. recent history. one answer is a kennedy. tonight's all-star roundtable takes on the three-ring circus trump will brag about, the economy and delight in attacking critics. will he say the word russia tonight or how about this, will he say the word elephant like elephant in the room? we'll talk about that because this is an existential threat to his presidency. finally tonight trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is.

go away. i fully expect the russians will continue to be at it. >> do you have concerns they might try and interfere in the

"uss midterms coming up? >> of course. i have every expectation they'll continue to try and do that. i'm confident america will be able to have a free and fair election. that we'll push back in a way sufficiently robust that the impact they have won't be great. >> welcome back. that was cia director mike pompeo in al interview with the bbc saying he expects russia to continue its influence campaign in an attempt to disrupt the midterm elections here in the united states. his warning comes as members of his party continue to discredit the special counsel's probe and law enforcement institutions looking into the russian involvement in the 2016 elections. the republican majority of the house intelligence committee, for example, leads by devin nunes is pushing the release of a memo which alleges anti-trump bias at the .and justice department in an effort to the provide cover obviously to the president. who obviously is under investigation for obstruction of justice. the memo reportedly spells danger for rod rosenstein who

obviously oversees the special counsel. the president could use the memo as grounds for either firing or forcing rosenstein to leave and now the president has a five-day period to ultimately decide whether the nunes memo will become public. today house speaker paul ryan backed those seeking to release the memo but insisted it has nothing to do with the mueller investigation. >> this is a completely separate matter from bob mueller's investigation. and his investigation should be allowed to take its course. there may have been malfeasance at the fbi by certain individuals. so it is our gualob conducting transparent oversight of the executive branch to get to the bottom of that. >> there's been some reporting the president wants to fire deputy ag rod rosenstein. do you think that would be a wise decision. >> i think rod rosenstein is doing a fine job. i have no reason to see why he should do that. >> joining me is eli stokols and joyce vance former u.s. attorney. this, i see this whole thing as

an attempt to sort of impeach the impeachers, eli. anything they can do. first the guy sending his love notes to somebody else at the fbi and now this thing about fisa approval. it seems they're looking for anything they can to chip away at the credibility and integrity of this investigation so when they come out with something whenever they do, it will be impeached already. >> it's obvious ha that is what they are doing. paul ryan doesn't want to fully see that and basically saying today, yes, let the mueller investigation proceed. don't mess with it. let rosenstein stay. he's also defending the release of nunes releasing this memo under the explanation is transparency. he's not allowing the democratic memo to come out, the minority report to come out. he's basically doing that, allowing the memo to come out knowing the whole point it's not happening in a vacuum being of it's being done to undermine the investigation. >> your thoughts about that, joyce. in terms of prosecution.

i do not understand why they find these little problems, somebody having a romance with somebody on e-mail at the fbi involved maybe dumping on all kinds of politicians and they isolate the pro-hillary point of view and get this guy getting his fisa approved to investigate what carter page was doing. at the same time they say carter page had a small part to do with anything in the trump campaign and say any surveillance of him means the whole investigation of the russian operation is somehow tainted. it doesn't make sense. >> it doesn't make any sense at all but there's an old piece of advice given to lawyers. when the facts are on your sound, pound the facts. when the law is on your side, pound the law. when neither is on the side is, pound the table. trump is evolving that strategy and pounding the prosecution. and that's really i think the best view of what this memo is. it's not just at effort i think to, as you say, impeach the

impeachers. it's also an effort to give trump a defensive strategy so he can now say i wasn't obstructing justice when i attacked the fbi, when i fired jim comey, when i took action against andy mccabe. what i was doing was pushing back against a corrupt ineffective fbi and he'll try to use the memo in essence to protect himself from those obstruction charges people believe that special counsel mueller is investigating. > what's the legal foundation for that kind of a claim? is that exculptory for him saying i was trying to defend myself against what i thought was a corrupt prosecution? does that have standing in the law? >>. >> trump's efforts to make himself look less guilty seem to be aimed more towards the court of public opinion than towards a jury. all of this seems to be posturing for public opinion so that he can convince people if mueller does move against him or

