Thing, a naked power grab. Thats the big news tonight. Trump has handed the reins of the special counsels investigation to an unabashed trump loyalist. A personal loyalist to insure that the president will be protected, not investigated. Trumps choice of Matt Whitaker as acting attorney general is raising alarm among those who consider the equal administration of justice a bedrock principle of american government. Thats because by elevating whitaker, the president of the United States is effectively hijacking the independence of the department of justice itself. Nbc news today reports that in the justice department, whitaker was viewed as an agent of the white house. As one Administration Official said, its no secret where his loyalties lie. Theyre with the white house. More than with the department. As an out spoken trump advocate, whitaker has expressed disdain for the special counsels investigation itself. In 2017, he tweeted an article calling muellers prosecutors a lynch mob. He argued in an oped that mueller would be going too far by investigating trumps finances. And he questioned the fbi raid of Paul Manaforts house saying, do we want our government to intimidate us . Well, tonight, were also now learning that whitaker has prejudged the results of the Mueller Investigation itself. Betsy woodruff of the daily beast is reporting in a radio interview in june of last year, whitaker who now oversees the russian probe, comes to the conclusion that the president did not collude with russia. Lets watch. The truth is there was no collusion with the russians and the Trump Campaign. There was interference by the russians into the election. But that is not the collusion with the campaign. Thats where the left seems to be combining those two issues. And the last thing they want right now is the truth to come out in the fact that theres not a single piece of evidence that demonstrates that the Trump Campaign had any illegal or even improper relationships with russians. Its that simple. Part of an emerging body of evidence revealing whitakers true feelings about the Mueller Probe itself. Not only that, whitaker has worked for and maintains a friendship with a key witness in the russian investigation. Former trump adviser sam clovis who has testified before the mueller grand jury. And now, democrats as well as several legal experts say questions about whitakers impartiality should bar him from overseeing the investigation of the president. However, according to the washington post, whitaker has no intention of recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel probe, according to people close to him who added they do not believe he would approve any subpoena, catch this, of President Trump as part of that investigation. He would be against any subpoena of the president. The question tonight is will the president get away with all this. Im joined by former congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and author of a new book the case for impeaching trump. Bret stephens is a columnist with the New York Times. Robert costa is a National Political reporter with the washington post, and Betsy Woodruff broke that story for the badaily beast. What do you have on this guy, whitaker . It seems like hes been auditioning is a pretty good work for it, auditioning for the role of trump protector in the role of acting attorney general. Thats certainly the view within the justice department. One important piece of context to bear in mind, as whitaker has now risen to and taken power within doj, is that he and Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general who was heading, supervising the Mueller Probe until whitaker took sessions old job, dont really get along according to a host of officials in the doj that my colleague and i spoke with yesterday in the hours after whitaker took that position. Rosenstein and whitaker are not on the same page on a variety of issues, in terms of their personalities, our understanding is that they just dont mesh, and having those two people running this department at this time has led to a lot of friction. Additionally, of course, rosenstein is a lifelong doj employee. Hes been scrupulous about trying to appear to be by the book, trying to bend over backwards to comply with rules. Whitaker in the meantime, as we reported just about an hour ago, has said just last year that he had already forejudged the conclusions of the Mueller Probe. He already claimed this probe, which he is now supervising, was essentially without merit. And that is something that without a doubt will rankle not only career officials in the department but also People Fairly high up who have to work with whitaker day to day. Let me go to robert. Youre the trump watcher for me. I think hes got steel ones to pull this off. Its unbelievable. He didnt go to rosenstein. Everybody in the planet said hes got to go to rosenstein as the fallback if he gets rid of sessions. Out of nowhere, he picks this guy who auditioned for the job of trump protector for months. He got the job. How come we all thought he couldnt do this and now hes done it in our face and nobody is trying to really stop him from doing this . Hes taking control of his own investigation, an investigation of him. Its all in his control now. Its breathtaking, and nobody in the Republican Party or in the Democratic Party has stood up and said were going to stop this. This will not stand. No one is saying this about his picking of whitaker. How come . Well, democrats are certainly