Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson 20171026

But before we get to that one, i want to turn to one about the Opioid Crisis. Today a lot of new developments this morning with just a few hours to go. President trump expected to declare this a Public Health emergency. A real step forward in an attempt to try to stop an epidemic that kills 142 americans every day. Let me stop and put this into context for you here. This is the equivalent of a 9 11 every three weeks. Think about that. This is the president previewing todays announcement. Listen. Were going to be doing a very, very important meeting some time in the very short, very near future on opioids. In terms of declaring a National Emergency, which gives us power to do things you cant do right now. So, hans nichols is at the white house in the Briefing Room there. Ive been on the phone and i know you have been working about it, too. Talking about what this Public Health emergency does and, also, by the way, what it does not do. Tell us what the details are. It doesnt allocate any additional funding. This is a national Public Health emergency as opposed to a National Emergency which the president seemed to be telegraphing. Stop for a second, hans. To a lot of phones a lot of people think, who cares. What is the difference if its a national Public Health emergency or a National Emergency. A National Emergency unlocks all kinds of funds. A National Public emergency reshuffles funds that have already been allocated. Hallie, that doesnt mean you cant go to congress and ask for more funds. Strong indications they will go to congress and this is part of an overall political discussion, about funding more. Back in march the president inpaneled this group and Chris Christie was on that group. Lets listen to what matt lauer and Chris Christie had to say about the president s intentions. Do you think hell follow through on that promise . I do. What would you say to him to do it sooner than later . I already said it to him. What is his response . Hes ready. So, the declaration that we did get from the president does allow certain access to telemedicines and does allow some authorities to change, but this isnt the big National Emergency the president claimed and, again, this is only 90 days. It needs to be renewed and can be renewed and this is only a 90day timeline that were talking about here. Hallie. Hans, thank you very much. I want to pull up the graphic that ticks through some of what this Public Health emergency will do. Including treatment through telemedicine as hans mentioned. This is people in rural areas that cant get to a doctor. Grants that might open up but i want to bring in Regina Labelle to put this into. We have our panel matthew and jill colbin. Regina, youve seen now in the last two hours what the president plans to do. Will this make a difference in your view . The telemedicine piece is very important because not only do they not have access in rural areas to physicians, they dont have access to the behavioral therapies. If this allows for that to occur, that would be great. Obviously, a lot of people in the states are waiting on the additional 500 million. 500 million went out to states earlier this year. Another 500 million that was appropriated that hasnt been sent to the states. So, these states are really looking for the Financial Resources they need to handle the issue. Does the difference between a Public Health emergency and then this sort of National State of emergency, this more National Broad declaration, does that make a difference here . The administration said this morning once the Administration Official said, hey, listen, were doing the thing we can do that will have the most impact. Does that hold water . The National Emergency would free up more funds. My understanding is that the Public Health Emergency Fund has less than, i think 57,000 in it. That doesnt Mean Congress couldnt appropriate more necessarily for that or send more to that. But i think this is probably more appropriate for this issue. There has been some criticism that the president was a little slow on this one. That he talked a lot about the campaign trail about this. He declared that he was going to put the National Emergency in place two months ago in early august. Does that, is that an appropriate criticism at this point . Well, i think the issue is the actions that would accompany any emergency. I think it would have probably been better earlier in the administration that he acted quicker. I mean, certainly, it should have happened sooner than it did. Congress, the pressure on congress here. Matthew and jill. Intended to put pressure on lawmakers. Which we know trump has been doing a lot of lately. Taking complex, really difficult issues and kicking the can to congress. Is that what hes doing here . Kicking the can, regina. The money has to come to congress . It does look like that is a bit of a kicking the can to him. On the flip side, the white house is saying, some experts say anything you can do to draw attention to this crisis and unlock federal funds is going to help and draw attention and rally people around this epidemic. One of Chris Christies major points that hes been trying to make over the years is he has taken this issue on as new jersey governor. You need to reduce the stigma and administration has been traveling around the country, trying to shed light on this issue, but, nonetheless, when you talk