alongside -- "morning joe" starts right now. >> reporter: could there be other documents out there with you self-identifying as american indian? >> during this time period it was consistent with what i did because it was based on my understanding from my family's stories. >> there are efforts to stop people from voting! that's not right! this is not russia. >> virginia attorney general mark harry now admits he, too, once wore black face. >> i'm shocked and incredibly disappointed. this has been an awful week for virginia. >> a look at just some of the big stories we'll be talking about today. >> that's an understatement, isn't it? >> just virginia itself. we could talk for three hours. what's the matter with virginia?

>> it is thursday, february 7th. with us we have washington anchor for bbc world news america kh katty kay. and heidi pryzbyla, along with willie geist and mike barnicle in new york. we're just over a full day removed from the president's state of the union. >> i didn't want to talk about that yet. >> you don't want to -- >> let's do a deep tease to willie geist. i saw a tweet last night. i forget who said it exactly. it said in one week virginia has jumped right over the state of florida right into louisiana territory as far as craziness goes. and, boy, it just continued yesterday. >> it's beyond crazy. you wonder where the bottom is.

we've gone through the top three elected officials in the state of virginia and how far does this go? it's incredible with the charges of sexual assault and now the attorney general saying he, too, had been in black face as he dressed up as performer curtis bow. i don't know who is next. it may come down to putting in the governor's mansion someone's who name was picked out of a hat because the election was too close to call in november. seriously. >> we saw also on twitter yesterday, mike barnicle, that somebody congratulated the strength and conditions coach at uva because he is next in line. >> i saw that. i tell you, joe and mika, one of the things that struck me immediately about this story is the governor's situation, what kind of a college allows ku klux

klan pictures in the year book? that's what i couldn't get over, in addition to the foolishness involved. >> i think there's opportunities for meaningful conversation on each of the cases. it's an incredible story that we have this sort of three-pronged scandal in virginia but some interesting conversations ahead. we are over a full day removed over the president's state of the union. it is fascinating to watch the reaction play out. "the wall street journal" editorial board saw it as an effective piece of political rhetoric and a pitch for bipartisan cooperation in congress. democrats including nancy pelosi heard something very different. she said the president should not, quote, bring threats to the floor of the house. others heard in the president's address the sound of campaign talking points and a preview of the president's 2020 reelection bid. no matter what, democrats are digging in, both on 2020 and

with their new found investigative powers as a majority force in the house of representatives. and that's -- go ahead. >> katty, a lot of people, you take even trump critics like peggy noonan thought the speak rhetorically was ideologically effective. a lot of people saying that was donald trump's first speech in his reelection bid to run in 2020. >> i read the reviews and thought i must have been watching a different speech. it wasn't particularly well written. it was disjointed. it really turned straight from cancer to foreign policy. it was policy light. there were no specifics on how we're going to h.i.v. or cancer. if you stripped away some of the more platitudenous parts of the speech, the core was the parts

about abortion and the threats. it was long. it was really, really long. >> it was also, sam stein, factually inaccurate. a problem there saying anything is a rhetorical success. also, if a seventh grader had written that in a speech class, they would have gotten an f. again, it was written so badly. i would criticize the segues but there were no segues from partial birth apportion until cancer. >> they didn't like the rhyming couplets around cancer? that didn't do it for you? i find it ot that people at this point in his presidency can take a speech and assume he is interested in governing unity. there is no new donald trump. he is who he is. hours before the speech he was at an off-the-record gathering

where he was blistering in his criticism of john mccain and then went after adam schiff at an appearance at the state department. i don't know who can get duped into believing there's any real calls for unity and the idea that he was threatening and not subtly that there would be war if there was any investigation into him. >> i thought it was ot the oppoe of a unifying speech if you threaten to shut down the legislative branch if they complete their constitutional duty of oversight over the executive branch. that in and of itself is

disqualifies. i don't recall the speech. if the president intended to get nancy pelosi off his political trail, he failed and it back fired. >> oh, no. and that -- the whole nancy pelosi image was fantastic. but now house democrats are moving forward with their pledge to hold the president accountable after, as we said, his dramatic declaration in the state of the union on tuesday essentially saying that investigations into his administration and associates are harmful to the nation, as harmful as war. today the house energy and commerce committee will open a hearing to investigate the policy of separating families at the southern border. the house ways and means committee will meet on the topic of presidential tax returns with a senior member predicting they will have them within two or three months. and the judiciary committee will discuss a subpoena today in case it is needed to compel the testimony of acting attorney general matthew whitaker

tomorrow. >> is he still sweating? >> this after the intelligence committee voted wednesday to send dozens of witness interview transcripts from its russia investigation special counsel robert mueller. and adam schiff announced the house intelligence is reopening the russia investigation into -- >> basically everything. now here's the money clip. >> reporter: adam schiff said he was going to launch a deep investigation -- >> did you say adam schiff? never heard of him. that wouldn't be partisan, would it? >> reporter: not only into russia but into your personal financial transactions. >> and on what basis would he do that? he has no basis to do that.

he's just a political hack who is trying to build a name for himself. that's what they do. but there would be no reason to do that. no other politician has to go through that. it's called presidential harassment. >> isn't oversight part of the legislature's job? you served in the house more than a decade. >> i did, i did. look, congressional oversight is a part of the checks and balances of our system. >> want he saying that can't happen? >> what the president referred to last night was partisan investigations. you've spoken about the president. you know his feelings about investigations on capitol hill. we don't object to oversight, that's the proper role of committees in the congress, but when it takes on a partisan tint, when it seems more intent on becoming a forum for ininvestigai invective and the investigation,

the white house expects better. >> this is why they made such a push not to lose the house because they knew adam schiff would be the head of the intel committee and now they're saying they're going to share the transcripts with robert mueller and that's happened and led to charges for michael stone. so you have the house intel committee working together now with the special counsel's office and before that has produced some charges, that has produced some guilty pleas. we'll see what comes of it this time. >> willie, it is so much more extensive than that. let me explain to you what is going through the president's head with that outburst investigations. today when the house ways and means committee convenes to have its first hearing on taxes, it will officially cross that red line that the president sent

about not devilling in his personal finances. i was told by aides yesterday that the extent of the probe into this president's personal finances is going to be extensive, it will go across six different committees. if you listen closely to what chairman schiff said yesterday, he used the imagimagic words "m laundering." this is going to go beyond russian collusion and interference and into a documented history, if you look at how recently the trump organization faced a fine of $10 million over violating anti-money laundering standards at the trump taj mahal, it's going to be pretty extensive. >> when you listened to the first few minutes of this program, starting about the state of the union and the elements or lack of elements in the state of the union, talking about the potential of investigations that are just beginning under the democratic stewardship of the house of representatives, it's pretty

clear that the priorities facing this country are not going to go be addressed again for another two years. >> right. and that became crystal clear during stacey abrams' democratic response. she talked about a lot of things that we're used to hearing presidents talk about priorities for the american people. she talked about the shutdown, something that the president didn't even talk about. so we're in this point, mike, as we talk about on the show every day and on every show priorities are not being focused on. what's affecting the american people is not being focused on because the president spends all of his time tweeting, picking fights with perceived political enemies and not -- and focused on own political survival instead of the american people. >> sam, are we going to have another shutdown?

>> yach . >> yeah. i'm surprised the republicans -- obviously there's concern it would laid the predicate for democrats doing the same. everything you hear in this conference committee, it's not going to include the funding for a concrete border wall. and president trump must know that at some point in time in a couple weeks, less almost, he's going to have to either swallow his pride and sign it or shut down the government again. >> or declare a national emergency. >> why? >> that puts republicans in a difficult position because they didn't like the shutdown by the end of the shutdown last time. they don't like a national emergency. >> they know where the polls are going to go. >> it's going to be the same way this time. >> republicans always get the blame for the shutdown. >> except for schumer shutting down the government over daca

and early in trump's term, he did get the blame. the question i have is the white house is sending trump down to el paso, they're going to do this big campaign speech along the border. >> why is he going there? >> straight into the lie. >> exactly. >> my question is why don't ethey gthey get a little more creative? i know they don't want to do a deal on daca but there are things they could add outside the debate that might be incentives to them. >> like what? >> but in is political insanity. i hate to keep repeating it but this is the issue that led -- this is no hyperbole -- to the largest vote total defeat in the 240-year history of these united states. this issue that donald trump remains obsessed with. this issue led to a shutdown that saw his approval ratings

and the republican party's approval ratings plummet. and less than one in four americans supported donald trump shutting down the government for his wall. this is a political loser and yet it's all he wants to talk about. >> joe, we're talking about the judgment of one man versus in the past the paradigm has always been the party working together in coordination with the white house to come up with a deal that by the time it's sent up there, it's pretty much all but blessed and the president will sign it. in this case literally if you talk to top leadership aides in the senate, they don't know what the president's going to do, even though technically they're working with them to try and come up with this deal. they can get a deal. they're almost there. if you talk to the negotiators, you see the democrats giving some on fencing, you see the republicans coming down off of that hard 5.7 billion number, whatever it is. they can get to a deal. the question is at the 11th hour, what is the decision this

president is going to make about not the party about his own political fate and whether it's better to just say i declare this national emergency, so be it, in terms of the party but at the end of the day i can tell my base that i went to the mat to them on the number one promise that i made in my campaign. >> willie, you've talked about it before. what was the date? they had the deal. republicans, democrats and the president had signed off on a deal to fund the government and then ann coulter and rush limbaugh objected. >> yeah. we have to remind people why we're here. the president of the united states had a deal and on the cover of the front page of "the washington post" back in december it said the president backs away from pledge against the wall and he heard it from all corners of the conservative movement, from the republicans on the hill who said you cannot back away from this core promise, this chant you led through 2015 and '16, it's why

so many people voted for you. and the reaction of ann coulter and rush limbaugh effectively led us to the place we are now where the president knows he cannot back away from his pledge for a wall, even though nancy pelosi says there will be no money for that wall. >> absolutely none. coming up, we're going to talk about the state of virginia, top three leaders, on down to the two who would replace the governor. two leaders admitting to using black face at times in their lives and one accused of sexual assault. we'll go through each case coming up on "morning joe."