even if he's an unindicted co-conspirator in some form of legal indictment that he really isn't guilty, that it's the fbi they're out to get him. in terms of legal standing, really the evidence here is just the evidence. mueller if he were to can choose to inindict the president would put that in and a jury would listen to it. it's pretty compelling. > "the daily beast" is reporting tonight the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee devin nunes refused to answer when a colleague asked him if he coordinated his surveillance memo with the white house. that's according to sources familiar with the -- what do you make of that. >> we remember the midnight ride when he went down to the office building close to the white house and picked up useful information and comes back the next day and takes it to the white house next door and acts like he's not acting as a courier and he was. >> he had to recuse himself as a result of that. this is a guy who was part of the trump transition and has acted basically brazenly showing

his colors, his alliance. >> he's supposed to be investigating the president and he abs like he's the president's lawyer. >> that's right. the republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee mark warner has not done this. he's acted in an impartial way and drawn a contrast with the way nunes. >> richard burr, too. >> that's right. richard burr, not warner. >> anyway. >> that's one of the reasons. you have partisan politics overtaking the entire investigation. that's why everybody is just looking at the mueller probe because the stuff coming out of the hill, those investigations are politicized and what you have is the people on the hill trying to politicize even the mueller probe. they know that's the most important thing. >> despite pompeo's warning that russia intends to meddle in the 2016 elections, the trump decided there's no need to implement the sanctions that congress passed to punish russia for their interference in 201637 the state department claims the

sanction is enough of a deterrent even though the sanctions haven't been enacted. senate minority leader chuck schumer called on trump to explain that decision in his speech tonight. >> we call on president trump in the state of the union to tell americans that he will support the sanctions 90% of america supports or tell us why he won't. any other president would have already made it their priority to take decisive action in their first year. but this president is paralyzed when it comes to putin and his cronies in russia. >> joyce, looking at this in a broader sense, this president seems to be totally undisturbed by what the russians did in 2016. he benefitted from it because their intent was to help him win the election and hillary to losen an look badly in losing. that was their goal. now he seems like he's not at

all supportive of trying to punish them or deter them from doing it again in 2018. for all the talk about traitors and treason and whatever fifth columns, it is questionable whether he seems to be on the russian side when it comes to the issue of interfering in our elections and looking like he's on their side. >> it's absolutely incredible. the sanctions legislation passed with veto proof majority. it's up to congress, frankly to, hold him accountable for his failure to uphold the law. but as to the cyber interference with the election, this is the kind of activity by russian that mandates an unprecedented all of government focus on preserving the integrity of the elections. it's stunning that we haven't seen that. maybe not stunning from this administration. but it's still something that the american people and their leaders should be demanding. we know that in 2016, russia knocked on the door. we don't think that they actually entered and interfered with vote counts. it could be a lot worse in 18 or

'20. and we're not prepared to deal with that kind of cyber emergency. >> thank you so much eli and joyce. thanks for your expertise. up next, the democratic response tonight. the party has a chance to take on a historically unpopular president. what should the party of the democrats message be? and don't miss our late night edition of "hardball" following tonight's state of the union. look at the breakdown. we'll look at the speech. my guests include rob reiner, bradley whitford of movie fame, former virginia governor terry mcauliffe, ron greggen, joy radio back tonight at midnight eastern. it's going to be a little wild. very critical i expect for president trump.

welcome back to "hardball." the president will address a divided country tonight and will face a hyper charged political atmosphere in d.c. democrats have called on joe kennedy of massachusetts, grandson of bobby kennedy and political heir to the kennedy family to deliver their party's response. the challenge for democrats more than a year after their stunning defeat in 2016 is which direction to take their party. more more i'm joined by tim ryan, democrat from ohio. tim, congressman, you are looked to by many people as the future of the democrats if they're ever going to win back ohio, wisconsin, pennsylvania, the

states that will decide the 2020 election as well as the 2016. what is the way for the democrats to win back those states? >> well, straight economic message. we need to talk to people, chris, who obviously take a shower after they get home from work, not only the people who obviously take a shower before they go to work. to me that's speaking to working class people, people who obviously are waiters and waitresses and bartenders working the building and construction trades. they need to know we're on their side. when you look at what president trump is doing, we are on their side. he's trying to take away overtime pay for waiters and waitresses. wages aren't growing as fast as they were before. we don't have the trillion dollar infrastructure bill he talked so much about during the campaign. he's throwing people off of health care, on and on. democrats are speaking to those constituencies now. >> bobby kennedy, the grandson of joe who is giving the speech, your friend joe kennedy is speaking tonight from fall river used to say things like waiters and cops and construction work

