Hopefully with an agreement, this group and others from the senate, from the house comes back with an agreement, im signing it. I mean, i will be signing it. Im not going to say gee, i want this or that. Ill be signing it. That seemed clear. But after totally rejecting that deal, the deal they came back with and throwing in some world shocking racist ininvestigatetive for good measure, Senate Democrats are plowing forward without the president today introducing the bipartisan bill that the president himself rejected. This agreement gives President Trump every single penny that he asked for. For Border Security in his budget request. Almost 1. 6 billion for construction on the border. Of barriers and all sorts of fences and whatever else is needed even walls. This was not easy. We came to this agreement and we sent it over and had it drafted. It will be introduced this afternoon. The original three sponsors on the republican side will be joined by three more. Without a spending deal, the government will shut down friday at midnight. Without a daca deal, 800,000 d. R. E. A. M. Ers face possible deportation after march 5th thanks to President Trumps decision to end daca. Today, Capitol Police arrested 82 people seeking to prevent the deportations in the rotunda of the Russell Senate office building. Republicans want to pass a shortterm bill to fund the government without any protections for those 800,000 people. Many democrats are refusing to play along unless the d. R. E. A. M. Ers are protected. The overwhelming number in our caucus have said they dont like this deal and they believe if we kick account can down the road this time, well be back where we started from next time. So theres very, very strong support not to go along with their deal. For his part, President Trump is attempting to place the blame for the possible shutdown on anyone but himself. Today he described the bipartisan deal that again he said he would sign on Live Television that he then changed his mind and rejected, the one that included all the money he asked for on Border Security. I described that same deal as horrible on security adding its the opposite of what i campaigned for. He was reportedly pressured not to sign the deal by immigration restriction hard liners including Steven Miller and john kelly. Today kelly, the man who infamously lied to smear Frederica Wilson went to capitol hill to meet with Congressional Democrats a meeting that reportedly ended with no resolution with what the administration wants in exchange. According to Washington Post, trumps chief of staff said the United States will never construct a physical wall along the entire stretch of the u. S. mexico bodder and some of President Trumps promises on immigration were uninformed. The bill introduced today would likely have enough votes to pass Mitch Mcconnell. What sure likes an attempt to protect the president politically is refusing to allow a vote. Im looking for something that President Trump supports. And hes not yet indicated what measure hes willing to sign. As soon as we figure out what he is for, then i would be convinced that we were not just be spinning our wheels going to this issue on floor but actually dealing with a bill that has a chance to become law and therefore, solve the problem. Joining me mazie hirona of hawaii. Youre shaking your head. Why . We have a bipartisan bill we could have passed a long time ago to resolve the situation. I was there on tuesday when the president said you brick me a bipartisan bill, ill support it. For Mitch Mcconnell to say hes waiting for the president to make up his mind, we should live so long. There are two groups of people that face dire consequences if we dont do something quickly and the dreamers, 800,000 of them and there are also the people who are on temporary protective status, el salvadorans, 200,000 could be deported. This compromise measure that durbin, graham measure would address both of these concerns. But you know, its been tough. But nonetheless, there is a bipartisan deal and im glad that you reminded everybody that it is the president who said maybe we need a Good Government shutdown so i can have my wall. Well, the idea is that democrats if theres a shutdown that the white house is basically trying to set the terms that the democrats are responsible. And at one level, it would be, the democrats in the senate would have to hold enough votes withhold enough votes to hold the line to not pass something that doesnt have daca protections. You have joe manchin saying Something Like i think everyone has the empathy and compassion. Shutting down the governments not going to help them. Can you hold the line on this . I know where i am. Ive been very consistent in wanting four things in any measure that brings this forward. One, we need to have the daca protections. We need to fund the Community Health centers. Millions of our families go to Community Health haves. We need to fund the Childrens Health program, 9 million children rely upon that and we need parity between the defense and nondefense side. So i will not be supporting a measure that do not have these four items and believe me, whatever the house is going to send to us will not have those four. So i think its really sad that when you think about it, the people who are in the majority who set the agenda, the republicans who control both the house, the senate as well as the presidency, they are very busy trying to convince the American Public that they are not responsible for any government shutdown. They have created this situation. They have created the situation. And i think the American People are wising up to the fact thatting this kind of fake news coming from the president or fake positions, theyre not going to buy. What do you make of you are not the first individual to sit across