to state Health Officials and talk to people on the ground and what theyre desperate for is more funding, more leeway here and theyre looking for more federal support. When you talk about states and what they need, one is west virginia. Senator joe manchin out talking about what this all means in the last little bit here. Lets listen to what he had to say. This is a disaster were dealing with. An epidemic, you can call it whatever you want to. The president naming this a National Emergency will give us the resources that go the front line. Regina brought up the billion dollars that had been appropriated in 20th century cares act to get help to the states and, jill, youre writing this morning about what this does. In alabama, they recruited 23 treatment and train new doctors to treat 25,000 new patients. In michigan, pure recovery coaches and in illinois a 24hour opioid hotline. Remote parts of this country have yet to see something. State officials who are very, very concerned. They dont have the leeway to do the things that they need. I mean, this is a really, you know, personnel, intensive, difficult process that these people go on that could take years and years and thats a lot of money. How do you get help to them . We dont have a treatment infrastructure, really, built in this nation. There are two data points. First is that there are over 2 Million People in this country that have an opioid disorder. Only 10 get any sort of treatment. We do need to do better as a country to reach people. The part that always struck me and youll hear it from the president based in the reporting is how this affects everybody. This is the crisis in all of our backyards. I have the conversation with folks in washington and around the country and Everybody Knows somebody, right. To put a face on this, kate snow, my colleague at nbc who has been reporting around the country on people affected and i want to play a little bit of her conversation earlier this month with a teenage girl whose mom was addicted to opioids. I consider myself the parent and my mom as the kid. She sold drugs . Yeah, she did. She got in trouble for that . One time i was around 7 or 8 she made me do a drug deal for her. A drug deal. Like what did she ask you to do . She put the heroin or cocaine in a napkin or something and she said run up to that house and get the money and give this to them. This affects every generation. Yes. I mean, one of the issues that were working on that we were working on really closely is infants who are born dependent and exposed to opioids and the effects that that has on the parent, as well as the child. And how important it is. The states need the money to have familybased treatment to get treatment cannot take the kid away from the mother, but to get treatment for both the family. When we talk about the personal impact of this, we heard hints that the president may, in his speech, get personal, matt, and talk about his personal story which makes me think he will bring up his brother who was an alcoholic and the reason that he was on this program yesterday and said that the president talked about freddy, his brother, in this meeting with members of Congress Talking about the Opioid Crisis when he was on capitol hill earlier this week. We dont often hear the president speak in these personal terms. Thats right. It is rare for him to engage in that kind of way and this allows him on an emotional issue to draw that connection to his own family. And address what a lot of people feel when they have a loved one whos addicted like that. Im going to also make sure that we get to what doctors think about all this because i think its important when you listen to the experts what they think needs to be done here. My colleague dr. John torres held a roundtable p. I want to play a piece of that and then, regina, well have you talk about it. Were working on that sound bite now. But when you talk to doctors. I want you to listen to what they have to say. Doctors. Do we know how to treat addiction . Absolutely. Absolutely i do. If i could pick one small thing is that all doctors are aware of an overdose reversal agent which can be sprayed up the nose and we should all be carrying it in our White Lab Coat pockets because overdoses are going on around us. And we can talk to patients, we can talk to families and we can make sure that when people have family members who are struggling with addiction, they have noit in their pocket. To bring it back to the funding part of it. Thats not free. Thats right. It should be cheaper. The costs have been going up for the last couple years and the niloxon is just a piece of it. After you save someone from an overdose an opportunity then to get them the help that they need. Perhaps to provide their family members with it because it is a chronic recurring disease and we need to anticipate that it takes a long time. This is not a treatment system that is going to work in 28 days. We need a lot of followup care. Regina labelle appreciate you joining us. Were going to keep following up on the president s speech later on this afternoon. But we also want to get to this feud. A different feud that weve been talking about blowing up inside the gop. Allies of Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell planning to wrap up the tax on steve bannon as he tries to get rid of republican incumbents. After the break, what we can expect from friends, senator mcconles and what it means for the growing rupture inside the party. Y. Except for one of us. I write them a poem instead. And one for each of you too. Thats actually yours. That one. Yeah. Regardless, were stuck with the bill. To many, words are the most valuable currency. Last i checked, stores dont take words. Some do. 