expenses right now. >> neera and john, thank you again for helping me out tonight. great to see you. a great rest of your weekend. the 11th hour with brian williams starts right now. the breaking news we're covering tonight. a show stopper of a headline from "the new york times" reporting that the fbi opened an inquiry into whether donald trump was secretly working on behalf of russia. that's a first for the american presidency. that inquiry later became the mueller investigation which now threatens his presidency. tonight, we'll be joined by one of the journalists who broke the story and an hour away from the government shutdown becoming the longest in our history. trump inclined not to use his special emergency powers. some are preparing for weeks more of this and no one has any answers for the folks locked out of work or those like the air traffic controllers working without getting paid and a rare profile in courage has members of the house and senate stay at

work all weekend to try to solve this painful shutdown. just kidding, they've adjourned. most headed home as we press on. the 11th hour getting under way on a friday night. well, good evening, once again from our msnbc news headquarters in new york. day 22 of the trump administration. day 21 of the government shutdown, minutes away from the longest in u.s. history. more on that, of course, but we begin with a show stopper. when "the new york times" story came out tonight, one of the reporters on realtime urged everyone watching to read the headline and hear this headline and let it sink in just for a moment. fbi opened inquiry into whether trump was secretly working on behalf of russia. the story is the work of three journalists, one of whom michael schmidt will join us here in just a moment and he and his

colleagues say in the day after president trump fired james b. comey as fbi director, law enforcement officials became so concerned and investigating whether he'd be working on behalf of russia against american interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation. the inquiry carried explosive implications. counterintelligence investigations had to consider whether the president's own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. agents also sought to determine whether mr. trump was knowingly working for russia or had unwittingly fallen under moscow's influence. it goes on to describe the agent's thinking at this time and we quote, agents and senior fbi officials had grown suspicious of mr. trump's ties to russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening investigation into him, the people said. in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an

inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. the president's activities before and after mr. comey's firing, may 2017, particularly two instances in which mr. trump tied the comey dismissal to the russia investigation helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said. and according to "the times," one of the instances was a letter that trump wrote with the help of senior aide, steven miller, before he fired comey laying out the underpinning reasons for doing so. "times" reported on that letter back in 2017 and notes prevented it from being sent. now the second instance that troubled investigators, this one you've seen before. it happened in plain sight as it was broadcast to a national audience. >> i was going to fire comey. there's no good time to do it,

by the way. >> in your letter, you said i accepted their recommendation. >> i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. he made a recommendation. he's highly respected. very good guy. very smart guy. the democrats like him. the republicans like him. he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> the times denied reports that paper got access to testimony from the top lawyer at the fbi at the time. their general counsel james baker, the times also had access to testimony from former fbi lawyer lisa page. tonight, the white house has responded to this brand-new report with this brand-new statement and it goes as follows. this is absurd. james comey was fired because

he's a disgraced partisan hack, and his deputy andrew mccabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the fbi. unlike president obama, who let russia and other foreign adversaries push america around, president trump has actually been tough on russia. end of quote. let's bring in our leadoff panel on a friday night. one of the three reporters to the monumental "new york times" piece tonight. michael schmidt. barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney, eastern district of michigan. chuck rosenburg, former senior fbi official and with us by telephone, frank figliuzzi, worked for others like robert mueller in the past. i'd like to begin with you. what have you learned about this extraordinary step the fbi took,

opening a counterintelligence inquiry into the president? >> well, sort of our collective understanding or conscience about the mueller investigation, everything related to trump has been about criminal obstruction. did the president obstruct justice and the information we had tonight shows that the investigation is much broader, at least initially it was. it was looking at the president's ties to this foreign adversary with russia. what was it? what was that relationship all about? why was the president doing the things that he was doing? that was the original focus of this. now, what this does is allows us to see the world the way that the fbi agents saw it right after comey was fired. they had just had the deputy attorney general provide a rationale to the president that was not the president's reason for dismissing the fbi director. the president, as you just played, comes out and says the things he said. he wanted to say things to comey about the russia investigation, the letter, which he was stopped

