tiunl the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia. tomorrow the process of jury selection starts in the felony trial of the president's campaign chairman, accused russian agent will be in court not on tuesday, not tomorrow, but on wednesday. that's been delayed now from tomorrow. it is almost like the news gods are trying to piece these out so we have something overwhelming happening every single day. that does it for us tonight. we will see you tomorrow. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> so i'm a little torn on this. should we be grateful that federal trials are not televised so we actually don't have to spend the entire day glued to the tv on jury selection and everything else in the manafort case? >> i got to say that i am a

person who absorbs information better from print than i do from watching moving images, let alone live humans, which i'm sure you could read into from my personalities. but having the transcripts of these hearings it is like the treasured novels that come out every day and i want to bind them and keep them as books. when people watch stuff happen live, you don't pay as much attention to the written record of the trial when it comes out. so i am loving having the transcripts. >> i'm a huge approach ya torec transcripts. well, there are 106 days until the election and president trump really seems to be pani panicking. it's not easy to tell, but it is

an understanding trump reaction to the possibility of this guy becoming the chairman of the house judiciary committee or this guy becoming the chairman of the house intelligence committee or nancy pelosi becoming the speaker of the house again. the democrats on the house judiciary committee already have some skilled former prosecutors on the committee. but if the democrats win the house in november, they will add more members, more democratic members to the judiciary committee and no doubt most of those new members will be experienced former prosecutors because it will be up to the house judiciary committee to initiate impeachment hearings if robert mueller presents the committee with what they believe to be impeachable offenses by donald trump. if they vote to impeach the president when the impeachment case goes to trial in the united

states senate, democratic members of the house judiciary committee will be the impeachment prosecutors in the senate trial. and if democrats win the house of representatives, president trump's life is going to change instantly. and impeachment becomes a real possibility. and so at the end of the president's first weekend of contemplating how the public was reacting to the news on friday that michael cohen has an audiotape of donald trump discussing hush money payments to a woman who says she had a yearlong sexual affair with donald trump, the president of the united states tweeted, toner ever threaten the united states again or you will suffer consequences, the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. we are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death.

be cautious! the president desperately needed a change of subject from audio recordings of the president talking about payoffs to women, so the president tweeted about nuclear war last night. this time with iran. and last night when the president tweeted that threat of a nuclear attack against iran, the president knew that in federal court in manhattan today in an evidentiary filing involving the fbi raids on michael cohen's home and office and hotel room, the lawyers involved were going to reveal as they did today that the fbi seized 12, 12 audio items they called them, audio items from michael cohen that are not protected by attorney-client privilege and are now in the possession of federal prosecutors, and those audio recordings might or might not include the voice of donald trump. and donald trump knows if his

voice is on those audio recordings because donald trump's lawyers had the right to listen to those recordings when the court was deciding whether or not those recordings were protected by attorney-client privilege. donald trump obviously wanted to create a huge distraction for monday's news cycle and he knew witch hunt just wouldn't do it. the president knew he needed something bigger than witch hunt so, the president went nuclear with iran. thanks to our experience with president trump and north korea, we now know that when the president goes nuclear in his tweets, we are not on the brink of launching a nuclear attack. we did not know that when the president began his five months of threatening north korea with nuclear attack, but we do know that now. we know that the president is not a homicidal mass murderer

willing to kill millions of people in north and south korea on a whim. we know that. we know the president is not going to launch a nuclear attack on iran. but we know the president believes he needs to launch a rhetorical attack on iran. we know the president has decided he needs a new rocket man, a new villain somewhere far aware to distract from the stories closing in on the president and to sound tough for those trump voters who believe donald trump is tough. he can't do that with north korean anymore because the president has declared the north korean problem solved. one of the stories the president is going to want to distract from is the prosecution of trump campaign chairman paul manafort, which a judge today decided to delay for six days. that means the trial will get underway a week from tomorrow. testimony a week from tomorrow. and donald trump knows that nothing in that trial is going to help republicans in the november election that donald

trump needs republicans to win so that republicans continue to control the house of representatives where impeachment proceedings begin. and donald trump's threatens of north korea lasted five months, so we can expect his threats to iran to last at least 106 days, at least through the election campaign this year and maybe through his own re-election campaign. and if necessary, in order to get elected, donald trump will start a war with iran. now, let me say that again because i know how crazy it sounds. in order to get elected, donald trump will start a war with iran. now, i guess i've got to get ready for the fox news attacks that are going to come because i said the president of the united states will start a war with iran to get elected. they are going to come after me for that one. it's a crazy thing to say.

