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tv   Kasie DC  MSNBC  June 24, 2018 4:00pm-6:00pm PDT

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and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. /s welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. we are live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight, executive disorder. the president puts his pen to paper, but this nation's immigration policy mess isn't going to be fixed overnight. plus, i traveled to the border to talk exclusively with senator kamala harris. i asked her whether it's time to abolish i.c.e. and she said, we might need to start from scratch. and just in tonight, the washington post reports stormy
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daniels will meet with federal prosecutors tomorrow. but first, when we came on the air last week, the country was at an impasse. the president calling on congress to act on sweeping immigration legislation to end the separation of immigrant families at the border with mexico. the president insisting he couldn't fix it alone. republicans in congress were by and large horrified and for the first time since the president's election, they said president trump, you've gone too far. and with every senate democrat also taking a stand against the policy, the president signed an executive order ending the policy he started the week saying he was helpless to stop. and now we are back at the start of the cruel circle. families are still in flux. federal officials are struggling to keep up to reunite those families and congress has no clear plan to reform an immigration system that has needed repair for decades. with all this, i'd like to
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welcome in my panelment here with me on set, politics reporter for the daily beast and msnbc contributor betsy woodruff. washington bureau chief for vice news, shawna thomas and principal at koej entitle strategies kevin mclaughlin. president historian msnbc contributor and author of the soul of america, the battle for our better angels, john meacham. john, i want to come to you in a second to -- for a little bit of conversation about exactly which angels are in charge right at the moment. i want to start with you, shawna thomas, because this week i remember sitting here a week ago sunday and wondering if this was going to be the kind of story that was actually going to breakthrough, that wasn't just going to be another handful of minutes of news cycle and those pictures galvanized the country. they galvanized both parties. and the president was forced to back down. >> yeah, and i think some of that is you still have people going down to the sites outside of el paso and down in mcallen.
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you had members of congress there yesterday. you were there apparently. >> briefly. >> briefly. >> yes. >> and also there was another event today that had basically activists, lawyers, immigration lawyers, that kind of thing. there are still people going down there. we had a correspondent there, santoro, one of the people there with someone running for congress in that district. as long as people keep drawing attention to this, i think it is going to last for a while as an issue. the thing is we're about to be on the 4th of july. we are going to be in the middle of summer, people are going to be taking vacations with their family, people are not going to be paying as much attention. i don't know if this issue goes all the way to the election and that's some of why it's still bubbling up because both democrats and republicans think this is an issue that either needs to be taken care of so it doesn't affect the election or democrats think they can possibly use it, which sounds callous and i understand that. but it is kind of the situation we're in in 2018. >> of course, we want to be sensitive and the reality,
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though, is that there still are thousands of kids who are, we think hundreds, at least 1800 plus kids who are still separated from their families at this point. john meacham, can you kind of put the week that was in perspective here for us? i mean, this has been an issue that we as a nation is have grappled with time and time again and we've had, you know, episodes where, you know, america has shown as the shining city on the hill and times when we have not quite frankly lived up to what the statue of liberty promises. >> absolutely. one of the first debates we had in the country in the 1790s, and you know it's a good sunday when you start with the 1790s. was a battle over the alien sedition acts, where we were an infant nation, and yet we gave the president of the united states the power to deport immigrants by fiat. illegal aliens, aliens he believed to be dangerous. into the 19th century where you had the chinese exclusion act, we had viciously racist rhetoric
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from mainstream political figures in the 19th century who worried that, to quote a senator from maine i think it was, worried there was going to be a yellow empire from california to the rockies if we didn't limit immigration from asia. there was the fears of the white working class that led to the rise of the second ku klux klan from 1915 to about 1927 that was explicit anxiety that immigrants were going to work harder and possibly for less money. now, conservatives who believe in a free market had some problems with intellectual consistency. that's never stopped them. into where we are now. and i think what's -- to me what's really interesting about the last 12 or 13 days or so is i believe it's the first time in the trump administration where the president has explicitly reversed course or at least begun to reverse course. i understand before people start tweeting, i understand that this is like an arsonist, you were
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congratulating an arsonist for putting out a fire. at least the fire was put out to some extent. and i think that the lesson for all of us and the country is that sustained public pressure, sustained resistance is absolutely essential at any moment in the life of the republic, but particularly one when we have a president who seems so determined to knock down the ordinary guardrails and the ordinary conventions of generosity that have marked our best eras. >> kevin mclaughlin, can you weigh in on what john meacham is putting out there? you are -- i don't know if you are a never trumper. i don't know if i want to label you that in public. >> i'm not. >> you are somebody who has been a member of the republican party sometime and seen it change under president trump. and quite frankly, this seems -- it felt to me like the first time that republicans said no way, we're not doing this. >> let me go back to 1790 polling data and i'll take you back like john did. i think there was a visceral
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reaction. republicans have worked hard to get themselves in a good place in the midterm election a first time in a long time. they all see it going up in smoke right now. you know, midterms are base elections so i think in the senate actually, i don't think this is having a huge impact. i think it might kind of sort of help, if you will, on the republican side, as long as it gets solved immediately. but on the house side with so many swing districts and so many retirements in those districts, it's a real problem on the house side. >> for sure. so, speaking of polling, the reports over the last week said that president trump wanted the showdown over immigration. my people love it, he said, according to "the new york times." we now have new polling from cbs news and it shows the vast divide in how americans are reacting and perceiving this issue. while 53% of americans strongly oppose separating children from their parents who enter the country illegally, americans are divided over whether reuniting them is a high priority. and the difference, surprise, surprise, is political party.
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75% of democrats said reunification should be a top priority, while just a quarter of republicans said the same thing. and nearly 75% of republicans said those who entered the u.s. illegally should be punished as an example of toughness while 80% of democrats said they should be treated well as an example of kindness. here is the president this weekend in las vegas. >> we have the toughest border you can have considering the laws are the worst of the whole country. our immigration laws are a laughing stock all over the world. we're the only people -- people walk in, they put a foot in. please, would you like to register? other countries, they say get the hell out of here. >> and the president tweeting today in part, quote, we cannot allow all of these people to invade our country. when somebody comes in, we must immediately with no judges or court cases bring them back from where they came. kevin, i want go back to you on this, and betsy, i'd like you to weigh in as well. but clearly the president views
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this as a base issue, immigration. and the polling to a certain extent bears that out. i think my question is, is the number of those republicans shrinking as this presidency wears on? >> that may be true. i don't know. the problem i have with it is i think the base is pretty well locked down at this point. to be honest with you, the stuff the republicans would want to run on, economy, ending regulation, judges, that's really good for the base as it is on the republican side. and you don't have to lose people, per se, in droves when you do the hot button issue like immigration. i think that's the big reason that republicans just want to -- and congress want to move on and get on to the next thing. >> speaking of political -- the base of a party, this is the other side. this week i traveled to the otai mesa detention center in san diego to talk with senator kamala harris. during our conversation i asked her about the growing calls from progressive activists to abolish i.c.e. take a look.
