tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC March 21, 2018 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT
6:00 pm
muslim violence easily gets categorized. and we have ignored this rising threat, which law enforcement has identified. >> all right, josh barro, faisa patel, it was great. that is "all in" for this evening. the rachel maddow show begins now. thanks for joining us. n not long after the united states was attacked by al qaeda on 9 , 9/11, the united states did something. less than two years after 9/11, the u.s. government pulled american troops and american bases out of saudi arabia. and it is an awkward thing in u.s. foreign policy that doesn't get talked about all that loudly. people who were part of the george w. bush administration or supporters of that administration particularly don't like to talk about the fact that after 9/11, bin laden
6:01 pm
got the most specific item on his list of grievances against the united states, got it checked off the list by the george w. bush administration. that is what happened. during the first gulf war when george bush's father was president, over half a million troops had been based in saudi arabia. saudi bases were the launching pad for attacks to defend kuwait against the forces of hussain. after the first gulf war was over, thousands of troops stayed on those saudi bases thereafter. but in 2003, less than two years after 9/11, saudi government asked, and the u.s. government acceded and handed over the presence sultan a prince sultan air base. where the united states decided to move its big, new, permanent air base in that part of the
6:02 pm
world was out of saudi arabia out of 9/11 and instead, into the nation of qatar. the air base in qatar is now the home of centcom. and it is not in a war zone, but their is the permanent site of u.s. military headquarters for the middle east. cut tar. cut t qatar is a very small country and rich country, and for years it has been lome -- home to this u.s. headquarters. and since the trump administration has been in office, one of the unusual and as yet unexplained u-turns taken by this administration and this president in particular has to do with qatar. almost on a dime, basically with no warning, the trump
6:03 pm
administration decided they were going to take a remarkably hostile turn against this country where we've got this giant base. they were going to take this sudden, non-previewed turn against qatar. >> five nations cutting ties with qatar, accusing that country of supporting terror. qatar is a key ally in the fight against isis. today president trump decided to side with its accusers. we get more from andrea mitchell. >> reporter: tonight, only weeks after the president heralded his success at uniting the arab world in saudi arabia. the president lavishly praising the premier of qatar. but today the president turning against him, praising the saudis, who in a sudden move are leading an area coalition,
6:04 pm
cutting off qatar by air and sea. they claim that qatar sides with extremists which they deny. it's home to a key u.s. base with 8,000 u.s. service members, flying airstrikes against isis and missions in afghanistan. >> what was not just unexpected but a little weird about that hard turn by the president against qatar was that it sort of felt like it came out of nowhere, not just for those of us observing in the outside, but even from inside the u.s. government. it was the policy of the u.s. government to oppose that block cade of qatar. rex tillerson had publicly stated the u.s. was against that blockade on qatar. he had called for the countries that they shouldn't do it, but the president just brew thlew t. it was a surprise to people inside the administration,
6:05 pm
outside the administration. this is a dramatic associated press report about what happened at the time. quote, aides to president trump were in deep talks with how to defuse tensions between qatar and other arab nations when the door to the secure room at the white house burst open. the urgent message? trump had just tweeted about qatar. one read it aloud and the policymakers had no other choice but to rework their plans to reflect the president's tweeted assertion. that nation was funding terrorism. it was an assertion that had never been announced with such indelicacy. >> this was just a strange moment in trump administration year one. what was all that about in what was that big, fast, abrupt turn
6:06 pm
against qatar? we've got this base in it qatar, it's use policy to support qatar. u.s. policy specifically to hold off other countries giving qatar a hard time. and then the president just, woo, 180, hostile turn. now we're going to support this blockade by saudi arabia and uae against qatar. why was that? any number of possibilities have since emerged. it has since emerged for example that jared kushner's family real estate company had repeatedly approached cut tar -- qatar to get money for the family real estate business. one approach was through a former prime minister of qatar. they thought they were going to get that one. they thought they were going to get $500 million from this former prime minister. and the prime minister said no.
