paying the rent or working without pay period, have gathered on twitter to share their stories. donald trump has stories, too. before jetting off to iraq for his first visit there, he continues to insist the government will remain shut down until he gets the american people to pay for his wall that mexico was supposed to pay for. shutdown stories notwithstanding. and just like he changed his mind who was going to pay for the wall, he seems to have changed his mind whether or not we defeated isis, which he said we had done, when he tweeted our troops out of syria, and then said other countries would do the defeating. and now, after meeting with commanders in iraq, he's saying that he has a new, secret plan for how the defeating will get done. kind of like his secret plan to defeat isis during the campaign. only the 2018 government shutdown version. >> we had an incredible meeting that lasted for about an hour,

and you have no idea what we've come up with. you're going to be so happy. you're going to be so happy. >> the white house was eager to push out pictures of trump getting love from the combat troops on their social media. perhaps a welcome distraction from the story in "the new york times" today, suggesting a doctor may have written up trump's bone spurs excuse for getting one of his five draft deferments during the vietnam war as a favor to trump's father, fred. the now deceased doctor's daughter say they remember their father talking about it, although there is no written record. so for all the drama of president trump this christmas week going after the federal reserve chair, then complaining about his treasury secretary as the dow plummeted and secretary mnuchin placed personal calls to the heads of major u.s. banks from his vacation in a mexican resort and managed to freak out the markets even more by getting off those calls and reassuring everyone there is no liquidity crisis when no one had been

thinking there was. to the dow roaring back today and trump turning up in iraq. for all of that drama, the thing about this president that remains the most jarring is his, let's shall we say, complicated relationship with the troops. this is a president for whom "the washington post" has a permanent fact check tally has that surpassed 7500 lies since he took office. that's not even a definitive count. different methodologies will get you different numbers. but this president consistently says things that are not true. on big things, like whether a wall is actually already being built along the 2,000 mile plus u.s. southern border. or even mundane things. friday night, as we barreled toward the government shutdown, the president tweeted out this photo of himself, with caption, some of the many bills i'm signing in the oval office right now. look at that stack of binders. it's taller than he is. so many bills to sign. quickly, internet detectives

zoomed in on the bill and came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, a blank sheet of paper. we can't confirm that it was blank. it could have been funky lighting, but here is one thing that is true, president trump most definitely did not sign a giant stack of bills on friday. how do we know this? for the simple reason there were no bills for him to sign. yes, he did sign two bills that day, including the criminal justice reform bill earlier that day, but congress didn't pass a whole lot of other bills on friday. most of them had already gone home, which means president trump had someone stack a bunch of empty folders on the desk and took a picture pretending they were bills to sign. which is funny ha ha but funny weird. why go through all that trouble to pretend you're working? you're the president, you're supposed to be presumed to be working. and then he appeared to do it

again. on monday, trump tweeted another oval office picture labeled christmas eve briefing with my team working on north korea. but msnbc's capitol hill correspondent noted he hadn't seen a marine in front of the west wing all day, the sign the president is in the building, which made him wonder if the photo was even from that day. and a photo editor for "the new york times" determined that the newspaper on trump's desk was the sunday times, not monday. which sometimes the sunday crossword hangs out on my desk for days and i don't finish it because i don't feel like it. maybe the president just hadn't found time. but barely an hour later, he seems to have done it a third time. this time he tweeted that he was in the oval office and just gave out a 115-mile long contract for another large section of his wall, which is just like not something a president does.

handing out building contracts in the oval office. and nobody seems to know where the 115-mile number came from. and garrett is still there, saying nobody at the white house can give him any information about this, and again, it does not appear that the president was even in the oval office at that hour. also, not for nothing, but it's not clear what such a contract would be for, since on friday, trump tweeted out a drawing of a supposed border fence that no one has seen before. one of his republican allies told nbc news, the president put out a between of a picture with spikes on top offensing. that's not even one of the designs the border patrol has proposed. but mick mulvaney went on tv this past weekend and insisted that the 30-foot metal spikes plan was the plan and had been all along. even though trump was talking about a concrete wall for

