ilgs player torrey smith will join me tomorrow to talk why he is snubbing the trump white house and "hardball" starts right now. >> general confusion. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington we are now seven days into a crisis the white house can't pull itself out of. every day brings new self-inflicted wounds. testifying on captain hill today, trump appointed fbi

director christopher wray contradicted the white house's timeline on when it found out about abuse allegations against a senior aide, rob porter. >> so was the white house informed that this could affect his security clearance? that's a yes or no. >> i can't get into the content of what was briefed to the white house. >> were they informed? >> i can tell you is that the fbi submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march. and then a completed background investigation in late july that soon thereafter, we received requests for follow-up inquiry. and we did the follow-up and provided that information in november. and then we add administratively closed the file in january. and then earlier this month, we received some additional

information and we passed that on, as well. >> that testimony given under oath is at odds with the white house spin. here's what raj shah and sarah huckabee sanders told reporters in recent days. >> his background investigation was ongoing. he was operating on and interim security clearance. his clearance was never denied and he resigned. >> the process for the background was ongoing. and the white house had not received any specific papers regarding did the completion of that background check. >> so fbi director christopher wray says the fbi investigation was completed last july. they followed up on it and briefed the white house again in november but the white house contends the investigation was, i love this phrase, ongoing. in other words, not done. today sarah sanders tried to explain that contradiction and said the fbi delivered is the report to the white house personnel security office which she said was a separate entity to the rest of the white house. let's watch.

>> you said yesterday that you didn't get any paperwork from the fbi. chris wray said that he did submit paperwork. >> again, that would come through the white house personnel security office, which had not completed their investigation and not passed that information to the white house. >> can you speak to did anyone at the white house personnel security office vfs conversations with the west wing about rob porter' clearance between when the fbi started submitting interim reports. >> i'm not aware of any communication. i can't say definitively. >> that splaks is in conflict with what sanders said yesterday when she told reporters the process doesn't operate within the white house but rather done by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. in terms of who knew what and when, the white house spent this week sowing is confusion. on friday, john kelly told nbc he found out the allegations against porter were true last

tuesday. and 40 minutes afterwards, porter was gone. in fact, nbc reported that kelly knew about the accusations from porter's em wives back in november. meanwhile, politico reported the initial report or effort to protect porter was more aggressive than previously known. "in the hours immediately after the daily mail published a photograph of his first wife with a black eye it, sanders hastily arranged an off the record meeting in the west wing with porter and four reporters. porter relayed his version of events and fielded questions from the group. today, john kelly defended how the white house handled porter's situation. he told it the "wall street journal," catch this, this was all done right. hmm. for more on this, i'm joined by national security reporter ken dilanian, rauth markus and bush chief phil rucker, a little analyst. phil, what do you make of this? i mean it, sarah huckabee, she

basically admits she's reading what they gave her to give, she has no idea what's going on here, she's just basic covering over an embarrassing situation. if you listen to the fbi director, christopher wray today under oath, the first person to speak under oath about this embarrassment, the white house knew about this last year early on in the first instance. they got more refinement, more refinement. but knew basically there were problems of assault and bat rit basically in at least one ex-wife's case from the get-go. your thoughts? >> yeah, chris, can the white house story has shifted continually for the last week now. and today was a real blow because fbi director wray cast in doubt a lot of what the white house had been saying in terms of the timeline and version of events. as for sarah sanders, he's going to the podium with information she's provided by john kelly, the counsel don mcgahn. if those officials aren't being up front with her, then not. >> i think some analysis here,

you got to make interpretation here at this point because we're not getting anything straight. why does the white house cover for this guy and cover for him for so long and why are they covering themselves now? >> cover is the right word because what we're seeing here and by the way, general kelly's assess the, if this is handled right, i would hate to see what wrong looks like. >> sounds like trump. >> how not to handle. >> he's the guy to bring order to this white house. >> the grownup in the room. but what we're seeing here is kind of a cover-up of a cover-up. first they wanted to cover up the fact that this guy had a spousal abuse problem in his past. and now they're covering up, and i know that's a pretty harsh word but now they're covering up the ways in which they knew about this. >> covering themselves. >> cover-up, cover-up. >> covering them selves. >> they're covering up themselves and doing a really bad job of if. >> ken dilanian, talk about the heavy stuff. this isn't a sit-com.

