, or he's still trying to prove what a man he was, or thinks he is. that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. [theme music] ♪ welcome to "kasie dc." i'm kasie hunt. we're live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00. breaking news at the border. a port of entry near san diego is shut down as demonstrations break out and hundreds of migrants try to cross into the united states. plus, thank you, president t. his words, not mine. president trump uses the holiday break to give thanks for himself. and to attack his own government in unprecedented ways.

and roger stone is just one of several former trump confidantes the special counsel appears to be closing in on. we'll dive into the latest developments out of the mueller investigation when senate intelligence committee member angus king joins me live. we want to begin with the breaking news. hundreds of mile rants rushing the u.s. border near san diego. pedestrians and road crossings have been closed in both directions at what is the world's busiest border crossing. and it comes as we are hearing two different stories from the u.s. and mexico about a supposed deal requiring asylum applicants to stay in mexico while their cases are processed in the u.s. so we're waiting on nbc news correspondent hans nichols. as soon as he's available we'll jump and talk to him. for now, i want to welcome in the panel. joining me on set, jonathan swan. co-founder of the beat dc, tiffany cross, republican strategist, rick tyler and nbc news national security reporter

julia ainsley. we were hoping to have this conversation with hans to get a better sense really of what is going on, on the ground. obviously, you've been covering it from here in washington. but what do we know about the situation that's going on at the border? how is it different from some of the other -- you've reported there have been other closings in recent weeks. >> last sunday there was a closing because they thought something like this might occur. around 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., it seemed like it was a posturing to show we can shut down this border. and what we're seeing today needs a lot of context around it. it's not that these migrants that we're seeing running, this is the first time they've and to the border. they've been waiting, most of them over a week trying to come in and claim asylum. they've been in a pressure cooker situation. not only has the president not put more people down there to process their asylum claims. he's now put out new guidelines that say they can't come through certain ports of entry and he's willing to use armed military to try to keep them from coming through.

so all of this is getting out. it's not just being talked about here. they're paying close attention to the news and they're waiting in some of the most dangerous towns along that border in mexico trying to get in. it's a lot of desperation but it is a serious response to this. and what we could see is if they keep this closed much longer. it's a huge effect on commerce. this is the busiest land port of entry, border crossing, for commerce in the world. >> it's pretty unreal. jonathan swan, the president had threatened to close the border entirely. he said if something like this happens, i'll close the border. how do you put what we're seeing and we've got more pictures of what's been going on the past couple of hours. how do you put the context of these images and what's going on into the context of our politics here? >> the way the president thinks about this and certainly hard-liners around him think about it is this should be seen as part of a series of actions that he's taken to make it much more difficult for people vulnerable people from dangerous

parts of the world to get into the united states. if this deal -- we don't really know what's happened because there's different stories with mexico saying one story and a different story coming out of america. but if this -- some such deal was to come to fruition. >> that deal is to keep these people on the mexican side of the border while they wait for their asylum claims instead of coming here. >> that would be a huge deal because these claims take a very long time to process. and so you have people's lives on hold and they're on the mexican side of the border. people in trump world view this as a deterrent for people wanting to seek asylum into the united states. it needs to be seen as part of a suite of policies they're trying to implement. >> hans nichols is with us from otay mesa on the american side of the border. sounds like you've had quite an afternoon. can you walk us through what's going on? >> they've just opened the main port of entry. that's where most of the flow

had been taking place and that's where those migrants were trying to surrender, trying to file their claims to make those applications for asylum at an official point of entry. it was closed for about four hours. we came turnover this point of entry. would have taken five, six hours to get through. we ended up cajoling our way through. we got here faster. a lot of people are still in line here, unaware of just how long they have to wait. here's how the day unfolded. earlier this morning, around 9:00 a.m., a bunch of those migrants decided to leave that camp. think about 5,000 people sleeping in the size of a middle school baseball field and that gives you a sense of just how cramped they are. they left and they initially were rebuffed by federal police from the mexican state, riot police. rebuffed from crossing a bridge to get to the point of entry. this is all on the mexican side. they then went around. a few clashes, skirmishes. they then went around and crossed a river full of human

