tv Alex Witt Reports MSNBC January 19, 2025 11:00am-12:00pm PST
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z's bakery is looking to add a pizza oven, arissa's hair salon wants to expand their space, and steve's t-shirt shop wants to bring on more help. with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee, they can think more about possibilities for their business and not the cost of their internet. it's five years of gig-speeds and advanced security. all from the company with 99.9% network reliability. get the 5-year price lock guarantee, now back for a limited time. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™. going to do it. >> settle in the rachel maddow show five nights a week, beginning tomorrow. >> top of the hour with breaking news at this hour. living history on a number of fronts. a cease fire in the 15 month israel-hamas war, and a dramatic release of three hostages. final hours witnessing the last acts
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of a presidency and a president with a nod to where it all began and first acts. the clock ticks down to a new administration, and the country awaits what might transpire on day one. as i bid you all a very good day from here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome, everyone. to alex witt reports. we are watching and following the sweep of history both overseas and here at home, covering all of these developing storylines for us. joining us, we have nbc's raf sanchez in tel aviv. vaughn hillyard is joining us from washington, d.c, and courtney, qb as well, from washington at the arlington national cemetery, technically there in virginia. welcome, all. courtney, we're going to begin with you, where the incoming president just took part in that really extraordinary ceremony and historic ceremony honoring fallen soldiers at arlington. what more can you tell us? >> yeah. that's right. so, laying a wreath there at the tomb of the unknown soldier with the old guard, the third infantry regiment, and the commander of military district of washington, major general trevor bredenkamp. this is a
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very common a ceremony for the president elect. >> and as president, he will also make a number of other stops here. most likely, most likely over his four years. veterans day, memorial day to recognize the fallen service members who are buried here on these very hallowed grounds. we saw a number of his cabinet secretaries to be also here with him, including marco rubio, pete hegseth, his tulsi gabbard, his national security advisor. mike waltz, also a veteran of the military. afghanistan, he served for 20 years, more than 20 years becoming a colonel. so this was a ceremony with a lot of president elect donald trump's family as well, and some of his close allies and supporters. you know, alex, it's not lost on me that less than 24 hours, about 22 hours from now, we will stop calling him the president elect. he will be president donald trump. he has a pretty packed agenda for the next two days before that actual swearing in.
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today, he'll also go over to capital one arena, where our vaughn hillyard will be covering that rally a little bit later today, and we are waiting to hear if he makes any other stops here at arlington cemetery. we are expecting that he may stop in section 60, where the service members who were killed in the global war on terror are buried. it's not far from here. we're still waiting word of that. but he has done that in the past. stopped by there. he's been very outspoken about the withdrawal from afghanistan and his criticism of how that was handled. and we are waiting to see whether he makes that stop here as well. alex. >> okay. courtney, thank you so much for all of that. i do want to say i was asking you in the last hour, since we were uncertain who those two people accompanying the president elect and vice president elect there, as they were also laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown. we're being told they were both members of gold star families, and it does indicate that the gentleman that we saw, whom you think you may know, a veteran of afghanistan, that he
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he was there and indeed is a veteran. so as soon as we get more details on that and who those specifically were, we'll be happy to acknowledge them and what they did, contributing to that really solemn ceremony. i halfway expected you, my friend, to toss to vaughn hillyard, but i'll do it for you because you're in the rain. so here we go, everyone. we're going to go to vaughn hillyard right now, who is inside capital one arena, where donald trump will be speaking a bit later on this afternoon. so, vaughn, what do we know about trump's day one plans and actually how different the inaugural address will be from his first one back in 2017. and also give us a preview of what's going to happen there tonight, right. >> once he leaves the arlington national cemetery, he's going to be making his way over to capital one arena. this is where the washington wizards basketball team typically plays. 20,000 supporters are going to be able to make their way into here. we expect the program to begin just about an hour from now, and the president elect is set to take the stage at 5 p.m. eastern three hours from now.
