Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 201

Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180622

Our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 518 of the Trump Administration. Few details. Lots of confusion about how to make the president s executive order ending the separation of migrant families an actual reality. The white house would prefer the focus be on these images of the first lady showing compassion, doing some damage control admittedly a day after her husbands policy walkback. Melania trump went to mcallen, texas, today, an unannounced visit to a childrens shelter there that currently houses about 60 Migrant Children. Think of that. Most of them teenager. Her trip a clear contrast to the images and sounds of children in what appear to be cages and crying out for their parents. The same images, same sounds that made this both a humanitarian and publicity crisis. Let me begin to recognize each of you and thanking you for all what you do, for your heroic work that you do every day, and what you do for those children. Id also like to ask you how i can help to these children to reunite with their families as quickly as possible. The visit was largely uneventful and well reviewed. As you heard there, the first lady asked how she could help reunite children with their parents. Instead, though, the day will be remembered by a choice the first lady made. Her choice in jackets on an 81degree day in washington. She wore a green military jacket printed on the back was the statement i really dont care. Do u . She did not wear it to the visit at the childrens center. She did wear it getting on and off the plane and was seen wearing it on return to the white house. It has even made the cover of tomorrowary New York Post in the president s home city. When asked about the jacket, the first ladys office said, quote, its just a jacket. Theres no message. But about an hour after she returned to d. C. , the president thought differently about it and wrote on twitter, quote, i really dont care, do u . Written on the back of melanias jacket refers to the fake news media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares. But back to the central question here. Following this forced policy change, when will there be a mechanism to reunite children, including infants and toddlers with their families . An early look at next weeks new yorker magazine cover shows the profound imagery the artist barry blit shows to illustrate these family separations. Tonight the Washington Post says at least 13 states that it knows of are home to shelters for those children. Again, some as young as a few months aeld. Despite repeated requests, nbc news cameras have not been allowed inside any of the shelters around the country. The department of health and Human Services has released these new handout pictures, government controlled pictures showing conditions inside facilities in florida and virginia, and thats all we know. Immigration and the executive order were on the agenda at todays Cabinet Meeting at the white house where the president made sure to show toughness on immigration. I signed a very good executive order yesterday, but thats only limited. No matter how you cut it, it leads to separation ultimately. Im directing hhs, dhs, and doj to Work Together to keep illegal immigrant Families Together during the immigration process and to reunite these previously separated groups. Mexico, by the way, is doing nothing for us. Nothing. They have the strongest immigration laws. They can do whatever they want. They can keep people out of mexico. They have a 2,000mile journey up mexico. They walk through mexico like its walking through central park. Mexico is doing nothing for us except taking our money and sending us drugs. Meanwhile, nbc news has confirmed what was firm reported by the Washington Post, that hhs has asked the pentagon to house upwards of 20,000 Migrant Children on our military bases. Also the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to allow the government to detain migrant families for long periods of time, which brings us to attorney general jeff sessions. Here he is speaking about the separation policy today and a few months back. The American People dont like the idea that were separating families. We never really intended to do that. What we intended to do was to make sure that adults who bring children into the country are are charged with the crime theyve committed. Instead of giving that special group of adults immunity from prosecution, which is what in effect we were doing. If you dont want your child to be separated, then dont bring them across the border illegally. Its not our fault. So with the attorney general caught in a direct contradiction there, with the president telling the story his way, nothing from congress today. Speaker paul ryan has delayed a vote on a compromise immigration bill as they hunt for that magic majority number of 218, 218 votes. Lets bring in our leadoff panel, shall we, on a thursday night. Todd gillman, Washington Bureau chief for the glass morning news. He was a Pool Reporter today traveling with the first lady. Kimberly atkins, chief washington reporter for the boston herald, and peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. Welcome to you all. Lets begin with the only man among you who made the trip today. Todd, tell us about how the trip came about to your understanding. What was the stated goal of the trip, and what ended up defining the day . Well, the first ladys office told reporters traveling aboard her plane to mcallen this morning that she decided two days ago that she really wanted to see these facilities. She told her husband, and that he was supportive of it, but that it was her idea 100 . This, of course, was about two day after she went public on sunday putting out a statement saying that she was not happy about the family separations. The press was assembled very secretly yesterday for this trip