distinction among democrats right now, they're all senate projections. does that change the state of the way we receive? does that change this field of thousands forming to run against him? >> i don't think so. i think our party feels like it's confusing right now. it will become clear. the strongest candidates will emerge in relatively short order. it will feel like tomorrow. it's probably going to be six or nine months down the road. grassroots support will be everything in this particular cycle. but whoever is nominated, i think, will be able to unite the party because of who they're going to be running against and because what that election means to the country. >> we have just passed the top of the hour. we want to welcome our viewers, and this is part of our ongoing post state of the union, post response coverage, what was, i think, properly billed as a unique evening at the top of the night. >> it was a unique evening.

it was quite a night. it was quite a night. the president gave one of the longest state of the union addresses ever. he also last year gave one of the longest state of the union addresses ever. the word count is going to be somewhat similar. we don't have an exact count because the president had lots of ad libs, but to me the president was almost odd, we know script aside, about how there cannot be investigations. if there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation, criticizing ridiculous partisan investigations. that's sticking out from the speech, i think, in a way that will be remembered beyond anything else he got to tonight. but i want to bring in the conversation now a very important flinfluential senator amy klobuchar. we saw your reactions but now you have to tell us what you were thinking beyond what we

could see. >> first of all, i thought stacey abrams' response was incredible. the warmth, you could just see the positive, optimistic agenda that she has, that all of us have that we want to bring forward. but when i was in the room today, of course the president took a different tone than he does, say, at his political rallies. but what i kept thinking is he was honoring these incredible heroes, rightfully so. each of these heroes had risen to the occasion in their own time. whether they were soldiers, whether they were officers, they rose to the occasion. and he hasn't done that. you think about the challenges in front of us right now, the challenges of law and order when it comes to those investigations and that he was calling them partisan and our republican colleagues were clapping while the mueller investigation is coming to a head. you think about climate change, our work force, immigration reform, the things that we should be truly dealing with instead of the chaos that we're

in. that's what really bothered me about it. i thought it was wonderful to honor those theheroes, but thos heroes were heroes of their time. we need someone in the white house that is a hero for our time. >> we thought there might be a considerable sort of substantive olive branch offered by the president, not just saying we should all get along and put partisanship aside, partisan investigations, all that stuff. we thought there would be some talk about infrastructure and a way to move ahead in a bipartisan way. we didn't hear much from the president on infrastructure, and his comments about health care were in some ways skewed. the fact checkers are having a field day already on his assertions we need to protect health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions when his administration has fought

against that in the courts. i wonder if you expected more than you got on that front, or if this is what you wanted and expected to hear from the president. >> no, it was not what i wanted, because i kept thinking, and i know clair remembers these days of barack obama's speeches, of substantive policy proposals that are put out there. we should be governing from opportunity right now. prescription drugs, remember the proposal he put out there? prescription drug prices, and the stocks went up, and today he claimed that people were benefiting from his policies when we still have doubling, tripling of our prescription drug prices. no specific infrastructure proposal, no working together when it comes to immigration reform. and you can just march through these issues that we're dealing with, privacy issues. he goes after every regulatory issue you can find, and then we still have got big facebook and tech companies, you know, being able to basically run all over us and we don't have any privacy

policies in place. so that's what really bothered me is he had some rhetoric in there and he honored some wonderful people, but he wasn't moving us forward and rising to the challenges of the day. >> senator, in terms of rising to the challenges of the day, you have said that you are considering or thinking about a run for president. today, politico.com reported that you are headed to iowa later this month and your home state paper of minnesota has also reported that a staffer of yours has applied for an event permit in minneapolis this weekend. those were the sorts of tea leaves we have been trying to read. >> it's called investigative reporting. rachel, you have been asking me this forever. okay, so sunday, come to boom island, minneapolis, as in boom island drop the mic and then you'll find out. it's going to be a little cold, 20 degrees. wear warm clothes. maybe have little heat warmers

