tv Weekends With Alex Witt MSNBC November 25, 2018 9:00am-10:00am PST
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that is our show for today. thanks for watching. "am joy" will be back next weekend. up next, alex witt. >> so cute, joy to the world. i've thought that before. i'm not going to sing it. i'm going to spare all of the viewers that. >> i love it and i love santa larry and mrs. claus. awesome. >> have a good one. thank you, my friend. good day to all of you. i'm alex witt at msnbc headquarters in new york. here's what's happening right now, the president, democrats and changing tide on capitol hill. new indications today about what lies ahead. >> now he knows there's going to be some push back. they're tired of hearing the lies. they're hearing people say the lies are truth and truth are lies. >> when bob mueller puts together a report on among other things obstruction of justice, will that report be shared with
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the american people? will it be shared with congress? >> the trump economy, is it as strong as he says it is? and is he prepared for what could come next? plus, it's vicious. the report that gets a new window into the effort to clean house in the west wing. and new this hour, democrats signaling how vigorously they will investigate the president, his business dealings and the actions of those around him. the list includes potential obstruction of justice, possible financial dealings with saudi arabia as well, and any follow-up on the mueller investigation. house democrats now zeroing in on their upcoming subpoena targets. the incoming chair of the house oversight committee says he has requested 64 subpoenas. congressman elija cummings warning democrats to use their new powers wisely but saying once democrats take control in just a few weeks, the clock is ticking. >> we only have two years. that's nothing so we've got to get it done. we do not have -- we going to have to hit the ground as
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democrats running. we have to hit the ground flying. >> and for the incoming house intelligence chairman, a priority is president trump's business ties to saudi arabia. congressman adam schiff vowing to find out what's behind the president's soft peddling of a cia investigation on the killing of jamal khashoggi. >> the president is not being honest with the country about the murder of jamal khashoggi. what is driving this, i don't know. whether this is simply an affinity he has for autocrats. is his personal financial interests driving the policy in the gulf, advice a have i the russians? we don't know, but it would be irresponsible not to find out. >> schiff wants to hear from the acting attorney general, specifically why did the president appoint matt whitaker, a vocal critic of the mueller investigation. >> the american people need to know whether this president is obstructing justice, whether he's obstructed justice in the past, whether his appointment of
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whitaker was designed to obstruct justice, whether it's having the effect of obstructing justice. we are going to bring whitaker before the congress. >> joining me is jerry conley of virginia. welcome back to the broadcast on this holiday weekend. >> great to be with you, alex. >> let's talk about your colleague, congressman shchiff. i'm curious your read on that and in what form? >> in some ways i think obstruction of justice has been occurring before our very eyes. donald trump hasn't been secretive about his motivation from calling the investigation -- the criminal investigation of robert mueller a witch hunt and trying to interfere with it to firing james comey, to firing attorney general sessions all because of the russian thing. and so we know that he certainly has sought to interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation that has produced, i think, six
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plea -- guilty pleas as part of the investigation and a number of indictments. so that's serious business, but it's occurred right before our eyes. >> okay. what about congressman cummings for his part, he did not offer a number one priority for the house oversight committee come january. what in your mind is number one when it comes to investigating the white house? >> well, i think we have a very rich menu unfortunately from which to choose. elijah and i have both requested 64 separate subpoenas on various investigations, various conflicts and controversies and ethical challenges in the trump administration. >> can you elaborate a little bit on those? >> sure. >> what they specifically are for? >> sure. for example, security clearances at the white house. the sense -- the citizenship question on the census with wilbur ross. certainly certain aspects of russian interference with u.s.
