thank you very much for watching. a.m. joy starts right now. >> from everything i see has no respect for this person. >> well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president. >> no puppet, no puppet. >> it's clear. >> you're the puppet. >> it's clear you won't admit -- >> no, you're the puppet. >> good morning, welcome to a.m. joy. there is probably nothing more triggering for trump's base than the suggestion that hillary clinton is right about something. but her prognosis in 2016 that trump was a puppet for putin sure looks more plausible after two jaw-dropping reports from this weekend alone. the first from the "new york times" reporting that the fbi opened a counterintelligence inquiry into whether trump was secretly working for russia. the second bombshell, this time from "the washington post" reporting that trump, quote, has

gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with russian president vladimir putin. and that on at least one occasion, trump took possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructed the linguist not to discuss what had transpired during his chat with putin with other administration officials. the white house has now had 38 hours to respond to the "new york times" story. even if the initial shock made it hard for them to figure out what to say, how to explain that 38 hours later, no one in the administration including trump himself, has been able to utter the simple phrase, of course the president isn't working for the kremlin? instead we have seen weird umbrage-filled nondenials. here is trump's lengthy nondenial response to his pal janine piro on fox news last

night. >> are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? >> i think it's the most insulting thing i have ever been asked. i think it is the most insulting article i have ever had written. you look at what's going on, i fired james comey. i call him lying james comey. he was a terrible liar. he did a terrible job as the fbi director. i have been tougher on russia than anybody else. probably any other president, period. including the fact that we are doing oil like we have never done it. we are setting records with exporting oil and many other things. it was a great insult and the "new york times" is a disaster as a paper. it's a very horrible thing they said. >> just a tv note. our producers cut that down from a two-minute answer. two-minute answer by donald trump. in case you're counting, it was 349 words that trump spoke. 349 words.

none of which were the word "no." let's bring in our mega panel to break it down. joining me, msnbc national security analyst and former assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi. jail winebanks, special prosecutor. natasha beartran of the atlantic. and evelyn farkas, msnbc national security analyst. frank, i'm coming to you first. thank you for being here in person. yesterday we had you call in because we just wanted to talk to you about this. what do you make of the fact that in 38 hours since the story broke, since i spoke with you about it on the rachel maddow show, his lawyers, and trump himself have yet to utter the phrase "of course the president isn't working for russia". >> you might have a future in fbi interrogation techniques. you're right. if you study the responses,

study the white house reaction and study the clips that you just played, you don't have an all-out denial. it really raises eyebrows if you are someone in the interview and human observation business. something is troubling about that. let's remember that as we continue to move forward, the fbi opened this case a long time ago with suspicions. but let's look at what's happened since then as recently as the last two weeks. i still see the president sending signals that he still is joined at the hip with russians. for example, the statement that russia was right, quote/unquote, to go in to afghanistan. for example, the briefing by secretary of treasury steve mnuchin that nancy pelosi called the worst briefing she's ever received where he talked about softening sanctions on russians.

we are seeing the bizarre, unexplainable cozying up and covering for russia. >> it is bizarre. let me go to a lawyer. if this were a legal case and you had a defendant who when asked a simple question did what you saw, said everything else. donald trump went into every area he could think of, every person he's disliked but never said he didn't do it. if this were a client or defendant what would you make of the fact that he didn't deny it. and let me give you a little background for folks who haven't been paying attention as closely. this is how the white house originally responded. "the washington post" story is so outrageously inaccurate it doesn't even warrant a response. the liberal media has wasted two years trying to manufacture a fake collusion scandal instead of reporting the fact that unlike president obama -- that was something trump said. i'm tough on russia.

and now here is the cia director mike pompeo on "face the nation". >> the notion that president trump is a threat to american national security is ludicrous. the idea that's contained in the "new york times" story that president trump was a threat to american national security is silly on its face and not worthy of a response. >> i'm sorry. former cia director and current secretary of state mike pompeo. what would you make of it if a client or defendant or their representatives were doing these things rather than saying i didn't do it. >> if it's my client, i have the world's worst witness that i don't want to be on a witness stand, certainly not in front of a jury, let alone a judge. if i'm on the other side, i think this is the worst attempt i have ever seen to distract me from probably one of the most serious allegations that could possibly be made.

if you are the commander in chief and not the traitor in chief, the first and foremost thing you would do, particularly knowing you're staring down the barrel of a prosecutor's gun is you say, no. it is the only thing that comes to your mind. in this case, what donald trump does is what he usually does. he dissemiables into distraction rather than facts and absolutely as a sitting president if he's going to be responsible, looks dead in the eye of the american people and says, i absolutely am going to respond to this because it's ludicrous. he hasn't done that. moreover, he can't given the facts of the case. remember, just to piggyback on something frank said, the fbi briefed donald trump about the possibility of russians trying to infiltrate the campaign when

he was nominated and became the republican nominee. his campaign had already had seven contacts with russians at that point. they never, despite the fact that the fbi asked them to, never continued to report contact with russians. >> it is bizarre. evelyn, i will come to you on this. to build on what we just heard from frank and maya, the fbi was alerted to donald trump's weird behavior even during the campaign. one piece of the "new york times" story. investigators watched with alarm as the republican party softened the convention platform on the ukraine crisis in a way that seemed to benefit russia. it was the only change made to the rnc platform. there were no other changes requested by the trump campaign. only this. it was a change to the ukraine plank which had been strong on the idea that russia should not have taken crimea. this softened it. it was the only change they made. item, this is what alarmed them.

the republican platform doesn't call for arming ukraine against russia which spurred outrage. that was a headline from july of 2016 in which that raised alarms even publicly, right? >> yeah. >> add to it now we now know donald trump has taken calls and meetings with vladimir putin including in helsinki after the bizarre press conference. here's an item from "the washington post" from saturday. u.s. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files of trump's face-to-face interactions with the russian leader at five locations over the past two years. such a gap would be unusual in any presidency let alone one in which russia sought to install through what u.s. intelligence agencies described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference the current occupant of the white house. your thoughts? >> there is so much there i don't know where to start. i don't have enough time. first on the platform, remember, republicans were just as strong

on voicing their concern about russia being an adversary of the united states as democrats were and on the need to defend ukraine. it was highly unusual that coming out of the republican convention they had a softer platform than what president obama was recommending because the republicans on the hill which obviously would have been the republicans at the convention were saying we need to do more to help ukraine. that was alarming. then of course at the same time you had newspaper accounts of roger stone, carter page having meetings in russia. people like me were highly alarmed at even the few quotes we had coming out of the obama administration. fast forward then to president trump having these meetings with vladimir putin and not having staff present. that's outrageous. it's unprecedented what he did there. the fact that he then further directed the interpreters to not talk to anyone and apparently took notes -- took their notes on one occasion is, again, greater cause for concern.

you think to yourself whose side is he on? >> yeah. >> obviously it's a huge problem. it's not surprising to those of us who followed it. >> last july, just as an example of this, the director of national intelligence dan cotes is asked about the helsinki meeting, about the meetings that took place with vladimir putin. one would think at least the dni would know what happened in the meetings. here's what he said. >> i don't know what happened in that meeting. i think as time goes by and the president has mentioned some things that happened in the meeting. i think we'll learn more. >> we have not learned more. natasha, we have not learned more. what's going on? what's your reporting on the white house? their 38 hours has not been the best. they have not been covered in glory in their responses. they haven't seemed to know what to say. what are you hearing about whether we will ever find out what happened in that helsinki meeting? >> i was in the room when dan

coats was speaking to andrea mitchell at the aspen security forum. you could hear a pin drop. people were in shock that the director of national intelligence wasn't read into this. he didn't know anything about what the president was talking about with our biggest foreign adversary right now. on top of that he was not told the president was actually planning to invite vladimir putin to the white house after everything that's occurred over the last two years, after mounting evidence that russia interfered in the election and president trump may have had a hand in that. in terms of the white house response, it's unsurprising they would try to distract from the main points made in the times article that the fbi was extremely concerned that the president might be either compromised by or an agent of russia. it's telling that the president would not respond to that question directly when asked by judge janine last night. i'm sure she expected him to say, no, i am not an agent of russia. he went off on a tangent that made him look worse.

