RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: That does it for us tonight. We`ll see you again Monday. Now it`s time for "THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL."
Good evening, my friend, Lawrence O`Donnell.
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Rachel, how`s that for a long work day for you?
MADDOW: I don`t even know what you`re talking about. Besides I have a co- host now made of wax.
O`DONNELL: Yes. The 12-hour work day helps to have a co-host.
MADDOW: Yes, thank you, my dear. Good luck tonight.
O`DONNELL: Thank you, Rachel. Thank you.
Well, the Trump White House has already issued its first executive order about the Affordable Care Act. We will have the details on that and much more.
The dancing is already underway at the inaugural balls. The first dance is over. Donald Trump and the first lady appeared at the Liberty Ball a few minutes ago. The president thanked his supporters. We are awaiting their second appearance of the evening. This will happen at the Freedom Ball.
The president is expected to speak again. We will bring the remarks to you live when that happens.
And so the Trump TV series has a title, "American Carnage," a phrase that appeared in today`s inaugural address and has of course never appeared in any other speech by any other American president in history. You can think of a presidency as a TV series, four years is considered a successful run for a TV series. Eight years is considered a hit.
The TV series that I wrote for the longest, "The West Wing" lasted seven years. What usually happens in the fifth or sixth year of a hit TV series is some audience fatigue begins to set in and the ratings start to turn down. That`s what happens to presidents. They tend to leave at a low point in their favorability ratings.
That didn`t happen with the eight years of the Obama TV series titled "Hope and Change." It is usually the presidents themselves who speak the best titles for their series. The Obama series is one of the few presidencies that ended strong with polling indicating the audience wanted more.
There is much talk these days about how sharply divided American opinion is, but there is a clear majority agreement on approval for Barack Obama and an equally strong agreement about disapproval of Donald Trump. There will be polling next week to tell us if Donald Trump reversed any of that disapproval with his inaugural address today that seemed written to please only the 32 percent of America that currently has a favorable opinion of Donald Trump.
James Fellows has written presidential speeches. He`s a road scholar who has written countless thoughtful articles, essays and books. He has read every presidential inaugural address, all 57 of them. Today`s was number 58.
James Fellows tells us that all presidential inaugural addresses have a -- have common elements until today. This one was different. Unlike anything that any president had ever said in an inaugural address, James Fellows says that every inaugural address before today had, quote, "sobriety, humility, conciliation, respect and an opening to the tens of millions of Americans who wished the other side had won."
Not today. Donald Trump presented a picture of the United States of America as a weak, crumbling country, ravaged by crime, impoverished by losing the worldwide competition for jobs and defended by a weak military. An almost uninhabitable place. He promised all of that would end today and it will, because it was never true.
Donald Trump`s descriptions of America have always been false. It is the richest country in the world, it has benefitted more from international trade than any country in the world. This country`s poorest people would be among the wealthier people in many other countries of the world. Our crime rates have been going down for decades and our military is the strongest and most professional, most lethal and most effective on earth.
The final line of today`s inaugural address was unsurprisingly make America great again. Donald Trump has always told his followers that all we have to do to make America great again it to make him president and he`s been right about that in that all he has to do to make America great again in the eyes of his followers is to simply start calling America great again.
[22:05:09] And America has been the greatest country on earth by every measure that Donald Trump and his followers actually care about but Donald Trump has simply refused to call it great. Now that Donald Trump is in charge of fixing all the things that he says are wrong with America, you can be sure that he will soon start calling America great again, especially after he signs that massive tax cut that he`s been promising to his family and all of America`s richest people.
The final speaker at today`s ceremonies at the capitol was the only one who is not a partisan. Father Patrick Conroy is the Catholic chaplain of the House of Representatives appointed to that position by former speaker John Boehner. He offered a prayer for a man who has shown the world the worst of himself, a man who has shown little understanding of the difference between good and evil, the man who was now sitting -- who was at that moment sitting at lunch with the nuclear launch codes in his pocket.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FR. PATRICK CONROY, CHAPLAIN, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: We ask a special blessing upon our new president, Donald Trump. Give him an understanding heart to discern between good and evil. May he be strengthened in his work and grow in understanding as he proves ever attentive to the American people. We pray that he might become his best self.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Joining us now, Ana Marie Cox, political correspondent for MTV News, Charlie Sykes, editor-in-chief of "Right Wisconsin" and an MSNBC contributor, David Corn, Washington bureau chief, "Mother Jones," and MSNBC political analyst is with us, and Yamiche Alcindor, national political reporter for the "New York Times" and an MSNBC contributor.