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who is embroiled under similar circumstances, involving a racist photo, which northam denies being in. >> before we get to his statement, which is much better than the bag of mulch's statement who is sitting in the governor's office, i'm not being glib or anything, but do you have any insights in virginia. i grew up in meridian, mississippi, tuscaloosa, alabama -- >> that's some serious south. >> atlanta georgia. and for a good 45 years. yeah, there was racism there. i never once -- i never once in the red neck riviera in tuscaloosa -- i never was in a fraternity but i never once saw a friend or acquaintance put black shoe polish on their face.

is this unique to virginia or was i just really isolated for 45 years in the deep south? >> maybe you were isolated. i can tell you in the "washington post" today there's a great story just detailing virginia's history as the cradle of slavery. the first african slaves to hit north america arrived in virginia. and ever since then virginia has just been a mess when it comes to race, when it comes to african-americans in our history in this country. the idea that you have a person who's a governor, democrat or republican, the party doesn't matter, it's the action that matters. and governor northam is still governor of the state, after having a picture there that he said was him friday night, then saturday says, oh, it's not me and i'm going to go find the

real person. >> and, by the way, mishandling it as badly as he did ---less i, if i'm the guy's aide,87% of th go into the churches and you ask for forgiveness. you beg for forgiveness and you explain that you understand just how shameful and how stupid your actions were. he's done nothing. he's talking about being an independent. >> yeah. we'll leave that to the side. this has been the major thing for me here. ralph northam would not be governor of virginia were it not for the african-american vote and black women in particular. what has he done to make amends with them? >> exactly. >> peggy wallace kennedy, who is the daughter of george wallace told this fantastic story on the faith and politics pilgrimage last year in montgomery,

alabama. we were sitting in dr. king's former church. george wallace was a huge, huge, as we all know segregationist. but after he got shot, he had a conversion. she told a story of how george wallace came into that church in his wheelchair, went down to center of the church and begged forgiveness from the testimony congregation there. and from that moment on, he did everything in his power to make amends and his last race for governor, he won the majority of the african-american vote because they appreciated the fact that he knew he was wrong and he made amends. what is governor northam going to do to make amends? >> we've read he's been hold up. and we've got reverend al at the table in new york as well. this is mark herring's statement yesterday explaining that he and friends at the university of virginia went to a party dressed like rappers that they listened

to at the time like curtis blow. he goes on to explain that, quote, because we did not have an appreciation for of experiences and perspectives of others, we dressed up and put on wigs and brown make-up. herring goes on to astotone fors actions writing, although the shame of that moment has haunted me for decades and though my disclosure of it now pains me immensely what i'm feeling in no way compares to the betrayal and shock that virginians may be feeling. i fear my action has been contributed to them being forced to revisit and feel an historical pain that has never been allowed to become history. he concluded by saying, quote, in the days ahead honest conversations and discussions will make it clear whether i can or should continue to serve as

attorney general. >> let's bring in the host of "politics nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. we just heard that wonderfully moving story by jonathan telling us about george wallace, the segregationist to end all segregationists, begging for forgiveness, seeking atonement for those he harmed. i wonder, is there a place for that forgiveness here? you look at herring's statement, the a.g., and you almost think if northam had been able to do that on saturday in the press conference and convinced the black votes are that elected him that he understood the pain that he caused instead of smirking about moon walking, we may not still be talking about this today. >> what did you think of the apology? >> i think that herring

certainly set a right tone. the question is does forgiveness come before or after you have done something to demonstrate the sincerity of your apology. i remember the story that jonathan is talking about because i preached the sermon that morning. this is on one of the anniversaries of selma when george wallace's daughter stood up and all of us were so moved. let me say all of us have said or done things we feel was over the line. i've used racial language, even the "n" word i had to apologize for but you had to go back and correct it. there was a huge gathering in harlem that were called by people who said ant anti-white things and i got up and denounced people using ant anti-white things and who

covered it was jonathan, who said sharpton really did stand there and denounce people who may have heckled him for doing it. the question i have here, joe, is not a black face is not someone saying something over the line, it is an intentional display of someone mocking a race. for this governor to not only say friday night i didn't, saturday morning i didn't do it and in his saying i didn't do it. he said i didn't do black face, my friends told me i i wasn't in that picture, but i did do black face against michael jackson. so i didn't rob wells fargo, i robbed another bank. all whites did not wear black

face in virginia. i hope whites and blacks join us together but there must be a penalty. there governor should design. in florida, joe, your home state, secretary of state appointed by desantis who many of us used race in his campaign against andrew gilliam, he fired -- desantis fired erktel for finding out he had black face. in virginia you can do black face and do a half moon walk and walk away from it. this is a national crisis in terms of race relations. >> and when the paper called that secretary of state to get a comment, he's like there's nothing i can say. there's just nothing and i know it. >> and today on the editorial page, we called for governor northam's resignation.

but here's one of the things that stood out as highly, highly offensive, talking about dressing up as michael jackson, he said i used just a little shoe polish to put on my cheeks. the reason is i don't know if anybody has ever tried that but you cannot get shoe polish off. that to me says that's not the first time he did black face, that's not the only time you did black face. the fact that governor northam has basically become punxsutawney phil and has gone into hiding since then is shamefu shameful. >> again, willie, quite a contrast from the attorney general. >> and is there a place for the attorney general's apology? >> and is there a place not just in this situation but obviously as the reverend said, we've all, you know, as he's preached, a lot of southern baptist preachers i've listened to preach through the years, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory, is there room for

forgiveness for 19-year-olds, 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds that do really stupid things and then you have somebody like the a.g. coming out and saying, yeah, it really was a stupid thing for me to do and i'm ashamed. >> he did but he has a problem because of something he said earlier in the week. he said, quote, it is no longer possible for governor northam to lead our commonwealth, it is time for him to step down. by his own standard, he, too, mustst must step down. joe, you talked about your own growth and not feeling great about things you've done or said in the past. in 1980, the attorney general said he dressed up and put on black face, he's not proud of it. do we allow for people to grow

or do we throw them out into the public square? >> there must be room for growth but we've all had to grow. but the question is if you really want to grow, you must accept that you have to do some penalty for your deeds at that time or later if, in fact, it is discovered later. what they're asking for is to have forgiveness without repentance or penalty and that you can't do. you remember, willie, many years ago when i was leading a march against a racial killing in brooklyn, a white man stabbed me. and i went to court and i said to the judge, i forgive the man, this white man stabbed me and said i forgive the man. and the judge said, reverend, what you're saying is noble but he still must do the time in jail. he did nine years in jail. i visited him in jail.

he still had to pay. he can be like george wallace's daughter but you can't have it both ways where you say forgive me but don't penalize me. i lied and i hid my past to be governor. that's the reason you didn't tell it. you must say i'm willing to give that up, now i'm willing to be an instrument for reconciliation. >> i was more thinking, too, about the attorney general, what he said, same thing, dressed in black face but he wrote that letter. is there room for him to grow or should he set down? >> there's room for him to grow but he must live by the rules that he set. what is the national standard? i'm not talking about words. i'm talking about when you do an intentional mocking. imagine if that was someone that had on a terrorist uniform of

any other race. because that's what the ku klux klan robe is. it's a terrorist uniform. it's not a word. it's not somebody speaking out of turn. >> that's what i was going to ask you. we focus legitimately so on black face pictures of the government, ku klux klan right next to him. >> this is terrorism and lynching and murder and bloodshed when you look at it. you can't equate whether should should apologize wore words they used with standing there with someone in a robe, in an outfit of the kkk. that's an intentional expression and that's a bar that we must nationally say that you cannot continue to serve and you can grow and serve and you can be an instrument of reconciliation but

you have to pay a price for it. >> we're going to talk more, about the crisis that the lieutenant governor is in. governors understand if they live by the high land stards and the lieutenant governor story continues as it were, there just may be a republican governor in the state of virginia when the 2020 election comes around. >> i think this next story has its own complexities, because while in the first two stories that we discussed both men admit to what they did, we have a situation where two people have two very completely different versions of what happened. he is accused of sexual assault. we will deal with that issue next on "morning joe." n "mornin" i hear it in the background and she's watching too, saying [indistinct conversation]

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relief, we have a tweet from the president of the united states that sam is going to read. >> two in fact. the first one, 26 minutes ago, "so now congressman adam schiff announces after having found zero russian collusion that he is going to be looking at every aspect of my life, both financial and personal, even though there is no reason to be doing so. never happened before! unlimited presidential

harassme harassment, and now picking up the thought, the dems and their committees are going nuts the republicans never did this to president obama. >> all right, let's just stop right there. where was he? this benghazi investigation, how long did it go on? they literally kept it going until hillary clinton's campaign was over. for four years they investigated. >> here comes the real gem. i hear other committee heads will do the same thing, even stealing people who work at white house. i don't know. >> how many people have been indicted in the witch hunt? are we in the 39s, 40s? >> we're in the 40s. >> he says witch hunt. he says russian bloggers, which means his campaign manager was a russian blogger. his pick for national security adviser was a russian blogger,

which means his long-time lawyer must have been a russian lawyer, long-time political -- >> consigliery -- >> consigliery, i guess, the president admitting they're long-time russian bloggers. >> let's see what else happens before 7:00 in the morning. he's not watching. >> we are the world, we are the people. >> the woman who accused the virginia lieutenant governor justin fairfax of sexual assault. she's speaking out about what she says happened inside a boston hotel room at the democratic national convention in 2004. in a statement dr. vanessa tyson writes, quote, what began as con sensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault.

mr. fairfax put his hand behind my neck and pushed my head to his crotch and then describes in detail how he forced her to engage in orseal sex. i tried to move away but could not because his hand was stronger than me. i could not believe that mr. fairfax thought this forced sexual act was consensual. to be very clear, i did not want to engage in oral sex with mr. fairfax and i never gave any form of consent. the lieutenant governor, who says the encounter was con sensual responded in a statement writing this -- "reading dr. dyson's account is painful. i have never done anything like what she suggests. any review of the circumstances

would support my account because it is the truth. i take this situation very seriously and continue to believe dr. tyson should be treated with respect, but i cannot agree to a description of events that is simply not true. all this as virginia's lieutenant governor prepares for a legal battle with his accuser. justin fairfax has hired the same law firm that represented supreme court justice brett kavanaugh during his hearings. he said in a statement, i wish her no harm. nor do i seek to denigrate her or diminish her voice.

