A Campaign Promise to the most fervently antiimmigrant core of his base before the 20 of the country, according to the polls, by ending an Obama Era Program known as deferred action for childhood arrivals, or dakota la, that protects the deportation undocumented immigrants who are brought to this country as children. He launched his campaign by calling mexican immigrants rapists. A week and a half ago pardoned joe arpaio after he was convicted of contempt of court for persisting in the violation of latinos Fourth Amendment rights. But an executive who knows nothing more than to perform the role of president and draw attention. The president himself was nowhere to be founds during the announcement of one the most consequential decisions of his entire administration. Instead, that job was left to the attorney general Jeff Sessions who it seemed could barely contain his delight after accomplishing what has been a long term goal. Going back to 2010 when he was the one who led the charge against d. R. E. A. M. Act. A legislative solution that would have given childhood arrivals a path to citizenship. It included a list of experience talking points with dakota la recipients. Ill here to announce the program known as daca that was effect waitd under the Obama Administration is being redescribeded. This unilateral amnesty among a things contributed to a surge of minors at the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences. It also denialed jobs to hundreds of thousands of americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take thoses jobs. After a handsful of conservative state attorney generals threatened to sue over daca, he said the Justice Department wouldnt defend program. Forcing the president s hand. According to the New York Times, as late as one hour before the decision was to be announced, Administration Officials privately expressed concern that trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take. When discovered, the full impact would change his mind. He ultimately decided on a plan passed the buck to capitol hill. D. R. E. A. M. Ers, as they are often called. They now have a month to apply for a twoyear renewal. Anyone whose status expires the very next day or after that, will be subject to immediate deportation. And this is important. The Trump Administration already has d. R. E. A. M. Ers personal data which they had to submit to get the documentation. And it is reportedly poised to be weaponized against them. These are people had a have grown up here. Who know no other home besides the u. S. , just last week, one d. R. E. A. M. Er lost his life in texas while volunteering to save people trapped by the floods in harvey. The president was asked about those people at the top of a meeting on taxes. How does your daca decision i have a great heart for the folks were talking about. A great love for them. And people think in terms of children, but theyre really young adults. I have a love for these people and hopefully now congress will be able to help them and do it properly. And i can tell you, in speaking to members of congress, they want to do something and do it right. And really, we have no choice. We have to be able to do something sxiflth it will work out very well. And long term, it will be the right solution sflfl the president s decision drew widespread condemnation including if republican friendly business groups like the chal better of commerce and the business roundtable, and former he president barack obama issued a very rare statement calling it wrong, selfdefeating and cruel. All day today, protesters have been out in force across the country, including hundreds of students in denver who walked out of class to protest the president s decision to end the program. At this hour, the protests have not yet stopped. Thats San Francisco but they are in other places around the country. This is son of a house keeper and farm worker. Came to the u. S. At the age of 8 and was undocumented. Congressman, as someone who is not personally a d. R. E. A. M. Er in the sense of a daca recipient but whose experience is very much ha lined with theirs, what was your reaction when you first heard this was snapping. Thank you for having me. Very disheartening. To see that the president a few days after saying that he loves these people, that he will take away their dreams by taking away this daca status. I know what it is like to live in fearful i was a dreamer at one point. I was here as dakota will and now im a member of congress. Thats what i know. That america is willing to give an opportunity to a young kid willing to work hard for it. Today president took away that dream. Well continue fighting in congress to make sure that those dreamers still have the opportunity to are achieve the american dream. You were part of what is called the am necessary i by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. You qualified for that. When Jeff Sessions today referred to amnesty. Thats an insult among republicans. Given that part of party, when you say youll fight for d. R. E. A. M. Ers in congress, what does that mean is this. What we need to do is republicans need to join democrats. Again, the entire Democratic Caucus is in support of passing the d. R. E. A. M. Act. We want republicans to come to the table and negotiate with us and talk to us about what is the type of bill theyre will to support. The d. R. E. A. M. Sacramento a great bill. We have the american holdback. Another version of the d. R. E. A. M. Act. At the end of the day, this is an american issue. 