IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

All In With Chris Hayes, Transcript 11/16/2016

Guests: Maxine Waters, Robert Reich, Rick Wilson, Michelle Goldberg, Sam Seder

Show: ALL IN with CHRIS HAYES Date: November 16, 2016 Guest: Maxine Waters, Robert Reich, Rick Wilson, Michelle Goldberg, Sam Seder

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: That`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us. "ALL IN" with Chris Hayes starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on ALL IN.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

HAYES: A week after winning, Trump changes his tune.

TRUMP: We`ll get your taxes down. Don`t worry --

HAYES: Tonight, as the plan to privatize Medicare heats up, is Donald Trump already abandoning his populist campaign promises?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: He won, but I`m just making a point. You better take a look at what he won on.

HAYES: Then, meet the member of the Trump transition team floating a registry for Muslim immigrants. The real world implications of tweets from the world`s most powerful man.

TRUMP: When you give me a bad story, I have a method of fighting back.

HAYES: Plus, Hillary Clinton live within the hour, when ALL IN starts right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYES: Good evening from New York. I`m Chris Hayes. At this hour, we are awaiting Hillary Clinton for her very first public appearance since her concession speech. Clinton is expected to speak very soon at a Children`s Defense Fund`s gala in D.C. We will bring you those remarks live. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump seen here alongside his family at his gilded apartment in Trump Tower last night, ditched the press to head to opulent 21 Club Restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. NBC`s quick thinking, Hallie Jackson made a restaurant -- a reservation to the restaurant and shot cell phone video of Trump greeting his fellow wealthy Manhattanites as he left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Thank you.

HALLIE JACKSON, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Mr. President-elect.

TRUMP: Thank you. We`ll get your taxes down. Don`t worry.

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Mr. President-elect, no heads up for the media, Sir? Mr. President-elect? Mr. President-elect, no heads up for the media, Sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make America great again. Make America great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Before Trump got that raucous ovation from the Manhattan elite, you heard him promise them, quote, "We`ll get your taxes down. Don`t worry." It was one of the first policy pronouncements of the President-elect to reduce taxes on rich New Yorkers. The people eating in a restaurant where the cheapest entree is a $36 burger. And it came from a man who promised a revolt against those very same elites, a man who in his victory speech just a week ago promised this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: This was Trump`s core message, or at least one of them, to the economically alienated white working class voters in the industrial Midwest who powered his victory, that Trump will put them first, that he will take power away from the people that don`t look like them, the immigrants and the coastal crony capitalists of America`s ruling class. But the emerging reality of a Trump presidency is already looking far different. Trump and his allies in congress are poised to promote the wish list of the finance industry, roll back financial regulations designed to protect the economy.

Trump plans massive tax cuts for the rich. Indeed, by 2025, if passed, most of his tax cuts would go to the wealthiest one percent of Americans, like the folks, who were so happy to see him in that room. The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Jeb Hensarling, says he plans to work with Trump to undo efforts to protect the poor from predatory payday lenders, and to reverse a rule mandating that financial professionals, managing retirement funds, put their clients` interests ahead of their own, that would be repealed.

Paul Ryan now sees an opening to phase out Medicare in 2017, replace it with private insurance. And Trump has said he plans to roll back or weaken President Obama`s new overtime rule, which, starting next month, allows an additional 4.2 million hardworking Americans to earn overtime pay. Meanwhile, despite his "drain the swap" message, Trump`s transition team is packed with GOP insiders and lobbyists.

Well, Mike Pence is now ordered the lobbyist removed from the transition, Trump`s election is widely seen as a bonanza for Washington lobbyist. The Dow hitting all-time highs, as oil companies, another big corporation, anticipate massive deregulation, despite Trump`s claim, he would champion forgotten Americans, he and his GOP colleagues are poised to enact policies that will almost certainly further enrich elites, for lack of a better word, while increasing hardship for millions who can`t afford to, I don`t know, spend 36 bucks on a burger in a Manhattan steak house.

In Washington yesterday, Elizabeth Warren pointed out the massive disconnect between Trump`s campaign rhetoric and the reality of his policy agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: He did not won -- win on a Mitch Mcconnell, Paul Ryan, business as usual, what can we do to help the giant corporations in America. Look, I know that the K Street lobbyists are absolutely out there salivating. You know, they`re dancing in the streets, they said, "This is our big chance." We`re going to get to slash regulations. Man, look for a tax cut for those at the top. That`s what the K Street lobbyists may be thinking this morning, but that is not what the people who elected Donald Trump are thinking this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: And joining me now, Democratic Representative Maxine Waters of California, Ranking member on the House Committee on Financial Services. And Congresswoman, I want to start on what you see from the personnel -- from what you`re hearing coming down the pike on big things, like an agenda, particularly on rolling back much of the financial reform that`s been built up over the last few years?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, Donald Trump has said loudly and clearly that he wants to undo the Dodd-Frank Reform. That`s the big reform bill that reined in a lot of the abuses of Wall Street. It was after the 2008 crash that we had, that almost caused a depression and really was a recession, and people lost their homes because of all of the exotic products that were put out there by the financial industry.

