"hardball" starts now. gates to open. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. there's been a big development today in mueller's investigation. in a plea deal, another trump campaign initial agreed to cooperate with the mueller team. rick gates served as deputy chairman of the trump presidential campaign. he also worked for trump's transition team. in court today, gates pleaded

guilty to conspiracy against the united states and making a false statement to investigators. that false statement was made in february 1st, this month, when gates was already negotiating a deal. at the heart of his deal, he admits he conspired with his business associate paul manafort in a variety of criminal schemes related to their work with the ukrainian political party. manafort maintains his innocence though gates deal now puts the pressure on him to make a deal of his own within mueller. the agreement requires gates to cooperate in all matters with investigators including answering all questions, turning over all documents, and testifying at any proceeding requested by mueller's team. gates is the third trump campaign associate to strike a cooperation agreement with mueller. the other two being michael flynn and gorge papadopoulos. mueller's probe has been speeding along as we've noticed piling up indictments and guilty

pleas. this may account for some of the frenzy by the president himself who can't help but see mueller's work as a threat to his presidency. today trump basked in the warm glow of his own base delivering a lively speech at cpac with plenty of red meat on guns, immigration and his own accomplishments with narey a word on russia. >> do you remember i started running and people say are you sure he's a conservative? i think now we've proved i'm a conservative. >> we have a big race coming up in '19. you have to get out. keep the enthusiasm going. they'll take away your second amendment which will never allow to happen. when we declare our schools to be gun-free zones, it just puts our students in far more danger. far more danger. don't worry, you're getting the wall. don't worry, i heard somebody.

getting the wall. i had a couple of these characters in the back say, oh, he really doesn't want the wall. he just used that for campaigning. i said can you believe it? you know, i say every time i hear that, the wall gets ten feet higher. >> for more i'm joined by nbc news national security reporter ken dilanian, analyst paul butler, national security analyst evelyn farkas and ken vogel. thank you all for joining us. ken to start with, the question is, how much can they squeeze out of gates to use against manafort to use manafort against trump? >> i think a lot, chris. look, gates while he's only pled guilty to two charges, the criminal information filed in the case shows that he's admitting to this much larger panoply of conduct, criminal conduct with paul manafort. you know, basically illegal lobbying, bank fraud, money

laundering. he looks prepared to go into court and testify against paul manafort, his long-time mentor. he was with him for years. and gates was -- remained in the trump campaign well after manafort left. we don't note exactly what he may be telling about the trump campaign. this is a horrible day for paul manafort. he is under now enormous pressure to plead guilty. before this had been essentially a document case, a very strong case. now he's got his former friend who seems willing to testify against him. it's just got to be a devastating day for him. >> ken vogel, how much does rick gates know about trump directly to him? how much can he rat out? >> he helps mulener three areas. number one with manafort as ken just outlined. he had been with him for decades. number two is with trump. he remained on the campaign after manafort left and remained with the trump in the trump orbit through the transition. he worked on the inaugural campaign. so could he potentially be privy

to conversations how to respond to the russia investigation that might potentially get into this area of obstruction of justice. number three, he also has some visibility to the business side of trump's dealings. he worked pore tom barrack and close to tom barrack, a close trump friend who trump has done business with. we keep hearing mueller's investigation might veer off into trump's finances. he might have insight there, too. >> evelyn, you're in the room, you hear other conversations. you know what's going on. does rick gates know about what happened at trump tower in june? all these meetings with kislyak, the russian ambassador? there's a lot of kibitzing in politics. was he there to rat these people out? >> i would imagine if he's close enough to manafort, not only is he around enjoying the buzz but may be getting a buzz with manafort over drinks or something on another occasion.

