Announcing his retirement from congress at the end of this year despite denying earlier reports that he was stepping down, strenuously denying those reports were totally wrong and off base. There he was today saying yes, indeed, im gone quickly followed by another gop retirement which brings the total of republican lawmakers walking away from elected office to a whopping and we believe record setting at least in the modern era, 25. Tonight, that same paul ryan, the speaker of the house for as long as he sticks around is also one of several republican leader who have gone to the white house to dine with with the president , the man there in the center of that picture as he faces down an increasingly threatening investigation by Robert Mueller, federal prosecutors in new york who raided the president s personal lawyers residence earlier this week in response, the president is by all accounts openly musing about firing his own Justice Department appointees to attempt to shut down the probe. He even appeared to flat out admit some version of obstruction of justice in a tweet this morning. All of this is happening as that closes in as the speaker steps down as dinner happens in the white house with the leaders of that party, the president has taken over and made his own. He is contemplating launching military action against syria. Well cover all the big stories on this very big night. Nbcs Halle Jackson at the white house covering the president s dinner, Michael Schmidt, New York Times. Weve got nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols on the preparations for a possible attack on syria, justice correspondent Pete Williams on what is happening inside the building at the deft of justice as trump attacks mueller and rosen tine, capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt on the fallout from paul ryans decision today. Steve kornacki on the state of the Republican Party after a year of trump and Joe Scarborough who stayed up way past his bedtime at least four or five hours to help us make sense of it all. Joining me a great panel, michelle goldberg, elie mystal, shelby holiday, wall street journal, and you guys will stay right there. I want to begin at the white house where President Trump is having dinner with the republican leaders. Halle, whats lapping right now. Hot drama in the building. You have donald trump sitting with the guy who just announces hes no longer going to run for reelection. At the table are two other guys who will be fighting most likely to replace paul ryan. Steve scalise and Kevin Mccarthy. Scalise was a late add to the dinner. You saw the photo that the president tweeted. Everybody all smiles and a big thumbs up. You can see the president in a good mood with these guys. Thats because he likes to have these conversations. Heres what we are told. When it comes to the battle for who replace paul ryan, it is as you framed it up potentially defining for the trump agenda, how it moves forward in congress, if in fact republicans can hang onto the house come midterms in just about six months from now. Donald trump likes steve scalise. Donald trump loves Kevin Mccarthy. I was told by one source today the two of them speak the same language. You know as we have reported and as i have talked with folks about close to this white house, the president in the perpetual revolving door of whos in and whos out inside the west wing talked about mccarthy as a potential for chief of staff were john kelly to vacate the west wing. The two have a very close relationship. To be a fly on the wall would be real interesting. It may be partly social. I imagine it might be. Donald trump has increasingly worked on his relationship with people like ryan, the men that are standing there. But the other part of it is the backdrop to all of this. He has been venting to allies about the special counsel investigation and about his Justice Department. You dont need me to tell you that because hes been venting openly in front of cameras unsolicited about all of this, as well. The other piece of this is not just the special counsel investigation and everything that happened with rosen tine and mueller. At this moment right now over in the executive Office Building behind me, you have National Security staffers working, people whose portfolio focuses on the middle east working because there is the potential for this military strike after the president didnt just preview that missile attack potentially on twitter today. Signaling he wants to do it but he put russia on notice calling out putin and the kremlin. That is the backdrop to everything happening tonight. I will tell you officials are telling me working closely with International Allies is going to be key. Halle jackson, well be in touch as events warrant throughout the hour. Joe scar broet host of morning joe. Thank you for being here. Heres my big question about paul ryan, why today, why now . I think ball ryan, ive known him since he was 22 years old. Always liked the guy personally. Theres no doubt that paul has always been more of a policy guy than a political guy. Theres no doubt it sounds harsh to say but he was overmatched by the times. He was overmatched by a president who didnt respect the rule of law, a president that didnt respect the fbi, a president that attacks Law Enforcement by the day, a president that calls the press enemies of the people. A president that embraces dictat dictators, that attacks our democratic allies across europe and the rest of the world. And paul ryan is far more comfortable talking about policy. Youll remember ryan actually had to be persuaded to become speaker of the house. And when he was persuaded, did he so on his own terms. He would not be running around the country raising as much money as past speakers. So this was a position he may not have been entirely comfortable in. Im sure hes it was an ill fitting position for him. He was not comfortable standing up to donald trump. And also, he wasnt comfortable standing up to some of the Spending Priorities of this Republican Party and this big spending republican president that has strapped and obviously causes concerns for conservatives like myself has strapped record deficit increases on this country. I think causes real economic concerns for this country moving forward. One of the things i have a hard time figuring out, theres a mismatch between what the polling data says about the state of the Republican Party both