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>> a lot of the signs that the rally you just held were people standli standing there saying abolish i.c.e. is that a position you agree with? >> listen, i think there is no question we have to critically reexamine i.c.e. and its role and the way it is being administered and the work it is doing and we need to probably think about starting from scratch because there's a lot that is wrong with the way that it's conducting itself. and we need to deal with that. >> what do you think should be the alternative to i.c.e.? >> well, first of all, i don't think that the government should be in the position of separating families and that is clearly what is part of what's happening at i.c.e. and dhs. you look at what's happening, again, in terms of how they're conducting their perspective on asylum seekers, that is a real problem and is contrary to all of the spirit and the reason that we even have the asylum rules and laws in the first place. so, their mission, i think, is very much in question and has to be reexamined.
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>> what do you make of that? is i.c.e. the bigger problem here? >> well, i don't know how you abolish an agency without abolishing the function. and i think the function is necessary. as far as what senator harris said about examining what they're doing, how they're doing it, i think that's absolutely something we should do. that's our responsibility to provide oversight. but ultimately there is going to have to be an agency before i.c.e. it was ins. there has to be some agency to administer the immigration laws in the country. there are a lot of questions to be answered. i don't know if i say abolish. i don't think that makes a lot of sense, but i do think looking at it makes a hell of a lot of sense. >> betsy woodruff, abolish i.c.e. is becoming a litmus test for democrats. >> that's right. i think particularly progressive activists are trying to make this a central -- trying to expand the overton window, if you will. in terms of the conversation that can be had about policy. that said, of course, these
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calls make people's heads blow up at dhs. and what you'll hear from dhs officials, rank and file, it's their job to enforce the law. they are a law enforcement agency and what they will say, pushing back against kamala harris, the senator from california, and senator king, is very much that the problem is the laws themselves. not the law enforcement agency. that's the argument you're going to hear back. that's something you'll hear from republicans as well. the challenge for progressives is to differentiate the way laws are enforced and the laws themselves. the one thing we know is congress is really bad at changing immigration laws. it's been a nonstarter for literally almost decades now, i think. and that's part of the reason there is such a push back against the agency enforcing the laws. >> i also think that how the agency does their job is also governed by who is at the top. so, the difference between the obama administration and the trump administration in the case of how i.c.e. performs their function, whether it be within the country or on the border is that this zero tolerance policy on the border was something that was from on high, right?
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so i.c.e. has to send their -- send the people that they catch on the other side of the border into the judicial system. that's not -- that's not the i.c.e. agent's fault. that is a higher -- that is a higher calling. >> absolutely. >> as well as like the raid everyone wants to point to, this is if you can have a sign that says abolish i.c.e. you can point towards those raids that are also doing things to families. but they are carrying out the policy of a president that has been hard on immigration since he ran for office. >> and let's remember how much of this comes back to doj rather than immigration enforcement. the zero-tolerance policy was a decision of the attorney general, jeff sessions, it was his idea. >> it's at the end of the day about the people who are in charge. let's refocus a second i do want to make sure we keep the focus where it needs to be, which is on these people who are still separated from their families. these mothers, fathers and of course the children. i was down on the border because senator harris went to visit that detention center to meet with mothers who had been separated from their children. here's a little bit more of our conversation.
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>> senator, you've had a long career in law enforcement i mean, can you compare what you saw in this facility to some of the other things you've seen? >> i mean, it's a prison, kasie, it's a prison. i visited some of the worst prisons in the united states and it is a prison. you walk in. there are two layers of barbed wire and fence. there are people in pods and there's kind of a more maximum security area and then the lower security area. the time i'm spending is to talk with mothers who have been ripped from their children and just -- and the pain, right? i mean, you know, they're sitting with the united states senators so they kind of hold it together and then we start to talk about it and the tears just start flowing. it's awful. it's the pain of having to leave the only country they've known, because it was so dangerous. it's the pain of traveling
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through an unknown land, right, through the country of mexico, relying on strangers in these caravans. the pain of all that they will be exposed to during that trek, right, not being in control of much. and the abuse they may endure. and then they arrive. and without even having the ability to yet give their story about the circumstances of their arrival, their children are taken from them and taken to unknown places. it's outrageous and it's inhumane. and it's unnecessary. and i think, kasie, that's one of the most important aspects of this whole issue. it's not necessary. it's actually not necessary. but you know why they did it? and this can't be lost in this conversation. they told us why they did it. the administration told us why they did it. they did this to deter others from coming to the country. so you have decided to exact what could be a lifetime of trauma over 2000 children for deterrence of other people?
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it's unconscionable. >> we're going to have my complete interview with senator harris up in the next hour. john meacham, with some of those descriptions, vivid descriptions -- i sat -- i rode with senator harris to the detention sen consider. there's rolls and rolls of barbed wire, double prison doors. it feels like -- it really feels like a prison. i'm curious, i mean, we have a couple dark moments in our nation's history that we all kind of remember. is this one that you think is going to get added to that list? >> it's certainly the most vivid manifestation of what so many people have feared about the trump administration. and i think you go from the travel ban early on to this separation policy and i do think also there is a difference between -- it gets kind of fuzzed up in the conversation. there is a difference between zero-tolerance illegal border policy and a separate children from parents.
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and i think that one can be for a strong border and find what's happening with these children to be abhorrent. i think that's an important distinction. and one that i believe, frankly a more morally sound and a more intellectually consistent administration might actually make. why wouldn't zero tolerance by itself be sufficient deterrent? that's a conversation that can be had. the trump administration isn't interested in having a conversation. they are reaping what they've sown. everything is a zero-sum game. everything is the war of all against all. and so i do think this moment partly because of visual imagery, partly because the president was forced to at least partially reverse himself. i think this will be something that at least extinction in the mind longer than most of the trump era, which is
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unfortunately there is so much of it, it's almost impossible psychologically to hold onto it. but we are called upon to hold onto it and hold fast to it because we don't want to be the era that intern the japanese. you want to be on the right side of history, and history is forever. these news cycles and breitbart and fox moments, even midterm elections, they come and go. but history is going to judge all of us as lincoln once said, down to the last generation, for where we stood in this era where we had a president who really turned an us versus them rhetoric into reality. >> and i think that notion of history finally got to at least some of the people at least that i talk to every day on capitol hill. we are just getting started here on "kasie d.c." when we continue, we'll get into the culture war, breaking out from a fashion statement that the first lady made to the press
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secretary being denied service at a restaurant. and in our next hour we'll dig into the book "born trump." author emily jane sfoks stops by. plus ken vogel has his offering on the white house featuring mar-a-lago. we're back after this. the blade quality you'd expect from gillette... at a price you wouldn't. the new gillette3 & gillette5. available now for $7.99 gillette. the best a man can get.