6:07 pm
and tom bearic was reportedly familiar with those negotiations and said that jared's dad, charles kushner, was quote, crushed when the qatari former prime minister turned down that request for funds. they thought it was going to be $500 million, and it was nothing. the intercept then reported on a second meeting april 17, once again between jared's dad and the qataris, but this time it was with the serving finance minister of qatar. jared's dad, charles kushner, had again asked for a big cqatai investment. and the "intercept" reported that the qataris said no. he confirmed that that meeting between him and the qatari finance minister, he confirmed that this meeting did actually take place, but he has a
6:08 pm
different explanation for why that meeting happened and what it was all about. he's now telling the "washington post" that he didn't go to the meeting to ask the qataris for money. he went to that meeting to turn them down when they were trying to give him money and he didn't want it. hmm? jared kushner's father met with the finance minister three months after president trump's inauguration. a meeting at the st. regis hotel, and a family project was discussed. however, charles kushner says he turned down possible funding. he told the post, even if they were there ready to wire the money, we wouldn't have taken it. it seems a little, is awkward the right word? kushner companies would spend a couple years trying to get millions of dollars out of qatar, being crushed when they'd been turned down, and then a couple months later, qatar's
6:09 pm
ready to offer them more money and curb nkushner takes the meeo say no, we don't want the money? it is bizarre to consider the family real estate interests of an adviser when you're trying to figure out policies. there is incredible, practical overlap between the kushner family business and their efforts to secure foreign financing for their new york city real estate holdings. there's incredible overlap between that and ongoing international effort and the countries that jared kushner has been dealing with in a foreign capacity since he became adviser. because of that overlap, however crazy it feels to talk about it, it's impossible to discuss out of hand that possibly the u.s. government took this radical and unexplained turn against qatar
6:10 pm
is because qatar wouldn't give jared's family any money. and now they're mad at qatar, so it's u.s. policy to all of a sudden be against qatar. is it possible that's what happened? maybe that is one potential explanation. in that's tr if that's true, that would be an explanation about money people inside the trump administration wanted and were denied. tonight there is another explanation. and that explanation is not about money being denied to people in the white house. it's about money flowing into the white house. foreign money, flowing in, in great quantities. and the new reporting from the "times", devirives from the robt mueller investigation. we got new reports about a cooperating witness.
6:11 pm
they introduced america to a new guy, new figure in the mueller investigation whose name hadn't been widely previously known. george nater. in the ensuing months sense he g -- since he got his name in the paper, it seems like he is linked to some stuff. he was reportedly involved in that meeting that took place during the presidential transition in the seychelles islands, involving erik prince, who is the brother of education secretary betsy devos, a major trump donor. that appeared to be an effort to set up some sort of back channel communication between the trump transition and vladimir putin's office. erik prince was reportedly there as an emissary from trump and an emissary for putin.
6:12 pm
george natsder was reportedly there at that meeting. so, okay, that's one way in which he factors in. we had previously heard about that meeting. that makes sense that a guy involved in that meeting would turn up. but it also brought up a whole bunch of new characters and dynamics and story lines that we've never heard before, that we've never heard about certainly related to the mueller investigation before the last couple weeks. george nader is reportedly an adviser to the crown prince, the de facto ruler of uae, united arab emirates. mueller has been using george nader as a cooperating witness because he's looking at the possibility that money has been flowing into donald trump's political operation from uae, from united arab emirates. that's a whole new idea for this scandal. george nader also turns out to be linked to a man named elliot
6:13 pm
brady. he was a colorful figure already on the fringes of trump world. mr. brady once pled guilty to a felony bribery charge in a very famous scandal where he paid huge bribes to new york state officials to get business for his firm. those officials went to jail. he became a cooperating witness for the government and initially pled guilty to a felony that was reduced to a misdemeanor. but he was the guy who paid the bribes. that made it a scandal when he turned up as a major trump donor and named deputy chairman of the rnc. but now in this george nader era that we're in, that same guy, elliot brady, turns up as a defense contractor. a defense contractor? i thought he was a wall street
6:14 pm
briber. he has very recently received hundreds of millions in contracts from uae, arranged by his new friend, george nader, who he just met at the trump inauguration. boy, that's a quick turn around, trump wasn't inaugurated all that long ago. you didn't know this guy before the inauguration and now he just set you up with hundreds of millions of dollars in defense contracts? how long ago did you plead guilty to that felony? why is this trump fund raiser, a deputy chair of the rnc, a guy who head lined a fundraiser for the president, why is this guy all of a sudden getting hundreds of millions of dollars from the uae, and why is the robert mueller investigation investigating money potentially flowing from the uae into president trump's political operation, and why is the mueller operation's latest cooperating witness a guy who was an adviser to the government of the uae?