one more point on the change in the ukraine platform during the rnc convention. i did a lot of reporting on that. it's important that people realize this was not something that was considered lightly by the trump campaign. you had a man named j.d. gordon, the national security adviser to the campaign at that time. when he heard the amendment was proposed to the ukraine platform that would require, commit that the president and the republicans would support arming ukrainians against russia, he jumped out of his seat, rushed up there and said, we need to table the amendment now so i can make a call to new york where of course donald trump's campaign was headquartered. why was he so concerned trump would be wary of having that contained in the platform? that's a question. it took a lot of prying before this man j.d. gordon admitted, yeah, i was acting at the

direction of the campaign. >> let's not forget who paul manafort worked for which was the ukrainian leader. jill winebanks, you now have congress with a lot more to look into thanks to the two new reports and we don't know if this is an ongoing investigation as to whether the president is working against u.s. national interests. one of the things congress will look into is the trump tower that donald trump wanted to build. and maybe give the penthouse to vladimir putin. your thoughts? >> one of the things that's most interesting is something natasha mentioned which is the mounting evidence. it is the trump tower in moscow. it is so many things piled on top of each other. because there are so many things, instead of it being one thing on top of the other getting to be a huge mountain, it's pushing it down so it is

all subterranean and being buried. the diversion that the president does, that the white house does is being successful among his base. so they are not seeing the facts and the danger to america. the fact that we are even talking about the fact that he could have been compromised or even been an agent of a foreign enemy is something that should be shocking to all americans, not just democrats, not just to independents, but to the people who voted for this president. i am concerned and as a trial lawyer i want to know how do we get the facts out? how do we communicate them? you raised the answer which is now that the democrats have subpoena power and can have public hearings we can educate the public and hopefully all americans will listen to those hearings and learn facts that will influence how they feel about this going forward. >> i think there could be a very long conversation about the

grooming of the conservative base to either be in favor of russia. i can remember people like rudy giuliani saying they thought vladimir putin was a better leader than our president, president obama. i don't think the grooming started with trump. that's a long conversation. maybe frank should do a dissertation on it. it's been happening. the panel will be back to continue this conversation after the break. -we're doing karaoke later, and you're gonna sing. -jamie, this is your house? -i know, it's not much, but it's home. right, kids? -kids? -papa, papa! -[ laughs ] -you didn't tell me your friends were coming. -oh, yeah. -this one is tiny like a child. -yeah, she is. oh, but seriously, it's good to be surrounded by what matters most -- a home and auto bundle from progressive. -oh, sweetie, please, play for us. -oh, no, i couldn't. -please. -okay. [ singing in spanish ]

-please. -okay. essential for pine trees, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions,

low blood cell counts, higher liver tests and cholesterol levels. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. your doctor should perform blood tests before and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. fine for some things. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™".

amazon prime video so when you say words like... show me best of prime video into this... you'll see awesome stuff like this. discover prime originals like the emmy-winning the marvelous mrs. maisel... tom clancy's jack ryan... and the man in the high castle. all in the same place as your live tv. its all included with your amazon prime membership. that's how xfinity makes tv... simple. easy. awesome.

russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> translator: the russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere in internal american affairs including the election process. >> president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> okay. what you just saw were some of the bizarre head-scratching and alarming instances where donald trump appeared to cozy up to the russian regime. the fbi took notice. according to the "new york times" after trump essentially said he fired former fbi director james comey over the whole russia thing, the fbi began investigating whether trump was working on behalf of russia and constituted a threat to american national security. my panel is back with me. evelyn, i will go to you first and then to frank on the russian response to all that we have learned in the last 36 hours,

last three days. here is the russian response thanks to our moscow desk and our london bureau. russian officials more responded to donald trump's tweet not the stories from the "new york times" and "the washington post" but about improving relations with russia. the head of the international committee of parliament in their upper chamber commented on the tweet saying this tweet, no doubt, is intended not for russia, but for trump's opponents within the united states. it's hardly possible to expect to improve bilateral relations until the all-american hunt for trump stops. i would be happy to be mistaken. what do you make of that response? >> look, the talking points coming out of moscow have been eerily similar to talking points from the white house,

unfortunately. they don't deny -- i mean, they will deny that they interfered because they don't mind lying. right now they are not denying. they are focused on saying, we're a scapegoat. there is anti-russian sentiment in the united states. president trump understands what's in the u.s. interest which, of course, is a lie. the u.s. interest is to be strong, to stand up to russia so they stop their meddling, stop breaking international laws left, right and center when it comes to invading their neighbors or meddling in elections in the u.s. and elsewhere. so the russians are probably very nervous right now because they are starting to see, as we are starting to see that the mueller investigation has a lot of information and a lot of really good details about what the russians have done to the united states and what americans have done to work with them to help them. >> you know, frank, the tweet they were responding to was donald trump again repeating he's been far tougher on russia

than obama, bush or clinton which is clearly not true. tougher than any other president. then he goes on to say in his tweet that getting along with russia would be a good thing, not a bad thing. it feels in a way donald trump is among those grooming his base to think the prime directive should be good relationships with russia. >> from day one, even during the campaign as you said, we have been groomed as a voting bloc to try to understand that russia should be our friend. where did he get this notion that the historical adversary that attacks us every day, that has the largest intelligence presence of any foreign nation inside the united states, where did he get this notion that he needs to cozy up to them? that's what mueller is looking at. as for russia responding to this, i predict more of same.

you will see eventually a war room mentality back at the kremlin as to how they can twist this, how they can come out and support their ally, their asset in the white house and prepare for social media platforms to russian news outlets siding with fox news and we'll barely tell the difference between fox news and russian news. you will see an all-out assault to prove to the american people trump isn't in the pocket of the russian government. >> what we are seeing thanks to the "wall street journal" and others is the notion of attacking iran started to creep up again. that's one heck of a horrifying potential distraction. when john bolton joined the administration, he came with that history of being very bullish on the idea of attacking iran. now we find out the white house

looked for options to strike iran. we also find out benjamin netanyahu, the trump-friendly president, leader of israel confirmed there was a weakened strike on iranian weapons inside syria. syria state media reported on sunday one missile was fired toward damascus, struck in the city's airport. you have the israeli p.m. confirming that they have already struck iranian targets inside syria. you have the hawkish john bolton inside the administration getting the national security counsel to come up with options to strike iran. is this where we are going? is this administration preparing to use iran kind of as the ultimate distraction from the problems donald trump is having vis-a-vis russia? >> yeah. it's a very depressing possibility. but it is a possibility nonetheless. it wouldn't be unprecedented for

a president to use military action or to use our foreign policy as a tool in order to distract from his domestic problems. i would say with regard to striking iran, of course, it would eliminate a potential competitor or a real competitor inside syria. as we know, syria is one of the most important international footholds for russia in the middle east. it's kind of a portal to the mediterranean. i do think with the decision to completely with draw troops from syria, with the decision to completely abandon our allies in the kurds and leave them to potentially be slaughtered by turkey, we are giving these authoritarian regimes exactly what they want, particularly russia. russia has always wanted to prop up the assad regime. they have never been interested in fighting isis. that was a talking point they used to justify their presence inside syria. now trump is, yet again, giving russia exactly what they want.

