heatstroke, other problems like that. >> bosh moore, thank you for your great reporting on this. keep it up. that is all for this evening. the "rachel maddow show" begins now with ali velshi. >> thank you to you at home for joining us this hour. rachel has the night off. fear not. she will be back. i'm going to try not to break anything. it is friday night, which these days means that keeping tabs on the news is like juggling and spinning eight plates all at once on stilts. today we got the lineups for the first democratic debate later this month. 20 candidates over two nights. the great steve kornacki will be here this hour to break down with us who will be debating whom on each night and what we can expect from those match-ups which are not as you might think they are. also been another day of worrying and bewildering developments in the white house's narrative around iran with the trump administration continuing to insist that iran has suddenly become much more

belink rent and aggressive and that iran is responsible for a spate of recent attacks. we'll have expert advice on that situation in just a moment. we're going to start tonight with stuff the president says. he says a lot of stuff. you may be familiar with his twitter account. he says a lot of things that we choose as a country to ignore because this is our life now. in order for government to continue running, for the rule of law to remain intact and even for us as citizens to maintain our sanity, we have to just ignore some of the stuff the president says. for instance, did you know that today our president told his friends at the fox news channel that when he visited the u.k. last week queen elizabeth enjoyed his company, the company of donald trump, more than she has enjoyed the company of anyone in decades, in decades. this is actually the second time in a week that he has told this to fox news.

the first time he said he had heard from people that the queen had never had a better time than she did with him, donald trump. now queen elizabeth is 93 years old. she has been the queen for nearly seven decades but this, this was the pinnacle, this was the highlight of her rein. might as well abdicate the throne and hand it over to charles. nothing will top her time with donald trump. if you think about that claim from our president too long and too hard, you start to kind of twitch a little. i mean, it would be embarrassing for any american to make that claim. so it's the kind of stuff we ignore. it's background noise. it's trump being trump but sometimes our president says things that demand a response. sometimes he says things that are so offensive or so repellant that we feel like we have to respond to it just so that we're not implicated in it. we have to speak out against it so no one thinks we think it is acceptable. sometimes he says something that

implicates a specific particular person, which feels like it demands some kind of response, either legally or just reputation reputati reputationally like in the case of don mcgahn. >> excuse me, they had no evidence of crime. >> he lays out a lot of evidence, including the episode where you ask your white house counsel, don mcgahn, you call him twice, you say, mueller has to go, call me when it's done. >> the story on that, i was never going to fire mueller. i never suggested firing mueller. >> that's not what he says. >> i don't care. doesn't matter what he says. that was to show what a good counsel he was. >> why would he lie under oath? >> because he wanted to make himself look like a good lawyer or -- or he believed it because i would constantly tell anybody that would listen, including you, including the media, that robert mueller was conflicted.

robert mueller had a total interest. >> i never said that. >> that right there, the interview portion released today by abc news, that is the president of the united states accusing his former white house counsel of a crime. he's accusing don mcgahn of lying under oath, but at the same time the president is blocking don mcgahn from testifying to congress about what mcgahn told mueller. he's telling mcgahn, you've got to keep quiet while i tell everyone you're a liar, purg purgerer, how do you not respond to this? here's the thing that's new to our era, sometimes the president says something out loud that endorses or encourages behavior that is so wildly unethnical or

even blatantly legal, someone else from the government has to step in and remind people that, no, actually, you cannot do that thing even though the president just told you so. a couple of months ago near the mexican border the president told agents, quote, don't let migrants in. tell them you don't have the capacity. if judges give you trouble say, i'm sorry, judge, we don't have the room. they sought further advice who told them they were not giving them that direction and if they did what the president said, they would take on personal liability. you have to follow the law, they were told. you have to follow the law. not what the president told to you do, which would be violating the law. there was also the time the president met with tribal leaders and told them to ignore

