Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20170302 : vi

MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes March 2, 2017

Good evening from new york, im chris hayes, breaking news tonight, the Associated Press citing three Administration Officials that white house lawyers have instructed the president s aides to preserve materials that could be connected to russian interference in the 2016 election and other related investigations. Much more on that story ahead but first, if, like the president of the United States, you are the kind of person that judges success solely by television ratings, then the president s address to a joint session of congress was a flop. It drew a significantly smaller audience than president obamas first address by about 9 . Viewership notwithstanding, professional observers have showered last nights speech with praise for avoiding the president s usual bombast, offering what they said was an optimistic vision for americas future. But while there was no talk of american carnage last night, make no mistake, that was the same donald trump advancing the same agenda. Oddly, the best assessment of the speech came from the white house itself. The washington posts robert costa reporting some sources in white house are frankly surprised at how pundits are warming to the speech, say trump has not changed, no big shift in policy coming. This from bloombergs joshua green, seen your white house official described trumps speech to me as nationalism with an indoor voice. That quote is revealing for numerous reasons, chief among them that indoor voice is a term associated with getting toddlers to behave. The president s rhetorical shift cannot disguise the substancive the core of the speech and this presidency to date. Take for example the way it started with a long overdue acknowledgment of the attack on two indian men in kansas being investigated as a hate crime and the countless incidents of antisemitic threats of vandalism and threats around the country. This is the first time the president addressing the shooting which took place a week ago. Before that, the white house only gave vague statements glossing over the racial aspect of the attack in which the gunman reportedly yelled get out of my country. Any loss of life is tragic. The president condemns all acts of violence against the American People. Earlier today before denouncing antisemitic attacks in the speech, the president appeared to suggest in a meeting with state attorneys general that those attacks were some kind of false flag operations. He said sometimes its the reverse to make people or to make others look bad according to the attorney general of pennsylvania. Thats something the president has suggested before. Some of the signs youll see are not put up by the people that love or like donald trump, theyre put up by the other side and you think its like playing it straight. No. It wont be my people. It will be the people on the other side to anger people like you. For all of its conventional rhetoric, last nights speech presented the same vision of a country whose very existence is constantly threatened by the invasion of some other who looks different or practices a different religion. The president , guided by a militarized americafirst philosophy determined to protect quote unquote americans from that threat. The president S New National security adviser h. R. Mcmaster reportedly advised the president last week to stop using the phrase radical islamic terrorism calling it unhelpful. The president went ahead and used it anyway warning against allowing a beachhead of terrorism to form inside america. He proposed not just a wall on the southern border but a massive overhaul of the Legal Immigration system which would change which populations are allowed into the country and though several studies over many years have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the u. S. The president distorted the facts to portray undocumented immigrants as violent criminals. He highlighted a new office created by his executive order from his office to spread antiimmigrant propaganda. I have proposed an office called voice victims of immigration crime engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media and silenced by special interests. Im joined by joshua green, Senior National correspondent for bloomberg businessweek. Josh, youve profiled both bannon and Stephen Miller and there was talk that this wasnt a Bannon Miller speech but i think maybe rhetorically it wasnt but substantively it seemed to be. Thats exactly right. If you look at what trump did in ways large and small, it was clear he was hewing to his economic nationalist positions. The very first thing he did was welcome citizens of america. Not my fellow of america, citizens of america. I dont think that was an accident and if you went on to listen to what he said in the speech, everything from the props he had, the people whose relatives have been killed by undocumented immigrants and the policies he laid out which were very protectionist this was as the white house source told me, nationalism with an indoor voice, with the volume ratcheted down for a congressional audience instead of a stadium audience but fundamentally the same kinds of things trump has been saying all along. We get to the immigration part, its really important for people to note i want to play this clip of bannon and miller talking about immigration. Theres lots of ways you can think about immigration, a lot of times its couched as unauthorized immigrants are breaking the law but i think bannon and miller believe something deeper about the threat that even Legal Immigration poses to the country. Take a listen. Isnt the beating heart of this problem right now the real beating heart of it of what weve got to get sorted here is not ilLegal Immigration, as horrific as that is, and its horrific. Dont we have a problem, weve looked the other way on this Legal Immigration that