>> wow. well, this is emotionally charged and how do we talk about it? he says that it did not happen. she is coming forward and if you read, you know, all the accounts leading up to this, she didn't want to come forward. she didn't want to put herself in this position but has found herself in it. putting on the table, it very hard to understand why any woman would do this if it didn't happen. having said that, who's to say it did? >> i think we have to go through the same process. we can't play judge and jury on this one. there will have to be some kind of an investigation of who she spoke to privately spoke to. the words in the meeting were very clearly derogatory words towards a woman, they don't

boost he is credibility about the way he's speaking about this woman -- >> his temperament. >> he was not in a position of power. >> do men think that something is consensual when it's not? do men think she's actually recessr resisting and saying no but i find that appealing and i'm going to say it means yes. >> the problem that democrats are facing is that by the time that allegations of what kavanaugh did as a 15-year-old, allegations, led most democrats on the judiciary committee to say that he was disqualified to be supreme court justice. so what do democrats do now with a guy who is arising start in democratic poll sitics and woule a star on the stage for decades

to come? >> we have a lot of examples of democrats setting what they're calling a zero tolerance policy. the problem here is that frankly she seems pretty credible. she's a college professor. she's a democrat. there's no hidden political agenda here and she told her story a long time ago. like you said, mika, she did not by all accounts want to come forward. they found her. yes, this is something that happened a long time ago -- >> and she's been an advocate for victims of shus? >> with these investigations what we've seen is that there are other accounts. a lot of times when there is one incident. >> so who is investigating this? is it us? jonathan capehart, go ahead. >> to the point of the expletive used in the meeting, as soon as it happened, i reached out to governor fairfax's people and

said, whoa, what's going on? they vigorously denied that that had happened, that he had used an expletive to describe dr. tyson. i have been talking to them since this story first came up a year ago, and this is -- this is different than the kavanaugh dr. blasey ford. one second. the "post" had the story a year ago, didn't go with it because they could not corroborate her story or his story. this is literally a situation where they're both, as you said, mika, rightly, they're two different versions of events. he's not saying that they never met, that they never had any

kind of engagement. it's was it assault. and there's a journalistic standard. >> and there's one more thing. congressman bobby scott in the post today -- dr. tyson and congressman scott have been friends for a long time. she told him a year ago after she went to the post and there's -- it's unclear what he did with that information when dr. blasey ford went to her congress fom so to the point of who is going to investigate this, i don't know. but lieutenant tyson and -- >> i was going to say there's a journalistic standard which you articulated here and then there's a journalistic standard. >> let's talk about that journalist being standard because during calf you gnaw and

sometimes when you have scandal after scandal after scandal pile on top of each other. that squushl jurn i mean, we can look whack and i hope somebody at a journalism school looks back at what happened during the kavanaugh hearings and the low standards that a lot of journalists held themselves to and editors held themselves to and what was published in a rush while the hearings were going on. there's a reason why the fbi needed more time to investigate because, quite frankly, a lot of journalists put a lot of garbage out there. >> that's fair. and my point was there's a journalistic standard and a political standard. and more the past year half has

been us and that is in the wake of the investigation against alex fair fabs, the voices that have often been there that say believe women, believe women, and they're pretty silent. we reached out to every 2020'er, who is running. they've been reached out to leading progressive institutions. they have said nothing. >> it reminds me of monica lewinsky, where you actually had feminists -- monica lewinsky. and it reminds me of the hillary clinton campaign, one of her earliest missteps she said all women should be believed and immediately opened herself up again

against. >> there's been a lot of retro expectative about monica recently and feminist groups have said, man, we really shouldn't have done it that way and we were not open minded. you would think that in a pot earn day certainly, they would handle it differently. but this whole process has been designed by we got to ways and we go well, the name is out there, put out a story cause silence. >> and when we talk about what happened in the democratic party and politicians in terms of a had in a and come to

contemporaneous stories as fact. that's where i think we got ourselves in a really difficult situation because you got to cover the facts, not the accounts that we take as fact. willie, there's more. >> yeah, there is. i just want to go back to what you said at the beginning, which is in the case of dr. vanessa tyson and the case of dr. ford, we talked about that in realtime. it is an incredibly difficult thing for any woman to come forward, especially in a case like this. but in a case like this where people are going to be the details of your story will be on so you cannot dispute fully what

he says or multiple reports allege that the woman accusing dr. fairfax of sexual assault that to express concerns about fairfax fairfaxes aid alleges that tyson did not disclose herself as a he learned the details of alleged encounter when they emerged also a and was lart inaugurated that january. in a statement to nbc news, to

have her story herd frp is this the court of public opinion? i understand there's going to be a lawsuit here about brsh prrk and who's running is possibly riding on that. >> joe, there's so much going on in this story. samstein got goth to it in a bit. what's happened on the news media, the rush to get something out between 7 a.m. or 9 a.m. this morning, that sometimes has a detrimental effect on journalist. but what will live spoke to i think is the key to this. in this day and age, this is event that occurred 15 years ago in the summer of 2004 in boston, massachusetts. and for a woman to come forward now and to risk exposure of her

entire life, who risk humiliation in talking about this, you'd have to go with the woman. you know, i don't know what's going to happen in an investigation. >> mike, let me just stop you right there. i mean, is that the standard we're pundits, we're what's the. >> but we're also parents. we have children, we have daughters. >> so you are when you look at human nature, what does she have to gain by coming out now? >> nothing. >> absolutely nothing. for sure. . i get that.

especially that is where we want it to go. that's where we should watch the we two other leaders in pennsylvania who? and that will play out in the public sek um -- is it appropriate for this man to step down accused if he says he didn't do it? >> if you believe there has to be some independent of play out in a legal context if it's not leading to a court proceeding because no crime was committed here. >> no, she said she was assaulted. >> she said she was assaulted. >> and that would end up in a court, in a trial? >> they're both hiring lawyers. we assume that may be where this is headed, right?

>> i think logically -- the logical thing is have an investigation before the person steps down. how, we're not living in a larger universe. we've set person plit pl ka maybe the standard was wrong. beto claire mccaskill about it yesterday and mika was saying in realtime during of and clar mckiss call did the. you "damn right" and i did pay for it on the campaign trail. s if many democrats and everyone

overreacted potentially, doesn't mean that is the they didn't have the information to run with the story but that doesn't mean that it can't be investigated by professionals in a timely manner. >> after first refusing to weigh in, senator and presidential hopeful cory booker told cnn yesterday democratic congresswoman jefr ever saying i reverend al sharp don, what do you think? >> i'm doser to you, mika. with.

and i think that we must look at this in that context. but if f black face, there is nothing it had you u and i think we shouldn't confuse the two issues. the governor said i did black face on michael cohen. there's nothing to investigate. he said it. the secretary of state says i did something wrong, putting black face on kurtis blow. there's nothing to investigate. there are people with different stories in the lut fent governor race. i'm on my way to virginia to deal with the fact that they're two people who convicted themselves. what is the race kwal we have to and must deal with what are the standards away and some

virginians are actually asking west virginia to take them back. >> it's the top of the hour. >> it's the top of the hour. sorry abris we're talking in the fairfax situation at least an und underagain, go back and read some of the report the you were talking about in realtime. but i've got o aalso, i ifshe said, "no matter how serious the allegation, we cannot ao we're still a country that believes in due process. >> i think they're trying to do

several things, including be respect approximately a sfsh a safe place in the woman's spectrum to come forward. that's where we're getting a little tripped up on it. some of the other parallels were cavanaugh is that like north am, officer i know something happened to chris on can but no have facts to fom and their so that they were not fit for office and that helped me as a person of an opinion to do -- to get them out of here. >> and it may -- if justin fairf

fairfax tlnd drnchts hoose in does he step down because you have to believe somebody would not come forward with this kind of allegation? or do you when stwrnk that's a israel sfrrchl that is not really going to happen in these facing. what brianna keilar was facing esessionly a beeni just want to say, cat pab fash make nos north

korea find it hard to believe the next time we're on a ballot in virginia that this story doesn't follow him around through every democratic primary and there will be, if not legal, there will be political consequences. >> and often if have been cases, you have to look at one story and how credible are they and ul of this will come out over time. >> and to that point, catty, "the washington post" when it looked into this over a year ago couldn't find any accusations again him. >> and mork and virginia governor is only unpep frrnl and brianna keilar didn't come forward until christine bloody.

