Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Steve Kornacki 201701

Well dive into that in a little bit. We did begin with that top story. White House Press Secretary sean spooiser saying it is a long held belief of President Trump that millions of illegal voters participated in the election this fall and that they participate in general in elections. Trump pointing to that as the reason he lost the popular vote by 2. 8 million votes to Hillary Clinton. Reports surfacing late last night from nbc news and from others that trump at a closed door reception with congressional leaders once again brought up the election and these beliefs to the house and senate leadership. The press secretary asked repeatedly during his briefing about these remarks. He just said, its something the president stands by. Does the white house to want formerly ask for a probe into this no, he won very handedly with 306 electoral votes, three states. Hes comfortable with his win. He was having a discussion with folks and mentioned something in pass which has been a long standing belief hes maintained. This isnt the first time youve heard this concern of his. Three to five Million People voted illegally, that is a scandal of astronomical proportions, doesnt he want to restore americans face in the Ballot System . Wouldnt he want an investigation . Hes believed this for a long time. He won fairly overwhelmingly look im asking you why not investigate something that is maybe we will. The biggest scandal in american electoral history. Three to five Million People voting illegally. And i think well see where we go from here. All right. Spicer saying its the president s belief, offering though no proof of kind of participation from voters who arent citizens anywhere near the scale of what trump seems to be alleging here. Three to five million votes. Now on capitol hill, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer jumping on the comments calling for republicans to condemn trump. When these falsehoods are told, our republican colleagues have an obligation to reject them. Not to skirt around them. The bottom line is simple, you cannot run a government you cannot help people, you cannot keep america safe if you dont actually admit to the facts. Nbcs Peter Alexander is at the white house with more, so peter, just this basic claim here, three to five million votes he says i gather theyre saying or cast they say by people who are not actually u. S. Citizens. There is no evidence out there to support this whatsoever. At the same time, sean spicer saying the president stands by it. Its his belief. Why is this a belief hes sharing so aggressively so publicly . Well, its a good question. And i think we waited for much of this day to see how the white house was going to handle it after the reports came out from sources who attending that happy hour reception as it was last night with congressional lawmakers and it was clear in just the first ten minutes that this is an issue that donald trump brought up. Bacally aming that three to five million quote illegals as he was describing it, undocumented immigrants for voting in the election. For costing him the popular vote tally in these. These are unsubstantiated claims, its conspiracy theories. They have been debunked by independent fact checkers, even the Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan insists that there is no evidence to prove as much, but the real challenge, twofold in fact today, one it stepped on the message that donald trump and his team wanted to focus on today, the issue of american jobs with the executive orders about the key stone and dakota pipelines moving forward to try to advance those plans. The billionaire businessman trying to focus on job creation today. And number two, it put him in this predicament, sean spicer and ultimately donald trump and the predicament where theyre trying to suggest on the one hand that three to five million undocumented immigrants voted which would be a huge scandal while at the same time, insisting that it was a free and Fair Election saying the Electoral College proves that he is the winner with more than three 00 votes. Note if you were just to go with this for a little bit in states like michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania, michigan, trump won by 13,000 votes. Wisconsin, he won by 27,000 votes. Pennsylvania, by 68,000 votes. If some of those illegal votes took place in those states and ultimately supported donald trump over the Hillary Clinton that would have been enough to put Hillary Clinton in the white house. So for all the kplints from this white house about efforts to try to delegitimize President Trump, his presidency, they did a pretty good job of doing that themselves in a way today. All right. Peter alexander over at the white house. Peter, thanks. Joining me now to discuss, long time Republican Party strategist ed rowlands and sam stein, hes a editor at the huffing ton post. Ed, you, im just curious, what do you make of it . Theres all sorts of theories about why trump is sort of sticking to this theme. Some say its just a matter that he lost the popular vote. What do you make of it . I cant read his mind. Ive been around politics for 50 years, i started in california. The margin of victory in this race with california went 4. 3 million margin. 14 million voters voted and so, you know, california, obviously was what carried it for mrs. Clinton. He won the electoral vote. He won all the critical states he had to win. And i think i was running a superpack, we were in ten states. We won all of them except nevada, and i can tell you that we didnt find any voter fraud out there, to a circumstance, someone may have told him this, misinformed him, but the reality is very, very little voter fraud in America Today that maybe a couple hundred votes here or there. But the idea that four Million People could illegally come in and register to vote as secretaries of states in 50 states that watch very closely has a very strong Electoral Organization and it just i just dont believe that happened. Obviously in your career, youve had all sorts of strategy ssions with sort of big time politicians and leaders. Im just curious, he makes a comment, gets out to the press. Press secretary faces all the questions we just showed you, sean spicer facing right now. What would you tell donald trump behind the scenes . I would tell donald trump you get to sit in the oval office. You basically have the big chair. You won the presidency in a brilliant way. No one could challenge you on that legality of your election. Go do the job. The 45th man to be elected president. There are 44 more that, that are there before you. And what you want to do is be a better president than a bunch of them. So focus on them and dont focus on the past. And then Chuck Schumer the top democrat saying he wants republicans to be distancing themselves from President Trump on this. While just in the last few minutes, lindsey graham, republican senator from south carolina, of course he has had his differences with donald trump in the past, but this is what he said in response to what the white house is saying right now. I am begging the president , share with us the information you have about this or please stop saying it. As a matter of fact, id like you to do more than stop saying it, id like you to come forward and saying having looked at it, i am confident that the election was fair and accurate and people who voted voted legally. If he doesnt do that, this is going to undermine his ability to govern this country. And sam stein over