calling for his recusal. Of course, theyre calling that is so wifty. I dont co what the word is. Of course, hes not going to recuse himself. He took the job not to recuse himself. Why would they call for him to do it . Hes now the acting attorney general. He doesnt have to listen to democrats. They have to make a choice, are they going to call for the president s impeachment for this kind of move. Do you think they will . Do you really think they will for picking the guy he wants as attorney general . Thats impeachable . We havent seen that kind of message yet from the democrats. In fact, the democratic leadership talked about a possible deal with the president. Im going to go to liz holtzman. Im not saying anybody in the past is better than today, but i have never seen such wet liberalism. Wet, gooey, gee whiz, please recuse yourself. How about using the power given to you by your office and stopping this . And nobody hes picked his guy to take hes not going to answer questions. Giuliani is working in the back room. Chris christie wants to be the fulltime attorney general. Theyre all in this together. Theyre not going to give it away. They got it. Right. And he lost 35 to 40 seats in the house. Hes still grabbing for power. Its not an issue of weak liberalism. Its just weakness. Its weakness. Just weakness because this is something that affects republicans. Democrats, independents. Are we a banana republic, do we have a president of the United States who can stop investigations into himself, his family, his friends . When you have bananas for the opposition, you have a banana republic. I dont hear anybody saying were going to fight this in the courts. It needs to be fought in the courts. And its not clear whos got the power to do it. There are a few other questions here. Is the appointment even legal . Forget about a recusal. You say legal. That means the Supreme Court hes just stacked with his guy, with his deciding vote, is going to pull away his new acting attorney general . You really think this Supreme Court led now by the decisive vote of brett kavanaugh, who also was picked because hes a trump guy, who believes in right . This guy, bret stephens, and this guy, Matt Whitaker, all believe in strengthening the power of the president. Well, i mean, look. Were going to find out if whitaker actually tries to quash the investigation. Look, the good news is that the Mueller Probe is far how about starving it . Forget squashing it. How about getting rid of their computers and staff . There are all kinds of ways. Youre right, all kinds of guerilla style tactics that whitaker can employ to basically destroy the Mueller Investigation. I dont think its going to be so easy for him to do that. Why . First of all, because the investigation is very far along. Were now 18, 19 months into it. Secondly, congress is soon going to have subpoena power to find out what mueller knows, and thirdly who enforces those subpoenas . What court . Well ha. Well, maybe. You think kavanaugh, his first major act in history, is going to be the fifth vote . You should know this. Congress can actually haul someone who is in contempt of congress into their office. Sergeant in arms . You betcha. Thats absurd. Theyre going to send the sergeant in arms to go to the white house and demand the president show up. If trump wants to make himself look guilty, the quickest way he can do that is trying to quash the report. I think Robert Mueller has sufficient political credibility, precisely because democrats did make such gains in the house that its dangerous for trump simply to try to kill the Mueller Probe. Simply makes him look guilty. Lets go back to how clever this president is. You dont have to like him or respect him. Thats easy, but look what hes pulling off. Hes pulling off a landing like macarthur in korea. Im going in behind rosenstein. Im going to make the whole probe by mueller ineffective because i have the attorney general on my team now. In the 2017 interview, just months after mueller began his probe, this new guy, Matt Whitaker, said it was ridiculous that Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein appointed a special counsel. He said it was ridiculous that there even was a probe by mueller. Heres the new attorney general of the United States, ladies and gentlemen. Here he goes. For whatever reason, Rod Rosenstein determined that the department of justice couldnt handle this in their ordinary course of work, which i think was ridiculous. I think it smells a little fishy, but i just hope it doesnt turn into a fishing expedition. And another radio interview, wonder how sean hannity got this get, whitaker said the quest of james comey to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn was not, catch this word, not obstruction of justice. And here comes Matt Whitaker, the new attorney general of the United States. Here he goes. Lets assume that the president asked him to stop investigating flynn. That doesnt rise to the level of obstruction of justice and it doesnt sound to me based on whats been reported that jim comey, as he sat there, believed that the president was telling him to stop the investigation. Liz hultsman, i dont know the law like you do. Obstruction of justice, the president may have done it again. But theyre not going to stop him, it seems, because it is within his legal power to pick an acting attorney general after he got Jeff Sessions to, at your request, mr. President , im resigning. Creating an opening for his guy. Well, but if the