>> so we hit the top of the hour. it was a conversation we will continue today. house democrats are moving forward, though, with their pledge to hold president trump accountable after, as we've said, his dramatic declaration in the state of the union on tuesday essentially saying investigators to him and his associates are as so much in the nature and war. today they will open a topic of presidential tax returns with a ebb yeen ser. are will have them for about two or three months and the jacks of acting attorney general matthew whitaker, this after the intelligence committee voted on

wednesday to season prosecute potential cases of perjury. and the house intelligence committee reopens aush investigation. the potential vulnerabilities of trump being investigations president trump reacting to all this new degrees. >> adam schiff said he was going to launch a deep investigation into not only russia but -- >> did you say at am schiff? >> oh. i never heard of him. >> not on in he's just a

political hack. he was trying to build a name for themselves because that's what they do. there would be no reason to do it. no other politician has to go do that. it's called presidential harassment. >> isn't oversight part of legislature's job? you served in the house for over a decade. >> i did, i did. correctional oversight is a pr if pred referred to last night was partisan investigation we don't object to oversight. that's the proper rolls of committees in the congress the

american people expect better. >> wow. we have host of "andrea mitchell reports," andrea mitchell and reporter for the post eugene scott joins us as well. >> we'll let you talk about the snoon and all the. >> but, willie, there was donald trump insulting congress wauns again, insulting the chairman once again. and not only adam schiff but obviously nancy pelosi just not intimidated the please. it almost as if the. i think what we saw yesterday, well could the next two years of the trump administration. it's going to be investigation after investigation from the intel committee, from the

oversight committee. those are the names we teedthe we'll who are going to pursue this administration and continue to pursue and this was what was period by trum you see him even out at adam schiff. >> yeah, clear is the right word. clearly there's a fear in the president, and around him. but there's a fear of what is going to happen, what has been ongoing. there's a fear of nancy pelosi and tries to inject the fear into the country. and of course if he cam sin of caravans that are coming, here of and the tell to me, one of the tells in the state of the

union speech is that he is still tonightly to his his own self that we spend $500 million to cure childhood cancer. on the other hand he's asking for over $5 billion for his wall. i would ask anybody out there watching this program, what do you fear most, the fact that maybe one of your children or one of your grandchildren might god forbid get childhood cancer? or a wall? >> yup. it's a great way of putting it. >> andrea, what is so surprising is republicans continue to stand by and not speak out even more loudly because this wall, as we've been saying has been such

the shutdown was a nightmare for them. what's doing to happen next? >> they are desperately looking for a solution. think be are but you have people like pat layy and they know how to put these things together. i interviewed john bar asio yesterday, we have to they are fearful of losing their appropriations committee and of a cot being if they can help it, not knowing exactly how it will

it, and their problem is that after wapd in december before christmas, they can mut what is rhett rhetty are i would say arizona reporting to democrat and republicans on the brount steve miller, that's who he's listening to. >> the wall, we think of it as a

policy but it's not a policy. it's become so much bigger than just a 5.7 billion dollar project. if he cannot get the wall, it's determine by that he has failed and for republicans, too, it's become so symbolic of something much longer that they can no longer afford to give in they owned washington, they could pass anything they wanted to pass and during that time lindsey graham, who is now aing this is all that matters, lindsay sid you had one roar effectively i would say turned this into a referendum not on bored are security but on

himself. so now you have these cockamamie arguments on how the wall needed security. there was a hearing yesterday on gun violence, first in almost a decade in the house. and they're talking about solutions to ending what is clearly a problem in our skri of gun violence. and mate ghent because illegal come plants there's no lodge being to that. it's insane. but the wall has become so emblematic of the -- >> and have heartland parents coming out. >> we have that. i'd love to show it to. >> this is now nothing to do with the wall and streert. >> after seeing it happen.

>> dave: this morning flsh he will speak here on "morning joe" and say what he needs to say. but here's that moment with congressman matt gates. >>tr 2/would not have stopped many of the yourselves would. >> mr. chairman. >> don't go. >> there will be. >> the time of the members, those people will be asked to depart the committee. >> so, catty, what -- >> we're going to have that father that you heard trying to speak on the show this morning. >> who was being pointed at.

up that's just a sfwrrks he gives the example of crime and the fact is you can immediately put up statistics from donald trump's own government that show native-born americans commit violent crimes at a higher rate and are inrars kated at a higher rate than illegal immigrants. he talks about drugs. almost 90% come through legal ports of entry. we could go down the list of every argument that he's making from the al. it's all i can't be undermined by statistics from. >> migration, illegal immigration is clearly a huge

issue right around the world at the in order to consolidate their own positions in power. that is exactly what is happening on this issue here. the statistics don't live up to what donald trump is trying to sell with his hardline rhetoric. all he is trying to do is to keep his path and it is not about the wall. it is not about the surt security. our plan for border security is more robust than the president's plan for bored are security. if there this and again, who is i'm going to say this again to my republican friends, my former brothers and sisters, they issue

is a political loser. it cost more republican seats than any time since watergate, you most more in this mid term than any time since its constitutional republic was creat created. by the way, the news gets worse for you politically. in to, to r, mid terms, usually wider and more conservative. that's 2018, and you get pounded on this issue. pounded. 2020, it's going to get a lot uglierer. so andrea, the reason this is not working and i uls figured this out. voters are pretty smart. they know what they need. and while there are some people that may listen to what we just saw and the racist undertons may excite them, illegal border

crossings are at their lowest point since 1971. now, i don't know where you were in 1971. i know sam wasn't born. eugene probably wasn't born. >> i was not. >> i was definitely born. >> i was playing t-ball in meridian, mississippi listening to the jackson 5, playing pin ball with snow cones in meridian, mississippi. that's what i was doing in 1971. and that was the last time -- what was i, 7 years old, and that was the last time the border crossings were as low as they are right now. the congressman we just saw wasn't alive. >> and this is a national emergency. >> in is why republicans are getting pounded, because they know it's not. >> you could argue that there's a national emergency about thousands of children who were separated before april, before

they publicly announced this new policy, secretly separated and there's no tracking system and no plans to reunite but people are going to court from that and there are going to be hearings on that now as well. this is all about 2020, this is about bumper stickers and, quote, legitimate political fears by republicans that they will be primaried or that they will lose their elected power because this president is so popular with the base. that said, let me just say the republican senate is shifting. you can feel as ronald reagan used to say, that was the concrete beneath my feet when he caved on the tax bill and was successful because of it. you can feel the change. there was a vote, you know, 68, then 70 votes on an amendment led by mitch mcconnell against the president's foreign policy. >> how would you like to be corey gardner running in colorado on this? you'll lose. in maine, susan comeillins lose.

>> they are so turned off on his policy in syria, in afghanistan. >> how el paso is finding himself in the middle of the debate. what it says about his -- >> wait ash seco second. i think that dan coates, the director of the national intelligence actually said that isis could be reconstituted in the next six to nine months in the threat assessment. they all did. >> they all talked about that but anything at the border didn't come up. anyhow -- >> that's like george bush having a mission accomplished signed behind him while bombs

are exploding in the background. >> this is about his planned withdrawal from syria and the potential to roar back to life. "morning joe" coming right back. best-in-class turn radius and best-in-class mpg. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. great news for anyone wh- uh uh - i'm the one who delivers the news around here. ♪ liberty mutual has just announced that they can customize your car insurance so that you only pay for what you need. this is phoebe buckley, on location. uh... thanks, phoebe. ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back to "morning joe." hey, willie, a classic from t"te new york post" today. have you seen it? "virginia is for losers." >> aw. >> let's bring in tom friedman, the author of the best selling book "thank you for being late." you've been writing about illegal immigration as well.

>> we have a president who is trying to solve a problem with rush limbaugh, ann coulter and he should be solving a problem on illegal immigration. they sent us about 187,000 kids since 2014. why have they done that? basically governance in these states have broken down. they've been racked by a number of things, a surge in population in guatemala, destructive weather and gang violence from ms-13 people from the united states who were repatriated there. this is part of a global problem. the immigration problem is a global problem. we have 70 million people, more than any time since world war ii on the move today. why? because states around the world

are breaking down. just as it's harder to be an average worker today as compared to the cold war, it's harder to be an average state today. the only way to solve the problem is with a comprehensive approach. you need family planning, a climate approach, a governance approach, you need an investment approach to these countries. it's the only way to solve this problem. and we aren't doing this inpreh. >> the president is even talking about cutting funding for these troubled states. >> what's going on globally today, in europe it's from suba haran africa, libya, afghanistan, iraq, syria. you see massive amounts of people trying to get out of the world of disorder into the world of order. >> as far as order goes, this has been one of my chief concerns with central europe and

even western europe for the past five or ten years. there is no middle ground. angela merkel either accepts and certain political factions will call you a racist if you don't have an open borders policy, and that's exactly why we are seeing what's happening in central europe right now and it's a real danger. i love what you have say. there has to be an ordered approach. there has to be a measured approach to immigration. yes, we love to celebrate with ain angela merkel when they didn't do the checking they needed to do. >> we had 300,000 troops for 50 years and we had a marshal program. we need a security approach and marshal plan to prevent the

spread of disorder from south to north. that is the global problem we face. trump is just grandstanding, looking for an emostive sym emon dealing with this wall. >> and after world war ii it was not only the marshal plan that we put into place but actually harry truman called on herbert hoover to figure out a way to actually save the millions of refugees that were wandering around europe. and it was actually, perhaps, herbert hoover's greatest moment but it was an extraordinary moment. but that was american leadership. now with this worldwide immigration crisis going on, you have a president who wants to shut the door and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist. >> at the moment, there's very

