>> hello, rachel. i'm not sure what i'm more disturbed by. an excellent catch on your part, questions of money laundering or the handmaiden's tale of doing, seizing control of pregnant teenagers and young women and bodily trying to force them to give birth and scary. >> reading the legal rational, kudos to the aclu getting that memo in public circulation to see the rational by which they explain what they're doing and basically saying we're stopping these young women from getting the abortions that they want and that they're legally entitled because we think we can and because we think we ought to. >> yeah. >> and, you know, when you have power over people you can compel them and in this case this hhs office does. trump put somebody in charge of the office of refugee resettlement who never worked on refugees and resettlements and this is now how he's using the power. >> amazing. the small ways at the trump administration's managing to change this country little by little and the direction of, you know, fundamentalism and extremism and so busy paying attention to the big ways of russia that goes under the radar. >> appreciate it, my friend. >> okay. thank you. the walls, meanwhile, closing in on the president of the united states and donald trump's party's reacting to that reality with hysteria. it's increasingly clear that congressional republicans including members of key investigative committees will do literally anything to save donald trump from robert mueller's investigation. including attempting to smear and delegitimatize the special counsel and federal law enforcement. extraordinary position of the law and order republican party. consider the trump defense that is we have heard from republicans and their partners in state media just this week. there's the baseless charge of the russia probe is in a coup. there are complaints of mueller's team out to get the president. there's even a fox news contributor suggesting that the fbi may have been planning to assassinate trump. republicans know the president is in trouble and he must be defended at all costs. we have even see the creation of a modern day committee to protect the president. politico reports that congressman nunez, a man supposedly recused from the russia investigation because of his role in the trump campaign and transition, is leading a covert group of republicans investigating justice department officials. according to politico, a group of house republicans has gathered secretly for weeks in the capitol in an effort to build a case that senior leaders of the justice department and fbi improperly and perhaps criminally mishandled the contents of a dossier that described alleged ties of president trump and russia. the people familiar with the plan said the goal to highlight what some committee republicans see as corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement. republican lawmakers have called deputy fbi director andrew mccabe to capitol hill twice this week for closed door interviews about interactions with former fbi director james comey. the ranking democrat on the house oversight committee elijah cummings said republicans were trying to cast doubt on the impartiality of the fbi. >> are you concerned about this hearing today? >> we have less than 48 hours notice. as a matter of fact, at the same time that mr. gowdy grilling mccabe and the intelligence committee, they sent the notice out for this. certainly this is an effort to discredit the fbi. we have a situation here where whenever it seems as if mueller's getting closer and closer to the white house, seem that is we are distracted to something else. so now they're reached into their book of tricks and now they're pulling this out today. >> indeed. when in doubt, republicans play the hits. taking a page from the trey gowdy play book, nbc news reporting that the trump justice department is once again looking into hillary clinton. this time, over her role in the right's favorite conspiracy deal. on the orders of jeffrey sessions, justice department prosecutors have begun asking fbi agents to explain the evidence they found in a now dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to bill and hillary clinton multiple law enforcement officials told nbc news. now, i did debunk the story a couple of months ago on my show. take a look. >> what you are talking about is a deal that nine members approved unanimous. none was hillary clinton a. donor gave hillary clinton donations when she was not secretary of state. the two things cross in the night. they have no relation to each other. the members of ciphus is clear. she would have had to strong arm eight other people to approve the deal and the president of the united states to intervene if they saw any problem. the people say now if that deal came before them today they would approve it unanimous and nothing about the deal controversial. the only reason we are talking about it is because per your admission which is honest, the rnc would like us to talk about this now. >> here's what it comes down to. uranium-1, the controversy, was the exclusive product of the book clinton cash. a supposed clinton expose published by a breitbart ceo. that breitbart editor claimed that there was a quid pro quo that fact checkers say doesn't exist. the rue rain yum-1 deal was approved by eight federal agencies besides the clinton state department. hillary clinton's role was minimal. plus, the deal also had the approval of