i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today." "andrea mitchell reports" shatters right now. >> thank you, craig melvin. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," ready for prime time? hours before an oval office address, the white house pr offensive. the vp is sent out to sell the wall. will the same dubious statist s statistics, as hallie jackson challenges another trump claim. >> which former presidents told president trump, as he said, that we should have built a wall? all their representatives have denied that's the case. >> i know the president has said that was his impression from previous administrations, previous presidents. >> reality check. furloughed government workers who will not get a paycheck friday reacting to the president's suggestion that they

make adjustments to compensate. >> adjustments to what? imagine if you have a set budget and a set amount of bills and suddenly you no longer have your income? what do you do? and cold turkey. john bolton snubbed in turkey by erdogan on a failed damage control mission over the syria policy. >> it just reinforces the notion globally that what we say doesn't matter. if the president says one thing, the national security adviser says another, the secretary of state a third thing, the defense secretary quits, you can't conduct a foreign policy this way. it's that simple. and good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump is preparing to face the american people and the fact checkers in his first prime time address from the oval office. the white house is now trying to sway public opinion by calling the border situation a

humanitarian crisis, as the shutdown continues to day 18 with no talks scheduled. the key question, will the president go around congress tonight and declare a national emergency to use pentagon money for his wall without congress' approval? joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, nbc national security and justice reporter julia ainsley and msnbc political analyst robert costa. national political reporter at "the washington post" and moderate raor for "washington w on pbs. this is a high stakes pr bid, an oval office speech that's not his normal metier, if you will, it's not the live rally, free-association kind of event. this will be scripted, teleprompted. what do they think the appeal will be? >> this is an appeal to the president's base, to the american people, to try to take his case to them to show that he's fighting for that signature

campaign promise to get that border wall built. now, as you point out, andrea, this is a pr push. and a lot of his allies, frankly, are saying why is this coming so late into this government shutdown? we're now in week three. we've now reached an historic mark, it's now the second longest shutdown in u.s. history. why wait so long to do this? is it too little, too late? to your point at the top, what specifically are we going to hear from president trump tonight? we know he's going to declare a crisis at the southern border. will he in fact declare a national emergency? that is the key question. the vice president earlier today telling hallie jackson that the president is considering it. but obviously democrats already making the case that he would get a lot of pushback and there would be a number of legal challenges, that he doesn't have the legal standing to do it. that's the stakes as the president heads into tonight. this pr push that they are making is robust, it's all hands on deck. the vice president on all of the

different networks this morning tried to makeme the case, and o course the president will go to the southern border a little later on this week. he's face to go some extent what some have called a credibility crisis because he's inflated some of the numbers and some of the facts. there's been a number of fact checking over the recent days that i know you're going to get into, andrea. democrats won't give a dollar for his border wall in part because he promised mexico will pay for the wall, so why are we arguing about taxpayers paying for it, andrea. >> robert costa, when he goes on camera today, is he actually going to say this is a national emergency and try to go around congress? the hipnts came from the vice president, clearly not wanting to step on the president's message. what is your reporting tell you? >> based on conversations with white house officials, the administration is moving toward possibly declaring a national emergency but at this moment

they're still waiting to see if the democrats in the house in any way will break. they're trying to see if they can make a case to the country that there is a crisis, that maybe the democrats will feel compelled to give some money for the border wall. but at this point my reporting does not say there's going to be a national emergency declared tonight. but it is clear that the administration is laying the foundation for such executive action should they want to take it in the coming days. >> boy, it really would seem, though, robert, before we get to julia and the fact checking on all this, that the democrats are less likely to break than the republicans, and whether mitch mcconnell under pressure from his own colleagues decides to give in and finally take up what the house is passing and send it to the president and see what happens. >> that's right, andrea. in talking about congressional democrats today, they say the talks have fallen apart, they've collapsed. there hasn't been a principals meeting since last week. the weekend negotiations fell flat with vice president pence

