Cohen, and launching new attacks on the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump tweeted, Michael Cohen asks judge for no brings on time. You mean he can do all the terrible unrelated to trump things having to do with fraud, big loans, taxes, et cetera, and not serve a long prison term . Trump went on to add, he lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence. Well, last thursday cohen pleaded guilty to lying to the congress about a planned project for a trump tower in moscow. While trump was a candidate for president. In a memo filed friday night, attorneys for cohen tied cohens wrongdoing at the feet of President Trump himself, noting that, quote, in the weeks during which his then counsel prepared his written response to the congressional committees, michael remained in close and regular contact with white housebased staff and Legal Counsel to client one. Client one is President Trump. Anyway, the president s rage at cohen kicks off a week that will see at least two major deadlines in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. They include Court Filings related to former National Security advisor Michael Flynn remember him . His sentencing is tomorrow. And former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort is this fridays. We can also see additional filings to come surrounding cohen before his sentencing on december 12th. And as if in anticipation trump lashed out at the special counsel today calling mueller, quote, a much different man than people think, and calling the Team Investigating his campaigns potential ties with russia an out of control band of angry democrats who dont want the truth. They only want lies. The truth is very bad for their mission. Im joined now by peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Joyce vance is a former federal prosecutor. Emily jane fox is a Senior Reporter to vanity fair. And Betsy Woodruff is a politics reporter for the daily beast. I want to start with peter on this. This week coming up, the first question i have to ask is why has cohens testimony which has only begun, 70 hours of testimony, which could range in every piece of trumps life, why is he so upset about it . He seems to be firing in all directions now. Well, he is upset about it. Look, who knows him more than Michael Cohen . He worked for him for years. He was part of his business dealings. He was part of fixing problems like the Stormy Daniels thing. If youre president , you dont want somebody like that beholden to a prosecutor. Now, the president is making the case that cohen is making things up in order to lighten his sentence. His tweets today are rather extraordinary, the idea that you would just publicly call on witnesses to resist prosecutors in order to protect himself. But, you know, Michael Cohen represents a threat in a way that Michael Flynn probably does not or other people who have been caught up in this investigation do not. They dont have the history that Michael Cohen does. Well, maybe flynn doesnt know as much, but hes on the other side of the fight now. Hes on the prosecutions side. Let me ask you about have you noticed how trump is out there attacking cohen for full sentencing, life sentences in some cases for people like cohen, but cod ling for people like roger stone, he still wants to keep them on his team. Well, he definitely doesnt want anybody testifying against him, no question about t. His argument theyre being told to say lies. But you hear that a lot in any kind of criminal case. Obviously what Robert Mueller is looking for is corroboration that there are contacts with the russians that would have given trump or the Trump Campaign heads up on what the russians were doing in terms of these democratic hacking, and that his business dealings, the idea of building a tower in moscow at the same time hes running for president and making comments about the future of crimea and other policy decisions that would be enacted if he were president , those are pretty important things. And those are pretty important, you know, threats to this president if Robert Mueller starts linking together some connecting the dots in a way that look damning. Joyce, it looks like the rats are leaving the ship. Is it about to hit the titanic . Im dead serious about that met oth metaphor. It looks like theyre in too deep, wont get anything out because theyre too sleazy arent talking yet. It looks like something is coming. Why hoo news is reporting muellers investigation could be wrapping up shortly according to a source familiar with communications between muellers team and defense lawyers. Quote, theyve been telling people they are tying up loose ends now and trying to conclude. Alan dershowitz wrote that in his column in the wall street journal. Is this thing reaching an end, is that your sense . I think its hard to know if theyre wrapping up the entire investigation or just one phase of it. Weve always known that mueller operates in different phases with different prosecutors assigned. We saw the manafort line, the flynn line, the cohen line. This is a complex case with a lot of foreign dealings overseas, but it would be just like mueller to stick to his core jurisdiction to work only on interference in the investigation. And as he wraps that