waste, sludge of a river and they crossed that trying to get closer to the point of entry. i don't know if it was hundreds, more than a thousand. men, women, children, old and young. the whole group was sampled there. they didn't get in there and they tried to go farther up the border, broke through a wall and they were rebuffed. most of them are trickling back into tijuana. what's unclear is where they'll spend the night and whether they have any chances of filing their asylum claims on the u.s. side of the border. kasie? >> hans, just to clarify for us because there have been some photos on twitter of a family being teargassed. was that teargas fired by the mexican authorities? what was the extent of the involvement on the part of u.s. authorities. and when they broke through that fence, were they actually on u.s. soil or still on the mexican side? >> no, yeah. it was a restraining fence on the mexican side so they never

breached the u.s. border, as far as we could tell. now we saw some of the teargas. we didn't really smell it and we weren't in the position where the teargas was taking place. it was -- so i don't want to confirm whether or not the u.s. used teargas because we simply weren't there to witness it. it was a chaotic day. we're talking about a distance of about anywhere from a mile to a mile and a half where all this took place. and it was very -- a fast-moving situation. so the places where we were at were not teargassed, although as you said, there are reports of that. i'll leave it other to reports to clarify. at no point did the migrants either get to the point of entry or did they breach the wall. just to give you a sense of what this caravan is like, when we saw some of the migrants coming back, one person in the family was holding a ladder and the other was holding a stroller. and that gives you a sense of the make-up of this caravan. >> hans nichols, thank you for your just the facts reporting.

we should underscore that, remember, if you are making a claim of asylum at a legal point of entry, crossing into that legal point of entry is not what we'd refer to as undocumented or illegal immigration. that is something enshrined in international law and has been the subject of much of the arguing and the president's frustration with the 9th circuit. jonathan swan, we want to return to the conversation we were having before we spoke with hans which is these are the images that play right into the president's hands stoking fear of immigrants. >> even just the images that you are playing there. i mean, you cannot underestimate the effect this has on a large proportion of voters in this country. trump's message resonates with a lot of people. and there is still -- i still see in washington a body of political opinion that refuses to acknowledge that.

and trump knows that. he's going to continue talking about this. he's going to highlight this. he's going to militarize this. he's going to use it to his political advantage because he knows it works. and it does. >> yeah. speaking of that, rick tyler, i want to bring in hillary clinton. she spoke to "the guardian" over in europe and had some pretty remarkable comments on the europeans have also struggled with migration. i think europe needs to get a handle on migration because that's what lit the flame. i think it's fair to say that europe has done its part and must send a very clear message that we are not going to be able to continue to provide refuge and support because if we don't deal with the migration issue, and this is the key part it will continue to royal the body politics. she seems to be acknowledging what jonathan was talking about. that this was an issue that's inflamed passions and is really fundamentally threatening a lot of our democratic -- what we

consider to be democratic norms. >> i don't want to defend hillary but it was probably a poorly worded question. not a poorly worded question. a poorly worded answer. it seems to me that she's saying that we need to deal with -- that the key sentence there seems to be the europeans have done their fair share. >> europe has done its fair share. >> my implication is the united states has not done their fair share. what you're seeing is 30 years of immigration failure but also these are refugees, right? and so jonathan talked about a deterrent by the white house. the deterrent, it's a little like being in a burning building and having the deterrent to be people with machine guns outside the building burning a building. that's what people don't recognize. the bulk of the people -- >> are you saying they have two horrible choices? >> it's a horrible choice. these people are fleeing central america, honduras because their lives are at stake because their

family members or themselves are being threatened or killed by gang members. maybe not all of them, but a significant number. they are refugees. it's a humanitarian crisis. we have the ability to process it. and the answer can't be that they wait in mexico and it's very unclear right now, this could be against any number of treaties that we have. and it also seems to be against u.s. law because in order to actually get asylum, you have to be in the united states. you can't be in another country except for extraordinary circumstances. >> a lot of that violence we talk about, push factors. things pushing people out of their country here. i spoke to some officials who are trying to make sense of, is there a deal with mexico to keep these asylum seekers there. >> mexico says no. >> one thing i heard from a u.s. official involved in these negotiations is mexico wants something in return. it's for the u.s. to finally commit to solving these push factors. to at least making an effort to

try to do more investment and improve the economies in these countries which is something that former dhs secretary john kelly started as he started his platform to reporters saying that's what they would focus on. >> this is very reminiscent of the family separation policy. it seems like a position the administration took without really thinking through all the logistics. this is a logistical nightmare to close the border. $1.7 billion worth of goods pass through this border every day. hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants pass through the border every day. i'm not sure the administration has thought through what this is going to look like tomorrow. >> right. so this, of course, comes inside a much broader picture because as this holiday week comes to a close, one thing is clear. the president isn't thankful for many of the institutions that have long been considered the bedrocks of our democracy. and much of his displeasure stems from the issue of immigration. and, of course, there was that stunning thanksgiving teleconference with troops

