baseless claims that obama wire tapped trump tower and recently blocking effort for police reforms in baltimore. that's the story at home. but the story abroad is different. trump aides say he is winning on foreign affairs, an argument undergoing intense debate as we head into this weekend there is little doubt that the thrust of the trump presidency itself did shift when he ordered the firing of those 59 tomahawk missiles at a syrian air base, a response to syria's regrettable use and possibly illegal deployment of chemical weapons against its own citizens. now that tactical decision undercut trump's own past positions, that undeniable contribution was at least initially totally overshadowed by widespread praise for president trump's military actions. not just from typical allies, but from critics in his party like lindsey graham and john mccain, and from democrats. now the presidency is a full-time job, and presidents must act regardless of what is happening at home, and even regardless how people might interpret the president's actions. but as the nation was fixating on syria, there was less focus on the big story at home that day. we'll remind you what it was. house intel chair devin nunes temporarily stepping back from the russian investigation after that ham-handed effort to launder information he got from the executive branch in a publicized briefing of the executive branch. now the strike on syria was important, no question it warranted attention. but it did not clarify the u.s. position on that syrian war. in fact that attack drew attention to how the trump administration has no clear position on basic matters like whether assad should stay or go. it did not provide a doctrine or the a plan for the u.s. role going forward. consider that dynamic as the trump administration then oversaw that other attack in a different war zone, escalating our posture, in afghanistan dropping the largest bomb ever used in a battlefield, the moab, the mother of all bombs on that isis compound. you don't need to be an expert on afghanistan policy that military force alone is not a key to succe in the region, a lesson that superpowers like russia and the u.s. have both experienced. >> thank you very much. >> did you authorize the bomb in afghanistan? >> very, very proud of people. really, another successful job. we're very, very proud of our military. just like we're proud of the folks in this room, we are so proud of our military. and it was another successful event. >> a successful event. well, that was how "fox & friends" viewed it. they were celebrating the mission like this. ♪ ♪ put your name in the top of >> that's what happens when a 21,000 pound bomb explodes in the afghanistan-pakistan region where at least 36 isis fighters have lost their life. >> so that's the background music in some people's version of this reality show. but in foreign policy circles, very few expert says the road to north korea runs through afghanistan and syria. in other words, there is no clear geostrategic reason that the u.s. appears to be escalating military disputes with these three very different countries right in the row there are strategic reasons why north korea, though, is different from those other two states. the stakes here are much higher. this country is currently celebrating the 105th anniversary of the birth of its founder, kim il sung. it's already morning there. u.s. officials do believe there is a chance north korea might use this anniversary, these proceedings we're watching to coincide with the test of another nuke, another explosive test. there have been six in the recent period. a little background. the cia considers north korea a severely mismanaged country with chronic food shortages and an unpredictable dictator, noting north korea has a history of litary provocation, wmd programs, including test of nuclear devices in '06, '09, 2013 and 2016. a mass of conventional armed forces which are a concern of the international community, and it notes the regime abides by a policy calling for the simultaneous development of its nuclear weapons program and its economy. the pentagon has announced over this week that it will divert an aircraft carrier strike group to the area. nbc as you've probably heard tonight the u.s. is preparing for a possible military response to any new missile tests, those trump officials have been disputing that. president trump also decided to address this very sticky situation in a tweet. writing "have i great confidence that china will properly deal with north korea. if they're unable to do so, the u.s. with its allies will. usa." and asked whether this bombing in afghanistan was sending a message to north korea, trump said it doesn't make a difference. >> what is your position on north korea? >> i don't know in f this sends a message. it doesn't make any difference if it does or not. north korea is a problem. the problem will be taken care of. i will say this. i think china has really been working very hard. i have really gotten to like and respect, as you know, president xi is a terrific person. we spent a lot of time together in florida. and he is a very special man. so we'll see how it goes. i think he is going to try very hard. >> we'll see how it goes. meanwhile, north korea's vice foreign minister responding to president trump's rhetoric, saying trump is always making provocations with his aggressive words, and adding we will go to war if they choose. joining me tonight for our special coverage is ambassador mark ginsburg, a former ambassador from morocco and betsy woodruff, politics reporter at the daily beast. and david horsey, a political columnist for "the los angeles times." ambassador ginsburg, are we witnessing a policy or a series of impulses? >> i think we're getting reality checks, ari. i think we're getting what essentially is the grown-ups in the white house