literally years. and yes, the president says and tweets untrue things all the time. but the past few days have been a cornucopia of weird going out of his way lies about small, easily checkable things. it's disorienting when a president does that, especially after defense secretary james mattis has resigned in protest, and then it became clear that the president never read the defense secretary's resignation letter. because when he saw on tv what the letter said about him, he pushed mattis out the door two months early. and installing as the acting pentagon chief a former boeing executive, who had no government or military experience until he was mattis' deputy. turkey, whose autocratic president convinced trump to withdraw from syria, announced that trump accepted to an invitation to the country next year. and his acting attorney general

appears to have lied about his college football career, which believe it or not, is not the most embarrassing scandal to hit matt whitaker in his few weeks in office. and trump went to iraq and told u.s. troops they were no longer the suckers of the world and announced a super secret, great new plan to defeat isis, which he said was already defeated. and he told a 7-year-old girl santa wasn't real on christmas eve. but who's counting? oh, right, "the washington post" is counting. a poll out today, donald trump's approval rating has hit its lowest number in the poll has matched that number after his response to the white supremacist violence in charlottesville, he's back under 40%. so are things more chaotic or

has he redefined abnormal? joining us now are my guests. that's a lot to go through, so i'm going to let the two of you go at it. there's so much weird going on in the trump white house that the thing about him pretending that during the shutdown he's hard at work, something ruth bader ginsburg is, what did you make of it? >> first of all, the thing that struck me is, there was one lie he might have told that would have been gracious, which is not insulting that little girl for believing in santa claus. and the only lie he can't bring himself to tell is about santa claus. he lies about absolutely everything else. and i think it was really striking. he can even go to iraq and lie to our troops about their pay. you know, he said you haven't

had a pay raise in years, i gave you one. none was true. they had gotten pay raises, and it wasn't as big as he told them. there's something kind of really disconcerting about even our troops, there's something sacred about the obligation of a commander in chief to our troops, and he turned that into a political event. i think we are seeing a president who does feel the pressure of the investigation, and i think that's why we're in this shutdown, because he is focused, i think, on keeping a third of the senate, you know, trying to stay in office, if that impeachment day comes. the people who are going to hold those guys in line are his base, and the talk show hosts. so he's going all-out, and we're having a shutdown over a minuscule part of the budget on a wall that's imposed by about 2/3 of the american people. >> and you know, it strikes me that the media is so polls towards normalcy and has this

compulsion, that they want it so badly, that donald trump gets credit for visiting the troops. but when he gets there, and he's popular with a lot of military people despite the things he's done. there are people there in m.a.g.a. hats, but he tells them the u.s. is no longer the suckers of the world. the american military is generally portrayed by presidents as pretty grand. >> we saw the tendency to normally this president. it was a welcome thing that he visited the troops. but i think we have to remember, this is expected of the president. it is literally in his job description as commander in chief that he cares for the well-being, even the morale of our men and women deployed overseas in harm's way. that we're celebrating this, that we're giving the president a pat on the back, something

that should be perfunctory, says a lot about this administration and this president in particular. we can't lose sight of the fact that there has been a consistent pattern, today aside, of this president degrading, maligning, taking aim at, and leveraging the troops for his personal benefit. the gold star families that he went to war with, senator john mccain, i prefer war heroes who weren't captured. he did so when he banned transgender troops on twitter and failed to provide condolences to those four fallen soldiers in niger. he did so when he authorized the deployment of thousands of troops to the u.s. border to galvanize his political base, and he did so last week, when he essentially fired secretary mattis, the first enlisted marine to head the department of defense. he fired him two months early, essentially because mattis had the gall to outline a vision of for policy that presidents for the last 70 years have adhered to. so president trump should get credit for what he did today,

but we can't lose sight of the broader pattern. >> donald trump stacked his cabinet with generals. michael flynn left disgraced. you had secretary mattis, who is now out. he had a secretary in the national security adviser position. so he loves to have generals around, but he has a weird way of thinking about the military, almost as if they were part of a business transaction, where he said the u.s. is no longer the suckers of the world and said america shouldn't be doing the fighting for every nation on earth. but then he says, not being reimbursed at all. if they want us to do the fighting, they have to pay a price. sometimes that's also a monetary price, so we're not the suckers