Here`s Donald Trump at the Freedom Ball.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much. Hello, folks. Our first lady.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Well, we just want to thank everybody. This has been an amazing journey for all of us, not just me and not just Melania. It`s been an amazing -- it`s been an amazing journey. And now the work begins. We have to get it done. And we`ll get it done.
There is so much spirit in our country. This is such a great country. And we are going to do things. We will not be taken advantage of anymore. OK? We will not.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We`re going to have those companies come pouring back in. You see what`s been happening over the last three weeks. And we are going to have a lot of things happen. And you`re going to read about them and -- I don`t know. Let me ask you, should I keep the Twitter going or not? Keep it going?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I think so. I think so. You know, the enemies keep saying, oh, that`s terrible, but you know, it`s a way of bypassing dishonest media, right, to go, so -- but, I just want to thank you. We started out -- we weren`t given a great chance, but we knew we were going to win. And you know, it took two weeks before we went to number one. Not a long time. And the first week was composed in terms of the phony polls, was composed of two days.
So we were at number one and we stayed there the entire route during the primaries and then, boy, did I work. Those last four weeks I worked. Aye, aye, aye.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: That was some job. We did a good job together. And I`ll tell you what, many of the people in this room went to those rallies with us, right? They went to those rallies. I saw one person on television tonight, incredible family. Her and her husband, she said we`ve gone to 42 Trump rallies. I said 42? 42. But we did. We had a lot of people that went to a lot of the rallies and they showed up.
And you know, when we went in, I really felt that last week in particular, I said, how are we going to lose? How can we lose? It is just too much. There has never been a movement like this anywhere in the world. There`s never been anything like this. So I am so looking forward. I`ve already just -- I just left actually the Oval Office because --
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[22:10:02] TRUMP: Because our great General Mad Dog Mattis was approved -- was approved tonight. The Senate approved. He was first, and I went to sign and Mike Pence, who`s coming out in a second, you saw what happened, right? He just swore him in. And General Kelly, the border -- the border. Oh, that border. We`re going to have a border again. And he was approved tonight by the Senate. So we`re starting to work and we`re going to do a great job.
We are not going to let you down. Remember the theme, make America great again and make America great again. I`ll tell you what, I have added since I got to know so many people in this country, greater than ever before. It will happen. So I want to thank everybody for being with us and for sticking with us. It`s been an amazing experience. Now the fun begins, OK? Now this fun begins. We`re going to do a really good job and I will be fighting every single day for you.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you and have a great time. Thank you.
ANNOUNCER: And now the president and first lady of the United States will take their first dance.
Ladies and gentlemen, the first couple, Donald and Melania Trump.
O`DONNELL: NBC`s Katy Tur is at the Freedom Ball. Katy?
KATY TUR, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Lawrence. I`ve got to tell you, this feels a lot like a campaign rally. Donald Trump talking about his poll numbers. Talking about his win. Asking the crowd what he should do at one point. You just heard him ask the crowd if he should keep on tweeting. They overwhelmingly responded yes with cheers. There were some no`s in front of me, behind this camera and Donald Trump said the enemy doesn`t want me to keep tweeting, saying that it`s his way to bypass the dishonest media.
I`ve got to say it`s interesting to hear the now president call those who disagree with him his enemy. Of course that`s not the first time we`ve heard him do that. He did that while he was president-elect as well during the transition.
Whether -- many had hoped that Donald Trump would come out today and give a unifying message during his inaugural, a unifying message that would able to bring the two sides of this country together. It`s been a very divisive campaign. It was a divided day here at the capitol with protests breaking out along the parade route. Some protesters trying to get on to the mall.
We heard boos during Senator Schumer`s remarks during the inauguration. At one point, right after Mike Pence was sworn in as the vice president, as he was shaking hands with the then former vice president Joe Biden, a man in the crowd right below the dais yelled, "lock her up." This is about 200 yards, 300 yards from where Hillary Clinton was sitting. Loud enough for the cameras to pick it up. Likely loud enough for Secretary Clinton to hear it, as well.