with the president and congress which is not great at all. But its bad. But not like hair on fire disastrous. Right . And the way that republicans on the hill are acting right now which is like a rudderless disaster. Like it just seems that theres Nothing Holding it all together at this moment. As soon as the tax cuts were passed, theres no project, no one knows what are you trying to do . I mean, its extraordinary. What ive never been lets forget about doing the right thing. Lets forget about standing up for the rule of law. Lets forget about speaking out against constitutional norms. Lets forgetting about standing up for nato and our allies and free trade and for lower deficits. If thats not what you believe in, okay. Forget about it. But there should at least be somebody in the Republican Party cynical enough to say hey it, ive got a really big lane if i want to stand up for a president who is has not really been an republican his entire life who is out of control. I dont understand why paul ryan was not more comfortable being that person, standing up and speaking out. I dont understand why Kevin Mccarthy or others have not been comfortable doing that. Perhaps we will see a bit of a skirmish from the Freedom Caucus if Kevin Mccarthy does in fact seem to be the frontrunner as paw ryans replacement because like ryan, Kevin Mccarthy comes from the wall street wing of the Republican Party. Ive got to believe that mark meadows and a lot of other meadows of the Freedom Caucus will not be comfortable with him becoming the next speaker of the house. It seems to me a kind of symbolic ken cap sulation of this moment that paul ryan is going to leave and the one declared person on the republican side in that race is essentially a neonazi named paul nellen who tweets about jews in the media. Im not making this up. Right. Just like, the fact that there is no ground work laid . Theres something sort of bizarre about him walking away and looking around and being like we have to get someone to run against that guy. Well, lets lets bring it closer to home. You had devin nunes go on fox news last night and say that he wanted to begin impeachment proceedings against the director of the fbi. Because the director of the fbi is not kowtowing to donald trump because the director of the fbi believes in the rule of law. Devin nunes has done more tore tarnish the reputation of a committee that until he became chairman was known on the hill, certainly during my time and even after i Left Congress the House Intel Committee was known for being bipartisan, was known for putting country first. You know, devin nunes is only there allowing donald trump to do what donald trump does because paul ryans allowed him to be there. Again, i like paul ryan personally. But where was paul ryans press conference after charlottesville . Where was paul ryans press conference after donald trump tweeted out neonazi videos . Where was his press conference when donald trump was talking the men and women that have protected this country for so many years, the fbi agents that protected us after 9 11. Where has paul ryan been standing up defending Robert Mueller . It hasnt happened for those of us who have liked paul ryan and respected him for years, that will remain one of the great mysteries of his speakership. I dont understand it and i never will. Joe scarborough, thanks so much again. I appreciate you sticking around tonight. Thank you. Congratulations on five years. Thank you very much. Longer than a speaker term it turns out. A big day on capitol hill. As paul ryan announced his retirement. Im joined by capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and National Political correspondent steve kornacki. Casey, i wa kasie, there are reports in december hes thinking about quitting and telling confidantes hes quitting and strenuous denials from brendon buck, one of the spokespeople, other spokespeople, scott walker even tweeting out. How did this go over today and what happened . Well, chris, what else are you going to do to a certain extent in that situation if youre a staffer . These were conversations, it was no secret that paul ryan has been miserable in trumps washington. No secret at all. And you know, ive covered the speaker for i guess five plus years now from when he was a congressman to his bid for Vice President and now his time as speaker in the house after the 2016 elections. And you know, this is not a guy who he wears his heart on his sleeve. He does wear his heart on his sleeve. You could see that in the press conference today. People in washington knew that he didnt really want to stick around. There were a lot of rumors and in order to keep things shored up, they had to continue to deny, deny, deny. You cant, once that rumor surfaces you got to be all in or all out. You cant be like maybe hell stick around. You have to be like no, its not happening till the day you announce its happening. He was having conversations and rumors got around. He decided with his family over a trip to europe over the last couple weeks and they said okay, were going to come out and do this officially. That is, of course, when is we saw this all unfold in public. I think just to pick up on what you and joe were just talking about, the values that paul reinholds and that he brings to the table are simply fundamentally at odds with the values that President Trump as a person, not necessarily as a politician, but as a person brings to the table. And this is somebody that highway paul ryan has forged a working relationship with this president , personally, they do not recognize each other. Paul ryan was gentle when he talked earlier today. He did an interview on cnn where he said look, hes from new york. Im from wisconsin. The code for that is paul ryan is legitimately lead leaving washington because he wants to spend type at least in part with his family. Donald trump is somebody who has law sues leveled as the him by a former playboy bunny and a important star. These are not people who fundamentally understand each other even though they might agree on tax reform. Paul ryan is extinct in Donald TrumpsRepublican Party. Although they did agree on tax cuts. And they agreed on judges. They agreed on the deregulatory push. That domestic, that part of the agenda has been the republican agenda. Its been the paul ryan agenda largely. Its what allowed paul ryan to get this far. He has kind of swallowed his personal