eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist. eugene, let me just throw this out there. so i have read just about every presidential memoir frto everything written during the bush years and a lot what was written during the clinton years, memoirs and tell-alls. i have never read anything in which a former senior staffer suggests that the president is a dunce, that the president's son committed treason and that the president's daughter is dumb as a brick have. you? >> no, i haven't. and i don't know that we'll ever read anything like that again, except about this administration. i mean, first of all, it's not every administration or really any administration in which the president who has no experience in government immediately appoints both his daughter who has no experience in government and his son-in-law who has no experience in government to high positions inside the west wing. and lo and behold they have no idea what they're doing. lo and behold they don't know anything about anything. and the thing that's really striking to me about the excerpts of the wolff book t

to talk about all of this jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon, and eugene robinson, pulitzer prizewinning columnist for "the washington post." both gentlemen msnbc analysts. i'm going to ask you to start us off with a very plain question. what should every american know about the russian threat to us? >> well, there are two ways, brian, i think to use this impressive 200 page report from the democrats on the senate foreign relations committee. one is to read it, and the second way is to roll it up and swack it across the forehead in the face of this ongoing significant threat from russia, which is coming at us like a barrel, barrelling towards us in 2018 and beyond. and when the president of the united states fails to defend the country in the face of a clear and present threat, that looks like collusion itself. that looks like inaction and acquiescence to the threat. so i think every citizen should wonder when the president fails to act, whose side is the president on? >> so you see this, jeremy, as an absolute clear danger and here we are ten months to americans g

columnist at "the washington post" and msnbc contributor eugene robinson. d former chief of staff for the cia and department of defense and msnbc national security analyst jeremy bash. thanks to all of you for coming in on a sunday night. eugene, i have to start with you. because the questions all morning this morning have been, is this president a racist or not? >> that was certainly horrendously racist thing he's said. it's not the first racist thing he's said. he's got a long history of saying and doing racist things. so you don't have to try to get to the existential core of a person because in the end, that's an unanswerable question. you can judge and assess what he says and what he does and what he says and what he does is racist. >> ashley, is this out of line with behavior we've seen from the president before? does it stand apart worse than some of the other examples eugene referenced? >> it's not out of line at all. if you look back on this president, a lot of people think the original sin when it comes to racially related -- >> you mean not out of

. >>> in the wake of the "steele" book and the president retweeting the button tweet, eugene robinson says, we've made it safely through almost a 84, but at some point our luck will run out. what that means next. trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief. running a small business is demanding. and that's why small business owners need more. like internet that's up to the challenge. the gig-speed network from comcast business gives you more. with speeds up to 20 times faster than the average. that means powering more devices, more video conferencing, and more downloads in seconds, not minutes. get fast internet and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more per month. comcast is building america's largest gig-speed network to give small businesses more. call 1-800-501-6000 today. >>> some of my colleagues on the democrat side want to forget the fact that we know the clinton campaign paid the law firm who paid fusion

back with us, eugene robinson, jackie calmes and matthew miller.ther evidence of what was going on in june. because of the compression of time and space, look at this graphic. june 7, comey releases memo detailing interactions with trump. how did that get out? trump, june 8th, comey testifies before senate intel committee. 14th, possible obstruction of justice. 15th, trump tweets what we just read to you. just looking back at his twitter account is kind of a play-by-play of where his head was and where we knew the investigation was. >> right. you had had on june 14 that "washington post" story which was characterized -- the "washington post" story that said mueller was looking at trump himself an obstruction of justice. remember, one of the things he was obsessed about earlier in the year with jim comey when jim comey was still fbi director was the fact that he personally, donald trump, was not under investigation and jim comey has testified that he several times reassured the president. but that reassurance was only good for as long as jim comey w