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since more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more kids are being separated from their parents. and temporarily housed in what
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are essentially summer camps. >> look, i read today about a 10-year-old girl with down syndrome who was taken from her mother and put in a cage. i >> woman p-womp. >> did you say womp-womp to a 10-year-old? how dare you, sir. >> these are not like it or not, these aren't our kids. show them compassion, but it's not like he's doing this to the people of idaho or, or, or texas. these are people from another country and now people are saying that they're more important than people in our country who are paying taxes who have needs as well. >> michael hayden posted a picture of auschwitz. >> that liberal michael hayden, that screaming liberal michael hayden. >> you're out of your cotton picking mind. >> cotton picking mind? let me tell you something. let me tell you something. i've got some, i've got some, i've got some relatives who picked cotton. >> welcome back. the debate over immigration
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policy has gone far past policy and left the basic decency behind on its way. mike huckabee is facing backlash after tweeting out this picture with the caption, nancy pelosi introduces her campaign committee for the take-back of the house. sarah huckabee sanders, the white house press secretary and mike huckabee's daughter was asked to leave a restaurant friday night in virginia because of where she works. sanders tweeted, quote, last night i was told by the owner of red hen in lexington, have, to leave because i work for the president and i politely left. that restaurant has since been inundated with positive and negative yelp reviews. meanwhile white house policy advisor stephen miller was reportedly called a fascist earlier this week while dining at a mexican restaurant here in washington. also, homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen also engineer jeered while she ate out at a mexican restaurant.
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who wants to take this to start? shawna thomas, how about we start with you. >> there is a real conversation here about civility, right, and our ability to be in the same spaces at the same time with people who we do not agree with. and the sarah sanders example is one of those where was that the right way for the owner of that restaurant to handle the situation of sarah sanders eating in that restaurant? well, it's definitely not going to further the conversation between republicans and democrats for her to do that. however, the counter is was sarah sanders using her white house account, her at press secretary twitter account to basically rally the anger against this restaurant in virginia? was that a proper use of her function and her title and her job as well? neither of those things gets us any closer to being people who can actually talk about issues in the same room together, but it does really point to kind of where we are, which is it's an example of how divided we actually are. and it's scary that we're that divided. >> kevin? >> i do think that one of the
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things that's frustrating is, you know, if we want to stop and we want to raise the civility is people need to stop celebrating like on the left, they need to stop celebrating people like robert deniro what he said at the tonys. stop cheering what people are doing in restaurants. it's outrageous. it needs to be treated the same way people treat what president trump says people see as inciteful. we need to have a balance. we need to find it, i don't know how. somebody has to put a pin in the balloon. the balloon is about to burst. it's terrifying. feels like a powder keg. >> if we're going to demand do unto others what you have done unto you, we disagree we could at the very least in our personal treatment of each other axe that out. john meacham, is this situation, are we destined to keep going farther and farther down the sewer as this goes on? or is it recoverable? is civility gone forever?
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>> no, nothing is ever gone forever. it's redeemable. the founders wanted us to seek a more perfect union, not a perfect one. i agree that it's hard to see exactly how this rights itself, but it can, it should, and i think it will. you know, everybody is in this hobbsian moment. everything is weaponized. the little red hen, whatever it is, is weaponized, the mexican restaurants are. if you're on the left, you're thinking why isn't this appropriate? if i really believe that these people are -- that these people within the administration are ruining america, why can't i take a stand in the best way i know how? so i understand the reaction to it. and i think, you know, the trump people, there is a reason they are where they are. they are very good at playing suddenly, why can't we all get along, after they have
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relentlessly and really created a culture of bullying at the very highest levels. if anything, this is a reminder that the president, the presidency, has an out size effect on our manners and morals. some say we are too sentimental on the presidency. even before when he was attacking obama and his birth which is not an issue, if trump had not helped exacerbate the tribal tendencies, he wouldn't be -- his staff wouldn't be facing this kind of backlash. so you reap what you sow. >> far be it from me to disagree with john meacham, i don't think they're saying let's get along. i think they're using this to drive the wedge further and further. it's all tongue in cheek. i don't think there is anything about this that they're saying, oh, my gosh, can't we all be nice to each other in restaurants? >> the other piece of this is
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that it doesn't frighten the white house or republicans to have these protesters show up. in fact, there is some evidence that part of the reason donald trump was able to turn the primary significantly against ted cruz when he was was because some of these protests against trump happened and republican voters said, we want to support whoever is getting protested. so, especially on the right, especially among the president's base, these kind of protests result in sort of a conservative backlash that the white house likely believes can be politically useful to them. >> when we return, republicans in congress are split over how to fix immigration policy. i'll speak to congressman rodney davis who has been critical of the white house's approach. and as we go to break, a study from fox reveals male political reporters retweet their male colleagues three times as much as their female colleagues. according to that study, out of the top 25 political reporters who those men retweet the most, just three are women. the washington post sun min kim, great reporter is at number 11.
