calling jennifer ruben a con is such a scam. they shouldn't called out for what they are. hypocrites. donald trump has been the most of conservative president since ronald reagan or even before. the non-partisan heritage foundation says what he has accomplished the first two years puts him on par with ronald reagan. bill kristol, jennifer ruben, they are using their hatred of donald trump to further their agenda and have their own political philosophy put out. howie: they would say donald trump has a different view of conservatism. i'm struck by the way that you just personally disfairnl -- die them. dave: i have known bill kristol a long time. i look at him as a mentor. as a conservative myself, i don't understand how you look at the supreme court and the federal . .. was bill smith, they would be fawning on him. but they hate donald trump and they put their hatred above the ability for them to give him credit for even the smallest thing. they hate his style and they can't get over that style to get to the politics or the conservative agenda that he has been so successful

i've got jason johnson here, and jennifer ruben, a conservative opinion writer at "the washington post," all msnbc contributors. jennifer, where do we go from here? >> there is no good solution for donald trump because as you mentioned, ari, nancy pelosi is going to send a clean continuing resolution back to the senate. what do they say now? well, we voted for it before but we're not going to vote for it now? perhaps they added a few hundred million dollars but not directly for the wall, that's a loss for trump. maybe someone gets really creative, follow newt gingrich's advice which is to give him $5 billion but give full legalization for the dreamers. that will really drive his base crazy. none of them are getting trump what he wants. so he's looking for something to come down and save him perhaps or he's just thinking moment to moment, tv shot to tv shot and really hasn't figured out to get out of this. but there's no good end for this and at some point republicans are going to throw up their hands and say we need to get back to work. >> you say at some point, i that's a big part of

. >> leading off our discussion now, joyce vance, former federal prosecutor, mimi rocoh and jennifer ruben. and i want to get your reaction to what james comey had to say today. >> i think comey hits the nail on the head, and it's surprising to us who had the opportunity to work with him when he was inside the justice department to see him so upset. he's someone obviously measured in his tone. he says the diminishment of law in this regard. something that works inside of doj is that people who might disagree about politics agree upon principles and one of those principles is the rule of law. now we have the president undermining the rule of law from the white house. and it doesn't matter what political party you identify with, we should all be outraged by that. >> jennifer ruben, i'm beginning to wonder if the trump use of giuliani strategy is to suggest to the world that donald trump is not the craziest person in washington, that there's another one. and doesn't donald trump look sane by comparison to rudy giuliani? >> and smart, too. right. it is a mystery to me why he goes out there and

jennifer ruben, opinion writer with the washington post.on johnson, politics editor for the root.com. and david mill bank, also with the washington post. let's get to the first award of the night. the category is best division in regards to the mueller investigation. when news broke about the russia investigation, these nominees did their best to change topics. the first nominee is the president himself who, when it comes to the original crime of hacking, doesn't even believe it happened. >> all i can do is ask the question. my people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others. they said they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it would be. >> the next nominee is president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani, who made this mind-bending comment about the nature of truth. >> when you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, it's so silly because it's somebody's version of the truth, not the truth. he di

liz: jennifer ruben took his shot during an appearance on msnbc. >> republicans are kind of in theirtle world. so donald trump who goes out and loves the applause of the crowd, goes out to red states and gets a lot of applause says the people are with us. liz: they were talking about the border wall. awol here are the 140,000 criminal illegals arrested this last fiscal year for rape, assault, robbery, drunk driving and more. >> also awol is jennifer ruben's apparent conservatism. she is suppose to be the conservative columnist at "the washington post." the media has taken their anti-trump red rick to such an extreme they cannot see the reasons behind anything this president does, let alone it might possibly be a good thing. april ryan was taunting former press secretary sean spicer as he walked into the white house. it's unprofessional what these people are doing. they are revealing their bias and the american people can hear them loud and clear. we know that elijah cummings tried to have 64 subpoenas against the white house and the republicans batted them away. what do you think of

here with me now, msnbc contributor jennifer ruben who writes the right turn for the wash post. in the era, as the first president who died in the era of donald trump, all of the focus is on the ways that he contrasts, right? people say, well, he was affable and kind and he was graceful and humble and he had a life of service and he served in world war ii. he sacrificed. and all these things that are obvious rebukes of donald trump. it's almost inescapable that context, it seems to me, in the way people are talking about h.w. bush. >> it absolutely is. that's because donald trump is a president like no other president. perhaps george h.w. bush was the end of an era. he was the end of the last generation who became president, the last of the war heroes, last of the world war ii generation. so he really is an extraordinary individual. but we have now departed so far from presidential norms, so far from the minimal standards of conduct with donald trump that, frankly, i think any president who dies from now on will have a little bit of that contrast, it's now just so great because

jennifer ruben and john heilman, join our discussion of trump crime after this break.'m all about my bed. this i'm ray and i quit smoking with chantix. smoking. it dictates your day. i didn't like something having control over me. i wanted to stop. the thing is i didn't know how. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke to the point that i could quit. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-threatening. stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. tell your healthcare provider if you've had depression or other mental health problems. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. the most common side effect is nause

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>> let's bring in jennifer ruben, barbara mcquaid is former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor. er, at this point, what value to the president's defense team is rudy giuliani? >> zero. he is speaking a mishmash of untruths, legal distortions. he is out there to reassure the base and to say helpful things that make trump feel better. he says things that incriminate him. when he said russia discussions were going on up through november of 2016. he really is irrelevant. i think americans should feel comfortable knowing that he is a tv clown and what matters now are the facts and the law. what matters is what evidence mueller and the southern district of new york have. what matters is the laws that are on the books. rudy giuliani saying something is an important law or not an important law is irrelevant. as we saw in the flynn case, we saw in michael cohen case, we're talking about serious crimes that involve jail time. he's not going to get out of this by sending rudy giuliani out to talk to sean hannity and say stupid things. >> glen, to talk about those serious things. one thing h

nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett, capitol hill correspondent, garrett hague and jennifer ruben. welcome, everybody. garrett, i'll start with you. there's a deal that the democrats are offering. what is it and is the president going to take it? >> reporter: it's not all bad news here in washington. there's a couple getting engaged down below here. we'll that i can as a good sign for this week. the deal that democrats are talking about doing when they come back in on thursday, we're talking about seven different parts of the government that are shutdown. they would pass full funding for the next year for six of those. on the 7th they will pass a continuing resolution to fund it until february. in that continuing resolution there would be $1.3 billion for border security. none of it for a wall. this allows the democrats to come back in and say we're serious about solving this problem. we're serious about getting this done and challenge the senate to do the same. if it was good enough to fund the government, all the government until february 8th, ought it not be good enough to take