800,000 americans who know no other country than america. They deserve the opportunity to succeed. Some are doctors and lawyers and politicians like myself now serving in congress. What is your understanding. Given the pole on this which runs, 6535, or 8020 depending on what you poll in favor of these folks staying and having legal status. Given the broad coalition. What is your understanding of why they are doing this . Why is President Trump and jeff sxegss the states attorney general, why are they doing it . Theyre pandering to their shrinking base. Donald trump began by attacking immigrants. Jeff sessions has a history of being a racist senator. Theres a reason he didnt become a federal judge. Theyre trying to pander to their shrinking base. Without taking into consideration these are the lives of real people. 800,000, 13,000 just in nevada who are teachers. In nevada, we are facing a teacher shortage. Some of them are now teaching. If we take them away from the classroom, it will still exacerbate and many others had. Are professionals and students. So i wish that the president had a little more compassion. A little more empathy. This is america. This is the land of opportunity. Were a land of immigrants from all over the world and this goes against the american values. Okay. Thank you. The white house called on congress to pass a daca bill as part of a larger package which would include funding for a border wall and new restrictions on legal immigration. When asked if the president would sign the bill with no strings attached, the white house secretary declined to give us an answer. Would the president sign a standalone daca i laid out the priorities the administration has on that front. One of six republican lawmakers who asked the froze extend dakota la until a legislative solution is passed. The president didnt listen to you. I think he did. I think he extended it for another six months until we can get this right in congress. I think he said that president obama overextended. He was legislating with an executive order. It is the role of congress. We have to now act. If it continued for three more years, congress could have kicked this can down the road. So ive heard this before. The objection of daca is a process. Jeff sessions got up there today speaking for the president. The president explicably wouldnt do it himself. And he said these people are taking american jobs. Ive heard people say theyre criminals. All sorts of substantive comments. Are they sfwlong. I think they would be challenge in the court. There were ten lawsuits around the country challenging daca. I think the United States in trying on defend that would lose. Congressman, that is that is a process argument. It was not a process argument from Jeff Sessions. He said those people, referring to these folks, family members of your constituents, they took americans jobs. They were brought here at 5 or 7. Theyre taking from americans. Do you agree with that . I agree that there are immigration policies and laws here are broken. And they have to be fixed. Thats not the question i asked. Thats what well be forced to do. The question i asked is do you agree with the attorney general that people brought here at 5, and now working in the armed serviceses or teachers are taking americans jobs . My understanding is they havent broken the law. Noted intent to break the law when they were 2 years old and their parents brought them in. We have to figure out how to get them to a legal status. Some pathway. Thats what the president has said. But it has to be created by congress. I want to be clear here. Ive been covering immigration and legislative fights for 12 years now. I started in 2005 on a bill called the d. R. E. A. M. Act. Under the pathway to citizenship. Now theyre talking about comprehensive reform. You and i know, and all the people watching, know that theres no comprehensive reform getting out of. Congress. What could happen tomorrow would be a standalone act. Something like the bridge act or the d. R. E. A. M. Act. You would have to ask speaker ryan. We could do all the Immigration Reform we want. Unless we secure our borders and stop this process of people breaking our laws. We are a nation of laws. And people have to follow law. Those laws may no longer serve its purpose. It takes too long to back citizen of this great nation. That has to be reformed, too. We have people who have followed rules and the regulations. Everything we asked they will to do west cant place people who have broken the laws before the folks who have obeyed the laws. You said nation of laws. When the president pardons a sheriff, like joe arpaio, in violation of a court order waurgs found guilt why of criminal contempt, isnt that offensive to the notion of a nation of laws . Listen, the president has the ability to pardon who he wishes. Of course. Sandy didnt have any part of that. We are talking about Immigration Reform now. Here my point. Do you understand the message gets sent to people when