from. the fbi is not sure what is going on. they know there's a massive russia investigation here. they know there's this steel dossier with accusations about trump and long standing relationship that trump has with russia. there is all these things going on and they decide to go forward with the monumental historic decision of opening up a counterintelligence investigation into the president. is the president tied to the adversary? >> and frank, thank you for joining us by telephone tonight. cut through all of the other russia coverage. stories that may make people think this is part of the daily norm and remind people how important, how notable this is, as you put it on the air earlier tonight, that there was an investigation file with donald trump in the subject line. >> yeah, this is unprecedented, brian, and i think what's most sobering about this, knowing the standards that are required to

open a case, right, that this is not something done in a vacuum. if you're going to look into the president of the united states, you're going to the department of justice. you're showing them your evidence. they are concurring with your concerns and they're allowing you to pursue this line of inquiry. to open even a preliminary inquiry in counterintelligence, you need to have a reasonable suspicion that someone is or may be an agent of a foreign power or is being targeted by that foreign power to open a full investigation and you say, well, we don't know whether this was a preliminary or full, but let's remember that this appears to have turned into this special counsel inquiry and if that's true, it certainly looks like it turned into a full. although we can't be certain. the standard for a full inquiry is specific and arcticulable

facts. >> a statement from rudy giuliani, if it was a counterintelligence investigation and it obtained any evidence, it would have to have resulted in some action being taken or they are imperilling our national security. this shows how out of control they are. they being the feds, the fbi. chuck, does he have it right there? >> i'm afraid not, brian. and a shocking development, he doesn't have it right. counterintelligence investigations are hard, they're cumbersome, they're complex and often take a very long time. the outcome doesn't necessarily mean we will see it in court, like a criminal case, which we're all used to. this other part of the fbi does its work, mostly in secret. as frank well knows and we could use the fruits of that investigation for a whole bunch of things that the public will

never see. it may inform our diplomacy. it may inform our countermeasures and the judgment of senior national security leaders about the capabilities of a hostile foreign power, so whatever mr. giuliani may be talking about and not at all clear from what you just read, he is not talking about counterintelligence investigations at the fbi that i know of and it's a ridiculous statement. >> hey, barb, as a veteran former fed, what sticks out to you most? >> well, as frank has said, truly extraordinary that the chief executive of our nation, the commander in chief of our armed forces was someone who was considered the target of a counterintelligence investigation. that fact alone is extraordinary, but one thing that i think is quite likely is that we have all of these public facts that we know. it is quite likely that the fbi had additional facts as well that caused them to make this decision to open this investigation.

i can imagine that agents were extremely reluctant to open an investigation against the president of the united states and would do so only after extreme scrutiny and very high level approval and so there's certain things that we know. the event, perhaps, the firing of jim comey and statements made to lester holt but additional facts unknown to the public at this point. >> lightning round questions, some of which came up in thenow. do we know for a fact that all became slid into, morphed into what is known is the mueller inquiry or any other subsets of an fbi inquiry that may already be open? >> this was all taken in by mueller. you have to understand, this happens all in a short period of time. comey fired in may of 2016 and the days of this investigation is started, several days later, it comes out trump asked comey

to end the investigation into mike flynn, security adviser, following mueller appointed all of this stuff goes to mueller. we don't know if anything specific to the president that still exists outside of the mueller investigation except for, of course, michael cohen. something that was born out of the mueller investigation that was sent to new york and is completely different than the russia questions. completely different about payments to adult film stars. so all we know is this went with mueller when mueller started. >> did the president, is there any evidence he became aware in realtime he was the subject? >> no, and he wouldn't if the inquiry was going according to form. obviously, there's no book on how to investigate the president as a foreign power but as the president's lawyer said tonight, he did not, they did not know anything about this. this was something that was new to them and used that as a point and said, this was really a problem, we would have heard

about it. >> frank figluzzi, what beyond tru trump's own words and behavior, some of it as you and i always discussed happened in plain sight as we watched, what beyond that obvious evidence would there be? >> well, barb touched on this and that is the really well founded theory that the bureau would not be opening such a case and convincing dodj to allow it without something more than just public bizarre behavior of the president. so understand that the fbi is privy not only to the most sensitive of our intelligence community but also to ally partners and their intelligence collection, so what does that mean? sources, signals intelligence, intercepts, wiretaps of foreign officials.