of the world. we're no longer the suckers for folks and people aren't looking at us to be suckers. the u.s. military aren't mercenaries that you pay to go fight around the world, but that's how he thinks about it. >> he's turning us into heshens. it is true that george h.w. bush, america did get reimbursed for a lot of our costs in the war in kuwait when we threw saddam hussein out of kuwait. but you're right, he turns everything into two things. one is a straight-up business proposition, which governing is not. government is not -- is like doing a business, and it's not like doing business the way donald trump did business, a lot of business people would be insulted by calling that a normal business. but the second thing is, he has an obsession with the words strong and weak. if you go through trump transcripts, he uses strong in the strangest ways, and he uses it often. and it's -- erdogan said

strongly or putin said strongly, and i think he surrounds himself with the military because he wants to convey that image of strength. when deep down inside you look at all of this erratic stuff he's doing, and i think "strong" is not the right word to be charitable to describe president trump. >> his approval numbers are weak, right? and when it came to firing mattis, he didn't do it himself. if he's such a tough guy, why not do it himself? >> he had his secretary of state do it. but this is a pattern we've seen with this president. he won't do the dirty work. he takes the credit. just as he took the credit for demolishing isil before he said turkey and others in the region would take care of the remaining pockets. he's taken credit for the economy until the stock market turns south, now you don't hear him talking about it. he has a tendency to take credit and deflect.

that's what we saw with secretary mattis, someone who didn't deserve that. he was pushed out the door, not by donald trump but donald trump's secretary of state. >> it's about loyalty, that loyalty is a concept he only understands if it's loyalty to him. it's not loyalty the other way. and i think the most disturbing thing about pulling those troops out, whether you were for or against their deployment in the first place, we are leaving the kurds defenseless. we have -- we are showing no loyalty to people who gave up a lot of lives, a lot of treasure. they fought that war against isis, and we are going to leave them to the mercies of the turks. this is not a good thing for the united states of america to do. >> he said he didn't even know the guy who was leading the fight against isis, who now also left in objection to his policies. thank you both. >> thank you. a quick update for you now. on supreme court justice ruth

bader ginsburg. it was only last friday when justice ginsburg had a portion of her left lung removed to take out two kansas louse nodules. doctors say there's no evidence of remaining disease. while the woman lovingly dubbed the notorious rbg, she's super tough. but you knew that by her workouts. on friday afternoon, justice ginsburg cast a decisive vote against the president's immigration ban. by friday night, she was sitting up in a chair and calling friends who said she sounded strong and pretty chipper. by sunday, she was up and working from her hospital room. and on christmas day, she went home, where she'll spend the rest of the holiday recuperating. as julie cohen who directed "rbg" she was taking a page out of sandra day's playbook.

justice ginsburg has an unbroken track record to keep up. she's never missed a single day of oral arguments in her 25 plus years on the bench. the next oral arguments are january 7th. we will leave the math to you. the smart way to go is always bet on rbg. she'll be back at that bench. watch this space. pace wireless charging 104 cubic feet of cargo room and seating for 8. now that's a sleigh. ford expedition. built for the holidays. (hurry!) it's the final days to get zero percent financing plus twelve hundred and fifty dollars ford credit bonus cash on ford expedition

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the first 200 or so people arrived without warning on sunday. asylum seekers dropped off by immigrations and customs enforcement at the bus station in el paso, texas. a couple hundred more arrived at the bus station on christmas eve. and then more on christmas day. left in a parking lot to fend for themselves. over the holiday, a local shelter issued an emergency call for volunteers and financial assistance to meet the needs of the asylum seekers left on el paso's doorstep by the trump administration. the president's border policy has been marked by manufactured chaos, by a stunning lack of concern about the harm being done to migrant families, including some very young

children. and by a breathtaking nonchalance of leaving hundreds of women and children to spend christmas in a local bus station. the trump administration's border policy has been marked by outright tragedy. on monday, christmas eve, the body of 7-year-old jacqueline arrived in guatemala for burial. she died in december at a hospital in el paso. by late christmas eve, shortly before midnight, another young child, another from guatemala, died in the custody of u.s. border protection. according to authorities in guatemala, he was 8 years old. he had been picked up with his father on december 18th, a few miles outside of el paso, and initially diagnosed with a cold. he was pronounced dead in a hospital in new mexico at 11:48 p.m. on christmas eve. immigration officials have promised to investigate how it

