Be knocked out by this prime time speech. The russian lawyer that offered donald trump junior dirt on Hillary Clinton and met with Trump Campaign officials in trump tower during the campaign, she was indicted today. Lawyers for the president s Campaign Chair Paul Manafort today accidently revealed a spy novels worth of new details about manaforts lipnks to russia. There were two plot twists under seal involving special Counsel Robert Mueller including one twist from the Supreme Court today. Were going to be covering all of that over the course of the hour. That all happened today. Just as the news cycle is jammed up with tonights president ial first. His first prime Time Oval Office address. Here is the president live from the oval office. Again, we believe this will be about ten minutes. My fellow americans, tonight i am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. Every day customs and Border Patrol agents encounter thousands of Illegal Immigrants trying to enter our country. Were out of space to haul them and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country. America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation, but all americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains Public Resources and drives down jobs and wages. Among those hardest hit are African Americans and hispanic americans. Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of Illegal Drugs including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone. 90 of which floods across from our southern border. More americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire vietnam war. In the last two years, i. C. E. Officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we dont act right now. This is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. Last month, 20,000 Migrant Children were illegally brought into the United States, a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexual assaulted on the dangerous trek up through mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims, by far, of our broken system. This is the tragic reality of ilLegal Immigration on our southern border. This is the cycle of human suffering that i am determined to end. My administration has presented congress with a detailed proposal to secure the border and stop the criminal gangs, drug smugglers and human traffickers, its a tremendous problem. Our proposal is developed by Law Enforcement professionals and Border Agents at the department of Homeland Security. These are the resources they have requested to properly perform their mission and keep america safe. In fact, safer than ever before. The proposal from Homeland Security includes Cutting Edge Technology for detecting drugs, weapons, illegal contraband and many other things. We have requested more agents, immigration judges, and bed space to process the sharp rise and unlawful migration fueled by our very strong economy. Our plan also contains an urgent request for humanitarian assistance and medical support. Further more, we have asked congress to close Border Security loopholes so that illegal imMigrant Children can be safely and humanely returned back home. Finally, as part of an overall approach to Border Security, Law Enforcement professionals have requested 5. 7 billion for a physical barrier. At the request of democrats, it will be a steel barrier rather than concrete wall. This barrier is absolutely critical to Border Security. Its also what our professionals at the border want and need. This is just common sense. The border wall would very quickly paquick quickly pay for itself. The cost of lil eIllegal Drugs exceeds 500 billion a year, vastly more than the 5. 7 billion we requested from congress. The wall will also be paid for indirectly by the great new trade deal with have made with mexico. Senator Chuck Schumer who you will be hearing from later tonight has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other democrats. They changed their mind only after i was elected president. Democrats in congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. And they have refused to provide our brave Border Agents with the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation. The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only, because democrats will not fund Border Security. My administration is doing everything in our power to help those impacted by the situation. But the only solution is for democrats to pass a spending bill that defends our borders and reopens the government. This situation could be solved in a 45minute meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the white house tomorrow to get this done. Hopefully, we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security. Some have suggested a barrier is immoral. Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes . They dont build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside. The only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized. Americas heart broke the day after christmas when a young Police Officer in california was murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien that just came across the border. The life of an American Hero was stolen by someone that had no right to be in our country. Day after day, precious lives are cut short by those who have v violated our borders, in california an air force veteran was raped, murdered, and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading and dismembering his neighbor. In maryland, ms13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16yearold girl over the last several years i met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by ilLegal Immigration. Ive held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief sticken smothemothers. I will never forget the pain in their eyes and tremble in their sadness and their souls. How much more american blood must we shed before congress does its job. To those who refuse to compromise in the name of Border Security, i