I figured i would take the chance that i can make our real estate taxes deductible this year, so i just emptied much of my savings account. Why, because of the new tax law. Because if we dont, well get screwed. Basically. And good day. Im Steve Kornacki in for Andrea Mitchell, and we begin with the mueller investigation. A Surprising New report out says the president s legal team may end up portraying Financial Security adviser Michael Flynn as, quote, a liar. The Washington Post reports that President Trumps legal team is prepared to accuse flynn of lying if the former National Security adviser ends up accusing the president of any wrongdoing. This morning the president s outside counsel john dow tells nbc it is, quote, complete nonsense. More fake news. Nbcs Garrett Haake is in florida where the president continues his vacation. Garrett, lets understand exactly what were learning here. The president s public posture has been that flynn is being railroaded, hes a good guy, this is the legal team saying, look, if flynn ends up saying something to mueller about accusations of wrongdoing, this would be the strategy . Reporter well, look, legalities be clear. White house sources of the Washington Posts, not nbcs, is saying this is the in case of Michael Flynn emergency break glass plan, that they would then come out and try to paint flynn as a liar, as not a credible witness. Officially, as you pointed out, the president s outside counsel is saying, this story is bunk. Theyre saying its fake news, its nonsense. Privately white house officials are are saying similar things. There are potentially two reasons for this. Number one, it could simply not be true. This could not be something theyre taking under consideration. And two, if youre concerned at all about what Michael Flynn mayor may not be continuing to say to Robert Mueller and his investigators, having a story out there that says youre planning to throw him under the bus is probably not the best message to send to flynn about how he should proceed. So, again, the white house is pushing back pretty strongly against this report, and i guess its obviously worth noting, as you pointed out a little bit in the intro, too, the president has a long ontherecord ontape history of praising Michael Flynn as a general, as a patriot, as a good man, both before he was the National Security adviser and after he was fired from that job. So if, indeed, the white house does decide to take this tact down the line, its politically and legally problematic for all of those reasons. And unrelated to this, though, but the president is making a little bit of noise on twitter, i understand in the last few minutes, a message on north korea and china. We put up on the screen, trump saying, caught redhanded. Very disappointed that china is allowing oil to go into north korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the north korea problem if this continues to happen. Garrett, what do you make of this . Reporter this is another example of twitter diplomacy from this president. Hes at the golf course this morning. We dont know if hes on the course or back at the clubhouse. This is about the article in vanity fair they had produced about Hillary Clinton, and then dropping the line of china allowing oil to be smuggled to north korea in violation of the sanctions. China has denied this. Its been picked up by fox news. Its possible thats where the president saw it, but again, the chinese element to figuring out whatever is going to happen in north korea has been an enormous part of this president s strategy, trying to amp up the pressure on the chinese, trying to get the chinese to then amp up the pressure on north korea to denuclearize or to change their posture on their missiles. This is a fascinating statement coming out of the president who is at or on the golf course as hes putting this out. Nbcs Garrett Haake down there in west palm beach. Garrett, thanks for that. Joining me is ned price, former Security Director and nbcs National Security analyst. Nbcs National Justice reporter Julia Ainsley and a political analyst. Julia, the Washington Post about possible strategy for the president and his team if Michael Flynn accuses him of wrongdoing. Theres a question of how to interpret a report like this. On one end, you might look at this and say isnt that only common sense if he tells prosecutors, look, he did something wrong, who wouldnt say hes lying . I think garrett picked up on a very important point in that the trump Legal Defense team would not want Michael Flynn to hear at this point that they are going to throw him under the bus. Particularly they would rather be dangling the idea of a pardon so that he wouldnt want to expose all the information that he may have learned. Again, he worked on the campaign, the transition and in the white house. He wouldnt want to give all that information because he may think, well, these people are still on my team. Perhaps i could get a pardon in the end. They would rather have that in his head as he goes in to cooperate rather than have a story like this one from the post that says he might distance himself, call himself a liar and go back under the bus. Of course, any defense lawyer would want to go ahead and start undermining and find anything they could find to kind of dilute and take away any credibility. Thats just a classic procedure. Thats the part im trying to figure out here. What were hearing described here, at least potentially, are