about when she was born. just never let her memory die. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." thanks for watching. good morning. it is 6:00 in the east, 3:00 out west. spillover, the mueller report battle far from over. the deadline set by democrats is approaching fast. so what happens if the attorney general doesn't deliver? >> we're closing the border. we will keep it closed for a long time. i'm not playing games. >> new border battle. what's behind the president's latest declaration? is it possible to shut it down? what could be the fallout? surprise turn. jared kushner's unexpected testimony behind closed doors. what might have been behind his appearance at the senate intel

committee this week. hope hicks replied when i said there are documents. she said, nobody will see those documents. >> hope hicks and the story behind one of the most noted moments of her time in the white house from someone who was there. that's next. new today, the political and legal fight escalating over what congress and the public will see from the mueller report. the house judiciary chair insists it should be released with no redactions by tuesday. the attorney general writes in a new letter to congress he is preparing to release a redacted version by mid april, if not sooner. he says the special counsel is assisting him in making these redactions. grand jury material, intelligence information, material that impacts ongoing cases and, quote, information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. democrat jerry nadler says there is ample precedent for the department of justice to share all of the information that the

attorney general proposes to redact to the appropriate congressional committees. that's a position echoed by the house intel chair. >> bill barr said, i will be as transparent as possible, as much as the law or policy would allow. if he was true to those words, as jerry nadler said, he wouldn't be saying, i'm cutting all the grand jury material. he would be saying, congress, i'm going to the court tomorrow to seek their permission to send it all to you. >> the attorney general also says there are no plans to show the white house the report so that it could claim executive privilege. barr is defending his memo from almost a week ago in which he said the special counsel did not find evidence of collusion, but could not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice. barr says that letter, quote, was not and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting of the investigation. instead, it was a summary of its principal conclusions. not lost in this is how the president is framing the report

to his supporters. >> the russia witch hunt was a plan by those who lost the election to try and illegally regain power by framing innocent americans, many of them. they suffered. with an elaborate hoax. >> good morning. two big headlines overnight. the new barr letter and the president threatening to shut down the border. can you walk us through? >> reporter: good morning. when you look at the president's rhetoric on the border, it's escalating in the last few days. what he did yesterday was put a deadline on it. he is saying if mexico doesn't act and close and seal off the southern border, he will shut it down. it's a clear threat to them. listen to how he says and how he is talking about it. it seems like he is serious. >> we have two big caravans coming up from guatemala.

massive caravans. walking right through mexico. mexico is tough. they can stop them. but they chose not to. now they're going to stop them. if they don't stop them, we're closing the border. they will close it. we will keep it closed for a long time. i'm not playing games. mexico has to stop it. >> reporter: that was the first time the president talked about it yesterday. he talked about it a second time. he tweeted about it. it's clear it's on his mind. when you look at what the cpb is doing at the border, they are forced to release some of the migrants that are trying to get in because they don't have the capacity to house them. we will see throughout the next coming days how the president's rhetoric changes on this. importantly, what mexico says as well. on the other subject, we do have the issue of the barr report. the president seems to be going back and forth on whether he is for the full release. earlier in the week, he talked about saying it's up to the ag. yesterday he seemed to repeat much of that. he also added this tweet with a little more nuance.

what he said is, so maybe we should just take our victory lap and say no. we have got a country to run. as he is talking about not actually releasing the full report. at the same time, we're expecting from the attorney general that to come in mid april. he is going to have redactions. it seems as though the attorney general is prepared to release it. importantly, he said yesterday, ag barr, he said he wouldn't give the white house a preview copy of what he plans to release. >> thank you. let's discuss this further with michael wilner, white house correspondent, and dave leventhal with the center for public integrity. good morning. i want to start with the attorney general planning to redact information from the mueller report that he determines may damage the reputation of people peripheral to the investigation. michael, is there a national security argument behind this? is this mainly a political question? >> i think when it comes to the

reputational aspect for certain figures, peripheral to the investigation, i don't think that there's necessarily a national security element to it. there's a national security element to some of the sensitive intelligence that the attorney general says has to be redacted. that was expected. the parts that were unexpected are to your point. the extent to which reputations are going to be protected, grand jury information that's going to be withheld, there is precedent for that information coming out. obviously, watergate. democrats reciting that in their effort to get barr to issue a court order. so that all of the information could be released. >> a recent poll shows a vast majority want the mueller report to be released. dave, could whatever barr redact help the president here? how does redacting embarrassing information affect the perceived transparency of this process? >> it's entirely possible there could be isembarrassing

