Levees. Were just completely stranded here. And trumps socalled social media summit. Im actually a good speller, but everything said the fingers arent adds good as the brain. The rogues gallery of farright trolls invited to the white house. Some of you are extraordinary the. The crap you think of is unbelievable. When all in starts right now. I call twitter a typewriter. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Today donald trump waved the white flag, acknowledging in so many words that he could not override a Supreme Court ruling barring his administration from adding a Citizenship Question to the census under a bogus pretext. Its deeply regrettable, but it will not stop us from collecting the needed information. And i think even in greater detail and more accurately. In admitting defeat, trump order Government Agencies to share existing data that would allow the administration to effectively build a citizenship database, and that could have serious ramifications that well discuss shortly. But he lost on one of the most controversial question theres is. The census, done every ten years, ordered by the constitution, sets the groundwork for nearly everything the government does. Its used to determine how many seats each state has in the house, how the nation allocates billions upon billions of dollars in federal revenue, not to mention Electoral College votes, and the makeup of state legislatures, decisions about where to build infrastructure, a host of other questions. To do that, the government needs an accurate head count of every person in the United States. Adding a Citizenship Question to the census would undermine that goal, because it would discourage undocumented immigrants and their families, among others from participating. That would have hurt states and districts that are more diverse and tend to be the most often represented by democrats. Of course the Trump Administration didnt admit that was the point. They argued absurdly what they wanted to do to add the question was in an effort to better enforce parts of the Voting Rights act, which the Trump Administration has been hostile to from the start. In march, commerce secretary wilbur ross went before congress, and he just flatout lied in an effort to push that bogus story, but ross lies were eventually exposed, and court after court ruled against the administration until the Citizenship Question ended up for the Supreme Court. And thats when something even wilder happened. The estranged daughter of a deceased republican operative discovered files on his hard drive that completely undermined the administrations position. The hard drive showed the operative help come up with a pretext for adding that Citizenship Question and that he believed that drawing political maps that exclude noncitizens would, quote, would be advantage to republicans and nonhispanic whites. In other words, we can tip the scales to white people and republicans. Now that may have been the Tipping Point in a 54 decision, chief Justice John Roberts sided with the courts liberal ring, ruling the administration could not add the question based on those bogus pretexts. The administration then began printing census forms, even as trump raged and hemmed and hawed and tried to find some other way around the Supreme Court. But today, usually, he didnt. But heres the thing. Trump may have lost in the substance, but his antiimmigrant rhetoric will continue to have a chilling effect. That has been the aspect of trumpism from day one. He has worked to scapegoat and vilify immigrants and frankly scare the hell out of them. Were learning on sunday the administration plans or says it plans to conduct Mass Immigration raids on at least 2,000 families across the United States. You might think the administration would want to keep such raids quiet to maintain an element of surprise, but the raids themselves are entirely the point. The point is to make people feel scared and alienated, and like strangers in the place they live, and to make the people who hate immigrants and love donald trump feel good. Joining me now, tom saenz, president and general counsel of the mexican Legal Defense and Education Fund which sued the Trump Administration over the Citizenship Question. It was one of two suits, this one based in maryland. Thomas, your reaction to the president s decision today. Well, its a little late. He is ten days behind his lawyers who told us at the beginning of the month that they would move forward with census 2020 without a Citizenship Question. But its certainly a victory. A victory if it sticks. We want to make sure that this is a final decision that cannot be reversed at any point in the future. But if it is a final decision and we can get a quarter that prevents it from being reversed, its a great victory. What is the if . I hear some hesitancy in your voice. Well, as you know, weve gone through ten days of a purported reversal. We want to make sure this is a decision that wont be revisited prior to the census next year, and wee get it put in a court order that will prevent them from reversing this decision at any point. Its been interesting to me there has been this pretext all along that was cooked up, and we all know that, that the Jeff Sessions department of justice was so intent on enforcing the Voting Rights