Im stephanie ruhle. It is wednesday, february 21st. I have to say, he hurt me because he didnt watch my show. We have to get started. The reverend billy graham has died at the age of 99. It is hard to overstate the importance of billy graham and his significance in American Culture over the past 50, 60, 70 years. In just a few hours, President Trump will host families who know the pain of gun violence firsthand. Theyll be from places like sandy hook, columbine, and the latest scene of school violence, parkland, florida. We must do more to protect our children. We have to do more. I signed a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns. President trump also tweeted last night, whether we are republican or democrat, we must now focus on strengthening background checks. The fact that there should be regulation, particularly when it comes to background checks, assault weapons, wubump stocks, obviously, we should be able to find common ground. A warm welcome to the survivors of the shooting at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School. Students on a mission, bringing their anger, grief and a tough gun control message to floridas capital. Were sick and tired of politicians sitting back and saying that, this was inevita e inevitable. We need to implement the legislation and Carry Forward change. Florida had another chance to ban assault weapons in the state yesterday, but the republicanled statehouse of represents blocked a measure to even debate banning weapons like the one used in the School Massacre one week ago. A crushing blow to students who were there. I dont know how columbine wasnt enough. I dont know how sandy hook was not enough. I dont know how the Las Vegas Shooting was not enough. I dont know how the pulse nightclub was not enough. I dont know how any of it was not enough. But now, it is. Social media is being inundated with conspiracy theories, claiming that some of the grieving students fighting for gun control are actually hired actors. I am so sorry these people have lost their faith in america. I know i certainly havent. I was a witness to this. Im not a crisis actor. Press secretary Sarah Sanders held a briefing tuesday for the First Time Since special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 russian officials for meddling in the u. S. Elections. The president didnt say russia didnt meddle. He criticized obama and the fbi. He didnt even criticize Vladimir Putin. He has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined. Okay. Sarah huckabee sanders, that is absolutely untrue. One more time, for you to say that president obama has been tougher on russia in one year President Trump. Excuse me that President Trump has been tougher on rusher in the last year than obama in eight years, it is a straight up lie. No. We fact checked this, and it is not a thing. Shame on you. We start this morning with a hero and a victim. Killed in the shooting at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School being laid to rest. Christopher hixson was the schools athletic director. Weve heard extraordinary stories about him. He was also so much more than that. Rather than cut sports that lacked coaches, hixson decided to do the job himself. Are you ready for this . He coached five sports at various times, all without any extra pay. Students were given the opportunity to run cross country, play volleyball, wrestle, play basketball and prar t participate in track and field all thanks to this mans selflessness. An amazing guy. 49 years old. He was a father and husband who served in the navy during Operations Desert Storm and desert shield. He was reportedly seen trying to disarm the shooter after getting students out of the line of fire. Survivors along with students across the country are channelling their grief, rage and heartbreak into action. Staging a walkout to protect gun violence and demand action from elected officials. All of this happened, of course, one day after the Florida House of representatives voted to declare pornography a health risk, okay, but declined to debate a bill banning assault style rifles. Say it one more time. Florida decided that watching porn is a health risk, but assault rifles, lets keep those in circulation. Joining us now is a democratic member of the Florida House of representatives. She just met the students from Parklands School shooting. Shes surrounded by the protests outside the florida capitol building. Thank you for being with us. What do you make of what happened yesterday . That was sort of ground zero for the students. They felt if they can finally have an impact on legislators, maybe theres hope for some gun sensibility in this country. It was disappointing yesterday, but im really hopeful that we are going to have some discussions in the house. Ive been a legislator for eight years, and my district abuts the parkland area. I represent palm beach county, and were 20 miles from where the massacre happened. I totally understand, and i feel for the students. Im so proud to see what theyve done and what theyre doing up here in tallahassee. Theyre inspirational. We need change. I think theyre going to be the Tipping Point in starting to have some change here in the nation. I spoke to one