good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york. what a night. coming up now, governor of virginia, director rob reiner, actor bradley whitford, joy reid, and ron reagan, all in this hour. and the president spoke about the optimism sweeping over our land, a man who spent the year

dividing and conquering preached about unity, the lowest numbers in modern history boasted about the incredible progress and extraordinary success he has achieved personally. he faced audible groans at times from people in their seats, especially when he spoke of the threat of chain migration. >> under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. >> major parts of trump's speech were aimed at the center right. but it took an ugly turn as he moved to the section on ma immigration where he stoked fears of open borders.

he spoke of two girls murdered by the m-13 game. >> these two girls were murdered while walking home in their hometown. we cannot imagine the depths of that kind of sorrow. we can make sure that other families never have to endure this kind of pain. tonight i am calling on congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed ms-13 and other criminal gangs to break into our country. >> that's how he introduced the whole discussion of immigration in a country of immigrants. the president's divisiveness was evident from the response of democrats. watch the juxtaposition of the president's words with the faces of democratic leaders. >> tonight i call upon all of us to set aside our differences. this is really the key. these are the people we were elected to serve.

african-american unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. we repeal the core of the disastrous obamacare, the individual mandate is now gone. i am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable and modern infrastructure. >> we begin with governor terry mcauliffe, the former governor of virginia. thank you for joining us tonight, governor. you watched there. you were out there, you were a guest of nancy pelosi. what was it like in that room? what was your reaction to this sort of confection that trump put together tonight? >> it was painful. the state of the union is to

talk about the state of the union. it's to unify people. he said he was going to unify folks. it was just the opposite tonight. he came out with a recitation on economic facts and figures. most of that had been derived from president obama's terms and then as you say, he took this horrible term and basically every immigrant was a murderer or rapist, a horrible person. i had a dreamer, a young american sitting two spaces next to me. she had tears in her eyes listening to the president of the united states tonight. it was embarrassing. it did not unify the country. he brought all these people in basically for props, very good people, very interesting stories, but they didn't fit in to the narrative. he was just trying to get applause lines. i don't know what his policy objectives were. i think he was trying to get back that 10% of the population that he has lost. those folks who watched this tonight on infrastructure, small amount of money, democrats know you can't come up with a trillion and a half dollars. he talked about family medical

leave and other issues. he talked about an issue dear to my heart, restoration of rights. i've restored more rights than any governor in the history of america but that was all just talk. it was not a unifying speech. i wanted to sit there and be objective but you were in the audience. you cringed. and it was just plain too long. and he was clapping for himself. i've never seen that before. >> let's talk about the way it was put together. the first half of the speech was a confection. you and i i think agree. it was aimed at people at the 40 to 50 yard lines that he lost, right? he had them, he lost them. why do you think he went from that really nice talk, confection aimed at -- talking about bonuses people got at work with the tax cut and the flag and all that good stuff and they he cut to this nasty stuff about ms-13. you had that issue raised dramatically, and it didn't work. tell us why that didn't work,

this whole scare tactic of going after all immigrants as if they're all criminals and murderers. >> they did that in virginia, ed gillespie's campaign, ms-13. we ended up winning by 9 points and picked up more house and delegate seats since the 1880s. divisive politics does not work. what we learned tonight and when he took that turn, that is what he is going to make the '18 all about, that is what he is going to make 2020 all about. this is where they are going to go to continue to divide people, us versus the blacks and the browns and that is the battle this white house is going to set up. he signalled that tonight. that's what's coming and unfortunately that's not what we need for the united states of america. we need to unify folks, bring them together and he will divide us. >> why do you think he went after civil servants so badly? it seemed like he was calling

people out in the country to come get the bad guys in washington. i thought that was a dem -- demagogic call there. >> i wonder if he was trying to send a signal, if you got federal officials you don't like, get rid of them. i was wondering if he was sending a signal -- >> he fired mccabe, pushed him out. now he's aiming at rosenstein. he's clearly going to purge all people who are prosecuting him with the hopes they won't get him for obstruction of justice, which is exactly what he is doing. >> he's trying to set up the american people, these people who work for the federal government are bad people. he attacked our military,