all of that likely was part of this predication to be concerned enough to open a case, counterintelligence case to determine whether the president has been coopted or is working for a foreign power. my gut tells me there's much more to this than just the public antics to the president. >> chuck rosenberg, one for you. every night here, i try to watch all the cables. cnn, fox news, part of the job and tonight, watching fox news, they seem to devote most of their coverage to illegal immigration, various discussions of that and then there came a time they did report this "new york times" story and tucker carlson said the following into the camera that may give us an indication of an early defense strategy. we'll play that and talk about it on the other side. >> if you're keeping track at home and get a pen and paper because worth remembering, this is why you should never criticize the fbi. you think it's your birthright as an american.

you can do it. i wouldn't try it though. they might open an investigation into you without your knowledge into something appalling, maybe your wife or dealing fentanyl to kids or betraying your country. you don't need to have done it but once they investigate you, they can always leak, i don't know, two years later they were investigating you for this crime that you didn't commit or at least they found no evidence you committed. at least never charged it for you, but it doesn't matter because you're instantly discredited. don't criticize the fbi. very unwise. >> chuck rosenberg, your response. >> that's a deeply and profoundly troubling statement, brian. here's why. it's not just because i work there and i know the ethos of the place and the men and women who care deeply about the rule of law. remember too that the fbi and its work is overseen by the congress and the department of justice, by the executive branch through, you know, the foreign

intelligence advisory board and the privacy and civil liberties oversight board and lots of people, oh, and by the way, federal judges too, will oversee the work of the fbi. so it's a deeply and profoundly troubling statement. it completely misapprehends what the fbi is and who the men and women are who work there. it is really, really a bad thing to feed to the american people. it begins to erode the trust in government, including at the fbi, including at times like this. >> to our guests, most of our guests are going to stay with us and continue to cover this lead story. michael schmidt, we thought it was in the interest of good journalism since you've had, let's say a more eventful day than the rest of us, to thank you for your work tonight, which has spurred this conversation, thank you very much for being a part of our broadcast. we're asking barbara mcquaid and frank to stay with us and when

we come back, more on this breaking news that the fbi opened an inquiry into the president of the united states and later, as we said, we're just moments away from a new record. one the white house and congress has done nothing to avoid breaking. the 11th hour just getting started on this busy friday night. this busy friday night. before i had the shooting, burning of diabetic nerve pain these feet raised a bouncing boy and climbed the ladder in the hardware business. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer.

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opened inquiry into whether our president was secretly working on behalf of russia. and a reminder because we sometimes lose our perspective with the daily barrage of russia stories, just the mention of this allegation is, of course, a first for the american presidency. we have the very best in the business standing by to continue our conversation. chuck rosenberg and frank figliuzzi on the phone. we learned he planned to stay according to nbc news reporting to, in effect, see the mueller investigation and statement through. do you think anything we've learned today and tonight does anything to jeopardize that trajectory? >> i don't think so unless president trump panics in some way. we've seen this very strong statement from sarah sanders, calling comey a political hack and mccabe a chronic liar, so it seems likely that rod rosenstein

would want to stay the course. he's been there for about two years and i'm sure it feels like 20 for him and in some ways, can't get out soon enough but i think he's a loyal steward of the institution of the justice department and be there as long as it's within his choice and power to do so, i think he'll stay unless somehow president trump wants to fire him before then. >> chuck rosenberg, does any of this impact chris ray's ability to continue to do his job day after day as fbi director? >> it really shouldn't and for some of the same reasons that barbara just arctticulated regarding the deputy attorney general. chris ray is an institutionalist and follows the rules. by the way, this wasn't opened on his watch but i'm quite confident knowing chris ray as i do, if they have the facts and the information, he would have done the exact same thing. you know, something you said earlier, brian, i think is really important and i want to reiterate it, given the garabar

