victims of violence. >> today, his family said there is a big hole in the world, adding, but as he would say, keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole. >> stephanie gosk, nbc news. >> keep your eye on the donut, not the hole. a genius whose work on screen and off has helped so many. i know that my family and i learned transcendental meditation because of the david lynch foundation, and for that i am truly grateful. and before i sign off, if you are looking for even more news, you can catch me on one of the latest episodes of the daily beans podcast, where i join to talk all about the big stories of the week and the big money headed to washington. you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. and on that note, i wish you a very good night from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news. thanks for staying up late with me. >> i'll see you at the end of tonight. >> it was 2016, and donald trump

had just become the presumptive republican nominee for president, and the owner of one of america's biggest newspapers was explaining to the world why he bought that newspaper in the first place. >> i've always believed, and i think a lot of i know it's a rare it's not a rare belief. i think a lot of us believe this, that democracy dies in darkness, that certain institutions have a very important role in making sure that there is light. and i think the washington post has a seat, an important seat to do that, because we happen to be located here in the capital city of the united states of america. >> democracy dies in darkness. those words officially became the washington post's slogan in 2017. there was little ambiguity about its meaning. the post saw itself as a force that would hold truth to power and shine a light on corruption. in washington, where a notoriously

corrupt billionaire had just entered office. by 2019, the post was running an ad during the super bowl, claiming that the nation was threatened and that journalism would help keep us free. that is what democracy dies in darkness was supposed to mean. now, today, that is still technically the paper slogan, but there is a whole lot more ambiguity this week. executives at the washington post, again owned by jeff bezos, announced that the paper was releasing a new mission statement to guide its journalism. and that mission statement riveting storytelling for all of america, riveting storytelling for all of america. here's how the new york times describes the post's new mission. mr. bezos has expressed hopes that the post would be read by more blue collar americans who live outside coastal cities. he has also said that he is interested in expanding the post's audience among conservatives. now, to be clear, an effort to reach a

bigger audience is not necessarily nefarious. but this all seems to be part of a broader reorientation of the washington post as proof of that. also this week, a group of more than 400 journalists at the post sent mr. bezos an open letter citing their concerns about the emerging editorial direction of the paper. all of that post turmoil is happening amid really an unprecedented effort by bezos and other billionaires to flatter the same man. many of these journalists, many of these same journalists and businessmen once thought needed to be held accountable. this week, we learned that donald trump's inauguration will be attended by a posse of some of the world's richest men. elon musk, jeff bezos and mark zuckerberg will all be in attendance, along with openai ceo sam altman and tiktok ceo chu chu. many of those same billionaires have lavished trump with seven figure donations. just for context, here was the

scene at trump's first inauguration, helpfully annotated by the new york times. a handful of america's elites were certainly in attendance then as well. people like republican megadonors sheldon and miriam adelson, industry titan carl icahn, oil and gas magnate harold hamm and financier lewis eisenberg. but for the most part, those were all people who had either spent decades in republican politics or were longtime friends of the trumps, or were said to be members of the incoming trump administration. and none of them came close to matching the net worth of the tech billionaires who were set to attend trump's second inauguration, a group whose collective wealth is nearly $900 billion. that is billion with a b and also happens to be greater than the gdp of most nations on this planet. but concentrated wealth isn't the only thing that gives trump's new billionaire boys club unprecedented power. that same handful of billionaires also maintains an oligopoly over

america's information ecosystem, controlling nearly every major social media platform in this country. monday's inauguration will be a striking symbol, not just of the concentration of power in america, but how that concentrated power has so quickly rushed to align itself with an autocratically inclined president elect. last night, in his final address to the nation, president biden issued a dire warning. >> i want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. this is a dangerous country, and that's a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people. the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. today, an oligarchy is taking shape in america of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to

