List of 17 known investigations that targeted either the president or those in trumps orbit. Everything from the Trump Campaign to the trump organization, even the trump foundation. The president s charity has come under scrutiny, and its not just the special counsel or the sdny. Attorney generals in new york city and new york state have launched their own investigations, and there are also inquiries led by the Eastern District of virginia and the district of columbia. And while separate and unrelated to the Mueller Investigation, at least as of now, this probe into the inaugural committee could be just as damaging. Ive always thought the Southern District of new york investigation was much more concerning than the Mueller Investigation for a simple reason. They have tour guides and no restrictions. So the tour guides are Michael Cohen, who was a longtime lawyer for the president , and rick gates, who is particularly important to the subpoena that was issued yesterday. Rick gates was the executive director of the inaugural committee. So the big question were asking today is, what could the sdny find . Joining me, Washington Post political investigative reporter, former u. S. Attorney chuck rosenberg. Hes also an msnbc contribute to be. And former federal prosecutor and georgetown law professor paul butler. Hes an msnbc legal analyst. Roselyn, first to you. From your reporting, what is the sdny looking for . Everything. Everything having to do with Donald Trumps inaugural. The subpoena is really striking in just how broad it is. It seeks everything having to do with who donated, under what conditions, the communications within the committee about those donor, and everything having to do with how the committee spent money, vendors, contractors. Its really very broad. It suggests either that, you know, theyre casting a wide net just to see what they can find or that they believe this was a really, really problematic endeavor and that theres a lot there are there to find in different avenues. Part of the suspicion out there over the inaugural committees is just the amount of money that was raised. Donald trumps inaugural fundraising total was 106. 7 million. Barack obamas was 53. 2 million. A lot of that money was not accounted for. What do you think is raising the biggest question . I think its that 46 million that is unaccounted for. Where did the money go . So on the worstcase scenario, its a slush fund. Thats how the inaugural committee operated. Or was there some kind of pay for play scheme . Ill do for you, you do for me. On the bestcase scenario for trump, this could be some kind of failure to report or some kind of accounting impropriety. The reason i think its probably more is there was an extraordinary moment during the manafort hearing, rick gates testified. He was Trumps Deputy campaign manager. Then he ran the fundraising for the inauguration. He was asked on the stand, did you steal money from the Inauguration Committee . Rick gates said, i might have. And that raised some red flags for you. Of course, of course. Why . Because muellers not going to let that go. Its someone who may have committed a crime. He did farm it off to the Southern District. He said, thats not part of my collusion obstruction investigation. If theres a crime going down that the fundraiser for the inaugural committee might have been involved in committing, again, that needs to be investigated. Chuck . Oh, i agree with paul. Ive always thought that what the Southern District of new york was doing was if not more interesting, at least more threatening to the president. Thats where the money is. What muellers doing is incredibly important. Dont get me wrong. The conspiracy to interfere in the election and the obstruction of justice have to be looked at and looked at carefully. But the money is in new york. Whether its the trump foundation, the trump organization, the inaugural committee, the campaign, or personal finances and taxes, thats what Southern District of new york is looking at. What do you make of what Chris Christie said, where he called both rick gates and Michael Cohen tour guides for this investigation . I think its sort of a its a colloquialism. Anybody who is honest can help investigators figure out the path. You want to call them tour guides, fine, but theyre cooperating witnesses. They know where the bodies are buried. I dont mean that literally. But theyre going to be able to help the fbi and the prosecutors unwind this thing. This is only one grand jury subpoena that weve seen. I imagine that there are dozens, if not scores of grand jury subpoenas either issued or that will be issued over time as you try to run down the money. So Chris Christies wastalkin about this subpoena and what was in it. He says it listed foreign money, money laundering. They listed conspiracy, false statements. Thats a bevy of information theyre looking for. It seems like theyre looking for everything. It suggests its just the beginning of the investigation and theyre going to follow the leads wherever they may take them. They have other kinds of intelligence as well. Foreign nationals are not allowed to contribute to campaigns, so what mr. Patton did was to buy tickets for four ukrainian nationals to attend the inauguration ball and acted like he was giving them the money, which was allowed. In fact, he got reimbursed. There was one donor named in the subpoena. Heres what you write about that. After trumps election, a longtime democratic donor swiftly emerged as a major contributor to the new president and republicans. Along with the 900,000 his firm Avenue Ventures donated, it donated an additional 100,000 to the Host Committee for the 2016 Republican National convention on january 13, 2017, Campaign Finance