we're joined from minneapolis by democratic representative keith ellison of minnesota.is co-chairman of the house progressive caucus. he's the first muslim member of congress. ellison is also the deputy chair of the democratic national committee. we want to talk about much more, including g trump's plans to reverse the normalization of relations with cuba, the court's rejection of the second muslim travel ban, and how congressman ellison joined with nearly 200 democratic congress members and suing president trump, accusing emolumentsating the clause of the constitution by accepting millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments to his companies while serving as u.s. president. welcome to democracy now!, commerce men ellison. i want to begin with your response to the shooting of your colleague house leader steve scalise. >> well, it is a wearable tragedy. we are pulling for steve, praying for his recovery, understanding the injuries he justred are serious and we know that his family and everybody in his district and the whole country is just really pulling for

joining me now, keith ellison, deputy chairman of the dnc.et your reaction to the court's ruling today. >> well, it is set back for the cause of liberty and justice for all, no doubt. i know it is a partial decision but the right decision would be to simply not, simply uphold the lower court decisions. and stand up for the right of all people to have whatever fate they choose. there's no doubt that these countries were picked because they're muslim majority countries. and it is interesting when trump goes to places like saudi arabia, he seems to not want to ban everybody. if they have a hotel, or if they're rich or something, he seems to be okay with those muslims. the other ones who are fleeing tyranny like people in syria, he wants to ban. i think that's sad and disappointing. >> there's part of that, the original formulation of that campaign statement, we ended one a temporary pause on all of it so we can figure out what the shell going on. that has been stayed until june 12. are you confident this executive branch will in good faith under

us before i do not think we are turning the party over to keith ellison. were looking at people like joe crowley, it may be time for new leadership. i agree. people out there, it's not the keith ellison's or elizabeth warrens or bernie sanders. >> david: he is the deputy. the party leadership is a leadership and you have perez and allison who are very much in line and this fight between the clinton wing of old and the progressive wing of new does not include the tim ryans of the world. >> sandra: we need to go to some sound from tim ryan who is talk about nancy pelosi. >> it's going to be more challenging, certainly. you see these commercials that tie these candidates to leader pelosi, so we are asking candidates and these deep red districts to battle the republican party. we have a lot of energy and our base which is very exciting for a lot of us to see that on the ground, but you have to be the republican and you have to carry this very toxic democratic brand on your back. that's a tough thing to ask a candidate running for congress. the >> meghan: someo

first of all, keith ellison is from minnesota. nd corrected on that. >> ellison is from minnesota. secondly there's a base in this party that covers all bases. you have union member, we have working people of all backgrounds, black people, latinos, white people, native and asian-americans. black americans have emerged as a stalwart voting blocs that gets the democrats elected. to somehow suggest that the answer to the democratic party's woes is to basically for lack of a better term just win more white people it's incorrect. >> simone, i don't have to suggest -- i don't have to suggest it. you -- under barack obama. you lost a thousand democrats. >> go ahead. >> i agree with jack kingston, we have lost a thousand legislative seats and that means we need to run on the real issues that are affecting real people. guess what? people out there in middle america, california and everywhere in between, on down in the south they are talking about health care. talking about education. if democrats would like to win we need to run real authen

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perez obviously won that fight against congressman keith ellison. admit that the democrats have some work to do between now and 2018. >> yes. >> just asking. >> i agree 100%. all i'm trying to see is a way out of it, which is we agree on 98% of the issues from the far right to the far left of the party, which is a tad right of center if. and we have to understand. we can't allow that to divide us. we just can't. and i could understand if in a primary you support one candidate over another. but after it's over we have to come together. i think it's absolutely critical. we need to unite because if we don't, we're going to lose everything. there's nothing guaranteed. nothing guaranteed. you got to fight for it. >> a couple of issues while i have you here. we're hearing stories that president trump now wants to sort of tighten the noose on cuba with president obama had a different take on that. since you were on the intelligence committee would that be a good strategy on his part or a bad strategy. >> bad. i mean it just doesn't make any sense. we can r

we have new leadership in tom perez and congressman keith ellison. we have a new team at the helm. i'm optimistic that whatever mistakes occurred in the past, there's an array of issues and factors why we did not win and on a given day you can say that it's one over the other. the fact of the matter is that right now we're on a road to restructuring. we're stronger, we have a vision, a fresh new face and i'm optimistic we'll do really well. >> she's also pointing the finger squarely at russia and their information war campaign against her. do you think it's productive for clinton revisit what's happening to her in the election. do you think it's productive to look at the midterms in 2020 or do you think the clinton campaign in running for president is an anomaly. >> the russians are up to antics all over the planet. they're looking to influence elections in europe and other places. to that degree, i think it's important she brings that up. we must not accept that to occur again. in that sense i think it's important that she brings that narrative back in. on another sense it's sense

