Our president lies pathologically. He has a staff lie pathologically then he attacks the free press, attacks the judiciary and this is what starts authoritarianism. Donald trump is a danger to republic and we need to wake up in america to understand the harms that hes causing our country. That balance between the executive and the judiciary played out in realtime tonight. Lawyers for the u. S. Department of justice presented their reasons why a federal Appeals Court should reinstate the travel ban signed into being by one of the president s executive orders. A threejudge federal panel will hear oral arguments in the case via speakerphone tomorrow. The president has hammered the court using his favorite venue to air grievances and speak to the american people. On saturday, he said on twitter, the opinion of this socalled judge which essentially takes Law Enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned. That was followed on sunday with this. Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens, blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad. Today during a visit to centcom in tampa, florida, he turned his focus back on the media claiming the media dont adequately cover terrorism. And all across europe, youve seen what happened in paris and nice. All over europe, its happening. Its gotten to a point where its not even being reported and in many cases the very, very Dishonest Press doesnt want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that. Tonight, the white house released a list of some 78 terrorists attacks the Administration Says were uncovered or undercovered by the media. The list also includes the attacks in paris, San Bernardino and orlando. Those three, alone, were responsible for days of live Media Coverage in this country. More of the president s attacks on the media came once again on twitter. Apparently responding to a New York Times story that he didnt fully understand the executive order he signed putting his own aide, steve bannon, on the National Security council. President trump said this morning, i call my own shots. Largely based on an accumulation of data and everyone knows it. Some Fake News Media in order to marginalize, lies. Also this responding to polls showing his low approval rating. Any negative polls are fake news. Repeating, any negative polls are fake news just like the cnn, abc, nbc polls in the election. Sorry, people want Border Security and extreme vetting. Finally tonight live pictures of the u. S. Senate working late. Cory booker, democrat of new jersey, speaking now. The democrats are trying to gum up the works before a vote on betsy devos for education secretary. They plan to keep talking all night. As of now, unless they pick off one more, its a 50 50 vote requiring Vice President mike pence to enter the chamber to vote to break a tie. That will be a first for a cabinet nominee. A lot to talk about tonight. Lets bring in our leadoff panel. Veteran of the bush white house, and the campaign trail, our own msnbc political analyst, nicolle wallace. And from washington, White House Reporter for the washington post, we welcome Ashley Parker back to the broadcast. Welcome to you both. And ninicolle, if something is going on here, if institutions are being minimized or marginalized, what wories you most, a judiciary thats being marginalized or a news media . Listening to all that, it all blows your mind if youre used to the normal way of doing things. But there was a little detail in the New York Times story that upset me the most and it was a piece by Maggie Haberman and glenn thrush about how they sit in the west wing which is postally empty because they havent hired all the people that are supposed to beappointee they dont know how to turn the lights on. The cabinet room especially. Its not tricky. I could tell them where the lights are. This is a white house that doesnt care enough about professionalizing the federal government to bring in anyone to show them how to turn the lights on. And if you need a single thing, if youre a trump supporter and you want to understand why his detractors are so hysterical, thats all you need to know. He hasnt hired enough people. He doesnt care enough to keep the government running in a functional manner, to bring anyone in who can turn the lights on. If he cant turn the lights on, what can he do . And so to me, authoritarianism is a terror. I mean, its a terrifying concept. And i thought ben sasse to sort of balance out the very frightening comments from a democrat tonight, ben sasse on sunday on a sunday show said we dont have socalled judges in this country, we have judges. We dont have socalled senators in this country. We have senators. And we dont have socalled president s. We have president s. But his point is, you dont diminish any one of those branches because they were designed and its almost this willful disdain for every Single Institution that he is now in charge of. Its appalling. Ashley, because you break your share of news for the washington post, you wont mind us talking about a piece broken by your competitors at the New York Times, but it gave a portrait of a very dark place starting with the inability to turn the lights on in the cabinet room including the president , a solitary figure, Walking Around in the white house at night in a robe. That was litigated on air force one today by sean spicer, said he doesnt need and does not wear doesnt own and does not wear a robe. But on and on and on, the detail that were talking about here. And i assume it matches some of the reporting you have gained