tom perez is going to be here live in person tonight, very much looking forward to that. this will be his first appearance on the rachel maddow show ever so we're soupy -- super -- soupy happey happy to h here tonight. also we're sort of soupy, but that's a totally different thing. >>> we're going to start tonight in july of last year, this past july, summer, 2016. on a day when we as a nation were very distracted. we had our own mess to think about, we had our own politics to focus on, we were really not noticing anything else going on in the world. july 21 last year, that was the day that the man who is now our new president gave his big speech at the republican convention. that's the night he accepted the nomination of the republican party to be their presidential candidate. that day, leading up to the speech the big news, the big distracting news all day long is what had happened the night before at the republican convention. we were very distracted. this was a very distracting thing because senator ted cruz of texas just the night before had given his speech at the r

the honorable tom perez.ou for your time this morning. >> it's a pleasure to be with you. >>> up next, a tale of two speeches -- president obama's farewell address and donald trump's first post election news conference. i'll discuss both with my panel when we come back. beyond is a natural pet food that goes beyond assuming ingredients are safe... to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. my psoriatic arthritis caused joint pain. just like my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and i was worried about joint damage. my doctor said joint pain from ra... can be a sign of existing joint damage... that could only get worse. he prescribed enbrel to help relieve pain and help stop further damage. enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. tell y

congressman keith ellison of minnesota and former labor secretary tom perez are among the speakers. >> good evening. >> good evening. >> come on, let's clap. we made it through the storm. [ applause ] >> welcome to democracy in colors, democratic national committee chair forum. i'm amy allison. we're so thrilled that you're here and along with our partners and inclusive we want to welcome you warmly here today. thanks so much for joining us here at george washington university for this historic and important conversation about the future of the democratic party. we want to welcome our viewers on live stream who are joining us from across the country everywhere from ohio to florida to california to nevada and we look forward to your comments, your photos and your perspective, we can follow along the conversation. we also want to thank our partners jessica byrd and the raven group for making tonight happen. [ applause ] >> and another note we have some voting members of the democratic national committee in the audience and we want to thank you for being here today for this conversation.

tom perez is running for dnc chair and will join us as well. right back with more "morning joe." ♪ ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. it's my

and that is an issue we have to solve because if we don't solve it, nobody else is going to. >> tom perez? tom: sure. sure. i think it is a false choice to have to say that we're going to one community or another. what we have to do and what we did a poor job of in this election, we didn't make house calls an get out there and persuade. you can't show up at a church every fourth october and call that an organizing strategy. and that is what we did as democrats. [applause] tom and when we are there, ted : kennedy in 1980 at the democratic convention talked about the most important civil right for any person is a job. and when we talk about jobs, when we talk about opportunity, and the second pillar of the democratic party has been that we've always taken care of folks who are in the shadows, making sure they get into the sunshine. and when we pay attention to those two pillars, that is how we succeed. and when we are organizing, whether it's in milwaukee or whether it is rural wisconsin, in talking about that message of hope and opportunity, that is when the democratic party is at its best

we can't just say we're diverse and leave people out. >> tom perez, i'll make the question more specific for you because one of the other complaints you hear from voters of color is the democratic party, the clinton campaign, the dnc were not focused enough on the issue of voter suppression and there was not a full effort to combat what was seen as very adwrggressive voter suppressiond the dnc was essentially absent. do you feel that's the case? >> i think voter suppression is the civil rights issue of our time. we have to understand, folks, that this is and always will be part of the playbook. why is it part of the playbook? because it works. and part -- the secoretary stat of ohio is a full employment act for civil rights lawyers. they purge voters and then by the time you win the suit, it's too late. in north carolina, by the time we won the suit, it was too late and as a result, it wasn't as good as 2004. it was even lower than it was when john kerry was on the ballot in 2004. i spent time suing states, texas, south carolina, north carolina and the list goes on. that's why we have it