act they had to ask this question. That was preposterous. It was cooked up by wilbur ross and Steve Bennett and all those folks. The president today came right out and said why he wants this information. I want to play for you and get your reaction to hearing him be explicit about what theyre after. Take a listen. Not the one you needed for congress. You need it for congress, for districting. You need it for appropriations. Where are the funds going . How many people are there . Are they citizen . Are they not citizens . You need it for many reasons. Sorry, that was from friday. But he is being very clear here that they want worry and representation and everything around citizens. Thats right. They want to change the rules. Weve known from at least the 14th amendment that every person is to be counted and included in apportions house of representatives seats among the states. They appear to want to revisit that, and we have throughout our history counted the total population, recognizing that everyone is a constituent in drawing the districts that are represented by congress member, state legislators and others all around the country. So, yes, theyve been more and more explicit about seeking to change the rules, just as they know the existing rules will play out against them. What do you mean by that . Well, donald trump knows that he has alienated the Latino Community. He further knows that the Latino Community is growing quickly in important states across the country, and anything he can do to diminish the count and the influence of the Latino Community, he seems to concluded would benefit him politically personally, and also those who follow him. But its bigger than donald trump, isnt it . Hofeller, the individual who died, he is a member of the gop establishment in good standing. He cooked up the maps by courts in north carolina. Do you see this as part of a broader project . Yes. I think its quite clear there are folks on the right who for many, many years, indeed they pursued court cases all the way to the Supreme Court have been interested in changing the rules about drawing districts because they recognize that the demographics are not in their favor, particularly because the Republican Party regrettably has alienated the Latino Community largely because of a near unanimous antiimmigrant nativist streak in their policy make, and that is dangerous over the longterm. Im in california, and this happened in california a quarter century ago when pete wilsons championing of an antiimmigrant proposition on the ballot gained him reelection but really catalyzed a change in the politics of this state so it went from being a purple state to a very solidly blue state, largely because the Republican Party in california had alienated those groups that were growing in size, latinos, asian americans, and those who support them. Final question. This was remarkable litigation in a lot of ways, both the suit in maryland and new york. What is your big lesson from the fact that in some ways the levee held here . I was a little scared we were going to get our Andrew Jackson moment, frankly. Some kind of outright disobeying of the Supreme Court order. Whats your opinion on whlessond here . Its a lesson about the strengths of the courts which is a reason we should be further concerned about unqualified folks with evident biases being appointed by donald trump to Lifetime Appointments on the federal courts. The federal courts really are our last bulwark of defending the constitution against very real threats like the one you described. So in this case, the courts played their role, and thats something we should all be proud of, but also be vigilant about maintaining. All right. Thomas saez, thank you for making time. Im joined by a member of the house judiciary subcommittee. Your reaction to what looks like the close of this chapter today, although i suppose the president kept the door open. Well, i mean, i think, chris, it was supposed to be a giant cream puff for all of those trump supporter, but it was completely empty, because in the end he couldnt deliver what he was promising which is to try to exclude as many brown and black folks across the country so he could critically affect reapportionment, affect how much money goes to different places. This i think was a big defeat for him. The problem that i have, and i just reiterate what tom said so articulately is that he is still going to terrorize immigrant community, and he might be able to achieve a similar impact of terrifying immigrant communities so much that they dont come out. So thats what weve got to work against now. That is exactly what i was going to ask you about. In the status hearing in thomas case in maryland, the plaintiffs there who are suing the government were asking the judge can you please tell them to not keep saying this because the rhetoric might have the effect of scaring people about what the census is about. If the president is out there every day, lets say the Citizenship Question is not on it, which its not going to be. Right. But the president is saying were coming to your door to find out if youre a citizen, that can have precisely the effect the question would have. What do you do about that . Not only that, but how about these raids that he is going to institute starting as early