attacked all of our intelligence agencies when he ran. now he's saying all these federal government folks are wasting your money, they're bad people, trying to hurt us and we need to get rid of them. i think he's setting it up for the future to get rid of robert mueller. >> i thought cory booker looked good, young joe kennedy iii was very good. yourself, are you going to join that pack and run for 2020 in president? >> i hope when i get off the show you say mcauliffe was pretty good, too. >> if i say that, will you run? >> let me just say this, chris. this is a jgigantic year for th democratic party. if you love this party, we have 36 candidates up. we have got to be in play in '18. forget 2020.

we've got to win big. it's a democratic governor who can vito a b-- veto a bad redistricting map. if we don't fix this problem in '18, we're going to pay a price for ten years. >> i'm joined by filmmaker rob reiner. thanks so much for joining us tonight. you know everything, you know politics, you know theater, you know drama. what was tonight about? was it a masquerade? how would you describe trump's performance? >> just as a performance standpoint it was -- well, we discovered he could read. he knows how to read. but it was one of the flattest state of the union performances i've ever seen. if you look at what joe kennedy did afterwards, it was a wonderful performance. beep side the fa besides the fact that the message was good, he was all about bringing the country together. trump was -- i feel bad for you, intelligent people like you and

rachel and brian williams and nicolle wallace and lawrence o'donnell and gene robinson, you all have to sit there and talk about this guy as if he's a president. i mean, i know he was elected somehow but this is a guy -- >> excuse me for living, rob, but this is what we do. >> i know it's what you do and i feel bad for you that you have to talk about this. the guy is a racist. he's a ma soj nis and a pa pathological liar. when you write the speech down and you lie with words that are prepared, that takes lying to a new level. he lied about the biggest tax cut in history. he lied about the visa program. they're just lies. it's one thing to lie off the

cuff, but when you write down a lie and you say it, how are we supposed to judge what we just saw there? it was ridiculous. >> and there's two rings to the circus we know about. one is called the russian probe which is really and we can tell it's getting somewhere. the other is the performance of this morning every morning starting around 6:30 eastern time when he gets his copy of the "times" and gets angry and starts tweeting. he never mentioned the russian probe and acted like he was a regular president. reading the teleprompters, all carefully confected with lots of sugar on it. >> but also badly written. first of all, it took him forever to deliver it. >> were you saying faster faster? >> that's what lawrence olivier would say, "louder and faster,

my boy." it was boring dialogue. you're a speech writer, chris. you know this is just dull speech writing. >> i've never seen a speech like this where the first half of the speech is sugar coated, all the nice stuff about the flag. of course we love the flag and of course people like bonuses at work. of course all of that stuff. we worry about prescription drugs and things like that and then this ugly turn saying all immigrants are criminals, we have to keep them out of the country so let's talk about immigrants. he started with ms-13. he admitted there's 1.8 billion people in the country whose parents brought them here and they want to be americans and they feel like americans and yet he starts with ms-13. >> and he goes on to chain migration. this is about family unification. this is not about, you know, distant relatives coming in. and he knows that and we all know that. he's just lying right down the

line. but, you know, you mentioned something earlier, which is you said he didn't mention the russia probe, you know. it was not brought up. the fact of the matter is there's been a consistent regular campaign to go after mccabe, to go after rosenstein, to go after mueller, the law enforcement and department of justice on a regular basis. he's got nunez doing goode knd what is he's doing. we know that mueller must be getting close to something. i'll a little bit scared. i just spent last week, i was with james clapper and john brennan, the former director of national intelligence and the former head of the cia and they're frightened to death of how this president is tearing down the pillars of our democracy. >> here's where i'm scared. this isn't about ideology,