But I will say this, Donald Trump knows the crowd he is speaking to. And today he delivered a speech that was directly to his face. Tonight, here the same thing at this inaugural ball. He was a little bit different at the luncheon which is attended by a number of politicians, including Secretary Clinton. That`s where he did thank her and talked a little bit about this contentious campaign.
He`s able to adjust to the room he`s in. He`s something of a chameleon in that way. And I think that`s part of the reason during the transition you saw so many folks that didn`t necessarily agree with him come out of his office and say that they had a great meeting. We saw Al Gore do that. They were talking about the environment. We saw MLK III do it, as well, talking about how Donald Trump is helping specific inner cities and race relations, but then Donald Trump goes out and does things that are kind of contrary to -- or very contrary to what the meeting, the spirit of the meeting seemed to be.
He appointed somebody who is a disbeliever in global warming, to the EPA, and right after that meeting with MLK Jr. III he continued to get into a fight with civil rights icon John Lewis. So what I`m saying here is this. Donald Trump knows what to say to the people that he is saying it to while he is doing so, when he`s in front of that room, and I think that`s why you`re seeing such different tones in front of different crowds here today at the inauguration. Lawrence?
O`DONNELL: NBC`s Katy Tur, thank you very much.
Ana Marie Cox, apparently Donald Trump doesn`t understand there are TV cameras in the room and he will never again in his life be speaking to a room.
[22:15:06] He speaks to the entire nation. This is national coverage for every one of his words. And the idea that I`m going to do this speech for this room doesn`t understand the audience at all.
ANA MARIE COX, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, MTV NEWS: He also doesn`t understand that when you say something, as a president, as an elected official, and you say you are going to do it, it`s not a starting point. It`s not like a bargaining chip. It`s not like the first price that you offer. When you say things like I`m going to eliminate ISIS or eliminate crime, like -- I seem to recall some people in the U.S. making a big deal about a certain president saying if you could like your -- if you like your health care you could keep it? Like that was the worst kind of like, awful, hyperbole in the world. You know, I mean, this is going to be so interesting to try and keep -- trying to keep his promises.
O`DONNELL: Charlie Sykes, to Donald Trump and his followers, it seems words have meaning only if Barack Obama says them, or a Democrat says them, then they must be held to those every word, every syllable of the word. But when Donald Trump says, as Ana Marie just mentioned, that he`s going to eliminate ISIS and Islamic terror from the face of the earth, there won`t be one person with any such thoughts left on earth, he won`t achieve that and no doubt will not be held to account for having said that.
CHARLIE SYKES, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, RIGHT WISCONSIN: Well, this is the new phase of his presidency. Right? Because he`s never actually been held accountable for either being factual or having to deliver anything, you know, tangible results. And it will be interesting to see whether in fact he does think that he can bull tweet his way through the presidency of the United States.
But yes, it`s almost a tenant now of the Trump -- of Trumpism that he doesn`t mean that, don`t hold him to that. But I got to say I`m hoping that people in Congress were paying attention to that speech today because it was dark, it was divisive, it was populist, it was nationalist but it was not conservative. This was a guy who I think mentioned freedom once. Ronald Reagan mentioned it nine times. He did not talk about shrinking government. He did not talk about working with other branches of government.
They need to take that message seriously because this is not the guy I think that they`ve been trying to rationalize was going to become president on January 20th.
O`DONNELL: And, Yamiche Alcindor, when you speak to people at the Trump team, do any of them know that polling indicates two-thirds of America wants Donald Trump to stop tweeting and so when Donald Trump refers to tonight as he did the enemies want him to stop tweeting, the enemies in that description are two-thirds of America.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: Well, here`s the thing. The Trump team might want him to stop tweeting and the aides might understand what people want but Donald Trump is going to be led by his own interests and he`s going to -- kind of talk to this room. And if he feels as though people are responding in a positive way and he feels like he can bypass the media and that is something that he has done pretty well.
People have been writing story after story and creating segments around his tweets. So he`s doing that. If he feels as though he can continue to do that then that`s what he`s going to do. So it doesn`t really matter what poll or what survey comes out that says people really don`t like this, as long as it works for Donald Trump he`s going to continue to do it.