And so, we worked very hard to come up with reforms to rein them in, keep them from ripping off people, to make sure that people who were depositing in these institutions weren`t having their money placed in risky trades on and on and on. So, he said he`s going to do away with Dodd-Frank, that is very dangerous for this country. That would be a terrible thing for this country. Yes, what were you going to say?

HAYES: Yeah, you know, there`s an irony here, of course, because in many ways, he ran as this sort of populist insurgent against what he called "The Globalist Elites," and he mentioned bankers when he talked about that. Is your sense that Wall Street and bankers are actually pretty happy about his election?

WATERS: Oh, yes. I mean, it`s a holiday for them. As a matter of fact, Jamie Dimon is about to be thought of as the Treasurer for the United States of America. He would be the Secretary of the Treasury, if left up to Donald Trump. I don`t know what`s going to happen, but I understand he`s number one on the list for consideration. As a matter of fact, I understand they`re literally having a party on Wall Street because Donald Trump has embraced them, bringing them into his administration, getting their advice and basically showing him -- them that he`s not going to hurt them.

HAYES: There`s a broader domestic agenda that I`m really curious to hear your thoughts on. We`ve seen over years, the speaker Ryan has the Ryan budget, there`s a bunch of things he wants to do. One of them is privatize Medicare. He`s talking about doing that now, it`s not something Donald Trump ran on, in fact, it`s something he -- appeared he and Hillary Clinton both opposed. How likely is that and do you the democrats have a strategy to fight against Medicare privatization?

WATERS: Well, let me just say this, you can`t trust anything that Donald Trump has to say. One thing today, another thing the next day, but when he was out campaigning, he assured our seniors that he would do nothing to cut Social Security or Medicare. As a matter of fact, it`s one of his big ads that he played in Pennsylvania and at one of his rallies. I just look back and I saw him absolutely assuring seniors that he would do nothing to cut Medicare and Social Security.

Now, we have speaker Ryan, who`s making it very clear that this is a top priority, that they`re going to not only cut Medicare but they`re going to privatize it, so that they would be giving out some kind of vouchers and saying to people, "You take this amount of money and you go pay for insurance, and what you can buy, that`s what you`ll get." We`re not going to have Medicare, as we know it, and he is working with Donald Trump to do it. Donald Trump is now saying, "Oh, I`m going to modernize Medicare." Well, that`s just another word, a code word for cuts. So, you can`t trust anything that he has to say.

HAYES: Is your anticipation that the legislative agenda, you`re going to start seeing flow through Capitol Hill, as of next year, will be essentially the Paul Ryan/Mitch McConnell legislative agenda, that in many ways, just predates Donald Trump?

WATERS: Yeah, we`re going to see that agenda that is going to be embraced by Donald Trump. As a matter of fact, every -- almost everything that he has said, he`s -- in the last few days he`s changed his mind in some way. Even when he talks about building that wall, he was going to build that big, beautiful wall. Now, he said, "Well, it maybe have some fencing in it." He`s backing up on it, even on Obamacare, where he said the first thing that he was going to do was going to get rid of it, and now he`s saying, "Well, you know, you know, the pre-existing conditions portion of it, or that portion that allows 26 years old to stay on their parents` insurance. We can`t trust anything that he has to say.

And on this Medicare, this is very dangerous. I feel so bad for all of those seniors out there, who believed him and thought that he would not touch it, that he would protect it. And now, they`re faced with the Donald Trump, who`s now saying, "Well, I`m going to work with Ryan, the speaker, and we`re going to modernize it in some way." What does that mean? What does that mean? It means that he`s on the Ryan agenda to privatize and to give the vouchers. HAYES: Yeah, I should note just what you said before, that Jamie Dimon, it`s unclear, we have conflicting sources about whether he`s standing in for Treasury, but what is clear is the language you were referring to on the new transition.gov site, the greatagain.com, does talk about modernizing Medicare and very clearly echoes the language of Paul Ryan. So, Representative Maxine Waters, thank you for your time tonight. I appreciate.

WATERS: You`re so welcome. Absolutely.

HAYES: Joining me now, MSNBC Contributor, Conservative Radio Talk Show Host, Charlie Sykes, and Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, who served under President Bill Clinton. And Charlie, let me start with you, you know, you and Paul Ryan diverged in the woods in this election. You decided you could not support Donald Trump, I think, for a variety of reasons. I was persuaded that those were genuine, and I was -- I was impressed by that, I have to say, because it`s always hard to break with people. Paul Ryan stuck with him, because he basically said, the things that Paul Ryan and Charlie Sykes believe in, the vision that we have for America from the perspective of domestic policy agenda, is going to get in there with Donald Trump, and lo and behold, Donald Trump runs on some bizarre amalgam of ethno nationalist backlash and (INAUDIBLE) stimulus for tariffs, and are they going to get the Paul Ryan plan?