get ahead. >> then biden went on to warn about what he called a new tech industrial complex, citing the rise of misinformation and institutional disregard for facts and the crumbling of a free press, and all of it at the hands of a few wealthy billionaires. it could not be more clear that the people biden was warning the country about are the very people who will be standing behind donald trump on that inaugural stage in just four days time. joining me now are tim miller, host of the bulwark podcast and the great, just inimitable stephanie ruhle, host of the 11th hour. it's great to have you both here. steph, thank you for coming in early, i guess. well, to set not work. first off, the relationship here between donald trump and the business world, specifically these tech ceos. i mean, this is just i loved looking in that inaugural photo from 2016 because it's a new day. can you talk about how the relationship between the tech world and trump world has changed in the intervening nine years? >> well, we have to be clear.

there's huge money in all politics, right? right. kamala harris raised just under a gazillion dollars for her campaign. so you're right. so that's not new. but we have to take all of this back to the citizens united decision so we know what's going on now. what we're looking at is unlimited corporate dollars in politics, and we're seeing it come to fruition. so think about these specific people, the three richest men in the world. you've got jeff bezos, you've got elon musk, you've got mark zuckerberg, right. they are they are not just yeah, you know we got to play ball. we want to do business with the president. that makes sense for their businesses. but think about what they care about. artificial intelligence communications, government contracts obviously space exploration, the businesses that they are in require so much regulation and the influence they can have in the next four years is so enormous that these guys could end up with more zeros next to their names than you or i can count. so right now it's the american people that have to

say, are my lawmakers making decisions for me or these people? think about the fact that facebook, in just a few months has a huge ftc trial coming up. is that going to happen? is it going to disappear? they have issues with foreign governments. could donald trump help them with that? we all need to collectively pay attention to that. rich people have always gone to inauguration. they have always spent their time trying to get direct lines into white houses. that's true of every president and every rich person out there forever. but this, this having not just a bat phone that you can call directly to the president, that elon musk might have an office in the eisenhower building. pay attention, boys and girls. >> yeah. and they wield enormous influence, right? this isn't just rich people who have, you know, lucrative companies. these are people who control the spread of information and misinformation in america. >> alex. artificial intelligence is going to change every element of the way that we live in the next decade. how it is regulated will mean everything. and do you actually think that donald trump

has a huge position on ai? he absolutely does not. but imagine that these three people, they sure do. >> tim, it's you know, i think taking into account everything that steph outlined, there's also the strange sort of cultural handshake between what is this new kind of anti-woke tech bro culture, most recently iterated by mark zuckerberg, his strange curly hair, gold chain and like, newly masculine identity? i guess i find it a weirdly uneasy relationship, right? like mark zuckerberg says, masculine culture has been eradicated from c-suites. we need to bring it back. the cancel culture, the wokeness, the pc, blah blah blah. the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives let us remind the country that this is a bunch of wealthy coastal tech elites who have somehow now found a home in the party of donald trump's blue collar, you know, the party of steve bannon. i wonder how awkward you feel this alliance is, or whether it's built to last. >> well, a lot there. i want to

start by just saying i'm so happy to be on with steph, because i needed a laugh this week, thinking about the darkness of these guys taking over the government, and steph talking about how she finds herself more masculine than the made over mark zuckerberg. i'm more masculine energy to set than he is. i was i didn't see a lie in there. so anyway, i just i appreciate that. i'm glad we're on together to do a little cultural analysis as well. but as far as the politics of this, honestly, like in seriousness, the fact that these guys seem red pilled. yeah. is makes this all even more alarming. right. to steph's point, it's not a new story, right? that rich people try to cozy up to government officials because they want to get a good deal, right? there's, you know, certain levels of this that are acceptable or normal. there's some some that are corrupt or over the top. right. and we can we can hash all that out. there's some of that happening here. and there's certainly going to be some corruption. but the fact that