objective here by trump was to stop the Mueller Investigation, prevent his son from being indicted, prevent roger stone from being indicted, prevent himself from being named in some kind of indictment, then its definitely an impeachment offense. I dont know if its prosecutable. What liberalism. Its awful but we cant do anything about it. Politico has reported the president hasnt decided to submit his written questions answers, anyway, to muellers questions. According to rudy giuliani, the president s lawyers have prepped questions for trump to review, but they have made no final commitment to sending those answers to mueller. This comes after the New York Times reported in september after lengthy notionations, mueller told trumps lawyers he would accept some written answers. Now, robert, on the left and the opposition side, im talking about, but the stones of this president to decide that hes not going to answer questions, that he wont even now apparently answer written questions which his lawyers will answer for him, its almost like he is above the law. Am i understating that . Like he is above the law. Trump. Giuliani tells me that once the president gets back from paris this weekend, theyre going to make a decision, but as we all know, tracking this story, giuliani has pushed the timeline again and again on the interview and the written responses to Robert Muellers team. The president has shown really no inclination at this point to really sit down and answer verbal questions. And the question is, what is the extent really of these written questions . Is it just a few lines about the comey firing . What else . Well, what about let me go back to betsy who broke the story about whitaker and his m. O. And his job application, which took months to undercut. He was telling people on the train, talking to passersby, im doing all this tv so i can get this job as attorney general. Its broad daylight. Youre laughing because its broad daylight. This guy applied for the job of trump protector and he got it. Okay, now, apparently, is he going to quash this subpoena . If they try to subpoena, he is the attorney general, could he say nice try, Robert Mueller, but youre not going to subpoena the president . I can only surmise, but i think we can safely surmise it is not particularly likely that Matt Whitaker is going to let mueller direct a subpoena at the president who put Matt Whitaker in the position which he holds right now. Thats really important because the threat of a subpoena is the single most powerful bargaining chip that mueller and his team have had over the white house. Part of the reason that the president s lawyers going all the way back to the day of ty cobb and john dowd were openly thinking and debating and seriously considering even letting the president have an inperson verbal interview with mueller is that they dreaded the idea of a long, drawnout, ugly legal fight that potentially could end in the Supreme Court to try to determine whether or not the doj had the authority to subpoena the president of the United States. But now, if whitaker refuses to sign off on letting a subpoena happen, then that question is moot, and mueller has lost the biggest tool that he had to try to get more information out of this white house. I have to ask you the final question tonight, knowing all you know about this case, knowing who Matt Whitaker is, why he applied for the job, why he got the job. What on a score of 1 to 100 are the chances he will recuse himself from the russian probe . 5. You think he might do it . I mean, zero being the least chance. I would say theres a 5 chance. You think hes going to betray the president of the United States . Because he might be interested in bidding for the job, and i think if he quashes the probe when there are serious evidence of malfeasance kills his chances of ever being attorney general beyond the 210 days he has. Chris, the doj may have to make a decision. He may not make the decision himself. Ethics lawyers could say, sir, you cant oversee it. Is that binding, robert . Its binding for him to even practice law. If you get ethical guidance from the department of justice that you cant oversee an investigation and you refuse to comply, that would raise questions about your status as a lawyer. Trump will be surprised by this, in fact, some Commanding Authority below the new acting attorney general below even the cabinet thats going to tell trump what he can do. Thank you very much, elizabeth. Im watching trump with strength. Im watching the opposition without it. Anyway, thank you bret stephens, robert costa, beltsy woodruff and one of the Great Congress people of our history, liz huldzman. Coming up, the senate race in arizona. Still counting, kearse Krysten Sinema just took the lead. Pretty good for her. The latest from arizona. Plus, another deadly gun massacre. Its the new norm, isnt it . This time in a California Bar catering to college kids. Is this the new normal . 13 dead, including the shooter. Well talk to someone who has lived through gun violence, Jackie Speier of california. Remember jonestown . She was there, shot five times, survived. Trump is going after his critics by revoking security clearances, banning journalists from the white house, and firing his own attorney general. What will the big loser of tuesday this week who lost 35 to 40 seats do next in his new power rage . Finally, another big consequence of tuesdays vote was to do with medicare. Obamacare, its huge news. The republicans have given up the ghost on fighting obamacare. Affordable care act is apparently going to be the law for the rest of our lives. Well explain that later. This is hardball, where the action is. burke at farmers, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a huge drag. Nothing worth losing sleep over, because we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum shaquem get in here. 