Entertainment networks to preempt their programming tonight. Yep. So that he can make an important address to the nation in which i listened to every word, all thousand words, th rachel. I didnt hear him say a single sentence he hasnt said before. No. Nt this wasd the this was his greatest hits on immigrants are terrible. And we need as wall. It was version of a of Campaign Speech lines that he hash been issuing since the very since the very first day that he announced that he was running for president. I was talking with Nicolle Wallace and chris hayesth moment ago aboutac the fact that his litanyct of horribles, the list violence crimes that he asquibs ascribes to immigrants changes a little bit. He update it to make sure the gore stays fresh when he talks to s immigrants as murderers and rapistsrs but hes been doing th from thes very beginning. Itshe the core of his presidenc think now the question is why he facility like he need felt like he needed to take the Campaign Rhetoric into the oval office and dode it in a big picture way without doing anything new. Im glad you said Campaign Rhetoric, rachel. When i was listening to it when we got to l the end of it, i believe what i had heard was President Trumps first nationally televised speech of his reelection campaign. On make any offer to solve the Government Shutdown over the border wall that he wants. And so i saw nothing but a Campaign Speech or someone just lifted the first couple minutes of the state ofou the Union Address and tesaid, why dont we dosa that tonight . Yes. But, you know, its interesting, i didnt know what to make of the request by pelosi and schumer to rebut the president tonight, as if tonightut was a state of theni union. I thought that was i didnt quite know what to expect but was interesting, the substance of their remarks, they engaged with him a little bit in terms of his l antiimmigrant rhetoric what hes said about the wall bute really what they both said was mr. President , whatever it is you want having to do with Border Security or the wall or any of these other things youre talking about, we can talk about that. We can have a policy fight about that. Why dont we reopen the government . And then we can talk about whatever you want. And for them to take that line on itr today, theyre giving a lot of republicans a very wide door to walk through to join the democratic take on this issue. Which is whether or not youre persuaded by the president w saying the same thing over and over again about terrible immigrants, how about we dont shut down the government for any longer . I thinkrn a lot of republicans will accept that invitation from the president because the democrats arent asking republicans to take any serious issue with the president and any of his remarks. Theyre justof asking them to ignore him and get the government working again so americas can go back to work. Andck as of tonight, my count is there are three Senate Republicans who are willing to do what Chuck Schumer says they should dodo. That would bring a senate vote to 50 50 if one more moves across, then you have the 51 that the democrats would need in order to get this done but its still Mitch Mcconnell, theyd be in that struggle with Mitch Mcconnell to actually allow that vote toto occur. And thats why i thought senator schumers very clear outline of heres how we can move forward was so simple and important, easy to follow. What do you think that Mitch Mcconnell will do here,mi lawrence . I mean,el mcconnell is relativel good at getting things to work out the way het wants them to. He has not necessarily committed himself ones policy one way or t other. He said hell only bring up something thatly the president will sign andin he doesnt want any political stunts. Its all sort of sort of process talk. What do you think isor actually going to happenat here . Because presumably, mcconnell is not as comfortable as the president with the ideaas of a shutdown that goes on for years. Well,n Mitch Mcconnell said, emphatically, there would be no shutdown. So everyone knows that Mitch Mcconnell doesnt want a shutdown and theseow are the situations, rachel, in which for a Senate Leader it might be more important what he doesnt do. Ises Mitch Mcconnell working the phones tonight trying to hold the Republican Senate together or is he staying silent on that . And his members understand it immediately. If they dont hear from unhim, they knowif that they are set fr in terms of his perspective, anyway, any of them who want to go out and turn against this trumpur shutdown, it seems to me are being allowed to do that and it could even get to the point where theyve are secretly being encouraged to do it. Mitch mcconnell never wants to be perceived as the person who turned against President Trump in a situation like this. But if a dozen of his members move that way, what can he do, rachel, what can he do . Its just that he has to overtly do something at that h point. He does have to let something come up for a vote. I mean, he can go on invacation, he can pretend its not him but ultimately, Everybody Knows that he controls what comes up for a vote. Well, there is a parliamentary hole in that so if you get enoughme momentum on the other side, there is a parliamentary hole that could bypass anything, any theoretical block that Mitch Mcconnell might want to pretend that hes actually doing, so, yes, generally, its up to the majority leader what moves on the floor. Not entirely. Theres a way through that. This is why its very, very good you have a