Lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax. The two women who accused him said theyre willing to testify at impeachment proceedings. The woman who accuses him in 2000 says shell provide evidence. Fairfax denies the allegations saying the encounters were consensual. Hes refusing to step down and is calling for an investigation including from the fbi. Another major story today. Democratic members of congress visiting the border ahead of President Trumps rally in el paso, texas, tomorrow. Theyre trying to counter the president s narrative that theres a National Security crisis at the border. Its frustrating to know that we are being painted as a dangerous place meant to be controlled. We also know that we need an agency that will continuously adapt to changing threats and circumstances and thats why you have to look at the border on a milebymile base zblis it is a mix of policies that will make our communities safe, our border secure. Also developing today, the crowded field of 2020 democratic president ial hopefuls will have another addition. This afternoon senator Amy Klobuchar is expected to formally announce she is running. Yesterday senator Elizabeth Warren launched her bid calling for big structural change and underlying her trademark message against economic inequality. When i talk about this some rich guy screamed, class warfare. These same rich guys have been wagging class warfare against hard working people for decades. I say its time to fight back. Now lets delve more into the scandals that have engulfed virginias top three leaders. The governor of virginia is now pledging to fight racial inequality after admitting he wore black face in 1984. Embattled Governor Ralph Northam telling the Washington Post he plans to spend the rest of his term facing racial inequity. Virginians divided on his future. The governor needs to resign. He should be given a chance. But the pressure is mounting on Lieutenant GovernorJustin Fairfax as he confronts another Sexual Assault allegation. Meredith watson said fairfax raped her when they were both students at Duke University in 2000. In a statement watson describes the attack as premeditated and aggressive. That charge comes after dr. Vanessa tyson accused fairfax of sexually assaulting her in 2004. Fairfax fighting back saying it is demonstrably false. I have never forced myself on anyone ever. Fairfax defiant hours before watsons allegation became known. Do you support investigation into the allegation against you, sir. We will have our say and i am confident in the truth. Prominent democrats now lining up to insist he step down. As a Virginia State delegate piles on. On monday i intend to introduce articles of impea impeachment on Lieutenant GovernorJustin Fairfax. Still hanging on, Virginia Attorney general mark harry who like northam admitted to wearing black face in the 1980s but has won some support for his admission and apology. Virginias top three official afls swept up by separate scandals but still on the job. Joining me now, msnbc contributor matt opuzo with the New York Times and dave leventhal. Thank you both, gentlemen, for joining us this morning. Lets begin with virginia Governor Ralph Northam who told the Washington Post that an africanamerican lawmaker made a post about a privilege. Matt, isnt he reflecting the ee p epitome of White Privilege . This cant be good for anyone. This whole issue both with the black face scandal and then obviously with the rape allegations against the Lieutenant Governor, its just sort of crisis among crisis. The Lieutenant Governor issue is particularly interesting for somebody like me because the fbi, this call for an fbi investigation, the fbi is not going to be thrilled about being pulled into this political fray because, frankly, these investigations, even if the fbi comes in and does an investigation, lets say hypothetically they cant bring criminal charges, that doesnt mean necessarily it didnt happen and the fbi isnt going to want to be in a position where theyre putting their stamp of approval on a political candidate. Its just fraught on so many different levels. A new poll by the Washington Post and George Mason University in virginia found that virginians are split on whether Governor Northam should step down but 58 of africanamerican virginians said he should not resign. How do you interpret this poll given that 87 of black voters support Governor Northam . A lot of democrats dont want a republican governor. The top three officials in virginia right now all democrats are all embroiled in their own scand scandal. If they go, you could have a republican serving as governor. Thats what they want to avoid. The question is, where do we go from this point . If Governor Northam is dug in and the Lieutenant Governor is dug in, where do they go . Theres an odd recall process . Its not a recall election per se like we saw for example in wisconsin a few years ago. It could prompt a trial that would happen if the people of virginia want to go and 10 of them say, no, we want the governor out, we want the Lieutenant Governor out. Thats a big question. Nobody is calling for that in earnest but it is an option on the table. Chaos there in virginia. Lets talk about the border now. President trump is going to be holding a rally in el paso, texas now. Lets hear what the president had to say during the state of the union. The border city of el paso, texas, used to have extremely high rates of Violent Crime. Now immediately upon its building with a powerful barrier in place el paso is