>> jill wine-banks, we have been here before with fears that a president under fire may use a military strikes. no one thought richard nixon was doing the things he was doing as bad as watergate was, on behalf of a foreign power. >> it's a very big difference. however much he said -- nixon said, i am not a crook and he was a crook he was our crook. he was not a foreign power's crook. that's a very big difference. the fact that we have to discuss this is and should be very frightening to all of us that we are thinking, are we the subject of the best interests of our country or is it some other country that the president is trying to protect and the clues are enormous. they have been in our face from the very beginning in terms of his never criticizing putin, always praising him, wanting to be like him.

those are things that should scare us because he is an authoritarian person and we don't want to see that in america. we are a democracy. yes, it's a very big difference. this is much worse than watergate. >> i'm going to ask the question people ask me pretty much every day. anyone i run into. what the american people who are concerned about this and thank god a lot of americans are concerned about the idea of a foreign power potentially puppeteering the president of the united states. what does the constitution allow to be done? what can the american people do if you have particularly now in the senate, a political party that refuses to act. all of the republicans are out with talking points which i assume are what the rnc sent out to only talk about the leads. that's the talking point from every republican on television this morning. they are not going to do anything about it at all. the democrats only have the

house. even if they impeach donald trump they couldn't remove him. what does the constitution say, if anything, about what can be done if an american people is found to be in the sway of a foreign power? >> well, you're going back to -- and you have already said it, the crux of the problem which is first of all legal scholars debate what the constitution even means on this front. i have my own particular views. but i think what is centrally important to our democracy is democracy. that means it is critically important that we petition our government. it doesn't matter what party we are in. what matters is the separation of powers. it matters that the house is in control in this sense of a party that's willing to bring some sunlight to what the mueller probe is learning by calling

witnesses to congress to demonstrate to the public what we know besides what's in the media reports. i think that's our biggest hope. at a certain point it is all about whether or not we know the truth and we have to demand it. >> indeed. thank you to my panel. thank you very much for coming in on a sunday. really appreciate it. coming up, the latest democrat -- on a different note -- to jump into the 2020 race. (dad) got it? (boy) got it. (dad) it's slippery. (boy) nooooooo... (grandma) nooooooo... (dad) nooooooo... (dog) yessssss....

(vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is two times more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. (boy) hey look, i got it. bounty, the quicker picker upper.

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. so i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness,

weight gain, swelling of hands, legs, and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who've had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic nerve pain. ask your doctor about lyrica.

coming up, the 2020 field is getting more crowded by the day. we take a look at the latest next. we take a look at the latest next

this is your wake-up call. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections.

serious and sometimes fatal infections including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. talk to your rheumatologist. right here. right now. humira.

many people who put out books two years before a presidential election do so to introduce themselves in a broadway to the american people. are you going to run for president? [ cheers and applause ] >> i might. >> you might? you might. >> she might! she might be running. well, when senator kamala harris turns that might into a definitely she'll join julian castro who went from a potential candidate to this. >> i'm running for president because it is time for new leadership. because it's time for new

energy. and it's time for a new commitment to make sure that the opportunities that i have had are available to every american. >> joining me now, jonathan capeheart, opinion writer for "the washington post," maria theresa kumar and john harwood, cnbc editor at large. the enthusiasm i showed you is because i love talking about 2020. i'm not ashamed of my love for talking about this subject. i'm going to do it. we'll get to julian in a second. jonath jonathan, you interviewed senator harris. in your interview with her recently did you get the sense that her run for president is a definite? it feels like a definite. >> oh, yeah. look, joy, when you read her book it is throughout -- there are clues dropped that show she's going to run. right there on page 5 she introduces you to her father donald harris, a professor

emeritus from stanford in economics. when she was a young child her father would say run, kamala, run as fast and as far as you can. that's page five. by the end of the book on page 281, yeah, i read the book. she writes there, when your children and grandchildren ask you what did you do in this time -- in these challenging times, what will you tell them? what did you do? use it as an opportunity to ask her, when the time comes for you, will your answer be, i ran for president. the audience went nuts. she looked at me and the audience and does this -- maybe. i think the answer is absolutely yes she's going to run. >> clearly she's going to run. she's attending the alpha kappa alpha sorority gala. she's an aka which is a black

sorority and this is part of the -- part of what they do. the reporters will be covering it. that's what she's doing. she's in aka. and on the book tour, jonathan, her issues in terms of running, i think, in terms of the black community. i don't know if you have heard this among black journalists covering her ramp up to running is her criminal justice background is good in a general election because democrats like to run as criminal justice, tough on crime since the clinton era. some people have given her mixed reviews saying she's not addressing some of the controversial stances she took as california attorney general. people said it's a little bit clic cliche. her role as attorney general will be an issue. hillary clinton was blamed for the crime bill because she was married to the guy who signed it. you would think a prosecutor

might have issued with this. right? >> i asked her at the event. she writes how does someone who was literally raised at civil rights demonstrations with her mother and father, who grew up when her mother asked what do you want because she was fussing and her answer was "fweedom." how does she go from being part of the social justice struggle to being a prosecutor. her family didn't understand it. the book is probably her first step in trying to explain why she became a prosecutor and why she did what she did. one of the programs she started on truancy which is what a lot of people have been hitting my twitter feed about how that program -- their criticism is it separated black children from their families. she talks about the fact that, you know, yeah, there were a lot of tough decisions made. i stand by them. she's going to have to talk about it more fully. >> absolutely.

let's talk beto versus julian. first to maria theresa and then john. who will have a stronger pull on texans? you have an organization called voter latino. obviously he'll try to appeal to the hearts of latino voters who are important to the democratic party, particularly young latino voters. so is beto. beto is going for the black folks. beto is sitting down with oprah, having his oprah moment february 5. that will air on own. i was joking that he's been so aggressive with the african-american voters he's probably going to be on "ayala fix my life" soon. who will have a stronger tug on texans and latino voters? >> they both encompass the new texas. that's enfranchising a swath of texans who have not been represented. if you look at who the texas

voters were in the past midterm election they were disproportionately young, people of color, independent women. it was an exciting time for texas. i think they both have a shot. when you start looking at what is going to be the broad base of this new presidential cohort we'll see, joy, it's the first time we are going to have a cohort of potential presidential candidates that look like the american voter, that look like america. that's a huge win. before we get -- i know you love the topic, but before we get too far out, in order for a democrat, regardless of who it is, has a chance at winning the democrats in the house have to be able to put points on the board. they have to pursue policies that resonate with the american public so they are able to differentiate what makes them different versus what is trump. it is not enough to be anti-trump. kamala shuttered her fund raising account and reallocated the funds to different groups

including immigrant rights, african-americans. she's looking for office space in baltimore. is she running? absolutely. when will she announce? she has to be coy. i hear on martin luther king day. >> elizabeth warren is also spreading the money around. john, people are thinking this is all exciting and if joe biden gets in it's a completely different race. he would blot out a lot of the fund raising sun. it looks like he's interested in running. he's run for president several times. does he end up getting in and if he does, what does he do to the race? >> i will guess he won't get in. he's looking at it seriously, but i don't think he would blot out the fund raising sun. the bigger picture is when you look. do you know the scenes in the movie when there is a big lock on the door and the law

enforcement detonates a bomb and blows it open, the democratic race is blown wide open in terms of gender, age, ethnicity. i think in the 2018 election we had a gay man elected governor of colorado. a bi sexual woman elected in arizona. anyone could catch lightning in a bottle. we had instincts about who that person might be. on your beto question, he demonstrated magic in the campaign that i think every candidate would like to emulate. we don't know whether kamala harris will demonstrate that, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders. i suspect bernie sanders also won't end up running. i think there is a generational push down the age ladder. but this thing is as wide open -- more wide open than any race i have ever covered. >> absolutely.