up, to send other pieces that are unfinished out to the u. S. Attorneys offices with jurisdiction. So well have to wait and see. But its possible. You mean to limit his range, prosecution to collusion, collaboration with the russians, or limiting it to obstruction or both . I think to both of those. Those are both pretty clearly theyre explicitly within the mandate that Rod Rosenstein gave him. So he could certainly do that, and then continue to do other matters as rosenstein said, that arise from his investigation, but he may choose to send those to u. S. Attorneys offices like the Eastern District of virginia, the Southern District of new york, that have independent jurisdiction, and obviously there are a whole host of reasons that we discussed for doing that. It protects those investigations from meddling. Well, betsy, you and i have heard about this mike isikoff piece moving. What weight do you give it, that this thing is coming to a head . Hes a fantastic reporter. He broke the whole lewinsky thing. If he breaks it, youre on ground taking it seriously. All indications are this is correct. The fact weve already talked about which is we have a cohen sentencing memo coming up this week, a manafort sen tenning memo. The flynn sentencing memo. The flynn memo has the potential, we dont know, has the potential to be telling. The part is flynn has been working with muellers team for a year now. Right. Thats a ton of time. Mueller four times has asked a federal judge to give him more time to work with flynn, and there have been basically zero leaks out of flynns cooperation with the mueller team. We dont know what hes been telling him and that suggests that mueller is happy with what hes getting. Let me go to emily on this. Several hours of inquisition, you want to be careful with Michael Cohen. As peter said a few minutes ago, was right in there, he was snuggled in with trump with everything he was doing. He was his fixer. He was the guy that dealt with the smelly, dirty stuff. He had to clean up things. Was the guy going around and cleaning up afterwards, if he could paying off the people if he could. It seems like trump knows all this, like in a bad guy in columbo, he knows everything hes done and he knows he has to pay or it because cohen knows everything hes done. Your thoughts about why this is getting under his skin, the cohen testimony the last few days. I think there are two reasons. The first reason is just as you said. Cohen has worked for him for a dozen years. He was in there, not only with him cleaning up his messes, but cohen was in there with his children cleaning up his childrens messes. I think that gets under his skin. The other thing is the president doesnt like anyone who he perceives as disloyal to him. The way that he has perceived what cohen has done is him being incredibly disloyal to him. Now, cohen was acting as most people would in this situation. He was protecting himself. He was protecting his family. Hes trying to limit his own jail time. As he has explained to me and as his lawyers have explained, hes trying to do the right thing now finally once hes seen the light and come clean. But the president has perceived this as a personal slight, a personal offense, and thats part of the reason as well. I will say there is something very interesting in the sentencing memo that his lawyer put out on friday. He was saying that cohen was in close contact with people around the president last year when he was preparing to lie for congress. Now, he didnt go as far the attorney did not go as far as he was directed to lie to congress, but i know from interviewing cohen that exactly around the time he wrote the statement to congressional investigators, cohen carried two phones with him. One in a black case and one in a white case. The phone in a black case he explained to me in the interview was a phone he carried just to receive calls from people in the white house. So, this was someone who was definitely in close contact, at least as he explained it to me, with the white house during that period of time. Like velocci papers. As trump was calling for cohen to rot in jail he had nothing but praise for roger stone as i said. Another potential target in muellers crosshairs for having said this yesterday. Theres no circumstance under which i would testify against the president because id have to bear false witness against him. Id have to make things up. And im not going to do that. Well, trump tweeted this morning, i will never testify against trump. This statement was recently made by roger stone essentially stating he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about President Trump. Nice to know that some people still have guts. Joyce, youve been through this. Why would a guy who might potentially go to prison or president who might get kicked out of office, impeached or whatever, why would he trash one witness . Is he talking to the jury or just trying to make the guy feel bad . Whats the advantage of trashing someone who has turned states evidence against you . You know, its an interesting situation. First, i think its important to say that every prosecutor who reads this whole little back and forth sort of yawns because there is no witness who becomes a cooperator for the government