the republican then govern nor of utah jon huntsman. now trump's ambassador to russia. awkward. this is about the president sensing trouble. democrats are not taking this republican gambit lightly. today, 171 democratic members of congress signed a letter in support of robert mueller's investigation saying they won't stand by if republicans try to interfere. >> we have decided we will not stand by and allow fox news and right wing republicans to defy of rule of law and create their own rules to interfere with the legitimate investigation under the constitution of the united states. >> joining us now are eric balloter and jonathan capehart. eric, you were at the table not getting in a word edgewise and this deal keeps coming back. a favorite of republicans. >> right. >> is there evidence that there's coordination that republican lawmakers are coordinating with republican members of -- what you could call state media to bring it back up? >> absolutely. this is the playbook. this is what they always do. uranium-1 produced by breitbart. "the new york times" got a chunk out of it. they thought they'd do a deal with bannon empty campaign. not a good idea. you know, i was joking on twitter. who remembers uranium-1? that was the hysteria of november and then the fbi. taking a couple steps back, you are talking about jaw dropping and breath taking. this is a palace guard essentially the republican party has now decided to construct wall after wall after wall around trump. it is not just uranium-1. it's deputy mccabe. it's mueller. comey. they just building wall after wall. and it's elijah cummings said, this is the benghazi approach. right? elijah cummings counts six committees investigating the fbi, investigating the investigators. this is not by chance. there's nothing there. they haven't proven anything. this is a corrupt and dangerous and kind of treasonist way to deal with law enforcement. nobody say it is doj can't be criticized. that is party that will smear anyone to protect trump. and again, it's the benghazi kitchen sink approach. if it's uranium-1 today, fine. penal forg people forget about that. the dossier, mueller. it is endless. >> yeah. >> they're using the gears of the federal government to try to stop another investigation. it's unprecedented. richard nixon never had anything like this. >> he wished he did and what he would have dreamed of. jonathan, you have donald trump signaling, signals what he wants republicans to do and then they do it. donald trump back in early november calling for an investigation of his political rivals, something that they do usually in tin pot dictatorships. >> right. >> prosecute the rivals. everyone's asking by the justice department and fbi isn't looking into the dishonesty of crooked hillary and the dems. they must do what's right and proper. americans deserve it. jeff sessions on the outs with donald trump and there is evidence at least circumstantial evidence that the pressure on sessions to be in the good graces prompting him to undo the recusal. sessions said he would recuse himself not just from russia-gate and any investigation of hillary clinton. i believe the proper thing for me to do he said would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kinds of investigations that involve secretary clinton. well, now, it appears that he's doing just that. >> i think, eric, you have a column pointing out the fact that sessions has done that, gone back on what he told congress he wouldn't do. undertake any investigation into hillary clinton. you know, when i interviewed hillary -- secretary clinton for my podcast, she said, whenever the president gets into trouble with russia, he always attacks president obama, me, meaning her, secretary clinton, and african-americans. and what we see right now is president trump going after hillary clinton consistently to throw smoke up to distract the american people from what's going on. but i'm going to take issue -- just a little issue with what eric said. this is not the republican party, just the republican party creating obstacles in the way. we have to be very focused on what's happening here. it's the republican party writ large but it's the republican-controlled congress. nixon couldn't get away with what he got away with because congress took its job as a check on the executive seriously and what makes this situation so dangerous is that congress is working -- seems to be working hand in glove with the executive. if congress is not a check on the executive, then republicans who constantly talk about unchecked executive power are giving unchecked executive power to the executive right now as we speak. >> making donald trump above the law. i want to play jeff sessions at his confirmation hearing saying to recuse himself from clinton investigations. take a listen. >> i believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve secretary clinton. >> you intend to recuse yourself from both the clinton e-mail investigation and any matters involving the clinton foundation if there are any? >> yes. >> okay. and then here is sarah huckabee sanders for donald trump saying that trump did not push jeff sessions to investigate this uranium-1 deal. >> do you know -- >> about that -- >> did jeff sessions do that or encourage him? >> the president wouldn't have directed him to do that. that i'm sure of. whether or not they have talked about it, i'm not sure. >> even if donald trump didn't directly say to jeff