this isn't a drama. this is a reality. when you walk into the white house, are you under protection, i'm sorry the president's under protection from the get-go. all the people who get near him have to be safe. you don't want any people in there who are dangerous, people who are spies. and that's all protected by the secret service and the fbi. they make sure it the right people get near the president and the wrong people don't. here's a guy that was the wrong person and he got near the president for a year going on 13 months. and nobody stopped him. he was looking at the most vital papers that the president sees. he was seeing them and nobody stopped him. >> that's the thing to focus on, chris. this wasn't just a member of the cleaning crew. this wasn't an executive secretary. this was the staff secretary who is in charge of the paper flow in the oval office conveying the most sensitive information in the government, the top secret documents and in the room where top secret meet resolution happening. this wasn't just anybody. he was subject to allegations that made him liable to

blackmail. >> course. >> that's why these people are subject to the security clearances. it's important to understand one thing. the fbi does not grant security clearances. they conduct a background check. it's very clear what early on in march, they flagged a problem in his background. that's what a partial finding means. there isn't a partial finding unless there's a big problem. that was conveyed to the white house. over a series of steps, we don't know the full facts. the white house kept going to the fbi and saying check again and continually the message got back to the white house, there's still a problem. they say there are negative findings here. it's up to the white house to decide. the idea that the white house personnel office is making that kind of decision is just ridiculous when you talk to people who know how the process works. the chief of staff and often the president are always consulted when something serious is flagged in the background of

somebody as high up as rob porter. >> this is the kind of person the russians are looking for, someone they can squeeze. there's so much of that going on in the white house, we don't need this one. a white house official today told jonathan swan, the fbi timeline makes one thing clear, the kelly cover-up is unraveling before our eyes. as if one schedule, anthony scaramucci tweeted this. based on the fbi testimony, chief of staff john kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against rob porter at least six months ago. then recently forced others to lie about that timeline. inexcusable. he must resign. meanwhile sarah sanders was asked what kelly knew and when. let's watch. >> is the white house still maintaining that john kelly really had no idea about these allegations of domestic abuse until this story broke. >> i can only give you the best information that i have, and that's my understanding. >> did you hear what she said?

i can only give you account information they hand me to parrot out here. we're joined by eddie glowed, the chairman of the center for african-american studies. thank you so much. you're getting here late. you got trapped out of the studio for some reason. let's catch on here. this is about a cover-up as ruth said of i a cover-up. beak they covered up for rob porter for a year it looks like or up to a year since the first indication came from the two ex-wives about one of them being beat up and the other one being beat up emotionally at least. then you have the fact they covered up this embarrassment from what they had done. this is all unraveling right now. the head of the fbi who trump appointed tells us under oath none of it is true. it's not the way it happened. the tile line is all wrong. they knew last january. your thoughts. >> it's a combination of three things, one, they're lying and trying to cover up their lying and the lying is actually connected to what is the actual

vetting process that's happening in the white house? we don't quite note what they're doing. >> do you love donald trump, have you always loved donald trump. that's the vetting process. i'm serious. that seems to be where flynn came from and all these guys come from. including scaramucci, all the ones fired in the last year. they came over the transom because they said i wish to love donald trump. and i guess he will like me if i love him enough. that seems to be the vetting process. >> they're lying. they're lying and then they love him and then it turns out once they get bast that the loving vetting process, there's a kind of cohort of folk who are not sexist but misogynist. there's a sense the way in which porter has functioned, who he represents, who they're defending is a person hon beat women. it's reflected, i think it's a reflection. >> are you comfortable with that? >> it seems to be. why else defend him? why else cover it up. why else lie. >> i don't know.

let me go to some reporting on that to phil. it seems to he me, i've only met the guy once. he looked like another, i don't know, another staffer. i don't know how to judge the guy. but you know, anybody understands this syndrome of people who spousal abuse, these guys the beaters as they're called in the streets, they don't show it all the time. i mean, i don't know what the white house expected him to behave like in the white house mess if he's got this history. it doesn't show itself at the mess when you're ordering a hamburger. it shows you in a spousal relationship is when it comes up. your thoughts? >> yeah, i this i that's right. certainly rob porter appeared to be a very professional high achieving, highly competentant member of the white house staff and his behavior at home caught his colleagues off guard. the problem for the white house, as soon as they heard the allegations their inclination was to believe rob porter and publicly defend him. it's what they did for the first 24 or 48 hours.