philosophy, left, right. i thought under w. a president of that limited ability to take us through a war through propaganda. he's not evil but he talked us into a war that had no sense. this guy i'm watching the ratings for fox right now. they have ginned up this interest in this fink to do with fia fisa, who liked each other, who were e-mailing each other, they liked each other at the fbi. these are small points like be they did with hillary and the so-called e-mail. or bengazi. how do they do it? i don't think even think they make a connection. >> this is one of the ways they do it. the intelligence anals that talked to, they talk about the russians, they attacked us and

they're still here and probably will be here for 2018, 2020, well, they are still here. what they do is they'll pick up something like nunes putting a memo out there with no underlying documents to support it, and then it's picked up by st. petersburg and they throw trolls out there and they just shove all this stuff out there to people who are in that bubble and they gin this up and it's like this echo chamber between fox and bots and trolls. and so it's going to continue until somebody stands up and says this is our law enforcement community, these are the people that are going to keep us safe and unless we support them and we don't try to they're them down, we're heading for a real constitutional crisis. make no mistake about it. >> i think the difference between the left and right -- the left will make an argument, they'll save this leads to this, leads to that, there's a logic to it. the right wing today doesn't

feel any requirement to connect things. they'll just say hillary e-mail. i got it, okay, just these watch words are enough to enrage these people. anyway, rob, you're great. thank you so much. you're been reaching the "new york times" since you were 5 years old and it shows. my best to your family. all of it. as i mentioned, the president took an ugly turn when he discussed immigration tonight. he began with the story of two teen age girls killed by immigrant gang members. here he goes. >> my duty and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities and their right to the american dream because americans are dreamers, too. >> u.s. congresswoman of

washington state boycotted the speech tonight. she joins us now. congresswoman, join r thas us n. thank you for joining us. i know you watched it. what did you have make of trump's entry into the discussion -- this is a country of immigrants, my grandparents came here, i know how it works. you work your way up, you're lucky to be here. your thoughts? >> it was so horrendous, chris. i say that as an immigrant. i came to the country when i was 16 years old, now i'm a united states congresswoman. it is so insulting to see him continuing scapegoating immigrants, trying to make us the division when in fact we know that all of our ancestors, just like you mentioned, have come here, have helped build there country. for him to start with the ms-13 gang member and that story and use that story in a way to say

everybody is a criminal and therefore we should cut family immigration in half. of course he didn't say family immigration, he said chain migration. what he really means is family reunification, the cornerstone of immigration in this country for the last 50 years. it was outrageous. i'm so glad i was not there. i feel like being in this chamber and having to look at a president make that office so much less than what it should be is a travesty. it's a disgrace for us here in this country and also for our global leadership position around the world. >> his whole thing about the diversity lottery, too. seems like he's trying to say let's not have any more people come to this country unless they're advertisscientists. my grandmother came as a maid, my grandfather came as a chauffeur. our grandparents are not the dukes of marlborough. it's an absurdity.

what do you have make of it? >> i think what he's trying to do is end legal immigration. the way to do that is somehow to categorize all immigrants as being drains on our economy, as criminals, at murderers, as terrorists. that is not the reality. so when you look at the fact that he sounds like he's being so magnanimous when he says we're going to give 1.8 million dreamers a pass to citizenship, let me remind everybody that donald trump is the person that made dreamers deportable. they were not deportable until he came along and rescinded daca. and now he's payment is ending legal immigration to this country as we know it. that would cut legal immigration in half. his professional pose al thposa today. to say we're going to end legal immigration and do it by saying these people are bad for this country is insulting, it's demeaning and divisive.

it's what he's based his whole campaign on getting to the white house. it's what he's going to run on and what the election will be about but that's not who we are as a country. i think americans know that. i think so many americans share your experience of knowing how their parents came here or their grandparents came here. >> i think it's great what you've done in your life. i think it's such an american story. roosevelt talked about the four freedoms. this guy is talking about the four pillars. i don't know if they're four pillars of wisdom. >> he needs four pillars of wisdom. >> thanks for staying up tonight. >> thank you, chris. >> we're just getting start on this special late night edition of "hard ball." when we come back, we'll look at the democratic response from

joseph kennedy iii. and we'll address president trump's reentcent attraction one president.

welcome back to "hard did the ba the -- "hardball." in delivering his response, he tapped into he doesn't like the whole notion you have to choose. >> many have spent the last year anxious, angry, afraid. we all feel the fractured fault lines across our country. we hear the voices of americans who are forgotten and feel

forsaken. it would be easy to dismiss this past year's chaos, partisanship, as politics. but it's far, far bigger than that. this administration isn't just targeting the laws that protect us, they're targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection. so here is the answer that democrats offer tonight. we choose both. [ applause ] we fight for both. the greatest, strongest, richest nation in the world should not have to leave anyone behind.