CHARLIE SYKES, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know what, I have to tell you, I would hope so, but I doubt it. Paul Ryan and Donald Trump are on opposite poles of the conservative movement, opposite poles of their view of America and of their sense of the role of government. So, I understand the concern that somehow this is going to be, you know, a unified front, but you know, as Maxine Waters did actually point out, you can`t trust anything that Donald Trump says. What he says and what he does have been so different all year long.

And you wonder what is going to be the breaking point, because you know what, there`s got to come a point where Paul Ryan wants a lot of his agenda, wants the tax reform, wants a lot of the things that you`re talking about to go through. There`s got to be a breaking point where he says, I can`t go that far. I can`t swallow this, OK. I swallowed Steve Bannon, OK. I swallowed -- you know the "Access Hollywood" video. But there`s going to be a line, at some point, and then who knows what`s going to happen. And it is completely unpredictable

HAYES: I`m going to say this, only partly joking with you, Robert Reich, the only -- the thing that I think Paul Ryan wouldn`t be able to swallow would be a huge top increase in the marginal top tax rate. Things, I think, he would get off the bus at that. And here -- and here`s what I think is the case, Robert, if you look at the Venn diagrams of where this President-elect is and where Paul Ryan-Mitch Mcconnell is, I think, the thing you`d find on the middle circle is they would like to see tax cuts at the top. And I suspect that`s going to be something queued up quite early, Robert.

ROBERT REICH, FORMER SECRETARY OF LABOR: I think, that`s absolutely right, Chris. We`re also going to see major corporate tax cuts, but getting back to the larger point, and that is, is Donald Trump going to have his way, or is Paul Ryan going to have his way? I don`t think there`s any question -- Donald Trump doesn`t have any principles, he doesn`t have any policies. He has a very short attention span. All he cares about is winning. And if he can get a lot of stuff through congress and claim that it`s his, and that he won, then great. He doesn`t basically care, and I think that`s the bottom line. I think that`s why Paul Ryan, ultimately, he`s going to come out on top, as well, the congressional republican -- republicans overall.

HAYES: Yeah, it seems to me, Charlie, and I`m curious of you have insight from the conversations you`re have, I mean, it seems to me that tax cuts, a tax -- a big tax cut of Obamacare repeal, Medicare privatization, I mean, that`s -- that doesn`t seem a lot of distance between where -- I mean, if you particularly look at the language on greatagain.gov, and where Paul Ryan is, I suspect that some of it probably came from Ryan`s folks.

SYKES: Well, that would -- that would be the argument. I mean, this is what they`ve been saying all along, you know, that they`re hoping that Donald Trump will spend all of his time, you know, you know, putting in gold faucets in the White House and they`re going to let Mike Pence and Paul Ryan write the legislation. But look, I mean, the key thing here is that you need to have policies that are going to grow the economy, and all of the things you`ve been talking about, have not actually reached those forgotten workers. I mean, let`s put this in some context.

HAYES: Yes, thank you.

SYKES: Those policies -- those policies did not get those blue collar workers in rural Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to feel good about their economy. So, what you have to do is you have to stimulate this economy in some way, and you know, those policies, that`s the way that Paul Ryan`s going to present it, that`s the way that Donald Trump is going to present it, you know, and if it becomes too controversial, he`ll go, "Hey, squirrel, look at those immigrants over there." But again, it`s all about the economic growth --

(CROSSTALK)

HAYES: Well, that`s right. And I think that`s --

REICH: That`s an interesting question.

HAYES: That`s a -- that`s a key point. Robert?

REICH: Well, I was just going to say, the interesting question is how long will it take the constituents, the people who actually voted for Donald Trump to catch on to the fact that it`s the same old trickle down economics, the same old austerity economics, the same old republican economics that caused them to lose ground in first place? Now, it may -- my fear, and I`m just going to be very candid about it is that Donald Trump is just a con man and such a huckster that he`s going to be able to try to not only claim victory with regard to all of this republican, traditional republican stuff that`s going to be enacted, but also, he is going to say it is going to help everybody and the big lie that he tells over and over and over again as we saw during the -- during the actual -- you know, during the election, that big lie is going to persuade a lot of people that it`s the truth until what, two years from now, three years from now, will they catch on four years from now?

HAYES: This is the big -- this is the big question, I think, right, does the truth out ultimately? Do lies improve for folks that are in the parts of the country that delivered the margins, that gave him the White House or do they not? You want to think that ultimate, reality is what -- is what controls, although we`re in such a new territory.

SYKES: Well, what if it works.

HAYES: It may not, right, Charlie?

SYKES: Yeah, but I mean, what if it works, what happens? Now, one of my concerns is that, you know, a lot of the policies you`re talking about are heavy, heavy, heavy lifts, they`re going to be very, very controversial. And you`ve seen the arguments play out here. So, that`s why, you know, the role of people like Steve Bannon, you know, and the -- and the ongoing racism, the issues about the, you know, the contempt for women, you know, what this is going to do, is this is a heavy, heavy weight on conservatives who`re going to try to push this through. I mean, Donald Trump is the face of conservatism right now and that may not be pretty.

