Well, if i might to make sure we are not making a mistake senator coops. It is my hope that if you are confirmed and we do make progress on bipartisan criminal Justice Reform that as Attorney General you will carry out whatever legislative decisions might be made by this body. Last let me say in my six years here in addition to not working on a number of bipartisan proposals on criminal Justice Reform you have repeatedly voted against congressional attempts to prohibit torture in the military on text or the interrogation context and to defend enhanced interrogation practices. Are you clear now that our statutes prohibit torture and if the president were to rover yid that clear Legal Authority what actions would you take . On your previous question i would note the federal prison population has already dropped 10 or more percent and will drop
another 10,000 this year. What is happening now is reducing the federal population. This law only dealt with the federal prison population. And th
At todays sessions hearing. The equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. Major holes in tillersons sanctuary. Were we lobbying before or against . Im a germaphobe, believe me. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. There are just nine days until donald trump becomes president of the United States. Today we were inundated with news, much of it disturbing, about what to expect when he takes office. In fact there was so much news today it is, frankly, impossible for us to fully cover what we saw and heard, which may well have been the point. We are going to aggressively cover the issues we have deemed most important and they are big ones. Among them, the President Elect evoking nazi germany to characterize u. S. Intelligence agencies, offering kind words to the russians who the Intelligence Community believe hacked the dnc and clinton campaign. Trumps Secretary Of State pick exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson possibly lying under oath at his Conf
Plus the president s latest hard right turn to try and sell trumpcare 2. 0. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. And from selling your Internet Browser history what the heck are you thinking . To rolling back protections for women. How trumps america is taking shape faster than you know. Would you like to make a change, folks . When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Amid a steady drip of news about trump worlds connections to russia and under the shadow of an unprecedented federal probe into possible collusion between a foreign adversary and the sitting president s campaign, the white house and the gop is in full change the subject mode. The scandal is not what we know, its how we know it. In a throw back to the benghazi days, theyve got a familiar scapegoat. Former National Security adviser
susan rice. I believe susan rice abused the system, and she did it for political purposes. She needs to be brought in and questioned under oath.
Today officials authorize today know. Trump supporters complaining about the source of leaks rather than the substance of the leak, jim sciutto. Reporter a source close to ambassador susan rice tells me the claims she improperly unmasked u. S. Citizens caught up in surveillance is in a word false coming from ambassador rice, but ive also spoken to Senior Intelligence officials from democratic and republican administrations to ask them about the process of unmasking. Is it unusual, illegal . And the answer is usually no, not unusual, not illegal. They say a couple of things, one the law allows it, two for it to happen the official requests,
the Intelligence Community has to approve it, it is often times approved because that official wants to provide more information as they are reading Intelligence Report they want to know more about the significance, that is shared between the briefer. Its possible that official could do that him or herself but by nature of it it is only exchanged one
Up to donald trump against torture. We have a very clear position on torture. We do not sanction torture. We do not get involved with that and will continue to be our position. And moments ago the Mexican President announcing that his meeting planned for next week with President Trump has been canceled. We are on the same page with the white house. How surprised are you every time there is a new tweet from the president . This is going to be an unconventional presidency, i think you know this by now casy. And i think we are going to see unconventional activities like tweets and thats just something we are all going to have to get used to. Good derek everyone. A busy day. Im Andrea Mitchell In Washington. President trump just arriving in philadelphia. You see Air Force One there. We are expecting his remarks to house and Senate Republicans later in this houn. He will go its about a 20 minute ride from that airport in South Philadelphia back into center city, where he is going to be meet