little american leadership and very little in britain as well as they're dealing with this brexit thing. the fear is even in countries where there's really been no big influx of refugees for example, into germany of 2015. the numbers are right down, they're much, much lower today. and yet the prospect is still easily whapd up by people on the extreme right on the extreme left, and that is a political it's happening in poland, the czech reem, in germany and denmark and sweden as well that even after when there is not a real crisis -- >> but there has been, though. there has been a negative -- there have been negative events that followed what happened in germany. you can say the same thing for sweden. again, everybody's lauding them but it has caused some security

problems there. and, by the way, it should be okay in europe to say that without people putting a swastika on your face. and that's what's led to the extremism. and you're going to see this firsthand when you go to -- the tragedy of what happened in poland would break dr. brzezinski's heart. there has to be a mesh-yaasured approach like tom said. >> look at what happened here with the president misrepresenting the facts with the number of foreigners that commit crimes in america. it will be used. >> research around brexit, it found that towns that voted to leave, it was did you have a strong, healthy community? if people felt anchored in a

community, they voted to remain. i think that's one of the things driving europe here and -- >> i know we have to move forward. i just want to follow up, though, about how what's happening across america is happening across the planet. what tom just said where there wasn't a strong, healthy community they voted for breks it. you you it's where communities are breaking up and they don't have the support to pick up the phone and say, hey, my wife and i would like to ge g out to dinner tonight, do you know a good baby-sitter? and you actually had a community working together. and tim's entire book is the breaking apart of these communities. you can look where these communities have broken apart, where churches and other

institutions have been unfortunately some of his most costic rhetoric unfortunately has an impact. >> well, tom brought up climate change. nasa scientists announced yesterday that last year of the fourth hottest on record. the five warmest years in recorded history have been the last five. last year was also the wettest in the last 35 years as warming oceans cause more evaporation and that leads to rain. and there were 14 natural disasters that cost the united states at least $1 billion, well above the average. one nasa climate scientist says the cause is unequivocally, quote, because of the increases in the greenhouse gasses that we put into the atmosphere over the last 100 years. >> let's bring in bill karins right now.

bill, you've got some maps on, this don't you? >> yeah, i want to talk about how this is going to impact the next election cycle here. it's increasing. it's getting to be a more important issue, joe. not just for democrats but mostly for republicans and for the president to see how he shifts or if he shifts and it's because he hasn't yet butch his base -- but his base is. yale does a survey every year about how important the climate is to registered voters. two years ago only 27 said it was a big deal. last year it was at 30%. the biggest number why i think you're going to start to see traction even on the conservative side is that the independents is up 15% in the last year. are they worried about global warming and should we do anything. i think the push for a new green deal is going to happen you when i tell you every year we're in the top 5%. so it's going to be a bigger issue.

if you look at the last couple presidential debates that we had, it was barely even mentioned. >> tom, you wrote a book about this a decade ago called "hot, flat and crowded" where you talked about the need for a green revolution. i think bill is right when you look at poland, particularly generationally this has moved up as a political issue. global warming used to be a nonstarter in politics, because if you looked at poll, people frankly didn't care and didn't see the urgency. do you feel that changing now that what's so crazy about -- there was no good time in my vount of view for donald trump to be president of the united states but this is a uniquely bad time. we have exactly enough time starting now.

there's no time to waste. i did a documentary a year and a half ago on climate refugees in africa and we started in senegal. senegal today in west africa is already a two degree rise average temperature since the strig es solution. oh that's what the paris climate agreement was designed to prevent by 2100. it hammers small-scale agriculture and combine that with population explosion, they can't survive on the land. what do they do? they get on their cell phone, find a human trafficking app and sudden lip you have this huge wave of people. people have to understand you have no idea what is coming and

we have exactly enough time starting now. >> and you may recall on january 28th in the middle of the polar vortex in the midwest, the president of the united states tweeted "in the beautiful midwest wind chill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. in please come back fast, we need you! >> it prompted nasa to release an extraordinary response the way the intel community did the following week to say the president is gone. >> thank god. >> if climate a on they had a massive power failure because it was so hot the electric company couldn't keep up. >> and what i think they're revealing right now is a public health issue, which the polar vortex did when it conveyed how many people were dying on issues

that really could be worked on. but another reason it will be of increased importance is because it's a pop issue millennial voters reminded us they're actually the largest voting bloc and largest voting group right now. the president will not be able to get on a debate stage and actually talk about what he has done to improve this issue since he got in the white house. in fact, he'll be if a position to defend we need another billion in about ten years. if they all want to live in american-sized homes,y american-sized big mac, we're going to devour up this climate faster. who thinks america can be great and not lead the next great

global industry? please raise your hand. >> exactly. andrea mitchell, thank you very much. we'll be watching "andrea mitchell reports" coming up at noon. >> and president trump is predicting isis will soon lose all its territory. he's claiming north korea is no longer a threat and he's treating iran a biggethreat, ne "morning joe." threat, next on "morning joe." a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. neutrogena®

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caliphate. but i want to wait for the official word. i don't want to say it too early. >> the coalition's hard-won battlefield gains can only be secured by maintaining a vigilant offensive against a now largely dispersed and disaggregated isis. we do have to keep pressure on this network. it is a resilient network. they have the capability of coming back together if we don't. >> while isis is nearing territoryial defeat in iraq and sear yash t syria, the group has returned to its guerrilla roots. it is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in iraq and syria. >> joining us now, a member the foreign relations committee, democratic senator kichris murp of connecticut and from the wmd

commission, a senior resident fellow at the german marshall fund. >> senator, the preintelligence intel community, the leaders he appointed himself that were approved by a republican senate disagree with his assessment on isis. in fact, a general yesterday was asked if general mattis was wrong to object to the president wanting to withdraw from syria. he said, no, sir, he was not wrong. it seems the only person celebrating donald trump's departure from syria, the only people, are assad and putin. >> if the president wants to live in his own fantasy world about domestic policy, maybe we can figure out a way around it. but when he's living in a fantasy world when it comes to the national security of the united states, that's where lives are at stake. the fact of the matter is, yes, we have effectively removed

territory from isis, but there are still upwards of 30,000 fighters -- >> by the way, and this began i know -- i know donald trump doesn't want to hear this -- this began under barack obama. >> right. the military campaign. >> yes, the military campaign. the president was slow, president obama was slow, pu but he realized he had to start moving and he did. >> i think you have to understand that there have been gains made but there have also been new opportunities handed to isis. what has happened in iraq over the last year or so is that the new leadership in that country is starting to do the same thing that the malachy government did to marginalize communities that gives more reason for isis to make the case that they are the saviors of that country. you have conditions set for a

resurgence of isis in iraq and you have civil conflicts in places like yemen that are allowing insurgent groups to grow as well. i'm glad that we have made so much progress on territory, but i'm very worried this president is living in a fantasy world. >> mike barnicle has a question for you. >> senator, we just saw general vodel coming into this segment testifying and about ten days ago he was testifying and was asked about the president's decision to announce the removal of troops from syria and the general said he found out about it on twitter, that he was not told beforehand. one of the things that we don't discuss enough on these programs and other programs and i'd like to you discuss it, if you can, is how dangerous this is to have a president of the united states so indifferent or so ignorant of policies that affect lives, affect us, affect people around

the world. >> so there is a way, and there was always going to be a way, in which to orderly withdraw american troops from syria, but the fact that he surprised the entire defense and foreign policy community right as they were inside the region making commitments and promises that those troops were going to be there for a longer period of time puts owes troops at risk and our the partners at risk and it there is a way to guarantee kurdish control in northern syria in such a way nthat the turks can live with. but that takes time. that takes months, not years, but can't do that as you are precipitously removing troops

from syria. as we go around the world, we're going to find fewer willing partners because they have no idea the president partnerships because they know that they have no influence or have very little influence with a president that can change his mind based on one phone call with a foreign leader. >> this has been a question hanging over military leaders now for over a year. what is the president's approach in syria? what is the end game in syria? we're still not really sure what it really is. >> no, i mean, joe, here's the thing, you don't just precipitously withdraw. you don't make this decision on the spur of the moment without consulting with your generals first to get your facts right and without talking to the diplomats to talk about how this bolsters your end game.

he wants to withdraw forces from syria and afghanistan. it doesn't look like in either case it's embedded in strategy. we want end of the civil war in syria, same thing in afghanistan. we need to work with our partners and allies. they're looking at us also like what where you guys doing? >> add to that equation the upcoming summit with north korea. >> right. that's the other alternative reality that's going on where there doesn't appear to be a strategy. steve has worked a long time in washington, d.c. and on foreign policy but i don't know what he's negotiating. the president had an opportunity to tell us what he's going to do. here's how i'm going to get kim jong un to give up his nuclear

weapons. tom, you look at the president's strategy, you look at the president's approach especially in syria and it seems i aesz like such a tragedy for people who followed this closely because we as a country have made so many mistakes since september 11th, 2001. so many mistakes in afghanistan, so many mistakes in iraq trying to adjust to this new world disorder, but it seems like we figured a formula out in syria that not only works, that not only has kept the iranians, the russians and the turks at bay but almost more importantly is a small enough footprint that it's sustainable. >> well, you know, joe, three reactions listening to this. one is the two rules i've had in middle east reporting. when i paeheard the president s

he defeated isis. rule number two any american general assigned to the middle east should take a short test. do you think the shortest distan distance between two points are a straight line? you can go to germany, okinawa, japan but not to syria. one of the big things i've learned is that we're much better at amplification than large scale intervention. when you see something decent happening there, amply fie it. one interesting things about the kurds, these are people who are not perfect but they've created an island of decency. find your islands of decency, amplify it and we're doing it at a relatively low cost and a small footprint. i would be going after putin and

iran and calling them out as the biggest occupiers of the sunny a rab muslim world. the biggest occupiers in the middle east. we never do that. >> all right. >> and senator, we also have to face a new reality. we -- it seems like every year, i've made this mistake. i've always made the mistake of saying we've been in afghanistan for ten years. we've been in afghanistan for 12 years. at some point we may just have to say you know what, we've been in south korea a long time. we've been in germany for a long time and in the words of general mattis to the president of the united states, why are we there? to prevent world war iii. we may have to have a small footprint in afghanistan for a very long time.