these three in particular but but a handful of other powerful men around them have not only cozied up to trump, have not only got their claws in him, are not only going to have influence over as steph laid out, i and all these other extremely, you know, crucial elements of our society the monetary system, crypto like on top of that, it seems like i almost wish it was fake. i mean, it seems like many of them are genuine about it and they they are happy to have this moment that they can take out all of their grievances against the media and against the, you know, air people and against the people that have complained that are their underlings at their at their companies. and now they just get to be their worst selves and they can let their worst selves run free across our biggest communications platforms. like to me, that like, makes this even more alarming than just the corruption element of it. >> can you talk to that, steph, because marc andreessen has been out there basically talking about his, you know, vocalizing his disgust at the left, how they demand you donate all your

money, you know, at the end of your life, your money that you've worked so hard to, to amass that, that you know, you can't you have to you're being publicly shamed for wanting to be a capitalist, essentially. did you have you sensed in the last, let's call it ten years, that there was this bubbling insurrection coming from the tech world, from the business world, that the democrats didn't have their ear to the ground enough, i guess, to understand the resentment that was building that seems to have found a house in donald trump's maga world. >> i think it's more than just donald trump's maga world. i think you could talk to a lot of people in fortune 500 companies, people in c-suites, and definitely labor in the last four years got a lot more power, right? most not most, most ceos that i speak to in the last four years sure as hell would like their employees to come back five days a week, right? that's not a surprise. we work at a company that would certainly like its employees to come back five days a week, right? yes, but but we also know that i mean, to the office, right. they're done with work from home. and while lots of

companies say, yes, diversity, equity and inclusion, they're really happy about it. however, many ceos, not these guys, would say it became something we were talking about every possible minute. that's exhausting. but the level that they are taking us to is nonsense. yesterday the ftc had this article. this one was really about wall street. wall street is excited for the for this new, you know, business environment under donald trump. and there's business reasons why they feel good about it. right. the fortune 500 world did not like lina khan. they didn't feel good about gary gensler. they didn't feel like like business america was open for business. however, there was a quote in the ft article from a very brave, anonymous senior banker who said, finally, we get to go back. we can start using the r word and the p word in the office. it's a new dawn, right? well, my message to that very brave and very bold banker who is anonymous. give me a break. right. no, none of that. that is not coming back to any company in america. no company that respects itself. and it's not

that there's a dying need that we want to get back to misogyny. that's just stupidity. yes. so the level they're taking this to is simply too far. but yes, the pendulum is set to swing back somewhat. lots of people feel like, you know what? we got too worked up about things. i'm not going to say the word woke because i think that's silly, but, but but there is an element of it. but where they are, it makes no sense somewhere else. yes. >> you know, i wonder, tim, when we talk about, like, trump rode it back into office on this populist message. right. and it's like glaringly obvious. it's been announced that the people on the dais with him on january 20th are going to be the three richest people and among the richest people in, in the country, in the world. right. like, it is not a secret that days or maybe a few weeks after he is inaugurated, trump is going to enact tax cuts that benefit the ultra wealthy. how?

how have democrats not figured out that this should be an like an integral part of the messaging in 2021 before he does? >> can i just remind you, across the street is radio city music hall. joe biden threw a fundraiser there that was 50 grand a ticket, and the trump campaign lit itself on fire over the elitism. and now look who is going to the inauguration. the ceo of tiktok, a chinese owned company. this guy is going to be sitting right behind trump. and two weeks ago, both joe biden and donald trump said a japanese company can't buy u.s. steel. we're living in a topsy turvy world. >> tim, do you feel like there is an opportunity here to unveil the real focus of the trump administration, at least in terms of what we understand to be trump's personal priorities, which is the amassing and retention of wealth at the very top of american society? >> yeah, it's the forgotten man not going to be there on the dais. i don't know, they don't have any random people from harlan, kentucky, you know, on

the dais there, i guess not. obviously. like this. the rubber's going to meet the road on this. we're already seeing this in the musk and bannon feud. the question is where and how. and i think the democrats are learning like the political potential salience here. and the fact that the president's farewell speech last night was talking about the oligarch class. like that was not part of the message during the campaign. so it's not to relitigate the campaign, but you can see the change already happening. you know, during this brief transition, transition period. so i think that is going to be a wedge that the democrats have to, you know, try to drive here. i think that they're going to have a halo effect for a little while for about 100 days or so. and i think it'll be important for the opposition to make sure everybody knows in big flashing lights that it's the richest people in the world that are getting what they want out of this administration, not the people in the hollowed out community of springfield. >> do you think elon musk holds the bible for trump? i'm saying that facetiously, but really? really. >> we'll soon find out.

