Own popularity and legitimacy operating in a world governed not by facts and information but rumors, falsehoods and whatever helps to bolster his vulnerable selfimage. As a case in point, the Washington Post broke the story that in a saturday phone call, this is the first morning that the president was president of the United States, trump personally ordered acting National ParkService Director michael t. Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous days crowds on the national mall. Thats according to three individuals with knowledge of the conversation. The president believed the photos might prove the media lied in reporting attendance had been no better than average. Today trump took his first trip as president , flying to philadelphia on air force one to addrs a republican congressiol retreat. He begin by revisiting his election victory. Nice to win. Do we agree . Its been a while. The state of pennsylvania is very special to me for lots of reasons, especially from a couple of months ago, remember. Pennsylvania cannot be won, remember . Pennsylvania cannot be won, right congressman . There is no path to victory for trump in pennsylvania. Except we won. Well, the president was inside speaking and hundreds of people took to the streets outside to protest the new administration and republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care act. President trump remains at this moment historically unpopular. His Approval Rating now somewhere between 46 according to the gallup poll and 36 according to quinnipiac. Numbers like those seem to haunt him, frankly as does the size of his inauguration crowd and his loss in the popular vote by a margin of three million. Those fixations were on display in trumps first big tv interview as president which aired last night. He was asked why he chose to make his first full day in office all about his inauguration turnout. Does that send a message to the American People that thats more important than some of the pressing issues . Part of my whole victory was that the member and women of this country who have been forgotten will never be forgotten again. Part of that is when they try and demean me unfairly because we had a massive crowd of people. That was some crowd. When i looked at the numbers that happened to come in from all of the various sources, we had the biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches. The biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches. That is false. Trump was pressed about his speech saturday at the cia delivered in front of a wall commemorating fallen officers where he drew criticism for continuing to harp on crowd size. That speech was a home run. That speech ifou look at fox, okay . See what fox said. They said it was one of the great speeches, they showed the people applauding and screening. You would give the same speech if you went back . Absolutely. People gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. Abc released the full transcript. The rest of trumps response is worth reading outloud. I got a standing ovation, in fact they said it was the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning had won the super bowl and they said it was equal. I got a standing ovation, it losted for a long period of time. What you do is take out your tape, you probably ran it live, i know when i do good speeches, i know when i do bad speeches, that speech was a total home run, they loved it. In regards to the Peyton Manning reference i have no idea what the president is talking about but the president of the United States has not just been making stuff up about his adoring crowds, he spent his first days in office repeating dangerous lies about voter fraud which he blames for his popular vote loss. Earlier this week, the president tweeted he plans to launch an investigation into supposed voter fraud. In the abc interview he was asked why he continues to raise the issue even though theres no evidence widespread voter fraud exists. Millions of people agree with me when i say that. If you would have looked on one of the other networks and all of the people calling in, theyre saying we agree with mr. Trump. Theyre very smart people. Let me just ask you. You did win, you are the president. Thats true. Youre sitting across from me right now. Thats true. Do you think your words matter more now . Very much. Do you think talking about millions of illegal votes is dangerous to this country without presenting evidence . Not at all because many people feel the same way that i do. You dont think it undermines your credibility . Not at all because they didnt come to me, believe me. Those were hillary votes. The president was supposed to sign some kind of executive order launching his voter Fraud Investigation at the white house today. That signing was abruptly delayed without an explanation late this afternoon. Adds for rare the president of the United States got the investigation hes using to start a white house investigation, we got a sense from the New York Times which reported that when he met with congressional leaders according to witnesses, trump said he was told a story by the very famous golfer Bernhard Langer who he described as a friend. According to the president , langer, a german national, was standing in a line at a polling place near his home in florida when an official informed him he would not be able to vote. Ahead of and behind mr. Langer were voters who did not look adds if they should be allowed to vote, mr. Trump said, according to Congressional Staff members but they were nonetheless permitted to cast provisional ballots. Witnesses said the president threw out the names of latin american countries where the voters might have come from. No longer quoting here, obviously there are plenty, tens of thousands of millions of american citizens and registered voters from latin american countries, even