there at the white house, do you expect what we just heard from lindsey graham, a chorus of that from republicans or sort of on his own . Hes been out there on his own a little bit with respect to trump and his conspiracy theories already. I dont expect other republicans to join lirnd si graham and i guess you could call that a denunciation of this. Whats remarkable for me are two things. One is that this is a welldebunked Conspiracy Theory and we have the president s own press secretary essentially admitting that hes a conspiracy theorist. That is the logical conclusion of this press conference. And what senator Bernie Sanders said is that, you know, there is a pernicious underside to all of this. And it does invite people in specific states, usually run by republicans, to say look, the president believes theres widespread illegal voting taking place. We need to have harder crackdowns on on voting. It is a gateway to essentially having harder voter id laws in the country. The only other thing i would say, is democrats are in a tiny bit of a bind here as well. Yes, logically, donald trump is not making sense. You can howl at this, you can make an example of this, it doesnt look good for donald trump, but you run the risk of sort of getting distracted by these theatrics and the conspiracy theories and these lies as a largely conservative agenda and a very conservative cabinet ends up passing through congress. Youre Chuck Schumer, or nancy pelosi, you do have to step back and say, well how much of time and capital and attention do i need to spend over here when it looked very well like his entire cabinet would be confirmed. Supreme Court Justice will be coming up and possibly confirmed but all these executive orders are Going Forward and very little power to stop any of it. So those are the things that democrats have been to be weighing right now too. We have news about the Supreme Court vacancy about a nomination that looks like its going to be forthcoming. I have to share this. I think this will surprise a lot of people on this subject of the trumps allegations about voters participating illegally. The number of people in this country who share that belief, look at this, this is a poll from a month ago. It asks people, do you believe millions of illegal votes were cast in the election . And look at that, with the overall number here is 46 . 46 say yeah. Thats pretty spread out across the board. You have 52 of independents, 52 of republicans. 36 of democrats in a poll a month ago said they believe this too. This is an attitude that has taken hold out there across party lines in some surprising ways. Go ahead. I can jump in . I think part of that is a failure on the media to be selfreflecting. Also we run campaigns in which the opposition often talks in terms that suggest that something is untoured about the election. Its not just donald trump saying three to five million undocumented immigrants voted. Which will obviously trigger a lot of republicans. To believe thats the case. We have candidates on the democratic side, candidates independents saying that the system is rigged its a common talking point. From there, people can extrolate, well maybe this is the way in which it is. While that number is definitely disheartening, clearly wrong, based on all factual evidence. The voting booth is an important thing to all of us. Those of us around the game for a long, long time. It takes away from trumps victory. I think trump is on a great start. And i think he needs to focus on moving his agenda forward. He won the the election. Lets move forward. He won 304 electoral votes. Won 36, two didnt vote for him and the bottom line is hes got a chance to be a great president. He just needs to not get distracted by idiotic things like this. Speaking of moving forward, the other news coming out today, donald trump had that executive order signing this morning and he was talking about that vacancy thats been on a Supreme Court for going on a year right now. Heres what he had to say about that. Ill be making my decision this week well be announcing, next week we have outstanding candidates and we will pick a truly great supreme Court Justice. Now the backdrop for this obviously, this is the seed of the antonin scalia, democrats infuriated to hold hearings on president obamas nominee. Letting that expire with his presidency. How are democrats treating prospect of a trump nomination for that seat . Heres what Chuck Schumer had to say. If the nominee is not bipartisan and mainstream, we absolutely would keep the seat open. Im hopeful that maybe President Trump would nominate someone who was mainstream and could get bipartisan support. So, ed, im curious, how do you think the Trump White House is looking at this . On the one hand, you could offer some kind of potential olive branch to the democrats with a moderate, on the other hand, he could change the rules and push it through. Theres no moderate. At the end of the day, he promised to many conservative voters, the court was an important issue. And i think to a certain extend to fill the shoes of scalia with one of the great things on our side is very, very important. I would say if you basically compromised and made a moderate, we have a couple moderates that were appointed by republicans in the past. Both bush and reagan and some that didnt turn out as good as we thought. This is up to trump to tip that balance back to 54 and beyond that. So sam stein, what ed is saying, all sorts of pressure on donald trump from the conservative wing of the Republican Party from his base in a lot of ways to come through with a pick than theyre going to like. Thats not the kien of Chuck Schumers talking about there. Do the democrats have any actual power to stop it or can the republicans just change that filibuster rule one more time and push it through if you want . Well, of course they could try to filibuster it as you rightfully know, harry reid laid the template, Mitch Mcconnell has followed that, hes hinted he doesnt want to do it. But you know, this was sort of predicted even prior to trumps win. We would go down this path in which the final rule adjustment for core nominations would pertaining the stream court would ultimately get changed. I dont know if thats the end game here. Chuck schumer may sort of look at the landscaping and say okay. But it might be the next pick that we need to lay down the marker. But, it all depends on where trump comes down on who his nominee should be. And every indication that we have from these first three, four days. Is that he will governor as a conservative. That you know, despite all of this talk about sort of these moderate cosmopolitan sensibilities that his agenda is pretty much strict conservative. And so my expectation with very little of no reporting is that he will end up with a nominee that is favorable to the conservative wing of the party. Was this healthy, ed, what republicans chose to do over the last year . I mean, the scalia died last winter. They said thats it, no action on this all year. Were going to roll our dice in the president ial election. Were not going to let an obama nominee get through. Unfortunately the court has become so ever since george bork has become so political that every one of these is a major, major fight. And as i said earlier, a couple of conservatives, what we thought were conservatives turned out not to be so conservative. And i think to a certain extent the purity of the judges is very, very important. Whether its a liberal, democrat, or whether its a conservative for us. But if donald trump doesnt