happened. how a second child, in less than a month, died in their custody. parts of the official statement today sound a lot like the rhetoric coming from fox news personalities coming from south america in caravans, supposedly making america dirtier and bringing crime and particularly disease. homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen issued a statement that read in part, our system has been pushed to the breaking point by those who seek open orders. this is exacerbated by the increase in persons who are entering our custody suffering from severe respiratory illnesses or exhibit some other illnesses upon apprehension. it is now clear that migrants, particularly children, are increasingly facing medical challenges and harboring illness caused by the long and dangerous journey.

he adds, i have personally engaged with the centers for disease control to request their experts investigate the uptick of sick children crossing our boarders to prepare and to treat these children. interesting talking point. meanwhile, i.c.e. released more than 500 asylum seekers today. in el paso, another 500 are expected tomorrow. joining us now is our reporter. julia. am i wrong in thinking that the talking points coming out of secretary nielsen sound a lot like the accusations on a certain trump loving cable network that immigrants are bringing disease into the united states? >> certainly talking points they've heard from a while. the same talking points that reporters got today when we did a press call with officials that we're seeing an uptick in immigrants but immigrants who are sick.

but i think the point that gets left out of this is of course you're seeing more immigrants that are sick when more immigrants are waiting months to cross into the united states, those trying to cross illegally are being told to wait and those crossing illegally are going to remote locations where up until now they haven't had access to health care. so that's another reason why this young boy had to go to four different processing facilities, he was moved from one to another. and then taken to a hospital, discharged for some reason, we don't understand. he still had a high fever. there's a lot of things that get mixed up when you have this culture built around chaos and not the resources that are going into address that chaos. >> built around chaos but a kind of cruelty. you know, there's a sense in which, you know, the cruelty kind of is the point, the more cruel the system is, the less people want to come, but people are still fleeing, but the

cruelty meets them when they get here. >> when i talk to people that are not political appointees, that are on the ground, they had a deterrent after deterrent, new things they've had to learn on the fly. whether they are going to be separating children or allow only 40 in a day. it hasn't brought down the numbers but created more chaos and cruelty. and we talk about do they want the cruelty, how that plays, you have to start to get into some sick mindsets of people that want this cruelty. there is this very strange way that they talk about this. our heartbreaks, but it's because of that decision by congress and by court. >> they're definitely blaming the parents, but there's a talking point, i think a connection that they want to make that these -- the cruelty, any kind of empathy that we should have for these people, it's because of congress, the

laws that they have made that are attracting these people here. they're not talking about the desperation and economic drivers that would make them want to make that journey. it's obvious they're still coming, even with all these practice measures. >> so the death sort of shocked a lot of people, and to have another child die, do we have a defintive cause of death? >> they have not given that. there will be an autopsy. we know that he initially was diagnosed with a common cold at the hospital, and then he had a 103 degree fever. obviously it was more than that, but he was still discharged. i asked officials today, could they be looking at medical malpractice at the hospital. they said every medical decision made is at the heart of the investigation and hopefully we'll get more answers out of that. i think what we're seeing here is not just these two cases in isolation. we're seeing the product of a system that is keeping children longer than any immigrant, no

matter their age is supposed to stay in border protection processing facilities. they're supposed to go to i.c.e. family detention, but this administration has not made the choice to free up bed space. to do that, they would have to take fewer families internally that they arrest in the united states and hold there before they're deported. >> thank you very much. we really appreciate your reporting. excellent work. okay. much more to get to tonight, including an intriguing new development in a mystery court case linked to the mueller investigation. that's next. -omar, look. [ thunder rumbles ]