if the president thinks they are inherently suspicious. In a Statement Today langer himself had to clarify saying the voting situation reported was not conveyed from me to President Trump but rather was told to me by a friend. I then relaid the story in conversation with another friend who shared it with a person with ties to the white house. In other words. A game of telephone. A game of telephone that is driving decisions by a man that is the most powerful man in the world. That are poised to actively undermine the basic confidence in the most fundamental part of our American Democratic institutions. Joins me now, senator cory booker, democrat from new jersey. Are you confident, senator, that the president is making his decisions based on sound information. I dontnow what his s motivating him i know there are many things troubling. We have the president of the United States only seven days in office has provened himself to be a repeated liar and prop bannist about facts. Number two, hes dangerously attacking some of the fundamental institutions that make us a great democracy and number three were having a conversation about crowd size when really some of the most powerful people on the planet earth, secretary of state, attorney general, head of the epa are being pushed through a process that theyre going to send to seats where theyre going to have a chance to affect policy in dramatic ways, in my opinion, very dangerous ways so this is this has probably been a sevenday stretch where all americans should be outraged by a propagandist and someone who is repeatedly lying as opposed to talking about the issues are going to affect everyday americans. Like the efforts to repeal the Affordable Care act and not replace it with something which will destabilize, according to the congressional budget office, millions of Americans Health insurance. All the way to the fact that we have real issues with voting in america, not these manufactured made up ones but the ones that independent civil rights organizations, federal judges are saying is going on which is not inperson voter fraud which youre more likely to be struck by lightning than experience that but by voter suppression, laws being pushed in america right now that federal judges have said, at least in a North Carolina case, are narrowly tear tailored to affect specific populations. So im outraged and america, i dont care if youre on the right or left, to have a president lie to you repeatedly, distract you from the real issues of health care, of jobs, of our fundamental freedoms is unacceptable and demands that we as a people respond. To that end on the voting standpoint, there might be an executive order, he said hes going to order an investigation. Presumably that would be done by the department of justice. Your colleague, senator Jeff Sessions, who you testified against in an unprecedented step do unl he is going to get democratic votes for attorney general of the United States. Yobelieve hehould not be confirmed . So i dont know about the heart and votes of my colleagues but i know that there is a Massive Movement amongst democrats and others who believe that the Justice Department should be investigating voter presentation. Whoebl the Justice Department should be protecting women, lgbt rights, making sure theres greater accountability and policing in this country, all the things Jeff Sessions has spoken against, whether its laws, regulations or activities at the Justice Department. There will be many of us who will try to stop him from ascending to that seat. Let me ask you this. Youve had strong words about right now weve seen a garage of executive orders. Some of which have been signed by the president. We know what the texts are. Others are circulating as drafts, theyve been leaked. I know youve had strong words about one circulating as a draft that we dont know what state its in about refugees. I was struck by the fact the white house canceled or postponed an executive order today. Do you think there is political pressure effectively being brought to bear on this white house even this early on Something Like the final text of these executive orders . So i dont know. This would be has been doing things against what it even said it would do, trump said he would do during campaigns. Hes going after to go after literally cost people on their mortgage reduction principle reduction like they had, to sign an executive order that will cost the average american hundreds of more dollars. Those things i cant explain. Theres no understanding whats going on from the white house right now and i think a lot of folks are confused and frankly i think a lot of us should continue to be outraged and be resisting. Lets put it this way. The drafts ive seen of his executive orders affecting people based solely on either religion or country of or gin violate our fundamental principles as a nation. This idea that america whose statue of liberty is called the mother of exiles, this nation that has made a name for itself to helping persecuted people, the fact donald trump would do something in violation of these core fundamental values in the name of fear, i believe a nation as strong as us, when were being attacked we shouldnt abandon our values, we should be doubling down on them. These are the kinds of things i intend to mount a serious challenge and i hope he hears these things from all of us before he signs his name to such antiamerican executive orders. I hope hes feeling the pressure but given who hes putting up as cabinet secretary what iss coming out of his mouth i dont have confidence this Relentless Assault on our values, on the truth, this propaganda, i do not see it abating at all. Senator cory booker, thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Im joined by katrina vanden huevel and republican strategist matt mikoviak. Matt, the president demanded