sessions i want you to investigate this, isn't it a clear signal -- you need to do this? >> his department is under complete siege and he will not stick up for the doj, the fbi. no one there will go to congress and read them the riot act when they spend every judiciary hearing smearing the fbi so if -- he's not going to stand up to him so i think he'll say, i'll do this. playing your game. in january, you know, sessions was trying to come across as a magnanimous i'm a legitimate -- be your attorney general. he couldn't imagine in january where trump and this investigation would be in december. he couldn't imagine that michael flynn would have pleaded guilty to a felony and throwing the rules out the window. this is interesting. uranium-1 was big in november. flynn pleaded guilty. quiet for two or three days. white house didn't know what to do. fox news didn't know what to do. house radicals didn't know what to do. they quickly formulated after that this fbi, you know, we are going to portray the fbi as the biggest danger to the democracy since krushchev. that's where they are now. this is all -- this is all this palace guard defense. >> and then the question is, is this all leading up, jonathan, and what is the buzz in washington to an opening the door for donald trump to either fire bob mueller, fire rod rosenstein, only thing keeping bob mueller from being fired or attempting to end the mueller investigation? >> i have to tell you. last weekend, in washington, the chatter about mueller being fired was at fever pitch. people were wondering and trying to -- hashing out all the various scenarios. two of them you just talked about. saturday night massacre option which is fire rosenstein until you get somebody who will do your bidding to fire mueller or wondering whether the president has the legal authority to actually fire mueller himself. that's being talked about. and then, you know, between what we're talking about now and rachel talked about in her show, it seems like the fever pitch is still there. and people are just wondering and waiting to see when it's going to happen. we have a president who a normal president would wait until friday at 4:00 to do something like this. but we have got a president who makes news every day. >> yep. >> it doesn't matter about the weekend. one thing i want to add. i know i was being very apocalyptic of congress not being a check on the executive. but there is one -- one sort of institution that can have a check on both the executive and congress and that's the american people. if something like this happens, it is incumbent upon the american people to make the displeasure known. >> show trial, doj to prosecute hillary clinton. that seems like congress or someone could try that, as well. jonathan, eric, thank you very much. coming up, donald trump swore he was going to have to pay so much more under the republican tax cut bill. surprise. turns out that was not true. and republicans who once warned americans about the dangers of giving trump presidential power are dutifully singing his praises. the putin-ization of the american presidency coming up. i take pictures of sunrises, but with my back pain i couldn't sleep and get up in time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. you wouldn't benefit under your tax plan? >> no, i don't benefit. i don't benefit. very, very strongly as you see there's no -- i think there's very little benefit for people of wealth. >> i'm doing the right thing an it's not good for me. believe me. >> this is going to cost me a fortune. this thing. believe me. believe. this is not good for me. >> donald trump repeated that talking point over and over as he sold the republican tax cut bill to the american people. despite every independent analysis of the bill showing it was not true. and despite refusing to prove it releasing the tax returns like every other president. the white house press secretary dutyfully repeated the claim over and over again. >> the president did say that this tax cut bill would cost him a fortune. that was false. right? >> no. because on the personal side, this actually could impact the president in a large way. there are a number of provisions that would negatively impact the president personally and the comments are consistent. >> okay. that was two days ago so if that was the administration's position on tuesday before the tax bill passed surely it must still have been operative today, right? sarah huckabee sanders on fox news today and asked again if the tax cut bill would cost the president a fortune but today her answer changed. >> look. the bottom line is a lot of people are going to do really well under this. the president's an american. this was a tax plan that was meant to benefit all americans. >> so, the white house finally seems to have admitted that trump was lying when he said he wouldn't benefit from the republican tax cut bill. how much will the president of the united states benefit from the bill his party passed an enthat he's about to sign? trump will poblgt between $11 and $15 million per year. once the tax bill is enacted according to an analysis of center of american progress. in addition, his son-in-law will bank between $5 million and $12 million per year under the tax bill and the education secretary will pocket approximately $2.7 million per year and there are more goodies for donald trump and the platinum plated cabinet in the republican tax bill because with the