from donald trump and have him say one thing only to learn he has changed his position later. But what do you make of sitting there while he said basically, you had an interaction where he said ill sign whatever you brick back. Now hes calling the deal horrible. It just goes to show that the president is very america cural. When you mentioned steve miller and kelly, its like theyre two whispering in his ear to Donald Trumps othello. We know how badly that turned out. Do you think the chief of staff, john kelly, shares the views of Steven Miller on immigration . Do you think he shares the president s views of certain countries as he so colorfully articulated in that meeting . Im pretty sure his chief of staff is a very hard line person on immigration. Ive had discussions with him when he was secretary of Homeland Security and that was definitely the conclusion i drew. He can be really good on some of the other areas but i believe that on immigration, hes a real hard liner. And im pretty sure that he told the president this is a bad deal. So the president has no problems going back on his word where millions of people in our country including you, heard him say right out of his mouth. Senator mazie hirono, thanks for your time tonight. Aloha. Joining me two members of the house who today introduced a competing daca and Border Security bill. Congressman hurd, let me start with you. First of all, on the president s comments in that meeting, do you condemn, do you disavow those comments . Yeah, i wasnt there in the meeting first off. I think any of those kinds of comments arent helpful to creating an environment in which we can get things done. Im focused on working with my colleagues and thats why ive been excited to work with pete aguilar on solving this problem. Lets have a daca fix and lets have some strong Border Security. And get this done and move on to other issues. Congressman aguilar, the house gop is already saying that House Democrats such as yourself who the last time i checked and i could be wrong are in the minority in the house, i believe thats correct, that you are responsible for an impending shutdown and you dont care where chip recipients if the house gop cant pass a cr here. Yeah, i mean, absolutely. Its just not accurate. The responsibility of the majority is to govern. And so clearly thats what we need to see here. But even when it cops to shutdowns, republicans 90 of them voted against a cr in september. The so the obligation for republicans in the majority is to govern and put up the votes. Well see shortly if they have the votes. There was the hastert rule that guided the house for a long time. Basically is required a majority of the Republican Caucus, a majority of the majority support a piece of legislation for it to come to the floor. Im willing to bet the proposal you and congressman aguilar are come up would pass in the next five minutes if you moved it to the floor. I doubt it has a majority of the Republican Caucus supporting it. So its dead in the water, right . I wouldnt say its dead in the water. This is something weve had a lot of conversations with our colleagues about. Nobody has ever questioned the validity of how this is helpful for Border Security, how this is a good protection for the 1. 2 million kids that have come here through no fault of their own. Folks are seeing are there other elements, what can actually what does the president want to see. Theres a lot of questions, but what weve tried to do is put together a thoughtful plan, Start Building a coalition, the fact that we have the 50 members, 25 republicans and 25 democrats, that have agreed this is a way is a good first step. Right. I get that. But am i wrong, am i misunderstanding the math here . My understanding is you congressman hurd, have to sell a majority of the Republican Caucus or paul ryan is not going to let that thing see anywhere near the floor because it might pass which he doesnt want unless a majority of republicans support it. Look, we are trying to get a majority of republicans on this. We still have 50 hours to try to get this done before january 19th. This is something that were trying to build support so we cant stop. Its too important of an issue. Also as the member of congress who has more border than anybody else, i have over 820 miles of it, Border Security is important. We havent gotten operational control of our border. We should. But we should do it in a smart way that Leverages Technology and manpower in order to ensure were protecting our homeland. Congressman aguilar, does your bill call for a wall to be built in mexico to pay for it . It does not. That piece of the Campaign Promise as weve heard would now the happen. So then how are you going to get the president to sign it if the marker he put down in rejecting the Senate Version of this is that its not what he campaigned on . The president s been all over the map on this. You heard senator mcconnell mention we dont have clear guidance while i appreciate productive conversations, with chief of staff john kelly earlier today on his team that was here up on the hill, you know, clearly we want to see more out of what the administration would like to see. In the absence of leadership, we have to show were a coequal branch of government. Its obligation to put something on the president s desk. Thats what weve tried to do in a bipartisan thoughtful way. Lets put a bill on his desk that fixes daca and adds a smart sensible Border Security component and see what he does then. Congressman, you said that you have more of the border than anyone else in the United States congress. My understanding is that net inflows have reached a low in the last 10 or 15 years if you look at that period of time. Weve increased border spending every year. If theres fewer border crossings and less people coming over, why do we keep expanding the amount of money we spend on it . Well, so in the last year, we have seen apprehensions decrease. What you dont know you dont know, you cant calculate. We cant see at any one point in time what is happening along our border. We know, for example, along our coast, the coast guard is only able to action 30 of the intelligence that they receive on drugs being smuggled into our country. Thats a pretty terrible number. So one, we should make sure we understand whats coming back and forth. Again, i would rather use technology or a smart wall which only costs about half a Million Dollars a mile versus a 30foot high concrete structure that requires 24. 