we hearing basic lawyering, preparing for every possible contingency if it were to happen that flynn accused him of wrongdoing, the white house would file this strategy. Or is there any indication that the white houses lawyers and their understanding of this situation has changed in the last few days or last few weeks in a way that makes them think now that flynn is more at risk of saying Something Like that than he was when this plea deal was announced . Thats a really good point. What were picking up on is just there is an increased level of anxiety. This began this month after the flynn plea agreement, then we had michael pence trying to distance himself from flynn saying that he knew he had lied to him, he wasnt sure about him lying to the fbi. More reports from nbc saying mueller is really focused on who knew what about flynn when he was in the white house. And then the fact the investigation is still ongoing, that it hasnt wrapped up, and that is really getting under the skin of the president right now. And they know that one of the reasons why its expanding is because of information theyre able to get from Michael Flynn. So all of these things add up to really target this anxiety on this one person, Michael Flynn, so it would make sense that they would be trying to do everything in their power to discredit him and to make him a weaker tool in the hands of the investigators. And, jonathan, just your reporting from the white house, im wondering their thinking on that issue julia is raising there, the possibility a pardon has been discussed. The president says, i dont want to talk about it yet, seeming to suggest its something he may talk about in the future. Dangling a possible accusation. What is your thinking on this. Theres been some ideas throughout the white house. They have encouraged him to push back saying, this is something endangering your presidency, you shouldnt just let it happen. Meanwhile, the president at this point has largely been listening to inside counsel who is assuring him time and again, this is going to get wrapped up soon, youre going to be exonerated. That deadline was pushed back. They originally said thanksgiving, now new years. That seems pretty unlikely. This is something thats going to dog the white house into the new year. There is a growing frustration that everything theyre doing is being shadowed by this probe. The president has gone out of its way not to rule out a pardon for flynn. So i think youre seeing, dangling that as an incentive like, hey, i went out there for you. I didnt back up Paul Manafort when he came up to legal scrutiny. But flynn is the guy the president has sort of remained loyal to, and i think hes hoping flynn returns that favor and expresses loyalty to himself. The white house in some ways are in the same position the rest of us are, and we dont know whats going on inside that mueller investigation. I know a couple months ago the name papadopoulos came up. None of us had been talking about it. It turned out mueller was going there. There is an element here from everybody either involved or watching the story and trying to figure out what all the possible contingencies here are. To go back to your point and the discussion with julia, i think whats less significant here is not the substance but the timing. The timing of this is most interesting to me because youll remember that the president s lawyers had a session with muellers team just last week. So days after their session with muellers lawyers, were now hearing this clear twist in strategy, this clear veering from the road that trump and his team were on before. So what we have now is a carrot and a stick strategy. The carrot is where the president was calling flynn a wonderful man, a goodm man, telling reporter mike isikof to stay strong. Were now hearing there is a stick strategy in place. I think whatever trump has heard from muellers team, they decided they needed to incorporate this stick. So to me that suggests that what they heard from muellers attorneys and prosecutors really took them for a loop and really left them perhaps a bit stunned. And again, we had yesterday, i think it was, the brother of Michael Flynn was out on twitter. He had one original message, deleted it, made it a little bit more a different message but asking for a pardon for his brother. I want to switch gears, though, jonathan, because we have you here and it takes a look at the year that was in the white house but particularly focusing on a twoweek period end of july. Theres been some explosive periods from this administration, but this is when scaramucci came in, scaramucci left. John mccain did his midnight show there on the senate floor. Take us through what youve learned about the white house in this period. What does it tell about this presidency at the end of year one . The end of july was really a microcosm for Donald Trumps 2017 where a loft thint of thin tie head and it set the tone for the year moving forward. Scaramuccis arrival in many ways led to Reince Priebus departure, and therefore, more importantly, john kellys arrival. We have seen people we talked to in the white house say, that was a significant moment, an Inflection Point for this administration. After scaramuccis departure, the sense of morale was lower in the building. Now with john kelly, there is a sense of a flow of purpose. He is gathering the flow of information. He is reining in the legislative process. Defeating health care, as