taking charge and a consolidation of reasoned views about what doesn't work on the campaign trail and what works based on intelligence briefings and reality check that occurs in each of these theaters, whether it's north korea, whether it's afghanistan or in particularly in syria and the russians. those of us who have had great trepidation over the first 60 to 90 days of the president's term now see general mattis as well as national security adviser mcmaster and the emergence of secretary of state tillerson on the world stage. it seems that the president is now deferring to their judgment. so even if he has those unpredictable instincts to react as he did, maybe because of familial reasons to the atrocity committed or the latest atrocity committed by assad in syria. >> betsy, take a listen to a congressman on msnbc earlier today. speaking about some of the questions that have been raised, whether proven or not about the motivations here. >> i think what we have to be sure is that the president understands the implications of this kind of military action. what i fear is he sort of got a political bump from the syrian strike. the mother of all bomb strike in afghanistan. and we don't want the president to be making decisions where he just sort of thinks more bombs is the way to build up his popularity. but rather they're making decisions based on the national security interests of the united states and the long-term safety and security of the american people. >> betsy, what is your reporting tell you about that kind of concer whether it's founded? >> you know, i think there is certainly a widespread sense that the president is incredibly sensitive to optics. perhaps more than any other leader we've had in this country. he understands the power of visuals, the power of television, the power of cable news. and when his favorite cable news morning show at this point, based on the reporting is "fox & friends" when they play country music over a video showing this bomb detonating in afghanistan, of course that's going to have an impact. that said, there is a lot of confidence that allegedly cooler heads will prevail. the vice president is headed to south korea. he is arriving there on sunday. he is clearly going to have a major hand in whatever the united states decides to do, responding to whatever north korea decides to do. that said, the way the president, his affinity for bomb blasts, for theatrics, visuals, it's something really unique to him and i think it makes a lot of people quite nervous. >> your most recent cartoon, and we'll put it up on the screen speaks to this point. this is what they call on-the-job training. what's going on here? >> well, that's president xi of china can. and he is laying out the complexities of the china-korea relationship and the president is sitting back a school kid learning something new saying sheesh, you're saying this is complicated? like health care? and i think what was really interested about that encounter between the chinese president and our president was that after ten minutes of the chinese president kind of explaining to him the complexities, the president came away saying, wow, this isn't as easy as i thought. which the good part about that -- the good part is he is clearly a guy who can change his mind. the bad part is there are two things that are a little disturbing. one is that he could have figured that out from a few briefing books from the state department or from the defense department. and also, he seems ready to take the words of one of our chief rivals in the world. so it shows a little bit of new d on the block in the way he so quickly accepted this new rld. >> i don't want to be too fancy with literary terms. you were the pulitzer prize winner here on "the last word" tonight. in literature sometimes they would call that the unreliable narrater. you would want the president of the united states have narration from our own intelligence agencies, our own experts, not necessarily an adversary. >> exactly. that is part of maybe the incoherence that is starting to disappear that he brought into the white house. his chief advisers and foreign affairs were not experts. and now he has two real smart guys talking to him, the defense secretary mattis and the national security adviser mcmaster. the only problem there is they're both military guys, and i think there is an expertise bias that, you know, if they're faced with a problem as sophisticated as they are, their first impulse might be a military solution. >> you're finding the silver lining that ambassador ginsburg was also referring to. ambassador, this is what leon panetta, dod, former cia was speaking about here just how important it is to have the experts want to avoid what might be a low probability event, but what they call a low probability, high destruction which is the risk of a nuclear level conflagration. here is panetta. >> we've got to be careful here. this is -- we shouldn't engage in any precipitous action. there is a reason no u.s. president in recent history has pulled the trigger on north korea. you've got 20 million people in seoul that would be a target. we have the potential for a nuclear war that would take millions of lives. so i think we've got to exercise some care here. we've just given china the opportunity to engage. let's see how they do. >> so, ambassador, that's a former democratic foreign policy official making the point that trump was alluding to that clearly he is getting from somewhere that okay, china is the offramp for all this tension? >> well, ari, look what happened in mar-a-lago, or after mar-a-lago summit meeting. the president declares publicly after his meeting with president xi, i've offered president xi a better trade deal if he helps us solve the north korea problem. and then president went on the say but if they don't, we may have to act alone. now