>> maria teresa made the point that democrats have to explain what democratic rule would be for the american people that's different. jonathan will be back in the next hour. jonathan, maria theresa, thank you very much. up next, a possible agent of russia has shut down the u.s. government for the longest time ever. that's next. that's next. with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. so even when she grows up, she'll never outgrow the memory of our adventure.

unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. only with expedia.

tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. we all make excuses for the things we don't want to do. but when it comes to colon cancer screening... i'm not doin' that. i eat plenty of kale.

ahem, as i was saying... ...with cologuard, you don't need an excuse... all that prep? no thanks. that drink tastes horrible! but...there's no prep with cologuard... i can't take the time off work. who has two days? and i feel fine - no symptoms! everybody, listen! all you need is a trip to the bathroom. if you're 50 or older and at average risk, cologuard is the noninvasive option that finds 92% of colon cancers. you just get the kit in the mail, go to the bathroom, collect your sample, then ship it to the lab! this is your year! own it! cologuard is not right for everyone. it is not for high risk individuals, including those with a history of colon cancer or precancer, ibd, certain hereditary cancer syndromes, or a family history of colon cancer. ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers.

end it now! end it now! we want to work! we want to work! we want to work! we want to work! >> three weeks tomorrow. i have a family. some of us are disabled. i myself have cancer. i cannot afford my treatments. >> we make $30,000 a year, period. and that's it. so unless mitch mcconnell is going to let me live with him or president trump is going to let me come to the white house, this needs to end, because end of february, i won't have a home. >> wow. with no end in sight to what is now the longest government shutdown in u.s. history, protests have erupted across the country in support of the 800,000 federal employees who

have been furloughed or forced to work without pay. with each passing day, the real world consequences are mounting with some workers facing the risk of losing their homes or being unable to pay for medical treatments. joining me now is maryland democratic congressman anthony brown. congressman brown, thank you so much for being here in morning. i think we have you. oh, good. i think we're having some technical difficulties. let me try again. are you here with me, congressman brown? >> not hearing anything. >> okay. we're not getting congressman brown? do we have you? do we have him? no? let's go to a break and we'll be right back. t's go to a break ane right back

i thought i married an italian. did the ancestrydna to find out i'm only 16% italian. so i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors was eastern european. this is my ancestor who i didn't know about.

better things than rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, low blood cell counts, higher liver tests and cholesterol levels. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. your doctor should perform blood tests before and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. don't let another morning go by without talking to

your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. don't let another morning go by without talking to

cancer treatment ♪ centers of america. appointments available now. this president just used the backdrop of the oval office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear, and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration. >> president trump must stop holding american people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis, and must reopen the government. >> good morning and welcome back to "a.m. joy." this week donald trump did something that presidents often do. he asked for primetime tv coverage from all the major networks to address the nation from the oval office. in trump's case to try to convince the american public that his border wall that mexico is supposed to pay for is worth shutting down the government over. the networks didn't have to say yes.

in fact they said no when president obama asked for time in primetime to give an address on immigration and daca back in 2014. they said no because it was, quote, overtly political. but for trump they said yes and broadcast his nine-minute rant about a nonexistent crisis at the border, which made exactly zero news. now, in the midst of an actual crisis for donald trump, reports that the fbi opened an investigation into whether he was or is working for the russians and that he took extraordinary steps to keep his conversations with vladimir putin secret even from his own aides, trump is running back to his old faithful, fox news. >> why not release the conversation that you had with president putin in helsinki? >> well, i would, i don't care. i had a conversation like every president does. i'm not keeping anything under wraps. i couldn't care less. it's so ridiculous. >> joining me now is gabe sherman, journalist carole simpson and george will. thank you all for being here. i'm going to start here at the table with you, gabe.

donald trump even the morning that he gave that primetime address was calling, you know, the news media fake news but of course needed the networks. >> of course. >> to give him that time. you talk a little about the background of him doing it. we know it's been a fund-raising bonanza. they immediately began fund raising. i tweeted out the text. lawrence o'donnell talked about the letters they sent out to fund raise off of it. it was a fund-raising success. how did the negotiations work with the networks to get them to allow him to do that? >> well, you know, really this is a breakdown in the process. obviously it's the prerogative of the president to ask the broadcast networks which ostensibly are public air waves for time in their primetime schedule. they don't have to do it. clearly he indicated that this would be a news-making speech but it wasn't a news-making speech. it basically reverted to his twitter feed. it's been rehashing arguments he's been making for weeks. there was no news value. it was a partisan speech.

this was clearly a major breakdown in the networks' decision to grant him the most valuable asset they have, which is their primetime air time. >> i'm really glad to talk to carole simpson and george will about this. going back through history you've seen presidents use that bully pulpit, use that opportunity. john f. kennedy used it to announce he was going to introduce civil rights legislation which became the civil rights act of 1964. you've had ronald reagan use it to talk about the challenger disaster. you've had presidents use it in time of war. but carole simpson, the networks have become very -- they don't always say yes, right? they can make an assessment that a president is trying to use them, right, not for something of national import, not to announce that osama bin laden had been killed, for instance, but just to do something political for themselves. in this case the networks gave in and it was nine minutes that made no news. what do you make of the networks' decision to go ahead and let donald trump do this? >> i think they should have.

these are -- we used to have normal presidents. we have an abnormal president this time. he asks for time to address the american people in the midst of a government shutdown and uncertainty and fear throughout the country. you didn't know what he was going to do. he may have declared a national emergency. so i think that the news media and the media should be a conduit from heads of state to the american people and that we should provide that service because you don't know whether he's going to make news or not. >> but you know, george will, typically when presidents make these addresses, there's an advance copy of what he's going to say that the networks get, we all get it, you read it beforehand so you know what he's going to say. nothing about this presidency has been normal. the white house doesn't provide you those kinds of advance

copies of what he's going to say. in this case he literally just did nine minutes of campaigning. so i wonder if the way that donald trump has made a lot of the media world feel, right, saying they're fake news, saying that everything we do is fake news, that we're against him, has made people reticent to appear to oppose him by not giving him the time. >> that's part of it. i think the nature of this argument changed in 1980, '81 when cnn was invented. once you have cables, fox, msnbc and cnn, it seems legitimate for the broadcast network to say that's their job, they can bring this, and people who want to watch it can make that choice and vote with their dials or their remotes as it were. it doesn't seem to me necessary for a president at any time to blanket the television coverage to in effect coerce all television viewers into watching this. we have had occasions when presidents have gone on the air to address the nation when parts

of their speech were still being finished and still put in the teleprompter so you can't guarantee people would say, well, you asked for our time, we're going to read it and see and make a news judgment as to whether it's important. furthermore, we've seen -- it's one thing for jack kennedy to address the country during the cuban missile crisis with soviet ships approaching our hemisphere. it was another thing for, say, ronald reagan to go on the air to make an appeal that cull anyone -- culminated in him telling people to call congress over tax reform. so there's a question whether you should yield the time for the president to campaign for a serious proposal such as reagan's tax plan or hold out for genuine national emergency such as the cuban missile crisis. >> i wonder, gabe, if just in your -- you've done some great reporting from the white house, sort of behind the scenes of