information for people interviewed or wrapped up in the investigation. by releasing all the material and having some of the underlying documents that went into the investigation, that could be problematic for some people, even if they're not being accused of a crime. this is tantamount to indictment. i think there's some agreement here on the part of donald trump, on the part of the attorney general and on the part of congress, democrats and republicans, that this will be released. what we're talking about here is around the margins, maybe a little deeper than the margins, in terms of what exactly will be released, when it will be released. representative nadler is really trying to angle to get this out in early april. attorney general barr is saying it's probably going to be mid april. those are sort of the state of play-doh ba debates happening. >> let's listen to the chair of the intelligence committee

defending his position that there's evidence of collusion but perhaps not of criminal conspiracy. >> you might think it's okay that the president himself called on russia to hack his opponent's e-mails if they were listening. you might think it's okay that later that day, in fact, the russians attempted to hack a server affiliated with that campaign. i think it's immoral. i think it's unethical. i think it's unpatriotic. and, yes, i think it's corrupt. and evidence of collusion. i do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is okay. i don't think it's okay that he advocated a new and more favorable policy towards the russians, even as he was seeking the russian's help, the kremlin's help to make money. there's a different word for that than collusion. it's called compromise. >> michael, is this a position that other democrats are taking? are democrats aligned in their strategy ahead of the release of the report? >> schiff is an exceptional position because he has become

the face of this investigation on the house side. there are democrats who are, of course, calling for the full release of the report across the board. but he gave a full-throated defense of himself after republicans on the house intelligence committee unanimously called on him to resign. so that was the context of him giving that speech. i will say that it seems as if barr's main argument on the reputational protection is basically classic justice department policy that you are not going to release disparaging information on figures who have not been charged. i think he is sticking with that line. so i actually expect a substantial amount of redactions with respect to that. >> in the midst of all of this, the president is threatening to close the southern border this

week. dave, does it seem the administration is taking the necessary steps to properly deal with this surge of migrants we are seeing seeking asylum? >> in many places on the southern border, there's not enough u.s. government personnel to deal with all the various issues that are happening down there, including people who are asking for asylum and then, of course, there's the issue of people coming over the border in a legal way. but to the question of whether the border will be shut or not, the president seems serious about this or is talking a strong game. the logistics are a nightmare. are we talking about closing certain border ports of entry? are we talking about getting armed troops back down there? are we talking about shutting off trade in terms of trucks that come over the border? even trains that come over the border, which would be potentially an economic disaster for the united states. donald trump has a lot to think about here in terms of exactly how do it. there's precedent, including in the '80s where certain border

ports of entry had been closed for a limited amount of time. shutting down the entire border would be something that would be quite remarkable and have some major after affects as well. >> a drastic step there. the chairman of the house homeland security committee, he is rejecting the request for faster deportations. michael, any chance that this request is going to be approved by congress? is this more about politics? >> i think it's about politics. what the president has done is set a major political expectation of his base that now that he set out a deadline, they fully expect him to meet it. at that point, the question is perhaps how long this closure goes on and to what extent. to the earlier point that was made to what extent these closures occur. because you can't actually fully close the entire border without massive economic consequences. >> that would be quite an endeavor. let's talk about a topic many americans feel passionate about,

health care. the trump administration is joining the legal fight to repeal all of the affordable health care act. it doesn't have a plan to replace it. 21 million people could lose their health insurance. dave, why would the president choose to focus on health care now? could this help democrats? >> it could help democrats. we saw how this went down in 2017 when the republicans controlled the house. the republicans controlled the senate. they tried to repeal obamacare. it didn't work even though they had full control and the president of the united states, stacked deck, full house. it didn't work at that point. the motion that something could happen that was better than what happened two years ago for donald trump, for the republicans right now, really seems to be a bit farfetched despite what the president is talking about. he may yet try. even mitch mcconnell and senate republicans have basically said, look, president trump, this is on you. go ahead, bring us your plan.

there seems to be very little eagerness on the part of senate republicans or house republicans for that matter to go ahead and do some sort of full-throated obamacare repeal as we have seen. >> dave, michael, stay with us. we will get back to you in a bit. want to talk about hope hicks. that's a little later. the unvarnished truth. what legal power can democrats use to see the full un-redacted mueller report? d mueller report