the fact of the matter is that in each of those three sentences, you could drive a truck through in so far of what the actual strategy needs to be. >> right. >> because in the final analysis, china is not going to do anything that is going to jeopardize the longevity of the north korean regime to accommodate a president trump. they may do -- they may lean as much as they can on north korea's propensity to explode nuclear weapons and fire off ballistic missiles. but ari, we have seen over the last ten years successive presidents receive successive assurances from beijing. >> right. >> that they have waded in and they will influence the north koreans. but you know what, ari? no matter what the chinese have done, they have not done enough or cannot do enough to alter the behavior of the regime. >> well, ambassador, a final thought quickly. tell what's you think as we put these pictures back up on the screen. 10:45 in pyongyang, these celebrations. people have seen them before. these large coordinated mass military demonstrations and the people coordinated. just give us a little color of what we're looking at. >> well, listen, this is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great granddaddy of kim jong un. this is really supposed to be one of the biggest commemorations in north korean history. and the fact of the matter is that the tyrannical and unpredictable grandson is now showing off that he is as good a leader as his grandfather is. and the fact of the matter is that those of us that -- look, i don't hold myself out to be a great expert on north korea. but when i talk to governor bill richardson, and i talk to others -- i haven't talked to dennis rodman, however. but when i talk to a lot of other folks, ari, i get the same, same view. the north koreans will fight to kim jong un's word, and they will do anything in order to preserve the regime. they've been that brainwashed. >> ambassador marc ginsburg, i appreciate your expertise, as always. betsy and david are staying with me. we're going to keep an eye on the dramatic visuals, as i mentioned. coming up, when a member of the house intelligence committee investigating russian's election interference was doing in cypress. hint, it has to do with paul manafort. also, later, trump may be on the outside in the west wing, but it seems very much alive in jeff session's justice department. we'll show you the trump administration they're keeping. we're both stuck in this cube farm and you're about to hit 'send all' on some embarrassing gas. hey, you bought gas-x®! unlike antacids, gas-x ® relieves pressure and bloating fast. huh, crisis averted. but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount does this send a message to north rea? >> ion't know if it sends a message or not. north korea is a problem. the problem will be taken care of. time's up, insufficient we're on prenatal care.es. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done. bottom line, you're confident that neither you nor anyone in the trump campaign will be convicted of a crime because of the involvement with russia? >> i -- that would be ridiculous. >> well, the trump administration has obviously been focused on foreign affairs. key figures in the investigation into trump's ties to russia are talking. carter page there speaking out about what can only be called his multifaceted role in all of this. news reports also coming out that a democrat on the house intelligence committee mike quigley just went to cypress that is notable, as you may know if you have been following this, because cyprus is coidered a key haven for moneylaundering for russian businesses. and it's also where paul manafort opened and closed over ten bank accounts. the russians laundered money to avoid sanctions over russia's seizure of crimea and other matters. that makes it front and center in this investigation. sanctions are the possible motive for collusion. sanctions are crucial for u.s. policy towards russia. they were the stick the obama administration was willing to use that is well-known and documented. but they're also important because they could be crucial to the fbi inquiry. americans who violate federal sanctions law or are involved in any kind of moneylaundering to evade that law can end up in jail. carter page says he may have discussed sanctions while he was in russia last summer. some more new reporting noting that the justice department obtained a secret court approved wiretap last summer on carter page based on evidence that he was operating as a russian agent. >> it sounds like from what you're saying it's possible you may have discussed the easing of sanctions. >> something may have come up in a conversation. i have no recollection and there is nothing specifically that i would have done that would have given people that impression, george. >> but you can't say without equivocation that you didn't discuss the easing of sanctions? >> someone may have brought it up. i have no recollection. and if it was, it was not something i was offering or that someone was asking for. >> joining me now, naveed jamali, author of "how to catch a russian spy." he worked as a double agent against russian military intelligence, as well as mikko yang, director of the national security program at third way. couldn't ask for two better people to unravel this. and naveed, i want to say this as nicely as possible without assuming anything. carter page requires some unpacking. what did you make of just that sound we played where he appears not to be able to definitively answer the sanctions question? >> i think the fact that he wants to talk but can't answer anything is at minimum troubling. look, carter page was known to the fbi and the russian connection that dates back to 2015. this 2015 case involving an actual arrest, which if you follow espionage, it's very rare that there is an