WORD-WITH-LA-01
Page, Nicholas Kristof, Russell Begay, Joyce Chisale >
doesn`t look to the past to conform to precedents. New York University
Journalism Professor Jay Rosen says Trump`s administration will likely be a
propaganda model. President Obama designates national monument in Utah.>
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NBC News Hallie Jackson reports that Republicans source told her how Donald Trump might view the sanctions saying quote Trump is going to view this much more as a political slap at him and his relationship with Putin than a punishment toward Russia. Vladimir Putin is not the only leader who knows how to manipulate Donald Trump through compliments, in today`s New York Times, Thomas Freedman writes, one day Trump will wake up and discover he was manipulated into becoming the co-father with Netanyahu of an Israel that is either no longer Jewish or no longer democratic. He will discover that he was Bibi`s chump. Joining us now is Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer price winning columnist for the New York Times. Nick, first of all, to the Russia situation, that very alarming video now that we look back on where Donald Trump`s saying, well, you know, if he compliments me, I will compliment him, basically telling leaders around the world, if you want to know how to deal with me, it`s that simple.
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, NEW YORK TIMES, COLUMNIST: Yes, I mean I think what is particularly troubling is also the appointments that he`s made, so you have Mike Flynn, as National Security Adviser who is you know, a buddy of Russia. You have as our next Secretary of State, somebody who is maybe, you know, Putin`s closest friend in the U.S. And so in a sense you have Putin rewarded for manipulating the election with having some close allies, very close, dominating American foreign policy. And those sanctions, I think, today, are a worthwhile attempt to place some cost on that kind of intervention. But I don`t think that they make up for the gains that Putin has won.
O`DONNELL: So, I suppose we could look at Donald Trump`s statement today, saying in effect, it`s no big deal, let`s just move forward as the product of advice given by his future Secretary of State and National Security Adviser.
KRISTOF: Yes. I mean I must say that there are other people who are going to be on the National Security team, including Defense Secretary Mattis, who I think take a much more traditional view of Russia. And I don`t know what advice he`s getting right now from Flynn, for example. But you know, I do think that Trump is, has a trust level for Putin, doesn`t understand the complexities of what may happen in the Baltic Republics, which I think is one of the things that worries a lot of us the most, that there could be some kind of a disturbance by Putin in Latvia or Estonia to test NATO and that Trump has deeply undermined NATO, the basis for the cold war, post cold war order in Europe. And so I don`t know how trump is going to react to the sanctions, whether he`s going to try to undo them, but it`s certainly alarming that whatever the price the Obama Administration is able to place on Russia for these, in a larger sense Russia has been rewarded by having its allies help preside over American Foreign Policy.
O`DONNELL: We know that New York Times columnists choose their words carefully, and to see Tom Freedman today, including in his column the notion that Donald Trump is Bibi Netanyahu`s chump, very, very strongly which for Tom Freedman. He`s been studying this area of the world and this policy arena for most of his career. In a very harsh judgment, what do you expect to see in the coming year between Donald Trump now and Bibi Netanyahu?
KRISTOF: Well, I thought Tom Freedman`s column was exactly right. And we had this remarkable situation of a foreign head of government colluding with the President-Elect to undermine the existing President, the current President. And this right after the U.S. has just given $38 billion military aid package to Israel. The largest aid package in history and I think that what many of us fear is what John Kerry was talking about, that we are going to be marching toward the end of a two-state possibility with settlements increasing, with an Ambassador to Israel David friedman who endorses settlements, that that possibility of a peaceful two-state future is going to slip away.
O`DONNELL: Nicholas Kristof, thank you for joining us tonight, appreciate it.
KRISTOF: Good to be with you.
O`DONNELL: Thank you. Coming up, we will close the show tonight with a personal last word from me, but the very last words of the show will be from someone very special. That`s coming up.
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O`DONNELL: This week the ship that will be commissioned the USS Gabrielle Giffords was delivered to the Navy by the shipbuilder. The Navy plans to put the ship in service next year. Ray Mabus , the Secretary of the Navy appointed by President Obama says he named it after Congresswoman Giffords because of the perseverance she showed after she was severely wounded in mass shooting attack where she was the target of failed assassination attempt. At the christening ceremony Vice Admiral Philip Cullom said courage comes in many forms. Gabby Giffords has truly modeled courage and resilience.