deployed overseas in which the president renewed his attacks on the federal judiciary after their ruling on asylum seekers. >> terrible thing when judges take over your protective services, when they tell you how to protect your border. it's a disgrace. >> and after an extraordinary rebuke from chief justice john roberts over comments like those, the president criticized him, too. >> i like him, and i respect him, but i think we have to use some common sense. >> and just to take you back. at the same press conference, the president threatened to shut down the government over border security. >> could there be a government shutdown over this wall in december? >> it could happen, over border security. the wall is just a part of border security. a very important part. probably the most important part. but could there be a shutdown? there certainly could, and it will be about border security. of which the wall is a part. >> in a tweet on saturday, that

was just yesterday, the president threatened to close the southern border if he deems it necessary. of course, here we are. jonathan swan, do you think he's really going to follow through on that threat to shut down the government over this? for congressional leaders, this conflagration at the border is coming at the wrong time. >> for the longest time, congressional leaders have been pretty relaxed, but somewhat sure that he's not going to shut down the government. or at least they felt that it wasn't -- >> as relaxed as they've been -- >> relaxed isn't quite -- when you talk to people around him at the moment, he is very, very inflamed about this issue. like sincerely inflamed. yes, part of it is politics but he is raging hot angry at kirstjen nielsen. you have to remember, in trump's mind, he doesn't want to hear legal -- one aide once said to me with trump, you want to get him to do something.

just tell him the lawyers won't allow it. that's the quickest way and trump is like, okay, we're doing it. so when you hear legalistic, he goes into a rage. and he doesn't want to hear it. he wants to hear, no, it's our land. it's our border, blunt force, stop them. and whenever she comes back with, well, mr. president, there are these laws. he shuts down. he's frustrated. he hasn't had any success building the wall. it's just been repairs and paltry amounts of money. if they don't give him the money he wants, i don't rule it out. >> julia ainsley, do you think kerstin nielsen is going to keep her job for the next month? >> she's definitely not keeping it in the long term. i've heard it's a matter of when, not if. but it's a matter of what distracts the president at the moment. that's where i'm going to stay on the safe part of that. >> she's gone. she's gone. it's just timing. he hasn't figured out who he wants. >> okay. we answered that question. julia, thanks for making time on this thanksgiving weekend.

coming up -- you think the monday after your holiday weekend is going to be tough? not compared to george papadopoulos. one of the, shall we say, more interesting characters in the russia investigation. he is set to show up to prison tomorrow after a last-minute plea deal to stay free got a resounding no from a judge. that's next on "kasie dc." this isn't just any moving day.

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a federal judge ruled that former trump campaign adviser george papadopoulos must report to prison tomorrow as scheduled. this after rejecting papadopoulos' motion to delay his sentence amid a constitutional challenge to mueller's appointment. meanwhile, conservative author and roger stone associate jerome corsi tells nbc news he is in talks with the special counsel about a plea deal. corsi has been questioned by mueller's team over his knowledge of wikileaks obtaining hacked e-mails from hillary clinton's campaign chairman. tomorrow is the deadline for lawyers in paul manafort's case to submit a report updating u.s. district judge amy berman on manafort's cooperation in the special counsel's probe. joining the conversation now, "new york times" justice department reporter katie benner. and for all of our viewers who have been at home with their families with the tv turned off,

>> i think those three elements. we're coming together a lot of loose ends is one way to put it. it's clear the mueller team has been trying to figure out a combination of things around wikileaks. was wikileaks communicate with russia, the trump campaign because clearly that misinformation campaign and the way information was weaponized around the election is a huge part of their investigation. to see this particular set of witnesses come together because they were going to be sentenced or because they cooperated says to most people we might see some sort of piece of paper and indictment coming out of team mueller. >> rick tyler, what's your sense among republicans, many of whom didn't support trump in the last campaign but who have sort of come on board, reluctantly or not in the last year and a half, two years. what's their sense of how they think this is going to play out? do they think that mueller's report is going to be hugely

impactful and direct the remainder of the trump presidency or do people not think that's going to happen? >> i said this over a year ago that the trump -- trump was going to undermine mueller the way a campaign team would undermine an opponent. it happens over time. you can't go out and immediately say that someone has no credibility and mueller, of course, hasn't done any press conferences, media appearances. he's not been defending himself. i get the sense that nobody really knows, but when you look at the roger stone/corsi, it's just like a clown show. i mean, it just doesn't seem like -- it's very credible. it almost seems like corsi did make it up. i don't know if he did or didn't and roger stone believed what he made up and roger stone tweeted out something about john podesta and they happened to -- but i don't know. so i --