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See why millions of people have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. Dont wait. Call now. You are taking a live look right now at the house floor where lawmakers are getting ready to pass a budget. This is a big deal because that would essentially pave the way for tax reform or tax cuts, we should say. Which is something that is a priority of the president s. You see Steve Scalise speaking there. Well check back in throughout the show as we expect the vote to happen within the hour. Also what else is going on on the hill. A Double Barrel battle to a single front. You have bob corker and jeff flake, the retiring republicans. Theyre heading for the exits. But that is triggering this next big fight. Senate leader Mitch Mcconnell versus steve bannon. Establishment versus flame throwers. Mcconnell and his allies are stepping up on bannon as he works around the clock for the Senate Candidates that could be in trouble. Kristen welker is over at the white house. Kristen, lets start with the fight that seems to have faded, if you will. Bob corker, jeff flake, donald trump. Where does that stand this morning . Well, the president has been downplaying the impact of that divide, hallie. You and i were on the south lawn when the president had a love fest earlier this week when he talked about tax reform. He makes the point, you dont hear a lot of other voices joining with corker and flake. But corker and flake not letting up and continuing their criticism of the president. Bob corker, though, making it very clear. His concerns are aimed at policy issues, particularly when it comes to Foreign Policy. Take a listen to what he had to say. To be honest, my relationship with the president is not relevant. Im dealing with the principals who conduct Foreign Policy and i hope more and more hell leave these issues to them. The way we feel about each other, which is, obviously, not particularly positive is irrelevant to me carrying out the responsibilities that i have here. So, of course, hallie, the big question is, will this divide in any way impact the president s policy agenda, particularly when it comes to tax reform. He doesnt have a whole lot of margin for error there. He insists it wont. You and i peppered him about questions yesterday. That is the backdrop to this feud between Mitch Mcconnell and steve bannon. Steve bannon declaring war several weeks ago. Now, Mitch Mcconnell and his allies getting into the fray, firing back and the thinking is they are going to target steve bannon specifically without going after the president. Thats going to be a tough needle to thread. Hallie. Kristen welker at the white house, ill see you in a little bit. Thank you very much. Former rnc chairman and friend of the show, michael steele, matthew and jill also back with us. So, heres how we put it in nightly news. The republican resistance at this point appears to be capped at 2. The silence from capitol hill is speaking volumes in all of this. But another fight happening because we cant let a day go by without a civil war somewhere. Of course. Steve bannon and Mitch Mcconnell. Pull up that Washington Post headline, again. Trying to feud with steve bannon. How is this fight going to go . It could be interesting. Look, these guys have weapons of their own that they can use. And, you know youre talking about Mitch Mcconnell. What are the weapons they can use . Legislation the president wants to get through the congress. So, at the end of the day, you do have to be smart and careful about how you hit. I think people make a false assumption that, you know, the president say, oh, yeah, only a battle with two. No, there may not be a lot of voices that are speaking, but the sentiment is shared that both corker and flake had put out there on the street, as well as mccain. I agree that thats privately happening. Does it matter if nobody is coming out and speaking about it . Again, it goes wack back to inside gain. If that sentiment is shared. Then it makes it easier for mcconnell and others from the inside. We need to get the president s attention on some other things or whatever. So, there are ways that this ting could play out that not all the boxes are filled with, you know, trump toys. We, you have Mitch Mcconnell who says, listen, winners make policy and losers go home. His point is if you put up candidates like perhaps a kelly ward in arizona and then you lose, that seat doesnt go maybe to a republican, ultimately. So, Mitch Mcconnell has very different considerations than steve bannon. That is maybe the biggest understatement of this program. Steve bannon has luxuries that mr. Mcconnell doesnt. He doesnt have to win elections and corral a caucus. But, mcconnell has shown that if, as happened in alabama, the candidate he doesnt like end up winning the primary. If you have an r, hell support you and get the Institutional Support of the party. Steve bannon can do more scorched earth where Mitch Mcconnell shows if youre a republican, well back you up. President trump watching this play out his one shoulder one guy and the other shoulder the other guy. We know