joining me now are claire mccaskill. it's great to have both of you wise people here. predicter, fortune tellers. claire, you know, i wonder, you've been through trump one, and i wonder how you're thinking about the dawn of trump two, and whether some of these very big promises, bigger than the promises he made the first time around will be executed on. >> you know, if you take off what he promised last time, he promised a wall and paid for it, no, didn't happen. he was going to reduce the deficit, he blew the deficit up. so really, there were very few promises he kept in the first administration except cutting taxes for wealthy folks. and he managed to do that with a republican only vote in the senate and also in the house. there may have been a few. bottom line is, he is now promised a mass deportation, you know, that is way harder than it looks and i don't think a huge chunk of the folks who voted for him will like the way that looks. he says he will take off taxes of social security. he says all kinds of things that blow up the deficit. and i honestly, i don't see

claire mccaskill, jonathan martin, thank you both for joining me tonight. really appreciate you guys. appreciate you guys coming up. as major corporations scale back their dei initiatives amid pressure from conservatives, at least one major big box retailer is standing firm. it's not mcdonald's, i'll tell you that. it's not mcdonald's that's coming up. but first, trump's nominee for attorney general, a peddler of the big lie in 2020, faced heated questions from democrats on capitol hill today. how it went. coming up next. >> tired of sciatic nerve pain radiating down your leg and lower back? get relief. finally, with magnilife leg and back pain relief, a combination of four active ingredients that get to work fast. so get living. >> available at your local retailer. >> when you call us for help, we answer even at 3:00 in the morning. try us holidays, nights and weekends because justice never sleeps. morgan and morgan for the people.com i need these items printed by friday. >> certainly. are you for imprint certain we are for imprint. certainty matters when

claire mccaskill, jonathan martin, thank you both for joining me tonight. really appreciate you guys. appreciate you guys coming up. as major corporations scale back their dei initiatives amid pressure from conservatives, at least one major big box retailer is standing firm. it's not mcdonald's, i'll tell you that. it's not mcdonald's that's coming up. but first, trump's nominee for attorney general, a peddler of the big lie in 2020 faced heated questions from democrats on capitol hill today. how it went. coming up next. >> you know those fat hoka sneakers? nice shoes, but the price not as nice. however, skechers max cushioning are just as fabulous at a price that blows them away. get insane blows them away. get insane comfort and cushioning, go-friends, gather! keke! chris! jason! boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah! money, power, friendshi

claire mccaskill, jonathan martin, thank you both for joining me tonight.ate you guys coming up. as major corporations scale back their dei initiatives amid pressure from conservatives, at least one major big box retailer is standing firm. it's not mcdonald's, i'll tell you that. it's not mcdonald's that's coming up. but first, trump's nominee for attorney general, a peddler of the big lie in 2020, faced heated questions from democrats on capitol hill today. democrats on capitol hill today. how it went. coming up next. no matter what kind of teeth you gotta brush, oral-b electric cleans better with one simple touch. oral-b's dentist inspired round brush head hugs em, cleans em, and gets in between em, for 100% cleaner teeth. your perfect clean starts with oral-b. where ya headed? susan: where am i headed? am i just gonna take what the markets gives me? no. i can do some research. ya know, that's backed by j.p. morgan's leading strategists like us. when you want to invest with more confidence... the answer is j.p. morgan wealth management [clears throat] sou

is not the flowery language senator mccaskill to criticie for.i never told him where to go to buy the products. i wanted to stay above the fray and felt in my own mind if i talked about specific companies selling high quality products it would seem like i was supporting those companies. i never gave them the audience an idea of where to go to buy the stuff. that opened up a huge market for folks to make stuff in storage use my name to try to sew. i left my audience hanging think he is doing the thing. i provably if i'd gone on and called it a miracle and get i'm not it's not a miracle but it's miraculous it's out there we don't know about it. if i told them go by these for my company is products, reputable, it would've killed this off. i blame myself. >> what stop you from doing it? >> i thought it was commercial, if i come a doctor should sell products. you wouldn't trust me if you came to me for advice and i said you've got a steptoe, take my version of a cream here. doesn't sound and feel right to me. i feel in the internet age taking bricks a