television show, lawrence, because you know these things, my friend. By these way, very few senato know that. But enough do that there are ways to maneuver through it and mcconnell, himself, if he wants theif shutdown to happen, there a way for him to look as if hes on the president s side right through every minute of the processy as the United States i voting against the president. He knows howga to do that. Anybody out there who has Mitch Mcconnells cell phone number, please textnn him right now. It telleam him to watch lawrenc odonnell for thehi next hour he onfo msnbc. It might help. Rachel, if you need more time to talk about im good. The president who said nothing tonight yeah, im good. Okay. Thank you, lawrence. Thank you very much, rachel. Appreciate it. Well, in this hour, we have important analysis and necessary fact correction and checking of thed president s address from t oval Office Tonight. And even though it was empty in terms of any new comments by the president or any news made by the bypresident , it was an extraordinary event in and of itself and it must be analyzed in terms oft what it means to o politics and our governing. G we will also consider the speeches made in response to the president s address tonight by speaker of the house nancy pelosi and democratic leader of the senate Chuck Schumer. We will be joined by democratic senator Chris Van Hollen and congressman aam schiff. The chairman of the house Intelligence Committee. We will be joined by a former acting director of immigration and Customs Enforcement the toby help us fact check the president s speech. And we will be joined by a panel ofby analysts who have seen and analyzed many president ial addresses from the oval office but none quite like this. In the president s 9 1 2 minute speech 9tonight, he managed to say noted one new thing that he hasnt said before. It was as if after watching senator Elizabeth Warren make her first president ial Campaign Speeches in iowa this weekend, the president decided to make his first president ial reelectionid Campaign Speech fr thepe oval Office Tonight before and before making that speech retoday, the president s campaign sent out a fraudulent email to Trump Supporters saying, friend, i will be addressingil the nation tonight 9 00 p. M. Eastern standard time onn the humanitarian and Nation Security crisis on our southern border. We need to raise 500,000 in one day. I want to know everyone who stood with meow when it mattered most so ive asked my team to send me a list of every american patriotev who donates to the official secure the border fund. Pleasebo make a special contribution of 5 by 9 00 p. M. Eastern00 time to our official secure the border fund to have your name sent to me after my speech. That was all a lie. In the finer print of the email, it says the contributions are to the trump make America Great again committee. That is the president s reelection committee. The president lied to his supporters in that email today telling them their contribution wouldon be to an official secure the border fund. Immediately after the speech, the president then sent out another fundraising email saying, friend, President Trump just finished his speech addressing ourd National Securi crisis on the southern border and explaining why he will not cave to the democrats. We sent him a list of all patriots who donated to our official secure the border fund and he noticed your name wasnt on the list. Since youve been such a strong supporter and one of our greatest advocates for thean wal we have decided to extend your deadline to get on the list. And that, that is what the president s request for Network Broadcast time tonight was all about. Heas used it to raise money for his reelection campaign, pretending to his supporters that the money they would contribute wouldey be used to secure the border and he did not say one new thing in that speech thatin he read from that teleprompter in the oval Office Tonight. Heres the essence of the president s speech. My fellow americans, tonight, i am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southernse border. As part of an overall approach to Border Security, Law Enforcement professionals have requested la 5. 7 billion for a physical barrier at the request of democrats, it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete i wall. Thiser barrier is absolutely critical to Border Security. Its also what our professionals at the border want and need. This situation could be solved in a 45minute meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the white house tomorrow to get this done. Leading off our discussion now, steveff schmidt, a former republican strategist, and msnb political analyst. Steve, manyan reasons why i want you to leadev off tonight. But as a former president ial campaign strategist, i dont know if you have themp feeling i did when i saw the president complete his speech tonight. But i believed i was watching the first trump nationally televised reelection Campaign Speech. I think youre certainly right about that, lawrence. I was struck, though, by the venue, the oval office. I thought about fdr and churchill in the early hours of the second world warly in the spacend inches from where trump addressed the nation. Plotting toe save democracy. And western civilization. And you consider that speech, what a powerful argument it makes against the theory of evolution. As we look at the continuing debasement of the office of the presidency of the United States. We saw from trump today the typical