federal laws preventing them from drilling on their land. quote, president trump hosted a group of native american tribal leaders at the white house and urged them to just do it and extract whatever they want from the land they control. the chiefs explained to trump that there were regulatory barriers preventing them from getting at their energy. trump replied, but now it's me. the government's different now. obama's gone. we're doing things differently here. there was a pause in the room and the tribal leaders looked at each other. chief, chief, trump continued, addressing one of the tribal leaders, what are they going to do? once you get it out of the ground, are they going to make you put it back in there? i mean, once it's out of the ground, it can't go back in there. you've just got to do t. i'm telling you, chief, you've just got to do it. the tribal leader looked back at one of the white house officials in the room. perhaps somebody from the white house counsel's office and said, can we just do that? the official equivocated and

said they have a plan and progress to roll it back. spare a thought when someone asks, so are we allowed to break federal law like the president of the united states just told us to? but even that official with the president sitting right there reportedly could not bring himself to endorse the president's instruction to break the law. no, you cannot really do this. then there was this, a president asking 9 roomful of leaders to please be more violent with suspects. >> when you see these towns and you see these thugs being thrown 234509 back of a paddy wagon, thrown in, rough, i said, please don't be too nice like when you guys put somebody in the car an you're protecting their head. you put the hand like don't hit their head and they've just hit

their head. i said, you can take the hand away. >> after those comments the head of a major u.s. law enforcement agency sent an email to his entire work force reminding them that in fact they could not and should not do what the president was encouraging. the acting chief of the drug enforcement agency, the d.e.a., wrote to the group the president condoned police misconduct regarding the treatment of individuals placed under arrest by law enforcement. i write to offer a strong reaffirmation of the operating principles to which we as law enforcement professionals adhere. i write because we have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong. our core values are clear and applicable. rule of law, respect and compassion, service, devotion, integrity, accountability, leadership and courage, diversity. this is how we conduct ourselves. this is how we treed those whom we encounter in our work,

victims, witnesses, subjects and defendants. this is who we are. that acting dea chuck rosenberg resigned a few weeks later. now we are in the latest iteration of this pattern, this brand-new pattern that we are all having to come to grips with as americans, of the president publicly endorsing or advocating lawless behavior. after the president earlier this week said he would absolutely accept campaign help from a foreign government in the next election and of course he would not report that to the fbi. what are you crazy? the chair of the federal election commission put out a statement which she prefaced by saying, i would not have thought that i needed to say this, quote, statement regarding illegal contributions from foreign governments. let me make something 100% clear to the american public and anyone running for public office. it is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive

anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a u.s. election. any political campaign that receives an offer of a prohibited donation from a foreign source should report that to the fbi. that is the head of the u.s. agency that enforces campaign finance law. she says, yes, i know the president said you can do it but you cannot do that. just last month the hand picked fbi director said the same thing. my view is if any public official or any member of the campaign is contacted by any nation stayed or anybody acting on behalf of a nation state about influencing or interfering with our election, that's something the fbi would want to know about. >> so we're all in agreement here, right? >> says that's what should

happen. >> the fbi director is wrong. >> so now what? i mean, the president's breaking the law. that's a situation we are familiar with. we are currently discovering our ability to address that situation but it is not a brand-new experience for us. we have some experience with presidents directs people around them to break the law but a president who publicly even gleefully tells americans to break the law, you break the law and you break the law, let's all break the law together. i don't think this is something we've dealt with before. every government official who is not the president has to decide every day how to navigate this new terrain. joining me now, chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official and formerly the acting head of the dea. he's also an msnbc contributor. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me.