of daily news. if you take a moment to think about the fact that the president of the united states had a counterintelligence investigation open to determine whether he is being targeted by a foreign power or whether or not he's an agent of a foreign power, that is absolutely extraordinary. it doesn't tell us what the answer is. we don't know where this will lead. but i cannot imagine in all my years on this planet having a president of the united states being the subject of a counterintelligence investigation. >> frank, you heard what chuck said in the previous segment and what tucker carlson had to say in the previous segment. it is obvious that some of the backlash will result in the fact that they're going to come after your former colleagues. a lot of the folks here still in touch with at the fbi. give us a reality check on morale on how you think they'll fare. >> well, my first response when i saw this reporting was that i

just wish it hadn't happened. you know, to be honest with you and i'm a huge champion of freedom of the press and this needs to get out and public service, but i also know that we have a president that is mercurial at best and i'm concerned he's going to react in a way, as we've already seen, some communication from the white house tonight, that causes him to act out against special counsel mueller and/or brod rosenstein before they've done their job. the other thing we'll keep hearing is the notion of deep state. this notion there's a conspiracy somehow, that there's a rogue fbi or was a rogue fbi. i think it's important for the american people to understand the counterintelligence and intelligence work in the fbi is by far the most regulated part of the fbi. there are agents who don't even want to work counterintelligence

because you got to keep the rule book in your top drawer. i lived as a counterintelligence agent with the attorney general guidelines in the top drawer of my desk, until i memorized entire portions of them. that's how heavily regulated it is. the fact that some can willy-nilly open a president on a case is misguided. the level of review, the department of justice review, the number of lawyers that would have to have touched this to allow this to happen is almost immeasurable. so i want to try to dispel that nation, that there would have to be multiple points of failure, multiple people in the conspiracy to even open this case and it's just wholly unrealistic to think that happened. >> we're so grateful to our guests tonight and michael schmidt for starting us off and barbara mcquaid and chuck rosenberg and frank, thanks. coming up for us, our coverage continues. the night's other major story,

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almost exactly 30 minutes from now, the current government shutdown will become officially the longest in our history. today, hundreds of thousands of federal employees missed their

first paycheck as frustration and now real financial peril are growing across our country. we should note both the house and the senate have adjourned for the weekend after making no progress in ending the stalemate. earlier today, president trump held a border security round table at the white house. again, made a pitch for his signature project. president told reporters declaring a national emergency is the easy way out and congress needs to approve funding. >> the easy solution is for me to call a national emergency. i could do that quickly and the absolute right to do it but i'm not going to do it so fast because this is something congress should do and we're waiting for the democrats o vto vote. they want to go home. probably home by now. and nancy and chuck and all of the folks that could settle this thing in 15 minutes, i used to say 45 minutes, now i say 15

minutes, it's so simple. we need money for a barrier. >> new reporting from the "wall street journal" reveals the shutdown could continue for weeks to come over, as you heard the president call it a barrier. michael bender writes, quote, trump's aides have started preparations for the state of the union speech, discussing how to use the january 29 address if the shutdown remains in place. meanwhile, the white house office of management and budget is preparing for the shutdown to continue through the end of february. nbc news has spoken with federal workers around this country who are not being paid during this shutdown. one of the faa inspectors, curtis calibrazi. >> personally, yeah, i'm absolutely frustrated. i wished, i hoped that the department of transportation would be funded. i would hope that the faa would

see faa inspectors as essential employees because what we do is absolutely critical to the national airspace. i would much rather be doing my job and just not get paid and get a paycheck later than not work at all. i think we're doing a disservice to the american people. i don't think it's moral to use aviation safety and the safety of the american people as a bargaining chip. >> as appropriate a federal worker as any we could have spoken to today. trump's good friend in the u.s. senate lindsey graham on top of urging to declare the emergency and build the wall or barrier says he doesn't know how this is going to play out. >> the national emergency idea is one way to try to get the wall built. it's got its own problems. just pick and so i don't know how this move is going to end. the best route is for congress working with the president to solve this problem. i don't see anybody here. i'm going home. i'll be back monday.