6:15 pm
and as the trump administration takes this inexplicable, hard, out of the blue turn against uae's archenemy in the east, qatar, does that have anything to do with this strange new influence of uae in the trump administration? well, the "new york times" sort of breaks this open tonight. quote, a cooperating witness in the special counsel investigation worked for more than a year to turn a top trump f fund raiser into an instrument of influence for the rulers of saudi arabia and united arab emirates. citing interviews, the times says what's revealed here is quote, an active effort to cultivate president trump on behalf of saudi arabia and uae. these two oil-rich arab monarchies. high on the agenda of the two men, george nader and elliot brady was pushing the white house to remove rex tillerson and to back a confrontational
6:16 pm
approach to both iran and qatar. rex tillerson of course was fired last week, and the president has adopted tough approaches to both iran and cut tar. mr. nader tempted with $1 billion in contracts and helped deliver deals from the united arab emirates. the times has reportedly seen documents supporting these huge contracts which they have arranged in short order for the trump fundraiser but describe a $2.7 million payment through a variety of pass-through companies. now what these two were reportedly working on, according to their correspondents was number one, getting rid of rex tillerson, check, number two, taking a hard, hard new line against qatar, check, despite the fact that we have a base there with thousands of u.s. troops on it. among other things, the times reports that they also discussed blocking a u.s. veteran diplomat
6:17 pm
in ann henderson from taking a top pentagon job. the key question here is not whether these guys have been able to get what they want out of the trump administration. all sorts of people get all sorts of things that they want for all sorts of reasons that are more or less legal, right? but if we're talking about a foreign government paying for those outcomes, that's very bray tantsly illegal. if that's the case, if a foreign government also been paying off trump administration or top officials to get what they want from the u.s. government, you would need somebody close to that scheme, you'd need somebody close to the inside of that kind of an operation to help prosecutors follow the money. the other news that david kirkpatrick has broken in the "new york times" tonight not only has george nader become a cooperating witness, according to the "new york times," mueller's prosecutors have just called him back for an additional round of testimony. nader was apparently overseas
6:18 pm
when they called him back. george nader's lawyer confirmed to us today that he's been back and for the between the united states and the united arab emirates. he was called back from overseas for a second round of testimony as of last week. and, they add this, crucially. quote, mr. nader has been granted immunity. in a deal for his cooperation with the special counsel. i believe this is the first time we've had any reporting about mueller's investigators offering immunity to anyone in exchange for something other than a guilty plea. joining us now is mark mizety, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> so you and your colleagues at the "times", introduced me to the concept of george nader in the first place. i feel like it's been a couple of weeks where we've had a big influx of reporting about him, and we are still trying to
6:19 pm
understand what role he may be playing in this investigation being carried out at the special counsel's office. let me ask you if i screwed anything up in that summary and what you think is most important about this new reporting. >> no, it was pretty thorough set up. i think that what we report tonight, one of the most interesting things is this sort of year-long campaign of influence that was going on with george nader and elliot brady to steer the trump administration on critical earn uissues of for policy in the middle east, on rex tillerson, on iran, how the saudi arabian government used these guys to influence the trump administration, and in turn, the correspondence shows that brady, who is the deputy rnc finance claihairman got ver
6:20 pm
rich. >> what's illegal here, obviously, influence in washington is something people pay a lot of money to pursue for different means. as seems clear in the materials that you say that you've reviewed, if this was money that may have come from the government of the united arab emirates being paid to people close to the trump administration, is that necessarily illegal? >> right, well, the laws about foreign lobbying and the influence of foreign governments are fairly murky, and as we are learning from the paul manafort saga, not often enforced. you know, you have to register as a foreign agent, if you're tareki taking money on behalf of a foreign government. but there's ways around these rules. elliot did not register as a foreign agent for his work, and he says in an at the same tista
6:21 pm
he was not lobbying for these governments, he was acting as a patriot and did not have to register. there's clearly a gray area on these laws, and we're also learning from the manafort episode is that the government may take a greater interest in this and maybe in fact mueller investigation may take a greater interest in this. >> you report that mr. nader has been offered immune its inity i for his cooperation with the special counsel. that's the first we've heard of anyone given immunity other than people who pled guilty in federal court. are we clear that mr. nader hasn't been charged? is it possible there's a sealed indictment against him, that he's got some other legal entanglement here with the mueller investigation? or is this just a straight cooperation for immunity deal?
