where that unpredictability has been helpful in negotiations. >> still with us, philip bump and charlie sykes. charlie, there is every chance we are making too much of this, but we've also seen similar behavior by senator graham of south carolina. what gives? what's going on here, do you think? >> i think there is a larger process going on where republicans are basically figuring, hey, we're in for a dime, in for a dollar. there is a push to normalize the trump presidency among conservatives and republicans, particularly after that tax cut vote. you're seeing a lot of that. this is donald trump's washington, it's donald trump's republican party, and there is tremendous pressure, i think, to go, hey, look, he's the president. if you criticize him, you're going to be on the outs. you might as well come in from the cold. >> philip, this is not your first rodeo, either. how carefully should we dissect what we're seeing here? >> i agree with everything charlie just said, but i believe in this particular case, an incredibly limited scope of what senator corker said there it struck me more as saying

i can't imagine it's going to go anywhere. >> charlie sykes, jen palmeri, thank you both so much. >>> meanwhile out west a terrible tragedy continuing in california. the desperate search there for eight missing california residents after days of devastating mudslides, leaving at least 17 people dead. krcrippled communities along th santa barbara coast trying to recover. gadi schwartz joining us with the latest from there. >> andrea, we know that 20 to 25% of the affected were homes that were buried and crushed under boulders. half of that home has been taken down the wash. this boulder field stretches for about a mile. we know the debris has been washed all the way clear down to the pacific ocean, which is about two or three miles away from where we're at right now. search and rescue crews are looking for anybody that may have survived. we are now well past 48 hours since this mudslide ripped through. right now we know that there are still eight people missing and 17 people have lost their lives. andrea, back to you. >> gadi schwartz, thank you so much for that. >>> coming up, state o

>> charlie sykes. anyway, i give you the steve mnuchin then steve bannon characterizati characterization. a good one too. a good 24 hours in terms of phrases. much appreciate it. >>> "fire and fury" arthur michael wolff joins me in-studio. don't miss it this sunday exclusively on "meet the press." >>> up ahead, president trump is sending a message. surreal video appearance in the white house briefing room, while he was just likely yards away. we'll be right back. it's a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. if you move your old 401(k) to a fidelity ira, we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. ♪ oh and at fidelity, you'll see how all your investments are working together. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. ♪ just remember what i said about a little bit o' soul ♪ >>> welcome back. president trump appeared at the white house press briefing this aftern

. >> let's bring in msnbc contributor and white house correspondent for the pbs news hour charlie sykessnbc contributor and author of "how the right lost its mind" and eric mcpike, from the media group of america. the headlines today used the word "racist" more times today than we've probably ever seen across this country, if you don't mind me mentioning your haitian descent and what you may be thinking about these statements as well as putting on your other hat as a reporter. >> the outrage continues, this is essentially day three of people sitting back and thinking about what the president said. it was very hurtful for haitian americans, not just people of haitian ancestry, but also haitian officials. the haiti ambassador told me specifically that the haitian government summoned u.s. officials to come before them and say, what is going on, what did the president mean by this? and today i got i letter from a group of haitian doiplomats, haitian americans working for the state department all across the world and they're also saying these comments felt like heartbreak and despair and the

for more, i'm joined by charlie sykes, catherine rampel, and maya harris, msnbc political and legal contributor. in that order, starting with you, charlie, how does this size up or does it even matter? i wonder, whenever you get into a process matter, whether the public just, okay, the zoo lights go out for a couple weeks and a few other screwups out there, and there may be trouble, but most times we forget about it two weeks later. your thoughts about the blame game trump seems to be pointing his flame thrower at the democrats hoping their they'll take the heat. >> republicans have quite a campaign with a #, schumer shutdown, and of course, it is the democrats who are pulling the trigger on all this, but look, we're living in the era of donald trump. donald trump is the star of every play, the bride in every wedding. he sets the mood music for everything that's happened over the last year. you think about the symbolism of shutting down the government on the one-year anniversary. how that encapsulates so much about all of this. you know, what a bad negotiator he is, you know, the fact that he b