that's created this huge problem for john kelly who knew about these allegations ahead of time and you know, in talking to some white house officials today, people a they believe kelly cannot be trusted, that he's lying internally about this. we're going to have more reporting on that tonight at "the washington post," but it's a problem for this white house and puts the chief of staff under siege. >> give us something. >> well, what we have here is the staff inside the white house some of them are turning on john kelly. so he according to sarah sanders has the confidence of the president at this hour. but he does not have the full confidence of his subordinates who are leaking a lot of information about him. >> chris. >> i want to get to that. ken, you know who is leaking, the guys who don't like kelly. not just the truth tellers. he's got a whole regiment of enemies he's kept out of the oval office. >> of course account white house staff friends with and colleagues with rob porter tend

to believe him when they only hear his story. that's why normal white houses rely on the dispassionate fbi background investigation to determine what the facts are. >> professionalism. >> that's what he appears to have happened here. >> how is this going to sell? kelly, can he survive having done this? the president pushes on to the next disaster. the next memo that he discharges or whatever covers up. this just becomes part of a black eye on the white house, to be blunt about it. it will be a black eye. how will it look to women and people who say they covered up for this guy who punched one wife in the eye. you see that transpartnerly. how is that politically going to be dealt with? >> the outcome for the white house is either chaos or chaos at this stage. there's not a good outcome here. and by the way, i think that there's one person ken mentioned him briefly we really haven't

focused on his role very much. which is the white house counsel, don mcgahn, who seems from my understanding. >> who is protecting him? the media hasn't hit him very hard. >> he seems to have known about this information. >> it's his job to know it. >> the conduit for receiving this information. where was he advising the president? but the fundamental -- is this going to be a political problem for the white house? with who? with women who have seen him time after time assert that women aren't to be believed and come up with these ridiculous claims of fealty to due process when he's perfectly willing to throw hillary clinton in jail? i mean, come on. there is a core of -- i mean, he is losing support among women. so maybe a rational white house would worry about this. but he is with his core base. >> peggy noonan who has different political views than you, she said the other day, you can't blackmail donald trump.

thank you, ken. it's ridiculous. ken deline lanian, thank you, ruth -- eddie, thank you for coming in tonight. you're great to come on. fig r phil rucker, i wish i knew what you knew now. >> the top leaders of the intelligence community all say russian is still meddling in our elections. why is trump not enacting any sanctions that overwhelmingly passed the u.s. congress? why isn't he putting these into effect? why isn't the trump administration doing everything to keep our democracy safe? apparent he's never given any orders to anybody to do anything to stop this meddling in our political lives by the russians. plus, congressman joe kennedy iii, he delivered the democratic response to the state of the union. he'll sit here. tonight he tells me how democrats can win in the age of trump. the senate begins a grand debate on immigration this week. trump is warning this is the last chance to fix daca and protect the dreamers. we'll get to that.

this could be the last chance for everybody. finally, let me finish tonight with trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is. e one of the world's most familiar companies, but we make more than our name suggests. we're an organic tea company. a premium juice company. a coconut water company. we've got drinks for long days. for birthdays. for turning over new leaves. and we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. we are the coca-cola company, and we're proud to offer so much more. fthere's flonase sensimist.f up around pets. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man.

start winning today. book now at lq.com ruth marcus. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders today also commented on president trump's assessment of embattled chief of staff john kelly. >> where does john kelly stand as we sit here today, if the president has confidence in him, why does he have confidence in him based on everything we've learned over the last week. >> look, i don't have anything further to add. the president has confidence in his chief of staff. >> i don't know what that means. a vote of confidence doesn't necessarily translate to a job security for anyone, especially when dealing with the trump crowd. let's watch. >> reince is doing a fantastic job at the white house. and i believe he has the president's confidence. >> does he remain as chief of staff. >> i think reince is doing a great job as chief of staff. >> basically question here, does the national security adviser

enjoy the full confidence of president trump? >> yes, general flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president. >> was it a mistake not to ask jim comey to step down from the fbi at the outset of your presidency? is it too late now to ask him to step down. >> it's not too late. i have confidence in him. >> priebus, comey, flynn, all gone, all this is a recording. really? no, i'm kidding. 100% u.s.-based customer service. here to help, not to sell. befoto treat her frequent 24hr heartburn... claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now, she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth.