and sings like a bird down the road who hasnt at some point said they would never cooperate against the king pin or whoever it is that theyre being asked to testify against. That just seems really ordinary. Whats unusual here is the president s twitter involvement and the underlying question is whether you can obstruct io justice, whether you can intimidate witnesses via twitter. It looks like hes flirting with that on a daily basis sometimes. Let me go back to peter about the week ahead. The whole segment at the beginning of the show is looking ahead. Its monday. Of course were going to get back to the funeral of George Herbert walker bush, but we want to get the week started. It looks like there is a lineup of a lot of events about filings, certainly tomorrow with flynn, later on in the week manafort, and coming up very soon apparently, something again on cohen. Is there a cumulation here that even trump cant withstand, where its going to splat against the wall, all these charges . Yeah, its so interesting. Is it really only monday . It feels later in the week already. But youre right. Eefrp of these memos one after the other could be very revealing. It could help us see where Robert Mueller is taking his investigation. You can see the buildup, the accumulation that has been waiting to come out while mueller passed during the campaign rallies. He was trying to stay low from labor day to election day, not politicking or influencing the politicking. And now that that election is passed, now that thanksgiving is passed as you see sort of the beginning of a series of revelations and disclosures and actions that will begin to pile up. And it does weigh on a president to have these things come, especially day after day after day. And here come the democrats, the upcoming chairman of the house judiciary committee, new york democrat j. R. I nadler spelled out how devastating cohens bombshell plea could be for President Trump. The fact that he was lying to the American People about doing business in russia and that the kremlin knew he was lying gave the kremlin a holdover him. And one question we have now is does the kremlin still have a holdover him because of other lies that they know about. Betsy, starting january 3rd, the president faces a second enemy. Its like germany and world war ii. The west and the east coming after them, the democrats and the congress. They will be subpoenaing everything, from the tax returns to the latest filings that they cant get automatically from mueller. Theyre going to go after him for everything. Thats right. And those two things to keep an eye on. First the white house is in a mad dash to lawyer up for the White House Counsels Office has atrophyed the last few years. Theyre struggling to beef up the team because they have to brace for impact once the democratic chairs including nadler get the gavels. The second thing to keenan ep a on is democrats. Chat ing with those close to the committee over the course of the day, i learned democrats are lining up to get on house judiciary because they are expecting it to be the place where the action is, in part, of course, because nadler will be in a position to preside over any potential impeachment proceedings. A whole new world out there starting january 3rd. Thank you, peter baker, Emily Jane Fox of vanity fair, and Betsy Woodruff. Coming up, say goodbye to George Herbert walker bush. Were going to take a long look at his legacy as the 41st president of the United States. Why many see it as the end of an era for the Republican Party. I guess why. We all know why. He was a decent guy. With just weeks to go until the new congress is sworn in, Republican Party is losing some of its most outspoken trump critics like senator bob corker is going. Jeff flake is gone practically. But theyre not going quietly. The Washington Post dubbed this lame duck period the last stand of congresss never trump brigade. It is the last stand. This is hardball where the action is. I can do more to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. I take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release its own insulin, like its supposed to. Trulicity is not insulin. It works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen. And i may even lose a little weight. 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Throughout his life of service, president bush personified grace. His character, his character was second to none. His example will always inspire, and his lifetime of service will be enshrined in the hearts of the American People forever. Welcome back to hardball. The country continues to mourn today as we remember a fallen leader. President George Herbert walker bush lying in state a few blocks from here. I think ill be there tomorrow morning. The 41st president made one last trip back to washington on air force one renamed special air mission 41 in his honor. Bushs service to the country he loved spent a lifetime, of course look at this list. A navy pilot during world war ii. Shot down a couple times by the japanese. U. S. Congressman from texas. Envoy to china. Cia director, vicepresident , of course president. In his one term as president he had a Lasting Impact domestically, of course, passing landmark legislation, americans