discomfort. This is a guy who if you talk to people close to him, they will describe him as feeling as though he needed to be the ballast in the ship of state. Obviously everybody has legitimate partisan and ideological disagreements over the foundations of policy and donald trump is a republican president who is going to sign things that this Republican Congress was going to pass. To a certain extent, ryan decided he was going to cut that deal with the devil. Maybe entirely. But the reality was, he was never entirely comfortable with it. He spent a lot of time focused on this relationship with the president. Taking calling him on the phone. Trying to figure out how to make it so that he could have some influence and frankly, he was criticized repeatedly and perhaps depending on your view points justifiably for defending the president for arguing that you know, he was or stepping out of the way pretending he had not seen the tweet. Their arguments would be privately look, he was having conversations with the president and it would be much worse if paul ryan were not in that position. Many people have told themselves that story throughout history. History judges whether honestly, it judges. History will judge this. They absolutely will. You know, we were youre absolutely right in your kind of overall framing of this which is this is an absolutely existential crisis for the Republican Party. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, thank you. Steve kornacki has a look what this does to the gop, how the party shifted and what is going to go on with all these retirements. What do you make of all this. There is part of a bigger story of the trump era here. The Republican Party being changed because of donald trump and the trump era. The Democratic Party for that matter also being changed. There are deep divisions that are kind of longterm that are intensifying. There are some brandnew ones. Let me take you through how different people in this country are reacting and siding up. First of all, we talk about the divide over race and american politics. Obviously a longterm story here in the trump era. This is from pew. This is just a couple weeks ago, the most of the recent numbers you see the divide. This is a familiar one, white voters by double digits identify with the Republican Party. Black voters hispanic voters overwhelmingly with the Democratic Party. Problem for republicans longterm is that these two groups here nonwhite voters are getting larger in terms of their share of the electorate. This group white voters longterm going to get smaller. This is a trend republicans have been worrying about. It seems to be calcifying in the era of trump. Theres also this. We talk about gender. The concept of a gender gap not new in american politics but how about this. In the trump era, the gender gap is exploding. You see among men, republicans plurality of men identify with the Republican Party. You ask women, the margin is pushing 20 points for the democrats right now and chris, 20 points overall among women a very particular group of women is really pushing that change, that explosion and that gets us to the next big divide. Its about education. Its about social clash. We talk about this all the time. College change theeducate voter lot of times suburbanites, metropolitan areas. In the last generation, the trump era brought this on. In 1994, republicans owned this group of voters, voters with a College Education by 15 points. Its flipped around completely in this trump era. Democrats now with a 15point edge among voters with a College Degree. This used to be a bedrock republican constituency. When we showed the gender gap before, there it is. Women with a College Degree are at the heart of this Resistance Movement against trump, at the heart of the shift on gender, thats a huge change. How about this, we said something brandnew. Its age. Its what generation do you belong to. Look at there, the silent generation, in their 70s and 80s, thats a republican constituency. The boomers, gen x millennials, democrats with a 27point edge among millennials. If you look the electorate by age, only one group the democrats enjoy more support among white supporters it is millennials. The first generation in american politics where that is true and how about the gender gap among millennials. Millennial men identify with the democrats by eight points. Women by nearly 50 those are some of the divisions that trumpism brought about. National Political Correspondent steve kornacki. A lot to break down. Congressman Michael Burgess representing the 26th district of texas joins me now. How are you feeling today. I feel great. How about yourself . Long time no see. Im good. Nice to have you back. Why are so many people retiring . Youll have to ask them. Well, you work with them. You talk with them. You have conversations with them. Youve got to have some sense. You work with them every day. There are eight current members of the texas delegation who are retiring. Texas is the second largest delegation in the United States congress. Two democrats, one running for another office, one decided hes been here long enough. Six republicans. Two were Committee Chairman who had termed out on their term limits of their committees. Two got into some personal trouble and two had health problems. Theres a variety of reasons. Sure. But they all happened so close together that it makes it see like a story. But since you mentioned blake farenthold, one of the people. I did not. I said there were two with personal problems. I know who youre talking about. Hes one of them. He should give back the 85,000 in taxpayer funded settlement. My opinion was he should have resigned months ago. And this is let me just say im grateful that hes recognized that and left and yes, he should pay the money back. He promised to do so. We havent gotten that. That loop is not closed yet. Paul ryan is someone who during the obama years talked a lot about deficits and debt and how dangerous it was. Its something that your party talked about a lot. The cbo putting out this projection the other day were looking at what will be essentially record deficits for a booming economy. That weve ever seen, particularly absent some huge war mobilization. I guess the most cynical interpretation is that it was a fraud all along. If you wanted to persuade someone that wasnt true, how would you persuade them . Have you and i had this conversation ten years ago, i dont know, we might have, at the end of the bush administration, obviously, the deficit had increased a significant amount. Hugely. It was baked into the cake that whoever was going to be the president in the next eight years and the subsequent eight years that the deficit was going to grow almost in spite of anything you could do at the discretionnaire spending level that we the legislative branch has put on autopilot. I think its wrong. We need to bring that back on budget. We have to take tough votes. Those would be tough votes. It would be career ending injuries for some people but we need to do it. You think the Republican Party needs to stand. 