the park service show more photos showing a bigger crowd. Do you look at that as a republican and say, yes, this guy this is good. This is a man with the proper temperament for the job and im happy hes there . Well, id focus more on the actions hes take than are directly affecting people. I wish he had decided to be more disciplined. Part of this is that hes learning how to do this job, hes an outsider. He never had been in the oval office until he was there after he won the election. So theres a lot hes learning quickly and he only has four cabinet secretaries in place. Obama had seven when he became president so part of the reason why senator booker is frustrated that these executive orders may not make sense is theyre not working with cabinet secretaries but we have to put the crowd size debate behind us. I dont see why that matters to regular people. Matt, i couldnt agree more. Literally im trying to think no theres nothing i care less about. I just checked in with myself. What i do care about is how the president parses information particularly because information is key and i want to talk about the executive order. Katrina, your reaction to this . One reaction is that trump and white house advisers like steve bannon, i think, have decided that this administration is going to be run as a Permanent Campaign and that means constant distraction, constant chaos, constant diversion from the real issues. It means trying to delegitimize institutions that can hold this Administration Accountable like steve bannon today saying the media is the opposition. I think this is a radically different kind of presidency. I think the media needs a radical rethink. I would simply say i know its tough, but lets not cover Donald Trumps temperament and character as much as the gap between what he has promised those forgotten men and women and what hes actually producing and the danger, the collateral not the collateral, the direct hit and damage his policies will cause to this country seem to me a focus. Not the hyper coverage of his tweets. But the media has to be fearless and fair and i think its important to demonize if were going to demonize not demonize but to cover those policies and what they mean for people in kentucky, detroit. You said something thats important. You said the gap between his promise. Trump said he would drain the swamp, he said he was going to help working people and hes helping billionaires. Matt, you wrote a column saying the opposite. Basically that hes keeping his promises and i think in certain ways, at least the initial executive orders line up with things you could see coming on the campaign trail i think so. I would love to hear more from folks about what they think hes doing thats so different from what he promised to do as a candidate. These executive orders are things hes talked about for over a year. So you can like or dislike the executive orders but hes doing what he said he would do and thats why his voters are pleased with what hes doing and republicans on the hill right now are not that surprised by what hes doing. Oh, no. Obviously theres they love it. Matt let me just say this, aside from transpacific partnership, theres nothing hes signed that i think is out of the norm for gop. What i mean about failing to fulfill his promises is hes put together a cabinet of billionaires, of ideologues, these are not even reactionary populists. So youll have three branches of government. Put aside the Supreme Court. Youll have congress run by the Heritage Foundation in many ways, off White House Run by economic and cultural nationalists and you have a cabinet which is run by Goldman Sachs and its like a davos. Its like a Goldman Sachs executive retreat and so where that comes out and lets be honest, with all the talk of forgotten men and women and all power to that, i believe in an inclusive populism of solidarity what were witnessing are policies that are going to roll back the human civilizing reforms of this country. This is a question about the Affordable Care act. One thing they did, they withdrew from the final ads for enrollment even though that money has been spent. Thats images of philadelphia where theres live protests, the site of the gop retreat. Matt, let ask you this. Is there are you uncomfortable with the president wielding the pen in this way . I remember if im not mistaken an inknow mouse about of ink being spilled and cable news minutes being spent on president obama being a tyrant for using executive orders. What i have seen from liberals in their resistance is on the substance as opposed to formal. Are republicans fine with all this now . Thats a great point. Its a great question. Look, i think president obama was aggressive using executive orders, particularly as it pertained to things that really mattered, that were effectively laws and there was a study today released that showed he was overturned by the court more than any modern president so i think when trump begins to pull back on many of president obamas executive orders that to me i think is definitely fair game but all president s use executive orders. Trump is doing what he can do now. Hell be moving a legislative agenda forward in the first 100 days. Well see what happens. Voting rights shouldnt be a matter of left and right, its right and wrong and i think well see a rollback of participatory democracy and just to note, chris, some of these are just drafts and theyre getting driven back. Resistance matters. We saw last saturday. Resistance matters and take it from marches and protest to action. Thats our mandate and mission. The other thing well talk about later in the show, you know one of the things the president did on the first day . He closed guantanamo with the strike of a pen. Right, right. So well see if the wall meets the same fate. Thanks for your time. Ahead, the diplomatic and political meltdown after