amaze me how much they like ma that movie that would amaze me. ted johnson, thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> not enough time for you, we can do a whole show with you, brother. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you, ann hornay day. that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> they are the enemy of the people. because they have no sources, they just make them up when there are none. >> it's trump against the truth as the white house lashes out at the media and blocks news organizations from briefings after being forced to admit reince priebus asked the fbi to push back trump russia stories. >> i'm not a sloppy guy. >> what we now know about white house efforts to influence the fbi. and the central question -- can the bureau be trusted to investigate the president? plus, as town halls continue around the country, the president divides. >> the people that you're

watching, they're not you. >> new fears from the right that the resistance is winning. >> i don't know if we're going to be able to repeal obamacare now. and speaking of obama, a sighting -- [ cheers and applause ] when "all in" starts right now. >> sequestchur. good evening from from new york, i'm chris hayes, in the wake of an explosive story unfolding over the last 24 hours involving improper communication between the white house and the fbi investigating the president and on a day president trump again called the media the enemy of the people, the white house did something news organizations are describing as an unprecedented retaliation -- barring reporters from five prominent media outlets from entering an off-camera briefing while inviting in breitbart news and other conservative outlets. this action came after the trump administration confirmed key details of the reporting of that

remarkable breach of protocol and propriety, acknowledging that white house chief of staff reince priebus did in fact ask a top fbi official to push back against news reports of contact between trump aides and russians during the presidential campaign, prompting house minority leader nancy pelosi to call for a department of justice investigation. keep in mind what's at issue here. u.s. intelligence agencies have determined that russians intervened to boost then-candidate trump during the presidential campaign. the open question is whether the president or his allies or campaign colluded at all with the russians in such an effort. there is -- and we should be very clear here -- no proof that that happened. that's precisely why last week's explosive report that trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with russian intelligceurg the campaign was such a blockbuster. it was the first reporting to establish contact between trump associates and russian

intelligence during the campaign. and that's the claim that reince priebus wanted the fbi to publicly dispute. the thing is, a lot of news outlets have already confirmed much of the story. law enforcement and intelligence officials tell nbc news there is in fact evidence of contacts between trump aides and russians, though they say they have not determined whether the russians in question were intelligence officials as they've been described by the "times." the white house today laid out its version of what took place. it says fbi deputy director andrew mccabe pulled priebus aside last wednesday to tell him the "new york times" report was "garbage." in response, priebus asked mccabe to go public with that claim. a request mccabe ultimately declined. in an off-camera briefing, the same briefing in which many major news outlets were barred from attending including the "new york times," sean spicer explained the white house version of events. >> when presented with a story

our answer was could you correct it or whatever you see fit? we won't sit back and let false narratives, inaccurate facts get out there. >> now tonight the "washington post" is reporting it wasn't just the fbi but that the trump administration enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and congress in efforts to counter news stories about trump's associate's ties to russia. we don't know if the white house version of events is true. here's the thing, even if it is, it doesn't exactly absolve the white house or, for that matter, the fbi, which, according to the white house, offered to the potential witnesses or subjects of that investigation. to put all this in context, when bill clinton -- you'll remember -- met with then attorney general loretta lynch last year on loretta lynch's plane for a conversation that both parties say largely concerned golf and grandchildren, republicans went, well, crazy. speculating that bill clinton was trying to intervene to quash

investigations into his wife. >> so give the grandchildren two minutes, give golf three and a half minutes. that's a long time to be sitting there twiddling your thumbs. what else are we going to talk about? let's talk about hillary. let's talk about hillary. >> now, imagine if the obama white house asked the fbi to knock down stories about hillary clinton's e-mails. if that had gotten out, it would have been a huge scandal. and yet that's analogous to what the white house today admitted and confirmed to having done. president trump spoke today at the conservative political action conference where he suggested, falsely, that negative news reports are simply made up. >> a few days ago, i called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. they are the enemy of the people. [ cheers and applause ] because they have no sources,

they just make them up when there are none. they shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name. >> for the record, that comment came after white house officials anonymously -- that is to say without using their name -- pushed back on the fbi report and didn't allow their names to be used. and then the trump administration barred five news outlets that we said that have reported aggressively at the trump white house from spicer's off camera briefing prompting anger and claims of retaliation. but the unanswered questions about alleged links between trump's allies and the russians are not going away. new polling shows 53% of americans want congress to investigate ties between the russian government and the trump campaign and at cpac today a rather brilliant troll handed out russian flags with trump written on them which oblivious supporters waved during the president's speech until cpac staffers figured out what happened and confiscated them. joining me now, john dean, former white house council to president richard nixon.