O`DONNELL: David Corn, I want to get your reaction to the inaugural address today.
DAVID CORN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, it`s hard to go beyond what other people have said already. It was dark. It was divisive. There was almost no graciousness to it. There were also no compound sentences. And it was one slogan, one meme, one theme after another. It was like a mash- up of the campaign and he went kind of dark. You know, you I think rightly zeroed in on that term he used, carnage. You know, and then, you know, again, I was standing sort of near Katy Tur in the VIP section right behind the press section and he went on about how America is sort of a hell hole and the establishment is sucking the roofs of middle America and all these VIPs around me who were big donors were cheering that on.
It was kind of rather disgusting. They jeered Chuck Schumer when he talked about gender identity equality. But I think the -- the big point here is Donald Trump still is a salesman, maybe a con man but at heart he`s a salesman. And he -- he just wants to keep pitching, pitching, pitching, and I think one question is, how long his die-hard followers will believe the sales pitch if he doesn`t deliver on any of it. And it may be quite a while.
O`DONNELL: That is the question. I think we`re going to be able to squeeze in a break now that I believe we have seen every one of Donald Trump`s dance moves and Mike Pence`s dance moves. Yes, I think that`s just about every one of them.
All right. We`re going to squeeze in a break. We`ll be back with the executive order issued tonight on the Affordable Care Act. President Obama`s former secretary of Health and Human Services says it is designed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and put it into a breakdown state before they even repeal it.
[22:20:00] We`ll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint today with the General Services Administration arguing that by taking office Donald Trump violated the lease on his Washington, D.C. hotel. Donald Trump`s lease agreement says that no elected official of the government of the United States shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease or to any benefit that may arise there from.
The group is asking the GSA to notify Trump`s company that it is in breach of the lease, end quote. The present Trump company does not resolve this breach GSA should exercise its rights to terminate the lease or take other legal action.
We`ll be right back with more from our panel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: We`re back with our coverage of inauguration night. That is the Salute to the Armed Services ball, where they are awaiting Donald Trump`s next appearance. That should be minutes away. These balls are fair -- reasonably close together in Washington, D.C.
And Charlie Sykes -- back with the panel. I want to get your reaction to what you`ve been hearing from Donald Trump tonight. What we`ve been hearing from him since his inaugural address.
SYKES: Well, I mean, it`s interesting. I mean, the last segment you had, he`s still talking about himself. He`s still re-litigating the campaign. I mean, he`s the president of the United States. And you know, for -- I don`t know why anybody actually -- any of us thought that he was ever going to pivot, but, you know, I do think it`s fascinating that he has not moved the dial at all.
[22:25:05] That the inaugural speech was a campaign speech and he`s still, you know, treating the inaugural balls like campaign rallies. But I think it`s going to be fascinating what he does in the next couple of days with his executive orders, what actually he`s going to do on Obamacare. Whether or not he and the congressional Republicans are on the same page. I mean, right now, you know, he is the president of the United States and no one has any idea I think what lies ahead.
O`DONNELL: Ana, in his verbal record of the day, so far the high point for him was at the luncheon where he was very positive, very complimentary to Bill and Hillary Clinton, and really a completely different tone from the inaugural address.
COX: Well, yes. Because he doesn`t realize he has no different room. That it`s all one room. It`s the U.S. It`s the media. There`s no way to separate what he says in private and what he says in public unless it`s literally like a secure room, right? And I think the Bill and Hillary stuff, you know, I almost want to give him some points for graciousness but what he was thanking him for is paying him homage. Right? Like that was what he was saying why he was so gracious is because they bowed before him. So he gets -- you know, he says thank you for that.
And that reminds me of what he said about Obama. He thanked Obama for a good transition and then went on to describe America as a hell hole, a carnage, and tombstones and blood. The violent imagery of that speech. We`ve been talking about how dark it was but the violent imagery is really what struck me. And I think that what makes that especially eerie and odd and frankly terrifying is the way that it was a campaign speech. Because that`s sort of rhetoric of violence being directed at the people who voted for him. Giving them agenda and not trying to get them to think any other way about their fellow Americans.