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but when you're looking at what this lineup here and what is effectively his transition rally, they're calling it a thank you rally here, just about a mile away from the us capitol and the white house. this is a moment where you're going to hear not only from donald trump tonight ahead of his swearing in at noon tomorrow, but you're also going to hear from jd vance, members of the first family, but also individuals like steve witkoff, who, of course, was the special envoy here who helped be on the front lines of negotiations between israel and hamas over the course of these last months with brett mcgurk from the biden administration. and steve witkoff is back from doha just from about three days ago. of course, as we have watched these images unfold from the middle east, witkoff is going to be speaking here from the rally stage and part of the president elect's message that we undoubtedly are going to hear is that he ultimately gets results. and he said that there would be hell to pay if there was not a hostage release agreement, a cease fire deal. by the time he
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took office for his swearing in, and at least here at this hour in time, phase one of that agreement is holding firm. but we also expect tomorrow, as he told our colleague at meet the press moderator, kristen welker, just yesterday, that he will sign what he says is a record breaking number of documents on day one. this would be executive orders, executive actions. you're looking at a list of potentially a few of those. he has not provided specifics, but we expect him to go forward with multiple executive actions pertaining to mass deportation efforts. of course, there is the potential that ice could, as soon as on tuesday, move forward with deportation plans in urban cities across the country, including in chicago. but also we're looking at other executive orders, for example, schedule f, which would reclassify potentially thousands of federal workers to become political appointees as part of a restructuring effort of the federal government. and so there is a lot on the line, not just for the pomp and circumstance over the next 24 hours, but also
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for ultimately, the execution of policies. i want to let you listen to steve bannon, who, of course, is a longtime informal adviser to donald trump. but somebody here who is really suggesting that this could be a change in which washington is able to execute on the policy priorities in a way that they were not able to during his first administration. take a listen. >> is this is this american carnage 2.0? because i'm hearing it's not i'm hearing this is a very different tone. no. >> you bring the country together, unify the country. what does steve bannon think of that? >> i think it's a very appropriate for this. >> look at the coalition we put together what happened on on 5th november. right. look i realize i'm, you know, always on the attack, but he's president of the united states. >> he won this victory. he has a big coalition to pull together. and i think he's going to try to unify the country around a course of action that we have to take. >> in a part of that, alex, is obviously people like mark zuckerberg, other tech ceos coming and being a part of this. and of course, to the extent
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that democrats want to be effective here and not just resist the republican efforts on capitol hill over the next years, for democrats, even they see this as a moment where in order to push through any of their own desires through congress over these next years, that working with donald trump to a certain capacity is going to be key here. and so that is where the next 24 hours are going to be very key to the messaging of this republican majority. and the white house that is entering office at noon tomorrow. >> yeah, that kind of messaging we will see on full display tomorrow in the rotunda at the capitol for the inauguration, to your point at noon tomorrow. thank you very much, vaughn, for that. let's of course, go to the other day the day's other big breaking news story. there's a ceasefire in the israel-hamas war and a release of three hostages and also palestinian prisoners in the other direction. you're looking at some new video of the moment. those first three female hostages released in phase one of the truce were handed over to the israel defense forces
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earlier today. and just moments ago, they arrived at a hospital for treatment in tel aviv. and here's president biden just a short time ago. >> the deal that i first put forward last may for the middle east has finally come to fruition. the ceasefire has gone into effect in gaza, and today we're seeing hostages being released. three israeli women held against their will in the dark tunnels for 470 days. four more women will be released in seven days, three additional hostages every seven days thereafter, including the least two american citizens. in this first phase, we pray for them and their families, for they're going to be a long recovery. >> let's go to nbc's ralph sanchez, who once again is just by the sheba medical center there in tel aviv. so the good news, we saw it thanks to the video you showed us at the tail end of that caravan, the three israeli hostages arriving there. talk about the recovery they're
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going to face and the length of time you expect it to endure. >> it is going to be a long recovery, alex. so when the first group of hostages came out of gaza back in november 2023, these were people who had been in captivity for some 50 something days. these three young women, romy gonin, emily demari and lauren steinbrecher, who just literally a few minutes ago drove past us here into the sheba medical hospital behind me. they have been in captivity for 471 days, and now they have been free for about five hours. we've been talking to medical professionals throughout the day about the unbelievably complex and protracted recovery that they have ahead of them. i'll give you just a couple of examples of specifics that these doctors are thinking about when they are treating people who have been hostages for so long. like many people in gaza, these
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hostages may not have had much to eat for a long time. and when you have malnourished people, if you give them heavy meals, sugary meals, it can send their bodies into shock. it can potentially be lethal. it's known as refeeding syndrome. so they're thinking very carefully about what kind of nutrition to give these hostages. it's obviously night now, but it's possible that these women have been in tunnels for protracted periods. their eyes may not be used to daylight. they are thinking carefully about not overwhelming them. and the other big question is just how many family members do you allow in? they say the goal here is not to overwhelm these hostages who have been through so much over the last 15 months. they are trying to create spaces that are quiet, that are calm, that are safe. as they give these people their humanity back. so this has been another historic and fast moving day here in the middle