with you, but then you'll find out my decision. >> on sunday, boom island in minneapolis, you are going to announce your decision. >> i am. we've had so many discussions about this. i thought, well, here you go. that's the moment. >> thank you. i've been trying to pry this out of you for years. senator klobuchar -- >> we'll have hot chocolate, campfires, be there. >> we will be there. senator amy klobuchar, thank you for letting us know and appreciate you being here tonight. >> thanks, rachel. thank you, everyone. joining us now is congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez, democrat from new york. she is one of the highest profiles of the freshman class. with her is our guest who confronted senator jeff flake last year in an elevator. she asked him to vote against brett kavanaugh for the u.s. supreme court, at the time in

emotional terms explaining kavanaugh's sexual assaults. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> let me ask you first for your response what you heard tonight from the president. obviously this is the first state of the union you've attended as a member of congress. what was your experience tonight and what did you think of what you heard? >> i think that the president was unprepared. i don't think that he did his homework. you know, we've seen states of the union addresses delivered by many presidents, democrat and republican. they almost always have substantive policies that are offered. i agree with senator klobuchar there that there was no plan. there was no plan to address our opioid crisis, there was no plan to address the cost of health care, there was no plan to increase wages. i had to ask myself, is this a campaign stop or is this a state of the union?

>> can i also ask about your decision to bring your guest with you here tonight? obviously, you have the choice about how to attend in your own right but also who to bring with you and why and what message you were trying to send. i would ask you to talk us through that as well. oh, we've lost them. >> audio is becoming an issue tonight, but apparently they could hear us right up until the second question. so we'll try to get that squared away on capitol hill. they are back. >> oh, wait, they're back. i'm very sorry about that. we've been having little gremlins like that all evening. i was asking about your decision to be here tonight and the congresswoman's decision to ask you, how you came to that decision together. >> i was very honored when my congresswoman asked me to join her, and i understood it as an

invitation that was not just for me but really was an invitation for people across the country to tell their stories, to join in protest, to make democracy come alive, to breathe life into it by making sure their demands, their aspirations are at the center of our debates, and i understood that was the message that you wanted to send that you cannot do this alone, that you have this bold vision, but that you actually need everyone outside making a forceful demand of our members of congress. >> absolutely. and i think that ana maria represents something so special about american democracy, which is that any normal person in any one moment has the courage inside them to step up in a critical moment that could change the course of our country. and i think that's what ana maria did in that moment in the elevator, and it did change the proceedings of the votes. senator flake, as a result of her testimony and the way that

she expressed her story, asked for a further fbi investigation before the vote proceeded. >> ana maria, it's brian williams in new york. i have to ask you because i was wondering this in realtime what it was like to be in the same chamber tonight as now justice kavanaugh, because we all came to know you in that videotaped moment as emotional as it was in the argument in realtime. >> it was sad. i am sad that the supreme court is tainted by a process that put someone accused of sexual assault in the highest court in the land. i think he represents in many ways the inability of many politicians to actually understand that their role is to govern by listening, and to actually allow themselves to be moved by the experiences of people that are different from them, who are trying to, with their stories, educate them. and in many ways, i feel sad for

the many decisions that kavanaugh is going to make that will impact many, many people, millions of people, my children, probably -- >> and women. >> -- and women, workers, all of us. those decisions will always be tainted by a process that i continue to believe was irresponsible and the people deserve better. >> congresswoman, thank you. con congratulations, by the way. we've never met but congratulations by your upset victory in the primary. the president made an aggressive statement about venezuela tonight, and he talked about being a socialist country and how we'll never be a socialist country. it tied the notion of socialism to that particular regime. what do you think about the president, why he did that? >> i think that he needs to do it because he feels like -- he feels himself losing on the issues. every single policy proposal that we have adopted and

presented to the american public has been overwhelmingly popular, even some with a majority of republican voters supporting what we're talking about. we talked about a 70% marginal tax rate on incomes over $10 million. 60% of americans approve it. 70 million americans believe in approved and expanded medicare for all. a large amount of americans believe we need to do something about climate change, that it's an existential threat to ourselves and our children. i think he sees himself losing on the issues, he sees himself losing on the wall in the southern border, and he needs to grasp at an attack and this is his way of doing it. but what we need to realize is happening is this is an issue of authoritarian regime versus democracy. in order for him to try to dissuade or throw people off the scent of the trail, he has to really make and confuse the public. and i think that that's exactly what he's trying to do.