they have a special relationship. the other thing is -- >> what did you think of manafort's statement today, i didn't sell out, this guy did. he maine takens his innocent. he said "i had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to battle to prove our innocence. for reasons yet to surface, he chose to do otherwise. this doesn't alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue pile up charges contained in the indictments against me." a federal grand jury returned an indictment with additional charges against manafort saying he secretly paid european politicians out of offshore bank accounts to lobby for ukraine. paul, how much can you pile on this guy, manafort? he's 68 years old looking at 80 years. all these additional decades and decades and more decades today. can they take all that back that they piled up if he'll squeal? >> they can. robert gates pled guilty today because he's a criminal who was stupid enough to lie to robert

mueller three weeks ago in the office of the special counsel. and then he decides he wants to flip and mueller treats him like he would any snitch. he says the what you got. if gates says i have stuff on manafort, mueller says that's not good enough. i could go to the federal courthouse, if i could get my credentials back, i could win that case against manafort in a day. that's a paper case. >> you think this is directly to trump? >> it's about trump. it's about trump junior, it's about kushner, it's about somebody way higher in the food chain than it is manafort. >> what i was struck by this, and in your wheel house. the way he has to lay down can for the prosecution. any question ask, i'm putting sodium pentathal in your arm right now and you're going to be my guy now. he's powerful. he must have gotten something.

>> he's getting a great deal. he was looking at 40 years, now ten years, but if he offers substantial assistance, and that's less than two years. so again. >> i heard today he might get probation. is that possible? >> he only gets probation if he delivers donald trump. >> let me go to ken. what are you hearing about what he's proffered here? >> what the plea agreement says, if he offers substantial assistance, mueller's office may not oppose a motion for probation. probation is very possible in this case, chris. >> wow. evelyn. >> i want to add one more thing. in the indictment, they mentioning that he was the link between the campaign and the rnc. there's a lot of question about money. the money that they both got from their shady dealings in ukraine. did any of that money end up in the campaign or going to the rnc? that's another interesting element of all this. >> that's what after president trump referenced his former rival hillary clinton today, the

cpac crowd launched into chants of lock her up. let's watch that show. >> we have a very crooked media. we had a crooked candidate too, by the way. >> lock her up. lock her up. >> i will say this, folks. everything that's turning out, now it's amazing that's come full circle. boy, have they committed a lot of atrocities when you look. right? when you look. have they done things that are wrong. >> ken vogel, here's the question. that crowd he has there is not interested in hearing about russia. they're not interested in gun safety obviously. they were interested in trump. >> yeah. >> what's he up to? is he feeling the frenzy? he reads papers. he's a guy, the only guy that knows more what he's done than mueller is trump. he knows everything he's done. he may not know how much illegal he did, but he knows the conversations he was in, what

instructions he gave to donald junior, what he talked to kushner about, when he talked to manafort. he knows -- he goes to bed tonight asking what the hell does gates know about me. >> almost perfect knowledge. georgie knows what georgie's done during the abscam scandal. so my question is, how can trump operate? is he as good at clinton at compartmentization, having a great time today knowing the prosecutors and brilliant lawyers around him apparently half the great lawyers in that country on that team are coming to get him? >> i don't think he's that good at compartmentalizing. we see it on twitter. he's obsessed with it and unable to move on to try to pass some of these big items that he has cited as this real goals. what you saw today was more an escape. it was trump playing the hits, embracing the or rather basking in the warm embrace.

>> who was the first guy who said lock her up on stage? michael flynn. >> general flynn, exactly. >> doesn't that resonate with trump? this doesn't work out well the first time we chanted it? >> it must in the back of his head. >> where the bald spot was. that was crazy today. >> mueller has charged five people with crimes indianapolis addition to 19 russians. they'll never see a courtroom. five of the other four pled guilty. with paul manafort, it's a matter of time. he's 69 years old. again, easy cases to prove. >> why is he holding out? >> i have no idea. it's his constitutional right to go to trial. he wants the best deal he can. you get the best deal if you're the first person to plead guilty. he's the fifth. he has to have something really, really good. >> unless he's really a russian agent. i'm not even kidding. he will not make a deal if he's really a russian agent. >> what do you make of that, ken? >> to that point, chris, the past two days have led a lot of

people to re-evaluate paul manafort. by the time he joined the trump campaign, he was hurting for money. that's why he was committing bank fraud and tax fraud. speaki speak the spit got of cash had turned off. he offered services for free and private briefings to a russian oligarch. what exactly was he doing in the of trump campaign. >> he was selling jobs at the white house apparently. >> apparently so. what was his relationship with russians and what does he know about other campaign relationships with russia? >> he wanted a house in park slope, the ritziest part of brooklyn and a house in the hamptons. >> he also wanted to reup his credentials to be able to show he had connections that that were current in washington, d.c. that had helped him. having those connections. let's not forget he had made tens of millions of dollars from authoritarian regimes and oligarchs all over the world particularly in the former soviet states based on his