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elections in 2016. so, i mean, there's a long, long list of things we can choose from. we're going to have to winnow out that list, look for making sure that whatever we do it's judicious, it's methodical, it's fact based. we don't want to be in the business of looking like some kind of witch hunt and we don't want to be in the business of wreaking vengeance now that we're back in power. we want to restore the credibility of congress and the constitutional role of oversight in this administration. >> do you agree that you have to hit the ground running though? >> i do. >> you heard congressman cummings say we've got two years. that's a long time to do investigations but he's saying, no, it's not. >> no, i agree with elijah that two years goes very fast and so we have to really work hard to re-establish congress's credibility because the republicans have absolutely seen, heard, and spoke no evil when it kams to the trump administration and have done virtually no oversight. >> emoluments clause, what do
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you want to see done on that front? what is the big thing you want to investigate there? >> well, that's a great example of one of the subpoenas because it involves the trump hotel and other trump properties where foreign governments are clearly trying to seek favor by having events at the trump hotel downtown washington and other -- other trump properties like mar-a-lago and his golf course in new jersey. but also there is a potential conflict here because trump personally got involved in pulling back a request for proposals for new fbi headquarters now located at pennsylvania avenue. he has a direct conflict if that property is redeveloped as a commercial property and the fbi is moved to a more campus setting because that commercial property could compete with his hotel. >> yeah. okay. let's talk about saudi arabia now because the president has certainly cast out over the cia that crown prince mohamed bin
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salman ordered the killing of jamal khashoggi. >> i don't think so. first of all, mr. khashoggi was my constituent and this is a tragic, tragic event. it's repugnant behavior on the part of the saudi government. there's no doubt that the 15 operatives that went into istanbul to commit this crime were associated with the crown prince. the cia says with a high degree of certainty that the saudi ambassador who happens to be the crown prince's brother here in washington encouraged khashoggi to go to the istanbul consulate that he would be safe and he of course knew that to be false. there's a high degree of confidence that of course this was orchestrated and pre-planned by the crown prince himself. trump wants to ignore that because he believes the saudi relationship economically and militarily is more important than the murder of a u.s.
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residents and a prominent columnist to the washington post. >> adam schiff we heard say that he is going to investigate president trump's financial ties to saudi arabia, saying if foreign investment in the trump businesses is guiding u.s. policy in a way that's anti-ethical to the country's interests, we need to find out about it. do you think there's credence to the idea that trump's potential foreign investments guides, shapes his view on u.s. policy? >> certainly there's reason to believe it does in the case of russia. we do know that russian financing was critical to the trump operation before mr. trump became president because he had difficulty getting normal bank loans because of his many bankruptcies. and so he needed foreign money, including russian money, to help finance the operation. we don't know to the extent that russian financing occurred because we don't yet have his taxes, but i believe that's a big issue across the board, whether it's his investments in
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turkey, saudi arabia, russia, or other parts of the planet, indonesia, the philippines. he has a number of potential conflicts which we highlighted after he got elected. he could have solved those conflicts by putting everything in a blind trust which he refused to do. >> with regard to saudi arabia, sir, we heard him on the campaign trail numerous times citing the amount of money that the saudis give him and his private trump enterprise businesses. is that enough to make you think we've got to investigate that because he, himself, talks about the millions and millions of dollars that he gets. >> i believe so. a man was murdered. his body dismembered in a pre-planned, pre-meditated event orchestrated at the highest level of saudi government. we cannot ignore that and we can't allow president trump to ignore that on behalf of america. >> hauser advises oversight committee democratic congressman jerry conley of virginia, i want
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to have you back. we'll talk about your thoughts on the census. i know that's something you're passionate about. >> absolutely. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, alex. joining me now, liz goodwin and shawn sullivan, hey, guys, good to see you both. liz, i'll start with you here. do you think investigating the president is going to be the democratic party's focus come next year? where do you think the president might be most vulnerable if that is? >> yeah, well republicans were saying all last year leading up to the mid terms that president trump did not quite grasp what it would mean for democrats to win the house. he didn't understand what a nightmare it could be for him, and i think what you are y're s is democrats are ready to aggressively start investigating the president. they don't even need new ideas because they've been stewing on the things they wanted to investigate for two years and were blocked by the republican colleagues who were in power. and i think that you're going to see high level cabinet members,
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members of president trump's family dragged in front of committees. they're going to be testifying and democrats are going to have the ability for the first time in two years to actually drive the conversation here in washington. scandals that kind of went away about the administration and people would say, you know, oh, gosh, i guess he's just like teflon, nothing sticks to president trump. that could change if you have subpoena power and you have the ability to kind of create this story through committee hearings that are televised that people are watching. >> yeah. >> but at the same time i think democrats are weary of looking over zealous. they want to have a legislative agenda. they want to show that they want to get things done, that this isn't just a vendetta. that's why you have people like congressman cummings saying transportation, infrastructure. we want to get that done. we want to do it. >> right. >> it will be interesting to see how they balance that. >> to your point, let's play something that congressman cummings said this morning. here it is, everyone. >> let's be abundantly clear.