where his personal allegiances lie. Not Mitch Mcconnell. Spoiler. Nonetheless, bannons ultimate goal here is that he wants the president s agenda, the agenda on which the president ran on and won on to be inactive. Mcconnell shares many of those same goals and i think here at some point that shared objective will bring them together at some point. I want to read you what the New York Times had out this morning. Despite the fervor of President Trumps republican opponents, the president s brand of hardedge nationalism, with its gut is taking root within his adopted party. And those uneasy with grievance politics are giving in or giving up the fight. How do you see it . Im not giving into this crap, no. I think the fight, there is a real fight that has to happen here. Its been brewing for a long time. And, really, bannon and trump are just coming on. They saw the wound and they just either stripped the band aid completely off of it or used a few tools to make it all work. Salt shaker. So, these guys arent shaping anything new within the party. This has been a fiphilosophical going back to when reagan left office. We have not settled that fight. It goes to the core of who we are and what we believe. And how we go out and present ourselves to the world. And everybody has a different view of that right now. Is your view that more republicans are going to come out and retire, maybe say theyre going to leave . Well, they may. But if you want to give up that kind of ground to basically turn the lights out for the gop and call it Something Else and move on. The reality is the party that reagan left us is not the party that remained after all this silliness is done. Michael steele, always a pleasure to have your perspective. This idea that Senior Intelligence and military officials are telling us that the administration is basically paving the way to arm unmanned drones to target terrorists. Upping our military involvement in africa all coming on the heels of the ambush in niger. Ken delainey one of the reportes behind the scoop. Ken, tell us about this. The french already are their drones. What makes the military leaders think this has to happen on the u. S. Side now . As isis is driven out of syria that this part of africa could become the next hot bed for this terrorist group. This is a really poor area with weak government and al qaeda is already very strong in this area. And, so, the u. S. Military has been pushing for many years, actually, to fly armed drones in this part of the world but president obama declined to authorize that. Now, this ambush in niger where the four berets were killed and our sources are telling us that President Trump is inclined to approve it, hallie. We know more about that ambush that youre talking about. Was there a second team or what do we know about the possible second team that was working on the ground. The other strand of nbc news reporting. A second, more secretive joint special Operations Command team was operating in that area. This was a joint french American Team that was gathering intelligence on some of these terrorist groups, potentially in support of these lethal strikes. And they tasked the Green Beret Team that was ambushed with going to a village to track a particular militant. And general Joseph Dunford this morning said the military is now investigating whether that mission changed and whether they assume more risk than they realize and thats what caused the problem that led to the ambush, hallie. That sounds like a story that will continue to develop throughout the day. Thank you for that. Were also keeping an eye on what is happening at the building behind me here. Capitol hill. Thats nancy pelosi debating this budget resolution that the house is set to vote on this morning to pave the way for congress to move forward on that tax cut package. So, up next, were heading live to capitol hill to let you know where things stand. Alright, off you go. Casual fridays at Buckingham Palace . Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money nathan saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. avo but you also have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. Noninsulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk. 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Yet, today, people in congress and his own administration know this president is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing. Join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing whats political and start doing whats right. Our country depends on it. We are back now with a look at your mornings biggest headlines. Expecting an announcement from the white house regarding the deadly Opioid Crisis. Set to declare a Public Health emergency in how they use federal money to fight the epidemic, but the president will stop short of designating this a National State of emergency. Something he indicated he might do back in early august. We were following that story and bring you more as we get it. We also want to take you out west for something a little more fun. Check this out. Last night in l. A. Legendary announcer vinscully jogging out to throw the first pitch for game two of the world series. He brought the house down. Listen to this. One, two, three. Its time for dodger baseball good night. Love you. That is a scully classic. Series tied 11. Back to capitol hill where a different kind of game is happening. Lawmakers getting very interested