. >> reporter: charlie sykes was a longtime radio talk show host based in wisconsin and an influential voice on the right. >> they have to ignore the arrogance, the narcissism, the chronic lying, his personal corruption, the... the... the contempt for the rule of law. these are not matters of style. these are not matters of personality. these are fundamental issues. >> reporter: but it turned out these voices had little sway among rank and file conservatives whose votes enabled trump to capture the republican nomination. that left these anti-trump conservatives with a difficult choice: vote for trump or watch their sworn enemy take the white house. for talk show host and columnist hugh hewitt, who had urged trump to quit the race after the "access hollywood" tape, it came down to a few key issues: >> the united states' military and its adequacy, funding, preparedness, which i thought had deteriorated to such levels that we were in danger; and the united states supreme court, the latter being more important than anything else. had secretary clinton become president clinton and filled th

and white house correspondent yamiche, she has new jobs all the time and author and commentator charlie sykesm going to talk to charlie. you are reasonably conservative and i'm not knocking it at all. what is your position if you could write our immigration law right now, enforcement, regulation, who gets to come, how do we decide when they come, they come from europe, asia, how do we do it, have an american immigration system that we're proud of? >> on daca, i think the compromise that you saw between dirk durbin and lindsey graham is doable. it is this balancing of being humanitari humanitarian, being open but also having security. i think that's where there is the sweet traction on it. >> why not? why is it the sweet spots with lawmakers? >> it's because the loudest voices at the end of the bar are driving this debate. they are prisoners of their bases. again, you look at the whole gang of eight issue. what you do is create a path to citizenship for people who are willing to play by the rules. tighten border security. i think that most conservatives, most right center left would find broad

talk about it all tonight eli stokels, white house reporter for "the wall street journal," and charlie sykes long time conservative radio host and author of the book "how the right lost its mind." welcome. eli, talk about the performance aspects since the president opened the door by using the word. they're not subtle about kind of keeping things amongst themselves. >> or keeping their fictions alive, right? this is the president who says fake news when he reads stories about all the tv he watches. and today he's talking about the great ratings this performance got on television. i mean it just sort of boggles the mind. but also it's one of the shocking but not surprising things that you can say about this presidency. i mean this is guy who for 55 minutes let the cameras come in, and then today totally breaks the fourth wall if there's ervin been a fourth wall with this presidency and said it was a great performance. he said it on the way out from the cameras yesterday, hopefully you got enough for the next two weeks. and that's the way he thinks about of the immigration policy that will aff

msnbc contributor charlie sykes, influential conservative and author of "how the right lost its mind.charlie, i cannot -- i'd be remiss if i didn't ask for what you thought about what the president said today about s-hole countries. i'll give you a chance to respond to that real quick. >> well, first of all, having had relatives that came from a country he probably would have regarded as a bleep hole, it's about as offensive as you can get. i think one of the most depressing things about this is what's going to be happening the next 24 hours as you watch fox news and conservative talk radio go wall to wall with defenses of this. that, well, he's being bold, he's being honest. and the effect on the culture i think is what's most depressing. that he's going to make this kind of rhetoric acceptable, or more acceptable, to a broad section of this country. which is why i think it is so crucial that republicans like mia love speak out as strongly as they can. i mean, look, we've kind known who and what donald trump is. but what donald trump is doing to us, is doing to the country, by bringi

charlie sykes is an author, commentator, msnbc contributor, and danny savalos, a practicing attorney,an msnbc legal analyst. let me start with you. does the president -- first of all, danny, does he have any grounds to file a libel lawsuit here? >> no. i mean, he can, anyone can file a lawsuit, but as the most public of public figures, "the new york times" b. sullivan standard will apply to the president and he would have to show actual malice, reckless disregard of an obvious falsity, which, you know, it would be a very difficult hill to climb, but in addition, he would open himself up to our country's very broad, very expansive discovery rules, which means that -- remember, the reciprocal, whatever he can learn about the other side, they can learn about him. if he resists, a court will force him to do it. >> the president also suggesting there we change the law. again, you're the lawyer, i'm not. but wouldn't that have required changing the constitution? wouldn't we be talking about a fundamental change to this country's constitution, not just some lawmakers changing a law? >> the p

joining us is jason johnson, editor at the root.com and msnbc contributor and charlie sykes, author of "how the right lost its mind" and a msnbc contributor. welcome to both of you. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> good to be here, ali. >> let's start with you, jason. where do you think we go from here if you're a republican? is this concept of getting your agenda -- getting your agenda forwarded more important than basic humanity? because we saw this play out with the roy moore saga. >> well, yeah. look. ali, it is really clear that most of the republican party is like, look, people who assault women, racist, terrorists sympathizers, accused pedophiles i can work with all the people as long as i get a tax cut and stop the affordable care act. i think as far as most mens of the republican party, not heard from mcconnell, paul ryan basically gave a very sort of flaccid limp wristed response and said i don't care. and this is bad and terrible and didn't condemn the president. >> unhelpful. >> nothing is going to change with republicans in washington but i will say this. republi