[applause] >> tom perez? >> of all the questions you have asked tonight, this is the one that's most personal for me. because i spent the bulk of my career working on issues of police reform. i prosecuted an lapd officer pre-rodney king. i had hair and no replacement parts -- [laughter] -- and i saw a toxic culture in that department. when i had the privilege of coming back to the department of justice, we ended up negotiating more consent decrees in my three and a half years there than the previous 15 years that that law existed. consent decrees in seattle, portland, new orleans, albuquerque, cleveland, so many other cities, and i learned a few things from those experiences, folks. the first thing i've learned is we live in a world of false choices. you either have respect for the constitution, or we have law and order. that, my friends, is a false choice. we ask the wrong questions. in the aftermath of the unrest we saw earlier this year, you'd see donald trump and jeff sessions saying, you know, what side

reid: tom price. -- tom perez. >> this election, we didn't make house calls. we didn't get out there. we didn't persuade. you can't show up at church every fourth october and call that an organizing strategy. that's what we did is democrats. -- did as democrats. ted kennedy, in 1980, talked about the most important civil rights for every -- any person is a job. when we talk about jobs, opportunities, and the second pillar of the democratic party has been that we have always taken care of folks in the shadows, making sure they get in the sunshine. when we pay attention to those two pillars, that is how we succeed. when we are organizing, whether it is in milwaukee or rural wisconsin, and talking about that message of hope and opportunity, that is when the democratic party is at its best, when hope is on the ballot. why i think we need and every zip code strategy that is around that basic message of economic opportunity come and a party that is about everyone. inclusion is our strength. diversity is our greatest asset is the country. we can talk about that every

i know tom pÉrez. he is a very decent guy.ut what you need right now is a total transformation of the democratic party. i am trying to do that as part of the democratic leadership, and i know that's what keith ellison believes. look, we have lost the white house. we have lost the senate. we lost the house, two-thirds of governor's chairs are controlled by republicans. the status quo is not working. we have to open the doors of the democratic party to working people, to young people. we have got to get our financial resources from ordinary people, not just the wealthy and powerful. keith ellison is the candidate of real change in the democratic party, and i strongly support him. >> are you concerned at all about some of the criticism he has received from adl and some jewish members of the party? >> absolutely not, no. >> concerned about his previous stance on israel? >> what i am concerned about is the kind of negativity that is being thrown at keith, unfair and unjust negativity. you know what, you can be critical of mr. netan

it seems as if this fight between keith ellison and tom perez is a proxy fight, could be turning into a proxy fight for the following. democrats thinkt needs to be wholesale change inside the party, keith ellison, and the democrats that think hey, hillary clinton was an awful candidate, but she got three million more votes anyway, we don't need to change much next election and that's the tom perez campaign. too simplistic or does that sound right? >> i think there's a nuance there. and part of the argument going on in democratic party right now is so which direction do they go? do in fact some people say, we've got to go more after some of these blue collar voters. some say barack obama won bk to back majorities, 51% while winning house and senate seats, while losing those same blue collar voters. do you try to expand the lek tort with young voters and taking that diversity into account? but what all of them are saying which is interesting, we need to rebuild the party. how realistic is it investing in the party is on both sides. >> but that's structural. and that's something that's g

tom perez is going to be here live in person tonight, very much looking forward to that.s will be his first appearance on the rachel maddow show ever so we're soupy -- super -- soupy happey happy to h here tonight. also we're sort of soupy, but that's a totally different thing. >>> we're going to start tonight in july of last year, this past july, summer, 2016. on a day when we as a nation were very distracted. we had our own mess to think about, we had our own politics to focus on, we were reall