had of they see in the president's actions and the vice president's message to reporters on monday an administration that is trying to show its own political base, the republican party, that it's willing to go to the brink to try to secure funding for the border wall, knowing at the same time that border wall funding is unlikely if the administration pursues this strategy. so much in politics, it's sometimes about signaling to your base and your constituencies that you're doing what you can to check the box even if you know you won't be able to in the end check that box. >> and julia, let's look at what the vice president had to say with hallie jackson today about the numbers, the supposed terrorists crossing the border, the southern border, and we'll talk to you on the other side. >> with regard to terrorists, we've seen more than 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into the country. >> this is a misleading claim that's been fact checked, as you

are aware, because that number is for all ports of entry including airports. >> and that's what i was saying, it is from all ports of entry. but on the southern border last year alone, 3,000 special interest aliens were apprehended trying to come into our country. >> special interest aliens, that's not the terrorists the president was describing. julia, you were the first to report yesterday there were really six known cases coming across the border last spring. >> first, andrea, to be a terrorist means you're on a database or a watch list. according to the data that nbc news obtained, customs and border protection told congress they had not even apprehended, just encountered six non-u.s. citizens at the southern border in the first half of 2018. then we heard sarah sanders say there had been 4,000. we only have data from the first half, but it would be hard to follow that trend, to see how

you can go from one per month to suddenly getting 4,000 by the end of the year. what the vice president is talking about is something different, people who are called special interest aliens. this term started around 2004 when they were identifying people from special interest countries, mainly outside of the western members tehemisphere, al outside the western hemisphere, who would show up at the southern border and the question was why are they coming by foot on that route. a lot of these are from countries in the middle east. several high ranking dhs officials told me there is a working definition of certainly interest alien which means you're not just from those countries but also exhibit certain travel patterns. say someone had traveled from the middle east, from pakistan, to england, to brazil, and sort of ping-ponged around to different places, that might be a pattern that would raise a red

flag. but that does not mean that's a suspected terrorist, that's a much lower bar. each time the administration is lowering the bar on who meets the threat. >> julia ainsley, kristen welker, robert costa, thanks to all of you for your reporting. we'll be on watch for what the president has to say tonight and the democratic response as well. leon panetta served as chief of staff and budget director to president clinton and led the cia and the pentagon during the obama administration and joins me now from california. thank you very much, mr. secretary. let's try to start with, what is happening at the border, and whether you think it's appropriate for the president to declare a national emergency and use pentagon funds and the military to build a wall without getting congressional approval, which is one of the things he has now suggested. >> no, it does not make any sense for the president to do that. look, there simply is no excuse,

no excuse, whether there's a crisis or a war, there's no excuse for shutting down the federal government. and that's the issue. right now, a number of innocent people are really hurting because they're not getting paychecks. it's hurting our economy. and frankly, the president bears responsibility for that. he said he was proud to shut the government down. there is nothing he can do at this stage that will change the responsibility that he has for shutting the government down. he can call it a crisis. he can say there are terrible things happening at the border. but that raises the issue then, if there's a crisis, why in god's name shut the government down? you're shutting down homeland security, which is one of those agencies responsible for the border. it just defies logic and it isn't going to change any minds, whatever he says tonight. >> and there are six appropriations bills, most of the government could be

reopened. it would just be homeland which would still be in contention on a continuing resolution to decide on the wall. so why not do what democrats and republicans had agreed to before the christmas break, before the president pulled the rug out from under his own party, and let those government agencies resume business? >> andrea, there's only one way this president and the country is going to get out of this mess, and it is to go ahead and pass a short term extension to reopen the government and allow people to get back to work, allow our government to get back into the business of helping our citizens, and then at the same time sit down with the democrats and the republicans to negotiate a comprehensive approach to border security. you know, basing everything on building this wall has been

nonsensical from the beginning. if there is a need, and i think there is a need for strong border security, then it has to be comprehensive. it has to involve a number of elements, technology. it has to involve personnel. it has to involve support for those, humanitarian support for those that are there. and yes, as the congress has approved in the past, the use of physical barriers were necessary. all of that is what should constitute comprehensive border security that i think both democrats and republicans and the president can agree on. >> do you think it's legal for him, if he were to declare an emergency, to use pentagon money that has not been appropriated specifically for that purpose by congress? >> no. what he's doing is he's piling chaos on top of chaos. if he takes this unusual step of