actual arrest, let alone prosecution. so carter page was known to the fbi in terms of talking to russian intelligence officers for the 2015 case. and oddly enough, he was not prosecuted. he was sort of kicked loose. and fast forward to 2016, now we know that there was a fisa warrant. this is very, very odd. this is a man who clearly has a long history with russia. at least predating the trump campaign. >> i want to play another sound bite for you here of him. and, again, i want to get your response as an interrogator. this is carter page unwilling to say something simple, which is who brought him into the trump campaign. >> who brought you into the trump campaign this what did you do for them? >> you know, george, i don't talk about that because there is always these various conspiracy theories that anyone i work with -- >> but that's a pretty innocent fact, who brought you into the campaign. >> i don't want to have people's lives disrupted. >> naveed, what would you make of that if you were interrogating him? >> you know, he obviously wants to say something. he is playing an angle, it's very clear. again, he is coming in here and saying i'm just a nice guy. but i want to be involved in this conversation. but i don't want to admit to anything. it seems like he really does want to admit to something. look, he was in the nexus of 2015, fast forward to 2016. there is something here. i'm not sure exactly what his angle is. but as an interrogator, if i were sitting down with him, i think a long conversation, i think he would probably clear up quite a few of these questions. the fact that he is in this nexus is not coincidence. and i think, you know, with mr. flynn asking for immunity, his options to sort of come clean are fastly eroding. >> carter page's appearance on the campaign is a serious problem. and the real question is who brought him in. and did that person have connections to the russians. >> go ahead. >> sorry. and so i think when he doesn't say who are the higher level folks who brought him into the campaign, he is holding that back. it's the only card he has left to play. >> and, naveed, here is his former boss. someone viewer mace recognize a pretty renowned expert in foreign affairs. and this is from the guardian, in an interview basically saying they basically employed him as the most walk doodle employee of the firm in history. he was obviously very pro kremlin which wasn't obvious when he was interviewed. as a result he wasn't a good fit. that's a statement from his former boss. whack doodle would suggest folks are trying to create their distance while he is doing tv interviews. president trump reportedly very upset that carter page won't be quiet. >> look, as someone who lived with the russians and understood sort of their profile for recruiting people, when you start looking at page, when you start looking at flynn, when you start looking at manafort, it's very clear that these people most likely had connections with russia that predates the trump campaign. when you think about what is the perfect profile for someone, for a russian intelligence officer, it is someone who can be manipulated because of ego. and when i say that, look, i lived it. i know this is from my experience. when i listen to carter page, i see someone who can be manipulated by ego. and frankly, i'm not a lawyer. i have to wonder why he is going out and saying these things. it's great to hear it for tv. but, you know, i don't know that he is getting anywhere. and he is certainly not answering the core question that everyone wants to know which is how did he get into this from this nexus of russian intelligence, fast forward to 2016, how did he get on the trump campaign? it is baffling. when you have flynn and when you have manafort, again, with this old history, you have to wonder how all three got on the trump campaign. it is certainly troubling. >> ari, if i could -- >> i'll give you one sec. we live in a world where you get your news alert and oh my god, where is the news alert. any time i get the pop-up news alert that carter page has done another interview, i'm always extra interested to click in. he never disappoints in his ability, mieke. speak to that on the house intel side. what do you thank you they're looking at at this stage? >> if i were advising carter page, i would tell him just stop talking. both he and roger stone, whenever they go on conversation, they are continuously rambling on, creating a bad record for themselves and not answering any questions and giving up the impression that they are hiding something or not telling the whole truth. it really isn't helping their case at all. from the committee staff, what i'm looking at here are the financial ties between these people. manafort and stone part of the same lobbying firm. they have a whole stable full of clients who are shady characters around the world who have been involved in all kinds of sanctions of asia and black market deals involved with russian oligarchs. it really is the financial ties. and then you have to couple that a with the lack of financial disclosure by the president himself and the real questions that he hasn't cleared up there about who was paying whom and what they were trying to get for it? >> you're putting your finger on it. it's sort of like the facebook test for the trump-russia ties whom. knows whom, who brought whom in and what is questionable about that, particularly as the white house claims everybody whoever touched this was some volunteer. and then look at this, naveed in the context of the white house now saying it's not going to follow the precedent of other white houses and not release visitor logs. they claim it is because of the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. what do you think visitor logs might show given the questions about who is really important and who is talking to whom on