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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  July 12, 2019 9:00am-10:00am PDT

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everyone, i'm andrea mitchell with breaking news. a stunning development, president trump escorting alex acosta to the cameras on the south lawn today to pronounce his resignation. under fire as labor secretary over his past handling of the jeffrey epstein prosecution in florida 11 years ago. epstein has pleaded not guilty this week to multiple sex trafficking charges in manhattan. acosta had already been under fire inside the administration, and clearly failed his defensive news conference test two days ago for an audience of one. but the president tried to put the best face on it today. >> he made a deal that people were happy with and then 12 years later they're not happy with it. you'll have to figure all of that out. but the fact is, he has been a fantastic secretary of labor. and alex called me this morning and he wanted to see me and i actually said, well, we have the press right out here, so perhaps you want to say it to the press. he's a tremendous talent. he's a hispanic man, he went to
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harvard. a great student. and in so many ways, i just hate what he's saying now because we're going to miss him. >> joining me now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welker here with us at the ta e table, phil rutger and jim masina, and news hour political analyst mike murphy. a former senior advisor to mitt romney and john mccain. anyway, let's go to kristen welker first. this was somewhat predictable, but not entirely predictable. we knew there would be a south lawn walkout. for more than 30 minutes president trump talked and described acosta in which could only be an awkward resignation.
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>> i think there's some surprise that it happened so quickly, our sense is the president had been asking around, talking to his top officials about just how intense this firestorm was. the fact that this relates to a 2008 plea deal, which of course has to do with jeffrey epstein, who pleaded not guilty to those sex trafficking charges. but the allegation is so significant, so serious and of course involved minors. as you pointed out at the top of the shore, there had been concerns about acosta inside the administration that he wasn't carrying out the president's deregulation agenda effectively enough. and so the sense is this controversial was just too great and that he could not survive it. >> and covering the white house there, let's talk about the ramifications. this is yet another cabinet secretary stepping down under fire. a record number of acting secretaries. people who have not been
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properly confirmed, cannot have their own chief of staff, their own agenda, their own authority. >> that's right, andrea. i think the thing that was so shocking today was that people -- reporters when the president started to praise acosta, really thought that he was going to be coming out and defending him. that's what he had been doing. he basically turned around and said i'll be missing him. and acosta essentially was perp walked in some ways in people's eyes. this was really in some ways an embarrassing display. he had to stand there for about 30 minutes while the president took questions on all sorts of other topics. the president has said he likes having a fluid cabinet. he likes the idea that as acting he can be moving people around. essentially, this is an administration that's hamstrung by a lot of these acting titles. people can't carry out what they want to and need to do. >> and phil rutger, we've seen this act before. this is what acosta had to say about the -- his explanation for
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being sad to leave. >> as i look forward, i do not think it is right and fair for this administration's labor department to have epstein as the focus, rather than the incredible economy that we have today. it would be selfish for me to stay in this position and continue talking about a case that's 12 years old. >> first of all, there is no way that you could credit alex acosta with the economy, how good the economy is or isn't. >> most americans have never heard of him. >> it's immaterial. he's in charge of sex trafficking. that's part of his agenda as labor secretary. >> he tried to continue to do his job, that's why he did the hour long news conference on wednesday to defend himself to save his job and to perform for the president and did not get it done. he didn't seem to have delivered a full enough defense of his own decisions as the u.s. attorney
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in florida. that's one of the reasons why the president has been calling around asking him about and laying the groundwork for this resignation today. we should point out that in addition to the all the vacancies in the cabinet, he has no hispanic member of the cabinet. latino and hispanics make up 18% of the u.s. population. now 0% of the -- >> i think he was quick to point out the acting secretary will be latino, because he's the deputy moving up, did i hear that correctly on the south lawn? >> i'm not sure about that. >> but -- >> no confirmed permanent member. >> right. he's got his own issues as to how he could take over. trump is now trying to distance himself from jeffrey epstein, saying he did not have any contact with him for 15 years. let's listen to some of that from today. >> i did have a falling out a
