panther movie opens midnight tonight. tomorrow one of the stars will be on the beat, winston duke, his original story coming all the way here to be in this very anticipated movie. that is our show. "hardball" is up next. snipe frozen in the headlights. let's play "hardball.">frozen i. let's play "hardball.">frozen i. let's play "hardball." frozen i. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington, d.c. occupied territory of the american gun lobby. here we go again. once again a mass shooting and mass inaction by our politicians. once again, someone's taken a battlefield weapon into an american school and opened fire. once again, we are asked not to -- we're not to do ask why this battlefield weapon designed for the single person of killing

lots of humans quickly as once again been about put to its designed purpose of killing lots of humans fast. this is no time for politics those in the pocket of the national rifle association tell us. we are not to mention this to teenagers. here tonight, like last night, we are going to talk about it. it's been a little over 24 hours since nikolas cruz barged into his old high school in florida opening fire on hundreds of students and teachers, utley murdering 17 and wounding 14 others. since sandy hook by the way, where 20 children were murdered, there have been roughly 1600 mass shootings in this country. so far 1 school shootings in this new year alone. with all the grief and chaos, it's been the voices of the nra funded politicians. the nra funded politicians rising above the din. here they go. >> some of your colleagues in

the senate here from washington, d.c. having already been trying to make this about policy and been gun control. is this the appropriate time to be doing that? >> it's not only because people don't -- they don't know how this happened. i think it's important to know all of that before you jump to conclusions there's some law we could have passed that could have bre vented it. there may be. shouldn't we know the facts? >> the reaction of democrats to any tragedy is try to politicize it. they. >> caller:ing we've got to take away the second amendment rights of law abiding citizens. that's not the right answerence. >> pray for the victims or the people still in the hospital or in surgery today. you don't say let's just take away a citizen's rights. >> the marco rubio received $3.3 million from the nra. teds are you received $77,000, paul ryan another $61,000. president trump address the country calling the suspect mentally disturbed but the president made zero mention of

the battlefield weapon the suspect used in the mass shooting. the weapon he bought at the age of 19. instead he urged citizens to reach out to faith leaders in their community for help. let's watch. >> i want to speak now directly to america's children especially those who is feel lost, alone, confused, or even scared. i want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. you have people who care about you. who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. if you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member. a local police officer. or a faith leader. >> advice ongoing to a faith leader from the president. congress has been paralyzed when it comes to dealing with guns. they've done nothing to keep these weapons from the hands of

those intending just that. congressman ted deutch hop represents the district including parkland, florida, tweeted while i'm at home in parkland, the house will pause for a moment of silence. i appreciate the thoughts and prayers of colleagues but also appreciate -- with me on gun violence legislation when i return to washington. whatever gun violence legislation is. anyway, vips and parents of victims called on politicians to do more than just pray. let's listen. >> the state that this country has been allowed to come to, through the work of through politicians honestly just saying yeah, thoughts and prayers go out to people, we don't need ideas. we need action. we need action from our elected officials and we need action from the civic public because without that, this happen again. >> the city is mayhem between the cops and helicopters and politicians and probably the president who is going to fly in and give us words of condolences which are empty at this point

because the action in my opinion, the nra,'s a sad state we're living in when money comes first. i think that's a huge problem. >> for more, i'm joined by erica lavorert, her mother dawn was of the principal at sandy hook elementary school and murdered while trying to protect her students. kurt bar del low, former spokesperson for breitbart news. florida state representative jared moskowitz. thank you for coming. you've lived close to this. here's the question, why does an 18-year-old, that's you you have to in florida, be able to walk into a gunshop and buy an ar-15 and all the ammo magazines you need to go out and do what the gun is designed for, mass shooting of human beings quickly? why is that so easy to do in the united states? your thoughts, legally. >> i think that the more broad question here is how do we keep guns out of schools.