john, let us bracket for a moment the underlying substance of the reporting and the claims about the degree of contact between trump campaign officials and russian intelligence officials, which is being disputed, right? let's talk about the communication that was established on the record. as someone who served, the white house council under richard nixon, how does that strike you? >> as somebody who was in that role during the nixon presidency, it's because of the activities between the nix white house and the fbi that the justice department later wrote regulations to prohibit that kind of activity. this is exactly the way you influence -- try to influence an investigation. if they were playing it straight, if they really wanted to say we have -- there's nothing to see here, they'd do what hillary clinton did. they'll provide all of her staff and herself to the fbi for very

open inquiry and that leaked very quickly, if you recall, as well. there was no complaint by the trump people when that information leaked. >> so you're saying that the way to push back against the -- against false reports is to make yourself open the the investigation and get to the bottom and have some kind of clearing which is essentially in its own way what happened when james comey delivered that speech about the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails. >> that's exactly what did happen. while it is not a criminal offense to push back or to try to get them to correct what they perceive as a bad story nor to even push them about where they're investigating. it is certainly against the regulations of the department and the norms of the department post-watergate. but this administration has been busting norms from the beginning of the presidency, not to mention throughout the campaign.

>> the norms enshrined post-watergate are because the breaking point of watergate was precisely in some ways an analogous fbi in so far as the fbi was investigating the president of the united states and the president of the united states tried to intervene to quash that investigation? >> what happened is nixon got caught in the lie of saying he knew nothing about the coverup yet it showed on the tapes when they were finally surfaced that he indeed had instructed hald man to use the cia to block the fbi. now that wasn't the crime itself, it was the lie. and there was a grand jury sitting because a grand jury changes the whole complexion o fbi investigations. particularly when they're doing something on behalf of the grand jury. that's where you get into the obstruction of justice. >> knowing what you know over the last 24 hours and what has been now essentially confirmed by the white house, although, again, the contours of that we only have the white house to trust here we don't have mr.

mccabe or mr. comey or anyone else, we should take that with a grain of salt. do you have confidence in the integrity of whatever existing investigation is happening in that fbi? >> well, the recent story that broke tonight by the "post" that other intelligence agencies have been in play in this also, looks like they're overlooking and watching what the fbi is doing. so the fbi is not exactly acting alone in this while they're conducting the investigation. they really can't do it without the other intelligence agencies possibly being involved in this. so this is going to make it very hard to play games with the fbi. and i don't think the fbi is inclined to do so. they have nothing to benefit by it, particularly down into the rank and file. we've heard stories about the new york office and various offices, we know there are three phases of this fbi investigation and two of them are outside of washington while the

counterintelligence operation is out of washington, there's a pittsburgh office and an san francisco office that are doing different phases of this investigation. so it's hard to make anything go other than right down the middle. >> thank you. joining me, democratic representative karen bass of california, member of the house judiciary committee. and your colleague calling for an investigation. do you agree with that? >> i think that's very important to have happen. >> what do you think needs to happen given the fact we now know there's this behind-the-scenes jockeying. we know the white house is at least trampled on this sort of protective sphere. this norm about what communication you have about an ongoing investigation. what do you think needs to happen now? >> i think there needs to be a thorough investigation. i think the white house needs to consider sending reince priebus the way of flynn but there's so much more that's hpening here and to me i don't see this

disconnected from trump's attack on the press because to me he seems like he's laying the basis for that when the truth finally comes out about the russian connection that at least his base will no longer believe what comes out in the best. because anything that's negative is fake news. so to me i see it as interconnected but i believe there should be an investigation and that they have to understand we're only 30 days into this presidency. they have to understand that the fbi and that the intelligence agencies are not the propaganda arm of the white house. >> you know, i just want to go back to something you said. you said reince priebus should be sent the way of michael flynn. you believe he should be fired over this? >> right. i absolutely do. because it's not the only thing. i mean, you know, again, trying to pressure the department of justice, the intelligence agencies to speak on your behalf, i understand what mr. dean said in terms of it not being -- breaking the law but