>> we sure will. tim miller, stephanie ruhle, my friends, my colleague. thank you guys both for joining me this thursday night i appreciate you. coming up, rudy giuliani agrees to a settlement in his defamation lawsuit with georgia election workers without giving up any of his real estate or fancy jewels. where exactly did the cash strapped former mayor get the funds? we're going to discuss that. but first, the purge is on. the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee is stripped of his position because he was not maga enough. we will talk to a member of the committee who spoke with the ousted chair. coming right up next. stay with us. >> wow. incredible. amazing. my go to is lumify eye drops. lumify dramatically reduces redness in one minute. and look at the difference. >> my eyes look brighter and whiter for up to eight hours. >> lumify it's kind of amazing. >> lumify it's kind of amazing. >> see for yourself. one in five children worldwide are faced

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care about national security. >> when you saw the insecure way those documents were stored at mar-a-lago, did it make your stomach churn? >> well, it certainly of grave concern. >> back in 2023, mike turner, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, criticized donald trump's decision to store hundreds of classified documents down at mar-a-lago. turner had also previously criticized trump's 2019 call with ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky, the one where trump pressured zelensky to announce an investigation into joe biden. >> i've read the transcript of the conversation with the president and the president of ukraine concerning that conversation. i want to say to the president, this is not okay. it is that conversation is not okay. and i think it's disappointing to the american public when they read the transcript. >> apparently, criticism like that comes at a cost. yesterday, house speaker mike johnson invited representative turner to his office and informed mr. turner that he was removing him from a very powerful post as

chair of the house intelligence committee. the speaker told reporters last night that his decision had absolutely nothing to do with president elect trump. but turner himself told cbs news the opposite that in their meeting, speaker johnson had specifically cited concerns from mar-a-lago as the reason for turner's removal. if that is true, and trump did play a direct role in ousting the chair of the intelligence committee, then we are in uncharted territory. house speakers have never taken direction from the white house on important congressional decisions like these. late this afternoon, johnson announced a new chairman of the panel, arkansas republican rick crawford. joining me now is congressman raja krishnamoorthi, democrat from illinois and a member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you for being here tonight. first, let me just what has been the reaction among democrats on the committee about what looks a lot like a purge? >> it sure does. it was outrageous. >> committee.

>> democrats and republicans are shocked by what happened. >> it was clearly a move from mar-a-lago. this was meant to purge him for not only what you talked about in your setup piece, but also his vocal advocacy for ukraine. this was something that he was passionate about. i know mike well. we are friends. we disagree on a lot of things, but one thing that he is very, very strong on is making sure that we have a bipartisan intelligence committee approach to holding the intelligence community accountable. and one of those subjects that we are constantly talking about is ukraine. and that's something that donald trump obviously was very, very upset about. >> nbc news is reporting a republican lawmaker who spoke to representative turner spelled out how the former chairman could make life difficult for speaker johnson, who is under pressure to deliver for donald trump. mike turner did not vote on wednesday or thursday. i

think turner will burn the house down. this lawmaker said. he will be a no vote on everything. i mean, he just got totally effed. you've spoken, i believe, with representative turner. can you give us a sense of his mood right now? his reaction to this, whether this reporting is, is on point, whether it's going to be a problem for speaker johnson, who again commands the or controls the house with a very, very narrow majority. >> well, suffice it to say that mike is not a happy camper. and i think that he was. the way in which he was handled was completely inappropriate. and the fact that, you know, mike johnson basically relied on his vote to become speaker and then to do this to him after the fact is even more galling. so now i think that there's potential payback. and i think that given that they're going to have to rely on pretty much every single republican to vote lockstep, for instance, for this tax cuts and