that is something that for the past five years, i've been dealing with on very obviously a firsthand basis. we see this happen time and time and time again. the bigger issue is how to stop this in general with any type of weapon. the fact is we are just over 24 hours out from this terrible tragedy and are still learning all the information. you know, but i think getting back to the bakes here and trying to figure out specifically what acts can be taken, what legislation can be proposed to stop all incidents like this regardless of the type of firearm used. >> let me ask you about the firepower needed to do that. if someone comes to a school armed, maybe a couple of people come armed with ar-15s with unlimited ammunition, what kind of firepower is needed to stop them at the door? can you outmatch the kind of

firepower which is available at any gunshop in most states? >> unfortunately, i know my mop couldn't. i know my mom couldn't. >> representative moskowitz, you're down there. it's your responsibility to deal with the repercussions down there. what do we do with people who go on television with $3 million behind them like your senator who say we shouldn't talk politics because i'm getting $3 million from the nra. i'm getting the money to fight people talking. >> chris, i'll tell him to come the city of parkland. let him come and say that to the families who lost 14-year-olds, if that's his position, that's fine. he's entitled to that. but let him come, not in washington, d.c., not in the halls of congress, come to parkland. look these families in the face who are sitting in a room last night for six hours praying that their kid was in a hospital instead of on the floor of the

school. and let him look them in the face and say, there's nothing we can do. it's too early to talk about your kid. we've been doing that, chris. how is that working out for the country? >> i'm wondering about the disproportionate of concern that you hear in these hours since this tragedy and all the tradition since. there's about one a week now, a school tragedy. eric is right. it is partially focused just on schools, this mass shooting. and i will say again, bringing these semi-automatic weapons to the schools, how do you keep them out of the door. this guy had a plan, smoke bombs, turn on the alarm and start mowing it people down. what's the plan of those playing defenses? what is the defensive plan? what's the nra plan to protect our schools? >> there is no plan. the plan is to be helpless and continue to feed the people giving you money and turn a blind eye to tragedy. when it's an illegal immigrant we need nud policy and to do something because our safety is

at risk. when it involves a cun, we need to take a step back and get all the facts. why is there a double standard on tragedy with donald trump and republicans? >> the shooter's choice of military style weapon is an ar-15. according to experts, the weapon is designed to kill multiple enemy combatants at once. that's why it exists. despite that, it's easily accessible and easy to use for civilians across the country. you don't have to be a pro to use this gun. in florida, any 18-year-old can walking in as long as they're not a convicted felon. that's just about everybody. in five of the deadliest six shootings, the gunman in the case used an ar12 semi-automatic weapon. a gunman used an a rp to injury 12 people and injury more at a movie theater in colorado. on december 14th, of 2012, it

was used to kill 27 people including 20 school children in newtown, connecticut. we remember that one. the gunman also killed his mother. on june 12th of, 2016, 49 people were killed and 507b hurt when a gunman opened fire with an ar-15 at the muscles nightclub in orlando. five months ago on october 1st, a gunman used an ar-15 to kill people at eight country music tes festival in las vegas. on november 5th, the ar was used to kill 26 church goers in sutherland springs texas, including eight members of one family alone and the pastor's daughter. earlier today the mother of one of the victims had this question for the president. let's watch. >> president trump, you say what can you do? you can stop the guns from getting into these children's hands! put middle detectors in every

entrance to the schools? what can you do? you can do a lot. >> the interesting thing, i'll start with kurt on this one, is that the absence of conversation is mandatory now. you must not talk about it. and two weeks from now, we're not talking about this. they'll say you can talk about it but nobody wants to talk about it. you can't talk any policy. i don't want to hear from policymakers except about policy. >> that's why it exists. >> i don't want to hear how to contact my faith leader. i don't need trump to tell me how to find my church. i go there. i need him to lead this country in doing something about gun safety. he refuses to do anything. >> there's a reason why they're called policymakers. that's their job to be enact public policy that will stop these things from happening. after the vegas shooting, there was all this stock about bump stocks being banned. >> that's what takes a semi-automatic and makes it automatic. >> exactly. it's been months since vegas. the worst mass shooting in

history. they're still league. there was no action or policy. there was bipartisan consensus on paper and in the news to get something done. they didn't dob anything about that. >> mr. moskowitz talk about state and federal. we have crime in different cities. there's gang crime in tern cities and this kind of mass shootings and there's cultural more rains things go into it the unhappy student. we know all profiles, all the stereotypes. the bottom line is this country, we have no more mental illness than any other country, japan or anywhere else. yet, we have killings on a mass basis because what we do have different than countries is lots ablots of combat weapons in the hands of regular people. i bet you the stores are being crashed right now because they're afraid somebody might outlaw them. they're hoarding them now. your thoughts.