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east. in a 15 months that has been absolutely full of them. some ten hours ago, the guns went silent in gaza. that was several hours later than we expected. there was a nerve wracking delay of several hours. hamas did not hand over the names of these three young hostages as they were supposed to, and israel's military or israel's government decided that until they got those names, they were going to continue the strikes inside of gaza. alex, completely agonizingly, some 19 people were killed in gaza between the time the ceasefire should have gone into effect at 830 in the morning, and the time that it actually went into effect at 1115 in the morning. and to just think that these are people who survived this entire war, only to die literally in the final minutes of this conflict before the ceasefire went into effect, is agonizing. palestinian civilians inside gaza are now able to return to areas that they previously
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weren't, where israeli forces were. and in the west bank, there are palestinian prisoners being released right now. some 90 women and teenagers being freed in exchange for those three hostages. >> look, it is extraordinarily poignant, that statement that you made about what happened to those 19 in the hours where the cease fire should have gone to effect it didn't, which speaks to the tenuous, precarious. choose your description there nature of this ceasefire from a military perspective, is benjamin netanyahu satisfied with the inability of hamas right now to harm israel in any way? do you believe the cease fire will hold from a military standpoint? >> so, alex, is prime minister netanyahu satisfied? he is not. he has made that pretty clear. he has been promising his people total victory. no one is clear
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what exactly that means, but he is clear that whatever it is, it hasn't been achieved yet. and he said in his statement last night, israel reserves the right to resume this war again so that israel can continue to degrade hamas, to reach that absolute victory that netanyahu is talking about there. the united states judgment, at least under the biden administration, we will see what the assessment of the incoming trump administration is, is that hamas is no longer able to mount what was, frankly, a military style invasion of southern israel. on october 7th, 2023. hamas back then was organized in battalions in divisions. in some ways, the united states says they are no longer capable of that. they are a scattered guerrilla force. you saw that footage from gaza earlier today, when the hostages were being handed over to the red cross. hamas retains the ability to put masked gunmen in
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front of the cameras. but according you're seeing them there, but according to the u.s, they do not have the ability to mount the kind of attack that they did on october 7th. but the big fear is that prime minister netanyahu may intend to resume this war. on the other side of this six week ceasefire. alex. >> yeah. the video that we're looking at right now, it is something to think that those three girls, those hostages as the ones in november of 2023, some 50 days after the terrifying october 7th attack, when they were released, it was the same thing. you would see these members of hamas really crowding around them. can you imagine what that would be like for these girls today to leave the relative security of a car? they would think they'd be secure and then, you know, make their way as quickly as possible to another awaiting car with the red cross to scurry them out of that area. i mean, it is it's absolutely terrifying to consider what they were
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thinking. >> yeah, absolutely. alex, i'd make two points quickly. one, having spoken to hostages who came out in november 2023, they say that with the exception of the actual attack on october 7th, that moment when they were passed from hamas to the red cross with those huge crowds surrounding them, was the most frightening moment of their entire experience. and the other thing that i think is worth saying is that the people driving those red cross vehicles are unarmed staff of the red cross. they are driving into the very heart of what was, until a couple of hours before an active war zone. you can see they are completely surrounded by hamas gunmen and in what i think is just an extraordinary act of bravery, they drove in there. they took these three young hostages. they drove them back out to the hands of israeli forces who were waiting there. and i can tell you the red cross has a pretty bad reputation in
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this country. there is a feeling the red cross should have done more to have tried to get medicine to the hostages, but i can tell you it is just a stunning act of bravery to do what these red cross staff did today. >> yeah, absolutely. and i thank you for that perspective, ralph. and a lot more of this reporting has been extraordinary. we will see you again. but welcoming now to the conversation. we have former u.s. ambassador to morocco, our friend mark ginsberg. mark is also the senior global advisor for the counter extremism project. his nephew, i'm sorry to say, a member of the idf was killed on october 7th. so, mark, you have to be thinking about your nephew. as we just saw a short time ago, these first images of the israeli hostages. after their release. we understand your nephew was killed on october 7th. he was a seal, a special forces leader in the idf. you know what goes through your mind when you see this? and what could have been for your nephew? >> my nephew very much. >> and my nephew elie may have
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been trying to rescue these very three women when he was killed. >> i don't know that. >> but given the sacrifice that he made with those around him who dashed as quickly as they could on their own without orders to try to rescue these hostages, and to know that he sacrificed his life for their behalf. look, i'm. >> i'm so happy. >> and i'm sure my family in israel is happy that this, this truce has been reached and that the hostages, at least those who are alive, will be able to return to perhaps some sense of normalcy. >> but i have no illusions, alex, about what may happen after this phase one is finished. >> just the fact that you saw all of these hamas fighters surrounding those cars is an indication of how little, in the end, the israelis have
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accomplished in destroying hamas's willingness to continue fighting. >> does that then worry you and preempt phase two and three and bring about an end to this war? >> i don't see alex, given my own knowledge of gaza, and i visited there and met with hamas. >> the fact that after 471 days of pulverizing attacks, there are still thousands of hamas fighters who are still willing to stand up and to either fight israel's more fire missiles into israel. >> just the other day, just last night, alex, there was an air raid siren going off in southern israel because hamas and maybe some of its collateral supporting terrorist organizations decided to fire back rockets. >> and there's no such thing as total victory. netanyahu is