and if you have been paying attention, you will notice that it is also self-contradictory to what i have already said which is that of course donald trump will not go through with his threat to launch a nuclear attack on iran. the only reason that i said in order to get elected donald trump will start a war with iran is to let trump supporters hear what that sounds like, feel what it's like, let the rage build up inside them that someone would accuse the president of the united states of being willing to start a war with iran just to get elected. and i hope i have given them enough time already to start pouring out their rage at me on twitter. not one of them. not one trump supporter, not one fox news player objected in 2011 when donald trump tweeted, in order to get elected barack obama will start a war with

iran. in 2011 when donald trump was tweeting those lies about president obama, i was the only person in the news media who i heard call donald trump a liar and it took the news media another five years to begin to call donald trump a liar and that only happened in the final weeks of his presidential campaign. now donald trump is president and now everyone in the news media not working on fox news or right wing radio has repeatedly called the words of donald trump lies, and history will wonder what took them so long. in order to get elected, barack obama will start a war with iran. if you know what the news media did after donald trump tweeted that, they kept begging him for more interviews to tell more crazy lies about barack obama and his birth certificate and they never once, not one of those interviewers ever once called any of that a lie. and so now we have a president of the united states who tweets

threats of nuclear war as his campaign chairman is a week away from going to trial and as his tv lawyer rudy giuliani is trying to figure out how to explain what the president said about buying the silence of a woman who says she had an affair with the president. and as a large majority of american voters who disapprove of president trump step closer every day to a november election that could make new york congressm congressman adler the new chairman where his first decision might be whether to schedule hearings on the impeachment of the president of the united states. leading off our discussion now, national affairs analyst for nbc news and cohost and executive producer of show time's "the circus." and former undersecretary of state, the united states's lead negotiator for the iran nuclear deal.

and ambassador sherman, i want to start with you on this trump nuclear threat, it sounds like, to iran. i'm not taking it seriously, and i'm not taking it seriously based on the north korean experience with the president and the five months he took us through threatening north korea before completely reversing course completely and trying to make best friends with kim jong-un. how do you read what the president said about iran? >> well, i certainly think it was a distraction and a deflection in the way that you described it. somehow i think i ought to speak in all caps as if i will be heard louder, but i think we all know that when you're talking about serious things, a quieter voice makes a lot more sense. indeed, i think that the president is trying to goad iran into a conflict. mick pompey gave a speech saying

they are all hard liners and they will not give you a break, but we can. he said that at the same time and invoked ronald reagan's call for freedom. he did that the couple of days before president trump said he was going to take security clearances away from people who were speaking up and speaking their minds. so we're not exactly a beacon for freedom that secretary pompae put out there and we have a president that has a play book for iran and north korea but no plan for safety of america. >> i want to read what trump said about the tweet. >> i believe he wrote every word in the entire book, including the articles at the end. >> and really studied donald trump up close and got to know

him. he said there is nothing strategic about trump's bully tweet. when he feels weak and vulnerable he lashes out in an effort to recover his sense of self, which is so fragile and easily wounded. >> i often scare people on television when i talk about donald trump being dark and paranoid and ominous. i always think when he's tweeting about something, i shouldn't worry about something. it is gibberish most of the time. the stuff he doesn't tweet about is the stuff he cares about. he doesn't tweet about playboy models, doesn't tweet about stormy daniels, doesn't tweet very much about the people he's trying to take their security clearances away. every once in a while he does that, but he tries to do something he did today. but the stuff that scares him -- he doesn't tweet about paul manafort very much, right? the people that are a threat to

trump, there has been a lot of panic over the last 18 months. but right now you really feel the walls closing in. i always think when he's tweeting about iran, it is dangerous, so it secures me, but i don't take a word of it seriously because it is the ultimate, look at the squirrel. >> it couldn't be more strange that the place we looked for for encouragement, the encouraging sign of what donald trump's tweet threatening a nuclear attack, the encouraging side of it is, don't worry, the president doesn't mean a word he says. that's where we go for comfort. >> indeed. you know, we saw the fire and fury around north korea and this pomp and circumstance instead of persistence and precision. now we're seeing him show off how strong and powerful he is