>> congresswoman ocasio-cortez, and ana maria archilo. congresswoman, thank you for sharing your guest with us here. >> that was great. we should not let the moment pass that just before we brought on congresswoman ocasio-cortez and her guest, boom island in minneapolis became a very important place for this upcoming weekend. it sounds like senator klobuchar is going to jump. >> we have gone from having a hand fortunately of women senators to having four women senators running for president at the same time. this is a remarkable moment in history. >> the first three democrats to declare from -- who are already holding federal office were all three women senators, warren, gillibrand and kamala harris. now we've got -- kocory booker s

announced in the interim, but now we've got senator klobuchar seeming like she's going to take the plunge, too. are you surprised? >> no. i think she's been working on this for a long time -- i assumed all four of them were going to run for probably a year or more. and it's going to be very interesting. il it's very hard for me, because it's like when one of your kids go go, who do you love more, come on. who do you love more? and you go, no, i love you all the same. i have so many former colleagues running that it's going to be tough, particularly the four women that are going to be going. >> these are all progressive senators of different stripes. >> of course they are. >> and that's an interesting prospect in its own right. this is not a year when the claire mccaskills and the joe manchins are considered to be the top pick in the democratic field. this is gillibrand, kamala

harris, potentially sherrod brown, but we're seeing top democrats forming that top tier. >> it will be interesting to see all the candidates veer to the left of our party. it will be interesting to see if amy decides she is going to lead with some of the more progressive ideas or maybe stick to a really pragmatic agenda. >> her reputation is quite pragmatic. >> correct. i think that's what we can watch for is how many candidates will be going for a segment of the democratic party that is more left of center, and how many will be going towards a more centrist position with the idea that history has shown that centrist positions have sometimes more success in general elections? >> but in barack obama's history, you can do both. >> exactly.

frankly, my voting record was pretty darn good on the environment and on all the issues that the congresswoman likes to talk about. but it's what you emphasize and what you lead with and whether or not you talk about what we can get done as opposed to let's go with the ultimate at the beginning, like free college as opposed to let's figure out a way to make college more affordable for most families. >> manner and tone, i think, are very important. we watched all three in the senate judiciary committee, senator booker, kamala and amy. amy came off as much more mild mannered, she wasn't aggressive. people like that more. passion is important, but i think you have a real choice among the progressives in tone and manner. >> range and capacity, being able to do the right thing. being able to speak more than one language. >> so the republican primary had

17. you may end up having twice that many in the democratic primary, but one of the ways trump beat all 16 was that no one -- there was never -- no one settled on a way to beat him, so jeb bush started out talking about policy and was branded low energy and done with him, you know, and how much is the toughness and the ability to not get in the gutter but take the fight to donald trump in ways that wound him, in ways that step him off his game the way he steps his opponents off their game? how important is that to democratic primary voters? >> the hard thing about this is i think the successful candidate is going to have to inspire, is also going to have to take it to donald trump which means you're going to have to uplift people and make them feel optimistic and hopeful at the same time you're trying to land a punch as hard as you possibly can on a guy that we can't stand. >> pelosi has done better than anyone i've seen so far. she's tough but she still protects the dignity of the institution.

>> she's a very experienced warrior. >> think of her choice of islands. here in new york, we have long island and staten, but she's going to boom island. i don't think you do that if you're ending with a whimper. >> but don't underestimate the importance of a sense of humor. another break for us. our thanks to our panel. we'll be back with continuing coverage right after this. >> if there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. it just doesn't work that way. y.