>> hopefully robert mueller does would be the point. >> he either knows or doesn't know. i don't want to say i hope it is or isn't. we'd just like this all to end now. tell us what happened in terms of the trump campaign cooperating with russians or not cooperating with russians. we've got to have something. and i think most people are ready for the answer now. >> i think that people -- we were just talking during a break. there's a false hope that people think trump is going to get escorted out on the white house lawn. like eating a bucket of kfc chicken, a wing. >> it's never going to happen. >> that's what what mueller's investigation is about. it's interesting we're talking about jerome corsi. the reason he bonded with trump is over their conspiracy theory of birtherism. the fact that all of us are talking about these people -- >> corsi doesn't believe there was a moon landing. >> exactly. this is like the internet's comment section. elevated himself to being discussed on an msnbc panel.

it's kind of ridiculous. >> i think one of the outstanding mysteries or challenges is -- of the collection of characters that we've just mentioned, it's very unclear whether any of them have genuine ties to the president or were actually communicating about stuff of substance that relates to the mueller probe with the president. papadopoulos, yes, he was in that room and to any normal -- i get shredded whenever i say this because people are like, he was in the room with sessions and trump. he was e-mail with the campaign manager. people don't understand this campaign. it was a complete like -- this guy papadopoulos, i'd never heard of him until -- >> nobody had. i had not. >> i covered that campaign and knew of them. the fact this guy -- they are all liars, for a start. so it's very hard, unless you have something in write, it's very hard to believe a word any of them say. you have a conspiracy theorist, a guy in trouble for lying to the fbi.

you have roger stone who -- >> who seems to be the one that had -- >> has had decades-long relationship with trump. stone is the one that has that legitimate thing. of all these developments, i don't think any of them are that interesting. the one i'm watching, or want to know the most about is roger stone. because he has a legitimate decades long relationship with president trump. >> there are pictures of papadopoulos at the table with -- it's not fair to say he wasn't part of the campaign. >> i didn't say that. >> if you are at the table with the principal, you're part of the campaign. >> i'm just telling you, do you know why trump assembled that team? >> to show that he had a -- >> he literally hired the bar scene from "star wars" because everyone was like, you don't have a foreign policy team. i'm just telling you, this guy was not a player on the campaign. i'm not saying it's not worth investigating. i'm just telling you. >> obviously, he shouldn't have been within a mile of the presidential campaign but that he had a touch point is -- >> no doubt. >> mueller is not investigating his expertise or qualifications but what he knew.

nobody thinks that george papadopoulos was a foreign policy expert. >> my point is i'm not -- >> expectations tempered? >> i'd love to have a -- >> i am not even clear that papadopoulos has ever had a conversation with trump that went beyond, hi, mate. how are you. people don't use mate in australia. whatever. >> it also feels to me, katie, it's fun. we'll use the term mate on the set. it does seem to me that mueller is circling and he started with the outside of the circle. he started with george papadopoulos and the idea is to move closer and closer and closer. and now we have the president acknowledging that he answered some questions, although we don't exactly have a sense of the extent to which he actually provided any real information. >> right. and so you're correct. he's running a classic investigation. start from the outside and work your way in. try to flip witnesses. this is what's happening. another signal we might be neither some sort of end is that

trump did answer some questions which is essential for mueller to issue any kind of report. i believe that when we finally see the mueller report there will be no perp walk. what's interesting that's happening is it's all happening at the southern district of new york. as bob mueller has gone through this investigation, he's really focused on things that happened with the trump campaign. did the trump campaign know about russian interference? can we lay out with the russian interference in the campaign looked like. a lot of other issues, criminal issues, those have gone to the southern district of new york and that's about trump inc, trump world and trump's associates and business dealings. while the president may -- while the mueller report may not be devastating to the president in any way other than political -- >> and a brand-new new york attorney general who is laser focused on the trump administration. we have so much more to come. the president heads to mississippi tomorrow ahead of a highly anticipated senate run-off on tuesday trying to

save a republican candidate under fire over the issue of race. and later, foresight is 2020. congressman john delaney is the first democrat to officially declare a white house run. in what's sure to be a jam-packed run, how does he plan to stand out? i'll ask him when he joins me live. "kasie dc" back after this.