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the american people said to us through this election, we want accountability. we want a check on this president of the united states. the american people said to us they want robust, transparent investigations with integrity. so we will -- i haven't figured out exactly what order they're in because they're all important but i guarantee you we will look at quite a bit. >> shawn, any indication how many investigations the democrats will undertake? they've made reference to a number of them over the past few months. >> yeah. it looks like they're going to be taking a look at a lot of different things, and what's striking, notable when you listen to the comments from congressman cummings and from other democrats is the extent to which democrats seem to be interested in the president's personal financial information. his tax returns. his past business ties with saudi arabia and officials in the saudi government. this is not just going to be an
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investigation into the president's political decisions, it looks like, it will be an investigation on several fronts it looks like into his personal financial records. that's something that we have not seen the republicans touch really at all as they have controlled congress the past two years. >> so, shawn, are you saying that the democrats can call for the president's personal finances and get those records, taxes, and other corporate records? can they do that? >> well, certainly with the power of subpoena and the power they'll have controlling the house they will have a lot more leverage over some of these things than they had in the minority. now, of course, the president and his legal team and the white house can surely be expected to push back on things that they don't want to release or information that they don't want to share so we could see some legal wrangling, but even, you know, requesting this information, having it out there and having the white house potentially say, hey, we couldn't want to release this stuff would, you know, draw attention to the american people to this issue in a way that they
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have not been looking at this over the past two years with republicans kroeg the house. >> absolutely. the optics there. liz, you heard congressman shiv saying this morning that the president is being dishonest to the american public. he said he, too, has been briefed by the cia on the khashoggi case. the president is not telling what he knows. he wants to ask some pointed questions. like what? do you know what those questions would be? >> i mean, i can't guess what congressman schiff is thinking, but because multiple senators and congressmen who have access to this intelligence say that they believe that mbs did personally order this killing, that he orchestrated it, i would assume they want to ask him, okay, is there some intelligence that you have that we don't have access to? what do you know, mr. president, that we don't know about why mbs is not to blame for this? and then as shawn was saying, they're also very interested in looking into his own personal financial connections to saudi
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arabia to try to draw a connection between his decision making and his pocketbook. >> yeah. what about, shawn, schiff saying he wants matt whitaker to come before the intelligence committee, acting attorney general. what do you think whitaker could offer that the president might have to answer to? >> this is another example that the power that the democrats are going to have and how the dynamic is going to shift very, very quickly and very, very abruptly in washington right now. and democrats are going to have a lot of questions about what whit taaker thinks about the pr and what discussions he's had with other officials about it. now every appointee that the president puts forward, whether it's somebody he wants to be running the justice department or another high level post will come under a lot of scrutiny from this new democratic congress, which is going to control the house. and so this is a reminder of how quickly and how dramatically we're going to see the situation shift in washington when it
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comes to the scrutiny of people like whitaker and other officials in the administration. >> they are expected to absolutely hit the ground running. i want to turn to the controversy about ivanka trump's e-mails. this is what trey gowdy said this morning about it. >> i've already talked to ms. trump's attorney. i've already talked to mr. cummings. we've already written a letter to the white house. congress has a responsibility to make sure that the records and the presidential records act is complied with, and that is true no matter who the person is. we've taken steps. we've done more in the last week than some of my house democratic colleagues did the entire time we were looking into benghazi. so i'm at peace with what we've done but we need the information and we need it quickly and then the public can judge whether or not those two fact patterns are similar. >> liz, why do you think it's so important for gowdy jump on this quickly and wrap it up just as
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quickly? >> republicans are very sensitive to accusations of hypocrisy on this. they spent so much time on hillary clinton's e-mails it would look just like very hypocritical to not even look into ivanka trump's private e-mail use since there are obvious parallels there. and i think he wants to wrap that up with a bow on it before democrats take over the house. though i think it's debatable whether democrats would go after ivanka trump on this matter in particular. they might go after her on some of her business connections, but i don't think they want to elevate the private e-mail use as an issue since they spent so much time saying it wasn't. >> yeah. last word to you on this, shawn. what are your thoughts? >> i think this is an example of how the democrats have to -- are going to have to pick and choose what they are going to want to look into more closely because this is one of many, many different things that they could spend time on. but ultimately at the end of this next two years they're going to want to go to the american public and say, hey, we used our subpoenas wisely. we uncovered new information.