us, democratic congressman of california raul garcia is here and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskillns us and with us at the table for the whole hour, former lead investigator for the january 6th select committee is here and the author of a must read, the first must read of 2025 "harbingers" what it reveals about american democracy. harry dunn, i start with you. how are you doing, my friend? >> good afternoon, everybody. hello, nicole. i'm all right, i guess. making the rounds what i've been doing for the last four years, making sure people, one, people don't forget this day and two, we don't allow the people on the right, the maga extremists to whitewash this day and downplay what happened that day. i really, it was the first time i saw that quote from the chief of -- my former chief. i'm really glad that he said that. one of the things that stands out with regard to the pardons and forgive me if i'm getting ahead of myself, and one of the things that stands out is those people that attacked the police officers there, they were there violently attacking police officers. the people t

>> joey, first, i'd like to tell you and senator mccaskill, that i'm very proud to be among you.you get done and what you're doing for america. thank you. as for the whole dei argument, when i came into the military, it was 1972. we were going through real challenges from gender integration and from racial integration. and yes, it was still being integrated, even though harry truman integrated the air force back in the late 40s. dei we didn't call it that then, but we were hypersensitive to make sure that you had representatives in your unit. and i was an all male unit back then. infantry was all male, but i had some real challenges with american society, with coming out of vietnam and racial integration. and thank god i had a black first sergeant when i was a company commander, because between us, we were able to pull that off, maintain combat capability, yet make each component of your force feel valued and respected. and that's all it is. that's all this dei stuff. you know that it's woke. it's no it's not. it's integrating our women. it's integrating all our races. it's integ

pereira claire mccaskill, thank you both so much for joining us., we're going to talk more about the executive orders donald trump just signed in the oval office. we're also going to talk about trump taking the oath of office today, surrounded by his new tech billionaire bros. i'll share some of my thoughts and talk about it with senator and talk about it with senator chris murphy, who has a power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis, help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. e*trade from morgan stanley. ♪♪ with powerful, easy-to-use tools power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley when caroline has a cough, she takes robitussin. so she can have those one-on-ones again. hey, jim... can we talk about casual fridays? for sure. what's up?

claire mccaskill is a former u.s. senator from missouri. preet bharara is the former u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york. they're both standing by and they join me in just 60s. >> to avoid digital threats. just turn on nordvpn, improve your protection against trackers, malicious websites and malware ridden downloads. get the deal now. >> tired of sciatic nerve pain radiating down your leg and lower back? get relief. finally, with magnilife leg and back pain relief, a combination of four active ingredients that get to work what is cirkul? cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul is your frosted treat with a sweet kick of confidence. cirkul is the effortless energy that gets you in the zone. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. not why i found it pretty litter. i made this litter with a built in health monitor to let you know if your cat is experiencing a potential health issue. is it pretty? litter.com? >> okay, the breaking news this hour is that donald trump just pardoned 1500 people convicted for their roles in the

claire mccaskill, it's great to see you, claire.hanks for joining me tonight. >> you bet. >>> we have much more to get to tonight including mark zuckerberg's huge gift to donald trump, speaking of gifts. but first trump still has a few more legal hurdle to clear before inauguration day and we're going to get into those with msnbc legal analyst joyce vance coming up next. msnbc lege vance coming up next for all those making it big out there... ...shouldn't your mobile service be able to keep up with you? get wifi speeds up to a gig at home and on the go. introducing powerboost, only from xfinity mobile. now that's big. you know how airlines tell parents to put the oxygen mask on themselves first? it's the same with caregivers. if you're taking care of a loved one, take care of yourself first, because their wellness starts with yours. . >>> in the remaining two weeks before donald trumpficially becomes president again, he is still confronting very live issues in court including whether or not he'll be sentenced in new york city after