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i am going to make as much information available as i can, consistent with the rules and regulations. >> great confidence in the attorney general. if that's what he would like to do, i have nothing to hide. >> new development this morning as attorney general william barr revealed he expects congress to receive a redacted version of the special counsel's report by mid april. this comes as democrats demand the full report and the evidence within it. white jerry nadler stood by his april 2 deadline. joining me now is danny sovalis. >> mueller's job was to submit a confidential report. there was no requirement for mueller to redact or go through

and scrub information. his job is to submit the report to barr. then barr is the one that notifies congress under the regulation. so it's not that surprising that mueller would now be assisting in redacting the report. >> why does mueller's role in editing that report matter now? >> it matters a lot because there are several categories of information that should be scrubbed or at least redacted from the mueller report. those are grand jury information, unless a court order is obtained, information about any ongoing counterintelligence counterintelligence investigations do not end with indictment. there's also personal privacy information, which a lot of folks have looked at as a squishy wording in the letter. but it isn't. if you look, the law requires the doj redact information that could create an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. these are all legitimate

categories at least to try to redact information. >> we saw the categories right there of redacted information. do you think anybody in congress, including the gang of eight, will be able to see the full non-redacted report? >> it's hard to say. when it comes to a grand jury information battle, that would have to be done in the courts. congress has considerable subpoena power, not only to get documents, but also to compel people to testify before it. the real question is if they call a mueller or a barr, how much barr and mueller will decline to answer and stick to the four corners of the ultimate report that they plan to release publically. >> legally speaking, what constitutes peripheral third parties here? >> that's a gigantic spectrum. it could be people that -- whose conduct was so naughty that it rose to the level of almost being indictable but not quite. then at the other end of the spectrum, could be just folks who are essentially witnesses. they obtained information that

was relevant to the investigation, but they have no criminal liability themselves. it's that category of people that should be the most protected and for whom we should avoid any unwarranted invasion of their personal privacy, especially if they voluntarily cooperated with the investigation. they shouldn't be punished for that. >> whether n it comes to execut privilege, barr says the president intends to defer to me and there are no plans to submit the report to the white house for a privilege review. let's listen to what adam schiff said about barr's redactions. >> our investigation from the beginning to present has always been predominantly concerned with, is a foreign power existing influence over the president, people around him in such a way that it would warp u.s. policy in a way that was not in our national interest? by statute, the national security act, the intelligence community is required to brief congress on any significant

intelligence or counterintelligence activity. >> can asserting executive privilege hold up in court, especially if it blocks congress from investigating potential crimes or as mr. schiff said national security threats? is there any legal rule that might allow schiff to see those materi materials? >> if we can put the text up on the screen. notice barr says the president has the right to assert privilege. i'm not sure that means that barr is saying the president has a privilege claim. i think the wording is a little different. it may be the case that barr is saying, the president has the right to assert privilege. he doesn't necessarily have it. there's a pretty strong argument that there's no privilege in information that was voluntarily turned over to the special counsel's office. the president doesn't appear to want to battle. barr is relying not apparently on private conversations but on public statements by the president, not a secret discussion he may have had. the president, as we know, can

be a little mercurial. i think barr smartly put in the letter that the president has publically said he doesn't want to assert privilege. >> as always, we appreciate your insight early on a saturday morning. thank you. new details about that infamous trump tower meeting and how the president's aides may have worked to cover it up. why it all may have had a big impact on robert mueller's investigation. [zara larsson - "wow"] ♪ ♪ baby i'm not even in a gown ♪ and the only thing u have to say is wow ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪

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next battle, 2020. eye on iowa. four of the democratic candidates making 19 stops today in the hawkeye state. castro has the most events with seven. am yiy klobuchar has four. plenty of campaigning left. if you want to get precise, there's 310 days. the collusion delusion is over. >> as our rhyming president celebrates what he believes is a mueller report vindication, his

odds of re-election are improving. rising 1% since yesterday to 40% chance of winning re-election. the top three democrats trailing him, bernie sanders at 12.5%, kamala harris 11.5%, both moving up a point and joe biden falling four points to 8.7%. in a new interview, a former trump legal spokesman suggests the president and white house communications director hope hicks worked directly to mislead the public about the nature of the infamous trump tower meeting in june of 2016. >> i pointed out that the statement was inaccurate and that there were documents that i understood there were documents that would prove that. hope hicks replied to me when i said, look, there are documents, she said, well, nobody is ever going to see those documents. which made my throat dry up