declaring a national security, when all of the american people know there is no national security issue there. yes, there's a crisis, but it's been a situation that we've been dealing with for a number of years. to then declare it a national security issue is simply going to put him and his administration into a federal court, and it's going to be challenged, which only adds more chaos to the situation in this country. right now this country, mother than at any time in my life, needs some degree of stability. this president has to recognize that. he's not going to get anywhere this year unless he establishes some kind of stability for this country. >> now, talking about national security in the context of foreign policy, today turkey's president snubbed national security adviser john bolton, publicly condemning bolton in front of the turkish parliament,

not seeing him. this is a disaster after trying to fix the situation of the president's precipitous announcement of withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria. does this weaken the country with adversaries and a loiallie alike? >> foreign policy by tweeting doesn't work. this president woke up one morning after a talk wither er d erdogan and decided he would pull u.s. forces from syria. there was no discussion of the consequences, no sitting down with his key advisers to understand what the implications were. he just decided to tweet something that was stupid. now they're trying to reverse that policy. john bolton is doing the right thing in reversing that policy. but clearly it then sends a signal to both our allies and our enemies that the united states cannot be relied on in terms of its foreign policy. that's the message. and it's a message of weakness,

and it's hurting our country. >> what are you hearing from the pentagon, which you used to lead, now that jim mattis has resigned in protest, joe dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs, has been lame-ducked by the president by announcing his replacement ten months too early, arguably, and he's now in turkey trying to fix this mess. the chief of staff has quit or been forced out aftermath matti left. what's going to happen to the military? i know they salute and answer to the commander in chief, but what about morale? >> well, i've always had tremendous confidence in our men and women in uniform and their dedication to trying to do everything necessary to protect this country. as secretary i saw these young men and women put their lives on the line for this country. it doesn't help, obviously, to have this instability at the

pentagon. it doesn't help to lose a secretary of defense who frankly was not only experienced and competent but was truly dedicated to the best interests of our country. to have that happen obviously creates some disruption. but i also believe that these men and women in uniform are dedicated. they will do what is necessary to protect our country. and they will do it in the brave and courageous way they have done it in the past. >> secretary panetta, it's always a pleasure. thank you so much for being with us today. >> good to be with you. and coming up, the kremlin connection. why the russian lawyer who met with donald trump jr. at that now infamous trump tower meeting just got charged in new york court. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. stay with us. the experts, or the one awarded by the people? the experts, uh... correct! you don't have to choose,

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the russian lawyer who helped set up that infamous june 2016 trump tower meeting had close ties to the kremlin. she has now been indicted and charged with obstruction of justice in new york on a case unrelated to the mueller probe. this charge, if true, underscores that she is indeed well-connected to the putin government, underscoring long-standing suspicions about that meeting with the trump campaign brain trust at a critical point in the election cycle.

joining us is nbc news' pete williams and chief foreign correspondent richard engel from london. pete, this is completely separate from the mueller investigation, we know, but it certainly reinforces what richard engel and others have been reporting now for quite some time, that she was connected to the kremlin, not some independent lawyer. >> right. here is how it all got started. the government was in this country investigate a real estate scam in new york that they say involved money laundering by senior russian officials, corrupt government officials. so the u.s. sent a formal request to russia asking for information. they got back information about this case from the russian government saying, oh, no, no, no, these guys had nothing to do with it, it was somebody else. the woman involved in the charges, i always have to look at how to pronounce her name. >> me too. >> veselnitskaya, she was a defense lawyer. she is a lawyer. she was helping out with the

defense of some of these russian officials that were caught up in the u.s. investigation. she submitted an affidavit saying, hey, you know, i had to move heaven and earth to get my hands on this government response by russia to the u.s. request, and it clearly absolves my clients. well, what the court documents today say is that the u.s. actually got e-mails, and this is the very interesting thing, e-mails that she wrote to the russian officials helping them draft this document that appeared to clear her clients and that she was very much involved in the drafting of it, and that she didn't have to move heaven and earth to get her hands on it, that in fact she helped to produce it. based on that they've charged her with obstruction of justice. that's the sum and substance of what the charge is. but as you say, it shows that she did have connections at least to the russian prosecutors' office because she was basically, the government claims, working with them to draft this document in response