>> i think you have to put side by side the evidence that we've seen over the last decade naphtha american presence in these places kills one bad guy and then often creates two more and so there are two things that happen when we're there. yes, you can kind of keep the adversaries on the run, but you also create what the intelligence community talked about in iraq back in the early days as a cause for the terrorist movements that like to fight the united states and our allies so there are two sides of this and i frankly don't think the president is wrong to pursue some creative avenues for peace and stability in afghanistan. the settlement is going to be ugly, but ultimately the things he's talking about may be our best shot in getting out of there. >> so as we continue to mark black history month senator, you wanted to call attention to langston hughes. >> i just read a poem to my

son's class and i learned a lot more about the harlem renaissance than i knew. we can celebrate the authors and the artists who early on in those days during jim crow were telling the story about what black life was like living under those rules and laws of norms so i think as we celebrate the historical actors this month it's also time to talk about the artists and authors that painted a picture of injustice. >> and you wanted to highlight journalist chuck stone. >> i did. i'm an alumn of the university where chuck stone was a professor. he was one of the first presidents of the national association of black journalists and i think when we're seeing how many race is a major story in the main stream media it's a reminder of how few people of color were able to tell these stories historically and had they done a better job of

talking about the divisions that existed over decades perhaps some of the issues we're dealing with right now we wouldn't have. >> senator chris murphy, thank you very much. yeugene scott. >> i don't know if you can stay -- >> i'm happy to stay. >> stick around. >> president trump is using this morns's executive time to rail against time on executive overstieove oversight. he's now set to visit el paso after being fact checked. we'll talk to the congresswoman who represents that district. "morning joe" is coming right back. t district "morning joe" is coming right back

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> . >> did you say adam schiff?

>> adam schiff. >> we are not going to be intimidated or threatened by the president. >> could there be other documents with you self-identifying as an american indian? >> all i know is during this time period this is consistent with what i did because it was based on my understanding from my family's stories. >> there are efforts to stop people from voting. that's not right. this is not russia. >> virginia attorney general now admits he too once wore blackface. >> i'm shock and incredibly disappointed. this has been a an awful week for virginia. >> a look at some of the big stories we'll be talking about today. >> we could talk for three hours. >> what's the matter of virginia? >> with us we have washington

anch anchor for bbc cat ty kay. and nbc news national political reporter heidi, along with willie geist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle in new york and we're just over, what, a full day removed from the president trump's state of the union. >> i don't want to talk about that yet. >> you don't want to talk about the state of the union? >> let's do a deep tease to virginia. a tweet said in one week virginia has jumped straight over the state of florida right into louisiana right into -- >> let's not get crazy. >> right into louisiana territory as far as craziness goes and it continued yesterday. >> it's beyond crazy and you wonder where the bottom is. the top three elected officials in the state of virginia and how far does this go?

it's incredible when you get to the charges of sexual assault made against the lieutenant governor, now to the attorney general who wrote this extraordinary letter admitting that he too had been in blackface in 1980 as he dressed up for a performance of the rapper curtis blow. i don't know where the bottom is. people are digging through and it may come down and we'll talk more of this by putting in the governor's mansion, a name that was picked out of a hat because the election was too close to call. >> somebody had congratulated the strength and conditioning coach at uva because he is next in line. >> he's very good though. >> i saw that. i tell you, joe and mika, one of the things that struck me immediately about this story is the governor's situation. what kind of a college allows that stuff? ku klux klan pictures in the yearbook? that's the thing i couldn't get over in addition to the

foolishness involved. >> i think there's an opportunity for meaningful conversations on each of the cases. it's an incredible story that we have this three pronged scandal in virginia but some interesting conversations ahead. but we are just over a full day removed from the president's state of the union and it is fascinating to watch the reaction play out to the president's speech. the wall street journal's editorial board called it -- democrats including nancy pelosi heard something different. she said quote, the president should not bring threat to the floor of the house. others address the sound of campaign talking points and a preview of the president's 2020 re-election bid. no matter what, democrats are digging in both on 20/20 and with their newfound investigative powers in the house of representatives.

and -- >> i thought it was interesting, a lot of people, you take even trump critics thought the speech rhetorically was effective. side logically was effective. a lot of people saying that was donald trump's first speech in his re-election bid to run in 2020. >> i read the reviews and thought i must be watching a different speech. it wasn't well written. it's really different. it was policy light. there were no specifics on how we're going to deal with hiv or how we're going to deal with cancer and if you stripped away the platitude nous, the real core of it was the imgags and the tough line on abortion. >> and the threat that many saw.

>> it was really, really long. >> well, and also, sam stein, i mean, it was factually inaccurate, so got a problem there saying anything is rhetorically -- a rhetorical success. alts al also, if a 7th grader had written that they would have gotten an f. it was written so badly. there were no segways from partial birth abortion to cancer. >> and the couplet around investigations, that didn't do it for you? >> not quite. >> i find it odd that people still at this point can take a speech and assume that he actually is interested in governing unity. there is no new donald trump. he is who he is. hours before the speech he was at an off the record gathering in which he was just blistering in his criticism of not just democrats but of the late

senator john mccain and hours after the speech he went after adam schiff. so i don't really understand who can get duped at this juncture to believe there's any realistic calls for unity. i also thought the the idea that there would be economic despair and war was really revaling and odd. if you're innocent of anything, you say bring it on. i got nothing to hide. instead what he did was the exact opposite. >> i thought it was the opposite of the unifying speech. when you threaten to shut down the legislative branch, if they -- if they complete their constitutional doughty of oversight, over the executive branch, that -- that in and of itself is disqualifying and i don't understand the place for the speech, but if the president intended to get nancy pelosi

off -- off his political trail he failed and it backfired. >> oh, no. and the whole nancy pelosi image was fantastic. but now, house democrats are moving forward with their pledge to hold the president accountable after his declaration in the state of the union on tuesday essentially saying investigations into his administration and associates are harmful to the nation, as harmful as war. today, the house energy and commerce committee will open a hearing to investigate the policy of separating families at the southern border. the house ways and means committee will meet on the topic of presidential tax returns with the senior member predicting they will have them within two or three months and the judiciary committee will discuss a subpoena today in case it is needed to compel the testimony of acting attorney general math you whitaker tomorrow. this after the intelligence committee voted wednesday to

send dozens of witness interview transcripts from its russia investigation to special counsel robert mueller who could use them to prosecute potential instances of perjury. and democratic chairman adam schiff announced a multipronged reopening of russia investigation. links with trump's campaign, transition and administration -- >> basically everything and now here's the money clip. >> adam schiff said he was going to launch a deep investigation. >> did you say adam schiff? >> not only russia but your finances. >> he says the political hack, he's trying to build a name for himself and that's what they do,

but there will be no reason to dig, no other politician has given that. it's called presidential harassment. >> isn't oversight part of the legislature's job? you served in the house for more than a decade. >> i did. a congressional oversight is part of the checks and balances of our system but -- >> was he saying that can't happen? >> what the president referred to last night is partisan investigations and you've spoken about the president, you foe his feelings about investigations on capitol hill. we don't object to oversight. that's the proper role of committees in the congress, but when it takes on a partisan tint, when it -- it seems more intent on becoming a form for invective against the president and against the administration, the american people expect better. >> so heidi, this of course is what the white house feared by losing the house in november. which is why they made such a push not to lose the house

because they knew adam schiff would be head of the intel committee and now adam schiff saying we're going to share these transcripts with robert mueller and we should ree mind people that's happened already and led to the charges against roger stone. and from michael cohen pleading guilty to making false statements to both the house and the senate. so we have the house intel committee working together now with the special counsel's office and before that has produced some charges. that has produced some guilty pleas so we'll see what comes of it this time. >> it is so much more extensive than that. let me explain what is going through the president's head by that outburst of investigations. when they have their first hearing on taxes it will cross that red line that the president sent about not delving into his personal finances but what i'm told by democratic aids is that

the extent of this probe into the president's personal finances is going to be extensive. it will go across six different committees and if you listen closely to what chairman schiff said yesterday, he used the magic words, money laundering. so this is going to go beyond the investigation of russian collusion and interference directly into the trump organization and a long history and a documented history as well if you look at how recently the trump organization faced a fine of $10 million over violating anti money laundering standards. >> you know, when you listen to the first few minutes of this program this morning talking about the state of the union, the elements or lack of elements in the state of the union, talking about the potential for investigations that are just beginning on the democratic stewardship of the house of representativ representatives, it's pretty clear the priorities are not

going to go being addressed again for another two years. >> right. and that became crystal clear during stacey abram's democratic response. she talked about a lot of things that we're used to hearing presidents talk about. priorities for the american people. she talked about the shutdown. something that the president didn't even talk about. so we're in this point, mike, as we talk about on this show every day and on every show priorities are not being focused on. what's effecting the american people is not being focused on because the president spends all of his time tweeting, picking fights with political enemies and focused on his own political survival instead of the american people. >> are we going to have another shutdown? >> yeah. i mean, the wild card is of course if he does an emergency declaration. i'm surprised at republicans warning him not to do it,

hinting quite publicly that they might bring up a resolution that would show their disapproval. obviously there's concern for democrats doing the same. but it's not going to include the funding for a concrete border wall. >> right. >> and president trump must know that at some point in time in a couple weeks, less almost, he's going to have to swallow his pride and sign it or shut down the government again. >> or declare a national emergency. >> republican opposition because they didn't like the shutdown by the end of the shutdown. they don't like a national emergency. >> they know where the polls are going to go. >> they know who got the blame last time and it's going to be same around this time. >> republicans always get the blame for the shutdown. >> except for schumer. schumer shutting down the government over daca early in trump's term they did get the

blame. the question i have is the white house is sending trump to el paso. >> why is he going there? >> straight into the lie. >> exactly. but what my question is, why don't they get more creative with this? i know they don't want to do a deal on daca but there are things they could offer up to democrats outside of the immigration debate that might be incentives for them. >> this is political insanity. i hate to keep repeating it. but this is the issue that led and this is no hyperbole, to highest vote total defeat in the 240-year history of these united states. this issue, that donald trump remains obsessed with, this issue led to a shutdown that saw his approval ratings and the republican party's approval ratings plummet.