HAYES: And we may see a lot of -- a lot of scapegoating and blaming if things don`t go away. And I would just also say as a final note, if I`m the democrats, I can`t think of a more unifying fight than a fight to not privatize Medicare, and I can`t think of a fight that would -- that would be an easier sell to the folks in the part of the country that they lost the votes of.

REICH: Well, I think, Chris, that is the good news. People are being activated now to the extent that I haven`t seen this degree of activation in the democratic base ever.

HAYES: That`s going to take a lot.

HAYES: That`s going to take a lot. Charlie Sykes, Robert Reich, thank you both, appreciate it.

REICH: Thanks.

HAYES: All right. We are still awaiting Hillary Clinton`s first public appearance since giving her concession speech. We`ll bring you those remarks at the Children`s Defense Fund when she takes the stage. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Recurring theme of the past few days is the Trump transition is in disarray, it`s amateur hour, the thing is a total mess, it`s chaos, the clown show, so, you know, let`s point and laugh. We`ve been here before. I`ve been there, too, back when at multiple times during Trump`s campaign, we never imagined he would actually get elected. So, if there`s a lesson that should be learned, please to all my fellow members in the media, it is "do not underestimate them, do not view obvious signs of manifesting competence as evidence they cannot get done what they want to get done." Like deporting people, and building a wall, and reinstating a Muslim registry. Let`s look at the deeper story of who`s going to run the federal government, what kind of vision they have, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, infamous figure who said he`s on Trump`s immigration policy transition team.

Kobach helped draft Arizona`s senate bill 1070, signed along 2010, by then Governor Jan Brewer, the "show me your papers" law that essentially codified a certain form of racial profiling, parts of which were later struck down for that reason as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kobach told the TV station last week, "There`s no question the wall is going to get built. The only question is how quickly will it get done and who pays for it." He also said, "construction can start without approval from congress by re-appropriating existing funds from the current budget."

And in an interview with Reuters, Kobach said Trump`s policy advisers had also discussed drafting a proposal to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. Kobach was one of the architects of a similar Muslim registry instituted in the aftermath of 911. The program was terminated in 2011 in part because of criticism from civil rights groups and lawsuits. Kobach is just one of the people whose ideas might become administration policy if the Trump transition team gets its way.

Joining me now for more, republican strategist Rick Wilson, former senior adviser to presidential candidate Evan Mcmullen. What are the conversations happening in republican circles? I mean, my first thought is you`ve got folks that were allies of Trump, Kris Kobach is a great example. Steve King was talking about how happy he is by the first week of this transition, the Iowa Congressman who I had on my show questioning the role of non-white people and contributing to civilization. But my question to you is there aren`t enough Trump allies or in the inner circle to staff the federal government, so then the question becomes who else?

RICK WILSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, in big sweeping ballpark math, you have about 4,000 really senior appointees and about another 24,000, 25,000 plus below that in the -- what they call the schedule C bracket. So, I think it`s difficult right now, because, you know, particularly on the national security front, Trump is not viewed from the national security and intelligence communities as a -- as a person that is necessarily treating this with the seriousness it deserves. He`s having a lot of trouble picking up folks in that domain. And he`s also having a lot of trouble right now, you know, staffing up the most senior positions by which many of these other appointments flow.

And I think a lot of these that you`re seeing, the tensions you`re seeing about, you know, is Secretary of State going to be Rudy or Nikki Haley or some random guy who drove a car at a rally? You know, when you see those sort of fights going on, that`s a reflection that although Trump may have preferences, they`re not locked in stone and there`s really no one else that can make a final call in this organization except Trump. And he often does those decisions, you know -- he referred to all of these folks today as basically in the same tone and tenor of talking about "The Apprentice." And so, I think you`re going to see a lot of chaos in this process. It`s going to -- it`s going to be difficult to find the final -- the final folks for some of these seats until after the inauguration.

HAYES: I mean, it also seems to me you`re going to get -- there will be a tendency towards the folks who are the most vociferous or the most extreme along certain lines of his agenda on, say, immigration. That it seems like they will have a lot of power in this administration. A Kris Kobach figure, if he were in a Trump administration, he`s Secretary of State (INAUDIBLE) now strikes me would really be a powerful figure because where there isn`t a ton of policy development as a rule from the Trump folks in the campaign, someone with a vision who also allies with them ideologically is going to be able to basically take that and plug it in.

WILSON: I think, Chris, what you`re also going to see is Steve Bannon being the actual guy who`s going to really be running a lot of the agenda inside the White House, it looks like, is going to be able to take a guy like Kobach, elevate him quickly and use their outside state-run media operation at Breitbart and elsewhere to turn him into a hero and a big centerpiece player and everything, and to really boost up the people with the loudest, harshest voices that are the folks who are going to play to the base that trump is going to need to maintain, as reality starts to hit, you know, that he`s not going to build a wall from the pacific to the gulf of Mexico, and that he`s not really going to repeal all of Obamacare and these walk-backs he`s been making very delicately the last few days, they`re going to need to keep their people ramped up and excited about Donald Trump for a while.

