but some are saying that's too little too late. >> julia ainsley. julia, i know we're going to keep talking about this story. it's a big one. >> absolutely. >> ahead the growing threat for the trump administration and far beyond as the president becomes more and more isolated. >>> increasingly isolated even from republicans. and neither the president nor republicans in congress have outlined an end game to secure money for a border wall and end the partial government shutdown, which is now in its fifth day. as he unleashed his grievances, president trump even tweeted on christmas eve that he was "all alone, poor me, in the white house waiting for democrats to make a deal." i'm joined by mark lauder, former special assistant to president trump mark, so good to see you. >> good to see you, katy. >> i'm wondering what the end game is for the president. if there's a clean cr that's sent back to him, is he going to veto that? >> right now it would look like it. he's been very firm and committed for the past three years from the campaign trail all the way

but some are saying that's too little too late. >> julia ainsley. julia, i know we're going to keep talking about this story. it's a big one. >> absolutely. >> ahead the growing threat for the trump administration and far beyond as the president becomes more and more isolated. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the greatest wish of all is one that brings us together. the final days of wish list are here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment. only at your lincoln dealer. and everyone i've ever opioloved away from me.thing everything. i blew my ankle out and i got prescribed pain pills by my doctor. if making my detox public is gonna help somebody i'm all for it. i just wish i would've had a warning. you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. >>> increasingly isolated even from republica

. >>> when we come back, sam stein, clint watts, kimberly watkins, and julia ainsley joins me live. plus, my conversation with lany davis. his client, michael cohen, says he feels like he has his freedom back. >>> a quick programming note, at 9:00 tonight right after "kc dc,," "the year's most." our dad was in the hospital. because of smoking. but we still had to have a cigarette. had to. but then, we were like. what are we doing? the nicodermcq patch helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. nicodermcq. you know why, we know how. so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free. and if you get lost, just hit me on the old horn. man: tom's my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house... tom: it's a $10 cover? oh, okay. didn't see that on the website. he's been acting more and more like his dad. come on, guys! jump in! the water's fine! tom pritchard. how we doin'? hi, there. tom pritchard. can we get a round of ja

let's begin with nbc's julia ainsley outside the courthouse. what's the latest? >> reporter: yesterday, we'd been hearing manafort's legal team was preparing to file a response this week against those allegations on friday from mueller's team that manafort had been in breach of his plea agreement by lying about those contacts you laid out with the white house and with russia. it seems now they need until january 7th, that's what they asked for today. the key thing that's changed in the meantime is they met with mueller's team this morning. off the record in a way that we won't see, it wasn't out in court, but they met and asked for more evidence that he lied. something happened that has now made this team want to wait into next month. they want to meet more with mueller's team to find out what they need and want to meet with their client. they haven't even said to the judge yet whether or not they disagree with the assertions from mueller's team. which means they may say, yes, he did, in fact, lie and he did, in fact, lie intentionally. what's key here is, why di

let's go to julia ainsley. julia's at the court and just come out. julia, what have you learned? >> it wrapped in about 30 minutes, ali. what we learned is the manafort team needs actually until the new year. they set a date of january 7th to formally respond. this is important because we heard just yesterday they were planning on responding this week. something changed this morning when they met with the prosecution, they met with mueller's team and they tried to dig for what evidence they had that manafort had lied and been in breach of his plea agreement. he's still trying to get more information so they could not answer when judge amy berman jackson said do you disagree with what the prosecution laid out on friday? do you disagree and think that perhaps he didn't lie at all? leaving aside whether or not it was intentional lying, and they couldn't say yet. they want time to converse with manafort and get more information. but what it appeared to me, ali, to be the case is that they are not sure if their client lied because perhaps their client is lying to them as well. some of

joining me now, julia ainsley and nbc correspondent, jacob soboroff. gutierrez was unforgiving just now. she's having a hard time, at least among the democrats on the hill today. gutierrez was saying republicans had been a little bit more sympathetic to her. let me show you one exchange between congressman cicilline and kirstjen nielsen. >> you do not know how many human beings have died while in the custody of the department that you lead? and you, in preparation for today's hearing, you didn't ascertain that number? but you don't know it today? >> i don't have an exact figure for you. >> do you have a rough idea? >> sir, what i can tell you -- >> i'm talking about people who have died in your custody! you don't have the number? >> i will get back to you with the number. >> okay. >> does that number exist? >> yeah w, i mean, it exists. this is something that cbp and i.c.e. keep track of, or it should. she should have this. it used to be that these things get reported to congress. we're not sure that happened in the case of jakelin caal, who died in th