as sunday and over the next several months. This is all about terrorizing communities, cruelty to immigrants. This administration, and i said this in a Committee Hearing today, it trades in two things. Number one, cruelty towards immigrants, and number two, money that goes to for profit corporations that are minting money off of that cruelty, off of caging children. So this is just he doesnt have the census, let me just be clear. The census question was the Citizenship Question on the census was a huge victory for us. I dont want to diminish that in any way. However, this president is still continuing to move towards the same goals hes always had which is terrorize, scare, keep all of these people in the shadows. Let me ask you about the raids that have been announced by i. C. E. Some of them are democrats that look, these are families that have deportation orders. What they have said is the universe of people were going to be going for are folks that have deportation orders. They have had process. They have gone through the immigration process. They have been ordered deported. What would you have the government do . Isnt this just enforcing the law, and shouldnt we enforce our immigration laws . So this is the thing. If you remember back to when obama instituted prosecutorial discretion because advocates across the country, including me at the time as an advocate on the outside pushed for the Obama Administration to understand that our immigration laws are so broken that there are a lot of people who have final orders of deportation that have committed no crime other than illegal presence in the United States or illegal reentry in many cases. So what the Obama Administration did is were going to use prosecutorial discretion. Were only going to go after those with the most serious crimes because we recognize that congress has not done its job in passing comprehensive immigration reform. So we have these two signs at the border, as i heard somebody say the other day, the help wanted and then the no trespassing signs. So we have this completely broken system that is hypocritical in nature because we need that labor. We need these folks in the country, but we are not willing to change the system. So just because you have a final order of deportation does not mean that you have done anything other than have illegal presence in this country or illegal reentry into this country. So to say that these are people who have gone through the process is ridiculous because the process is completely broken. And the amount of money that it will take to deport all of these people, that is taxpayer dollars, and let me tell you, at the end of the day, if theyre successful in deporting all of these people, then just plan that youre not going to be able to eat any vegetables. Youre not going to be able to operate our economy. This is going to have a missive impact on our economy. Its why the chamber of commerce says this is crazy. We need immigration reform. Congresswoman pramila jayapal, thank you for being with me. Thank you, chris. Joining me gary peters, top democrat in Homeland Committee and Government Affairs committee which handles oversight of the census. I imagine youre happy with the decision not to sort of try the get around the court order, but you have concerns about what the president announced today in the attempts the executives are now going to make to get its hands on citizenship data . Well, we have a lot of questions. Im not sure exactly what he intends to do. I think we need to get more information. But youre right. I am pleased that the Citizenship Question wont be on the census. Its absolutely critical that every person in this country is counted. Its outlined in the constitution. The Supreme Court verified and actually called what the Trump Administration was doing a contrived plan to put something on the census form that would actually have political repercussions and not really be focused on what the intent of the census is, which is to count every individual in the country. Youve got substantial federal resources that come to states as a result of the count. Youre talking about the very core aspects of our democracy when it comes to representation. And experts who deal with the census every day, those that have testified before my committee were concerned about the undercount. In fact, the economists at the Census Bureau themselves thought youd probably have several million folks now counted, probably nine Million People or more. And to try to get them counted would cost hundreds of millions of additional taxpayer money to count them. It was a bad decision. And when you consider that the census is a very complex, difficult undertaking, and prior to putting any question on the census, they research those questions for several years. There was no research whatsoever. This just came out of the blue, was put into the census. Experts were cleared it would lead to an undercount. And now the president wants to look for other data. Im not sure what he is going to do. But that raise as whole host of issues related to privacy, security of that data, and some of that data was given to agencies for one purpose, and it may be transferred to another purpose, and that is certainly something that the American People didnt bargain for. Let me ask you a question i