there are people in a committee, and keith ellison, we couldn't be more different, but we have a wonderfull relationship. >> when this settles down, and the news talks about other things and incorporates other elements, do you think the congress members will be quite as focused on not being vot yolic? >> i hope and pray so. i think it's important for our republic, and the process of our democracy. that we engage each other strongly and hold our convictions for what we stand, but we do it in a civil manner. we do it in a manner of respect. when i have my town halls, i will have it pre-planned and we'll say, we'll show the rest of the country how to do this. show respect for you, you for him, and we'll have a civil discourse and talk through the major issues, the kitchen table issues we're facingen. >> when you go to these town halls, and i said this to one of your colleagues. your staffer is behind the camera, but you have no security detail. i just wonder about whether you feel vulnerable. do you want more eshprotection? are you calling on more of that for members of congress? >> unfortuna

they went to -- >> it's tom perez, keith ellison, bernie sanders. >> you had the latino and a black guy a white guy trying to say let's recapture the white trump voters. you better go after people of color. hillary clinton had she put the resources targeting people of color, she could have won wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. that's where they failed. democracy and color, ali, drop dead new report today. it's called another billion dollar blunder. and they have been saying are you going to put the resources into those communities? that's how they win. black people are tired of being the side piece for the democratic party and tired of being political sharecroppers. if democrats want to win they have to drive turnout. we saw for the first time in to 16, ali, black voter participation dropped. not because they didn't vote, but because of the impact of voter suppression. democrats better figure that out. if they don't get blacks and latinos to turn out in big numbers, they are not going to win period. >> all right. roland, you bring a good message. i like that you bring props but you

hour on "am joy," the first muslim to be elected to congress and current deputy chair of the dnc keith ellisoncting to the nationwide rallies against muslims today. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. your vacation is very important. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah! be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for t

keith ellison, tom perez.ncy pelosi he is moderate, tries to unseat her and it didn't work at all. we are talking about that this morning. donald trump addressing his conversation with jim comey in an interview with fox and friends, listen to this. >> his story may have changed, we will have to take a look at that because then he has to tell what actually took place in the events. my story didn't change. my story was always a straight story but i did not tell you. maria: what does that mean? we have to look at that. last time i asked donald trump what he would do with jim comey he said we will see what happens. what does it mean we have to take a look at that? the president still adamant he did not obstruct the fbi probe into alleged russian meddling in the presidential election after comey testify the president asked him to let it go when talking about michael finance alleged connections to russia. joining us is small business owner claudia tenney. good to see you, thanks for joining us. what is your take of

is it nancy pelosi, is it you, is it you and keith ellison, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren?ple look to to think about the leadership of the democratic party? >> i tnk the leadership of the party and i think if barac obama were here he would say the same thing, is the millions of people who marched on january 21st led by women. people who have gone and said, you know, i have a preexisting condition, i'm diabetic, i have a family member who is struggling with opioid abuse. i think that climate change is very real in my community. and they've been out there putting their values into action. >> so why then -- >> it's been -- >> why didn't that translate into a win in georgia when ossof couldn't win the election? >> i think that's pretty simple, when you're outnumbered two to one, ali, by republican to democrat, again, price won that district eight months earlier by over 20 months and ossof cut the margin to 4. and the same thing happened in all the special ee ex-wills. of course i want to win, there is no doubt about that, but the reality is there are 71 districts that are more

analyst matthew dowd, republican strategy it sara fagen, also cnbc contributor and congressman keith ellisonthe dnc and republican strategist alex castellanos and our longtime contributor democratic strategist donna brazile. of course, you ran the dnc last year when it came under attack, was hacked and became part of the investigation. good to have you back. donna, one big subject to talk about this week, the hearing, james comey, pretty direct assault on the president's character. matthew dowd, how much blood did he draw? >> well, you know, how many times do we sit here and say what a week in politics, unprecedented. another one we have in the course of this. i think preet, the former district attorney, made a very good point, which is no side should draw conclusions and say what this fundamentally is about. let the facts show where they are. don't draw a conclusion there is obstruction of justice but don't draw a conclusion there isn't obstruction of justice. to me this is a lot like as we look at the scale of this it's a lot like when you clean out your garage, right. and we're at the sta

approach of the populist left that emerged around sanders and also represented by people like keith ellison and elizabeth warren or that the pie is going to continue to strengthen in this direction. my view of the democratic party because of the broader structural kind of factors that have emerged since the 1970's, there needs to be a strong affirmative program of redistribution and alternative models growth. they have been unable to provide it. often on the left we personalize this inability but, you know, the fact unless you actually have the will and the capability to mobilize a different source of power than traditional democratic base and by base i don't mean the people voting for the democratic party, the business interest attached to it and today a lot of it in the finance industry, real estate, silicon valley and what not, unless you're able to conceive politics in a different way, more popular way, i think that we are doomed to have the democrats continue along this path. >> so that in that framework, why did you start this magazine? >> i started the magazine, honestly, i have lots