what's going on there in terms of this wall stand-off. did bill shine and company actually think that the purpose of this address was to convince the american people that the american taxpayer should pay for the wall or is this just a gambit to buy time because they don't really have a strategy for how to deal with this? local news is riding this every day. this is a bad thing for them. the polling shows the american people blame republicans and donald trump much more than democrats. did bill shine and company actually think this would change minds? >> the problem is the president has decided this is the hill he's proverbally going to die on. he knows that his base will punish him in 2020 as i reported if he does not deliver the wall. donald trump has held his entire government and west wing hostage, so they're trying to backfill a strategy. there was no strategy when donald trump went on tv weeks ago and told chuck schumer and nancy pelosi i will gladly accept the shutdown. no one knew he was going to say that. therefore, the shutdown happens, the ball is in his court and the white house is scrambling to

come up with a strategy that diverts political blame from tru donald trump's lap. they came up with this idea for a national speech. mick mulvaney and others were pushing him to do it. but it's pointless when the president every day is tweeting out a stream of conscious with why he needs his wall. everyone knows what donald trump's position is. >> that's the thing, carole simpson. >> joy, i -- >> go on. i'm sorry. >> i just wanted to respond what george said about the cables should take care of the news and the networks should not have to do that. but i think the latest figures i've seen is that only 67% of the american people have cable. so there are all those other people that wouldn't get to hear it if it were only done by the cable networks. >> well, the other -- the other issue, and i'll go to you on this, george will, is that the

media is in the business of story telling, which you can debate whether or not that's what it should be. it's story driven coverage. but something like a shutdown is going to produce all over the country, in every local news market in america, these stories of people who are personally suffering because of this shutdown. it's inevitable. the white house cannot avoid it. even fox news is going to be hard pressed to avoid it at a certain point. and it is empirically true there is not a crisis at the border so there's no way to do it. so i wonder in your view how does the media avoid on the one hand maybe they should just give them the -- why don't they just give them the money and wouldn't that be the compromise because that is a default that unfortunately sometimes the media falls into. >> well, it's a constant exercise in shifting judgments in a shifting terrain about who gets -- consumes their news from what sources. ten years from now, lord knows, everyone may get their news on their telephones or on their

computers, i don't know. we're in a fast-changing landscape. but it does seem to me that if you worry, and you should if you're a good citizen, worry about the inflated power of the presidency under both parties with congress controlled by both parties, then we should look for ways to nibble away at the power of the president to dominate the american consciousness. when a president wants to advocate his policies, lord knows he has ample opportunities. he can go in the pressroom and commandeer the cameras and the reporters there. he can campaign on air force one. the idea that he needs this little filigree on his power, the power to con script the television viewing of the country strikes me as dubious. >> he has a twitter following that's larger than the ratings of anyone, many times larger in magnitude than that of fox news. let's move on to this alarming reporting we've seen in "the new york times" and now "the washington post" about

donald trump and vladimir putin and russia. this just strikes me as what should be the most alarming piece of news really ever. i've never read a line about an american president that posited that he may be a threat to national security and be in the sway of a foreign power. even jeanine pirro asked him are you a russian agent and he took two minutes to not answer it. again, give me some of your white house reporting on this. do they have an answer to this question that is simply, no, he is not a russian agent? >> well, they are in deep damage control mode. i reported days ago that rudy giuliani has said in private that they expect the mueller report to be, quote, horrific. this is a white house that is bracing for the worst. they don't know what was said in those private rooms with vladimir putin. so really, you know, they are flying blind. and they can say that he's not an asset all day long, but the facts -- >> but they haven't, though.

>> well, they have said it's ridiculous and absurd. >> but they haven't said he's not an asset. >> yeah, it's striking. i did just want to point parallels. when trump said he'd be happy to release the transcripts from those meetings, that's the exact same thing he said about his tax returns. oh, yeah, i would have no problem. years later we have still never seen them. >> and politico writes a headline trump promises transparency on the transcripts of the calls. that is not what he did. he answered a question to jeanine pirro and the media is giving him the benefit of the doubt. he did no such thing. carole simpson, i wonder as somebody who did nightly news and had the job of explaining in 30 minutes what is important, what to focus people on, what have you made of the fact that it has been difficult for people in our profession to focus the minds of the american people on how alarming it actually is that an american president is being investigated for having these kinds of ties to a foreign

power, of all countries to russia? >> i agree with you. i don't know why the nation is not up in arms that it is possible that our president is in collusion, yes, i'm going to use the word he won't use, collusion with the russians. a declared enemy of the united states. i don't see why people don't see -- the media is doing a good job of pointing out the lies he tells. almost everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. and it's been pointed out to the american people. i think the government shutdown has maybe focused more attention of the people on what's happening in the white house and not happening in the white house. but i still do not understand why just the russia thing doesn't make people crazy and say this man needs to go.

>> george will, at the risk of forcing you to explain the intricacies of the conservative mind on your own, it has been shocking to watch the shift in the mindset of many conservatives to a position of being indifferent in a sense. lindsey graham, indifferent and actually screaming for donald trump to go ahead and declare a national emergency, indifferent to the idea of the takings clause being rampantly used to seize land at the border to build a border wall using 'em neglige eminent domain and indifferent that the president may be being using as an asset of russia. >> i wouldn't begin by saying that the mind of lindsey graham is the mind of the conservative movement. the mind of lindsey graham is, shall we say, changeable. three years ago lindsey graham

said donald trump was a kook, an opportunist, not a conservative, not a republican, and not fit to be president. he's had an epiphany somewhere along the road between then and now. look, we're going -- two shoes have dropped and a third is going to drop. the first shoe it seems to me in this question of the president and russia was in helsinki. when the president standing next to vladimir putin sided with vladimir putin really against the intelligence services of the united states on a question of grave importance. the second shoe came the other day when the president took the position that the soviet union was right to invade afghanistan. a position that gorbachev didn't take. so the third shoe that will drop is when the mueller report comes out. let's all just take a deep breath and wait for that. >> yeah. it is extraordinary to have watched it unfold. gabriel sherman and carole simps simpson, thank you so much for

being here. george will will be right back with us. next up, the latest for the republican that was for building a wall and proudly politicking on white nationalism even before donald trump. nald trump (clapping) every day, visionaries are creating the future. ( ♪ ) so, every day, we put our latest technology and vast expertise to work. ( ♪ ) the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, affordably and on-time. (ringing) ( ♪ ) the future only happens with people who really know how to deliver it. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. from capital one.nd i switched to the spark cash card i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy.

and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. what's in your wallet? because they let me to customize my insurance, and as a fitness junkie, i customize everything. like my bike and my calves. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ our because of smoking.ital. but we still had to have a cigarette.

had to. but then, we were like. what are we doing? the nicodermcq patch helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. nicodermcq. you know why, we know how. ♪ [ dobaxter.ng ] it's bedtime. peace of mind should never be out of reach. [ voice command beep ] xfinity home. xfinity home connects you to total home security you can control from anywhere on any device. and it protects you with 24/7 professional monitoring.

