and senator as you know we are here for the presidential candidates. whatever you can make it, we will make this space for you. appreciate it. that is tonight's "last word." "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. be on. >> that is tonight's last word. >> tonight in new hampshire, trump goes after his enemies. he claims the democrats are the party of socialism and executing babies and if he wasn't elected the markets would have crashed. earlier today he shed two members of congress shouldn't be allowed to visit israel. the shocking part is when the israel prime minister stopped them. meanwhile, about eight miles from this studio citizens are forced to wait in long lines in the hot sun for bottled water to replace the poison in their

water pipes after the government ignored them for years. all a part of "the 11th hour" just getting underway on this thursday night. good evening from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. this is day 938 of the trump administration and another of the norms of behavior in the world fell away today. it wasn't shocking that donald trump asked israel to turn away two members of congress that wanted to visit israel. he wrote this about the congresswomen. it would show great weakness if israel allowed rep omar askand tlaib. but netanyahu gave in and gave way to the american president. israel said they would not be allowing the congresswomen into

their country. netanyahu wrote as a vibrant and free democracy israel is open to any critic and criticism with one exception. israel's law prohibits the entry of people who call a boycott to israel as the case with other democrats that prevent from harming the country. before the rally in new hampshire, the president was asked about his conversations with israel. >> your conversations with people connected with israel, did you encourage them -- >> i don't encourage or discoura discourage. i think if israel allowed them to come in for the normal reasons other than those reasons i really believe it would be a terrible thing for israel. it would show a terrible sign. >> the "washington post" is reporting that a senior white house official said trump never directly told netanyahu to

prohibit the visit but the advisors conveyed the president's trviews to the israi government. congresswoman omar wrote the irony of the only democracy in the middle east making such a decision is that it both is an insult to democratic values. >> congresswoman tlaib posted this. the truth of what is happen to palestinians is frightening. axios reported trump thought they should bar the congresswomen from entering the country and they write -- the

israeli government can do what they want. it's fake news grisham said on saturday. at the rally tonight the president did not bring up israel's decision but at one point he mentioned congresswoman omar while talking about mines in minnesota. >> maybe we can get representative omar from minnesota to open it up. but i don't think so. she will open them up. i don't think so. representative, omar. that's another one. we are replacing nafta with a brand-new usmca, mexico and canada. >> earlier in the rally where there were the usual boos for the media and boos at the mention of president obama's name where the president took credit for revitalization of our economy, the va, the military and nasa.

the president said this about his political movement. >> our movement is built on love, and it is. we love our family. we love our faith. we love our flag. we love our freedom. that 's what it's about. >> joining us on a thursday evening, ashley parker, white house reporter for the "washington post." bureau chief for the "new york times" and donna edwards from the great state of maryland who is these days a "washington post" columnist. elizabeth, i would like to begin with you. where on the list of norms falling around us does this belong? >> this is not on a list of any norms. it is one of the most astounding things president trump has done, and that is saying quite a bit as you know. we looked back. we can find no evidence of any

other american president ever pushing a foreign country to bar the entry of u.s. citizens let alone democratically elected members of congress. this is way off of the charts and off the charts even for president trump. >> ashley parker, what is your reporting on how it went down other than the president's thumbs on his phones. >> this is an idea the president was floating for a couple of weeks. initially very senior officials tried to say mr. president, you know, this would be unprecedented. there is a long history of israel letting in members of congress despite political or policy disagreements. it is just not done. last night we understood that israel, they understood the president's point of view and they were getting ready to make a decision. democratic lawmakers were desperately lobbying them not to

make the decision they made. while they were deliberating. they were deliberating with knowledge of what president trump wanted, he went ahead and sent out his tweet further boxing them in. >> congresswoman, i want to read you two tweets from both sides of the aisle. the first from marco rubio today. i disagree 100% with representatives tlaib and omar but denying them entry into israel is a mistake. being blocked is what they really hoped for all along in order to bolster their attacks against the jewish state. and then we cross the aisle to tim kaine and he goes there on the subject of usa. prime minister netanyahu, drop your muslim bam. congress votes over and over again to provide unprecedented security assistance to israel,

banning any member disrespects us all. what do you make of both those? >> for once we didn't see the republicans coming out and really affirmatively saying that this is wrong. i do not think they have gone far enough. i agree with senator kaine, israel is the largiest resilient of military assistance in the world. we are allies. i think that this is really unacceptable. i know we use the term outrageous all the time. we have the president of the united states making favor with a foreign government, even an ally government against the interest of the united states. members of congress. it is really unacceptable. these are members of congress whose job that it is to vote on

foreign assistance. they can't even do their -- play their proper roles and do their job. i think it is unacceptable. it really demonstrates not just weakness on the part of the president of the united states, but it demonstrates weakness on the part of prime minister netanyahu as well who has really fallen captive to this president. you know, i do not think that members of congress frankly should be traveling to israel under these circumstances until this order is rescinded. i know there are a group of members that are there now making an annual trip. you know, i think that it is time to come home. israel really has to treat members of congress with the respect they deserve. frankly strong democracies don't behave like this.