>> well, alex, certainly i would believe that would come from eugene robinson. that would sound like something he would say. his commentary has been very similar to that on your morning show. but the president -- here's a man who graduated at the top of the class of wharton business school, maybe one of the most successful business people in the country. i think most americans would say, golly, 25 years ago i wish i'd have given that man all my money and let him invest it for me. he did a remarkable job. he's carried that in now to the white house as president of the united states. and what's happened? since he got elected, you know, the stock exchange has gone up 36%, 7,000 increase in the dow. we have 2 million new jobs, 184,000 manufacturing jobs. major companies now are giving bonuses back to their employees, a million people. frankly that's the tip of the iceberg. we had one company in charlotte, charlotte pipe and foundry, not a large company, a thousand people, but they announced that they're going to give out $1,000 to every person who works for them. th

. >> i'm joined by kasie hunt on the hill and eugene robinson with me. kasie, you first. you just heard an interesting conflict there, i think, and that's coons is optimistic they'll get a vote on the dreamers, and this guy, john kennedy, of course he is a conservative from louisiana, and he wants to have -- this is an opportunity, not to vote for the dreamers. he is going to vote against that part of it. but he is going to get the part he wants, which is called by the conservatives chain immigration and get rid of diversified -- diversity lottery, the things they don't like because it brings in a lot of minorities. your thoughts. >> i do think that we are headed for, chris, a debate that is going to be a lot uglier than the kumbahyah moment that we had here in the senate today. and these 20 democrats and republicans got together in a room and essentially came out saying, hey, we trust each other. well like each other a little bit more than we think. and i got to tell you, i haven't had -- it used to happen when i was first covering capitol hill ten years ago. this is som

eugene robinson, katie.oming up, learning more about steve bannon's bizarre testimony yesterday in the russia investigation. his attorney was on the phone with the white house in realtime with white house attorneys instructing bannon apparently on what questions he could answer and which he couldn't answer. democrats say the white house trying to gag bannon. maybe he wants to be gagged. there could be collusion between bannon and the white house. plus, it's even worse than you think. that's the title of a new book by david k. johnson about what donald trump is doing to our country, some of the secret stuff in the regulatory era we haven't paid enough attention to. we will tonight. he joins us. and trump's racial language derailed hopes of saving daca and avoiding a government shutdown this friday night. we heard it last week from the president. today we got similar talk, this time from his attorney general. let me finish with trump watch. he won't like it. had is "hardball" where the action is. about medicin

also joining us eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning journalist for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst. david, the democrats came out of this with a six-year deal on chip and the republicans came out of it with a new deadline of february 8th where they go through the whole thing again. >> yeah. you said a version of this at the top of the show. i think the democrats' mistake here is letting anyone think they actually had the ability to use a shutdown threat to solve the dreamers problem. they don't. we saw this repeatedly when republicans were in the minority and we had a democratic president. if the minority party says we will shut down the government unless you give us what we want, if the majority party gives in to that, the majority party is essentially saying to the minority party, you can do whatever you want. you just have to threat tony shut down the government and we'll give in. so the notion i think that has become common among some progressives that democrats folded here is wrong. the problem was the senate giving the sense that they could actually succeed.

thank you, eugene robinson.p next, as the president prepares for tomorrow night's state of the union, we're getting a glimpse of what trump unscripted in a new interview. trump makes the bizarre claim that the polar icecaps are actually setting records, getting icier up there, colder up there. once again, he defends himself as a stable genius. but facts, as gene and i were just saying. gene was saying facts, do they mean anything? if it's getting colder, does it mean it's getting colder if trump says it's not? you're watching "hardball." so that's the idea. what do you think? i don't like it. oh. nuh uh. yeah. ahhhhh. mm-mm. oh. yeah. ah. agh. d-d-d... no. hmmm. uh... huh. yeah. uh... huh. in business, there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you. so we're doing it. yes. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we help all types of businesses with money, tools and know-how to get business done. american express open. need a change of scenery? the kayak price forecast tool tells you wheth

