tv Alex Witt Reports MSNBC December 7, 2024 11:00am-12:00pm PST
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>> good afternoon from msnbc in washington d.c., welcome to alex witt reports. i'm yamiche alcindor in for alex. we begin with breaking news in new york, new developments in the nationwide manhunt for the gunman who killed united healthcare ceo brian thompson. this is the person of interest who police say has been on the run since wednesday. today new york city mayor eric adams saying investigators are making progress but are with holding the name of the suspect. >> we don't want to release that now. if you do -- we basically are given a tip to the person who are seeking and we don't want t to give him an upper hand at all. we don't believe he can hide behind his mask. we will reveal who he is and we will bring him to justice. >> also new today, the police are working with local police in
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atlanta where the bus originated from that brought the alleged gunman to new york. police are also examining a backpack found in central park last night that they say could belong to the suspect. the nypd also released a minute by minute timeline of the suspect's movements before and after the shooting. investigators believe he likely fled the city on a bus soon after the shooting on wednesday. we have a number of reporters in place ready to go over all of the big headlines of the day. joining me now for the latest on the investigation in new york is nbc news's george solis who is near the crime scene in new york city. george, what's the latest? . >> reporter: thank you, yamiche. mayor adams saying the net is tightening and we want the person of interest off of the streets of new york and off of the streets of america. obviously this net expanding for the search for the person of interest and so much hinging on the discovery of that gray backpack that law enforcement believes did belong tothe person
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of interest t. we don't know what is inside of that backpack, authorities are not giving any headway there. we do know that the nypd spent a large amount of time with drones in the air canvassing the area and that led them to find that backpack. of course what's in there could give investigators a sense of where this individual is heading. obviously, as we learned from some of the headlines, authorities do believe this person of interest is no longer in new york city. so you have a massive drag net if you will of law enforcement communicating across the country as the manhunt is underway. law enforcement officials yesterday gave us a sense of where this investigation stands at the moment and again, a lot of people with a lot of eye balls on this. take a listen. >> they are doing an extensive video camera, working back from the hilton hotel from the incident all the way to up town manhattan. we have him in a taxi cab that
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takes him to 178th street and broadway which is a p interstat. we believe he may have left new york city. >> reporter: again, from the mayor himself again, they believe this net is tightening but again, as far as a name, while some of that may be floating online, officials have yet to confirm any of that information. you can so the police presence in new york city. you can see there is a large one given this happened right around the tree lighting ceremony around 30 rockefeller plaza. a lot of questions remain. the timeline is critical, figuring out where the person of interest may have gone is key in this investigation. >> certainly key to keep following the trail. thank you for the reporting. joining me now is form member of president obama's team, cedric alexander.
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thank you for being here. the shooting happened wednesday morning. the shooter's picture has been out there for several days. you heard mayor eric adams suggested that they know the suspect's name but they don't want to release it because they don't want to tip anyone off, the suspect being the key person they don't want to tip off there. what do you make of all of that? cedric? unfortunately, cedric can't -- i think he can possibly hear me now. can you hear me now? okay. so we are going to come back to cedric, hopefully. coming up later this hour, i will speak with wendell potter, a former vice president for cigna, now an advocate for reform and how this death is highlighting the problems for the insurance industry. right now president-elect donald trump is on his first overseas trip since winning the
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election. he is attending the reopening ceremony of notre dame cathedral five years after a fire nearly destroyed the historic site. trump sat down with both french president emmanuel macron and ukrainian president volodomyr zelenskyy before making his way into the cathedral. he is scheduled to meet with prince william shortly after the ceremony. it is interesting to look at all of those videos and to see those three leaders being there, standing there. it is also interesting if you look at the live pictures that we are looking at now, you can see the religious officials gathered. they had opprosession outside. you see the children singing there. you see first lady jill biden standing next to the wife of french president emmanuel macron. it is also a reminder of what it took to get to this moment. emmanuel macron five years ago said we are going to reopen this building. we will make sure this is done quickly. there were some who said he could not move that quickly.