reduction of the estate tax under the legislation donald trump, wilbur ross, betsy devoss will each pass on additional $4.5 million to their heirs tax free. meanwhile, for the average american making less than $75,000 a year, of course most americans, you will get around $18 a week in tax cuts next year. don't spend it all in one place and since your tax cuts are temporary while the corporate tax cuts are permanent after 2025, you will get a tax increase. you're welcome. an joining us now is david kay johnson and jason johnson, politics editor at the root.com and a msnbc contributor. david, republicans are sinisting that the $18 a week for americans is real tax relief that's for the middle class. is this a middle class tax cut bill? >> well, majority of people in the middle class will get a few crumbs. wealthy people will get a cake and people like donald trump and willie ro wilbur ross get the most delicious tax cut cake you have ever seen and the idea that donald trump pays more taxes under this as big of a nonsense as the other things that he says. so on an individual level, and for people who own businesses like me, boy, this tax bill's terrific. but for working people, not at all. and remember, what you are going to see happen soon. orrin hatch said there just isn't money there for c.h.i.p. then pretty soon there's not money for social security, all sorts of other things because it's clear the republicans' agenda is the rich doesn't have enough and we have to get them more. >> jason, if you just look at the tax center policy put together a chart to explain who gets what, look at that. look at the left, hard to understand but on the left-hand side of your screen is the average benefit from the tax bill. dollar amount that people get. and as you can see, it starts for people making $10,000 or $20,000, they get about 10 bucks and all the way up to people with more than $1 million and $39,000 a piece. right? bigger and bigger and bigger as you make money and then look at the percent change and republicans have been pushing back saying no, no, no. as a percentage, it's the same. you can see a bulge over $500,000. the more money you make, percentage-wise you get, as well. how do republicans justify that? >> they don't, joy. because they're not overly concerned about that. remember, we have a president in the white house right now who told the american people during a debate, hey, i'm smart. i don't pay taxes. right? if this is a guy that never paid taxes, we can't believe anything he would say about the policy one way or another. the republicans gave up an attempt to claim it's a middle class tax cut. they're saying it will stimulate business and the real problem is for your average american, this is not going to give them enough extra income to start a business. for small business owners in america, joy, i think this is really important to say because the gop says it helps small businesses. as far as the federal government is concerned, a small business with less than 500 employees so the guy owning a tow truck company is not getting that much. he has five or six employees. this is an absolute boondoggle for 2018. it is not going to help regular people unless you're real, really rich and hide that money and blue state will be punished. >> absolutely. to put up for 2027 when the normal people tax cuts expire and the change in the after tax income for everybody making less than $75,000 a year, the income is going to go down while look at the rich. just keep on gaining. you know, david, the way that the republicans have been selling this bill is that they're saying look at the companies now giving largest to the little guy. boeing, fifth third bank and wells fargo giving bonuses or increase minimum wage as a result of this bill. is that the wonderful boon it seems to be? >> no. it's not at all. first of all, most of these are one-time bonuses and they're catching up to a market where they're having trouble getting people. and the corporate tax cuts, let me tell you how damaging they're going to be. we just put up at d.c. report a very important story that everybody else missed. the benefit of the corporate tax cut is going to disappear because all around the world other major countries and we list about a dozen of them, already are moving to cut their tax rates making it a zero sum game and the only winners are the executives and major investors in big companies. and how everybody missed this and we broke the story, thanks to jim henry of d.c. report tonight, tells you a lot about how we're not properly covering this massive upward redistribution plan of the republicans. >> yeah, meaning when we cut our corporate tax rate, other countries cut theirs and a race to the bottom. last word to you, on this, jason johnson. wells fargo with good pr out of the gambit to raise minimum wages do the same thing in january. noticed this online. same thing and raise the minimum wages in january when the scandal about them doing fake accounts came out and you have companies having a history of using the marginal increases in wages for good pr. >> yeah. well, wells fargo is akin to me saying, hey, joy, david, i have a gift and it's christmas. this is something they were going to do anyway. wells fargo going to make the increases anyway. they're not a fundamental change in operation and at the end of the day corporations don't hire more people paying less taxes. they hire more people when more people are big and if the middle class doesn't get a real tax cut and don't get one with this bill they won't buy more. >> there we go. at&t's helping themselves out with justice department issues and all good pr. david, jason, thank you very much. we appreciate you coming on. the majority of the countries in the united nations turned their backs on the united states today in a ground breaking vote. nikki haley decided the way to deal with that to invite the well-behaved ambassadors to a party. that's next. ♪ turn up your swagger game with one a day men's. ♪ a complete multivitamin with key nutrients plus b vitamins for heart health. your one a day is showing. but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain.like most people. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who've had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can do more with my family. talk to your doctor today. see if lyrica can help. the united states will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the general assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation. we'll remember it called upon to once again make the world's largest contribution to the united nations. and we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us as they so often do to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit. >> that was the threat from u.n. ambassador nikki haley about an hour before the u.n. general assembly voted on a resolution rejecting the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as zral's capital and in short they would be taking names. and we can sum up the response to that threat in two words. >> bye felicia. >> yes. that's of course the two-line classic diss from "friday" denoting when your threats are meaningless because people are done with you. they passed the resolution despite threats and issuing a bye felicia to donald trump. 128 in favor of the resolution condemning the move. nine including the u.s. and israel against. 35 on stengss and 21 countries that didn't vote at all. seven of those that defied the trump administration supporting the resolution afghanistan, iraq, egypt, jordan,ette open yeah, syria and pakistan among the top ten of u.s. foreign aid. so will trump cut them off? here's what the u.s. president said yesterday. >> we're watching thoes votes. let them vote against us. we'll save a lot. we don't care. >> okay. cue the countries apparent response, please. >> bye felicia. >> joining us now, steve clemens, editor at large for the atlantic and endira lakhsman. steve, doesn't appear that 128 countries afraid of the united states having issued that kind of a threat. what does that do to the united states position now that they don't seem to be willing to enact it or stand behind it? >> you are hear the air coming out of the balloon, the gas bag that nikki haley put out there today and it just makes america look like the incredibly shrinking power in the united nations. you know, the bottom line here is that there's a lot of drama over many, many years and presidential administrations about israel. what i've never seen before is that the ambassador, our ambassador to the u.n. would threaten other countries over this vote. this vote is complicated and donald trump trying to insinuate himself between the arab street and the german street, the french street. most of the streets in the world and their leaders that just can't abide by what the trump administration did. >> yeah. and already the state department pulled back on the idea that there's any threats in terms of the money that we give to these very important countries in the sphere of influence. you had john brennan issue a pretty strong condemnation of nikki haley's behavior saying the threat to retaliate against nations that exercise sovereign right and u.n. to oppose u.s. position on jerusalem is beyond outrageous. shows real donald trump expects blind loyalty and sub serve yens of everybody. >> yeah. it's pretty harsh but it's also in keeping donald trump's words with the same things he said on the campaign trail. remember, joy, that he was at the time threatening to cut off aid to our allies, key treaty allies, in nato, japan and south korea, for whom we give a nuclear umbrella to protect them against north korea. i mean, so this is not the first time that he's threatened to cut off our friends. i think it's unlikely as you say that he'll be able to do that in practice because think about it. egypt is one of the biggest recipients of u.s. foreign aid with $1.43 billion in military aid alone from the u.s. every year and israel would be the first ones squawking if the u.s. tried to cut off egypt, one of only two arab countries with jordan that recognizes israel's right to exist and, you know, they were key at camp david. they would be key in leading a movement to have peace between israel and the palestinians. so it's really unlikely that he'll be able to carry through on the threat. the whole thing of taking names is not new. nikki haley first day at the u.n. said we'll be watching those who don't have our backs and taking names and figuring out how to respond accordingly. this is the rhetoric they use, that the administration's uses at the u.n. and i don't think it's winning them more friends. >> yeah. i remember the coalition of the willing rhetoric somewhat similar, steve, by the george w. bush administration when they were trying to assemble the iraq coalition and didn't exactly work and people didn't