julia ainsley, national security and justice reporter who was in the courtroom today. and so, julia, i'll start with you. what struck you, being in that courtroom today? >> it's really interesting, brian. she was very stoic when she came in. she was in her clothes from jail where she's been kept in solitary confinement. she answered the judge in a quick, almost sticcato like fashion. she was aware she was pleading guilty and said she was pleading guilty even though she knew the judge could not keep her from being deported. the judge could obviously take her cooperation into account when she's sentencing her, but not being deported. she's not a u.s. citizen, she's a russian citizen. she could face danger there if she is sent back to russia after cooperating. so that struck me a lot today. also, just going through this plea agreement, it's so interesting to hear everything that these prosecutors lay out. this is not mueller's team laying this out. that is important to realize. this, of course, could have big implications for mueller's investigation if there are people wh

. >>> i'll bring in julia ainsley, donna edwards, and curt bardella. julia, let me start with you. you've been reporting extensively on what's happening at the border. cpb said they are doing some things differently, they're reviewing, for example, the care, the way that these kids under the age of 10 get provided medical care while they are in government custody. they are looking at a more medical care for kids under the age of 10 as well. as we learn now, as hans talked about, more about the timeline. >> that's right, hallie, what's interesting to me, the top of the list, they want to be able to provide a secondary screening especially to those children under 10 years old. we saw how that could have been helpful, particularly with the 7-year-old girl from honduras -- if guatemala who died earlier this month and it could have been helpful in this case. a lot of times when young children get sick they can go very quickly. the other things that are more interesting at the bottom of that list are things that they are considering and things that would actually perhaps be met with poli

julia ainsley working the story. thank you. keep us posted. >>> abbie and doug and matt are back with us. the commissioner of customs and border protection now calling on congress to help with this as growing humanitarian crisis at the border. >> our stations are not built for that group that's crossing today. they were built 30, 40 years ago for single adult males. and we need a different approach. we need help from congress. we need to budget for medical care and health care, for children in our facilities. >> abbie, can congress help the situation and if so, what can they do? >> well, you know, i am not totally well versed on this front. what i can tell you is even though -- this is going to weigh on congress in this way. and it should on the president. we just got through with the midterms. republicans were -- the female vote turned against the republicans in a big way. down in texas, women from all racial backgrounds have looked at this and said this is not accept rlable for our government. when you have two children who h

julia ainsley is outside that court in d.c. this case was brought by federal prosecutors in washington and not by robert mueller's team. >> reporter: that's right, hallie. it's not brought by the special counsel's office but the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. where maria butina has pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the foreign agents act. it could have been legal if she had been forthcoming about it. she came to the united states as a graduate student and american university. she used her positions within the gun rights community and at the direction of alexander torchin, russian official and central bank there to influence the republican party. she used it as unofficial capacity. we'll see butina come into court where she will plead guilty and a key part of this is how she will cooperate. in the plea agreement it says she will cooperate in all matters that the government deems relevant. that could touch on robert mueller's investigation, particularly if she had contacts with republicans before the campaign, through her work

julia ainsley, nbc news national security and justice reporter. mimi roka, former attorney, in all places the southern district of new york. where have we heard that? a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the pace university school of law. robert costa, national political reporter for the "washington post." moderator of "washington week" on pbs. sam stein back with us, politi editor for the daily beast. good evening, welcome to you all. because it's most recent, mimi, i'd like to begin with you on this flynn filing by his lawyers. they write a little section in there that when the fbi was going over to the white house to talk to flynn, in their telling, flynn may not have been -- may not have had the warning repeated to him that a lot of folks go around knowing, that it's a crime to lie to the feds. >> right. so it's interesting, actually, what they actually say in the memo is that he wasn't warned about the penalties of lying to the fbi. so it's not entirely clear to me whether they're saying they didn't tell him it was a crime, or they d