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we gave the public more knowledge about how the administration was operating. we didn't sort of look at things in a political lens at all. are they going to look at her e-mails, spend time on the president's tax returns, are they going to look at his business connections to saudi arabia? there's a lot of things they'll be able to look into. >> sean sullivan and liz goodwin, thank you very much. president trump boasting big on the economy this morning, but could it be his undoing in 2020? president obama's former chief economic advisor is joining me next. so a tree falls on your brand-new car and totals it.
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saudi arabia's been a long-time strategic partner. they're investing hundreds of billions of dollars in our country, i mean hundreds of billions. they're keeping the oil prices low. >> president trump defending saudi arabia this past week in response to questions about the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi. and just a short time ago the president tweeted this, so great that oil prices are falling, thank you, president t. add that, which is like a big tax cut to our other good economic news. inflation down. are you listen, fed? joining me now austin golsby. i did see a smile on your face as a result of that tweet. can you interpret that as i say thanks for joining me? he's thanking himself for the low oil prices, sending a
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message to the fed. what's your read on it? >> they asked him on thanksgiving what was he thankful for and he did say he was thankful for himself and what he had done for the country. look, i think in this case president trump's painting himself into a little bit of a box, like he did with the stock market where the more you go out and trumpet that the stock market is up under your watch, the more you own it when the stock market goes down. and now you see him trying to blame the fed for the decrease in the stock market. you see him trying to blame his own treasury secretary, and i don't think it will work. if we have some -- if we hit some economic bumps in the road partly caused, let's say, by starting a trade war with china, i don't think the american people are going to let him off the hook. i think he's going to have to be held accountable, and he will be. >> look, austin, i've got to tell you, i'm looking at four headlines right now, wall street journal, cnbc, "forbes," the
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atlantic in the last week, all of which have the r word. recession is in those headlines as if it -- the prospect of it, the likelihood of it questioning -- i mean, what does that do to donald trump in 2020? >> well, you know what it does. it does what it has always done, which is it dramatic -- it would dramatically deteriorate the political prospects of whose ever sitting in the white house when it happens. i hope very strongly that that doesn't happen. >> of course. >> i think why you would at a moment like that be trying to agitate big trade wars with the largest economies of the world, to me that doesn't make sense. now the question of saudi arabia's a slightly different question because despite what the president's saying there, i think it's fair to say saudi arabia's very important for the trump business.
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its role in the united states economy is much smaller. saudi arabia's far more dependent on us than we are on them. >> i hear that all the time. are the saudis, austin, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the united states? are they the reason that our prices are low right now? >> i mean, we get very little of our actual imports of oil from saudi arabia, but oil's a world commodity. saudi saudiweudi arabia's decisions influence the price of oil. i think what's driving it down are uncertainties of whether the whole world is going to go into recession or whether there's demand that we keep prices up. when that happens, the low price of oil is not always good news. we've seen that over the last five to eight years that sometimes price of oil goes down when they think that the world prospects are not very good. >> what about the president saying that the saudis are
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responsible for creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. true? >> it's probably somewhat true. now -- i mean, they are investors, but as i say, saudi arabia's economy i think is a little bit smaller than the economy of the state of illinois, for example, so it plays some role in the world economy, but the size of the state of illinois for the global economy is not that high. and our imports from saudi arabia are not that high. they are investors in certain sectors, but the -- the impact of saudi arabia on donald trump's personal business is vastly, vastly larger than the impact on the u.s. economy. >> interesting. we saw in the president's tweet his take on the economy. well, here he is on the gdp. let's take a listen to him. >> we are a true economic power, far greater than we were before i became president. we are an economic president that is far greater than we
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were. when we were -- when i took over we were teetering. we were in bad shape. we were going down to minus 4, minus 5 in gdp. instead last quarter we hit 4.2%. and we are -- we are doing very well. >> look, he took over from your former boss so i'm going to ask you, what is fact and what is fiction there? >> well, i don't know if he had too much cranberry sauce or something. those are complete -- except for the 4.2%, all the rest of that was completely made up numbers and non-facts. we weren't teetering. the gdp was not negative whatever percent. all of that is made up. so, look, i hope that the gdp keeps growing. what it did in the second quarter. now it already slowed down in the third quarter and the forecasts are that it's going to slow down again going into the fourth quarter and into next year, and you've seen president trump already start pointing the
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finger that he's going to try to blame someone else and not take accountability if the economy slows down. he's hiking attacks on his own accessibility. as i say, it's not going to work if the economy slows down. >> the university of chicago are darn lucky to have you. i hope they appreciate you. >> they're the best students on earth. >> clearly they do. thank you so much. should president trump keep borders -- troops at the border? do they have a right to use lethal force? we've got a military perspective on that next. ♪
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then i need to get if i'm into character. santa, ♪ ho ho ho this is christmas, baby ♪ [ groans ] dude, how many candy canes did you eat? [ mumbles ] that's hurtful. the idea that any asylum seekers that come through mexico seeking asylum would stay in mexico until their court date in the united states. if the president cuts a deal with mexico, are you supportive of that? >> no.