. >> wow, steve schmidt and eugene robinson aren't going anywhere. >>> we're back. eugene and steve are still with us. you gene, i want to get your thoughts on, if this is a breakup between donald trump and steve bannon, who gets what? who inherits the hannity relationship? who inherits breitbart? who inherits the trump base? >> well, okay, so, the president gets the hannity relationship. >> okay. like the records, right? let's split them up. >> hannity goes to trump. breitbart eventually, i think, goes to bannon, i mean, that's where the allegiance is. and the base, what's left of the base, is confused. mostly, i think, with trump, because they still have faith in him, but i don't think they're ready to -- i don't think en masse they will completely reject bannon at this point. we'll have to see. i -- you know, it will be interesting to see. will he now continue to go around the country trying to put up his candidates for, in republican primaries? maybe he will. it will be harder if he doesn't have the cash behind him. >> gene, you are always right. we just picked t

clearly, eugene robinson, thank you, happy new year again.ll be reading your piece in the washington post later. still ahead, a split in the republican party on the best strategy to hang onto the house majority. morning joe will be right back. depend silhouette briefs. feature a comfortable sleek fit. as a dancer, i've learned you can't have any doubts. because looking good on stage is one thing. but real confidence comes from feeling good out there. get a coupon at depend.com you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! >>> so president trump returned to washington last night after a ten-day vacation to florida, according to nbc news' account, it was the 117th day he spent at a trump property, including 91 days at a golf property, 34% of his 347 days in office has been spent at one of the president's business, trump is scheduled to lunch with vice president mike pence and alex acosta today. with pence

>> champagne corks popping. >> we also have eugene robinson with us. >> okay.ng a possible immigration deal and raising the risk of a government shutdown. >> first of all -- >> no, it's -- >> everybody in washington, d.c., john heilman -- we're going to have a hard time getting through the scripts this morning because there's a lie coming from the white house -- >> at every turn. >> from white house drchbders almo defenders, almost had every moment of this script. everybody knows how this went down now. even the white house aides are admitting, the vulgarity was used. tom cotton heard the vulgarity. they lied on sunday morning. >> yeah. >> they lied to the american people. they lied to their constituent necessary georgia and arkansas. they lied to cover the president's racist remarks. >> yeah. >> we know a that. >> yeah. >> we also know that trump tells durbin and lindsey graham to come over to the white house. >> yeah. >> that sounds like a great deal, let's talk about it. john kelly stops him before they come over. mr. president, this is bad for your agenda.

, associate editor of "commentary" magazine noah rothman and editor of the "washington post," eugene robinson and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host kasie dc on msnbc, kasie hunt. joe, what was the president, the president's part in this way forward? and what is the way forward? >> it sounds like his part was to get out of the way. most everybody says the reason they were able to get a deal at the end was the president and steven miller, who is obviously running the president's business were kept out of the way. and so the two sides could come together. listen, there are a lot of democrats that aren't happy, a lot of reasons for democratic activists to be concerned. it doesn't seem that the democrats have still learned how to fight a good political battle. a good political war. legislatively. are with the communications. but you know, this ended up just being a phony war this was to woro a phrase from the beginning of world war ii, this was a phony war, a three-day battle. it's not like they signed off for six-year deal on, on keeping the government open. mitch mcconnell has given h

eugene robinson was kind enough to give us his view behind the scenes.to speak with rachel and brian. if you go to facebook.com/the beat with ari, you can see this video and some of the other stuff. it goes above and beyond the show if that's the kind of thing you're looking for. i thank you for watching. i hope to see you tomorrow night. as for "hardball" it, starts right now. >> all the president's men? let's play "hardball." starts right now. >> all the president's men? let's play "hardball."," it sta right now. >> all the president's men? let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in baltimore. as the special counsel's case against the president for obstruction of justice gross stronger by the day, president trump is attempting to beat the rap before it's too late. he and his republican allies are preparing a frontal assault on this country's law enforcement institutions. the motive is to taint the government's investigation and there be undermine its administration of justice. the trump attack hinges on a mo