would ask imagine if it was your child, your husband or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken . To every member of congress, pass a bill that ends this crisis. To every citizen, Call Congress and tell them to finally, after all of these decades secure our border. This is a choice between right and wrong. Justice and injustice, this is about whether we fulfill our y sacred duty to the american citizens we serve. When i took the oath of office, i swore to protect our country and that is what i will always do so help me god. Thank you and good night. President of the United States addressing the nation in prime time. The president not breaking new ground repeating the various strains of argument that he has relied on since the earliest days of the campaign to the wall that is needed on the southern border and in this case he did not explicitly say mexico will pay for it. He said the wall will pay for it. The wall will pay for the wall. It will pay for itself. The president asserting the southern border in his words is a pipeline for vast yaquantitie of Illegal Drugs. The president s own Drug Enforcement administration would say thats not the case. I would at least say the president s proposed solution, a wall, would not stop the vast majority of hard drugs coming in, even those coming in from mexican cartels, those coming through ports of entry and a wall would have nothing to do with whether or not the hard drugs stopped. Mainly the president s speech was a scare stories of immigrants being terrible criminals who are coming into the United States to rape and murder americans especially the president telling for pleasure because its in their nature. Its the argument the president made the very first day he came down the escalator in trump tower and shocked the republican world when he announced he would be running for the republican nomination because of the mexican rapist and criminals coming across the border. Were about to hear from democrats, nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Before we get to that, chris hayes, heading into the speech from the president , we were talking about whether or not this might be new ground. I heard it as the same thing he always said. Yes, there was a lot more emphasis in the first part of the speech on the sort of threat inflation and creating, he never i dont think he said the word wall. He said barrier. There is a little bit of retreat from like the wall thing and more of the focus on weve asked for this funding, can you give us this funding to move on . Which i think is them signaling how they want this to end. Thats about 3. 0. Ten days ago were at a steel barrier changes every week. Hes proposing the southern border, i think there are half a dozen things that were wrong, falsehoods, lies and you talked about a lot of them before the speech. But the big scam of the whole address is there is a crisis. There isnt a crisis. Border crossings at the southern border are a 45year low. I spoke to a former Senior Intelligence official said its his job to know where the terrorists are and there arent any on the southern border. Crime is a great issue but he shouldnt lie where it comes from. Literally to your point, the first year of the presidency, the apprehensions at the southern border was a 45year low. The apprehensions has been dropping since the year 2000. Which is great. If he wants to win, maybe he should run on that. Democratic response now is coming up from senator Chuck Schumer, the leader of the democrats of the senate and House Speaker nancy pelosi. Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the American People tonight about how we can end this shutdown and meet the needs of the American People. Sadly, much of what we heard from President Trump throughout the shutdown as been full of misinformation and even mall la mali malice. The president has chosen fear. We want to start with facts. The fact is House Democrats passed Senate Republican legislation to reopen government and fund smart, effective Border Security solutions. But the president is rejecting the bipartisan bills, which would reopen government over his obsession with forcing american taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall, a wall he always promised mexico would pay for. The fact is, President Trump has chosen to hold hostage Critical Services for the health, safety and well being of the American People and with hold the paychecks of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation, many of them veterans. He promised to keep Government Shutdown for months or years, no matter whom it hurts. Thats just plain wrong. The fact is, we all agree we need to secure the borders while honoring our values. We can build the infrastructure and roads at ports of entry. We can install new technology to scan cars and trucks for drugs coming into the nation. We can hire the personnel we need to facilitate trade and immigration at the border. We can fund more innovation to detect unauthorized crossings. The fact is, that women and children at the border are not a security threat. They are a humanitarian challenge a challenge President Trumps own cruel and counter productive policies have only deepened and the fact is, President Trump must stop holding American People hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis and must reopen the government. Thank you. Leader schumer . Thank you, speaker pelosi. My fellow americans, we address you tonight for one reason only, the president of the United States having failed to get mexico to pay for his ineffective, unnecessary border wall and unable to convince the congress or the American People to foot the bill has shut down the government. American democracy doesnt work that way. We dont govern by temper tantrum. No president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down. Hurting millions of americans who are treated as leverage. Tonight, and throughout this debate and throughout his presidency, President