5 million a mile and for all those folks watching on tv that arent math majors, thats a difference of 24 million a mile. A final question for you, congress hurd, since i have you here and you had a sort of remarkable experience yesterday in which steve bannon came in and his lawyers on the phone with the white house. He was subpoenaed there on the spot. Fellow members of that Committee Republican and democrat have expressed frustration with bannons invoctive privilege. Do you share that frustration . I think that could have been better handled and better prepared before he came there. The American People deserve to understand and know what happened. And also, our conversation needs to be moving towards how do we prepare to deal with this in 2018. Weve had a lot of conversations, we know the russians try to erode trust in our democratic institutions. What is our strategy to deal with this in 2018. This is something also the only way to get it done in a bipartisan way and it requires more than the federal government. Make sure state governments are involved and the private sector and academia dealing with covert disinformation campaigns. We need to move to that conversation because 2018 elections are just around the corner. Representatives will hurd and peter aguilar, good luck in your quest to get a majority of the majority thanks to you both. Thanks, chris. Next, what happened in the nearly ten hours steve bannon spent testifying behind closed doors. Tonight, details about the mid testimony phone calls to the white house and what bonnen reportedly let slip about that Infamous Trump tower meeting in two minutes. Weve learned a little more today about Steve Bannons testimony on capital little. What we know is remarkable. Bannon spoke yesterday behind closed doors at the house intelligence committee. Today the a. P. Is reporting he was less than forthcoming. They report his attorney bill burke was asking the White House Counsels Office by phone during the tuesday session whether his client could answer questions. Bannons lawyer was on the phone with the white house as bannon was being questioned. Unsurprisingly lawmakers on both sides were frustrated by his appearance. The white house says the whole thing was just standard operating proceed your. Thats the same process that is typically followed. Sometimes they actually have a white house attorney present in the room. This time it was something that was relayed via phone. And again, was following standard procedure for an instance like this and something that will likely happen again on any other number of occasions not just within this administration but future administrations. Its unclear whether this was in fact a typical process. We do know that even with all white house efforts to keep him quiet, he still slipped at least once according to axios bannon admitted he had had conversations with reince priebus, sean spicer and mark corallo in 2016. That meeting is a key part of muellers investigation, the same investigation bannon agreed to cooperate with. Msnbc legal analyst Jill Winebanks is a former watergate prosecutor. I want to play you what Sarah Huckabee sanders said and get your re. I can tell you that this white house is following the same practice that many white houses before us have that have gone back decades that there is a process that you go through anytime you have congressional inquiies touching upon white house, the congress should consult with the white house prior to obtaining confidential material. This is part of a judicial recognized process. We want to follow through that. Is that your understanding . The whole understanding of executive privilege is misunderstood here. First of all, executive privilege only counts if the president is receiving policy or political advice. It does not count if hes talking about how to characterize an illegal meeting or how to coverup a crime. Thats the very clear holding of the tapes case in the watergate. They said that we were entitled to those tapes because the conversations were not about policy or politics. They were about crimes. And thats what we really need to focus on more than who it is that was saying it. And the procedure as far as i can tell is really unique. Ive collected with someone who worked on the judiciary committee, someone who worked on the clinton impeachment. And no one has ever heard of a white house lawyer by telephone or in person telling a witness that they could not answer questions. If theres to be some negotiation between what the congress is going to ask a witness and the white house and the white house says these are certain things that cannot be asked because its covered by something that can be debated and ironed out. I would imagine if this is tried in front of mueller, that it will end up in court and the court will rule that this does not apply, that there is no executive privilege and that the witness is going to have to answer the questions. I wanted to follow up on that because we have the news yesterday was mueller subpoenaed bannon. Now theyve struck a deal. It sounds like from the reporter hes not going to try to make she is