6:22 pm
>> we brielieve it's straight cooperation. he is a, i don't want to say a central figure, but he is a, seems to be an important witness in this investigation, not only for questions about what happened before the election, before president trump was elected, but what's been going on in the first year of the administration in terms of how foreign governments were trying to influence the white house in steering foreign policy. >> "new york times," washington journalist, mark mizzetti. stay with us. aah! ...i would have said you were crazy. but so began the year of me. i discovered the true meaning of paperless discounts... and the indescribable rush of saving drivers an average of $620. why does fear feel so good?
6:23 pm
i fell in love three times -- once with a woman, once with a country, and finally... with myself. -so, do you have anything to declare or not? -isn't that what i'm doing? -so, do you have anything to declare or not? or you could you cexperience it for realnship at the lexus command performance sales event. lease the 2018 es 350 for $339 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.
6:24 pm
looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. ethat's the height ofs mount everest. because each day she chooses to take the stairs. at work, at home... even on the escalator. that can be hard on her lower body, so now she does it with dr. scholl's orthotics. clinically proven to relieve and prevent
6:25 pm
6:26 pm
nbc news justice correspondent pete williams just taped an extensive interview with the fbi director, chris wray, which is fascinating on a bunch of different levels. he tells pete that president trump has never personally pressured him about the russia investigation. it seems very important to have him on the record about that.
6:27 pm
director wray also goes on at length about what he sees as the important non-partisan nature of the fbi and the crucial independence of the fbi. that also seems important right now, to have him on the record about that, especially after the firing of the fbi's deputy director following months of pressure and taunting of him by the president. we're going to post those comments from chris wray online tonight if you want to see that. we don't hear from the fbi director all that often except when he's doing congressional testimony. but in addition to him talking about those big foundational issues for the fbi, this remarkable time for the bureau, with the president, the white house attacking the fbi regularly, chris wray has also had some very specific remarks about something the fbi and homeland security department jointly announced and warned about just a few days ago. >> you and the department of homeland security put out a report last week detailing
6:28 pm
russian efforts to hack into infrastructure, power plants, utilities, the power grid water systems. what do you think the russians were up to there? were they trying to say, see what we can do? so you don't try it with us? what was happening there? >> well, the cyber attack that you're referring to, the, i think first i would say it was the real deal. it's something we take very seriously. i don't know that i want to -- and we're very confident in our attribution of it to the russian government. >> calling the hacking the real deal, saying the fbi is taking it very seriously. they issued this urgent technical alert about that russian attack on power plants. so russia could basically have the ability to turn the american
6:29 pm
electric fr electric grid on and off at will. that alert was issued less than a week ago. and as you saw director wray say that's correct the attribution is that this is a russian government attack. and that attribution is rock solid. we are very confident in our attribution of it to the russian government. because of the timing, because that was such a recent alert from fbi and home land security, because of how serious this is that they gave us this alert about, and because of that rock solid attribution of it to the russian government, it is notable. it is of interest that when president trump made his surprise, congratulatory phone call to the russian president yesterday, apparently that didn't come up at all. we also know, thanks to this freaking unbelievable reporting from the "washington post" last night, that in trump's briefing materials for that call to putin, his snasnational securit advisers cloud one instruction in all capital letters "do not
6:30 pm
congratulate." nevertheless, he persisted. he offered his congratulations any way. and we're also told that before this call, with putin, trump was directed to make sure that he condemned putin for that poisoning in the uk, that poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter with a powerful russian nerve agent on the streets of britain, a tack th -- an attack that the uk, the european union and the white house agree was carried out by russia. the president didn't follow those instructions. and a couple of things have happened sen happened since then. we told on the program last night that there was basically a panic in the white house after the call between trump and putin. she called it an omg moment about what are we going to say about this call? the white house trying to come up with ways to explain what happened, to justify what
6:31 pm
happened, to clean up after it. one of the things that has happened since that reporting broke last night is that we have apparently now seen some of the fruits of the cleanup effort. the white house today put out a very brief read out about a call between president trump and emmanuel macron, the president of france. look at this. this is the whole readout. quote, president donald j. trump spoke today with president macron of france. they reiterated their solidarity with the uk in the wake of russia's use of chemical weapons and agreed on the need to hold russia accountable. so he talked to russia yesterday, didn't say anything about the poisoning. but then today he talked to france, and he said hey, france, we got to make sure we're going to be super tough on russia about that poisoning, right? french president's like, it