you said, but from there Lessons Learned how to involve the president , how to involve the legislative staff leads to a victory in the tax bill. But its deeper than that. That same period we saw, perhaps, the irredeemable rift between the president and two key members of his cabinet. It was where Rex Tillerson and defense secretary mattis and others took to school why a robust american presence was needed around the globe, pointing out its impact on businesses, including the trump organization. After that meeting is when Rex Tillerson is reported to have called the president a moron. Also during that stretch we know the president s frustrations with Jeff Sessions came to the surface, that he was saying a lot of the time that he was furious with the general for accusing him of the russia probe. That has led him to bob mueller, and he has taken turns publicly and privately going after sessions. Telling people around him if he had known sessions would recuse himself, he never would have appointed him attorney general. If he had never appointed him attorney general, he wouldnt have had the roy moore debacle. All of that is a 13month stretch of that turbulence we saw in the first year. Ned, let me bring you back into that. Obviously youre a critic of this president and a critic of this white house. Im curious, though, to take a step back from your policy grievances with the administration, after year one do you see an administration thats maturing in terms of the mechanics and the efficiency of being president , or do you still see the chaos that jonathan is describing here sort of lingering into year two . Steve, i certainly dont think we saw the chaos that really marks the first couple months of the trump administration. These were in the heady days of the Reince Priebus tenure of chief of staff when the white house door was left open. It was really decreed by tweet that we saw much less of. There is clearly some tension between this team. You just have to look at the relationship between the president and his secretary of state, as jonathan said, but also, of course, the president and his attorney general. That relationship doesnt seem to be getting much better. But i think what has been strengthened is the process, not so much the personalities, and so much of this is process, and if john kelly can keep the trains on track, we may see some more victories from this administration going ahead. Ned price, Julia Ainsley and jonathan le mere, thank you for joining us. Roy moore rattles on, the alabama judge trying to make senator. Now he says the results may have been rigged. Were going to take a look inside the numbers at what his claims are and whether they hold up. This is Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. They came out of nowhere, sir how many of em . We dont know. Dozens. All right lets teach these freaks some manners good luck out there, captain thanks but i dont need luck, i have skills. I dont have my keys. on intercom all hands. We are looking for the captains keys again. They are on a silver carabiner. Oh, this is bad. As long as people misplace their keys, you can count on geico saving folks money. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization and our religion, and to set free a suffering humanity. And the battle rages on. The battle may end this afternoon for judge roy moore. That is when alabamas secretary of state john merrill says hes going to certify the elections of this months special Senate Election officially making Democrat Doug Jones victory final. Moore is hoping for a political hail mary, though. He has filed for a potential Election Fraud in state circuit court, claims what he says are irregularities in Jefferson County. Thats around birmingham. He added in the statement that he passed a polygraph clearing him of any misconduct allegations. Remember this thing in the election a few weeks ago . Take a look at what roy moore is claiming. This is where things stand with all the votes. Secretary of state poised to certify this thing. What roy moore is saying here, a couple different claims, though. The big one seems to center around turnout, casting aspersions on the turnout in Jefferson County. Jefferson county is birmingham and the suburbs. You can see this is a big democratic county. It typically is a big democratic county. Even Hillary Clinton carried this in the president ial race as te she was blown out of alabama. But the point roy moore is making here or seems to be trying to make, he says the turnout level in Jefferson County was 47 . That was the voter turnout rate. And the voter turnout rate statewide in alabama was 43 . So the suggestion seems to be that because the voter turnout rate was a little higher in jefferson than statewide, that indicates some sort of fraud, some sort of illegal voting, something that casts aspersions on the integrity. Look, you would not normally look at 47 in one county when its 43 statewide and come to that conclusion. Thats what averages are. Its 41 in some places, 45 in others. But, anyway, that seems to be the argument hes trying to make here. You saw the secretary of state from alabama, a republican, hes already responded to these claims and said not going to change anything, im going to certify this. To even call this a hail mary. Hail mary passes, sometimes theyre completed. Hard to see this hold water with anyone looking at the results. That should be certified in the next few hours. White house chief of staff