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feeding a big lie to the israeli people, because hamas is not going to pack up and leave and go sun themselves on the riviera. >> is there something that runs through your mind, given your experience as an ambassador and your studying of this region of the world, is there something that comes to mind? you think this could be a hiccup from which we are not able to go forward, that it could cause all of this and this agreement to fall apart, do certain things, press on you that way. >> look, i'm hopeful that the peacemakers and i include president biden and president elect trump in this because without either of them, this hostage deal and this cease fire would not have been achieved. the fact remains, is that hamas may try to replicate what has taken place by hezbollah and lebanon, infiltrate and integrate itself, and remain a presence while letting the palestinian authority and under phase two come in and, in
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effect, take over the enormous, agonizing responsibility for reconstructing gaza. and so they. hamas doesn't want to be responsible for the turmoil and carnage they created among the palestinian people. they'd be more than happy to sit back and benefit from raking off whatever profits they can make from reconstruction, and let the palestinian authority take over. and that could bring about some semblance of peace. that's my best expectation with your history as a diplomat, as an ambassador, you know all about negotiations. >> so give me a sense of what changes when you're negotiating something as sensitive as what has been negotiated in the middle east. when you have a group of players, if you will, who've gotten to know each other, develop some level of trust, you're going to assume, given what we're seeing happen today, and they get replaced with a new slate of negotiators, how long does it take to build
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that kind of trust with them? to think when you say something, you're going to mean it and we're going to trust you. >> well, here's a perfect illustration. the president's special envoy for hostage negotiations, roger carstens, who deserves his own medal of freedom for the work that he has undertaken during the biden administration to achieve hostage releases around the world. he was indispensable in this process. and i don't know whether the trump administration is going to keep him on. i mean, he's apolitical. the fact that mr. witkoff was permitted to participate by president elect trump with the biden team in reaching this agreement, that was a great baton handoff. and kudos to president trump, president elect trump for this. and kudos also to the fact that the team that president biden assembled have been willing to work across the aisle as well.
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we don't see that happening a lot, alex, but in this instance, the fact that they both work together forced mr. netanyahu's hand. i don't think this would have happened without joint efforts to strong arm netanyahu into making this deal. >> i think it was absolutely extraordinary. and the fact that you had a unifying force together shows what can get done when people do work together. so this is a remarkable example of that. mark ginsburg, as always, thank you so much, my friend. it's good to see you. thank you for weighing in on this big day. it has been a huge day of news, everybody, and one big story we have yet to go to is what we're going to hit up after the break, because a member of congress is calling it a big mistake. the question is, can it be fixed? question is, can it be fixed? tiktok talk when we when winter season hits emergen-c supports your immune system with so much more than vitamin c. be ready to fight back with emergen-c and for on-the-go immune support try emergen-c crystals.
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you know, at verizon, we'll pay off your phone. and you'll get iphone 16 with apple intelligence, on us. now with genmoji. that's a value of up to sixteen hundred dollars. only on verizon. full day in office to pay tribute to the late doctor, martin luther king jr. and today we're showing you the president as he has traveled to south carolina. he delivered remarks earlier at the royal missionary baptist church. but we're showing you right now the international african american museum. it is located there in charleston, south carolina. it is a museum of history. and we did expect the president and first lady to be there for quite some time. let's go to kathy park, who's been traveling with the president in charleston. so
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first of all, let's talk about the tone of what has been likely president biden's final speech as president. that is coming up in about 30 minutes or so. if he's on time, what are you expecting? >> yeah. hey there alex, good afternoon to you. >> i would say the tone is likely going to kind of mimic what we heard earlier this morning at the local missionary baptist church, when he was pretty confident he exuded strength. but as you mentioned, it's hard to believe that we are counting down the final hours of his presidency. and, alex, we should point out that south carolina really has a close place in biden's heart because of what happened back in 2020. clinch a critical primary victory in the state. he also got a key endorsement from representative jim clyburn, and it ultimately propelled him to the presidency. we heard from the congressman earlier today as well, and he showed express his gratitude and appreciation for the president, for his service
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all these years. and biden also expressed that love right back, adding that he's not going anywhere. >> take a listen. >> we know the struggle to redeem the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing. we must stay engaged, must always keep the faith in a better day to come. i'm not going anywhere. i'm just as passionate about our work as it was a 29 year old kid. when i got elected, i wasn't old enough to serve yet. i'm in no ways tired. >> and alex, we should also point out that in one of his final acts, he pardoned several individuals, commuted the sentences of two others as well, saying that they showed redemption and rehabilitation as well as remorse. we're standing by for the president to deliver remarks in the next 30 minutes