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At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Theres big news tonight coming out of arizona. Remember that senate race out there . The race is still too close to call. Democrat Krysten Sinema has taken the lead with 2,000 votes separating her from republican martha mcsally, who we thought was winning. Now it looks like sinema is winning. Thats a big deal for the u. S. Senate. Its going to cut trumps victory to one or two. Tuesdays election was a National Referendum on Donald Trumps presidency. A majority of voters making it clear they want to keep him in check. Democrats picked up three more seats today, including a seat once held by Newt Gingrich in the doughnut down there. Republican karen handel who won in 2017 against a guy who didnt live in the district, now conceded to somebody who does. Live in the district you run in. Lucy mcbath does. She won. Democrats are on track to gain an astounding 35 to 40 seats. This is the most significant pickup for the Democratic Party since the postwatergate election, electing all those watergate babies back in 1974. David wassermann, house editor for the cook political report, tweeted that a clear picture is emerging of a true postelection beatdown of house republicans. President s clinton, bush, and obama suffered similar defeats in their midterm elections but had decidedly different responses. Lets watch. With the democrats in control of both the white house and the congress, we were held accountable yesterday. And i accept my share of the responsibility in the result of the elections. This was a close election. If you look at race by race, it was close. The cumulative effect, however, was not too close. It was a thumping. This is something that i think every president needs to go through. Because you know, the responsibilities of this office are so enormous, and so many people are depending on what we do. Now, im not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like i did last night. So all three of these president s got a shellacking, as president obama put it, and they learned from their lesson and made course corrections. Some more drastic than others, and they got reelected. In contrast, here is President Trump yesterday. I thought the message was very well received. Just look at the results. Midterm elections are disasters for sitting president s and administrations. This has been a very successful and look, you can write it any way you want, and if you disagree with me, this has been an incredibly successful i was very well received by this great country. For more, im joined by zerlina maxwell, director of progressive programming for sirius xm, and john. I have to go with zerlina because you were laughing. This reminds me of his crowd size estimates after the election, saying mine was bigger than his. Hes doing a great job in his own mind, but america on tuesday told us that they do not like the direction of the country. That matches the exit polling data, and right direction, wrong track. But also, i think what it showed is women who came out the day after trump was sworn in, a million of us, took to the streets and said we reject this. And what this means. Particularly after the access hollywood tape. Now we have 100 women in the house. I have to go back to you for the question. This battle of who won, who lost, its clear the president lost in the house, 35 to 40 seats. In the house, hes been going, look at me. What he didnt get he thought he got is mcsally didnt win. Hasnt won yet out in arizona. He targeted jon tester heavily in montana. He desperately wanted that because he was mad at tester for attacking his doctor, whom he tried to put in as the head of Veterans Affairs and didnt get testers scalp. What he got was pretty significant majorities for people in the trump states that we all expected were going to fall, right . So ruby red stayed ruby red. He got very big numbers there. Josh hawley won by 12 in missouri. But arizona is red. And it looks like its going to be blue before the week is out. We dont know that, but my im struck by the fact that the dramatergy of this on wednesday had florida not been an early state to report and we saw that big flip, right, where the democrats seemed to have lost, although now were doing all this recounting, had florida come in at 10 00 or 10 30 instead of 7 00, it would have looked like the democrats were just rolling across the country very happily and very easily. It was that weird psychodrama of 2016. How about people taking the long view and staying up until 11 00. I predicted in april the democrats would win 30 to 40. As we got closer to the election, i said it would be 40. Carville comes on and says James Carville is a smart guy. He comes on and says, comes on like jacob marley. He did it, van jones did it. Everybody did it. Why are democrats so nervous . Theyre all going in this election, oh, were going to do it again like 16. What is that nervousness . Ptsd . What is it . Well, for me, it was ptsd. I definitely was in the fetal position around 8 00. Youre pretty young, but you have been through other