jobs package extension and this big tax scam that's about to come down the pike in the form of a reconciliation package, means that it's possible that someone like, you know, mr. turner may not be with them when they need him. >> i, independent of the fortunes of speaker johnson and donald trump's agenda in the republican conference. i mean, i think it should alarm everybody that donald trump is so singularly focused on the house intelligence committee. there is a lot of talk about donald trump and vladimir putin and the relationship they have, especially over the issue of ukraine. i mean, can you talk a little bit more about the reasons why, you know, trump may be so laser focused on this. he already has two of his picks, scott perry and ronny jackson, sitting on the house intelligence committee. that was done, i believe, last year or the year before at his direction. and they were not the typical the members you would typically see on a committee like that. can you talk a little bit about the work of the intelligence committee as it dovetails with trump's interests

or concerns? >> well, you're absolutely right. i think that, look, the intelligence community is charged with being truth tellers, and they need to come and tell the truth in service of our country, not in service of a party and not in service of donald trump. now that you have people like, you know, potentially tulsi gabbard or kash patel or others who are going to come before this intelligence committee, it's even more important that the chair and members of the committee hold their feet to the fire. now, if he has people like, you know, the folks that you mentioned, any trump allies, the intelligence committee, it's less likely that they're going to actually hold these folks accountable. >> and ultimately, it makes our country less safe. >> so this is a dangerous move. one last thing i want to say about this, which is that i think that this was not only meant to purge mike turner, but it was meant to send a signal to

other republicans throughout the house, which is that your committee assignments are also in danger if you cross trump. that's a very, very dangerous precedent that he set. >> can you talk about rick crawford, who is the new republican chair of the committee? he i know, just based on his voting record, he voted to overturn the 2020 election results. he has voted against ukraine aid, and he has served on the committee since 2017. what's your assessment of him running the committee? >> i don't have personal quarrels with him, but the question is whether he's going to be willing to stand up to trump, whether he's going to be willing to hold people accountable, whether he's going to, for instance, make sure that, you know, when kash patel comes before the committee that he's asked the tough questions that he's inevitably going to get with regard to the fbi. so we're going to see how mr. crawford performs. but the fact that mike turner is not there is deeply, deeply disconcerting.

>> congressman raja krishnamoorthi, it is really great to get your perspective on all of this. thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you so much. >> still to come this evening, a surprise in court as america's former mayor rudy giuliani settles the mountain of debt. he owes the two georgia election workers he defamed. only the settlement is raising a lot of new questions. we're going to new questions. we're going to dig into them. coming up next. go-friends, gather! keke! chris! jason! boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah! money, power, friendship. let's go! hey, everybody. w. kamau bell here. they say that america is the land of the free.

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>> absolutely free. >> for more than a year now, former mayor of new york, trump lawyer rudy giuliani has owed the georgia election workers. he was found liable of defaming ruby freeman and shaye moss. he has owed them more than $145 million. but giuliani has dragged his feet, refusing to pay freeman and moss what he owes them and crying poor. until today, giuliani, freeman and moss have now reached a settlement for an undisclosed sum of money. but the settlement raises more questions than it answers. according to giuliani's lawyer, this new settlement means that giuliani gets to keep his ten room apartment on the upper east side of manhattan, as well as his condo in florida. his world series rings, his vintage mercedes-benz and all of his other personal belongings. giuliani himself released a statement today saying this resolution does not involve an

