Lets eignite the fight over statues. You know everything. Read the book. Bobby ken by. Thats it for our broadcast. Brian williams and everyone here will be back. Thank you from all much us. Good night. Tonight on all in. This morning the president launched into a argument with Chuck Schumer. In the wake of an atrocity. Why was he so quick to go the political route and point fingers at Chuck Schumer . President trump attacks democrats and the american Justice System. What we have right now is a joke. And its a laughing stock. Tonight, how the trump response changes depending on the attacker. I dont want to go quicker and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. Then, new reporting that a panicked president is blaming his soninlaw. Come here, jared. New questions about what Jeff Sessions knew about russian collusion. Im not aware that anyone else did. What the president knew about it . Nobody that i knew of. And what Robert Mueller will find in the president s taxes. I have no deals with russia. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. One month ago tonight, a White American man with more than 20 guns shot almost 600 people at a concert in las vegas, killing 58 of them and then himself. It was the worst Mass Shooting in modern American History and the single deadliest attack on american soil since 9 11. At the time, the white house scolded anyone suggesting maybe something could be done about guns in this country, the weapons he used to carry that out, accusing them of politicizing a tragedy and getting ahead of the facts. It just wasnt the time for that. Needless to say, a month later the president still has yet to offer a single policy solution. Today, though, just about 18 hours after a Terrorist Attack here in new york city in which an Uzbek National in a pickup truck mowed down cyclists and pedestrians in a bike path
leaving eight dead, the president was blaming the u. S. Senator from new york. He also tweeted about isis and his socalled Extreme Investigating program. He blamed the attack on the American Immigration system and then the entire Justice System of the United States of america. Its part of a longstanding pattern of amplifying and weaponizing acts of violence committed by muslims, while other kinds of violence, especially by White Nonmuslims are held at arms length. The president of the United States has access to the best information from Law Enforcement on their ongoing investigation, far beyond whats available to the public, but instead hes getting his updates from fox friends. Parroting an unconfirmed report the green card holder entered under a program allegedly pushed by democrats. We are here, brian, precisely because of the neglect, political neglect of the last administration. Senator Chuck Schumer importing helping import europes problems. We dont want that. That was this morning. Minutes later, the president tweeted Chuck Schumer helping to import europes problems, said colonel tony shaffer. We will stop this craziness. foxandfriends. The president gets his news from fox news. The rest of us get it from Law Enforcement. The attacker had been planning the attack for weeks. He was charged in Federal Court today with giving Material Support to isis. Also today, authorities released the identities of all eight victims who died in that attack who ranged in age from 23 to 48 years old. Five were from argentina, one from belgium. The other two were locals from new york and new jersey. The argentinians were part of a group celebrating the 30th Anniversary of their high school graduation, seen here enjoying the bike path in the moments before they were mowed down. At a Cabinet Meeting today after offering a brief tribute to those victims, the president pivoted to pushing his longstanding immigration goals. We should note that the man responsible for that bombing in chelsea in Lower Manhattan last year was just convicted in Federal Court two weeks ago using the normal constitutional use of criminal procedure. He was prosecuted by the same office that just charged saipov for yesterdays attack. A year ago while the manhunt for the chelsea bomber was still under way, then candidate trump seized the moment to tweet about refugees. He had a similar reaction this past september calling out police in the midst of their investigation. Another attack in london by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people in the sight of scotland yard. Must be proactive. There was his unforgettable response to the pulse nightclub massacre, which was until las vegas, the deadliest Mass Shooting in modern u. S. History. Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical islamic terrorism. I dont want congrats. I want toughness and vigilance. We must be smart. Of course it was just five days after the 2015 attack at San Bernardino that the man who is now president called to ban an
talk about gun policy. But here he can go off half cocked and talk about Immigration Policy when it probably has nothing to do with immigration. He just use the culture wars and any excuse he gets to rally his base. One of the things, if you were talking intelligently, you would ask him why he recommended greatly cutting down the counterterrorism budget, Counterterrorism Funds in his budget. Now, the fact is that saipov immigrated to this country seven years ago. He was vetted by all accounts, there was nothing particularly dangerous about him. Now he probably, in recent years, got radicalized by social media while he was here, as weve seen in other cases. Immigration has nothing to do with that, but its a good Talking Point for the president. Do you what do you want to say to the president if he were to call you after this . It took him a while to call the mayor, it took him a while to call the governor. Has he reached out to you . No, he has not reached out to me and i dont expect him to. What would you say to him if he said congressman, i want to send my condolences, what would you tell him. Id say thank you for your condolences and the best thing you can do is stop talking about irrelevancies. Instead, restore the Counterterrorism Funds so the new York City Police and the fbi can do their jobs more effectively. Dont cut down the Counterterrorism Funds while youre talking about terror. Id also say dont demagogue about the criminal Justice System. The fact of the matter is he was, as you pointed out, the chelsea bomber is already convicted. A regular court in new york, a Federal Court will mete very harsh justice to someone who does this. I want to play for you,