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or so as he is wrapping up this tour at the international african american museum. he will head back to dc later on today, and then he will take part in the inaugural ceremonies tomorrow. but as far as what's next career wise for him, according to nbc news reporting, we know that he's planning on writing a book and writing his version of his presidency. >> alex. kathy park, thank you so much from charleston, south carolina. we appreciate that. and joining me tonight, right now we have democratic congressman from california, our friend robert garcia. good to see you. congressman. we have a lot of things to talk about, not the least of which being tiktok. but i do want to ask you about the president's final day in office and how you are reflecting on his time in office, and do you think he is leaving the country ready for another trump presidency? >> i don't think anything can prepare us for a second trump presidency. i think it's going to be a very, very difficult period of time for the country. and i think we've all got to be prepared for the constant attack on our institutions that is about to be unleashed. and quite
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frankly, the attacks on on us as a country and as a people. as far as president biden, you know, i've said from from day one, i'm proud of the biden-harris administration, and i hope that people can reflect. and i think history will judge his works and bring us back from the pandemic in a way that honors his commitment to the country and to patriotism. >> let's remember how he started this country. >> the economy was in the tank. >> businesses were closed. >> we had people that had died from covid. we lost over a, you know, a million americans to the pandemic. and he brought us back on that road to recovery, which we are still, by the way, recovering from. and you think that the infrastructure law, the investment reduction act, prescription drug prices, passing the first gun regulation that we've seen as he as you know, in years in this country are going to have a record from the president and the vice president that people will look back on and be proud of. i wish
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we could have done more, but we're now, of course, faced with a horrific challenge in donald trump coming back for a second term. and i think that's something that we're all thinking about. >> so to that end, how do you think is the best way for democrats to approach this second trump term? and are you attending the inauguration tomorrow? >> so i'll be here. >> here at home in long beach. i'm headed home to dc soon. i will not be at the at the, at the inauguration. but the way i think democrats need to be prepared for it is to fight. and i think that what we should not be doing is just rolling over and thinking that trump wants to work with us in some sort of bipartisan manner. i think we've got to be really clear eyed about the fact that donald trump is empowering the richest people in the world, including elon musk, the richest man in the world, to essentially take over and our institutions and destroy the ones that they don't like. the department of education protections for medicare and social security. and then they
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want to take the resources that they save off destroying these programs and enrich themselves and their companies. and so this is not a moment for us to be shrinking violets or to not understand that this is a real fight ahead of us and holding hands and hoping that we're going to get bipartisanship, in my opinion, is not going to win the day. we've got to be tough. we've got to push back on every lie, and we've got to ensure that donald trump, elon musk and their billionaire pals don't redistribute people's hard earned social security and medicare into huge tax cuts for themselves. >> we spent the last hour and a half on the breaking news coming into us from both washington and tel aviv or arlington, virginia, specifically. but let's talk about tiktok, because you tweeted last night i voted against the tiktok ban, and i think we made a huge mistake. i hope i'm wrong. can you explain your position now, and are you then happy to hear donald trump will delay the ban on his first day in office? >> i mean, this is a really, i
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think, obviously a complex issue and an unfortunate one. i voted against the ban. i've been against the ban from day one. i personally have felt that tiktok was being singled out in a way that all the other social media platforms were not. i agree, by the way, tiktok has. we should have we have national security concerns. we have privacy concerns regarding tiktok. that is all true. the same can be said for meta and meta platforms and other social media platforms. and so i never in whether it's in classified or public briefings, heard information that made me believe that we were under imminent threat from a national security perspective. with tiktok, i believe that our privacy has been greatly compromised by foreign and american companies, as we all know. and look at what's happened with elon musk, for example, and look what happened during the election with facebook during the last election cycle and the one before that. and so what we should have done is taken a comprehensive approach to all platforms before we shut off a platform that 120 million with
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an m, 120 million americans use every single day. and by the way, tens of millions of people use tiktok for their small business, take care of their family. and so i think there should have been a better approach. and of course, i think that i hope that we can find a way with the administration, with whoever wants to work with us, to ensure that tiktok can be a safe place. well, ideally, of course, it'd be great to have it under american ownership. i think we agree. listen, we've got to continue to that point. >> donald trump is suggesting a 50% ownership for the u.s. in some sort of a joint venture. would that quell any national security concerns about chinese ownership? >> i mean, i think it's a step in the right direction. i clearly, i think having a platform that tens of millions of americans use for their small business, if we can, if americans have can have some type of ownership in that, i think that's fine. i think the broader concern, of course, and this is why we should be greatly concerned about this process, is
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who is going to own tiktok at the end of this process. and i've been saying this now for months. many of us have, i hope to god it's not elon musk. and so i think those are the concerns that we should really have. and we rammed through this ban without taking a step back, in my opinion, really thinking about how best to do this moving forward. and that's what i'm concerned about. >> okay. well, you have made your concerns loud and clear, which i thank you as always. democratic congressman from california, robert garcia, our friend. thank you so much. so what is being done to keep tomorrow's big moment at the capitol safe? we'll have some capitol safe? we'll have some insights (vo 1) when you really philosophize about it, there's one thing you don't have enough of, and that's time. time is a truly scarce commodity. when you come to that realization, i think it's very important to spend time wisely. and what better way of spending time than traveling, continuing to educate ourselves and broaden our minds. (vo 2) viking. exploring the world in comfort.