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frankly, the united states is under attack. under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place in the united states. there should be no doubt that russia perceived that its past efforts as successful and views the 201 u.s. midterm elections as a potential target for russian influence operations. >> welcome back to "hardball." that is a real civil servant dan

coats, a stark warning from him, the director of national intelligence who today joined other officials to testify under oath before the senate intelligence committee on worldwide threats to the u.s. when it came to the subject of russian interference, their message was clear and unanimous. russia attacked our country's election in 2016 and they will attack us again. did you hear that? they attacked us in 2016 and will again. however, as fbi director christopher wray revealed under questioning also under oath, president trump has never directed his bureau or him to take any proactive steps to confront the future russian threat. >> has the president directed you and your agency to take specific actions to confront and blunt russian influence activities that are ongoing? >> we're taking a lot of specific efforts to blunt. >> directed by the president? >> not as specifically directed by the president. >> well, the president's inaction in the face of russian

aggression is most evident in his decision not to punish the kremlin for meddling in the 2016 election a move that could invite further interference. when senator cam ma la harris asked director coats how russia views president's decision not to implement the sanctions congress passed overwhelmingly, he said he did not know. watch this. >> the last year congress passeseds a by part san russian sanctions bill. however, the administration has not imposed those sanctions. what is your assessment of how russia interprets the administration's inaction? >> i don't have information relative to what the russian thinking is in terms of that particular specific reaction. specifically on your question, i don't have an answer for that. >> this comes as the president's campaign is under federal investigation for possibly collaborating with the russians during the election. we all know that. as a reminder, the progress we've seen in that probe today marks the one year since former

national security adviser michael flynn was fired from the white house. flynn is now a cooperating witness and apparently useful for the prosecution. joining me is natasha ber frand from the atlantic and mieke eoyang, a former staff director of the house intelligence committee. ike, apparently we're doing nothing to punish the russians for what they did. and we're not doing anything to stop them this time in 2018 or 2020. the past, present and future are off scot-free for whatever they wanted to do, did do and will do, scot-free in terms of this administration. >> that's right. normally when you would be attacked by a foreign add ser vary, you would take spec responses to let them know that's not acceptable. you would impose sanctions. you would work with allies on

this. through our nato allies. you would try and prosecute some of these hackers but what you don't see is this administration taking even the smallest step and trying to block the steps that congress wants to take to hold russia accountable. it's really, really shocking the inaction. >> there's a term called finlandizing. you're so weak next to your big neighbor you take whatever they do to you. lou did we get to be finland where the russians can do to us whatever they want to. >> that's the question everyone's asking. we're trying to get to the bottom of why vladimir tute tin is the single leader trump has not criticized since even before. >> won't enforce sanctions passed by congress. >> he won't enforce sanctions passed by congress, he won't criticize putin. he says he sti wants to work with russia even though the intelligence community says that is very difficult because their goals are diverge gent from the united states and their values

broadly. this is the big question now is trump only doing this because he sees russian election interference as a threat to his own presidency because he sees it as something that delegitimizes his victory or something more sinister, nefarious where he seese any attention put on rauchia is attention put on the idea he may have collaborated. >> i'll tell you, none of those are good. he's chief executive of the united states. he's supposed to carry out the law. asked about the president's allegation of corruption at the top levels of the fbi, director wray defended the performance of his agency. >> well, senator, i would say that my experience now six months in with the fbi has validated all my prior experiences with the fbi, which is that it is the finest group of professionals and public servants i could hope to work for. there are 37,000 people in the fbi who do unbelievable things all around the world. and although you would never know it, from watching the news, we actually have more than two

investigations. and most of them do a lot to keep americans safe. >> well, director wray also said he's encouraged employees to ignore what they hear about the fbi on tv and specifically denied allegations of bias. >> senator, there's no shortage of opinions about our agency just like every other agency up here. i encourage our folks not to get too hung up what i consider to be the noise on tv and social media. >> so you haven't seen any evidence of some sort of inherent political bias in the agency? >> no. >> you know, let me go back to natasha. it seems trump has a strategy to trash anybody that will get the goods on him, trash the media, anybody that might bring facts forward. you want to do this? go for it. >> right, the fbi right now is investigating him for potential obstruction of justice. >> so they're the bad guys. >> he's framing them in a way that could undermine their