overwhelmed the country. When you have 20 of the country is immigrants, is that not a massive problem . You were with jigs for many, many, many years, is that not the beating heart of this problem. Well, yes, its mindboggling and it is someone that obviously ive talked about before at some length on your program. I mean, that is pretty clear, isnt it, josh . Absolutely. The economic nationalist world view as envisioned by bannon and miller is not just about deport ing ilLegal Immigrations, its about lessening Legal Immigration, people they think are competing with marginalized u. S. Workers. In fairness, there are some liberal economists that say yes, it would be good to tighten the labor market by keeping out some of these lowskilled workers who compete with americans and drive down wages, but i think miller and bannon take it much, much further and not just immigrants but even refugees which i talk about in my cover story with miller. He said one of the rationales for banning migrants from the seven countries they tried the ban the executive order was look, these refugees come in and they take benefits that are ought to rightfully belong to amican citizens. We could also note this. The data on sort of wage competition of the low end of wage scales is pretty muddy about what immigration does and the effect is less than i think a lot of people presume. But bannon also said you have a problem with Silicon Valley with too many asians, basically. Im paraphrasing but that was the point, a nation is more than a nation more than an economy, its got to be something other than that and theres too many asians running around Silicon Valley. That was certainly the way it came off. Having talked to miller about in in some detail for the piece, i think a more polite way of putting it is that they have concerns not just about lowskilled immigrants, agricultural workers, that sort of thing but also on h1b visa reform and essentially want to do everything they can, as miller put it, to protect the jobs of american citizens in america. And that means in a lot of cases closing off the borders, rounding up and deporting people who dont belong here and are potential threats both economic threats, and this is a particular fixation of millers, also physical threats. It was no accident that trump in his campaign and in a speech last night ahad there physicall present with him people whose children have been killed by undocumented immigrants. He wants to viv phi the human cost of immigration in hopes that will change and sway Public Opinion against it. Very clearly what he wants to do. Joshua green, thanks for your time, appreciate it. Thank you. Joining me now, msnbc contributor annan gear did das. Okay, you were in a tussle with the white house about the shooting in olaf, kansas, trying to get a statement from them. What happened . I was writing a piece which ran yesterday in the the atlantic about those shootings and Donald Trumps silence, only broken late last night and more importantly about Donald Trumps enabling of the culture in this which that vie lerchs took place. So i called the white house at 6 47 a. M. Yesterday saying that this piece was coming and i thought id give them a softball. Theyre not good at this stuff that involves nonwhite people so i said is there any aspect of the crime in kansas or the motivation behind it, any aspect, you can pick one, that the president disavows. You dont have to disavow the whole thing. Any piece of it. Talking about a murder, to be clear. He could have disavowed that part a or the part where the killer went up and asked for their visas, so the white house takes ten and a half hours of not respding. I confirmed they got my email, still dont respond. The piece comes out, goes up online i get an email saying the president cob dems all acts of violence against the American People. I looked at the statement and i thought wow, these are dark geniuses because i asked about a crime against two foreigners attacked for their foreignness and in a very carefully crafted statement back said he condemns violence against the American People. Which categorically does not include the individuals who were murdered the individuals murdered and shot. And whats amazing to me but then he comes out and the first paragraph is a condemnation of that and the antisemitic attacks and everyone says oh, theres this guy, atta boy. What was your reaction . The perfect journalist for the Trump Administration is the am knees yak. The person who has the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, wakes up everyday and is willing to look at optics and look at how todays narrative is different than the narratives before and run with it. So today you heard a man last night who was able to read from a tell plomter full sentences. Didnt seemingly attack people in a simple way. A and it was amazing to watch this army of am knees yaks forgetting russian meddling, forgetting misogyny, forgetting the white nationalistover tones and undertones of this race. But part of that i want to ask you about another thing so ill put a pin in that so i dont forget but it seems important to distinguish between the substance of the speech and whether people are analyzing whether its politically effective, the kinds of arguments that joshua green was advancing which i think is wrong, i think immigration is a benefit socially culturally politically to america. Youd be talking to a chair if my parents hadnt been all allowed to immigrate. But that argue, america for americans, america first, why cant we take care of our own people for once, there is a political potency that folks who oppose that agenda should not underestimate. Yes and by the way i think personally there is a out there in the world a positive version of that. I dont think by the way, i agree steve bannon and i had a weird dialogue for several years until he decided to go the way he has. I agree that american sovereignty and the sovereignty of many countries has been