O`DONNELL: Yamiche, in his election night speech, it was a completely different tone. It was by far his most gracious speech. I read passages from it today on the air and no one could remember where it came from because it was such a stark contrast to today. It contained all of the elements that James Fellows says inaugural addresses normally have, including a very humble and clearly written reach out by Donald Trump on election night to people who did not vote for him, as well as that graciousness to the Clintons, which he showed today. And it was just striking that those passages from election night couldn`t find their way into today`s address.
ALCINDOR: It`s very striking and odd. But the interesting thing to me, the passages that people are talking about today, they`re talking about it being dark, the idea that he is talking about American carnage, that he`s talking about American factories as tombstones across the country, these are also the same lines that his supporters were cheering very loudly about. And as someone who was out on the campaign trail, I should say that a lot of people have that kind of dim, depressed view of America right now.
And when I say a lot of people, I mean Trump supporters who catapulted him into office even if he lost the popular vote. And -- so I think he is in some ways speaking to his base and speaking to the reason why he won.
O`DONNELL: David Corn, the pivot that you would expect is not so much a behavioral pivot or a stylistic pivot but you would expect, at some point, when you look at these sinking poll numbers for Donald Trump that the staff will say, we must in public comments now be reaching out to people beyond our base. The people who we can`t lose no matter what we say.
CORN: I think from day one of the campaign, I, for one, have not ever expected a pivot. Donald Trump, in my estimation, is somewhat of a disturbed personality who does not always do what people around him might counsel in terms of just being decent, whether it`s even worthwhile politically. Picking a fight with John Lewis, picking a fight with Miss Universe. You know, going on and on again about how he can`t stand Alec Baldwin. It`s a terrible show, no one watches, yet he is watching it every night rather than dealing with the affairs of state.
This is not a person who I think we can judge by standard norms on a great variety of matters. So, yes, you know, he should have given the speech election night part of that today. Yes, he should be gracious, but he can`t bring himself to do that.
This is a guy who`s obsessed, literally obsessed with getting revenge against his enemies. I don`t think that`s going to change. He`s been talking about it for 20 years or longer. It`s not going to change because he proved himself right by being elected president.
O`DONNELL: But I just want to go to Charlie quickly before we go.
SYKES: Yes.
O`DONNELL: Charlie, we have seen him do it. We`ve seen him to do it twice. We saw him do it at the lunch today. We saw him do it on election night.
SYKES: Yes.
O`DONNELL: He can do it. And what`s striking is, why wouldn`t the staff urge him to do it more and make sure that it happens more?
[22:30:09] Have we lost Charlie Sykes` connection? I think we have. There`s a control room now? OK. All right. Well, we`re going to have to go to a break. We`ve lost Charlie`s connection.
When we come back we`ll be covering some of the demonstrations that happened and most importantly this executive order that President Trump issued today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: That`s the Salute to Armed Services ball, the inaugural ball of the -- I believe it`s the final stop for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tonight on their tour of the inauguration balls. We have seen them already at the other balls. We`ve seen these two dancing appearances. This will be the third one.
And we`re joined now by Rick Wilson, Republican strategist, contributor to "The Daily Beast."
And Rick, when we look at this relationship, this president and vice presidential relationship, it seems like Donald Trump will be relying on Mike Pence, will need to rely on Mike Pence. And as we watch it publicly, everything we can see in the public face of it, that relationship seems to get stronger.
RICK WILSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think right now that Trump realizes that he has to use Mike Pence as a sort of liaison and go between with Congress because Pence speaks their language, he understands the culture of the folkways, has these relationships that Trump won`t necessarily have and won`t have the attention span to maintain.
[22:35:11] But I think that -- I think that Mike Pence will be a power center in the administration right up until he crosses the more ideologically hot nationalists, which he had never really been described as before this election, like Bannon and Miller and Flynn and the others. That`s where the test -- that`s where rubber will hit the road I think with Mike Pence.
O`DONNELL: We are looking at now taped of the president and vice president dancing at the Liberty Ball. These balls tend to blur together as you watch this coverage. We`re awaiting their arrival at the Salute to Armed Services ball. They`ve already left this one, I believe.
And Yamiche, to that relationship of president and vice president, we`re coming off eight years of a very strong relationship of president to vice president, one that built rather quickly. That was preceded by a very close relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. And will we expect this strong president-vice president relationship to continue to three presidencies in a row?