6:32 pm
wasn't me. hey, tough guy. the other thing that has happened today, after this remarkable "do not congratulate" reporting, is a reported freakout about it in the white house, not just about the president's behavior but about who leaked it. who leaked this very specific detail about the materials, about what the president was told to say in that conversation with putin. who told reporters about what was on the president's note cards? i mean obviously, that's not the kind of material that circulates that wide limit there aren't that many people who have access to the content of the president's briefing materials but like the font size and can'tization of words in those materials. and it's an interesting personnel and palace intrigue story as to who might have called a reporter to exclaim whoever what ju over what just happened. but the bigger plot point here is not just who leaked it, who did it, but why? i mean, it is a small circle of
6:33 pm
people close to the president who would have had access to those specific briefing materials. from within that small circle, this looks like somebody leaked it to basically alert the public about what the president just did in that call. this looks like somebody close to the president, pulling the fire alarm, have you ever seen anything like that before in american governance? i have just the person to ask, next. dear great-great grandfat, you made moonshine in a backwoods still. smuggled booze and dodged the law. even when they brought you in, they could never hold you down. when i built my family tree and found you, i found my sense of adventure. i set off on a new life, a million miles away. i'm heidi choiniere, and this is my ancestry story. now with over 10 billion historical records, discover your story. get started for free at ancestry.com but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient
6:34 pm
originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. let's see. if this pack, and this pack, have the same number of bladder leak pads, i bet you think the bigger one is better, right? actually, it's bulkier. always discreet doesnneed all that bulk to protect. because it's made differently . the super absorbent core quickly turns liquid to gel, for drier protection that's a lot less bulky than poise. looks like good things really do come in small packages. always discreet. for bladder leaks.
6:35 pm
6:36 pm
we need to be ready for my name's scott strenfel and r i'm a meteorologist at pg&e. we make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california.
6:37 pm
the reason we know that the president ignored his natural security adviser's explicit warning not though -- not to congratulate vladimir putin this weekend is because somebody close to the president leaked that fact to the press. why did the adviser do that? we don't know. i think we can answer the question, though, of whether we have seen anything like that before. in terms of an american president having his advisers basically pull the fire alarm on he him on a matter of national security, basically alerting the public to a national security problem that derives from the president. has that ever happened before? joining us is michael bech loss. have we seen anything like this
6:38 pm
before? a president diverging pretty extremely from his national security team and then being aired publicly in the newspaper? >> occasionally, a president will go a little bit off message, and occasionally, as we well know, people around the president might leak something, but a call of this kind of importance and a leak so quickly and to basically say everyone had agreed that the president would call up putin and not congratulate him on this horrible, rigged election, and he did exactly that, congratulated him. so something this extreme we haven't seen before. >> if, if people around trump, if there's at least one person in the white house in the national security role, who is basically trying to pull the fire alarm here, to alert the public to his actions, is there anything that we can extrapolate from to understand what kind of an effect that might have on a president and his decision-making process? >> i think it might make him
6:39 pm
more suspicious of those around him and even less willing to take advice from people who may disagree. but the other thing is that hov whoever pulled the fire alarm -- that's a perfect metaphor -- that this is somebody who departed from the tradition of earlier presidents. sarah huckabee sanders trying to defend this said we don't get to dictate how other countries operate. that would have been really news to an awful lot of presidents who have tried to nudge countries in the direction of democracy, especially russia. >> it would have been flus news the president who is chastising venezuela about their departures from democratic norms. >> you are so right. >> presidents make alliance of convenience with all sorts of jerks and despots. they all do it for various
6:40 pm
reasons, strategy eic or person or long sighted or short-sighted. the putin wlove affair seems different, but is it just the latest iteration of what lots of presidents have done with bad guys over the years? is it different in terms of him quantifying a guy or overlooking the scary things about that guy, but it's really in the national interest? >> call with taitively different. when you have someone like josef stalin, they weren't always in lock step, saying that stalin was wonderful all the time. donald trump never criticizes putin, and we always have to ask, why is this happening? some people are saying maybe putin has something and the russians have something on trump. i think it may be something else. this is a month when two other leaders became leaders for life.