of the teachers from the high school, and i asked her specifically, would things be different if, going forward, teachers in their classrooms were armed . Heres what she said. Oh, excuse me. She basically said, how am i possibly going to do that . What am i going to do . This is a woman who supports the Second Amendment. She goes, am i going to carry a gun on me . Am i going to wear a cavalika v . She is a republican and supports the Second Amendment but said, thats not the answer. For teachers like the school behind you, who is the answer . How can they be safe and keep their students safe . I mean, i think this is a multipronged issue. I dont support teachers having guns at all. Its not on my agenda. I have a bill right now on the floor of the legislature to have gun violence restraining orders, which would take guns away. You go to court, take a gun away from somebody who is a danger to themselves or others. I think thats one prong we need to look at. I supported assault weapons ban. I also support closing gun show loopholes. I also think we need to more at more Mental Health funding here in the state of florida. Were continually at the bottom of the number in terms of state funding. I also think we need to see what we can do to harden our schools a little more. Have single points of access. Lets talk about the meeting students are going to have with lawmakers today and with the governor. What are you expecting to come out of that, given what you saw yesterday . I still think the students can have an impact. Yesterday was one vote on a procedural move. I think the students being up here and meeting with legislature is really impactful. I met with the students this morning. I support their causes. It was an easy meeting for them. It was a tough meeting, nonetheless. I mean, the students told the stories about what happened that day in the high school. One group of students told me they walked away from the school with the shooter, and they didnt even know they were with the shooter the entire time they were walking away from the school. Their voices are impactful. Theyre going to make a difference, i think, up here in tallahassee. I hope their meetings go well, and i hope we see some action here. Democratic representative there, thanks for joining us. Quite an energetic rally. I believe the children are our future. Someone said that. I believe it was whitney houston. Joining us now is shannon watts, the founder of moms demand action for gun sense in america. A group she started the day after the massacre at sandy hook elementary school. Shannon, lets start with what your mission and your message is. Because right now, there is so much Energy Behind the movement, but theres a lot of movements. Theres mom demands action. Theres every town. Theres the brady group. Theres Gabby Giffords group. Thousa now, there are these students. Do you have a unified message of what you want . Absolutely. So moms demand action is the grassroots arm of every town for gun safety. We are the only organization that has a chapter in every single state of the country and has 4 million members. We can show up not just to meet with our members of congress but also with our state legislators. And tell them we want stronger gun laws and to defeat some really bad nra gun bills that show up in the statehouses every single year. Yes, we all Work Together. We each have a different role to play in this battle. We are in Constant Contact about how to work on this across the country. One of the risks here is it is unclear what the message is. Do you feel like you and these other groups have a clear message of what you want tangibly . Because from a logic perspective, it makes no sense why nothing is done. If sort of all these forces Work Together with a clear ask, maybe theres a better chance. Absolutely. We have had a very clear ask, all of the organizations, for the last five years. That is to act on researchbased legislation, not on anecdotes like the nra shares all the time, but data that shows us stronger laws, like a background check on every gun sale, disarming domestic abusers, red flag laws that the florida representative was just talking about, enhancing the nics system, these are laws that work and save american lives. We see in the 19 states that closed their background check loopholes, something were waiting for the federal level to do, it cuts incidents in half. What do you think of the cornynmurphy bill thats been revised . It doesnt do anything more, but encourages everybody to follow the laws already in place and provide funding for it. A number of gunaction proponents said, well, its better than nothing. I wonder whether it is better than nothing. It gives politicians cover to say, see, i did something about guns. Yet, nothing so meaningful that might actually prevent attacks like we saw in parkland. Yeah, that bill was proposed in the wake of the southerla su springs shooting in texas. Itd be a step forward. We also need wholistic change. It is not enough to take baby steps. We need big strides on this issue. That includes passing a bill like the bill that failed by a handful of votes in senate. Closing the loopholes. Theres a host of things. I mean, its no different than car safety, right . Seat belt laws didnt stop every traffic death. We had rumble strips and speed limit laws and better car technology. All of these things together will reduce gun violence in america. Were not going to be satisfied with one small step. Even if its Sweeping Change that you want, that you demand, that this country needs, weve gotten nothing thus far. If you had one ask, the immediate thing that you could get, realistically, given the financial stronghold we know the nra has, what is it . It is to pass background checks. Require a background check on every gun sale. Right now in america, if you buy from a private seller online or at a gun show or even in some states in garage sales, theres no background check required. We have closed the loophole so far in 19 states total. Congress needs to act so that every gun sale in this country requires a background check. The other thing i want to say is, i know we want a cathartic moment in congress. I do, too. But we are winning in statehouses and board rooms, and we are not going to let up on the momentum were building on the ground. Were organizing students. We just started an Organization Called students demand action. This is just the beginning. We are going to ride this m momentum all the way to the midterms. Starting the new organization, i mean, there are a lot of progun organizations, but generally, this discussion coalesces around the gun lobby, the nra. Is there a danger with a lot of organizations on the other side . Well, first of all, there are not a lot of organizations. There are some organizations. But there isnt just the nra. They have a lot of organizations like gun owners of america. There are organizations on the gun lobby side that are pulling the nra to the right that is radicalizing their leadership and made them extremists. We want americans to get off the sidelines and enjoying this in a way that speaks to them. Whether theyre gun owners or students or moms, its just important that people get involved. Right. I think it is a good point. It is not gun owners versus nongun owners in america. No, it is not. I have been inundated on my twitter feed by people who are gun owners who lare Law Enforcement officers, saying, why cant we have reasonable background checks and limitations on gun ownership and use . Its not all or nothing. The nra and gun lobby created this idea that it is binding. Either you dont touch any gun rights or youre the other side. It is dangerous. Shannon, thank you. I just want to make the point. Go ahead. The gun lobbyists shouldnt be at the table at writing our nations gun laws. Right. They are lobbyists. They have profit motive. 100 right. Before we go, are you calling lawmakers i was amazed today in the new york times, every town, with the twopage ad, calling on every possible lawmaker and finding out, are they taking money from the nra, and asking those lawmakers to stop doing so if they want to get supported going forward. Yes. Were the grassroots of every town. Were thrilled to be a part of that ad. Ive even had volunteers today saying theyre taking it to fedex to get it laminated. This is an important resource to let people know, has your representative taken money from the nra . If they have, how can you get in touch with them . Thats all about action and getting off the sidelines. Shannon, thanks very much. The founder of moms demand action. Two things to point out. One is, we know that lobbyists write legislation. Pharma does. The insurance lobby does. The health lobby does. The tobacco lobby was involved. They all do. Most americans are offended to find out that they do. They think it is not right. It happens, but it is not right. Its the same thing shannon points out. Why is the nra, the gun lobby, involved in this conversation . They are representatives of gun manufacturers. Indeed they are. As we watch these protests taking place in tallahassee and on capitol hill, we are learning more. This is so upsetting. Are you listening to us . The effort to discredit these students, victims, from the parkland shooting. Next, were going to factcheck the claims that some of these students turned activists are really crisis actors. I mean, that claim is pathetic, offensive, ludicrous. Spreading like wildfire. Also, well have more on gun laws in this country and new calls for gun control. The march for our lives is slated for march 24th in washington, d. C. We are a month out. More than 330,000 people have signed up on facebook for the d. C. March, as well as dozens of sister marches all over the country. Stay with us. You are watching velshi ruhle live on msnbc. Wemost familiar companies,s but we make more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. A Coconut Water company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. We are the cocacola company, and were proud to offer so much more. A little to the left. 1, 2, 3, push easy easy easy horn honking alright alright weve all got places to go weve all got places to go Washington Crossing the delaware turnpike . Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money sean saved by switching to geico. Big man with a horn. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Welcome back. You are watching velshi ruhle. Out of the tragedy in parkland, we are now seeing a despicable and ugly part of tragedy. Conspiracy theories. Just like after sandy hook and even september 11th. Truthers are crawling out of the holes with terms like false flag, referring to a staged event, crisis actors, a term for victims they believe are faking it. This typically is beneath us to even report. It is important right now. Its happening in real time. You are seeing the spreading of fake news in real time around a tragedy that i was physically at. By the way, lots of people were at 9 11, but some people dont believe it happened. This is happening in real time. This tweet calling outspoken student journalist david a crisis actor. You know who liked the tweet . The first son, donald trump jr. , the president of the united statess son, undermining the credibility and sincerity. A young man and his sister who, by the way, was also at the school, who witnessed what no one should. Lets talk about this. I think it is really important for people to understand whats actually happening right now after this thing. Lets look at the stories floating around and show you how ridiculous and disrespectful and dangerous they are. The most popular is this, david, whom you spoke to the day after the tragedy, one of the most articulate, eloquent he also runs the school video team. He does tv news in high school. Right. He attends that school. Thats proven. David speaking after the shooting last week and another one from august of last year, showing him speaking to cbs local stations in los angeles. The message trolls are sending ask, how he can be a High School Student in california and florida. Look at the name banner. He is a witness over here. Taken out of context, this could be misinterpreted. Here is the context. David says his 17yearold friend put his boogie board on this trash can. When a life guard asked him to do move it, he did. Then the situation took a turn. He said, i didnt know it was a crime to put your board on the trash can. Because he just didnt want it to be sandy. The guy appeared in a news piece. At no point did he say he was a california High School Student. The piece didnt say that. He was speaking about a confrontation between his friend is and a life guard. Why it was in california, one of the great things about living in america is the ease of movement from one state to another, say for vacation. Southern california, vacation spot for decades. This hasnt stopped this from going viral. This post over here shared to one of our colleagues timelines was shared more than 100,000 times. 110,000 times. Disgusting. Another one people are particularly susceptible for falling for. This shows a closeup of david speaking, pointing out that he has an ear piece in one ear. The implication is he is being fed lines. Again, it is wrong. The thing theyre pointing at here is called an ifb. Anyone in tv knows what it is. Im wearing one right now, and it is how my producers talk to me. I interviewed david from a studio in new york city. He was in parkland, florida. He hears you through one of these. The only way he was able to communicate with me in the Television Interview was through that device. Thats right. Pathetic. Everyone in tv has an ifb. It is how you hear guests who arent with you on set, or anchors in the studio, like david, youre being interviewed at a different location. On set guests also wear them so they can hear any other interviews we play or any guests not here. Its usually not noticeable. It is designed not to be noticed. Even if i go like that, you can be the re cant really see it. Not everybody in a studio every day knows what this is. It can be a little mysterious. Its not a conspiracy theory. Its how we hear the producers. Lets talk about common sense. If youre watching someone do a remote interview from florida how do they hear you . While the tv anchor is in new york, i have a loud voice, how would they possibly hear me screaming from a new York Television studio . For all that, the president s son liked to call us and other organizations fake news, this is literally fake news. If you see this anywhere, especially articles claiming that these kids are crisis actors, like true pundit does, it is not true. While these other two, gateway pundit, which has credentials to be in the White House Briefing room daily, which is amazing, they push conspiracy narratives meant to cast doubt on the legitimacy of what the students are saying. If donald trump jr. Sees this, or you know donald trump jr. , please tell him next time to think about hitting the like button, undermining the credibility of children who have just experienced unimaginable horror. A shooting at their school and the death of their friends. Think of this first. You cannot look me in the face and tell me what happened isnt real. You cant tell me in my face that this violence does not occur. Not after youve lost your friends. Not after youve lost people youve known for so long. Shes an actor, too . Punched herself in the face, you think . Should we apologize that these High School Students are articulate, mature and passionate . Thats what we want of our young people. Unbelievable. Apologies theyre not tongue tied or ignorant. This is fake news. This