senator mccaskill, and i think along those lines, it's important for us to remind folks what did happen in 2021. let me play what one of the january 6th officers, officer gwynelle said. >> it changed our filives, manyf our livelihoods. many of my leagues were injured to esthe point of even losing eyes, and these are the type of arpeople that donald trump and s allies are trying to pardon, violent criminals. >> so what, claire, in your mind, will the decision that donald trump made on pardoning the january 6th defendants tell us anabout democracy, tell us about the justice system? >> well, there's a huge swath of americans who think donald trump is a victim, not a perpetrator. and i think donald trump, if he were smart, he would have a process, and he would separate out anybody who was not violent, who was not breaking things and destroying property and stealing things and sticking police officers in the eyes with flag poles, and tackling police officers and beating police officers. he will lose a lot of americans because whoever he pardons will be public, and the facts of their case wil

is not the flowery language senator mccaskill to criticie for.s i never told him where to go to buy the products. i wanted to stay above the fray and felt in my own mind if i talked about specific companies selling high quality products it would seem like i was supporting those companies. i never gave them the audience an idea of where to go to buy the stuff. that opened up a huge market for folks to make stuff in storage use my name to try to sew. i left my audience hanging think he is doing the thing. i provably if i'd gone on and called it a miracle and get i'm not it's not a miracle but it's miraculous it's out there we don't know about it. if i told them go by these for my company is products, reputable, it would've killed this off. i blame myself. >> what stop you from doing it? >> i thought it was commercial, if i come a doctor should sell products. you wouldn't trust me if you came to me for advice and i said you've got a steptoe, take my version of a cream here. doesn't sound and feel right to me. i feel in the internet age taking bricks

. >>> i'm turning to claire mccaskill, former senator for missouri and current msnbc analyst.being here. let me get your thoughts generally about the sort of it feels like the beginning of the trump presidency part two in all of its i guess i'll use the word splendor. >> yeah. i kind of agree with the congressman. i do think there are things he's doing to distract, but underneath it it's really concerning because the deal is our country has always been seen as the grown-up on the international stage. we have been seen as the country that can do elections fairly, that has a rule of lawn administered without political threats, that actually helps our allies and stands up to bullies across the world and donald trump has campaigned really in a way that blows all that up. he has never been respectful of our allies and it's weird to me that you would start your presidency by picking fights with your border countries, whether it's canada or mexico. both these countries are pretty important to the united states in lots of different ways, trade, national security, shipping, the movemen

in any particular donald trump. >> claire mccaskill.or elissa slotkin, who had an incredible line of questioning there that probably taught us the most about what if ryan nobles reporting is accurate, someone who is about to be confirmed because no one in the republican party is troubled, and i guess four of them would have to be by his standing as someone accused of sexual assault and someone accused by his fox news colleagues as being drunk before his on air obligations as a morning show anchor. but elissa slotkin, i think, illuminated a lot of his views and positions on the kinds of orders that donald trump has said he plans to issue. your thoughts on that line of questioning? >> well, she was a rock star today, and i think she's going to be a tremendous addition to the united states senate and the armed services committee. but what's really amazing about this, nicole, is how ironic this hearing was, because they tried to trot out a narrative that somehow he was coming along to clean up politics at the pentagon. and i want you to kno

msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill is here. but we're going to start with my friend and colleague, nbc news white house correspondent vaughn hillyard. he's outside capital one arena. vaughn, let's start with the policies that are already in motion. take me through what exceeds his now vast authorities as the president of the united states. and that's his desire to end birthright citizenship. >> nicole, over the course of the last two years, i know well, so many of us were covering the 2024 presidential election and campaign. >> you were on the front lines of helping cover what was happening on the side of the trump operation, and that were two particular organizations that were crafting. in the case of one of those organizations, they told me more than 250 draft executive orders that would be prepared for a president trump to sign on day one. and there is project 2025 with the heritage foundation. >> other organizations that wrote a 900 plus page playbook for every department and agency of the federal government about how to mo