and less than one in four americans supported donald trump shutting down the government for his wall. this is a political loser and yelt it's all he wants to talk about. >> we're talking about the judgment of one man versus in the past, the paradigm has always been the party working together in coordination with the white house to come up with a deal that by the time it's sent up there it's pretty much all but blessed and the president will sign it. in this case, literally if you talk to top leadership aids in the senate, they don't nose what the president is going to do even though technically they're working with them to try and come up with this deal. they can get a deal. they're almost there. you see the democrats giving some on fencing. you see the republicans coming down off of that hard $5.7 billion number, whatever it is, they can get to a deal. the question is, at the 11th hour, what is the decision that this president is going to make about not the party, but his own political fate and whether it's

better to just say i declared this national emergency so be it in terms of the party, but at the end of the day i can tell my base that i went to the mat for them on the number one promise that i made in my campaign. >> and willie, of course you've talked about it before. i mean, what was the date? they had the deal. republicans, democrats and the president had signed off on a deal to fund the government and then coulter and rush limbaugh objected. >> we have to remind people why w we're here. the president of the united states had a deal and the front cover of the "washington post" said he backed away. movement from the republicans on the hill said you cannot back away on this core promise, this chant you led, this is why so many people voted for you and the reaction of those people that you mentioned effectively

led us to the place where we are now where the president knows he cannot back away from his pledge for a wall even when nancy pelosi says there will be no money for that wall. >> absolutely none. all right. coming up on "morning joe," apparently el paso is safe enough for the president to campaign there. he's set to rally voters in that texas city just days after disparaging it during his state of the union and lying about it. we'll talk to congresswoman veronica escobar who represents that great part of the country. "morning joe" is coming right back. "morning joe" is coming right back

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one of the highest in the entire country and considered one of our nation's most dangerous cities. now immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place el paso is one of the safest cities -- >> president trump is set to hold a rally on monday in el paso, texas, the announcement coming a day after he made that false claim about the city in his state of the union address. a fact check by the el paso times shows that the crime rate in the city decreased before the fencing was constructed. the sheriff of el paso has also disputed the president's claim saying the city was safe before any wall was built. and that trump continues to give a false narrative about a great city. joining us now, member of both the house judiciary committee

and the house armed services committee. democratic congresswoman, veronica escobar of texas. her district represents el paso. she was the county commissioner and county judge for el paso county. also with us former chief of staff of the cia jeremy bash. usa today opinion columnist and house oversight, kurt bardella and senior resident dr. evelyn farkas is back with us. let's start with setting the record straight about el paso. i'm at a loss that we have a president that uses the state of the union to spread lies and to make up things to back up his -- his i guess political platform for 2020. how do you help el paso set the record straight?

>> good morning, everyone. this is part of it. i'll tell you it's really unfortunate that communities like mine have to spend time talking about what we are not instead of talking about what we are. el paso is and always has been a safe community. one of the safest in the country. we are also an important component of the national economy because we are a key artery for trade between the united states and mexico. we have really been at the forefront of dealing in a very humane compassionate way with the almost five years of central american asylum seekers who are arriving at our front step. you know, you mentioned that the president is coming to el paso and i've worked really hard to try to invite as many people to come to the community as possible. and today, the president will receive a letter from my office, number one, asking them to correct the record, and tell the country the truth about el paso

and the border. number two, asking that he apologize to my community, and number three, if he's going to come to el paso on monday, that he truly take the time to see the community in its entirety. what he will find is that yes, we have a fence, but felipe gomez, the eight-year-old boy from guatemala who died in u.s. custody was apprehended in el paso where we have a fence so he will see that fences don't prevent asylum seekers. if he provided us with the time we would show him the ports of entry so he could see the need for modern technology and personnel there. >> what went through your mind given all your experience? you've served in el paso, i mean, i just would have been speechless. >> i -- well, i wasn't speechless, but it was a very troubling moment for me. you know, i think part of what he was trying to do and it

really just came to me after the speech. he had to say that we were one of the most dangerous cities in america, again, which is a lie. and he had to say that so that he could prove his point which is border communities and immigrant communities are inherently bad places which is not true. to acknowledge that we've always been safe would be to acknowledge that border communities are actually vibrant, thriving, safe, secure parts of america. >> okay. so kurt bardella, i'm going to ask you to comment on the subpoenas being prepared. of all the questions being raised, which ones stand out to you? what are you looking at in terms of oversight? >> as we saw in the state of the union address the president flagrantly lies about everything but now we have a check and balance to fact check him, to use congressional authority to get the facts. when he says something about what's going on at the border we

have tools to get those answers. >> how do they focus and what stands out to you about the questions being raised right now? >> tomorrow we'll have the acting a.g. matt whitaker there under oath and he's going to have to questions about the mueller probe. we need to know what this administration is doing to stop investigations and we're going to get to the bottom of that. >> jeremy bash, of the questions being raised are we getting closer to not being shocked and having an understanding of what's happening? >> i think we're at the beginning here and over the last week you've seen the various chairman of the house committees unveil their oversight plans for the coming congress and i think this will take some time and a question i have for the congresswoman, which is how will you do oversight over for example the deployment of troops to the border? because this -- i've been in the pentagon this week. i served in the pentagon. i was there this week and you see a lot of personnel, a lot of

army personnel, focusedon not on the issues in syria or preparing for the summit and the regional implications of a deal with north korea. you see them focused on deploying troops to the border. >> so we just had a hearing in the house armed services committee about this troops on the border. we spent many hours and we never heard what we learned later that night through the media which is that the administration was planning on sending more troops to the border. we -- from my perspective it is obviously a misuse of resources. readiness is the number one goal, should be the number one goal. this undermines our ability to be ready and prepared. i think it's very bad for morale. and all of the president's speeches and through all his rhetoric about what's happening on the border with asylum

seekers and refugees, we've never once heard him address how we're going to deal with this from a long-term perspective. never has therein be a plan about how we will deal about countries in the northern triangle. it's instead a misuse of resources. >> that's what i wanted to ask you about. i think it's clear that the president wants to paint this picture that the wall is the solution. he wants $5 billion. we're approaching $1 billion for the troop deployment and our intelligence community and admirals have said the threat is china and russia. you mentioned central america, the countries downrange where these people are coming from. what should we do? what's a better use for that money? >> so we need a short term plan and a long-term plan. over the long-term, we need sustained investment and leadership and accountability there. our money needs to be spent

wisely. we need to be on top of that every step of the way. but it's going to take leadership and it's going to take leadership from the top. i have yet to see that. i don't think that the president wants to necessarily stop central american refugees. he -- the wall, if we take a step back, you know, he had two years to get -- >> he did. >> his party had an iron grip on the house, the senate, the white house. they didn't get it done. but somehow we're to believe that it's an emergency. the only emergency that exists is the president wants to deliver on a campaign promise. >> oh, we've got an emergency, but that's not it, his wall. >> it's willie geist in new york. i want to ask you, hopefully you have a leading voice in this conversation given your experience and the district you represent about what's going to happen in this deal over immigration. the president wants the wall, nancy pelosi says no money for the wall.

democrats have talked about smarter technology along the wall. do you believe there should be some concession on the democratic side? maybe parts of the wall should be built instead of the big wall that president trump is looking for? >> i don't, willie. and here's the issue for me. we have to be smart with our resources. and that's a lot of money. i have been talking to border patrol agents and customs agents on the ground and in the rural area, there is definitely a need for the normandy type barrier that they've always used. the challenge with that is -- so that is for the wide open spaces where cars and trucks are coming through. that's really what the normandy barriers are for. totally support that. that's always been the case. that's been in past funding, continuing resolutions. the wall is not going to stop central american asylum seekers.

and here's why. and if you came to el paso i would show you that the wall is not actually built on the u.s./mexico border. it's in some cases built several yards away or miles away. when central american refugees either get dropped off by coyotes because they can no longer -- asylum seekers can no longer seek asylum in our ports, they're walking across coming up to border patrol agents. they're asking for help. they're not running from our agents, they're running to our agents. a wall does nothing to stop that. so we've got to ask ourselves, what is the real goal here? and i am with our dhs folks when they say we've got to know who's coming into our country. we've got to have safe secure communities. i live on the border. we want safe borders.

but we have to do it in an intelligent way. dhs is the best funded agency, we are going to be asking for an audit. i want to know why that agency has been ill equipped or unwilling or unable to change the way that it engages on the border. the way that dhs is engaging today after almost five years of central american asylum seekers coming to our front door, it's engaging in a same way today as it was ten years ago, 20 years ago. even after we provided as americans a significant amount of money. >> and we want answers about separated children as well. >> thank you. jeremy and kurt, we'll be bringing you back a little later. i want to know when we'll see the tax returns. you look into that. still ahead, we'll show you the moment a republican congressman tried to turn a hearing about gun violence into a debate about a border wall. and the father's whose