>> elisabeth, where are the wise men and women, the voices we have come to expect in normal times. just three names did occur. powell, obama, kissinger. any number of former secretary of states, former national security advisors. has everyone gone numb? >> we have not heard that much from people. even apec which is very pro-israel condemned this today. that was a new one. no. we have not heard from the former secretary of state. i think we will. there was outrage today even from republicans want the president is trying to make the members of congress, the face of the democratic party. it was a very strong political move. you know, he and netanyahu are

joined at the hip. >> there is a point to be made here. these are 2 of the 4 members of the squad, regardless of the sanctity of the mission by their action are again in the news and have given the president oxygen and ammunition to make them the face of the party. >> we know the president of the united states does not have any more plays. his poll numbers are in the tank. he is losing to any number of democratic nominees and his trade policy is falling apart twhampt does he do? goes to the culture wars and

goes to pick a fight with the members of congress. the american people are not falling for this anymore. if this is all the president has to hang his hat on. attacking four members of congress. going after them for their religion and for their views, he might as well hang it up. >> are they blameless for going on this mission to test the limits? >> no. i don't think so. when i was in congress, i travelled to israel and to the palestinian controlled areas and in to gaza. these are members of congress. they should be able to go wherever they want and where other members can go.

unacceptable to tell members of congress and allies and friends where they can or cannot go. freedom of travel suspect protected in our first attempt. >> ashley parker, we fast forward to new hampshire tonight. a rally some of us watched on live television. fox chose to come and go from their live coverage. but the president seemed comfortable in the warm bath of his rally audience. is there discomfort on his part deep in the west wing on the economy to name one? >> there absolutely is.

in talking to people in the white house this week they think he has gotten all of the credit he can get on tax cuts. he did all of the roll backs he will be able to do. they think if the economy goes south there is an understanding he will pay the political penalty. there is hope that they are really pushing it. the vice president is traveling all around the country pushing this. the usmca. they are hoping it will be a good deal to mexico and canada but send a message to the global economy. >> we heard that make his way back into his prepared remarks. if you are beto o'rourke, is it fair to ask where is my coverage. i relaunched my presidency today

but at the pace the circus moves on, swept away in part by events. >> it is really hard to get that kind of attention. president trump sucks up all of the oxygen in the room most of the time. it is one thing after another. you can see the top tier joe biden, you know, elizabeth warren, kamala harris, bernie sanders get attention. those in the single digits don't. trump kind of dominates everything. i want to say one more thing. i would like to say a more creative politician would have said or might have said to the members of congress, come on over. come and see israel. let us show you what we have. that was not to be.

>> interesting last word. thank you for that. our thank guess to ashley parker and donna edwards for starting off our conversation in terrific fashion tonight. coming up for us, how trump's unprecedented power play today puts the nation's global standing at risk perhaps. and later, residents of an american city are told not to drink the water coming out of their faucets. if they want water they can come and get some. our infrastructure has failed our citizens. all of it as "the 11th hour" is just getting started on a thursday night. is just getting started on a thursday night ♪

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>> prime minister netanyahu. >> i think my social media statement pretty well speaks for itself. i feel like they are so anti-israel and so anti-jewish. if other people made the statement there would have been hell to pay. but i did speak to people over there, yeah. >> to put it the short way donald trump did not think two members of congress should be able to visit israel and got netanyahu of israel to go along. the editorial page of the "new york times" puts it this way.

>> trump has also up-ended foreign policy norms when dealing with china, the other subject we were talking about this week. he renewed his call for talks with china's leader and the prodemocracy group in hong kong and insists the u.s. has leverage. >> i get along with them very well. i would be willing to bet if he sat down with the protesters, i bet he would work it out in 15 minutes. i think we are having good discussions with china. we had a deal and they decided not to make it. now i think they would have liked to have the opportunity again. >> for more we are joined tonight by rick stengel, former undersecretary of state, happens to be a former managing editor of time magazine and our nbc

news national political reporter. gentlemen, welcome to you both. rick stengel, remember a time people thought tony blair was a s s supplicant. >> to the president of the united states. he is treating netanyahu like a governor of a red state that trump can just snap his fingers and hop to it. israel basically is a red state trump won by 10%. he is so much more popular in israel than he is with american jews and thinks he can translate that popularity to get more jewish voters. he only won 25% of jewish voters. he won 5% less than mitt romney did. this is not going to endear

himself. >> the expression, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. what of today's toothpaste can never be put back in the tube? we have a g7 days from now where our president will represent our country. >> the big thing is the president requiring this obedience from foreign leaders and friends. you don't ask your friends for too much. he basically asked benjamin netanyahu to sacrifice a ton of israel's pride and honor, so that donald trump could feel good for a day. so he could get one in on omar and tlaib. the jewish people for thousands of years have survived the worst tyrants in the world.