. >> well put, my friend, so claire mccaskill, i want to remind us all, this is not normal, it seemshave watched it multiple times, speakers losing a leadership vote is to be a once in a century occurrence, how did we get here? >> well, we got here because the republican party is really not united, there are different factions in the republican party and because our country is so evenly divided, this is really the calm before the storm. buccal and because johnson is going to have big problems down the line, he has to fund the government in march and he is going to lose three members between now and march, which means he cannot fund the government without democratic votes and then enter hakeem jeffries and his ability to negotiate for some democratic priorities that aren't about tax cuts for the rich people but rather about things that really matter to american families that are struggling paycheck to paycheck. jeffries set a great job in his speech emphasizing those folks, i also thought it was great he said bipartisanship is something we are interested in as long as our priorities l

general barry mccaffrey, former senator claire mccaskill. elise jordan, thank you so much for a great conversation. joining us now is brendan buck, former aide to house speaker paul ryan and john boehner and an msnbc political analyst. so look, democrats, as you saw brendan in their questioning, tried to paint hegseth as unfit for the post. but here's how republican senator markwayne mullin responded. >> how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? did you ask them to step down? no, but it's for show. you guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy, because the man's made a mistake, and you want to sit there and say that he's not qualified. give me a joke. i mean, it is so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself as this higher standard and you forget you got a big plank in your eye. we've all made mistakes. >> overall, how do you think the strategy on both sides, which i think was pretty consistent, played out? >> yeah, it was interesting. i was searching for what exactly the democratic s

so claire mccaskill, claire mccaskill is interesting on an issue where there could be common ground onctually they worked with james lankford in 2024 and came up with a tough border security bill. it is fascinating that they are now being boxed out and being told, no, we don't want to work with you, which of course, you know, it's just it's an exhausting thing. every two years, people getting elected, getting the majority and thinking they're going to be in the majority forever because they just aren't. and yet i think here we have it again, where republicans say we'll do this all ourselves. >> yeah. >> laws that last are laws that are bipartisan, laws that are wax and wane with whoever has the majority are ones that were passed just by one party. and so obviously it's smarter for the republicans to work with the democrats. and joe, here's the interesting thing about lindsey saying no to this. there are you've mentioned already this morning some senators who have to pay attention to the middle. dave mccormick in pennsylvania, he barely won that election. that is a state that is run by

senator claire mccaskill. joe, it should have been a boring process, but all eyes were on the capitol yesterday, especially given what happened four years ago and given the division in our country that still exists about whether or not that was a massive moment in history, never to happen again. >> you see numbers that came out in polls yesterday about republicans, how they felt in january of '21. how they feel now. obviously, republicans far less concerned about it today than they were immediately after it happened. as far as those that said it was okay, the numbers jumped in the gallup poll from, like, 21% to 30% of those republicans who said it was okay. you know, i've been talking about this a good bit, and i just -- it's important that we keep talking about it. we keep talking about the perspective of keeping everything in proper perspective as far as what the election was. i will say, what the biden/harris presidency was. we'll have peter baker on a little bit later on. willie, we keep hearing about land

also joining us is former democratic senator from missouri, claire mccaskill and carlos curvelo, both analysts who have witnessed certifications. jeremy peters and michael hardaway are in studio. thank you all so much for watching this along with me. claire, we were speaking before we went into that certification process about how we are very much a divided country, 75 c million people plus change voted for kamala harris, 77 million for donald trump but it was not a majority. she has called donald trump a fascist. she has said that he would abuse the powers of the presidency. she warned he should never again stand behind the seal of president of the united states. and i think it is reasonable to suspect that many of the 75of million americans who voted for her feel much the same way, claire. so as we witness what we just saw for those people who feel as kamala harris does, for democrats, former colleagues of yours who are in congress, and for just voters, what is their role now in preserving and protecting this democracy going forward? >> well, it's going to bego interesting. john thu