to the u.s. request for information. >> and pete, richard engel and his team were the people who first found this paperwork, the affidavits on which this indictment was based. richard, you found that and reported on it back in june. >> so we had these documents. we had these e-mails. and i actually went to russia and i presented them to natalia veselnitskaya. and i showed them to her. she did not react well to them. she accused us of being part of a conspiracy to make her, to make russia look bad. she said that these e-mails had been stolen. she became very angry with us and later ended the interview and basically threw us out of the office. to reiterate what pete said, natalia veselnitskaya, around the same time of the trump tower meeting, was in new york. she was helping her client who was being charged with money laundering in new york.

she presented to the court these documents exonerating her client, which she said were directly from the russian government, that they were independent documents, prepared exclusively by the russian government. but it turns out these e-mails that we obtained, which we showed to her, show that she was involved in drafting that document. so imagine this, you're effectively dealing to yourself. you're representing your client, you ask the russian government to produce a document that exonerates your client, you help the russian government craft that document, and then you present it in court to help your client itself. i just spoke with the lead prosecutor of that case at the time. she was very pleased, and her quote to me a moment ago was that, quote, the integrity of the judicial process matters to the united states.

so her response was that she believes justice is being served. >> we're going to have to follow this. richard, you're all over it, you're directly involved, at least in having had that confrontation with her. fascinating stuff. thank you, pete, thank you, richard engel, we'll stay on the case, of course. coming up, batting cleanup. democrats getting their chance to respond tonight on the networks after the president's oval office speech. west virginia senator joe manchin joining me next. joe manchin joining me next.

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speaker nancy pelosi and senate democratic leader chuck schumer will be jointly responding tonight to the president on network tv. joining me now is democratic senator joe manchin who serves on the intelligence and appropriations committees, he knows a lot about government spending. and of course from west virginia. your state, first of all, is deeply affected. >> sure. >> talk to me about -- >> every state is affected. but my little state, 800,000 people, i have 18,000 federal workers who are in jeopardy of losing their paychecks. >> all have families. >> all have families. it ripples down from there, whether it's the farm bureau or

whatever, people have to count on these agencies to work with them. then i have 340,000 west virginians who depend on food stamps for subsidies. >> those numbers are even bigger than the numbers we just showed on the screen because you've been checking, you've got contractors. >> i have subcontractors, contractors, subcontractors. it ripples down. and here's a state with 1,800,000 people. it depends on working with the federal government. that's how people live their lives, and it's going to change. i told the white house, i said, when this all comes to fruition, it's going to be bigger than you all can handle, it's going to hit so hard. >> jared kushner has been calling a number of democratic senators to ask them to keep an open mind. what did you say to him? >> i said, we can avoid all of this. if the art of the deal was trying to find a pathway forward, you don't always get what you want but can you complete a deal, can you finish the deal. the art of this deal is basically finding a pathway

forward. immigration has to be addressed sooner or later, the immigration problem that we have. it's gone on for far too long, democrats and republicans. the president can say i'm taking this 2013 bill, this major immigration reform bill that was passed in the senate that never got a vote in the house, i'm going to dust that bill off, we're going to look at it and make sure it's in the proper context and we're going to vote on that bill. that would take care of it. >> what did he say to you? >> he just says, let's see, the president is pretty much committed to where we are right now. >> how do we deal with this? the democrats understandably have a lot of leverage, they now have the house. the republicans have already voted on this same language, with six appropriation bills, which could open most of the government. >> those six appropriation bills, those six appropriation bills, andrea, if you voted on those, just those six, with the five we've already passed, that's 90% of all the workers in

the united states, federal workers, will be back to work and getting paid. 96% of all the money it takes to run the country is back in place for a whole year. and i've told the president, mr. president, you're never going to get an opportunity. you're going to have a new house leadership with democrats. they' they're going to give you the republican bills that passed under republican leadership. i would take that deal and take the hiatus on homeland security appropriations. i know some of my colleagues may not agree. if the president is going to declare a national emergency, i don't think that that's legal, but if he does it, it will be fought out in the court system. if that's what it takes to open up the government, we can pass the other six, do it. don't put all the people in america through this absolutely horrific hardship. go ahead and do what you're going to do and take the money from the military. >> but the house has acted.