lying, the racial demagoguery. The nonsense. The spinning of crises out of wholecloth. What was most apparent was the degree in which he appears to be an utterly defeated and broken man. Somebody who feels the walls closing in on him. It was the lowenergy speech. I suspect am. Political consequence of itli will be that republicans are going to crack. Theyre going to take a walk in the serious way for the first time duringe the trump presidency. Theyre going to starte to lose their fear of him. What they saw in 2018 was 40 republicans lose their seats. Theyir saw the house flip to democratic control in the map in 2020 is an map thats very favorable to the democrats unlikehe this map in 2018. So this isp a disaster. Of course, trump claimed full credit for it,im celebrated it, said he would be proud of the shutdown. And so we see now republicans living with the consequences of having an inept lying, incompetent, racially demagoguing president talking about this issue and last thing, lawrence, there is a humanitarian crisis at the border. We have children in internment camps ande we have two minor children, the last one a 7yearold little girl who died in w the custody of federal authorities of the government of the United States. Er it stains our National Honor and disgraces this administration. Th steve, your reaction to the president , using tonights network preemption of entertainment programming to basically launch a speech that was bookended by fundraising appeals. Fundraising during the day saying we desperately need your contribution by 9 00 p. M. Thatse the deadline. And then, of course, after the speech, telling the very same people out therete who had not y contributed, that were going to extendte the deadline for you. That struck me as a classic trump salesmanship. Of course. You describe them as supporters earlier, lawrence, and i dont mean to quibble, but theyre less supporters than there are marks and the only things missing from thean email was, hey, ill throw in a case of trump wine and a couple trump steaks and aum masters degree from trump university. This isasde a con man at work. And what were seeing here is that theee wizard has been exposed. At rally after rally, what did hely say . Many billions of times the mexicans would pay for the wall. Where are the pesos . Hes talking about 5 billion when he told the American People over and over again that there would be a wall, a wall paid for by mexico. There is no wall. There will never be a wall. No wall will ever be funded. And he has denied this central victory against all the racial demagoguery we sawal from the moment he f descended the escalator at trump tower. Its all becoming undone. And that desperation, i think, was onti full display today. And of all the things you could say aboutu trump until tonight, the one thing you really couldnt say is that hes boring. He was just boring tonight. The shtick is getting old. It was to some degree like the episode when fonzie jumped the shark tonight. Coining that famous phraseology. I think tonight wasg a speech where trump jumped the shark. Steve, i need to hear more from you as a republican expert about the possible movements in theth senate on this. Weve seen senator Lisa Murkowski now defect from the trump side ofw this. Um she has now joined so there are officially three republican senators who r have publicly sai they want to go forward the way Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi want to go forward. Me how long will it take for more to join them . I dont think very long. Theres no upside to this. I think that a lot of the senators, a lot of the surviing republican members of congress, watched a lot of their colleagues go over the cliff like lemmings, to painful anding a agonizing political deaths. A lot of incumbents looking ahead to 2020 looking at the news that broke today, for example, with collusion between the russians andto the campaign which becomes more and more apparent every day. I think that from a if you werero looking at this from an investment perspective, i think increasingly, republican senators are going to say, lets short the trump stock. How do we cut the ropes . How do wee get out of this . And so ie dont think its goin to bet too many more days. Not too many more days after the first missed paycheck before you start to see the real cleaving of republican support away from trump. This wont last, i suspect, too much longer because republicans so long as the democratic leadership holds the line, they will defect ander they will join thel democrats. They will reopen the government and at that point, what will become clear is that even the republican minority in the house, the republican majority in the senate, will have joined every world leader, most of the American People, as a group who do not take this man seriously at sall. They look at him as a joke, a clown, and a farce. When you look at everybody from the Prime Minister of turkey, to the canadian Prime Minister, the british Prime Minister, the list of people who both fear trump and takee him seriously is get ing smaller and smaller every day. Steve schmidt, thank you very much for leading us off s tonigh really appreciate it. And we havepp joined now by democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of s maryland. Hesho the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee and the chairman of the t Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee. Senator van hollen, your reaction to the president s speeches tonight. Well, i have to agree with s