i guess we're sleeping here tonight. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. call, go online or demo in an xfinity store today. as i told "the new york times," it's not about race, it's never been about race. one of my most strongly held beliefs is that we are all created in god's image and that

human life is sacred in all of its forms. so, mr. speaker, i regret the heartburn that has poured forth upon this congress and this country and especially in my state and in my congressional district, but the people who know me know i wouldn't have to even make this statement because they do know me. they know my life, they know my history. >> well, we also know his history. steve king's history is filled with the same kind of racist comments he made in his interview with "the new york times" in which he wondered what was so bad about the terms "white supremacist"? his latest comments are drawing condemnation from his fellow republicans, including tim scott who wrote an op-ed saying king's comments are damaging to the party, but even scott seems unwilling to take it any further. >> do you think congressman king is a racist? >> i don't know him well enough to know what the intentions of his heart really are, to be honest with you. >> no one has recommended any disciplinary action, forget about resigning, any sort of

action. >> well, i'll tell you, i don't know how we play that out. frankly people have the right to say what they want to say, but we have the right to respond to what they say. his voters elected him and i have to respect the fact that the voters saw something beyond his comments that was worthy of public service. >> joining me now, jennifer rubin, msnbc political analyst and opinion writer for "the washington post" and george will, syndicated columnist is back with me. jennifer, just for those -- it went pretty viral so most people have heard them. but what steve king said to "the new york times" and he was talking about the wall agenda, he says white nationalist, white supremacist, western civilization, how did that language become offensive? and goes on to talk about the fact he learned about western civilization in school so why is it so offensive. that is what he said, that he's kind of walking back and saying people know him and know it's not real. here's ted cruz this morning on "meet the press" responding to those comments. >> what steve king said was stupid. it was stupid, it was hurtful,

it was wrong, and he needs to stop. >> and there have been other republican lawmakers who have come out and condemned the comments. joni ernst of iowa, liz cheney, chuck grassley calling the comments racist. i wonder, jennifer rubin, as a former republican, where they have been the whole time? it's interesting that this was the thing that they finally said was too much. but steve king in the past has said mexicans are coming across with cantaloupe calves because they have so many drugs, i guess, on them, saying that we can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies, calling immigrants dirt. where have they been? >> hiding under their desks. and this is a fundamental problem for the republican party now, which is that sliver of the country that truly is racist, that really is nativist, has now taken a disproportionate role in the republican party. the rest of them are afraid to say anything about it. they believe that there is some segment of the republican party that will abandon them if they

actually do something about steve king. now, they could have said something earlier. right now they have another problem, which is all right, you've said these terrible things, what are you prepared to do about it? are you prepared to kick him out of the caucus? are you prepared to take away his seats on committees? are you prepared to censure him? so they're caught between what they know is an unacceptable position and they refuse to throw the bums out. they have to make a fundamental choice. with donald trump, they are making the wrong choice, i think, which is to tolerate, encourage, wink wink at these people. >> it's interesting, george will, even tim scott who wrote this op-ed that got so much praise asking why are republicans accused of racism? because we're silent on things like this. even he wasn't prepared to go

along with what the congressional black caucus has asked for, for steve king to be taken off some committees. this is a man, steve king, who's met with far right austrians with ties to the nazis on a trip funded by holocaust deniers. he's done that. he's endorsed neo-nazi style politicians around the world. none of that has caused republicans to walk away from him. why not? >> i think tim scott actually was judicious. i think tim scott knows that the good people of the fourth district of iowa and northwestern iowa have sent him to washington four times now, so they have listened to him and decided they want him here. before you begin to even partially undo their decision and partially undo an american election, you ought to tread very carefully. note the following. first of all, mr. king is 1/435 of one-half of one of our

branches of government so he's not an enormous figure in american life. second, those people i just mentioned in the fourth district of iowa gave him a 23-point margin of victory in 2016 and a 3-point margin of victory in 2018. it looks to me, the untutored eye here, that the political market is working. they have listened to him and they have decided they decreasingly approve of what he's saying, so why don't we let them have another bite at the apple in 2020. >> just a little pushback. he's 1/435, but he is also the king maker for people who want to run for president on the republican side come through steve king. he's the tom harken on the republican side. he's a powerful figure in iowa. it's not like he's alone. cindy hyde smith who's just re-elected in mississippi said she'd be front row at a public hanging. you just had the newly elected governor of florida who opened with monkey it up. maybe that helped him, i don't

know, he got elected. you've got brian kemp who was ostentatiously making it harder for african-americans to vote. and you've got donald trump, who said that nazis that march in charlottesville are good people. this is not a steve king thing. the republican party has these people onboard. >> well, i think you're conflating a number of different episodes here and not doing so quite fairly. i think what the woman said, the now senator from mississippi, she used a phrase common evidently in the vernacular of her region that shouldn't be. >> that's about lynching. >> i understand. but i don't think you can go from that to saying that she is a vicious racist to hankers to see lynchings. it seems a stretch. >> i wonder if it's a stretch to say that the republican party, jennifer rubin, does have this thing onboard that the democrats had. let's be blunt, the democrats had it with george wallace. those people migrated into the republican party and it seems to

me the republican party doesn't want to kick them out. >> i think that's exactly right. it's factually correct that the southern whites are now in the republican party. i think it's also true that this president has played to that sentiment very, very strongly and he has made it a central feature. nativism is now identified entirely with the republican party. so i think they and other people have to decide whether that's a party that they can morally, politically support or not. i just want to go back to one thing that george said, though, and that is, it's not entirely up to the good people of iowa. the house has rules and they have ethics rules, they have rules that sanction members for conduct unbecoming of the house, and those are in place as well. so it's not entirely clear that the house shouldn't act on this. and i think they should take what action has been appropriate. frankly, other people have been censured publicly by the house

for, i think, much less egregious statements. so that is part of our system too. but i don't think it's conflating things to say that there is a wink wink, nod nod going on in the republican party. some people may really believe it. other people may just be catering to them. but i think it has to stop if it's going -- if it's not going to become a fringe right-wing nativist party. >> it's a conversation we have to keep having. jennifer will be back. george will, thank you very much for being on the show. welcome to the show. >> good to be with you. coming up, the longest government shutdown in american history drags on and on. histor y drags on and on. the fact is, americans move more than anyone else in the world. on average, we'll live in eleven homes.

and every time we move, things change. apartments become houses, cars become mini vans. as we upgrade and downsize, an allstate agent will do the same for our protection. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands? touch shows how we really feel. but does psoriasis ever get in the way? embrace the chance of 100% clear skin with taltz... the first and only treatment of its kind offering people with moderate to severe psoriasis a chance at 100% clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of people quickly saw a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz,

including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. ready for a chance at 100% clear skin? ask your doctor about taltz. and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide. but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios

to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

before he pulls the plug on the legislative option, and i think we're almost there, i would urge him to open up the government for a short period of time, like three weeks, before he pulls the plug, see if we can get a deal. if we can't at the end of three weeks, all bets are off, see if he can do it by himself through the emergency powers. to my republican colleagues, stand behind the president if this is his last option. he ran on this.