with disabilities act, Clean Air Act and the break up with the soviet union. That was pretty big. Served as restrained commander in chief in the gulf war. More than can be said for another member of his family. At the end of the week hell return to texas where hell be buried alongside barbara bush and his daughter robin who passed away at the age of just 3 due to leukemia. That was a tragic point in their familys lives. For more on the life of george h. W. , im joined by susan page, usa today, john meacham, one of the great president ial historians of our time, destiny of power, the odyssey of George Herbert walker bush, great book, and eugene robinson. Ill start with you, john. I loved your book. I wasnt as thrilled by his progeny as i was by him. But there are people in that new class of bushes which are very impressive. Not the ones you would think. People like marvin i think are great people. Your thoughts. Its a significant family, some have chosen politics, some have chosen they all serve in some capacity. And i think they do it because the reverence they have for their dad is an ambient reality. I like to say that if my kids end up having 10 of the affection for me that the bush children have for george h. W. Bush and barbara bush, ill be way ahead of the game. Whats the difference between Joseph Kennedy and how he influenced his kids and George Herbert walker bush . This is a big divide. Explain. Such a great question. I think this is something you think about a lot, too, and have written about. I think to some extent its the immigrant story versus the patrician story. The bushes were from columbus, ohio. S. P. Bush, senator prescott bushs father, was the sort of the guy, buckeye steel for the harriman fortunate. They came east pretty quickly. Prescott bush, like his son was entrepreneurial, ended up being a big investment banker. I think the kennedys had an ambition that burned even more brightly. The bushes felt more comfortable that they had been born, to some extent, to lead. I think the kennedys were trying to break into a world dominated by people like the bushes. Gene, your thoughts. He was the last of a kind, i think, in a way. At least in terms of our president s. He did have that noblesque. He came from that class, that family. He was the last, i think, of the period when bipartisan ship was a real thing. It was different from prebush and postbush, i think. They were very different things. He was it was the time when people really did have friendships and relationships and common interests across the aisle. And when party didnt mean what it means now, and i think he was, in a sense, a transitional figure for the Republican Party. I mean, he came in and he was what we would call a moderate republican or not at all a republican right now actually, given todays Republican Party. Three best friends, right, because chris was working with them, were democrats in the house. Ashley of ohio, son i montgomerie of mississippi, and rosty. All under different circumstances. Even when rosty went to prison, bush stuck with him. Thats when you especially need your lets talk about personal relationships, not just some of the schmalzee stuff. He was working mobarak at orioles park. It was not a dance learned for the occasion. He knew part of his life growing up was getting to know certain people that he would be able to influence at some point when it mattered. Its so true. Its so true during his presidency, his vicepresidency, when he was at the u. N. As well, he took a long view at building relationships with foreign leaders or were going to be foreign leaders in other countries. He told his staff he didnt want the first call he made to be a situation where he had to ask for a favor. He want every young person, dont make the first call when you want something. Exactly. How are things going with you . How are things . Have a relationship that provides a context so that when you have the invasion of kuwait by iraq, you can call these leaders and forge a coalition. The other depth or hardball thing he did when he was in china, he and barbara both went to every National Day Event because, as he put it, were the big guys, but everybody wants their moment in the sun. And so he made friends around the world just by showing up at the veilian day, or the sri lanka day. And he just he was a master of what Franklin Roosevelt called, the science of human relationships. Another interesting thing is the relationships he maintained with reporters and columnists who wrote about him, some who wrote about him, you know, in very tough ways. Like marie dowd. Ann, our late colleague at the Washington Post who, you know, when she got cancer and, you know, was terminal, he wrote amazing letters to her. Once i interviewed him while he was president. I was working for news day, not that bright, i didnt do a very good interview. At the end of the interview he said, i dont feel like ive given you anything. What can i give you to help your story . The traditional role president s take. [ laughter ] the other thing is humor, his humor was great in this. The day after he dropped out of the 80 race, they were living on briar lane in houston. And he lets doug jeel from the times come in. Theres a copy of the yale alumni magazine