in not just a house budget, which we are watching right now. A vote set to happen in the next little bit here. But the situation in puerto rico. More than a month after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria 300 homes and businesses still do not have power. You have a retired air force colonel appointed to oversee the construction of the electrical grid and apparently that decision is not sitting well with the islands governor. The administration is looking into how a 300 Million Contract to repair the power system was given to this tiny Montana Company from the hometown of interior secretary ryan. That is a story we first told you about when it all broke. Nancy pelosi is out with this statement. We are deeply concerned about why and how a small, inexperienced firm was tasked with the massive job of rebuilding puerto ricos devastated electrical grid. Im joined now by the spokesman, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs administration. Thank you for joining us on set. Extraordinary couple months for you. Yeah. I want to start with the appointed of retired general knowles. The governor, apparently, is not happy about this. Why not . Because its a move that made by the Oversight Board which the governor thinks and understands that they dont have the jurisdiction to do that kind of open appointment. So, thats something that its been questioned and it will be overlooked, you know, in the proper, i dont know. I would say channels. The governor to challenge this, essentially. Heres the statement from the retired air force colonel. Im fully committed to bringing the resources necessary to restore electricity to the people of puerto rico as quickly as possible and reactivate the economy and bring normalcy to the island. If hes here to help people, isnt that what it is all about . We dont know, the power grab. Then i think it matters if its a power grab. Thats what the governor thinks. Yeah. We dont know what his background on Recovery Processes or electric grids. So, what were saying is that the governors focus on the recovery and the response thats going on right now under ground. Like you said initially. Were still working hard with the recovery of the electricity for everyone. Water, communications and i think theres been some improvements, but i think that is what we need to be focused on. You talk about the restoration of power and youve got this company, white fish, a story that weorved earlier in the week talking about its a young company, two employees at the time that it got this contract last month. Members of congress are now calling for an investigation into this 300 Million Contract with the company. Are you confident that they can handle getting the power back on in puerto rico . So, i want to point out some things. That contract was given under an emergency circumstances. So, the one that gave out the contract, its a private public corporation. So, the way that it works, it works that they have a board. They respond to the board. The way that they say they gave out a contract and the way they laid out that whole contract. They have an emergency procurement process and right now its not only being investigated by the congress. The governor asked the inspector general, he sent a letter. He sent a contract for them to review it because the governors totally committed for this process. There was something done wrong in the process, he wants full accountability here. He has real concerns about white fish, is that fair to say . Last week you broke the story and the governor responded to it. He wants to make sure that everything went through the right process. Also been this back and forth now with the mayor of san juan. The Washington Post broke the story, but thank you for the credit on that. The mayor had real concerns. That prompted this reply from the company on twitter. We have 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city and 40 more men that just arrived. Do you want to send them back or keep working . The Company Later apologized after saying that the mayors comments were misplaced. I want your reaction to that exchan exchange. Im not a social media expert. Im here to talk about what the government is doing. Im not asking you to be a social media expert. The this company has come out and threatened to pull workers out of pouerto rico. I think its inappropriate, right. And i think they shouldnt be doing that. But, again, its not nigh job to get them to qualify those comments. I think what i need to do here is just to let you know that we are focused on the Recovery Process and talking about whitefish. The contract. The governor requested the inspector general. He submitted to fema and submitted even internally he asked for the record to look at it and give me a report immediately. So, once that is how if there was any wrongdoing, he is going to follow the right procedures. Timeline. When will people get their power back on . The governor two weeks ago said by october 30th. 0 of the electricity would be restored. By november 15th, milestone, 50 . Think youll hit that . Yes. Right now were at 28 . So, youre on track for goals here. Yes. Carlos, thank you so much for coming on set and talking with us through some of these big issues facing puerto rico. We hope to have you back as we continue to follow this story on this network. Also continue to follow whats happening on the house floor where voting just started on that budget we have been talking about. 