Trump has appealed to fear, not facts, division, not unity. Make no mistake, democrats and the president both want stronger Border Security. However, we sharply disagree with the president about the most effective way to do it. So, how do we untangle this mess . Well, there is an obvious solution. Separate the shutdown from arguments overboarder security. There is Bipartisan Legislation supported by democrats and republicans to open the government while allowing the debate overboarder security to continue. There is no excuse for hurting millions of americans over a policy difference. Federal workers are about to miss a paycheck. Some families cant get a mortgage to buy a new home. Farmers and Small Businesses wont get loans they desperately need. Most president s have used Oval Office Addresses for noble purposes. This president just used the backdrop of the oval office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration. My fellow americans, there is no challenge so great that our nation cannot rise to meet it. We can reopen the government and continue to work through disagreements over policy. We can secure our border without an ineffective, expensive wall and we can welcome legal immigrants and refugees without compromising safety and security. The symbol of america should be the statute of liberty, not a 30foot wall. So our suggestion is a simple one. Mr. President , reopen the government and we can work to resolve our differences overboaove over Border Security but end this shutdown now. Thank you. What amounts to a democratic rebuttal of the president this evening. Again, the president s remarks from the oval office are the first time hes addressed the nation from the oval office in prime time. President s tend to reserve addresses like that for various serious matters. He will be giving a state of Union Address later this month. This was not that but like a state of the union, democrats asked for rebuttal time. Chuck schumer, the newlyelected nancy pelosi side by side responding to the president not point by point but essentially trying to turn the focus from the president s claims that he needs a border wall to what he is holding hostage in order to try to get that, which is the shutdown of the federal government. Senator schumer closing by saying our suggestion is a simple one, mr. President , reopen the government and we can work to resolve differences overboarder security. He said earlier, there is an obvious solution, separate the shutdown from the arguments overboarder security. There is Border Security. The fact is on the very first day of this congress, House Democrats passed Senate Republican legislation to reopen the government and fund smart effective Border Security system lung solutions. Whatever you think about Border Security, mr. President , we can fight about that. Lets reopen the government. Democrats and republicans want that. You are the sticking point, not leaders from either party. Nicole wallace and chris hayes are here with me onset. Nicole, let me ask your response to that, in some senses typical partisan staging with the remarks from the president and the response from the opposite party but two very different sets of remarks. Listen, if you want to go to the politics, they were on the ballot eight weeks ago. Donald trump ran on that message. He ran on the made juup caravan and almost the same play. He doesnt have a lot of them so he reran it. His party was tluhumped, lost control of the house. Nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumers message tonight was stronger because they can add not only are you wrong but also like an 8yearold taken your toys and gone home by closing the entire federal government. In politics in washington especially now, its all zero. If its a seesaw, who went up and who went down, the political po potent is on the rise and tragic stories of horrific crimes. Chris hayes . The sort of difference in emphasis between the two is the most notable thing about the two addresses like donald trump went out there and read us Steven Miller lit kn ee eer series of rape and its awful stuff to hear. There is genuinely horrific things that have happened but to conflict them with the 12 Million People living here is pretty ugly. But weve heard that. Nicole said, thats been the deal. Slightly different list of crimes that evolves over time. And updates. It updates. Yeah, it is this office of immigrant crime stuff. Exactly. Hes been trying to solve from the very beginning and the fact is that weve said it before and say it again, native born americans commit crimes at a higher rate than nonnative born immigrants. All crimes. Violent crimes. Driving infractions. All crimes. It is a demagogue old saw to try to pick out horrific things youll attribute to one Minority Group and the president is singing that song. It really is exactly the same scripts. My fellow governors in cleveland, i remember watching that and being horrified and shocked this was being delivered and to nicoles point, as well, about the point here and alexandria ocasiocortez, look, you want something, come and craft a bill and go through the process like everything else. Lots of people want lots of things from the government. We have debates and maybe you can work something out but this is not the way to do it. Here is the deal, he doesnt have public support. What he had is a candidate, was at the base of the republican supported that strain of fear mongering about ilLegal Immigration. If he had public support, hed have a bill because members in congress would support it. I worked for a republican president who addressed the nation over comprehensive Immigration Reform at the point he had bipartisan support for it. President obama should have been allowed to do the same thing in 2014. This is a president with no bill and no republicans on board and doesnt have the public. It boggles the mind. Each passing day, more republicans peel off and say lets get the government restarted. It