same assertions. Youre saying given the holding in the watergate case, that the privilege cant be used to coverup the possible evidence of a krip, theres no way that that would fly with mueller or if the courts if bannon were to try that with mueller. Exactly. It is very clear in terms of a criminal case. The court said that in such a case, it is, i hate to use the word trumped but basically the criminal prosecution is more important and trumps any claim of executive privilege. So its very, very clear. And it doesnt matter whether the witness is subpoenaed or comes in voluntarily. His obligation to answer questions is the same. And his ability to evade answering questions is the same. He cannot avoid answering questions. He will be in contempt either way. So because theres been a lot of talk well, hes not been subpoenaed or he has been subpoenaed. That really isnt the critical issue. You know, i understand that obviously the fifth amendment theres a right against selfincrimination. Jury trials, the judge instructs the juries not to impute guilt because the defendant didnt testify. In a sort of lay sense, theres something that seems rather incriminating about the white house on the phone with steve bannon saying dont answer that, dont answer that. It seems incriminating in a normal average citizen is going to draw certain conclusions from the fact that the white house is saying were cooperating fully but were not letting witnesses answer. People are seeing that as a gag order, which it is. If the president has nothing to hide, then the facts should be able to come out. Theres nothing that was said or done that would incriminate anyone. But that isnt what it seems like. But youre right, a judge in a criminal case would instruct a jury if someone claims the fifth amendment and thats not happening here, not the fifth amendment. So hes not saying bannon is not saying i would be incriminating myself. Hes saying i would be incriminating someone else. And it would be the president. Revealing privileged information or counsel i gave to the president of the United States. Jill winebanks, thanks for your time. Thank you for being back. Good fob back. Up next, hear what Stormy Daniels said about her relationship with donald trump and why her story could be the tip of the iceberg. The details after this quick break. Fox news viewers came this close to learning a month before the election about the adult film actress that then candidate donald trump allegedly had an extramarital affair with, but fox news reportedly killed the story. We know Stephanie Clifford claims to have had an affair with trump beginning july 2006. We might have ever heard about any of this except for a report last week which is trump learned Michael Cohen arranged 130,000 for cliffords silence one month for the president ial election. Michael cohen released a letter denying the affair. But the wall street journal sheds new light on what is being reported about fox news. They had the story in october of 2016, one month before the election but shelved it. According to cnn, a report remember for fox news has a statement from the manager at that time confirming she engaged in a sexual relationship with trump. She had the story and fox killed it. There are other outlets that were reportedly on the trail of the story before the election. But efforts to pay off clifford and quash the story were apparently successful. The story is buried no more because intouch weekly now published excerpts from an interview which the publication corroborated with two sources at the time. She says her relationship with trump began in his hotel suite after meeting in july 2006. His son baron was a few months old at that time. According to intouch weekly she said she had really good banter. He told me once i was beautiful, smart, just like his daughter. The story might under different circumstances end there if true, it was a consensual affair but in fire and fury, steve bannon referred to another one of trumps long time lawyers bannon saying look, kasowitz has known trump for 25 years. Hes gotten him out of all kinds of jams. What do we have, 100 women . Kasowitz took care of them all. Even if that is a gross exaggeration, donald trump is known for his love of nd agreements. Theres been wide reporting about his staff signing nondisclosure agreements. The iceberg of secrets next. Jimmys gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors. Yup, hes gone noseblind. He thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this. Luckily theres febreze fabric refresher for all the things you cant wash. It finds odors trapped in fabrics and washes them away as it dries. And try pluggable febreze to continuously eliminate odors for up to 45 days of freshness. Pluggable febreze and fabric refresher. Two more ways to breathe happy. Hi, im the internet you knoarmless bowling. Lt . Ahhhhhhhh you know whats easy . Building your website with godaddy. Get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. Build a better website in under an hour. Maybe many reasons why a story about an extramarital affair of a major Party Candidate doesnt become public but National Correspondent phillip bump rights by our account at least six outletses were an aware of the alleged affair between trump and daniels before the election. Each outlet likely had overlapping reasons for not running with the story. And Washington PostNational Correspondent phillip bump joins me now. Everyones been marveling what the head snapping way in which standards have changed because in any other context, this would be an enormous story. What do you think accounts for the fact it didnt come out before the election. It is certainly the case so fox news in responding to cnns story how they killed the story, their response was they werent able to be validate it to their