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no. >> why? >> that's not the law. they should be allowed to come in, seek asylum, that's the law. >> congressman elijah cummings reacting to this "washington post" story which states a deal with mexico paves the way for asylum seekers staying at the border. nearly 5,000 migrants have arrived at the border at tijuana, mexico. hans nichols is there in san diego, california. hans, with a good day to you. good morning their time. what all is going on there at the border? >> reporter: well, look, right now we've got a solidarity protest here. these people are protesting the ability of those migrants to come into america. they're saying that refugees are welcome. just to give you a sense of it, there are 500, that's what they're expecting anyway. as you can hear now, we have some helicopters overhead. i don't know if they're military. they look like blauk hawckhawks. that's how close we are to a
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militarized border. the fact that it's been militarized doesn't change what president trump is trying to do. he wants to force asylum claims to be taken into mexico. not to cross the border. the people here are opposed to it. they want to see these people come in. we're going to talk to some folks here. to give you a sense, it is quite early here. they were expecting 500. we have a gentleman here, jerry condon, veterans for peace. thank you for joining us. tell us what you hope to accomplish here this morning. >> we want to send a message to people of this country and people of latin america. we consider asylum seekers to be our brothers and our sisters. we know they're fleeing from extreme violence and poverty in central america. we realize that our own government's policies of u.s. intervention and support for right wing dictators in central america as a big cause of the violence there and so we have a special responsibility to hear their claims of asylum and to
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grant them that asylum. >> now you say you have toasylu. do you care where they're made? can they be made in mexico? >> i think the asylum claims need to be made here and that the asylum seekers are supposed to be allowed to remain in the united states until that -- until that hearing has taken place. i realize trump is trying to shut up another arrangement with mexico. i don't know if that's going to fly. >> reporter: thank you for your time, sir. guys, later on today there's reports that we will have some of those migrants inside that camp of 5,000, maybe more, starting to get really crowded in there. the humanitarian situation is dire. whether or not they'll be trying to cross the border, whether or not any of them will come en masse and try to make the crossing and make their asylum claims in this country. if that deal is finalized between the trump administration and the new mexican government, they only have five days to do it. alex? extraordinary details. thank you so much, hans nichols
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from san diego. joining us is retired four star general barry mccaffrey. general, first let's get to all of the troops who have spent their thanksgiving day at the u.s./mexico border. is there a good reason for them to be there or do you think this is a misuse of government resources? >> well, look, alex, there's around 6,000 active troops, couple thousand national guard there. we've had u.s. forces on the border for the past 20 years. i'm confident it's fully within the president's authority to deploy them there. there is little or no military mission. this is not a national security challenge. this is a humanitarian crisis going on in central america and there's 45,000 sworn officers in customs and border protection whose job it is as federal law enforcement to protect the border. so at the end of the day this is a political issue. the entire issue is irrational. we need to sort out immigration policy. we desperately need these
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workers in the united states, but we also need to control the borders, which we don't do. which have' got 12 million illegals in the u.s. right now probably, 300,000 were arrested at the border last year. we still don't really have control of our borders. by the way, 40% of these people who are here illegally came by air and over stayed their visa. so we've got it sit down and get some rational policy. >> what about the president's call for the use of deadly force if needed along the border? your thoughts to that, sir? >> it's a political gesture. it means almost nothing. we clearly do not want to mill tar rise that border. i don't think secretary mattis is going to let that happen. we have a couple of combat engineer groups stripping barbed wire. it's a medical mission. most of the troops are not armed. those who are armed, like military police, there is never
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any requirement for the president to say troops have the right of self-defense. so, again, this is a political argument going on. the u.s. armed forces are not the solution to this but congress, which is -- has the lead on law, needs to sort out sensible policy. it doesn't make any sense to have hundreds of people dieing in the desert crossing the frontier in great danger. they do need to apply for asylum or worker's permits to either our consulates or legal ports of entry. we are to think through this and it's not happening with either political party. >> thank you, general. have a good sunday. >> good to be with you. the racial overtones in the mississippi senate runoff and another apology from the embattled encouple bent. will all of that necessarily hurt her chances of winning. ♪