admission of liability or wrongdoing. so what happened here? joining me now is msnbc legal correspondent, the great lisa rubin. lisa, i mean, the law is on their side here, right? and it was clear that giuliani was like delaying as long as possible. i just wonder, i'll read the statement from ruby freeman and shaye moss. we have agreed to allow mr. giuliani to retain his property in exchange for compensation and his promise not to ever defame us. do you have a sense do you have a theory about what they might have gotten out of this deal? rudy's keeping all of his properties and his precious world series rings. i think the most important thing, most important word in that statement is compensation. the question is where is it coming from? because this is the same rudy giuliani who post-verdict famously filed for bankruptcy, only to play so many games with the bankruptcy court that he was effectively tossed out of that court. and that's when the women began this new york lawsuit that led to the settlement today. it was because they were trying to enforce that 145 plus million dollar verdict that you talked about earlier.

now there's some risk to them. giuliani was appealing that verdict, and it's still on appeal. the new york judge said, no, even though you're appealing it, you still have to turn over your property to them. so it's likely that the women agreed to accept a whole lot less than $145.9 million. but in exchange for the certainty that giuliani would stop appealing the verdict and that they could get on with their lives. okay, so this was make it all like, let's end this prolonged nightmare. give us the money and don't defame us again, but don't defame us again. part seems like, i don't know, risky element for someone like giuliani, who has not exhibited what we would call self-control here. it's definitely a risk element, and it's also something he's already agreed to. this case was originally tried in federal court in washington, d.c, where giuliani already agreed to an injunction against further defaming them. you might have read recently, our viewers might have heard about contempt proceedings against giuliani. one of those contempt proceedings was about the fact that in november, on his radio

show, he again defamed them. the two women on two successive nights in november. and that's why they went to seek civil contempt against him. so they already had that agreement. he already violated it. obviously, if they have an agreement through this settlement that he's not going to do it, there probably is something baked into the settlement to give them further compensation or further relief if he violates it. so if he defames him, then he probably has to pay up. but this then gets back to that central question of where did he get the funds? that's a really good question because donald trump earlier in the week tweeted in all caps a single sentence save rudy. there it is. yeah. and apropos of nothing else, right. i mean, this hasn't been like he's this has been in the news, right? and i think many people interpreted this as trump's basically saying, what's happening to rudy giuliani in his view, is unfair. of course, if donald trump had ever paid rudy giuliani for the legal services he rendered in the first place, we might not be in this position. the reason that that verdict came against giuliani was in part because he didn't even get to contest liability in that case. why?

because a judge found that he was so obstreperous in his pre-litigation pretrial conduct that it was fair to just decide that he was liable because you couldn't get any discovery from him. he wouldn't come to court. he wouldn't answer questions. the trial that was had was solely on the question of, okay, let's assume that he did it. how much money does he owe them for it? he wasn't even able to contest liability because trump was so stingy. this is one of those circumstances where and trump learns this lesson again and again. he learned it with michael cohen, too. if you just paid the people who did the work for you in the first place, it's a lot easier. you might have spared yourself a lot of pain. well, but it does raise a question if it's, you know, because he's the incoming president. sure. just from an ethics standpoint, it opens up a whole can of worms about like who is trying to do trump a favor by saying saving rudy? right. setting even rudy and his utility for an outside actor. there's you know, this is something the president, the incoming president wants. i could curry favor with the incoming president by bailing out his former lawyer. we're

unlikely to ever know where the money came from, though we are probably unlikely to know. but as you and stef and tim were talking about earlier in your show, there is no shortage of american oligarchs who are trying to curry favor with donald trump, even as we speak. and many of them might be interested in helping to pay for a settlement with ruby, freeman and moss to make this long standing problem just go away. yeah. when the collective net worth of three people on the inauguration day is close to $1 trillion, $148 million, or $145 million for defamation payments, seems like. but a drop in the bucket. lisa rubin, thank you for helping me unpack yet another mystery from the house of giuliani. i appreciate your time, my friend. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up, a special report on what one city on the front lines is doing ahead of trump's return to the white house. stay return to the white house. stay with us. my mental health was better. but uncontrollable movements called td,tardive dyskinesia, started disrupting my day. td felt embarrassing.