to my right, for once is keith ellison, the deputy chair of the dnc. to my left for the first time jason kander who was secretary of state from missouri. let's get right into it. i am going to start with you congressman ellison. we just got some new data from the pew research center that found that african american voter turnout declined from 7% from 2012 to 2016. the hispanic vote did not increase. it was that black and latino voters either did not turn out or were not able to turn out. how much of this was a lack of enthusiasm and how much was voter suppression. >> i think a substantial part of it was voter suppression. in wisconsin voter id -- so this is substantial, it is harmful. and in minnesota in 2012, they tried to pass voter id in our state and we defeated it at the ballot box. and they weren't pushing it because confirmed cases of imposter voting going on. virtually no cases. to claim voter fraud is a fraud in itself. we have got to understand that they have decided that if they cannot win on the basis of ideas, they are going to stop people

to muslim congressmen, keith ellison, andre carson, those are incredible voices that are soft, that have been part of the fabric from the very beginning of society. >> i will just concluded saying on the edge of the undercover informants, i would be very very careful to make two points. one, you can only do that in very few circumstances one because of resources and you don't want to be seen violating portions of the law. but more importantly you do not want your efforts within the community, efforts that are public health and public safety and ultimately about countering extremist ideas to be seen as being a cover for spying. and there is that concern from some and we have to push back on that. the best way is to make sure we are very clear and careful with ourselves. because were not spying on communities unless there is true predicate for some type of a crime. on the issue of european intelligence sharing i'm going to refuse to answer simply by also reminding those who have not yet seen their inboxes that a week from today at this podium, we will be hosting the eu's counterterrorism c

yet to muslim congressman, keith ellison, andrÉ carson.ose are credible voices thatns are soft, that event part of the fabric from the very beginning of society. >> i'll just influencing on the issue of the undercover informants. i would be very, very, very careful to make two points.of tu one, you can only do that in very few circumstances both because of resources and because you don't want to be seen to be investigating things that are not violations of the law. but even more and partly, you do not want your efforts within tho committee, efforts that are public health and public safety and ultimately about countering extremist ideas to be seen asul being a cover for spying. there is the concern within some way with the push back on that and the best way is to make sure we are very, very clear and careful with ourselves and we are not spying on communities less there is tru to predicate s some type of a crime. the issue of european intelligence sharing i'm going to refuse to answer, simply files ar also reminding those wo haven't yet see

keith ellison, he a friend of mine. we don't agree on much at all.ether, trip related to terrorism finance to south america because drug lowered are linking with terrorists. we are doing one bill, a credit bill for people that don't have good credit. we are cosponsoring that together. there is ways we can find common ground where we can, look for those opportunities. when we do have differences, let's share those differences but in respectful way. i think we can get our point across. i think we can move the ball down the field in the way we think is best on each side. let's do it in a manner that is respectful. neil: that is well-putt. >> i'm hoping that will come out of this tragic event, well-put, congressman, thank you very, very much. to the congressman's point, people are pretty good. there are people good to core but there are, but developments like this are plain wrong. what does that mean. kevin paul scott, charlie gasparino. you know, charlie, the reason many looked at the markets today and expressed relief, that the markets didn't panic on

congressman keith ellison, democrat minnesota, he says donald trump is inciting violence with trump'si believe the rhetoric of the president is fueling the ugliest, most pernicious elements of our society. he is green lighting ugly and hate and some of these folks are getting aggressive. we know what happened in portland a few weeks ago. stuart: he blames the portland attack on donald trump's rhetoric. >> what i call the donald trump derangement syndrome, the media and on the left have -- lose all sense of reality and just art making things up and start talking about things and this stems from the shooting of steve scalise in alexandria by a bernie sanders supporter targeting republicans, the ideas that your hatred or dislike of the president for some reason you are allowed to respond to that with violence is donald trump's fault, all that does is feeds into the horrific cycle. stuart: do you think the public buys that line? the rhetoric from trump is as damaging as the rhetoric from the left? >> like cbs saying self-inflicted would happen. he is wrong. stuart: people get classified a

right now the visible manifestation of the democratic party is bernie sanders, keith ellison, the partyentrist americans who they need to win in michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, if they want to turn this thing around. they need to have a positive program that shows they are better. they will employ more people than the trump administration. focusing on whether trump committed obstruction of justice is getting them nowhere. steve: dr. allen dershowitz with cautionary tale for democrats. it's funny. just before we got started, he was telling me about a kid when he was at harvard teaching law, remember you told us that bill bennett when he was in your class was constantly falling asleep? >> no. he was always raising his head. bill bennett was one of my best students. steve: he joins us live right now. >> he is one of my best students. i'm so proud of him. my first year teaching i was so nervous. he walked into his class with his right hand up. he raised it the first day and took me on. i love students willing to take on their professors and bill bennett was willing to take on his professor. b