in england and came to the u.s. when he was roughly seven years old. his local congressman is pressing i.c.e. for his release. he's been nominated for the grammies. no one know physical he'll able to attend this awards show. "hardball" starts right now. preaching unity, stirring division. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. president trump promised unity forhis state of the union and delivered civil war. here was the warning shot. >> an economic miracle is taking place in the united states and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or

ridiculous partisan investigations. if there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. it just doesn't work that way. >> well, the president shut down the federal government over his border wall and now he's threatening to shut down the congress. he's saying you're not going anywhere as lung as you're causing trouble with these investigations. we heard a similar call from richard nixon in his state of the union in 1974. >> i believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. one year of watergate is enough. >> well, president trump's call for democrats to back off their investigations comes as the new democratic majority this week ramps up its oversight send moerb thanl 50 unredacted

transcripts to robert mueller and last september when it was still chaired by devin nunez. now the new democratic chairman, adam schiff, also announced the committee will pursue an expanded probe. not only into russia but president trump's foreign financial interests. president trump responded with a personal attack on schiff. >> the chairman of the intelligence committee announced he was going to launch a deep investigation into not only russia -- >> did you say adam schiff? >> adam schiff. >> he has no basis to do that. he's just a political hack. who's trying to build a name for himself. it's called presidential harassment and it's unfortunate and it really does hurt our country. >> never heard of him but he's a hack. schiff writing i can understand why the idea of meaningful oversight terrifies the president. several of his close associates

are going to jail, others await trial and criminal investigations continue. we'll do our job and won't be destraktd or intimidated by threats or attacks. joined by jacky spear of california who sits on the house intelligence committee. nbc news presidential historian. former dnc chair and betsy wood rf, politics reporter for "the daily beast." what a quartet. we're going to given a lot of perspectives here. that was a threat last night from the president, right? >> there's no question that it was a veiled threat. what was most interesting is how he framed it as presidential harassment this morning. if anything it was congressional harassment because it was seeking a quid pro quo. meaning if you want legislation and peace, you've got to stop with the investigations. so i think he's once again got it all wrong when it comes to harassment. he

he's perpetrator most of his life. >> is this unusual for the president of the united states to say to all members of congress, if you use your oversight role involving me, you're in trouble. i'm going to shut your place down, this congress down? >> it's a complete shock. we haven't seen anything like this in history where a president basically says you do not stop the investigations that may show my legal or criminal liabilities, maybe i'll just start vetoinging all sorts of bills and shutdown the well being of the american people. he's essentially saying i'm thinking of leveraging the future of america, our national security, economic health to stop this legal and potentially criminal investigation into me. we've never seen anything like this before. >> no justice, no peace. >> absolutely -- >> but this is the most powerful

person on earth sawing this. >> essentially he's telling members of congress to violate the constitution. the constitution explicitly say that mmbers of congress, they have the legislative body have the oversight responsibility of the government and he's telling members of congress that they should not do their job. the other thing is last night he extended an olive branch. he said basically you do what i say. he wants members of congress foobasically follow his lead -- >> what was that preamble about? why do you think he went through that forplay? let's be nice and then put the knife out there? >> let's talk about vengeance, results not resistance. and use socialists there. we've been called everything in the book. look, the members of the democratic caucus will do their job. they uphold nair constitutional

responsibility, but they will hold this administration responsible. >> he condemned you to being the guy in venezuela, that dictator, that like that. democratic leaders in both chambers seized on the president's threat. >> he shrugged his shoulders at knees investigations if he had nothing to hide. let me ask you about this i can't quite figure out the game. now last week matt whitaker said this whole rob mueller thing is going to be over soon. was that intimidating? some people think it was. and the president says get this over with. does he think shorting the