And so, they`ll have guys out there that are -- that are the hair shirt guys who are really going to beat the drum for Trump and really go out to the edge of crazy and scream until they`re bloody to keep that Trump demographic, you know, up and energized.

HAYES: Fascinating. Rick Wilson, thanks for your time, appreciate it.

WILSON: Thanks, Chris.

HAYES: All right. We are now minutes away from Hillary Clinton delivering her first remarks since her concession speech. We will bring you that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: All right. It`s been exactly one week since Hillary Clinton took to the stage in a hotel in New York on a Wednesday morning after the election and conceded. One week later, she is poised to make her first public appearance since that concession. A lot of people really curious what she`s going to say. Obviously, the concession was heartfelt, it was unbowed, she had a message for young women everywhere. And right now, she is about to come on stage being introduced by a legendary woman and incredible woman named Marian Wright Edelman who, of course, civil rights activist, child advocate, and head of the Children`s Defense Fund, which is, I believe, the first, very first place that Hillary Clinton worked for when she got out of law school.

You can hear the crowd there, very excited to hear what Hillary Clinton is going to have to say. Joining me now is Michelle Goldberg. She`s a columnist for Slate. What are -- if you were writing a speech for Hillary Clinton on this day, what would you say?

MICHELLE GOLDBERG, COLUMNIST FOR SLATE: Well, if I was writing a speech for Hillary Clinton, I mean, you know, I think it`s important to realize she has nothing to lose at this point. She is for the first time in decades in the public spotlight not positioning herself for a job in front of a kind of hostile and skeptical public. So, what I hope that she will do is speak to -- A, speak to the people who are terrified at this moment. I mean, this is what really strikes me. You have these speeches by Bernie Sanders, by Elizabeth Warren, that even if they`re just calling Trump`s bluff, at least kind of presuppose an element of good faith. Presuppose that his election was really about helping working families and was really about economic anxiety.

And meanwhile, you have people all over this country who are preparing to be ruled by a hostile minority, right? Because there`s a majority of the people in this country voted for Hillary Clinton. Their interests are going to be wholly cast aside, they are being attacked, they are coming under -- you know, they`re being subject to hate speech, they`re being -- they feel like there are no institutions representing them. I don`t really think -- Hillary Clinton is not positioned to be the leader of the opposition. That`s going to have to be something new. But I think that just as how she spoke to young women in her concession speech, again, see, I don`t think you can overstate how alarmed this people are, how degraded people feel by the leadership that`s about to take power. I mean, I think that what we`re learning right now is we kind of march towards this catastrophe is that the constitution really was a suicide pact. And I think that she needs to you know --

HAYES: Reassure and speak out and say, I see you people --

GOLDBERG: And say, "I see you, I`m with you."

HAYES: Right. Yeah, it`s -- it is striking when you -- it`s a striking term to say the hostile minority. You know, obviously, it was a very close election and there were -- there were over 100 million votes, I believe, cast. Yeah, Hillary Clinton is going to come out with a popular vote lead of about maybe as many as 2 million.

GOLDBERG: Right. And the senate as well, more people voted democratic senate candidates --

(CROSSTALK)

HAYES: Right. Right. Although, in both cases, it`s like that and three dollars gets you on the subway.

GOLDBERG: Well, I understand that. Right. But yes, under the rules of our system, this is legitimate. But I also think that nevertheless, you know, I took -- personally, I think, you know, the fact that we`ve had two presidents in five -- in the last five elections lose the popular vote and win the electoral vote calls the system into question in a kind of very profound and unprecedented way.

But that aside, yes, Donald Trump legitimately won under the existing rules. That doesn`t mean that the majority of this country that voted against him -- and again are now going to see everything they care about come under attack. Those people need representation, those people need a voice.

HAYES: They`re owed a voice I think is a good way to think about it.

How do you think about, you know, we`re starting to see the contours of the kind of strategy of opposition come into play. And there`s been interesting back and forth, Jamel Bowie (ph)wrote an interesting piece today on Slate kind of echoing your thoughts about this idea, this line we`ve seen from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who spoke earlier today kind of reiterating like, you nkow, we can be with you on the things that we have a shared interest, if it`s infrastructure or protecting Social Security, but we will brook no compromise on any bigotry of any kind.

What do you think of that line?

GOLDBERG: You know, I`m obviously I`m a political strategist and if people think that that`s what it is going to take to win back this kind of suckered groups of voters that voted for one thing and are now going to get another, then I`m not going to question that.

But what I object to about this approach is that it`s not true. I think that they are reifying a narrative about Donald Trump`s victory that that is just not true. I don`t think the reason -- I think that if he won because people really thought that he was going to going to take on Wall Street and take on the rich interests instead of taking on poor people and immigrants, then he would not have felt so cavalier about marching into the 21 Club and telling a bunch of fat cats that he was going to lower their taxes.

And that would be considered a gaffe if everybody didn`t really know on some level exactly what Donald Trump was about.