because its not just the president sort of considered guantanamo, there are other republicans considered antitrump like john mccain and Lindsey Graham who are also calling for this person to not go through the normal constitutional and criminal procedures as he has been charged today. I dont i dont understand why some of our republican colleagues do not trust the american Justice System. It has been a very good and effective system. It has tried People Fairly and rapidly and given them the sentences they deserve. By contrast, Khalid Sheikh mohammed who was involved in the 9 11 attack is still awaiting trial by military commission in guantanamo. If you want a 20year delay, send someone to guantanamo. If you want effective and swift justice, Federal Courts and state courts in new york can handle that very well. I should note that the Guantanamo System is such a mess that today a judge ordered a marine general acting as a Defense Attorney in guantanamo to serve a 21day sentence because things are blowing up sebrina, you can tell the folks in there in the white house let me ask you this. As someone who is in the white house, is the difference between how he reacts to different events, different atrocities, apparent and palpable in that white house . Oh, absolutely. And i think you have seen this time and again where any time the suspect is someone is a brownskinned individual or has a muslim name, the president is quick to react and call for sweeping policies, whether its his travel ban or more coded language referring to extreme investigate. If its a white male born and raised in the u. S. Who is the perpetrator of a Mass Shooting, its too soon to politicize the event or to call for any sort of policy response. I think, look, what we know is that this is a president who is trying to meet a few key goals with respect to immigration. And really its to slash Legal Immigration as well as to try to limit immigration from muslim majority countries. So he thinks that this somehow reaffirms that objective, when in fact none of what he has proposed would have prevented this incident from taking place because uzbekistan was not on any of the Travel Ban Iterations that he put forward. This is someone who came in through this Lottery Program seven years ago, and so he only recently may have been radicalized and that would not have come up when he was being considered for that program. We should also note whats called the Diversity Lottery is a vestige of a law signed by george w. Bush which was proposed to be scrapped by the folks that tried to the gang of eight bill signed. If Immigration Reform had been signed, which was spearheaded by Chuck Schumer himself, it would not exist anymore. The thing you said something, rick, that struck with me. Weve seen the politics of
terror work on behalf of republicans before, definitely worked for george w. Bush. And part of it is because it allowed people that werent in the political collision, they felt scared and that fear could be marshalled and used to expand the political coalition. What strikes me is the way he handles this isnt pitched to anyone who isnt already in the political coalition. Right, no. This is a guy who cannot who Cannot Operate Outside of the Cheer Section that exists for him. Its the Comment Section of various, you know, kook right websites that he looks to and its the fox friends, you know, theyre feeding him a steady drip every morning of adoration and approval. And so, you know, he cant he cant bring himself to understand anyone outside of the coalition that supports him. And anyone outside in the vast majority of americans who look at an event like yesterday and recoil at how horrifying it is and want to come to solutions
and want to praise new yorkers for being resilient. Look, i worked for Rudy Giuliani in new york, and so i understand the sort of Reflex Action by people in the city of new york. They look at things like this and they shake it off and push it in the background and get on with their lives, its what they do. And donald trump taking this guy, as tragic and horrible as this is, and trying to get back and use this as a way to undo his multiple failings on this immigration ban, you know, it speaks very much to the fact that he doesnt have anything outside his base. There is no there, there beyond the folks that wake up in the morning and believe that fox news fox friends is the word from the prophet on the mountain. And its not just that, sabrina, what i found unnerving this morning, the president
seemed to be getting his information from fox news. Its not just that he is speaking to those people, it goes two ways. It really seems like he wants to know what happened in Lower Manhattan yesterday, hes clicking On Fox Friends and thats the source of the information of the president of the United States. Certainly it was fox friends that was the source apparently of this information and even if you say that hes the president , he has access to classified material, he is then choosing, as we have seen before, to disseminate this on twitter, without much thought for the ramifications or the fact that u. S. Authorities havent actually weighed in. Just one quick thing rick hit upon the fact that this is really about triggering Pressure Points within his base. And i think that even the fact that he would mention the prospect of sending this individual to guantanamo, thats rooted in him knowing that that is really something that in the eyes of the base projects this aura of toughness, when if youre just looking at it from a substantive standpoint, some of the conspirators for 9 11 havent even received a start date for their trial. So you have Federal Courts that
by contrast have convicted and sentenced well over a dozen terrorists at the same time. So that is a key point also worth mentioning. Sabrina and rick, thank you. Thanks, chris. As the Mueller Investigation goes inside the west wing, trump is attacking Jared Kushner . Plus, new questions about what Jeff Sessions really knew when he testified under oath. Thats in two minutes. Attorney general Jeff Sessions. He was, of course, present at a march 2016 meeting with Campaign Aide george papadopoulos, who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contact with kremlin proxies. And that was the meeting when papadopoulos said he proposed arranging a meeting between trump and russian president Vladimir Putin. According to a former Campaign Aide who spoke to the New York Times, mr. Sessions, as the campaigns Top National Security official, spoke vehemently against the idea asking others not to discuss it again, which may or may not be true, but its hard to think that he forgot about that whole thing when he repeatedly denied any knowledge of any possible Campaign Communications with russia. Senator franken, im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians. And im unable to comment on it. Further, i have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump Campaign. You dont believe that surrogates from the Trump Campaign had communications with the russians . Is that what youre saying . I did not and im not aware of anyone else that did. And i dont believe it happened. And you dont believe it now . I dont believe it happened. Congressman Eric Swalwell is a member of the house intelligence committee. He joins me now. The Attorney General said im not aware of anybody who did but he was in a meeting that we now know from a filing in court signed by the person in question as part of a plea that he said in that meeting that sessions was in, i think i can arrange for a meeting with Vladimir Putin and donald trump. What do you make of that . Chris, good evening. And first, you know, our hearts are with you in new york and the victims there. What i make of that, chris, is that this is a theme that we have seen from donald trump, his son, Jared Kushner, Attorney General sessions, and just about everyone at the highest level is that they have failed to
acknowledge meetings with russians, only when confronted by you or other folks in the press or congressional investigators with contradicting evidence do they finally come around or say that i fail to recall. Also, i think whats also important from the Papadopoulos Stipulation of facts is this theme now of getting dirt on Hillary Clintons emails. That also now has come up in so many different contexts. And so i think that, again, it looks like Attorney General sessions was not forthcoming. Thi