connections to the reagan administration. here was a chance for him top potentially make more money. obviously not only did that not work out, it has redowned to his detriment. >> if all these alleged bad dudes, mueller has the baddest attitude about paul manafort. he served that warranty at his house in the middle of the night. he doesn't like this guy. it may it be manafort is holding out because he doesn't have a good deal. >> what's the worse news for the other guy, trump or manafort? who has brought more trouble to the other guy's doorstep? they both hurt each other. bad chemistry. thank you. coming up, are we starting to see signs is something might get done been guns in florida's governor is calling for raising the minimum age to 21. with the nr app against that, also republicans go alonging? you call that one. that's ahead. plus, as the political debate hinges on the red hot issues of

guns and immigration, is there room in the democratic party for a moderate pro business candidate for president? we'll meet the first democrat running for the white house in 2020 and find out how he plans to beat donald trump. and much more from trump at cpac today. he attacked john mccain. compared immigrants to snakes. and fed red meat to his base. classic stuff from a guy who knows how to keep his 35% happy. finally, lets me finish with my hero for black history month. this is "hardball" where action is. on sale for just $69, now is the time to discover yours. you can find out where you get... ...your precision... ...your grace... ...your drive. and now, with more than 150 ethnic regions to connect to, only ancestrydna can put your greatness on full display. save 30% now at ancestrydna.com.

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starting today. the move threatens kushner who has been operating with an interim clearance for over a year. here's the president today. >> jared's done an outstanding job. he's been treated very unfairly. he's a high quality person. he works for nothing. nobody reports that but he gets zero. general kelly respects jared a lot and general kelly will make that call. i won't make that call. i will let the general who is right here make that call. but jared's doing some very important things for our country. he gets paid zero. >> we'll be right back. some air fresheners are so overwhelming, they can...

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welcome back to "hardball." teachers and staff today returned to stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida, ahead of the school's reopening coming next wednesday. while they returned to their classrooms, president trump was telling his audience at cpac today some of those teachers should become armed guards, as

well. let's watch him. >> there's nobody that loves the second amendment more than i do. and there's nobody that respects the nra, they're friends of mine, they backed us all. they're great people. it's time to make our schools a much harder target. people that are adept, adept with weaponry and with guns. and this may be 10% or 20% of the population of teachers, et cetera. it's not all of them. this crazy man who walked in wouldn't even know who it is that has it. that's good. it's not bad. that's good. and a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. >> up to a point he brought up again, the same point he brought up during his press conference with the prime minister of australia. >> very, very important that we have offensive capability as well as defensive capability. that's within the schools because when you have a gun free

zone, you're invite people to come in and do whatever you have to do. >> arming teachers is the most controversial proposal the president has made. he's also teased that that right teased support for stronger background checks for gun purchases, raising the minimum wage for buying an assault rifle as well as a ban on bump stock. since the horrifying massacre in florida, the president has been more open to talking about gun control. it's an open question whether or not he's going to do anything. according to "the washington post," the president is eager to be seen as leading the debate but he is reluctant to spurn the nra outright and has been in frequent touch with chris koch, the nra's top lob whyist. it worked with daca, say something now, do nothing later. let's watch that act. >> i have a great heart for the folks we're talking about, a great love for them. i have a love for these people and hopefully now congress will be able to help them and do it

properly. whether they have a little company or whether they work, whatever they're doing, if they do a great job, i think it's a nice thing to have the incentive of after a period of years being able to become a citizen. >> this should be a bipartisan bill. this would be a bill of love, truly, it should be a bill of love. we can do that. >> for more i'm joined by joy reid host of am joy on the weekends and elise jordan, political analyst. thank you, joy. i want to start with the teachers. i have a very interesting theory about the teachers. i think what he's setting up is something he knows the teachers unions and teachers and common sense is never going to happen. they're not going to put guns into holsters. if you were a kid in school, i can imagine going back, you would be watching the teacher and saying where is the gun. he's got it in the right-hand side on the holster. you never take your eye off that gun the whole class hour. it would be obsessive to you. it's never going to happen. he says nba star s youhave to go

through a metal detecter to see a basketball game. we don't have the basketball players carrying guns or the pop stars carrying guns. we have guards. it's insane teachers teaching while they're showing their gun to somebody. is that just so when hell breaks loose again in six months or a year from now, he can say it's not my fault. they didn't have a gun in the classroom. i told them to. i think that's what he is up to it protects him politically. >> i agree. it also allows him to give the nra what they want which is a massive gun buying program in every public in america would be lucrative to the gun industry. trump has no experience with public schools. he didn't go to public schools. he doesn't even understand how they work. the idea that an armed sheriff's deputy who was the sro in the stoneman douglas high school couldn't stand there and take incoming fire from an ar-15 but you know, the lunch lady could do it, it's insane.