elections where you thought you would win and you did win. Its not like 16 was the only election in history. Just the most recent in history, so thats fresh. There are many complications with hillary. Early on tuesday felt like 2016, but difference is women saw what happened in 2016 and they stepped up themselves. I think the big message from this election is not just that women won but that women chose to step up and run for office. Were seeing that in other context in american culture. We lived through a year of me too, a year of women standing together and telling their truth, being brave. In the burbs. Correct. You cant generalize, because thats not the case in the west or the red parts of the country. I think the northeast is lost for the republicans because of women. The northeast. All the way out to ohio almost. But that handel mcbath race is illustrious because the wing counties around is it handel . Those ring counties around atlanta, there was this massive shift from 2012 to 2018. Were talking about counties that were 12 republican going 8 democratic. Now, if georgia becomes a swing state in 2020 lets be careful about our geography. The suburbs around atlanta are a lot of northerners. Its not a bunch of, you know, people from the country. These are people who moved in for hightech jobs, good income jobs, ethnically diverse. Its not a bunch of southerners. But still, theyre there and theyre voting now. However you slice it, the demographic changes in a state like georgia, if georgia is in play in 2020 for the democrats, which has always been like that could be that could be the big story with fusion. By the way, i think youre right about women. Clearly. When you have a 25 gender gap, republicans are lost. Right. The other thing about georgia, though, is i think we needed to be talking about Voter Suppression that were seeing in this race in georgia before the 2020 election. So i think that certainly the demographic shift is happening, but i think democrats need to talk about Voter Suppression and perhaps policies to prevent it. I have two issues. One is i dont like stupid wars. The second thing, thats where we disagree. Oh, yeah, i love stupid wars. Nothing better. Thats all you guys. Anyway. Everybody. And the other thing i care about, every american should have the right to vote. Its that simple and that true. Yes, and its cheating to deny people that. Its cheating like in sports. How about ill talk republican. Its like cheating in golf. Do you understand me . Right. Thank you. Up next, 12 more victims of gun violence in america. This is not fun. This time, at a college bar in california. 12 dead, 13 if you count the shooter. Is this the new normal . It feels like it. Just a week and a half ago, pittsburgh. It just happens again. With some regularity. Does it have to be this way . This is hardball, where the action is. [ slurping ] act your age. Get your own insurance. [ child babbling ] aah oh act your age. Get your own insurance. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Youre in the business of helping people. Were in the business of helping you. Business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. The powerful backing of american express. Dont do business without it. Welcome back to hardball. Late last night, a single gunman walked into a crowded music bar in thousand oaks, california, and murdered just in a room 12 people, including sergeant ron helus. Authorities still have not named all the victims. Jason kaufman sobbed as he told reporters that his oldest son, his firstborn, cody, was killed in the shooting. His name was cody kaufman. My firstborn son. Only him and i know how much i love him, how much i miss him. This is so son, i love you so much. Well, the gunman identified by authorities as ian david long was found dead at the scene after killing himself. According to the Ventura County sheriffs department, long was known to law enforcement, which carries a lot of information. Known to law enforcement. Doesnt that tell you a lot . According to gun violence archive, a not for Profit Organization that provides information on gun related violence, this is the youre not going to believe this, 307th mass shooting in the United States this year alope. Mass shooting represents an incident where four or more people are shot in the same incident. Californias Incoming Democratic governor gavin newsom hailed the heroism of the sergeant who lost his life in this incident, but condemned the countrys gun culture. Im joined by u. S. Congressman Jackie Speier, a friend of this show, author of undaunted, surviving jonestown, summoning courage and fighting back. She represented californias 14th district just south of san francisco. Jackie, thank you so much for joining us. When i listen to that father, as a father myself, you know, we talk about statistics and numbers like that, and we often forget or we dont know, this is a real person, a real son, a real daughter. A human being whos now gone forever. To their parents. If somebody is a nut, or a nut has a gun, a gun with a nut, whatever it is, somebody with an attitude, a bad life experience, whatever it is, the easiness with which we get a semiautomatic glock, which doesnt take any intelligence or skill or talent, to use one of these guns to kill people in their face. Theyre doing it now with some rapidity in this country. So, youre right. The moments of silence are about all that congress has the guts to do. And its not good enough. Thoughts and prayers. Yes, thoughts