pierre, thank you. the fbi and other federal agencies shutting down the classified ad website, backpage.com. authorities blocking access to the website posting this announcement instead. backpage has been under fire for years for allowing adult ads for sex workers and for allegedly enabling the sexual exploitation of minors. next, the menendez brothers reunited in prison. lyle and erik menendez convicted of killing their parents in a case that made national headlines. the two seeing each other for the first time in more than 20 years. here s abc s whit johnson. reporter: tonight, the brothers reunited behind bars. the member menendez brothers serving their sentence for murdering their parents inside their beverly hills mansion. their 1996 interview with barbara walters, one of their last times together. i m just a normal kid. oh, erik, you re a normal kid who killed your parents. reporter: back then, a detective arguing the partners in crime might conspire to escape.
state lines, you know, kids being taken all over. you see this problem, you want to attack it. how? chris, first, i appreciate you guys putting a spotlight on this. we ve talked about it before, but tragically we ve had a big increase in sex trafficking, human trafficking. and all the experts look at it come up with the same conclusion which is that the internet is the reason. in other words, the dark side of the internet here is that groups like backpage.com, which is a website we have investigated, are selling women and children online. and really doing it without any ability for prosecutors or the victims to be able to stop it. they have an immunity under federal law. that immunity is something that we are now looking at in terms of legislation we ve introduced very targeted specific legislation to take away the immunity for entities that facilitate sex trafficking and do it knowingly. in other words, intentionally. and to me this is the only way we re going to be able to slow thi
trafficking you cannot hide behind immunity and takes the federal law to exist against sex trafficking putting it clearly in place with regards to these websites. the one most offensive, promoting most of this is called backpage.com. we spent two years investigating this organization. found out they were knowingly, again, selling girls and women online illegally, and we just need to have a way to be able to allow victims to be able to get the just it they deserve and allow the states to make this change including the department of justice to go after despicable websites engaged in this sex trafficking. senator portman, thanks so much for joining us. thank you. the trump administration is very supportive of that effort and i appreciate that as well. good luck. an important issue you re dealing with and thanks for doing that and joining once
all right. there we go. president talking to small business owners at the white house as part of america dreams week. now they re going to continue with the ceremony. we ll keep an ear on it. as you know, anybody who watches me on msnbc knows i talk about the economy. i love talking about that stuff. we re going to be talking a little bit later with robert schiller, a yale economist, nobel prize winning economist whether or not you should be buying into the stock market. next they re trying to fight sex trafficking on the internet. backpage.com post ads for sex workers. senator rob portman, one of the sponsors of the bill, standing by to join me after the break. she s nationally recognized for her compassion and care. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance.
so as victims of sex trafficking tell me, rob, it s gone from the street corner to the smart phone and the internet side of things has caused a huge increase. this is a problem that has to be addressed. you re right, the women and girls who have attempted to seek justice have been blocked. it was never the intent of congress to block them from getting the justice that they deserve from companies that knowingly stop sex trafficking. the first circuit court of appeals called on congress to do exactly what we re doing. 47 attorneys general around the country, almost every state has written in and said, please, give us a little help here. have this legislation be changed so that we can pursue these cases against unscrupulous web pages like back page. they have 80% of sex trafficking. they ve been the leader. in january back page shut down the adult section. you believe children and