should be noted as those republicans peel off in the senate and in the house, they are lining up with the official Democratic Party position, which is well talk about this in some rational way if you want to but we have to reopen the government. Corey gardener who is up in 2020 in the state of colorado, which is increasingly a blue state and made some noises about wanting to reopen the government; cogovernmen government, corey gardener will not re run for reelection in 2020. At 100 hell get tlumphumped i tries. The president is singing the same song. He doesnt have support. He probably has less support than before. Why did he just do this . He didnt announce a National Emergency so that he could use some sort of authority that he doesnt think he has otherwise to go build this. Why did this just happen . Because ive covered immigration politics since back in mccain kennedy. I was at the mayday protest that would make it a felony to be here illegally starting. Ive been covering it since then. As long as ive been covering it, there is a veto point with the steve kings of the world have more intensity and because of that, even when president bush and mccain and kennedy got together they have been able to kill it. When it passed the bill, they have been able to kill it. Hes relying on the intensity of the sentiment among the people. Its a constant. There is nothing that caused that to spike now so he tried its worked before and killed two bills. Its he doesnt care about the bill. I dont disagree with any of that but its something simpler than that. Because its trump. Right . Before the holidays, a close trump valet, i said whats he doing . I said whats he doing . He said he lives in object terror of his base and Robert Mueller. So i think you cant control this one, right . You cant control what Robert Mueller is doing but the base he can keep. The base feels that way. They feel that intensity and so you can keep them. Dont you the base intensity doesnt respond to the same stimolaos. The shutdown may peel it off. There is no data that shows that the base that grows when you shut the government down, you may lose some. Exactly. There is a lot with the base with the federal Government Shutdown. When you read the data out there and both sort of an antidotely, i saw the Republican Base engaged was in the kavanaugh fight. They were unquestionably engaged. They were there. I heard anecdotes data, thats not happening here. No. We are not seeing any of that level of actual mobilization engagement of people outside of the smallest core. Can i tell you what i think is explaining why the president did this . So democrats won control of the house and they are the new protagonist of the story and members being sworn in and swearing in of nancy pelosi and all the kids with them and what will the democrats do . The president was not getting talked about so the president summoned reporters to see him do a White House Press briefing in which he didnt take questions from the press and there is another day of coverage about the democrats and what they will do in washington and the president pulls another stunt and says no, no, no, i actually need you to Pay Attention to me now. Ill be giving remarks now. And i honestly wonder if he it occurred to him that he hadnt ever done an Oval Office Address and thats another thing to do to turn the spotlight. A friend of his said at other points in the presidency that he is the sun king and anything that obscures his access to the rays of sunlight drives him mad like a mad king, he was there watching everything you described and said well, it also shows how shallow his view of the presidency is. What other tricks do i have . Can i do . Maybe do a Cabinet Meeting. Do we need to have a Cabinet Meeting . Everybody around this table and acting secretary, can we have the camera not just for a spray but for the entire hour and a half that id like them in here . How many more stunts are there . The difference here, what is so nuts about the situation, a lot of times i always feel like he would rather be a pundit that people paid attention to than the actual president. He wants to give you his takes. The president has takes and wants to share them and he loves the nation listens to his takes but he doesnt really love running the country. The thing is here, that weird theater he does, the Cabinet Meeting, the Government Shutdown. Thats exactly right. The thing with the cabinet room, it hurts us because we have to watch it and listen to us. Its harmless. People say ridiculous thing about their dear leader and face their lives orchi kids. The economy will take a hit now. This is not funny anymore. Yeah. Chris hayes, nicole wallace, thank you for being here with us tonight. As you said, i think the best pundit point i heard is this is weird. This is truly weird. Thank you. Thanks, rachel. Three days after the president was elected there was a letter to please reconsider basically every Major Campaign and the muslim ban to banning abortion. They struck the folks as being according to the letter not simply unamerican and wrongheaded but also unlawful and unconstitutional. They sent it in this letter just after he was e lengtlected thre after the election. Donald trump didnt heed advice. The aclu considered him to be warned and after asking to resend the policies, the aclu proceeded to sue the pants off of him taking literally dozens and dozens of legal actions against trump and administration, a huge number involved immigrants and immigration policy and sued over the original muslim ban and revised muslim ban. When the Trump Administration tried to force teen ill grant girls to give birth against their will, the aclu sued over that. When the Trump Administration started effectively started kidnapping, the aclu stopped that. When they tried to remove asylum, the aclu sued them over that. Since day one of the trump presidency, the aclu has been at the forefront with challenging and Fact Checking the president S Immigration policies. Joining us now is omar, the director of the aclus immigrants rights project and just saw the president s remarks waiting to come onset with us. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Let me ask your reaction to the contents of the president s remarks and the place he did it. There was one cokernel of trh when he said there is a humor ev humanitarian crisis at the border. We talked about the way its false. There is a humanitarian crisis he created at the border. Hes bottling up women and children in rough fe refugee ca. Hes continuing to run these shelters, shelters is the wrong word. Detention facilities kept in cold iceboxes with an aluminum blanket. People held in the desert for hours with no medical attention. There is a huge range of things that this administration is not doing to address a real humanitarian crisis. When he gets up on tv and says there is a humanitarian crisis and the solution is a wall, the solution to women and children seeking safety in the United States is to close the doors to them being able to find protection from abuse, thats a backwards world. He said a crisis of the soul, the need to stop imMigrant Children, literally to stop the immigration of children over the southern border. I wonder if you are relieved at all with the president s decision tonight to not announce some sort of emergency. There was a lot of talk leading into this speech tonight that maybe the president was calling for an Oval Office Address and doing this not just because he wanted to list the same complaints and Horror Stories for years but because he wanted to announce something now, he would claim new powers to address this that could be an emergency decoloration, are you relieved he didnt do that . Im glad hes not trying to in this way over ride congress. Thats the essential problem with this whole emergency plan that he was talking about was the idea that he would try to, because congress wouldnt pass, build the wall on his own. Thats what hes trying to do with the asiylum ban. He said no. Im going to ban you from seeking asylum between ports of entry, again, women, kids, people seeking protection, people being percent suining pe slam the door on you unless you wait months in these refugee camps, right . He tried to do that. We stopped him. We sued him in court. Its the same basic problem with the emergency idea. The idea that you can just ignore what congress is doing and just go around them by enacting things. Im glad that at least for now he hasnt tried to yet again go around. Had the president announced im declaring an emergency and i under Emergency Powers that i declare myself to have, im going to get my wall built that way so while i do that, congress can do whatever they want to open the government but ill get this wall built. The reason that might have been a practical advance for the country because im assuming you would have sued the heck out of him for any sort of unconstitutional assertion the president made, that would have put that fight in the courts where he would presumably lose and the rest of the congress could get on with reopening government and fight this or any other policy. I appreciate the practical kind of i count on you. I think, you know, if were at the point where we hope the president takes a hugely unconstitutional because that ties them up for awhile. To get him to accept the fact hes losing in congress, thats the wrong way to go. I will recalibrate. Omar is the director of the immigrants right project. Thank you for much. Appreciate it. It has not even been one week since the new congress was sworn in yet but think about if you are a freshman lawmaker who has just been sworn in to this congress, right . It has to feel like finding yourself on a plane thats hitting bad turbulence upon take off. This is already the second longest Government Shutdown in u. S. History. If it makes it through in the weekend, there is no reason to think it wont, this will be the longest Government Shutdown ever. This is a painful thing for the u. S. Economy and a lot of people in the country but has to be a spectacularly weird environment to start your new job in, if your now job is youve just been elected as a new member of congress. Joining us is alexandria cortez. Thank you for having e many. Let me start by getting your top line reaction to the president s speech tonight. Youve never been a member of congress while the government wasnt shut down, so of youbvio this is a strange circumstance to be taking your first steps. Absolutely. I cannot tell you the amount of dysfunction that this president is advancing. We now have over 100 new members of the freshman class. I cannot get even get laptops to my caseworkers in the bronx and queens to process the needs of constituents. Mortgage, we cannot get case work started because the president decided to hold the paychecks of Everyday Americans hostage so that he can fulfill a campaign, i cant call it a campaign, a fantasy. Not only that in the actual address there was falsehood after falsehood and we have to make sure we get the facts straight. Every day immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than nativeborn americans and not only that but the women and children on the boarder seeking refuge and opportunity in the United States of america with nothing but the shirt on their backs are acting more american than any person who seeks to keep them out ever will be. Are you at all dissuaded, not dissuaded, dismayed or discouraged by the fact that the president has been saying the same untrue things about immigrant crime, about the terrible collar act ter of ihars and the Violent Crime and immigration. We heard him tell falsehoods contheco contradicted from his administration about the pipeline of drugs, his own Drug Enforcement administration has said that the vast majority of drugs even those coming from the south of, from south from this country are coming through ports f of entry and would be stopped by a