>> well, weapons that were made for afghanistan are on the streets of america. and let me tell you something, anyone who says they're for hunting, they're hunting children. it's time and time again that this weapon is used. i'll tell you, chris, the shooter here had 120 more bullets in his magazines that he did not use. he had extended magazines. he dropped his weapon and stopped. this could have been a lot worse. the number could have been 30 or 40 or 50. he was armed for war in the city of parkland. the safest city in the state of florida. in the state of florida, if you're the mayor of a city and you want to institute better background checks under the laws you'll be arrested in the state? that's the laws we put in place here. it is so backwards. >> you make a good point. not just the weapon he's got and the amount of bullets he's carrying with him. he was able for a bit to escape with the other students because he was young enough to look like

one of the high school kids. a guy who looks like a high school kid goes into a gunshop and buys how many magazines of bullets, a gun within semi-automatic capability. and nobody questions him. and for all i know, he looked crazy when he went into that store. it's hard to assume he went in calmly without any sweat and just said me, sir, i'd like to order an ar1515. it was damn easy to get that gun anton fit in with the students leaving the school that day, that's why he got away before the police officer got him. >> chris, we're in tmost powerf country in the world. we have the best economy in the world and yet can't keep kids safe in school. how is it possible that someone who might be a white nationalist who says on their facebook page they want to kill people and become famous, a famous school shooter, how can they walk into

a gun store and buy an ar-15? he didn't take his parents' gun. this was bought through the legal process. we have failed these kids. democrats, republicans. we have failed. >> let me bring in air car to talk about this. you have a personal horror in your life. tell me about and heroic behavior by your mom. if you had five minutes with this president, what would you say to him on this be? >> i would just want to know why. i honestly don't think that i would let the shooter speak. i would tell him about my mom, about the wonderful person she was. and then give him every single piece of detail about her tragic death. and how she literally laid herself on the line to protect the students and staff at sandy hook that day. tell him about my life since, the pain, the suffering. watching my nieces, my niece and

nephews grow up without their grandmother. watching my sister and i struggle without our mom. if that story can't help to change the narrative, i don't know what will. >> when do you think about your mom? >> every second of every day. >> and what do you say to her? >> that i miss her. i miss her contagious laugh and her warm hugs. and i just hope that everything i'm doing and everything that i have done and will continue to do makes her proud. >> it should because you're here. thank you. erica lavorty will, kurt bordello, and kurt moskowitz. keep representing the people and not the gun people. coming up, a stunning report from nbc news. more than 130 ploil appointees in the executive office of this president have been working without permanent security clearances. catch the names, jared kushner,

son-in-law this ivanka trump, the daughter, even the white house counsel don't have clearance. why not? we've got to find out. plus breaking news in the russian probe. steve bannon stonewalled the house intelligence committee today, not that the committee's worth much. we learned he spent 20 hours over the past week talking to robert mueller's prosecutors. and turmoil in the white house trump says he's totally opposed to domestic abuse. hmm. why is a top aide allowed to remain in a job after spousal abuse allegations surfaced in his faces? finally, some good news on this industry. this is "hardball" where the action is.

excuse me, are you aware of what's happening right now? we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that. our unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit you have happiness, those rights were spriped from college kids in blacksburg and santa barbara and from high schoolers at

columbine. fran first graders in newtown. first graders. every time i think about those kids, it gets me mad. >> a lot of people think we don't have him anymore makes them mad. president obama fighting back tears as he recounted the litany of mass shootings that took place during his time as president. today president obama offered condolences to those affected by the latest tragedy and called for action. he tweetsed we are grieving with parkland but we are not powerless. caring for our kids is our first job. you be till we can honestly say we're doing enough to keep them safe from harm including long overdue common sense gun safety laws that most americans want, then we have to change. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "hardball." the rob porter scandal focused new attention on the security clearances that have or not been granted to the executive employees of the trump white house. nbc news is reporting that more than 130 political appointees working in the executive office of the president did not have permanent security clearances as of november, 2017. it's unclear how many of those employees may have had a chains change in their clearance since that time. it means roughly a quarter of all executive employees in the white house were working under some kind of interim security clearance ten months into the presidency. among them some of the president's top advisers including ivanka trump, jared kushner, white house council don mccab and sarah huckabee sanders doesn't have the right one as well as ten officials on the national security council and many others. this comes after trump's director of national