mac mcclarty and for ted cruzs campaign. Is he going to be haunting republicans for months, years to come . Something established republicans can all agree on, or most of us can agree on, if we never heard roy moores name again, it would be too soon. Jefferson county is a democratic county, as you correctly pointed out. The enthusiasm was with the democrats. So in the republican counties where you get 43 , you would expect a suppressed vote when you have an accused child molester on the ballot. And in the counties who said, hey, heres our shot at getting a democrat elected in alabama for the first time in 25 years, you would expect for a larger turnout. So i think that simply explains the difference. Mac mcclarty, as a democrat, i wonder if youre looking at what happened in alabama. Obviously extreme allegations that came out about roy moore, but the idea that the Republican Base in alabama choose to nominate a candidate who, even before those allegations surfaced, was jeopardizing a seat that otherwise would be a slamdunk for republicans, is that something youre looking at in 2018 as a democrat and say, hey, that could happen in other states. We could have opportunities on the map we werent expecting. Steve, youre right. The trend in alabama, and perhaps even more tellingly in virginia, which is a purple state where Ralph Northam by a considerably larger percentage than expected. And the polls suggest that with a 13point edge, but its still a long way to go. As far as alabama is concerned, i would really note that the Senior Center of alabama came out against roy moore. That was a factor. The good people of alabama had the courage to stand up and vote their conscience and do whats right. It is time for judge moore to ride into the sunset. Lets take a look, then, moving ahead into 2018 when apparently doug jones will be the junior senator from alabama. For the republicans who control the house still, it seems there is a debate taking shape about what direction to go next. Trump may be indicating infrastructure. That was one of those issues that sort of separated him from the republican orthodoxy during the campaign, and you got paul ryan and some republicans on the hill saying, this is a chance to do that entitlement reform, medicare, social security, things trump said as a candidate hes not going to touch. How many of those things will give . Im not sure republicans will want to give up things in 2018 when their party is in power. The party in power tends to lose seats. I dont think well get any entitlement reform. If we had the president in a typical honeymoon first year, 67 approval, you would easily get infrastructure reform and maybe even entitlement reform. But when the president is at 30 and with the economy bursting at the seams, the democrats are not going to let him have a win on, so i dont think we get any infrastructure reform this year. So, matt, thats the interesting question here, because and well talk about this in a little bit, there are a bunch of Democratic Senators from the United States, a whole group of them. Is there any pressure in 2018 that President Trump can exert on them to get them to vote for some part of his agenda, on infrastructure or anything else, or does the fact hes sitting in the mid30s with approval give him a pass . Seeking any term, President Trumps numbers we obama wen. Were not seeing that with President Trump. I think the real question is, steve, this president has not quite pivoted from campaigning to governing, really reflective of your earlier segment, and his poll numbers reflect that. He has not unified the country or broadened his base. Again, president clinton was able to do that. Even though he came to office with 43 , after his first year, his Approval Rating was about 55 , marked improvement. All right. Mac mcclarty and public strategist and nbc contributor. Thanks for joining us. There is a mad dash by homeowners trying to get ahead of President Trumps new tax law. This is about taking care of property taxes before a critical deduction shrinks. Cnbcs eric shimi is in westchester county. Theyre changing the deductibility of the property taxes. Are folks going to be out of luck or is it going to work for them . Its going to work depending on what taxes theyre paying now. Here in greenberg, thaelts the town in westchester county, they already know the money they owe for the school taxes. So school taxes due in april, they can pay now. But other taxes, county taxes, taxes you dont know about yet, you cant pay those. They are not accepting those prepayments here at the town hall. It depends what kind of tax youre paying. You can deduct those if you get it in by tomorrow. So there is some hope out there for these scrambling homeowners. Thank you for that. Coming up, the next fight. What to expect in the battle for the balance of power in capitol hill in 2018. This is dreenAndrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. We know historically the party that holds the white house loses seats in the midterms, and thats why the rnc has been on the ground from the beginning of this year. Were already in 21 states working our Field Program. Weve raised unprecedented amounts of money that were putting into these states early, building out our Field Program so that we can win in these midterms. The rnc chair says her party is ready to fight off the democrats in 2018. Shes right when she talks about the history there. The White House Party in midterm elections almost always loses seats, its almost always a question of how bad will it be. That is the question. The big election in 2018, obviously. Who is going to control the house at the end of the year, who is going to control the senate . Lets take a look at the stakes for next year. What republicans are trying to hold off, what democrats are trying to make happen. 