records show. Who is zuberi . Well, thats something that were working and know more about now. Hes a los angeles venture capitalist, has his own company. As you read, hes been a major, major donor to democrats. He actually posted a photo of himself with Hillary Clinton on election day and described her as the next president of the United States. He was on the National Finance committee for president obama in 2012. All the sudden you have him in january of 2017 as the Trump Administration starts to take over donating major money to Donald Trumps inaugural. I would note he also has some significant foreign ties. We reported this morning that he visited trump tower during the trump transition with a delegation of folks from qatar. A lot of the stage craft of trumps inauguration loobked vey much like the obama inauguration. I know a lot of it goes into the balls. But this amount of money, where could it have gone . Well, it is a little hard to fathom. There has been some reporting just in recent weeks about that issue. I mean, keep in mind as a nonprofit, theyre only required to disclose their top five vendors. Thats kind of why we only know where they spent some of the money because thats all they had to put on their tax forms. There has been some reporting, and basically what its said is everything was overpaid. This was a group of people who were rather wealthy people, used to putting on rather spectacular events and organizing it at the very last minute. So you had some striking examples of hairstylists and makeup people being paid for, for hundreds of people. Just very extravagant expenses. And let us not forget the cake, the inauguration cake that donald trump cut that night looked exactly like the inauguration cake that president obama had for oneh of his inaugurations. So yeah, big question, where did that money go, and was there a quid pro quo . Well find out more, im sure, as the months, potentially years, go by. Thank you, everyone. Joining me now is republican congressman peter king of new york. Hes a member of the Homeland Security and Financial Services committee. Congressman, great to see you. Another probe into the president and another probe thats hanging over his state of the union. What do you think . I think its another probe. The fact is the only probe i really know very much about is the one that was begun 2 1 2 years ago by the fbi and carried on by mueller as far as russian collusion, and thats shown absolutely nothing. Well, theyve had a lot of people plead guilty. I dont think its shown absolutely nothing. Theyve also had some convictions. Absolutely nothing as far as collusion or involving the president. Nothing showing any collusion at all between the Trump Campaign or the russians. That was the purpose of why it was started back in august or september of 2018 by comey and carried on by mueller. So far thats been zero as far as collusion. Thats the story none of your commentators talk about. Would you expect them to come out with that before the investigation is over . Are you saying just because they havent announced it already that means there cant possibly be that conclusion coming in the future . Anything is possible. But again, i sat through on the Intelligence Committee almost all of the key witnesses, hours and hours and hours of sworn testimony. Ive seen nothing at all that leads at all in any way to President Trump or candidate trump at that time. As far as this investigation, the only individual in the Southern District who seems to be zeroing in on is a person who was a big contributor to barack obama as well. Now listen and also f t, if tour guides are rick gates and Michael Cohen, who both pleaded guilty and are trying to make a deal for themselves. Again, i dont want to prejudge. It sounds like you are prejudging. It sounds like youve decided youre not going to believe anything that comes out of this investigation. You just implied that cohen and gates are liars and trying to cooperate. Obviously you know theyre liars because they pleaded guilty. That doesnt mean theyre lying now. If thats all youre relying on, you have to see where it goes. Ive been open, unlike many of the people who prejudge the president. Im not prejudging. Im saying nothing has been shown yet, nothing at all indicating criminal activity by the president or the people around him. Lets see where it goes. It just shows the appetite of the media. They hear an investigation and presume someone is guilty. Unless, of course, its someone who was on the left wing. If theyre being investigated, then we have to talk about due process and civil rights and justice for all. I think youre mischaracterizing any presumption thats being made here. Were reporting facts of the investigation. Katy, you color yourself excited over this. You talk about the potential, all that could be there. So far nothings come out. Its another investigation, add to the many investigations into the president , and hes the president of the United States, which warrants im not going to argue about our News Coverage because it warrants News Coverage. Hes the president of the United States. I want to talk about tonight. Im saying control your excitement. Try to control your excitement a bit. Im perfectly in control, congressman. I dont know. Lets talk about tonight. Sure. The state of the union. If the president declares a National Emergency along the southern border, will you support him . I dont want to prejudge. I want these negotiations to work. I was against how is that a prejudge . Its been threatened over and over again. A lot of your colleagues are coming out on one side or the other. I want to let the negotiations go. I was opposed to shut down in the first place. Ive been opposed to it all along. Im against all