we're going to have to put mitch mcconnell on a milk carton soon because nobody has seen the senate majority leader. why will he not bring anything to the floor? >> i have no idea. over many years i've been amazed to see congress abdicating its responsibilities of what it's supposed to do under the constitution. we're giving more powers and more powers to the executive, not just president trump but many executives before him. >> understood. >> after 9/11, things were a little different because we thought, my goodness, we have to protect our country. that being said, we're to the point where the president thinks he can do this, this, and this without the congress' approval. mitch has passed what we all thought we had an agreement on, the $1.6 billion for border security and then basically passing all six bills. and we passed that unanimously, democrats and republicans,

before christmas and thought everything was fine. the president rejected it after i think he got attacked by his far right and the far right media. >> you talk to republicans all the time, you worker across the aisle. >> sure, try to. >> you're one of the guys that does that. are you hearing there are more republicans, besides susan collins and cory gardner, are more republican senators going to say to their leader, we have to vote on something? >> i don't know. i can only imagine, if i know what i'm seeing in my state, i know what they have to be seeing in their state and the pressure that's coming down. the people affected, whether it be in an agriculture state or energy producing states, it's all going to be affected. when it's affected and congress stops or slows down to the point that people can't continue on with their daily jobs, that pressure becomes unsurmountable. when the children of america start being affected, that's a pressure and a bridge too far. and i'm hoping that they will. but it's a shame. we can avoid all this, andrea. this is all avoidable.

even if you give a vote on dreamers or daca, if you come out tonight and says, listen, i'm not budging off the $5 billion, and at the same time we're going to have a vote on the dreamers and daca, that would be fine. it's kind of an art of the deal, i guess. but no one believes that a child that was under 5 years of age, their parents brought them here, that become only american citizens, have been educated in america, they've defended our country, fought in our military for us, shouldn't have a pathway forward to enjoy the fruits of citizenship. i think that's acceptable on both sides of the aisle. >> in fact, senator, we're about to talk to someone who has been interviewing people who are affected and whose children are being affected, exactly what you're talking about. joe manchin, it's always a pleasure, thank you very much. >> always good to be with you, thank you for having me. >> thank you. coming up, we'll introduce you to a furloughed epa officer forced to cut back on therapy for her disabled kids because of the government shutdown. that's next. vaughn hillyard will join us

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sons' therapies because she's not getting paid. >> reporter: what is the impact on them? >> one of the things that causes my little guy here to have seizures is additional stress. so we try and keep stress levels down. additional stress could mean more hospital visits because there's more seizures. >> reporter: when you heard the president say that those federal employees like you that were furloughed would make adjustments, what we want through your mind yesterday when you heard that? >> adjustments to what? lose my house? move into an apartment? what adjustments would you like us to make? we had no time. i would like to know what adjustments he suggests the american people make, because again, he doesn't live in our world. >> nbc's vaughn hillyard now joins me from colorado. vaughn, we heard the president say he can relate to what these people are going through and that their apartment owners

should do something about the rent, the bank should make adjustments. what are they supposed to do? >> reporter: exactly, andrea, sherry's family is one of those examples. that was the question she was putting directly to the president and congress. she says you can debate immigration all you want but in the meanwhile you have 800,000 americans and their families that are directly impacted by this government shutdown. she says she does not know what she's supposed to do. if she doesn't get paid for two weeks, her income dwindles down. her oldest son has autism, her 12-year-old has stress-induced seizures. she says it's a $125 co-pay for a life coach for the oldest son, it's $25 for the psychiatrist, it's $90 ultimately for the therapist. she says the cash is limited in their family. she is the breadwinner. she says she needs her paycheck and doesn't know where else to get it from, andrea. >> vaughn hillyard in colorado,