HAYES: Yeah, that`s an interesting way of putting it.

Although, I do think -- I would disagree -- we`re awaiting Hillary Clinton, if you`re just joining us, who will be giving her first address in a week since she gave her concession. It`s her first public appearance. She`s being introduced by the Marian Wright Edelman, the legendary civil rights worker and children`s advocate, the Children Defense Fund, long known Hillary Clinton, since she was just out of law school.

You know, the Children`s Defense Fund, its whole mission is to protect the most vulnerable. I mean, it`s basically poor children are who they have a mandate to serve and protect. And I believe here comes, I`m not mistaken, Hillary Clinton. Let`s listen to the tail end of this introduction.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN, CHILDREN`S DEFENSE FUND: ...what she has done and to say it is never going -- it`s not going to be for naught that she is our president for the people. Thank you -- Hillary.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Thank you, thank you. It is so wonderful to be here with all of you on behalf of the Children`s Defense Fund.

I was listening backstage as Marian Wright Edelman went through the 45 years that we have known each other and even reminded me of some things that I had not recalled, namely that this event was the very first event that my husband and I went to after he was elected president, and so it`s especially poignant and meaningful to me to be here again with all of you.

I want to start by congratulating the terrific young people that we are celebrating tonight. You will hear more about each of them because each has faced painful challenges, violence and poverty, abandonment that they never gave up. They never stopped reaching, never stop dreaming and yes they have beaten the odds. They call troy the little poet who could. He is an artist on the basketball court in a flourishing writer in the classroom and he dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

Bethany lives in one foster home after another but with the help of a wonderful teacher and her own determination, she is thriving and hopes to become a doctor so she can care for others. Carlos left a difficult childhood in Guatemala, made it to America all by himself. Then he took a second journey, make it all the way to college where he is studying to become an engineer.

Janet`s secret weapon is her beautiful voice and her musical talent. Music has helped her overcome every obstacle that life has thrown in her path. And -- persevered to domestic violence at home and O. Leang at school and found her voice producing a student television show at school and now she has set her sights on becoming a journalist.

These fearless, generous openhearted determined young people represent a rising generation that should give us all much hope for the future. And they represent the continuing commitment of the children`s defense fund and marina Wright Edelman. Now I will admit, coming here tonight wasn`t the easiest thing for me.

There have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do was just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house again. But, if there is anyone who knows how to pick yourself up and get back on your feet and get to work, it is Marian. She has been doing it all her life and she has been helping the rest of us do it too. I am as inspired by Marian today as I was the first time I met her 45 years ago.

And she told the story, I was a young law student, I had lots of hopes and expectations about what a law degree would enable me to do. I had the words of my Methodist faith ringing in my ears to all the good you can from the people you can and all the ways you can whenever you can. She was the crusading legal activist, also a graduate of Yale law school and she was translating her faith into a life devoted to children, service and social justice. Observing that being part of that is one of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given me. I often thought about Marian`s cherny about the stony road she walked, and how she never lost her faith and kept her eyes on the prize. I think of for taking the bar exam in Mississippi, the first black woman ever to do so and then opening offices for the NAACP and a Head Start program for children hit desperately needed it.

I think of her with Robert Kennedy in a tiny shack in the delta opening his eyes to the realities of poverty in America. I think of her with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Starting the poor people`s campaign and dreaming of an America of equality and opportunity.

You have to look at Marian`s life and ask, how did she beat the odds when so many gave up the hopes hope in those early days. For Marian it has always been about children and families. That`s what matters and that`s what has kept her going, helping to open public schools to children with disabilities in the 1970s and effort I was honored to be part of, working to expand medicaid and the 1980s to cover more pregnant women and more children in need.

Standing with me and others in the 1990s to create the children`s health insurance program, improve foster care and create early head start, fighting in recent years to build a bipartisan movement to dismantle the schools to prison pipeline and reform our criminal justice system especially for juveniles and spending countless hours mentoring and training the next generation of leaders and activists.

Under Marian`s leadership the children`s defense fund works to give every child a healthy start , a head start, a fair start, a safe start and a moral start in life. I cannot think of a more noble or necessary mission. No matter what the setbacks, she has always believed in the words of Dr. King often repeated by President Obama, and the arc of the moral universe is long but it tends toward justice.

Now sometimes it can feel awfully long, believe me I know, but I also know it does then. It bends towards justice because people like marian in so many of you, and their people in this audience i`ve had the privilege of working with and admire for so many decades, and you refuse to stop pushing and when you get knocked down, you get back up. I often quote bears her when she says that service is the rent we pay for living. You don`t get to stop paying rent just because things don`t go your way. I know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election.

I am too, more than I can ever express but as I said last week, our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love and about doubling an America that is hopeful, inclusive and -- I didn`t get into public service to hold high office. [applause] 45 years ago that would have seemed an absolute incredibly long headed view but I did decide to be an activist and use my law degree to help kids.