intelligence washed minimal access toes information should be granted to those with temporary cure the clearances. >> if that is the case, the access has to be himmed in terms of the kind of information they can be in a position to receive or not receive. >> there's a serious public official. it's unclear what prevented so many from obtaining permanent clearances for so long and not clear how much access they've had to sensitive materials. i'm joined by carol lee, and chris lu, director of the obama transition, also assistant to the former president in the white house. thank you both for joining us. what are the reasons why there's such sloppiness and lack of safety precautions so many top people don't have the right clearances? >> we don't fully know because the process is not very transparent. the white house has not been forthcoming. there are a number of reasonsian someone could have a security clearance, interim security clearance months into the

administration. there could be a backlog of requests. there could be things like someone who has extensive business ties. they have to go through those. if you have family living overseas, that could be it. when you talk to national security experts and legal experts about this, the thing that sticks out to them is just it's not necessarily the overall number but the people who are closest to the president still don't have permanent security clearances. while some of the individuals that operating on interim clearances play have them now, people like jared curb mer certainly does not. >> the chris lu, it seems to me my experience is when is you name a top appointee, they get through pretty quickly. these people are pretty high level people, the president's family, the press secretary, his lawyer, the white house attorney. you would think they would get priority. if they didn't get priority, it must be some red flag out there, not just the slowness of the

process. there's some reason they haven't been cleared. >> that's absolutely right. how we avoided this in the obama administration is we precleared 200 appointees before election day to avoid the backlog. there are 250e7b8 assistants to the president. that's the highest rank. you should push those people in the queue before anyone else comes through. the fact jared kushner has been sitting there for well over a year while also receiving the highest intel briefing in the country with an interim clearance is trouble and should make you wonder wlrp national security is at risk right now. >> do you think the president asked his family members, have you been cleared yet? what is your problem or does he know what the problem is. >> we don't know. >> certainly now they would be having this conversation because the rob porter issue has been so much in the news. and there are some suggestions that the white house is leaning

into deal with some of these interim clearances since porter by the let go this week. >> as a candidate trump routinely attacked hillary clinton for mishandling classified information. let's watch minimum in actinim candidate. >> this was not just extreme carelessness with classified material which is still totally disqualifying. this is calculated. deliberate, premeditated misconduct followed by a cover-up. she sent vast amounts of classified information including information classified as top secret. top secret. okay? she said she never septembnt or received classified materials. a lie. such a lie. she said she couldn't recall details about her mishandling of

classified information. in my administration, i'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. >> we also need the best protection of classified information. >> i don't know what to say. i mean, you can say hypocrisy and this guy talks out of two sides of his mouth. you can say he'll attack hillary for any possibility of doing anything wrong without saying what was wrong that was done. yet in this case, oh livious. >> hypocrisy on so many different levels. >> they knew rob porter had a problem. they can argue about the degree of the problem, what the abuse was. they would know it. all that time, he said give him all the latest stuff. all the hot stuff. he knows how to violate the trust of the country because he did it. >> this is donald trump saying he hires the best people which we know he doesn't. him saying a businessperson needs to run the government.

we see the problems. it's mishandling of information. the problem is right now there's a percentage of people who have interim clearances getting access to classified information who probably will not get permanent clearances. >> they will leave the white house having seen all this stuff, carol and nobody's going to be able to reclaim it. >> when we saw that happen. >> they can sell it for all we know. >> woo yes, they don't know they're taking it home in their bags. >> who is to stop them with this crowd. >> we've seen donald trump do this over and over again. he'll say one thing and it doesn't apply to him. the interesting thing that's happening. > you were laughing. it sounds so ridiculous. rob porter's gone now. right? he has in his head i would think notes at home. all this classified stuff he's been looking at for a year. you can't get that back from him, can you? can you stop him from talking about it or selling it from a magazine article?