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welcome back to "kasie d.c." i want to give you all a quick note on what might have been a life-saving moment. spokesman for senator joe manchin told me that manchin aided his colleague care mccaskill thursday at the democratic policy lunch when she began choking on a piece of food. mccaskill started waiving her hand signaling she needed help. another senator nearby attempted to help her before manchin stepped in, lifted mccaskill out of her seat and performed the heim lick maneuver. a local journalist said she suffered cracked ribs. we have reached out to her office. haven't heard back yet. and no word on exactly what they were having for lunch, but we are glad senator mccaskill is okay. now, though, something completely different. joining me on set is you believe
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are cann congressman rodney davis. appreciate you being here. i think you share our gratitude senator mccaskill is okay. >> absolutely i do. claire, i'm glad you're sessiokd senator manchin, great job. >> i want to talk about immigration and what exactly the house is going to do. it seems as though and i want to know what your assessment is of where things stand. but the compromised negotiations seem to have fallen apart late last week. now, there does seem to be some discussion of doing a separate stand alone bill to address family separation. is that the case and would you support that? >> absolutely. i hope to co-sponsor it. but i hope we can actually get some movement on immigration reform. we've had a lot of people -- our leadership team has sat down with all facets of our republican conference because we're not getting assistance from the democratic side to address the issues all of us have said are bipartisan issue. let's secure our border. there are areas of our border
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that has to have a physical structure. not just with illegal immigration, but drugs that are coming in the country and ravaging the midwest and areas that i serve. we also need to address separation of families and we have to address how we deal with our immigration system at hand right now. eight what do you think is the likelyest outcome? do you think the house will vote on a separate stand alone to end family separation? >> i'm optimistic, kasie. you know me. i'm always the eternal optimist. i certainly hope so. i know those individuals, leadership and folks have been talking about a good compromise are sitting down again this weekend. and they're working hard to try and come up with that solution. the president, when he came in to see us last week and talk to our conference, he was clear that he supported both of the bills that we were supposed to put on the floor. >> sure, but then he tweeted, though, why bother, don't bother doing any of this because we have to win more seats to actually get something done. did that effectively kill any chance for that compromise legislation that was supposed
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tonight on the floor last week? >> if it killed think chance or compromise, nobody would have been talking this weekend to try and find that compromise. that's why you've got folks like jeff denim. david, carlos, mario. these are republicans that represent districts where immigration reform is much higher on the priority list for their constituents than many other districts that republicans serve in our conference. >> sure. >> these are the ones that are sitting down with leadership. i have to give our team a lot of credit for being able to sit down without any democrat assistance and try and put together a good compromise. and i'm hopeful that we can see that this week. >> do you think the freedom caucus, mark meadows, jim jordan, other conservatives, are they negotiating in good faith? i've talked to a number of your colleagues who feel like they keep moving the goal post, say one thing and change their minds again and again. >> it's certainly frustrating we couldn't come up with a plan that really was the president's four pillars, border security that actually funded a physical structure. it wasn't just authorization like most bills that we pass in
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congress. then we have to go back and vote again on the approps. we loved it all together. we addressed the daca population. 1.8 million daca and dreamer kids would have been taken care of and been granted legal status. >> in exchange for the wall. >> in exchange for the wall, exactly what many of my democratic colleagues who have been working with republicans on immigration reform have asked for. but it's getting too close to the election. the democrats aren't going to come together and help us govern on this issue because they know this issue divides republicans. so, i'm hopeful that our leadership team who has done a great job in making this happen -- and frankly i think there are some that are negotiating this that are a little more worried about where they may fall in the next leadership election rather than work and making our current leadership team look bad rather than actually coming up with -- >> you're talking about steve scalise and kevin mccarthy? >> no, i'm talking about people who don't want anyone in the current leadership team to remaybe r remain in leadership after this election. >> i see. >> i think there is a lot of
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ambition when it comes to negotiating legislation right now. >> very interesting undercurrent. okay. i want to also ask you, as you know, utah's primary alexis is set for tuesday. mitt romney has an op-ed in the salt lake tribune. i appreciate the argument made by those who believe we should stay silent, but i cannot subscribe to it. i know that any criticism may lessen the president's flexibility to enact policy with which i agree, but that end does not justify my silence in the face of things that matter. do you think that republicans need to show more courage in standing up to this president? >> well, there is the far-right and the far left, no matter what we do, i'm never going to stand up enough for the president for the far-right. and immediately when i agree to work with the president on issues like tax reform, immigration reform, the far left is going to say, why don't you just impeach him? we have to get to the common sense voters that are
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independents and those that really makeup middle america. we've got to stop this politicizing everything like dinner. the fact that sarah sanders couldn't go to a restaurant because of who she works for and her political beliefs, that's not the majority of voters in this country. donald trump was elected, in my opinion, because of this move toward making everything politically correct in this country. and frankly, his campaign was the antithesis of political correctness and he won. there are a lot of people that i serve in my district that voted because of what they see happening on the far-right and the far left. >> do you think -- i mean, this issue that we saw play out over the course of the last week, do you think it's a place where republicans who couldn't stomach it actually stood up to the president? and do you think the president is right that his people love what they saw this week? >> well, i'm not going to be able to answer the second part. i didn't hear or read what he said on that issue.
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but i can tell you there are a lot of people in our republican conference that have varying views on immigration reform. >> but on the family separation. >> family separation, that is a policy that is not unique just to this administration as we saw today with jeh johnson's comments. but this is an issue where democrats and republicans should come together and i would hope that we can to pass a bill to ensure that we fix policies so that the flores decision isn't going to be a permanent precedence. >> congressman davis, stay put. we're going to have you join our panel when we come back and we're going to talk about your party's evolving relationship with the president and his relationship with your party. >> you have an outstanding man in dean heller and i know, and i've been on both sides of him. and i want to tell you, he's a tough cookie. he's a tough cookie. and we want him on our side. woman: i stay active
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long-time conservative columnist for the washington post george will surprised everyone this week with this headline. vote against the gop this november. in it he calls for republican caucuses to be, quote, substantially reduced. says speaker ryan traded his soul for a tax cut. calls congressional republicans, quote, the president's poodles and criticizes republican lawmakers for, quote, having no higher ambition than to placate the president. this after a long-time republican strategist steve schmidt tweeted this on wednesday. quote, 29 years and nine months ago i registered to vote and became a member of the republican party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. today i renounce my membership in the republican party. it is fully the party of trump. in another tweet he called the gop a, quote, danger to our democracy and our values.
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john meacham, put this in perspective for us. i mean, i have been reading george will for, you know, my entire working life and he has always been kind of viewed as a conservative touch stone, intellectual, a place where you could go to hear kind of the arguments that under pinned everything that then was played out across our governing system. he is now not simply saying i'm leaving the gop, he is saying vote for democrats. >> yeah. george is essentially a torrey. he's a birkyian conservative. >> i love it that way. on point. >> one of his best books was a book -- besides his baseball book which is one of the great booked ever, state craft, soul craft. he believes government is not always the right answer, that in
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fact there are organic reasons to have checks and balances on the state. i haven't talked to him about this, but i think basically he would have the view -- i don't want to pull him into this. my view is that the trump take over of the republican party is the first recorded case of a high jacker boarding a plane and the passengers sided with the high jacker. the question he is, has the republican party of eisenhower, reagan, both bushes, mccain, romney, is that a recoverable entity? and i think that's a very live question. not sure what the answer is. we have a fascinating senate race down here in tennessee that's going to test this to some extent. and whether a deep red state will go with a republican no matter what, when there is a conservative democrat on the ballot. but i think what george is saying is that the republican party that he knew as a young man at the "wall street journal" and becoming a syndicated columnist is no more. >> congressman davis, can you
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get you to weigh in on that? is this republican party the party of trump? do you recognize that as the same party you started out in? >> absolutely it's the same party. george will, i like his baseball book, too. i would hope he would go to middle america and talk to some of the trump voters. talk to the former democrat blue collar voters who gave him the victories in wisconsin, iowa, michigan, pennsylvania, ohio and other states. but george -- and mr. schmidt, too. remember, they live out here in the d.c. bubble. go talk to those voters who put president trump in place. and his goal to make a republican party and a republican house more of a governing house would actually be the antithesis of what he's asking for if he says, go vote against republicans, because most republicans who could lose are the ones who want to govern. >> if anything, it could make it -- i do take your point on that. kevin mclaughlin, final words. >> i'm with the congressman. between washington, d.c., new york conservatives and everyone
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else out there, fly over country. it's a huge disconnect, problem for folks in d.c. >> congressman rodney davis, thank you so much for your time. john meacham, thanks so you as well. let you get back to your cigar. coming up, a look at president trump's habit of praising strong men around the world, including one who is claiming victory in an election today. "kasie d.c." back after this. let's do it. ♪ come on. this summer, add a new member to the family. at the mercedes-benz summer event. lease the glc300 for $429 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing.