>> there you have it. and with us to talk about it tonight, white house reporter for the associated press. shannon. you have the most proxy, the closest to that disaster of a building behind you. that was just breathtaking at the end of lindsey graham, nobody here and i'm going home. >> right. >> what happens next? how does this end? >> i don't think anyone knows and yeah, that building behind me has been dark and empty for hours now. i mean, the white house did not think they were going to be in this position. around the christmas holiday, they thought, okay, you know, democrats are going to come back with a counter. they didn't. they went home for the christmas holiday. the white house thought, okay, when they come back, we can start talking, when pelosi takes her leadership position, they'll start negotiating. when it gets closer to this first paycheck, the federal workers are going to miss, okay, then democrats will start negotiating. democrats aren't budging and the

white house isn't budging either. the white house did not think they were going to get here and now i don't think they know where to go. they spent the week sort of doing these public relations campaigns, the visit to the border, the national address, the round table, the president coming out and talking to reporters about the national emergency he could declare. it did not move the needle at all. i think the white house is really out of tricks in their bag and yes, they don't know where to go from here. one way they could go is the national emergency or they could make a counteroffer to democrats, maybe it's not $5 billion for a wall. maybe it's $2 billion like the vice president tried to offer before the holiday break. but those are two routes that, as far as today, they haven't indicated they're willing to take. >> when do the people get to declare it's a government emergency and get some of these federal workers families their paycheck? jonathan la mere, your reporting tonight is that the president didn't like what he saw this week. >> no, there's obviously

tangible real world results we're seeing. today, federal workers received pay stubs that had zeros on them. paperwork with no money there. for a lot of workers, that will add up. bills aren't going paid. debts are going to grow but white house is certainly concerned about those optics. tweeting images of those pay stubs but more than that, this week. the president had to be talked into the border trip. told aides and the meeting he thought it wouldn't move the needle whatsoever. he was also very unhappy with that oval office speech. for months now had told people he didn't like the imagery of the oval office and thought it was flat and the straight ahead camera view and thought presidents he watched give them before seemed sort of lifeless. >> no live audience. >> he responds best when interacting if not with a rally crowd but at least other reporters to joust with. he preferred other rooms but talking in that moment saying the seriousness of this event, making your case, do the oval

office. since then, according to our report, told several people around him, he really hated it. he felt donald trump describing himself, he seemed boring. so you could tell how unhappy he was there and this is a real debate inside the building. what to do about the national emergency. should they do that and wants congress, and according to people we talked to, the president's preference but there is growing momentum to some sort of national emergency and urged on the hill to do the same because they want to move forward. if this is tied up in the courts, it's off their plate and the government can reopen. if there's a legal battle, it continues to fight over the wall. he's told people around him to fight, even more important than the wall itself. >> more defections with republicans, splitting off from the majority but it don't mean a thing if mitch mcconnell doesn't bring it up for a vote.

>> mitch mcconnell has been very absent from this whole debate. democrats have tried to be absent. they'll comment on the meeting but mitch mcconnell is nowhere to be seen. pretty certain he's left. i went back to the home state over the weekend. there is not leadership coming from the senate. you have the democrats who are doing their own thing in the house. the white house is really at a loss of what to do, but theoretically, the senate and the congress could end this all. they could pass a bill. the president could veto it and the senate could override the veto. there is something that congress could do here. but of course, this president has such control over the republican party, you know, donald trump is the republican party at this point. the midterms made that very clear. many members of congress who went out against him who are no longer there. until that dynamic has fundamentally changed in the american public's mind and maybe it will after another month of