is fake news. Do we make mistakes sometimes when we cover things . Absolutely. But falsifying information and spreading it out there to millions of people, thats fake news. Sam fuentes, by the way, survived the shooting. The black eye and wounds are real. Her dear friends who were with her in the class did not. They died. They died right next to her. Now, this girl and her classmates have to have their names and their reputations smeared from garbage organizations who want to do nothing but spread lies and hate. Joining us now is jonathan morgan, ceo of new knowledge, an organization that aims to protect social networks from manipulation. Where do you start with nonsense like this . The instinct for People Like Us is to say, its nonsense. Ignore it. But we have seen the number of times its been retweeted and checked. Donald trump jr. , the son of the president of the united states, is engaged in this nonsensical fake news spreading. Thats exactly how it works. You have networks of accounts, troll accounts, who will say literally anything to advance their agenda. Theyll come up with these ridiculous conspiracy theories, attacking students who were literally in the line of fire. Then to promote their agenda, theyll manufacture crowds, fake conversations, amplify their activity with bot accounts and target these kind of second tier, third tier political figures and pundits, like donald trump jr. , to try to get them to pick up on the story and legitimize their narrative. Thats why you see organizations like gateway inintfoinfo wars promoting this. Is this not a call for regulation and action . News organizations that have journalistic standards, we cant put out things like that. We wouldnt. We would get in serious trouble for doing thSomething Like that. While jack dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg want to say their platforms are about Community Engagement all day long, they are the platforms most used today to spread news and information. Yet, there is no regulation. They can sit there and talk about Community Engagement and freedom of speech and take no responsibility for hate being spread . Its a very challenging question. So i think its very nuanced. I understand why the social Media Companies are reluctant to take accountability or take ownership of this problem. I think youre right. In fact, they have to. Its their platforms being exploited. If any other company had built a product that was being exploited in this way, damaging the lives of americans, we would be up in arms and proposing legislation. In the same way a Credit Card Company or a company that loses our personally identifiable information has their system hacked and thousands of credit cards are leaked all over the internet, that type of damage, we hold people accountable. The fact that social Media Companies can be exploited in the same way, that their systems can be basically hacked by people who are manipulating the public and spreading propaganda, i think there has to be a discussion of legislation or some real act that the social Media Companies can demonstrate that theyre taking ownership and being transparent about their process for removing this type of content from the platforms. We were able to find the russian twitter troll nonsense here at nbc, which means twitter was able to find it, obviously. They know where to find it and how to identify garbage. They need to get it off the platforms. Thank you very much, jonathan morgan. Thank you for having me. It is confusing for people who read social media to have to say, thats interesting. Do i believe it or not . This is where we need Artificial Intelligence and proper algorithms and need the companies to say, youre reading garbage. Alert. Alert. This is nonsense. It is not corroborated. Or dont offer up their platforms to those spreading lies and garbage. Unbelievable. Its called standards. Up next, web of connections tying President Trump to Vladimir Putin. With so many players, youre probably confused about how theyre all tied together. Were going to break it down for you. Youre watching velshi ruhle on msnbc. You have moderate to e Rheumatoid Arthritis and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a medication, this is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. This is humira helping me reach for more. Humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com. This is humira at work. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. Im the ruhle part of it. The russia investigation is slowly but surely coming into focus today. Tuesday afternoon, the special counsel secured a fourth guilty plea from individuals with connections to Vladimir Putin. Heres what the web looks like right now. I want to brick yong your atten to the men outlined in red. Flynn, papadopoulos and zwaan pleaded guilty. Rick gates will join the club soon. Paul manafort is pleading not guilty. Rick gates joined the Trump Campaign with longtime partner Paul Manafort and stayed on, even after manaforts firing. Eventually, becoming a white house aide. He is now implicated with alex van der zprwaan, who worked for skadden arps. They did work for the ukrainian government. The fatherinlaw, chairman of al fa ba alphabank, is worth 10 billion. The fatherinlaw, who is referred to in the Russian Media as one of the russian billionaires who has the closest of ties to Vladimir Putin. I want to go back to rick gates. Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Hes worked with the i cant say his last name. Manafort did some Image Consulting and allegedly represented the prorussian politician in the u. S. A potential violation of the foreign agents registration act. When he was doe pose e deposed fled with Vladimir Putins russia. What about the coffee boy, George Papadopoulos . He was the first to plead guilty and before that, was touted as a Campaign Energy adviser and excellent guy, by candidate trump. Muellers indictment outlines papadopoulos interaction with a maltese professor. The professor was disinterested in papadopoulos until the younger man revealed he was a Trump Campaign adviser. That interest got him talking to his contracts in the Russian Foreign ministry. Yes, it is part of Vladimir Putins government. Of course, perhaps the highest profile guilty plea thus far, michael flynn. He had contacts with the russian ambassador, which he later lied about to the Vice President and, allegedly, to fbi agents. We dont even need to go that far. Flynn attended a paid speaking event in russia without getting permission from the proper authorities since, as you recall, he was an army officer. Guess who he sat with at the head table . Vladimir putin. The web of russian influence on the Trump Campaign is getting clearer by the indictment. Joining us now is msnbc legal analyst nick acu acuraman. Hes a partner at dorsey and whitney. We keep talking about the obstruction of justice, the people who didnt say the right thing. They lied to the fbi. Its all very interesting. You have been just written an article that says it isnt about the coverup. Its about the crime. What do you mean by that . What i mean is, whats really at issue here is the underlying crime. The obstruction is the motive for the underlying crime. If you look at what just happened yesterday with va van dervan der van der zwaan, it is all about the underlying crime, though it doesnt say so. When you look at the statement van der zwaan had to make in order to have his guilty plea accepted, he admitted to conversations that occurred in september of 2016 right in the middle of the campaign. Right. This statement does not contain everything that was said in that conversation. There is no way that mueller was interested in what happened in the ukraine in 2012 with the report that was done by a law firm. Theres also no way that mueller needed more evidence on either rick gates or on manafort. No. But if it is about money laundering, if you are going to go back in history, theres loads of questionable things weve talked about. Sort of being unanswered for years. The Palm Beach Property that trump bought for 40 million. A couple years later, sells to a Russian Oligarch with close ties to putin were 80 million. You have lots of these floating out there weve never come back to. If mueller was working on following the money, you could start to weave us back there and, alas, it is interesting to know why youd tell a property its not what the information is about. Its about a conversation that was tape recorded in september of 2016 right in the middle of the campaign. Now, if you look at the beginning of this information not the information but the statement of the offense, it says, these facts do not constitute all of the facts known to the parties concerning the charged offense. What that means is, they have left out a lot of details of the conversation. The reason you do this as a prosecutor i used to do it all the time is when somebody like van der zwaan takes the witness stand, you dont want to commit him to every fact hes going to testify to. Defense lawyers will crossexamine him, saying, why didnt you put it in here . His answer will be, it says here, not everything is included in this statement. So there is a lot of information that we dont know about. If you look at the manafort indictment, the gates indictment, those are slam dunks. That indictment is a work of beauty. From the standpoint of a prosecutor, you couldnt do any better because its all proven by documents. There are no witnesses. Dumb question. If im A Skadden Arps lawyer, i know if i lie to the fbi, i am up a creek. You dont get to be A Skadden Arps lawyer just for graduating law school. You have to be decent. You have to be good. Why would somebody with that expertise lie to the fbi . Is the coverup so big . Its a coverup. Look, his fatherinlaw is one of the keogh gy oligarchs in ru. These people are all involved in this conspiracy. Hes trying to protect other people. I mean, i think the press has got it wrong. They say that he is going to testify against gates. I think it was gates that gave him up. If you look at the data date o, it is november 3rd. Gates had gotten rid of his lawyers. He was cooperating. Prosecutors brought him in to question him about information he got from gates, and he lied. The lie was material because what it really relates to is what happened during the campaign and the conspiracy between the campaign and the russian government. Thats what this is all about. They