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for families like jason gonzalez, asylum seekers from venezuela. leaving these tents was crucial to dodging trump's deportation threats. they arrived in the u.s. only two weeks before trump was reelected. they left the shelter with the help of the floyd bennett field neighbors just weeks before trump's inauguration. bueno en este lugar, porque es la tierra es federal. >> entonces puede hacer un blanco para el presidente trump para hacer deportaciones potencialmente tenemos toda la familia de recibiendo. >> the relocation process starts here at the roosevelt hotel in manhattan, the city's central migrant arrival hub. >> poco mas tranquilo. emocionalmente mas. sabiendo vamos a un sitio mas seguro. >> trump esta punto de llegar al poder el pasado en un plan de emergencia. >> lo han pensado de los.

>> pensado y cuando escucho de qué nos pueden ser de nuestros hijos. >> es lo mas duro yo no sali. de mi pais para qué me separado? buscando? huyendo huyendo de la de la situacion politica de las amenazas y aqui es para estar seguro con mi familia. >> so with trump coming into office in just a couple of days, we decided to go check on jason and his family at this new shelter that they were assigned to. we're not disclosing where they are because of security purposes. >> at the nuestra habitacion nos permitieron three habitaciones pasar adelante mejor si aqui estamos muchisimo mas seguro mas tranquilo también sin el tema de las deportaciones masivas tiene

prometido el presidente trump. aunque ese timor nunca se iba no todavia existe y bastante se aproxima la fecha de toma position in realidad en mi persona. estoy muy gustado lo hemos escuchado debemos tener con nosotros los papeles de de migraciones alguna copia todo el tramite de asilo. eso es uno de la de la de la planification. qué pensado con relacion a nuestros hijos de colocar en el moral del colegio, colocar la copias de su asilo y eso deberiamos respetado. >> back in brooklyn, the now dismantled airfield stands as a grim reminder of what's to come under trump. even sanctuary cities may not be as safe as they once were. >> msnbc contributor paola ramos >> msnbc contributor paola ramos jo(fisher investments) at fisher investments

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>> tonight, the mayor of new york city, eric adams, is reportedly on his way to palm beach, florida, to meet with president elect trump at mar a lago. likely to be high on the agenda is the influx of migrants in new york city, something adams has previously signaled he would work with the trump administration to address. now, of course, trump's solution to that problem is mass deportations. so what exactly is in store for the thousands of migrants currently residing in sanctuary cities like new york? joining me now is someone who has recently and, like always, spending time reporting on the ground to such great success, talking to asylum seekers right here in the city. msnbc contributor paola ramos. it's just always a good moment to have you here, because there's always tumult, and you do such an incredible job reporting on it. paola. but first, you know, it feels like when you talk about these mass deportations, blue states, sanctuary cities are going to be the target. can you tell me a little bit about

the level of fear that you saw on the part of both migrants and the people who have been helping shelter those migrants inside new york city, right. >> you mentioned we end the piece on this idea of what are sanctuary cities now? and the first thing that comes to mind is eric adams on his way to go see trump. and then i think about floyd benefield. yeah. and i think if we zoom into that map now, you see this migrant tent city in brooklyn, a brooklyn where donald trump received 16,000 more votes in 2024 than in 2020. and then if you keep zooming in, you see that this migrant shelter is surrounded by pro-trump districts. and just to give people some context, these districts are literally just 20 minutes away from the statue of liberty, a statue that then is overshadowing and shadowing over the sanctuary city with a mayor. again, that hasn't just signaled this willingness to cooperate and collaborate with the trump administration, but one that is literally on his way to go meet him just four days before inauguration. and so i think that's the question that these migrants had. no. how will this