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while many of you were unwrapping presents and refusing to change into daytime clothes, the mueller investigation took one giant step closer to having a date with the supreme court. if this happens, it will be the let equivalent of batman versus superman, or clash of the titans, or frodo and "the fellowship of the ring" versus the armies of mordor. and it's happening at warp

speed. it involves that case kicking around the lower courts since august. it's under seal, so it's hard to know what's going on, but we do have reason to believe that it's linked to special counsel robert mueller. in part, because the only judge to recuse himself was a donald trump appointee, who had been bound to recuse himself involve ing any case involving the russia probe. but they have gone to great links to keep this under wraps. reporters did manage to spot two of mueller's top prosecutors slipping into that clamped down courthouse, which gives us a good idea this has something to do with mueller. but what? here's what we know for sure. it involves a company owned by a foreign country, a company that has been subpoenaed by a grand jury. a company that has told that grand jury, tough luck, we're not going to hand over what you want from us, because we are owned by a foreign government, and that would violate that

foreign country's laws. lower courts have ruled this corporation has to pay fines for every day that it doesn't comply. and last week, the d.c. court of appeals sided with the lower courts and held the mystery company in contempt. that might have been the end of the story, game, set, mueller. but on saturday, as everybody was finishing their last-minute holiday shopping, that company, owned by a mystery foreign government, petitioned the supreme court to hear their case. they took it straight to chief justice john roberts, who, 24 hours later, pushed the pause button on the lower court's ruling, issuing a stay until the supreme court decides whether to take the case. we'll find out on new year's eve if the supreme court will step into the fray. well, if the case does go to the supreme court, this will make history.

it will be the first time the supreme court hears a case that's entirely under seal. we could be headed into completely unchartered territory, folks. thank god rbg is on the mend. thd ♪ ♪ thd ♪ ♪ ♪ the greatest wish of all is one that brings us together. the final days of wish list are here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing,

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nicodermcq. you know why, we know how. they've been busier than santa's elves. i'm talking about robert mueller and his s.w.a.t. team of prosecutors. just in the run-up to christmas alone, they were at the center of the sentencing of the president's long-time personal lawyer, michael cohen. they also gave their two cents on the fate of donald trump's short-term national security adviser general michael flynn, and the judge said he couldn't hide his disgust for flynn's crimes and agreed to push back sentencing to next year so maybe he could think about what more he could do to help out the government. so this has been anything but relaxing for mueller and his team. despite the government shutdown, they are not slowing down at all.

we learned that the special counsel's team has been locked in even nor talks with michael flynn. part of the deal judge emmett sullivan gave flynn was that flynn would have to stay within 50 miles of d.c. but now flynn wants to travel to his home in rhode island, too. and he's lobbying the court to give him more leeway. name checking robert mueller, saying the special counsel's office is okay with it. not confident this particular judge is going to be enthusiastic, but watch the space. and suffice it to say, mueller has been burning the midnight oil this holiday season. joining us now is paul butler, former prosecutor and professor at georgetown law. michael flynn is pretty bold. pushing back when you get no jailtime, and writing a memo saying i was entrapped, taking it back in court, now saying i would like to go home to rhode island. is that normal behavior for somebody like in this? >> it's not, but it's not normal to made guilty and then have your lawyer say the fbi made me do it, which is why the judge

went off on him last week. so the lesson was, dude, chill. you know, you have a very good position now, you were the national security adviser. you lied to the vice president and to the congress, and now you're being prosecuted and the prosecutor isn't even asking for jail time? this is the deal of the century and dude is trying to mess it up. >> it is extraordinary to ask for anything. he should just say thank you. what could he possibly be offering that mueller could be so lenient, that he could get away with what looked like some shenanigans here? >> one of the things we know is that michael flynn and jared kushner were running buddies, especially involving international escapades. we know now that mueller has given flynn all this credit, again, as judge sullivan made clear last week, what michael

flip did was really, really bad. and so for him to get credit now from mueller, he must have come up with something really good, with something -- with someone even higher up in the food chain than the national security adviser. that means the president, don, junior or jared kushner. again, i think jared kushner is a likely subject now of the mueller investigation. >> so we have these two things going on at the same time, the sentencing of flynn is out there. we have all that we have seen from manafort and cohen, all the people that have given up the ghost willingly or unwillingly that had to turn on donald trump. but it looks like the judge wants flynn to go back and give more, that maybe he doesn't think he's given enough to earn no jail time more. >> so you wonder what the more is. one is that judge saw more evidence from mueller than we did about what flynn had done that cooperated, that provide substantial assistance. so maybe the judge knows