this case, naveed? >> i think that there is two things. first is the perspective that it puts out there. i think it's not a good one. there should be transparency here. and the second part is i think there is genuine concern that the white house doesn't know what the fbi has. and because they don't know what the fbi has, they're concerned. where are they looking? look, at the end of the day, ari, this very well could be what we stumbled across on nothing more than a moneylaundering scheme. it's less and less likely. but that could be a big part of it. it could end there. i think the transparency would typically benefit the trump team, would benefit the white house, showing this information. hiding it just makes it seem like you have something to hide. this is -- this is very straight forward. and look, the financial ties, just to piggyback on what mieke said, at the end of the day, when it comes to individual recruitment, i have to take exception with the word collusion. when a foreign intelligence officer recruits you, they're not looking to collude with you, they're looking to direct you. you are in essence going to be a direct and controlled asset. financial information important. don't hide it. be transparent. you have nothing to hide, let's see what's out there. >> i will say this, though -- >> the point that carter page was making which was basically he doesn't want to feed conspiracy theories, but he doesn't want to give out information. well, the information factually might be what addresses it. mieke, go ahead, final word. >> when you're looking at counter espionage, one of the ways you establish the agency relationship is you're looking for financial ties. you're looking for some kind of quid pro quo payment there. i think it is really important that they're transparent on that. and if they're not going to be transparent, that the investigators get to the bottom of it. >> all right. as a final note, i want to take viewers behind the scenes here of tv news magic. well did have an audio problem with mieke earlier. our fault. we apologize for that. we appreciate you for joining that was the issue earlier. naveed jamali mecke kay ouyang. attorney general jeff sessions making some significant changes to president obama's justice policies. you know, it's hard to pick (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a coupe soup. 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even roger stone gave this whole split some credence. he doesn't go so far as to label the moderates democrats, but he does say they are doing well and they are establishment republicans. >> he has for whatever reason chosen to surround himself with a number of establishment republicans who i don't think really understand trumpism, don't understand the larger currents that got him elected. >> and we are back for the political panel. betsy woodruff, david horsey. also charlie pierce. writer at large for esquire magazine. what do you make of this and roger stone giving some support to the theory out there that there is some ground being lost? >> yeah, this is -- the whole thing is like somebody took the script for "game of thrones" and mixed in a few pages from "monty python and the holy grail." i'm finished trying to figure out the ins and outs. look, all white houses are crazy in their own way. but this one is -- you don't know from one minute to another whether or not the presidency is a slave to the brand or the other way around. >> well, and betsy, it also goes to who is trusted in a system where there isn't a clear ideology. roger there talking about, quote, trumpism. but unlike goldwater or reagan, i don't know that there is a ton of policy content undergirding it. so what else is it about if not relationships? >> that's certainly a good question. and i think the major plates have been jettisoned with a few key exceptions. the fact that trump has made so much warm overtures to the president of china, the fact that he won't be labeling china a currency manipulator, even though that was one of his core campaign promises. that was a definitive issue for him. that's a huge deal. that's trump abandoning something he talked about it basically every single rally on the campaign trail. and i think what's happened is that jeff sessions is sort of carrying the flame for trumpism. and that's happening down the street from the capitol over at the justice department. he is rt of hewed very closely to the trump policy while the rest of the white house seems to be jettisoning it. >> right. he is definitely trying to put some policy or content on that law and order effort which we're actually covering a little later in the show. david, on the politics here, you also have steve bannon as someone who has independent political and media power. which makes him different than other aides and advisers. breitbart was doing trump before trump. here is a reporter talking about the real risk if bannon is either sidelined or fired, and what it looks like the a base that loves breitbart. >> his approval ratings are at about 40 right now. if he kicked steve bannon out of this white house, and i'm not even going to argue policy. i'm going to say realistically, if he kicked steve bannon out of the white house, if gary cohen and dina powell continue to ascend, he is going to go down to about 20%. because he is going to lose at least i would say half the base. >> he'll take a hit. >> well, if there is one thing trump doesn't mind is a fight. and i think overriding whatever might happen with -- if bannon leaves, is that to trump, trump is him. it is whatever he says. and, you know, he is a man focused on himself in so many ways. but second in importance to him is family. and family is -- he grew up running in a family business. that's really how he understands the world, how he knows how to run things. the only guy you know is going to