asked thomas saenz at the time of this. Do you view this as part of a larger political project to essentially reduce the political potency of constituencies, particularly immigrant and immigrant adjacent constituencies that are not favorable to trump or the Republican Party . Yes. I think there is and it was clear. Thats what happened in the court case there was evidence that this was based on politics. It wasnt based on the reasons that they gave to the court. In fact, the Supreme Court in the opinion said that the reasons the Trump Administration gave were contrived. There was another motive behind it. Our founders who wrote the constitution were very clear that every person should be counted. This is a republic, a representative republic. And in order to have a representative republic work the way it should, you have to actually know how many people are residing in that country. Its how we determine apportionment, Electoral College, all of the Core Functions of our democratic republic. All right, senator gary peters of michigan, thank you for being with me tonight. Thank you. Next, Southern District of new york wants to know where Jeffrey Epstein is getting all of his money, and the reported billionaire will not tell them. What we know from new reporting into the epstein money mystery, next. I had a few good tricks to help hide my bladder leak pad. Like the old tunic tug. But always discreet is less bulky. And it really protects. cause it turns liquid to gel. So i have nothing to hide. Always discreet. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Ive done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. Ive even built my own historic trading model. And youre still not sure if you want to make the trade . Exactly. Sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. Is there a cure . Td ameritrades trade desk. They can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. Sounds perfect. See, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, ive done my job. Call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. Hey i live on my own now ive got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. Unlike my parents. You rambling about xfinity again . Youre so cute when you get excited. Anyways. Ive got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein today asked to let the accused sex trafficker out on bail, arguing he could stay in home detention under electronic monitoring at his 77 million manhattan mansion. Lots of room to move around. Prosecutors have strenuously fought to keep him in detention. He is already a registered sex offender is a man of nearly infinity means. They also said the defendant has refused to answer any questions about his income or assets. So the scope of his wealth an his assets remain entirely concealed to the government and to the court. In a letter to the judge today, prosecutors made it clear they still dont have that information, writing, quote, as of this filing, the government still has not yet received any Financial Disclosure information from the defense in connection with the defendants application for bail. Now, while epstein is clearly very wealthy with a personal jet, four homes and a private island, it remains really unclear exactly how he made that money or how much he actually has. The New York Times dug into what has been reported about epsteins wealth and finds that much of that appears to be an illusion, and there is little evidence that mr. Epstein is a billionaire. The paper adds mr. Epsteins wealth may have depended less on his math acumen than his connections to two men, steven hockenberg who confessed to running a massive ponzi scheme and the founder of the retail chain the limited, the ceo of the company that owns victorias secret. Wexler appears to have done significant business with epstein as well as forming a personal bond with him. But it is still completely unclear how epstein, a onetime teacher at a private School Managed to gone omansion, planes and the aforementioned private island. The mystery has been around for a long time. Back in 2003, for example, vanity fair ran a lengthy piece by vicky ward noting many of the myths about epsteins fortune were actually untrue. Vicky ward is with me now. Great to have you back on the show. Thanks, chris. There is this gatsbiesque figure and there are all these stars around. You set out to find out whats the deal with this guy, and what did you find then . I found out he was a phony and he was a liar. Interestingly, he didnt he was very aggressive in the way he handled me. Within 24 hours, of starting out of the piece, i had phoned him to let him know i would be looking into him. But i then got a phone call from the then ceo of bear stearns, then a major investment bank, jimmy cain. Jimmy cain wanted to pull me in and spend the afternoon with me, show me around bear stearns and tell me how brilliant Jeffrey Epstein was, what a valuable client he was to the bank, and yet the truth was completely different. The truth was that hed had only five years and actually had been kicked out for violation. And later on, you know, some s. E. C. Documents in which Jeffrey Epstein gave a deposition, and it was quite clear from the line of questioning that the investigators were concerned and speculated that Jeffrey Epstein had knowledge