mueller probe by a month or two, which is all he can possibly do, is going to keep mueller from getting the goods on him? is that what he thinks? >> that certainly seems to be the subtict. the reality is most of the reporting indicates this is coming towards the apex. we know they're working on a repo report, sort of brunging together what they found out. they're turning over all these transcripts and if any of trump's officials told things to congress that are in contradiction to what they told mueller's team, that means they could potentially be shaky territory. they believe several people close to the president, including possibly the president's son, donald trump jr. and the black water chief could have lied to their committedy and that's part of the reason they've been eager to get the transcripts in mueller's

hands. >> it seems the special counsel, mr. mueller, will have in his hands if he doesn't already, unare edau unredacted transcripts. is there anything you think he might be surprised by? >> i think what is most important is once he has these transcripts, he is then in a position to act upon if there has been any actions that suggest there has been perjury to congress. i think what's really important is that we realize lying to congress is a felony and it will be charged and those who do that are going to suffer the consequences. the only thing the intelligence committee is seeking is the truth and the president should not be worried if there's nothing to hide about. we are always concerned about the fact that the russian engagement with the president, before he was president, may

have something to do with his bromance with vladimir putin since he's been president. it's very disturbing to me that he would tear up the interpreter's notes when he had a meeting with vladimir putin and then in subsequent meetings didn't have an interpreter at all. so it wouldn't surprise me if there was some discussion about the moscow tower for trump. because that letter of intent has never expired. so you could argue that is still pending. >> well, the house oversight committee chair, liegs elijah cummings says congress is simply doing its job. >> it's not about partisan investigations . we are doing what is demanded by our constitution. that is to be a check and balance on the executive branch. >> well, vice president mike pence tried backing up the president's argument today.

>> isn't oversight part of the legislature's job? you served in the house for more than decade. >> i did. i did. look, congressional oversight is part of the checks and balances of our system -- >> he's sawing that can't happen though? >> what the president referred to was partisan investigations. >> it's hard to be flack, isn't it? this role is what count on, historically. count on it. >> the founders were terrified presidents would become tyrants and the own laway we could keep them from that in the future is with a house and senate with the power to stand up to presidential power and the same thing with the supreme court. our liberties are dependent on that. >> i want to congratulate your party tonight because nancy pelosi last night showed the power. this is almost machiavelian

genius. >> first of whether i'm on team pelosi. she's not only smart but she understands herb caucus the eye contact. i'm an old athlete. she was eye balling everybody. >> and she would look at her notes and you're like oh. i loved it and by the way i enjoyed seeing that historic number of women all dressed in white. it was a great night for america and stacey abrams, i'm still over joyed by her response. >> why was she so good? >> because sheets she's inspiring because she said last night we don't want him to fail, we just want him to tell the truth. she came across last night as an american that cares deeply about the future of our country. i know that's not your area to

judge politics but that's the kind of politics that persuades people. it doesn't just confirm believes. >> it's certainly -- it certainly was a speech that i think is going to be of historic significance. going back to the political question. one really vital piece of context the vice president over looked in his comments on cbs is the idea that partisan investigations are something new. in fact chairman nunez when he had adam schiff's jaurks basically ran a historically partisan investigation which was running interference from fr the white house to shield them from the russia story. the idea that unless both parties are involved in oversight is separated from the way elections and democracy work. american people decide which party is in charge of congress are and who gets the gavelled that means some are going to be partisans.

it can make these committees function much worse than they would. bipartisan investigations seem to be a lot more effective. the senate intelligence commit a's russia probe is more efelktive. but to suggest that a partisan investigation lacks the constitutional weight of a bipartisan investigation is just divorce from reality. >> are you going to have -- give us an out look for this year, the summer are we going to have an impeachment process starting after we hear from special counsel mueller? what do you see as the sequence of events for 2019? >> i think that will be based on what special counsel mueller comes up with and certainly the extent to which we're not made privy to it if the attorney general attempts to hold that under executive privilege. it makes the work of the intemgence committee that much more important because we're going to do this in the public eye.