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here we see he was able to make good on that. it is also a reminder that president-elect trump is in some ways having his own reopening because as this building is being reopened, of course we are now seeing him step out on the stage and remind people that a second trump administration is going to be talking to a bunch of world leaders. i want to now play some sound of what president-elect trump and emmanuel macron said when they met earlier today. >> we had a great relationship as everyone knows. we accomplished a lot together and the people of france are spectacular. it is an honor to be here. we had good time together and we had a lot of success, really great success working together on defense and offense too. and it srnl seems like the world is going a little crazy right now. and we will be talking about that. >> so now let's bring in vaughn
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hillyard who is in paris, france for a tough assignment covering the president-elect there in beautiful paris. it is that scene behind you, the beautiful building a reminder of what paris almost lost. tell us more about the meeting, the unexpected meeting between president-elect donald trump along side not only the french president but the ukrainian president. >> reporter: right. this was supposed to be a one on one meeting between president macron and president-elect trump here this afternoon in paris ahead of the reopening ceremony. it ended up turning into a three way meeting that included ukrainian president zelenskyy who was slated to have his meeting with macron after the trump-macron meeting. but this was several days in the making. trump indicated he would take macron up on the request that he would attend the cathedral
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opening. it was not until yesterday afternoon that it was announced that zelenskyy would be attending. and suddenly ahead of the major event here with the reopening of the cathedral, major for paris, major for the catholic church, the entire community, this was a moment geopoliticaly speaking that is going to be referenced for weeks and months to come especially out of concern that the trump administration has indicated, the incoming trump administration has indicated repeatedly that there is reticence to continue to provide financial aid to ukraine and its defense against russia and donald trump has consistently said he would look to bring the war, the ukraine russia war to an end in 24 hours in his words. but he has not provided details on what exactly that would look like. so there are big questions as to what those conversations that took place this afternoon, to what extent did they involve details about continued aid to ukraine and to what extent they
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could have included president-elect trump issuing ideas for how a settlement could be struck and whether ukrainian president zelenskyy would be open to ceding any of the territory that russia has so far occupied. >> yes, and vaughn, i want to point out something. you emailed the entire company this, that volodomyr zelenskyy put out this on a post, he said, i had a very good productive trilateral meeting, two head of states and then president-elect trump, but he said they had a productive and good meeting. and he said that president trump is always resolute. i thank him and also extend gratitude to emmanuel for organizing the important meeting that we all want. so take me inside this as we see the world leaders come up to trump, how receptive is he to all of these sort of outwardly attempts to flatter him? you now have volodomyr zelenskyy
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saying he was a great person in some ways and really leaning into that? >> reporter: right. let's be very clear, yamiche. we have not seen a single world leader outside of the president of mexico play hard ball upon donald trump being elected president of the united states. the president of mexico was very vocal in her opposition to his threats of tariffs but that was a stark contrast to the likes of president trudeau who flew down to mar-a-lago to meet with trump. and the nato secretary general flew in to meet with trump two weeks ago. you are looking at president-elect trump coming here and meeting, we saw the hand shakes that people came acustomed to, the assertive and aggressive hand shakes between macron and trump but so far,
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there from zelenskyy and macron, there has been repeated suggestions that there could be peace across the regions and there could be a strengthened relationship and alliances between the countries. and he gave no that there was concern that they would cede towards ukraine. but of course you look at the other world leaders that were here inside of cathedral right now, president of poland, president of italy, this is a marked moment for the church and religiously speaking and for the community here but also a geopolitical moment here in which nobody is naive to the concerns and consternations that the pending trump administration brings to the nato alliance and civility in the region as a
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whole. >> yeah, it is really striking as you think about all of the different concerns there. there was the image of first lady jill biden and then the wife of emmanuel macron and president-elect trump, showing there is a transition underway, both a reopening of notre dame and reopening for the second trump presidency on the world stage. thank you. we have new questions on will be back in 90 seconds. (♪♪) today, you can give a gift like no other. a gift that can help st. jude children's research hospital save lives. i think it's the most worthwhile place to put your money when it comes to childhood cancer. if it weren't for st. jude, i wouldn't be sitting here today. if it weren't for st. jude, a lot of kids wouldn't be with their families every day. let's come together to help the children of st. jude fight childhood cancer