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pete g. writes, "my tween wants a new phone. how do i not break the bank?" we got you, pete. xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig. so you get high speeds for low prices. better than getting low speeds for high prices. right, bruce? -jealous? yeah, look at that. -honestly. someone get a helmet on this guy. xfinity internet customers, get a free unlimited line for a year when you buy one unlimited line. completely different person. >> get growing at nutrafol. >> com. >> at this hour, a massive security and intelligence operation underway in the nation's capital ahead of the inauguration of president elect donald j. trump to a second term. in fact, tens of thousands of law enforcement and military personnel, they're on high alert for the next two days. and joining me now is former fbi supervisor rob d'amico. rob, i'm
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awfully glad you're here. there has been a lot of breaking news, so this is going to be a lot quicker than i thought. but i'm just curious if the difference moving this whole operation indoors, does that reduce the threat or does it complicate matters because you've got to shift all the plans and the resources and everything that was probably so perfectly set up for an outdoor inauguration ceremony? >> no, they're actually quite pleased it went indoors, and that was a contingency that they were planning for from the beginning. >> so they they plan these parallel, but it takes so much off the plate. it takes drones off. it takes, you know, biological chemical agents off. >> it takes so much off to get that indoors would be such a tremendous feat for any organization or person, so to speak. so they're still going out and doing all the things that we're seeing on the video. >> unbelievable amount of resources. >> i think also it's good that it's going to be very cold. it's
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a federal holiday, so the traffic's going to be less. >> there's going to be less people just walking around because of the cold. it will still be crowded, but it'll be much easier to handle. and the fact that it's indoors takes so much out, especially two assassination attempts at trump outdoors, which is one of the things that i'm sure very worried about are you have anticipated my next question, which is the prospect of a lone wolf attacker. >> you mentioned those those two assassination attempts outdoors. yes, they're indoors, but a lot of havoc can be created outdoors as well. how much does that concern you? it is a holiday. people will not be at work. there's going to be a lot more open space that potentially would be less guarded because the eyes have been trained indoors. >> are you concerned they're still going to have plenty of law enforcement out there for protests, for things that are going to happen outside it? >> but again, the security for the presidential swearing in is
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going to be a lot less. >> his security will be much easier to do to control, but they still are planning for lots of, you know, massive protests if that happens and crowd control. >> this planning has been going on since the last one. >> i know you know, the fbi assistant director in dc, dave sundberg, was brought in for the last one because of january 6th. >> former hostage rescue team commander. he went through it all. the people that have done this before are now just been planning it, and it's been planning for a couple of years now. >> so i think it's going to go smooth. if something happens, they're going to have plenty of resources to be able to push into those areas without getting marred down in it. they'll have reserves. they have national guard all standing by outside the zone to see where they need to go. but it's a well rehearsed thing i've said on many of them on bags when i was on hostage rescue team. >> just waiting for something. >> okay, rob d'amico, we'll breathe. just a wee bit of a
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sigh of relief after speaking with you. thank you so much. we'll see you again, my friend. meantime, for all of you, tomorrow morning, it kicks off with morning joe. we'll have coverage of president elect donald trump's inauguration. and then at 10 a.m, rachel maddow and the team will bring you key moments of the day, followed by, of course, analysis from our primetime anchors throughout the evening. as this new term begins, we have special coverage. it begins monday at 6 a.m. eastern right here on msnbc. donald trump the unifier what to make of a new report about his expectations for a about his expectations for a second term. is your pad ready for the unexpected gush? ♪♪ new always ultra thin is. it's made to give you that cleaner, drier, fresher pad feeling. all day long. always gush ready. meet the new bissel crosswave
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i guess what i'm looking for from you is, i mean, i know how the fire affected me, and there's always a constant fear that who's to say something like that won't happen again? that's fair. we committed to underground, 10,000 miles of electric line. you look back at where we were 10 years ago and we are in a completely different place today, and it's because of how we need to care for our communities and our customers. i hope that's true. [joe] that's my commitment. [ambient noise] your weight with the formula from eli lilly. see if you qualify at koco-tv. >> on my first day back in the oval office, i will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country. >> today, an oligarchy is taking shape in america of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy. i'm equally
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concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex. >> two presidents, they're on their way into the history books as we count down to donald trump's second inauguration on joe biden's last full day as president. and joining me now, we're delighted to have jon meacham, presidential historian, author of several new york times best selling books and also the rogers chair in the american presidency at vanderbilt university, which makes your students very, very lucky. john, thank you for joining us. and look, with regard to this particular president, you have occasionally advised president biden on historical matters, major speeches. can you tell us anything about his warning, his goodbye speech on wednesday? first of all, did you help him craft that message? >> i did, i was part of a group that helped with that speech. yes. >> so where did it come from? was it his thought? that was the genesis of it. and you picked up. how did that work?