standards. That is bolstered by the fact that slate, the daily beast, in touch apparently was sitting on this, all these other outlets that had the story and didnt run with it. Thats what journalists do they wait till they can verify it. The key piece is they appear to have used a nondisclosure agreement paid for with 130,000 to basically wrap this up. Its striking to read that letter where its her saying this never happened. And then read the in touch 5,000 word interview in which it very clearly from her. All of the evidence suggests that theres an nda in place. She put forward this statement which is not fully accurate. Yes, i think its important for people to remember too donald trump is not a normal politician. He didnt come up through the ranks of politics. A normal politician would not be paying off orn stars after he had Sexual Affairs with them. He came from the private sector. I dont think this is hard to believe in that context. No, the question to me is whats that line about kasowitz and what part are we seeing an what he the iceberg for ndas. One of the things from the weinstein reporting that was one of the major tools in the tool kit that kept it appears to be hundreds of women who he allegedly raped, assaulted quiet because they were locked into contracts. We know of one nda here, maybe another or a few. We dont know the total number. Thats right. Thats the entire point is to ob cure the total number. There was a report by the daily beast, Jessica Drake came forward with accusations of solicitation by donald trump before the election. Someone reached out to her. Her manager told the daily beast she has an nda. She called the daily beast back and said i spoke out of turn. There are certainly indications there may be other ndas out there. We know, you said this, had he Campaign Volunteers sign ndas. This is a tool he used and the question is, if this is an iceberg what, actually cracks it up . What is the tool used to get this information out there. Since there are all these people who may have received money and legally are obligated not to say anything. This is the letter the trump attorney sent to bannon accusing him of violating the nda. He said you have breached the agreement by disclosing confidential information, making disparaging statements outright defamtory statements about mr. Trump, his family members and the company. Everyone whos basically ever worked for the guy, all that information is wrapped under a thicket ket of legal cover. One of the things to keep in mind, when trump was a private citizen, it was not worth the fight to try and up end one of these ndas. Now it may be more worth doing so. He is a much more significant public figure now. Lots of people are interested in taking him down and may cover legal fees which weve seen people make offers for. Its not clear if donald trump would be able to maintain the iceberg given the fact that hes in a much different position now. The most surprising thing about the daniels story is that they paid. Yeah. Honestly. 130,000. There are painters in Atlantic City who still havent been paid by donald trump or got ten cents on the dollar for their work. The fact they paid that suggests to me that a who, paid. We still dont know. What is it actually the candidate . Was it some other entity. And b, why they paid. Right. A fascinating detail in jacob weisberger from slate had conversations about this before election. He says that Stormy Daniels reacheds out to him or his people reached out to him on her behalf because she was worried. She saw the reports how donald trump stiffed people. She was worried about that and used this as a chip in that relationship. They clearly thought the price of this was relatively high. And actually delivered on it, which would suggest to me the way they were modeling the way the story would go is different than how its landed now. Right. Thats exactly right. Obviously, is the context of october 2016 is different than the post Harvey Weinstein context of 2018. Thank you. Still ahead, facebook attempts to reckon with its role in the 2016 election. How far is the tech giant willing to go . Plus how the wolf got into the white house in tonights thing 1, thing 2. Next. Olay regenerist shatters the competition. Hydrating skin better than prestige creams costing over 100, 200, and even 400. For skin that looks younger than it should. Fact check this ad in good housekeeping. Olay regenerist. Ageless. Thing 1 tonight ever since Michael WolffsGround Breaking book on the Trump Administration depicting a dysfunctional white house and a president surrounded by aides he is fit for office, the question is why did they let Michael Wolff in to wander the white house in the first place. Heres what wolff said in his first interview. Your former editor said he wasnt surprised you wrote the book. He was surprised they let you in the door at the white house. Are you surprised . You know, no. Im a nice guy. I go in. Did you flatter your way in. I certainly said what was was necessary to get the story. What exactly did he say to get the story . Today there are new details about that. A report that reads like a spy cultivate ageasy mark. How President Trump saw something he liked during his executive time and gave Michael Wolff the keys to the white house. Thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. I had some severe fatigue, some funny rashes. Finally, listening to my wife, went to a doctor. And i became diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma. That diagnosis was tough. I had to put my trust in somebody. When i first met steve, we recommended chemotherapy, and then we did high dose therapy and then autologous stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, he went on to have progressive disease. I thought that he would be a good candidate for immune therapy. Its an intravenous medicine that can affect the patients immune system and unleash it against the cancer. With chemotherapy, i felt rough, fatigue, nauseous. And with immune therapy weve had such a positive result. Im back to working hard. Ive honestly never felt this great. I believe the future of immunotherapy at ctca is very bright. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. 11 months before Michael Wolff released his bombshell book on the Trump Administration. He did a tv interview and President Trump was watching. We go into a fit of apoplexy and what we set up is as we try to go after his credibility, our credibility becomes equally a problem. I think individual journalists are in many cases having a nervous breakdown. President trump really liked that take. It was a hot one. According to a new bloomberg report based on conversations with multiple current and former trump aides and advisers trump himself phoned the author to compliment him on a cnn appearance in which wolff criticized coverage of the new president. He reportedly told trump he wanted to write a book on the new administration. The next day he was meeting with Kellyanne Conway and hope hicks. He used a working title for the book calling it the great transition, the first 100 days of the Trump Administration. In part due to the title, he was able to exploit an inexperienced white house staff who mistakenly believed they could shape the book to the president s liking. While we have yet to realize how det trucktive it may be to the administration, it is trump himself who made the book possible. While trump backs in wolffs comments, he missed at least one clue about the authors motive. You got to meet these people. You got to talk to these people. You have to see whats going on. Are you just sucking up to get access to the white house . Im sucking up a bit to get access, i am the only person, it would seem, who was actually having this conversation. If you were getting all your information off algorithms being sent through a phone and it is just reinforcing whatever biases you have, thats whats happening with these Gais Facebook pages where more and more are getting news from. At a certain point, you just live in a bubble and thats part of why our politics is so polarized right now. Facebook is now apparently trying to do something about the bubble, the former president was just talking about, announcing the company is overhauling the news feed to show less news. Mark zuckerberg promising on facebook the company will shift from focusing on helping you find revel content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions. One oped he write remember said dont count on facebook to disrupt facebook anytime soon. Norm cohen is a social wrecking ball and joins me now. Why not trust facebook . Well, because i think they dont understand the power of their medium. Why not trust them . We look at what they want to do to make social interactions better. I think they believe facebook connected interactions are very good and not inclined to question that. I thought when they were questioning their own the way they operate, they werent asking hard questions like could facebook be bad for wellbeing as a statement. I dont think they entertained that idea. Theres the saying about the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It seems like thats sort of the theme of your the reporting on facebook is they truly and genuinely believe their own hype what facebook is. Yeah. Thats a big question what the motives are. How important is it really. Yeah, if you believe connecting people is the most important thing youre willing to do a lot of things to have that happen whether dealing with china, manipulating people. Theres a large pervasive fact in facebooks history. They believe you should manipulate people to be on facebook because its good for them. I think they might believe that. Why i dont know. I think hes very intrigued, zuckerberg with the idea of connecting the world. Right now people say facebook is the biggest entity bigger than any religion or bigger than any country. 2 billion people. Wow, think of the tower we could build if we all could speak the same language. It would be so tall in babel. Obviously its massively profitable. Theres something selfserving about the myth those they tell them selves. I think part of the point youre making in the or you made in the oped is both the sort of ideology of facebook and the bottom line means they cant be counted on to change things that are going to hurt them. Whether he zuckerberg had a call with investors and said im so serious about making sure were not manipulated in the elections and advise people, that well lose money. Thats why i want to tell you were going to do it. The parallel is that means they make money from dividing people. Thats admitting that. Its a lot to expect any human being to say i dont care about money. I dont care that i have the chance to run a thing that could be the biggest hinge in history, better than alexander the great, better san caesar. In my book, the know it alls i talk about the scene in life of brian where they say what have the romans have done for you and its like the roads are great and wine. Its incredible to be be like rome and make a universal system for the entire planet. I think theyre intrigued by that its scary though. Thats the point. Rome wont change. We are not rome. Were a democracy. A romelike power sitting in the middle that has the power to alter what people see at the flip of a switch to raise up media entities or absolutely throttle them and choke them off like theyre now doing in the news feed that, power is hard to square with basic fundamentals. I was struck with the hearings about the meddling in the election by russia. It was senator klobuchar who said