the president says, this guy is a friend of mine, a buddy, he is loyal to the folks of arizona. Yes, he was found guilty for violating the court order about the constitution. Im going to pardon him. If you were brought here when youre 3, tough, were a nation of laws. Dont you see why people would see that as a contradiction some. The president he said he has compassion for these young people who broke no law themselves. Whose parents brought they will here for another opportunity. Better than from where they came from. And he is saying, congress, fix this. And im giving you a window of opportunity. He didnt end daca tomorrow. He said im giving you six months. It is more like a month. You have to apply in the next month. For a stand alone bill would protect the 800,000, are you a yes vote . I have to see legislation. I cant speculate. Theres existing legislation. The bridge act. I am a cosponsor of the bridge act. You support the bridge act. Im cosponsor. If the bridge act comes up tomorrow, the bridge act, youre a yes vote. It could pass out of the house tomorrow, right . If it comes to the floor ixt not in favor of a discharge order. If it comes to the floor, ill be voting for it. But it has to be more than just the bridge act weflt to support our sgrords help people become citizens of this great nation. Thanks for making time. I appreciate it. The president and ceo, until today he was a member of the president s National Diversity council. Ill ask you the question people wanted me to ask you when they read your op ed. This was the straw that broke the camels back. Not the two sides, charlottesville. Not the pardoning of joe arpaio. This was the straw that broke the camels back. Why this and not other snings. You put it very well. This was proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Weve been working to get them to recognize that the pressess primary role should be somebody who brings this great nation together. Somebody who illustrates empathy and who tries hard to find the commonality amongst all of us when this decision was being debated. We were working throughout the weekend as hard as we could. This was the line of the sand for me. These 800,000 dreamers in this country dont, are ineligible for any kind of welfare. Any kind of government subsidies. They pay over 2 billion in taxes every year. They have a 91 employment rate. 65,000 of them graduate from high school every year. 10,000 graduate from college every year. Right. Theyve undergone extensive back ground checks. This was the line in the sand for me. Javier Javier Javier that was it. You know. That i know that. We know what the policy arguments. We know it going in. The president said he would repeal daca. This will cost the u. S. Money, it will produce genuine human misery among these folks and family members. Why are they doing it . Why couldnt you see they would do this from the jump . You know the reality is we were getting mixed signals, literally through the weekend there was potential for something to be worked out. We were very clear when we looked at the issue of immigration in its broadest context, sure, we didnt want a wall to be built. I still dont believe a wall needs to be built. In my mind, if a wall got built, families didnt get broken apart. Where we drew the line in the sand was when we started talking about peoples lives. And chief among them, those who came before the age of 6. This was again the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. We made it clear. If you pass that line, we will leave the diversity council. Did you read about this decision in the papers . We got a heads up. Probably a few hours ahead of time. We got indications that it was going in this direction. Even then there was a chance still that he might see the light of day. We kept arguing right until bloody last moment. And said, listen. Over a tenyear period of time, this is going to cost the American Economy over 280 million of lost productivity. It will cost the American People 60 billion to get it done. While were still grappling with the disaster in houston through harvey, were looking at irma around the corner. Were dealing with the expectedor of korea. This was a spiteful thing to do and we decided were done here. We wont be working a xoins isnt listening to common sense. We looked at it from every aspect. Were america, after all. I tried to talk to them about the economic interests of our nation. And the commercial interests of our nation. We have three critically important things before us right now that we need to do quickly. Pass disaster relief, prevent a default so that those emergency resources can actually get to americans who need them, and keep the government funded. Those are the three important things before us now. Mitch mcconnells to do list would be daunting enough if it were complete but its not. He left a few things out. Besides the three things, raise the ceiling, fund the government and pass harvey relief, they need to renew the Flood Insurance program which will be dicey, and the Childrens Health insurance program, and the millions of americans on the aca exchanges would probably appreciate if it they would shore up obamacare. And lets remember, Party Leaders want to entirely overhaul the tax code and pass a tax