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long time ago. the reason doesn't make any difference, frankly. i haven't spoken to him in probably 15 years or more. i wasn't a big fan of jeffrey epstein, that i can tell you. i didn't want anything to do with him. that was many, many years ago. it shows you one thing, that i have good taste. okay? other people, they went all over with him. they went to his island. they went all over the place. his island, whatever his island was, wherever it is, i was never there. find out the people that went to the island. >> so mike murphy, you know, there's so much to unpack here. first of all, i misspoke, because it was acosta who the president was praising as being hispanic, not the new acting deputy. or acting labor secretary. but what about trying to distance himself? he's trying to distance himself now from jeffrey epstein who had a lot of high powered friends, both here and overseas. >> yeah. no, he did. it was kind of amusing to watch
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the president scramble for the county line there. every politician in washington would do the same. that's why acosta was inevitable he would be going through the old trap door there sooner rather than later. it's just -- look, there's such a media hurricane going around the horrendous crimes of epstein that nobody in politics wants to be near. we know president trump is never going to wind up on the cover of political loyalty magazine. the minute acosta became a negative, he's gone. the other thing was kind of an irony in all this. republicans generally have never liked the labor department. and the white house staff was never that high on acosta. they didn't think he was enough of a yes man for carrying the president's orders. which is not an uncommon beef between white house and labor secretaries. he didn't have a reservoir of political good will. so this was pretty clearly an inevitable move. nature of politics. >> you worked in a very
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different white house. does the public care? is this all discounted would donald trump that there are going to be people flying in and out of the cabinet and it's 82i8 chaotic. >> this is the ninth secretary to resign. donald trump just -- he's a candidate for reelection to the presidency of the united states and he took an entire day of his campaign and just shot it down the toilet because he decided to perp walk his cabinet secretary. >> he's going to wisconsin and ohio, two critical states. >> correct. >> but the headlines are going to be acosta. >> exactly right. and the headline is going to be epstein because he addressed it. now, you know, he's going to be talking about two things he desperately doesn't want to talk about. to phil's point, latino voters have no representation in the cabinet. two, women voters are looking at this saying, donald trump's being tied to another scummy guy who did a bunch of things and the president of the united states just went to the south lawn to talk about it. just politically, that's really
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stupid. >> and as you cover this white house, it's got to be, you know, just galling to some lower level people. and a lot of women, whatever women are in this administration, this has got to be incredibly troubling. >> no doubt about that. that's why you see the president so vigorously trying to distance himself from jeffrey epstein. he was asked what that falling out was about 15 years ago, wouldn't go into any detail about that. but it has to be disconcerting, certainly, as the president prepares to fight for reelection. he's going to two critical states today. we started the conversation this morning by saying the president's eager to turn the page from yesterday when he backtracked from vowing to add a citizenship question to the u.s. census. now saying he doesn't have the time to do that to get the 2020 census out. he wanted to start talked about the usmca, what's going to replace nafta if it passes.
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yet, here we are talking about acosta and epstein. >> when we talk about this week in the white house, backing down on that census pledge was, you know, awkward and controversial. but it may well have appealed to his base. maybe the whole point was just to talk about it and to, you know, scare hispanic voters, undocumented -- undocumented immigrants from answering that ballot and letting census takers into their homes. >> there's no doubt that the president doesn't took a loss when he had to back away from the census question. this is the kind of fight the president likes to have. he likes to be able to say i fought for the idea that we wanted to know who is not a citizen in this country. i fought for the idea that americans should be the ones getting the money. they should be the ones counted for the congressional districts, which is a big reason why we have a census. but the president essentially even -- is making this argument
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while knowing that there are people who are going to say now immigrants after weeks of hearing about the census possibly asked about their citizenship might not fill out the census. there are critics who will say there will be an undercount because there was a debate. i was on the lawn this afternoon or this morning when the president was talking about the census. he's continuing to say he did not give up. the census -- it's been printed for at least a week now. the president and attorney general barr knew it was going to be a fight they weren't going to win. and you have department of justice lawyers say it's a fluid situation. for weeks told us the government didn't have a explanation that was going to pass the muster of the supreme court. >> and mike murphy, what about president saying he comes up with the best people? >> just to respond to that. i'll give you a contrary voice from far outside the beltway