>> i think the message was very much the message of his grandfather. he said we don't have to choose between the factory worker out of work and the inner city youth. we have to be for both of them. it was not an anti-trump speech but a hopeful message that ran in stark contrast to the president's. let's watch a bit more. >> politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. our country will be judged by the promises we keep. [ applause ] that is a measure of our character. that is who we are. out of many, one. ladies and gentlemen, have faith, have faith. the state of our union is

hopeful, resilient and enduring. >> that was a speech from fall river, massachusetts. the kennedy speech wasn't the only rebuttal from the democrats, there were at leafs five responses from the democratic party. i was impressed by the responses i heard tonight. i thought joe kennedy was great, cory booker was great on our network, carmella was great. what did you make about the overall response tonight? >> i'll speak to joe's in particular. joe and i were elected at the same time. we're classmates. i have a great deal of respect for him. what i like about what he had to say to the american public is he didn't take trump on, a head to head type of thing. he talked about the democrats' view of america, the hopefulness of what we can accomplish if we

work together. maybe setting the table a little bit for, okay, america, if you can get behind us as democrats and we for instance win back the house in november, here's what we have to give. we have this hopefulness. and i very much liked his approach. i thought it was a different way of offering a rebuttal. it wasn't just this head on, you know, i'm going after donald trump. >> he had it at a technical school. that was a big message. i do think that is a way -- well, tell me. you're the politician. the democrats have got to find a way to start talking to people who don't go to college, who people may not really want to go to college. in some case they want to learn how to do something well, make a good living, it's something they're good at, technical, electrician, that kind of thing, anything. any kind of craft person. i got the sense that he was trying to talk to those people tonight by choosing fall river, a city with challenges

obviously. and old industrial area that is not what it used to be in many ways. hei he's saying we have to make it here, we have to make this thing work, fall river. >> i appreciate that approach and that attempt but now it gets down to the rubber hitting the road. we as democrats need to make sure we're not just talking at a vocational school with vehicle in the background, but we got do show up. we got to listen to people. we have to go to the factory floor, we have to go to the supermarket. you and i have talked about that. >> if the democrats are going to get washington, pennsylvania, michigan, ohio, indiana and all those tough states, they better start talking to regular people and stop listening to their donor class who have their own interests. the people with money have different interests than the average people. they have different interests. >> you're absolutely right. we need to go to the catholic

church during lent and go to the fish fry. my favorite thing to do when i go home is not just go to democratic functions and listening to people who are saying what i know they're going to say but to talk to everybody day people, ask them about their struggles. were they able to go on vacation to wisconsin dells in the past year, when was the last time they bought a new truck? when was the last time they got a raise? can they buy the kids they want instead of the shoes they need. ask them those kind of questions, get to the heart of the feeling. that's what we have to do as democrats. what donald trump delivered tonight was -- i think he made an attempt to say he wanted to reach across the aisle and called for unity but then his tone didn't really imply that he really wanted to work together. chris, i know that when i go home, the number one thing i hear today from people is can't you just work together and get something done? i think there's this huge level

of fatigue, not just for donald trump, his tweets and what he's saying but this desire for democrats and republicans to work together and get something done. and there's a huge amount of disappointment in frankly all of congress, whether you're democrat or republican and we've got to do better for people back home. we have to do better for the american public. >> it starts with that kind of honesty. thank you congresswoman cheri bus bustos of illinois. >> brandly, ydley, you did a gr at the post. don't publish the pentagon papers. tell me about tonight. press freedoms. americans have always since the time of thomas payne and common sense. you go out there and challenge the government.