something we don't know or thinks there's more that could be done. flynn is in a difficult position, in that typically you want to stay out of prison, so you give up all your information right at the beginning. you can, rule 35, which means after you go to jail, you can get your sentence reduced. so the question is, does flynn have something else, and the judge is saying you better come up with something or you're going to jail. typically that's a little bit of a concern, because flynn is a snitch now, and one of the concerns is it's in their self-interest to help prosecutors. and sometimes they do that in ways that are unethical. >> just in the way you've seen this judge act towards flynn, would you be surprised if he ignored the mueller recommendation and still gave

him jail time? >> not at all. the judge made clear there was this agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant, michael flynn. but when you plead guilty, you have to plead guilty because you are, and not because someone promised you something. the judge is saying, i'm a co-equal branch of government. so robert mueller represents the executive, but in this case, the judge has the last say. so the judge can totally ignore the agreement that flynn made with the prosecutor and do what he thinks is in the best interest of justice. we know that he thinks that michael flynn betrayed his country, because he was the national security adviser. he was in cahoots with the russians, or at least lying to the highest level about what they did. that's a big deal. >> that's amazing. i'm surprised he isn't like, thank you, sir, i'll do whatever you want. paul butler, former federal prosecutor, thank you very much. >> always a pleasure. happy kwanzaa. >> first day of kwanzaa today. up next, did the democrats learn anything from the 2018 election to help win back the presidency in 2020? and don't they kind of have to

end the 2016 primary fight first? that's next. the holiday season and in your garage, a brand new john deere. that's not a mirage. with 60 months financing at 0%, say "happy holidays" to money well spent. if additional offers are what you desire, visit your john deere dealer before they expire. now, start up your engines and drive out of sight. new john deere equipment for all and to all a good night. see your john deere dealer today to discover more great deals and special financing offers. new year, new deere.

let's continue to show up here, let's continue to get behind josh and others who have been here every single day so we can witness with our own eyes, testify in our own words back to our fellow americans what can happening here.

but the fact that you are here is producing the change that these kids so desperately need. we'll be back here again and again until it closes down. >> congressman beto o'rourke spent part of his holiday week at the tent city where 2,500 children are being held by the u.s. government. he's only a congressman for a few more days. he gave up his congressional seat to run for the u.s. senate against ted cruz. since then, beto, i think the part of the country that pays attention to politics, has barely budged from the national spotlight. not only has he spent the past week there monitoring the government's handling of migrants at the border, but published an essay criticizing the president over the government shutdown. ted cruz's campaign manager

responded to that piece by issuing this warning. "i've read every single word that o'rourke has uttered in public life. he's never, and i mean, never talked like this," pointing to other potential candidates such as bernie sanders, joe biden and corey bookier, he continued, "you better pull your britches uptight and buckle your shoes because beto o'rourke is running for president." ted cruz's campaign manager responded to that piece by issuing this warning, quote, i have read every single word that o'rourke has uttered in public life. he has never and i mean never talked like this, pointing to other potential presidential candidates, he continued you better pull your breeches up tight and buckle your shoes because beto o'rourke is running for president. beto o'rourke has not confirmed whether or not he is actually going to run for president. there are clues pointing in that direction. the "new york times" he is among other democrats making repeated overtures to activists, a group democrats had difficulty getting obama level turnout from in 2016. there is another clue that o'rourke may not just run but is

feeling like stiff competition. he has been feeling pushback from those who say he is too centrist to be the democratic nominee. it was asked which potential candidate would excite them the most if they decided to run. beto o'rourke placed fourth behind bernie sanders and former vice president joe biden. who is at the top of the list? the potential candidate democrats and independents say would feel most excited to see run. someone entirely new. what does it mean for beto o'rourke and any other democrat who may consider running for the top job? what does it mean that as of now democrats and independents are hankering for someone they haven't heard of yet? >> that was so well done. i loved that. >> the thing about it is democrats are always searching for the new thing. republicans fall in love and democrats need to fall in love. right now someone they don't