appoint a conservative, he appoints somebody else with a swing vote. I think he will pay a heavy price of the conservative voters. Looks like he could be just a matter of days now before we find out who donald trump wants to put on the Supreme Court. Ed, sam, thanks for joining us. More on trumps busy day ahead. Including those executive orders. Key stone and the Dakota Access pipeline. Closer look at those projects. How much support they have. Plus democrats succeeded in delaying the vote on the pick for attorney general. And i also believe its important to reflect on this nomination in light of the demonstration we saw this weekend. This as another of trumps controversial picks for health and Human Services secretary, tom price, faced another round of intense questioning from senators today. Up next, im going to talk to one of the democrats who questioned him. Florida senator bill nelson, straight ahead. My business was built with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Watry. Duo fusiong heartburn relief . Duo fusion goes to work in seconds and lasts up to 12 hours. Tums only lasts up to 3. For longer lasting relief. In one chewable tablet try duo fusion from the makers of zantac everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Already we have hit the ground running. Taking the first steps to keep our promise to repeal and replace obamacare. As i mentioned before, this is going to be a step by step approach. And one of those steps that is necessary is getting tom price confirmed as hhs secretary. House Speaker Paul Ryan urging the confirmation of tom price, his colleague in the house as President Trumps secretary of health and Human Services. Price today facing the committee that will help determine his fate. Thats the Senate Finance committee. And what could hold up this nomination . Well reports that surfaced after price was nominated. Some in just the last 24 hours accusing him of investing in House Press Secretary<\/a> sean spooiser saying it is a long held belief of President Trump<\/a> that millions of illegal voters participated in the election this fall and that they participate in general in elections. Trump pointing to that as the reason he lost the popular vote by 2. 8 million votes to Hillary Clinton<\/a>. Reports surfacing late last night from nbc news and from others that trump at a closed door reception with congressional leaders once again brought up the election and these beliefs to the house and senate leadership. The press secretary asked repeatedly during his briefing about these remarks. He just said, its something the president stands by. Does the white house to want formerly ask for a probe into this no, he won very handedly with 306 electoral votes, three states. Hes comfortable with his win. He was having a discussion with folks and mentioned something in pass which has been a long standing belief hes maintained. This isnt the first time youve heard this concern of his. Three to five Million People<\/a> voted illegally, that is a scandal of astronomical proportions, doesnt he want to restore americans face in the Ballot System<\/a> . Wouldnt he want an investigation . Hes believed this for a long time. He won fairly overwhelmingly look im asking you why not investigate something that is maybe we will. The biggest scandal in american electoral history. Three to five Million People<\/a> voting illegally. And i think well see where we go from here. All right. Spicer saying its the president s belief, offering though no proof of kind of participation from voters who arent citizens anywhere near the scale of what trump seems to be alleging here. Three to five million votes. Now on capitol hill, Senate Minority<\/a> leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> jumping on the comments calling for republicans to condemn trump. When these falsehoods are told, our republican colleagues have an obligation to reject them. Not to skirt around them. The bottom line is simple, you cannot run a government you cannot help people, you cannot keep america safe if you dont actually admit to the facts. Nbcs Peter Alexander<\/a> is at the white house with more, so peter, just this basic claim here, three to five million votes he says i gather theyre saying or cast they say by people who are not actually u. S. Citizens. There is no evidence out there to support this whatsoever. At the same time, sean spicer saying the president stands by it. Its his belief. Why is this a belief hes sharing so aggressively so publicly . Well, its a good question. And i think we waited for much of this day to see how the white house was going to handle it after the reports came out from sources who attending that happy hour reception as it was last night with congressional lawmakers and it was clear in just the first ten minutes that this is an issue that donald trump brought up. Bacally aming that three to five million quote illegals as he was describing it, undocumented immigrants for voting in the election. For costing him the popular vote tally in these. These are unsubstantiated claims, its conspiracy theories. They have been debunked by independent fact checkers, even the Republican House<\/a> Speaker Paul Ryan<\/a> insists that there is no evidence to prove as much, but the real challenge, twofold in fact today, one it stepped on the message that donald trump and his team wanted to focus on today, the issue of american jobs with the executive orders about the key stone and dakota pipelines moving forward to try to advance those plans. The billionaire businessman trying to focus on job creation today. And number two, it put him in this predicament, sean spicer and ultimately donald trump and the predicament where theyre trying to suggest on the one hand that three to five million undocumented immigrants voted which would be a huge scandal while at the same time, insisting that it was a free and Fair Election<\/a> saying the Electoral College<\/a> proves that he is the winner with more than three 00 votes. Note if you were just to go with this for a little bit in states like michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania, michigan, trump won by 13,000 votes. Wisconsin, he won by 27,000 votes. Pennsylvania, by 68,000 votes. If some of those illegal votes took place in those states and ultimately supported donald trump over the Hillary Clinton<\/a> that would have been enough to put Hillary Clinton<\/a> in the white house. So for all the kplints from this white house about efforts to try to delegitimize President Trump<\/a>, his presidency, they did a pretty good job of doing that themselves in a way today. All right. Peter alexander over at the white house. Peter, thanks. Joining me now to discuss, long time Republican Party<\/a> strategist ed rowlands and sam stein, hes a editor at the huffing ton post. Ed, you, im just curious, what do you make of it . Theres all sorts of theories about why trump is sort of sticking to this theme. Some say its just a matter that he lost the popular vote. What do you make of it . I cant read his mind. Ive been around politics for 50 years, i started in california. The margin of victory in this race with california went 4. 3 million margin. 