shutdowns, whether theyre called by chuck schumer, ted cruz, or President Trump. I think theyre wrong. And i dont want to be the reason im not trying to prejudge, i dont want to be creating another issue prior to the 15th. At that time, it may be appropriate to have a declaration of emergency. In any event, i would oppose a Government Shutdown. How are negotiations going on immigration . I think its still, believe it or not, even though theres only ten days to go, it still pl may be too early. I know there are a number of democrats who have supported a border wall in the past. Theyd probably support a limited version of a border wall now or a border barrier, whatever you want to call it. Also, i think its important that on the dreamers, that be put on the table and more progress be made on that. All the elements are here for a deal. If both sides want to be honest and negotiate, theres enough here for a deal. Do you want the president to get involved, or do you want to keep this in congress . The president ultimately will have to get involved because hes going to have to sign off on it. I think its important for the president to at least be sending signals, maybe back channel signals as to what hes looking for and what he would accept. Again, i think you have some very seasoned negotiators in that room. I think they may be among themselves able to work what they think would be acceptable and have republicans go to the president and say, listen, we can pass this. We think its important. We think it gives you enough of what youre looking for, and lets go with it. Thats what id be hoping for. Do you think the president is hopeful or hurtful when it comes to negotiations like this . Sometimes hes good, sometimes hes not. We have to wait and see. I dont want to be again, theres enough going on in that room among the 17, 19 people, whatever it is. Some of them i know very well on both sides. There are some very good negotiators. Most want to avoid a shutdown, especially among the republicans, and the democrats as well. I want to let them do their work and not be taking shots from the outside. New york republican congressman peter king. Congressman, always good to see you. Thanks for coming on. Thank you, katy. Bye now. For the rest of the hour, were going to focus on the key issues the president could address on tonights state of the union. The economy, health care, Climate Change. But right after this break, the issue that has this congress and this country more divided than ever, we just touched on it with the congressman. Were going to be talking about immigration and that border wall. Stay with us. Wall stay with us got it. Ran out of ink and i have a big meeting today. And 2 boxes of twizzlers. Yeah, uh. For the team. The team . Gooo team. Order online pickup in an hour. And, now save big at the buy 2 get 1 free event. At office depot officemax. All americans not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately selfdefeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it. 24 years ago while illegal border crossings were on the rise, president clinton and the democrats tried to sell the country on a tough on illegal immigration message. Border crossings, though, are now on the down swing. Still, you wouldnt know that listening to President Trumps messaging on twitter this morning. He said, tremendous numbers of people are coming through mexico in the hopes of flooding our southern border. We have sent additional military. We will build a human wall if necessary. If we had a real wall, this would be a nonevent. Joining me from el paso, texas, nbc news correspondent, cal perry, politicos Senior Writer ja jake sherman, and former acting director of i. C. E. During the obama administration, john sandwig. John, i want to start with you. That was a tough on immigration message from bill clinton at a time when those crossings were on the rise. They peaked in the early different situation now. What is the situation . What is the state of immigration in this country now . Back then there was no infrastructure along our border. Today weve invested billions in our Border Security. We have more Border Patrol agents than ever before, more technology than ever before, fewer people than ever crossing, and frankly more miles of wall. The funny thing is today weve had net migration in this country dropping for over ten years. Weve never had more success in terms of our Border Security than we do right now. And more interestingly, while we have a crisis right now, its a humanitarian crisis. For the first time ever, over 50 of the people crossing our border unlawfully are parents with their children or children alone who are fleeing violence in central america. So the wall that we have existing, is that enough wall . Because the president will argue its not. I mean, he at one point did argue a wall from sea to shining sea. He called it a shiny sea the other day. Now hes backing off that a little, saying there are better places for the wall. Are there no areas of this border where a wall could be useful . There are probably some areas along the border where a wall could be useful, though you have to understand the threats we face along the border are dynamic. Back in the 90s, we had a wildly unprotected border. Youd see people rush across. The Border Patrol was helpless to stop them. Today you see people coming across, trying to get caught, so they can claim asylum in the United States. A wall is not going to be effective against that threat. You can see on your screen this is where there are fences or walls currently or where there are actual natural barriers between the u. S. And mexico. Cal perry, youre in el paso, texas. The president has tried to use el paso as an example of why a wall works. Listen