remembers my people. he wasn't speaking ethically. he meant in terms of who obviously they are and how the democrats reclaim that working class confidence and not be the elite party? how do they lose this elite image they picked up over the years from their donor class? that's who obviously i blame, the donor who's give the money to the party dictate issues they focus on all the time. and they've taken away from the work and wages issues that affect the average what used to be the democrat. >> first and foremost, you got to go there and be with those groups of people. you got to live there. when we build our coalitions over the past couple weeks and then the next couple weeks, we can find for d.r.e.a.m.ers. we should and we will. but we should have been up on that stage with our arm around a coal miner losing his pension or a truck driver who obviously would drive 6, 70 hours a week and miss family events, miss birthday parties and baseball ball games because they were on

the road. now their pension as a steamster will get cut in half. they're part of our coalition just like the young african-american kid who obviously may live in a home that has too much lead in it so they have lead poisoning and need access 0 health care or the army infantry person not sure if they're going to be able to get paid because of the government's getting shutdown. those are all of our people. if you are working hard, playing by the rules, the democratic party is going to advocate for you to have economic stability now and a pension when you retire. >> the republicans are giving people a tax cut. what are the democrats giving people? >> we should it be fighting for increased wages. this tax cut's going to be a little bit of a sugar high. of course, we'll have a buzz in the stock market for the next six months to a year. but then the burden of paying for that, the $2.2 trillion we're borrowing from china is going to go on the back of working class people to pay over the long haul. so we need to advocate for those people and say look, yeah, we're

for a $15 minimum wage. but we're not happy with a $15 minimum wage because a lot of my people back at hope, chris, they were making 40 bucks an hour and now they're making $15. we want wages that are $35, 40 bucks an hour. how do we get the wealth created in new york, in boston, in silicon valley? how do we drive that investment into ohio, wisconsin, and michigan and these great lake states to put people back to work there. it's doable but takes the public/private partnerships. i read your book and the one word that stood out with bobby kennedy that he spired me is the word imagination. he said we need to have the imagination to solve these problems and right now, is the republicans don't and the democrats we need to do a better job. we're clearly doing better than the republicans. >> u.s. congressman tim ryan of ohio. up next, the republican, actually, the roundtable will take on the three-ring circus tonight. the president will gloating about the economy and give

supporters another episode of the trump show. will he mention the elephant in the room? is he more likely to say the word elephant than russia? you're watching "hardball." ♪

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plus savings for everyone in your stateroom, when you book now. during the celebrity cruises sail beyond event. trump brings his three-ring circus to the united states capital tonight for over an hour and he will it out the economy, give supporters a taste of the trump show and all the while the cloud the russian probe looms over his first state of the union address. let's bring in tonight's "hardball" roundtable tom brokaw, nbc news senior correspondent, peggy noonan, a former political speech brighter, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "wall street journal" and jonathan capehart, the opinion writer for "the washington post." also an msnbc contributor. so perhaps in the order of peggy who obviously sits with me to start with, in all it the teasing elements that have been put out by the president in his own words, it's a unity speech

tonight. isn't it going to have a qualify of brigadoon out of nowhere we're dancing together for one night knowing tomorrow we go back to the tweets and the division? your thoughts. >> i know what you mean. i think have been good if he had spent more of his first year understanding that he had a core of support, the president and they loved him. but a core doesn't get you across the finish line. you have to build coalitions, you have to have power. you have to work things out with congress. so you have to continually keep bringing people and persuading, kind of loving them and making your case in a very kindly or distinguished and serious way. >> could you have gotten a tax cut doing that? >> oh, god, more easily with more votes. the whole thing would have worked better if he had had that attitude. his attitude instead was to use nice words, scrappy, pugilistic,

angry. you know, trump, one thing funny about trump is he has too enjoyed his role as divider. everybody who obviously runs for office is dividing in a way. they're dividing between the people i got and the people who obviously don't like me. then you win and bring everybody together. he never learned that part. he stays as the divider. his people love him. that's very nice. i don't think they're abandoning him. that said, he hasn't reached out. tonight he'll try to be persuasive in that way. it's a little bit late. we'll see how it goes. >> tom how would you judge the effectiveness of a charm offensive tonight? >> it's very hard to know. i'm never clear which donald trump will the show up tonight reading the advances of the speech. he is very conciliatory. made quite a good speech in davos the other day. simultaneously his colleagues on the hill are talking a lot about this memo that in effect, if you listen to the commentators on president trump's favorite