14 million voters voted and so, you know, california, obviously was what carried it for mrs. Clinton. He won the electoral vote. He won all the critical states he had to win. And i think i was running a superpack, we were in ten states. We won all of them except nevada, and i can tell you that we didnt find any voter fraud out there, to a circumstance, someone may have told him this, misinformed him, but the reality is very, very little voter fraud in America Today<\/a> that maybe a couple hundred votes here or there. But the idea that four Million People<\/a> could illegally come in and register to vote as secretaries of states in 50 states that watch very closely has a very strong Electoral Organization<\/a> and it just i just dont believe that happened. Obviously in your career, youve had all sorts of strategy ssions with sort of big time politicians and leaders. Im just curious, he makes a comment, gets out to the press. Press secretary faces all the questions we just showed you, sean spicer facing right now. What would you tell donald trump behind the scenes . I would tell donald trump you get to sit in the oval office. You basically have the big chair. You won the presidency in a brilliant way. No one could challenge you on that legality of your election. Go do the job. The 45th man to be elected president. There are 44 more that, that are there before you. And what you want to do is be a better president than a bunch of them. So focus on them and dont focus on the past. And then Chuck Schumer<\/a> the top democrat saying he wants republicans to be distancing themselves from President Trump<\/a> on this. While just in the last few minutes, lindsey graham, republican senator from south carolina, of course he has had his differences with donald trump in the past, but this is what he said in response to what the white house is saying right now. I am begging the president , share with us the information you have about this or please stop saying it. As a matter of fact, id like you to do more than stop saying it, id like you to come forward and saying having looked at it, i am confident that the election was fair and accurate and people who voted voted legally. If he doesnt do that, this is going to undermine his ability to govern this country. And sam stein over there at the white house, do you expect what we just heard from lindsey graham, a chorus of that from republicans or sort of on his own . Hes been out there on his own a little bit with respect to trump and his conspiracy theories already. I dont expect other republicans to join lirnd si graham and i guess you could call that a denunciation of this. Whats remarkable for me are two things. One is that this is a welldebunked Conspiracy Theory<\/a> and we have the president s own press secretary essentially admitting that hes a conspiracy theorist. That is the logical conclusion of this press conference. And what senator Bernie Sanders<\/a> said is that, you know, there is a pernicious underside to all of this. And it does invite people in specific states, usually run by republicans, to say look, the president believes theres widespread illegal voting taking place. We need to have harder crackdowns on on voting. It is a gateway to essentially having harder voter id laws in the country. The only other thing i would say, is democrats are in a tiny bit of a bind here as well. Yes, logically, donald trump is not making sense. You can howl at this, you can make an example of this, it doesnt look good for donald trump, but you run the risk of sort of getting distracted by these theatrics and the conspiracy theories and these lies as a largely conservative agenda and a very conservative cabinet ends up passing through congress. Youre Chuck Schumer<\/a>, or nancy pelosi, you do have to step back and say, well how much of time and capital and attention do i need to spend over here when it looked very well like his entire cabinet would be confirmed. Supreme Court Justice<\/a> will be coming up and possibly confirmed but all these executive orders are Going Forward<\/a> and very little power to stop any of it. So those are the things that democrats have been to be weighing right now too. We have news about the Supreme Court<\/a> vacancy about a nomination that looks like its going to be forthcoming. I have to share this. I think this will surprise a lot of people on this subject of the trumps allegations about voters participating illegally. The number of people in this country who share that belief, look at this, this is a poll from a month ago. It asks people, do you believe millions of illegal votes were cast in the election . And look at that, with the overall number here is 46 . 46 say yeah. Thats pretty spread out across the board. You have 52 of independents, 52 of republicans. 36 of democrats in a poll a month ago said they believe this too. This is an attitude that has taken hold out there across party lines in some surprising ways. Go ahead. I can jump in . I think part of that is a failure on the media to be selfreflecting. Also we run campaigns in which the opposition often talks in terms that suggest that something is untoured about the election. Its not just donald trump saying three to five million undocumented immigrants voted. Which will obviously trigger a lot of republicans. To believe thats the case. We have candidates on the democratic side, candidates independents saying that the system is rigged its a common talking point. From there, people can extrolate, well maybe this is the way in which it is. While that number is definitely disheartening, clearly wrong, based on all factual evidence. The voting booth is an important thing to all of us. Those of us around the game for a long, long time. It takes away from trumps victory. I think trump is on a great start. And i think he needs to focus on moving his agenda forward. He won the the election. Lets move forward. He won 304 electoral votes. Won 36, two didnt vote for him and the bottom line is hes got a chance to be a great president. He just needs to not get distracted by idiotic things like this. Speaking of moving forward, the other news coming out today, donald trump had that executive order signing this morning and he was talking about that vacancy thats been on a Supreme Court<\/a> for going on a year right now. Heres what he had to say about that. Ill be making my decision this week well be announcing, next week we have outstanding candidates and we will pick a truly great supreme Court Justice<\/a>. Now the backdrop for this obviously, this is the seed of the antonin scalia, democrats infuriated to hold hearings on president obamas nominee. Letting that expire with his presidency. How are democrats treating prospect of a trump nomination for that seat . Heres what Chuck Schumer<\/a> had to say. If the nominee is not bipartisan and mainstream, we absolutely would keep the seat open. Im hopeful that maybe President Trump<\/a> would nominate someone who was mainstream and could get bipartisan support. So, ed, im curious, how do you think the Trump White House<\/a> is looking at this . On the one hand, you could offer some kind of potential olive branch to the democrats with a moderate, on the other hand, he could change the rules and push it through. Theres no moderate. At the end of the day, he promised to many conservative voters, the court was an important issue. And i think to a certain extend to fill the shoes of scalia with one of the great things on our side is very, very important. I would say if you basically compromised and made a moderate, we have a couple moderates that were appointed by republicans in the past. Both bush and reagan and some that didnt turn out as good as we thought. This is up to trump to tip that balance back to 54 and beyond that. So sam stein, what ed is saying, all sorts of pressure on donald trump from the conservative wing of the Republican Party<\/a> from his base in a lot of ways to come through with a pick than theyre going to like. Thats