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i took control of egypt. >> it's great to be with the president of egypt. we are very much behind the president. >> we've had a great relationship. this has been very successful. >> i have a very good relationship with the president of china. he's an incredible guy. >> i respect putin. he's a strong leader. i can tell you. >> do you like vladimir putin's comments about you? >> sure. when a person speaks about you it's always good. >> putin's a killer. we have a lot of killers. >> really, he's got a great personality. he's a funny guy. he's a very smart guy. he's a great negotiator. he loves his people, not that i'm surprised by that. >> he's the head of a country and i mean he's a strong head. don't let anyone think anything different. he speaks and his people sit up at attention.
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i want my people to do the same. >> we have a good chemistry together, kim jong-un. we have a great chemistry. >> it's a great honor and privilege because he's become a friend of mine to introduce the president of turkey. he's getting very high marks. >> those were just some of president trump's more overt displays of affection for strong men. among the leaders you heard him praise, the president of turkey, who claimed victory today in a vote. he called for an election in april at a time when his public support was more favorable than it is now, but it appears the gamble paid off. according to state run media, he claimed 53% of the vote putting him on track to claim a narrow victory and avoid a second round of voting. betsy, that was kind of a
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remarkable display. this is not how the president talks, of course, about his allies, america's traditional allies. he was throwing barbs . it really makes me think that's the kind of job he wants. >> it suggests that. one thing we can say about president trump is that there's no evidence he cares about human rights. it's not something he's worried about. it's not on his priority list. he's yet to go after any of these leaders. turkey is an oppressive country. the president isn't interested in human rights questions. perhaps what's more significant is in some ways he seems to take leads from these leaders. he thinks the united states' drug enforcement needs to look more to the way the drug enforcement works in the philippines where they kill
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people for using drugs. trump sees some of these leaders as people to model after and that's unprecedented for an american president. >> the president did act in syria when he saw evidence of human rights abuses. thank you for being on tonight. in our next hour, we have a show and tell presentation about the latest coins from the white house, but first our staff of producers has been watching the world cup all day, but managed to find time to watch the sunday shows so you don't have to. don't go anywhere.
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widespread confusion on our southern boarder. >> protests continued over the weekend. >> children separated from their families. >> just 522 children have been reunited. >> it's still unclear how the children will actually be linked back to their parents. >> it's a difficult thing to do. >> does the u.s. government have the skills to reunite these kids. >> there clearly has to be a better way to deal with this. >> i think this is inhumane. >> the administration obviously made a large mistake. >> comprehensive immigration reform, that's what the american people want. >> there are alternatives to detention. >> america's the most welcoming country on the planet, but you have to follow the law. >> i don't know we're going to
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fix this in the short-term. >> i think it's a shame that what we've done with immigrants is to try to cause them to be a part of a terrorist group. >> the republicans need to stand up. >> this is a long-term issue. >> this is not the first time this has happened. >> this goes back decades. >> it's really a big mess. >> indeed. welcome to the second hour of "kasie d.c." there is no reporting just out that president trump has expressed regret over signing the executive order that ended separation of myigrant families. the president has been complaining why he cannot create an executive order to solve the problem according to two people. aids have had to explain to the president why a comprehensive immigration overhaul is behind his presidential reach.
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i want to start with this report from maggie haberman saying that the president wishes he hadn't done what he did last week. he wants to do something more sweeping, but he can't. he tweeted that the congress should do something, but they can't until they get more power. >> you see that today when he's talking about when someone comes into our country illegally, we should send them back to where they came from immediately. that seems to contradict the executive order which says we will keep the families together while they await processing through, while they are given due process and then he says no due process. you see a little bit of regret there. you see him kind of saying, see, i told you so, like this wasn't
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a viable solution in the first place and it's yet another twist in this very difficult to track administration position on this issue. >> the reality is as long as it is simply executive action, the president could undo what he did last week and it doesn't seem as though congress is going to act. the president trump administration is releasing data on the number of children reunited with their parents. more than 500 kids have been placed back with their families and another 2,000 remain in custody. meanwhile in texas hundreds of demonstrators rally against the white house. it is the second day of protests. i think one challenge here and one thing that we're trying to make sure we're doing from our position here in washington is to keep the focus on reuniting
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the children and see if the government is able to do that effect effectively. >> what are you hearing from the ground about how officials are working? are they working in ways that seem to be effective or are there kids not finding their parents? >> reporter: the crazy thing about this story has been the lack of access that we've had to the facility behind me. there are some 250 kids in this compound. our information has been coming from lawmakers as they come and they try to penetrate this facility. they've been walking to the fence line, some of them invited and some not, and they've been getting in to a varying degree. a senator saw some tv footage. it upset him because he's the senator from new mexico. he came here yesterday and he
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saw him and then i asked him when are these 250 kids going to get back to their families and he said i asked the officials that inside the facility and i was told that i, the senator, had to call back in a week. i think that just speaks to the nature how this came together in the past week when the senators are going in and asking for details for the plan and they're being told just like the families, you're going to have to call back on monday morning when we try to get our act together. >> you have seen any evidence of a material change in policy since the executive order was signed? are agents doing things differently? do you see evidence that families are, in fact, being kept together? >> reporter: there's a lot of people waiting on the bridges here and those families are waiting because while the policy has maybe shifted because of the executive order, there's a lack of trust there that the federal government is going to carry out those wishes. certainly the policy hasn't changed for the kids behind me.