Every child deserves to have the opportunity to live up to his or her god- given potential and I believe the measure of any society is how we treat our children. As we move forward into a new and in many ways uncertain future, I think that must be the task for America and ourselves. Despite the progress, and we have made progress under President Obama, more than 31 million children still live at or near poverty in America. And I hoped to have had the opportunity to build on the progress that President Obama has made because I know that we are stronger together when we are lifting each other up.

Let`s be clear, when I talk about children in or near poverty, this isn`t someone else`s problem. These aren`t someone else`s children. This is America`s problem because they are America`s children. Child poverty isn`t just an urban challenge or a black or Latino challenge, although children of color continue to suffer disproportionately from high rates of poverty, but make no mistake, there are poor children of every race and ethnicity.

Three out of every 10 white children in America are at or near poverty. That is more than 11 million kids. When you add in 11 million Latino children, more than 6 million black children, 1.5 million Asian and American Indian children, nearly 2 million children of two or more races the scope and scale of this challenge becomes clear.

Poor children live in every state and in every congressional district, so they deserve the attention and efforts of everyone of our representatives and leaders. The measure of success must be how many children and families climb out of poverty and reach the middle class?

We know what works to support kids and give them opportunities to succeed. Parents need good-paying jobs, affordable quality health care and childcare, to have helped daunting the demands of work and family. Communities need investments that let families up, not neglect them and let them fall further behind. There are millions of children who will go to school tomorrow in classrooms with crumbling ceilings, empty bookshelves and walls covered with mold. There are children in places like Flint, Michigan drinking water poisoned by lead and children all over our country face the daily danger of gun violence.

HAYES: Hillary Clinton speaking in public for the first time since her concession speech last week. She talked about the work of the Children`s Defense Fund, her belief in that work, the vulnerability of children in poverty, the children in poverty across the racial line.

She said something, Michelle, she was disappointed by last week more than she`ll ever be able to express and laughed in a way that just had a profound pathos.

GOLDBERG: I mean, it`s heartbreaking, you know. It`s heartbreaking for her, for kind of the fact that she poured her life into this one goal and had it snatched away. And not just snatched away, but that she ran -- that the first woman to make a serious run for the presidency was defeated by the most vicious misogynist to ever be nominated for the presidency.

I mean, the scale of the loss, the scale of the defeat for what she believes in is incomprehensible.

And what makes me so sad listening to this speech, you know, when she talks about those series of children that she mentioned at the beginning of the speech, you know, even though that might sound like a speech writer`s trope, everything we know about Hillary Clinton is that she really cares about those kids.

HAYES: It is...

GOLDBERG: When WikiLeaks leaked John Podesta`s email, what kind of sinister things did they find her doing? They found her following up on a child bride in Yemen to see if there`s anything her ambassador could do for them. I mean, she really would have helped.

HAYES: It`s also striking to hear her cadence and her tone and be reminded of what that sounds like and particularly against the backdrop of the public discourse in the U.S. right now that feels remarkably degraded.

Michelle Goldberg, thanks for joining us.

GOLDBERG: Thank you.

HAYES: Still to come, it`s been three months since Trump has given a press conference. And there`s a disturbing trend emerging in his preferred method of communication. Sam Seder joins me to talk about that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: He enjoys himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When can we expect a press conference?

CONWAY: Shortly, I would say, some time soon. But obviously he`s meeting with -- talking to heads of state and members -- possible members of his cabinet and senior team, filling out his senior leadership team. A lot of activity going on upstairs.

So, I know he looks forward to addressing all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Donald Trump has not held a press conference in over three months. His last press conference was after the Democratic convention July 27th, 112 days ago.

What he has done is kept up his preferred method of communication, Twitter. And since he was elected, the 45th president of the United States kinds of tweets have not changed. He`s spread disinformation such as the conspiracy theory that people demonstrating across America are professional protesters allegedly being paid by someone to oppose him. He`s continued to relentlessly attack anmd try to undermine the media.

One third of the tweets since election day -- eight out of 23, attacked the media, "such as wow, The New York Times is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of Trump phenomena."

According to The New York Times its subscriptions have actually increased since the election.

But here`s the thing, Trump`s tweets were often a kind of comedic triviality during the campaign, now they carry the voice and official pronouncements of one of the most powerful people in the world, and after January 20, the voice of the president, of the White House.

His ability to continue using Twitter for those purposes, sowing doubt and conspiracy theoriess as well as undermining the press, while also being able to rely on friendly outlets to carry his message means he has in place some of the pillars we`ve seen anti-democratic and illiberal rulers across the world use to manipulate the public.

As Brian Philips (ph) wrote for MTV News, "confusion is an authoritarian tool. Life under a strongman means not simply being lied to, but being beset by contradiction and uncertainty until the line between truth and falsehood blurs and a kind of exhaustion settles over questions of fact."

We will discuss the disturbing power Trump can wield with 140 characters right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAHL: What are you going to be tweeting and whatever you`re upset about just put out there when you`re president?

TRUMP: It`s a modern form of communication between Facebook and Twitter and I guess Instagram. I have 28 million people, 28 million people.