certainly violating regulations but what does this say about this white house? you know, i remember when president obama was giving his farewell speech and he said that we need to protect our democracy. i actually thought about that statement as a little rhetorical. i was thinking about the voting rights act specifically. but i feel like over the last 30 days so many aspects of our democracy have been trampled upon. and i think that for the white house to get its act together i think it would send the right message just as the dismissal of flynn did. but they didn't dismiss him until they absolutely had to. >> right. and, in fact, the president has said essentially they made a mistake in doing so. that it was the fault of the media. i'm curious about this polling which i found surprising, i have to say. "should congress investigate trump/russia connection?" 53% yes, 25% saying no, no opinion 21%. is that squaring with what you hear from your constituents? >> oh, my goodness, no. i mean, i had town halls over the weekend, 500 the first day, 800 the second day and i will

tell you that the anxiety level is so high. and one of the main things that people want to have happen is an investigation because there again they're concerned. people are afraid about a war being lodged by this president so they see all of thi as being intertwined. this is just so much out of the ordinary in terms of our tradition and our allies. demanding an investigation. i tell you one thing, in terms of the audience in my town halls it was more than 53%. >> representative karen bass, thank you for your time, appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. joining me now, house republican conference chief policy director evan mcmullin who ran in 2016 as an independent. i want to read to you what the president was saying about leakers. "the fbi is totally unable to stop the national security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time, they can't find the leakers within the fbi itself. classified information is being given to the media that could

have devastating affect on the u.s. find now." what's your opinion? >> there's always been a problem with leaks, there always will be. that's the reality. what i find interesting about this is that donald trump refuses, really, to deny in a full-throated way and repeatedly that his campaign had contact with russian officials, possibly as we have read in the "new york times" russian intelligence officers. that's what he should be talking about. that's what he should be refuting if it's not true. but instead, he goes after the leaks over and over again and i think that's -- it's very telling that that's where he focusing. >> what about this? as someone who worked in the cia, i've seen a broad range of opinions on this and some say, look, the white house has a point, people are -- they're leaking information that should be closely held, it's unfair to the president, unfair to people in his campaign that this is getting out and as someone who has taken an oath to keep classified information, what's your view? >> well, there's a lot going on here. first of all i would say we

don't know for sure the leaks are coming from the intelligence organizations. that's a trump construct. that's what his claim is. >> fair point. >> that's why his lies are so dangerous. they seep into what we accept as truth without there being validation of them and i think that's an example of that. but i will say when you have a president who pits his own senior staff against others in his senior staff, when you have a president that has a destructive vision for leadership in the country, as does his key strategist, then you're going to have more leaks because people are going to have disagreements that lead them to want to get back at other staffers and they're concerned about the direction of this presidency so it's really donald trump has himself to blame mostly for these leaks. >> let me ask you about the "washington post" reporting the trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials and key lawmakers to counter

these russian stories. there's always concern about -- there's always a complicated relationship between intelligence officials and the political arm and they work for the elected government of the united states but there's some degree you want them independent. we saw what can happen in iraq and other circumstances when politics drives intelligence. is this dangerous to you that they're going to intelligence officials trying to get them to knock this story down? >> of course it's dangerous. and it calls into question the investigations that are happening. the fbi is conducting an investigation, probably with the contribution of the intelligence community. and then you have the house and senate select intelligence committees also conducting investigations. but the white house has gone to all of those players and then tried to enlist their help in claiming that the campaign did not have contact with russian officials. that's part of what the investigation is all about so if they did these things then we have to ask, is there really -- are there really investigations

happening? and if there are not -- and i think this whole episode calls in into question these alleged investigations, all of this tells us that we have to have an independent prosecutor named by the doj or we've got to have an independent commission established by congress. but the american people deserve transparency and they deserve accountability in this process. this is a matter of grave importance and we just don't have enough of either of those. >> evan mcmullin, thank you for being with us, appreciate it. >> thank you. these jarring admissions is the latest in a series of questionable moves by the bureau when it comes to donald trump. we'll take a closer look at that next.