ALCINDOR: I think it will continue in that Mike Pence has shown that he really defers to Donald Trump when asked about any number of things. And he really I think will give Donald Trump pretty much all credit for anything that happens in the government, anything positive that happens. So I think in some ways that if he continues to be deferential to Donald Trump, there`s that. But I should add that there`s so many competing people. There you have Jared Kushner who obviously has family ties and super close to him, but then you also have Steve Bannon and the others that are going to be, I guess, vying for that attention. So I think it`s going to be really interesting to see how much power Mike Pence actually has once we`re there behind closed doors.
O`DONNELL: Between the inaugural parade and the inaugural balls the president signed an executive order on health care directing the secretary for Health and Human Services and the heads of all executive departments to use all of their authority and discretion available to them, quote, "to wave, defer, grant exemptions from or delay the implementation of any provision of the Affordable Care Act, especially any provision that would impose a fiscal burden, any kind of -- as this executive order says, any cost, fee, tax penalty or regulatory burden on individuals, families, health insurers, health care providers, makers of medical devices."
And so, Ana Marie, this basically gives the secretary the discretion to relieve anyone of the obligations of the individual mandate right away, the thing that Democrats -- Republicans object to the most.
COX: Yes. It seems to be designed to put Obamacare in to the death -- Obamacare or the ACA into the death spiral that a lot of people have said it`s already in. But really only happens actuarially if you take the healthy people out of the insurance pool.
I am really curious about how this is going to play out exactly. It was, you know, grimly amusing during Sean Spicer`s press conference when he announced this. He said we`re going to tell regulators and states to do whatever they can to ease the burden of the Affordable Care Act. In unison, the entire press corps said, what does that mean?
(LAUGHTER)
COX: And it wasn`t clear that Sean Spicer knew or that anyone did, right? On Twitter you have the health care policy experts before they actually saw what the language was wondering about it, as well. And seeing how Obama -- still getting used to it.
O`DONNELL: Discriminate people out.
COX: Only even made 29 of his 690 appointments to federal agencies, I don`t know exactly what this means for us.
O`DONNELL: Yes. It`s probably not going to happen fast. But former Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius who was there for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act issued a statement tonight. The last line of which, "If this is executed in the most harmful form to the Affordable Care Act," she says, "The result will be a market collapse on a rapid basis and many individuals and families will lose their health coverage long before any replacement is proposed."
And David Corn, it seems if this executive order can achieve that Republicans would count that as helpful momentum, pushing their repeal and replace because if they can say the Affordable Care Act has collapsed the case for their intervention becomes stronger.
CORN: And let`s dispel the notion that there is a replace at this time. They have had years and years and years to come up with their replacement, and they don`t have a plan. Donald Trump said the other day he wants everyone to have insurance. And then he backed away from that but that`s never been part of any Republican plan, a plan that would guarantee or make sure that everybody has insurance.
[22:40:14] And federal agencies do have, as you know, Lawrence, having worked in the government, a lot of leeway in terms of what they do with regulations. Now often those actions can be challenged in court if the agency goes too far in trying to do something that it doesn`t have the authority to do. So this could lead to a complete mess for the ACA. It could lead to lawsuits. And just tremendous confusion which no doubt will probably help the Republican case that Obamacare is an abomination.
But what will happen when millions of Americans stop -- start to lose their care and their coverage? Who will they blame?
O`DONNELL: Yes, this is -- President Obama himself issued some executive orders, very carefully carved waiver and deferments and delays of some of these burdens as they put it. But this is a wholesale, anything that any head of any department feels they have the discretion to do, this authorizes them to do it.
We`re going to have to take a quick break here as we await the president and vice president`s arrival at the Salute to Armed Services ball. This is the final inaugural ball appearance that the president and vice president will make tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: That`s the Salute to Armed Services inaugural ball. That is the final stop for president and vice president tonight.
Hallie Jackson is in the ballroom. Hallie Jackson, what can we expect? Presumably another dance and another short speech?
HALLIE JACKSON, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And this was a little bit different, though, Lawrence.
[22:45:02] So yes, we do expect to hear from the president, to hear from the first lady. There will be a dance but then after that both the president and the first lady, and then the vice president and the second lady will split off and they`ll dance with different members of the military who will also be on stage with them.