15 cents of every dollar is being spent on the nondefense discretionary side and expect to balance the budget. It doesnt work. It doesnt work. I get that. This is what it sounds like to me, someone is trying to diet and say i eat, yes, its true. I do have a hamburger for breakfast every morning but im having this enormous meal in the night. The hamburger doesnt matter. You got to control it somewhere. I dont know what point youre trying to make. It makes no sense. You know the problem is the non. Ill spell it out for you. Ill spell it out for you. Nondiscretionary budget. Congressman, congress man. We can talk about the discretionary stuff. Ill be happy to talk about. Lets talk about na. Why did you vote for something that congressman. I did try to bring back some of that automatic spending back on budget. Right but you voted for the tax cut. Failed by one vote in the senate. Wake the. Im sorry that happened. I would have rather done it another way but it didnt work out. Its funny you said im sorry. Bob corker said today, if the cbo scores work out recent its one of the worst scores i took. I remember at the end of the bush years, republicans said we lost our way. We spent trillions of dollars on war. Then t. A. R. P. Happened. It saved money. On the books at the time it was projected not to. So the point was that. I wish the cbo would do an honest accounting of what Medicare Part b delivered. They told themselves we fell by the wayside. We got caught by the bug and now it seems like were here again. Had we had this discussion at the end of the bush administration, it would have been exactly the same. The driver of our debt is the automatic spending. If we dont pull that back on budget. Look, i would say this. I would say this. Im part of the generation thats going to benefit from that. We are taking more out than were putting in. Thats not tenable. I republicans should take your advice and run on cuts to pled care and social security. That is where the big expenses are. Paul ryan to his credit articulated the premium support in the medicare system which is exactly what president clintons medicare panel recommended to him in the late 90s. Sort of. I thought we would have that long before i came to congress. Didnt work out. Congressman burgess who is not retiring, hes sticking around. He doesnt have to pay anyone back any money. Hes one of the good ones down in texas. Thank you. Thank you, chris. Coming up, trump attacks mueller and rosenstein and the latest on the russia probe and whats happening at the doj next. Its a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. If you move your old 401 k to a fidelity ira, we make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Oh and at fidelity, youll see how all your investments are working together. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. Just remember what i said about a little bit o soul things are just clearer. Its these new freshfx car air fresheners from armor all. Each scent can create a different mood in my car. Like tranquil skies. Armor all, its easy to smell good. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Incredible news day 447 of the Trump Presidency which brought a retirement announcement from paul ryan, a blustery tweet from the president vowing to attack syria and walking that back and talking about how great russia and the relationship is only bad because its being investigated. Theres developments in the ever escalating trump investigation including the story of the raid on Michael Cohens saw the records on the access hollywood tape. Michael schmidt broke that story. Pete Williams Joins me now. Michael, what . Still trying to figure out exactly what it is on the access Hollywood Video that they want. What is it about it . Because the narrative about the access would video is that trump didnt remember it, it wasnt something on their radar. It sort of pops up on that day in october and actually a remarkable day in october. Thats a month before the election, the same day the Obama Administration calls out russia and the same day that John Podestas emails leaked. October 7th. And so the question is, is that what was Michael Cohen trying to do . We know that a focus of the investigation on him are these catch and kills, going out, finding stories that were going to be damaging to trump, getting money to these folks to get them to not talk. Part of it is connected to the national enquirer. How it comes back to access hollywood i dont know. But this was something that was included in a search warrant. Something that they had to get Court Approval for. This is not simply a fishing exercise. Certainly not supposed to be a fishing exercise. When we heard about it, we thought it was fairly significant. Heres the thing. Who has seen the search warrant . The lawyers for Michael Cohen have even it. Obviously because cohen was given a copy of it. And the people that produced it presumably . Theres a small circle of people. The feds. Im trying to figure out, ive got reporting that says it was bank fraud, access hollywood, payments to Stormy Daniels and also karen mcdueling, new york city taxicab medallions. Also nondisclosure agreement with other women or other folks. Thats a lot. Thats a pretty broad thats a broad swathe. Could you see why the president would not like what went on and be bothered by it. Remember. Yes, if anyone ever raided the three different residences of my closest business associate and lawyer, i would be bummed. Yeah, look remember the president has said very openly vocally that he does not want bob mueller looking at his finances. This seems directly into that. And we know that obviously this wasnt mueller that did it. This is outside of russia and someone else did it. The department of justice essentially going