and National Review sitting out. And he picks up National Review and says, i guess we dont have to put this out any more. So he knew he was in on the joke. Well, during his one term as president , president bush oversaw some of the defining moments, of course, as u. S. Foreign policy in the 20th century, including the fall of the soviet union and the gulf war, which he commanded basically. His response was often defined by restraint. What a word we dont hear now. Heres how former president obama described that. What people dont appreciate fully, even within his own party, is the degree to which he had to land the plane when the berlin wall comes down. You have chaos, potentially, in the former soviet union, and russia. And uncertainty in europe. All those things could have gone hey wi haywire at any point. The restraint, the caution, the lack of spiking the football that they showed was i think an enormous achievement. Isnt it something, youre looking at the fall of the Eastern European dictators and theyre taking the statue down. With bush, they put the statue up. So interesting. Yeah. You want more . Something a president has to offer to make the interview better. Its quite true, you know, the restraint that he showed, he showed also when he left office, right . He didnt like everything bill clinton did as president. He didnt like everything barack obama did as president , and he kept his mouth shut because he thought that was not the appropriate role for him to take that was true of his son, too. He did like the son. He and scocroft were the cheers. Thank you. Are you thinking about t. Its been a month since the midterms, but some races are still in doubt. Do you believe it . In the tar heel state in North Carolina, a race that looked like a republican victory is now in limbo after officials uncovered election anomalies, isnt that a nice word . That could mean voter fraud. This is oldtime scary. Were going to get to this one right now. We have a pretty clean election in this country. But lets check out North Carolina 9th. This is hardball where the action is. Ch job exxonmobil cre, many more are created in the community. Because energy touches so many industries, it supports 10 million u. S. Jobs. The zip code youre born into can determine your future. Your school. Your job. Your dreams. Your problems. indistinct shouting but at the y, we create opportunities for everyone, no matter who you are or where youre from. For a better us, donate to your local y today. With lower Expense Ratios than comparable vanguard funds. And were now offering zero Expense Ratio index funds. Thats value youll only find at fidelity. One thing leads another welcome back to hardball. Something strange is happening in North Carolina. Last week the state board of elections and Ethics Reform voted unanimously to hold off on certifying the results of the congressional race in the 9th district. Amid reports that absentee ballots may have been tampered with. Republican mark harris beat democrat dan mccreedy by 905 skroets. Votes. Mccreedy conceded. There were affidavits of irregularity in the district single out one rural county, Bladen County. One witness described an unidentified woman there coming to her house and taking her unfinished absentee ballot to be processed. Another affidavit alleged that an individual paid by the Harris Campaign as a contractor to work on absentee ballots would be paid a bonus if harris beat mccreedy. Finally, a political scientist in the state noted that an unusually high number of mailin absentee ballots requested in bladen, that county, and neighboring robeson county, were not returned. In other words they werent filed as valid. 40 requested by African Americans and 60 requested by native American Indians did not make touchtone to the election officials. Big differential. Im joined by senior staff attorney at Southern Coalition for social justice. Thank you so much, alison. This is a troubling case. Explain it now to somebody who has never heard anything about it, if you could. Sure. What were seeing are allegations and significant evidence of voter theft, not voter fraud, but voter theft, particularly at voters of color. There are two pieces of this that are significant. One is the rate at which harris won the absentee vote in blad, networks county doesnt match up with historical trends. Harris won 61 of the absentee votes in 2018. In 2014 the Democratic Congressional candidate won 67 . And the Democratic Senate candidate won 74 . So the numbers of accepted absentee ballots are strange. And then we have 1200 votes in Bladen County, 1200 absentee requests never returned, predominantly people of color. You see similar patterns in neighboring robeson county. And all of this is happening in the context where the legislature is currently contemplating and is about to enact a voter i. D. Law that will disproportionately harm black and American Indian voters in this state. Its very troubling. Well, tonight wssc, a local affiliate in charlotte is reporting they found what appears to be a targeted effort to illegally pickup absentee ballots even the person picking them up had no idea whether those ballots were even delivered to the elections board. The affiliate spoke to one of those individuals who said she