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donald trump and continues to do so. most notably, of course, on october 28, the unprecedented act 11 days before the election, arguably in violation of department of justice policy, fbi director james comey's letter informing congress the fbi would review new clinton e-mails. that review turned up nothing, as you'll recall, but according to many pollsters, it turned the election tide against hillary clinton. there's more. on october 31, just eight days before the election, this headline in the "new york times" "investigating donald trump, fbi sees no clear links to russia." that based on fbi sources talking to the "new york times." it does not seem to hold up very well right now, that headline, at least, but it was probably pretty helpful to the trump campaign then. then, just six days before the election, the report of an internal fbi battle over whether to investigate the clinton foundation, which never materialized. after the election, after trump's victory, the focus sharpened on russian interference, but it was the fbi that wouldn't initially sign on to the consensus of the other intelligence agencies that russian interference into the election was intended to help

elect donald trump. today, the latest, the white house defending chief of staff reince priebus asking the fbi to publicly knock down stories of investigations into contacts with russia. their defense, that both fbi director james comey and fbi director -- deputy director andrew mccabe knocked down such reports in private conversations. joining me again tonight, matt miller, former aide to attorney general eric holder, former justice department spokesperson. now, i want to be clear here, this is the white house's account that essentially them nated exknee low from the fbi. so i don't know if that's true or not. if it is true is that proper. >> you're right. it's dangerous to assume that what sean spicer said is a fair and accurate rendering of what happened but if it is, no, it's not proper. the -- this investigation is into the president's campaign

and associates like paul manafort. reince priebus was involved in that campaign. multiple other people in the white use, obvious including the president himself were involved i the campaign so in no way should the fbi ever talk to the subjects of an investigation about where the investigation stands. i can think of no other case foreign investigating a bank, if you were investigating someone for fraud you would never, ever come to them and say "oh, yeah, there was a story that ran and by the way, we don't think that story is true." it does not happen and it's completely inappropriate. >> right. so the point here as i understand it is let's assume the set of facts -- that the reports were wrong and that, you know, this did emanate from the fbi. it still strikes me even in the most charitable set of circumstances as a totally improper communication. >> yeah.

that's right. there is no other way to look at it. it's hard to know what mccabe was thinking when he had that conversation with reince priebus. and it's hard to know what he was thinking when he had the follow-up call and when comey had the follow-up call when he confirmed the same thing, if that indeed is what they did. part of the problem is the fbi -- senior fbi officials, people like comey, people like mccabe are at the white house, they're involved in intelligence matters, the president referees disputes between the fbi and other agencies, they have a lot of equities in play at the white house which goes to show how awkward it is for them to investigate the president and, given what they've done, how compromised. if this is true, how compromised they are. because they've briefed him they've made it very difficult for them to oversee this investigation. >> and then you also have something that you and i have talked about now for months. i don't want to impugn the fbi as a massive organization that has thousands of people who do

incredibly important work. i don't want to paint with a broad brush but it seems what happened before the election is that things that came out of the fbi seemed to be putting the thumb on the scale against hillary clinton and for donald trump. >> there's no other way to look at it. most people in the fbi lean conservative. if you look at the broad population of the fbi, they do. that doesn't meanhey're not fair and do their jobs fair, they do. but without question some of the stories during the campaign -- you know, i think comey did what he did for a lot of reasons, i don't think they were partisan reasons but the "wall street journal" story you flashed on the screen a minute ago, leaks from the new york field office were clearly done to hurt hillary clinton. those were leaks from field agents that clearly were done to target her to make it harder for her to be elected president and it's a sign there is a problem and that makes it surprising

that comey isn't more sensitive to that given what happened in the campaign that he then would have this type of conversation with priebus and then mccabe would have this conversation. you think if anything they would be bending over backwards to make it clear that they are going to be independent and accountable to the facts and the law and not to the present. >> matt miller, thanks for your time again. >> thanks. coming up, premp's speech today divided into a count to the side that won, the side that lost and made it clear which side he's president of. we'll talk about that.