creditability. >> framing is the right word. >> this is probably going to play pretty well within the bureau largely just kind of director wray's ability to come out and say, there is no bias, there's nothing going on here because of course, when he did let mccabe go, that did not play well in the fbi. a lot of folks within the bureau were kind of annoyed how that went down and thought that mccabe did not deserve to be let go that way. the fact that now wray seems to be stepping up to the plate and defending the bureau is probably going to play very well within the ranks. >> mieke, the president of the united states is besides a political leader and the head of the executive branch, he's chief executive and commander in chief. he's chiefly -- he is in charge of our national defense. the top person. if he's not leading the effort to keep the russians out of our stuff, who will? >> well, this is exactly the question that the intelligence agency heads got asked today. who is leading the effort. they said no one within agency

is empowered. when you have a problem of this magnitude that can be solved on a law enforcement front that needs to be fronned through military alliances, confronted flu diplomacy, you would expect coordination to happen at the white house through an interagency process led by the president. >> usually the president kicks butt and says let's get the job done. >> or empowers the vice president. but you don't see pence leading meetings. >> for fear of offending his guy that made him. >> that's right. without clear direction, nobody is doing anything. >> it's one day it was all under oath by public servants inclu including christopher wray appointed by the president and the national director of intelligence dan coats. these are good people doing their job and the president did not look good today. he was up against truth terls. natasha and meekka, thank both of you. up next, do kras have a message beyond just being anti-trump? and if so, what was that message? joe kennedy delivered the state

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who are forgotten and feel forsaken. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was congressman joe kennedy iii delivering the democratic response to trump's state of the union. can he link much of the turmoil of the last year to trump and his administration? with democrats looking to retake congress this november and the white house perhaps in 2020, he offer this had rallying cry. >> we are bombarded with one false choice after another. coal miners or single moms. rural communities or inner cities. the coast or the heartland. as if the mechanic in pittsburgh, a teacher in tulsa, and a daycare worker in birmingham are bitter rivals. rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged towards those at the top. so here is the answer that democrats offer tonight.

we choose both. >> joe kennedy iii of massachusetts joins me now. by the way, i thought that was a good argument. i've been making it a long time from your grandfather's lips about both. don't choose between the factory worker out of work in erie and the kid in north philly who never had a chance, the regular kid. >> no, look, we don't. you don't want -- our country's at our best, that's not who we are. the fact is the challenges that we confront as a nation and they are real and they are entrenched and they are complicated, they are no match for a country that is united in trying to tackle them but what we've seen out of this administration is one ta continues to divide america up and offer a series of solutions that comes only for part of america at the expense of another. >> how do you convince people in pennsylvania, wisconsin, ohio, those kind of states that decided the election that the interests of the factory workers out of work, the 5 an-year-old factor worker are the same as the minority kid in terms of job

training and economic opportunity, the whole works? security and things like social security, medicare? >> because chris, the bottom line is that every american that i've talked to, every american that i represent back in my district in massachusetts whether they're a democrat, republican or other, they care where keeping a roof over their head, food on their plate, their kid in a good school, saving for retirement and making sure when they wake up tomorrow, they're safe and secure. that is not a democrat or republican idea. that connects every single american. so you fight for those policies and those people. you give them a chance to win and succeed. that is what built america. that pulled us together. that has gotten us over major challenges we have confronted as nation. what doesn't get you there is saying in order for somebody to win, someone else has to lose and trying to pit american against american in some bizarre odd version of reality television. that's not how you govern the most powerful country in the world. >> let's talk about putting flesh and bones on that idea.

joe biden. >> yeah. >> what do you think it is about them? you've said this in different words. what would have made him a strange candidate against trump in the stretch last time? what did he have or has. >> vice president biden represents a in many ways a throw back to what democrats have represented. what we seek to represent which is the idea that every single person has dignity, every single person can succeed an every person wants to. you give them a shot and fight for them. i was a strong supporter of mrs. clinton. i believe she would have been a great president. i traveled all over the country for her. what we as a party have to do is make sure we focus on that message that does -- that is not a political one. >> i get what you're say. you're a political person. you can't say it exactly like i can say it. biden doesn't ever give you the sense he's elite. he never gives you a sense he's better than you.