cut. That was before dawn broke today. Then President Trump took that pin out of the grenade and added the 800,000 Daca Recipients to the list. And theres a category 5 irma which is freaking out meteorologists and could slam florida by weeks end. This would be challenging with a highly functional congress and administration but thats not what weve had so far. The relationship between mcconnell and trump has gotten so bad that the wall street journal reports that the Senate Leader resorted to the silent treatment to deal with the president s off topic chitchat. The president even said, mitch, are you there, to which he responded, yes, mr. President , back to the bill. One of those lawmakers facing the oversized to do list. I dont think ive ever seen things stacked up quite this way for congress. And it does seem like a high wire act for the party governing both houses. What is your sense of whether this will work . Well, i think first of all, why are things so stacked up . Theyre stacked up because of the incompetence among, in terms of republican leadership, coupled with the behavior and attitude and lack of seriousness and frankly, immorality in the white house. And as a result, nothing has gotten done. Nothing of consequence in the last eight months. I know the republicans always go to, and keep in mind, this may be donald trump as president but it is always ultimately the republicans special interests agenda. You know where they always go. No matter what the issues, no matter what, on the surface, theyre trying to do. They go back. They say tax reform and they go back to more. At a cuts for the rich. They want to drop the tax precipitously. They want to cut taxes on the 1 . Thats what they always come back to. And they try to do that and declare victory. With all the other things, they will try that. And thats why we come back to bills im introducing tomorrow and the corporate freeloader bill which says if you pay your workers well and you provide benefits, you get a lower tax rate than those companies and rely on government to give food stamps and medicaid instead of paying them a living wage. So if youre going to try to get that attached as some sort of tax package. They have to do these three things up front before they even touch that. And those, when you talk about special interests, the special interests dont want them on blow through the debt ceiling. And i dont think they want a government shutdown. They want none of those things. But keep in mind, if theyve talked about tax reform forever and a day, and in the end they know they cant get tax reform. With all the things going on that we should address. We should make sure the president , we stop the president from what hes doing on daca. First of all, we do hurricane harvey, funding for zpexs louisiana and that. We also do the debt ceiling, we pass a continuing resolution of some sort. All that noise that we have to do. Help distract them from the tax cut. I ask people to go sherrod brown. Com, looking for workers instead of the tax cuts for the rich. We have to do all these things but dont let that draw shade over the efforts to always cut taxes on the 1 . The ability of them to do that right now is up in the air. And one of the moving parts here is the aca. Weve talked about it a bunch. A lot of people feel lying its come back from the dead so many times. And it was an open qule he the john mccain thumbs down moment killed it. It seems they cant move something legislatively on repeal in the next bit of time. Am i wrong . Probably not wholesale repeal. But fundamentally at the core of what they hate about the Affordable Care act, two things. They dont like whom theyve named it after. Barack obama. What they hate is any kind of government involvement. They hate medicaid. I talk to a Hospital Administrator in bellevue, one of the hospitals in the state, and in cleveland, one of the largest hospitals in the state. They know they were very ahead of Rainbow Children in cleveland and the bellevue hospital, both very involved in fighting the medicaid cuts. They know with a that does to hospitals. They know what it does on modern and low income people. We talked about how you know theyre coming back. They may do it through chip. The Childrens Health insurance program. They will look for any vehicle. We have to be, as we need to be prepared for this tax cut. Thats what the aca in part was about. Thats why the Patriot Corporation act and the corporate freeloader bill were introducing. And they want to do tax cuts and go after medicaid. That has been their reason to elect them. Thats what theyve tried to do for so many years on those two things. The tax cuts for the wealthy and the assault on middle and working class and low income penal who rely medicaid. All right. Thank you for joining us. Coming up, new reporting on the trumprussia investigating. More than a dozen sites in more than a dozen sites in houston that are the most chemically contaminated in the country. And last week, an incredible bit of reporting. The Associated Press managed to visit the sites and found them badly flooded raising the possibility of toxic contaminants possibly being released into the water in a wide area. In its record the epa noted they had not been able to physically visit the