we take seriously our elections. Were a representative democracy. Its not optional that we very elections that are free and fair. Almost like she was instructing google, facebook and twitter, their lawyers, this is a nonbreakable commitment. You have to figure out how to make your sites not commitment. You have to figure out a way to make your sites not challenge our democracy. They have more power than theyve ever had. They just change their news algorithm and suddenly, every news agency is scrambling to do business with them. Its a staggering sum of money for profit. So yeah, there is this sense that it does have analogies like the robert baron era. I dont think the robert barons are quite so preachy that were doing this for you. That like were doing, caring for the wellbeing of our country. Democrats have flipped over 30 seats since donald trump took office. Im jimmy, this is my definition of fresh since 1983. Wisconsins republican Governor Scott walker is freaked out about what happened in his state last night in the heart of trump country, in a district where every county went for trump, a democrat won the special election for state senate, flipping a seat that had been held by a republican since 2001. Patty shockner won by 11 points, even more impressive when compared to Donald Trumps 17point lead. It is a wakeup call for republicans in wisconsin. But that wisconsin race is far from the first wakeup call for republicans. Democrats have flipped 35 legislative seats since donald trump won the presidency, and democrats have consistently overperformed their 2016 margins. Of the 17 special elections that have taken place, the average swing has been 11 age points. The blue arrows represent the margins across the country in all those different races. That is what a blue wave looks like. Joined by pollster cornell belcher. I thought it was interesting that walker himself came out and said it, after it spent over 100,000, a state Senate Election in the heart of trump country, they spent 100,000 on it, and the democrat wins it walking away, and the governor the next morning says basically, look out. If i am at the rnc, im hitting the panic button, because when you look across these districts, democrats are way overperforming. You have a 18point swing. The last democrat who ran there got 37 , 38 . We dont have the 11point swings on a regular basis. It encapsulates something that youre looking at going into the next midterm you where you have an open seat, we have a lot of retirements going on. Just like in 2006 when i was working for howard dean. You have to have retirements, right . Because as you know, encouple bents are so hard to defeat one way or another. But you have a republican who wasnt a roy moore republican, this wasnt a crazy republican. You had a regular sort of republican here, and you had that sort of swing. But when you look at the excerpts of that, you had a real push there. And i think when you look at what democrats are looking at around country here, it is the better edge of these college educated, young white voters who have been tending to vote republican. Theres something about donald trump and what the republican brand means right now that theyre pulling back from. And my issue with democrats is, thats not all about economics, chris, right . We want to perch this all about economics. Theyre not upset simply because of pocket book issues. One of the things youve seen in the macro data, in the polling of the president , hes done well. His Approval Rating has come up, partly because the republicans came back after the fold and passed the tax cut and there are a lot of numbers that look like good numbers, the employment rate, the dow, yada, yada, yada. 49 of the country disapprove strongly. Thats strongly. It seems to me that is, when you look at the special elections and the midterms, that intense its gap is the one thats driving politics right now. And thats the key to the blue wave. You go back and look at 2006, you know, bushs approval was around this time was hovering between the high 30s, low 40s. His approval, so you have, and you have congress with approval in the 30s as well. So you do have some of the same writing on the wall. And historically, and im getting in the weeds because im a dork and youre a dork and its a dork show. If you go back to the 90s and follow the pattern here, you have approximately 80 to 83, 84 in the elections who disapprove of the president , they vote for the opposition party. If his approval is hoverring in the 30s, you do have the remnants of a wave election, but i still think democrats have to give voters something more than a transaction. We have to have more than just pocket book issues. We have to speak to the values and the frustration with whats happening in this country, which is not just economics. Thats interesting. If the recovery continues, thats interesting how that plays out. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Tonight, steve bannon is set to cooperate with mueller after we learn the fbi came to his home to serve him with a subpoena. New reporting tonight on what happened during his nineplus hours of house intel testimony. Plus white house steve of chaff john kelley says trumps pledge to build that wall was not fully informed. How will that go over with his boss the president . How the author of fire and fury worked his way into Donald Trumps west wing. Well talk to the reporter who first broke these details as the 11th hour gets under way on a wednesday night. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 363 of the Trump Administration, and the former white house chief strategist steve bannon remains in the news as the man investigators want to talk to in the russia matter. One day after we learn special counsel mueller had subpoenaed bannon to appear before a grand