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president trump heads to mississippi tomorrow to hold two rallies in support of the republican candidate in this year's final mid term election. tuesday is the senate runoff between republican incumbent senator cindy hyde-smith and mike espy. critics were not satisfied after she apologized for joking after supporting voter suppression and using the phrase a public hanging in an attempt at humor. just yesterday she said this to nbc news. >> could you clarify and
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articulate -- >> if i hurt anybody's feelings, you know, we're just staying on the issues that are on people's mind. that is lower taxes, less regulations. you know, second amendment, all of those things. so, you know, i just -- any time i've said anything somebody got offended, i want to apologize. >> do you know what it was that offended people? could you acknowledge -- >> yeah. i apologized for anything else that i possibly said. thank you, pam. >> joining me now, howell reins. the author of a new article for nbc think about the mississippi race. welcome back to the broadcast. i'm curious about your take on hyde-smith's apology. >> thanks, alex. she has one talent as a candidate, that's sticking to the trump script. we're seeing president trump in elvis presley's birth place for
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one reason. he's trying to drag an inept candidate across the finish line. it's silly on the merits. if you say hanging and you're a candidate in montana, you can plausibly argue that you were talking about how to treat horse thooefs. if you say hanging in mississippi, you can only be talking about an instrument of racial suppression. so she's -- i don't think she's characterologically flawed like ray moore, but she is a nightmare as a candidate. she just about talked herself out of victory. we'll know in 48 hours whether she was able to do that. >> yeah. i think the lead -- she had the lead by less than 1% in terms of the margin there. >> yeah. >> so a crucial component of this story is hyde-smith's racially charged comments. let's take a listen to those who haven't heard. >> a public hanging.
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>> maybe you want to vote. nkts maybe we just make it a little more difficult. >> so i think that's a great idea. >> howell, do you think she's perhaps making those comments because she thinks that is what her base wants to hear? >> well, sure. i mean, she's a mississippi republican and what we're watching play out in mississippi is a little mini drama to see if enough white republicans will be offended by racial talk to cross over and elect a democratic senator, which is what happened in alabama with doug jones defeat of roy moore. interestingly, joe trippy, the political consultant for moore -- for doug jones is running the race in mississippi, but alabama is not as retroas mississippi, and that gets to the key demographics of this
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race. mississippi is probably the most retroof the deep south states. it's much more rural than alabama and it was the urban voters, suburban voters, the republican voters in places like birmingham, tuscaloosa who produced the jones victory. as my friend curtis wilke, the veteran "boston globe" reporter who now teaches at the university of mississippi says, there's no history in mississippi of white republicans crossing over to vote for a democratic candidate much less a black democrat. so it's -- it's going to be a very close-run thing, i think. most people believe that senator hyde-smith will pull it out, however, if she doesn't, it will be a real humiliation for truchbl. >> yeah. >> there's not a more trumpian state in the universe, and
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that's why he's going to tupalo tomorrow and that's why he's going to biloxi. it's a dramatic end to what's been a really fascinating year for elections. >> to say the least. in fact, mississippi has not elected a democrat to the senate since 1982. i'm looking at the numbers from november 5th and .9% is the differential between hyde-smith and mike espy. the other two combined run up to almost 18%. so give me a prediction, howell. how do you see this playing out? you said she's expected to squeak it out. do you think that's going to happen on tuesday? >> no, i have to say i don't think it happens, but i want to hedge that by saying the same thing that joe trippy and curtis wilke have been saying and they know the state very well. if the republicans stay home, that creates an opening for a strong democratic turnout to
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take espy into office. and that's why trump is there. i mean, senator trent lott, exsenator, could not have been more honest and he said trump is going to try to stir things up. >> get out the vote. >> get republicans feel endangered enough to vote. if he is aide not able to whip them up in biloxi and tupalo, that will be a significant moment in this pattern we're seeing nationally of suburban voters tending away from trump. >> howell reins, always great to get you to weigh in. thank you so much. coming up next, the so-called embedded enemies against president trump. they're spilled out in a new book co-written by cory lewandowski but is this simply deep state paranoia? insurance that won't replace
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that's it! get him, wooh yes! mom! my game is over. (whistle blows) parents aren't perfect. but then they make us kraft mac & cheese shapes and everything is good again. we've shown just how far love can go.e the love event,s (grandma vo) over one hundred national parks protected. (mom vo) more than fifty thousand animals rescued.