was paid 75 to 100 a week to promote the republican candidate and mipickup finished ballots. The man named in the affidavit told her to collect the ballots and hand them off to him. She did not know if the votes were counted. Can you go backwards on this and say, what did these people do exactly to corrupt the system . What actions did they take . Well, we dont know all of the details. What we know so, we dont know how all of these absentee requests got sent in. There was an abnormally high rate of absentee requests by mail. What we do know from the affidavit submitted by the Democratic Party is that voters in predominantly africanamerican, predominantly elderly communities were the ones targeted by these collectors and were told, you dont need to fill out this ballot, ill take it in for you, ill finish filling it out for you. That in part explains why the vote totals, absentee vote totals dont really accord with Bladen County which is 40 africanamerican. So the premise here is that republican operatives, to help a republican candidate, went out and sent a lot of requests in for absentee ballots from African Americans. They knew their addresses, they knew their names and went around knowing when those absentee ballots would show up and collected them and filled them in for either their candidate or destroyed them . Yeah. I mean is that what you think happened . I think there are a lot of missing absentee ballots from black and American Indian voters. And i dont have an answer for where those are. But its deeply troubling. If you look at the number of absentee ballots returned in bladen and robeson county, the last midterm compared to 2018, particularly in bladen, you have a dramatic reduction in the number of returned absentee ballots and you have a dramatic reduction in the number of returned absentee ballots from black voters. So where did they go . Well, i know youre going to stay on this, alison riggs. Please get back on the show as soon as you find out something new. This is very disturbing. We should have clean elections in this country. Up next, after losing what looks like it will be 40 house seats in the midterms, youd think a little soul searching would be in order for the republicans, it would be on their agenda. But aside from outgoing critics asserting themselves in their final weeks in congress, the antitrump people, were not seeing a lot of concern on the rite about the recent rout. As the Republican Party learned, any lessons here . Youre watching hardball. 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If you want to go to pay your respects i think ill do it tomorrow morning walk past there. The country reflects on the legacy of the 41st president , his passing. I think it signals the end of an era for the Republican Party. His wing of the party seems to be shrinking, more so since novembers med teidterm electio. This is the last stand of congresss never trump brigade as lawmakers show stronger support for the white house. Isnt that wonderful news . But as the New York TimesJonathan Martin notes, trumps take over of the Republican Party and wins in the senate has allowed for, well, little selfexamination by republicans about a midterm that seemed at least competitive turned into the loss of almost 40 Republican House seats. Lets bring in tonights hardball round table. Kimberly atkins is the Washington Bureau chief for the boss tin herald. Republican congressman from pennsylvania who is retiring at the end of this year, and howard fineman, political analyst for msnbc. What a great group. Let me ask you about the Inflection Point in Republican Party. I grew up with a party like yours. My family was from that party. Not me necessarily, at all, i should say. People like bill scranton and tom ridge, howard is shaking his head, made a lot of sense, middle of the road party. Is that gone now . Well, i think were in challenging times if youre the Republican Party. I think it has dwindled in 2018. I think in 16 a lot of Republican Voters took a chance on trump because he was running against hillary clinton. But if i were to look back, its much more the party of pat buchanan combined with the 2008 recession which i think had a lot of populist voters in the country take a chance on trump. Howard . Well, i think that the old Republican Party that we knew and grew up with in pennsylvania, me in pittsburgh, you in philly, is gone. Its completely, completely gone. And, and whats replaced it is clinging to the United States senate where republicans have the majority and where Mitch Mcconnell, who grew up in that tradition, has now become essentially the guy who handles things for donald trump on the hill and insists on a hard gripe few that trump enforces. Mcconnell is up in 20. Thats the place they get the federal judges if they want. Theyve retreated, as it were, into the citadel of the senate. Thats how theyre going to run things, with mcconnell in charge. Lindsey graham, marcia coming in, they know they have to be trump its. Thats the future for them. Its not just whats happening with the Republican Party. Its whats happening with the country were seeing increased polarization. The Midterm Election was a real demonstration of that. Whether trump is the symptom or the cause, probably a little bit