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they're caught in this weird loophole. they're sitting there after the old new policy has changed because of the executive order, but it's not clear how the executive order actually affects them because they're already in custody. so really unclear how they're going to be reunited with their families. a lot of these kids their parents are back in central latin america so these kids are going to end up with a relative or deported or end up in a third-party home across the u.s. that's the concern here as this shakes out around the country. >> you're tireless, my friend. thanks for your work down there. john, i want to get your take on this broadly, especially this are you unification
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process. you have the argument that people who are seeking asylum are not illegal immigrants. what is the path forward here? >> yeah. to congress's point, to the point of lawmakers trying to get into these facilities, you would think soon we would see lawmakers holding hearings and having these people give answers if they want answers. that should be happening this week, but i think more broadly my interest in this is how do we get here? why is the administration, apart from the fact this is an issue that plays politically well for the president, pushing so hard on this? if you look at the numbers, 20 years ago you had 150,000 people coming across the boarder every month. this year it's been below 50,000. it's come up a little bit in the last couple of months. i think it really just raises the question of is this anything else than the president betting
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on xenophobia. i think you've got the lowest amount of people in 20 years who think that immigration should be reduced. i'm not sure there. there's a lot of questions out there about whether or not this is a political winner for president trump. >> he's making that bet again. when i was on the boarder, i spoke with an immigration attorney who represents undocumented parents who have been separated from their children and is usually meeting with clients at that same facility two or three days a week. you've been doing work on reuniting these families. there are children still separated from their families. how do they go about finding their parents? >> that's a big question because the executive order was very thin on details. it seems like the administration didn't put a lot of thought into
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any type of policy or system to reunite the families even before the executive order. we're still scrambling to find out where the children are and then figure out how and where the reunification takes place. it seems that the children taken from their parents were lumped together with children that came by themselves without any concern with the background of the child. that system has thousands of children in it. to try to find the child, pick that child up and take that child out of the group has been very difficult, especially when the child can't say i came here with my mother. her name is so and so and this is where she is. we're very concerned about that because there seems to be no thought into that process specifically for the
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particularly young children, the toddlers and babies. the across the country the families that have taken in these children have witnessed the pain and suffering they have endured. we spoke with a foster mom in michigan who asked that we protect her identity. she and her husband have been involved with the foster care program for six years and have put up close to 100 children from other countries, including a 5-year-old boy who arrived on wednesday. >> it's a boy. he arrived this morning after many delays of a flight trying to get here and right now not trusting adults and very quiet, although he's made a little bit of progress this morning. when kids first come like that and they're very quiet and shy, you can tell they're really overwhelmed. we will make their world very small and then expand it as they start to explore and try to help them in healthy ways start to adjust to being in our home. it seems to be more of an
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intensity with the reactions of the kids as far as what's happening, what's happening, what's happening. they seem to know less of what's happening and that always creates so much trauma on top of the trauma of journey and why they left their home in the first place. kids are very upset. they don't know what's going on. the anxiety level is very high. stomach problems. they don't want to eat. sleeping troubles. it's been very difficult to watch them. we had a little girl that just left not too long ago and that was all she said was mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. she had two words and they basically amounted to mom and grandma is what she is saying and it was probably two weeks before she said anything else. obviously some people cope with some things better than others, but it will definitely -- some people will probably never recover from being separated for
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this time period. >> really heart breaking. this is somebody who has been helping deal with this problem for many years, but the difference, of course, is how much more difficult it is for a child who is physically separated from their parent as opposed to children who come here alone. >> i think these foster parents have dealt with these minors. i think what that interview really showcases is this idea that the story is not going away until basically all 2,000 of the kids who are left find their parents or the government finds their parents. from a political standpoint, that's not great for the trump administration, but there's a news organization that wants to be with the last kid that finds their parent so this story keeps going. perhaps the government does know how to get the kids back together with their parents and
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there are these id numbers the kids and parents are given to try to help that happen, but as long as there is message confusion as in no one seems to have a straight answer to how they're going to do it that this will keep being a political and policy question and this is something that members of congress are going to continue to ask the administration for answers, just like the press is going to continue to ask the administration for answers. that's all those different threads that will keep this story going. maybe we should keep this story going because kids are not with their parents, but it's just going to keep going and going until they figure this out. >> right. emily jane fox, to that point as well, you've written extensively about the president and his relationships with his family, what all of that is like and clearly he is very motivated by what he sees on tv. these images have been very difficult and powerful, but also by what his daughter and his wife have been saying to him behind the scenes.
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>> sure. i think that there are a lot of people behind the scenes that have said to the president and his family this is not an issue that you want to be on the wrong side of and it really is one thing for you to do and that's to get these children back with their parents. there was a tremendous amount of political pressure and perhaps some family pressure placed on the president last week, which is why you saw him sign the executive order. you hear the reports that he is regretful of signing that order. it just goes to show you that no matter who, whether it's people in his family or people on his base, whatever kind of pressure they are putting on him, ultimately he is the decider and the one who will make his own choices and perhaps ultimately regret those choices a couple of days later and reverse them completely. >> according to a tweet that it is important to be kind.
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my exclusive interview with kamala harris and she says she is not ruling out a bid for president. as we go to break the first lady speaking at a students against destructive actions event. >> kindness is an important trait in life. it is far easier to say nothing than it is to speak words of kindness. it is easier to judge quickly than to take time to understand. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪
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across the country, access has been heavily limited to the detention centers where children and families have been kept. our colleagues have been allowed in, but never with cameras. on friday senator kamala harris toured a detention center meeting with mothers separated from their children. when she finished there was a massive crowd of demonstrators who gathered to protest immigration policy and to hear her speak. we spoke about what she saw inside the center. >> it's a detention facility that looks and sounds and smells like a prison. i'm a career prosecutor. i have visited many jails and prisons over the course of my
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career. this is what that is. literally, this is what that is. there's no distinction between this and a prison in terms of the design of it, in terms of the way people are housed and the way people are treated. the mothers who are there, and they are the parents that i spoke with -- >> they've been separated from their children? >> they have been separated from their children. the mothers that i spoke with fled honduras and el salvador, two of the murder capitals of the world, with their children. they came through mexico on caravans, arrived on our shore seeking asylum and shortly after their arrival, their kids were taken from them, children as young as 5. they don't know where they are. they think they may know, but they get conflicting information. they have not had any regular contact with their children.
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the people who maintain that facility told me that they allow the parents to have phone calls for free without charge. when i sat with the mothers, they said that's absolutely not true. they get charged for their phone calls. a day of labor, they get paid a dollar. the phone calls are 85 cents a minute. you do the math. >> many of these women are waiting months to have their first hearing. >> yes, they are waiting months to have a hearing to determine if they're eligible for protection and that delays their ability to be reunited with their children. one of the components of this issue that is heart breaking, let's break this down for anyone who has parented a child, the idea that those formative years of life, without any explanation
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or notice or preparation, a parent would be separated from their child forcefully. i mean, emotionally at least it's by force if not physical force. it's traumatic. we are creating layer upon layer of harm to these folks. to suggest that they are criminals and then what just really i find maddening is the idea then that we're going to suggest that they're equivalent to ms-13 and criminal organizations is just so wrong and it's just untrue. again, i've prosecuted transnational criminal organizations. i've focused on transnational criminal organizations that traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, there's no question, prosecute them. we're talking about moms in this prison who have fled domestic violence, sexual abuse, threats
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to the safety of their children and their sons and we're treating them like common criminals. >> recently the trump administration made a change that said that domestic violence shouldn't be a reason to claim asylum. >> that's right. they have rolled back the protections that existed for pregnant women and there are pregnant women in that prison right now and there are pregnant women that have had miscarriages since they've been here, not to mention what they did in terms of resending dacha. there's a systematic and clear constellation in policy perspective from this administration as it relates to women and children and families. >> a lot of signs said abolish
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ice. >> i think we have to reexamine ice and we need to probably think about starting from scratch because there's a lot that is wrong with the way that it's conducting itself and we need to deal with that. >> what do you think should be the alternative? >> first of all, i don't think that the government should be in the position of separating families and that is clearly what is part of what's happening at dhs. you look at what's happening again in terms of how they're conducting their perspective on asylum seekers. that is a real problem and it is contrary to all of the spirit and the reason that we have the asylum rules and laws in the first place. so their mission, i think, is very much in question and it has to be reexamined. >> what measure to see secure the boarder would you support? there are people who have
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committed crimes who come across the boarder. what should we do to make the boarder stronger? >> first of all, let's be clear that for many, many years we had a net zero immigration issue. mexico's economy was doing well. a lot of this has been con drtrd by this administration. there are important part's of this administration's mission in terms of custom and boarder control as it relates to an invasive species. if we're not putting resources into the boarder around protecting fruits and vegetables and things that come across the boarder that might otherwise threaten our crops, we're going to have a problem.