immediately. i just -- at that point i said, mr. president, we can't talk about this anymore. you gotta talk to your lawyers. >> back with us now, michael wil wilner and dave leventhal. >> well, i think the political risk is probably subsided now that the special counsel decided not to proceed with any action against the president or hope hicks, it appears. he is obviously not bringing forth any indictments. this is a great test case of where bill barr is going to issue the redactions when it comes to the reputations of peripheral third parties. obviously, he did not bring any indictment against hicks over this issue. so he seems to have made a conclusion on that. there is a substantial portion

of this report on obstruction of justice and this air force one debate seems to be at the heart of that investigation. the question is how much we're going to learn about perhaps these documents that he is referencing. >> what is your take about how this frames the future release of the mueller report? >> the president tweeted total exoneration in terms of what he feels is going to be his role in all of this. william barr, the attorney general, has said the opposite, that the mueller report has not exonerated the president and it hasn't led to reason to believe that he did anything wrong. when we talk about congress and what they want and especially on the democratic side, the information that they're trying to get with a full release of the mueller report, it really strikes to the question of, well, if they get this information, are they going to use it in a way that's going to

complicate the president's political future? we can talk about impeachment as being one of those ultimate remedies to a problem that the democrats feel that the president has. also, you have to remember there are other investigations that are going on all over the place. the federal courts, in congress, across multiple committees that have nothing to do with the mueller investigation but also the president's foundations, his inauguration committee, his businesses. definitely, the democrats are going to try to make the next couple of years as miserable as they can for the president. this is part and parcel of it. >> we can bank on that. mark argues that white house aides were exposing themselves to legal risks because they were too naive. let's listen to that. >> they are creating risk unnecessarily. the idea that a 20-something press aide would put the president of the united states on the phone to talk about a federal criminal investigation without his attorneys on the

phone to protect the privilege, and that the president wasn't aware of it was just astounding to me. >> michael, we know that ignorance of the law does not excuse illegal behavior. what does this tell you about how the white house operates? >> i think at this point that is the question. again, the special counsel is done with his work. we don't expect any future legal action against this inner circle that was handling the air force one discussion, among several other instances. when you have someone coming out and eviscerating hope hicks and those around him in the way the president has conducted himself, there are at least -- there's the potential for political consequences. i would definitely say that this remains a political issue, and those who criticize the president and his fitness for

office will eat this sort of thing up. but on a legal basis, i doubt anything is going to come of this. >> dave, you just heard that sound bite. how does this contextualize our understanding of what the administration is about? >> hope hicks is a series of communications directors that donald trump employed in the white house. there have been seven people through eight turnarounds for that mun indicatiposition. it speaks to the ad hoc, often haphazard way of getting messages out. donald trump is his own communications director in a practical way. the messaging has been, i think it's fair to say, undisciplined for the past two years in a major way, which caused problems sometimes. it gives the president an opportunity certainly to have a very unfiltered message to the united states of america, to his supporters. that can also get him in

trouble, not just with communications directors, but his lawyers, rudy giuliani probably being the most notable example of somebody who has said things maybe the white house doesn't want him saying. >> dave, michael, thank you both for joining us this morning. up next, how one of jared kushner's private business deals may have had an impact on american foreign policy. a quick programming note. msnbc is live every saturday and sunday at 6:00 eastern. we hope you can join us. we're back in a moment.

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mr. kushner, can you discuss what you were discussing with the senators today? >> jared kushner, president trump's son-in-law leaving a private intelligence committee. it was the first time kushner faced questions from senators looking into rich shussian interference. christopher, thank you for making the trip to new york. why do you think kushner's appearance wasn't publicized before? what do you think the senators asked him? >> there's a lot they might have asked him. they could have asked him questions about conspireing -- still conspireing with russia and that whole interface between

trump business dealings, kushner business dealings and russian desires to affect the american elections. they could also ask him about china. they could ask him about saudi arabia. with all those countries, there are potential conflicts of interest that kushner and his family are known to have and that indeed the whole trump establishment may have. >> let's get further into his family. the search for a financier for his family's building in new york comes up in a new book on the kushner family. here is a look at the events that have unfolded. april 2017, kushner's father is denied funding in a direct pitch to the government of qatar. in may, president trump visits saudi arabia. in june, saudi arabia blockades qatar. president trump weighs in march 2018 and qatar considers producing evidence to the mueller team. in may, funding comes through for the kushner building from a

qatari-linked canadian company. does all of this raise questions about the separation between kushner's private family interests and his responsibility to the public as the president's point man here on u.s. foreign policy? >> of course it does. it all stinks. it just stinks. in fact, that's the characteristic of this whole trump regime. not just the president himself, who has endless conflicts of interest, but the kushners, the kushner family, all of their interests. we're talking about millions, hundreds of millions in some cases billions of dollars are at stake. do we think that they compromise the national interests of the united states? absolutely they do. do we think these people are civil servants or public servants who are willing to sacrifice for their own good in order to make things better for americans? absolutely not. they want to line their pockets. they're not content with being rich. they want to be filthy rich.