>> if you're operating under an interim clearance, it would be illegal. >> but he never, but he's permanently compelled to keep that secret. >> he should be but this is why we have clearances to test people's honesty, reliability and trust worriedness. clearly porter doesn't meet those standards never will be cleared. thank you, carol lee, chris lu. up next, breaking news on the russian probe. we're learning tonight steve bannon spent 20 hours being grilled by robert mueller. today he was back on capitol hill, dodging questions on the house intel committee. that committee's not worth meeting with. this is "hardball." stick with us. we'll be back. our factory in b more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets

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what can a president [ do in thirty seconds? he can fire an fbi director who won't pledge his loyalty. he can order the deportation of a million immigrant children. he can threaten an unstable dictator armed with nuclear weapons. he can go into a rage and enter the nuclear launch codes. how bad does it have to get before congress does something?

welcome back to "hardball." we learned today steve bannon met with special counsel robert mueller multiple times over the past week according to nbc news. he spent a total of some 20 hours in conversations with the team led by muler. that's according to two people familiar with the proceedings. this cops as bannon also returned to capitol hill today for further questioning by the house intelligence committee. however, just as he did last month, he once again stonewalled the members of that committee. according to members of the committee, bannon presented the panel with a list of 25 questions he would be willing to answer and refused to discuss anything beyond those preselected questions.

that he led adam schiff to threaten content proceedings against bannon. snif certainly, it will be our recommendation to our leadership that we initiate contempt proceedings. and i hope that we have a meeting on the minds. i spekt expect that we likely will, judging from the comments that my colleagues the majority have made publicly about the necessity of compelling answers to these questions. >> such a measure might face long odds. at least one top republican on the committee, mike conaway, did not rule out the prospect of holding bannon in contempt. betsy woodruff covers the russia probe for the "daily beast." i'm fascinated what he may have told muler. he mueller is the key here. the house intelligence committee is useless. the senate might do something. i respect burr and warner. let me ask you what bannon had to tell under oath mueller and what he refused to tell the house committee. >> the major outstanding

difference is that what i've been told is bannon refused to answer any questions from congress besides precleared ones had he given them beforehand about what happened during the transition and while he was in the white house. that is a massive vital key point of time that bannon just refused to take hard questions about. at the same time, i've been told by a person very close to bannon he did answer beak anything mueller asked him. what we know now, what we can infer is that mueller unsurprisingly knows way, way, way, way more about what happened from the transition team to bannon's exit of the white house than capitol hill will probably ever know. >> i'm not a legal correspondent. all i'm interested in is impeachment and did the president obstruct justice or did he deal -- did he deal with the russians during the campaign. what would bannon know about either of those questions sitting in the oval office? we see him sitting on the front desk there all the time chatting away with the president, kibitzing, shooting the whatever. so he must have been there.

when was he there? these kind of pictures. he must have overheard interesting conversations and was he pinned down by mueller about those. >> what is notable about his time in the white house, he was quite close with michael flynn. they were very much of the same mind thinking about iran. >> so flynn would have shared all that was going on. >> right. those where is bannon's closest ally in the white house probably was at least one of his closest allies was flynn. to the extent flynn has been involved in a lot of these conversations, bannon is probably very much clued in. >> you've got manafort's not talking, flynn's talking. popped is talki papadopoulos is talking. >> there have been some reports in other outwill he busy haven't been able to confirm those. this is a significant number of folks close to the president intimately involved in the campaign now cooperating with mueller. a piece of that is probably the fact that just hiring an attorney to help you deal with an investigation like this is

extraordinarily expensive. people hope testified before the house on this matter have to pay upwards of $20,000 to prepare for one congressional hearing. > let's use our smarts here. bannon is a big nationalist. parts that have is interesting, some of it is definitely awful. he wanted to deal with the russians because they're nationalists. big shot to big shot. wouldn't trump have talked to him about that and said how we're going to talk to putin, how are we going to work a deal on the middle east. wouldn't he have had those conversations that would have dealt with sanctions and the tricky stuff they shouldn't have been dealing with during the campaign? >> i think it's most likely flynn would have been the person mof involved about foreign policy. one thing bannon was an expert of was overstating his power and spinning a lot of reporters he was a puppet master. it's probable he would have been in the loop on those things. >> if you're trump, the president, do you trust bannon?