this but i don't think we're there yet and people at the white house don't think we're there yet. >> lamere, give me 30 seconds. the president's well chronicled kind of deficit of feeling. does that play a part in this? that he is not as susceptible or empathy is concerned to some of these horror stories we're hearing, from the families of members of the coast guard having to choose between food and medicine and gasoline and housing? >> time and time again, the president has shown a lack of empathy. we remember report puerto rico north carolina, the hurricane, the music. the boat. what we see now is more of the same. he's struggled to connect to regular people. he keeps claiming that federal workers are telling him that you

should stay with the course. the wall's important. don't do this. yet the white house has not been able to provide any concrete examples of the instances. he talked to thousands, he and his staff talked to thousands of the workers. none of them said what happened. this is a case where he's doing this to political ends and not able to sort of connect people on a human level, so the stories we just saw of suffering, people having trouble making ends meet, at least to this point, they're not really having any impact in the oval office. >> we want to thank shannon and sometimes gail on the broadcast. appreciate you joining us on a friday night. coming up, the unprecedented position this president is in right now. under investigation, presiding over a government, unable to function. john meacham is here to talk about that. john meacham is here to talk about that when i say, "drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412," you probably won't believe me.

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welcome back. as we continue to cover this bombshell reporting in "the new york times" tonight, it is worth stressing this detail and we quote, counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president's own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. no guest we'd rather have than historian john meacham. latest work is "the soul of ameri america." if you're going to clear those better angels of yours for takeoff, the air traffic controllers are working without salaries. i have racked my meager brain to think of situations this country has been in, anything like this. i have whiffed and we're looking to you for historical perspective. >> well, all i got and it's not much is the last days of nixon

when james, the secretary of defense, is reported to have issued orders saying any military command that came from the white house had to be cleared by him. he was worried about tanks coming to the city. worried about nixon barricading himself and fighting it out. and that's about it. we're in a remarkable place where, and there's many problems with woodrow wilson, but wilson, before he was president, obviously, at princeton and gave a series of lectures at columbia about the presidency and said that the president by law and custom can be as big a man as he can and i think what we're seeing again and again and again is that the incumbent is proving the president can be as small a man as one can. whether you look at all of these different fronts and you have the sort of emergency

conversation which is deeply important and complicated, but we've really never had and if we have, it's classified and lost to history at least so far. a president of the united states who is considered to be possibly an asset of a foreign government. this is what the founders were worried about in the 1790s. the evjeffersonians worried. and that he might be a french agent but that was kind of a fevered political atmosphere. there was no fbi to investigate it, and i think the report on "the times" tonight has, if anything could possibly elevate the stakes of our current moment, that did it. >> our viewers know we turn to you. we turn to michael beschloss to ask this very question and ask you intellectually, turn on a dime and how this will be viewed

years later. i think this one, even you, could have some migration many your thinking tomorrow morning, next week, looking back at this headline in "the new york times" tonight. >> the whole story about russia or trump and russia as he himself wonderfully called it is this slow-moving unfolding story. the worst possible scenario here is we're like the titanic steaming through the north atlantic and we know the iceberg is there, we're not sure how big it is and the carpathia won't answer our distress calls. that's kind of where we are. we don't know yet how we're going to view this because we don't know how it turns out, but we have some of the best people in america trying to figure it out and i think my understanding of "the times" story is that the counterintelligence investigation was essentially taken over or merged into

director mueller's and once again, we've seen, i think the two most important people in america right now are john roberts, as the swing vote on the supreme court now and bob mueller. >> i say to you and our viewers, please don't move. we'll continue our discussion right after this break. we'll continue our discussion right after this break i just got my cashback match, is this for real? yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover.

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i've spoken to the shining city all my political life, but i don't know if i ever quite communicated what i saw when i said it. but in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, god blessed and teaming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace. hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to

anyone with the will and the heart to get here. >> note his mention there of walls. that was the 1989 farewell address. ronald reagan from the oval office 30 years ago today. still with us, the historian and author, john meacham. there is the current occupant of the white house, his address from the oval office this week. john, there were democrats that election night when jimmy carter lost in tears because they thought that our country was ruined and we were going to be the laughing stock of the world. then came ronald reagan, and in a country where unless you're a scallywag, we tend to look affectionately back on our former presidents. the question is to you, did people in real-time look at this guy, his farewell address and say, you know what, that's just a shining example of what we want our president and our presidency to be? or has it been fuzzed up in history along the way?