he doesn't look like he's dumping anybody. he's not -- people aren't being discarded. a lot of people in this country feel the democratic party discarded them and biden doesn't give off that image. how does' void giving off that image? >> democrats -- we believe in good government. we want to solve a problem. we are very good at diagnosing an issue, finding a really smart person to run a regression analysis and come up with a policy response that will solve the problem. what that misses is the human side to it. there's one thing to say that there's industries that might be decline. there's another thing to recognize some of those industries have powered america, built us to where we are today. just tossing that aside whether those happen to be coal miners or for us, koes coal miners that some talk about, those are our fishermen fighting in massachusetts for generations to go out in the dead of winter to

pull up lobster pots and flounder and haddock for us to eat. this is not -- this isn't something you wave your hand out and say let's put them out of business. this is an industry you should be proud of and people we should be fighting for. >> trump has a half assed to use a term people would normally would use, infrastructure program. he had a huge tax cut for the rich. what do the democrats have to counter those two things. >> we do have an infrastructure plan. >> i never heard of it. where is it. >> we released last week. >> where is this infrastructure? what's it look like. >> what we have to recognize is that it becomes hard to put forth a viable infrastructure plan when you've got an administration that just passed off $1.5 trillion on the next generation. what we have and what i would challenge this administration on which is exactly what you pointed out, it's one thing to say we have such an infrastructure gap we need to spread the money around.

fine. there might be logical argument to that. there's another thing to say we want to focus on rural america. fine. what are you going to do for fall river? >> he did the big dig and i like it. it's great. by the way, massachusetts made it economically because of hospitals, high education, and infrastructure investment. it had a lot of powerful people like tip o'neill and your uncles. it got great things done. >> great staff members working for them. >> joe kennedy trying to charm me. please come back. thank you. president trump warns this is the last chance to fix the daca program. what happened to his love for dreamers and why is it so chancy and how are the democrats going to win this one? you're watching "hardball." ♪ ♪

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i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. welcome back to "hardball." the senate immigration debate got off to a turbulent start today as democrats rejected a republican proposal to crack

down on sanctuary sfepz both parties with cram bling to come up with language that can pass the 60-vote threshold in the senate. the president said negotiations on daca have begun. wouldn't it be great if we could after so many years solve the dhaka puzzle. this will be our last chance. there will never be another opportunity march 5th. march 5th is on hold after a federal judge ordered the administration to -- a second judge in new york also blocked the president's decision. when it comes to solving the daca puzzle, trump hasn't helped, let's watch. >> the dream act. >> you have to. we have to make a whole new set of standards. i have a love for these people and hopefully now congress will be able to help them and do it properly. i think my positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with. i am very much reliant on the people in this room.

>> would you be willing to sign immigration deal that ultimately does not include funding for the border wall or would that be a red line for you. >> no, it's got to include the wall. we need the wall for security, for safety. >> it's unclear where the president really stands. a source close to the white house told axios trump is going to be looking for opportunities to stir up the base more than focusing on any particular legislation or issue. in other words, he would rather have the issue. let's bring in the "hardball" roundtable, kimberly atkins, d.c. bureau chief for the "boston herald," adrian elrod, former director of strategic communications for hillary clinton's presidential campaign and char singleton. i want to ask anybody, is anybody optimistic about getting a bill through both houses 60 votes in the senate, 21 in the house. that actually does something for the dreamers? >> i think at the very end, donald trump needs to support this. i think when it comes to the politics of this, that you're right. i think he is happy to use this

as an issue particularly ahead of the 2018 election. we've seen him doing it today joking i think joking with sherrod brown at the trade meeting today saying it's the republicans that want to fix daca, not the democrats. >> does he want it fixed or does he want the issue to use against immigration. >> i think he wants the issue to use against immigration. of the days ago where he tweeted republicans want to solve immigration. it's the democrats that are stalling this process. remember, this is a wedge issue that trump's base love. i don't think he's going to do anything. >> on family unification, on diversity lotteries on the wall, the tougher he is on demanding all kinds of price to be paid for the dreamers, he can't lose. >> yeah, i think he wants to see this as an issue that continues to go on in the trajectory we're talking about for the next six, seven eight months heeding up to midterms. he wants to try to go to his base and say i'm trying to fight for the wall and funding.