>> let me ask michael about this. what betsy and donna was just talking about is a healthy partisan environment -- >> totally. >> where one side keeps the other side honest. they don't stop from doing something good, they stop them from doing sthuf stuff that's bad and thalts riwhy we have a two-party system and sometime as multi-party system. >> my thoughts are to agree ewith you. so many times in american hist ra, the times we go off the rails when you have a president, not only who controls both houses of congress but when their lap dog party leaders in congress who do not challenge the president. we saw a lot of that during the first two years of the trump presidency. imagine the discussion we'd be having about all of this tonight if the demes had not won the house last night. >> we'd be packing with supreme court with 15 conservatives. because fdr tried to do that.

>> he sure did. >> one last point. during the time the democratic party was being hacked, i reached out to my republican court part to say we're being attacked. i want to let you know because if they're attacking us, sfi they may come after you. they need drop this partisanship and get on with the business of protecting our democracy from future hacks. >> did they go with you? >> no. >> you know nixon told his people to break into the republican head quarters to make it look like a democratic job. that's how bad nixon was. thank you mmber of the intelligence committee, our historian. everybody should have an historian. we've got one. one of the real lead thofrz democratic party. one of the star report ofrz our time. up next president trump claims to know more about fighting isis

than his generals did and more about intel than his intelligence chiefs. >> time will prove me right probably. >> there's a healthy ego. plus the political crisis in virginia takes a stunning turn. the man in the senlter of the allegation says there was nothing consensual about what he did to her and the man second in line claims he wore black face. how this ugly situation could play out in the coming days. why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. we're the tenney's and we're usaa members for life. call usaa to start saving on insurance today.

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welcome back to "hardball." president trump's state of the union address was sold before hand of one of optimism and unity. instead he plagued by crisis.

>> this is a moral issue. the lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety security and financial well being of all america. my administration has acted decisively to confront the world's leading state sponsor of terror, the radical regime in iran. it is a radical regime. they do bad, bad things. >> well, the president largely avoided mentioning the imminent dangers of north korea's nuclear regime, the looming threat of an arms race against russia and resurgence of an islamic state. >> as part of a bold new deploempacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the korean peninsula. our hostages have come home. nuclear testing has stopped.

and there has not been a missal launch in more than 15 months. under my administration we will never apologize for advancing america's interests. that is why i announce that the united states is officially withdrawing from the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty. when i took office isis controlled more than 20,000 square miles in iraq and syria just two years ago. today we have liberated virtually all of the territory from the grip of these blothirs monsters. >> you've got back grntd that can really test all these things.

what do you think the president is talking about? is he talking about the real world we face? >> oh, chris, he's talking about the world according to donald trump. and all you have to do is look at the intelligence report from last week in which all of our intelligence leaders painted a very different picture of the world than what we heard last night in that speech. they said that north korea is going to continue to want to hold on to their nuclear weapons. the president thinks somehow they'll denuclearize. isis, he thinks we've defeated isis when our intel leaders basically said there's 20 to 30,000 isis resilient enough to attack again. he talks about iran violating the nuclear agreement. the intel leaders said that is not the case. iran has stood by that agreement.

so area after area he basically talked about a world that is according to trump, not according to the truth. >> it seems so often that he was calculating what he thought were the danger spots to political opportunities for him. focusing on iran, rather than for example north korea. what are his politics? if you had to explain what he's really trying to do in that speech to keep his right-wing faction together somehow? >> you know he's trying to show that somehow personal involvement, when he gets personally involved in an issue, it has to head in the right direction otherwise he'll be a failure. and so his meeting with kim jong-un last year and the fact that nothing has been obtained

in terms of denuclearization still requires him to show that there are some positive things going on, otherwise it's a total failure. on iran, he needs have an enemy. and so he's going to make iran an enemy. he tore up the agreement. he's made iran the principal enemy. now iran, without question, is a threat in that part of the world. but there are uth threats. the intel leaders basically said the principal threat is russia and china working together for the first time in a long time, working together to conduct cyber attacks on our election process and trying to undermine the stability of our country. that's the major threat we really confront. >> the address last night the president announced his next meeting with kim jong-un at the end of february and said if it wasn't for him, we'd likely be at war with north korea. here he is bragging, i guess.