4 trillion essentially passing this opens up the door for the president to be able to do something with congress on his tax cut plan. Msnbc garret is watching it all unfold over on the hill. What are you hearing and what are you seeing when it comes to this budget . This is a very close vote. The magic number is 215 votes. Thats what republicans need to pass this budget and keep on their schedule to make me possibly get a tax reform or tax cut bill done by the end of this year. Well know in about 13 1 2 minutes if they have the votes to pull this off here. But the speaker just blew past me coming into the chamber. We have been hearing from republicans all morning trying to tie this vote on the budget, which this is not the tax vote, but tie these two things together and say if you vote against the budget, you voted against getting tax reform done. It is clear still some elements of the tax reform process that are not worked out among republicans, particularly this issue of state and local Tax Deductions maybe being taken out of the tax reform bill and republicans from hightax states see this as a Pressure Point to have that argument within their own party and to have this argument on their own vote. Im watching the votes start to come out of the corner of my eye here and well know in the next 15 minute or so. If they get the vote, what this does, it lets them introduce that tax reform bill next week and start that process where it might get through the house by thanksgiving and maybe the most optimistic account by republicans get through the senate by the end of christmas. If they dont get the votes, they would potentially have to go to a Conference Committee with the senate and it just throws a wrench into the whole thing. So, the next 15 minutes are going to be very interesting, at least for us on capitol hill. So, im going to have you back in 14 minutes, garret, to give us an update on how things are going. Well keep an eye on that. Thank you for that. In the meantime, well take a quick break and well talk about how defense secretary james mattis just got to south korea to talk about the threat of north korea. We are talking to our own keir simmons who just spent a week inside north korea. What people there are saying about the increasing tensions with the u. S. Liberty mutual saved us almost eight hundred dollars when we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey. Oh. Thats my robe. Is it . You could save seven hundred eighty two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Backed me up. Big time. Before movantik, i tried to treat it myself. No go. But i didnt back down. I talked to my doctor. She said one, movantik was specifically designed for opioidinduced constipation. Oic. Number two . 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Not long before President Trump visits asia next month james mattis is on the ground in the region. He just got to seoul in south korea on a mission to try to defuse some of the tensions with north korea. There is no decescent about e danger that north korea presents and a lot of discussion on how to move forward by everyone. How do we resolve the situation with the hopes that we can resolve it diplomatically. The pentagon has recently announced the first ever deployment of advance f35a stealth jet fighters to japan. A dozen of these new models are set to arrive next month. Nbc news Foreign Correspondent keir simmons just got back from reporting on the ground from north korea and reporting from seoul this morning. So, here, i am so intrigued to hear how this went. All this comes as north korea says the u. S. Should take this threat to detonate a Hydrogen Bomb literally. Yeah, hallie. Look, the cold truth is that the north korean leadership believed that it is threatened by the u. S. And its allies and i dont think that you can, well, sobering reality is that i dont think you can underestimate the threats made by north korea. From our experience in north korea, we were there for a week. Admittedly, of course, we were always with members of the government minders and the people that we spoke to were in the higher echelons of society there. You know, people around the leadership. But nobody that we spoke to gave us the impression that they were looking to back down from the Nuclear Program very often. They said they were prepared for war, even a nuclear war. There was no suggestion that they thought that a proposal that they should freeze that program is a possibility. And, you know, i think we cant underestimate the strength of ideology in north korea. How much they do many of them believe in kim jongun who they call their supreme leader. How much they believe in their ideology of independence, of selfreliance. These are things that are kind of baked in a little bit. Of course, when you speak to people all the time there, you ask yourself, are they telling me what they really think or not . It is quite striking. I mean, for example, you know, i spent some time with the kind of ordinary group, they were drinking beers in a bar and i say to them, ask me about their lives and they say, the first thing theyd say was, thanks for the leader and thanks for kim jongun for the beer were drinking and the food were eating. You do question what youre hearing at times and you wouldnt want to gamble on that. Not when the gamble involves the war in this region and you can see possibly thousands and even in the early stages, hallie. Keir simmons with that really interesting perspective on the ground in seoul. Thank you for staying up late with us tonight. I appreciate it. We want to check back now on capitol hill where the house is in session and voting right now on that 4 trillion budget bill that could pave the way for the president s tax cut plan. Looking at the notes here, you have 65 yay votes. 