to him from last friday. If you look at certain places, but el paso was one of the most dangerous cities in the whole country. Once the wall was completed, it became one of the safest immediately. It wasnt like it took five years. Some of you know this. Immediately it became one of the safest cities in the whole country. Cal, what do you think of that . Reporter yeah, flatly not true. So heres the statistics to keep in mind. When that wall went in, in 2008, the three years preceding that wall, 2005, 2006, and 2007, el paso was the third safest city in america with a population of over 500,000 people. The crime rate actually went up after the wall went in for about two years. The major crime rate went up about 5 . Overall crime went down. So el paso has been one of the safest cities in america before the wall. It remains one of the safest cities in america today. You see people crossing every day. We saw kids today going back and forth to school here in el paso, living in juarez. You may hear something about el paso tonight. Thats just false. You may also hear something about how the president has worked out some kind of deal to make Asylum Seekers wait in mexico. While el paso is incredibly safe, its sister city just behind me, juarez, is an incredibly dangerous city. Depending on how you think asylum seeking in this country should work and how it has work in the last 60 years, youre talking about people waiting in a very dangerous city, a city that had over 700 murders last year as opposed to el paso, a city that had just 19. Lets do an immigration fact check because the president will by most accounts, by almost all accounts, likely make immigration a centerpiece of his state of the union tonight. Just look at who he has on his guest list. Heres just basic facts. Majority of americans oppose the wall and have since before the election. Most drugs enter the country at legal ports of entry. This was only underscored in the el chapo hearing trial that weve been watching in brooklyn. The government is currently repairing and replacing old fencing, but construction on new portions of the wall has not begun despite what the president might tell you. And once again, big reminder, mexico is not paying for the wall. Jake sherman, given that, given those fact checks, given the Government Shutdown that just happened, given the you know, peter king said he can help or hurt when he gets involved in negotiations, the president. What do congressmen, lawmakers want to hear from the president tonight when it comes to immigration . What will make their lives easier to come to a deal that will not result in another Government Shutdown in a couple weeks . Well, lets unpack that a little bit. What they want to hear is that hes going to stay out of this and will sign eventually whatever this Conference Committee comes up with because these are appropriators, people who by trade are used to writing these bills and understand immigration policy not from hunches and not from what they see on television but because they understand the policy because theyve been working on it for some cases for multiple decades. Thats number one. Number two, the area of disagreement here is really a very, very narrow island, which is the border barrier. They agree on everything else. They agree on strengthening ports of entry, more immigration judges, paving roads outside the border. This is not complicated stuff besides the wall. And pelosi last week even indicated if you want to put up more fencing and call it a wall, in some places that would be fine. So the president could if this were any other president , id venture to say, this is extrapolating, you could see the president declare victory in about ten days from now, put up more fencing, agree to more fencing, and get out of this issue, which is threatening to dominate his entire presidency, more than two years of his presidency, and going forward. Maybe he thinks its good for his base. I dont know. But there is a way to declare victory here because, as you noted before, there is already there are already barriers at the border wall. Congress is willing to appropriate more money for more barriers, just not a massive physical wall as the president has at times demanded. What about a National Emergency . You have someone like Lindsey Graham saying, jake, that republicans need to get behind the president when it comes to declaring a National Emergency. Then you have folks like senator cornyn saying absolutely not, this is going to set a terrible precedent. Yeah, this is what space smells like. Were really in the middle of nowhere on this issue. Republicans are threatening to overturn this, to make sure the president cannot do this. They are in staunch opposition. Mitch mcconnell has said privately, and i believe publicly, that he doesnt believe this is the best course of action. There are some republicans who have told me privately on background that if he declares emergency, itll at least put an end to this issue. Itll get caught up in courts. It will be stalled for the time being and for the foreseeable future. And republicans and democrats in congress and washington, frankly, can move on to another issue where they could actually make progress. This does appear with the president s involvement to be one of these issues where the two sides are not going to agree if the president keeps his demands where they are. So at least a National Emergency would result in extended, if not Endless Court action, which for some republicans is a welcome sign. Or a face plant into rock. Exactly. Yeah. There are also the claims the president routinely makes that have been fact checked endlessly, but heres a little bit of insight into an internal customs and Border Patrol document, an