>> if i had not been elected president of the united states we would right now in my opinion be in a major war with north korea. >> however, it was president trump who famously threatened the country with fire and fury like the world has never seen before. let's take a look at that. >> north korea best not make anymore threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. he has been very threatening beyond a normal statement. and as i said they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes off which this world has never seen before. >> if north korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or

us, they can be very, very nervous. i'll tell you what. and they should be very nervous. >> the united states has great strength and patience. but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocketman is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime. >> what do you think he's accomplished with all the personal diplomacy from kim jong-un? >> i think he has -- he's accomplished nothing in terms of the substantive issue of denuclearization. that's the bottom line. this whole effort was launched on the basis that we would get north korea to totally denucleize. what's happened since that meeting is nothing. as a matter of fact intelligence shows north korea is continuing

to develop nuclear material, continuing to hide its missiles and its nuclear capability so nothing has happened on denuclearization. yes, obviously they're not testing. they're not doing some of the things that have been helpful. no question about that. but on the basic point of denuclearization, nothing has happened. >> do you think he's been taken hold of to extent by the neocons again? i know this is a continue rap of mine. baldwin, i sense his presence. it seems like the people that had so influence with george w. bush and dick cheney have come back to powerful influence. what do you make of it? >> well, the most hopeful thing going on at the beginning of this administration is that there was a sense that with jim mattis, secretary of defense,

tillerson at state, mcmasterers as national security advisor, john kelly in that mix as well. that there were those that were able to control his worst tendencies. now with these other individuals that have come into play, i think the danger is that there isn't someone there to control the worst tendencies of the president. >> do you think he might go into venezuela and take on the venezuelan army which is backing maduro? >> the prob wlm with the president not taking time to read his intelligence braefings is he can basically operate on instinct and gut feeling. if that's the way this president operates, then who knows what the hell he may do. >> well said. former secretary of defense, thank you so much for taking the

time tonight, sir. coming up the president made a series of outrages claims, including one that singled out elpasso, texas. the mayor of el paso will be here in a moment to react to that claim. he won't agree with it. 't agreet ballooned your car. call meeeee! (burke) a fly-by ballooning. seen it, covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ feeling unsure? what if you had some help? introducing the new 2019 ford edge with the confidence

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high rates of violent crime. now immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place, el paso is one of the safest cities -- >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump last night siting el paso to bolster his argument for building his border wall. tlrs problem is the numbers don't support the president's claim that el paso was one of the country's most dangerous cities. struxz of -- according to fbi data the violent crime actually increased by 17% from 2006 to 2011, two years beor the fence was built to two years after it. but remains low to cities of a similar size. the mayor pushed back against the president's claim, tweeting el paso was never one of the most dangerous cities in the u.s.

we've had that fence for 10 years and it has impacted illegal immigration and curbed criminal activity. it is not the single detrnlt. it seems to me the purpose of the fence is to stop people from going past it. does it serve that purpose? >> the fence is part and parcel, as you said to border security. i don't know anyone would argue we don't need to control our borders. can i give context to the viewers? it's the sixzth largest city in the state of texas, 9th largest in the united states. we say we're at the nexus of three states, new mexico, chew waw waw and texas. two countries, the u.s. and mexico and we're one region of 2 and a half million people. you can't tell the difference between juarez begins and el paso ends. >> high claims the fence was put

up -- where does that claim stand in reality? >> i think -- it's a participant. it's not the way the -- his preface was what i disagreed with. the post crypt of us being one of the safest cities in the nation is correct. we are. a population greater than 500,000. i talked to our police chief or his staff and found out in 2008 we were like second. in 2009 after the fence was built we were still second. but we've progressed to be the number one safest city in the nation. what i've said all along is the fence is a part of a process for border control. but did -- it a pan sia? no. and can you bailed fence from el paso to browns vill, texas? the reality of the geography is no and most of texas is private land.