today they had to pretend they were afraid of two u.s. congress women. >> i want to show you donald trump from 2015 on china and from tonight on china. >> think about me or somebody working on the china deal and making it much better. we are being led by people that don't get it. it is so easy. i never said china would be easy. >> there you have it. a couple of years can make a huge difference. china is not easy. it's hard. one thing i heard you asking this week what happened to the united states being the beacon of hope and freedom in that part of the world? >> it should be an easy call to side with the protesters in hong kong who are asking for freedom of speech and freedom of choice. we supported the two chinas and the two different policies.

the thing about trump and china that i find disturbing, when you ask a westerner what time it is, they look at their watch. you ask a chinese person what time it is, they look at the calendar. trump is playing for 2020, every day. the chinese are playing for 2200. who are you going to put your money on? people that don't react to the stock market every day or people playing a long game. they feel they are going to outbox him in the long run and in the short run too. >> today there were two major departures from our government and from the administration. dan coates and sue gordon, let's hope they were at least given a party in the break room before their way out. two major guard rails that have fallen away. >> i think there will be a lot of people in washington saying the adults left the room.

dan coates and sue gordon. there is no policy process or anyone running the installation. there is nothing like it now. you have independent operators within the administration trying to get their policies going forward. at some points they are able to get something done. the president throws the table up in the air. some cases you see the national security advisor, john bolton, putting something in to motion and the presidencies that after it is announced and pulls it back. i think it is difficult to have faith that there will be any difference with new people or any stability with new people. >> rick stengel, there are career professionals still left in the state department who will

be holding their breath when the president goes into the series of bilateral leaders. >> he doesn't understand, trump does not understand people that work in government who are loyal to an institution or loyal to a policy. you have to be loyal to me. that is the only loyalty he understands. when trump goes into the meetings, he overemphasizes the idea that leaders make decisions. rather than the idea that the state department represents. the countries have interests. trump only is ever representing his own interest. >> we are back to a g7. i am -- these g's come and go. >> yeah. thanks guys for coming by. and coming up, an emergency in

new jersey's largest city bringing not just echoes but direct comparisons to flint, michigan. more on that right when we come back. michigan more on that right when we come back

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nobody has taken them out of the ground. >> the largest city in the most densely populated state in our union, newark, new jersey has been staggered by a crisis over lead in the drinking water that the city has known about for years. this affects thousands of homes, most of them in low income neighborhood where lead pipes bring the water in from the street. efforts to hand out filters failed when the filters failed and an effort to hand out bottled water to those willing to come and get it in the hot sun was botched. what is happening in newark, new jersey exposes the intersection of poverty, health, race and class and the word that has come to mean so much that it now means virtually nothing, infrastructure. here with us for more tonight is

karen covering the city of newark for advanced media and her work appears in "the star-ledger" and nj.com and with us is a new jersey native, because that is important to these guys, nick covers new jersey for the "new york times." nick, it is my home state. i am rather charged up about this. let's start with the baseline. what does lead in the water do to the human body and most urgently to the developing brains of children? >> the fda said that no amount of lead is safe to drink. it is not healthy or okay for anyone to ingest. there are certain actionable levels governments must take but it is incredibly clear for a long time there is no amount of lead that is safe to drink at

all. it affects the development of the babies. >> karen, some of these folks are born with staggering disadvantages. that they have no chance in american society. i know a large part of your work is getting to an answer of this. >> we know lead levels in the city began to spike in 2017. the city at the beginning insisted it was a problem with 12 homes because of old lead lines, infrastructure and not widespread. not until a year later in 2018 after the gnarl natural resourc defense council sued. these are old lead pipes, garden

hose size that connect to homes. they were flaking off coming off in the faucets. it took a year for the city to acknowledge this is happening across one of our water treatment areas. >> nick, without running a chemistry class here, like flint when they change the formulation of the drinking water at the source it depends how much goes down the pipes. there is an additive that is safe to consume and bathe keeping the lead more at bay. is that what happened here? >> there is an anti-corrosive inhibitor to create a film on the pipe preventing the ledge from getting in the water. what happened in newark when they dropped the ph level of the water to raise the acidity to deal with a different problem they had that rendered the