everybody understands that armed teachers, armed with locked up guns in school will be found by the kids. they'll get to them. then you'll have the shooters an choir the gun in school. the idea is absurd. you and i both know parents of public school kids and my kids went to school in broward county, i would never send my kids to a school where random teachers and the lunch lady and janitor are packing. absolutely not. >> you've said it right. elise in, my limited police training when i worked on hill, i was told, the obvious thing, if you're confronting somebody else with a gun, your life's at stake. you're shaken. no matter how cool you are, cool hand luke, you're dealing with your own life. yet, you need training for that, running around the block, creating simulation of what it's like to be under incredible pressure. and to a teacher that's got their mind on you know, 1620 and what happened with the pilgrims and at the same time, they're

psychologically ready to pull that gun out and shoot, it isn't the same person. maybe i'm wrong. maybe there are such people. >> you think of all the negligent discharges that there are in the military and those are men and women who have been through advanced training to handle weapons and the idea we are going to arm a significant portion of teachers in america seems ludicrous. i wonder how many teachers who already have that train would go actually want to bring their guns on campus as is. >> that's trouble. while the president and the nra seem to think arming teachers is a good idea, not everyone agrees. watch. >> i don't support that. i would admit i answer that as much as a father as i do as a senator. the notion that my kids are going to school with teachers armed with a weapon is not something that i'm comfortable with. >> half cocked, harebrained, really toxic lunacy is the way to describe the idea of arming 10% to 40% of all the teachers

in this country. >> i think it's a very, very, very bad idea. where do i put the gun? in my pocket in a holster, in my desk? is it locked up somewhere? i am in the profession to teach. i did not sign up to be s.w.a.t., to be a policeman, to be in the army, whatever. certainly other teachers i've discussed this with all think this is a very bad idea. >> joy, start with you on other part of it. i've watched a pattern in politics. bill clinton did it in a totally different way. you can say anything you want right now and do anything you want later. the attention changes. situations get in the way. under pressure now, trump will say i'm for bump stock banning and probably something, we may raise the age to 21 to buy an assault rifle and maybe we'll do something on the magazine size, too. two or three months from now, he'll do the same thing he did with daca. he was loving daca to death. i cherish those young people. two or three weeks later, as long as we do something on

family refunfication and get rid of the diversity lottery. all this other stuff. so i get the feeling he'll say all this stuff now and will stop saying it and play some other game. i don't believe he's committed to any safety effort. >> he just said it at cpac. the nra pays me and help with my campaign. they support us. rick scott is doing the same thing trying to stop the pain right now. the nra is losing relationships with corporate america right now. by the way, these kids are the newtown kids but teenaged who can talk back who can speak for themselves. they're under tremendous pressure right now trying to relieve that pressure in the moment. these people are not committed to the one thing could you do which is stop the sale of these weapons of war that a 19-year-old can get their hands on easier than sudafed. >> as frank sinatra, whatever gets you through the night. that's the way trump behaves. amid it the outcry for action, a number. >> very prominent american companies have begun to back

away from their ties to the nra. i didn't know they had ties including hertz, alamo and chubb which will no longer underwrite an insurance policy for nra gun owners. oregon's legislature passed a law panning people convicted of stalking, domestic violence or under restraining ordersing from buying or owning firearms. elise, that seems very mild mannered. i didn't know the number of companies were giving mileage points and whatever and membership benefits to nra members for being nra members. they were giving bonus points for being a gun supporter. >> chris, i wouldn't underestimate the grassroots support for the nra. they have a strong membership base that really is energized in a lot of single issue voters. certainly corporate america is going to do whatever they can to appeal to any large block like the nra.

it was significant today those organizations choz to severe their support. >> chris, i would guess that very few if any of those members are teenagers and young people. the nra's problem is the next generation and the generation after that who have grown up having to do the mass shooter drills are not going to support this extremist agenda of the nra and the entire culture is moving in the kids direction in a way from wayne lapierre and company. >> thank you so much, joy reid. joy is the best. not just on weekends. elise jordan, thank you for coming on, as well. up next, as we saw today, trump has full command of his base. how do you beat him? could the answer be a moderate pro business candidate, someone closer to the center? we'll meet the first candidate running for president on the democratic side coming up, this is "hardball" where the action is. we may be 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.