past that red line that the president tried to create. Mike the schmidt of the New York Times, thanks for being with me. You dont get to unilaterally create red line investigations when youre not the president. Everyone else who gets investigated by prosecutors finds themselves blown around in the wind. Pete williams, youve been following the Justice Department reaction to all of there. What is it like in that building right now . Well, you know, these are stressful jobs under the best conditions. Theyre difficult. Theyre complicated. And thats when you feel that you have your bosses at your back. So that is not the situation today. Many of the senior people at the Justice Department come to work pre morning wondering if this day will be their last. But you know, you also so theres sort of a paul over the place. You also have the day to day work of the government going on. You have the Environment Division fining people and the fbi and the atf and the dea arresting people and charges being filed. So you know, to a large extent work goes on. Last night, devin nunes has joe was mentioning earlier threatened impeachment, consent and impeachment proceedings against Rod Rosenstein and christopher wray. Apparently today rosenstein showed nunes we think what was a lightly redacted document that is the origin of the russia investigation . Do i have that right. Yes, this is the document they said they waned. It had earlier been provided but the republicans on the committee mr. Nunes among others said it was too heavily redacted. They couldnt make headses or tails of it. The Justice Department has given them now something that is very lightly redact and only eliminates the name of a foreign country and a Foreign Agent because of the cooperation they were getting from another country and so that is blacked out. I guess in its place it simply says foreign country, Foreign Agent. But otherwise, they pretty much have what they waned. Nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams, thank you very much. You bet. A lot more to get to on this crazy day of news. My wonderful panel have been sitting here patiently and biting their tongue. I want your reaction to all this. Well have that right after we get back from this break. And tank. And tiny. And this is lauras mobile dog grooming palace. Laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but shes not much on articles of organization. Articles of what . So, she turned to legalzoom. They helped me out. She means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff thats a part of running a business. So laura can get back to the dogs. Would you sit still . This is lauras mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. Your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. Try align, the 1 doctor recommended probiotic. With a unique strain that realigns your system. Realign yourself, with align. Hello. Lets go for a ride on a peloton. Lets go grab a couple thousand friends and chase each other up a hill. Lets go make a personal best, then beat it with your personal better than best. Lets go bring the worlds best instructors right to you. Better yet, lets go bring the entire new york studio live. Lets go anytime, anywhere, with anyone whos willing. And lets go do it all right here. Ready to go . Peloton. Play do it like this. [music plays] when everythings connected, its simple. Easy. Awesome. Welcome back. The all in special day 447, it feels like 4,459. 9 days of the Trump Administration but its 447. I want to actually before we bring in hans nickles who is our pentagon correspondent and talk about what is happening with the latest planning for strikes in syria. I want to get to that in a second. Before we get to that, i want to follow up on the Michael Schmidt story which is we keep getting new stories what the Michael Cohen raid was about. You have a theory how to draw it all together. This is all about Campaign Finance fraud, all about election fraud. All of it. All theyre doing basically Michael Cohen is the wreck it ralph of fixers. Right . And all the investigators are doing are following the path of destruction that hes left towards like additional examples of Campaign Finance fraud. If Michael Cohen did what he did with Stormy Daniels to anybody else, if he paid off anybody else, if he paid off anybody involved in the access hollywood tape, if he did anything as sloppily as he did what he did with Stormy Daniels they want to know about it. My feeling having covered Campaign Finance stuff a lot, people dont generally get taken down for it is amazing what you can get away with in violating Campaign Finance law you. You dont get taken down for violating the Foreign Agent registration act. Thats a good point. President trumps inner circle has done a lot of strange things that got them into trouble. It is all about the money trail. Thats something weve talked about with Stormy Daniels. That point about farrah is a great point. People have been flouting part of what we were seeing with mueller which is fascinating is, what happens when a prosecutor goes at americas elites the way that a prosecutor goes after everybody else in america . When i am talking, im serious about that. It is like okay, these things are in the law. And youve been hanging out here is, manafort for 20 years doing all your stuff and like doing stuff that looks a lot like Money Laundering and no one came knocking on your door. Lets not pretend what he did is equivalent to the ordinary sleazy dealings of the american elite. What you see with manafort, he was violating fara, he was violating so many other laws, as well. One of the things i believe we know about this raid theyre also looking at bank fraud and i think evidence of Money Laundering. So these are again, this is not business as usual. This is not kind of him trying to prosecute people on a technicality. Again and again, you see these arrests and then when the actual indictments come out, they are so much more expansive or you see these raids or these kind of cases being slowly built. The indictments come out and its kind of astonishing the degree of criminality. There is why conservatives are suddenly fans of the aclu. They suddenly think thats a good organizationing. Laura ingraham had a tweet i just love. Gosh, a prosecutor just bent on getting cooperation, can just do anything he wants. Welcome. Welcome to the world of america. Hold that thought. Hauns nicks joins me now. The