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security analyst and former director of the cia, john brennan, who was here with us and watched the speech along with us, and director brennan, in that area, your area of dominant influence where this speech intersected with all of it, what was your leading reaction to what you heard from the president tonight? >> good evening, brian. let me just say as an american citizen, one of the things that i noticed was looking out at that house chamber how white and male the left side was and how diverse, inclusive and representative of 2019 the right side was. that contrast was stark. it was stark in terms of the same thing that i saw with donald trump and stacey abrams in terms of the look, the style, the vision. but i think all presidents use the state of the union address to score political points and to bring to mind our history, a lot of our experiences and that was certainly true tonight.

but i think donald trump raised to a new level the demagoguery, the hyperbole, the shochauvinis and even the national security on a policy front. he said if it wasn't for his election, we would be at war with north korea today. well, nothing could be further from the truth. he, in fact, helped to increase the tension between the two countries last year when exchanging the rhetorical broadsides with kim jong-un. one thing to be sure since his election is kim jong-un continues to have the arsenal that he had when he entered office. now that this photo op has come up in vietnam, i don't think there's been any meaningful change in north korea's disposition as far as its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. >> i was going to ask you in follow up, also, as an american citizen, how did you take to the

showstopper part of the speech that is getting all the attention that was something less than the showstopper in the chamber that what's stopping us from peace and prosperity is this partisan divisiveness in the senate? >> that was very trumpian. what is coming down the pike implicates everyone near him and that's why he keeps denigrating the investigation that's underway. we need to have these investigations move forward, while at the same time taking care of our domestic needs and challenges as well as the international challenges. donald trump continues to be consumed by what is affecting and threatening him personally which is why he continues to focus on the investigations. >> my colleagues want to jump in here, but one more from me, and it's about optics and

housekeeping. we saw director haspel and dni coats on more than one occasion applauding something in the speech. is that something you did, would you make a game time decision on whatever it was you were applauding, or did you choose, like joint chiefs, like members of the court, to not applaud at all? >> the cia director and the director of intelligence were not members of the cabinet during the obama administration, so we didn't attend the state of the union address. but i look to the joint chiefs of staff, all of those generals and admirals that were there, who remained stoic when there are any type of policy pronouncements made by the president. and i think that if the intelligence chiefs are going to be in that forum that they should basically do the same. >> mr. brennan, it's nicolle walla wallace. i believe the line of

investigations standing in front of prosperity was quite a line. while you saw the sanctity of robert mueller's work, what do you think happened? you have an a.g. that could stymie robert mueller's work, you saw them stand and applaud when he said what stands in our way is the investigations. where are we as a country in terms of doing something about whatever mueller finds and ever finding out about it if that investigation and that evidence exists? >> i think that's one of the most disappointing aspects of what we've seen in the last two years is how the republicans of congress, many of whom i work with and know and even respected, have stooped to such a level of craven politics that

supports donald trump and his continued trampl ing of our democratic institutions and institutions of government, and they have just kowtowed to them. i think history will show that they have been complicit in what donald trump has been involved in. they have not stood up. and those that have stood up, i think unfortunately they have left the halls of congress. but at some point, i am very much hoping they are going to come to their senses and realize that mr. trump's, again, demagoguery as well as his continued denigration of our democratic system and institutions needs to come to a halt. >> a man who has never held back with us, and we appreciate you taking our questions this night of the state of the union, former cia director brennan. thank you very much. >> thanks, brian. i want to bring in the conversation now another first year member of congress.

katie hill is a democrat of southern california. she she is the first woman ever from that district, and she was just named vice chair of the power oversight committee. katie hill, thank you for joining us tonight. i really appreciate you making the time. >> thank you for having me. >> i am super interested in your vice chairmanship of the vice oversight committee. this is a change we're seeing from leadership, that congress is being named vice chairs and sub-chairs of committees. it is very important heading into this next couple of years with a democratic congress and this scandal-ridden administration. i just want to ask how that came to be, how you positioned yourself for this kind of a leadership role, and what you anticipate heading into your first year in congress with this big responsibility that you've been given. >> yeah, it's a great question. in terms of how i position