sanctuary city that has always been this embodiment of immigrants protect them from trump? i think one of the things that is uncomfortable, but i think you and i have talked about this many times, is the way in which the migrant crisis fundamentally changed all of these cities, not only really testing what it means to be a sanctuary city, not just sort of this physical capacity to take on migrants, but the moral capacity to sort of like hold on to these principles when this country is shifting to the right. i think that's the fear that you can't even rely on this idea anymore. >> they closed down. so i have been to the roosevelt hotel and done like the beginning stage of some of this reporting, where it's like they there was a huge influx of migrants to the city. they didn't have places to shelter them. they they create this kind of tent city out at floyd bennett. and now they have to close it because it's on federal land and they're worried it's going to become a target for deportation raids. when you talk to the migrants who are kind of being shuttled throughout all of this, there's a family that you profile and

their kids are taking their asylum papers with them in their backpacks to school. what is the emotional tenor of this moment like for them, and how are the children grappling with this? >> i mean, the number one question everyone had and jason, who we're seeing now on the screen, the one thing that's on his mind and he told me is will they separate my family like that? is that is what everyone is thinking about. will our families be separated after crossing the darién jungle, which they did, and after navigating the mexican cartels crossing the southern border, they are seeking asylum in the country that is threatening to separate their families. and i think that's sort of what we have to understand. that's what's coming up now. in four days, we're about to see a trump administration that's not just empowered but will be completely emboldened. i don't know if you remember, in 2017, literally within trump being in office a couple of months, i suggest, completely increased by 30% because i think that's the fear that people like jason have right now. no. what does it mean to have this administration

emboldened now? what it means is that literally, you're going to have local law enforcement pretending to be ice agents, you're going to have ice and feeling emboldened to go into churches, hospitals, as we talked about schools. and you're going to have a new dhs that will also feel emboldened to pretend like we're literally being invaded at the southern border. you will have vigilantes emboldened to take matters into their own hands. and so all of this will definitely be contested. there will be legal fights. but i think the point is that the what they're trying to do now is inflict fear, inflict so much fear so that people like jason either self-deport right or hide in the shadows. that's the strategy. >> do they have i mean, does jason have conversations with his kids? are they aware of what is i mean, when they say to you, we carry our papers in our backpacks? like, is there a conversation happening? like, if they come to your school, you should do x, y, and z. have they acknowledged? like, do you do you know if the kids who are going to be who are obviously the most innocent in all of this understand the threats on the horizon? >> i had that same question. i

don't think they do. they don't. and that's that. that's something that i keep thinking about now. no, i think this country, you either understand or you don't understand the significance of what's happening now. but i think one of the things i keep thinking about is what joe biden said yesterday in his speech. no, it's not just this idea of who we are as americans now, but who we should be. and so the question is not if you're watching this now, if you're just an american, what is being tested is not jason. it is not republicans. it's not maga, it's not democrats. it is americans. backbone. now, how how will we react when we start seeing these mass deportations and these family separations? like, how will there be this collective moral outrage or not? that's what will save people like jason. >> well, and i would say in the same way that the influx tested the sort of the moral fibers that connect us to one another here in new york city, i would imagine deportation rates could also bring the new york city community closer together. i mean, how much tension is there between the mayor who's down there kissing the ring at mar a

lago and the people that are running shelters and trying to help migrants who are city employees? >> i think there's i think there's an unspoken tension. i mean, we have to say, even getting access into the shelter that we saw right now was extremely hard. and the reason it was extremely hard is because the agencies truly understand that no matter who's in power, no matter what this mayor does, no matter if there's ice around these neighborhoods, people need to be protected. and that is the tension that was really palpable. but i think it speaks to the moment we're in now. and what does it mean to be a sanctuary city? we're about to find out. >> we are about to find out a whole lot. paola ramos, thank you, my friend, for the important and essential reporting. you always do. you are a treasure. that is our show for tonight. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell and his very special interview with president biden. >> earlier this evening, president biden gave us his final interview as president of the united states. we were working with a tight time limit because the next thing on the president's schedule was a national security meeting. >> in