Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell

MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell January 13, 2018

That word tonight but its the president of the United States. Today he denied by the way using the word shole to describe countries in africa during a meeting with lawmakers yesterday tweeting this morning, quote, the language used by me at the daca meeting was tough but this was not the language used and despite the reports that the president said, quote, why do we need more haitians . Take them out. Trump said i never said anything derogatory about haitians but it is a poor an troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by dems. Probably should record future meetings. Unfortunately no trust. We dont have a recording of that meeting. Would be nice if the president did record some of these meetings so we wouldnt be deliberating about whether he said these things but there were Seven Members of congress in the oval office with the president yesterday. Two of them, senators tom cotton and david purdue, say, get this, they cant recall the president saying those comments specifically. These guys have bad memories if they cant recall him saying shole of people from a continent and heres illinois senator dick durbin today. I cannot believe that in the history of the white house in that oval office any president has ever spoken the words i personally heard our president speak yesterday. You have seen the comments in the press. Ive not read one of them thats inaccurate. To no surprise the president started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hateful things. And he said them repeatedly. My colleague, republican senator Lindsey Graham of south carolina, spoke up and made a direct comment on what the president said. For him to confront the president as he did literally sitting next to him took extraordinary political courage and i respect him for it. Now, senator graham subsequently released this statement following comments by the president i said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what i said and how i feel. Ive always believed that america is an idea not defined by its people but by its ideals. A septemberment shared by dr. Martin luther king jr. This is what the press pool asked President Trump after the ceremony. Mr. President , will you give an apology for the statement yesterday . Mr. President , did you refer to african nations, did you use the word shithole to refer to african nations . Mr. President , did you say no, the president mr. President , are you a racist . All of that really happened. Joining us now, sam jean is an attorney born in haiti and emigrated to the United States with his family and brother a musician. Host of the giles files podcast and Mark Thompson host of make it plain on sirius xm radio. Thanks to all of you for spending this friday evening with me on a conversation i would have never predicted we were going to have. Sam jean, more than 800,000 people of haitian descent in the United States, probably more once you go back further. Mr. President , are you a racist . All of that really happened. Joining us now, sam jean is an attorney born in haiti and emigrated to the United States with his family and brother a musician. Host of the giles files podcast and Mark Thompson host of make it plain on sirius xm radio. Thanks to all of you for spending this friday evening with me on a conversation i would have never predicted we were going to have. Sam jean, more than 800,000 people of haitian descent in the United States, probably more once you go back further. What is your reaction . Well, my reaction is the reaction of any decent person would be, haitian, american, kenyan or canadian. Its disgusting, vile and racist. I dont think that we need to ask the president whether hes a racist or not. The president s words, they speak for themselves. Its bigotry speaking for it ooitsz. I think the problem we have most of all we know what the president is. Hes been having this conversation. Hes been saying these things for three years. What i want to know is what the senators, the representatives, the members of congress, what they intend to do to stop this man. Yep. Because this man is doing this because he knows, he can say whatever he wants, and there are no consequences to the words that he uses, the bigotry that he espouses. This is an interesting point. We have lots of evidence, lots of examples of Donald Trumps racism over the years. Including on the day that he launched his presidency. He said lots of things that were eight people in the room. Seven legislation lay or thes and one was dick durbin and lind si graham. Two senators, nancy, saying they dont recall. 24 hours ago. We had paul ryan, everybody was waiting to what paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell would say. This is paul ryan. I read those comments later last night. So first thing that came to my mind is very unfortunate, unhelpful. Whether youre coming from haiti, we have got great friends from africa in janesville who are doctors, who are just incredible citizens. And i just think its important that we celebrate that. Some of my best friends are some of my best friends. Thats interesting. Unhelpful. Unhelpful. That was my first thought. I think thats unusual to sams point whether youre canadian, kenyan, american, haitian, the first thought isnt unhelpful and kind of gross. Gross, outrage. Yeah. I can say it to start with im grateful dick durbin was in the room and i dont think if he was if he was not in the room wont have the story from anyone. Wont know what happened. Im sure the conversations gone on for quite a listening time so, a, my hats off to him. Paul ryan is just hes a weasel. Im sorry. Maybe at one point he had a bit of a spine but even looking at the body language, hes cowed. Hes like its an embarrassment and silence is complicity. That was my first thought. I think thats unusual to sams point whether youre canadian, kenyan, american, haitian, the first thought isnt unhelpful and kind of gross. Gross, outrage. Yeah. I can say