email from last week after the president made one claim. This was published by vox after the president talked about tape on womens mouths. The email says, please forward any information that you may have in any format regarding claims that traffickers tie up and silence women with tape before illegally driving them through the desert from mexico to the United States in the backs of cars and windowless vans. This is the cbp trying to find information internally to back up something the president claimed, something that seems like it came out of an episode of a dramatic tv show. You know, katy, i think it highlights a bigger issue here. We need a debate about immigration. We need to modernize our laws, but it needs to be based on facts. Weve been hijacked by these false narratives of drug dealers, terrorists, and criminals rushing across the border, when the reality is the majority of them are parents with their children trying to flee violence. A wall will not be an effective solution to the crisis we face today. There can be bipartisan consensus on an effective solution, but we cannot have our American Public deprived of a fair debate when its based on these false facts. What would you say to the president to let him save face . What would you tell him to do . Listen, lets build a little bit of replacement fencing. There are probably a few areas where that would be effective. Take everything else, take the technology, take the immigration judges. The president didnt Just Campaign on a wall but more effective immigration enforcement. The best way to enhance it is immigration judges. Move these cases through quickly. You could save face that way. John sandweg, thank you very much. Cal perry, thank you. And jake sherman, thank you for saying it to us in normal moving time. And to many president s, the state of the union and the state of the economy are virtually the same thing. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in america. And i must say to you that the state of the union is not good. The time has come to proceed toward a great new challenge, a second American Revolution of hope and opportunity. The era of Big Government is over. And with a strong economy, President Trump should have plenty to brag about, but will his claims be grounded in reality . Thats always a question. And who is actually benefitting from the trump economy . Thats another big question. Joining me is msnbcs ali velshi, also senior fellow for the center on budget and policy priorities, jared bernstein. Ali velshi, first to you. What do you have . Let me run through the economy right now. If the president didnt keep on saying he had the best economy in the history of the world, we could tell you its not a terrible economy. January, 304,000 net new jobs created. For all of 2018, we had 2. 7 million jobs created. Its good. We had this kind of number in 2015. So it hasnt you know, its been seen before, but this is actually pretty good. Wages, up 3. 2 in january. Thats not adjusted for inflation, but inflation is not very high right now. So were getting to the right place after years and years of stagnant wages. Were seeing the largest increase in wages year over year since 2008. So thats good. Industrial production. This is trucks that you see at the port of long beach or newark or houston. Its smokestacks, things being built. Thats up 4 in december compared to last year. I will remind you n 2014, we had a good year on that too. So its good. Not the best in history. This is a problem. The stock market in 2018 was down 6. 2 . Thats not something that doesnt happen, but its unusual. The last time we had a decline that was bigger than that was in 2008 when we were actually in recession. The president likes to trumpet the stock market. Hell tell you what a strong january were having. But the trade war really caused problems in the stock market in the end of 2018. Personal savings, this one alarms me a little bit. 6 of disposable income. Thats down 1. 4 points from its peak, which was in 2000. For some reason, people are not saving as much as they were. Home sales are down 10. 3 in december. Interest rates are going up a little bit. Theres some potential weakness in the economy. Were seeing it there. However, the median existing home price, a used home if you will, which are most homes, is still 253,000. So thats up there but home prices are sometimes a harbinger of things to come. And the tax cut, which the president will talk about, did result in what many people thought it would result in. Thats a trillion dollars in corporate buybacks. That meant Companies Buying their own stock as opposed to investing that money in factories and in wages. So thats kind of thats a negative to a lot of people, but its been a big positive to a lot of people. Its a push and pull, depending on where you are in the economy. Its better for you or worse for you, katy. A big positive to a handful of people who are doing those corporate buybacks. Thats not that many. The share of people who benefit from corporate buybacks is quite small in the sense that if you look at the value of the stock market, 85 of the value of the stock market is held by the top 10 , the wealthiest 10 . When you hear the stock market is doing great, wall street is fine, main street, not so much, thats a very select group who are benefitting. Who is doing well in the trump economy . The folks who are doing the best in the trump economy are those at the very top of the income scale. Ali is actually right in terms of some recent advances in wages, but it took a long time to get here. Were in the ninth year of an economic expansion. A lot of the trends that ali was just talking about are trends that trump inherited, but theyre still ongoing. That is a good thing. Any