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i hope we do not forget the

pain and anguish and sense of loss felt by those all over the country who have been the victims of violence at the hands of illegal aliens. hra would not have stopped many of the circumstances i raised, but a wall, a barrier on the southern border may have and that's what we're fighting for. i hope that we'll deal with all of the drivers of violence, the greatest driver of violence in the circumstances that i indicated was not the firearm. it was the fact that we have an immigration system that allows people to come here violently. we engage -- >> there will be no comments. >> is there a process in the committee whereby if the very same people are repeatedly interrupting the time of the members that those people will be asked to depart the committee or is there -- >> excuse me.

if the gentleman repeats or any other comment i will direct him be removed. >> that was at the house judiciary hearing on gun violence after a republican congressman argued that illegal immigration was a bigger threat than guns. his words prompted that outcry that you saw from parkland father manuel oliver and manuel is with us now. his son was killed in the parkland shooting massacre and manuel and his wife patricia are the cofounders of the gun control group, change the ref. i saw that happen jed and we both were watching the video that you created in reaction to jokes about parkland shooting victims and we found the work that you were doing, the art that you were creating to try and bring light to the problem to be so moving. and personally when i was

watching that hearing i wanted to hear what you had to say. so we'd like to hear it now. what is it that you wanted to tell the congressman? >> well, number one, i -- i really want this story to, at some point, get back to the name that really matters here which is wakeem oliver and the other victims and the other 40,000 victims that we lose every year because of gun violence. soy wanted to go over this chapter as fast as i can so i can get back to what i was doing before yesterday. i had no idea who this person was before yesterday. and he's a sales person from the republican party that becomes part of the commission and the reason why i called him a sales person is because he's selling a project that has no relationship at all to what was talking about. this person came in trying to

solve the problem with the argument that we need a wall. we're discussing about gun violence in this room and how are we going to end with this epidemic. and -- and some of -- a member of this commission, that should be qualified to sit down and understand our concerns, not only my personal concern as a father of a victim but there is also a lot of young people in this room trying to stay alive. and it was very offensive that the only side of the story that seems to bother them is these wall that seems to be the solution for all our problems. what i said is, remember, my son, remember us. and then he pointed at me like that. and you don't point at me like that. and then he tried to get me out of the room.

and you don't do that. you don't get me out of any room. i'll get you out of that room as soon as i have the chance to vote for someone else. so it wasn't a conversation between this person and me. i wish it was like that. i got a warning, said take it easy, sir. you better sit down and you're not allowed to say anything else, and that's fine. i just reacted as a father. i am still his dad and i will be his dad to the last day that i'm here and anybody that offends my kid will receive an answer from me. >> we would like our viewers if they get a chance sometime today to actually go online because mika showed me your -- your murdering innocent children

comedy night response to what lewis c.k. said and it was extraordinarily moving and as a father, it was so hard. it was so hard for me to even see your son telling the joke, playing the drums at the end. he seemed like such a lovely, wonderful kid with such -- just a jokes.

i was -- i was with my cell phone playing with him that comedy moment. so again, this is back to another name on -- on his story. this is about oliver, not about lewis or the guy from yesterday. i'm dealing with comedians. i'm dealing with -- with comedians inside capitol hill and outside of capitol hill. and the reason that i did that video for is because i wanted -- i wanted to make sure that i'm -- that i'm part of this fight in the best possible way. what do i know -- what are my skills? i -- i'm in the advertising business. i'm a creative person and i'm an artist. that's who i am. i don't wear ties, i don't wear suits. i don't go to meetings with politicians so i'll do my side

of the job by communicating the right message to people, to the majority because we need to understand that there's a big group that is supporting what we're doing and -- and it's only increasing every single day. so i'll keep on fighting this in a nontraditional way and i feel that i'm qualified for that and i'm -- and i'm trying to stay strong with the help of my son, wherever he is right now and of course my wife and my daughter to make this happen. >> mike barnicle. >> you foe, listening to you, mr. oliver, it strikes me and i'm sure it strikes everyone on the panel as parents, that you belong to a club that no parent ever wants to join. you've buried your son. and so yesterday i'm wondering as you watched that congressman point at you and basically

telling the country that a wall along the mexican border would be more helpful than anything having to do with the elimination of the restriction of gun ownership and usage, how do you deal with something as irrational as that coming from an elected official? >> well, it's not only irrational. it's wrong. but it's also a big contradiction coming from them. what happens here and i don't get it. i don't get it. i would say also in the state of the union, listening to our president, i don't understand why some deaths are more important than others. and -- and how we are trying to solve a small portion of victims and not the big picture. we assume that we have a perfect system that it's allowing people to defend themselves and that's -- that's all we think about. now -- now, here's the thing.

if we really are concerned about people dying from illegal aliens, they are claiming also from americans or from whoever gets out there and is a bad person and kills someone, then we should worry about all of them. the big picture of it. so the contradiction is yes, we want to save lives, but wait a minute. the wall will save 4,000. what about the other 40,000? you know who's an immigrant? i'm an immigrant. i did things by the book. my son came from venezuela. i was trying to find a safer life in here. he got shot by an american white dude. so what's the answer for that? if i don't get it from them, they will get it from me. that's my point. >> mr. oliver, thank you for sharing these thoughts about your son. by all accounts he was a remarkable young man and lost his life at 17 years old. you moved here 15 years ago from venezuela.

you all became citizens of this country. you chose parkland because it was a safe place with safe schools or so you thought until last february. i'm wondering what you believe ought to be done as a practical matter about guns in this country. what do you think is realistic that can change in this country with regard to guns? >> well, number one, i've been in other countries. i've been all this year i've been exchanging, educating myself into what other nations have done and they just didn't deal with it as soon as they knew it was a dangerous position. we need to make sure that we pass some common sense bills like the universal background checks is a no brainer and i don't even know why we're discussing this. by the way, i saved a lot of time yesterday by making my point, because now we're not going to waste more time talking

about the wall hopefully. and every minute that we save from this discussions is probably a life that we're saving. so this is taking too long. this is taking too long and the answers are right there on the table. you can see it in australia, you can see it in united kingdom. these are nations that were able to solve these. these nations were able to put their civilians and people before guns or the right to arm yourself. so we need to put some control in here and yes, some people don't like the word gun control. well, guess what? i do. and some people don't like to talk about guns because it's not the right time, well, guess what? it is my right time to talk about guns. so the reasonable solution as long as we keep our mind centered in the problem, my son is not here. what i'm doing is not going to save him. anyone that has a kid out there

should be worried and concerned about what happened to patricia and manuel and most important what happened to wakeem. so you should be part of the solution and push forward to make this thing happen. this is an american tradition. it is okay, it's okay, along the gun lobby and the number ra are behind, and the nra are behind this. guess what, it is not okay. >> all right. thank you so much. manuel oliver, we greatly appreciate it. it is important to note here that actually nine out of ten americans since newtown have supported an expansion of background check, universal background checks, an overwhelming majority of americans support the banning of bump stocks, which congress has refused to do, since las vegas, since people gunned down at a

country music concert. it is important to note that in many poll, the majority of americans support the banning of military style assault style weapons. the numbers actually, people may not like hearing that the congress, that actually, the overwhelming number of americans actually do support nonsense gun safety laws. we'll be right back. ight back. donald trump reopening the government without any money for his border wall. former trump adviser roger stone now in federal custody. arrested by the fbi in florida. s arre by the fbi in florida y gentle means everything, so we improved everything. we used 50% fewer ingredients

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checks and balances. he is learning it firsthand. and he's not handling it very well. >> and this is payback, there was not effective oversight over the russian threat to our democracy, so here comes adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee and he says i want to understand what leverage a foreign adversary has over our foreign adversary and i want to know what the intelligence community knows to share it ultimately with the american people. >> all very legitimate questions. you have a commander in chief who is actually taking the side of vladimir putin, an ex-kgb agent over his own fbi director, his own cia director, his own dni, his own military. >> yes, and people around him, who have lied, and the question is going to continue to be, did they lie, because they were inveterate liars or was there a

conspiracy. and we don't know the answer. the curious thing consistently is how, why does donald trump continuously support vladimir putin. why has he not called him out? why he is so soft on him? and adam schiff has wondered was there any money laundered through the trump organization. >> and giving vladimir putin the biggest gift he can give by retreating from syria. >> there are concerns that he is truly giving vladimir putin a gift, because putin has something on him. we don't know that. when are we going to see the tax return? do you think they will indicate or give us a little bit more information as to what president trump's intentions are with russia? >> wut when someone hides something, there is usually a reason for. that and the ways and means committee, having a hearing today, talking about presidential tax returns, they're laying the ground work, the legal and justifiable ground work to issue a subpoena for the tax returns. and the ways and means committee

chairman has the authority to request the tax return of any citizen in this country. and that's why trump is having a meltdown right now on twitter. >> and we have been hearing that the mueller investigation was coming to an end now for about two years. i'm skeptical. do you think it is coming to an end? do you think we have a way to go? >> i think it is wishful thinking. he just indicted roger stone. multiple terabytes of data to go through. they have the grand jury. and michael fin. and i think there is a lot of work that the special counsel has to do and i think people need to settle down and let the facts go where they will go and then decide what the state of the president will be. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie picks up the coverage in three minutes. overage in three minutes i switched to liberty mutual

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hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning, open season, after threatening congress in the state of the union, democrats launch a series of investigations into president trump and his administration and of course his finances. the president responding to the latest announcement from the house intel chair adam schiff as well you would expect. >> he is just a political hack who is trying to build a name for himself. he has no basis to do that. it is called presidential harassment. >> oversight and commonwealth chaos. virginia's three highest ranki