couldnt care less abiliou all of these political machinations that occurred in the ukraine in 2012. They also really dont care about more evidence on man authority a manafort and gates, because that can be proven by the documents. When this guys fatherinlaw is an oligarch worth 10 billion, money laundering. Things feel a little stinky. Thanks, nick. Pa former assistant prosecutor. He knows his stuff and is one of our experts. He is. We are watching the live protests for gun control in tallahassee. On capitol hill, well be talking with our of the students in this crowd, a sophomore from the high school in parkland, florida. Youre watching velshi ruhle. Dont we need that cable box to watch tv . Nope. Dont we need to run . Nope. It just explodes in a high pitched yeahhh. yeahhh try directv now for 10 a month for 3 months. No satellite needed. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. Joining us now, samuel muster, a sophomore at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School, and is now in tallahassee with fellow students protesting. Samuel, good morning. What a week youve just had. Morning. First, walk us through where you were that valentines day. I know you left school early. How are your classmates doing . Yeah, id left school. Were doing okay. Were grieving in our own way, as we all do. Weve come out here to fight. We really have. This cant happen. We dont want to be another statistic. Its happened too many times. What are you fighting for . What are you asking for specifically . Well, were asking for gun control change. People this kid had an ar15, which is a gun made to kill people. Its not made for protection. You dont carry that for protection. He walked on to our campus and shot and killed 17 people. It was just it shouldnt have happened in the first place. Samuel, yesterday, the legislature refused to consider a ban on assault weapons. I know that was discouraging to a lot of your classmates, but youre going to come up against these discouragements. Whats next . Youre having a meeting with the governor and legislators today. Do you have any sense theyll be receptive to what you have to say, or are they too in the pocket of the gun lobby . Well, we tried to speak to some of them today. They turned us down most of the time. They need to hear us because they work for us. We do not work for them. We put them in the office. We voted them into the office. We can vote them out of the office. Let me just understand again, you and your classmates took a 6 1 2 hour bus ride to tallahassee. Youve requested facetoface meetings with lawmakers from your own state where your parents may have voted them into office. Theyve turned you down . Yeah. For what reason . Well, we didnt have we came in for meetings. We had some meetings, but some of them said they didnt want to speak to us or that we knew they wouldnt agree with us. We still wanted to try to see if we could change. Do you know the names of lawmakers who said they dont want to speak to you . We have a list. I dont have it on me, but somebody printed out a list of everybody that weve been going around trying to speak to. Seeing what their reason was and probably it was the nra giving them money for their job. Its just were trying to see if we can do something that will stop that. Saccu samuel, where does thi next . Were hearing the cheering behind you, the chanting. Theres a lot of energy. What do you do with it . We put it toward action. They need they say we have to do this, and we do it. If they dont agree, well still be there. Were not going anywhere. If we just dont back down, eventually, well revote. You know, theyll be voted out, hopefully. You know what, hold on. How old are you, samuel . 15. Youre 15, so youre not old enough to vote. Do your classmates who are old enough yes, but a lot of are they registering to vote . Yes, a lot of my friends are old enough to vote. In your mission, are you focused on getting your fellow classmates and others who are of voting age registered . Thats what is going to make a difference, more than standing up and speaking out. Youre going to make a difference by voting. Yeah. Weve talked about it a good amount. All these kids that are able to vote need to vote. You know, for the right cause, we need gun control. If they vote, weve all agreed if we can vote, we are going to vote. Whatever way it goes, we hope it goes our way. Samuel, thanks very much for the work youre putting into this, from you and your classmates. Samuel muster is a student at Douglas High School. Ali, it is extraordinary the extraordinary. Im not saying anything negative by any means. Its been such a disappointment year after year when nothing gets done. Theyve got to figure out a way to take this and coordinate it in a mission and a message. For young people out there, it was low voter turnout with the collegeaged kids out there. Thats right. If you look at things they care about, net neutrality, climate change, the environment. The question, will Something Like this energize them to mobilize, register and get out there and vote . This could impact the midterms. It would be amazing if it did. All right. It is now time for our monumental american, honoring someone who might deserve more