of both. But i think that makes it harder for moderates of both parties, people willing to stand up and say republicans willing to stand up to donald trump when they disagree with him. Most of those people got voted out or retiring. Youre left with a much more concentrated right and concentrated left. Tell me about the dynamic between the two of them. The fact that trump is wickedly awful to democrats, theyre polarized because of trump, have they whip sawed to the left, i dont know if its ideology . I think its both. There was an increasingly left ward move of the democrats that got accelerated in an age of trump. And now democrats are looking for somebody who is really as opposite as you can get. I think thats one reason people like beto orourke is so instantly popular is because they are looking for somebody who can speak that left leaning image. Meanwhile republican lawmakers in wisconsin and michigan two states that will matter next election are using lame duck power to take power away from the Incoming Democratic governors. In Wisconsin Republicans held a hearing for legislation that, among other things, prevent the new governor from withdrawing from a lawsuit challenging obamacare and make it harder for him to implement state laws. Governor scott walker downplayed the significance of this plan while talking to reporters tonight, according to the milwaukee journal sentinel. He said, quote, i think if you look at much of what theyre talking about is codifying practice for all the talk this talk about reining in power. It really does. Anyway, in michigan republicans have legislation that would allow the legislature, Republican Legislature instead of the attorney general to intervene in court cases and take Campaign Finance oversight away from the secretary of state. Howard, this is sort of revaunchism. You dont want the new guy to have power. Theyre laying traps and mines outside the walls of the citadel everywhere they can. This is not an expansive party. This is not a theory of expanding your tent or expanding your appeal. Its focusing in on what you can protect. The lauger. What you can protect, the logger, the inerreds of the castle. Thats what theyre doing. How do you see t ron . This is not just a republican thing. It happens to be in wisconsin and michigan right now. But weve seen this in years past. Constitutionally i question whether this stuff can be done. Passing statutes as you lose in order to reduce the power of a state office just because an incoming member happens to be of another political party. I think there is some constitutional questions here that some of this stuff will never let me ask you a broader question. Howard, youll get into it. When your party recognizes youre facing a demographic time bomb, this assumes a couple things. African americans are going to stay 90 democratic, since the 60s. It used to be 2 to 1, party of lincoln. Hispanics are in play. Because you have people mexican americans, cubanamericans very much in play. Especially mexicanamericans. Theyre not all lefties. Puerto ricans may be. The Republican Party is girding itself for being a minority party, whether its voter suppression, whatever games rather than get in the game and trying to be a majority party. A lot of times short term gain is focused in the modern era. Youre absolutely right. Voters, including hispanic voters, latino voters were not monolithic. There was a time cuban reporters were reliably republican. In states like texas, florida which make a huge, huge difference, but after reince priebus, remember that seemed so long ago in 2013, said they have to look out and learn how to look outward and make that pitch to a Broader Group of people. Republicans are turned and gone the exact opposite way doubling down on a small portion of the base and really catering their policies to that. I think a lot of republicans see that and want to pivot. And i think that they want to broaden. I think it becomes very difficult when the president just dominates the discussion and, frankly, you had a lot of voters go to the polls, republicans. If they didnt like the president , they were not voting for their member of congress. You had members of congress, state senators, state representatives with Favorability Ratings at 55, 60 get 45 of the vote because you had Republican Voters going in saying, im a republican, but i cant do it this time. There is a rural imbalance, a growing rural tilt in the senate for constitutional reasons because of two senators for each state. Youve got a lot of republican senators up in red districts in 2020. Youve got Mitch Mcconnell up in kentucky where trump won by more than 20 points. Unless Mitch Mcconnell and i dont mean to make him a bigger player than he is, but hes a big player. Until the senators respect his politic political acumen, unless he says enough, we have to change our tactics and change our vision, nothing is going to happen. What mitch has said is were going to keep putting judges on the federal bench with our majority of 53 republican senators, and were going to build a legal citadel to go along with the political one to allow us to play out this string that we have committed ourselves. Sounds like john marshall. The early federalists did that, remember . Anyway, the round table well said. Theres no more, therefore dont do what they did. The round table is sticking with us. Up next, these people tell me something i dont know. They keep doing that. Youre watching hardball. 