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i'll use the word my administration has proposed to me. my administration i think has had the most successful first year in the history of the presidency. our economy is blazing. jobs are at a record level. even they have to give credit for the kind of numbers that we're producing. nobody has ever seen anything like it. they used to give the best speech of cpac. do they do that still?

you'd better pick me or i'm not coming back. >> welcome back. that was president trump bragging about how great he thinks his presidency is. today cpac's speech was reminiscent what a trump rally was like in 2016, full of boasting to his base, an early glimpse what a trump campaign will look like in 2020, a race that will likely take off right after the midterms this november. i'm joined by maryland congressman john delaney, the first democrat i know of to announce his candidacy against dot com 2020. how do you beat this guy face-to-face? hillary clinton and other talented people, when they get on the stage with him, he tends to overpower them. >> you have to push back. half of what he just said if not more was not true and tell the american people what you're going to do for them. it's got to be what we're going to do for them. when he says the kind of stuff he just said which is isn't true, you've got to call him out for it. >> i remember in the '60s and later, jobs, jobs, jobs,

humphrey and kennedy, we'll create jobs and put people to work. how come i don't hear it. >> it's a mistake. how we've done in the elections it's obvious. we're the party of the working philly. whenever we're not talking about someone's jobs, their pay and the opportunities for their kids which is as important, the american dream, we have to be the party of the american dream. we ought to have a darn good reason. >> when are we going to build this country? we have the worst railroads in the world. they're a joke, nothing compared to the rest of the world. everything -- you go to berlin, they have the greatest civil engineering and bridges and stuff like that. we're like third rate. >> at this point, they have a functioning government and we don't. hyper partisan politics is tearing us apart. the problem is. >> eisenhower was a president with a democratic congress built the interstate highway system. >> because we focused on what was going on in the world and prepared our country for the

future. we don't do that any more in politics. what the president is doing he's not focused on the future, not preparing the country for the future. >> is your party doing that? >> i think our policies are much more in line. >> is your party talking about jobs. >> i am. >> democrats had a largely progressive message in 2016 watch bernie and hillary in 2016. >> imagine, every single home in america being powered by renewable energy within the next ten years. imagine every kid in america has potential being able to be go to college regardless of their zip code. >> we want to let students refinance their student loans. raise the minimum wage. equal pay for equal work. tougher rules so the big banks can't crash the economy again. >> i want each and every one of you to march right in and to demand that the democratic party makes it clear that it is on the

side of working people, not wall street. >> what are you going to do when they puts their hands in the debates? you're out there spending money on advertisement in iowa for the caucuses. they'll say who here is for single pair? what are you going to say. >> for every american having health care. >> government run program. >> i think americans want choice. everyone should have health care as a right. i'm for everyone having health care. >> you're against single pair. >> i'm against the single pair. >> you made the point. what about free college in bernie and the rest of them saying free college. >> community college. >> free college. >> i think community college or some kind of training after high school should be free. just like i think prek. >> not free college. >> not four-year college. >> what about gun control? getting rid of the ar-15? >> yes. >> abortion. >> pro-choice. >> how about the 20-week thing? >> listen, i stand for women's reproductive --