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hoarse here in california. he doesn't care about the washington scorekeeping of winning and losing the administrative fight. he cares about what issues is being talked about on television to keep his voters happy. among his voters when you can argue those aren't enough to win -- i made that argument -- but having a debate on this, he's on the right side. whether or not he wins in d.c. doesn't matter to him. the politics of forcing the issue to be the center is a clear win from the president's point of view. >> we'll have more on this later, but phil rutger, you know, all the talk about announcing deportations, which are not supposed to be announced. the whole point of deportations is to -- for them to catch people who are illegally in the states. >> yeah, a raid by definition is supposed to have the element of surprise, but that's been taken away because the administration has announced ahead of time, not only when they're going to
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happen but also the cities. it's to create an element of theater, a dramatic effect to signal this is happening. trump talked about it on the south lawn this morning, previewing the amount of force they're going to be using to try to round up people who are here illegally. it seems to be another example of messaging to his conservative base. >> as we see live pictures of the president arriving in milwaukee, arriving in wisconsin, we know how important wisconsin is. according to an interview we did earlier this week, wisconsin now is a key pickup opportunity, you know, for both sides. the democrats obviously want to hold it. the president needs to hold it. the president in terms of the electoral map has big advantages. >> he does. he has to win wisconsin. wisconsin is the seat that gets him 271 electoral votes. if he can hold wisconsin and
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none of the other states flip, 271 lelectoral votes. the world is going to watch wisconsin to see what's going on. why is he blowing up his entire day in wisconsin and perp walking his labor secretary out the door? that's political malpractice. >> in the old days, which were pretrump, you could do that on friday night after the network newscasts. >> 5:01 is when we fired people that way no one knew unit until monday. he's completely blowing up his trip. if i'm his wisconsin campaign manager, i'm calling the white house saying what are you doing to me? this is craziness. >> and trashing house speaker
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paul ryan. >> who has a big approval rat g rating, exactly right. >> of course there might not be anyone in the white house to answer that phone call, that's another whole story. >> you are correct. >> thank you. we're going to see you on later today as well. thanks, of course. mike murphy as well in california outside the beltway jacomi. coming up next, chuck todd is here with more fallout from the dramatic resignation of alex acosta. the political fallout. stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. only onc
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on a big breaking news day, who else would we want to talk to but chuck todd? he's the moderator of "meet the pres press". alex acosta, we barely knew you. jeffrey epstein, we didn't know you. i mean, a friday walkout like that. we've been talking about the fact he stepped all over his visit to the critical state of wisconsin and ohio. >> well, donald trump steps on his message every hour. i mean, i thought about this before. it's like there is no -- i don't know what his driving message is on issues other than i want to tell my people i'm winning and they're losing. i mean, he steps on stuff all
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the time in that sense. this to me is another day in the trump white house. what i'm surprised on is the odd show of loyalty the president showed acosta publicly. to appear with him, to stand next to him as he did that is a little untrump-like. usually he washes his hands -- >> being a perp walk. >> it did feel a little bit like that, too. the fact that he put his arm around him is a little untrump-like. look, what happened -- when the woman that spoke to savannah guthrie, i think we all thought that, boy, this is likely going to be a moment kind of like what we saw with larry nassir and michigan state when a few women spoke up and then other women said oh, i can do this. i've got company. it's safe for me to do this. what do we have, 15 in the last 48 hours ready to talk about their time with epstein. i think that's what acosta saw. he could not do his job because
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this was always going to haunt him. >> that is what the president thought as well, chuck. acosta's defense was awkward in the extreme. it was not a vigorous defense as -- >> he was a lawyer up there, actually. >> but he was misstating the case. >> he was being lawyerly about it. there wasn't the brett kavanaugh go get on the libs moment, which of course is what the president would prefer. it doesn't matter what the facts are. bull doze your way through it. . >> does it matter he no longer has any hispanics in the cabinet? >> this is going to be the reason hispanics don't support this president? i mean, you look at the census. i'll say this when you combine the census fight and his gloating about i.c.e. raids, i know he does this for base stoking. we keep saying this.