president would brag about it. But if you look at how people feel about the economy, in many cases its just okay. It doesnt reflect those overall macro numbers because their paychecks are only recently starting to gain while those at the top have just been continuing to pile on, on the growth and wealth, the income at the very top of the scale. I want to talk about taxes. For a number of reasons, one of them because last time i talked about taxes, my mom said i should bring out the big guns, which in her words was jared bernstein. So youre here. Shout out to your mom. Also, the president ran on a big tax cut for everybody, simplifying the tax code. He tried, i guess, to do that with the tax cut or the tax change that happened last year. But what were seeing right now is there are a number of 2020 democrats who are taking it much further. Theres this idea of a wealth tax. Warren is talking about 2 for people who have more than 50 billion. 50 million. Million, im sorry. And a billion over that. Alexandria ocasiocortez, 70 marginal tax rate on incomes over 10 million. And Bernie Sanders scaling estate taxes, starting with 45 on estates worth more than 3. 5 billion. There are a number of billionaires out there, well, basically two, that are calling this ridiculous. What do you think . A bunch of things. First of all, what youre describing from those democrats is precisely responsive to what we were just talking about, the fact that for a lot of people yeah, the last few months have been better, but for a lot of people, theyve seen years of stagnant paychecks while theres been so much accumulation of wealth at the top of the scale. You know, 40 of the wealth is held by the top 1 . So thats the first thing. Those plans we can argue about their technocratic merit, but they really are going after this problem of concentrated wealth, which in our world with pay to play politics, concentrated wealth equals concentrated power. Number two, the trump tax plan did not simplify the tax code. It actually made it a lot more complicated with a lot more loopholes. So i think thats problematic as well. And i think, three, the extent to which these problems of concentrated wealth, power, and sort of the longterm stagnation make this tax cut really quite unpopular with people, and not just with democrats. So i think it will be interesting to see how far he leans into that tonight these proposals, which when you poll them, poll well among all voters, not just democrats or republicans. Are they pie in the sky . Theyre not pie in the sky. In fact, interestingly, a lot of people said that representative ocasiocortezs 70 was outlandish, pie in the sky, never happen. In fact, for most of the past, you know, 60 years, we had top marginal rates of 70 , even 90 . So not pie in the sky. Only pie in the sky if you buy into the rhetoric that we can never have adequately, i think, progressive taxes on those at the some of ttop of the scale. I want you to come back and talk about the difference between the taxes for wealthy and the philanthropy they do. Yeah, we cant count on philanthropy to fund the government. Well have a full discussion on this soon. Thank you so much. Im sure my mom is thanking you as well. Ali velshi, good to see you. Thank you for coming in a little early as well. My pleasure. And next up, the state of health care in america. The president and his party have promised a lot but delivered on little. Is repealing obamacare, just that phrase, all they have . , jut that phrase, all they have hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. But when i started seeing things, i didnt know what was happening. So i kept it in. He started believing things that werent true. I knew something was wrong. But i didnt say a word. During the course of their disease around 50 of people with parkinsons may experience hallucinations or delusions. But now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. The only fda approved medicine. Proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinsons. Dont take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. Nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementiarelated psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinsons disease. Nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. Tell your doctor about any changes in medicines youre taking. The most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. We spoke up and it made all the difference. Ask your parkinsons specialist about nuplazid. In the past year alone, about 10 million uninsured americans finally gained the security of health coverage. We repeal the core of the disastrous obamacare, the individual mandate is now gone. Obamacare, not opamacare. Health care was the number one issue coming out of the midterms. 41 of the voters said it was their top concern over the economy and over immigration. But it is unclear if the president will even bring it up tonight. After all, he and his party have little to show for their efforts to repeal and replace that promise they made over and over again in 2016. Now a number of 2020 Democratic Candidates have an entirely different rallying cry. That is medicare for all. Joining me, Senior National correspondent for the huffington post, jonathan cohn. Also the author of sick, the untold story of Americas Health care crisis and the people who pay the price. Here with me in washington, former director of speech writing for president obama, cody keenan. Whats the state of health care in our country . Well, the state of health care in our country is the Affordable Care act is still here. Obamacare is still alive. Its taken some hits from the Trump Administration. They tried to repeal it. That backfired on them. As you said, its probably the single