>> we used you in the setup to explain when you were the acting dea and the president made those comments about not being so nice and the position you took. you had to take it upon yourself to write an email to your staff to say, this isn't the way we do business after donald trump made his comments about accepting foreign campaign help. they said this had undone months of work essentially hiding with foreign spies and demoralizing the agents trying to stop them. tell us what the effect of what the press says have on our elections? >> i think that politico article was somewhat hyperbolic, ali, and somewhat accurate. let me explain that. sure the president's comments will demoralize the agents, but don't think for a minute they're

going to stop the work they're doing because he says something irresponsible or owed ydious. the russians started this long before donald trump became president. now we see why they wanted to be in control when donald trump became president. this is a current, ongoing serious threat. the president's words do not help. they are irresponsible, odious. they will not stop them from doing this.

what are we meant to think when the president says this. what does the system allow for in terms of people pushing back. you as the head of the dea sea a letter. the fbi is something the president targets all the time. >> yes, he does. look, that was a hard letter to write and in some ways a harder letter to send. i did it internally. i didn't intend for it being disseminated but i knew there was a risk. the men and women of the dea do difficult, important, dangerous work and they do it well. you don't want to drag them into a debate, certainly not a political debate. i think that's the calculation any leader has to make. certainly the calculation chris wray has to make as the director of the fbi. you cannot respond every time

the president says something irresponsible. ali, you would be responding every hour of the day. please believe when i tell you there are 37,000 men and women in the fbi, 36,999 are apolitical career civil servants and they will continue to do their work. >> chuck rosenberg, always great to see you. former u.s. attorney, senior fbi official, former acting head of the dea and now an msnb contributor. joining us is michael beshelaw. good to have you here. >> thank you, ali. >> give us a sense of the history of this. a thing like the president saying publicly to various constituencies, it's okay to break the law. we have some examples of this from watergate. is this messaging new? >> yeah, it really is. you know, the idea of the constitution was that the president would be a chief of

state, one of the things a chief of state does is essentially suggest to americans and the united states that you obey the law. it's not a big demand. donald trump doesn't want to do it because he does not want things that will con strain him from grabbing power. that's why he calls the press the enemy of the people. that's why he intimidates republicans in congress so they are not willing to stand up to him. we saw a big example of that in the last 24 hours. how many republicans have you seen standing up and saying i may agree with president trump on taxes but this is disgraceful. he's urging people not to follow the law. most consequencely he has spent the last 2 1/2 years to break down the rule of law so he can get away in some cases with almost murder. >> we are at a point where we have legislation introduced in the house where if you work on a

campaign and you are offered information by an adversary or foreign government at all, that you are compelled to report that to the fbi. this seems strange. the idea that says, i'd take it if i get dirt. >> he's trying to say, if i get it i told you i would do it. the more ominous thing is he's opening the tent. he's essentially telling every foreign government on earth, please bring me all the dirt you possibly can on -- >> because i'm ready to take it. >> i'm ready to take it. i'm ready to win. he's feeling scared. he's nervous about the possibility he will be defeated by a democrat. he will then be vulnerable to all sorts of prosecution. he's essentially grasping at straws. once you have americans and congress and the legal system accepting the idea that people

in china who do not wish us well, other hostile powers, they're doing all sorts of things that can win him an election, the second you have that an election becomes the thing that will help us lose our sovereignty. that's something jefferson, adams and hamilton worried about in 1787. >> the other thing he said when george steve phanopoulos asked , he said, wray is wrong. the fbi is wrong. the reason this is relevant, you heard my conversation with john. >> i sure did. >> when the president said something about roughing up suspects, he said, that's wrong. where do you go? you have the head of the agency versus the president providing two different interpretations of the law. >> you have a president that does not respect the fbi. i think his game here is to

undermine chris wray, get him to resign and he can have an fbi director subservient to him and it would be very dangerous. >> thank you for being with us on a friday night. >> my pleasure. still ahead, the trump administration says it has evidence of a foreign adversary doing wrong. where have we heard that before? much more on that. stay ahead. stay with us. stay with us in my line of work, i come face-to-face with a lot of behinds. so i know there's a big need for new gas-x maximum strength.