>> well, there's a difference between something being fuzzed up and our seeing it more clearly, and i think that a lot of times with presidents we had this with truman, we had this with george w. bush, mountains tend to get a little bit larger and we judge them more effectively the farther we are away from them. president reagan left office pretty popular. we tend to forget iran-contra. we tend to forget that, as you say, there was this quite compelling or at least widespread view that he was, as he put it, somehow a combination of the mad bomber and ebenezer scrooge. >> mmm-hmm. >> and you're right, people -- people thought the presidency itself in the late 1970s had become diminished. remember, we had the equivalent of four one-term presidents from 1960 to 1980. lost one to assassination, one to vietnam, one to watergate,

president ford lost to president carter and then president carter loses to reagan. so we had five presidents in 20 years. there was an op-ed, loyd cutler, white house council for jimmy carter wrote a piece in "the washington post" saying the presidency was now too complicated for any one person and then along came ronald reagan. you can disagree with him, but he certainly proved that the office itself in the right hands could be a force for good. the speech that night remarkably 30 years ago, we're now as separated as far from that speech as he was eisenhower leaving washington, which makes us all field oleel old, i think. that night it was seen as a grace note. the old boy was having one more turn on stage and that -- in the paper, though, in "the new york times" that day, bill sapphire, a conservative, had a column saying reagan had had a good first term but we wish he hadn't

had a second term. so he was not a rushmore-like figure. what's so remarkable to me about this speech, written by our friend and colleague peggy noonan is you realize it should be with eisenhower and washington's, that his argument for openness, for big heartedness, for all the pilgrims, all the lost places, hurleding through the dark places towards home. you realize he was warning us in that reagan esque way that we had to open our arms and not clinch our fists. >> routinely rank areagan among the top ten favorite presidents in their lifetime. john meacham, thank you very much. have a good weekend, sir. we're lucky to have you after a night like tonight. coming up for us, we all heard the president's words this week, but we will show you how one organization heard his oval office address in a different way. ce address in a different way.

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last thing before we go here tonight has to do with the president's prime time address from the oval office. and, again, with the pace of news these days, with just the headline we're dealing with tonight, it may seem like it was weeks ago, it was just this past tuesday evening. the president used vivid language to describe what he referred to many times as this crisis at our southern border. well, the organizers of march for our lives were watching that night. their goal, as you may know, is to stop gun violence, especially in our schools, and they have done a recut of the president's speech using his words but they've taken out any references to the border. they want us to imagine that he was talking about the crisis of gun violence. >> my fellow americans, there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis. all americans are hurt. more americans will die than were killed in the entire vietnam war. over the years, thousands of

americans have been brutally killed and thousands more lives will be lost if we don't act right now. this is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart, of the soul, of our broken system. this is the tragic reality. this is the cycle of human suffering. this situation could be solved. hopefully we can rise above politics. to do nothing and continue to allow innocent people to be so horribly victimize. so sad. so terrible. imagine if it was your child, your husband or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken. pass a bill that ends this crisis. this is just common sense. >> again, that's from the organizers of march for our lives, what they view as the crisis worthy of an oval office address. as edited to make their point,

posted by the organization on social media. midnight eastern time now seconds away and with that the longest government shutdown in u.s. history. with that, that is our broadcast for a friday night and for this week. thank you so much for being here with us. have a good weekend. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. rachel has the night off. she will be back on monday. we begin tonight, of course, with that breaking news from "the new york times." here is the headline again. "fbi opened inquiry into whether trump was secretly working on behalf of russia." quote, in the days after president trump fired james b. comby as fbi director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president's behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of russia against american interests. that is according to former law enforcement officials and others