she s the secretary. why is kirsten nielsen getting flown in from new orleans? it seems like secretary nielsen is about to be the public face of this contentious policy. this morning in new orleans she acknowledged it was something the white house was doing. do they think we re idiots? i m asking. how d they go out and own all sides of the issue, say, this policy doesn t exist, oh, but we are doing this policy that we re going to blame the democrats for it, oh, it s working. do they think we re dumb? whether they think we re dumb or idiots, they want to muddy the waters. this is what they do. the biggest offender is president donald trump, who, again, we see him pushing the idea it s the democrats, the democrats. he s playing solely to his base. he s playing to those watching on fox news. he s playing to those who are inclined to believe him despite what the actual facts are. and this is a bridge too far for a lot of even moderate republicans. right now they re coming out
president is going to own his own policy, for better or worse, think again. what s happening is so sad. it s so sad. when i say it s very strongly the democrats fault. you just heard the administration defend the policy then in the same breath blame democrats for it and call it sad. so it only makes sense the administration won t change this sad policy brought to you by the democrats unless they get a wall? we do not want to separate parents from their children. you can be sure of that. if we build a wall, we pass some legislation, we close some loopholes, we won t face these terrible choices. the numbers will end. i hate it. i hate to see separation of parents and children. we need a wall. we need border security. we have to get rid of catch and release. perhaps only fitting the
good evening. i m katy tur in for chuck todd. we begin with breaking news. kirsten nielsen will be speaking to reporters about the trump administration s zero-tolerance policy at the border. once she comes to the podium, we might abrupt lly stop what we r doing, so bear with us. it is a policy that s received intense and escalating criticism from democrats and republicans, independents, psychologists, human rights watch dogs, you name it, for breaking up families. we ve even heard some democrats calling for secretary nielsen to resign. we ll take you the this briefing when it begins. the trump administration is touting that policy while also decrying it. in fact, the trump administration is touting it, decrying it, taking credit for it, blaming democrats for it, calling it a bargaining chip, and denying it exists all together. we ve soon this policy slammed
put out a statement today that this fake news was fake news. somebody would say of course he s going to say that. i respect the fact that he said that. trumps praise for putin had its limits. in a response to a question from fox news. as far as hacking, i think it was russia. trump pledged the relationship with putin will be very different. he shouldn t be doing it. he won t be doing it. russia will have much greater respect for our country when i m leaving it then when other people have led it. i want to be given a reset button like hillary. trumps attorneys announced he would place all of his assets into a trust but not a blind trust because that wouldn t work. president trump can t un-know
yourself on television. cameras all over the place. does anyone really believe that story? i m also very much of a germaphobe by the way. believe me. can you stand here today once and for all and say that no one connected to you or your campaign had any contact with russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign and if you do indeed do believe that russia was behind the hacking, what is your message to vladimir putin right now? he shouldn t be doing it. he won t be doing it. russia will have much greater respect for our country when i m leading than when other people have led it. you will see that. russia will have far greater respect for our country when i m leading it, and i believe, and i hope, maybe it won t happen, it s possible. but i won t be given a little reset button like hillary. press that piece of plastic. the guy looked at her like what is she doing. trump did eventually answer no to that question on his way