not the kien of Chuck Schumer<\/a>s talking about there. Do the democrats have any actual power to stop it or can the republicans just change that filibuster rule one more time and push it through if you want . Well, of course they could try to filibuster it as you rightfully know, harry reid laid the template, Mitch Mcconnell<\/a> has followed that, hes hinted he doesnt want to do it. But you know, this was sort of predicted even prior to trumps win. We would go down this path in which the final rule adjustment for core nominations would pertaining the stream court would ultimately get changed. I dont know if thats the end game here. Chuck schumer may sort of look at the landscaping and say okay. But it might be the next pick that we need to lay down the marker. But, it all depends on where trump comes down on who his nominee should be. And every indication that we have from these first three, four days. Is that he will governor as a conservative. That you know, despite all of this talk about sort of these moderate cosmopolitan sensibilities that his agenda is pretty much strict conservative. And so my expectation with very little of no reporting is that he will end up with a nominee that is favorable to the conservative wing of the party. Was this healthy, ed, what republicans chose to do over the last year . I mean, the scalia died last winter. They said thats it, no action on this all year. Were going to roll our dice in the president ial election. Were not going to let an obama nominee get through. Unfortunately the court has become so ever since george bork has become so political that every one of these is a major, major fight. And as i said earlier, a couple of conservatives, what we thought were conservatives turned out not to be so conservative. And i think to a certain extent the purity of the judges is very, very important. Whether its a liberal, democrat, or whether its a conservative for us. But if donald trump doesnt appoint a conservative, he appoints somebody else with a swing vote. I think he will pay a heavy price of the conservative voters. Looks like he could be just a matter of days now before we find out who donald trump wants to put on the Supreme Court<\/a>. Ed, sam, thanks for joining us. More on trumps busy day ahead. Including those executive orders. Key stone and the Dakota Access<\/a> pipeline. Closer look at those projects. How much support they have. Plus democrats succeeded in delaying the vote on the pick for attorney general. And i also believe its important to reflect on this nomination in light of the demonstration we saw this weekend. This as another of trumps controversial picks for health and Human Services<\/a> secretary, tom price, faced another round of intense questioning from senators today. Up next, im going to talk to one of the democrats who questioned him. Florida senator bill nelson, straight ahead. My business was built with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Watry. Duo fusiong heartburn relief . Duo fusion goes to work in seconds and lasts up to 12 hours. Tums only lasts up to 3. For longer lasting relief. In one chewable tablet try duo fusion from the makers of zantac everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Already we have hit the ground running. Taking the first steps to keep our promise to repeal and replace obamacare. As i mentioned before, this is going to be a step by step approach. And one of those steps that is necessary is getting tom price confirmed as hhs secretary. House Speaker Paul Ryan<\/a> urging the confirmation of tom price, his colleague in the house as President Trump<\/a>s secretary of health and Human Services<\/a>. Price today facing the committee that will help determine his fate. Thats the Senate Finance<\/a> committee. And what could hold up this nomination . Well reports that surfaced after price was nominated. Some in just the last 24 hours accusing him of investing in Health Care Stocks<\/a> during his time in congress. Alleging that he pushed legislation designed to benefit those companies. Now, price already defended his investment activity in a hearing before a Different Senate<\/a> Committee Last<\/a> week, but todays hearing is the one that counts. Senate finance committee is the body that actually gets to vote on whether to send prices nomination ahead to the next round. The whole senate would have a vote on his confirmation or to halt the no, maam nation right there in its tracks. And today, Committee Members<\/a> had questions about the allegations against price. You purchased stock in an Australian Company<\/a> through private offering at discounts not available to the public. They were if i may, they were available to every single individual that was an investor at the time. Well, that is not what we learned from company filings. We have a paper trail for every one of the statements that i have gone into. And trading in stocks while you set on two committees, introducing legislation that directly impacts the value of the stock reality is that everything that i did was ethical, above board, legal, and transparent. Bill nelson of florida, senior chair of the committee. You heard your colleague there basically reading off the concerns that have been raised. You heard tom price there saying everything i defense legal. It was ethical, it was transparent, has he satisfied your concerns on this front . Well, i dug into medicare on your specific question, the question is, is it a conflict of interest to sit on a committee that is voting on a matter that will affect the value of a stock that you have. Now, if it isnt a direct conflict, is it the appearance of a conflict . Seemed like that all of us who serve, we have to go beyond the conflict to the appearance of the conflict as well. So if there is at least an appearance of conflict is a few view, is that grounds to deny a confirmation, do you think . It is a factor, but what i concentrated on was his views on medicare. And what are your concerns on medicare . Well, he had stated and he has written that he wants to privatize medicare. That is giving a voucher from a federal government to a Senior Citizen<\/a> to go by their own medicare as opposed to having the traditional medicare available to them that they know is there. And one more thing, in getting rid of the Affordable Care<\/a> act, which he wants to repeal, and has voted for, that also eliminates the extra benefit to Senior Citizen<\/a>s for the purchase of drugs. If you eliminated the Affordable Care<\/a> act, that in effect would cost seniors 1,000 more out of their pocket on the average for their drums each year. Now i dont think Senior Citizen<\/a>s want to do that. What im curious, these concerns youre raising with, what your read is on the role he played in the administration because what youre talking about there, especially on medicare, something along the lines, and he backed the poll line on medicare voucher plan on medicare, trump meanwhile campaigned saying hey look, i dont want to cut medicare. Im not a paul ryan republican on medicare. Whos calling the shots . Youve interviewed the guy all day today. Who would call the shots if hes confirmed . Well, i brought up those exact words of donald trump as a candidate. And that was not denied that he would take a different position from what he has already said. Steve, you know, you can tell a lot about a fellow where hes going as to where hes been. And those are troubling things to me as i evaluate my vote. Im getting close, but im not ready to announce it. Sounds like youre leaning against . If you go back and see what i