want to be involved and a carrot approach with the stick. apparently a tweet from the ambassador of a save the date picture invitation. nikki haley invited 64 countries that voted against or abstained to come to a party onnian 3rd. among those partying with the united states as a reward for being obedient, honduras, the marshall islands, nauru, palau, togo. is that a way to influence people in the world? >> no. it's ridiculous. i mean, look who won't be there. we need china to help on north korea, russia to work with us. neither of them will be there. france and germany will not be there. your dan and egypt. the president has allegedly good relationship with general cisi in egypt. no nation that matters on issues of vital importance to us will be there. so, it will be a party. i'll all for parties as anyone knows but this is going to be one without, you know, all of the big players. >> yeah. great britain not there. france not there. lebanon not there. iraq not there. >> right. >> one other group of people who didn't quite earn the anger of the administration but didn't vote our way either, canada and mexico. obviously, there are a lot of issues with trade still on the table including nafta but both of those countries talked about why they were obstaining. canada, the representative of canada saying the resolution one sided and not saying they were on our side but it was written poorly and the delegation of mexico making it very clear that they did not find the u.s. position positive or useful. what do you make of the fact they're closest allies not with us? >> well, i mean, obviously, they have do get along with the united states. they're right here sharing a continent with us and as you say the nafta issues are unresolved. australia is another country that abstained. as did some of the biggest resip yepts of u.s. aid including haiti. look. i think the important thing that we shouldn't lose sight of here is the reason for this vote in the first place and the reason, of course, is the trump administration's decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel and move our embassy there. the problem with this is that it really inflames a 50-year-old dispute going back to the 1967 arab/israeli war since which time israel is occupying east jerusalem and the palestinians hope that the future capital will be and u.s. policy for the last 50 years has been to support this notion of a two-state solution, two states living side by side in peace and security with jerusalem as a shared capital. east jerusalem being the palestinian capital. so, you know, this was supposed to be something that both republicans and democrats have agreed on and, you know, i could see a different way of doing it would be to say, we want, you know, jerusalem to be the capital of these future two states and maybe try to light a fire under the peace process. but just recognizing it only as an israeli capital does not help that peace process. >> yes, indeed. steve, indira, thank you both. >> thank you. coming up, the e fusive praise republicans and trump administration officials lavishing on donald trump have been jarring for many americans and not unusual for particular kind of government. can any of these people tell trump hard truths when they talk to him like this? >> i know i speak on behalf of the entire cabinet and of millions of americans when i say congratulations and thank you. i'm deeply humbled as your vice president to be able to be here. 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( ♪ ) coaching means making tough choices.d jim! you're in! month. but when you have high blood pressure and need cold medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the #1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp. was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters. money managers are pretty much the same. all but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. mr. president, i have to say that you're living up to every -- everything i thought you would. this is one of the great privileges of my life to stand here on the white house lawn with the president of the united states who i love and appreciate so much. we're going to make this the greatest presidency that we have seen not only in generations but maybe ever. >> the greatest presidency ever. utah senior senator orrin hatch isn't the only republican peeking in hyperbole about donald trump. growing number of establishment republicans taking to lavishing over the top exaggerated praise on the famously needy president. including some who not so long ago had a completely different take on the man who would come to lead the republican party. >> it's time to set aside bullying, to set aside belittlement. >> something this profound could not have been done without exquisite presidential leadership. >> our new president has, of course, not been in this line of work before. and i think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen. >> it's been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the trump administration. thank you, mr. president, for all you're doing. >> the president has great difficulty with the truth. on many issues. >> what you said in october if you still believe that. >> look. you know, i know you're volcano a great time with this interview. and i'm happy for you in doing so. but look. wolf, i've said what i've said. and i'm doing what i'm doing. >> i think he's a kook. i think he's crazy, unfit for office. >> what concerns me about the american press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook, not fit to be president. >> one journalist studying authoritarian states says this sycophantic praise we sycophantic praise is dangerous. that journalist joins us next. in our kitchen. i'm leaving. oh never mind, he's leaving. but what if a business could turn all that thinking... thinking... endless thinking into doing? 