president closest business associate and lawyer is raided, the speaker of the house just pieced. Theyre having dinner and at the same time this morning he is tweeting what can be described as taunts at the nation that we are probably about to launch some sort of strike at. Its not just syria that he mentioned pep mentioned russia and iran. So its a pretty good indicator this president is telegraphing clearly even though he said he wouldnt what his military intentions are. Im here with the nbc news bureau, not down at the pentagon which should be an indication i dont think the attacks will be tonight. Its pretty clear the only thing we have left to debate on this is timing, scope and targets. The timing i think we need to watch where secretary mattis is. Hes going to be testifying on capitol hill tomorrow at 10 00, seems unlikely there had be strikes in that area. In terms of targeted, just where are they going to go after not just the Syrian Regime but are they going to go after the Syrian Regime when theyre close to the iranians or russians. Theyve got assets all throughout the middle east. They have the donald cook a destroyer in the eastern med. They have a lot of possibilities, a lot of capabilities. The big question is we dont know how russia is going to react. Last time the u. S. Before they did the strike they called up the russians on the key confliction line. Interesting question whether they will do that again this time especially if the russians are targs. That is an important part. Pentagon correspondent hans nichols thank you so much for sticking around tonight. Do we have malcolm nance there on the other end of this satellite . We do. Malcolm. You do. Obviously the russians are active in syria fighting on behalf of as sad as are iranians. And there is a real concern, right . Weve got reports today of syrian soldiers going into russian bases that we go from that what happens tonight or tomorrow or the day after means something really eskalatory. Well, it could be escalate tory and the way that Syrian Forces or are arrayed and now if theyre in a disperse it will regime, this could turn away from a single night strike which we generally tend to do at about this time early in the morning to a multiday action because we very Coalition Partners that are gathering their forces together and coming in on this, too. If we dont degrade our initial targets as the weapon ears and target kiers have chosen them, we may have to go back and restrike. However, if this is just a demonstration attack again, it doesnt matter what the syrians do, but if theyve move all those aircraft out of the bases north of damascus and near homs and theyre all up in the air because on the syrian coastitying is with russian aircraft, then well already have faced before weve launched the first missile. That is the question about what is being strategically who will be killed, about whether those People Killed will be civilians or whether theyll be combatants, what nationality theyll have and the question of all u. S. Military action, what comes after said action. Malcolm nance, stick around. With the rest of my panel after the break, well look at the blue wave mounting. One of the candidates looking to replace paul ryan and a friend of paul ryan joins me next. Tech at Safelite Autoglass we know that when youre spending time with the grandkids. Music tech . Every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why at safelite, well show you exactly when well be there. With a replacement you can trust. All done sir. Grandpa looks great tech thanks for choosing safelite. Grandpa thank you child bye tech bye saving you time. So you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace welcome back to this very special edition of all in on this head spinning day, maybe the best adjective. House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing he will not seek reelection in november. His district . Wisconsin has become more competitive. Charlie sykes, someone who has known him a very long time and randy bryce running for paul ryans seat. I want to start with you, charlie. Your reaction to todays news. I was surprised that he decided to do it now as opposed to later. But it was pretty obvious that paul ryan was not going to be the next speaker of the congress. It certainly is an Inflection Point for the Republican Party when you think about it wasnt that long ago that paul ryan was the future of the Republican Party. But i also want to say, you know, that you remember, chris, that you and i were actually together in this way. On the night of october 7th, 2016. That was the day the access Hollywood Video came out. I know that day. We all remembered that day. But you remember that that day, we were talking about what would happen. And the next day, trump was scheduled to appear with paul ryan down in racine. I remember telling you that it wouldnt happen. It would not take place. I didnt know how it was not going to take place but i knew this was going to be a red line. And than that paul ryan was deeply offended by the conduct and the character of donald trump. That paul ryan was willing to call out what he called textbook racism. That paul ryan was willing to have press conferences about the muslim ban and to say i am done defending this president. And so you know, it has been extraordinary watching paul ryan then become the chief enabler, becoming the wingman of donald trump. But it was never a relationship that was going to work. Can you imagine how excruciating how difficult it must be to herd the cats in congress at the same time you have donald trump on your back. And all the things you have to ignore, all things you have to excuse, all the things that you have to capitulate to. And quite frankly, i hope that hes relieved that hes liberated at this point. , he cruciating, i will definitely agree with that. Not as, he cruciating as having someone you loved deported and not as excruciating as banned from the country fleeing war. A lot of two things happening to real people at this moment. He cruciating for sure and im thinking of now his watch is over in the game of thrones. They can all gather round and he can be liberated. Charlie sykes, thanks you for making time tonight. I appreciate it. Randy bryce, youre running against paul ryan or you were running against paul ryan till today. Did you know when you threw your hat in the ring to be the democratic candidate and i should say you