wall. Are you discouraged or what is your strategy . Its not sup prirprising bec he has a proven track record of discrimination against anybody thats none white in the United States. He had been sued by the Nixon Administration back in the day for not renting to black americans. He has had controversy after controversy so this is very consistent. Its not just the continued lies throughout his administration but frankly, its part of a very consistent pattern of his entire li life. I represent new yorks 14th congressional. We have over 200 languages spoken in my district alone. We enjoy some of the highest rates of Economic Activity and the bronx itself had the highest Economic Growth in new york city and directly, directly correlated with our embrace of immigrants. New york city overall is an immigrant city and we enjoy a very large amount of economic and cultural prosperity as a result. The president has been singing this same song that he did a different version of tonight in the oval office, since the very, very start of his campaign. He has made anti immigrant rhetoric and often facts demonizing immigrants, more core to the presidency than any form of his rhetoric. In your district that is not just diverse but 50 immigrant and that youre talking about the economic relationship that you can see between immigrant Economic Activity and the overall performance of your district. Whats the consequence of having somebody as president who has made this core to his message and to what he wants his presidency to mean . Is the harm thats caused by him talking this way and using this sort of platform the way he has when he cant get policies passed . I can tell you a very personal story and as many people know, i was working in restaurants just a year ago. And when the president first assumed office with his racist and violent rhetoric, people started to send themselves home. And as we know, in restaurants, hospitality, every american eats if you can, if youre lucky enough or were able to eat three times a day. That means we interact with the people that repair our food three times a day. When those people start to go home, local or rather go back to the countries which they originated from because many of them consider the United States their home, those places they go into dysfunction. I remember one of our lead cooks brought himself back to mexico because he was so scared of the president s rhetoric. We had an insane amount of dysfunction. Were talking about local restaurants. Were talking about local businesses. Were talking about shuttering neighborhoods. Were talking about people feeling unsafe. And no one should feel unsafe in the United States of america. And that includes our amazing and beautiful and productive kc immigrant community and more over, the one thing the president has not talked about is the fact he has systematically engaged in the violation of human rights borders, human rights on our border. He has separated children from their families. He talked about what happened the day of christmas on the day of christmas, a child died in i. C. E. Custody. The president should not be asking for more money to an agency that has systematically violated human rights. The president should be really defending why we are funding such an agency at all because right now what we are seeing is death. Right now what we are seeing is the violation of muhuman rights. These children and families are being held in basically freezing boxes that no person should be maintained in. For any amount of time let alone the amount of time they are being kept on and more over, if youre anti immigrant in this country, the majority of immigrant over stays, the majority of the reason people are undocumented is visa over stay. Its not because people are crossing a border illegally. It is because of visa over stay which mind you, hes talking about Legal Immigration and trying to respect every form of Legal Immigration there is not United States. Hes fighting against family reunification and fighting against the diversity visa lottery and ever way people can actually legally enter this country forcing them to become undocumented and then hes trying to attack their undocumented status. This is systematic. It is wrong and anti american and again, those women and children trying to come here with nothing but the shirts on their back to create an opportunity and provide for this nation are acting more in an american tradition than this president is right now. Congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez of new york. Thank you for being with us. This is your first time being on the show and you have been one of the highest profile members of this new congress and youve got a lot of pressures on your time. Thanks for making time to be here and i hope youll come back. Of course. Thank you so much. Still to come, an avalanche of legal developments we saw today. There is a lot to get to tonight. Do please stay with us. T to tonight. Do please stay with us it was always our singular focus, to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource, to fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com. Appointments available now. Learn more at cancercenter. Com. I am all about living joyfully. The united explorer card hooks me up. Getting more for getting away. Traveling lighter. Getting settled. Rewarded. Learn more at the explorer card dot com. Busy day, right . I do not know why the president chose tonight to give an oval Office Version of the same speech hes been making since 2016 but i do know what happened today in the news that the white house must be excited to try to push out of the headlines with that speech. All right. Do you remember the trump tower moscow project . The president s longtime attorney was lying to congress about the moscow project. In the court proceedings, we learned the president himself had repeatedly lied about that project to the public and had tried to keep it secret during the Campaign Even though