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on wednesday, february 5th of 2003 then secretary of state colin powell went to the united nations to make the case for war in iraq. >> my colleagues, every statement i make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. these are not assertions. what we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. >> he delivered a presentation called failing to disarm that included some of that intelligence, satellite photos, intelligence intercept, intercepted phone calls. sitting behind secretary powell was cia director george tenant. he was there because the cia had

vouched for all of that intel being cited as proof. secretary powell said the evidence was, quote, irrefutable and undeniable that iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction. it turned out that evidence was actually refutable and deniable. the images were old, translations embellished, the evidence did not hold up. there were no weapons of mass destruction. colin powell later said it was a, quote, great intelligence failure on our part. that speech was a lasting blot on his report. that faulty intelligence, that case for going to war got us into a 16 some year war in iraq, a war that we are still fighting. yesterday morning just hours after two oil tankers were attacked in the gulf of oman anonymous u.s. officials started pointing the finger at iran. by afternoon secretary of state mike pompeo called a presser at

the state department where he said conclusively that iran was behind the attack. he did not present any evidence, he just rattled off a list of attacks that iran was responsible for, including some that we had never heard of, like an attack in afghanistan which the taliban has taken responsibility for. secretary pompeo said it was iran. he said he sent the acting u.s. a.mbassador to brief the securiy councell. late last night centcom showed a grainy video. they cited the video that iran was involved. for its part, iran denies being involved. today one of the chinese owners said it was not a mine, rather a flying object that the crew saw coming towards the vessel. the reality is both of these things could be true. at this juncture this early on

there is still much that we do not know. today germany said there was not enough evidence to pin the tanker attack on iran. the u.k. came out agreeing with the u.s. that iran is behind the attack. if this is starting to feel like you've seen this movie, it's because you have. maybe this movie will end differently. right now it's unclear what happens next. will the administration unleash more information and will they make the case to the united nations? will they share the intelligence with our allies? what is the end game? joining us now, hagar somali. former treasury spokesperson for terrorism and financial intelligence during the iran negotiations. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> what's the end game? the president said he would like to talk to iran one on one to settle the matters.

that created a framework for that conversation. that's what we have pulled out of. so what is our end game with iran? >> the end game has not been war. that's made pretty obvious. this administration is focused on targeted financial measures as their tool of choice. that being said, the critical point is that president trump's number one goal i don't believe is to get to another deal. his number one goal is to undermine iran's influence in the region. it was the first thing he said when he abdicated and it is something that my sources in government have told me as well. if that's the case, then sanctions are working. i don't think he has a reason to stray away from that strategy. >> he has said that things are getting worse economically in iran and empirically they are. he has been very hawkish about iran.

he's trying to push boltio of an around conflict that involves iran, saudi arabia and how bad that can be? >> there is no interest in war for the united states or for iran. that's why it wasn't on u.s. vessels or u.s. property. it was meant as a warning that if there are more sanctions, this is the type of stuff that we're going to do, right? the iranians behave like mafia. it was pay back. pay back for the u.s. sanctions. >> the iranians, there are iranian forces. there are the revolutionary guard, the ones we hear about. then there are iranian proxies, they exist all through the middle east. the united states has said after imposing these sanctions that any attack by any of these proxies will be an attack -- they will consider it an attack on iran.

that sounds like justification of retall leleyly eighting. >> the proxies don't move unless iran allows them to. >> these are groups operating in syria, operating in lebanon. >> yes. houthis, hezbollah, certainly syria, right? they are funded and supported by iran and they know that so when iran says jump, they say how high. it's unlikely they pursue something on their own without iran directing it. that's why it would be considered a direct maneuver from iran. >> good to see you. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> a former spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the united nations. up next, new movement in the case of the united states versus michael flynn. that's just ahead.