>> just for a moment, that was a united states senator saying that donald trump should reopen the government for just three weeks and then take the hostages again or do an emergency order if he doesn't get the money for the wall that mexico is supposed to pay for. that is extraordinary. wow. all right, well, donald trump and the riepublicans are refusig to back down from the demand that you, you, the taxpayer, pay for a wall that donald trump promised mexico would pay for. even though knew polling shows most americans blame team trump for the shutdown, the longest in u.s. history, they are not quitting. joining me maryland congressman anthony brown. congressman brown, do we have you now? >> i'm on with you this morning, joy. >> excellent. we had a little bit of technical difficulties earlier. we appreciate you coming back. can you just give me your reaction to listening to a united states senator who has been urging donald trump to use emergency powers that would essentially sideline his own branch of government say let the hostages go for three weeks and

then take them again? >> the only thing i agree with in what he said is the president ought to open up the federal government now. we should not be negotiating or discussing border security because that's what president trump's call for a border wall is, it's part of a larger conversation on border security. we shouldn't be doing that in the context of a government shutdown. open the government. workers at the agriculture department, the interior department, the irs, they have very little if anything to do with border security. so open up those agencies and then let's have a comprehensive discussion about how we fix our immigration system, including border security. >> we understand from "the baltimore sun" that congress approves back pay for federal government once the government is reopened. you also have the maryland unemployment insurance requests now topping 2,550 applications related to the shutdown through thursday, more than double of a

week earlier. how is the shutdown playing out in your district? i know you have a lot of federal workers in your state. how about your district? >> i have the fifth largest number of federal government employees. yesterday i had a town hall meeting, the room was packed. i heard from federal government employees, contractors, i also heard from small businesses in the community that are being impacted. retail, restaurants, services where we have employee, federal employees and contractors who cannot spend money. they can't spend it on child care. they're cutting back, yes, on groceries and prescription drugs. this is having a real impact. the fact that we now have retroactive pay not only for this shutdown but god forbid if there's another one under this president, that gives only minor consolation and comfort to federal government employees. they need their money now, they need their paycheck now and that's what the president has to do. not only is the ball in his court, the waball is in his han. he can open up government now.

>> and the house of representatives has voted multiple bills to reopen the government. there's nothing more the house can do in terms of that. what do your republican colleagues say to you behind the scenes, if anything? how do they justify hurting this many people over a thing that cannot and will not be done? there isn't going to be a wall across the southern border. ike most americans have figured that out. maybe even trump supporters have. how do they just pify it? >> most of them are embarrassed. the typical encounter is we walk on the elevator together and they start looking down at their shoes because there's very little for them to say to justify the trump shutdown and to justify their vote in the house to reject the bipartisan bill that came over from the senate that would have opened up the government. it had $1.3 billion for border security. they're embarrassed. as a result, they're silent. as a result, they are simply

enabling the president. >> they are embarrassed but not embarrassed enough to open up the government again and let people get their paychecks and get their bills paid. it's pretty extraordinary. congressman anthony brown, thank you for making some time for us this morning. >> thank you, joy, have a great day. >> you too. trump was asked if he was a russian agent. his response was 349 words, none of which were "no." that's next. that's next. ybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, low blood cell counts, higher liver tests and cholesterol levels. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. your doctor should perform blood tests before

and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. fine for some things. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™". and i heard that my cousin's so, wife's sister's husband was a lawyer, so i called him. but he never called me back! if your cousin's wife's sister's husband isn't a lawyer, call legalzoom and we'll connect you with an attorney. legalzoom. where life meets legal.

about 50% of people with evesevere asthma k? have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. fasenra is an add-on injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your

face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. haven't you missed enough? ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. that story came from somebody who leaked it with an

agenda. so i'd like to know who leaked it because they have an agenda, not very friendly to president trump, and i, for one, don't trust what i read in "the new york times." having said all that, i'm going to ask the fbi director was there a counterintelligence investigation opened up regarding the president as being a potential agent of the russians. i find it astonishing. >> yeah, it is astonishing. donald trump's defenders are on tv today defending donald trump over that stunning "new york times" story that the fbi opened an investigation into whether he was working on behalf of russia. key to that defense, of course, is claiming others. back with me jennifer rubin and jonathan cape hart, tiffany cross and the first that i'm going to. tiffany cross, a lot of folks on the twitter machine are talking about ron johnson's response this morning to all of this. i'm going to play you some ron johnson with some bonus marco rubio and get your response. >> i never comment on these

leaks. sometimes they're true, sometimes they're half true, sometimes they're completely false, but every single time whoever is leaking it has an agenda. >> i do know that president trump was burned earlier by leaks of other private conversations so i can certainly understand his frustration from that standpoint. but you said it earlier, this is not a traditional president. he has unorthodox means but he is president of the united states. it's up to him as to who he wants to read into his conversations with world leaders. that's just the basic fact. >> tiffany cross, do you know what i didn't hear in these responses this morning? no, donald trump is not a russian agent or i know what was said or we've been read in in the gang of eight, et cetera, on which was said between him and vladimir putin and i'm not worried about it. >> this is insane. these are from people who claim to be patriots who are coming out defending this president. we also didn't hear that from donald trump when he was asked by the bedazzled jeanine pirro who was apparently going to a belated new year's eve party after her interview with the

president. i don't understand. we have to challenge republicans because that's really the only way to move past the current state of affairs. from republicans to confront this president and challenge him to not lie to the american people and come out and hourly deny these lies, the fact that he's not doing it should make everybody scratch their heads. and malcolm nance has been saying this for years -- >> two and a half. >> -- that this president acted to help a foreign adversary to the united states, and here republicans, the law and order party, the family values party, defends somebody who cannot himself say no, i did not help and aid a foreign adversary to the united states. it's a travesty. >> jennifer rubin, the party of ronald reagan is now down to answering questions about whether the president of the united states is an agent of russia, by saying i don't know about all these leakers. there are people leaking and there's leaking and i have to talk about leaking. >> the leaking angle is now the talking point for the republicans to get past this news cycle the next 24 hours.

you know, the steele dossier is looking better every single day. the steele dossier told us a long time ago that donald trump for years was cultivated by the russians. >> decades. >> and everything that has happened since that leads to one to believe that is the case. this is the guy who said the russians were right to be in afghanistan. this is the guy who has chosen vladimir putin's analysis of the intelligence over his own intelligence people regarding interference with our election. so it is one of many, many steps. this is exactly what the fbi was looking at. normal presidents, presidents who are loyal to this country, do not behave in this fashion. and we now see, as the great ben wittes of law fare blog said, the collusion is the obstruction. the president's attempt to thwart the fbi investigation into him and others is in fact

part of the collusion, that that is his way of repaying or helping the russians that helped him. nothing i've seen so far disproves that. >> nothing has disproved it thus far. we haven't seen much that disproves it. i have to play this for you, jonathan capehart. here is donald trump being asked by his friend, the bedazzled jeanine pirro, and she asked him a point blank question. here was his attempt to answer it. >> are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? >> i think it's the most insulting thing i've ever been asked. i think it's the most insulting article i've ever had written. >> that was just the beginning of two minutes of stream of consciousness that was about hillary clinton. he talked about -- i'm surprised he didn't talk about tv shows he liked. he talked about everything except saying i'm not an agent of russians. >> look, i think tiffany hit the

nail on the head, that the republican party, the party of reagan who said, mr. gorbachev, tear down that wall, leave aside the law and order party, a republican president, any president, but especially a republican president when asked that question should have had one answer. no, and leave it at that. the fact that he went on for two minutes of word salad croutons and red onions tells you all that you need to know. and i think to lindsey graham -- i want to also react to lindsey graham here where he wanted to know whoever leaked this had an agenda. people leak for all sorts of reasons. it could be for their own self-agrandizement, it could be for political machinations. but as we've seen the last two years, people have been leaking for i think one reason and that is patriotism. the story that came out in "the

new york times" about the investigation and even the story in "the washington post" about the notes of the translator being taken by the president, folks, i believe, are leaking these stories because they want the american people to know what is happening not just been the administration, but what the president of the united states is doing, and not in their name but in his own name and clearly for his own protection. >> yeah, absolutely. with the caveat that croutons should not be in a salad, that's bread, that's a sandwich, and neither should red onions but i'm going to move on to tiffany cross. let's let a democratic senator answer this question. let's see how mark warner addressed this "new york times" report. >> this is a very quick yes or no question. >> sure. >> do you think president trump is wittingly or unwitting leanne agent of the russians? >> jake, i think the earlier