said today in the committee, that is troubling to me what he said. All right. Senator florida bill nelson. Thank you for the time. Appreciate it. Thanks, steve. Okay. And take a quick break. Still ahead after those massive protests last year at standing rock, the suix chairman is vowing they will fight again after President Trump<\/a> today issued new executive orders that advanced the Dakota Access<\/a> and key stone pipelines. Up next, ally is going to give with a deep look at impact of those projects. At godaddy, our goal is to make you look awesome online. Lets chat in football terms. This is the goal post. The end zone. The goal of every team. We know you have goals. Like getting exposure for your idea or business. With godaddy Website Builder<\/a>, you can easily create an awesome mobilefriendly, get you more exposure website. We call that. A Website Builder<\/a> touchdown. Get your free trial of Website Builder<\/a> now. Everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. All right. Time now for a check of the headlines at the half hour. The white house saying today that President Trump<\/a> Still Believes<\/a> that millions of illegal votes were cast in novembers election. Sean spooiser saying the claim was the president first made during the transition is based on studies and evidence. He has though produced no evidence. Also President Trump<\/a> saying today that he will announce his choice to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court<\/a> next week. This coming after a meeting with autoexecutives on how to bring jobs back to the country. And also today, House Speaker<\/a> paul ryan announcing that the president will address a joint session of congress on february 28th. Several of President Trump<\/a>s cabinet picks are a step closer to being confirmed this afternoon. Senate committees voting today to send a nominations and nikki haley to be the ambassador to the united nations. All of those nominations being sent out of committee today and to the senate floor. However the committee decided to delay a vote on Jeff Sessions<\/a> nomination to be attorney general. James comey is staying on the job. Justice Department Memo<\/a> listing comey among the officials who will remain in their positions. Fbi directors are appointed to ten year terms that carry across administrations but new president s can replace them. And britains Supreme Court<\/a> today ruling that Prime Minister<\/a> theresa may must get approval from parliament before triggering the process leave the european union. May previously said that the government didnt need approval from parliament to go ahead and begin whats known as the brexit. And a new study from the university of washington today shows that cancer deaths have declined by 20 since 1980. However, researchers say that some counties, particularly in the south, midwest, and the the great plains, have higher death rates other than counties in other areas. Back to washington now with President Trump<\/a> move today to fulfill one of his Campaign Promise<\/a>s. The president signing an executive order to move forward with construction on two controversial pipelines. The key stone xl pipeline which president obama rejected in 2015 in the ka doe that access pipeline. The next president to oppose it. In other words, not overwhelming opposition there from democrats to this proposal. At least at the start of this campaign. Msnbcs reporter is there at the big board with a closer look at this. Ali, one of the justifications, the biggest one from trump from supporters. They say jobs, jobs, jobs, is that what were looking at here . Both sides put arguments that are not entirely true. There arent that many jobs involved and virtually no jobs involved in maintaining a pipeline, but therell be a few thousand construction jobs. This is the keystone xl. Couple of important things to remember, oil already goes from alberta all the way down to gulf where it it goes to refineries. Oil already goes here. The issue is more oil is moving in america. So this is supposed to be the key stone xl. It cuts short that track label the. Carries a little more oil. The issue, of course, is that it goes through an aquifer and its 2017, and we still havent figured out a way for pipelines not to leak. Thats the issue. Permitting the way the decisions were made, the way the Obama Administration<\/a> handled this. All of it was relatively gummed up and the thing was shelled by president obama. It was largely expected that donald trump would agree to this pipeline. He did. Heres the other problem. Pipelines leak, but a lot of oil is being transported and when you cant move enough of it by pipe, they move in these trains. This is the city of philadelphia. One of many cities through which these long oil trains travel. And the risk, of course here is this. 2013, question peck, 47 people incinerated when an oil train derailed and caught fire. So there are competing concerns here about how bad it is. The question that environmentalists will have you believe is if you stop the pipeline, oil wont move. Oil moves, it just moves a different way. There are two million miles of pipeline in the united states. 72,000 miles of oil pipeline. This is the second one were talking about. The Dakota Access<\/a> pipeline project all the excitement is over here. The oil is coming out of shale formations in the dakotas. Its going in here, but it is really, really close to soix reservation and it is claimed their land. Their treaty land for treaties that wering a investigated in the 1850s. Theyre trying to say they dont want this here. Thats the problem with the Dakota Access<\/a> pipeline project. But prurp signaling he wants to see them move forward, steve. All right, msnbcs ali fel she over there at the big board. I know a thing or two about that. Thanks for that. Meanwhile, another Campaign Promise<\/a> made by donald trump, investing in infrastructure. Today democrats challenged him to make good on that pledge. They unveiled their own plan to create 15 million jobs over the next ten years. By rebuilding the nations roads, railways, airports, waterways, and sewer systems. At almost every stop on the campaign trail, he talked about a big, bold, 1 trillion infrastructure bill that would put millions of americans back to work. Rebuilding our roads and bridges. That is something that Congressional Democrats<\/a> have sought for years, but Congressional Republicans<\/a> have sometimemied us at every turn. Were challenging him to join us, even if he republicans colleagues in the house and senate arent for it. T president met with labor unions. Many supported Hillary Clinton<\/a> back during the campaign. A big infrastructure plan could be a boom for the unions as their members would likely work on the projects. Joining us now to talk about this, jared bernstein, senior fellow on policy priorities and former chief exist and Vice President<\/a> joe biden. Also msnbc contributor. Thanks for joining us. I was struck just listening to some of those Union Leaders<\/a> coming out of that meeting yesterday and again, these folks up and down the aisle there were with Hillary Clinton<\/a>. Saying very positive things about where they think donald trump is going, specifically when it comes to infrastructure. Also some other areas, but infrastructure is the theme theyre talking about. This is something, boy, you think back, you have experience with this eight years ago. You didnt have too many republicans interested in infrastructure when you guys did the stimulus. Is this a new republican message emerging here from this white