[applause] and let's bring on the honorable tom perez. [cheers and applause] and last but not least sally boynton brown. [applause] all right. thank you all for being here. you guys can all have the seat. you've got some water there. so tonight i think what i'm going to do, my sort of plan here is to break this up into a few sections and i want to start off with the elephant in the room, the obvious. we just had an election in which democrats won the popular vote but did not win the white house. and one of the core questions that came out of this election is who should democrats be targeting going forward? pulled up some statistics. weird african-americans vote for the democratic party at a rate of 88% voted for the democrats. among white voters only 37%. among latinos at this number is in a little bit dispute, it's 65%. voter latino has postulated closer to 20%. and among asian person -- 65%. one other piece of data about the election is that you want white voters with a college degree, right, white voters with a college degree still fav

what is your argument why you and not tom perez? >> well, as i said, i admire tom perez. the only one who had the kind of electoral success that we'll need to get back to majorities all over the world and in congress and at the ballot box. i've got myself elected eight times. there are no, zero republicans statewide in minnesota. why? because i jack up the vote in my district. so, because i turn out the vote, i outperform the democratic average in my state by about 60,000 votes. if i hadn't done that, minnesota, we would have beat them by 42,000 votes but i outperformed the democratic average by about 60,000 votes. the fact is that if this job is about getting democrats elected, unique in the field in doing it. also, i raised money. i've been able to -- i've given over a million to my state party and raised money for the other candidates. so, in the core proficiencies of the job, resource raising and getting dems elected, there's no one running who does it like i do. >> you managed to do that while being in the crosshairs of trump world. being black and being muslim. do y

let's bring on the honorable tom perez, last but not least, sally brown. thank you all for being here. you can ever see. tonight's what i'm going to do, my plan is to break this up into a few sections. i want to start off with the elephant in the room, the obvious. we just we just had an election in which democrats won the popular vote but did not win the white house. one of the core questions that came out of this election is, who should democrats be targeting going forward? i pulled up statistics here we had african-americans vote for the democratic party at a rate of 80 percent. 88% voted for the democrats. among white voters it was 37 percent. among latinos in%. among latinos and this number is in dispute, 65%. some talk that it was more than that. and and among asian american voters, 65%. one other piece of data about the election as you had white voters with a college degree, white voters with a college degree still favor the republican party. and only white women with a college degree only favorite hillary clinton, but just barely. despite the fact

also ahead, labor secretary tom perez on this morning's big jobs number.wo weeks left until the trump presidency. take another look at the premarket after that big day for f.a.n.g. and amazon and the nasdaq yesterday. more "squawk on the street" from post nine in a minute. ♪ >>> jc penney latest department store chain to report disappointing sales, comps down 0.8 hurt by weakness in women's apparel. gap is a bright spot rising in the market after post ago surprise 4% increase in december comps, that includes a 12% jump at old navy. as a result gap now sees full year earnings at the high end of the previously announced guidance. it's been awhile since old navy has been able to do this for the company. >> yeah. the company itself is calling itself slow moving train, not rolling to call an inflection point, as i'm reading the j.p. morgan note. supercash redemption days in december, year over year including tv new price point promotions there are some things going on that are good but this is maybe the most inconsistent of the majors. so i hesitate to say buy,

tom perez, the outgoing labor secretary, he is running for the dnc chair.e said we can hit him between the eyes, him being donald trump. we can treat him like mitch mcconnell treated barack obama. >> it is interesting and it is part of the fun of being opposition. in washington, it is a cardinal rule. you reap what you sow. the democrats changed the rules. now the cabinet nominees don't need 60 votes. they will live with that. it is the same with mcconnell's strategy of throwing wrenches in the gears as much as he could. we will have to see if the dnc chairman wants those tactics. there are some in the democratic party who are uncomfortable with that. chuck schumer is not harry reid. we will have to see how democrats settle this debate. do we want to be labelled obstructionists, but stop as much as we can or do we want to find middle ground? >> tal, eugene,salena, stick around. where does the trump bump stack up against the biggest presidential rallies of all time? it's huge. a look at the cnn money stream next. sometimes you just know when you hit a home r