67 nay. It needs 215 to pass. We expect this to wrap up some time in the next 15, 30 minutes. Well keep checking in. Well check in on what is going on with the release of those documents related to the assa assassination of president john f. Kennedy more than 50 years after his death. We should be getting a look at those classified files that could maybe, maybe answer more questions about what happened. After the break, well talk to the last surviving secret Service Agent who was on president kennedys detail in dallas. Thats next. Ashville . Kimchi bbq. Amazing honky tonk . I cant believe you got us tickets. I did. I didnt pay for anything. You never do. Send me what i owe. I got it. I mean, you did find money to buy those boots. Are you serious . 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Congress got so frustrated with all the conspiracy theories, they said get these documents out there. We want to know, is this going to be a bombshell or nothing . Pete will yiams is joining me n. I know i cant ask you to predict what we will see. Give me your best sense of what might end up coming out. I think the thing that were most interested in is the time Lee Harvey Oswald was in mexico for six days in late september, roughly two months before the assassination. Its known went there to try to get a visa to visit cuba. He talked to cuban and soviet agents. What did the cia know at the time. They were supposed to be tailing him. How much did they know . How much did they fail to tell the Warren Commission . Did they pick up on the fact that he was supposedly telling people he was willing to shoot the president apparently because he was upset learning there was a plot to assassination castro. Thats the main thing. I should point out that there are a lot of logistical challenges to getting to the answer to this question. First of all, its all going to be released online. The last time the archived released a lot of material on the kennedy files, it was in july. It took hours and hours and hours to be able to download any of it. Secondly, let me show you something if we can cut away from the pictures for a second. This is a list of what we think will be interesting documents to look at. This is a list of what we think are all the files withheld. Thats roughly 3,000 files. We sort of have and idea of kind of by key word where we want to start. Its going to take a while. Even then the experts we have talked to, the scholars that have been through this for years say, dont get your hopes up. No one seems to think or none of the mainstream people we have talked to that have studied this for decades seems to think its going to change the overall narrative that oswald acted alone and was not put up to this by a Foreign Government or some group. Let me see the stack of papers again. Thats a hefty stack. This is 150 legal size pages. Pete williams in washington, thank you very much. I want to bring in clint hill, a former u. S. Secret Service Agent for president kennedy who was in the president y president ial motorcade when the president was killed. These are some now iconic photos. You are climbing on top of the president ial motorcade. You are pushing first Lady Jackie Kennedy out of the way to protect her. Thats you. Can you take a moment and walk us through that day . Well, we had this motorcade into dallas because the president was going to make a speech at the trademark. The whole trip was based on maximum exposure. Kennedy and johnson wanted to make sure they could get as big a vote in texas in 1964 as possible. Because they needed it. So we started out from love field. We drove into the city. The crowds got larger and larger and larger. They were just immense. Larger than anybody anticipated. As an agent, you are looking at that. We were. We were a little understaffed because of transfers that had been made. We had some very pretty young, raw agents working on an important position. That was difficult. We got through the crowd okay. I got up in the back of the car a few times because of the driver keeping the car closer to the lefthand side of the street where mrs. Kennedy was on the left, keeping the president away from the right of the crowd. We were in a place called the plaza. I was on a Running Board behind the president s car, lefthand side. I was scanning the area. All of a sudden i hear this explosive noise over my right shoulder. Came from the rear. Did you know what it was in. I did not know what it was. It was an explosive noise. I wasnt sure what it was. I started to turn toward the noise. I only as far as the president s vehicle because i saw what happened. I saw the president grab at his throat. Then he started to fall to his left. I knew then that it was a gun shot. I jumped from my position and started to run to the president s car. With the intent of getting on top of the back to form a shield. Just as i got to the president s car, just before i got there, another shot hit the president in the head. He at that time was leaned way over it his left. Mrs. Kennedys face was against his. The shot