about activities by jimmy cain and ace greenberg, who was then the chairman of bear stearns, and there was a lot of inquiry about an Insider Trading case that went on for years. And the reason i bring this up is because i think that leverage over financial people is perhaps the key to Jeffrey Epsteins wealth. Knowledge about people, knowledge about their money is power. One of the things i think we can rule out is if you look at big Billionaire Hedge Fund managers. Right. His transactions, his Public Record looks nothing like them. Is that fair to say . Completely. People that have big million running hedge funds, people trade with them. They leave a trail. Yes. You see them. You see that footprint in the market. If george soros does a trade you see it. Right. And thats not true with epstein . Thats not true. Furthermore, as i reported back then, he gave a deposition in a different suit in i think the late 1980s saying that really what he was doing, and he lived by the way in quite a humble apartment back then, was running around recovering stolen money for the government and for private clients. And the interesting thing about that is if you know how to recover stolen money you also know how to hide money. And the reason i mention that is that what i did discover is that before les wexner, his mentor, who i went to meet with in jail at the time, a man named Steve Hoffenberg who was serving a 20year jail sentence for the biggest ponzi scheme. He was madoff before madoff. He was madoff before madoff. He was epsteins mentor. Right. He told me that he taught Jeffrey Epstein everything he knew. He told you this sitting in prison for having ripped off people . Yes. Hes told me since hes come out, i spoke to him very recently, and he also has told me since in the last week or so that, you know, jeffrey basically stole his money. His money should have been seized by the government, but that jeffrey took it. That is, by the way, i think not something thats been established by courts. Thats an allegation. No. Yes. Yes. Just to be clear on that. I guess the question is do you think will we find out the truth here . They raided his house. They have gotten into his safe. Is this a thing the government will get to the bottom of . Well, i think whats so interesting in the indictment is the word conspiracy because that obviously means there are conspirators. And, you know, also the mention of the public corruption unit, because that possibly im speculating right. Corruption. It seems to me that other people will be questioned. How could they not be . Yeah. And then that will lead to the money trail. All right. Vicky ward, thank you for your great reporting. Thank you. Ahead, new votes on subpoenas for trump world as they leave impeachment off the table. My next guest suggests democrats are making a mistake. Cass sun joins me with his case for impeachment, next. Ext. In crossing harsh terrain. Or breaking new ground . This is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the mercedesbenz summer event, going on now. Lease the gla 250 suv for just 329 a month at the mercedesbenz summer event. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. If you have moderate or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. 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Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other money managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. music plays throughout with less than a week before special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to testify before congress, the House Judiciary Committee voted today to authorize subpoenas to a dozen people, some of whom will key figures in muellers investigation. The list includes trumps soninlaw jared kushner, former Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein, former attorney general jeff session, former National Security adviser michael flynn, and former Homeland Security secretary and white house chief of staff john kelly. Now to be clear, no actual subpoenas were issued today. The chair of the committee, jerry nadler, was just given the authority to subpoena if he so chooses. Keep in mind theyve already issued a bunch of subpoenas. In fact, just yesterday mike flynn along with trumps former Deputy Campaign chairman rick gates missed their subpoena deadlines to turn over documents and testify before the house intelligence committee. Its pretty clear the Trump White House and his allies are intending to run out the clock here. Its also clear the house leadership has made it a priority, perhaps over any other priority at the moment to avoid impeaching the president , even though there are over 80 members of congress who are in favor of opening an impeachment inquiry right now. As the president continues to violate and acts and flaunts his lawlessness, there is one remedy given to rein him in, one, really, and thats impeachment. Joining me now from the office of information of Regulatory Affairs under president obama and author of impeachment a citizens guide. If facts point in that direction, congress must. Cass, you are not i think your reputation is not as a kind of like firebreathing radical. I think your temperament is fairly moderate in temperament and judicious. But you seem to come down on the impeachment side here. Why . Well, impeachment