myself, i mean, i just went in to congress with a plan of being as effective as i possibly could, and i ended up getting the leadership rep role, the freshman leadership representative role, and so i've gotten to spend a fair amount of time with some of the other members of leadership, and oversight was one of my priority committees. it was one of the top ones that i wanted to work on because of the broad range of issues that you could focus on. and i met with chairman cummings, and he ended up suggesting this as a possible opportunity. he nominated me, i guess, and there was -- it went through and i was really excited for the opportunity. he is an incredible person to learn from, and i'm just -- you know, it's going to be a lot of work. it's kind of -- i don't know if intimidating is the right word, but i certainly have my work cut out for me and i'm really looking forward to it. >> given the president's remarks in his state of the union address tonight where he said that the partisan investigations

must end and we can have peace and legislation or war and investigation, obviously part of that is about what you and chairman cummings will be doing on the oversight committee. we also saw a great reaction shot of chairman schiff from the republican committee tonight where he seemed to be taken aback and laughed a bit. was that an important moment or was this a par for the course moment from this president tonight? >> that was a moment where i actually got my notebook out of my purse and started writing things down, like, wait, did he just say that? the people sitting near me, we were like, did he really just say that, that we can't have investigations? it's just so blatant. you're like, what? i guess it is par for the course in terms of the other things that he said, but to me that is -- it's just carscary, right? this is the kind of dangerous rhetoric we've been hearing over and over again. you touched on it with the

director previously that this is the complicity from the republicans that we've seen over the last two years, and among those who are still in the house and in the senate. it's frankly a national security crisis, as far as i'm concerned, and i think that that's the way we need to be looking at this. we need to be asking the tough questions about where his foreign policy decisions are actually taking us, how that factors into our place in the world, and frankly, what his ties are to these foreign entities and where that leaves us. i think that it's really something that we need to be paying more and more attention to from the real risk standpoint. i work in armed services, too, and we'll be having more and more hearings and i think there will be a lot of connection between those two committees. >> one last brief question for you. up until recently we had been expecting the president's long-time personal lawyer michael cohen to be giving public open door testimony before your committee in a couple of days.

mr. cohen then expressed concerns that his family might be in danger if he proceeded with that. can you give us any idea if mr. cohen will be set to testify before your committee? >> i don't have a specific date yet, but i know it's a high, high priority for the chairman for that to happen, and i agree that it needs to be an open setting. the american people deserve to hear directly, and i know he's going before the intelligence committee, but that's going to be behind closed doors, and i just think this is something -- our job on the oversight committee is to find the truth and share it with the american people, and we really need to do that. that's how we're going to be able to move the needle on really bringing a lot of this out into the light and making sure people understand the risks that we are exposed to because of this president and do ultimately what needs to be done. >> congresswoman katie hill, freshman democrat from southern california, defeated two-term republican steve knight to get that seat, is now vice chair of the oversight committee as a

freshman. congresswoman hill, i really appreciate you being with us, and i look forward to you keeping us apprised as things mover forward. >> thank you. >> as we said tonight, we were covering the midterm election winds of change. people come and go so quickly around here. our family has contracted and now expanded by two. lawrence o'donnell and michael steele has joined our family. they're going to join our discussion after we come back from this break. we promise to have four freshman congress members by the end of the evening. our fourth is coming up. she made a lot of news on day one, as i recall. please join us when we come back, after this. you start to see documents and you see signatures of people that you've never met. i mean, you don't know these people, but you feel like you do. you get connected to them. i wish that i could get into a time machine and go back 100 years, 200 years and just meet these people. being on ancestry just made me feel like i belonged somewhere.