. >> and tom perez. the dnc debate.he said we can hit them between the eyes with a 2 by 4 and treat them like they treated barack obama. it is interesting to see who will emerge as the next line of democrats. >> there's great interest as the democratic party is trying to figure out who they will be in the trump administration and how they can convince the american people. many voted for the american people and did not vote for donald trump. some of them have to do that aggressively. we will see new voices, i believe, raise to the surface. >> we have to. bernie sanders could run again in 2020, but some of these voices we're talking about are getting up in years as well. the democrats have to strike this balance right now where they have the stars that exist like sanders and warren that can command a stage and create a viral moment which is one of the only wins you can get. who comes next is a huge question for democrats. >> they have to build beyond this. what the republicans have done is build across the country. that i

keith ellison, tom perez, and jamie harrison, who is sort of the dark horse. >> there will be questionsill get in terms of how he will -- snoo in addition to the senate side -- a reflection of pence's critical role. not just because of his prior capitol hill experience and friendships, but because so many hill republicans still have doubts and worries about the president-elect. one very senior house republican put it this way to me in an exchange this morning. "mike is a true conservative, one of us. donald trump is donald trump." thanks for joining us. see you back here noon tomorrow in the east tomorrow. wolf starts after a quick break. boost it's about moving forward not back. it's looking up not down. it's feeling up thinking up living up. it's being in motion... in body in spirit in the now. boost. it's not just nutrition. it's intelligent nutrition. with 26 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. all in 3 delicious flavors. it's choosing to go in one direction... up. boost. be up for it. that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe...ood to knowing they are. going beyon

tom perez has got his union ideals and bernie sanders, he got snubbed big-time by the media and he isot willing to talk about 2020 because he doesn't want to go back to sleep. he wants to do the work we have to do right now. those that people who are really talking some progress here. host: you think the results of the 2016 election have set the stage for those individuals to rise up in the party? yeah.: i'm not sure if i'm out of touch based on how the results came down, but when i would like the future from iparty would be to listen more to those types of people. to them and people like them. those are good examples of what we needed to do. and there were people listening to them, keep in mind. there are plenty of people listening to them, let me of people on the democratic side you didn't get out. they didn't come out, i'm not sure why, but there's a big question mark there from iparty. a lot of work to do. -- for my party. what to do. -- a of work to do. host: who leads the dems, not someone who will place gun control at the top of the agenda, alienating swing votes and pointless

tom perez is going to be here live in person tonight, very much looking forward to that.s will be his first appearance on the rachel maddow show ever so we're soupy -- super -- soupy happey happy to h here tonight. also we're sort of soupy, but that's a totally different thing. >>> we're going to start tonight in july of last year, this past july, summer, 2016. on a day when we as a nation were very distracted. we had our own mess to think about, we had our own politics to focus on, we were really not noticing anything else going on in the world. july 21 last year, that was the day that the man who is now our new president gave his big speech at the republican convention. that's the night he accepted the nomination of the republican party to be their presidential candidate.

i know a lot of obama and clinton veterans are behind tom perez, the former labor secretary. >> i havedone an endorse am yet, chuck, and i'll it will you why, they're an emergency brake on the administration. they don't give house democrats many tools in minority, but we do have tools and i decided is my highest and best use is to be a hard-working senator and focus using the tools weise have in the best way we can to check this administration. doing other things like getting involved in the dnc is just not the big priority for me right now. i don't want to take my eye off the ball in doing what i need to do to protect this country. >> you could send a message to the democrats that you don't see it as important of a vehicle right now as other organizations. >> i'll tell you what, chuck, if i wasn't in the senate i would be very engaged in the dnc matter because it's important, but i should be spending every minute i have working with my colleagues whether it's the russia investigation, saving the affordable care act, making sure we don't put somebody out of the mainstream on the suprem