one of the safest cities. Democratic representative Veronica Escobar sent a letter to the president asking him to apologize. She said el paso has been one of the safest cities way before there was a border barrier. Matt, are democrats breaking through this barrier . Yeah. I mean, i think the issue about Border Security and el paso is said best from my colleagues who fact checked his state of the Union Address who say his claims against el paso are false, demonstrably about the crime rate. El paso was never one of the sort of most Violent Crime ridden cities prewall, preborder issue or since. I think, look, the president obviously got into office in large part because of his hard line stance on immigration. I couldnt see any reason why that kind of rhetoric is going to stop. He obviously thinks this is going to be a winner. Hes boxed hem self in in washington. He doesnt want to have another shutdown. This is not a winner of an issue among democrats obviously and i think were going to find out how far can he move on this still claim victory and still not lose the middle that hes going to need if hes going to be reelected. Beyond the empirical evidence weve seen anecdotally and i can tell you i was born and raised in el paso. Its always been one of the safest cities before that wall got built in started construction 2006, completed in 2008. But tomorrow that discussion will continue. Now lets talk about another el pasoan. Beto orourke. Lets listen to beto making that announcement sitting alongside his daughter. We will meet lies and hate with the truth and a vision for the future from the u. S. mexico border. Molly, do we have some information on this . Here we go. March for truth. We know what beto and molly think, dave. Which side seems to be driving the discussion . Both of them are doing their best but really what its going to come down this week, whos going to have the upper hand when it comes to whether the government is going to shut down so we can talk about the existential issue of security on the southern border, but we have a major faceoff thats going on between congress and the president. Congress is angling towards a deal thats not going to give donald trump everything that he wants. The question now then becomes is donald trump going to shut down the government again . Is he willing to do so or is he going to take another option, which is the lets declare a National Emergency option . Which many republicans in his own party would be aghast at. They feel that would be president ial over reach and would be setting a precedent for a democrat the next time a democrat is president to do something similar with a different issue. So weve got a lot of drama happening yet again. Happy ground hog day here in washington, d. C. Later today, senator Amy Klobuchar is going to be joining the 2020 field of candidates. There was a great story in the times about how the democrats dont agree on anything except theyre very, very sorry. Everybodys in the race so far ends up being apologized or accused of something. Its going to be a crowded field. Its going to be a long election campaign. They get longer and longer. You said it best at the top when you said how is anybody going to stand out here . I dont know the answer. I dont know the route that klobuchar is going to need to take to stand out from a crowded field. I think frankly you dont want to come right out of the gates with allegations like this. Thats no good. But its a long its a long road before the primaries. Its a long road before the general election and i think a lot can change. Dave, what do you think . How do you think Amy Klobuchar will stand out from the rest of the pack . Youre going to have to figure out some three tiered debate staining that all the 15, 20 candidates are going to be on when all is said and done. Shes somebody who has on the one handmade her reputation on being minnesota nice. Somebody whos a very engaging personality. Very popular in her home state of minnesota. Weve had some articles that come out that say, well, theres another side to this. In fact, with her staff shes quite mean. But the fact of the matter is that she among many, many other candidates are going to have to find some way to differentiate themselves, which is going to be something thats very difficult to do in this early going. Before they can introduce themselves to all of america save for bernie sanders, joe biden, beto orourke, people that have name i. D. , it is going to be a slog. This is the longest Democratic Campaign youll have for president of the United States. What about senator Elizabeth Warren . She had this to say about President Trump . How do you think warren stacks up against all the rest that have announced their candidacy as well as how do you think shes going to stack up against President Trump . Shes obviously trying to seize the mantle of being the progressive candidate and is trying to take all the oxygen out of that part of the conversation, right . When you think of the kind of progressive, you know, the left left part of the left wing, you know, she wants you to be thinking of her. You know, talking about, as she did, class warfare. She seems to be saying, bring it on. Lets have that debate. Ill deal with that being accused of class warfare. If she can make that conversation about economics and fairness, i think that plays to her strength. I think democrats obviously are going to have to figure out whether they want to be a Progressive Party going into 2020 or whether they want to go the big ten strategy and