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the end is ny one way or the other for national security advisor and now convicted felon, michael flynn. today as expected the prosecution and defense supplied a status overview. they think they will be ready to start talking sentencing again in another 60 days. remember now back in december judge emmitt sullivan held a

hearing in which he was supposed to hand down michael flynn's sentencing for lying to the fbi about his contacts with the russian ambassador between election day and trump's inauguration but that hearing took a turn. the judge had a much harsher view of mr. flynn's crime and strongly recommended that flynn reconsider how much cooperating would be enough to earn him the kind of light sentence that prosecutors would be asking for. flynn consulted with his attorneys and took the judge's advice. since then flynn has fired his attorneys and hired new counsel straight off the fox news lineup, one of whom has spent a lot of air time criticizing the mueller investigation as a deep state conspiracy. so that new lawyer now says she needs 60 days to get up to speed. she has a voluminous amount of material to read which makes

sense given how the last sentencing hearing went. it makes sense if flynn has jettisoned his team in order to pursue a new legal strategy like, i don't know, maybe a presidential pardon? time will tell and time is what flynn's new lawyer is speaking. watch this space. wow!

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since then the candidates have been spreading out speaking to voters, unveiling plans and honing their campaign messages all of the time directing their fire against the one candidate who unites them all, donald trump. >> i'm running for president because we can't take four more years of donald trump. >> help me defeat donald trump, the most dangerous president in the history of this country. >> donald trump as president delayed, deflected, moved, fired, and did everything he could to obstruct justice. >> we've got a president of the united states, a man who took an oath to defend the constitution who violates that sworn promise and we must hold him accountable. >> donald trump is the worst president in the history of america. >> i have complete power. no, you don't, donald trump.

quote from donald trump. i have absolute power. no, you don't, donald trump. or, only i can fix it. fix yourself first, donald trump. >> now for months president trump has been the singular focus of criticism on the trail, but that is starting to change. washington governor jay inslee recently ripped joe biden's plan to fix climate change. hickenlooper ripped bernie sanders and beto o'rourke said joe biden would be a return to the past. this is entering a new phase as candidates shed -- pardon me. i'm allergic to the news. candidates shed their reluctance to counter one another in a new found willingness to criticize

vice president joe biden who's jumped to an early lead. that new phase is going to come to a head in two weeks' time. today nbc news announced the official lineups for the first presidential debate which will take place two nights in miami this month. night one will be massachusetts elizabeth warren alongside cory booker, amy klobuchar. night two will have plenty of star power, bernie sanders, joe biden, kamala harris, pete buttigieg. joining us now is the great steve kornacki. steve, i need you on a night like tonight to explain when you look at the two lineups, the two nights, 10 and 10, what stands out to you? >> ali, what stands out is the dnc did not want to have the look that the republicans had in 2016. >> kids table. >> varsity, j.v., whatever you want to call it. they came up with a pretty

complicated system where they thought they were going to mix and match. the bottom line is there are five that are popping in the polls and four of them are going to be in one debate, one of them, elizabeth warren, is going to be in the other. if you're warren, you're the undisputed star of that first night's debate. that comes with some opportunities. you can shine more. that comes withdraw backs. is the audience going to be as big as the other night and is your stature going to be diminished at all by not being on the same stage and not having the opportunity to engage with a sanders, harris, buttigieg. >> there are those running on draw, appeal, passion, potential electability. others are running solely on policy perspectives, some of whom have written books about it. elizabeth warren falls into that category. who do these debates benefit?