inhibitor presenting the lead from reaching in completely ineffective. >> karen, after the shooting in el paso, everyone kind of realized that we have a presidential candidate in the race who is from there. since then his campaign has become about a single issue. we have a presidential candidate with a newark address and a former mayor of the city no less. what is the cory booker record in this mess? >> lead levels in the city did not spike in 2017. he was no longer over the city when we had the levels but there were problems in 2016 in the schools. 30 schools in newark had to turn off their drinking water. there has been questions whether he could have prevented this or done more around infrastructure.

but he was not here in newark when the lead levels started to rise. >> has he moved forward to take on the issues in his hometown? >> he asked the epa to step in funding the bottled water program. almost 90,000 cases of water distributed. some of those were past the expiration date. at this point we don't know how long the program will last. we don't have answers why the filters are failing. >> for what it's worth, nick, as someone that was born and raised in the state if this were happening in my hometown of middletown where the current governor lives now or summit or bedminister or rumston, there would be holy hell going on and we know it. this is part of race and class. has a leader emerged to step forward saying i am going to help fix this?

>> if there is any leader in it, it is the nr dc. they have been sounding the alarm before anyone was ready to acknowledge it. they were pushing and pushing. ever since it has consumption out and escalated you have seen governor murphy saying safe water is not a privilege but a right. he started to push. but if there is any leader sought to fix it the most it is the nr dc. >> i see a city paralyzed that is saying to people if you want water, come and get it. if they would think if someone emerged, new jersey has about 1,000 fire departments, most volunteer. that is what they do. make calls in a circle around newark. ask for one crew, a day shift. one fire truck for one day each. every fire house. they will arrive. put it on the hose bed of the

trucks. give them a map of the service area. they will deliver the water as the folks deserve. i haven't heard anyone step up saying we would not ask our moms and dads to wait in the hot sun for two heavy cases of hot bottled water. how dare they expect people to do that when there is poison down their pipes. >> they are waiting in the summer heat. we heard of people being turned away because they did not qualify. there are two water treatment systems that feed the city. only one are eligible. the eastern side can't get water. we were hearing the lawsuit file and a city officialk knowledged people in the eastern part of the city can't get water if you are a pregnant or nursing mom you should be able to get water.

the city is not trying to fight with residents when there is so much panic. i will say there are companies that stepped up, pepsi and anheuser bush have pledged to donate bottled water. lyft, the city has offered door to door services for some of the senior citizens. >> yeah. it needs to be more of a marshall plan than it is now. we will stay on this. i know you will. thanks for your reporting. thanks for coming by tonight. coming up, a would-be democratic rival for donald trump restarts his campaign. we will fwawill talk about that come back. will talk about that we come back. termites.

we're on the move. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. terminix. defenders of home.

>> the kind of challenges we face in this country at this moment of crisis require an

urgency. unless we want to reap the consequences of failing to meet them. >> beto o'rourke with the relaunch of his campaign. he came off of the trail following the mass shooting that killed 22 people in his hometown 12 days ago. tonight on this network the candidate made it clear he has no intention of heeding the calls to head home, drop out of the presidential race, run for senate again in texas. >> let me make your show the place i tell you and i tell the country that i will not in any scenario run for the united states senate. i am running for president. i am running for the country. i am taking the fight directly to donald trump. >> so much to talk about there and luckily for all of us we have the perfect guest to do so. columnist and associate editor at real clear politics.

so much to discuss. his set piece cadence is very set piece. it is a method, a studied method of speaking. donald trump uses the language of the streets as he did again tonight. his speaking voice is the same as his speaking voice. all of the events of today, the circus moved on through town. what are we left with here? a guy that does not crack our polling. he is not in the top seven. who can't buy double digits. he is beneath yang so he does not make the first panel of candidates. so what is in it for him if i can be so crass? >> that is a good question. he is in nothing left to lose mode. politicians say the strangest things. i remember watching him say he was not going to run for president. he was not going to run. but i think he has made it clear like others he does not want to

be in the senate. and he is, because of 38 elect t electoral votes in the lone star state which would stop donald trump's re-election, that would stop things for him or maybe kamala harris is chosen and he has the map. i believe at this point he needs to go for broke. hickenlooper say he would consider. bullock does not want to run for the senate in montana. chuck schumer is desperate for these people to be the best recruits he can get against people that could be vulnerable in all of these states. abrhams in georgia. she refuses to do it. >> i heard more passionately from you on the need for democrats to go home and run for

these seats. if they are tired for mitch mcconnell having the title majority leader. take away the majority. if chuck schumer believed it wouldn't he be banging the drum every day? >> the democrats don't want you to know they have a huge rift in their party. the fact that they are in denial about the fact that without the senate they could do nothing. they could get donald trump out of the white house but legislation and judges, they would be paralyzed. the devotion of time, resources, debate discussion. all of that is lost because they are quibbling whether they want to reorder society with a huge revolution or stabilize the country with normal see with joe biden. that will be ploer tense as we get closer to iowa in february.