>> if you were president and you watched this fight between nancy pelosi who says a wall is a an immorality and trump says it's immoral not to have one. is there a way to reduce it but in a humane way? is there a good way to protect the border? >> i think technology -- what i'd like the hear is elected officials telling me -- i'd like the hear homeland security tell me what they recommend for control of their borders. to my knowledge i have not heard anything that dictated the complete program. it was mostly the politicos and i personally i was a former ceo. i'd rather see the data and understand where it goes. the bottom line until we fix our immigration process in d.c., which both sides of the aisle are culpable, we're going to have problems in migration.

>> what about the president using your city as a back drop this coming monday for his big rally in 2019? >> well, i have been saying for months if the people in washington are elected officials, want to know about the border, they need to come to el paso. we are where you need discuss immigration and immigration reform, so the fact he's coming out, i'm very pleased and hope to have time visit with him and show him how our border functions. we have 300,000 legal pedestrians that cross north every day. 300 million passenger vehicles. we're the 10th large port in the nation. >> a visit between you thes? >> i've had some calls. >> they want to get together? >> yes. >> thank you, sir. up next, political chaos.

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that's enveloped the democratic virginia party. it was in ralph northam's medical yearbook page. now another democrat, virginia attorney general has admitted to wearing black face. in his statement today he said in 1980 when i was 19-year-old undergraduate in college, some friends suggested we attend the party dressed like rappers we listened to at the time like curtis blow and perform the song. it sounds rilsz even now writing it but because we did not have an appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others. we dressed and put on wigs and makeup. while northam has said he won't step down, the ag has left that possibility open. he wrote in the days ahead, honest conversations and discussions will make it clear whether i can or should continue to serve as attorney general.

but no matter where we go from here, yrb will say from the bottom of my heart i am deemly, deeply sorry with the pain i cause would this revelation. he is second in line behind lieutenant governor, fairfax who is now facing a sexual assault allegation. professor is alleged fairfax assaulted her in 2004 during the democratic national convention in boston. which fairfax denies. he says the interaction was entirely consensual. he says i cannot believe given my obvious distress that he let this forced sexual act was consensual. late tonight fairfax said reading dr. tyson's account is painful. i have never done anything like what he suggests. anything review of the circumstances would support my account because it's true. i continue to believe tyson should be treat would respect

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welcome back to "hardball." late tonight the "washington post" called on governor ralph northam to resign. it reads governor ralph northam can no longer effectively serve the people of virginia who

elected him. his shifting and credulity shredding explanations of the yearbook page and the silence which he sucomed for days after promising to do the hard work and atonement is too much. his decade long public service is admirable and his governorship has been irredeemably wrecked by the clueless mess he has made in recent days. wow. i'm joined by greer, and michael erick dyson, professor of socology at the georgetown university. i mean this is like a domino of calamity here. you you've got the governor being pushed by the "post" to quit. lieutenant governor accused of sexual assault.

number threed a milting to using black face at an escapade and you've got the fourth person, head of the assembly who would become the governor, a republican. >> and this is the problem. i've rr been on the phone with democrats in virginia all day long today and basically they're not sure if one of these dominos is going to fall, two are going to fall or are three are going to fall. and and they're trying to figure that out each has their own calculation. if one goes do two get to stay? if two goes does the third get to stay? and i think the democrats in virginia are trying to keep a democrat governor and that same time keep some sort of ability -- >> and it's an interest word now. do we believe a guy who's put together his yearbook page in

the k krbs k costume -- he chose out of three pictures for his memory, his memorial in medical school and he had nothing to do with that and he wasn't in that picture. >> it does strain credult to be certain and people think you're in one senseitati imitation is sincere form of flattery. black face is not about imitating black people. it's about in one sense holding them to mockery. >> why the minstrel tradition? >> it's about appropriating black identity from a white person and controlling it. the big lips, the big eyes, the scared look on the face, frozen in the headlights look the cork on the face was not to emulate but to tarnish them in a way. so it's not about facing black culture as square as you can but to allow whiteness to appropriate it.