be around for a while is jared kushner. bannon is expendable if he is not going to play along with the president. and i think stephen miller has figured that out and has shifted his chips on the table over to the kushner side. >> charlie, there is also reporting that steve bannon's press ascendance, which we're all partly responsible for, i suppose, angered trump as well, that he doesn't want people who compete with him as part of telephone headline or the intrigue. >> i don't pticularly want a president who cares about that kind of stuff. and the fact that we're discussing at the presidential level people like steve bannon and roger stone is truly terrifying. this is like hiring a couple of kids with spray paint to run the guggenheim. how did we get to a point where these are people we're talking seriously about at this level of government? so no, i think that no celebrity likes to be outcelebritied. but i think it's a little bit disproportionate for the president of the united states to be worrying about whether or not somebody calls steve bannon president bannon on a blog somewhere. >> right. not to diminish the role of blogs in civic society. i know you write one for "esquire". >> yes. when you talk about the family winning, it's worth keeping in mind these are all positions that trump's taken that are literally illegal if he tried to put any of these family members in the cabinet or other positions. congress banned all that under federal law. and it's only this weird loophole they say they have in the adviser category. that's how out of the legal mainstream we are for sure. charlie pierce, betsy woodruff, david horsey, thanks for being on with us. appreciate it. coming up, jeff session's radical changes to the justice department. i realize that ah, that $100k is not exactly a fortune. well, a 103 yeah, 103. well, let me ask you guys. holong d it take y two to save that? 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[ music stops suddenly ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for miarritis pain, only aleve can stop pain for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. thank you. ♪ come on everybody. you can't quit, neither should your pain reliever. stay all day strong with 12 hour aleve. are you going to have a massive deportation force? >> you're going to have a deportation force. and you're going to do it humanely. they're going back where they came. they came from a certain country, they're going to be brought back to that country. that's the way it's supposed to be. >> well, foreign crises and white house infighting have been dominating the headlines, we want to report for you on the trump administration also crafting some harsh new immigration in law enforcement policies, including what looks to be a follow-on to that discussion of a deportation force. here is reporting from "the washington post." an internal department of homeland security assessment shows the agency has already found 33,000 more detention beds to house undocumented immigrants and opened discussions with dozens of local police forces that could be empowered with enforcement authority. this news comes as attorney general jeff sessions is ordering federal prosecutors to press new felony charges against undocumented immigrants who are caught at the mexican border declaring a new era of enforcement. >> this is a new era. this is the trump era. the lawlessness, the abdication of duty to enforce our laws and the catch and release policies of the past are over. >> here is how one federal prosecutor described his orders. it's f'ing horrifying. the things they want us to do are so who fight. they want to do harboring cases of three or more people. so if you're illegal and you bring your family over, you're harboring your kid and your wife, and you can go to jail for that. so far president trump has not actually deported people at a faster rate than most of the period under president obama. we want to show you thisor context. i.c.e. removed about the same number of people in january, ich was the handoff, and february, a full trump month this year, as they did in 2016. that's according to an account with the guardian. attorney general sessions has ordered the agreements that a president obama reached with local police department, including troubled areas like ferguson and baltimore to have collaborative ways to reform local policing. jeff sessions criticized those agreements as well. they're technically called consent decrees. this was in a new interview with howie carr. >> i do share your concern that these investigations and consent decrees have the -- can turn bad. they can reduce morale of the police officers. they can push back against being out on the street in a proactive way. >> it's not just talk. jeff sessions trying to block those in court. but he just lost in federal court where a judge was rejecting the trump administration's attempt to stop baltimore's consent decree. so that is a loss for trump. but 14 other consent decrees are still being enforced and still could be altered. up next, we're going dig in to the real consequences of this law and order donald trump presidency. that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise [bullfighting music] [burke] billy-goat ruffians. seen it. covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ what bad back?gels work so fast you'll ask what pulled hammy? advil liqui - gels make pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain? advil. when i take the oath of office next year, i will restore law and order to our country. believe me. believe me. in this race for the white house, i am the law and order candidate. [ cheers and applause ] >> sp joining me now, crease tina greer, and maria he willina encopier. christina, what do you think about what the doj is trying to do under sessions and how they are already hitting at