. >>> here to talk about it with us tonight, eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the washington post and an msnbc political analyst. jackie calms is with us, white house editor for the los angeles times. and matthew miller is with us, msnbc justice and security analyst and former chief spokesman over at the department of justice. jackie, walk us through at least your view of the modern history of donald trump on the subject of loyalty. >> well, he's a man who literally grew up with expectations of loyalty to family. it's almost like the core ali owns. he grows up in the family business and he's been in family business his entire career. and his children now work for him. he's never had to answer to a board of directors. and so he's used to just having sicafans and loyalists around him tault. as president comes in and seems to expect the same of not only everyone in his cabinet including the attorney general who has a role to be very independent of the president, but he expects it of members of congress of his party, too, and treats them not as an independent branch of

and eugene robinson, columnist at the "washington post." a wealth of talent here. happy friday, everybody. matt, i want to ask you first about the reaction inside the justice department. do these revelations by mike schmidt confirmed by msnbc news about the way the president pressed to stop jeff sessions from recusing himself? we knew he was angry about it, he said that to the "new york times" last summer and then repeated it publicly. but the degree to which he tried to get them to stop this russia probe at the very beginning. >> yeah, i think we learned two important new things about where this obstruction of justice probe may go based on this story. one is more evidence about the president's intent. proving intent of obstruction of justice is always a hard thing, because actions that would be legal, such as firing jeff sessions, are illegal if you're trying to thwart the investigation. it is clear he was trying to thwart the investigation. he wanted the attorney general to block it. and specifically the attorney general himself. we learned that -- the justice de

and political analyst eugene robinson and columnist at the "washington post." chuck, let's talk about what we saw today, because we've seen the president after no denials yesterday and after even some reporting that the white house was not displeased that the base was modified over his compromising signals earlier in the week over daca and the d.r.e.a.m.ers. now we heard the president trying to explain it. there's still no firm denial and we have the confirmation from senator durbin. what do you think is happening here on a day when, as you saw, they made quite a big deal out of the martin luther king jr. day proclamation. >> i think it's obvious why he's trying to make a big deal out of that. he's desperately trying to see if they can preserve any hope that somehow people might look to him as some sort of attempt at unifying, you know, even day, not necessarily unifying figure. i'm trying to figure out which one of these rabbit holes to go down with you, andrea. i do think there is a little bit of political schizophrenia here with the president when it comes t

tonight's panel, bill crystal, aaron guarin, and eugene robinson. welcome, all.nn, we have done a lot of white house beat reporting in the past. we don't normally see this president that long in front of the public. and it certainly afterwards seemed like it was more intentional than accidental. >> it clearly was intentional. originally the fact that he was having this meeting was on the schedule but there was no press component. not only did there become a press component, but it was a 55-minute one. in addition to that being unusual on its face the fact that there was actual negotiation going on there, and i mean the senators at first you saw them kind of looking around like what did. >> they didn't know. >> what do we do here. and then jumping in. >> because you are not sure if it is a trap. you are at the white -- hate to say it, are we being set up. >> republicans i think also felt uncomfortable. some democrats clearly thought they might be walking into something. but republicans appeared no more comfortable. and then there is dianne feinstein thinking now i

. >> eugene robinson, thank you very much for joining us tonight.lly appreciate it. >> happy to be here, lawrence. >>> coming up, a dreamer who got a chance to ask paul ryan if she is going to be deported will join us, and you will see what paul ryan said to her when he answered that question. that's next. hold together. a little to the left. 1, 2, 3, push! easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go! washington crossing the delaware turnpike? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sean saved by switching to geico. big man with a horn. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. i'm the one clocking in when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. i can also help with this. does your bed do that? oh. i don't actually talk. though i'm smart enough to. i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. when you have a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ] shut down cold s

pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "washington post" eugene robinson is here. other friends.ur entire team of correspondents will analyze what we see and hear. we'll fact check it on the fly, as well. before we get too far down the road, it occurs to me everything we see tonight is against a backdrop that we can't see, a possible government shutdown in nine days time. >> it has been eight days since the last government shutdown ended. and we're looking at nine days until everybody thinks there's going to be another one. in some ways, it's interesting. that is weird because we never had a government shutdown when one party controlled the white house and the house and senate before. in some sense, that's unprecedented, too. those government shutdowns almost feel like the normal kind of crazy. they feel like maybe that would be happening with this dysfunctional congress we've got no matter who obviously is president. but then there's the trump specific crazy. even if we all live to be 110 years old, we will still get to wow little kids some day by telling little kids decades dow