6:41 pm
one is vladimir putin, and that so-called election. and the other was president xi in china. and one of the ideas that trump talks about is america first with this idea that maybe the chinese will have a sphere of influence, the russians will have theirs, we will have ours. he joked about being president for life, said it was a joke. i think we always have to be suspicious that maybe in his mind this is not such a joke. >> that is dark. and probably necessary to hear. mike at beschloss, thank you for that discussion. >> my pleasure, be well. while this was burning, you were saving other homes. neighbors helping neighbors and strangers alike. - this is what america's about. - sometimes it's nice to see all the good that's out there. bringing folks out, we have seen it in community after community.
6:42 pm
digital transformation actually what does ithappen?o make do you just flip a switch... and presto your business is magically transformed? not quite. it takes a ground-breaking company like dell technologies. a family of seven technology leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible... reality. for instance, we're helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere. ♪ we're helping up to 40% of the nation's donated blood supply... to be redirected to the areas and people that need it most. and we're even developing technology to create a whole new vision for the blind. so while you might not see what we're doing... what we're doing is changing the way we all see the world.
6:43 pm
magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. let's make it real. we know that when you're spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why we show you exactly when we'll be there. saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ fthere's flonase sensimist.f up around pets.
6:44 pm
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. a heart transplant... that's a whole different ballgame. i was in shock. i am very proud of the development of drugs that can prevent the rejection and prevent the recurrence of the original disease. i never felt i was going to die. we know so much about transplantation. and we're living longer. you cannot help but be inspired by the opportunities that a transplant would offer. my donor's mom says "you were meant to carry his story". i never have more than within person on this sho-- onen this show. that's our general rule.
6:45 pm
that little rule of ours is out the window, next we have three people here all at the same time, but we're breaking the rule because you real he willy,, really want to hear these people. i'm pretty sure you admire the heck out of them. company says they'll only payce three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.
6:46 pm
and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack... ...or dying from one. don't stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor, since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don't take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. slow heart rhythm has been reported. tell your doctor about bleeding new or unexpected shortness of breath any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. if you recently had a heart attack, ask your doctor if brilinta is right for you. my heart is worth brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.
6:47 pm
6:48 pm
you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. on march 10th, former president barack obama sent a hand-written letter to the
6:49 pm
survivors of the shooting at parkland, florida. the website mike got a copy of the obamas' letter and it is very moving. to the student of parkland, we want you to know how inspired we have been. not only have you supported each other but have awakened the conscience of the nation. throughout our history, young people like you have led the country in making america better. you may feel like progress is slow in coming, but we have no doubt you are going to make an enormous difference in the days and years to come and we will be there for you. and it's signed by barak and michelle obama. now, in just a few days, on saturday, more than 500,000 are expected at a rally in
6:50 pm
washington, d.c. with another 800 satellite demonstrations. students of parkland came up with the idea and have been the driving force behind it, this march for our lives. joining this week. joining us now are three students of marjorie douglas high. thank you all for being here. i'm honored to meet all three of you. >> thank you for having us. >> so let me ask you, first, about the compliment from the former president and the former first lady. i know you heard it from not just them. but a lot of people feel like you're not just mpressive, you're sort of the hope. i wonder if that feels not just good, i wonder if it feels pressure. >> his letter is appreciated. he's shown so much respect current politicians have not shown.