and prayers. That should be outlawed. I know its well intended in some cases. Its a throwaway line by a staffer who knocks off some script, some product, some wordage for somebody political to make it sound like they give a damn. The 12 families who lost loved ones, that father we just saw, dont give a bloody you know what about our moments of silence and the thoughts and prayers. We have to do Something Real in this country around the gun violence. You know, not only have we had all of these mass shootings, we had six this month. Six, and we havent even gotten to the middle of november yet. And we have had 12,000 people this year who have been victims of gun violence. And are now dead. And 3,000 of them have been children. Well, the nra is laying off. Theyre so complacent they have won this battle. You know this stuff, congresswoman. They dont even spend a lot of money anymore fighting gun safety people. No, they dont because they whisper into the president s ears, and you know, first he says i am absolutely going to do something, then they show up at his doorstep and spend a lot of money on his election to the presidency, and he, you know, salutes them. We have to have more guts in congress to do really rational things. I think one of the issues we have to look at is the mental stability of individuals. Right now, the law requires you to be mentally defective, such a high standard. And meanwhile, we know that there are 75,000 americans who are severely mentally ill in this country who get ssi and president obama tried to at least have them not be eligible to have guns. We couldnt even do that. For the president , it seems like just another cultural button to push. You know, like moving the embassy in the middle east. One of these things like it will get him some votes in the evangelical community. He says things like protecting your Second Amendment rights. The culture war youre up against is brutal. They just push these buttons. And these people, oh, yeah, amen to that, mr. President. Youre one of us. Youre one of us. Its horrible. Not even about actual safety. Its not about people shooting each other, plugging 12 people in a bar. Its about this almost neo religious notion of the Second Amendment, as if its god created. Your thoughts. Well, the Second Amendment says you have the right to own a gun. It doesnt mean that you have the right to not close loopholes that exist in the law and there are plenty that we should be shutting down. The fact that you can still buy guns on the internet or at gun shows even if youre a felon, even if you have committed domestic violence, even if youre mentally ill is crazy. We have to do some rational thinking here and deal with this in a manner that makes sure everyone feels that their guns are not taken away from them if theyre lawabiding people, but those that shouldnt have guns, those who should have a pause and not have their guns for a period of time, we need to address it. Because theres too many lives lost. Do you believe anything will be done by the congress now that the democrats are back in power . You have a comfortable edge of people, 35 seats, maybe 40 picked up. Are you going to be able to use that to put gun safety laws in force . Well be able to pass gun safety legislation in the house. Now, the question is what happens in the senate . Thank you so much. U. S. Congresswoman Jackie Speier, come back any time you want. Thank you. Up next, trump is going after his critics by revoking security clear nlss and even firing his own attorney general. Whats he going to do next . He lost all these seats but hes acting like he has this new mandate. Youre watching hardball. Y. boy nooooooo. grandma nooooooo. dad nooooooo. dog yessssss. vo quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is two times more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. boy hey look, i got it. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. Lets do the thing that you do. Lets clear a path. Lets put down roots. Lets build something. Lets do the thing that you do. Lets do the thing that changes the shape of everything. That pushes us forward and keeps us going. Lets do the work. Carla is living with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. 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After losing the house to democrats, apparently 35 to 40 seats, President Trump is doing everything he can to go after his critics, from firing Jeff Sessions to attacking the media in the form of one reporter and even taking away a reporters white house pass, that one, after a Contentious Exchange yesterday. This, by the way, i have seen a lot of contentious stuff with dan rather and nixon over the years, i have never seen anything like this brawl. Honestly, i think you should let me run the country. You run cnn. If you did it well, your ratings would be much better. Thats enough. Thats enough. Thats enough. Thats enough. The other folks thats enough. Pardon me, maam. Excuse me, thats enough. Peter, lets go. Cnn should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldnt be working for cnn. Peter, go ahead. In jims defense, i traveled with him and watched him. Hes a diligent reporter. Im not a big fan of yours either, to be honest. I understand. Let me ask you a question. You arent the best. You repeatedly over the course just sit down, please. When you report fake news, no. When you report fake news, which cnn does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. Its not the first time this president