side with respect to congress obligations not necessarily with respect to any particular president. So its probably good to go step by step and look at the issues with a degree of solemnity and not in a partisan way. So if you go back to the sounding, the idea of impeachment was essential to us having a constitution at all. The idea was that the king was a very bad idea, and we didnt want to have Something Like that, and impeachment was to make sure we would have a republic, not a monarchy. And that was a predicate for having the constitution at all. So if the question is whether an impeachment inquiry is obligatory or instead discretionary in the face of very serious allegations, the answer that emerges from the founding period, its mandatory. Its a republic if we can keep it. Now on the trump question in particular, we have to look at facts, you know in the Mueller Report in detail. But to say we can just say there is an election coming or its divisive and we can bracket it, thats a betrayal of the system. You said after assessing the facts the house concludes that a president , democratic or republican has clearly committed high crimes and misdemeanors, then impeachment is optional. In that event, the house has a duty to act regardless of the potential for any political fallout. I think a lot of people say fundamentally its a political question. It is given to the political branches. It is a question of votes. It is not a matter of the courts. But you kind of have a different view, i think. Yeah, i think nothing could be further from the truth. Its like saying two plus two equals six than to say its a political question. The whole point of the impeachment clause was to say there is an ascertainable standard. Treason, bribery, other high crimes and misdemeanors. Its not up to the house to make it up. The house cant impeach the president because it thinks he has the wrong views on climate change. Right. Or he is unsuited for office. Thats not legitimate. At the same time, if there is treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors, that has to be ascertained clearly. Thats fair to the president. There is something very grave about this. But if the inquiry does produce that and it doesnt matter whether the president likes elephants or donkeys or is one in terms of political affiliation, then the mechanism kicks in. And that suggests that what the house is obliged to do is not to impeach the president. That would outrun everything. Its way too early for that, but to think very seriously about volume 2 in particular of the Mueller Report which strongly suggests there are problems, like really Serious Problems of obstruction of justice, then that inquiry is obligatory. If it was its an interesting point you made. I hasnt quite thought of that, there is an articulable standard. Its not purely political wills of power. We dont like you, youre out of here. This is the standard. But its kind of a hazy standard. I was just reading. Someone had flagged a quote from de tocqueville and democracy in america where what the heck does high crimes and misdemeanors mean anywhere. Tocqueville was great but french. Its difficult. No. The history is very clear. So there is an english history. There is a history in the colonies, and there is a history in the post revolutionary america. So the words high crimes and misdemeanors were more like the word Motor Vehicle than the word gotcha, which can mean any number of things. So the term was actually well understood. It means egregious misuse of authority. It doesnt mean crime you. Is k have things that are crimes that are not high crimes and misdemeanors. Shoplifting isnt a high crime and misdemeanor. You can have things that are not crimes like going on vacation for eight months to key west. Thats not a crime. Thats fine for an an american to do. But that is a high crime and misbehavior within the constitutional meaning. The reason the words got through was people said ahha, i got it. Its like Motor Vehicle. Its a coherent concept. That was very illuminating. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ahead, new alarms over whether the levees in new orleans will breach as Tropical Storm barry closes in. Were going to go live to new orleans next. Dont go anywhere. Anywhere. When you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea try new pepto liquicaps for fast relief and ultracoating. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea get powerful relief with new pepto bismol liquicaps. We took everything you love about the bloomin onion and created a menu youve never seen before. Bloom, there it is bloom, there it is this bloomified menu starts at 13. 