24. Thats the magic number for democrat in the house. If they can flip a net gain of 24 seats, democrats would take back the house. You got to say, when you look at what they call wave elections in the past. 2006, think about that when democrats took that back. They won over 30 seats that year. In 2012, they took back 30 seats. Where are democrats looking . 24 is the target. Youre going to hear a lot about these districts next year. What do they all have in common . They are all represented by republican members of the house. These are all districts won by Hillary Clinton. They voted for clinton over trump and elected republicans. These are the top democratic targets in 2018. They think these are the most right republican seats to flip. A lot of these districts had sort of a common characteristic. A lot of these are suburban. We talk about those collegeeducated white folks who are traditionally republican. Maybe theyre turning on the Republican Party because of trump. There are seven of them alone in california. The northeast, a bunch there, too. Some of these republicans have already retired, too. They dont think their chances are necessarily that good at surviving. You can look close districts. Trump won these districts but it was close. His margin was less than five. You can find 13 more districts there, republican districts where trump won by less than five. Expand that a little further. Single digit races. Trump won by single digits. You can find two dozen more. 59 seats, basically. 59 republican seats are in districts that either Hillary Clinton won or trump won by fewer than 10 points. Thats sort of the broadvi view if we expand it out, of the democrat target lists. They need to flip 24. Thats the house side. Thats what democrats are trying to make happen. There is also the question of the senate. We said just a minute ago, by the way, the alabama secretary of state poised within hours to name doug jones the official winner. That would give democrats 49 seats in the senate going into the next year, republicans 51. Democrats, you can do the math. They need a net gain of two senate seats. Normally you say two, thats not hard to get. The problem for democrats is, in as recently as a few months ago, it was supposed to be impossible. The problem for democrats is they are defending so much turf in 2018 on the senate side and republicans not much of it. This is what the battleground is starting to look like right now. Heres what youre looking at. The blue states, these are democratic incumbents, Democratic Senate seats that are up in 2018. With the exception of minnesota, which well get to in a minute, every other one of these blue states you see, ten of them total, they voted for donald trump in 2016. So these are states that voted for trump where Democratic Senators have to win reelection next year. You can look at some of these. Look at west virginia, mansions there, missouri, north dakota. Some of these states the margins were gigantic for republicans, too. The republicans think if they could pull off one or two seats of these blue seats here, that alone could save the senate. Minnesota was not a trump state. It was almost a trump state. Thats where you got al franken. Hes going to be retiring. There is going to be a special election next year. It looks like there will be an appointed democrat running for that seat. You could kind of lump minnesota as one of those seats democrats have to worry about. For democrats to get that net gain of two, they pretty much have to swoop all those blue states. Its difficult to accomplish but not impossible. Then you look at the states, you may have problems in the primary and the general election. Jeff flake already said hes not running again. The republicans, its a question of which candidate theyre going to nominate. There is definitely a possibility for democrats in nevada and arizona. Another one that emerged was tennessee. Its not so conservative as neighboring states in the south, but the big thing democrat are talking up here, they have a popular twoterm governor who decided hell be running for the senate next year. If the National Wins end up blowing against trump and the republicans, maybe with a candidate like that, in a state like that, with an open seat, maybe thats just enough factors coming into play to give tennessee a shot for democrats. Again, democrats, to get that net gain of two, it sounds easy. But you pretty much have to run the table in there and then you have to pick off two or three states. You see how that alabama win changed the look of the senate. Even if things are going their way in terms of the environment, a lot is going to have to break just right for them if theyre going to get the senate. Thats an early look at 2018. I guarantee you youll be spending a lot more time around this thing, weeks, months to come. Coming up, tweeter in chief. Well look back at the integral role of tweeting in mr. Trumps first year in office. Only on msnbc. Whoooo. Looking for a hotel that fits. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. 