president trump is heading to mississippi tomorrow where he'll hold not one, but two rallies on behalf of republican senator cindy hyde smith. after failing to pull in more than 50% of the vote on election day, hyde smith is slated to compete in a run-off against democrat mike espy. on twitter, trump said hyde-smith is an outstanding person who is strong on the border, crime, military and the second amendment. the president's visit comes as hyde-smith is facing tough criticism for a series of recent comments, including one involving the phrase public hanging that's been deemed racist. and now there's new reporting from the local jackson free press that the senator attended and graduated from an all-white segregation academy while in high school in the 1970s. there's a lot there. let's bring in political correspondent von hilliard on

the ground in mississippi and has been following this race closely. vaughn, what's the latest on the race there? what are folks saying about the chances that espy could pull this out on tuesday. you caught up with senator hyde-smith? >> good evening. i'll be frank. it's been a tough race to cover over the last week. particularly around these comments, around the conversation of race. about one-third of the electorate here in mississippi, kasie is african-american. and the question is how many republican voters are ultimately going to vote for mike espy in this race and having conversations with folks here around the state over the last several days, a lot of the republicans we talked to say that she did apologize in that debate and that the issue is ultimately that she stands for being pro-gun, pro-life. those issues are going to lead them to the polls to vote for hyde-smith. there's been a lot of concern. republicans we've talked to and african-american voters, democratic voters here that say they wanted more of an explanation for cindy

hyde-smith. to be frank, we've tried, kasie. she hasn't been very willing to engage in that conversation. it you would be easier to engage in a conversation. it's tough to do it on the way to a campaign bus. this was tonight's latest attempt to talk to senator hyde-smith about what she was apologizing for and the various controversies surrounding her. >> your comments offended a great number of people, senator. >> [ inaudible ]. >> no, you haven't. what is it you are apologizing for. >> how has it been -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> senator, you stood inside in jefferson davis' house and you said that this is mississippi history at its best. what did you mean by that? standing inside of jefferson davis' house and -- >> senator, a third of your electorate is -- senator, you're running to be the u.s. senator of the united states -- senator, you're running to be the u.s. senator. why not talk about race? kasie, i'd asked the senator

before to start off that conversation of whether we could engage in a conversation about race. i made that effort before over the previous days and simply it's -- i find little reason to believe that that conversation is going to take place. and it's an important one here in the state. talking to voters. she said they're focussing -- she's talking about issues important to the people but i feel it's my obligation as a journalist and having a lot of conversations particularly around the delta region here in this state, to have asked her that. the president will be here for two events here tomorrow, kasie. of course the run-off is on tuesday. >> vaughn, thank you, as always, for your dogged reporting. appreciate it. i realize this is a tough story to cover. rick tyler, you were consulting for the republican who lost this race. what's your take on the dynamics here? is this going to be a situation where the voters of mississippi say we don't want to present that face to the nation? >> there's a lot of variables. the first variable, it's all about turnout which is why

donald trump is going down tomorrow to remind people that there's a race on tuesday, which is sort of very unusual because this is a special election which the primary, for lack of a better word, happened on election day. >> a very odd time. >> now a run-off and so do people actually show up. second, do mcdaniel supporters who didn't like the fact that the establishment dumped $4 million on chris mcdaniel's head and they know that? are they going to turn around within two weeks time and vote for cindy hyde-smith. >> he was the farther conservingative. cindy hyde-smith being the establishment. >> and mike espy who is an african-american. they can get -- i suspect they can get 90%, 95% of the african-american vote but that's going to have to be a huge turnout because it's probably one-third. could be up to 40% but then they'll still have to win some 20% to 30% of the white vote. now in alabama, remember,

african-americans voted for the white candidate, the democrat, doug jones, but here you'll have to have white republicans vote for the black democrat and i think given all that, it might be a tall order. >> so black women specifically voted for -- >> exactly. >> so listen, kasie. we have to be honest about the fact that cindy hyde-smith's comments are not a deal breaker in mississippi. for some they are a dealmaker. we have to acknowledge that. that's very true in mississippi. trump carried this state by 18 points in 2016. we have to be clear about the fact we're coming off midterm elections where you saw ron desantis win in florida after making numerous racist comments. brian kemp after actively suppressing the vote in georgia and making additional comments deemed racist. i think a lot of people on the republican side saw this and said this works. this is what we should do. double down on it. so what does cindy hyde-smith do? she elected donald trump to be the voice and face of her campaign. you see donald trump on her