>> think of it like a baseball game. you'll get three or four at-bats. for a lot of these candidates, if you are less than 1%, they face a particular challenge. that is the criteria to stay in these, the threshold go up. they've got to hit a home run. they've got to hit a triple, do something like that -- >> right. >> -- to move up in the polls so when the thresholds raise, they don't get knocked out of the debates. the immediate future of the lesser known candidates are on the line. >> ultimately with everybody aligned around the idea that they want to defeat donald trump, that's not going to make for a debate. >> who has the potential to stand out like that? >> yeah. >> the first debate with

elizabeth warren, she's the star. one that i'm interested, cory booker. he has been talked about a lot in his career. he's somebody in terms of our communicati communication? he needs to have a big moment. i think he has the capability in a setting like that of delivering it. >> seth moulton, steve bullock, not on the debate stage. any chance of them coming back from that? >> here's how i look at that, cnn in a month. if you look at bullock's numbers, it's not impossible to think of him doing that. it is harder for moulton to do it because of how he's been polling. to me the question is about

bollic. if there are a couple of polls to get him at 1 or 2%, he's in the midst to get the kahne debate. he has to otherwise the same issue and being left out, that would really start to affect him. >> we're going to be spending a lot of time together, steve kornacki. when we come back, an appeals court deals a big blow to the trump administration. stay with us. stay with us so i know there's a big need for new gas-x maximum strength. it relieves pressure, bloating and discomfort fast. so no one needs to know you've got gas. gas-x.

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this one is an update. in 2017 in the early days of the trump administration a 17-year-old girl came to the united states seeking asylum. she had traveled to this country alone. she was sent to a shelter for unaccompanied minors that was overseen by the u.s. government. she was pregnant as a result of being raped and wanted to get an abortion, but since she was in this shelter she was in u.s. custody and the policy of the u.s. government at that point under donald trump was that under aged pregnant migrants in their care were not allowed to get abortions. the u.s. government at the time was trying to literally force pregnant teens to give birth against their will. they could not go to a doctor's appointment for an abortion. when this 17-year-old said she wanted an abortion the trump administration said, no. they said as far as the u.s.

government was concerned, it was not in the best interest for this teenage rape victim to end her pregnancy. so she joined a lawsuit against the trump administration with the help of the aclu and a federal judge her get an abortion. she was one of four specific teens who were named plaintiffs in that lawsuit but they represented all pregnant teens seeking refuge in the united states. because it was the blanket policy of the trump administration to block all undocumented minors in their custody from accessing abortion. to execute that new policy, the administration was using a spread sheet to track which of these young women were pregnant and which ones had requested abortions. they were even tracking their menstrual cycles so they could tell how far along each girl was in their pregnancy. the idea was to shut down the possibility that any of these young women could get an abortion as long as they were in u.s. custody. as rachel has reported, the aclu

has been largely successful in challenging the policy in court so far. back in march, a federal judge ordered the trump administration to allow abortion access to detained teens while the case works its way through the courts but the trump administration peaed that ruling and we've been waiting for months to find out what the appeals court was going to decide. today, it decided. ruling that the trump administration is not allowed to block these young women and girls from getting an abortion if they want one. which is a right enshrined by supreme court precedent for any woman in this country whether or not she is a u.s. citizen in its ruling the three yunls write that the trump administration's policy of blocking asylum seeking teenagers from obtaining abortion runs into direct conflict with roe v. wade. "the supreme court has determined and redetermined that the constitution offers basic protection to the woman's right to choose. we are not free to dilute a

constitutional right recognized by controlling supreme court precedent so that others will be dissuaded from seeking a better life in this country." this is a huge win for the aclu and for young women and girls in the trump administration or that the trump administration was blocking from accessing their constitutional right to an abortion. but is this decision permanent? joining us now brigitte amiri from the aclu's reproductive freedom project and the lawyer fighting this case in court. she's back with us tonight. thank you for being with us. >> good to be here. >> the argument -- there was some unusual arguments that the government made in trying to represent its case, none of which ultimately seemed to have legal merit. that said, does this ruling stick for a while? what happens next? >> so this win is incredibly important for the young people in government custody right now who may seek access to abortion information or abortion itself.