we have a stronger civil rights division than we've ever had under the leadership of tom perez and under venita gupta the fair sentencing act. this was powder cocaine to crack switch, moving it from 101 to 18-1. the hate crime prevention act. another huge piece of legislation was passed. we have the blue alert act and the death and custody reporting act, something that carol mason's shop has been incredibly important on and fundamental towa toward. the clemency initiative, just yesterday, another 158 individuals were granted clemency. most for the past 11 presidents or more than the past 11 presidents combined. juveniles can no longer be held under solitary confinement. salary yates announced that a move toward closing private prisons. data driven justice. and this is some of the major accomplishments under this administration we've also brought in over 1,000 law enforcement officers from over 900 agencies to the white house. to hear briefings on the task force on 21st century policing. how many people are locked up? more than anywhere else in the world, that is a problem, but that is wh

they look at some of the people who have been in that mix, representative keith ellison, secretary tom perez, and say those are not the most moderate people in the party. does the party not get that maybe average americans don't want the far left progressive agenda. as daniel referenced, they want to feed their families. >> to me the chairmanship. dnc is only important in that it has to be somebody that understands the mechanics of how to campaign and get out the vote. what the dnc is to me is largely irrelevant in the face of that. what is relevant to me is the message democrats are putting out to the extent that the vice president talked about, that democrats for lack of a better description feel the pain of the people out there. i took some onous on myself as well. it's very easy for me sitting in new york or washington to say, look, so many people have health care thanks to obamacare, not understanding that many of those people are also paying a lot more money out of pocket for that health care. very easy to say millions of jobs have been created, despite the fact people are saying these

of course, his guy, tom perez, the former labor secretary, is running as well as michael blake who isning as the vice chair, an obama staffer. he's said very complimentary things about both. michael blake is actually using some of obama's former fund-raisers in chicago to fund his race. it will be interesting to see if he officially endorses and if it matters. it will be a real test of what kind of juice he has, and we also know that there's some dnc members who blame obama for the dnc essentially taking a lot of resources away from the dnc as he was president. >> a test of clout in the early days. jeff zenl? >> well, it's location, location, location and real estate and more than other things hand no one knows that as donald trump. as the trump administration settles into the west wing the fight is on who will get which office, always one of the more interesting things in a new administration. reince priebus, the chief of staff, i'm told will have the chief of staff's office which has a fireplace as we all know, long conference table, access to outside, butting fromly i'm told that j

tom perez is going to be here live in person tonight, very much looking forward to that.his first appearance on the rachel maddow show ever so we're soupy -- super -- soupy happen y happy tm here tonight. also we're sort of soupy, but that's a totally diffe

supported by the progressives like bernie sanders, and then on the other side, you have, obviously, tom perez the labor secretary under barack obama, who is also running for office. this is going to be a struggle of who is going to take control of the democratic agenda and according to nancy pelosi, she doesn't want-- she doesn't think they need to go in a different direction. they think they have a messaging problem. this is not a messaging problem, this is a policy problem for the democrats. stuart: yes, yes, how far left are they going to go, way out there. >> exactly. and obviously, that was clearly stated by these voters in november that they want america to go in a different direction. they were very concerned, many americans were concerned with the country continuing to go into what would be accepting a leftist agenda and it was clearly a rejection of not only obama, but his policies and his legacies. stuart: mercedes, thank you as always. >> sure thing. stuart: check that market, down 5 points, we've got some green, we've got some red, got some go nowhere, a flat market, i think we ca