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this holiday season. don't wait! this offer won't last. breaking news from new york, nationwide manhunt for the gunman who killed united healthcare ceo brian thompson. this is the person of interest who police say has been on the run since wednesday. today new york city mayor eric adams saying investigators are making progress. joining me now is a former member of president obama's task force on 21st century policing and nbc senior law enforcement analyst cedric alexander. sounds like you can hear me this time. i want to talk about this shooting. it is heartbreaking. it happened on wednesday morning and the suspect's picture has been out there for days and days. you have the new york city mayor eric adams say they know the suspect's name but they don't
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want to release it because they don't want to tip him off. what do you make of all that? >> respect to the work the police department is doing in new york city along with what the mayor is requesting. they are doing the right thing, whatever information they are operating on, they are still in the middle of the investigation. they have reported and identified someone. i think the only thing we can do is allow them the opportunity to conduct the investigation and make sure that it is thorough. when they are prepared to pick this person up or to pick him up and reveal his identity would be the most appropriate time. these types of investigations become very complicated. they have to make sure they do everything by the book, step by step-by-step so that no way do they impede the totality of this investigation. so i certainly do as a former chief understand the protocols in terms of what they are doing
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here. and we have to be patient until they reveal that information to us. we have to remember this is an ongoing investigation. >> and police say they even have a clue that they covered a backpack in central park that they believe is linked to the gunman. the contents are unknown but what do you think police will be looking for with the backpack and how long do you think it will take to solve this? >> well, should the backpack be identified as the person's who they are looking to make an arrest on, that could disclose physical evidence. it could be hair, fingerprints , any dna activity that might be in that bag, on that bag. d is there a cell phone that
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could further build the case around the person, if the backpack belongs to him, it will be important to the overall part of this investigation. >> yeah, and we don't know the motive yet of course of this gunman but this has sparked a conversation about frustrations of a lot of americans when it comes to insurance companies and the anger that a lot of people have when it comes to denying claims and the refusal for medical coverage. what do you think companies, especially insurance, healthcare companies should be doing to beef up security? >> i think this incident is going to create a great deal of pause and concern certainly with the vitriol messages that are on the internet as it relates to the unfortunate and sad death of brian thompson. people have some very negative feelings towards an insurance
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carriers, particularly around medical benefits and reimbursements and willingness to pay for certain claims. so there's a lot of feelings around that. and certainly we don't know what the noteivation was behind this particular case. but certainly it is theorized or speculated. but a lot of people across the country really have some pretty deep feelings about some insurance carriers and i think that is something that they will pay attention to particularly as it comes to making sure they are in a safe space for themselves. >> well, definitely a story that we are continuing to follow closely. thank you for your analysis and for coming back when we could hear you, thank you. later this hour, i will speak to wendell potter, a former vice president for cigna and now an advocate for health insurance reform on how this death is
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highlighting problems within the insurance industry. one of the biggest controversies is surrounding pete hegseth. he faces scrutiny over a sexual assault allegation which he denies and reports of excessive alcohol use. in an interview with nbc news, trump expressed confidence in the nomination. julie tsirkin is joining me now from capitol hill. where does hegseth's support stand on capitol hill? does he really have the numbers to make it through? >> reporter: well, he does have the support of the president-elect. he reaffirmed that with kristen welker earlier and confirmed it on truth social. hegseth came to the capitol with a tough math problem. he had a handful of senate republicans who at this point were noncommittal when it comes to voting for him and that is because of allegations that have
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plagued the confirmation process so far. he had good meetings and he met with joanieernest who is a combat veteran herself and a sexual assault survivor. that was the toughest meeting so far. he had a phone call with her and they agreed to meet with him next week. she is not sold on pete hegseth. she said they had a tough and frank conversation when they did meet. there are still questions that remain. that being said, he did finish this week a little bit in a better place than he started. it seems like he at least is continuing on the path forward towards his confirmation process and in january for the hearing that he is supposed to have. and take a listen to mike johnson. >> i have talked to a number of senators on the hill the last couple of days and it seems like the momentum is moving the right