99. And its gonna blow your bloomin mind your daily dashboard from fidelity. A visual snapshot of your investments. Key portfolio events. All in one place. Because when its decision time. You need decision tech. Only from fidelity. Award winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. A hurricane warning is in effect tonight for a large swath of louisiana coast, and there is a Tropical Storm warning in the new orleans area. As the first major storm of the season barrels through the gulf. Barry is expected to strengthen in the coming hours and make landfall as a category 1 hurricane on saturday, but it is moving very slowly, which will likely result in huge rainfall totals, according to the National Hurricane center, the storm could produce 15 to 20 inches of rain, even 25 inches in isolated areas. Now you may recall a similar situation in the houston area with Hurricane Harvey nearly two years ago when that very slowmoving storm dumped more than 60 inches of rain in some areas. The other factor plaguing new orleans, of course, is the geography. The city is essentially a bowl, and with the Mississippi River on one side and lake pontchartrain on the other. And the combination of an already swollen mississippi following the wettest 12 months on record, luis the huge amounts of rain makes for a serious threat of flooding and even the possibility the Mississippi River could crest over the levees for the first time in modern history. Joining me now is mark sclesteen who has been watching and covering the storm closely. Mark, what are the three what are the Major Concerns for the army corps and the folks in new orleans who are at moderate risk . Well, the biggest one really is the rainfall potential. This has the potential of being a huge rainmaker, and thats a real problem for new orleans on a regular day, much less while youve got hurricaneforce winds or even Tropical Stormforce winds coming along. Our pump systems have been tested over and over again and found failing in the past. Lots of them have been rebuilt and fixed. So things are looking a lot better right now. But our other threat is extremely unusual, and thats that we have this really high Mississippi River. Its about 16 feet above sea level right now. Wow. And it could reach 19 feet above sea level on saturday. Now officially, the flood level in new orleans is 17 feet, but the reality is that the levees and flood walls protect the city to about 20 feet. And yesterday we had a real scare because the National Weather service said that barry might actually put 20 feet of water into this area along the river, and that really would see, you know, you have the potential of seeing some of those flood walls overtopping or at least leaking. And ironically, there is this one spot in whats called uptown new orleans, which is the army corps of engineers headquarter building where they have not built an improvement to their flood walls. And so theyre actually the low spot in the system in the city. The Army Corps Headquarters is a building ive been to when reporting on the aftermath of katrina. And i guess the other question here is obviously in the wake of katrina, there is huge amounts of rebuilding around levees. There is the rain issue. There is the overtopping. I guess a feeling is everyone confident that the levees are structurally sound . That what happened in katrina wasnt overtopping, they just actually failed, often from the bottom out. Do you feel like that right. Does everyone feel like the reengine nearing postkatrina means that each if they dont overcop, the force of the river can be held . Well, a significant chunk of the levee system in the new orleans area actually was raised a couple of feet over the last several years, last three years to deal with increased Sea Level Rise in the future. But, you know, the real problem is that weve had water against these levees for 120 days or even longer. This is a very long period. So theyre basically soggy levees. And thats the real concern. That additional two feet to three feet is not going to make a difference in terms of the sogginess. Its really if you have overtopping, whether or not the levees are able to stand the water running down, especially in the earthen levee areas, the water running down and eroding that back side of the levee. Thats really, really illuminating and worrying. Everyone is thinking about you down there in new orleans and pulling for you. Thank you so much. Sure, thank you. Coming up, a truly bizarre scene at the white house today, and that is really saying something. The president s club meeting for some of the internets biggest trolls, next. Next when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea try new pepto liquicaps for fast relief and ultracoating. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea get powerful relief with new pepto bismol liquicaps. When didwhen i needed ton . Jumpstart sales. Build attendance for an event. Help people find their way. Fastsigns designed new directional signage. And got them back on track. Get started at fastsigns. Com. They called it a summit, but this was no yalta. This afternoon, the white house hosted what they dubbed a social media summit to essentially discuss the challenges in todays online environment. A set of social Media Companies like twitter and facebook, they invited racebaiting conspiracy theorists, kind of like an ice cream social for trolls. The troll in chief, and the man who is literally more gifted than trolling anyone in history, the man who trolled himself into the white house stole the show. It was basically what you would expect. I called twitter a typewriter. Thats really what i call twitter. Im very, very careful. Im actually a good speller. But everyone said the fingers arent as good as the brain. There is no doubt in my mind that i should have millions and millions. I have millions of people. So many people, i wouldnt believe it. But i know that weve been blocked. I