least some turbulence in federal court on police reform? >> i think this just shows us the real importance of the separation of powers. we have to make sure that the courts stand as a check on some of the president's initiatives. when trump says he wants to be a law and order candidate we hear a george wallace tactic. she is trying to create this apocalyptic scenario where quote unquote illegal immigrants and essentially people of color are running the streets with guns and machetes and, et cetera. all he is doing is tapping into the baseline fears of his white supporters who really want and need to hear this as a justification for some of their feelings. so we must make sure that we pay attention not just to some of the initiatives that session is trying to put forward but really hopefully making sure that our lower level judges are really recognizing that this is not the apocalyptic scenario that trump is trying to put forth for america. yes, there are issues in particular cities and particular places in the country. this is y we aually need oversight. it's not about a few bad apples. it's about structural inequities that will be consistent in police departments across the country that have been detrimental to communities of lore and poor communities for several generations essentially. >> maria elena, the link is whether the type of reform or changes from trump will actually make the country safer. on that point here's a "new york times" report today. for more than 1:15 years jails that hold immigrants facing illegal immigrants have to check on suicidal inmates every 15 minutes, evaluate -- provide a staff member who can advocate in english. as the trump ads administration seeks to fine jail space for its crackdown on immigration it's moving the curtail these rules. what do you see that as doing in both the safety and the humanitarian context? >> we at the national immigration center is deeply concerned about the deportation that trump, sessions bannon are trying to impost in our country. as you mentioned and at the top he talked about being the law and order president. the fact is that law and order requires uniformity, consistency and it requires that our law is applied in a non-discriminatory way. what we are seeing instead is prosecutor and law enforcement deputiatized and basic due process rights being denied from people. it absolutely will make us all less safe. >> what do you say to the trump argument that these folks have violated some sort of law that in many cases there are other crimes that either have been committed or that are at risk of being committed and that this is basically a long overdue enforcement action? >> let's talk, ari, about what we are really talking about. here for the first time it is wasteful and dangerous that federal prosecutors are going to have to prioritize a worker who is working without the proper documents for example. that is not a violent offense. it is not what most people would consider a crime. yet the reason that that worker is working without papers is because we have an immigraon system that is broken by design. remember it's jeff sessions and people like him who have opposed reforming our immigration laws. >> cries tina, briefly, the last word on what you want to see going forward here? >> well, i mean, i wish that we could get jeff sessions out. he was only confirmed with 52 votes from the senate. i i think what we hopefully will see are people on a more local level, sort of district attorneys, u.s. attorneys, even though he is you know sort of their head really erpt sbing the law in a way that is much more equitable and not in this broken scenario of essentially fear mongering that the president is putting forth. >> thank you for joining me. we'll be right back. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. you are watching the last word right now. i want to tell you this sunday from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. eastern we will have another episode of the point, my special sunday coverage of the first hundred days of trump. in addition to trump international affairs we have a special report on those controversial arkansas executions. since assuming the when you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, the unpredictability of a flare may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be. but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, annew or wsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungalnfections are common d if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. raise your expectations and ask your gastroenterologist if humira may be right for you. with humira, control is possible. since assuming the presidency, donald trump has spent one out of every 2.8 days at a trump property. including of course mar-a-lago, something an arizona center was asked about in a town hall last night. >> what is your position on all the weekend trips that the president makes down to mar-a-lago? >> with regard to presidents and what they do on the weekend, i'm not going to -- [ booing ] >> not a popular position, at least with the constituents gaerds for that particular town hall. wherever the president is he has a lot on his plate this weekend. msnbc will be covering all of it. "the 11th hour" with brian williams is live starting right now. tonight, owl eyes on north korea, where it's saturday morning and pyongyang. and with tensions building, the world waits to see if kim jong-un will test another nuclear weapon. also back in washington, the trump administration guarding privacy or lacking transparency? with a policy change just revealed today. and protecting the president up and down the east coast, wherever they go. why this administration poses the largest challenge of the modern era. "the 11th hour" begins now. good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. day 85f