>> you wouldn't be for beyond 20 weeks. >> you mean late term. >> i didn't vote for it. >> okay. what about tax reform? did you like this bill? >> no, i didn't vote for this bill. >> what would you be for? >> there were parts of the bill that were good. fixing the international tax system. they fixed that. they should have pared that with fra structure. they should have cut the corporate to 25. the business community lobbed. $100 billion. imagine if we would have had $400 billion toward infrastructure. >> you're in the nuance. are you a moderate pro business democrat. >> are you a moderate pro business democrat? people like -- >> i have nothing against being called a moderate. >> elizabeth warren is pretty much against wall street. bernie is against wall street. they make strident statements against wealth in the business world up in new york,

dealmakers. are you like them? are you suspicious of the market. >> no, i'm not suspicious of the market. hugh can you be for jobs and not be for the private economy business in this country? i true i to achieve things that progressives have long fought for but do it by working with the private economy and embracing the power of the free market system. that's how we get the best results. >> you'll be there when everybody's putting their hands up for single pair, for free college and you'll be saying i got to think about that one. >> i don't have to think about it. i gave you my answer. >> a moderate pro business democrat. john delaney, first guy in the field. up next, donald trump may add all his greatest hits today at cpac. he touted a plan to arp teachers, went after senator john mccain and even compared immigrants to snakes. he said they are snakes. that's one way to keep that base fat and happy. you're watching "hardball."

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what's with the coffee maker? 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.

>> by the way, what a nice picture that is. look at that, i'd love to watch that guy speak. oh, boy. i try like hell to hide that bald spot, folks. i work hard at it. doesn't look bad. hey, we're hanging in. by the way, you don't mind if i go off script a little bit because it's sort of boring. a little boring. >> interactive, welcome back to. that was president trump playing to a crowd at cpac. that's the conservative political action committee. certainly showing his showmanship. he also touted administration's accomplishments as he see them mocking john mccain unbelievably in the process. >> except for one senator who came into a room at 3:00 in the morning and went like that, we would have had health care, too.

we would have had health care, too. boy, oh, boy, who was that? i don't know, i don't know. i don't know. i don't want to be controversial. so i won't use his name. >> the president also resurrected one of the staples of his campaign comparing immigrants to poisonous snakes. let's watch. >> this is called the snake. and think of it in terms of immigration. i saved you, cried the woman. and you've bitten me. heaven's why. oh, shut up, silly woman. said the reptile with a grin. you knew damn well i was a snake before you took me in. that's what we're doing with our country, folks. we're letting people in and it's going to be a lot of trouble. >> isn't he married to an immigrant? i mean, i don't know if he doesn't make these connections. the "hardball" roundtable, jeff

bent net, malcolm nance terrorism analyst and fran chess cas chambers from the dai dailymail.c dailymail.com. i watched every bit of it. it's part of our job. i thought it was a show worthy of vaudeville. it was a great show. he should be sitting in one of the trunks with all the labels on it, what cities he's been to. it's a show. talk about snakes. dreamers is a romantic notion that the progressives have come up for people who are here because their parents brought them here. snakes. i just want to focus on that because i go back to the real evil of what he does and when he called his predecessor the president, president obama an illegal immigrant. what's it about that? why does snake work? >> well. >> sneaky. >> using the snake poem as an al goer for immigrants who come to the country. >> my point is again, the president does not like to challenge his core supporters on the things they care most about, whether it's immigration or

health care or gun control. so the president on one day says he wants a daca bill with heart and in front of a group of conservative activists rolls out this -- >> malcolm, everybody knows the immigration thing is both peschell and border -- when you work with the people, if you have them working for you or doing any kind of work, you realize even the people that get here with nothing going for them, they've got a skill. they can paint. they've learned enough to make a living here. the idea the poorest most desperate that come here are not ready to work is crazy. maybe the next generation won't be as hard working. when you get here, you're the hardest working person in the country. >> i think he uses that snake to be an insidious term like snake in the grass. >> who likes snakes anywhere. >> you know that's just herpetologists. but he is really making this as he said an al goer that these are enemies who are infiltrating their way into our society.

this entire nation except for the natives are immigrants. it's insulting to everybody. >> not all by their own choosing. > back to alexander hamilton. he was an immigrant. so why. >> melania. it's ironic. >> her chain migration. this is just absolutely insulting to american people. >> here's what he does. he plays on the good intuition we have of compassion. even if you're a conservative on immigration issues, you still go, but individually, i like these people. individually i think they're here to work hard. i want to help them. individually maybe we have to have rules. he says if you've got compassion, you're that stupid lady that liked that snake. the snake. in other words, he's attacking your compassion towards immigrants as the way that you're the fool. that's what's interesting about this al goer to the story. >> i'm with jeff here. this was vintage trump. he used to read the snake on the campaign trail for people not familiar with his rallies.