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how many different ways does the republican party want to alienate hispanics. this feels like -- pete wilson would blush at this when you think about what happened in 1994 in california that basically turned california to a swing state to a blue state because of the way the republican party was seen as the party that was -- >> former governor pete wilson. >> what do we think the hispanic vote is going to look like in a decade? this may short term allow the president to keep the base fired up. the long term damage to the republican party, it looks like a targeted campaign to alienate hispanics away from the trump version of the republican party. what does that look like to marco rubio? what does it look like to republicans that are going to run in diverse states? >> marco rubio person, not known previously to donald trump. >> when donald trump was desperate for an hispanic in his cabinet. marco rubio can you help us? that's how he got alex acosta.
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>> the next big drama in washington, wednesday, so many, we understand there are actual talks on the hill right now with robert mueller's folks about delaying it a week. so that they can have more time with each of the committees, the judiciary and the intelligence committees. that would certainly be another delay on this much delayed testimony. >> it would make a lot of sense, too, if you're the democrats here. look, you're going to get one shot at mueller and we're only going to take two hours? right? one shot -- members were complaining how do you do follow ups? we hate -- you and i hate five minute interviews. the five minute interview, you say to yourself, well, you basically have time for one question and five follow ups. imagine being a member of congress and you've got robert mueller. it's like any of us, i need two hours. not five minutes. so i understand that individual members are going this is crazy. i do wish these committees -- i know everybody wants to get a
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shot. >> have a staff lawyer. >> pick two or three members. you know, who is the best at this? let them do it. >> no kentucky fried chicken. let's leave it there. chuck todd. >> have you tried the -- nevermind. >> we will see you at 5:00. sunday is "meet the press." be sure to tune in this sunday, chuck has an interview with megan rapinoe. >> do you know what the toughest ticket is in washington? trying to watch the show on sunday. >> can i get on? >> good luck. we may be sold out. >> okay, talk to you later. coming up, shake up, our nbc poll shows big shifts in the democratic race. that's ahead right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. mitchell reports" only on msnbc think all premium fuels are the same?
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the democratic primary contest appears divided between voters who want major change versus those whose top priority is to beat president trump. former vice president joe biden is seven points ahead of elizabeth warren. barely outside the margin of error. warren is followed crolosely by
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kamala harris and bernie sanders with south bend mayor pete buttigieg closing out the top tier. let's bring in mark murray and bring back jim masina. well, mark murray, you've got a lot to dig through. your big take away. >> number one has to do with those democrats who want fundamental large scale change. they end up making up 54% of the electorate according to our poll. the people who are winning them are elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. you end up having joe biden in third place. those who want smaller scale change, joie biden is lapping te field. this has the contrast to what democratic voters want. they're divided here. another divide, or poll shows that democrats, pretty much are split on whether they want a candidate who is more aligned with them on issues or who can simply beat president trump. i tell you back in 2015, 2016, the last presidential cycle.