when in fact all we're seeing is weakness and security. iran sees this. this is a culture that believes you either resist or you surrender and they are not going to surrender one iota to donald trump. they understand what the game is here. look, i'm all for standing up for the human rights of the iranian people and i quite agree that all of the leaders in iran, even those we call moderate are hard liners. but the way to help the iranian people was the iran deal. that helped the people by lifting sanctions and it ensured our security by ensuring there wouldn't be a new clear weapon. i have no idea what president trump thinks he's going to do. a tweet is not going to get him a quote, unquote "better deal". >> a new poll shows that the president's approval rating is far below majority. but 88% of republicans say they support the president. unfortunately in most of the

media they never do the math on what that actually means since only 26% of voters are republicans. >> here we go. >> 88% of 26% is something like 23%. >> yeah. >> of voters support donald trump. >> republican party is shrinking. man, you talk about getting abused by fox news. i'm going to get abused for saying that. >> that's just a numerical fact. >> this will be the third time today i talk about this. we spend a lot of time on the trump supporter. it is the way to try to understand what trump is doing. it explains a lot of his tactical maneuvers and his long-term plan to try to survive the onslaught he is facing right now on a variety of legal fronts. but in the end the country is not with donald trump. >> right. >> and we normally, in every election i have ever covered, we focus on moderate voters, swing

voter. we focus on all kinds of voters that make that difference in elections. now all we talk about is the trump base, the trump voters. instead of focussing on the fact that the abc news poll today said 75% of the american people are against him attacking the nato. the vast majority is against trump on these major issues. we have to focus on his supporters because it is so important to what he's doing in the white house. we also have to focus on the bigger picture, which is that the country is not with him. >> and ambassador sherman, i wanted to get your reaction more fully to this announcement by the white house today that not only are they thinking about taking away john brennan's security clearance, basically former fbi comey, james clapper,

hayden rice mccabe, so a cross section of former trump administration officials. and i'm sorry to say you are not on the list. you didn't make that particular honor roll. but this is an unprecedented position by the white house. what is your reaction to that? >> it is unprecedented, absurd and quite frankly i and many other people could be on that list. many of us have security clearances. when i left the administration, i went on the president's intelligence advisory board and kept my clearances. then when that term ended, the intelligence community wanted me to clean my clearances because they wanted me to degrief thbri on the negotiations and how to get americans held hostage out of countries. if you are security clearances, you don't get to read everything and know everything, it is on an as need to know basis. don't have a right to do that. but i still have my clearances. i would take it as an honor to

be on that list. it is absurd. it is ridiculous. these are patriots standing up for the freedom that secretary mike pompeo talked about. >> the president talks about withdrawing broadcast network licenses, pulling credentials of a journalist that asks him questions that he doesn't like. he is trying to silence people whose criticism threatens him. we shouldn't set our hair on fire about it, but this is an early warning sign. >> i agree. >> we have to take a break here. thank you for starting us off tonight. when we come back, president trump's supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh has said some contradictory things about investigations of the president. fruits and veggies are essential to your health,

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today a jury delayed testimony on paul manafort's trial by six days to allow manafort's lawyers more time to review documents. if those lawyers end up appealing something in the manafort case all the way to the united states supreme court, it is possible that two trump appointed justices will hear that appeal if brett kavanaugh

is confirmed. tonight staffers are studying his comments about investigating presidents as they prepare for brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearing. we are one day away from the 44th anniversary of the supreme court rules in the nixon case. >> good morning. the supreme court has just ruled on the taped controversy. >> it is a unanimous decision 8-0. ordering the president of the united states to turn over the tapes. it is an 8-0 unanimous decision that president nixon must obey the subpoenas and turn over the disputed white house tapes. we do not know yet whether or not the president will oh bbey t order. >> of course he had to obey that order and he turned over the

watergate tapes in 15 days after that ruling by the supreme court, president nixon was forced to resign his presidency. in new documents released by the senate judiciary committee, brett kavanaugh once suggested that the supreme court may have gotten the nixon decision wrong. in a 1999 round table discussion, brett kavanaugh said, quote, but maybe nixon was wrongly decided. heresy though it is to say so. nixon take away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official. that was a huge step with implications to this day that most people did not appreciate sufficiently. maybe the tension of the time led to an erroneous decision.