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as we mentioned, our fourth member of the democratic freshman class is waiting to talk to us, but first, as we also mentioned, two more members of our family have joined us, lawrence o'donnell and michael steele. out of deference, because your title is mr. chairman. >> i'm ranked mr. anchorman. >> i've always called you senator. the great senator from massachusetts. mr. chairman, what did you make of your fellow republican president's state of the union? >> to be honest, i came at this from a slightly different perspective. i mean, i think a lot of what's already been said is basically true. this speech struck me in two quarters. the first was the absence of any

reference to the shutdown and the idea that you had so many federal workers and families impacted that there was no sort of smoothing over that moment with them, with those -- with the american people who had been impacted. so it was completely forgotten -- >> that's because we might be between two shutdowns. >> particularly with that fact looming a week from now. i thought the president would have a moment where he could just say, almost in a clintonian way, i felt your pain, and then move on to something else, but that struck me. the other part i thought was very interesting was the fact he laid out a social agenda that i know made the hearts of a lot of conservatives in this country leap. when he talked about jobs, drug prices, hiv, childhood cancer. when he got to school choice, and of course the abortion section of the speech was probably the most impactful for that base. what struck me about the way the

president delivered the speech was he talked largely to his republican audience, all right, represented by the republican members there, with an occasional reference to the democrats. this speech was more to them, those republicans out around the country and those independent right-leaning individuals than it was to the american people. so that struck me the most about this speech. >> i thought the hiv plan would be a substantive thing and it was just a line with no details. you can't be an administration making sure there's no medicaid coverage and what's driving insurance numbers down and say you're going to stop hiv transmission doesn't make any sense. i suspected there would be something there. >> why did you think there would be something there? >> because they were hyping it. >> he did a press conference today and attacked the late john mccain. i wasn't surprised there wasn't any substance. i think the last point to what you're saying is because he's so weak.

the reason he was pandering to the republicans in the room is because he's so politically weakened. most state of the union addresses have something to try to grow your coalition. he can't do that, he has to speak to his base. >> his speech isn't to grow a coalition, it's to keep the numbers he's got. those folks have been peeling off or at least softening their support for him, so the president, i think in that sense, did what he had to do tonight. i think you'll see an uptick in his numbers after this. i think particularly on the abortion question, he boxed that point in extremely well with the governor of virginia and he made it as graphic as you could in that moment. and i thought it was a very powerful -- one of the most powerful points in the speech. >> as graphic as i remember in any kind of setting like this. >> absolutely. >> lawrence, since the chairman invoked bill chilinton, i'll dot again. bill clinton couldn't stand newt gingrich, and yet, when he gave the state of the union after

gingrich's ascension as speaker of the house, he did the right thing, turned and saluted the new speaker of the house. >> every previous president thought the norms really mattered and thought that the culture of the interaction between the presidency and that body mattered a great deal. this president doesn't know any of that history, he has no respect for it, he doesn't care. it is a speech with so many hugely extraordinary lines that it's hard to isolate you've isolated a bunch and i'm glad john brennan brought up the one that says, if hillary clinton was elected president, and he didn't use the name, but he said if i had not been elected president, there would have been many americans killed. there is not a president who has ever said if you had not elected me, the other one would have us in a war right now with millions killed. that would be the most

outrageous statement of the night if he had not asserted that it is impossible to have investigations of the president while we are waging war anywhere. you're going to have to explain that to richard nixon, because the helicopter he got on to fly him away from the white house forever was exactly the same kind of helicopters being used in the vietnam war that very same day. the vietnam war was going on every day of the watergate investigation and was not over until the year after it. so that's another extraordinary line that has -- is an ahistorical reference by him. these things go on and on. to michael's point about the shutdown, the shutdown was about the wall. what was the wall in this speech? it was less than it's ever been. it's see-through, and in the end, the final line on the wall was, i will get it built. and then he says, after that he says, let's work together to a

congress who has said we are not building the wall. and there is no ultimatum. there is no ultimatum in that spot. there is nothing he said in this speech about how this wall will be built, other than asking the congress to work with him, and they've already refused to work with him. >> he also added in a new caveat to my ears and that was having this steel barrier erected where the need is. let me bring in my next guest because she's been very patient waiting for us. she is freshman member of congress salita talib representing the great state of michigan. congresswoman, you are our fourth and final freshman member of congress, all of them women, all of them democrats who have been kind enough to join us tonight. we saw some snippets of you reacting during the speech. we saw especially how the democratic women hijacked the president's congratulations of the new members of congress as