outlet on television, it's going to be the greatest scandal in the history of mankind. so you try to weigh that against what he is saying here tonight. whatever else we know about donald trump, he has no shortage of self-esteem. is he a man who obviously believes that he has kind of an infallibility about his decisions. and i don't think he fully understood the constraints on him as president, most powerful office in the world but he can't just raise his hands and have have whatever he wants whenever he wants it. he's played that hand out at this point. so tonight, we'll see i think a different donald trump but let's wake up tomorrow morning and see how he tweets. >> i want to go to john on there. i think tom laid it out. he has that loaded grenade in his hand handed to him by devin nunes of the intelligence committee which apparently according if you listen to hannity and the rest of them on the air and jeanine pirro, it's the biggest thing in the world. it's going to blow up this town and one of those things out of

the movies, going to blow the town wide open. he has it in his hand now. will he pull the pin tonight? >> look, i don't know. and it would be reprehensible if he pulled the pin tonight in this august of speeches that a president gives every year to the american people. look, president trump walks into the house of representatives a holloman. i've had my differences with president reagan as a child but still, president george h.w. bush. president george w. bush. but at no pointdy ever question their moral authority or whether i trusted the words coming out of their mouths leaving politics aside. i never doubted for a moment that even though i didn't agree with them politically, that they were looking out for me as an american citizen. and so reading the excerpts of the speech president trump is about to deliver, i can't trust not -- i can't trust one word

that's on those pages because of what he has done in the year since he put his hand on the bible and gave the oath of office. for me, the ultimate breaking point was his reaction to charlottesville. i think he stripped his presidency of its moral authority. how can a president of the united states say that both sides are at fault when we're talking about something as fundamental to this country as race and racism. naziism and white supremacy. so the president can mouth the words from the podium about unity and being a government of loyalty to the american people and love, but i guarantee you that more than half the country will not believe a word that he says. >> well, i want to ask one question of peggy. the old notion of show business and tom knows this you have only so much time people put up with

you. they get bored with politicians and they do on tv shows. four years is about the limit. trump seems to breaking that rule. more and more he this thinks if i get out there every day and get in front of their face it will work for me. it seems to break the old rule of too much. >> i don't know. donald trump has been topicing in american conversation since june of 2015. that's about 2 1/2 years, right? so it's been awhile. he has been the subject of obsession, et cetera. i sense that he's too much, way, way too much in everybody's face and he's starting to bore them because they get the schtick. >> we'll see. the roundtable is sticking with us. up next, they'll tell me something we should look for in tonight's state of the union. always dangerous. you're hatching "hardball."

30th, 2018. i want to see our country united. if i can unite this country, i would consider it a tremendous success. unity is really what i'm striving for to bring the country together. well, that was president trump today promoting his state of the union tonight. it's obviously intended to be a costume party. the theme tonight being to pretend to be someone you're not. for all the months of his presidency, the daily reality has been the very opposite of unity, a country known for a free fres press derided for fake news and royaled by a president daily attacking the work of the fbi, the justice department, and the special counsel. a congress that's won the respect of the world jammed by the chief executive into historic dysfunction. unity? the president who obviously drove his predecessor into having to produce his birth

certificate now spends weeks tossing the children of immigrants around like a partisan football. always in the politics of sus versus the people with money against those was little. where is the unity? the whole political conversation is about division, about how much you don't like immigrants, how much you don't like the opposition party, the press, civil servants, communities different than your own, certain pro football players and rap stars. this is the trump conversation. starting with the first tweet of the morning. this is the public life of this country from the day he arrived in the white house discovering with each dawn whom donald trump is out to attack who is being forced to shoot back, who is going to be in the thick of it, until the president decides to move on to his next target of attack, the group, the public institution, the enemy. i want to see this country united, the president said he will declare tonight. yet with all the cameras on him, the entire country's microphone tuned to what he has to say, it will not be an honest statement about the union because the

state of our country is dysunion. he could change that if anybody on the planet could. but however he falls over himself to say so tonight, he has not taken a step to do it. and that's "hardball" for now. our special coverage of the state of the union begins right now. >> i have been very active in overturning a number of executive actions by my predecessor. >> i believe that will real and positive immigration reform is possible. >> believe me, we have to close down our government we're building that wall. i call it the russian hoax. >> rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. >> the stock market is at an all-time high. >> the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. hey, i'm president. can you believe it? >>. ♪