STAHL: So you are going to keep it up?

TRUMP: It`s a great form of communication.

I`m not saying I love it, but it does get the word out.

When you give me a bad story or when you give me an inaccurate story or when somebody other than you in another network or whatever because, of course, CBS would never do a thing like that, right? I have a method of fighting back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now MSNBC contributor Sam Seder, host of the online podcast and Majority Report co-host A Ring of Fire radio show. I thought that quote was so telling because what is being put in place -- and this is a thing like not to chase the ball, it`s another thing we learned from the election -- he tweets about something it`s an entirely alternate means of both the power of the bully pulpit, a huge audience on social media and then essentially state allied media properties who will act as essentially propaganda arms.

SAM SEDER, MAJORITY REPORT: Breitbart. Breitbart.

HAYES: Yeah, the guy ran a site, the guy who is now in the White House, ran a site that is going to be there every step of the way.

It`s a formidable architecture that does look like less free press and American democracy and more like maybe something else.

SEDER: It is definitely ripe for abuse. I mean, you know, there was a veiled threat in that -- just in the way he was saying it -- CBS gives me great, you know, most of the time type of thing.

And, yeah, I think there`s a problem.

And the other problem is just to complete that architecture is what resource does the American public have that they look to that they trust that could actually sort of respond to any of that?

I mean you literally wrote the book -- a book on that very problem, that there is no -- there is no entity out there for the American public at large to look to and say like, hey, what is -- how do we measure this.

HAYES: There`s no arbiter. And there`s no trust. And we`ve seen -- you know, we saw in some of these Facebook stats., you know, and all the things we`re learning about the level of information...

SEDER: Fake news overcame real news.

HAYES: Yes.

SEDER: Breitbart...

HAYES: In a very specific context, we should say. There`s a lot more to that statistic.

SEDER: OK, fair enough.

But let`s say it`s just close.

HAYES: Right.

SEDER: I mean, that`s a big problem for a democracy where knowledge and information is basically so fluid as it`s almost impossible to grab on to.

HAYES: And I think he`s doing something very tactically interesting with this going after The New York Times because what he can do by going after The New York Times is he can unilaterally declare them the enemy, ergo, they are biased, right.

If Donald Trump is fighting The New York Times, it`s like, well The New York Times isn`t going to treat him fairly. They`re not fair. And so you`ve now -- so every time he goes after a media company, it`s both -- or a media outlet, it`s both a sort of threat, particularly when it come from the bully pulpit of the president of the United States, it has carried a sort of threat with it. And it`s also a way of communicating to any of his supporters, like, you don`t have to listen to anything from those folks.

SEDER: And it`s not like his supporters did, I mean, to be honest with you. And there`s a vague precedent to this. To a certain extent, the Obama administration when they came in, they had a problems with Fox News, and a lot of people did. And they would never go as far as this did.

But there were some questions. But you had the media at that time sort of rally around Fox News and their legitimacy when it came to like pushing them in a different part of the press corps. I don`t know if you remember that.

HAYES: There were some skirmishes about whether they would be in the room with the White House press corps and things like that.

SEDER: But this is of a different nature. And I think like this is sort of the direct appeal that Twitter provides in some way.

And look, I don`t think it`s occurred to President-elect Trump yet that he is going to be president as one point. I mean, the idea that he`s spending this much time focused on Twitter I think is sort of a disturbing concept, frankly.

HAYES: I tweet a lot. I get a lot done.

SEDER: You don`t necessarily have the same level of responsibility. I`m not saying...

HAYES: That is touche and a fair and accurate point.

You know, there`s also just been this -- there`s the gaslighting. And that`s been a part of the Trump campaign. You didn`t see what you just saw. Mike Pence shaking his head at the VP debate as actual quotes were said.

Him tweeting the other day about I never said more people should have nuclear weapons. Well, you did say that. You know, that in the hands of - - the hands of the presidency to pull off this kind of gaslighting or even the agencies and the cabinet positions and all the data that comes out of the government, like there`s a lot of misinformation that you can produce in the world if you`re determined to do that as the president of the United States.

SEDER: Well, yeah, I think we`ve seen precedence of that around the world. I mean, I think there`s a lot to be learned.

HAYES: Or here with the weapons of mass destruction which you and I have lived through and chronicled.

SEDER: Yes, and that was sophisticated.

HAYES: Extremely sophisticated.

SEDER: The way that they fed the information and then cited the information that they had fed and basically laundered it through The New York Times in many respects. I don`t think there`s that level of sophistication here. And frankly, I think what is important for those people who oppose Donald Trump in terms of his political agenda and every other fashion is to constantly be out there and questioning every single proclamation and fact checking.

It may not prevent him from getting the most electoral votes in an election in one instance, but it certainly I think it`s important that there`s some type of compass, some type of like direction north for the American public.

HAYES: We are definitely in uncharted territory right now. Interesting to see how it plays out. Sam Seder, thank you very much.

That is ALL IN for this evening. "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts right now.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END