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standard vision of a dysopen the i can world rife with violence and danger. >> can you believe what's happening in chicago? can you believe seven people were shot and i believe killed. seven people, seven people. chicago. a great american city. by the way, take a look at what's happening in europe, folks. take a look at what's happening in europe. take a look at what happened in sweden. take a look at what's happening in sweden. take a look at what's happening in germany. take a look at what's happened in france. take a look at nice and paris. take a look at what's happening to our world, folks. >> but, for all of that, the president was noticeably silent on several other recent examples of political violence. he said nothing about the arson fire set at a tampa, florida, mosque early this morning. nor did he mention the hate crime investigation currently under way in kansas after adam

purinton, a navy veteran, reportedly opened fire on two engineers from india at a bar killing one of them, wuntding the other as well as a bystander who tried to intervene. according to the kansas star, one witness heard him say "get out of my country" before the shooting. he was arrested at another bar when the bartender called police after the suspect allegedly said he killed two middle eastern men. the father of the surviving indian engineer is urging his son to come home telling the local paper "the situation seems to be pretty bad after trump took over as the u.s. president. i appeal to all the parents in india not to send their children to the u.s. in the present circumstances." according to reuters, the white house press secretary said it was too early to guess a motive and "it would be absurd to link the action to president trump's rhetoric." there's a reason trump brought up chicago and paris and sweden this morning and not kansas or tampa. he was telling his base what they want to hear. what it looks like when the president of the united states is the president of his base. next.

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today i'm inviting president trump to address a joint session of congress on february 28. this will be an opportunity for the people and their representatives to hear directly from our new president about his vision in our shared agenda. >> on tuesday night, donald trump will deliver his first address to his joint session of congress, it will be the first time he stands before both chambers in what amounts to a version of the state of the union addressed reserved for newly inaugurated presidents. it will be his first opportunity

to lay out his extended vision for the country since his rather brief inaugural address. but today the president gave a speech at the conservative political action conference and whether it was his promise to throw "criminal aliens the hell out of the country" or the protests against the repeal of the aca, it seemed to be very clear he was not speaking as president of all the american people, just his base, the winners. >> obamacare doesn't work, folks, i mean, i could say, i could talk, it doesn't work. now people are starting to develop a little warm heart but the people that you're watching, they're not you. they're largely -- many of them are the side that lost. they lost the election. it's like how many elections do we have to have? they lost the election. >> joining me now michelle goldberg columnist for slate who today got back from cpac. i thought that was such a perfect indication of the president's world view, genuinely held. they're not you.

the people that i represented -- i am the president of the people that voted for me. >> to the victor goes the spoils. >> exactly. we won, they lost. they don't matter. he almost seems offended they want to have a say in the country. >> he said the same thing during his press conference when he was talking about the town halls saying they're not the republican people who our republican representatives are representing so they don't get to be represented and there's a mystification when trump talks about quote/unquote the people. when he talks about the people, he really means the small minority or -- not small -- >> sizable minority. >> the minority of america that elected him. and either he's convinced himself that they are synonymous with the american people or else he just believes that they're the people who matter. >> and there's this thing that's happening where he's talking about the -- he's presenting the nationalist vision. you had a dispatch there that i thought was fascinating where you were bumping into people who were just avowedly white nationalists.

>> yes. >> someone saying to you "people think alt-right is about being mean to other people. it's really not. alt white is identity politics for white people." that's the line of richard spencer. >> keep in mind, he's saying that as a good thing. there's other people who said alt-right is identity politics for white people as a criticism. and this is somebody -- a president of his college republican chapter speaking to me with his name i've been covering cpac for longer than i'd like to admit, certainly since the administration of george w. bush. you can always find somebody at cpac to say something outrageous. i've never seen people before under their own names so eager to associate themselves with white nationalism. >> just walking around willing to talk to a reporter and say, yes, that's my game. >> so one of the big shows on thursday was the white naonalt richard spencer crashed cpac and held a little impromptu gaggle in the hallway

and they eventually after a couple hours threw him out. but what was interesting was seeing all the college kids coming up to him and taking selfies and, you know, being, like, one of them was like that's the coolest guy. >> and flashing his journal at him. >> yeah, not his journal, he picks up out of his bag a t-shirt with the name of richard spencer's white supremacist journal like flashing it at him like he just had this on him, he didn't know richard spencer was going to be there. >> let's be clear. this is the crowd that the president of the united states addressed today. those are the same people that the president of the united states addressed today. >> right. and here are -- i mean, i'm not using white nationalist here as a slur, that's how they would describe themselves. their goal is a white ethnostate in america and that was -- even though cpac -- cpac is in a weird position because they're riding this energy, they obviously want to celebrate their republican president. at the same time, they want to distance themselves from the

alt-right so they've created an alternative history of the alt-right in which it's a left wing movement. it's so weird anddemented. but because the base at this thing are people who celebrate not just hypernationalism in the united states but you got, you know, crazy applause for nigel farrage, he gave a shoutout to marine le pen, wild applause. >> the far right xenophobic movement in fwrans. >> it's very -- they've always been maybe around the fringe of cpac, now they are cpac. >> michelle goldberg, thanks for joining us. still to come, after a week of passionate and fiery town halls across the country, what will next week look like when congress is back in session? plus, a new obama sighting today