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And theres never been an easier way to get great advice. Call today. A place for mom. You know your family. We know Senior Living. A place for mom. You know your family. We know Senior Living. Together well make the right choice. Donald trumps twitter habit has been fueling political discussion since he announced his candidacy back in 2015. Our friends at morning joe took a look back at how this years tweets have shaped his presidency. Are you going to be tweeting and whatever youre upset about just put out there . Im going to be very restrained, if i use it at all. He tweeted yesterday, this isnt going to be a oneoff. This is going to be every day with him. First of all, its not a travel ban. This was President Trumps tweet yesterday. If the ban were announced with a oneweek notice, the bad would rush into our country during that week. The president of the United States, on a saturday morning tweet storm, accusing his number one predecessor of tapping his phone. I tweet two or three or four or five times a day, but if i make one mistake in a month. This one, i dont think, is going to prove to be a mistake at all. This tweet promoting something on fox news. Paul ryan needs to step down. President donald trump just tweeted the following mike flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt. When you are given immunity, that means youve probably committed a crime. I would love to see the tweeting stop, but id also like to see pigs fly. He did what he does most often. He started tweeting. The president of the United States tweeted this. James comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. Thats aint threat. He simply stated a fact. The tweet speaks for itself. I wonder what his explanation is going to be this morning. The odd tweet that the president put out last night. Apparently it speaks for itself. President trump is criticizing the mayor of london following this weekends terror attack. The mayor of london says there is no reason to be alarmed. Heres what he actually said. Well see an increased Police Presence today and over the course of the next few days. No reason to be alarmed. Quote, we need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the travel ban. He just basically gave the Supreme Court of the United States all the ammunition that they needed. Are President Trumps tweets considered official white house statements . The president is the president of the United States, so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States. Hes commenting, again, he cant stop himself, on special counsel Robert Muellers investigation he tweeted. They made up a phony collusion with the russian story, found zero proof so now they go for obstruction of justice. Nice friday morning he posted, quote, i am being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. Just ahead of todays deadline to turn over any tapes to the house intel committee, did anyone think there were tapes . I didnt tape, and i dont have any tape, and i didnt tape. The president tweeted, and i quote, i heard poorly rated morning joe speaks badly of me. Dont watch anymore. And low iq crazy mika and psycho joe. She insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a facelift. I said no. Its been fascinating and frightening and really sad for our country. President trump spent much of his weekend putting his message out on twitter, sending 19 tweets, and among the 10 he sent before 8 30 on saturday morning, all agree the u. S. President has the complete power to pardon. Yesterday the president tweeted, our beleagured rg banning serving in any capacity in north korea. The president tweeting, quote, military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded. The outdated filibuster rule must go. Mitch m. , go to 51 votes now. I said, mitch, get to work. So thats the president of the United States who tweeted out this. Oh, come on. That mocking tweet by kim jongun describing him as rocket man. Lashing out to san juan, puerto rico from his country club. While he was golfing, the mayor of san juan, puerto rico was up to her neck in water, throwing paper towels at victims of the hurricane like it was a game. The tweets that trump made undercut tillerson, telling him, save your energy, rex. Lets go to the twitter desk and our own willie geist. Do his tweets make your job more difficult, general kelly . No. Happy halloween. Scary day for a lot of people. Sorry, but this is years ago before Paul Manafort was part of the trump campaign. But why arent crooked hillary and the dems the focus . Tweeting shortly before midnight, nyc terrorist should get death penalty. My twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. Minutes later, schumer and pelosi pulled out of the media. President trump is busy this morning retweeting in quick succession a series of alarming videos. Im not talking about the nature of the video. I think youre focusing on the wrong thing. President trump just tweeted, lightweight senator Kirsten Gillibrand would come to the white house begging for campaign contributions. I think the president s tweets speak for themselves. Up next, a story youre not going to want to miss. This is the story of a tough tea Party Activist and a liberal writer who somehow found a way to share lives, laughs in an unlikely friendship in the age of trump. Stay tuned for this one, folks. This is Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. I am totally blind. And non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. In