it to start with im grateful dick durbin was in the room and i dont think if he was if he was not in the room wont have the story from anyone. Wont know what happened. Im sure the conversations gone on for quite a listening time so, a, my hats off to him. Paul ryan is just hes a weasel. Im sorry. Maybe at one point he had a bit of a spine but even looking at the body language, hes cowed. Hes like its an embarrassment and silence is complicity. He had a spine for several hours after the access Hollywood Tape came out. A few minutes. Suddenly nothing phases him. The issue, mark srks that wasnt i heard on fox an anchor a bar talk and what americans do at the bar. Americans at the bar arent making my immigration policy. This was actually a highly specific conversation between the president and senior members of the legislative branch to design immigration policy. Well, as the naacp defines racism and white supreme sy is prejudice plus power. Power. So he makes the statements. We have known it. Not breaking news. Correct. That hes a racist. We know what he is. But he has the power to make policy. They were discussing policy. He talked the other day and said welcome to the studio. Well, why didnt he bring the cameras in for this conversation . Interesting. Say that in front of those cameras. I believe we never know how it impacts young people. To hear the president of the United States, young people had to fight against racism see the humanity condemned. What must it mean to hear him . We have to not only condemn him and counter what he said, i believe. These are not shole countries. Africa was the birthplace of civilization. Civilization. Where the stem fields were born. Which the greeks copied. The great explore a bbu kalli journeyed to Central America and met the Indigenous People and from whom they descend and establish trade before columbus was herd of in the 1300s. After slavery and colonization the haitians freed themselves and fought to save americans from british rule. Yeah. They fought with us. Thats who the young people but for the citizens, sam jean, in a sentence, the president can slur entire groups. He said of haitians according to the New York Times when talking about the 15,000 haitian immigrants with visas last year they all have aids. When talking about nigerians he said once theyve seen the United States they would never go back to their huts. He talks about mexicans as rapists. The point is this does while it must offend all of us two members of these groups it does serve to embolden the base in saying thats why we dont want haitians. Thats why we dont want nigerians and mexicans in this country. It is damaging. Its damaging but it speaks to the prejudice of the people that hes speaking to. What he knows is 36 of the people that support him engage in this kind of bar talk if you want to use that language. They engage in this kind of bar talk. It used to be that we would be appalled if the president of the United States had this kind of conversation. Not only the language but the sentiment. The nations top diplomat. Supposed to be talking about the best aspects of this country. What happens is when donald trump gets when donald trump is in a position where he is threatened or he feels threatens, he goes back to what he knows best and this is who he is. I could come up here and talk about the beautiful beaches of haiti, the mountains of haiti. I could talk about beautiful places in africa, tanzania. I could talk about all those things but the point is the man knows these things exist but it doesnt matter to him because the message that hes trying to convey to his base, who feels set upon by the browns, the black and the other thats right im son your side. This is not ignorance. This is not ignorance. No. I totally agree with sam. Its not. Its a concerted effort to put forth these vile and bigoted points of view and i have to say, you know, every once in a while you wish all black people were on the same side about any one issue and we are not a monolithic group but i looked around the room. I saw dr. Kings nephew, i saw ben carson and i was like, what are you guys even doing this there . How could ben carson tom. How could he stand there and say things like, the message of dr. King, equality, justice, the common dignity of man, you are jetbluely needed to heal the division, standing next to the most divisive person in the room. Surreal. And then i saw these other black folks standing around and applauding while he was ignoring the questions. Thank god for april ryan. I started to think do they work for him . I wasnt aware there were that many black employees at the white house or did he hire them like the extras . You heard april ryan, you know, aprils going to get an award for the type of work shes done in the last year. Bless her heart. She asked the president , are you a racist . President wasnt even facing reporters at this point. He turned the back immediately. We can probably show the video again. As the signing ceremony ended, the president turned his back and started walking out of the room. It is 2018. We have esteemed members of the press corps in the white house asking the president if hes a racist. We were talking before the show started. I thought racism was more sophisticated in 2018. This is this is decades old, centuries old and call people names. He is no longer operating from the sophisticated lee atwater play book sort to speak. If he ever was. Hes going right for the jugular and i love april. She was on the air on my show this morning driving to work at the white house and we kind of coenabled herself. You riled her up. Get this going. She said what she was on her way to cover that. But just as you mentioned, nancy, the people there and this is dr. Kings birthday week, also the anniversary of the earthquake in haiti and makes it even more despicable, sam jean. Let me just say. We look at his state of mind. Hes very insecure man. Hes insecure. Yes. About barack obama and kenya, the woman who beat him for the presidency and cant let it go and the beauty of the vast cultures he just