house . I wouldnt say its a republican message, as Chuck Schumer<\/a> just said, blew fwi, but its critically important. Its not clear that House Republicans<\/a> support this idea of infrastructure investment. I mean, this is an area where trump may be in a different place than his caucus. As far as the union goes, its very important to recognize that these were construction unions. Every one of them. The Service Employees<\/a> union was not in that room, for example. And when it comes to the pipelines that ali was just describing, the unions have long been on the same page as trump visavis constructing those pipelines and a very different page than president obama. So, in this sense, the unions are looking at jobs for construction workers, whether its pipelines or infrastructure, they see promise there, but at least in terms of the infrastructure, theres a ways between here and actually getting that legislated. Im curious, what do you think democrats strategy should be here . Ive heard some and i saw Bernie Sanders<\/a> yesterday suggesting based on donald trump using the executive orders to cancel the tpp trade deal saying i want to work with him on some of these labor issues. Jobs issues. There was a lot of blowback he took from his base on that. How much do you think democrats should be working with donald trump here . You know, this is kind of the key area of figuring out who donald trump is in my view. Is donald trump truly a populist president whos going to follow through on Campaign Promise<\/a>s to really help the Economic Conditions<\/a> of a lot of people who voted for him, or is he an agent of the Koch Brothers<\/a> and paul ryan. I mean, thus far we see a lot more of the tax cuts, the aca cancellation that republican congressional agenda than moving forward things that would help working people. So again, i think on the infrastructure point, trumps infrastructure plan is actually a pretty lousy plan. Because it really just gives tax credits to investors in many cases to support projects that would have happened anyway. The democrats plan is different. Its ach more traditional infrastructure plan. So we have to watch closely to see which way he bounces. Who does he side with there . We had hugh hewitt yesterday. He looked at the leaders in the white house and he thought political, realignment. And when you look back at election, you saw trump win pennsylvania, michigan, ohio, you know old rust belt states, i also looked at the exit polls with Union Households<\/a> he did better than any republican since Ronald Reagan<\/a> back in 1984, made real end roads there. What are they hearing . What do you think union voters are hearing. I think its a great question, and i think the answer is very simple. Donald trump goes to those parts of the country where globalization has been much more of a cost than a benefit. People have been hurt by job loss and manufacturing sector. And he says, im going to bring your jobs back. Im going to bring your factories back. Im going to bring your coal jobs back. The question is how is he going to do any of that . Its one thing to say it on the trail or tout an infrastructure program, but one that your caucus doesnt agree with you on. Its another thing to be kind of pledging all of these kinds of populist ideas without a clear policy path to get there. Donald trump has proved to be extremely successful on selling populist politics. On policy, we really havent seen follow through yet. All right. Jared, thanks as always for the time. My pleasure. A big morning out on the west coasttoday. Its going to lead us to our most important number of the day. Thats up next. But if you need a little hint, here it is. What do you mean . La la land is a perfect film. Whoa, okay. I mean, i liked it, i just thought there were too many montages in the middle. Thats how you show the passage of time. Did you make that . I did. Nt. Hey, come look what lisa made. Wow. You grilled that chicken . Yup i did. Nt. Mhm, lisa. You roasted this . Uhuh. Nt. Introducing smartmade by smart ones. Real ingredients, grilled and roasted using the same smart cooking techniques you do. You own a grill . Smartmade frozen meals. Its like you made it. And you did. Nt. I became very interested in this idea of how do you use color and music and sets and costumes. These expressionistic elements, how do you use those to tell an emotional story . But updated in a way that felt modern . Wrel, here you go, i havent seen it it, but now ive heard of it. Thats what i feel like every year around this time when they announce the oscar nominations. And that was, i wanted to call l. A. Land, they told me its la la land. Record 14 nominations today. One of many actors, actresses, all folks getting nominated for the big show today. Takes us to our most important number of the day today which is nine. Nine as in well, there are nine pictures nominated for best picture. Seems like only a few years ago it was five. I remember that. Here are the nine, maybe youve seen some of them. Maybe youve seen all of them. Maybe youre like me and youve only seen one of them, and it was a miracle youve even seen one because most years you usually see zero. I did see manchester by the sea, thatll get my vote. Fences, lion, moonlight, la land, la la land. Were not sure. Theyre going to get a the love attention over the next few weeks as we ahead into the awards ceremony. Take these nine pictures, these nine movies that the critics all love there that are up for the awards. Lets match them with the nine movies that sold the most tickets last year. The nine movies the public liked the most. How many of these made that list . Well check this out. Here are your nine nominees for best picture this year. Here are your no, maam top grossing films. And if you can see there is zero overlap. Youve got finding dor ining d life of pets, jungle book, dead pool, none of these appear. Now sometimes they delay the release of the best picture of movies that might make it to the best they delay it until the end of the year to get buzz going. They really dont make their money until the next year. Some could still really make serious money, but still, that is part of the one of the aspects of the show. I learned that the year of the english patron won. Sometimes the viers likes things that the audience doesnt pay to see. Most important number of the day today. It is the number nine. Going to squeeze a quick break in. Still ahead, more reaction to the comments from sean spicer that President Trump<\/a> has a long standing belief that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. What Bernie Sanders<\/a> is now saying about those comments. Also californias secretary of state plays a crucial role in these allegations trump is making without evidence. Theyre pointing pretty much to california here. Were going to talk to the secretary of state from california, see what he has to say about it. Stay tuned. When my doctor told me i have agerelated macular degeneration, amd, he told me to look at this grid every day. And we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of progression, including Preservision Areds<\/a> 2. My doctor said Preservision Areds<\/a> 2 has the exact nutrient formula the National Eye Institute<\/a> recommends to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd after 15 years of clinical studies. Preservision areds 2. Because my eyes are everything. Regarding mr. Trumps delusional statement that three five Million People<\/a> voted illegally in the last election, that is a total nonsensible statement, but what i fear about that