>> i don't think so. trump said that almost on the record. he thinks bannon is deceptive and acted in bad faith. >> would he rat him out. >> would the president rat. >> emily: hut? would bannon rat out the president. >> 20 hours of testimony before mueller, if you're the president, what are you worried about? >> money, the president's finances, jared kushner's finances. what white house people are most concerned about isn't necessarily things that happened on transition and campaign but what could be more troublesome for people in the president's circle are all the financial dealings. >> money laundering. > thank you for joining us. up next, president trump forced to condemn domestic violence following allegations against rob porter. this latest controversy shows no signs of letting up. in fort because of this white house can't seem to get his story straight. nicholas kristof in the times today, lying is a bad. when you lie a lot, it's really bad. you're watching "hardball."

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always but especially today let us hold our loved ones close. let us pray for healing and for peace. and let us come together as one nation to wipe away the tears and strive for a much better tomorrow. >> welcome back. that was president trump today on the deadly shooting in florida. while the nation's focus has been on florida, the white house remains in turmoil inside of the rob porter scandal in part due to its constantly changing story. chief of staff john kelly first told reporters he acted immediately upon hearing about the abuse allegations. >> you heard out tuesday night. >> the 20 hours later he was gone. >> kelly knew in november the

ex-wives had told the fbi and what had he told them. on monday, sarah sanders told reporters the investigation was still being handled by the fbi. the next day, christopher wray told senators under oath that the investigation was first completed last july. snoofr soon thereafter, we received requests for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that informations in november. and we administratively closed the file in january. . >> on tuesday, sanders reacted to that with a new story saying a separate office at the white house was still conducting an investigation. but that office is part of the president's executive office. accord og nbc, if there was a problem with somebody's security clearance, they would have flagged white house council don mcgahn immediately. amid all of this, many aides blamed kelly for the chaos with

one calling hip, this what i can't believe, a big fat liar. somebody working for the white house called the chief of staff at the white house a big fat liar according to "washington post." let's bring in the roundtable. i want to start with ashley parker who wrote that story, a top reporter for the "washington post" and political analyst. kris wilson a republican pollster cornell belcher. lesley stahl would call up and say can you tell me anything. i would say i'm not telling you anything here's somebody who says our boss is a big fad idiot. it's stunning the lack of loyalty and the freedom you get sourcing over there. you don't laugh about this. you actually heard a person say big fat liar on phone. let me get that down here. >> i did get it down. we put it in a story. what's interesting about this is when kelly came in at first, there was a lot of discipline

pep sort of staunched those leaks and chaos we saw under the first chief of staff in the early months of the white house. so this quote and sentiment told me how much general kelly has lost the support and trust and respect of his staff and his subordinates. part of that is because some of them believe he asked them to lie for him. >> 2407 minutes deal? >> exactly. an account they knew not to be true. the fact that someone would feel emboldened to say that to the media underscores the strife general kelly is now dealing with. >> chris, it looks like the public trying to read about this is reading about a cover-up of a cover-up. they covered cup why they kept porter in the white house. there's nobody wanting to work in this white house. now they have to cover up that. now people in the white house know exactly what's going on and leak it. >> i think big fat liar is probably caud progress from scaramucci's comments. >> scaramucci is now attacking kelly the mooch.

>> you can't get away from the lack of loyalty that seems to exist with staff. i find that incomprehensible you have a white house operating in which there is no level of loyalty toward the chain of command. i could not imagine being in the position, much less kelly when he's got a staff that lost confidence. >> cornell, if you can't get sourcing on the hill and the white house, it's not just you but other reporters can get a great quote from people on the inside, is that because they think the president doesn't respect kelly anymore? they're not afraid of the banter? >> here's the thing. the president has grown frustrated and irritated kelly. when he does that, he begins calling friends and confidantes and some of his own staff asking what do you think i should do? should i keep kelly? whether he does that, that then leaks out in consecutive circles

till it makes its way to us. >> cornell, the horrible shooting, from the first thing that hit last night, i said we're going to talk gun safety here and talk about the ar-15, available for an 18-year-old in florida. how many magazines you wan, kid? great. what's your plan for this? there's only one plan. shoot. shoot a semi-automatic weapon. battlefield weapon. so it's used for its purpose which in this case brutally stated is killing people. i don't hear politicians talk about it. by the way, unless you're from connecticut or from california, i don't hear anybody talking gun safety. >> i'm going to disagree with you there. house democrats and senate dras have been fairly vocal about wanting to do something, common sense around gun laws. >> when? >> but if you look at this and look at pew research, 6% of americans think we ought to ban assault weapons. for americans this is common sense. but you have a congress that is