insulted and so all of those who are insulted by him know that youre actually bigger than what he is. And dr. Kings own words, if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper or a bush in the valley rather than a pine on the hill, Donald Trumps words confirm, if that is your lot, you are still bigger than the tiny president. Sam jean, i was speaking to Maria Hinojosa and she said when you say shole what everyone focuses on but what he allegedly said about the haitians, why do we need more haitians here . Take them out. Take them out. Maria said it was like a gestapolike thing and i said thats strong to describe i. C. E. Employees. She said theres raids all week and arrests, and you see these people coming for you and they stop you on buses and they stop you on buses and bang on the doorls at night, thats the kind of thing that history makes your sam jean, i was speaking to Maria Hinojosa and she said when you say shole what everyone focuses on but what he allegedly said about the haitians, why do we need more haitians here . Take them out. Take them out. Maria said it was like a gestapolike thing and i said thats strong to describe i. C. E. Employees. She said theres raids all week and arrests, and you see these people coming for you and they stop you on buses and they stop you on buses and bang on the doorls at night, thats the kind of thing that history makes your mind think about. She says the take them out from a man who can actually order the removal of people from this country is something we should be paying more attention to. Yep. Its astonishing and its the way that the president operates, its very simple. As within of your guests pointed out. Hes an insecure man and not a well read man and not a deep thinker. Also not into nuance. He everything is a nail to trump and so he hammers everything. He doesnt even understand the nature of the consequences of the language that he uses because all hes interested in is playing to that base. Ill tell you this. Haitians dont care about donald trump. Okay in they dont care about donald trump. They have survived worse than donald trump. For decades. Yep. For decades, for centuries. They have survived worse than donald trump. But my problem is i want to know what is the Republican Party going to do with this menace at the head of the Republican Party . Yep. Sam is right. Menace. People dont talk like this. No. Normal, reasonable, rational people dont talk like this. Just to jump on something sam said, its just a great example of why education is so important because so many of the things that trump has said and are from ignorance, ignorance, narrow minded thinking and not intellectual curious and not caring about anything but what looks like him. Pathetic. Nancy, thank you for your time. We appreciate your spending sometime with us this evening. Coming up, a special last word of lawrence about an inappropriate president attacking the First Amendment. Next, is donald trump digging a hole to sams point that republicans have to climb out or does the president s base even care about all of this . Thats next. And later, the wall street journal report tonight that President Trumps lawyer arranged a 130,000 payment to a former adult film star to keep her from talking about trump during the campaign. Nbc news reporting that according to two sources close to the administration President Trump worked the phones last night calling allies outside of the white house to gauge a reaction to his shole comments. One source described the president s mood regarding the fallout and coverage of the comments as belligerent. Another source said that trump sought insight of the episode to resonate with the base. Few republicans weighed on the president s remarks. Mitch mcconnell hasnt commented yet. You heard House Speaker paurp say its unhelpful. Senator jeff flake said the words used by the president as related to me directly were not tough. They were abhorrent and repulsive. Can republicans dig themselves out of another mess created by this president . Its hard to say and wont make it easier. In another surprising revelation, nbc news reports tonight that during a march meeting with members of the congressional black caucus, a member related to President Trump that potential welfare cuts to hurt her constituents, not all of whom are black. The president said, then what are they . Joining us is jason johnson, editor at the root. Com and msnbc contributor and charlie sykes, author of how the right lost its mind and a msnbc contributor. Welcome to both of you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Good to be here, ali. Lets start with you, jason. Where do you think we go from here if youre a republican . Is this concept of getting your agenda getting your agenda forwarded more important than basic humanity . Because we saw this play out with the roy moore saga. Well, yeah. Thank you. Good to be here, ali. Lets start with you, jason. Where do you think we go from here if youre a republican . Is this concept of getting your agenda getting your agenda forwarded more important than basic humanity . Because we saw this play out with the roy moore saga. Well, yeah. Look. Ali, it is really clear that most of the Republican Party is like, look, people who assault women, racist, terrorists sympathizers, accused pedophiles i can work with all the people as long as i get a tax cut and stop the Affordable Care act. I think as far as most mens of the Republican Party, not heard from mcconnell, paul ryan basically gave a very sort of flaccid limp wristed response and said i dont care. And this is bad and terrible and didnt condemn the president. Unhelpful. Nothing is going to change with republicans in washington but i will say this. Republicans i know, my former student who is are republicans, are saying this is embarrassing to them and this becomes a problem in the midterm elections. Charlie, lets say the president has 35 support if you look at various polls. Right. Lets say theres a 25 base that has nowhere else to go beca

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