julia ainsley, nbc news national security and justice reporter who was in the courtroom today. and so, julia, i'll start with you. what struck you, being in that courtroom today? >> it's really interesting, brian. she was very stoic when she came in. she was in her clothes from jail where she's been kept in solitary confinement. she answered the judge in a quick almost staccato like fashion putting her yes, absolutelies before the judge even got the words out of her mouth. she was aware she was pleading guilty and said she was pleading guilty even though she knew the judge could not keep her from being deported. the judge could obviously take her cooperation into account when she's sentencing her, but not being deported. she's not a u.s. citizen, she's a russian citizen. she could face danger there if she is sent back to russia after cooperating. so that struck me a lot today. also, just going through this plea agreement, it's so interesting to hear everything that these prosecutors lay out. this is not mueller's team laying this out. i think that's really important to realize.

julia ainsley, reporter for nshz news. thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks, rachel. >> much more to cover. stay with us. what happened to you? i got beat up because i was different. you can't keep on running away from your problems. so, i created a world where i can heal. welcome to marwen. the only way you're going to get better, is if you face those jerks who beat you up. i'm not really sure how to do this. we got your back. we always have your back. i have my art and i have my friends. i have hope and that's something they can't take away from me. hell yeah. discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. ♪ the greatest wish of all... is one that brings us together. the lincoln wish list event is here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with $0 down,

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joining me now, nbc news national security and justice reporter julia ainsley. what exactly did butina agree to and what's the significance here? >> just a little over an hour ago, we were inside where butina came out. she was in her prison wear. she's been spending time in solitary, waiting. she's very stoic as she quickly said yes, yes, yes, as she agreed to plead guilty to all of this. one of the things the judge asked her is whether or not she was doing this knowing that this won't necessarily help her from being deported. the judge can of course take into account her cooperation with the prosecutors here. she could still face deportation back to russia which could be very dangerous for her, knowing that she's been cooperating with american prosecutors here. but the cooperation is key here. even if this isn't being brought by special counsel mueller. this is coming from the u.s. attorney in d.c. this case could be used by mueller. her agreement, cooperation agreement, said any matters the government deems relevant, they could use her cooperation in those. gi

let me bring in julia ainsley, our expert on all things dhs. y y yamiche and aaron are still here. >> they took a recess for house vote. that's not really on her. >> got it. >> but this is something to watch. there's a lot of questions for kirstjen nielsen to answer right now. >> what do you expect them to touch on? >> republican will want to talk about why these measures from the trump administration. they'll want to talk about that and what dhs is doing. democrats will ask a lot of questions about the 7-year-old girl, jakelin, who died earlier this month and spent an hour and a half in custody of customs and border protection on a bus before they were able to administer medical care and it was too little, too late, unfortunately. they'll want to talk about what precautions they're putting in place to avoid that. they'll want to talk about the buildup of immigrants on the border, asylum seekers. all these immigrants have to do is come in legally, the president said. they're waiting their weeks, months at a time, trying to get in. more and more

nbc's national security and justice reporter julia ainsley joins me live now from washington. secretary nielsen heading down to the border any day now to assess what's going on, and there's expected to be a surge in medical assistance following these two deaths. does dhs have the capability of carrying out medical checks they're promising? >> craig, i dug into that yesterday to find out what exactly those medical checks will entail and i was told by an official it will be an interview with the child and parent and then they will ask about medical history. but it doesn't sound like there's going to be anything resembling if you actually went to a doctor and had your vitals taken. they also have to ask the parent in a lot of times, communicating with the child about symptoms is difficult. any pediatrician would tell you that. but a lot of times these parents have come through such a grueling time, they don't know if their child is tired or exhibiting something serious. it still could be they need to go farther here and they need resources. right now they asked the coast guard to