>> could this stench, as you put it, be one of the reasons that intelligence agencies were reluctant to approve kushner's top secret security clearance? >> of course. they wouldn't approve it until the president insisted on it. of course, they would not. you wouldn't approve -- you wouldn't approve donald trump for a security clearance on the basis of his record. >> he got elected. now he has all access. the book claims his yet to be delivered middle east plan at one point included a land swap deal including jordan and saudi arabia. the white house says those details are false. given kushner's relationship with saudi's crown prince, does that sound plausible? does the trump family brand with emphasis on personal relationships naturally invite this extra scrutiny? >> i don't know about the land swap specifications. i do know that the entire trump middle east policy is based on personal relationships and

promises made by two people, netanyahu, who is like uncle bb to jared kushner, used to stay at the kushner home when he visited the united states, and bin salman who works with israel and, of course, would we know murdered his opponents. that middle east policy that was created by the naive and inexperienced kushner/trump government if you want to call it that, was based on those two people and what they promised they could do. they haven't been able to deliver. but they continue to make promises. >> let's talk about the middle east plan. it's almost two years in the making. many now fear they may be waiting not for kushner but f for -- why does the world expect

failure here? >> because the rest of the world tried so many times to bring peace to the middle east and failed. they know the parameters of the failure. they know what the problems are. what you had with salman was he told kushner and he told trump, look, i can fix everything with enough money. we can pay off everybody, make it all work. that didn't happen. i have talked to people who have been briefed on different ideas, who have been questioned about different ideas. it would have eliminated the possibility of a palestinian state with jerusalem as its capital. the palestinians are never going to sign on to that. this will just go on and on and on. everybody knows it. that's why we haven't seen the plan, because nothing is going to work. >> another important part of the story, charles kushner, in a "washington post" op-ed defending his son's public service, saying he took steps to preclude conflicts of interest. thank you so much for joining us and taking a break from all the smoke that the yellow vests blow

up every week. >> and the tear gas. >> thank you. new threats from the president to shut down the border with mexico and stop the flow of migrants into the u.s. does he really have the power to do that? with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. so even when she grows up, she'll never outgrow the memory of our adventure. unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. only with expedia. select hotels to your existing trip. ♪ with venus, you're in charge of how your skin feels. so, when the world expects you to follow the rules, write your own. ♪ because no one gets an opinion on how you live your life, why you shave, or how you show your skin. my skin. my way. ♪

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in power, politics and paychecks, march goes out like a lion on wall street. the three major indexes gaining on optimism over trade. the s&p 500 is off to its best start to a year since 1998. a new cnbc survey shows a majority support several progressive policies, the most popular being paid maternity leave. 84% think employers should provide paid maternity leave. there's bipartisan support for it. the approval, 94% from democrats, 73% of republicans approve. president trump is wrapping up threat to shut down the southern border, turning his fire towards mexico for failing to stop migrants from seeking to enter the u.s. he said there's a very good likelihood that he will order the closure of the border next week.

>> mexico is tough. they can stop them. but they chose not to. now they're going to stop them. if they don't stop them, we're closing the border. close it. we will keep it closed for a long time. i'm not playing games. mexico has to stop it. >> let's bring in former ceo for the dnc, jess o'connell. she's the former executive director of emily's list and lauren claffy. she worked for homeland security during the trump administration. i want to start with lauren. i want to play what jeh johnson said about the border situation. >> on tuesday, there were 4,000 apprehensions. i know that 1,000 overwhelms the system. i cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like. we are truly in a crisis. there's no amount of border security you can throw at this problem to stop illegal immigration. president trump last night talked about closing the border. that's like saying i'm going to stop it from raining. you can close the ports of

entry, which means closing off our borders to lawful commerce with mexico and lawful immigration. but you have to deal with this problem at its root. >> lauren, what is your reaction? can trump shut down the border? is that like trying to stop it from raining? >> i think it's a little like trying to stop it from raining. i would agree with former secretary jeh johnson on this. there's an argument to be made that they can temporarily shut down ports of entry to shift resources to where they're needed most. that would be a temporary solution in this problem. to be frank, it wouldn't really solve it. the main problem that we're having at the border right now is that large groups of individuals, migrants are crossing the border and claiming asylum on american soil which they are allowed to do. then they go into a process, a legal system that's overwhelmed. it doesn't have enough immigration judges. it doesn't have enough asylum officers. they languish in our system. they are not treated -- they are not treated properly. it's not fair to them and to