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>> well, i don't i try not to talk about the process, but i think i can say it is entirely president biden's message. it was very much on his mind and heart. and i want a message that he wanted to make absolutely clear as he leaves the stage after 51 years, 52 years of federal service. and i think the speech and the president's record speak, speak for themselves. and i think what the country is going to be adjudicating as as we go through the next 48 months or so, is was the right decision made in the 2024 election? will what, 49.9% of the folks who voted what they wanted is that, in fact, the
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best thing for the country. and that's the remarkable thing about history is how does this unfold? and i think there are a lot of people who are anxious. there are a lot of people who are enthusiastic. and that's how history is shaped. >> you don't have a crystal ball, but you do know how history the likelihood is that joe biden's words in that speech that we've just gone over, the concern about having a tech industrial complex and it becoming a bit of an oligarchy, how much do you think it could come to pass that people look back on and say, that was prophetic? >> i think it's certainly quite likely, you know, the point where the issues we're dealing with, i believe, is we can argue about policy all day long and always have. one of the things
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we shouldn't have to argue about as we approach our 250th anniversary is the constitution, the rule of law, a sense of fair play, the notion that there is always a peaceful transfer of power, very fundamental threshold questions about the social compact, about the covenant. and as long as we agree on the rules, then we can debate everything else. what was so troubling to so many people, me included, was ago, presidentrd president bidee per that is unfolding now. and this is not me being reflexively liberal. i'm not a democrat. i'm not a republican. i believe very much in the constitutional order. i don't believe in most cases.
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either party has a monopoly on truth or virtue. but i do believe that if we don't have a common set of rules and of facts and also have a measure of grace, a measure of proportion, then this experiment that we've been doing for 250 years is in trouble. and this is fundamentally a human undertaking. this is about our capacity to listen to each other. it's about our capacity not to believe that we are always right. maybe there are people who are always right. i have not met them. i look forward to that at some point. but it's not. it's not a sunday afternoon homily. i'm not trying to preach about it, but if you sort of take a deep breath for a second and think about the complications, the chaos of human events and of human nature, it is amazing that this
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republic has lasted as long as it has, and it's lasted as long as it has, because just enough of us, at critical moments, have decided that the declaration of independence, that that's our mission statement, and that reaching out and defining more broadly who is included in we the people that the broader that definition is, the stronger we become. and i think that's that's the principle we have to bear in mind. >> the keeper of the flame, that last part of the speech, the president beseeching all of us to keep the flame beautifully written, beautifully delivered. is that illustrating exactly what you've just said? >> well, let me just speak for myself again. the president of the united states can speak for the president of the united states. i think about what ronald reagan said in january of
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1989. he talked about how, in a remarkable speech that peggy noonan has told the story of how she wrote, he said, i've used the phrase city on a hill all my political life is a phrase from john winthrop, which and winthrop took it from jesus. president reagan, by the way, took city on a hill from the sermon on the mount and added the word shining, proving that reagan could improve on jesus. you know, it's a great it's a great edit when you think about it. but what president reagan said there was i may not have always said what i meant, what i meant when i said it. and what i meant is that it's a city where all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness toward home, can find a beacon of freedom. and that beacon is emanates from the declaration. and this commitment to individual worth, individual dignity. and what i would say, what lincoln said is we should
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all have an open field and a fair chance. that's the american experiment. it's kind of like describing the wallpaper. but what we learned four years ago is that sometimes you have to describe the wallpaper. and so let's as a country, i would just let's remember how we started, what we've gotten wrong, which is a lot, and what we've gotten right, which is also a lot. and let's try to get more right than wrong. >> i want to ask one more question about president trump. it has been reported axios led that reporting that he wants to now be seen as a unifying force. how can such a polarizing figure ever be a unifying force? is there someone in history that had a level of polarization that did an about face and turned around and brought the country together?
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>> well, president trump has made a choice, right? he's made a choice in his public life to speak the way he speaks, to act the way he acts. part of my objection to a lot of president trump's behavior is not based on a political opinion. it's that he uses language. he uses imagery that even his adjacent supporters will say. and how many times have you heard this in the last ten years? well, i don't agree with everything he says, but x, y, z. right. so what i my objections are based on what he says and what he does not. my interpretation of what he says or what he does. so he has chosen to do that. i think there's one possibility here, which is that what matters and what matters to all presidents.