has targeted his political foes. Or people he sees as foes. In august, he revoked John Brennans security clearance because of brennans involvement in investigating russias interference in the 2016 election. As he told the wall street journal at that time, i call it the rigged witch hunt. And these people led it, so i think its something that had to be done. Lets bring in tonights roundtable. Peggy noonan, the great columnist for the wall street journal. I read every sunday with avid interest. Philip bump for the washington post, and bezaz bezel michaels. Let me start with peggy and well go to the guys. What is trump up to because he did lose in the popular vote because the house is the peoples vote, and basically the number of people across the country as a country voted against him a bit. But yet, he acted like i have new power in the executive branch. Im going to utilize it now against my enemies. Its i feel like hes getting either reckless or hard ball in some way. And i cant quite tell. I thought, by the way, that the house vote, the congressional vote, might be much more strongly a rebuke of 40, 50, 60 seats, than it turned into. Maybe there was i mean, i talked to somebody at the white house who said were relieved it was not so terrible. That is also clever politics to say youre relieved, as if to diminish a 40seat loss. Yeah, but i did some research on it. The average loss for a president in a midterm is 30something seats, and hes about 30something seats. Its 29. I think its 30. But i forgot my point. What its called is lowballing, what people always do. I understand whats going on. I heard george will, who i respect enormously, saying they only got half they wanted. Were going to get 80 seats . I dont think so. Your thoughts. You know, during the obama administration, democrats lost almost 1,000 seats in those eight years. Theres a lot of infrastructure that we actually have to Start Building back. But i do think that what happened on tuesday gets us to that point, and with respect to trump how come you couldnt beat the crook in upstate new york . Not naming names. I got a problem with him. You cant take his name off the ballot unless he dies or moves out of the state, which is ridiculates. Why is trump so powerful . Why is he going after the press, after the guy at cnn, dumping his a. G. With a letter of resignation which says at your quest one, he clearly feels significantly threatened by democratic victories, no question about that. He reacts like a wounded animal would. A guy from queens. Like a wounded animal from new york, from the streets. Acts like a wounded animal because this is him punching back and pushing back. I do think that the letter was planned to sort of take the midterms out of the news a little bit and sort of give him a little more of a pulpit, but the truth is, i expected him to react this way. He doesnt react any other way. Whos behind him . Somebody is thinking through these steps, putting whitaker in there, somehow use him to get to muellers investigation, denying the chance to subpoena. It looks like theres thought behind all this. I dont think its all impulse. What do you think, maybe its impulse. I sort of disagree. The way that whitaker got into his position seems as though a pretty good strategy move by whitaker himself in order to get to the position he was in at the doj and impressed trump from there. Its probably a mistake to lump costa into what happened with sessions. Trump has been at sessions for well over a year, obviously frustrated with sessions. You know his chief of staff was going to cut him out . Its pretty clear that whitaker had a stronger line to trump than sessions did by the end there. I think costa, if you want do you think trumps in better shape now to get reelected than he was three or four days ago or not . I dont know. I think hes about to go through two bad years, and the whole country is about to get torn up in this, probes, investigations, side stuff in washington, when i would argue whats important is serious policy. There are breakthroughs now that could happen with legal immigration. Everything is moving around in washington. Therefore, there are openings. Its not a frozen landscape. A great time. However, who thinks that will happen. They can fix health care, immigration, do decent infrastructure. And the president has to take the lead. Hes saying nancy has to come to me. I disagree. The president proposes, congress disposes. Thats true. The great sentence he said, i beg your pardon, to me, the key thing you stopped me in my tracks. I have to come back with you in a minute. Im coming back with peggy noonan, staying with the roundtable. Up next, the democrats take over the house in january. What would it mean for republican efforts to kill obamacare . Theyre over. Mitch mcconnell gave us the big hint. Youre watching hardball. Your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. How about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead . For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Shaquem get in here. Take your razor, yup. Alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. You got it . Come on, get back. Quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. Cant nobody beat you, cant nobody beat you. Hard work baby, it gonna pay off. You got this. With the one hundred and fortyfirst pick, the Seattle Seahawks select. Alright, you got it, shaquem. Alright, let me see. Hi, kids im carl and im a broker. Do you offer 4. 