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thing 1 tonight. as president trump sought top portray the media as fake news and portray the journalists as "the enemy of the people" at cpac today, he said this. >> by the way, there are lines that go back six blocks, and i tell you about that because you won't read about it, okay? [ laughter ] there are lines that go back six blocks. >> that was a pretty easily checkable claim. all you need to do is go outside and look. and no, you won't be reading about it. minutes after that comment, a reporter from jezebel shared these two photos from outside the convention center. there was a small group gathered across from the convention center. they were anti-trump protesters. a reporter from rye finery train noted "lots of space in the back

of the ballroom." we did find a crowd of supporters wasting outside for a u.s. president today. it just wasn't anywhere close to cpac. >> more people -- he's coming! he's coming! he's coming! [ cheers and applause ] >> barack obama's surprise appearance in new york city is thick 2 in 60 seconds. my ancestry dna results are that i am 26% nigerian. i am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. i put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. because it's a hat, but it's like the most important hat i've ever owned. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. mattress firmness? enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed.

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>> he's throughout waving. damn, we should have gone out there. >> obama! you rock! you rock! oh, my god. obama exite an office building in manhattan holding a coffee as throngs of people packed t street aneven climbed scaffolding to see him. it's not clear what the former president was doing in the city, but after flying under the radar since inauguration, these folks were psyched to catch a few seconds of 44. >> obama! [ cheers and applause ] when you have allergies,

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three members of my family, including me that would be dead, dead and homeless if it was not for aca.

[ cheers and applause ] i'm an angry constituent. you work for us! [ cheers and applause ] [ crowd chanting "aca" ] >> i'm on obamacare. if it wasn't for obamacare we wouldn't be able to afford insurance. don't repeal obamacare. improve it. [ cheers and applause ] >> as this week of incredible mobilization at town halls across the nation, it seems as though repealing the aca will be harder. republican congressman mo brooks had this to said in a radio interview yesterday. >> i'll tell you, toni, there are a, in my opinion, a significant number of congressmen who are being

impacted by these kind of protests and their spine is a little bit weak and i don't know if we're going to be able to repeal obamacare now because these folks who support obamacare are very active, they're putting pressure on congressmen and there's not a counter effort to steel the spine of some of these congressmen in tossup districts around the country. >> keep in mind, this is just the first recess after the first month of donald trump's presidency. republicans haven't even proposed a bill on obamacare yet. congress will be back in session on monday, though, and democrats will be electing a new party chair over the weekend. the question is, where does the anger, intensity, mobilization and organizing that we saw this week go next? we'll discuss after the break.

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thankfully at panera, 100% of our food is 100% clean. no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, or colors. panera. food as it should be. >> truth is, the far left, they've turned protesting into what seems like a full-time profession. i mean, seriously. i mean, you'd think that for $1,500 a week they'd at least know what they're protesting. and you've seen it. imean, half of them, they can't even tell you. >> at cpac this afternoon, ceo of the national rifle association and well known troll wayne lapierre resorted to the same fiction many conservatives have been peddling about paid protesters at town halls, $1500 a week. imagine. they don't want to believe it, but there really is real energy on the left, so how does it get channelled now? join me now, jess mcintosh,

editor of an anti-trump media company and charlie pierce, writer at large with "esquire." how do you understand what happened this week and then what happens going forward? >> i think it has been truly incredible to see the organic response at these town halls. >> all these people are being paid $1500. >> it's a very, very lucrative thing to do. >> like the 62-year-old pig farmer who talked to chuck grassley. >> entirely in the pocket of george soros. that's where he's getting his money. these are real people and watching them wave their state i.d.s and putting their zip codes on their name tags, they do not want to be labelled paid protesters of the left. they are mad about that. i mean, the democratic infrastructure is rushing to catch up to the groundswell of actual organic grass-roots support for this stuff. we are trying to put together where do you find your town halls? everybody is asking how do we make sure we don't miss anything and organizations are scrambling to put out links to make sure