you did the number of women in the work force. very basic question to start off, what was it like witnessing your first state of the union? >> it was a bit surreal. it was sitting in the moment and actually being actually present in the room when it actually happened is pretty surreal. i'm still always i can't believe i'm a congresswoman. i think a lot of people don't realize just how incredible this is for me and many of the women, for many of us that ran for office. even at one point ilhan marks said, did you ever think you would be sitting in this chamber, and i said never. it was a very humbling experience but also a moment to just kind of pause and say, okay, it just sunk in a little bit more that i'm a member of congress now. >> it's nicolle wallace, and i want to read this line because i

don't think donald trump intended for it to be received in this way. i think the moment was lost on him. hopefully someone will explain it to him. he said, nobody has benefited from my climate than the number of women in congress in the last year. there are more women than ever before. you all stood up and applauded. yeah, there is a lot of women largely to when a lot of passions were stirred because a man that's president is lost on the world. >> a couple of my colleagues turned around and said, i don't think he gets it. it was this moment we were all kind of looking at each other. even though we obviously look differently as members of congress, we hope that he honors this diversity, not just say that he's, you know, acknowledging this new incredible wave of new women in

congress but actually put us at the table when you talk about the issue of our bodies, when you talk about pay equity, when you talk about women, having us at the table. so honor and respect the fact there are so many women now as members of congress and actually help us make -- let us make decisions as much as anybody else. >> i think joy reid has a question for you. >> hi, congresswoman, thanks very much. i guess the question i would have, i know this is something very personal to you, to your family. i wonder what you made of the fact that typically in these speeches there are at least some perfunctory nods toward the idea of trying to achieve peace between the israelis and palestinians. that wasn't in this speech, nor was there any nods at all to acknowledging violence against muse li muslims that has taken place during this president's term. what did you make of that? >> you have a president talking about unity or saying that's what he wanted to talk about

during his state of the union. of course there were words there, but understand we're seeing a high rise of hates crimes toward american jews, african-americans, the latino immigrant community. there are so many of us feeling this discrimination and targeting of our communities of color across this country. so much of what he was saying didn't translate in his actions. even when he talks about the wall, he talks about criminalizing so many people, immigrants. many of them are my neighbors at home. i think for us at that moment we felt it. we felt like, you know, if it's great, you wanted unity, you wanted bipartisanship, but let's not shut down the government again. let's actually talk about fixing the immigration system and make it humane. ten years ago all of us were there. we were talking about a path wa to citizenship, d.r.e.a.m.ers, unifying families. we were talking about children in detainment camps. it has drastically changed.

and under this leadership it actually has translated into so much hate rhetoric coming out of the white house. it's causing so much fear and anxiety for many communities across this nation. >> one of the new members of congress representing one of the great cities in this country, detroit, michigan. congresswoman, thank you, and thank you for your patience as we were trying to get to you. congresswoman rashida talib of michigan. when we come back, a fact check of the border of el paso, texas, since their name was evoked tonight. s evoked tonight it not only saves about 80% in carbon emissions... it helps reduce landfill waste. that's why bp is partnering with a california company: fulcrum bioenergy. to turn garbage into jet fuel. because we can't let any good ideas go to waste. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere.

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we are back and we have a segment with fact checks in three separate areas prepared for you. first, we go to our southwestern border to el paso, texas. cal perry, who was with us as a speech preview. cal, of course, you predicted we would hear el paso mentioned, and it was. talk about context. >> reporter: so, donald trump says that el paso has become a safe city after the wall. here's what we got from sheriff richard wyles directly after the speech. quote, it is sad to hear president trump state falsehoods about el paso, texas, in an attempt to justify the building of a 2,000-mile wall. the facts are clear, while it is true that el paso is one of the safest cities in the nation, it has never been considered one of the nation's most dangerous