the finance committee and was the point person for him to the white house that we're talking about mccaskill and sherrod brown and then bill nelson and debbie stabenow and the like. and it was basic lee just, you know, an attempt to bully them. you know, you better vote with trump or i'll come in and, you know, campaign against you. so he has not had an interest in bipartisan approach in texas ever. and in 2017, not a single democrat in the house or the senate voted for the trump tax bill. yeah no, you got to work at it to get a single democrat to not vote for a tax bill. you don't like cutting taxes like you know, you haven't fudge sundae. somebody is going to want one, but they didn't get one and they didn't try. democrat the rule five is to start good things stop bad things. what good things do you see yourself being able to push in the new congress? well, the child tax child tax credit would be up at the top of it, you know, get in the middle men out of health care. our housing would be a third example. i have a major housing bill with dan sullivan, senator from alaska. there's something

you for joining us from your remote location, andrew weissman, mark, alicia menendez and claire mccaskill. special thanks to lisa and claire, who did a whole two hours with me today. that's our new norm. and thanks to all of you who showed up today and are here and show up every day. we're so grateful to all of you for tuning in during these truly remarkable times. we keep going now. ari melber picks up our coverage seamlessly. hi, ari. >> hi, nicole. how are you doing? >> you finished your your marathon sprint here. >> i got my marathon sprint at the workplace. done. i'm going home to my marathon sprint on the home front, which will include bed, bath, bottle food, baseball, all that fun stuff. >> life has many ingredients, but it was good covering this with you. >> and i'll see you soon. >> nice to see you, my friend. >> have a great day. absolutely. our thanks to nicolle wallace. >> i am ari melber, and our special coverage continues right now. this is the inauguration of president donald trump. he went from president elect to president today, and we're seeing him now stepping out there

i mean, finally claire mccaskill called it the heidi insurrection. finally, i just said, i came to vote. i came to do stuff. i didn't come to just sit in the chair and have people, whatever, glorify this job, sitting in this chair down here if we are not legislating, if we are not debating, if we are not talking about the issues of the day, which honestly, everybody criticizes c-span, because they say, it is with the cameras came in, things did not get done. i don't think that is true. when the cameras came in, that is when congress, the institution plummeted in terms of favorability, not because they were doing too much, because all they saw was an empty chamber. all they saw was nothing. corn calls. i went to harry and i said can we just vote? he goes, you know, heidi, there is a lot of issues people don't want to take a vote on. i said, you know what harry, i'm the most vulnerable democrat in this entire chamber, and if i say, i will vote, everybody should be willing to vote. so, one of the problems i think when you look at leadership in the senat

barry mccaffrey, who's also an msnbc military analyst, former democratic senator of missouri claire mccaskill and msnbc political analyst. and elise jordan, former white house and state department aide under president george w bush. she is also an msnbc political analyst and is working on a book about women serving in overseas combat zones during world war two. lots to get to. garrett, let me do the big picture first. what stood out to you so far? obviously, an extraordinarily high stakes hearing today. did we hear anything that would change the minds of any of those senators who may have been on the fence? >> the request specifically? yeah. >> and, chris, with apologies, i'm standing just outside the door through which we think pete hegseth will exit in a few minutes. so if i've got my head on a swivel here a little bit, that's why you played that tim kaine exchange, which to me really was the pivotal exchange in this hearing. and it came, i believe, 11 senators in more than an hour into this hearing before i think democrats finally got their arms around how to go after pete hegseth, or how

senator claire mccaskill is here. msnbc contributor mike barnicle and rogers chair in the american presidency at vanderbilt university. historian jon meacham in just a few short hours, donald trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the united states. in a wide ranging phone interview with nbc news on saturday, trump said the theme of his inauguration speech today will be unity and strength, and also used the word fairness, just as he did back in 2017. trump is entering office as a political disrupter, promising to seize momentum starting on day one. >> you know, claire mccaskill, it's so important for people to read the political climate. and when i was interviewing bill clinton a couple of months ago at the 25th anniversary of his presidential library, he said democrats, in effect, forgot to meet people where they are. i love that you're here as somebody, as somebody that represented missouri and represented a state that has gone deep red. now we can sit and grind our teeth and get angry if, if, if, if you

i think i remember claire mccaskill saying with you all, you know, sometimes she didn't go when she was in the senate because it was just a -- it just happened, right? it was, like, you know, oh, you know, they're servicing the water fountains, you know? you don't go to that, so, you know, but now it's important. >> yeah. >> and a final point is this is not a partisan talking point. this is not a -- just a way to hammer away at donald trump. so remember what happened on january 6th is an act of remembrance in the purest form, and remembrance in the traditions joe, and you and i and so many came from. remembrance is not nostalgia. it's an act of agency. you remember things that you either want to emulate or you want to avoid, and we want to avoid ever again having american democracy on the knife's edge. >> and jon, you have said so many times through the years, and i think it's important to remember this today. you've said so many times that american history has always been on the knife's edge, maybe, you know, if a battle had been fought one way or a retreat had gone another way, we may