evidence this week where the president's campaign manager and we're unaware of whether the president knew, where the president's campaign manager at whose direction turned over confidential polling data to a known russian agent, a known russian agent who has ties to putin and deripaska, why would you turn over that information? >> testify kniffany, that was ao question too and he didn't say no. he didn't say no, he's not an agent. >> so i think that democrats like mark warner, i think they are going to see with this younger, newer voice who are never scared to come out and say things directly to the american people, they're going to have to keep up. the simple answer to that is yes. he's not even saying -- he co h russia and he still can't say yes. what we know about paul manafort, not only should this guy not have touched a presidential campaign, he

certainly shouldn't have been running it. this is a decision that the president of the united states made. mark warner, fight for your own side. say yes, he was clearly doing something to aid a foreign adversary to this country. >> these are pretty yes or no questions. let's go ted cruz. the bearded ted cruz. he was asked on "meet the press" by chuck todd, should the senate subpoena the interpreter who is the only person besides vladimir putin who knows what donald trump said to or was told by the russian president when they met five times with no witnesses. here is ted cruz. >> do you think you guys in the senate ought to, for instance, subpoena a translator so that you have a real readout of what the president and vladimir putin are saying to each other? >> you know, i think it's premature for that. i've seen the allegations. i want to find out a little bit more about what happened there. i want to learn more than just the allegations in the press.

>> jennifer, if he wants to see and find out what happened there, he should just subpoena the translator, right? >> exactly. but changed since january 3 when the new congress took over. to quote nancy pelosi about the house, majority, majority, majority. and that means the house can subpoena it. so whatever ted cruz thinks or doesn't think is at this point immaterial. the question is what does adam -- >> schiff. >> right, schiff think. what does he think? he's the guy who's not devin nunes, wow, we got rid of him. he's the guy who has the subpoena power. he's the one who has the ability to call people before the house, whether in public session or in private, and to grill them on just these sorts of questions. and i've got to say, this notion that the fbi behaved so strangely in investigating the president, what president has

ever run around collecting the notes so that no one knows what he's saying to a foreign leader. >> of all the leaders, vladimir putin! this is extraordinary and republicans don't want to know. keep it, everybody, when you come back, you can finish those thoughts, but also, oh, yes, they're going to tell me, this great panel is going to tell us who won the week. it traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. got it. ran out of ink and i have a big meeting today. and 2 boxes of twizzlers... yeah, uh...for the team. the team? gooo team... order online pickup in an hour. and, now save $250 on a lenovo 2-in-1 flex. at office depot officemax.

and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation

as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide. with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. so even when she grows up, she'll never outgrow the memory of our adventure. unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. only with expedia. in the last hour, a new york federal judge sentencing cohen to three years in prison.

all right, now it's time to ask my amazing panel who they think won the week. jennifer jonathan, who won the week? >> jonathan should know this person very well, cam a la harris, who rolled out her book tour and lighting up the screens and stages around town. she has her new book, of course, and widely expected as jonathan previously said to run for president. she comes across as determined, passionate and he pathetic but also grounded. grounded in her ancestry as both an independent-american and african. she's had quite an impressive book tour. look for her to declare within the month but she made an impressive beginning. >> what primary or early caucus

do you think she can win? >> as we said before, anyone can catch lightning in a bottle. in some ways she reminds me of barack obama in one-on-one sessions and small groupings in iowa where candidates get their tires kicked over and over again she can make a huge impression, in the backyard barbecues and living rooms. she can clearly break through there. i thisnk for all of these candidates, it will be a manner of connecting in a vee motional way with voters. >> you didn't tell me which primary but that's okay, i think the folks in california are trying to help her out. jonathan, you heard what january fer has to say. who do you think won the week? >> i sort of previewed it in the last segment. i think it's "the washington post" and "the new york times" with their back-to-back stories. "the times" yesterday morning, late friday night with the story the fbi had opened a counterintelligence investigation against donald trump, and then the post backing that story up late yesterday

saying that the president had taken notes from a translator from one of the meetings with vladimir putin and you have shown this particular line from the story that i think is the most alarming, and that is the fact there are no notes, even in classified files from the five meetings that the president has had with vladimir putin over the last two years, that is stunning. and the one thing i wanted to get in, in the last segment i couldn't about mark warner, to your question why won't he just say yes or no? remember, the fact mark warner, senator warner, vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, the fact he wouldn't stay yes or no is as telling as the fact that he wouldn't give you the answer. he knows a whole lot more than he can possibly say legally. so the fact he didn't answer the question is very telling to me. >> it is. so much in those stories. that's a good answer. tiffany, you've gotten two strong contenders ahead of you. as you are the closer on this

episode of "who won the week?" you have to top those two very strong answer. >> let me crack my knuckles. i think i can do it. i will go with congresswoman ayianna presley. she's the first black woman to represent boston, massachusetts and she delivered a one-minute house floor speech that gave me chills. she took us to church. when she talked about the oath that she took and she challenged the president and said you have defied that oath and she said you devalued the life of the immigrant, worker and survivor. i see right through you and so did the american people. i really wanted the cameras to pan to the house floor to see if there was a collection plate going by. she took us to church, her words. they gave me chills. so many people who shared the video of her remarks. i want to say quickly, joy, why that matters. as you've seen, not all politicians are going to keep it 100 with her constituents. she's so far proven she is

willing to do that. we also saw this week ail oes reporte reported rashida tlaib, her using mf got way more coverage than donald trump. so i think it matters. it matters. their words matter. and she delivers the ether on the house floor and i think she by far won the week. >> she's incredibly impressive, rashida tlaib, impress inch. and they're obsessed with her. all of the freshmen are incredibly impressive. let me show you guys the answer. whoever surfaced and i don't know whoever you are out in the twitters sphere because won the week. whoever found this clip, it's not a film -- tv series from the 1950s. this is a 1958 episode of a short-lived tv series that kind

of exploded across the intra web this week, appeared on "hardball" and other places on this network at all. this the tale of holy gilman, sheriff of his town, who's dealing with all of the issues that come to his town and this one being a guy named walter trump who comes to town, holtby gilman. here's the clip. >> people ready to believe, like sheep they ran towards the slaughterhouse and waiting for them was the high priest of fraud. >> i am the only one. trust me. i can build a wall around your homes that nothing will penetrate. >> what do we do? how do we save ourselves? >> you're under arrest, trump. >> what charge? >> well, you write it any way you like, grand theft, fraud. i think a jury will find it stealing. >> i think it's fair whoever found that won the week, maybe the year. jennifer rubin, jonathan, tiffany, godspeed and thank you.

have a wonderful day. derful daye a cigarette. had to. but then, we were like. what are we doing? the nicodermcq patch helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. nicodermcq. you know why, we know how.

introducing zero account fees for brokerage accounts. and zero minimums to open an account. at fidelity, those zeros really add up. ♪ maybe i'll win, saved by zero ♪ at fidelity, those zeros really add up. at first slice pizza lovers everywhere meet o, that's good! frozen pizza one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good!

amazon prime video so when you say words like... show me best of prime video into this... you'll see awesome stuff like this. discover prime originals like the emmy-winning the marvelous mrs. maisel... tom clancy's jack ryan... and the man in the high castle. all in the same place as your live tv. its all included with your amazon prime membership. that's how xfinity makes tv... simple. easy. awesome. that's our show for tonight. now it's time for "weekend with alex witt." >> did you hear my what from the studio? >> i'm sure it's real. it is a 1958 genuine series, "trackdown." >> that will get downloaded left and right. or posted by the