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it's a problem for our economy and this country. i'd like to see them put the resources into that. i'd like to have a strong boarder paro boarder patrol as it relates to not allowing traffickers to come into this country, but we don't have to separate families. we don't have to have a zero tolerance policy. >> you have said before that you want to be a joyful lawyer. >> yes. i do. i really do. i'm not feeling so joyful at this moment. >> that's what i was going to ask you. have the events of the last week made it hard for you? >> yes. this has been a rough week for a lot of us. i think will say -- i said this to a group i was speaking with recently. thank god for a free and independent press. all these folks being down in texas and here in california and at the boarder and giving the american public a close-up look at what's really happening as opposed to the rhetoric coming
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out of this administration. when you see what's happening, it is heart breaking. i love my country and this is not reflective of who we are. >> the former virginia governor was on capitol hill this past week and he did an interview where he said president trump is ruining america. do you think that's true? is president trump ruining america? >> i think that this president is someone who enjoys dividing the country. i think he does. i think he has sadly decided that he gets a lot of applause and he likes the applause when he throws red meat. that's not the sign of a leader. a leader of a country is someone who brings people together, not
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tears people apart. >> your colleague cory booker was asked about his presidential ambitions recently and he said after 2018 he'll give it a look. are you in that same place? >> i'm focused on 2018. >> will you give it a look after 2018? >> i'm looking all around. i'm looking at these fabulous people out here. hi, guys. >> you're not looking at the white house? >> right now i'm focused on this. i'm focused on a lot of other things as a higher priority. >> but you're not ruling it out? >> i mean, i don't know. i don't know. i'm not ruling it out, no. >> not ruling it out. #she'srunning. >> i think they're all running. >> apparently they are all. there was a group of people outside the frame sitting there watching our interview is who she was waving at as she tried
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to dodge the question about 2020. a couple of interesting or one interesting litmus test in that interview which is abolish ice and it's something that activ t activists are demanding of people running in 2020. >> we'll see how far she does go with that. if she does go with a host of positions like that, i don't know. i would find that unfortunate. to me that would be like the ted cruz model of taking positions that are easy to understand, but aren't based probably in reality like let's defund obamacare. i don't think it's healthy for getting things fixed and solved. >> everyone agrees on the left that this is a problem and the
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trump administration's position is wrong and how do you differentiate yourself from other liberals and that will be a question in the 2020 democratic primary. it does make sense to push the envelope of it politically. as far as actually policy wise implementing a solution like that, good luck. that's the campaign poetry. >> i think it's interesting that she's the daughter of immigrants and she has really staked out kind a very clear line on this issue. she voted against the democratic compromise. she was one of three democrats. she angered her colleagues and her senate leaders. there were other hopefuls in the senate who voted for this essentially trading dacha for the wall. i just think her positioning on this is really interesting. >> i think it speaks to how do you differentiate yourself, especially for 2020.
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yes, she dodged your question, but there's a lot of assumptions in washington, d.c. about what she wants and what elizabeth warren wants. if she can say this is the position i've had for a long time, that's a selling point. the problem is something like abolishing ice is just hypothetical as saying that democrats are for open boarders. her saying i want to abolish ice does not help counter this message of president trump, which is also an easy message to understand for democrats. i don't think democrats want -- i don't think any of them want to run on this idea of open boarders. >> yes. i think that's an easy assertion to make and this is something that progressive groups are hammering on. >> she's much more likeable than ted cruz. >> she has that going for her.
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coming up the latest reporting on coins. "kasie d.c." back after this. wr? [ roar ] rated pg-13. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close.
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at the marine mammal center, the environment is everything. we want to do our very best for each and every animal, and we want to operate a sustainable facility. and pg&e has been a partner helping us to achieve that. we've helped the marine mammal center go solar, install electric vehicle charging stations, and become more energy efficient. pg&e has allowed us to be the most sustainable organization we can be. any time you help a customer, it's a really good feeling. it's especially so when it's a customer that's doing such good and important work for the environment. together, we're building a better california. i want to turn to some fascinating reporting about the
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white house's medallions known as challenge coins. the coins have become something of a white house staple, but according to the reporting, president trump, you'll be surprised to learn, has taken it to a new level with coins that are shinier and bigger with one going for $1,000 on ebay. ken, i'm not sure any of us are surprised that things are more gold than they used to be, but isn't there a little bit of a concern here and you're reporting that some of this may violate the rules about what you're allowed to do with official government property, is that right? >> yeah. there was a coin that got a lot of attention on the holidays of last year that had make america great on it. it was produced by the rnc, but
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white house lawyers from the white house told staff don't display this in the white house because it's a political coin and you can't have that on government property. there's questions about whether government resources were used. the white house communications agency, which is a military unit within the white house, said they weren't. these coins were produced for president trump's trips and they do them for all the trips as you can see. there are questions about whether they used government e-mails or staff time to produce these coins. there's a long military tradition here of these coins. >> i have several of them from members in the military. they are actually all smaller. they're a little bit bigger than a quarter. >> it's a little trivial, but it also does get to this idea that
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president trump is sort of pushing the bounds. he's testing and defying norms. he's defying them in a way that calls attention to his businesses or his campaign and also this sort of glitzy display of gold, which we think of when we think of president trump and his personalpreferences. >> emily jane fox, does this surprise you at all? >> it's probably the least surprising thing that's happened in the trump presidency. this is something that the president is devoting his attention to. he cares about the details of these coins when we know he doesn't read his briefing papers every day. the sizes of the coins and the details of the coins, that captures his attention. >> john? >> ken, you mentioned the white house didn't want these coins in
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the white house with a political message make america great again, correct? >> right. >> the president often wears a hat saying that. what's the difference there? >> this is an issue that has been addressed. when he goes to the rallies and it's paid for by the campaign or the rnc, that makes the make america great slogan permissible to be used there. it's a question that the white house has grappled with in the past. that's why you see them splitting the cost of air force one to a campaign rally or something like that. this is a token that brings home that struggle to stay within the rules. >> it's a very heavy token. coming up, an intimate po portrait of the trump family. >> i have pride in the fact that
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people would take an interest in me because i'm a part of them. for a while i was worried that for my whole life i would be under my parents' shadow, but it's not a bad shadow to be under, i guess. and the safey for "most parallel parallel parking job" goes to...