cities. he finishes by saying, president trump continues to give false narrative about what a great city that truly represents what this great nation is all about. the facts and statistics on this are clear. crime was falling in the years before the wall went up in this part of texas, in el paso, in 2008. what you hear there from the sheriff of el paso county has been echoed by sheriffs all across texas. we met with a sheriff last week. he said one of the president's biggest problems is when he visits down here, he is not meeting with sheriffs on the counties, those 31 counties in southern texas that border mexico. the sheriff said when he came down here for his meeting in mcallen, he simply didn't speak to any of them, brian. >> it's just been unbelievable. the state and local politicians who have been forced to make statements during this era vehemently disagreeing with the president of the united states. we've just never seen it before. stephanie ruhle, who is time shifting to the max, way off her

shift in the morning, is with us tonight to talk about some of the other fact checks based on some of what the president said tonight. steph? >> we have got to talk about the economy and jobs. the president has said he has unleashed jobs, created the most beautiful economy. here's the thing, he walked into the presidency in the eighth year of an economic expansion. while the picture is pretty, it's not quite what he painted. in terms of jobs, he said he created 5.3 million jobs. that's not the case. the number's 4.9 million. in terms of manufacturing jobs, he said many people said he could never create 600,000. well, they said he couldn't because he didn't. according to the bureau of labor and statistics, the number is 454,000. now, he's right that we've got more women in the workforce. rock on. than ever. but that number went up with the u.s. population. something else that he said that didn't make any sense is that we are the number one oil and gas

producer in the world. it has been a revolution. well, that happened seven years ago. in 2015, president obama talked about it in his state of the union address. so, yes, the u.s. economy is strong. it is not stronger than ever but it is pretty good. he just didn't have his numbers right. >> stephanie ruhle, thank you for that. we also want to go to nbc presidential historian michael beschloss who has been watching along with us tonight. michael, we wanted to ask you particularly about the strange way this started tonight. >> mmm-hmm. >> nancy pelosi was supposed to introduce the president. she did not. >> she sure was. >> she looked briefly bewildered. the president jumped in and started without her. he then did not acknowledge her the way previous presidents, we think, have when new speakers have been named. did that strike you as a historical anomaly? >> knocked me out of my chair. i'm used to these historical traditions, and that's what usually happens, as you well know, rachel, is that the

speaker says i have the distinct honor and the great pleasure of introducing the president. so what was going on here was donald trump startled and sort of forgot that was supposed to happen. well, that did happen with harry truman, his first speech if congress in august -- in april of 1945, after franklin roosevelt died and sthe speaker actually interrupted him and said, harry, i've got to introduce you. or was this something that was intentional from donald trump? he did this deliberately as sort of a power play against nancy pelosi. >> michael, we're also interested in the president having made those sort of jarring remarks about how there can be no investigations. >> right. >> obviously i think everyone immediately thought of nixon in 1974 saying one year of watergate is enough. is that the right parallel here? >> it is. >> or is this a standalone? >> although nixon showed a little bit more self-restraint, he didn't say that until late in the speech and he just said, you know, one year of watergate is enough and called on congress to

close down the investigations. donald trump, as he has before, went richard nixon one further and came up with what i think is one of the weirdest things i have ever heard in the state of the union address, which is this thing about if there's going to be peace and legislation, we can't have wars and ridiculous partisan investigations. number one, that's sort of a threat, which nixon never did to try to get out of watergate, and the other thing is that you're linking about four different things that normally do not connect. so not something that i think should fill us with a great sense of reassurance. >> since we think of you all during these speeches, it's such a tremendous luxury to have michael beschloss to talk to -- >> whenever beschloss uses the word weirdest in talking about things in historical context. >> i'm scared. >> our live coverage continues throughout the evening tonight. please stay with us. please stay with us. ng it's best to make you everybody else...

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good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york. president trump billed tonight's state of the union speech as a call for unity, but after touting his own accomplishments, the president quickly turned calls to work together in a warning to democrats who now control the house. after weeks of -- >> an economic miracle is taking place in the united states, and the only thing that can stop it are foolish