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. 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Mcdonalds is committing 150 Million Dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs. Prof Maria Ramirez mom and dad Maria Ramirez to help more employees achieve their dreams. Mom and cohigher ad amirez higher parents arent perfect, but then they make us Kraft Mac Cheese and everythings good again. The greatest wish of all. Is one that brings us together. The lincoln wish list event is here. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with 0 down, 0 due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Only at your lincoln dealer. And a complimentary first months payment. Ignition sequence starts. 10. 9. Guidance is internal. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Were back with the hardball round table tonight. Congressman Ryan Costello of pennsylvania for a while still is going to give us something we dont know. I talked with the incoming nrcc chair very aware of the challenge facing republicans in 20. We need a suburban agenda that isnt defined by donald trump. Number two, act blue totally destroyed us in the fundraising capacity. Coming out with an online portal to have republicans match what democrats did this timeout is issue number one and focus number one. How do you get small donors to vote republican . The problem for republicans is you have a lot of outside conservative groups pulling in dollars all over the place. Democrats are much better in consolidating that through one portal. It being pro life hurt your party . I dont think that thats the issue any more. Culturally i think its much more on the gun issue and the unwillingness of republicans to say, background checks for all commercial sales is something thats reasonable and suburban toomey cut it. Thats why he won. Thank you, kimberly atkins, Ryan Costello and robert fine man. Youre watching hardball. Youve had quite the career. Yeah, ive had some pretty prestigious jobs over the years. News producer, executive transport manager, and a beverage distribution supervisor. Now im a director at a Security Software firm. Wow, youve been at it a long time. Thing is, i like working. What if my Retirement Plan is i dont want to retire . Then lets not create a Retirement Plan. Lets create a plan for whats next. I like that. Get a plan thats right for you. Td ameritrade. Starts with looking buiat something old,nk and saying, really . So capital one is building something completely new. Capital one cafes. Inviting places with people here to help you, not sell you. And savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. Because thats how it should be. You can open one from right here or anywhere in 5 minutes. Seriously, 5 minutes. This is banking reimagined. Whats in your wallet . Let me finish tonight with a personal remembrance of president bush. In the spring of 1989, newly inaugurated president bush invited my wife kathleen and i to the family quarters. My parents were scheduled to visit with us. Fortunately president bush welcomed all four of us to dinner and a movie. The magic began when we got to the white house, greeted at the top of the stores by the president and the first lady. They grabbed my two parents and disappeared. Barbara gathered us and took us on a tour of the Family Living area. After the tour with the first lady, i was looking at the south lawn to see three people chatting away like old pals, dad, mom, and the president of the United States. I remember over dinner later that night when my dad signalled to me in language that required no words, that this was the greatest night of his life. There was an interesting post script. During that evening, president bush commented about our family being democrats. I said that the family was overwhelmingly and historically republican. I was the black sheep in the family. Well, several months later i was sitting in the roosevelt room in the west wing for a press briefing for my newspaper, the San Francisco examiner and some other hearst papers. President bush was heading down to long table toward me. And when i arrived in front of me, he paused, quote, so, has your father changed your mind about things yet . What a nice gentleman. I had a hard time being tough on him after that, especially when dad asked me to be nice for what hed done for our family. Well, thats hardball for now. Thanks for being with us. All all in with chris hayes ss right now. s tonight on allin. Michael cohen is lying and hes trying to get a reduced sentence. The president attacks Michael Cohen. Hes a weak person. And grooms roger stone. Theres no circumstance under which i would testify against the president. As Robert Mueller prepares what could be another bombshell. Darn right, youre exactly right. Tonight, a compromised president lashes out as the special counsel closes in. I feel badly for general flynn. Then, the new yorkers Adam Davidson on what he says is the last phase of the trump presidency. Plus, what looks like a massive case of Election Fraud by republicans in