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the issues was in the 70%. now it's almost an even split. electability matters minorityor democrats than it used to. tier one are the people who are running at the top. you end up having the joe biden, elizabeth warren, pete buttigieg, kamala harris, bernie sanders. tier two, talking beto o'rourke, then you have all the 1 percenters. then those people who are less than 1%. >> when we look at the age factor, what's interesting about this is that bernie sanders, you know, tops the field among young voters. >> he does. of course, remember, that was his strength in 2016. i will say one part that has to have him a little bit worried is he's not dominating this group the way he was in 2016. elizabeth warren's doing pret well with young voters too. joe biden is lapping the field with older democrats. >> what does that tell you about
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joe biden having the older democrats? >> well, right now joe biden has the two bedrock foundations of the democratic party, older voters and african-american voters. if he can hold that he'll be the nominee. he has the people you want to have who we definitely know are going to vote. what we saw in 2018 is youth surging turnout. right now, if there's a big youth surge turnout it would be bad for biden because he's getting a small number of young voters. the interesting part is going to be can he and kamala and elizabeth stop splitting all these votes. if they're going to stay in the race, all three of them, joe biden is looking pretty good. >> among white voters, joe biden and elizabeth warren are tied at 22%. >> that's right. it goes to jim's point about how he's dominating from african-americans. if you remove them in this equation he's no longer the field. we're talking about kamala
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harris, what's interesting in that divide between democrats who want larger and smaller change. she's straddling in the middle. she gets 14% from both groups. it's like she has one foot on one side and one on the other which to me shows the potential of someone who can be in the middle ground. sometimes you're in that middle position and it doesn't do you any good. almost either way for her. >> does the field have to narrow? it's very fluid. what we heard from the republican half of our team, is that this field shows biden as a front runner should be in 30s and 40s and he's not. he's lost elevation. >> i think biden was always going to come down. i think the appeal is going to shrink for two reasons. people will start running out of money quickly. this was going to be an expensive race. we moved texas and california up to the early states meaning you need real money to stay in. the third debate in august is
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just the top seven. so people are going to fight to get to the tier mark was talking about. if you're not on that debate stage you're going to have real problems getting people excited and raising money. i think you're going to see a bunch of people get out of this race after labor day. >> importantly, though, only 12% in our poll say their minds are completely mind up, which means this is still very early. i think these numbers are going to change with the winnowing and outside the winnowing. >> that's the big take away. this is fluid and early. thanks so much. thanks for being here. coming up, round up. immigration advocates trying to let undocumented immigrants know their rights ahead of the weekend crackdown the president is calling for. that's next right here. stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. h us on "andrl reports" on msnbc. (vo) parents have a way of imagining the worst... ...especially when your easily distracted teenager has the car. at subaru, we're taking on distracted driving [ping] with sensors that alert you when your eyes are off the road.
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my bladder leak underwear.orried someone might see so, i switched. to always discreet boutique. its shape-hugging threads smooth out the back. so it fits better than depend. and no one notices. always discreet. this policy is all about fear. this is about a president saying a million people are going to be deported. >> what we're working on is doing everything we can to push back against what the trump administration is doing. >> all of our city personnel know we do not cooperate with i.c.e., we tell people their rights. >> mayors pledging to push back against sunday's planned raid by immigration and customs enforcement officers. the crackdown was announced weeks ago, sparking criticism it's more to rally the trump base than to deport undocumented migrants. it's aimed at 2,000 families in
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ten cities. the aclu is suing to try to stop the deportations before sunday saying it violates due process procedures. joining me now is a civil rights attorney and deputy director of the aclu's immigrants rights process. do you have a court hearing on a temporary injunction or any kind of procedure coming up between now and sunday? >> well, we'll have to see what happens in court. our state affiliates in california out of los angeles and new york have brought this lawsuit. i suspect there will be other lawsuits. in addition to our lawsuit, i think what we're going to see is a mobilization of immigration lawyers and advocates as well as big law firms coming in and representing these individuals. because what happened with a lot of these families is the governments were saying they didn't show up for their hearings. why the notice system the government has is completely defective. sometimes the notice is sent to the wrong address, sometimes it has the wrong hearing date. sometimes it's sent so soon
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before the hearing people can't get there. from a policy standpoint, why is this administration targeting central american families? they're continuously doing that. first they took away families' babies, toddlers, little children. then they put an asylum ban and now they're making families wait in the most dangerous parts of mexico. now they're going after families. we heard this narrative from the administration. we only want to go after hardened criminals and national security threats. and now they're just out there terrorizing families. >> and you know, we talked earlier about the census debate which was a fake debate to scare people and depress responsiveness to the census. this is part of a pattern now. what can the aclu do. i know you're trying hard to defend children's rights and other rights of families that have been separated. you're spread pretty thin. >> i think that we just need to keep fighting back. i mean, we have brought more
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suits than we've ever had just in the immigration area, just out of our national affiliates. we have won many suits. i think we need to keep fighting back. we can't get tired. we need to get people's rights defended in court, but also the public i think needs to be out there expressing outrage the way they did last summer over family separation. i mean, part of it is the concrete aspect of different porting families. the other is just the terror that's going through these communities now. i mean, can you imagine a 5-year-old boy going to school and wondering if his parents are going to be there when he comes back. a lot of these families have u.s. citizen children. they're going to be left all alone if their parents are deported. so we just don't understand why this administration continues to terrorize central american families. that's what's all being targeted. families. >> thank you so much for what you're doing. i should point out we believe
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that new orleans is no longer on that list for the sunday mass raids because of the storm. at least that much is becoming clear. thank you. >> thank you for having me. honoring the promise. the house voting today finally to renew the 9/11 victims compensation fund. what will the senate do? we'll talk to one of the first responders who has been fighting for coverage next. and jon stewart, one of their primary advocates. stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. n "andrel reports" only on msnbc little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla.