firsthand. Yeah, i mean, you certainly it feels very, in a way, nixonian, that kind of latenight wandering and rambling and its only his second or third week. Which i think is troubling to people. But some of my own reporting does track with that and it is sort of a white house that was a little bit adrift, especially in the first, you know, the first period and a president kind of struggling to make sense of, you know, his Campaign Promises and turn them into policies. One thing the white house did do was they did sort of go on a charm offensive, they put a lot of his brain trust on the record. They spoke to us at the post and other publications to say were all friends and were all getting along. I think members of congress and people are heartened to hear that, but until that translates into kind of tangible action, whether its on the hill or implementation of other policies, it sort of doesnt matter whether theyre best friends or not when theres still chaos emanating from the west wing. I keep saying that the two forces at work politically right now are men north of 70 years of age who call new york home, donald trump, and his counterweight, Lauren Michaels, and it was Lauren Michaels who delivered a very tough weekend for this white house in popular culture. Steve bannon was played by the grim reaper. Sean spicer by melissa mccarthy, now famously. And tonight, politico has weighed in on the portrayal of spicer. This is a notable quote. More than being lampooned as a press secretary who makes up facts, it was spicers portrayal by a woman that was most problematic in the president s eyes, according to sources close to him. And the unflattering sendup by a female comedian was not considered helpful for spicers longevity in the grueling highprofile job where he struggled to strike the right balance between representing an administration that considers the media the Opposition Party and developing a functional relationship with the press. It is, after all, nicolle, only television, but people worried when they didnt hear from the president on twitter saturday night that perhaps it was a damaging portrayal. It is not only television, as someone who lived through the sarah palin morphing into tina fey in the publics mind, it is an extremely powerful medium at times of an incredibly tensious political upheaval, and arrival of sarah palin on the political scene, as you know, you interviewed her at the time, that caricature was alive and well and it was more than under her skin. It got in her head. So snl is a very powerful medium and the more thinskinned and sensitive a politician is, the more damage it does. I dont have any independent knowledge of how the caricature of sean spicer was received but i imagine this is a president watching everything. He is addicted to coverage of himself. I know that going back to the very beginning of the republican primary when i kept asking why wont he read the looming towers, why isnt he more conversant in Foreign Policy . They said he will not read anything that isnt about him. He is completely consumed by and addicted to things about him so i imagine this is wildly distracting and very much under his skin and in his head. Ashley, along those lines, im going to play a clip, can be called the other clip from the bill oreilly interview with the president this weekend prior to the super bowl. Well deal with putin later on in this broadcast but this came out in extended version tonight. This is about president obama, former president obama, and President Trump. You know what was fascinating, to watch you at the inauguration with barack obama. You guys seemed to get along. All right . Would that be accurate . Its a very strange phenomena. We get along. I dont know if hell admit this, but he likes me. How do you know he likes you . I like him. Because i can feel it. Thats what i do in life. Its called, like, i understand. He was vicious during the campaign toward me. I was vicious toward him. We said horrible things about each other. Then we hop in the car and drive down pennsylvania avenue together, we dont even talk about it. Politics is amazing. Ashley, it goes on to say that barack obama shared with President Trump the number one worry spot on the planet. Trump is going to keep that in the car. But this desire to be liked, no less a source than howard stern said a few days ago, having known and dealt with donald trump for years, thats his chief worry about trump occupying the presidency. Obviously, youre not going to convert everybody. Say nothing of polls putting him at the lowest point of the modern presidency in the era of polling. Yeah, youre certainly not with president obama in particular, i think that is something very savvy the former president has done which has been a calculation of his and hes trying to strike that balance because on the one hand, he said he is going to speak up and stand up when sort of an issue that is contrary to fundamental American Values comes up. But by the same token, the president is acutely aware of the former president is acutely aware of trumps weakness and sees a vested interest in trying to maintain as positive a relationship with him as possible so he can influence him and i think in that way, he is one possible, playing to his achilles heel in being flattering, being conciliatory with the hope he may be able to have his ear. And ashley, to nicolles point about chain of command, about populating all those payroll positions in the west wing, say nothing of the executive Office Building next door. Hundreds and hundreds. Is there a more visible