americans. i think that's the main issue that we need to be solving. i think it's something this administration has asked repeatedly is for congress to step in and try to solve the problem, putting additional resources at the border, making sure we have enough immigration judges to process these claims and make sure that people who deserve asylum have asylum and are able to enter into our country legally. are you surprised to hear them call it a crisis at the border? democrats have avoided that term. >> if we spent time doing what was said, which is getting more judges down there, it's legal to seek asylum. people are coming here. those are american values at play. first he couldn't get mexico to pay for the wall. he couldn't get congress to pay for including it's not an

emergency. we're going to need democrats and republicans to help solve this problem. what i can tell you is that all of this energy and taking money from now military personnel and military projects to send people down there to help build the wall isn't the way we're going to solve this problem. >> what would shutting down the border require, especially if the intention is to keep it closed for a long time? >> that would face legal challenges. i don't know that we could shut down the border. so many people are crossing in between ports of entry. you close the doors and trucks are not able to come in, people are not able to come in and out. the problem is that we don't have enough border patrol ag ag.

>> they would use dangerous points. >> border apprehensions are down from the 2000s. is president trump over hyping this? >> congress agrees that there are challenges. i'm from arizona. we understand the challenges. it's important that congress come together and focus on comprehensive immigration reform. what president trump is doing is creating a lot of -- the ways in

which he is going about trying to solve this, not working with congress to this is problematic and a political stunt. no president in the history of the united states has ever overridden or used a national emergency to override congress on the will of the people. this is not going to work the way he wants to do it. the implications of closing the border. the chamber of commerce says this could impact 5 million jobs in america. this is not a smart way to go. trade alone. $1.7 billion daily between the u.s. and mexico. this is not a smart solution. we need to get smarter about this. >> lauren, do you consider this a crisis? a national emergency ? >> i don't consider it a nati national emergency in the way trump is stating it.

it is a crisis because of the level of illegal immigration after 2014 with the huge surge of unaccompany minors. here we are again. i do think there is a problem there that we need to address and solve. i agree in a buy paipartisan ma. congress needs to fix this. >> do you think it is a -- you mentioned, lauren, it was a crisis, do you think it sis a national emergency crisis or humanitarian crisis? >> i think it is humanitarian. violence and gang and prosecution in their home countries is what they are fleeing. secretary pompeo and nielsen have been working to improve conditions there and not have

people, this huge mass of migration come from central america. they have been working to mexico to see if mexico can offer safe harbor and work visas to people fleeing these countries. it is obviously not working entirely. you know, president trump and his rhetoric sometimes detracts from the good work that's being done in his administration. >> jess, how would you categorize this? >> i agree. a humanitarian crisis. i think we are failing in our efforts to overcome that. i wish we would spend more time getting this right as families and children are coming through. the crisis, the real crisis right now is the separation of children from their families. losing track of the children. deporting their parents. not allowing the reconnection or family members traveling with. that is unamerican. it is outrageous. we have not spent enough time or

energy, secretary nielsen, to try to solve that. the efforts to strip funds away from foreign aid and other countries that are helping to try to solve the root problems. there are other ways to go about this. this is a complex issue. this existed well before donald trump. the way in which he and the administration is handling this is not very humanitarian and not very american. >> all right. jess and lauren. thank you for bringing your perspective to the complex situation. for better or for worse. the chances your health care will get better as president trump promises. a doubting thomas from capitol hill is coming up. ll is coming a . we dried one shirt without bounce, and an identical shirt using bounce. the bounce shirt has fewer wrinkles, less static, and more softness and freshness. bounce out wrinkles, bounce out static. heartburn and gas? ♪ fight both fast tums chewy bites with gas relief

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all right. that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. i'm phillip mena. now it is "weekends with alex witt." >> good morning, phillip. from msnbc headquarters in new york, it is 7:00 a.m. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." deadline looming. congress demands the mueller report by tuesday. the attorney general says not so fast and delivers another new letter. decoding that next. we're closing the border. we'll keep it closed for a long time. i'm not playing games. >> shutdown threat. the potential fallout if the president closes everything between the u.s. and mexico. is it even possible? inside the numbers. what would happen if