houston area sites. Under President Trump, the it is being run by this man, scott pruitt. He is a darling of the oil and gas industry whose epa hit back hard against that ap report in an unusually nasty and caustic statement that almost has to be read to be believed. Despite reporting from the comfort of washington, the ap reporter had the audacity to imply that agencies are not being responsive to the devastating effects of hurricane harvey. There were two reporters and the ap didnt notice that the other one visited the site. He brought back this video from the highland acid pit. The epa did not point to a single inaccuracy in the ap story and frankly, it even confirmed the claim that it hadnt visited the super fund sites, thag they had not been accessible. The statement went on to attack him in remarkably personal terms claiming he has a history of not letting the facts get in the way of his story. Citing a minor error over the summer. And for whatever reason, the people around President Trump tend to sound and act an awful lot like their boss. When we come back, ill speak to a report here got an email over the weekend from a taxpayer paid government lawyer asking her, are you on drugs . With congress back in session, the russia investigation is back in full swing and so are the politics surrounding it. The Washington Examiner reported today that they have subpoenaed the fbi and Justice Department as part of what ranking democrat adam schiff says is an effort to discredit the dossier and its author. I think it is part of an effort to discredit the author of the dossier. And i think theres a view, if they can discredit christopher steele, then discredit the whole onot the good canned and xsds n xf nsd xpg mpg be, were not that dismissed comey. Schiller is the ultimate emotional binky for trump. Shes written about the schiller why the white house special counsel just asked a report , a he wasnt leveling with the American People. Tonight indicates that may very well be the next thing that happens just to repeat that tweet, he said congress now has six months to legalize daca. Something the Obama Administration was unable to do. If they cant, i will revisit the issue. Thing one tonight, the list of white house Human Resource casualties keeps growing. The first to fall of course, antszy scaramucci, the delightly profane communications director. The exit of steve bannon was also widely attributed to kellys influence. And the white house counterterrorism adviser came to an end a week ago. And kelly has stopped a white house job from coming to fruition for david clark. The daily beast reporting his failure to land a gig in the west wing or the department of Homeland Security was in large part result of opposition from kelly. Thats not the end of the list. The latest is a bona fide long time trump confident seen here confronting a protesters outside trump tower. Thats thing two in seco60 seco. With the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce wrinkles. Neutrogena®. Chances are, the last time yoyou got robbed. An, i know i got a loan 20 years ago, and i got robbed. Thats why i started lendingtree the only place you can compare up to 5 real offers side by side, for free. 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But here he is wearing an adidas garment in a meeting in april. And he hand delivered a letter from President Trump firing james comey. But according to Bloomberg News he lost his privilege to walk into the oval office when kelly took over and he sees his job as redundant. Schiller will be taking a job in the private security business and President Trump is crushed by schillers departure. But hell always have the wwe smackdown finishing the job for his pal, the future president , donald j. Trump. In just the last 15 minutes perhaps because he has been watching cable news, President Trump issued a statement that encapsulations his weakness and indecision when it comes to big matters. After promising to end daca on day one and sending his attorney general out to announce the end of daca he has tweeted, congress has six months to legalize daca if they cant, i will revisit this issue. Someone who is very familiar with consequential decisions, josh earnest joins me now along with jennifer ruben. So, basically the New York Times predicted this morning. They ran a piece on which they had a paragraph which i dont know if i had in front of me that said people around him worry he doesnt understand what hes doing. And as late as one hour before the announcement, private officials expressed that mr. Trump did not fully grasp the results of the decision he was going to make he would change his mind and that appears to what was going to happen. That is what is happening in realtime. President trump has encountered this dilemma and the dilemma is not what to make our immigration system more fair or 800,000 young people in this country who are following the rules and trying to make the country better but how is he going to reconcile the ill conceived, irresponsible promise he made on the campaign trail. So, chris, when president obama was grappling with this decision what he took on was a broken immigration system and said im going to use every element of my president ial authority to try to fix it and im