bought and sold and owned by the special interests, the nra. when you look at the money they're funneling into our politics, they want something in return. they're getting something in return for this. it's blocking common sense gun legislation. right now, if you put a pump, the bump clip things, if you put that on the floor of the house, you wouldn't get a majority vote for it, but you would get a majority voing for that ban of that on the house floor because you would get -- >> you can't get the vote. that's my point. they're held hostage by special interests. >> do they say that among them selves? do they say i got the nra on my back. i can't move an inch. >> no, it's not about that. a national perspective on this and you look at it in districts where there is what i would call a hunting culture. and people who grow up with guns. it's really easy for us to label something as common sense legislation. one man's common sense. >> what's an ar-15 in terms of

hunting. > it's used more for sport. >> what kind of sport. >> like gun ranges. i've shot one at a gun range. it's fun. would i take it outside of a range, absolutely not. that's not my culture. >> why do the gun people -- i've got one in my family, my brother. they've got the second amendment thing. how come we managed to outlaw tommy guns? because all these chicago criminals, mobsters were using them to shoot cops. they said okay. how come the nra lives with what do you call an automatic weapons, tommy guns but semi-automatics into an automatic. >> why can't they outlaw that. >> most people didn't know what a bump stock was before las vegas. >> we do now. >> something should be done about it. i don't think the second amendment was bryn to cover bump stocks. process here is not about the bump stock itself. if it gets introduced by itself, it would be passed.

>> if you read the second amendment, you had a musket which wasn't too accurate and it took back ten minutes to load it. so it wasn't like people walking around with ba zook kazan flame throwers. you can have almost thinking. >> you're not getting this on the floor because of special interests. point blank, end of conversation. if it got on the floor, it would pass. it's not going to get on the floor because there's big money in our politics. end of conversation. >> we should have a third house who actually votes on things. they actually vote. the roundtable is sticking with us. you're watching "hardball." time to bask... in low prices!

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on our daughter's birthday? moms don't take sick days... moms take nyquil severe. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. time for ashley parker of the "washington post" to tell me something i don't know. >> there's a close friend of melania trumps. her firm was paid $26 million by the inauguration committee for her work. she kept $1.6 million of that herself. she paid her employees but it raised a lot of eyebrows in the west wing, a because of the eye popping amount and she has an unusual arrangement. a white house hard pass. meaning she can get on the grounds. >> graft. >> that's an open question. >> sounds like graft the way you describe it. that's the way you reported it. that's a hot one. kris wilson, cornell belcher. we'll be right back after this. that's good.

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let me finish tonight with a major anniversary that was marked last week. i think we can use a good one. the berlin wall has now been down longer than it stood up. 28 years. constructed by east berlin's communist bosses in august of 1961, the barrier has now been torn away since november, believe it or not, of 1989. i will never forget being there in that moment of hope, that rainy night in east berlin when

i walked among the young people who got word the great brandsenburg gate was about to be opened, they stood solemnly wanting to be there when the historic moment arrived. a calmness from the san francisco examiner. i wanted to know what it meant all these people kept captive all those years behind the iron captain. i asked each of them i approach what's freedom mean to you? from some, i want the freedom to earn what i've worked for and not be forced to do something because i'm told to. a nurse told me how her hospital had been losing people like her, thousands fled to a freer life in the west. finally i heard the voice of history. this is freiheit a young man told me talking to you. he was telling me his new freedom rising up as that wall was coming down was the human act of simply talking openly to someone like me. from the first days of the cold war, we were told of the lack of freedom behind the iron curtain

and later would hear about the secret police and fear of saying anything that might cause trouble saying anything political. here i was getting that truth at me firsthand. as we continue to say pretty much what we want here night to night, i want to share this peek into history from not so very long ago or very far away. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. all in with chris hayes" starts right now. >> tonight on all-in. >> this is not the time to jump to some conclusion. >> republicans rediscover their refrain on mass shootings as the list of white house scandals grows. >> who knew what, when, and to what extent. >> tonight, exclusive nbc news reporting on the fallout from the white house domestic abuse scandal. plus, new questions about trump's lawyer's payment to a porn actress. democrats want steve bannon held in contempt as we learn about his marathon meeting with robert mueller. d