jefferson said he'd rather have a free press than democratic government even. now this president seems to get a kick out of trashing us. that's what he does. >> it's unprecedented. it's not the fifth amendment, it's not the seventh, it's not the 11th, it's the first. thomas jefferson was acutely aware that the only way to hold this country up to its spectacular promise and to transcend even his moral blind spots was the ability to speak truth to power. and we have a guy who took, you know, an oath of office to protect the constitution, who is actively doing everything he can to undermine it. there's always going to be tension with the press. there was with every president. but he's going beyond that. he seems to find some sort of strategic advantage in undermining the idea of truth, which is extremely dangerous and i would say extremely unamerican

given the fact that this country is the child of the enlight enlightenment for god sake. >> you're casting the film and it's called "the 2020 nomination fig fight." you're figuring out, who is it going to go, male, female, you have a wide range to cast from. there's no uniform they have to fit. there's no costume to fit. who would go head to head with trump and knock him off his block? who could beat him? >> i don't know who can beat him. i think that they do have to echo what i thought was joe kennedy's spectacular message. the biggest contrast is that the democrats are working for opportunity for all as opposed to accumulation for the few. i mean, it was amazing, a, to see republicans standing and cheering all the great work that barack obama did to save the economy and start the trends -- >> did you see the -- i know

that liberals and progressives can be self-satisfied at times but did you notice how self-satisfied they were babout the tax cut? all the cabinet members, they love those big tax cuts at the top. they know they're getting the lion's share. >> it's unbelievable that a priority in an economy where income equality is kskyrocketin the priority was to give permanent tax cuts to corporations that are thriving and to the top 1% and add 1.5 trillion to the deficit. i mean, to see paul ryan up there cheering for that was bizarre. >> but there happy about it. what strikes me is whatever they do they rotary clubs or the lions clubs or chamber of commerce or when they meet with their contributors, republicans are fat and happy they get taxes cut. it's like they're withdrawing money from the society and they're taking it home to

themselves. >> it's not just tax cuts. who needs a tax cut and who needs a permanent tax cut. are we rewarding work? or are we rewarding the accumulation of wealth? the republicans seem to be saying the rich are victims. >> let me ask you about the romance of the west wing. every time the music came up, aaron sorkin is saying this is great, thrilling. is that real? is that something we'll get the feeling again, that thrilling sense of we're doing the right thing here? >> yeah. people always accuse the west wing and it is to a certain extent a fantasy, but one thing that wasn't a fantasy, even with politicians i disagreed with is that there were several people around that president who truly

believed in the non-cynical way that the president was trying to do the right thing. we are in uncharted territory now, i feel like we're floating in a river of civic dysentery. just to echo one thing rob said he felt sorry for you, and i think what he was saying was when i see trump, i feel like i'm watching a professional wrestler with the crazy hair and the man tan and the hot chicks -- >> and the foreign object. they always have a foreign object. >> but then you guys have to sit down and pull a pencil out as if you're giving an oral exam and ask the professional wrestler, i'm confused, why did you pick up the folding chair and hit your opponent's parent? it's a very difficult task. >> when i worked in politics years ago, whether i worked for edward muskie, i worked for jimmy carter as a speech writer

or i worked for tip o'neill. we felt -- we weren't always winning. it wasn't like in "west wing," we lost a lot. but there is that romance. we looked up to the boss. we really did. i looked up to obama as a journalist i looked up to obama. i don't mind saying so. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. listen, to me, bush looks like albert sweitzer now. >> did you see snl saturday night? will ferrell comes on. that was the whole joke, i wasn't so bad, and i was terrible, wasn't i? >> the point is it is horribly corrosive and damaging to us to have a president who we can't invest with any moral authority, who -- >> that's true. >> because politics is not just a game, it's the create you

create your moral vision. and it's important and we have to have a discussion that is not based, you know, on one guy's self-interest, which is pretty whacky. >> you are a romantic and you're a good guy. you keep us with this issue. you know as much about it as we do. even working in your job. you and rob reiner know as much as i know about this. thank you so much. good luck at the oscars. our special edition of "hardball" in just a moment. up next, we'll talk to two speech writers who have worked with presidents on both sides of the aisle, including barack obama's top speech writer. their take on the highlights and low lights on trump 's speech tonight. this is "hardball" where the action is.