6:51 pm
we all have hope because we've seen it from kids younger than us, also. i think our generation is going to be the change because we grew up with it we're not going to let future generations grow up with it also. >> we have all the pressure on our shoulders to make a change and we're only teenagers. we're not the ones that should have to make the change, it should be politicians. but now that we have the responsibility we're going to make sure we get it done. >> the reason that pressure is on you guys is because you earned it in a way. it's not an automatic thing that kids who are survivors of some tragedy like what happened at your school are then expected to become leaders of a national movement. you did that yourselves in the way that you decided to respond. i want some insight into how that happened and why your school is the place it came out that way. >> it kind of started with david. he pushed for speaking with fox,
6:52 pm
anyone who would listen, anyone who was at the school, he just kept the door open enough for the rest of us to show up. he gave people's names and cameron showed up and alex showed up. and everyone part of the movement now is there. we decided we know how this is going to end up. we know the politicians are going to say thoughts and prayers and that's all they're going to do. we want it to stop. it's time to stop the pattern. the definition of insanity is doing the sail thing over and over, and getting the same result. if they think there are people who are quote, unquote, crazy don't deserve guns. and people that claim that thoughts and prayers, and the second amendment is more important than children's lives, they should get a background check. >> and communities like parkland and close. orlando and los angeles it
6:53 pm
wasn't wasn't a centralized location. that's something we had. we can thank our teachers and faculty, that we have the voices they helped to create to make the change. >> there have been unexpected changes. i say unexpected in terms of policy since you guys started this movement. there were changes in florida law, signed into law by a governor previously bragging about his a plus rating by the nra. in the bill going forward are bills, including the cdc being allowed to study gun violence as a public health matter. these are things people have been fighting for for a long time and with a republican held congress and president, they seemed doubly impossible. so with those happening, does that give you satisfaction, do
6:54 pm
you know how you want to move next? >> it's a baby step toward the right direction. we're pushing for gun reform, in the bills we haven't seen that. we're thankful we've gotten done what we've gotten done. it's only been a little more than a month, but this is more than we've seen politicians make in this time. we're thankful for the baby steps it's not enough in our opinion. >> we want to address the fact that rick scott defy the lobby group he's endorsed by with the new bill. that miegght not have happened he wasn't running for reelection. because people want to sit in their term and get re-elected. we do understand it's a step in the right direction but not enough now. >> what's it like to be personally the focus of so much negative attention. i open up by talking about the
6:55 pm
admiration expressed to you by the former president and first lady. i know on this network that leans more to the left has been about being impressed by your activism what you've been able to accomplish. i know there has been a lot of personal attacks. i know you've been singled out. how are you coping with that? >> reporter: it's n. >> it's not hard to cope with. it's that was funny, let's move on. let's make a joke. most of us don't take it personally because at the end of the day, it's -- it's a stupid comment. we don't need to dignify it with a response. and when we want to dignify it with a response we're going to make it funny. that's the best way we can deal with the stuff. >> it's comical because they criticize us as individuals rather than what we're actually preaching because they can't see
6:56 pm
a fault in what we're saying so they have to go after us directly. >> one on one. has it created any tension among you? there's a fluid group and a lot of leaders. as it goes forward you have to decide what you're doing individually. you're here together. has it created tension? >> i don't think there's tension, other than like you ate my muffin, common day in the world place, spit spats. but at the end of the day we're going to end up on the couch watching "the office" to calm down from what happened recently. >> even though we're everywhere, we're never in the same city, which is mind blowing. we're in washington, new york, la, markland. somehow we manage to keep in touch with each other really well and we do organize with each other really well even
6:57 pm
though we're apart for so long. some of us haven't seen members of our group in weeks. it's crazy, but we're still in touch and we still organize. >> i wish you success, i wish you resilience, the continuing and life long ability to laugh at people who use opinions you don't care about who share them with you anyway. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. thank you for coming in tonight. good luck this weekend. they're right here, i know. kind of star struck. they're here with me. all right. we'll be right back. e... feet go here... you know what goes here... and your approval rating... goes here. test drive the ztrak z540r at your john deere dealer and learn why it's not how fast you mow, it's how well you mow fast. nothing runs like a deere. save 250 dollars when you test drive and buy a john deere residential z540r ztrak mower.
6:58 pm
6:59 pm
7:00 pm
600 votes on election night and when everything was done, he was up over 800 votes. still the republican refused to concede until tonight. connor lamb just tweeted, just got off the phone with rick saccone, who grated me and graciously conceded last tuesday's race. he will be sworn in next month. already he and rick saccone are campaigning for already what will come next in a newly drawn district in pennsylvania. this has been the race of the year thus far in the house and we might get a rematch. that does it for us tonight we'll see you tomorrow now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." hi, lawrence. >> where is steve kor knack knai
147 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC WestUploaded by TV Archive on