what youre allowed to see, is there a more visible chain of command that starts beneath the president with priebus in the more traditional flowchart of the west wing . Thats certainly something that priebus is working on. I mean, one of the problems in our reporting was that reince always in theory had that role of chief of staff, making sure the trains ran on time, but when they entered the white house, people sort of just disregarded that role and they knew their lanes. It wasnt a question that they didnt know, but they were very willing, as someone told us, to color outside of them. I think after this rocky rollout, one thing that seems to have helped or at least hopefully may help is the president , himself, in a staff meeting kind of turned to people and said, reince is in charge. And so he has done things to streamline the day, as the times reported, he now has a tenpoint checklist. As we reported, hes controlling the schedule more. Controlling meetings. And in theory, that is the job of a chief of staff and when they execute their job effectively, the white house runs more smoothly. Reminder to our viewers, we know all of what ashleys reporting, what the the New York Times, what politico is reporting, because of an unprecedented number of leakers inside this still so young west wing. So well see what that means as we move forward among other things. Ashley parker, its always a pleasure to have you here on the broadcast. Well continue looking for your byline every day. Coming up after our first break here tonight, a rare source of agreement between republicans and democrats and that is the president s comments on Vladimir Putin. When the 11th hour continues. This is the silverado special edition. This is one gorgeous truck. Oh, did i say theres only one special edition . Because, actually theres 5. Aaaahh ooohh uh holy mackerel. Wow. Nice. Strength and style. Which ones your favorite . 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Mistakes are different a lot of mistakes, okay, but a lot of people were killed, so a lot of killers around, believe me. President donald trump pushing back when told Vladimir Putin is a killer, and now senators from his own party are pushing back on him. Putin is a mess. Hes committed all sorts of murderous thuggery. And i am opposed to the way putin conducts himself in world affairs. I do think americas exceptional. America is different. We dont operate in any way the way the russians do. I know that putin is a thug and he runs a gas station, and the prices are low right now. And so he is going to continue to be belligerent. Senator marco rubio added this on twitter. When has a Democratic Political activist been poisoned by the gop or vice versa . We are not the same as putin. Nicolle wallace remains with us. We are joined tonight from seattle by retired four star u. S. Army general barry mccaffrey, west point class of 64, combat in vietnam that led to three purple hearts, two silver stars, two distinguished service crosses. Years later in one of the definitive books on the first gulf war the author said, no general was more aggressive than general mccaffrey. Im embarrassing him with his military record because its germane to our conversation. General, having been raised in a place we were told by president s who insisted on it was a shining city on a hill, weve never heard language this dark from a president , say nothing on super bowl sunday. What do you think is going on here . I have no idea. I think its appalling. Look, im a career soldier, as you know, brian, and the son of a career soldier. My son is a career soldier. Whos he talking about when he talks about killers . You know, is it the 60,000 killed and wounded protecting the country since 9 11 . He was going to central command. General joe votell, special operations command, general tony thomas, these commands have been at war for the better part of darn near a generation. When you throw in the bosnia operation. So, you know, it was just unbelievable parallelism to suggest that trump and respected a man who has stood behind assad who murdered half a million syrians, took crimea, invaded eastern ukraine, threatens poland, the baltic states, is buzzing our naval ships at sea, and for gods sakes, has threatened western europe with nuclear weapons. So, again, its hard to know whats going on here. What do you think is at work . Why the differing view of Vladimir Putin, who you are able to describe in detail . Its a its a real mystery. Theres just no way to come out of supporting by the way, putins a very clever politician, no question. You know, this is really almost a thirdworld country with a lot of oil and gas and very low prices. The military is strategically weak. Its not a major threat to the United States. We should engage them diplomatically in every other manner, but at the same time, we got to understand these people are dangerous to their neighbors. And to our interests. Theyre trying to shatter nato. So why would the president of the United States be assisting that line of argument . Its beyond me. Nicolle wallace, this is a form of alternative reality that has left you baffled and highly frustrated and agitated. Well, and its one of those things that didnt break through to his base. They didnt see the problem with this. And its one of the most exasperaing things about being a republican in the year 2017. To the degree that the Republican Party at times when it wasnt successful in National Politics was still, you know, sort of on the forefront of something important, it was john mccain and Lindsey Graham<