welcome back to "hardball." previewing the president's speech tonight, the white house touted a message of national unity, but the president took some subtle jabs at many of his enemies tonight, including professional athletes who he has criticized for sitting or kneeling during the national anthem. let's watch him in action. >> reference for those who serve our nation reminds of us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance and why we

proudly stand for the national anthem. >> joining me right now are two former presidential speech writers. mary kay carey is a friend of mine, speech writer for george herbert walker, the first bush. what did you think about him taking a shot at the african-american athletes in the nfl? >> i thought it was not surprising he would do that right before super bowl weekend knowing that his audience is the kind of guy that don't believe that athletes should be kneeling. i was not surprised at it at all. i thought it was a clever phrasing to show that the democrats -- i think most of the democrats actually stood up and applauded for it, which was smart of them. >> cody, your view about this. i thought a lot of the speech

was brilliantly sugar coated. it was all about the flag and bonuses for the tax cut and prescription drug prices, we got to get them down. who wouldn't agree with most of the first of the speech, then he got a little rougher, a little uglier. what do you think about him going after the guys that take a knee? >> any good speech has a structure to it. the only structure i saw was the first half was disingenuous and the second was divisive. it's great people are getting bonuses, i wish everybody was, but there's no long-term talk now that ewe've given $1 trillin over to corporations forever. >> do i think there's no money left for infrastructure. he was talking about private sector infrastructure. i'm not sure what that is. companies don't build highways and bridges and fast rail.

let me ask you about the calling on all these people with these special cases. they were all heroic people. i thought going after some of the victims of ms-13 was really rough on those parents. the idea of being a parent and losing a kid, a child, and then have to go sit there before the american people in agony, i don't know, i don't know. i guess maybe there's some educational purpose in it but i think it could have been done differently. your thoughts, that family. >> i thought in general going into this that one way to make this as unifying a speech as possible, i think we'd all agree as speech writers that great speeches are made of great stories. nobody wants to listen to an our and 20 minute legislative laundry list, which is what this could have been. so i actually liked the stories. and some i liked better than others. i thought it was difficult to watch those families grieving like that. i loved the story of the cop who had adopted the child from the opioid addicted mother.

who doesn't support that. the more times he could tell stories where everybody could stand up and applaud, i thought that advanced the ball and made him look bipartisan and unifying and, you know, stories we all want to hear right now. we had a lot of natural disasters this year, we had the las vegas shooting. the more you could highlight these brave people, i thought it was a smart move. >> let me ask you about the face of donald trump tonight, cody. what do you make about the face of donald trump? it was a face of bragging. it's i know better, i'm smarter than you. it wasn't the usual humble face of an abe lincoln. i'm not used to this kind of president. bill clinton was there to make you -- you wanted bill clinton. barack obama of the ethereal intellectual, the harvard don, if you will. this guy is like the tough kid in the schoolyard when you're 8 or 9 years old or in eighth grade. he looked like the bully in the

schoolyard. he just looks that way. he comes out, he struts. your thoughts. >> the problem with the first half of the speech is he focused solely on the last year, not any sense the future. it want to gain credibility for himself, it was to take credit for everything. he's really good at slapping his name on other people's work and saying it's wonderful. but there's no sense about the future, what you do beyond the economy beyond scape coating people, no talk about the climate change. >> how did he get away without mentioning the russian probe in the entire speech? the elephant in the room. >> i'm not surprised. i can't imagine he would have brought that up. he was smart to front load the economic news up front and have that, you know, call to common ground with nancy pelosi and get her to grimace like that. this is what makes people say why can't these people do their jobs. and that i think is the