labor secretary tom perez at 9:30 eastern. is he going to be the guy?big final shot. >> he may be the dnc guy. "squawk box" will be right back. tdata h(lf inoke eahae?9'! tdinops inghlyt t papas ? eahae?9'! tdinops inghlyt t dedane ininbpllures d thoriss foes tovo lhe r ectreoueceosofringsii eahae?9'! awaociss um..t t dedane ininbpllures d thoriss foes 'val.heheyom va. ent ney yoe ' putoord.m..t t dedane ininbpllures d thoriss foes >>> yeah, they bring -- >> welcome back. we are in the chairs this morning and a couple of just little news items to talk about. we're going to talk about radio in just a second, but donald trump tweeting, again, this time in the nbc family talking a little trash actually. he just wrote, wow, do we have this on screen? wow, the ratings are in and arnold schwarzenegger got swamped or destroyed by comparison to the ratings machine dgt -- >> djt. >> djt, i apologize, so much for being a movie star, compare him to my season one, who cares, he supported kasich and hillary. so talking a little bit of smack. he happens to be the exe

keith ellison and tom perez all in that race for the dnc.interview with 60 minutes talking about shaping public opinion. >> part of the job description is also shaping public opinion. we were very effective and i was very effective in shaping public opinion around my campaigns. but there are big stretches while governing where even though we were doing the right thing, we weren't able to mobilize public opinion firmly enough behind us to weaken the resolve of the republicans to stop opposing us or to cooperate with us. there were times during my presidency where i lost the p.r. battle. >> bret: matt, he's talking there, he talked to the farewell speech, he talked about the election and what happened, and now we hear he's going to have one more news conference. what about this question marks >> obama is kind of right, he lost the p.r. battle repeatedly during the presidency while still retaining the popularity personally. as a man and as a commander-in-chief. as heidi said, that doesn't translate to hillary clinton who wanted to run for his t

there is a county, tom perez when he was here said there's a county in the middle of iowa that was plusama. this year it was plus 21 for trump. it reminds me of howard dean's 50-state strategy. they have to figure out how to get out of the old mode and start speaking to some of these communities. >> also, howard, i'm trying to get my arms around why i watched that, i just feel they are overreaching. i think it's because there are some basic things here that are bearing out where you've just got to let the opposing side actually trip, which they are doing beautifully. >> what are you saying? i'm confused. >> first of all, there are muslim countries not included in this ban. there are clearly some growing pains that are going to bear out in the coming week, that are going to show the trump administration to be extremely inexperienced at best in this travel ban. and yet they are out there acting as if people are being killed and it's a slaughter. i know this is going to be criticized what i'm saying but i have an instinctive feeling about it. >> so there are two things going on here. one i

evan perez, thanks very much. tom fuentes with me in washington and phil mudd still on the line. tom, as you listen to that, we're beginning to get a clearer picture perhaps of the suspect and the shooting. >> it could be serious mental health problems. we don't know the cause of it. you know, we've had other incidents where somebody severely mentally ill does have access or owns a gun. which apparently is the case here. but you have situations where if somebody already owns a gun and then later gets mental health treatment there's no real way to find him and take the gun away. that's the possibility in this situation, he developed this problem mentally after he already owned the sgloon it's an issue that comes up so frequently with shootings that we cover, mental health, and that's one issue you hear from republicans as well, maybe they need to address the mental health issues as tied to gun violence. phil mudd, a lot of experience profiling bad actors tell us your view as we hear more information about the suspected shooter? >> i would step away from this and i think we will co

tom brady. he was competing for his seventh super bowl. yesterday, the seven year-old joseph perezhis name. little guy asked him this question who is your hero. >> my hero, great question. >> i think my tad is my hero because he is the one who i looked up to every day. >> brady started off strong and then he took his time. little guy, the seven year-old joseph perez, he lives this kalas he was taken away he said did my question make him cry alex and mike. he won a local contest and that is yes was there. junior reporter asking the question. i thought of that question all by myself. >> something we can all relate to. we all have our heroes. >> who is your hero, your dad. >> yes. >> well, both of my parents, my mother too. >> in different ways. >> good sense of moment but i still want him to lose sunday. >> who is your hero. >> you're my hero. >> no, really. >> my parents probably, yeah, i think about my mother every day. >> that is so sweet. >> is everything okay. >> why does it look like you you are smiling, you are trying to do a sad face but it looks like you were smiling. >> she