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way. i like the way he approached it. we have all made mistakes in our loif but we all believe in redemption. what pete brings to the table is a love of the military, great education, great skillset. he is well suited for the job and he will shake up the status quo which is why this pick is so important. >> reporter: he will be back on capitol hill next week for more meetings. he says he will not drink while on the job if he is confirmed to the position. a couple of things to watch on this. >> this is a nomination that seemed like it was on the rocks but trump is sticking by him so thank you for that reporting. joining me now is amesha cross, former advisor to the obama campaign and brendan buck, political analyst, thank you both for being here. hegseth is having to assure senators that he will not drink
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if he becomes defense secretary. that is kind of remarkable that you have to make a promise like that. do you think he will actually get through with promises like that? >> i think it is a very interesting term but it showcases how important he sees that the drinking problem happens to be to a lot of the people who are gauche to be taking him into consideration, including trump. going out on a limb saying he is not going to drink if, should be a something that is a denier in and of itself. as far as we know for people who have alcohol problems, i have had people in my own family who have those issues, saying you will not do something that you are prone to do as a means to get the job is a very bad place to be. more over, he can only stand to lose -- he can't lose more than four. at this point, he has to do all of the wheeling and dealing he can, make all of the promises imaginable to ensure he gets the votes. i think it says something that
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president-elect already lost matt gaetz and he is not trying to lose another person. at this point, i think he is going to do all of the wheeling and dealing he has to do, speak to the senators he has to and joni is an important one as a woman who served in the military. pete hegseth's own comments on women serving in combat is problematic. those who have served may take issue with that, up to and including the issues of allegations of sexual assault and rape. >> she brings up smpg that i was about to transition to, senator ernst was the first female combat veteran elected to the senate and she is an advocate for military survivors of sexual trauma. she says she is not ready to vote for hegseth yet. but they are scheduled to meet again. she said they will continue
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constructive conversations. what impact do you think she will have especially given that hegseth has said women shouldn't fight in combat roles? where do you think this goes? >> yeah, obviously a critical voice in the senate and i think a lot of other senators will look to her. she represents a very conservative state, normally the politics for her would be clear, you stick with donald trump's nominee. this is personal to her as well. if she cannot get there, it is not hard to see susan collins and even mitch mcconnell back her up and say i'm not going to do this. those two issues are very personal to her but there are probably other senators that have concerns in other dimensions as well. i think his financial mismanagement of organizations he has run previously, lack of experience running any large organization. the thing we should appreciate is it is very early. we keep learning more about pete
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hegseth every week. when you have this much smoke, there is often going to be fire somewhere. we will find out if there are more allegations that come out or evidence against him that will come out. this is early in the process. he has not begun the fbi background check. so it is not as though he is coasting through the week. there is still a lot of time for more damaging things to come around and more excuses for ernst or others to vote against him. >> there is also the issue with what pete hegseth, some in the circle have called christian nationalism and his battle cry for a new christian crusade. he wrote that like our fellow christians we must fight. he also joined a church
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described as christian negz nationalist. what is significant about this when there is not as much concern about this issue? >> i think that is the right. christian nationalism took over the right wing of political discourse a long time ago. we have heard this from multiple candidates. this is one that is very vocal about it. and like several others made in that image, he has problematic behavior such as cheating on multiple wives. the people who tend to be the most vocal nationalists are also the people with a lot of skeletons in the closet. i think it is problematic because it denies other individuals who may have different religious beliefs. and you think of this prominent position, people entering the military of all different stripes, cultural norms and religious backgrounds, it is
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radical to think that someone who holds as stringent beliefs as he does would give those people the time of day or give them an opportunity to practice religion the way they see it. >> brandon, what do you make of that? >> i wouldn't waste a lot of time on this issue if i were democrats or anyone else. if he is a firm christian, i don't think that will be held against him in any way and i think it is bad precedent to get into people's religious views. the are a lot of questions that you can ask on if he is capable for the job and you can talk about women in the military and whether that is related to religion, i don't know. but we should ask questions on his capacity to do the job and there are plenty of issues outside of his religious views. >> that may be the reason why you don't hear as much about the views because there are a lot of other things to talk about. thank you both for your views and bringing your analysis here. it is not all talk.