but as the appreciated press reports, brett kavanaugh had a more favorable assessment of the nixon case in a 2016 law review article in which he wrote, whether it was marbry or nixon, some of the greatest moments have been when judges stood up to the other branches were not cowed and enforced the law. that takes backbone or what some call judicial engagement. joining us now, former assistant watergate special prosecutor and former chief of staff to vice presidents joe biden and al gore and a former aid to president obama. also the former chief council of the senate judiciary committee. and, jill, a little 44 year retrospective there that you remember well, the supreme court decision and then the president basically complying with the subpoena that you and your

associates had directed towards the president's tapes. what do you make of what we're seeing in brett kavanaugh's history on this subject? >> well, first of all, hearing that announcement sent chills down my spine in remembering the thrill of the victory of winning that case and knowing that we would get the tapes. that was really an amazing experience. >> but, jill, can i hold you right there for a second. because one of the notes that i didn't remember until i just heard it was the suspense question of would the president comply and follow the decision issued by the supreme court. how much of that suspension did you feel? >> we definitely worried about whether he would and what we would do if he didn't. the same question as to how you serve a subpoena is how would you seize the records? how could you get into the white house to get the tapes if he did not comply? that would have been an issue. and i think what worries me is

that with this president you don't know that he has any respect for the rule of law and that he might not comply. that is a very scary thing to think about. i worry about that. i really do. and i think that judge brett kavanaugh's comments are not only unduly differential to presidential power but they ignore that giving that kind of power to him as he would probably do would make him a dictator or a king. it would not be someone who was functioning under the rule of law. the decision was correctly decided. it was a unanimous decision with one member of the court having been appointed and worked on it. >> you have worked on so many senate confirmations of supreme court justices. you come across snippets of comments like this from the nominees at different times. sometimes they are hugely

meaningful, sometimes not. is there a way of weighing these brett kavanaugh comments? >> well, look, i think it is a very big deal, lawrence, because it is a comment on an issue that as jill suggested is front and center in our civic life right now. is the president above the law? does he intend to hold himself above the law? can he be made accountable? if brett kavanaugh means what he said in 1999, the answer would be no. it would not take a saturday night massacre to get rid of bob mueller if brett kavanaugh is right about what he said in 1999. because his point is that piece is, hey, the president can't be accountable, can't be forced to turn over information to any subordinate officer in the executive branch. if that's the law, then bob mueller is really standing on -- not even thin ice, no ice at all in brett kavanaugh's view. >> let me go to your experience to seeing this kind of material. sometimes you see a statement

like that in 1999 in which he's in a panel discussion and he might be speculating and might be being more provocative in order to get a conversation going and you see years later he's written something very respectful of the nixon case, putting it down with marbryv. madison adds one of the most important cases that the supreme court should be proud of. how do you weigh those two different things? >> i think you have to look at the entire record here. we have the piece he wrote that we discussed the night he was named where he said he now worked at the white house. the president really shouldn't be bothered by investigations. you put that together, and it is going to be a very significant thing. one other thing, lawrence. brett kavanaugh is going to sit in front of that committee and bark about respect for president, respect for president, respect for president. but he was willing in 1999 to consider overturning an 8-0 decision in the supreme court that was 40 years old that was decided at the same time as

roev. wade. it will go to the question of whether he respects precedent and whether or not he's willing to overturn long-standing supreme court decisions. >> jill, what kind of answer could judge brett kavanaugh give that would satisfy you? >> there is probably none that will satisfy me. i see his comment as another blinking red light that should warn us all and that the republicans and democrats in red states should take very seriously. i think we need to make sure and ron wrote a wonderful article that makes this point, is that we need to see the paper trail. we need to see all of the documents. and the republicans cannot get away with saying, oh, no, you don't get to see the documents from when he was in the white house. they demanded that in the past of democratic nominee lana kagan and they should allow it for this candidate, too.

we need to see everything that he has said. >> the experts i most wanted to talk to about this subject. and i thank you very much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, lawrence. >> when we come back, our next guest is the normally dispassionate nonpartisan congressional scholar who in his uniquely dispassionate and scholarly way will make the case that congressman devin nunes should be expelled from the house of representatives. atment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for psoriatic arthritis. taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines,