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[ drum roll ] ...emily lapier from ames, iowa. this is emily's third nomination and first win. um...so, just...wow! um, first of all, to my fellow nominees, it is an honor sharing the road with you. and of course, to the progressive snapshot app for giving good drivers the discounts -- no, i have to say it -- for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. safe driving!
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my wife feels very strongly about it. i feel very strongly about it. i think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it. we don't like to see families separated.
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>> that was president trump talking about how his daughter and wife feel about the separations of migrant maefamil at the boarder after signing the executive order this week, but ivanka trump was quiet until last sunday saying that congress must act and find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared families. the trump family dynamic is the subject of a new book called "inside america's first family". i'm not finished with your book, but i have been enjoying it and i have recommended it to everybody who is watching. it making me so interested in your analysis of what we have seen play out everything from the jacket that melania trump decided to wear when she got on that plane to her relationship with ivanka trump, how that has shaped the president, if the two
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of them ever joined forces. do you ever see that kind of interaction behind the scenes? >> the west wieast wing and the wing are fairly separate and the first lady and the first daughter have distance between them as well. it's not that there's bad blood there. they are each there to do their own thing in washington and those things don't necessarily overlap very often. during the inauguration, there were moments of tension between the first lady and ivanka trump. ivanka trump wanted to be involved and she was interested in the inauguration. melania trump had some hesitations about the parade. there were security concerns and she voiced some concerns about the security and about them being outside the car for a certain period of time. ivanka trump was insistent that she would be there on the parade route, that everyone would be there on the parade route
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because she wanted this to be this historic moment. what ended up happening is that ivanka trump was trying to put an infant car seat in the armored vehicle during the parade and they struggled to get the car seat to fit, so they held up the parade because they couldn't get their car seat in their vehicle. >> ken has a question. >> i think for a lot of reporters here in washington, there was puzzlement and maybe some frustration early on in the trump administration with the degree to which ivanka trump and jared were able to take credit for moderating steps within the administration and with donald trump, the president, and then distance themselves from moves that were less popular. i'm wondering how much you think they had to do with that? are they still trying to do that? are they frustrated with the sort of change in the public perception of their roles in the administration? >> these are two people who were incredibly skilled in the media,
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particularly here in manhattan, and they brought a press person into the white house to deal with issues related to just them, which is just unprecedented for members of west wing staff to have a press person devoted just to them, but these are also first children who have a press person in the west wing devoted to them. their ability to handle those kinds of situations, things that they perhaps wanted to seem closer to or things they wanted to distance themselves from, they had the ability to distance themselves from that. what we're seeing now is a lot of the same playing out. the response that i got from people close to ivanka trump last week about why she's staying silent, that is the kind of response we have seen over and over again for the last year and a half. there is a little bit of a difference that i'm sensing. there's sort of a throwing your hands up in the air of i'm going to get thrown under the bus anyway, i'm going to be
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criticized anyway, so who cares. i'm going to do what i'm going to do. that attitude that i'm starting to see projected is new and different and i'm curious to see how that plays out in the next controversy. >> you write about how they did not expect for donald trump to be the president. i think most people, including trump himself felt that way, but how much you have been able to find out about their emotional reaction in those first days and weeks? obviously they're making the best of it or seeing it as an opportunity now, but do you have any sense that they were disappointed or upset about the outcome? >> it's interesting. there's one story that i have about jared kushner and his reaction the morning after the election. they had visited the grave of a famous rabbi here in new york and the grave site is a very holy site for jews and they are
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orthodox jews and they said they were going to pray for the right outcome of the election. someone who jared spoke to that morning had brought up the fact that they had visited this grave and they thought that may have played a role in what happened on election day and the person related to me did they really get the right outcome that morning. was that really what was best for them? i think there was hesitation, but they certainly went and dove in feet first and took the whole thing in stride. >> emily jane fox, thank you very much. the book is in stores now. "kasie d.c." back after this. on a legacy? its show of strength... or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain... or breaking new ground? this is the time to get an exceptional offer
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dear future us, that's why we're striving to do good. and help our communities get the education they deserve. we're doing this today... ...so you can do even more. the coca-cola company the white house, congress, the press, it has been a combative relationship at times. for a few innings, we put that aside on the softball diamond. >> welcome to the tenth annual congressional women's softball game between women members of congress and women of the d.c. press corps. >> the members are going to win. we're going to beat the press. >> we're going to win.
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>> we usually win. >> look at us. we got raw talent here. it's going to be the congressional team. we're going to beat the press. >> i've been the announcer forever here with dana bash. i give it to the congressional team. >> in all seriousness, she's one of the best players. >> up at bat, kasie. >> when she started playing, she didn't have her own show. now she does. it's a launching pad. >> it must be. >> oh, my gosh, wow. everybody is a winner. remember that. >> the bad news babes were victorious.
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you saw a couple of our nbc colleagues. we raised $320,000 for the young survival coalition battling breast cancer. when we return, what to watch for in the week ahead. my car smells good. it's these new fresh-fx car air fresheners from armor all. each scent can create a different mood in my car. like tranquil skies. armor all, it's easy to smell good.
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time for what to watch for in the week ahead. nbc news has confirmed that stormy daniels will be talking to federal investigators tomorrow as part of the michael cohen investigation. you have that to watch. i also want -- we have this
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quote from mark warner, overheard on martha's vineyard. i will leave that there. thank you, senator warner. >> important context. that was with a group of donors. what i'm watching for is president trump going to north dakota to campaign for kevin cramer. cramer had criticized the white hou house. some thought he wasn't as committed to the race. this shows he is. >> i think one i'm going to watch for mark warner to walk that back. two, supreme court decision, the travel ban. the decision on the travel ban could come tomorrow. >> a big deal. you have a baseball game you want to tease. we are out of time. >> go capitol hill little league. >> that does it for us tonight.
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i don't know if i have time to show you sasha. we will be back from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. for now, good night from washington. leaks, secret tapes, special prosecutors and presidential paranoia. when i hear those words today, they have a familiar echo to me. 40 years ago, i made the movie "all the president's men" about how woodward and bernstein chased the watergate story. it stayed with me. a few years ago i produced a documentary about the story to uncover the truth. it struck me as prophetic and worth repeating today. we thought watergate changed america and our political process. but did it?

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