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and just moments from now, the house will finally be voting to renew funding for the 9/11 victims compensation fund after month even years of emotional pleas from september 11th first responders and their supporters. 9/11 first responder john field and activist jon stewart were back on the hill today for their climatic vote, which still has to pass mitch mcconnecconnell's senate. john field, we keep thanking for you everything you're doing. the goal is in sight now. how do you feel today?
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>> not great, because the bill's going to get voted on in a couple minutes. it's going to get passed. but it's a shallow victory. ask me this question next week when we get it through the senate. it's hard to celebrate when people are sick and dying. i've seen so much pain and suffering over the last 15 years. but the fact that i get to spend today, this historic day with jon, i feel better about that. because, you know, this is my woobie, you know? i don't go anywhere without it. >> you know, i know this is bittersweet and there's sadness. we're thinking of lou avla lver
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>> he decided today spend literally the last week of his life fighting for his brothers and sisters to get them the same compensation and their families that he had received. and it doesn't -- the thing to remember about this is it doesn't alleviate the pain and suffering they go through. it takes away that extra burdensome layer on the families that never should have been there in the first place. it's in no way a panacea. it doesn't alleviate anything. but, you know, lou was down here because he wanted his legacy in his final days to be that he went down swinging. you know, that's what a lot of these men and women are like. they are people that are drawn to service. and even in their final days, they continue that mission because they want to see the job done. and, you know, john field has given 15 years of his life, half a foot and his kidney to this
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cause. it's in sight, but it's not done. i don't think any of us feel comforted. we just want to make sure we have a deadline. the senate majority leader said to them personally this would be done by the august recess. that's august 2nd. so we're going to hold him to that word. it has to be done by august 2nd. it has to be fully funded. then everyone can exhale and go home. >> and, you know, jon stewart, this is a rounding error on the budget. it's so incredible that for 18 years you and others, you know, caroline maloney has been heroic. we're expecting her momentarily. she was called back to the floor when the vote was delayed. this is craziness. this is only one example. it's the most dramatic, the most emotional.
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there were so many parts of government funding that get screw could this way. >> we were on the -- even watching the debate for the bill. this has a $10.2 billion over ten years cbo score. it's ridiculous amount of money, obviously on a personal sense. but in a governmental sense, it's nothing. yet they're still arguing about this paid for. this is either necessary or it's not. and it's necessary. and to watch a group of individuals running a trillion dollar deficit who are throwing tens of billions of dollars at various bailouts at their whim, talk about this bill with fiscal concern over this ten-year period. it's like watching joey chestnut bang down 70 hot dogs on july 4th and then turn down a coke because he's going to have a tab because he's watching his figure. it's nonsense. it has to stop. >> you know, this has been --
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you've been a reluctant witness to all of this, a participant in our government at work, or not at work. what message do you draw from all of this? i remember you testifying -- i think you've testified and you have been to more than 181 funerals. >> it is 182. my job not only as an advocator is a pain in the butt to congress over theless few years. i documented everything and when that book comes out, this is going to be a lot of shots fired at those in the senate and those in congress who failed miserably protecting yesterday's heroes. they had a moral obligation and many of them failed. people today we are talking about we have 300 plus cosponsors. we had 290 in 2015. i predicted everything i predicted come true to this point today. let's talk about the 100
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cosponsors that are not. let's talk about those when we hit the senate, we'll get on board. we want to put all sorts of way to keep up and go home and farm. we want top excel. we want to get rid of d.c., we want to get out and want to be left alone. if mitch mcconnell or anybody in the senate plays games, myself and my team, jon stewart, we come back and make their lives miserable. we are not going to apologize for that. they work for us. mitch mcconnell is in charge of 99 people and the speaker is in charge of 44 people. they're working for us. we'll get the bank in the bucks and make them work for us. >> lou alvarez gave them a shield. >> keep your word.