he and his organization were pursuing. That tower looms as a serious issue for the scandal about rush sha getting involved in the president ial election to benefit trump but looms over the prospect that the president may have been compromised by a Foreign Government even during the time that he has been president , right . After all when trump and the Trump Organization were working during the campaign to try to build trump tower moscow and working with the russian government to try to get that deal done, the russian government knew that those conversations and those negotiations were underway, they also knew that trump was publicly lying about it and trying to keep it secret. That alone means that russia had something on him, something they could use to pressure him, something to use to blackmail him and leverage during his campaign and time as president , during all of the time they knew that secret about him that he for some reason didnt want let out. Well, here is one important brandnew thing about that scandal. Recall that trump tower moscow was reportedly supposed to be financed by a russian bank that was under u. S. Sanctions. Isnt this simple as it seals, bottom line, presumably in order for trump to get the trump tower moscow deal, which we think would have been the biggest real estate deal of his life. U. S. Sanctions against russian entities including that bank would need to have been dropped or at least softened. Thats what made it so interesting when we learned that the two guys from the Trump Organization who were working on trump tower moscow felix sater and Michael Cohen got involved in an effort after trump was elected to concoct a new plan that would result in sanctions being dropped on russia. It was dreamed up as a peace plan. Michael cohen, felix sater were involved in that. Hen, felix sat involved in that Paul Manafort had publicly denied in 2017 he had anything to do with the supposed peace plan that would have resulted in the dropping of russian sanctions. But today manaforts defense team filed this document in d. C. In which they apparently didnt redact things properly. He you can see there are a bunch of things behind black boxes. But they screwed up when they tried to redact the document. And you can read what is behind those blacked boxes. And so because of that mistake, by accident part of what we learned today is that president s Campaign Chair, Paul Manafort has told plan took shape after trump was elected. If thats the same plan manafort told prosecutors he involved with the timing of this thing is unusual. Right . Manafort got fired from the Campaign Months before the election. Did they bring back the fired Campaign Chairman with links to russia to do work on this effort to drop russian sanctions along with thess guys from trumps business who were tryinging to get the trump tower moscow bu t built . We dont know. The details of it. E but that revelation that manafort was involved and that he has told prosecutors about this, that is new today. We also learned from that same document today, from the bad redactions in that document, that prosecutors believe manafort shared polling data from the campaign with a business associate of his. A business associate of his who incidentally has been also indicted by Robert Mueller. He is also a person whos been described by the fbi in Court Documents as being associated andnt tied with russian intelligence. We did not previously know that one of the things manafort was accused of doing during theas campaign wascu given polling da from the campaign to a guy in russian intelligence, but now we know thatce prosecutors allege that thats one of the things Paul Manafort did. So that accidentally unredacted court filing today, that was f revalotory on a couple Different Levels and one of the developments in the russia scandal today and the legal jeopardy of People Associated with the president and his campaign related tol that scandal. Today, for example, this indictment was unsealed against Natalia Veselnitskaya who was the lawyer who attendedea the trump towerwy meeting during th campaign with Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and donald trump junior. That was the meeting they took purportedly to get dirt from the russian government about Hillary Clinton. Inry todays indictment of veselnitskaya, prosecutors in the Southern District oftm new york allege that sheth lied to federal court. She s lied to a federal judge ia russian Money Laundering case because she wanted to conceal the fact that she was effectively working on behalf on the russian government. She entered into the record in that money t laundering case something that she described as a russian government independent investigation of the issue. When, in fact, it wasnt an independent investigation at all, in fact, she had helped the russian government produce that document. Because she was working for the russian government andfo tryingo pretend like she was not, the court ultimately was able to ferret out that she lied to the court on that matter. She is charged with obstruction of justice now. And theres a whole bunch of intriguing questions about this indictment. I mean,ut number one, this alled attempt by her to clear that case, to obstruct justice in that case, in that new york courtroom, prosecutors say that effort by herse happened in november 2015. Thats a long time ago. Why didon they charge her now . Our own Richard Engel in a special hour that he did for this show, r he documented in detail this alleged obstruction of justice by veselnitskaya thats spelled out in the indictment today. Richard engel confronted veselnitskaya in that in an sk interview, that was april of last year. Why was veselnitskaya just indicted for it now . And actually a further question, it a look like she was indicted for this on skrbstruction of ju on december 200th. That indictment was filed under seal for some reason. And 19 days later today, this indictment was r unsealed and were all