have a primary with a democrat named kathy meyers who is a teacher in your district. Did you know when you ran. No, absolutely not. And that was one of the things. When we jumped in and talked about our mission was going to be to repeal and replace paul ryan, there were some people that stood up and said look, this is kind of an impossible thing. Why are you even trying to do this. Come today, a few months coming on that we have been able to put together an amazing coalition of people. Weve been able to be put together some solid fundraising corridors and today waking up and i have to say too that the weather today was finally warming up. It was a springlike day after suffering through quite a few cold snaps. I dont think thats a coincidence. But just today finding out that half that goal is done that paul ryan has called it quits. We were able to push him out. Now we cant hit the pause button. We have to continue. And work just as hard to finish strongly past the finish line. Charlie sykes, and for randy bryce who goes by iron stash on twitter, one of the alltime great twitter hams hes a steelworker, he doesnt have a mustache made of iron. Still with me, shelby, Charlie Sykes was mr. Conservative talk radio in the greater milwaukee area and has known ryan. Is he a fan of paul ryan. Its interesting to hear him talk about him. I think we should all consider the possibility that paul ryan deep down does not have the sort of integrity that a Charlie Sykes has. Right all this talk about the poor battered innocence of paul ryan who had these ideals and had to bite his tongue about ris yax and sexism and all of the islamaphobia because he had to be the ballast in the ship of state, he did absolutely not have to do that. The difference between the paul ryan who was able to stand up to trump on october 7th and the paul ryan who has completely capitulated to trump after the election is he thought he was going to lose on october 7th. He saw political advantage in separating himself from trump. As soon as tying himself to trump was the way for him to achieve his lifelong goal of reforming the tax code to make it more advantageous to the rich and corporations and kind of set in motion a series of events that might then be used as a pretext to gut the social safety net, he was happy to swallow any amount of you know. Whether or not he was happy or not, he did it. He did it. This thing we keep hearing that his values were so at odds with trump, nothing i appreciate that his friends believe that, but nothing in his behavior illustrates that those values were of particular importance to him. If paul ryan was the man that we are hearing eulogized today, then hes a feckless coward because i dont know about you but im pretty sure that mike pence can nominate reactionary judges and sign tax bills. Thats the thing so weird about the whole thing. To me its not weird. The thing trump can do for the republicans that nobody else, pence included seems to be able to do is to motivate aggrieved whites to vote their racial biases in elections. That is what is ryan and the rest of them are afraid of. Trumps ability to mobilize that group of people. I think ryan reform. And he has no room to do it because you have a president who sucks up all the air. You have a ppt drives the news cycle with tweets. I heard from a number of republicans today that paul ryan didnt like what the gop has become. This is a bad time for donors makes it hard to recruit candidates and it leaves this big question if paul ryan has no place in the gop what is the gop. I dont like what my garage has become yet im not quitting my house. You fix it. He is leaving, right. So if he really is kind of morally offended by what the gop has become now would be the time to say it what he said on the way out the door is he thinks the biggest problem in American Life is quote unquoted kwo identity politics. When you take a step back there have been three republican speakerers in the last however many years, one of whom was revealed to have been a child molester at the high school where he coached. He went to prison because he structured finances to pay off the victim. That was a good rule, though. The second is john boehner basically knifed in the back and left. And today nounsed he is lobbying for the marijuana industry. After time and time he voted for stricter drug laws and higher sentences in a nation in which thousand of people are in jail for that. He is gets a good paycheck. The at last three. Usually this is a job you hold a while. I said to go to a contributor of New York Times magazine do not ask what good we do. Inside the u. S. House of representative and republican Vicki Edwards former congresswoman from the sfat of elbow. How to turn republicans and democrats into a americans. He was a republican member of congress. Rob you know this House Republican caucus as well as anyone. What do you make of today. Heres whats been on my mind, chris, is that in 2010 when the Tea Party Wave was happening and all the candidates were running and evenly becoming Freedom Caucus guys they loved paul ryan. They signed on to the ryan plan, bought it hook line and sinker. They have deserted paul ryan, moved away from boilerplate conservism and left ryan basically doing the only thing he could do which was tax reform. By the way was not in fact the the lifelong goal of him plektically. He says it was. But in truth entitle let reform was that. He never accomplished that. This tax reform bill is not his tax reform bill. He wanted the center piece to be a border adjustment tax and that wasnt happening. Its not just that he and donald trump didnt get along. He conmanage his own conference. They drifted away from him as well. Here is the thing. I want to zoom in on this. I keep feeling people are moving the ball. Like well, you know the the old version of conservativism which is fiscal restrain and the free market. If you look at the record of w bush. There was Medicare Part dee wsh tarp, huge deficits and debts. And now there is donald trump and he is so different. But were about to have a military strike. There is a huge tack cuts for the rich lots of deficits and debt huge boost to defense spending. It does seem more continuity in all of this than people are admitting. Yeah, no, i think thats right. And i also think that that when when trump became president you know the big question on the hill from conserves was, you know what does this man