going to use this executive authority to make sure we are correctly and deploying our enforcement resources to keep our Community Safe even as we are giving young people an opportunity to succeed in this country and make it better. Jennifer, i feel like theres been Something Interesting happening with this daca system where its almost like the president has called conservatives bluff. All of the conservatives saying we dont like daca. You wrote this in 2012 in both health care and immigration context eric holder and president obama are lacking in constitutional awareness or have so politicized the Justice Department it is no longer a reliable indicator of the law. Today when they ended daca you were angry. I am angry. There is no need to change it at this moment. People have relied opinion it. There is a due process assumption if you follow the law and play by the rules and you come forward and identify yourself the government isnt going to throw you out again. So frankly whatever means we got to where we are, we are where we are and im not about to suggest that those people who have now selfed identified and presented their information to the federal government should be you know, ejected simply because they changed their mind. I want to add one thing, though, to what josh was saying, you know there, is no argument that this is of any necessity now. This is a completely artificial deadline that sessions and these republican attorneys general came up with to force trumps hand and whether trump is dim witted and being led around by the nose by Jeff Sessions which is entirely possible or if he is in it he was greeted by a firestorm today. I was going through the reactions of the catholic church, jewish organizations, the baptists there is not a religious organization that thinks this isnt a inhumane, unchristian, unreligious action. Its outrageous. There is part and this is part of a pattern, josh, in some ways, one of the clearest things that he represented was im going to repudiate the previous administration. And yet watching this administration the first eight months is like watching someone who has never, you know, handled a sledge hammer before try to take down a whole building in a oneperson demo. Theres a lot of direction but there are a lot of swings and misses and what am i doing . Can i take that beam down . You are always sort of caught between the kind of execution is so sloppy and sort of conflicted but also destructive at the same time. You know, the irony of this whole thing is and to pick up on what jennifer is saying, you would think if anyone is familiar with the tactic of trying to intimidate someone by threatening to file a lawsuit even without a legal argument to make it would be trump trump do. We have this attorneys general threatening to file a lawsuit against daca. There are 20 state attorneys general who are prepared to defend the legality of daca. No matter the legal precedent of democratic and republican president s using their discretion in terms of making sure our enforcement resources are used properly in an immigration context. But you are right, this is one other example of President Donald Trump basically making clear hes a novice when it comes to governing. And he lacked the kind of acumen that we expect from people who are wielding president ial authority to accomplish their goals. And instead its clear he doesnt know what he wants to do to accomplish his goals. There is this reoccurring theme which is the president obsessed with deals and leverage only to discover as it goes on that actually its not leverage, you know, to use the metaphor he cant shoot the hostages. We saw it with the shutdown fight on the wall. There wasnt. Weve seen it time and time again. Do you think the same thing is happening here with daca . You know, its hard to figure what his game plan, if it is one, but josh will send him flowers because obamacare, daca, you cant treat people like they dont exist. People rely on these things and have been told they can benefit from these things. And id like to see the legal opinion from Jeff Sessions he relied on to say this is unconstitutional. There happens to be a contrary opinion in the office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department. Thank you, josh and jennifer. Thanks, chris. Thats all in this evening. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts right now. Donald trump plays to his base. He got tough on d. R. E. A. M. Ers and tossed it to congress and said he would revisit the issue. Also about the relationship with congress is the white house threatening its own chances of getting anything done in september . And what donald trump may consider the most in the west wing. As the post labor day 11th hour gets under way. And good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 229 of the Trump Administration. And today, the president announced a major policy decision that affects 800,000 or so people and their families. Then tonight, he gave himself an out to change his mind. Today, the white house announced it will end the obama era daca program. It stands for deferred action for childhood arrivals. And it created Legal Protections for people who were brought to america illegally as children through no fault of their own, an