the current political climate, it can be hard to find Common Ground with those who dont share our views. But in the case of one liberal writer and a hardnosed tea Party Activist, the two managed to develop an unlikely friendship that grew stronger when they were faced with the biggest battle of their lives with castle. She recently wrote about her bond with the late robin stublin. This is an incredibly moving essay that youve written. I encourage everybody to go there and read it. I link it out there on twitter for everyone. Mother jones we know is a liberal publication. Robin, a tea Party Activist, set this up for us. Who was he . Tell us about this relationship. I first met robin when i was covering the Tea Party Movement back in its early days in 2009. And i think i just cold called him help had posted something on a tea party list about there was a competing Tea Party Group going around the country claiming to be the tea party but it was run by a gop Political Action committee and a bunch of consultants. And so he had posted all this stuff about what they were doing and how they were raising money from people who thought it was a grassroots operation but then they were spending it on consultants and really expensive continuers at steakhouses and things like that and he was really outraged about it. He posted the stuff on list serve and i saw it and i called him and thought this guys never going to talk to me from mother jones but actually he wanted to get his story out happened wanted people to know they shouldnt give money to this group because it wasnt going to the grassroots. From there on out, i talked to robin all the time about tea party stuff, about politics. He appeared in the pages of mother jones probably a dozen times. Commenting on various things about tea party issues. And he yes, stephanie, i think whats so striking about this story is this is not a case of somebody who hes an exconservative who suddenly is telling, you know, secrets you guys had just vehement disagreements on everything. And yet you were able to create a perm personal bond. Robin was a good guy. Ive gotten strange messages from people saying im like a traitor and how could i be friends with this person. Robin and i didnt agree on a lot of things about politics. We fought about obamacare. We fought about Hillary Clinton. We fought about oil drilling off the coast of florida. Which he was in favor of. We argued about this stuff as much as we talked. But i think that even now, im sorry, im trying not to cry because i really miss those conversations with him and they helped me in a lot of ways to just understand another point of view. And i think he felt the same way about me. And he had a good sense of humor. There werent a lot of things that we agreed on. He wasnt a big he didnt think that the Tea Party Movement should be about social issues. So he wasnt really outspoken about, like, abortion or gay marriage so that made it easier on some level that we didnt have to talk about that kind of stuff. But we managed to just find things to talk about that had nothing to do with politics. Like camping. Unfortunately, this ends in such a horrible coincidence, but you both discovered in the last year you had a cancer diagnosis. Yes, that was the strange of the twist of fate. We were literally diagnosed with cancer a week apart. He was diagnosed in april with Esophageal Cancer and a week later i was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. And it all of a sudden, we had a lot to talk about that had nothing to do with politics. I used to joke in the office that no one would believe me, but my cancer buddy was a 60yearold tea Party Activist in florida. But thats really what it was. And, you know, robin called and checked on me and sent me texts and Facebook Messages almost every other day just to see how i was doing. Right up until about two weeks before he died. And he unfortunately passed away just within the last couple of weeks. How are you doing now . Im fine. You know, as fine as you can be i think. Under the circumstances. But robin had a he had a rough go of things. And i think hes you know, it came much faster than we thought it would. I really didnt get to say goodbye. Im very sad about it. Stephanie, i really appreciate you coming on, sharing your story. I encourage everybody to go read it. Not just to read your story but maybe keep it in mind the next time theyre on facebook or twitter or social media and you see somebody on there whos saying something you disagree with and theres that instinct to just demonize them and say what a terrible person they are. I think your storys a reminder. Theres so much more we all have in common as human beings. Theres always great relationships that can be made between anybody. I think its just an incredible story. Thank you. Stephanie memseh from mother jones. Well be right back. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye let us help with money and knowhow, so you can get business done. American express open. So you can get business done. What ifmy chest hurts. Cal emergeni cant breathe. E . What you need is mobile help. Americas premier mobile medical alert system. Most systems only work at home. 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They plan to paint former ally turned star witness Michael Flynn as a liar. Plus, last ditch effort. The final push from the Roy Moore Campaign to stop his opponent now just hours before his win becomes offi