thank you so much, vaughn. president trump last week of course claiming that all four living former u.s. presidents told him they wanted to build that wall while they were in office. here is what the president said friday in the rose garden. >> this should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me and they all know it. some of them have told me that we should have done it. so we're not playing games. we have to do it. >> well, since then, all four of those former presidents denying his claim. in an interview with hallie jackson, vice president mike pence tried to clarify the president's remarks. >> i know the president has said that that was his impression from previous administrations, previous presidents. i know -- i know i've seen clips of previous presidents talking about the importance of border security, the importance of addressing the issue of illegal immigration. >> that's different from telling the president, though, right? >> you know, honestly, the american people -- the american

people want us to address this issue. >> joining me now is msnbc political analyst mike murphy, former senior adviser to mitt romney, jeb bush, and john mccain, and stephanie cutter, former senior adviser to president obama. welcome, both. mike murphy, there's a difference between former presidents talking about immigration and talking about building a wall and making that a concrete issue that will cause a government shutdown. >> yeah, look, we just had an election where we litigated president trump and his demand for a border wall and the republicans got clobbered. now the republicans have a lot less power in washington with the democratic majority in the house. so the president is trying to play bluff poker here, holding a 3 and a 4. these shutdowns, we've had a lot of them, always kind of have a pattern. there's ten days of posturing, then the pain starts. we're now to the pain phase. and i think the democrats, therapy vitheir

view is, we're winning, why back off? so we'll see if the president can change the subject tonight but i think he's in a real corner. >> it's a game of political poker, stephanie, but at some point do democrats have to say, our constituents are really hurting, and we have to put something on the table? >> i think democrats are putting things on the table. it's not, to mike's point, about democrats thinking they're winning. it's democrats wanting to actually open the government. you'll see action this week of different bills coming to the floor on the house, democrats voting for them, even republicans voting for them, republican leaders think upwards of 30 republicans could be voting for these bills to reopen the government. if mcconnell, as one of your guests said earlier, comes out of hiding, maybe the senate could start taking action on these bills too. they want to open the government. they don't want a stalemate over a border wall that the president hasn't made a case for and to the extent they've tried to make a case on it, they've made a case based on misstated facts, lies, and distorted facts. so i think we'll see what the president says tonight and try to reframe this debate.

but he clearly got himself into something here. you know, he's been running since 2016, 2015, when he announced for president, on stoking fear for immigration and i think it's finally caught up with him. the american people don't believe him. there is no national emergency. he hasn't made the case. he's appropriated more than a billion dollars last year for this wall and they haven't built an inch of it. if there is a national emergency, why aren't they down there building? if he's worried about a crisis, he should stop fabricating a crisis. tsa workers, border agents, they can't do their jobs because this president has shut down the government. >> mike murphy, at this stage, does the president, with the biggest megaphone, with the oval office, despite what the democrats do in response, then going to the border himself on thursday, he does have the way of, you know, dominating -- dominating the news cycle. is he going to be continuing this way or is he going to have to compromise?

>> well, the presidency is the biggest, you know, platform to send a message in the entire world. he has a platform to go do it. we'll see if he can. i don't know if the border wall is salient enough, outside the president's base, which is about a third of the country, to move the politics. i mean, both sides would like to open the government. but what both sides really want is to be the one that doesn't back down. that's why we're in this 1914 situation here. the democrats feel no need to back down because they think they have the president in a bad political position and they want to crush him, let's not think that's what's really going on here. and the president who started this stupid fight is stuck in it. he doesn't have the power to make the democrats back down. so he's doing something that's pretty standard in politics, he's going to try to change the subject. he'll start with an oval office address, he'll go to the border. i just think the border card does not have the politics -- excuse me, the political power

to change democratic political realities on their side. i do believe that both sides are going to get tired of the pain here in another few days, because having a shutdown is going to ramp up, affecting real people. airports will stop working. there are already some problems. you've got customs officers working essentially for free now, that could get into border trade. the next ten days, there's a reason these shutdowns happen but never but beyond three weeks, the pain becomes unbearable for politicians. there will eventually be some sort of deal and i doubt the president will get the victory he's looking for. >> they will all be claiming victory in the end. mike murphy, it's the people who are really suffering in the middle of all this, stephanie cutter, thank you so much. coming up, double standard. the start of 2020 sparking those age-old likability questions about women candidates. that's ahead in our inside scoop. stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. rea mitchell reports" on msnbc. (avo) life doesn't give you many