. >> let's go to claire mccaskill, former united states senator claire mccaskill, who has not only beenatching these proceedings unfold along with us today, she's been in touch with some of her former colleagues and friends who are who were there at the proceedings, including in the rotunda. claire, what have you been seeing and what have you been hearing? well, i think really an important point to make and underline it and put an exclamation point behind it is that in washington, most of my former colleagues know full well this had nothing to do with the weather, you know. yeah, it was in the 20s, but it's been in the 20s before. i, along with others who've talked about it, set out in a very cold inaugural in january of 2009. this really was about trump wanting to control the image, maybe worried about his hair, but really worried about crowd size and whether or not the crowd size would be big enough with the cold weather to support the ego that he has behind that particular metric. so what everyone was talking about, one text i got from a senator said unifying my bleep, and i'm not sa

and the question is whether you feel like salieri or whether you feel like claire mccaskill at this pointt knowing how to win the chiefs, it's beyond, i think, an intuitive feel. it is something it's something deeper and darker. we just haven't seen a team truly squeeze the randomness out of the most random sport that america loves and turn it into order. and if you're the bills, if you're whether you're the ghost of jim kelly or whether you're the family of dalton kincaid, that tight end who dropped that ball on fourth down, that was so, so close to making that potentially a tie game. you throw your hands up and you're like, i think. i think we're just we've been banished to the dustbin of history. that's how it feels to be anybody else but the chiefs right now. >> pablo. it's just a remarkable winning streak in one score games. the chiefs have. they even lost the turnover battle yesterday but still overcame that. but let's give credit here i mean look mahomes stats aren't flashy. he did just enough. that's what he does. let's give credit to the chiefs defense and the steve spagnuolo the

. >> and then senator claire mccaskill said this quote, i believe him when he says he will speak truth to power. >> general kelly was confirmed 88 to 11. which brings us to today and a confirmation hearing for a maga firebrand who could not even make it clear if she was going to be in charge of the border and mass deportations. >> those two issues, of course. >> day one priorities for team trump that should fall under dhs purview. here's stephen miller on that topic back in november. >> it's going to be at light speed. >> sean, the moment that president trump puts his hand on that bible and takes the oath of office, as he has said, the occupation ends, liberation day begins. he will immediately sign executive orders, sealing the border shut, beginning the largest deportation operation in american history. >> so this is a thing that, if it's happening, starts monday at noon. >> and as we sit here today, nobody knows if it's going to be that guy. stephen miller, alongside border czar tom homan doing that thing, leading the charge. or if it will be kristi noem, who sat for her confirmatio

it's a remarkable run, with all due apologies to claire mccaskill, that should be considered villainousastic already. >> listen, i tell you, i grew up actually loving the chiefs. my team was the falcons, but i always loved the chiefs. but even i'm tired of them by now. yes. and yet, man, if you got to put money on somebody. in clutch there's patrick mahomes and then there's everybody else. he is officially on level with tom brady and joe montana when everything's on the line. right. >> and he should be resented as such. >> yes. >> it's a funny trick. i talk about this with john muir all the time. how is it that john muir, noted patriots fan is watching america? all due apologies to the swifties as well, of course. how are we? how are we letting them get away with being lovable and huggable and warm like they are goliath? and those quarterbacks you mentioned before? quickly, lamar and josh allen. you're totally right about the stakes for them. yeah, if they lose their chokers. >> yeah i mean i mean jon jon it's so unfair. these these two guys are extraordinary quarterbacks. they've had e