used to watch it like a rocket ship when i put out a beauty. Like when i said remember, i said somebody was spying on me . That thing was like a rocket. I get a call two minutes later. Did later, did you say that . I said yeah, i said that. Well, its exploding. I turned out to be right. Some of you are extraordinary, the crap you think of is unbelievable. Some of you guys are out there. But even you should have a voice. But some of you no some of you deserve some of you. I mean its genius, but its bad. Our country is really powerful and really strong. Never been like this. Woops. How did a fly get into the wlhie house . I dont like flies. It was not true that he was being spied or or wire tapped. Tapping his phones which was false like so many of the things the president tweets. The president opened the floor for questions and called on Deputy Assistant to the president sebastian gorka. As he was asked about censorship, the audio was cut off. How is the new show. Great. America first, sebastian gorka. 15 seconds later the video went to black. What took place at the white house threatens to undermine the truth in american politics. We will talk about that after this. 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Gum detoxify, from crest. From the standpoint of somebody that maybe has used social media better than anybody because i became president. Im sure i could have done it there is no question i would have done it either way. The president S Performance was surreal and pathetic, but the people he invited represent real vectors of disinformation part of electing the president in the first place. Machine who has been closing disinformation on social media, ben collins. It felt like commencement of those who were here and congratulations for all the work you have done helping me out. Setting narratives on twitter and facebook. Sometimes using disinformation and sometimes rabid support. Buckle up. We are about to do this all over again. Any idea this was labeled as talk on censorship. It was an awards ceremony basically. These folks, i read a book coming out in the fall that is great on this topic called antisocial. These folks are marginal figures, but they were actually quite central to the ways in which vektors of disinformation and those seated into the public consciousness in 2016. I talked to disinformation researchers about this meeting and seeing the names that were walking through the door today and they said these are the same people at the center of the network graphs. It explodes out with all the smaller counts. In the public sphere, you may not know their names, but you know the smears. In fact if you think their names, they are not doing their jobs correctly. They want to lay low enough to opinion to push the stuff. He wants to bring them in and say good job, everybody. He didnt really want to get of the anonymity. This is a perfect example of the ridiculousness. Sebastian gorka who actually worked in the white house on the National Security council of all places. Getting heckle and yelling at someone in the rose garden . Can we play that . Gorka gorka gorka he walked away and thats like sort of the vibe. That vibe just there, contentious and down the block tough. Its important to not disassociate this from the larger problems we have with social media right now. These people who were invited got famous because the algo rhythms made it so the loudest voice won. These people were able to build audiences and quit their jobs and get jobs on youtube. Off the algo rhythm. There is not just a playing field, but things that activate a response like rate red or anger. Those are the things they are pushing up to the top and these folks have benefitted in favor of them at the major places like facebook and youtube. Exactly. What youtubes algo rhythm did, heres a political video you did thats benign. Heres a latter version that was and thats what auto play did until a couple of months ago. These people have grown immense audiences worthy of the president s approval is not surprising. Its why they and ted cruise and josh hol skply and the conservative senators are obsessed with the rules that facebook and youtube put into effect for the platforms. Its hard to know who has power over two. Who is creating the policy and catering to the people who want that policy passed. A lot of the hit campaigns start and make their way to the president and if you are making policy based on the loudest voice, thats where it is really dangerous. Great reporting on this. Thanks for coming by. Thats all in and the Rachel Maddow show starts now. Good evening, rachel. Thank, chris. We have a big show tonight. Lots going on. I am pleased to say california senator Kamala Harris is here tonight. She had a huge night at the first democratic debate. I have not had a chance to speak to her since, but she will be live with me in a few minutes and im excited about that. As a preface to that, you know how i feel about spending too much time on the polls and fundraising and the horse race stuff this early on in the campaign. Thats not my favorite thing to spend lots of time talking about this early on. Because Kamala Harris is here tonight, i want to point out a couple of interesting lines in the new nbc poll that just came out tonight in the last few hours. You might have