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chairman of the house elections committee or replacing him with the challenger who on saturday tweeted this. we all know that devin nunes is a liar but it has now come to our attention he specifically lied about the fisa warrant and the fbi, going as far as to lie about the men and women tasked with keeping us safe. he must be removed from the hpsci effective immediately. on saturday the trump administration did something that has never been done before. they released documents revealing the fbi's application to the fisa court to run secret surveillance on former trump campaign official carter paige. those documents show that much of what devin nunes has said about the fbi's investigation about carter paige is false, which should not come as much of a surprise since deven nunez publically admitted he never read the application for the fisa warrant. >> did you read the actual fisa

applications? >> no, i didn't. >> the documents reveal that the four federal judges who granted the initial warrant and renewed it for all appointed by republican presidents and they were all clearly informed that the steel dossier was one of the pieces of information that the fbi was considering and it was paid for by a political opponent of a campaign and devin nunes and other house republicans have repeatedly lied about that. for those lies, the nonpartisan congressional scholar now leaves devin nunes should be expelled from the house of representatives. norm joins us next. (vo) i was born during

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your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ otezla. show more of you. in a letter in 2013, carter paige wrote, over the past half year, i have had the privilege to serve as an informal adviser to the staff of the kremlin in preparation for the presidency -- for the presidency of the g20 summit next month. joining us now a leading scholar with the american enterprise institute. he's the co-author of the book one nation under trump. and, norm, you have looked at what came out over the weekend in this fisa application and what devin nunes has been saying

about it for the better part of a year. i have to say that your reaction was as strong as it could be. tell us why you think congressman nunes should be expelled. >> so there are a couple of things here, lawrence. of course it is a pretty severe thing. we have only had five members of the house who have ever been exp expelled. three in 1861 for giving aid and comfort to our enemies and conniving against the union. and then two for corruption. when you look at the constitution, article 3 section 3 that defines treason, it is besides war adhering to their enemying, the state's, and giving aid and comfort. i think what we have seen with nunes going back to way before the attacks on the fisa report on the intelligence community undermining key security of the united states to when he was working with the white house against the interests of the congress, shutting out the

minority as the choairman of th intelligence committee, this is giving aid and comfort to our enemies. i wouldn't say necessarily that i would call for the expulsion of jim jordan or mark meadows who have been utterly reckless. they don't have the leadership post nunes had. he has brought dishonor on the house and endangered the country and i don't say it lightly. >> and there is continuing complaint about this, that jim jordan is complaining saying, you know, the application never said to the judges that this steel dossier was paid for by hillary clinton seeking information against donald trump. and that is technically true in the sense that it said all that, but it didn't identify the players. it refers to source number one, and it talks about a u.s. person and then it says that the fbi speculates that the identified u.s. person was likely looking

for information that could be used to discredit candidate one's campaign. and of course we would never want them to mention to the judge who candidate one is because we don't -- we want the judges to be political impartial. all of these judges were appointed by republican presidents. >> four out of four. apparently they think the four republican fisa judges are complete morons and couldn't figure out what the application was really trying to say. if you brought any basic intelligence, every one of those judges who are incredibly smart people, they all know what this thing was saying. the fact it didn't lay out exactly the kind of script that jim jordon or mark meadows would want to see, of course it is not written in the language they would want, nor is it written in the language that would

compromise national security in the way they would also want. but if you read the material that was put out over the weekend, it is obvious that the claim they have all been making is just a flat-out lie and it's been a lie this's at's designed try to protect donald trump's political skin. >> he is betting that his constituents at least won't be reading the 500 paymeges releas this weekend. >> it is a pretty good bet. he is doubling down on the lies. and the lies go way back. this goes beyond the fisa report itself, suggesting that the justice department and the fbi were working together to discredit donald trump, that it all began with and ended with the dossier. we know it began long before that as you mention with carter paige. nunes is denying everything, doubling down. he has his allies in the media. you and i don't have to read all 500 pages even as redacted

because we know great national security reporters like charlie savage has and lots of independent intelligence people have. you put it up against what nunes wrote and it's clear that he not only lied in his memo and in what he's been saying, but he knew it. this is not just out of ignorance. he didn't read the report, but he knew enough to know that all of this was false. this is really bad. >> the guy won re-election by 35 points in 2016. >> yes. >> the most recent poll has that it is now a toss-up. if you go out there in the central valley, they are begined up. democrats will put a lot of money in that race. they got to win a bunch of these races in california if they want to reclaim the house. but this is a one to win. i think democrats are going to

put a lot of shoulder into this race. given how tight it is right now, eight points may sound like a lot. pretty close to the margin of error in that race and it is never in the same vicinity of margin of error. >> yeah. i mean, he is supposed to have a 35 point lead. >> he is. >> he's got an 8 point lead. thank you both very much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, lawrence. >> we now know that the steel dossier did not launch the russia investigation now headed by special counsel robert mueller, but the president continues to lie about that as we just discussed. our next guest knows christopher steel and knows why the fbi took christopher steel's reporting seriously. that's next. we're the most isolated population on the planet. ♪ hawaii is the first state in the u.s. to have 100% renewable energy goal. we're a very small electric utility. but, if we don't make this move