know is who most people want. is that a function of not having some of the other exciting candidates like stacy abrams and andrew gillam in the conversation? or are people more like let's wipe the slate clean and get some diversity? >> i think when i look at the polls it's not so much of who you think could win or who they are going to vote for. it really is about who they would like to see. and i think people are in a place of i'm open. it's a wide open game field. i think folks are really trying to figure out our members did a poll. it was very similar as to the unknown. who is the unknown? who do we want? in that poll beto o'rourke was number one but nobody broke 16%. so i just think that we've seen an energy from the democratic space since 2016 that has not died down that has shown up in special elections and off year

elections. it continues. i think folks are waiting to be inspired. they are waiting to see what is out there. and so i think whoever the folks who jump in, they have a lot of work to do. >> and a lot of work to do with african-american voters. african-american voters are loyal to the democratic party. this year, let's put up this poll here. african-americans didn't turn out in really strong numbers for hillary clinton. she got 88% of the vote. she got lower than typical. a lot of people stayed home. when asked who they're excited about, who people would be most excited about? black and white voters don't really agree. you look at joe biden at the top. 66% of african-americans say they are excited about joe biden. only 49% of white voters. beto has less name i.d. white voters are more excited than black voters. bernie sanders is the other way around. you go down the list, some of the people don't have a lot of name i.d.

it does seem like there is just a lot of kind of openness as you say but also a difference in opinion between black and white voters. >> there are. and i think we have to be really real here. in the last two years the people who have been under attack by this president that 1600 pennsylvania constantly attacking vulnerable communities have been black people, women, immigrants, people of color over and over. and so of course that community, our community is much more energized and much more aware because they are living this horrific presidency day after day after day. not just the rule of law and institutions, but voter suppression. people can't vote. the cornerstone of our democracy free and fair election is under attack in the past two years. for several years but certainly in the past two years. i think that is why people are very aware of what is happening because they are under attack. it doesn't surprise me that there is such a big kind of

cutting difference between white and black voters. it doesn't surprise me that biden does so well with black voters. he was the vice president of the first african-american president and incredibly successful. he has name i.d. and the black candidates are going to do better. i think that is what i'm seeing there. >> the interesting thing is he beat someone new. african-american voters are very pragmatic. you didn't see a switch even to barack obama until he proved he could win in iowa. so the african-american vote will follow that streak. it strikes me that progressives going after beto o'rourke and saying that he's less progressive or more -- i'm not sure that that works with african-american voters just like the attacks on harris. i don't know that that moves black people.

>> it is counterproductive. it's demonizing the character or the candidate. it makes no sense at all. it's not going to effect black voters because they are going to want to hear from you. they are going to want to -- are you talking about the issues that matter to us? it's not social justice issues they want to champion in on that as well. economy, education. just getting food on your table. those are the things they want to hear. that's the beauty of having this contested primary because people are going to have to articulate that. they are going to be challenged. it's going to be interesting to see. >> there is a great piece out for those who have not checked it out where he is talking about candidates going to the black community. elizabeth warren has been doing it a lot. sanders is trying to sure up his support. beto o'rourke has been doing it. is that going to be what this is about? especially when you talk about south carolina being so important and you have potentially two candidates. >> kudos to the candidates because they have been paying

attention to what is happening. you have to energize the base. who is the base? yes young people and women but also people of color, women of color, black women who came out in alabama, new jersey on november 6 this year. that's where the game is. and also clearly they got to get new voters and they have to get independents, as well. you must be that person if you causing all this conversation. they are causing a lot of conversation. he sure is causing a lot of conversation. people might be worried about him. always great to see you. >> happy boxing day. merry christmas. >> we'll be right back. ♪

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sleep is a timeless gift we give ourselves. >> sleep. >> i know you so i know you deserve that gift. >> i need it desperately. >> nice to see you. i will see you around. >> thank you. i am ari melber today in the face of bipartisan criticism following the resignation of this defense secretary, president trump did something that many people have been waiting for, something you probably heard lawrence talk about previously. he made his first ever visit as a u.s. president to american troops in a war zone. the president and first lady making a surprise appearance to visit u.s. soldiers in iraq. the president visited american troops in germany during a stop on the way home. in iraq, trump talked foreign policy to the soldiers on the ground. he took the chance to make a public pitch for the very controversial way that he hastily announced the withdrawal from sear, a move widely seen as benefitting russia and sparking the departure of his defense secretary.