that began this morning. We were told by the first ladys office that secrecy was important to protect the first lady because they didnt have time to have an advance team down there, and of course all of the federal assets were you know, they had their hands full. But there probably was another agenda that they didnt want protesters to know exactly where and when she would pop up. So the goal of it was to put a spotlight on this policy and for the first lady to see for herself what the conditions were of at least some of these Migrant Children. Kim, looking back at the first ladys day, to quote a great man, was this a case of one step up and two steps back . You know, i dont doubt that the recent images and sounds of these children moved the first lady and that she was concerned about it, and that made her go down there. I think the issue over her wardrobe, which sort of took over social media today, is perhaps a twitter troll for reporters to seize on, and so that makes me hesitant to do it. I thought the most interesting thing about the first ladys trip honestly was the statement she put out afterwards, calling for bipartisan, comprehensive Immigration Reform. She made that call to congress. She really should be making that call to her husband because the closest that congress came to tackling Immigration Reform at all, those efforts were completely torpedoed by President Trump. And now we have a congress that is again hamstrung on this issue and refuses to move chooses to renews fuse to move unless t are certainly they have a bill the president will sign. Well, no one is certain the president will do anything. So they are ceding their legislative authority to the white house. So for her after this trip to sort of place this issue on congress, democrats and republicans, i think was really puzzling when shes in the white house with the person who is in the biggest position to do something about this. Peter baker, whats to stop this story from just dragging the way it is . People are still redhot over this. At airports around the country, these kinds of flash mobs form when flights arrive that activists think might be carrying children to a shelter in their area. And of course these kids are now out there, and a lot of them are going to remain out there. A toddler cant tell you where they came from, their home address, their parents names or cell phone numbers. Yeah, no, its reminiscent of the first days of the Trump Administration when they tried to put on that travel ban on mostly majority muslim countries, and there was great confusion, a great deal of conflict, a great deal of protests as you say at the airports, sort of spontaneous people rushing to the airports to make their feelings known, to try to express solidarity with the people they saw were being targeted by these orders. And you have a situation here where the president decided yesterday to reverse course without really having decided how to do it. And theres so many Unanswered Questions today. You mentioned the report about 20,000 children potentially being housed in these military bases. We dont know yet whether that would include families or just unaccompanied minors. We dont know yet whether theyre really going to continue with the prosecutions under this zerotolerance policy that attorney general sessions put it place or not. The Justice Department says one thing. You hear a different thing from the border patrol. So they havent yet got their act together in this 24 hours since the president s order, and its left everybody pretty confused. So, todd, whats the agenda for them in the coming days . It was hard for the president rhetorically to move the bar on mexico. I think he actually succeeded today, however. It depends on which way you define the bar, but what is their plan to manage this rollout . Well, as peter says, they really dont have their act together, and i think part of the problem is that the president himself doesnt really understand how the process works. Hes very angry about illegal immigration. Hes frustrated that we have so many migrants, and its on his watch. But one of the Main Solutions to this would be to process these cases much more quickly, and that requires a lot more immigration judges. Lo and behold, there are legislative proposals to do just that, and the president has said repeated this week, i dont want judges. People want to hire thousands of judges, which is an exaggeration. But i dont want judges. I just dont want people coming to this country. Well, okay, you dont want judges, but you also want these migrants to not have to stay in detention for extended periods of time where you have children wailing, and its a terrible p. R. Problem. So i think the president probably needs to do a little bit more homework, and the people around him need to get him up to speed on what some of the nittygritty solutions are to the sub problems within this situation. Kim, i dont want people to think this is a genderbased question, but so many people are still stuck on this jacket. And i should share with our viewers, kim is a lot of things, journalist, lawyer, and on the side you have had a Fashion Design business for years in your life. So as youre talking about the jacket, im seeing it going up the air stairs at andrews, coming down the air strars at andrews. And the last photo in the sequence we showed was on the colon aid adjacent to the rose garden as the first lady was walking to the west wing where i understood she wore it in the oval office. They say in the airline business, we know you have a choice in air travel, and were so happy you chose us for your flight today. She has a choice in jackets or, say, to not wear one on an 81degree day in washington. So more than a troll, theres got to be a story here. Yeah, i agree with you in that, in the fashion industry and of course the first lady is a former model and is very aware of the fashion industry. She has stylists. There is no optic in the world of