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this morning the president of the united states tweeted this set of lies. so we now find out that it was indeed the unverified and fake dirty dossier that was paid for by crooked hillary clinton and the dnc that was knowingly and falsely submitted to fisa and responsible for starting the totally conflicted and discredited mueller witch hunt. deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement. jonathan, you know christopher steel and you discussed the dossier. and you are continuing to speak with him. what is his reaction to tweets

like this from the president? >> well, christopher steel is a man who is utterly committed to the truth and he believes when he has information that is important for the united states to know and the british government to know, he should provide it to them. he had information about an attack on democracy and thought it was tremendously important. >> when is the last time you spoke to christopher steel. >> probably last week. >> and what is his feeling about the way the president refers to them. >> the whole thing is perplexing and distressing. he is completely committed to protecting and preserving american democracy. he is committed to the british system. he believes in our country and wants to see the country be

open, free, and have the truth about what happened. when he gets attacked, he finds it strange, disturbing, distressing. he is committed to the cause of the truth. >> and the material released over the weekend indicate that everything that the president and republicans have been saying about the steel dossier is false, but tell us what his relationship was with the fbi and why the fbi decided that they should take his information seriously. >> my understanding is he provided a great deal of information to the fbi on the soccer scandal and critical information to them in connection to that. they and other elements would have known him when he was in the british intelligence service. he is a known who goes way back found reliable by a great many

different people. >> what is your own assessment of the steel dossier as of tonight? >> well, there is a lot in it that was fresh and shocking in the summer of 2016 when he was uncovering it. that is proven to be correct. there is a lot in it that is as of yet the proofs are unknown. back then when he wrote the shock material about mr. trump's personal life, we didn't know about people like stormy daniels and their relationship to the president. that was not in front of us. there is a lot we didn't know about mr. trump's other activities that has been exposed since. what's critical is that we get to the full truth. the dossier and mr. steel will be judged by history and what proves to be true. so far the track record is pretty good. >> thank you very much for joining us. really appreciate it. >> you're welcome.

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history was made in the boston police department today which has been making history since boston established the very first police force in america in 1838. in 1851, bernard became the first irish police officer in boston and america. he was not warmly welcomed to the police force. there were protest meetings held in boston's fanuil hall with speakers claiming it would be a conflict of interest for an irish immigrant to be a police officer because they were committing so much of the crime in boston. irish immigrants kept coming in and joining the police force and the irish had complete control over the next 120 years almost

every boston police commissioner was irish-american. bill evans whose brother was the boston police commissioner before him is the current boston irish police commissioner. here he is at a press conference this morning. >> i came on this job 39 years ago as a cadet on july 9th, 1980. i was a student at suffolk university. i never dreamed of the day i would be up here as a commissioner. i was a patrolman for years and a sergeant and lieutenant and a captain for 12 years and superintendent and now commissioner. there has been a lot of challenges out there, but i think we are in a good place. >> the integration of black police officers did not move as quickly as the integration of the irish police officers. ho ratio homer became the first black police officer in 1878. 100 years later, block officers

were still a tiny minority in the boston police department. as bill evans said today, we are in a better place now. like the population of boston, the boston police department is about 24% black. and today after commissioner evans announced his retirement, marty walsh, the irish-american mayor of boston a pointed the highest ranking police officer in the history of the department, william gross to be boston's next police commissioner. boston's first african american police commissioner. >> commissioner evans, he came on the job before me. we have things in common. he was a boston police cadet. i was a boston police cadet. it shows that any kid in boston and we were poor and made it, will have the opportunity to be

the mayor or chief if we all work together. >> for we all work together. boston's new police commissioner, bill gross gets tonight's last word. t"the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. >> donald trump returns to the hoax theory dropping security clearance for six former national security official who is have all publicly criticized him. new audio tapes in the michael cohen case leaving everyone to wonder if trump's voice is on them and developments in the manafort case as the first trial in the mueller effort preparing to get under way. and why was he shouting late on a sunday night? all caps threat of potential war can iran as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a monday night. good evening once again in our nbc news headquarters here in new york.