jonathan swan of axios along with susan page and "washington post" eugene robinson. this is a great group to start me back. i have to tell you, when you're away for a couple of weeks and you've been reading all this stuff, what the hell is happening? the president of the united states is out there tweeting his mental defense, claiming he would pass the kind of competency test you would get when your relatives put you away. i mean, is he commedemented? your reporting. >> my own reporting is there are white house staffers that question his stability -- >> is it mental stability or iq? is it brains or stability? >> i would say it's both. >> really? >> however. it is complete nonsense that it is 100% as michael wolff claims. that is just an second-degree murder. >> give me a percentage. . >> it's hard. it's hard to know. circumstances it high? >> i would say it's reasonable. it's a reasonable percentage there are senior staff who are -- who deride him privately, who i would say have contempt. >> why are they still there? i worked in politics for years. and you worked for

here at the table, "wall street journal" white house reporter eli stokels, eugene robinson for "the washington post," palmieri and steve schmidt, republican strategist and msnbc contributor back by popular demand. eli, let me start with you. take me inside this white house effort to, obviously, almost too obviously, try to showcase and produce a president being presidential doing stuff that they think is normal for a president. all the while using his executive time to tweet about the russia witch hunt. >> right. no subtlety to that effort we saw yesterday with putting him out there and saying, look at me. i'm in command of the room and i can lead and sort of -- there is no fourth wall with this president. he started the cabinet meeting today by talking to the press who went into the room and saying welcome back to the studio. he knows this is all performance art. he's not going to fool bob mueller with a lot of these things. you see the agitation in the president's behavior and tweets. we'll see what happens. the word salad. the word collusion, repeating it over and over. there's no way to ca

also "the washington post" eugene robinson says the revelations in michael wolff's book if true are gobg. pretty much what everybody in washington already knew. we'll talk about that coming up with our guests. maybe we'll bring in the whole washington post news room. we'll be right back. the day after chemo might mean a trip back to the doctor's office, just for a shot. but why go back there, when you can stay home, with neulasta onpro? strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection, which could lead to hospitalizations. in a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%, a 94% decrease. applied the day of chemo, neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day, so you can stay home. neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're allergic to neulasta or neupogen (filgrastim). ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reaction

and associate editor for the washington post eugene robinson. >> hi, mika. roll tide i guess, joe. >> did you stay up? >> you know, nick saban, those alabama teams in the first half, theyed good but not great. he se a second-half keep. i always said that. >> i tell my son or did started a couple years ago, you can't pay attention to the first half, that's him setting it up. but never like what happened last night. >> wow. >> he's never gone, you know, i will bench my star and bring in this 18-year-old kid. >> incredible. >> and the kid looked like a freshman at times and other times just so poised. >> then at the end of the game, he sat there and calmly thanked everybody. >> before we leave alabama. i have a present for you. >> oh, good. >> the other event. it's a doug jones poster. >> oh. >> moore and doug jones in selma, alabama office over the break, i saw this and thought it would be great on your wall. >> i want it. thank you very much. >> 'bamma has had a good month. >> the great state of alabama. i'm taking to alabama. i am. it's good. >> it's about t

we have pulitzer prize winning columnist and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson.ing morning? >> i guess so. >> kellyanne conway saying nobody in the white house is talking about donald trump -- >> hillary clinton. >> -- hillary clinton, same donald trump is obsessing over hillary clinton. now you have the white house wisely sending out a statement last night saying, hey, let's keep the fisa courts in place and donald trump today saying let's get rid of the fisa courts. >> that's called another day in the united states of america these days. this is extraordinary. i'm sure that people's heads are exploding in washington right now because the intelligence community thinks the fisa act is essential and this and that. a lot of civil libertarians who question whether a nation founded on the rule of law should have secret courts and secret judges and the whole rigmarole that's attached there. president trump seems to take it personally, as he takes everything personally. >> it's certainly been a debate, an ongoing debate since september 11th. let's bring in member of th