finally in from the cold, julia ainsley, mimi rocah, robert costa, sam stein. thank you for starting us off. >>> coming up, today's confrontation inside the oval office including pelosi's power move, let's not forget, it was thrown open for press coverage. was it a calculated mistake? and did the president just give away his bargaining position? >>> and the young enchanting russian firearms enthusiast who sure seemed to make friends quickly in america, she's now agreed to tell the feds exactly what she was doing from mother russia. "the 11th hour" just getting started on a tuesday night. >>> so a lot of wall has been built. we don't talk about that, but we might as well start because it's building -- it's being built right now. big sections of wall. and we will continue that and one way or the other, it's going to get built. i'd like not to see a government closing, a shutdown. we will see what happens over the next short period of time, but the wall's a very important thing to us. >> so the president there saying a lot of wall has been built, repeating a claim

julia ainsley has been reporting on the death of this little girl. she joins me from washington, d.c., with the latest. julia, what do we know about what happened while she was in u.s. custody? >> all right, chris. jacqueline call crossed the border in new mexico and she was apprehended near a place called antelope wells. it's not your typical border station that would have medical personnel or asylum officers who were ready to hear her case and administer care. she was actually held with 163 other immigrants for about eight hours, before they were put on a bus and taken to a larger facility more inland. it was determined that she was not feeling well before the bus left. her father said she was starting to throw up. they put her on the bus anyway, and she spent an hour and a half on that bus ride, and at the end of it, chris, she wasn't breathing. there were two people there once she got there, medical personnel who revived her. they airlifted her to a hospital. she eventually died of a cardiac arrest, luckily with her father by her side. it was cle

julia ainsley is nbc news national security and justice reporter. happy holidays to all of you. garrett, look, the president isn't showing any signs of budging. and democratic leader nancy pelosi gave quite a quote to "usa today," saying, first of all, the fact that he says that we're going to build a wall with cement and mexico is going to pay for it, while he's already backed off of the cement, now he's down to, i think, a beaded curtain or something. i'm not sure where he is. so if we don't know where he is, where are we? where is everybody with this shutdown? are we looking at 2019 here, garrett? >> it's sounding increasingly likely that we are looking at a prolonged shutdown, because the sides are too far apart, but there's something to pull from that quote from nancy pelosi. this is apparently negotiating in the trump era. there's a lot of trolling going on here. she talks about the president backing off of this idea of a concrete barrier. and it has been interesting to listen to the way the president has talked about the wall over the last few weeks, because we have seen

clint watts, barbara mcquade, shane harris, julia ainsley. greatly appreciated. >>> coming up for us after our first break, as over a dozen investigations loom over this white house, trump, again, reverts to the language of the mob to describe his formerly fiercely loyal personal lawyer. >>> and later, james comey calling upon the gop to stand up to trump. we'll talk to one republican who did just that. ended up the target of one of the president's attacks just this past weekend. "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on this monday night. yeah!? i switched to geico and got more! more savings on car insurance!? they helped with homeowners, too! ok! plus motorcycle, boat and rv insurance! geico's got you covered! like a blanket! houston? you seeing this? geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. geico. (door bell rings) it's ohey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira

julia ainsley, nbc news, guantanamo bay. >>> still ahead tonight, from wires antsunamis to earthquakes and hurricanes, we looked back at the tremendous cost of this year's natural disasters. >>> also, an incredible solo journey across a frozen landscape. no one has ever done it quite like this before, and we hear for the first time from the man who did it. >>> the recent indonesian eruption and tsunami was a reminder that mother nature has not gone easy on us in 2018. they cost us too many lives and billions in recovery efforts. nbc's kerry sanders takes a look back. >> reporter: in indonesia tonight, threats of another eruption and new after a wave of destruction this weekend killed hundreds. 2018 a year of seemingly back to back to back global natural disasters. just named the fourth costliest year ever when cla insured losses, in overall economic loss $155 billion. from the record setting wildfires in california, more than 22,000 homes destroyed. hawaii's volcano, a billion dollars in damage. to the stron icars. i'm kerry sanders. hurricane michael, 155 mile per hour winds, making l

julia ainsley, nbc news national security and justice reporter. mimi roka, former attorney, in all places the southern district of new york. where have we heard that? a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the pace university school of law. robert costa, national political reporter for the "washington post." moderator of "washington week" on pbs. sam stein back with us, politi s editor for the daily beast. good evening, welcome to you all. because it's most recent, mimi, i'd like to begin with you on this flynn filing by his lawyers. they write a little section in there that when the fbi was going over to the white house to talk to flynn, in their telling, flynn may not have been -- may not have had the warning repeated to him that a lot of folks go around knowing, that it's a crime to lie to the feds. >> right. so it's interesting, actually, what they actually say in the memo is that he wasn't warned about the penalties of lying to the fbi. so it's not entirely clear to me whether they're saying they didn't tell him it was a crime, or they