believe . And when it became clear that he his believes changed minute by minute then the question became what can we actually accomplish . And thats where you see you know the continuity that youve described, chris. I think that the you know throughout it all to be fair to paul ryan, he has you know, had the kind of mournful smile of one who has been told that his family dog has cancer for years throughout all of these things. He really has been a deficit hawk. But unfortunately his legacy will now be that by 2020 unhis watch the republicans powerhoused powerhoused a 1 trillion. Robert draper who a nominal writer and a great reporter with the turn of phrase about the cancerous dog. Mikki edwards what do you make of today. Ive been lyning to the show, chris. Thank you. There is a lot of trying to make paul ryan look good. I thought paul was a good man. I thought he was a smart man, articulate. But he has been a terrible disappointment. And what were hearing now nobody is talking about the fact that he has allowed the house of representatives to become totally irrelevant on his watch. So paul ryan and the members of the republican conference and the man on the street all find out what our government is doing the same way. And at the same time theyve reading in the paper. Now were talking about a military strike that is not authorized by congress. And you havent heard a word. Paul ryan, the speaker of an equal branch of government hasnt opened his mouth. Yeah its great. You get a tax bill or whatever. But at some point you have to stand up. There is no tax bill that has ever been proposed that is worth putting up with what this president is doing. And it seems as though paul ryan is only one of the republicans in congress who have completely abandoned their principles, completely abandoned lks ohs, completely abandoned the idea that there are moral things to do when you hold public office. Im not sorry to see him leave except Kevin Mccarthy would be worse. And so you know its bad and it can goat yours. Mikki edwards thank you for that. Great point. The diminution of the house of represent he was. Still well. Michelle goldberg, malcom nantz. The point that mickey said about the participation fts branches of government. Military strikes, we have been striking syria up and down the was ooh for years. We havent been going after assad when the bottoms fall there southeasterns die. Many civilians. Thats happening. Its amazing how removed Congress Seems from all of. Congress has essentially deinvolved into where they view actions around the middle east sort of like the Saddam Hussein in the no flien zones. Every 72 hours the United States does an air strike. Thats dangerous. We need to get back into war declares attention. If you are doing this commit the full effort of the United States in. Doept sell short our men and women who are on the front lines. It is surreal to think about that as the back drop for everything that were watching play out. There is a third branch of government, too, right. Its worth remembering that what started the potential strikes in syria its trump likely i mean either the actual raid of michael kohl. Lets give him the benefit of doubt. Lets trump watching pictures of dead and dying children on television. There is a way to stop that too. Next week the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the travel ban case. And if donald trump wants to stop the death of children then let them into the country. Thats the way we can do it without dropping a bomb on anybody. Its true if your first concern is humanitarian then you can do things. Nobody think that is trumps first is humanitarian. Right, right. No. That is true. You think its a wag the dog. Stop the raid. The question is whether its just about him feeling like he has to feel strong or feel he has done something so these are strikes iks like the last round of strikes basically, you know, allow him to change the headlines for a bit but not actually intended to alter the balance of power on the ground. Very clear with that. Or whether its a more substantial intervention. Thats the question right now. And i dont think he wants a more international intervention. But i dont think he is in control of the process. I agree with that. I also think injury retaliatory strike against a Syrian Air Base is one things and fwes is okay with it if but if youre going after russia in syria and dont have Congress Approval this could escalate into a whole another type of conflict. I. And that would be a huge problem. Then you heard the president on twitter he cant make up his mind is russia our friend . Do we need to go after them should they be on notice one of the most interesting things he said is russia needs help with their economy. You know, in the midst of this whole. After his government twitter today. What is the one of the most dominate themes of the trump tenure is that he is like a cable news kmernt tart on his own administration. Like it was his Treasury Department that released the sanctions that tanked the ruble that sunk determines ska. And he says there is no reason to have a conflict with russia. He is sitting with the guy at the bar, the person deer viewer who we relief. Watching the television yelling at the screen. And he has no role in it. It was your part of it is because he has no not a scintilla of manifested interest in the work of governing. And so because he has none of that its done by other people. He still tweets. No in some whiches there are ways that has been kind of a has saved the union but there are ways in which its inorndly dangerous iware about paying the bill for that thanks for jing me tonight. Thats all for this evening the rachel mad ow show starts now. Good evening, chris thanks. Thanks for joining us this hour. Happy to have you with us. Where do you want to start tonight . The prospect that were about to shoot missiles after seer right after the president said he wanted us to have nothing to do with the war in syria any more we could start there. There is the fact that the president literally said today get ready, russia. Thats a quote. Get ready russia as he apparently was preparing plans to shoot missiles into syria where russia is the major organized military power on the ground. The president says, get ready russia, as in here they come. You guys ready got everything missouri moved out of the wait you good to go . This enough notice . Get ready, russia. So we can s