>> that was wisdom and happens when you invite really smart people to be here. as democrats descend on new hampshire, the president suggests that state was actually stolen from him in the last election. last election covers 80% of your c ost, leaving you to pay the rest. changes to medicare are no laughing matter. if you don't know the plans available now, you might end up with a doctor you're not so comfortable with, or even worse, being forced to pay thousands in medical expenses due to coverage limitations. that'll be how much? understanding all the options, let's face it, it can be downright confusing. that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. they search thousands of plans from leading insurance companies to find a plan that's right for you. plans that have prescription drug coverage, dental and vision care, and that offer extra benefits you may not even know were available. some plans may eliminate your out of pocket cost like copays and deductibles,

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>> is there anything better than a trump rally? what about a sleepy joe biden rally? you got kamala. kamala is falling. beto. he is like -- >> that's our president on the attack in new hampshire, at his rally. earlier today he made a baseless claim he would have won new

hampshire back in 2016 if not for non-existent voter fraud. >> i think we will do very well in new hampshire. new hampshire should have been won last time except we had a lot of people come in at the last moment which was a rather strange situation. thousands and thousands of people coming in from locations unknown. but i knew where the location was. >> didn't happen. fantasy fiction. he lost new hampshire. still with us, it wasn't canadians coming over the border for our health care. did you notice thousands of people come in to new hampshire. >> he had a voter fraud commission that turned up nothing. but he is like a four-hit wonder. he loves it. he will go back to it next year. you can bet your house on this, brian, if he loses we will hear about illegal voters. there will be somalis in

minnesota, mexicans in california. this is exactly what he will do if he ends up in defeat. he has always talked about it like he believes it. new hampshire in his mind, he almost clinched it. >> watch those canadians coming in here for our health care. this fox news poll. this is the net change from july to august. summer. we don't have national elections. biden up 12 now opposed to july. sanders up by nine. warren jumps. harris jumps head-to-head versus this president. does it tell you anything? is it worth a bucket of warm spit as they used to say? >> for the president his polling against the democratic contenders comes in lower than his low approval ratings. there are really bad signs for him to worry about.

he refuses to govern or campaign beyond his base or try to grow his base. he really is disinterested. if he looks at the number of people in the country that approve of the job he is doing versus those that approve of his job. that is still a huge gap. he does not make efforts to mitigate this or to fix it. but there is very little in polling for him to be happy about. it is a long time away. there is not a democratic nominee. it is still looking like a referendum on president trump. when there is a choice, he hopes the person will be an evil socialist. but at this point if you look at all of his liabilities with the issues on the economy and his numbers against, almost all of the democratic primary contenders, he has to be worried. >> amy, thanks for being with us tonight. look for every piece she does on

real clear politics. up next, is it really too much work to hand out bottled water? h work to hand out bottled water

last thing before we go tonight, a reminder of what we can do in case there are any questions on that front. on this day in 1914, the panama canal was opened. it and was remains one of the great engineering feats of all-time. changed the world and redefined what was physically possible and

took the leadership of teddy roosevelt to ride it to completion, overcome obstacles and got done. it is the anniversary of vj day in 1945 in colossal fashion following the only use of atomic weapons in the world the united states won the war in pacific vanquished tyranny. it took the leadership of franklin roosevelt. why do we talk about our history every chance we get? to remind ourselves who we are and in too many cases who we used to be. we are hoping it will be useful for citizens, perhaps the citizens of newark, new jersey the next time any elected leader says we are sorry we just can't get you water to replace the poison in the pipes in your home. you have to come get it.

we know the lines are long, the water is heavy but there is no way we can get it to you. at one time we were the wonder of the world carving a path through the service of the earth to join two oceans and tonight on "all in" -- >> why did you feel you need to get involved in the two congresswomen's trip to israel? >> the president demands a foreign government retaliate against american citizens. >> i can't imagine why israel would let them in. >> tonight, the growing outrage over the president's behavior and his continued attacks on the first two muslim women in congress. senator bernie sanders joins me on the trump attacks on the squad and a trump economy teetering on the edge of recession. pluswh