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new developments in the obongoing battle of tiktok after courts upheld a law that could ban the popular social media app across the u.s. joining me now is nbc's marquis francis. thank you for being here. how likely is a ban to happen? >> well, it appears to be we are not really sure. it remains to be what tiktok will look like in 2025 and if it will exist past the january deadline next year, especially depending on who you ask. from tiktok's perspective, they feel it is a first amendmenteshue and their rights are being banned. they will appeal to the supreme court. the doj says this is a national security issue. they have had more than 170
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million people in the u.s. use tiktok. they feel the chinese parent company could influence people on the app or steal their data. this is a big issue depending on where you fall on either side. yesterday in the appeals court opinion, it doubled down saying this is a free speech issue but they believe they are protecting americans from a foreign adversary. what complicates this slightly is the fact that president-elect trump has kind of flip-flopped on the issue. during his first term, he was a loud critic against tiktok aing they were a national security threat. in recent months, he has done an about face saying he wants to save tiktok. both him and the president of tiktok have spoken out against this in recent months. take a listen. >> rest assured. we are not going anywhere. we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. the facts and the constitution are on our side. we expect to prevail. >> we will make our country
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greater than before and i appreciate your support. >> and you will never ban tiktok, that's for sure. >> i will never ban tiktok. >> the reason why that trump sound is so crucial is the fact that donald trump and joe biden were both quoted in the initial legislation that turned this into law, saying tiktok is a national security threat. if donald trump were to say it is not a national security threat, it will go a long way in potentially influencing or swaying the gop majority supreme court. >> definitely interesting that so many young people in particular are watching whether or not tiktok will ultimately be banned. thank you for the reporting. what we know about the gunman who killed united healthcare's ceo and how it has ignited a lot of frustration and anger in the healthcare industry. and anger in the healthcar industry to ensure everything sent on its holiday ride ends with a moment of joy.
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it is day four in the expanding search for the gunman who killed the united healthcare ceo. right now police are examining this backpack found in central park last night. they think the shooter ditched it there before he fled the city by bus on wednesday. the fbi upping the reward to $50,000 for information leading to an arrest. the shooting is putting a new spotlight on the health insurance agency. police say the words depose, delay, deny were written on the
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bullet casings on the scene. i want to bring in wendell potter, now an advocate for health insurance reform. he has written a book, deadly spin, an insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate pr is ruining healthcare and deceiving americans. wendell, thank you for being here. this is a horrific crime with no suspect in custody and no known motive. it has also driven some intense critical comments online about america's health insurance industry. for you, as someone who has been inside of the industry, were you surprised by the level of anger that you saw after this shooting in terms of it being directed at healthcare companies? when we talk about the lack of healthcare coverage for americans, there is also a focus on even the people who do have health insurance, they are often regularly denied claims. i wonder what you make of all of this? >> i'm surprised a bit by the
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volume and vitriol but i'm not shocked. americans have been angry at melt insurance companies for a lopg, long time. i knew that when i was in the industry when we did surveys about what people thought of us and what we might be able to do to improve the relationship with the customers. we were always told what you need to do is pay our bills and get out of our lives. but instead of that, the companies have gotten increasingly involved in our lives. they have become enormous, enormous corporations. you may recall, i became a whistleblower, i testified before congress, almost 15 years ago when congress was debating what became the affordable care act. i warned policy makers about the role that wall street plays in our healthcare system. that is significant. because brian thompson, the executive at united healthcare was there for the companies annual investor day. that is just indicative of the
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importance that these companies place on wall street. they control our healthcare system in ways that people don't understand. that is why people are upset. >> as you think about the anger in united health in particular, that company is facing multiple lawsuits over denial of coverage. they argue the lawsuits should be dropped because they were not completed. i wonder last month, the senate subcommittee filed a report that found the company was using algorithms to consider claims and it knew it caused a number of denials to rise. united said the report misrepresents the practice but as someone in the industry, what danger do you think a.i. poses in how insurance companies operate? >> it imposes a huge, huge threat to our ability to get the care we need. these companies, without a.i. have been able to deny care for a long, long time. they do it through something