actually hit him back here. But it erupted out of the upper right quadrant of the rear of the head. There was brain matter and bone fragments over me, over the car, over mrs. Kennedy. At that point, she came up on the trunk. She was trying to grab some of the material that came out of the president s head. She did get some in her hands. She didnt even know i was there. I grabbed her and put her in the back seat when that happened. The president s body felt into her lap. His head was in her lap. Right side of his face was up. I could see his eyes were fixed. There was a hole in the skull. I could see in the hole. There was no brain matter left whatsoever. I assumed it was a fatal wound. I gave a thumbs down to the followup car and screamed at the driver, get us to a hospital. He immediately excaccelerated. We ended up at parkland hospital. You were on top of mrs. Kennedy at that point . I laid on top of the back of the top seat, back seat to cover both president and mrs. Kennedy. Through the entire trip to the hospital. I ask you to walk through this. I know you have talked about it. I cant imagine it gets easier to talk about. Not really. When moments like this happen with the release of the documents, theres increased interest in what people are interested in, the the story of president and jackie kennedy, this couple, this family that was so important to americans. What is it like for you in this moment when the attention is back on the kennedy files, on the assassination, on this indelible moment in your life . F whats it like for you . Im anticipating whats in the files myself. I really dont know. I have a general idea what it is. Because its coming from the stuff that was that was kept was secret was stuff from most of the intelligence agencies, the fbi, some of the things from the secret service. So its going to be that kind of material that im hoping that within that material theres lots of it there will be some indication as to the motive, the reason why he did what he did. And his the background into previous period of time prior to november 22. Whatever the fbi or cia or whoever, what they knew about it, what they recorded about it. You tweeted recently, responding to conspiracy theories, i know what i saw, heard, felt. In addition to all the evidence i have seen points to one shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, three shots from the same position. Do you expect whats coming out today to convince anyone who doesnt believe . Or people will believe what they want to believe . The die hards, you are not going to change their mind. Have i talked around the country. Sometimes someone will come up to me and say, you know, i was a conspiracy theorist. But you have convinced me that there was one shooter. Very quickly before i let you go, in 1975, your first interview you said you blame yourself for the death of the president. If you reacted fivetenths of a second fast he the president would be alive. Have your feelings changed over the years . Not really. Deep down i still have that sense of guilt that i should have been able to get there quicker and i didnt. All of the agents i worked with had that same sense that they wished that they had been in my position, because i was the only one who had a chance to do anything. You did what you could. I appreciate you joining us to talk about this. I appreciate you sharing your story. We want to take a break and turn back to capitol hill. The house budget vote is continuing on. I want to check back. We see 213 republican yea. 215 means it would pass. Its not official until its gavelled in. Im watching the votes come in. They are looking like increasingly close here. I see 12 outstanding no votes here for republicans. What we have seen so far is a number of republicans from high tax states like new york and new jersey voting no on this, folks like peter king from new york. Folks who would be particularly have their states and their constituents hard hit by this plan to remove the deduction for state and local taxes are voting no. Some of the other no votes, lynn jefrng jenkins from kansas. Just watching the numbers come in, seeing the outstanding republicans have yet to vote. Im look at 14 republicans who have yet to vote. They have hit 215. Not official until its gavelled in. Right. I think this right now, this looks like it will pass narrowly. I know we will check back with you at the top of the next hour. Before we turn the show over, we want to end with todays big picture. We are heading to kenya where a president ial revote turned deadly. You are look at a supporter of the Opposition Leader burning tires as kenyans heads to the polls to vote for the president. Why do i say again . The last president ial vote in august was d illegitimate. They said to boycott. Three people have died in clashes with police. Several more have been hurt. We are watching that story and so many others here on this program here on msnbc and online, facebook, twitter, snapchat and instagram. For now, i will turn it over to my colleagues standing by in new york. We have a deal. Every time hallie mentions kenya, the nation of my birth, she gets 2 from me. He is right. Thanks. The money will be in your account. We will see you this afternoon. Good morning, everyone. Its thursday, october 26. Lets get started. 401 k s are very important. Theyre important because thats one of the great benefits to the middle class. I didnt want that to go too