nominate somebody whos more of a centrist. A lot to shake out. Matt apuzzo. David leventhal, thank you for joining us. Coming up, taking on the king of tabloids. Does the richest man in the world have a case against the National Inquirer . And 1 in Network Quality according to jd power. Were proud to be the only network to win in all four major awards not because of what it says about us, but what it means for every one of our customers. If you havent experienced americas most reliable network, nows the best time. Because youll get apple music, on us. Dealing with your insurance can be frustrating. Lets be honest but with esurance, just snap some pics and you could get back on the road fast well, not that fast. This editor made this commercial fit in 15 seconds. When insurance is simple, its surprisingly painless. And i dont add trup the years. S. But what i do count on. Is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Boost® high protein. Be up for life. clapping every day, visionaries are creating the future. so, every day, we put our latest technology and vast expertise to work. the United StatesPostal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, affordably and ontime. ringing the future only happens with people who really know how to deliver it. The future only happens prestige creams not living up to the hype . One jar shatters the competition. Olay regenerist hydrates skin better than creams costing over 100, 200, and even 400. Fact check this ad in good housekeeping. Olay. New developments this morning as federal prosecutors look into whether ami and the National Inquirer committed a federal crime by violating its nonprosecution deal in the Michael Cohen investigation. It comes after jeff bezos published threats by the tabloid accusing them of extorsion and black mail. Joining me is former federal prosecutor doug burns. Ami said they believe it acted lawfully. It was a good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him. Do you think this conduct, from what we know, fits into the category of federal extorsion . Lets talk about what extorsion is real quick. Its threatening either physical harm or harm to reputation in return be for most often money or a thing of value. It doesnt have to be money. The normal iteration is if you dont pay me 10,000, im going to publish these pictures. Here its if you dont step forward and not investigate this or step forward and say its not political, you know, were going to publish these photos. So you have the elements. In other words, the threat to harm jeff bezoss reputation and then you have the quit pro quid pro quo. In the case of money, Law Enforcement will come in, you slo shore it up. You have the preliminary outlines of it but im not so sure Law Enforcement is going to find that at this stage with nothing more. You know, theyre going to engage in a prosecutorial decision to prosecute the case. There are other aspects, Public Relations and so on. Its important to remember that ami is already under a nonprosecution agreement with the Southern District of new york. Isnt that a breach of contract . Thats a great point and im glad you raised it. Let me get into that. Normally when somebody enters into one of these nonpros agreements, ive seen them, they have to go nonlegal, keep it simple, on their best behavior for lack of a better description. Here its surprising indeed, working off your point, that they would turn around and engage in what i started by describing as, you know, debatable legal extorsion conduct. Why in the world would they do that . And i think the answer lurks in the fact that they were extremely concerned perhaps as to what was going to come out about sort of another really important issue in this fact pattern, which is how did they obtain these photos in the first place . Because, by the way, that may be criminal conduct even more serious than this skeleton extorsion stuff. I mean, thats a serious matter, how they obtained those in the first place. Do you think the deal is now completely off the snabl could they be prosecuted here . Again, thats the second part of it. In other words, if you enter a nonpros agreement that says youre not going to engage in any criminal conduct, the prosecutors deem that they have, they could void that agreement. I dont think youre there yet necessarily. At the same time, im hearing Law Enforcement is looking into the matter. The u. S. Attorneys office is going to take a look and say, well, wait a minute. Did they breach this. Crystal ball, i dont think theyll necessarily be prosecuted on the election for that matter. Then theres the other fascinating angle here. What do you make of bezoss claim that there could be a saudi connection here . Thats extremely interesting. I was looking at that and looking at the way people were approaching it. Most of the quotes that i saw were, you know, somewhat guarded, not wanting to commit too much to it but at the same time i definitely think youre on to something, phillip. I think thats another reason why, you know, again, we lawyers, its like sherlock who will ms. We look at something and say, why did this happen . The reality is they must be worried about something. I think your last question sort of highlights that. Im in no position to comment blornt i think there is a saudi angle or connection. Still a lot to be shakd out here. We have an affair involving the richest man in the world, saudi connection, the whole political angle. Do you go burns, thank you so much for joining us early on sunday morning. My pleasure. T