statement, and what is something we should all worry about, is when trump talks about three to five Million People<\/a> voting illegally, he is sending a message to every republican governor in this country to go forward with voter suppression. That was just a short while ago on capitol hill, senator Bernie Sanders<\/a> responding to what white House Press Secretary<\/a> sean spicer said during his briefing this afternoon. Spicer said it is President Trump<\/a>s belief that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. California secretary of state alex padia is slamming that claim as corrosive lies. He is going to join me next, but first, lets send it over to our buddy Hampton Pierson<\/a> with the cnbc market wrap. Big boost in the trading session with the nasdaq and s p closing at record highs. The dow climbing up 112 points, the s p up 14, the nasdaq rising by 48 points. Thats it from cnbc. First in business worldwide. I realize that ah, that 100k is not exactly a fortune. Well, a 103 yeah, 103. Well, let me ask you guys. How long did it take you two to save that . A long time. Then its a fortune. Well, im sure you talk to people all the time who think 100k is just pocket change. Right now were just talking to you. I told you we had a fortune. Yes, you did. Getting closer to your investment goals starts with a conversation. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session<\/a> today. I checked, everythings there. Wait a minute. Hey. Hold on, i can explain. You better have a good answer. Switch to geico and you could save a ton of money on your Car Insurance<\/a>. Why didnt you say so in the first place . I thought yous was wearing a wire. Haha, what . Why would i wear a wire . Geico. Because saving fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance<\/a> is always a great answer. Does the president believe that millions voted illegally in this election and what evidence do you have of widespread voter fraud . The president does believe that. He has stated that before. I think he stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign. And he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him. White House Press Secretary<\/a> sean spooiser reiterating the long held belief that widespread voter fraud impacted the results of the election. Now officials from both sides of the aisle condemning trumps remarks. California secretary of state just out with a statement to nbc saying quote, by repeating false and unsubstantiated voter fraud allegations has the cause for losing the popular vote, President Trump<\/a> is dangerously attacking the legitimacy of free and share elections and the foundation of our democracy. These are not alternative facts, they are corrosive lies without any evidence. The wake of the election, trump accused california of being a major source of this alleged voter fraud. California a state where he lost by more than three million votes. Do we have the numbers up . Lets just the percentage. I wanted to show people this before we bring our guest in, you could actually find the entire popular vote margin for Hillary Clinton<\/a> nationally. 2. 8 million. He won california itself by more than that number of votes. That state has gotten a lot of attention from people who are sympathetic to what trump is alleging here. And alex pennsylvania dee ya joining me now on the phone. Thank you for joining us. Let me start on that, they were not specifically mentioning sean spicer was not mentioning your state today, but california is the subtext for that reason i just mentioned. The popular vote margin. You could look at california and you could find Hillary Clinton<\/a>s margin there. So let me just ask you a basic question. Youre the top election official in the state of california. A margin of millions of votes officially for Hillary Clinton<\/a>. Do you have 100 confidence that that is the count among legal voters in that state . Absolutely. And weve gone through this over and over again for years about the integrity of the election system. And while sean spooiser may not have named california today, donald trump himself did back in november. In the days after the election. Here we are defending our honor. Talk about this, maybe mechanically, essentially what theyre arguing here is theyre saying, look, there are People Living<\/a> in this country illegally and theyre going out and theyre registering to vote and nobody is checking and nobody is stopping, stopping that. Talk about what kinds of safeguards youre the top Elections Official<\/a> out there. How do you deal with that possibility of Something Like<\/a> that happening . What are the safeguards we put in place . So well talk about the safeguards, but you know, bottom line is sean spicer said, what the president believes apparent ly and its simply not true. Is the proof of wrong doing. And after november 8th. Our concern is that it will gets it into voters minds that maybe there are votes not going to count. Why should they not turn out and vote . Thats bad for democracy. And again, its baseless. They have no proof. They have no evidence, and im just concerned that theyre taking a jackhammer to the foundation of our democracy when they call into question the integrity of our election system. Voter registration does have checks and balances. That when people register to vote its under the penalty of perjury. That they are indeed citizens, 18 years or older and eligible to vote. To not do so is a crime. And study after study, investigations show that voter fraud in america is virtually nonexistent. And im just curious, since donald trump said this back in november, you said youve put the word out any evidence you have, youd like to see. Havent heard anything back from them. Has there been any kind of official contact between the trump campaign, the trump transition team, now the Trump White House<\/a> and your office and will you initiate any after what you heard today . You know, when donald trump first started not just mentioning allegations of voter fraud and saying that its happened to the tune of millions, but maybe in california specifically along with a couple of states who put the invitation out. He was president elect trump at the time, not President Trump<\/a>, it was only a couple days old, but the invitation stands. Team trump, president elect, now president , if you have proof or evidence, pleads bring it forward. Were happy to investigate. Alex padilla, california cretary of state. Thanks for the time. Thank you. And that is going to bring us t the end of this hour. Im here in new york, steve kornacki, tomorrow on morning joe senator john mccain going to join joe and mika for an interview at 6 00 a. M. Eastern on msnbc. But first, mtp daily starts right now. If its tuesday its another actionpacked day at the brand new Trump White House<\/a>. Tonight, the white house defends President Trump<\/a>s latest unfounded claim. This one, election fraud. It was a comment that he made on an long standing belief. Plus, what will replace obamacare . I talked to two republican senators who say they have the right prescription. Opposed to repealing everything immediately, you channel it into this new system. And from the heartland to the beltway, could small city values save","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia601500.us.archive.org\/9\/items\/MSNBCW_20170124_210000_MSNBC_Live_With_Steve_Kornacki\/MSNBCW_20170124_210000_MSNBC_Live_With_Steve_Kornacki.thumbs\/MSNBCW_20170124_210000_MSNBC_Live_With_Steve_Kornacki_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240617T12:35:10+00:00"}