biggest reason they dont control the house of representativ representatives anymore. But the administration, working with republicans in congress, theyve managed to undermine the law. Theyve managed to change the rules around it. We actually are starting to see the number of People Without Health Insurance starting to creep back up. Thats probably one of the reasons. So we have a system thats still in place but starting to get weaker. Meanwhile, weve had all along lots of people who still cant afford health care, people who dont have insurance, people with insurance facing big bills. I think a lot of people are wondering, what do we do now . What is next . Three things the president has said in the past is that drug prices are going down because of policies hes enacted. Hes also said that preexisting conditions for republicans or republicans will protect preexisting conditions. And that premiums have gone down. Jonathan, is that the case . So let me take those in reverse order of truth. No problem. To say theyve protected preexisting conditions is a lie. The administration did everything it could to undermine those protections. And right now it is supporting a lawsuit in federal court that would gut preexisting conditions protections, and the rest of the law. So thats just not true. On premiums, premiums from last year overall on the Obamacare Exchanges did come down a little bit, but one of the reasons is that insurers had to raise them so much the Previous Year because they were so worried about what the Trump Administration would do. A lot of their actions are actually going to either push premiums up or lower them by exposing people with medical problems to bigger bills. Now, Prescription Drug is interesting because we are seeing some moderation in some prices. This is actually one area where the Trump Administration is trying to take some small steps that i think even some democrats like, although interestingly, raise some concerns among republicans. Thats one thing i think to listen for tonight, whether he talks about that Prescription Drug agenda. Cody, you were tasked part of your duties were selling obamacare in speeches, at the state of the union. When you were doing that, it wasnt very popular. It wasnt as popular as it is today. What has that taught you, given the turnaround and given that health care was the number one priority for voters in 2018 . It tells me that health care is hard. You know, we had a mixed track record pushing it. Im very glad its popular today. And i think, you know, you look at polling today, i mean, health care is more important to voters than immigration is. Well see how much time the president spends talking about each issue tonight. If you were sitting in that room, helping the president craft the state of the union speech, what would you be selling him about health care . Well, id probably write, you know, i resign as of 12 00 p. M. Tomorrow. But lets live in the world where you were trying to give advice. As of health care, look, president obama said this all the time too. He was for any plan that just covered as many people, if not more, at the same cost or less. Thats actually written into the aca. If any state can come up with a plan that covers the same amount of people or more at less cost, they can do it. Just nobodys come up with that yet. So id tell him to leave it alone. As a speech writer watching tonight, what are your thoughts . Relief mostly that im not writing it. You know, today was always tough. Wed be fighting with Fact Checkers all day, our heroic Fact Checkers, one of whom i married. And policy people would be jumping me on the way to the bathroom, trying to get their own stuff into the speech. Jonathan, what are you going to be keeping an eye on for tonight . Well, you know, like i said, ill be interested to see whether he pushes his agenda on Prescription Drugs. He actually seems to be he keeps bringing it up. His administration has an actual agenda. Its pretty narrow. Its not nearly as ambitious as what i think most democrats would do, but theres some meaningful step there is. Whats interesting is, you know, hes talking about things that a lot of republicans dont like. So ill be interested to see whether he tries to push that and listen for the reaction on the republican side of the audience to some of those proposals. It is interesting. The wall is not popular with the majority of americans, but the majority of americans deeply care about health care. Lets see how much he talks about it tonight. Jonathan cohn and cody keenan, thank you very much for being here. Next up, the global threat that may not get a single mention tonight, at least not from the president. T not from the president you have 4. 3 minutes to yourself. This calls for a taste of cheesecake. Philadelphia cheesecake cups. Rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. Find them with the refrigerated desserts. Figuring it out. Not that fun. And like my dad, you might want Medicare Supplement insurance, too. Uh oh, more research. No big thing. Not with this website. Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company created aarpmedicaresupplement. Com to help make your decision easier. With answers to important questions about aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plans, insured by unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. Like how this type of plan, also called a medigap plan, helps pay for some of what medicare doesnt. 