joining me now is michele norris, msnbc senior contributing editor. for being here. i guess that's just my question. i'll throw it out to you, because the thing in the media is what people tend to do is quote the government, quote, the police department. that sometimes goes wrong when it turns out that they're not telling the truth. quoting trump, it almost always seems like it's going to go wrong. >> well, we. >> have to. >> change our footing. >> we have to. >> you know, we've. always been careful. >> about attribution. >> and fairness. >> and balance. and now you. >> have to. >> be careful. >> about the words. >> you use and use words like allegedly and reportedly and work a bit harder at fact checking and truth telling. and, you. >> know. >> a lot of people have just a limited time. and so. >> you. >> have to decide how much time you're going to spend explaining something and how much time you're going. >> to spend explaining what is true and what is not. but it's. >> worth doing that because, as you noted, he will make a statement here and then it

joining us now is michele norris, senior contributing editor here at msnbc, who has been watching theseroceedings along with us. michele, i'm curious to hear what has been on your mind and what observations you've been able to make while we've been watching everything that happened this morning. the inaugural itself and now since. well, we were told that this was going to be a speech that was about unity. >> we should just say clearly that it was not. >> it was very polarizing. >> and the things that he laid out, and that was made even more clear when he went downstairs to the visitor center. >> rachel, it feels almost like he is presenting himself as both the arsonist and the fireman, painting this picture of america in decline and presenting this picture as if he is the only person that we are all in a house that is burning in some way, and he is the only person that can put the fire out and making a lot of promises, as you noted in the rally last night and then again today. and some of this is going to be very hard for him to carry out. you know, it's not easy for him to create a dep

michele norris. she is an msnbc senior contributing editor. of these grants that are being frozen. what what is the real life impact for people, whether they're in washington state, kansas or florida? >> well, look, i don't i think it's simple to say that never in american history has there been so much damage to the fabric of our local communities and our states so quickly, by so few. one man has had a partial government shutdown. is what this is. 30% of our state budget comes from the federal government. so this morning, if you're if you're a young woman, you got beat up by your boyfriend. you want to go into a domestic violence shelter. those funds are all in jeopardy at the moment. if you're a veteran and you're receiving some food assistance from a. from a. meals on wheels program, that program is in jeopardy. and one of the things that has not been discussed much in this dialog is our business community is being damaged by these shutdowns. look, we got these clean energy companies that are rocking it, putting thousands of people to work.