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called prior authorization and that has been increasing every year, not just as united but other companies. where i used to work at cigna, there were reports on how that company is using algorithms and a.i. to deny claims by the thousands in one fell swoop. that's what's going on. that's why people are becoming increasingly upset and are taking to social media to express that. the industry for years has been doing it and there are surveys trying to make people believe that we are satisfied with our health insurance company. that is simply not true. i think this may as sad and awful as it is, there is no role for violence in our society and certainly for someone seeking vengeance who knows what the motive was here, but maybe this will be a catalyst for some real thinking and real reforms that need to take place. >> yeah. and as you think about the
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conskwenss of what is a horrific shooting, there is this conversation that happened this week about anthem blue cross blue shield. an initial announcement of change prompted outrage for leaders in new york and connecticut where it would have been tested first. i'm not asking you to speculate about who is right in this situation but what role do you think public attention to the way the industry is operating, how it could protect people and impact the way these companies are operating? >> one thing i'm seeing now for the first time in several years is heightened awareness and attention paid by the media and regular people on social media. this happened quickly at anthem. i wrote about it this week before the company made the reversal. it just gives you on indication of how these companies operate with immunity. they think they can get away
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with things like this. increasingly the media is paying attention to arbitrary decisions they are making and so are people on social media. that was a very, very quick reversal that the company made. so i think these companies, i think they are realizing the world has changed for them and we will see but i think policy makers in washington are paying attention. i think they are around the states. and employers are as well too. employers are beginning to realize that they too have been taken to the cleaners for years. they have not brought down the cost of care but the profits go up every single year as the companies have been raising premiums, costing our employers more money, costing us more money and making us pay a lot of money out of our pockets before our deductibles kick in. that's not something that is sustainable and people are rebelling tubt. >> thank you so much, wendell
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accounts from officials involved and reminds us that all these years later, more than 1,000 children have yet to be reunited with their families. joining us now, jacob soboroff, national political correspondent and executive producer on the film and author of the book that inspired the film, separated, inside an american tragedy. jaken thank you for being here. i want to play a bit of the film featuring captain jonathan white woo was with the office of refugee resettlement during the trump administration. take a look. >> it is hard to explain to people why they should care about anyone or anything but the most important word is children. they are not a metaphor. each of them is an actual child, and a child in terrible danger. if you have children, you need
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only imagine your own child in a foreign country, not speaking the language, with no parent, with no money, not understanding how that society works. >> just really heartbreaking to hear. i know you have children and i have a child, it is really remarkable when you think of the statistic that he just said, 1,000 children still not reunited. we heard what president-elect donald trump said on the campaign trail and what his pick for border czar tom homan said about separation. will this start again? and who will be advocating against those types of tactics and having more humanity in the second trump administration? >> i would add that we have also heard what the vice president elect has said about immigrants because of your reporting in springfield, ohio.
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what we can expect is what they promised. if i have learned anything in covering the family separation policy and having the privilege of making the film with the oscar winning director, it is my proudest accomplishment ipmy time at nbc news and i can't wait for everyone to see it. they will do what they said they will do. they said they would separate thousands of kids from their parents and they did it. they said they would institute the largest deportation effort in history and it is family separation by another name. so it is a look back at an emotional chapter in our country according to a republican appointed judge who stopped it. it is a look at what may happen as it dids in 2018. >> when you talk about shameful chapter in the history, what is also shameful is there are still hundreds of families not reunited after hundreds of
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years. where are these children and who is taking care of them and is there hope they will be reunited? >> as we speak to each other now, as the film airs tonight, there are at least 1360 children according to the last status report from the department of homeland security without confirmed reunifications after being separated as many as seven years ago. that is because as you will see in the film, this policy was so haphazardly implemented which is a generous description, and you will see it on the screen with first person emails, this was the point. they didn't want to reunite children, even given the opportunity to do so. the consequence of that, the children are still and may have a life time of trauma and may be permanent orphans at the hands of the u.s. government.
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>> it is heartbreaking to think about. you have done incredible work and congratulations on the film. it is a real work here. so thank you so much. >> thank you. >> at 7:00 p.m. eastern jacob and rachel maddow have more on the special and you can watch it here on msnbc. that will do it for me this hour. i'm yamiche alcindor, thank you for watching. my colleague christina ruffini joins me at the top of the hour. . everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time to quit the kibble and feed their dogs fresh food from the farmer's dog. made by vets and delivered right to your door precisely portioned for your dog's needs. it's an idea whose time has come. ♪♪ ♪
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