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Learn a lot. Or just find rates for the aarp Medicare Supplement plans in your area. Aarpmedicaresupplement. Com hard to say. Easy to use. And filled with great advice. Just like your dad right . Yeah, just like you, dad. More than 80 people died in the wildfires that torched california this fall. Last years hurricanes killed over 100 people. According to the un, the world has 12 years to address Global Warming before there is no turning back. Scientists in the president s own administration estimate the economic damage from Climate Change could cost hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century. But there is doubt the president will talk about the most pressing matter of our time in his state of the Union Address tonight. After all he has said he doesnt believe the findings from his own administrations scientists. And since frankly it seems that he uses every cold snap as an opportunity to mock the very idea of Global Warming. Joining me is penn state professor of atmospheric science, michael man and the author of the madhouse effect. Im glad you are back with us today. When it comes to Climate Change, what is the state of the environment . Thanks, katie. Its great to be back with you and thanks for giving attention to what as you alluded to really is the greatest challenge we face as a civilization and would be tragic if donald trump indeed does not even mention it in his state of the Union Address. The state of play here, you alluded to it. The 12year number you have to be careful. You have to bring Carbon Emissions down dramatically, by 5 to 10 a year for the next decade or beyond if we are to keep Carbon Dioxide levels more than what would warm the planet 2 degrees celsius which will commit us to truly dangerous and potentially irreversible impacts on the climate. The president has said in the past that his goal is to have clean water, clean air, that he wants the climate to be great. What is he doing to make that happen . Well, as is often the case when the president said he wants to do something, it typically means he wants to do the opposite. When it comes to acting on the climate and the environment, the Trump Administration has literally in two years attempted to undo the environmental protections put in place over a half century by prior republican and democratic administrations. It really is a full on assault on clean air and clean water and of course the efforts we have made to deal with Climate Change. Now, if trump is able to implement his agenda, deregulatory agenda, there will essentially be no hope of the United States meeting obligations under the International Paris treaty to dramatically bring down global Carbon Emissions fast enough to avoid Climate Changes. The Trump Administration really has essentially put in place the epa administrator, scott pruitt to be replaced if he pass the full senate by andrew wheeler. Its a case of meet the new boss. Its the same thing what wheeler is going to do. To basically eliminate the climate protections and put us on a path to further exploitation of fossil fuels. What the Trump Administration has done that has been harmful to the environment and harmful policies since the last state of Union Address last year. We will follow right up with helpful environmental policies. You can see the list, one such bigger than the other. He has officially nominated David Bernhard as the secretary of the interior this week to replace ryan zinke. They made no secret of wanting to roll back obama era regulations on Climate Change. What are your thoughts on this new nominee . Like i said, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Every time they nominate somebody for an environmentally sensitive position Like Department of interior or epa or interpret of energy, it is somebody with close ties to the fossil fuel industry. In the case of andrew wheeler, he used to work for the coal industry and a Spokes Person for james inhoff trying to dismiss Climate Change based on a snow ballot senate floor. Those are the people that the Trump Administration is outsourcing their policy to. It doesnt mean its what trump wants to do. What knows what he wants to do. He agreed to outsource his policies to the polluting interests who put him in power. The koch brother, coal industry and everybody who helped him keep the power that he has. Michael, we are basically out of time, but if you can, folks are watching at home who want to do their part and make a difference in any way they can even in this administration is not doing the same. What can they do . There is a lot we can do. In the absence of leadership, states are taking leadership positions and the west coast and new england states. The largest corporations and companies are remaining committed to the paris agreement. What can we do . We can talk about climate and try to put it at the forefront of our Public Discourse and talk about it with friends and family and do everything to put it on the agenda to make sure politicians cannot ignore this issue. Thank you very much and well be right back. Sue. Thank you very much and well be right back. Only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol® coughing need a change of scenery . Kayak searches hundreds of travel sites and filters by cabin class, wifi and more. So you can be confident youre getting the right flight at the best price. Kayak. Search one and done. phone ringing a phones offers big button,ecialized phones. And volumeenhanced phones. , get details on this state program. Call or visit and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state program call or visit that does it for me. In case you were wondering, i am in washington today. Ali velshi picks it up at the end of my hour. You didnt know you were watching . Its too late to tell you at this point. We know who you are, katie. And i know who you are. Always. My pleasure, friend. Choosing greatness is the focus of the state of the union. Six hours from now, President Trump will speak in front of a