at the same time, democrats are saying we need to have a path for dreamers which is what we support. he wants this to stay in the public debate and doesn't want this issue to go away. >> kill berle, how long is this going to go on, this death rattle? three or four days of debate arguing about things that they'll never agree on sanctuary cities and never agree on family unification. they could probably agree on inches of the wall if they could get account dreams are free for that. 'schumer would like to do that. >> the president set the parameters so wide to include things like the visa lottery whereas there was a consensus for a smaller bill. >> a little wall and a lot of dreamer. >> that seems to be off the table with the conservatives now have something to hold on to very much dug in on the issue of family reunification. the president won't let that go. you'll see people taking votes like today they know it's going to get shot down. >> shar michael, how many

representatives will not under any circumstances will not vote for anything that looks like amnesty? a road to citizenship. it means they get primaried and they're gone. >> i can't give you a number. i think the house freedom caucus will be the biggest hurdle here. >> 30 to start with. >> precisely. unlike mcconnell, that is why paul ryan has to walk a very tight rope. if you lose too many voters, can you get enough democrats. >> does he lose his job if he brings that to the floor? >> he's probably going to retire anyway. >> will he lose his job if he brings up a vote on amnesty? >> i think he will. >> if he doesn't have a majority, i think ed. >> his job is in jeopardy regardless of what happens in the midterms. if republicans lose the house, his job is in jeopardy. if democrats win the house, his job is also in jeopardy. >> let's talk about -- i hate to talk like south after xanz are there so many congressional seats held by republicans that

are so conservative or negative on the issue of immigration, too few hispanic people and too many people that care about hispanics they're never going to vote for that group of people, so you're never going to get to 218 in the house because republicans will never be interested in helping them? is that possible? we're talking about something that won't happen. >> i don't see a path in the house. >> we had a civil war over slavery. we only got civil rights in '64 because they had a liberal supreme court that said you can do it by statute and didn't have to change the constitution. is this one thing we won't get done legislatively. >> the freedom caucus, those folks are so reactionary. john bane her an issue with them. even if they replace paul ryan with someone else, i don't foresee anything changing. > there's somebody on the radio calling him a traitor. >> 80% of the american people want a path to citizenship for dreamers. >> what kind of republican are you anyways?

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as promises we're back with our roundtable.

kimberly, tell me something i don't know. >> there's one particular part of the president's budget facing derision from the left. he proposed for the snap program, the food stamp program, instead of giving money to give boxes of food harvest boxes they call it, something like blue apron, but the left is calling it blue apron but terrible, literally a food delivery to the home. >> packaged foods. >> instead of money. so it's sort of a throwback to food. >> you get to pick what you want? >> i don't think so. it's like government cheese. >> andrea. >> there's been a little bit of criticism about the democratic party's fund-raising especially in 2017. i want to put things in perspective. the dnc raised $66 million in 2017. which is more than they raised in 2005 and 2007 which were the off years. two-thirds of those donations, you know this this is a critical number, two-thirds of those were from the grassroots.

$21 on average donation. 63% of those donations came from women. this is good for the democratic party. >> i was wondering how you would make fund raising interesting. >> shar mike. >> james was promoted as president of the conservative heritage foundation. i expect we'll see more policy prescriptions targeting issues impacting african-americans and hispanics. those are two demographic groups contract republican party has a problem with. >> heritage foundation gave us obamacare. >> no comment. >> it did. nobody wants to admit that. kimberly, adrian and shermichael, it's all history. you're watching "hardball."

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trump watch tuesday, february 13th, 2018. an american president is first of all, a human like the rest of us. he wakes up in the morning, realizes who he is, reads the newspaper, it's breakfast and begins his day. yes, he is a human like us. if there is fear around this person, he knows when first awaking he's in the midst of it and must decide what is right for his country and must be of sound mind and body and needs to sense the consequences of the decisions he will make, a vision of where it will take his country and how it will disturb the conditions he's up against. yes, it is awesome this power we give to a president. lincoln chose to fight a terrible civil war rather than let is the country dissolve. fdr chose the british against

hitler. true man ordered an artd atom bomb on japan. w took us into a war that cost 100,000 lives. one person gets up each day knowing he will change so much of this planet at such risk with unknown consequences. how i wonder, how i worry, how knowing what esee of life in today's white house can give us a steady heart. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> the fbi submitted a partial report in march. >> a white house keeps twisting. > christopher wray said it was closed in january. so hosteling the truth here? >> tonight, the lies get bigger and the cover-up grows as the fbi blows up the white house story on the handling of an alleged abuser. >> do you believe rob porter's ex-ives, mr. president. >> thank you very much.