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(old man vo) nearly two million meals delivered. (mom vo) over eighteen hundred wishes granted. (vo) that's one hundred and forty million dollars donated to charity by subaru and its retailers over eleven years. (girl) thank you. (boy) thank you. (old man) thank you. (granddaughter) thank you. . >> one of the things we are concerned about is wondering whether the president is acting in his best interest or those of the american people. >> we only have two years. we have got to get it done. we don't have to hit the ground as democrats running.
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we have to hit the ground flying. >> congressman cummings vowing to investigate president trump's business dealings and whether they conflict with the interest of the country. joining me now is howard dean, former dnc chairman and republican strategist and msnbc political analyst. how important do you think it is for the president to look into whether it is in violation. should it be a priority? >> well, look, the president is basically a crook. we should investigate that. i really don't hope that the democratic majority is not going spend all of their time talking about investigations. i would like to see some stuff get douchb. for example, substantial health care reform, universal health care. there's a ton of other things like that.
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he is one of the most decent people i know. it turns out to be the e-mail scandal of ivanka trump. >> do you think two things could have been done at the same time that clearly want and pursuit of health care and getting all of that straightened out? >> first of all we can't do investigations of trump because of democratic base. we have to do investigations of trump based on what's good for the country. it is what is their perversion of the process to spend all of their time on this nonsense. this is about the country. we have a crook as if it of the united states. we need to do something about that. we do not need to make that the central political issue. >> how much do you think voters have given to democrats to
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investigate this president? when you look at midterms is that not part of the message that voters sent? >> i think tone was a big part of it. i think the democrat should take a page out of mueller's play book we should see some real policy discussions on the table. drug spriesing is probably something both sides could come together on. there is nothing wrong with seeing investigations continue. it is fair game to look at ivanka's e-mails. it is mandatory to look at the president's finances. this president conducts this country's business as a financial transaction. we should be able to know as
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americans if he is benefitting from pnl transactions. >> let's hope infrastructure is something they can splish something on that. >> a new book. the two allege the president has embedded enemies in the government. i'm curious. do you think it happens to a degree? there is some kind of a left over resentment and there's nothing to see here. there are people that would like to do their job. so of course there are people who are trying to do the right
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thing and trump resents that. to create a deep state conspiracy out of that, why would you read a book by someone like or even buy it for god sakes? this is the kind of thing people buy so they can talk about it. no effect on the future of the country whatsoever. >> i will be talking to her next saturday. >> you can tell him i said so. >> i think it's a ridiculous book and out there to make the president happy. they are trying to stay in his good graces. people go into government services, maybe they come under a certain administration. when you have been there through eight years, 10, 20 it's not about a deep state. it's absolutely absurd.
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>> thank you guys. >> coming up high adam shift is hiring money laundering investigators to take a closer look at the president's financial doings. at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your finance business. and so if someone tries to breach your firewall in london & you start to panic... don't. because your cto says we've got allies on the outside... ...& security algorithms on the inside... ...& that way you can focus on expanding into eastern europe... ...& that makes the branch managers happy & yes, that's the branch managers happy. at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. that's the power of &. & when this happens you'll know how to quickly react... ♪
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