nbc's julia ainsley was on it. she is joining us. what are we learning now from custom and border protection and the officials looking into the little boy's death? >> reporter: hallie, a lot of questions stemmed around why the hospital released him when he showed 103-degree fever. remember, he came in because he appeared to be showing signs it could be strep throat. they tested him for strep and did not see that. they were about to discharge him but they held him back because he had 103-degree fever. later that day they changed course and released him with ibuprofen and prescription for an antibiotic and he was taken to a highway check point. it is unclear who made the ultimate decision to discharge a boy, an eight-year-old boy with 103-degree fever from a hospital to a highway check point where they do not keep emt or emergency medical professionals. in fact, he was just subject there to welfare screenings, which is a pretty cursory check. >> i assume this question came up. what did officials on the call say? >> reporter: they would

nbc's julia ainsley in washington. julia, thank you for that. >>> and house democrats, meanwhile, are not letting up on the president following friday's release of multiple court filings from the special counsel in the southern district of new york on donald trump's former fixer michael cohen. a ranking member of the intelligence committee, adam schi schiff, went so far as to say the president could be facing jail time. >> there's a very real prospect that on the day donald trump leaves office, the justice department may indict him. he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time. >> joining me now, democrat from california and member of the intelligence committee, congresswoman jackie spear. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, steve. >> do you agree with your colleague from california, who we just played there, that that's a realistic possibility, and do you think that's something that should happen? >> so i would suggest that there is that possibility. i think that what we

i'm joined now by nbc's julia ainsley, who's been covering the border. i guess at some point, julia, i guess we have to remind our viewers that we're actually part of an international convention on asylum. and we agreed to certain ways of treating asylum seekers. and it does look like the united states is either looking to not fulfill its requirements there or to re-write the rules of how we treat asylum seekers? >> that's right, ali. and the united states drove the way on how we treat asylum seekers and refugees. and it is a law, an international law, that it doesn't matter how you enter the country, once you come on u.s. soil, if you come through legal ports of entry or otherwise, you have the rights to claim asylum. that's why a judge put a temporary halt on the other asylum policy that this administration tried to put in place and said if you enter illegally, you simply can't claim asylum. now they've come back in this new agreement with mexico, and it's still a little up in the air whether mexico is fully onboard with this, i'll say that, but with t

i've been watching you all night. >> thank you. >> and julia ainsley, of course. you guys are the pros. and ken and barbara. stick with us. tonight's highly damaging to the president's claim that the special counsel's investigation is a hoax or a witch-hunt. this is coming out of new york. this is a home game for him. the feds up in new york are going after him, accusing him of directing, which is basically directing a crime. in fact, new york federal prosecutors believe the president of the united states did direct michael cohen, according to today's paper. their memo, two federal offenses by paying two women -- we know who they are, stormy and mcdougal -- for their silence for alleged affairs by it called? catch and kill. prosecutors admitted that cohen acted in coordination and here's the word, and that the direction of individual 1. that's donald trump. additionally, the special counsel's filing seems to undermine president trump's claim that he had nothing to do with russia. according to page 4 of the special counsel's filing tonight, michael cohen made false

julia ainsley is here with us. welcome to you all. clint, given your former fbi service, let's start with the particulars. did i get the definition of a 302 about right? >> that's correct. those are the interview notes that would be put into an investigative file after you get done with an interview. usually you go back and write it up right away. go through a review process. several different stages. at this point you have a very senior fbi agent that's doing this. so that's one of the top people. i'm he sure they wanted to go and interview. it's very straightforward. what we don't have is we've heard rumors of an intercepted call or they picked up on it. we can't compare it to what that might be. that's the one weakness of reading the interview notes. we don't know what was said. if he admitted to lying, there was some other source that was there. let me ask you that during the interview he thanks them for the reminder. how would they have known this? >> let's think about this. based on what i read, this was phone calls made from a