>>. >> your thoughts academically. a teaching moment. why did it start? why is it still going on and how did it survive through the 80s? what's going on in year books? >> i mean the sad thing is it's still going on around college campuses today. i teach at a college campus and every semester there is someone who puts on black face, no matter what. it's schools in 50 states across the country. so clearly we have not had the recing many americans think we have had. i fundamentally agree with jonathan that the democrats are trying to figure out how do you keep a democratic governor. let's back up a little bit. governor northam never said whether he was in black face or the klan hood the first friday

he admitted it. now he's back tracking. now he denies both. and gives us a tutorial in black face. the fundamental problem is governor northam keeps changing his story and if he leaves the governor's mansion, seems to want to burn it on the way out. i think he's not the same as attorney general harry. >> i want -- a lot of this is we're watching the back wash of kavanaugh and the senator from minnesota, franken, the guy who admitted it is gone. the guy who denied it in the supreme court. the less on seems to be cover and duck, admit nothing, put up with the heat. is that the message we want in our society? that's the winning message so far? >> i think the republicans have shown us, we've seen

mcmcconnell, and a king with a confederate flag on his desk and we've seen the president time and time again calling the mexicans racist. the difference is republicans don't leave. the democrats are trying to keep a moral high ground and trying to keep power and that's harder need tool thread. >> it is and the problem is of course having complication and nuance. fwlrs professor said there's a difference between herring and northm there is. we've got to create space for people to have the opportunity to apologize, to reckon with the history of their reckless behavior and move forward on a path of redemptive and restorative justice. all issues are not the same. there's a continuum. on the one end, heinous acts that are egregious and on the other end flagrant offenses. >> is there a difference bedween

a guy playing a victim of the kkk basically and someone who says he was imitating an african-american hip-hop star? somebody he liked? >> yes and no. there's a difference between being kurtis blow and standing next to a kkk guy. it on the other hand the fact you do it through the prism of a narrow white sprem ssz ideology, then you've got to confront it. there's a difference, however, bedween the two. >> interestingly you talk to people, democrats in the virginia legislator. the one thing, with herring, they're super frustrated about. while the commentary was worse than northam, he called for northam to resign knowing this about himself. >> dyson of georgetown and -- up

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the 2020 news keeps popping. here's beto o'rourke with oprah. >> have you given your safl deadline? i'm serious. >> and the serious answer is really soon. is really soon. before the end of this month.

>> and amy cloeb sure says she will make an announcement this weekend as is jill brand and castro. senator elizabeth warren is close, the same is likely on a smaller scale if and when bernie sanders announces he will make another try. what's luring people in is the prospect of actually becoming president. donald trump looks beatable but when you run for president, you face a lot of scrutiny, mistakes that get you bad publicity can set off explosions when you're higher up. people knew she was identified as native american on the penn and harvard faculties, what we didn't know is she registered on her texas bar association earlier. this is going to be a vicious election cycle. anyone puts him or herself in

the pedestal -- and the bully never tires. what most fear, what most thursday americans, those daring to run against him is a passion stronger than political survivor and that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts. tonight on "all in." >> year not going to be intimidated by the president. >> as the president complains. >> it's called presidential harassment. >> tonight houses democrats announce a sweeping probe of the president's finances and russia as they hand over troves of transcripts of russia. new reporting on the federal investigation on the trump inaugural committee. plus fire from democrats on gun safety, climate change and voting rights. >> this is the united states of america. >> and as the