fashion that is accidental. Everything is very purposely placed. So there was a purpose for that jacket. It was not inadvertent the way her spokesperson initially said. Perhaps the president was right. Perhaps it was a message to the media. But i think whoever convinced her to do it or if it was her idea, it was a really poor way to message before going to visit children, some of whom dont know where their parents are or if they will ever see them again. So whether it was a media troll, a jab, it wasnt an accident, and it was a really unfortunate choice. And here we are of course talking about it tonight. To peter baker, who is merely a fashion enthusiast, peter, you wrote today about the hit another hit our discourse took today at the hands of the president. It was a bad day on that front. Well, you see a president who continually refers to people coming over the border illegally in terms that seem very dehumanizing. He talks about animals. He said that was just the ms13 people, but otherwise hes talked about, you know, murderers and thieves coming over to infest our country. He has routinely shown in 18 months in office that he will say things that president s just dont say. He might take the same position on some of the issues that some other president s would say. President s generally dont tend to talk in this way. He let melania be the face of compassion today except for the jacket, which seemed to contradict the message. He wanted to be seen as the face of strength, toughness. He talks tough about congress. He talks tough about mexico. He talks tough about human beings coming across the border. Thats affected our National Discourse when it comes from the top. We are at a moment where people are saying things and kosing boundaries that the president has crossed and shouted first in a way that has really influenced our national conference. To todd gillman, kimberly atkins, peter baker, our thanks for starting off our conversation after another busier than average day in the news business. Coming up for us as we approach our first break, according to the president , their policies stink. They have no ideas. They cause destruction. Well talk about the object of his fusillade of blame today. And later, the Time Magazine cover not likely to be framed and hung with pride at a frump proper trump property. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a thursday night. What might seem like a small cough to you. Can be a big bad problem that you could spread to family members, including your grandchildren babies too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough are the most at risk for severe illness. But you can help prevent this. Talk to your doctor today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough. Because dangers dont just exist in fairytales. With tripadvisor, finding your Perfect Hotel at the lowest price. Is as easy as dates, deals, done simply enter your destination and dates. And see all the hotels for your stay tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites. To show you the lowest prices. So you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. Dates, deals, done tripadvisor. Visit tripadvisor. Com wlets do it. . Come on. This summer, add a new member to the family. At the mercedesbenz summer event. Lease the glc300 for 429 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Welcome back. Lets rewind. Earlier today at a Cabinet Meeting the president lashed out at democrats on immigration, attempting to blame them for the current crisis. But he did, as youll see, leave the door open for another white house meeting with the democratic duo who have visited him before. Thats what they are. Theyre extremist, openborder democrats. The democrats are causing tremendous damage and destruction and lives by not doing something about this. This isnt Trump Administration. You look back at 2014 during the obama administration. They have pictures that were so bad. Take a look at some of the Court Rulings against the obama administration. They talked about inhumane treatment. I read them. I looked at them. Their policies stink. Theyre no good. They have no ideas. They have no nothing, the democrats. All they can do is obstruct and Stay Together and vote against and make it impossible to take care of children and families and to take care of immigration. They have to sit down. Ill be certainly im willing to do it. Ive just told you ill invite senator schumer and nancy pelosi. They can come over. They can bring whoever they want. But the lawmakers have to sit down, and they have to do something. We were given a lot of bad cards. One of the bad cards, we were given this immigration mess. Here to talk about what we just heard, robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post, moderator of Washington Week on pbs, and jeremy peters, political reporter for the new york times. Gentlemen, welcome to you both. So, jeremy, its kind of pivot, deflect, blame, find fault, keep on going. A, tougher to make an argument that the democrats can fix it when thats what you said about the last thing you fixed. And, b, is there an end game here, or is it a game of rolling grievances . I think if you look at history, brian, the end game with immigration has been the status quo for three decades now. Every Time Congress has tried to approach this issue, theyve failed miserably. Just today on capitol hill, we saw a continuation of that where republicans thought that they could put something on the floor and possibly muster enough support for it, and they had to pull it at the last minute. So i dont really see a path forward here unless you have both sides sitting down constructively talking, which is not something that has happened on any issue, let alone immigration, the most divisive of issues. I think republicans believe that they have some opening here because this issue has gotten dragged to the extremes on both en

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