now allowed to see it. Why does that timing make sense, too . And then just as we were absorbing that news,an we got further word todayat that the chairs of seven major committees in congress are now challenging trumps treasury secretary over ary Trump Administration decisi that was announced just before congress to lift sanctions on companies associated with this man, Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch close to vladimir putin. He, himself, had an odd connection to Paul Manafort in the trump cocampaign. This is the guy to whom manafort offered private briefings during campaign. Again, you know, why was the president s Campaign Chair offering private briefings on the campaign to a Russian Oligarch close Tori Vladimir pun whos now under u. S. Lo sanction . While at the same time, he was apparently providing polling data about the campaign to a guy associated with russian intelligence. Who happens to have been his conduit to the Russian Oligarch connected to putin. Why didnn the Trump Campaign at the highest levels have all these connections to the kremlin . We dont know. Tonight, the New York Times citing a Single Source reports that when mananfort shared internal private polling data from the trumpte campaign with that russian intelligence guy, heth asked that guy to pass tha internal data on to Oleg Deripaska and Donald Trumps Treasury Department announced just before christmas they want to brelax sanctions on compani associated with that oligarch, Oleg Deripaska and now today tha seven Democratic Committee chairs in the house of representatives are demanding that the Trump Administration explain that decision. They are demanding an immediate meeting with the a secretary of theet treasury, Stephen Mnuchin to explain why these sanctions are going away. Dear secretary mnuchin, we writear in response to a decemb 19th notification indicating thatif the Treasury Department intends to terminate sanctions on these three Russian Companies as part t of a deal with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian Oligarch who embedded the putin regimes activity against the United States. As chairs of committees with oversight jurisdictionmm over t u. S. Response in russias attempt toin interfere in our elections andt other hostile actions, with e hae have number concerns about the agreement the u. S. Reached withve mr. Deripas. The seven Committee Chairmen are askingrm treasury to delay the implementation of this relaxation of sanctions on deripaskas companies, asking for a full explanation of how treasury ae roo treasury arrived at this meet and want a meeting betweened Stephen Mnuchin and, quote, all interested members on that subject and want that meeting soon before the sanctions are withdrawn. E ticking. Clock is congress has 30 t days to objec to the lifting of these sanctions. Trump administration announced just before christmasra that th clock had started ticking because they announced that theyd be lifted. And then as we were absorbing that information, we got further word that the United States Supreme Court has weighed in for the first time today on an aspect of the mueller investigation. This is about a case that remains shrouded in secrecy. But the Supreme Court today declined to intervene on behalf of ane unknown corporation thas owned by an unknown foreign country thats been fighting a subpoena that we believe is from the special nacounsels office. In a very short order today from the Supreme Court, and a long and fascinating order from the d. C. Court ofde appeals, we learned today almost nothing about the identity of this corporation or which country owns this corporation, bullt weo know as of today at the highest levels ofay the u. S. Judiciary, that foreign country and that foreign corporation, theyre getting no help in their efforts to resist a subpoena about something that pertains to the special counsels investigation. So, this is today. Right . Manafort was maybe working on dropping russian sanctions, possibly along with a trump towerit moscow guys. Manafort was giving polling data, internal polling data from the dacampaign, to a guy in russian intelligence who he was then asking to pass it on to a russian ole gaigarch close to p. The russian lawyer fro the trump tower meetingth has been criminally indicteded in the United States for lying about fact that she represents the russian government. The democrats that just t took over the house of representatives are getting up on their hind legs trying to stop the trumpre administration from dropping sanctions on companies owned by the proputin oligarch that trumps Campaign Chair was trying to pay back during the trump t campaign somehow, and to whom manafort was apparently funneling internal polling data from the campaign and the Supreme Court is not going to help country a in their unknown corporation which is trying to resist the reach of u. S. Law enforcement in the guise. Of the mueller specl counsel investigation. And now that corporation is in contempt of court andti being charged 50,000 a day until they comply with muellers subpoena. Other than that, not much happened today, though. Wonder what tomorrows going to bewo like. That does it for us tonight. We will seeit you again tomorro. Now its time for yothe last wd with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Good evening, rachel. Thank you for doing that summy of all the new investigation developments today because iga s thinking that in this b hour, w werent going to be able to get tog it, but since the presiden said nothing tonight, we just we just might have time for it coming up. I i want to get more of your reaction tomo what the presiden said. Here he is asking the Entertainment Networks to preempt their programming tonight. Yep. So that he can make an important address to the nation in which i listened to every word, all thousand words, th rachel. I didnt hear him say a single sentence he hasnt sai
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