with me now, nbc news justice -- national security and justice reporter julia ainsley. put aside the emmitt sullivan stuff like this is a guy i didn't feel like i knew before yesterday and now i feel like i know him very well. this speaks to a very basic reason that many people come to our borders to seek amnesty from domestic abuse and from gang violence, particularly in central america. >> that's right. and the thing is if it's not the same as a domestic violence incident that might happen in the united states where you can call 911 and the police could come and break it up. or being threatened by a gang. in these countries -- guatemala, el salvador and honduras in particular -- a lot of times the police are corrupt or not able to intervene. and a lot of times domestic violence is because someone was forced to marry a gang member. this may not be someone they chose to marry. so it's a really different way of looking at it. the case that then-attorney general jeff sessions tried to make early this summer when he put this into effect was that these people were somehow a

joining us now to make sense of this is julia ainsley, nbc national security and justice reporter who has been on this story for a very long time. julia, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> is there any evidence that -- i have started to think about mike flynn as a counterintelligence and national security disaster. >> okay. >> is there any evidence that he did change u.s. policy or the behavior of the u.s. government when he and his business partner we now know were secretly being paid by this other country? >> yes, and i'll tell you why. this is not a victimless crime. for anyone who thinks why do we care what flynn did before he came into the white house, it did impact our policy. we had exclusive reporting at nbc news a few months ago. now it's all kind of falling together. but the fbi was asked to reinvestigate tet tul felthulla. please look at this guy. we think he is behind the coup. and then these same investigators were asked again in early february, right after -- >> right at the very start. >> at the start of the trump administration. >> while flynn was still

. >> i want to bring in julia ainsley, national security and justice reporter. and i know that you have been following this story since it happened and talk about the changes that the cdp are proposing or the authorities are proposing and how it would impact the children in u.s. custody. >> after just two child deaths this month, the borders and custom personnel are saying that i will have more personnel at these facilities to where they are apprehending the immigrants. depending where you enter, you could remote at a remote place where you would not have contact with medical professionals for days. that is what happened with the young girl before she could get to a hospital to get care. one of the things that is they are asking for is more space from i.c.e. as you know that after the children or any immigrants leave the border protection custody, they are supposed to go to immigration and customs enforcement, and they have more space there to hold people, and it is supposed to be equipped for longer term. you are not supposed to hold any immigrant and let alone

ainsley and ken vogel. hans, i will start with you on this one. we heard from the president on the holiday mostly in the form of tweets. but that's to be expected. what's the bottom line here? is the white house making an effort to work with congress to end the shutdown? >> reporter: they're sending no signals that they actually are worried about the economic impact of the shutdown. i think that's the story line out of the white house this morning. kevin hasset saying they'll see no impact on the economy. this is a president that's willing to suffer some short-term political pain, even market gyrations, economic pain. but the wall is a priority and indicated that time and time again. guys? >> garrett, the president claiming he has support of the shutdown, that it is all actually the democrats' fault, despite the fact he sat there saying that he's going to take the blame for the shutdown and here we are saying -- shifting the blame to the democrats. what are you hearing? >> reporter: since saturday we have b

nbc's julia ainsley is following this story. we learned new developments about this little boy, 8 years old, an autopsy showing he died from a strain of flu. >> which makes sense given his symptoms. it's unclear why he was discharged from the hospital when he had 103 degree fever. they diagnosed him with a cold. we know the medical decisions will be part of this inspector general investigation. i asked at one point this week could it be medical malpractice. they wouldn't go there. there's certain legal meanings. now we've got a congress coming in. not just in the case of this boy and of the child who died earlier this month but also in the ways dhs is set up to deal with this vulnerable population. >> we're seeing a number of children rising, those coming with their parents and without, and these border stations weren't set up to deal with them. they were set up to deal with adult men. that's one thing the secretary will look at. >> julia, thank you. i want to get to john now who was the acting director of u.s. immigrations enfo

joining us now, julia ainsley and joins vance, a former u.s. attorney. julia, kirstjen nielsen just released a statement in the past hour. what did she say about these horrible tragedies happening under her watch. >> unfortunately, it sounded pretty routine and the line we've been getting all day from some of the political appointees in department of homeland security. they say on one hand their heart breaks but this is really the fault of bad court decisions and of congress. and they are wanting to force congress to act and to do some kind of immigration reform or to try to make it so that they don't have to go through a lot of the protections that are in place for children and asylum seekers. they think those are the magne s s bringing them here to make these dangerous journeys. but there's another story. we've been able to speak to some people on background. some people who are not political appointees who are saying this is an issue of capacity. these children are being held by customs and border protection far past the 72-hour rule. mainly because t