California Republican Congressman member Duncan Hunter however complained that the ship wasn`t named for a service member and some military commanders complained that the Secretary of the Navy is ignoring naval tradition. Retired Marine Major General Tom Wilkerson says the Secretary of the Navy is quote, doing things almost on a feel-good basis. And Retired Rear Admiral George Worthington told the Daily Caller that there are many more people worthy of a ship bearing a ship with their name.
Here are some of the names for U.S. Navy ships that were deemed worthy according to Naval tradition. In 1959, the navy launched the USS Robert E. Lee, a holistic missile submarine named after the treasonous leader of the confederate army which fought against the government of the United States of America. Robert E. Lee led the campaign that killed more than 110,000 United States soldiers. That is as many United States soldiers who were killed in world war I. Robert E. Lee is responsible for their deaths, and more than twice the number, twice the number that were killed in Vietnam.
In 1963, the navy launched the USS Stonewall Jackson, named for another treasonous general, and in 1971, the Navy commissioned the USS Dixon, named for the Commander of a Confederate Ship, the Hunley. The Hunley Commander, Dixon actually sunk an American Navy ship, the USS Housatonic. The USS Dixon sailed in the U.S. Navy until 1995. Two U.S. Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carriers that are still in service are named for U.S. Senators who campaigned for segregation, the USS Carl Vinson, the USS John Stennis, which was commissioned in 1995, named after a segregationist.
Since being appointed by President Obama, Secretary Ray Mabus has named ships after Labor Activist Cesar Chavez, aside for Jeff (ph) Lucy Stone, Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers and named an entire class of Navy vessels after Congressman John Lewis. One of those John Lewis class supply ships is named after Gay Rights Activist and Navy veteran Lieutenant Harvey Milk. Secretary Mabus defended his choices saying I have named ships after Presidents and I have named ships after members of Congress who had been forceful advocates for the Navy and Marine Corps. But I think you have to represent all the values that we hold as Americans and that we hold as a country.
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O`DONNELL: Yesterday President Obama took action to preserve land in south-eastern Utah that is sacred to the Navajo nation creating the Bears Ears National Monument it covers 1.3 million acres and lies just north of the Navajo nation Bears Ears where members of the tribe hid when the United States government forced thousands of Navajo men and women to march at gunpoint to a reservation hundreds of miles from where they had settled. Thousands did not survive what has become known as The Long Walk. Current Navajo Nation president Russell Begay wrote this about Bears Ears and the forced deportation.
This place served to protect my family then, just as it has protected many Native-American people throughout the years. President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation to protect this land as a national monument for future generations of Navajo people and for all Americans thanks to his actions. This land will finally be given the legal reverence and protection it deserves. Navajo nation president Russell Begay joins us now. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.
Can you tell us how you got the news of President Obama`s decision, and how you felt when you heard that news?
RUSSELL BEGAY, NAVAJO NATION PRESIDENT: Well, thank you again for being on your show. (FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Yes, we received the news yesterday, and we were so excited because we got it in the morning and we were told that the announcement was going to happen about around three Mountain Time and so we did some prep work. But I tell you I was wanting to tell our people that the designation was going to occur that day, but there was an embargo making that announcement they say we want to make sure the announcement was made after the president signs off on the proclamation.
But we were already starting to celebrate. There`s a lot of joy on Navajo nation and across the southwest, but then I also got just announcements from all over the nation and even leaders in Canada. So excited that this was a collaborative effort by Indian leaders, Indian people, wanting to see this happen, and finally, 80 years of work and lobbying, this has taken place. So, a day of celebration, historic, and just the way it was designated just really makes it worth the effort, long years of waiting, one administration after another, democratic leaders, republicans.
And this was a truly Native-American effort, it was great. So, thank you.
O`DONNELL: Well we reported last night that this lobbying effort as you say began under President Roosevelt 80 years ago, and as the tribes have long known, dealing with this government takes patience, as we`ve seen once again. President Russell Begay thank you very much for joining us tonight, really appreciate it.
BEGAY: Thank you, it is really good. Again just to say thank you to this administration and President Obama, for designating the Bears Ears as a national monument. You know, a lot of things has been stolen, but now it`s going to be protected for future generations, and we just thank the administration for making this happen. Thank you.
O`DONNELL: President Begay again thank you for joining us, really appreciate it. Thank you. We`ll be right back.