95 online equity trades . Great question. See, for a full Service Brokerage like ours, thats tough to do. Schwab does it. Next question. Do you offer a satisfaction guarantee . A what now . A satisfaction guarantee. Like schwab does. Man scoffing what are you teaching these kids . Ask your broker if they offer awardwinning full service and low costs, backed by a satisfaction guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. Welcome back to hardball, republicans of threatened forever to repeal and replace obamacare ever since the law was passed. Now the democrats taking over the house. Mitch mcconnell no fan of obamacare admitted its not ever going to happen. Watch. If you look at the exit polls, one of the most important issues to voters was healthcare. Did you take away from that the message that any effort to repeal aca at this point is dead . I think its pretty obvious the Democratic House is not interested in that. There are Serious Problems with obamacare that need to get fixed. They raised the phony issue that we are against preexisting conditions. The rhetoric doesnt solve problems and there are Serious Problems and we have to address it on a bipartisan basis. Cutting through the bs he was saying the fights over. I think that was moreorless what he was saying. The interesting part was when the reporter said, if you look at the exit polls. That tells you everything about this election and 2020, if this isnt resolved, i thought it was interesting that trump yesterday, for all his bombastic theatrics, did sound like he wanted a deal on healthcare and he signaled, ive got plenty of give here. Ronald reagan, in 1982, knew the fight over whether Social Security should be Social Security said we will fix this thing, we wont stop this fight. This fight is over. It is. All the bombasticness the republicans had in talking about affordable healthcare since its inception, nothing has worked for them. The truth is when you put policy in peoples lives, embedded in their routine, hard to beat. They love to fight against it. Mitch mcconnell couldnt be happier he gets to fight against obamacare, he gets to say in two years time, the democrats didnt do anything, theyre obstructionists. Republicans are extremely excited to not have to try to fix it. If democrats dont take this deal from republicans they dont want a deal. Do they want a deal . Maybe they just like the issue. Healthcare is a good democratic issue. It still is. It would be nice if after all the fighting we could get something done. They do make 170 a year to get something done. This has become a good solid democratic issue. Elections matter. They do. Thank you very much, peggy noonan, my favorite columnist. I still like will a little bit. Youre the best. Thank you. When we return, why elections matter. Something got done this tuesday for a long time to come. It will matter whatever happens. electronic dance music if it feels like you live in the bathroom with recurring constipation and belly pain, talk to your doctor and say yesss to linzess. Yesss linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. Linzess can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. Linzess is not a laxative. It helps you get ahead of your recurring constipation. Do not give linzess to children less than 6 and it should not be given to children 6 to less than 18, it may harm them. Do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include gas, stomacharea pain, and swelling. So say yesss to help for recurring constipation. Yesss to help for belly pain. Talk to your doctor and say yesss linzess. [ telephone ringing ] whoa. [ indistinct talking ] deductible . Definitely speaking insurance. Additional interest on umbrella policy . Can you translate . Damage minimization of civil commotion. When insurance needs translating, get answers in plain english at progressiveanswers. Com. He wants you to sign karens birthday card. Its a high honor. Welcome back to hardball. Elections matter, dont they . They decide who governs and capable of sending powerful messages. The 2018 election wants the government to be responsible for healthcare. Mitch mcconnell made that official yesterday saying the Republican Party will no longer try to kill obamacare. This is a case of history just happening. Not that either party has decided how the government should provide its mandate to provide access to affordable healthcare, but that it exists. No future congress will try to deny this mandate. As joe biden once said is a bfd. Name any serious National Politician who calls for eliminates Social Security or medicare or medicaid, theyre accepted foundations in the countrys social safety net right now. The same is true of healthcare for all americans, whether the country ends up with a public option or single payer system we have reached the point of no return. Henceforth there will be a National Healthcare policy of some kind. As of yesterday, politics of both sides are accepting the same principle on the need of americans for healthcare potential. That is quite an important thing for, dont you think . Tonight on all in. It is not over. [applause]. The votes keep coming and the democrats keep winning. Wow. What a night. What a night tonight, the true cope and scale of the democratic blue wave and how democrats plan to use their power with adam schiff. Plus, there will be a recount in florida. We want every vote counted. Reporter the lawyer for Andrew Gillum joins me live. The growing bipartisan condemnation of the president s pick to replace Jeff Sessions