so our victory remains that those minors are able to access the information and care that they need. but this is not the end of the road. this case right now is just about the preliminary injunction that initial victory that we got in the lower court and there is an affirmation of that. but the case copies. and the government could appeal this to the u.s. supreme court and we also have to go back to the district court and get the policy struck down once and for all. >> this is a policy that makes reference to the constitution and its protections for all women in the united states. the administration has tried when it comes to asylum seekers or migrants from other countries to suggest certain laws don't apply to them the same way. this ruling affirmed the idea that roe v. wade and the constitutional protections that are afforded to women in this country do cover them. >> absolutely. and actually, the government didn't even make the argument that the constitutional right to abortion for these unaccompanied

minors was somehow diluted because of their immigration status instead they tried to make a whole host of other arguments to get around the very clear command of the supreme court that says that anyone who is seeking access toe abortion cannot be prohibited by the government from doing so. >> they made the argument if they can't get it here, they can go back to where they came from and get one there. >> that's right. court of appeals said that is wrong. you don't say when the government is violating your constitutional rights you can go back to the country you came from or go to a different state if the state had banned abortion. that's not how the constitution works. >> is there anything about this case that las an impact on the current discussions that we're having with all these other states trying to get their cases before the supreme court in a challenge to roe v are wade. >> absolutely. this is a court of appeals victory saying that it is likely unconstitutional for the government to ban abortion. and seven states have tried to ban abortion. those are blatantly unconstitutional attempts to do

so, as well. >> brigitte, thank you for joining us and congratulations on your win. deputy director at the aclu's reproductive freedom project. we'll be right back. clu's reproductive freedom project we'll be right back. i had no idea why my mouth was constantly dry. it gave me bad breath. it was so embarrassing. now i take new biotene dry mouth lozenges

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and i don't add trup the years.s. but what i do count on... is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. boost® high protein. be up for life. remember last month when treasury secretary steve mnuchin went to the house financial services committee for part two of his annual testimony? it was after the testy exchange had he with max inwaters in april and he was back for a second round to talk about the

state of the of international financial system. but what made the biggest headline from that hearing was the treasury secretary telling lawmakers that a redesign of the $20 bill featuring harriet tubman was being delayed. he said the reason for the delay was that he had to prioritize redesigning other denominations that were having problems with counterfeiting and so the new $20 would not start rolling out till at least 2028. now this was a departure from the obama administration's timeline. it had announced that the new $20 would be unveiled in 2020. it was supposed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th anticipate which gave women the right to vote. harriet tubman was not only an abolition activist, also an advocate for women's rights. today we learned from "the new york times" that before mnuchin put on the brakes the work on the new tubman $20 bill was actually well under way. a former treasury department official leak add image of the

tubman $20 to "the new york times" that was reportedly completeded in 2016 and the "times" also spoke to an anonymous current employee of the bureau of printing and engaving reporting that as recently as may of last year, the employee had seen a metal engraving plate and a digital image of the bill and" said the design appeared to be far along in the process." so the why the change? according to times" "current and former department officials say mr. ma noou mnuchin chose the delay to avoid the possibility that mr. trump would cancel the plan outright and create even more controversy." "the new york times" reports also, "the new york times" report also quote treasury secretary mnuchin who says the speculation his department slowed down the process isn't true. but when you think about the fact that the president has said he thinks the plan to put tubman on the bill is political

correctness, you do the math. that does it for us tonight. i'll be back on my show at monday at 1:00 p.m. rachel will be back right here on monday at 9:00. now it's time for the last word with ari melber sitting in for lawrence o'donnell. good evening, my friend. >> good evening, sir. have a great weekend. we'll be watching on monday. i'm ari melber in for lawrence o'donnell. tonight we'll have the latest on an issue impatroning health care for millions of americans as donald trump is rolling out his own proposal. debbie dingell will be here later this hour and we'll be reporting on the action that matches donald trump's words embracing collusion this week. how self-proclaimed grim reaper mitch mcconnell is block u.s. election security. all of that in the show. we begin with this. donald trump on defense over embracing collusion and also on offense against his own former white house counsel don mcgahn