campaign bus. you see donald trump. so i think we have to be really clear about that fact. and i think this does come down to a geo tv effort. african-americans comprise 30% of the voting electorate in mississippi. this will be a challenge for mike espy. i'm not writing him off but he has an uphill battle. >> it's clear that cindy hyde-smith's team saw her numbers were impacted for the worse when she did that. >> i tried this trick with ex-boyfriends of mine where it's like, i'm not really sorry but i'm sorry that what i said offended you. >> she was reading from a card. >> very true. >> biden, warren, booker, delaney? only one of those democrats is officially running for president. he joins me next.

welcome back to kasie dc. hoping for some down time between the midterms and 2020 presidential race? no such luck there. especially if you live in iowa where presidential campaigns are already ramping up. congressman john delaney, a democrat from maryland, who became the first candidate to officially declare he'll be running in 2020 plans to hire 30 full-time campaign staffers across eight offices by january, and he has already visited all of iowa's 99 counties. the full grassley, as they say

and is spending millions in tv ads running across the state. congressman delaney joins me now on set. thanks very much for being here. i feel like you maybe have another couple weeks to be the only member of the 2020 field. >> yes. >> i am wondering, though -- >> i want to keep the field cleared. >> it does not sound like it based on your colleagues. it seems to me basically everybody who is anybody in the democratic party is thinking about running. >> yeah. >> for president. why is it that you believe you can stand out in a field that's going to include the best and brightest of the party? >> that was one of the reasons i entered the race early. i think i'm the right person for the job. not enough people knew who i was so i entered the race early and have done a lot of work on the ground as you talked about and we are in a really good place to compete now that the race is going to start. >> what do you think you'd do different than what hillary clinton did in 2016 if you plan to run against donald trump?

>> well, you know, i think you just have to tell people what you're going to do for them. i don't think you can make the race about how bad he is. one of the things people always say to me in iowa and new hampshire is i talk about what my plan is. what i want to do. how i want to make the world better. how i want to tell a better story about the future we could have. how i want to bring the country together. i'm not out there just talking about how bad the president is, right? i think people have an opinion of him already and they don't need the candidates running for president to tell them about it. and so i think my campaign will be about what i plan to do, what i think the future we can have together as americans working together as democrats, republicans and independents. and the reason that i think the most important issue facing this country right now is how do we take this terribly divided nation where america is pitted against america and it's something that the president obviously encourages. how do we start bringing the country together? >> there seem to be competing theories among democrats as to the best way to take on president trump.

is it somebody who is his literal opposite in that you are boring, don't necessarily command a lot of tv time, i guess may be a way to put it, or are you somebody who is a media juggernaut that can stand up to him. >> the president is a divider. he tries to divide the american people. i think the president should swear to the american people that they'll never divide them. and so that's what i think the opposite of president trump is. i think the opposite of president trump is someone who tells the truth. someone who is honest about the problems we have and honest about the solutions, who leads with integrity. wants to unify the country, restore civil ite and respect to the privilege of public service. that's what i think the opposite of the president. someone who is competent. someone who understands the issues and is focused on the future, not the past. i don't think the american people are looking for a trump in the democratic party. i think they are looking for something fundamentally different, fundamentally better, right?

they want to believe in something better than what he represents right now. >> interesting. what do you think the number one priority for the party should be? this has been a split i've noticed as well. should it be winning back white rural male noncollege educated voters who turned to president trump in 2016? or should it be expanding coalition, the coalition of, you know, the obama administration looked to younger people of color. >> with no disrespect, that's a bit of a false choice. >> i'm asking you to order those priorities. >> i think when you start thinking about that way it's a mistake. you should have a message that excites people. talk about the future. the future you want to build together. but we also should be a big tent party. we should be welcoming of progressives, centrists, even disaffected republicans. if you look at this midterm success we had as a party, the formula is there in front of us.