. >> julia ainsley, thanks to you for continuing to report on this important story. i'm sure we'll be talking to you again soon. meantime, we continue in this government partial shutdown and no end in sight. in fact, as we heard from hallie jackson moments ago, house members have been told now, don't come back. we're not expecting any votes in the house this week which means barring some kind of unexpected break through this government shutdown will, indeed, go into next week, potentially the new year, potentially january 3rd when democrats are going to take over. mike vickaria is on capitol hill for us. i suppose we shouldn't be surprised. yet at the same time, it's got to be frustrating for those who feel its impact. >> it's been clear the last several hours, if not the day or two that this thing is sort of baked in now. the expectation that this partial government shutdown will likely last until january 3rd, the day that the new session of congress convenes, when nancy pelosi and the democrats take over the house. the house is not like the senate. the house majori

julia ainsley, nick ackerman, natasha bertram, john harwood. julia, we'll start with you since you were inside the courtroom, you have the most breaking news with rathers to manafort. talk about why it is manafort's team here needs more time. >> well, it was a short hearing. we went in expecting manafort's team to have some kind of rebuttal to what mueller's team laid out on friday, which is that he's in breach of the plea agreement because he lied to them about his contacts with the white house and with russia as recently as this year. we're expecting them to say maybe something along the lines of, yes, he lied but not intentionally. instead they said they couldn't even agree or disagree with what mueller's teaming laying out so far and they need till january 7th. they didn't just find out about this on friday. mueller's team actually said this was coming just a few days after thanksgiving. so they've had some time here. the things they say they need more time to do is talk to mueller's team and figure out what evidence they have that he lied,

. >> julia ainsley, this ufor reporting on this. i want to bring in sandra cordero, the director of families belong together, the coalition working to end family separation. congresswoman, you and your colleagues have written a letter to dhs about this case. what do you want to find out? >> well, we have a lot of things we want to find out. the most important thing we heard today on a conference call, we were briefed, members of congress were briefed by dhs. chris, they never reported the death. any time that somebody dies in the custody of dhs, of vcp, they are supposed to report, i think it's within 24 hours to the appropriators. we are hearing about this a week later. so that is a huge issue for us. the medical care is a huge issue for us. this has been an ongoing issue, as you point out. but it's gotten particularly bad. and as julia said, when you have people that are lining up by the thousands at the border because we have closed down essentially our legal ports of entry, we want to know what is the impact of these cruel polic

. >> thank you so much representative elizabeth holtsman, barbara mcquade, julia ainsley. we expect a release of james comey's testimony. >>> also, breaking news, president trump confirms john kelly is out as chief of staff. what the president is saying about the shakeup in the west wing. ♪ ♪ ♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪ if these packs have the same number of bladder leak pads, i bet you think bigger is better. actually, it's bulkier. always discreet quickly turns liquid to gel, for drier protection that's a lot less bulky. always discreet. iyou may be at increased riskf for pneumococcal pneumonia -a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that can disrupt your routine for weeks. in severe cases, pneumococcal pneumonia can put you in the hospital. it can hit quickly, without warning, making you miss out on what matters most. a single dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia. prevnar 13® is approved for adults t