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>> yeah, there's always the explanation of careerism, opportunism, that's an aspect of politics, we shouldn't rule that out. that can go hand in hand. the rnc was hacked, we don't know what happened with those e-mails, we know that lindsey graham's personal e-mails were also hacked. and trump has a long track record of blackmailing and threatening who he sees as his political opponents. that goes back throughout his entire career. especially in terms of his lawyers. and so i think it's possible that some of these gop players might be greedy and opportunistic are also being blackmailed or threatened. there's also the issue i think of contamination in the sense of the russia investigation. we know that there are a number of shady donors, a lot of dirty money, some of it stemming from russian oligarch's. and that certain individuals may not want to be investigated for their role in taking that kind of money. lindsey graham is one of those people, i think a number in the gop are worried about that, so yeah i think what concerns me most, is that they seem afraid, unable to stand up for themselves, they lack all dignity. he's often gone after their wives and family members saying terrible things, and yet they prostrate themselves to him. what kind of leader are you, what kind of man are you? that's something that does have me concerned. >> thank you so much we appreciate your time. up next, senator al franken will get tonight's last word. oh, sorry i'm late, sir. when you said you were at the doctor, but your shirt says you were at a steakhouse... that's when you know it's half-washed. add downy odor protect with 24-hour odor protection. downy and it's done. when you have a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ] shut down cold symptoms fast [ coughing ] with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. time for tonight's last word, senator al franken said farewell to congress thursday, in his final speech on the senate floor. floor franken will formally resign his seat to minnesota's current lieutenant governor tina smith on january 2nd, after allegations of inappropriate conduct surfaced just weeks earlier. in his speech, senator franken criticized the trump administration's policies, saying they are at odds with what's best for the american people. here's senator franken in his farewell address to the senate. >> you know, before i came to the senate, i was known as something of an obsessive -- on the subject of honesty in public discourse. as i leave the senate, i feel -- i have to admit it feels like we're losing the war for truth. and maybe it's already lost. and if that's the case, if that's what happens, then we've lost the ability to have the kinds of arguments that help build consensus. what is to be done. who will stand up and fight for more honest debate. to insist that even though we have a different set of opinions. we cannot honorably advance our competing agendas, unless we use the same set of facts. i hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will stand up for truth. the thing is, i have spent enough time with my republican friends over the last 8 1/2 years to know that you are motivated by values just like democrats. i just hope that you will fight for those values forthrightly. but at the end of the day, it's going to be up to the american people, just like it's always been we will always have the democracy we deserve, if not the government we want. it's going to take ordinary americans deciding to become more informed consumers of political news and opinion, and deciding that they're willing to be part of the argument themselves instead of simply tuning out all the noise. if they do, i know we will get this country back on track. politics is about the improvement of people's lives. the american people know that to be true. and they film me with hope for our future. thank you, madam president. >> losing the war for truth, senator al franken gets tonight's last word. thank you for joining me tonight. be sure to join me weekend mornings beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern for weekend joy. the house and senate may have avoided a government shutdown until january, that's when the real fight for children's health care and the dreamers begins. the 11th hour with brian williams is next. >> the president is not firing robert mueller while calling the russia investigation a hoax. and yet, from the doj, a new diversionary tactic emerges. trotting out uranium one involving hillary clinton. and steve bannon is at it begin, casting doubts on his old boss, casting aspurgss to the president's daughter, and spelling out the odds of trump finishing his term in office. the 11th hour begins now. . and on this thursday night, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters in new york. day 336 of the trump administration, as we watch the mounting partisan attacks of what many see the nation's crown je

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