be a big tent party, talk bashes that matter to people, excite voters. the millennial turnout was terrific but if you look at a lot of the wins we had where we flipped republican seats, they were with big tent democratic candidates. so there is an example where we had great turnout but also candidates who ran towards the center. >> all right. >> so i don't think you have to make a choice. i think you can do both. if we want to win, which should be our absolute number one priority, right, is winning. the best way to win is to turn out our voters and to persuade the fastest growing party in this country, which is the independent party, that we're the party that wants to build a better future. >> all right. congressman john delaney, the sole democratic presidential candidate as of this writing. still to come -- if you can't trust those lying eyes, what can you trust? >> does seeing this devastation

change your opinion at all on climate change, mr. president? >> no. >> the california wildfires couldn't do it. historic hurricanes couldn't either. can a dire new report from the president's own administration convince him that climate change is real? the timing of its release should tell you everything. that's next.

a new federal report is sounding the alarm on inaction surrounding climate change. predicting that our economy could take a serious hit if we don't take more preventive measures. the report compiled by 13 federal agencies, warns that the damage caused by climate change could cost the u.s. hundreds of billions of dollars and could knock off a whopping 10% of the size of the u.s. economy by the end of the century. and as you may know president trump has seemed to shrug off warnings about this issue in the past. >> so, obama is talking about all of this with the global warming and -- a lot of it is a hoax, it's a hoax, it's a monday i had-making industry, it's a hoax, a lot of it. >> i have a strong opinion, i want a great climate. >> i'm not a big believer in man-made climate change. there could be some impact, but i don't believe it's, devastating impact. >> there is a cooling and there's a heating.

>> i'm not denying climate change. but it could very well go back. you know we're talking about -- >> well that's denying it. >> they say that we had hurricanes that are far worse than what we just had with michael. >> who say that? >> people say. >> what about the scientists who say it's worse than ever? >> you have to show me scientists because they have a very big political agenda. >> i can't bring them in. >> scientists also have a political agenda. >> but wait, there's more. >> you can't use hairspray. because hairspray is going to affect the ozone. i'm trying to figure out, i'm in my room in new york city, and i want to put a little spray, so that i can -- right? [ applause ] [ laughter ] >> right? but i hear they don't want me to use hair spray, they want me to use the pump because the other one, which i really like better than going bing, bing, bing, and then it comes out in big globs

and it's stuck in your hair and you say, oh my god, i got to take a shower again, my hair is all screwed up, right? i want to use hairspray. >> meanwhile, the new report came just days after the president tweeted this. quote brutal and extended cold blast could shatter all records. whatever happened to global warming? to be clear, it was only cold in the northeast and actually the rest of the united states had a warmer-than-usual thanksgiving. but john than swann, you also interviewed the president about climate change. >> a few weeks after the "60 minutes" interview. week or two. my colleague, jim vandehei and i interviewed president trump we wanted to have documents with us. she said who is "they" but she didn't have the report we brought with us the report from his own government scientists,

last year's report which says exactly this. unanimous, basically, that human beings are the predominant cause of climate change over the last half century. half century. and we said to him, mr. president, these are your scientists. you oversee these people. he said yeah, well we disagree. and he said, i think the climate goes like this. and he did the hand motion. and and then jim said, well i mean who do you listen to on this? these are your scientists, are you going to fire them? he said no, they can put out whatever report they want, but i'm going to be the decider so no matter what reports are put in front of him. this is like theology. he believes what he believes and no amount of evidence is going to shift it. no. >> so as long as the president is in office, we will doing anything monumental on climate change in the u.s. >> i think that's one of the safest predictions you'll ever make, kasie. >> i don't know about that. so senator macie hirono has said there's a lot of political

appointees who are impeding the work of. and macie hirono has asked the general counsel and the inspector general to investigate these claims. i know that the senate doesn't have power right now, democrats don't have the power in the senate right now. >> i'm not saying it won't be oversight but trump's not going to lift a finger. >> or would he sign anything on this issue, either. tiffany cross, rick tyler, thank you for your insights. jonathan swann, stick around. today is the day you're going to get motivated...

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audible. the most inspiring minds. the most compelling stories. text "listen5" to 500500 to start your free trial today. ♪ this morning, unrest at the border. authorities fire tear gas at a group of migrants as they tried to cross into the united states, prompting officials to close a major boarding crossing for several hours yesterday. plus, the nieted nations is expected to hold an emergency meeting this morning after ukraine accused rush rsia of fig on and seizing several of its vessels. a winter storm creates a travel headache as millions of americans head home after the thanksgiving holiday. ♪