Remember, this is the Salute to the Armed Services ball. And in front of me here are members of this military from all different branches. At one point we even had some service members from Iraq screened in live to speak with the crowd here.
The people are excited. Folks have been waiting. As you know the president is running a bit behind schedule. So there is a sense of anticipation for him to get here and for him to do these dances. So, again, I think it`ll be a little different from what you`ve seen earlier in the night at the Liberty and at the Freedom balls. This is the last official ball of the night. After this, it caps what has been an extraordinary long but obviously historic day for President Trump and his first lady, too.
Lawrence, really a remarkable day.
O`DONNELL: And Hallie, two things about this ball. He`s in no hurry to go anywhere else after this one so that`s one reason why he might spend a little more time here. And of course, the military audience has always been very special to him as a campaigner and we -- I think we can expect something more specifically targeted to them in his comments.
JACKSON: I think so, too. And I`ll tell you what, earlier tonight, when there were remarks being made by different dignitaries here, the reference to General James Mattis who is just sworn in today as the new secretary of Defense got a huge cheer from this audience, the biggest cheer that we heard all night. I think that you will hear from Donald Trump, you know, what we`ve seen from him on the campaign trail and during this transition, he loves to talk about General -- as he like to call him, General Mad Dog Mattis, although it`s all right to day that maybe he`s not so crazy about that nickname, Mattis himself.
So I do think you`re going to hear the president talk about his Cabinet, talk about John Kelly who was also sworn in tonight, and yes, direct this more to members of the military who are here with him.
You are right that he`s in no hurry to go anywhere. And interestingly, you know who one of the performers was here tonight? Tony Orlando, who you might be familiar with. I Googled some of his songs. They were entertaining to the folks here. But Tony Orlando was talking about how he and Donald Trump had been friends for a long time dating back to Atlantic City days so if the entertainer is still here and the president sees him perhaps they`ll have some moments that are on stage or backstage, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: Hallie, in your new mission as a White House correspondent, you`re going to be the first person we turn to to find out what is the president doing tomorrow.
JACKSON: Yes, sir. Tomorrow, he`s got a pretty busy schedule. We`re going to be at the National Cathedral first thing in the morning because he wakes up early and heads there for a prayer service. That is tradition. You see that from presidents right after inauguration. After that we expect that he`s going to do some work. It is possible. There was some discussion that he would visit maybe the CIA, but that was before it became clear that incoming CIA chief Mike Pompeo would not be confirmed today. And instead it looks like that has been delayed until Monday.
So could we see Donald Trump make his stop at another department, for example, another agency, perhaps the Pentagon, one of his Cabinet members who has been sworn in? That is still a potential, still up in the air.
The other big thing happening tomorrow, of course, near the White House will be that women`s march, that big protest march that is set to happen and if the president, as he will be -- he`ll be out in Washington tomorrow, the National Cathedral, as you know, is not too, too far from the White House, just up northwest a little bit. He will run into potentially road closures and traffic and protesters, you know, along his motorcade route.
O`DONNELL: NBC`s Hallie Jackson, thank you very much for joining us.
We`re going to take a break.
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[22:51:43] O`DONNELL: President Trump will soon appear at his last inaugural ball of the evening. This is the Salute to Armed Services ball. Hallie Jackson is there covering it for us. We expect him to do the standard turn on the dance floor, along with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife. And then we do expect President Trump to make comments at the Salute to Armed Services ball, comments no doubt tailored specifically for that audience there.
Ana Marie Cox, we learned from Hallie Jackson that Tony Orlando was singing. And we learned that Hallie had to Google him to figure out who he was.
COX: Yes. And she did seem to assume that you knew who he was.
O`DONNELL: And I don`t -- who could the guy be?
COX: You know, I think it`s sort of interesting that we`re expecting Trump to do tailored remarks at the Armed Services ball because, you know, he hasn`t really listened to the Armed Services veterans very much. As I`m sure you know that that`s one of the groups of people he hasn`t met with during the transition. So -- and I know there are various veteran service organizations that were pretty concerned about that.