eroded by Global Market forces and multilateral bodies and Big Companies but hes going back to the oldest darkestays of White Nationalism dressed up a restoring sovereignty movement. This is not that. Anand giridharads, always good to have you. Author of true america which is a fantastic book. Up next, the president cited his defense chief on the large amount of vital intelligence in the yemen raid that claimed the life of a navy seal. Tonight, ten senior officials claim essentially the opposite. Then, senator Tammy Duckworth with harsh words for our commanderinchief in two minutes. Whole day stops. Awww. Try this. For minor arthritis pain, only aleve is fda approved to work for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. Thank you. Come on everybody. Aleve. Live whole. Not part. With a crust made chfrom scratche and mixes crisp vegetables with all white meat chicken, and bakes it to perfection. Because making the perfect dinner isnt easy as pie but finding someone to enjoy it with sure is. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Im ricardo, a sales and Service Consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. Here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. Every situation is a little different. It could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. Sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. One of the great things about comcast, theres always room to move up. Of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. We are blessed to be joint tonight by corrine owens, the widow of u. S. Navy special operator seen juror chief william ryan owens. Ryan died as he lived, a warrior and a hero battling against terrorism and securing our nation. I just spoke to our great general mattis just now who reconfirmed that, and i quote, ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemy. The most intensely emotional moment of last nights speech was President Trumps honoring of corrine owens, the widow of Navy Seal Ryan owens, killed during the raid in yemen the president authorized in january. Not in the audience last night was owens father who refused to meet with the president when ryan owens body was returned to the United States in a flagdraped casket. Bill owens questions the president s decision to authorize the mission telling the miami herald why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasnt even barely a week into the administration . Why . For two years prior there were no boots on the ground in yemen, everything was missiles and drones because there was not a target worth one american life. Now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display . Tonight, contrary to the president s remarks to Congress Last night, 10 10 senior officials tell nbc news that no actionable or vital intelligence has so far been gleaned from the yemen raid. Trumps comments about owens overshadowed his remarks earlier in the day when he was asked about bill owens criticism of a mission in which a senior military official told nbc news almost everything went wrong. This was a mission that was started before i got here. This was something that was, you know, just they wanted to do. And they came to see me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who were very respected, my generals are the most respected that weve had in many decades, i believe. And they lost ryan. Joining me now, democratic senator Tammy Duckworth of illinois, veteran of the iraq war. Senator, before we get to your reaction to the speech last night, i wanted to get your reaction to what the president said earlier in the day and the way he characterized the Decision Making behind the raid that ended the life of a man from illinois, ryan owen. Well, it seems like, chris, that he was trying to push off the responsibility of the raid to the commanders at the pentagon and, frankly, hes the commander in chief of our entire military, he needs to take responsibility for the raid and, frankly, whether or not that raid accomplished its mission, that navy seal is still a hero. Last night, that moment in which he mentioned or sort of honored theidow o. Mr. Owen how did that moment strike you . Obviously it was incredibly intense emotionally. She is obviously in the throes of tremendous grief. Its really been just a few weeks. What did you think about that moment . Well, i think we should always honor our fallen. The chief was a tremendous hero. He had served on Many Missions before then, i think it was a moment of genuine emotion on her part and the part of the members in that room who were applauding her and his service and were honoring his service but at the end of the day i think the president needs to act like the commander in chief that he is and lets figure out whats happened, why it did not accomplish its mission and figure out what we can do better next time so there is no loss of life and equipment and that we can achieve the mission. Previously the white house suggested those who ask the questions about the raid and what it accomplished were doing disservice to the memory of ryan owen. What do you say to that . That shows how it will it will white house knows and understands our military. Everyone who wears a uniform of this great nation serves with honor. I do not agree with the war in iraq yet i was proud to serve. I didnt give up my legs and bleed for the war in iraq, i gave up my legs and bled for my country and the chief laid down his life and gave his last full measure of devotion to this great nation and that should be honored. That aside, what we can do to honor his sacrifice in addition to what we did last night is to make sure that we never let a mission go in the same manner again. We need to look and see what happened, the president seems to say he didnt authorize the mission but yet he did. We need to take a look and see whats going on there. Let me ask you this. This is part of a posture towards cou

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