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your word was this passes, unattached and as a stand ialon bill. fully funded. it is being add straigministrat remar remarkably well. it is getting relief to those who needed the most. this is like john has plowed the field, everything has been done and letters been written and put in the envelope and stamp is on it. all the senate has to do is mail the letter. that's all we are asking this em to do. they should do it before august 2nd. keep your word. >> that's the word. >> jon stewart and john field, thank you very much. and john f, thank you very much.
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paul ryan was a lame duck for a long time as speaker. he was unable to raise money. he lost control of the house. the only successful he had was the time he admit for paul ryan to be complaining is amazing. for him to come out and open his mouth is pretty incredible. >> president trump slamming paul ryan, i thought that was yesterday's news. he did that today following
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release of a new book, "american carnage" by tim roberta. ryan criticized the president, we have gotten so numbed by it a all. not in government. don't cheat on your wife or don't cheat on anything. be a good example. joining me now -- why is the president going after paul ryan now? charlie sykes. >> this is the relationship between paul ryan and donald trump, looks like the romance is off again. paul ryan has been no illusion of who and what donald trump was, what he meant for
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conservati conservetism and the gop. the price tag kept ongoing up and up. what you see from tim alberto's book that at certain point he had enough. i guess the question is now you tell us? could you have spoken out more? it may have caused him his speaker-ship, we are at an ugly moment in politics because guys like paul ryan did not speak out. you have the president 06 tprest of the united states denouncing. >> and mit romney who was the running mate, paul ryan was the running mate of romney. speaker ryan was a conservative
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champion as a person who can unite the house. he asked to be a speaker as service to the country. a man like paul ryan does not often come along. >> that tribute. we saw a tweet storm yesterday where donald trump went after him calming him a failed vp candidate whose record achievement was atrocious and a lame duck failure and he did not know how to win and blew it and had bad timing. it is just -- kind of nasty politics on twitter. >> we don't know it would have made a difference in paul ryan would speak out loudly. would that have been the case if there had been an alternative vision. if somebody like paul ryan had
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articulated, you know, less of this and less isolationists and all of the trumpian characteristi characteristics. there would have been a local remnant of people saying we are not buying into this. paul ryan must be looking around saying what did i get from all the appeasement? i got the tax cuts but going forward, i got nothing. >> the president really picked off from the democrats. >> well, it is interesting being in wisconsin, none of the c candidates are making the mistakes of not coming here. as i came down to the studio, there is police on every path, elizabeth warren is here and the president is here and other candidates as well. 2020 will be decided by the
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democrats and their choice of the nominee whether they can run someone who can win in a swing state like wisconsin or whether or not they'll be appealing to their base. wisconsin is very much in place as it has been. >> a critical state indeed. charlie sykes, it is great to see you. >> on the east coast, evacuations on the gulf coast are underway. hurricane warning are still under effect, tropical storm barry is set to make landfall over night. officials are warning the real threat now is as much as 20 in och inches of heavy rain.
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the mayor is confident that levees will not over flow but he asks for every residence to be cautious. follow our facebook online and, thank you very much for being with us. here is ali for "velshi & ruhle." hello everyone, coming up, a dramatic turn of the johnny depp friday epstein's saga, alex acosta has resigned. he's the latest member of the trump cabinet to resign in disgrace. we are 48 hours away from expected i.c.e. raids. it is planning to round up undocumented immigrants in several cities. we have brand new 2020 polling from nbc news. we'll tell you who's up and who could soon be out. president trump's labor secretary, alex acosta abruptly resigning this morning after increased scrutiny over his role in a lenient deal a decade ago given to registered sex offender jeffery epstein who was accused of sexually