independent group, you know, that 10% you were just talking about that he needs in those mid terms, are the people who still might change their minds and say i think he's a disruptor and maybe he's going to make this work. >> i don't know what to say. i agree the democratic senators and all the leaders didn't look good. i don't know what you're supposed to do because i happen to know the democratic party is very progressive right now, it doesn't want to have anything to do with trump right now and i understand it puts you in the tough situation of looking like a sour pus. if they had been caught laughing and enjoying him, they might be in worse trouble right now. cody keenan, you're a great righter and my pal mary kate carey. president trump ignored the elephant in the room tonight. never mentioned the russian probe, which is a big part of reality, don't you think? he's spending a lot of time firing people who are coming at him. we'll look at that next with the

great joy reid and ron raggan. you're washingttching "hardball.

the defining issue of the trump administration thus far is how beyond the michael wolff book. he spends his time complaining with the prosecutors who are investigating russian interference, conspiring to fire them, thinking about them,

obsessing about them and then he gives a speech tonight in which he makes it sound like the biggest issue in the united states, the biggest threat is ms-13, a gang that nobody who has ever watched fox news has ever heard of. >> why does he do it? >> because he's playing to the audience that he wants applause from. the audience on the right wants to hear that. the first half of the speech sounded like he went in a time machine and gave it in 1950. he talked about bringing coal back, beautiful coal. >> what was that about? >> he sounded like he was running for president against dwight eisenhower. and the second half of the speech was how all immigrants are murderers and he needs to stop them from coming into the country through family mi migration. it was a bizarre speech. >> he was trying to climb back to high 40s and get that increment back and people who are center right, angry,

resentful democrats, tried to win them back. but he was cloaking his darker purposes. a lot of candy, a lot of candy coating of the speech tonight. even all those families, they were all very empathetic or sympathetic families but the message was we hate the god damn north koreans and we hate the drug dealseers and we hate the country they come from. >> immigrants are all ms-13 members. i'm sure everybody is going home tonight that ms-13 is going to attack them on the way home. as joy said, really, who runs into these people. i'm not saying they don't exist but it's not exactly a national scourge here. something else that joy was talking about, there is this sort of odd feeling you get when you listen to donald trump making a speech like this. and i think part of it is that he doesn't actually inhabit the words that's he's saying. he's never thought those words. somebody has written them down and put this many on a prompter.

>> he met them on the prompter. >> how much time do you think donald trump spends thinking about black employment? and he reads it like, wow, i just read that for the first time. he seems to be discovering every word he's saying for the very first time, until he gets to the stephen miller part of the speech. then we're back to this dark american carnage. >> as joy said, president trump did make this mention of the federal bureaucracy, a possible reference to his ongoing war with the fbi over the russian investigation. watch this weird little thing here. >> so tonight i call on congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the american people. >> there you go. the old argument, mob at the gate, coming across the border and the rot at the top. this is classic demagoguery.

we have people who are rotten and we're going to get them. >> yes, people who are against me because i am the state, i am the american people in a sense. if they're against any of those things, if they're against me, they're against that. so we must get rid of those people. mccabe leaving the fbi now. you know, perfect especially. >> rod rosenstein is next on the list. >> here's a guy who arrived separately from his wife, who is not exactly a loyal husband saying i am the embodiment of faith, family and 1950s value for half the speech and turning and saying we're going to clear out the deep state, run all the people not loyal to me out of washington. he wants loyalty of the kind you have in a banana republic where everybody is too afraid to oppose the leader. >> it's great having you on. as always, joy, ron reagan, thank you for coming on tonight from out west.

it's not as late out there, is it? >> no, it's bright and early nowon i'now . i'll go to dinner. >> steve kornacki continues our live >> the state of our union is strong because our people are strong. >> you have just witnessed the third longest state of the union ever delivered. >> i found the truth lacking in the state of the union tonight. >> false claims on the auto industry, false claims on job creation. >> he led in a very decisive way on immigration. >> open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. >> if that was an attempt at unity, he's got a lot of work to do. >> to all the dreamers out there watching tonight, let me be absolutely clear. >> it's the most effective response we've seen from