I mean, basically we all know this about Trump but I will say it again, he talks a good game about veterans and the military but he failed to actually serve in it. And he didn`t do a very good job of actually fulfilling his promise to donate very much money to veterans. He seems to really like uniforms I think more than the people in them. That`s my --
O`DONNELL: And Yamiche, this is the time is running out on making promises about fixing veterans health care and all the other issues that he has raised in terms of Armed Services personnel. So this is one of the moments where he will be able to make those promises again, but pretty soon it`s going to be time to deliver.
ALCINDOR: It is going to be time to deliver. The question I have and I think the question that a lot of journalists have is what time and when is his Teflon I would say like abilities to say something and then kind of back pedal and still be able to get the admiration of his supporters? When is that going to run out? I think Veterans Affairs is a really clear thing. You either -- the V.A. either starts servicing people more and they`re either -- and there are shorter lines or it doesn`t.
I think Affordable Care Act is another place where people either lose their health insurance and get a better plan or get something that is great, that`s replaced by Republicans or they lose their health insurance and get really sick and they can`t go to a doctor. They ended up in an emergency radio. So I think time is running out. That`s my gut feeling. But really Trump supporters could say, you know, the Democrats are the ones that are holding things up even though at this point, the Republicans have all this power. I can`t imagine I`m not being said -- people not feeling like they need to use it.
O`DONNELL: All right. We`re going to squeeze in a quick break here as we await the president and vice president`s arrival at the final inaugural ball.
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[22:56:45] O`DONNELL: That is the shot of the final stop for President Trump and Vice President Pence tonight. The Salute to Armed Services inaugural ball. This will be their third stop. We will see their third turn on the dance floor and surely the president will make remarks here that will be specifically targeted to the military audience. That`s the president there. He is minutes away. There are reports that he is close to or in the building. So this will be very soon and these will be his final -- no doubt final public comments for the night.
And Rick Wilson, I wanted to get your reaction to the president`s comments tonight at the inaugural balls. What they have added to the day.
WILSON: Well, look, I mean, this is a guy who`s -- this is the high school quarterback circling the parking lot in his Camaro. You know, five years later, he`s reliving the campaign glory. And he`s doing the things that, you know, have become sort of typical of Donald Trump. The referring to his fellow Americans as his enemies, the vengeance fantasies, the sort of pettiness that should make everybody sleep easier knowing he`s got the keys to the nuclear weapons as of tonight. So --
O`DONNELL: And --
WILSON: Go ahead.
O`DONNELL: And David Corn, these will be his final public comments of the night. And --
CORN: Well, maybe. Lawrence, we don`t know.
O`DONNELL: OK.
CORN: He can still tweet. You know, maybe he`ll be up at 3:00 a.m., you know, going up after Alec Baldwin again. But I do hope when he comes out tonight at the military ball here, he reminds people that he said he knew more than the generals, that he reminds them that he said -- that he compared the intelligence community who worked in the military community to Nazi, Germany.
WILSON: To Nazis.
CORN: I hope he, you know, really hammers those points hard and doesn`t just, you know, doesn`t just go with the fluffy rhetoric about how much he loves the military.
O`DONNELL: And Ana, there is the possibility that he reaches back to the rhetoric that he used at the luncheon today, which was his best received comments of the day generally. And this could be the audience that get that out of him.
COX: And you are a man of boundless hope and optimism. I don`t know where --
(CROSSTALK)
WILSON: Lawrence, even with Donald Trump being -- even when Donald Trump is being better for a few minutes he is not always better for very long. And that`s -- the theory there`s no better Trump is that he always reverts to the mean and the mean is pretty mean is generally proven out. So I think the luncheon today was probably an exemption and the rules, you know, a lot uglier than one would hope.
COX: Yes, and he is really the Matthew McConaughey of presidents at this point. Like dazed and confused Matthew McConaughey in his Camaro. He`s going to tell stories about his crowd for -- and the crowds are going to get bigger for as long as he is president. So I`m not optimistic, but it makes me feel happy. I think --
O`DONNELL: All right. I`m going to --
ALCINDOR: I think he`s just going to go ahead and talk about --
O`DONNELL: I`m placing a $1 bet that he`s going to go back to positive. That`s $1 bet.
(CROSSTALK)
O`DONNELL: We`re going to leave it there. Ana Marie Cox, David Corn, Rick Wilson, Yamiche Alcindor, thank you all for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it.
MSNBC`s live coverage continues into "THE 11TH HOUR" now with Brian Williams. That`s next.
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