he loved to go into this poem. this isn't the first time he brought it up. you saw hip getting riled up by the audience. it's a very -- his people. and then, do you want me to read it? okay, i guess i will. you're making me. and they're riling him up. he was up there a long time past the amount he was supposed to be. he was having a great time. i think part of the reason. >> why john mccain? the man's in bad health right now. he may not make it back to the capitol. >> he realized that and he did not say him by name. >> everybody knows it was him. >> what is interesting about that obviously, he did that at a conference for republicans for conservatives. i think that comment alone reflects how much the conservative movement has moved from where it was to being the movement of donald trump. >> the roundtable sticking it with us. up next, we'll cap off this week's celebration of black history month. each member of this roundtable will tell us their hero in

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we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. this week we're celebrating black history month asking each of our guests to tell us which african-american figure has most inspired them personally. jeff is first. >> lucille bridges is the mother of ruby bridges who was the 6-year-old who integrated the all white elementary school in the south back in the '60s. the reason i mention her is because i saw a picture not long ago that featured her mother. you could see in her eyes the steely resolve on her face as she walked her daughter, 6 years old through a gauntlet of evil personified. >> of hate. it reminded me of all the contributions made to the civil rights movement by particularly black women who are the unsung heros and provide the moral backbone to that movement.

>> vivian malone is another one. >> malcolm? >> well, mine, of course, is a spy. one of the first double agents in u.s. history. by the name of james lafayette. james am i stead lafayette. he took the name because the marquise de lafayette being with george washington infiltrated him into the camp of british general corn wallace, made him his personal aide. he actually was used by the british to go back and spy on the americans. the americans gave them false information. he took real information. and at the battle of york town when they lost, he went back to the marquise dough lafayette and at the surrender general corn wallace said you've not only taken my sword but my aid. he said he has been mine the whole time, sir. a complete double agent. >> francesca. >> i'm going old school. i really, really already look up to harriet tubman. i thault always thought what she did was really inspiring.

when the going gets tough, the tough get going. she's a really good role model for young women. >> what did she do? >> the underground railroad. >> say it out loud. >> a spy, too. underground railroad. she made 13 missions. >> tell me what the underground railroad was. >> it was brought slaves from slave states into the north and they were in safehouses and helped them get out of slavery. >> all the way to canada, right? >> sometimes really far. she, of course, has some ties to my home state kansas and john brown. i went to school in lawrence which was burned down during that amount of time. so something that's important to me. >> john brown looks good in history, too. thank you. malcolm and francesca. let me finish tonight with my own hero for black history month. you're watching "hardball." i just got my cashback match,

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let me finish tonight with black history month. you heard our roundtable talk about which figures inspired them, lucille bridges, harriet tubman. all week we've celebrated african-americans in history. watch. >> toni morrison, she was the first african-american to win a nobel prize for literature. >> barbara jordan was a trailblazer, a political figure ahead of her time. >> catherine johnson who graduated from college at 18, was a mathematical genius. >> clarence jones is a lawyer

who was martin luther king's lawyer. >> reese see taylor a sharecropper from alabama who was gang raped by six white man. >> coleman young. >> i chose gwen ifill. >> we respected black journalist la reason bennett. >> because it's baseball season, i want jackie robinson. >> a leader who as a young student rode buss in the south to stand up to entrenchesed forces. and that's john lewis. >> as a journalist, chris, i'm going to look to w.e. b. du bois. >> it's that kind of person who builds our cities, who saves our communities. >> i da clark. can you google her. >> yes, you can. she was my grandmother i would like to suggest another name, the great entertainer harry bellefonte. he played an enormous role in the movement out front and off stage. he was able to work with political figures while never giving up his militancy, his

credibility with the activists led by dr. king. that's "hardball" for now this week. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> lock her up. lock her up. lock her up. >> as they cheered at cpac -- >> pleading guilty. >> blood money. >> yet another top trump aide pleats guilty. this time to conspiracy against the united states. >> why are you pleading guilty? >> tonight, what we know about the fifth guilty plea in the mueller probe. what the flipping of rick gates means for paul manafort. just what were these two up to with their massive alleged money laundering ring? and how it may all tie back to the president. >> that's what he said. that's what i said. that's obviously what the, our position is. >> plus, the mass corporate exodus away from the nra as the president fully aligns himself with gun dealers