they've got -- it's not being driven the other way. >> charlie, this is a great point. there's a -- the idea on the right is that this is a top-down, that, you know, people are being told what to do and it really is the opposite and i think it relates to what's happening this weekend where the dnc is going to have its election to see who runs the dnc, the top two candidates as of now, tom perez, former secretary of labor, keith ellison, current congressman from minnesota. it's sort of viewed in some ways as a proxy war of the bernie sanders wing of the party and the obama/clinton wing because perez is more associated with them. do you any -- i guess the question is how does that intersect with what we're seeing as this groundswell of activism? >> well, first of all, $1500 a week and i'll march against puppies and rainbows. i'm just putting that out right now. i am for sale at that price. i think the most important thing going on down here is what you and jess were just discuss which

is how is the structure of the democratic party take advantage of all this creative tumult going on on that side of the political spectrum and how does that side of the political spectrum integrate itself, if that is, in fact, what it wants to do, with the structure of the democratic party? to me that's a much more interesting story and a much more important story than who is eventually the democratic national chairman which, frankly, having been around for a couple days, looks like the world's biggest student council election. >> and what do you think -- one thing i think is key here is how this gets channelled and diverted. e place people are looking at is thinking about electoral consequences. i'll never forget walking --i will never forget walking around capitol hill the day after scott brown won and i ran into a member of congress, a democratic member of congress who looked like he had just been told that his family had perished in an

accident. he looked so forlorn. he said to me "it's over, it's done." now, it wasn't done. there are opportunities for democrats to put points on the bard. there's the kansas special election replacing pompeo april 11. that's an incredibly difficult district, red rock republican. but georgia sixth, tom price, that was a very close district. that is a -- that's going to happen. so you don't to bait until 2018. >> these are low turnout election which is means with a lot of highly motivated folks, even if you're in the minority, you can pull one out. so i want to make sure we're looking as democrats at 2017 and all of these options so we're not telling people in 2018 for the first time, hey, turn this activist energy into electoral victory. we need to do it now, there are sit legislative elections tomorrow in delaware. there's a special election that could decide control of the state legislature. we need to see if democrats -- >> which we have learned matters

a tremendous amount, whatever your politics are. >> and progressives have consistently lagged behind republicans in our organizing around those things. this is the year we have to correct that. >> charlie, we've been covering this dnc race and what you said about the student council race, it strikes me about the question that are the sanders wing of the party, that activated around bernie sanders, activated around keith ellison, the message it will send to them if ellison loses. i saw him talking about the need for unity. is that a danger from what you've reported? >> i think there are people who are seeing this as an opportunity to relitigate the 2016 primary and that's incredibly destructive. so i went to a panel today that was put together by all these kind of organizations that have sprung up in the last few years, black lives matter, the women's march, a couple of other ones i hadn't heard of including one interesting thing called the sista precinct project which is

about taking people in areas and precincts and congressional districts that democrats can't lose and channeling them and partnering them up with tough races in redder states. >> interesting. >> which i think is a great idea. but i hope -- the other thing -- the thing about these organizations, chris, is that they're not necessarily attached to bernie sanders, either. >> right. >> these people are free-floating activists on their own hook asking to essentially be included in whatever comes out of here. >> and on the sort of electoral part of this, one of the things that i think to keep in mind is as gerrymandered as things are, there are 23 house republicans that hold seats in districts that hold seats for hillary clinton and when mo brooks said -- there are people, i had one of them last night, leonard lance, on this show, pressure is going -- that's the point of the spear. >> absolutely. you had a republican freshman come out today and agree with his town hall crowd that donald trump ought to release his tax returns. and this is a guy who had previously ended town halls by

chanting "make america great again." this is not somebody who would typically be caving like that. so there's pressure to be applied and we're seeing it this week. >> this is also the guy who wants to eliminate the epa. >> universal law, pressure works. jess mcintosh, charlie pierce. that's "all in" for this evening. rachel maddow show starts right now. >> good evening chris, have a great week end. >> you, too. thanks for joining us this hour. happy friday. you know how news keeps happening on fridays in recent weeks? we're having another one of those. two big stories have landed late in the day today and into tonight that are kind of a one-two punch for this white house and its ongoing scandal and mishandling of national security issues. one of these stories is reay brand new. i think at least it will be brand new to you tonight when i tell you about it. the other one is a rather devastating follow-up to something