. >> that is the father of the 7-year-old girl from guatemala, and joining me is julia ainsley and also reporter who has been all over this. this tragedy is a symbol and the emblem of the larger problem, and they are closinging down the intake facility or shortchanging them on the staff iing and the asylum seekers are driven to go illegally into much more dangerous place, and also not staffing these other border points with with the proper medical care. >> that is right. decisions that this ed administration has made over and over again that says a lot about the priorities and why they put the troops at the border rather than process asylum claims, and why they don't staff the facilities like where she showed up with her father, and medical personnel not there to prevent her from taking an hour and a half bus ride before she got medical attention, and the other thing that we learned yesterday, andrea, cpp has been saying that they are at xas tcapacity, and is where the asylum seekers should go, but they are backed up by the thousands, and we asked, what do you mean at capacity, and the

joining me now justice reporter julia ainsley. can you explain how this person, player, who we had no idea about before all these investigations, how she fits into this increasingly large web of investigations into russian ties with the trump campaign and apparently republican party politics? >> yeah. let's take a step back. this is the third in three days of hearings where we've seen paul manafort and others. maria butina, the charges aren't brought by robert mueller. she could be a witness like the others that could prove useful to robert mueller. that's because she came over with a similar goal to some of the people robert mueller has been investigating. she wanted to be able to unofficially infiltrate the republican party leading up to the 2016 election and she used her position as a gun rights activist to get inside the nra and try to set up some of those channels of communication. they also mentioned the church. she used a national prayer breakfast to begin what she called back channels of communication. if that sounds simil

joining us now to make sense of this is julia ainsley, nbc news national security and justice reporter, who has been on this story for a very long time. julia, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> is there any evidence that -- i have started to think about mike flynn as a counterintelligence and national security disaster. >> okay. >> is there any evidence that he did change u.s. policy or the behavior of the u.s. government when he and his business partner we now know were secretly being paid by this other country? >> yes, and i'll tell you why. this is not a victimless crime. for anyone who thinks, why do we care what flynn did before he came into the white house, it did impact our policy. we had exclusive reporting at nbc news a few months ago. now it's all kind of falling together. but the fbi was asked to reinvestigate fethullah gulen. they had gotten boxes and boxes of material under the obama administration. please look at this guy. we think he is behind the coup. they said, there's nothing here. and then these same investigators were asked again in early february,

. >> julia ainsley, the president's take is essentially not to over simplify it, but his take is essentially to this point, it wasn't my fault. it was my lawyer's fault. is that an argument that holds water? >> yeah, i mean, craig, usually you would hear ignorance of the law is no excuse, but when it comes to dealings with your lawyer, sometimes it can be. it would have been cohen's position to tell the president that he couldn't use campaign finance funds in order to pay hush money to these women, and so if they could find that, in fact, cohen counseled him incorrectly or misleadingly, that could be an excuse, but i think that what all of this comes down to -- and we see this again ask again through these filings -- is we need to know the president's intent. we need to know his mind-set. we need to know more of these conversations. that's why it is still so critical that mueller gets answers from the president, if not written -- you know if not in person, at least written on some of these things, and you can expect the southern district of new york to want to know more about those conversat

julia ainsley, i hope, has had a minute to digest this and give us your take. >> let's talk about what this judge could possibly know that we don't. right now it seems completely irrational. let's think about what happened since the last time we heard from him. just yesterday the prosecution filed their 302. that's what an fbi agent writes up after they interview somebody. that's what they wrote up after they interviewed flynn in 2017. a lot of that is redacted. one of the largest pieces of redaction jumped off the page to me last night, that flynn volunteered -- told them that he met behind closed doors with kislyak right after the election. that's a meeting we didn't even know about. there's a content of that meeting that this judge knows that we don't. there's more interactions they had. they were texting. they were having multiple calls. he was calling to give him condolences on things that have plagued -- yes, after the russian plane went down. also yesterday what came out was the inindictment in the eastern district of virginia against his business associates. it's obvious flynn

ainsley. cal, we'll start with you. what did you find out? >> mika, i'll take you inside this center in juarez as you sort of alluded to, a new policy shift once again happening with very little transparency up until a few months ago. if you were trying to come to the united states you would present yourself as the president wants at a port of entry where your asylum claim would begin to be processed. well now they're keeping back from the border. they're putting them in this center in juarez and can show you the video from inside it. children and their fathers and parents terrified they're still going to be separated once they get to the border. juarez is not a safe city. it's difficult to get in and out of this city. and as the president says, you know, present yourself at ports of entry. well, that's becoming more and more difficult because of what's happening sort of behind the scenes. i want to play for you now to give you a sense of what's going on down there a sound bite from a guatemal