recognition. Today weve got an exciting update about a woman we featured on october 12th, civil rights activist mary bethune. The state of florida plans to replace a confederate general statue that stands in the capitol statuary hall. Right now bethune would be the first africanamerican to be honored by a state in statuary hall. Bethune was born in South Carolina back in 1875 to parents who had both been slaves. She started a school for black students in Daytona Beach and promoted the school nationally to prove what africanamericans could learn and what they could do. She became a wellknown political figure as a member of president Franklin Delano roosevelts socalled black cabinet. She served as an adviser to five president s and the only black woman present at the founding of the united nations. She died back in 1955 known as the first lady of the struggle. Ali, id like to say maybe monumental americans gave them the idea. This is remarkable, the idea that one of those confederate statues in statuary hall is now being replaced by an africanamerican woman. We cannot overstate what a big, big deal this is. Now we just need to figure out the rest of those statues that need toob replaced. You want to look up what progress means, right there. If youve got a monumental american, tweet us. We thank you for it. Velshiruhle. How is the stock market doing . 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And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other money managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. We are back. Hopefully you know what youre watching, velshi and ruhle. Its time to look at money, money, money. Like beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice. A rough day yesterday on the market. Now we have a day where the dow is up. 5 , so is the s p 500. In normal times this is what markets look like, up and down a little bit. Hopefully by the end of the year, up 5 , 6 , 7 more than they went down. Today well get minutes from the fed meeting. Weve got a new fed chair in jerome powell. Everyone is looking for clues on what is going to happen with interest rates. Inflation being a huge concern. Janet yellen had those artificially low carrying us out of the artificial crisis. Were out of the crisis, in clean territory. Getting a 30year fixed mortgage about 4. 75 , up almost a percentage point in the last six months. We need to share one more thing with you before we go. President trump is once again tweeting about the russia investigation and even slamming his own attorney general, actually calling him by the wrong name. Quote, question, if all the russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration right up to january 20th, why arent they the subject of the investigation . Why didnt obama do something about the meddling . Why arent dem crimes under investigation . Ask jeff session. His name is jeff sessions, sir. That came one day after the president took to twitter claiming he has been tougher on russias meddling in our election than president obama. Its a claim his White House Press secretary backed up yesterday. Hes been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined, imposed sanctions, taken away property. Hes done a number of things to put pressure on russia and be tough on russia. That happened while i was on air yesterday. Well do a fact check on this. Here is where the truth lies on who has been tougher on Russian Election meddling courtesy of politifact. Number one, experts say president obama has been more forceful on President Trump on countering election meddling. President obama himself confronted russian president Vladimir Putin in person september 2016 warning him not to interfere. Did President Trump do that . Nope. Fact number two. The Obama Administration publicly accused russia of stealing and leaking emails from the dnc and leaking them. Number three, obamas strongest retaliation came after trumps win. President obama ordered 35 Russian Diplomats and suspected intelligence agents to leave the united states. He imposed some sanctions and seized two russian kbounds in the before he left office. President trump, fact four, in the recent past hes gone against his own intelligence agencies and denied russias election meddling, even repeated Vladimir Putins denials of russian involvement. Finally, fact number five. So far the Trump Administration has not implemented new sanctions approved by congress aimed specifically at punishing russia. Sarah sanders notes the Trump Administration has not rescinded sanctions enacted under president obama. Well leave it there. Thats it for us. Ill see you back here at 3 00. Now time for Andrea Mitchell with Andrea Mitchell reports. Thank you, guys, for the fact checking. Right now, students on a mission. High School Students from parkland, florida, demanding answers from state legislators as President Trump hints at tighter gun regulations. Does he mean it . Where is group two . We dont want to take away anyones gun, we just need regulations on it. What do we want . Change. When do we want it . Now i know my voice is going to be heard because i was there and i can tell them to close their eyes and imagine hearing your friends scream as you hear the gunshots. Never