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but i think particularly in this case, to a new president and particularly to president trump, is he would like to be seen as successful. he wants this to be, as he's put it. and i'm sure we'll hear this phrase tomorrow. he wants america to enter a golden age. okay, let's tell us what that looks like. as president reagan did in his farewell address. tell us what it looks like. and if that vision is one in which perhaps we aren't having a constant struggle and war every day with all caps, social media posts, and attempts to bully people and dismiss people, deride people if we can, he can stop doing that. and if he stops doing that, that will by definition, be somewhat unifying. yeah, okay. it's a choice. it's a choice he has made. it's important, alex, if you will. he's made a choice. he
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rose to power in a certain way. he can choose to wield power in a different way if he wishes to. >> hope springs eternal. jon meacham, always a pleasure to have you, my friend. thank you so much for being on the show. thank you. for more now on the incoming administration, joining me is shaniqua mcclendon, vice president of political strategy at crooked media, along with former florida representative and msnbc political analyst carlos curbelo. welcome to you both. so, shaniqua, let's get to some of the details from nbc news reporting that as soon as tuesday, that's day two of the trump administration. ice is planning a major immigration operation in illinois, chicago, and in fact, specifically and the governor of the state, j.b. pritzker, said that he will protect migrants if they are arrested unlawfully. how far do you think trump will be able to go with this? and is the country prepared for the consequences? >> you know, in states like
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illinois, i don't think he's going to be able to go very far. we've seen a lot of blue state governors say that they are not going to just let him come. the federal government come into their states and do whatever they want. you know, i think it's, you know, really telling the last question you just asked about trump wanting to be a unifier, and this is one of the first things that he wants to sign an executive order on, to just go round up immigrants, which we know will then turn into from mass roundups to mass detention before those deportations start. >> and i think one of the reasons he likes those kinds of policies is because it's a public display of how evil he is. >> so i don't think that he'll be able to just go into states like california and illinois and do that. >> but i do think we're going to see a lot of what we saw back in 2017 and in his first presidency, and it's going to have an impact, a negative impact on the country. >> and you know, carlos, there are some democratic mayors who are changing their tunes a bit on this issue from past years.
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of course, not being as vocal about using the term sanctuary cities, for example. and you have the mayor of cincinnati who said it's not a time to pick political fights and she's going to follow new immigration laws. why is there seeming to be less resistance? >> alex, immigration was a very tough issue for democrats this election. >> republicans are on offense. on immigration. you can expect the trump team to be very aggressive because they feel that the public is behind them. a lot of these big blue cities, they have struggled over recent years with the massive influx of immigrants. it has put a strain on resources. it has obviously, in some cases led to crime. and look, this is a human issue. most of the people who have come to this country want to contribute. >> they want to work. they should be treated humanely. >> but we have to understand the politics of this moment. the american people, by and large,
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want to see immigration laws enforced more aggressively. how far trump goes will depend on whether the public stays behind him. but right now, i can tell you that republicans feel very confident on this issue, and it is probably the issue that most unites a party that has trouble sticking together, because we've seen what house republicans, you know, have done over recent years. they're not always unified. i think this issue will be a big exception in that regard. >> i've got about a minute left to ask each of you the same question. shaniqua, your answer first. what do you expect? day one? or let's put it into the first week of the trump presidency. you first. and then carlos. >> yeah, we just talked about immigration. i think we're going to see him at least start talking about releasing the terrorists who attacked the capitol on january 6th. and at some point, he's going to start pressuring republicans in congress to move forward on this big reconciliation tax bill to
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increase or to lower extend lower taxes for, you know, wealthy individuals in this country. but i think he's going to stick to what he said. he's been pretty clear throughout the campaign and throughout this time, as he goes into being sworn in tomorrow, what he's going to do. so i think we'll see it. >> carlos, last word to you. hopes and fears for this week. >> well, look, i think on policy, it's the two big issues that propelled trump to get elected to the presidency for a second time. immigration and inflation. i think you're going to see a lot of executive orders, both on immigration and also in terms of energy policy, trying to reverse some of what the trump team feels are biden energy policies that raised prices in the country and that, yes, you're going to see some pardons of the january 6th offenders, hopefully not those who attack law enforcement. >> indeed. shaniqua and carlos, guys, thank you so much. good to see you in our next hour. congressman josh gottheimer of
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new jersey, one of his constituents, is being held by hamas. he's going to weigh in on the cease fire deal and the release of three hostages today. that's next. land. yeah. >> why are you screaming? because you're screaming. >> are you hiding from used car shopping? yeah. >> what if i overpay? >> i get it, nearly half of all used cars have been in an accident. but that's nothing to be afraid of. >> show me carfax. >> knowing how a car's accident history impacts price means, you don't have to overpay. >> way better. >> popcorn. >> popcorn. >> definitely no fear. (vo) oof, stuck paying for that old phone? don't be. ♪ you know, at verizon, we'll pay off your phone. and you'll get iphone 16 with apple intelligence, on us.
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