charlie sykes, conservative writer. jason johnson is at the root.com. both are nbc contributors. the president's role in these negotiations, how would you describe it? >> not helpful. chaotic. not only the fruits of his ignorance, his inattention, his chaos, but also the lack of credibility that mcconnell has. when you step back and go, we're just trying to figure out what the president says. the president, when he said he wants a bill of love, was it last tuesday that seems like a lifetime ago. so here is somebody who is an unreliable partner for a deal that looked like we were going to have it, but because donald trump is donald trump, we may be headed for a government shutdown. >> i want to show you what mitch mcconnell said yesterday. >> i'm looking for something that president trump supports. he's not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. as soon as we figure out what he is for, then i would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels going to this issue on the floor. >> is the president inadvertently helping democrats here? >> well, he's done that lots

jo jonathan alter and charlie sykes, an author of "how the right lost its mind" with a good morning to all three of you and a welcome back sirlena to you from the last hour. charlie, your reaction to what congresswoman debby dingell just said. she said everyone's got to get in the same room. we've got to quit kicking the can down the road. it's costing the american economy and costing the american people. do you agree? >> yes. this compromise out to be easy to make when you think about it. there's broad bipartisan support for c.h.i.p. broad bipartisan support for daca. all of these things were within reach just a few days ago. you had the president sitting at the table in the cabinet room talking about the, let's get this done, for this bill and then you had the shit-hole meeting. what you had was a moment in which you could have bipartisan progress. but because this president not only won't provide leadership, but basically has blown up many of those talks, here we are, at a moment of underlying the dysfunction of the first year of the trump presidency. >> this morning, jonathan, the

charlie sykes is an msnbc contributor. barbara quaid is a former attorney and msnbc contributor. i want to start with congressman katz stroh. it looks to me like a purge. now the president son the warpath after thanks to chairman nunes of your committee to dig up evidence enough to support getting rid of rod rosenstein, the deputy head of the justice department. why is he purging everybody that's involved with investigating him and the russian probe? >> well, i have to imagine, chris, that he is scared of what they're going to find out. and, you know, there were of course stories about him, his firing of comey and the reason he fired comey. in fact, the president did an interview that suggest head fired comey because of the russia investigation. and now the pressure that was applied to andrew mccabe and the result today of him stepping down. i said earlier today that andrew mccabe should not be replaced with somebody who is just a presidential stooge and who is going to help kill this investigation. because there are already plenty of people around here, quite, honestly, who are

i'm joined by new york times columnist michelle goldberg, and author charlie sykes and for the atlantic, rosie gray. let me start with you, just in terms of the reaction from donald trump here, look, it certainly seems from an outside advantage point to be impulsive, and seems to be consistent with trump as we've known him for a long time now. strategically inside that white house is there something they are trying to accomplish in terms of the threats of the lawsuit or tweeting or is this just trump lashing out. >> it looks to be donald trump lashing out. if you were thinking rationally and strategically about how to respond to this book, you wouldn't be reacting the way that he is. the president of the united states trying to stop publication of a book is a guarantee that it will get massive nationwide attention. so it is self-defeating what they are doing. >> charlie, that is one of the things that strikes me too. when this news of this book first leaked, which a couple of days ago now, president trump put out that sort of extraordinary statement attacking steve bannon and kind of i

joining us is jason johnson, editor at the root.com and msnbc contributor and charlie sykes, author of "how the right lost its mind" and a msnbc contributor. welcome to both of you. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> good to be here, ali. >> let's start with you, jason. where do you think we go from here if you're a republican? is this concept of getting your agenda -- getting your agenda forwarded more important than basic humanity? because we saw this play out with the roy moore saga. >> well, yeah. >> thank you. >> good to be here, ali. >> let's start with you, jason. where do you think we go from here if you're a republican? is this concept of getting your agenda -- getting your agenda forwarded more important than basic humanity? because we saw this play out with the roy moore saga. >> well, yeah. look. ali, it is really clear that most of the republican party is like, look, people who assault women, racist, terrorists sympathizers, accused pedophiles i can work with all the people as long as i get a tax cut and stop the affordable care act. i think as far as most mens of

generated a new coalition of people like the two of you sitting up here today, brazil and navarro, charlie sykes being interviewed on his show, you see george well on rachel maddow. etc., etc. what might this mean politically for the future post president trump ? >> you know, you can disagreewith me on this. i'm very disappointed in donald trump . [laughter] look, i didn't support ronald reagan but the day that i saw him sign doctor king's birthday into a national holiday i said he was open to people who disagreed with him. when i saw george herbert walker bush time the civil rights act, i said he was open to people who disagreed with him. when i saw george walker bush signed the renewal of the voting rights act, i said he was open to people who disagreed with him. this president is closed. he's close to listening to people who can make a difference. i thought charlottesville was going to be my last straw. you know how you give a man a second chance, i know you wouldn't know what i'm talking about and after giving them so many chances to redeem himself and then when he called back, i said that's