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prism, judged not on policy proposals but on, quote, likability? hillary clinton even weighing in. >> there's been a lot of talk recently about whether our country is ready for women leaders. now, that really takes me back, but today, i want to thank all of you for your persistence. i know many of you and can attest as to how smart, determined, effective and, dare i say, likable you all are. >> let's get the inside scoop from susan page. and msnbc contributor kimberly, both likable enough. susan, how do we ever get away from this? >> we're not entirely away from it. i think we're more aware of it. we're more willing to speak out against it. the fact there are multiple

credible female candidates for president makes a difference. every single view people have about women doesn't get centered just on one particular candidate. that was definitely -- hillary clinton had a multitude of problems with her presidential candidacy. that was one of them, that she was a carrier of every attitude people had about women. that's not going to be true this time around. >> you're saying with more women running, this could go away? >> i think that's true. initially, we had warren getting out in front and she immediately began -- folks began comparing her to hillary clinton because that was the other women. when there are two, three women in the democratic race, people will start to maybe compare them to each other but also to the other candidates and that focus will come off. i think one thing that democrats are telling me, that they're excited about the number of women that are running. not because they want to continue to break the glass ceiling. there should be diversity when it comes to not just gender but

also economic issues, race, all kinds of areas. the field should reflect that. >> in fact, all the women i think -- all the women i mentioned, gillibrand, c klobuchar, lawyers. >> they're just like the men running for office. they have similar backgrounds. >> perhaps a little bit better qualified? >> you also have a woman speaker of the house and that is unsurprising. so there are more examples of women in position, of authority and also what are the odds there will be two men on the democratic ticket in 2020? i think the odds are extremely low. i think there will be a woman on the ticket. whether that be as president or vice president, i don't know. >> there could be a woman on the republican ticket as well. take a look. harris has a new book out today. saying it's like a campaign but she's the first candidate who

came out with a book in a campaign year. she was on "the view" today. >> i'm pleased to announce on "the view" that i'm not ready to make my announcement. i'm very tempted but i'm not yet ready. >> so women can be as coy as men, like joe biden. >> yes, this is part -- i think in the next few weeks we'll see all these people making their decisions especially now that we have folks jumping all the way in. i think when you look at evidence of people being ready for a woman, i know some democrats are worried a woman will face a backlash with gender discrimination. look at the 2018 election. it is really difficult to see, to make an argument that voters are not ready to elect women. they elected a record number of women into the congress this year. >> in fact, 2018 women drove every aspect of this. as candidates. as voters. as -- >> organizers. >> as organizers. this was a real breakthrough

year in terms of this was a women's -- women were much more likely to win their contest. >> tonight, we will have a woman speaker responding with chuck schumer at her side. responding to the president of the united states. so there. >> susan page, kimberly atkins, thank you. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. ve 4.3 minus to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts. the doctor just for a shot. with neulasta onpro patients get their day back... to be with family, or just to sleep in. strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. in a key study neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%, a 94% decrease. neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the day after chemo and is used by most patients today.

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edition. keep it here on msnbc for the president's prime-time address tonight at 9:00 eastern as well as the democratic response immediately afterwards. remember, follow us online on facebook and on twitt twitter @mitchellreports. here is ali velchi and stephanie ruhle for velchi and ruehl. >> good afternoon to all of you. >> it is tuesday, january 8th. let's get smarter. >> the president is speaking tonight in a prime-time there's. address. is he going to declare a national emergency? >> i expect what the president will do section plain to the american people that we have a humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. 60,000 people are now attempting to come into this country illegally every month. he'll talk about the 17,000 people with criminal records that we've apprehended at our border. he'll explain the need not just to build a wall, which he's determined to do, but also to provide our border patrol with