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O`DONNELL: Time for tonight`s and this year`s Last Word. my Last Words are simply, thank you. Thank you to you for supporting this show again this year and much more importantly, thank you for supporting the K.I.N.D Fund again this year and breaking your own record for generosity. Kids in need of desks, K.I.N.D, is a unique partnership MSNBC created with UNICEF to provide kids in need of desks in African schools that have never had desks. K.I.N.D also provides scholarships for girls to attend high school in Malawi where public school -- public high school is not free.
This holiday season you have contributed a record $2,779,223, bringing the total raised in the six years of the K.I.N.D Fund to $13,491,143. You can always contribute to the K.I.N.D Fund all year at lastworddesks.msnbc.com. Tonight I want to thank two people who I don`t usually thank publicly but without home the K.I.N.D Fund would not exist. This is not a career that I pursued. I always saw myself as a writer not an anchorman. I expected to spend my life writing essays and books and TV drama scripts and maybe movies.
A writer`s deal strike detoured me in to politics and government in Washington for eight years and when I left Washington Andy Lack was building a new network he was going to call MSNBC and asked me to become a political analyst. And he was then president of NBC news and put me on MSNBC in the first hour of the first day that the network was launched. And so you have Andy Lack to blame for everything that has happened to me here on MSNBC.
Andy left for other adventures for several years, and when he returned to run NBC news again, he found in this anchor chair here at 10 p.m. because Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC moved me from political analyst to host of a primetime hour. I`m here because of Andy and Phil. It`s as simple as that. The K.I.N.D Fund is here on their network thanks to Andy Lack and Phil Griffin. When I proposed creating the K.I.N.D. fund to Phil Griffin six years ago, he listened to my three minute pitch and he said great.
He didn`t say let me talk to the lawyer. He didn`t send the idea into a series of corporate meetings. He didn`t get it lost in the quicksand of all that. He simply said great. He knew he was making a new budget commitment to support the K.I.N.D Fund, but he didn`t have to think about it. I started to explain a little more to him how I thought it could work, and he said "I get it. This is who we are." Those were his words, "this is who we are." When Andy Lack returned to NBC I never had to explain to him the K.I.N.D Fund.
Most TV news executives would worry about diverting several minutes of prime time to something no one in the news business considers the news of the day, but Andy and Phil have never wavered in their support for K.I.N.D. And I never thank them enough. And so tonight I want to thank Andy Lack and Phil Griffin for their generous support of the K.I.N.D Fund. It`s been a tough year for TV news executives. They`ve all been criticized for how TV has covered the presidential campaign, and that`s an important conversation we should all participate in, what we got wrong, what we got right.
But none of us get to see the full picture of what TV news executives have to deal with in their jobs, and tonight I just want to open this one window into what Andy Lack and Phil Griffin have done that no one else in their industry has ever done. There are hundreds of thousands of kids who have desks in their classrooms now, thanks to them. There are hundreds of girls in high school now, in Malawi, thanks to Andy Lack And Phil Griffin. Phil was right when he said, "this is who we are." I want "The Last Word" of the year to come from Joyce Chisale.
One of the girls who is in high school now, thanks to the K.I.N.D Fund. I introduced you to her last month when I returned from Malawi. I want to return to that moment that I showed you before when Joyce told me what she wants to be when she grows up, and how that led to her reciting a poem that she`s written. It`s a poem that clearly captures the struggle of girls trying to get through high school in Malawi, but according to your responses on Twitter it is like all great poetry, inspirational for all of us, with life lessons for all of us. So "The Last Word" of the year goes to Joyce Chisale.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: When you grow up, what do you want to be?
JOYCE CHISALE, K.I.N.D FUND SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT: I like to be a doctor and a poet.
O`DONNELL: A poet.
CHISALE: Yes.
O`DONNELL: Do you have a poem that you`ve written?
CHISALE: Yes.
O`DONNELL: Can we hear it?
CHISALE: My poem is entitled little by little.
O`DONNELL: Little by little.
CHISALE: Yes.
O`DONNELL: OK.
CHISALE: Little by little we`ll go. No matter how far the distance is, we are not shaken. Little by little we`ll go and reach our destination. Little by little we`ll go, no matter how bumpy or rocky the road is, we are not going to turn back. Little by little we`ll go and fulfill our dreams. Little by little we`ll go no matter how narrow the path is.
END
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