Al frankens resignation. But at least five more congressmen are now under scrutiny for allegations of sexual muss conduct. But we start in alabama. Where we are just two days out from the special election between Democrat Doug Jones and republican roy moore. And its becoming a test of will for many republicans there. Buck the president and the party or support a man accused of Sexual Harassment and molestation. And perhaps no one explained the fundamental dilemma better than the states senior senator Richard Shelby who wrote in the name of a difference distinguished republican. I understand where the president is coming from. I understand we would like to retain that seat in the u. S. Senate. But i tell you what. I there is a time that we call it a tipping point. And i think so many accusations, so many cuts, so many drip, drip, drip. When it got to the 14yearold story, that was enough for me. I said i cant vote for roy moore. On friday, the president was in pensacola, florida, practically within spitting distance of the alabama border. Flanked by massive Merry Christmas signs he started by celebrating his 2016 victory before eventually touting judge moore. And the president eventually took it a step further recording a robocall urging alabama voters to roy moore on tuesday. If alabama elects liberal Democrat Doug Jones, all of our progress will be stopped cold. We already know Democrat Doug Jones is a puppet of nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, and he will vote with the washington liberals every single time. Democrat jones is soft on crime, weak on immigration, supports abortion. Hes bad for our military and bad for our vets. We havent seen much of judge moore lately but a new interview was released today and he once again denied all claims of Sexual Misconduct dogging his campaign. I have written cards, graduation cards. I have known families. I have known a lot of people throughout my life. But these allegations are completely false. I did not date underage women. I did not molest anyone. What remains to be seen, where this race really stands. And what polling, if any of it, can we trust . You know nick saban . The coach at the university of alabama . You should call him and ask him a question about what he thinks about College Football polls because you can use that as my answer about any poll you see right now. There is an energy out there that cant be captured by pushing a telephone. We feel great about this election. Joining me now, reporter for the New York Times and msnbc contributor jeremy peters, msnbc contributor and washington anchor for bbc world news america catty kay, former chairman of the Republican National committee, Michael Steele and direct offer domestic policy studies at stanford, a Research Fellow at the hoover center, chen. Michael steele, what is going on with your party . This is only a twohour show. Whats going on is a whole lot of things but the short and long of it is you have right now this real battle line has been drawn between, i would call traditional republicans and this new emerging trump republicanism. And its going to be a battle thats going to be played out the remainder of this administration. But the problem right now is the lineup with the moore race. A lot of the stuff the president is saying, you played the clip of the president doing that phoner. You know, the bottom line is the economy and the world will not come crashing down if mr. Jones comes to washington because republicans have the majority in the senate. The truth of it is this is that ongoing battle the president wants to win and theyve already declared war on the establishment of the gop. This is one more illiteration of that. I dont want to put words in your mouth but you worked for governor romney who is part of this swing. Hes been critical of President Trump and of roy moore. Do you recognize the party that you worked for at one point . There are a lot of elements i dont recognize. Its difficult to reconcile the Republican Party that i knew and that i still consider myself to be a part of, i guess nominally. With people who would support someone like roy moore and double down on someone like roy moore. That, to me, is unfathomable. And by the way, this is going to be a problem for republicans. If roy moore wins, its not like if roy moore wins, the problems go away. Everything is solved and magically well have low taxes and a Great National defense. Well have nine months of questions about roy moore. Thats not what the Republican Party wants. Thats what the Democratic Party wants. You have covered this civil war inside the Republican Party as something of a specialty over the last couple of years. How do you see this unfolding here in washington and as you mentioned, this is going to be all were going to talk about if moore wins. The thing that can happen for the wing of the party that michael was alluding to, this insurgent trump republicanism is for Mitch Mcconnell to move to expel roy moore. They thrive on conflict. They want a boogieman in Republican Leadership and theyll get that if republicans move aggressively enough to unseat roy moore. They may not do that. Constitutionally theres a question of whether or not he is able to be expelled because voters are duly elects him. Theyre making this decision to vote for him knowing everything there is to know about the allegations against him. In the best case scenario, republicans have an ethics investigation into him. But thats still really messy. It drags out like this will go on for months and roy moore will be in every single ad against a republican candidate who is up for reelection in 2018. In the case of an Ethics Committee investigation. We saw this with bob packwood. He ultimately resigned because the Ethics Committee voted he be expelled. I dont see roy moore voluntarily resigning under any circumstance. What better platform than to say, no, im the guy defying the Republican Party. I think we have seen the Republican Party shift in the course of the last week from having been the Mitch Mcconnell, no, we cant have him to Mitch Mcconnell, oh, maybe we can have him after all. And thats remarkable because its not just the harassment story. We think about how much problems roy moore is going to cause the Republican Party. Even before all the harassment stories came out, they didnt like him. They didnt want to support him because they knew what he was going to do to them. The rnc and nrcs both withdrew their support for roy moore. Now the rnc is back to supporting him in the wake of President Trumps endorsement. For his part, cory gardner, the head of the senates party said roy moore will never have the support of the Senatorial Committee. Well never endorse him. We wont support him. I wont let that happen. Nothing will change. I stand by my previous statement. Gardner has called for moores expulsion if he wins on tuesday. I keep thinking about the dynamics of this but also continues into 2018 that this would be something that steve bannon would just use to light up all these other races hes going to be focused on. Its the same argument trump has made again and again about the republican establishment. They are trying to steal your voice. Steve bannon says those exact words on tuesday night when we watched him campaign for roy moore in fair hope, alabama. They want to take away your vote and steal your voice. If he can use the republican establishments heavy handedness in this case as a political he needs to not give that to them. Do young theres a breaking point where you have the president and the rnc on one side and i think we are at a breaking point. Were at a broke point. Its already broken at this stage. I absolutely agree that the reality for the party is youre facing a future in which as you voted theres going to be a picture on your lapel that has roy moore face on it and you have to go and try to defend and explain that. And i think when you look at, for example, the rnc getting back in the game and supporting moore with money, unfortunately for the chairman, she doesnt have a choice. She has to because the president who is the head of the party said youll spend money now on the campaign. Cory gardner can say, no, the Senatorial Committee is not an arm of the administration. And were not supporting the senatorial candidate. So that again plays up to jeremys point, this friction within the party. They were saying again today, i do not support roy moore. I do not think he should be the representative of our party and shes thinking carefully about all those female voters in the suburbs of Northern Virginia who have to make a choice this Time Next Year about who theyre going to support and it doesnt behoove her to come out in support of roy moore. Shes in a difficult position. I want to bring in former alabama governor don siegelman. He was the last democrat to hold that office in the state. Governor, last time you were here, you says it was anyones guess how this ends. Thats probably still true but where do you put the state of this race tonight . I can tell you who is going to win this race. Tell us. Women. Women. Women in alabama throughout america and even throughout the world have been toucheded, not by stars falling on alabama but it seems like a comet has fallen on alabama. But republican educated republican women are they are going to vote for the democrat in this case. Im not going to say by how many, but i know it is happening. There is a massive democrat iic gotv effort. If dog jones wins, its an unexpected victory. Hooray, weve won. If roy moore wins, hooray, democrats have won again. As was said earlier, the republicans have to deal with roy moore for the next several months leading up to the 2018 elections. And thats when youre going to see republican women rise up and emasculate these men who are in positions of power who have taken advantage of women. And i predict that this is going to happen not only in alabama but throughout the United States. And again, in other countries as well because they are going to move forward to assume positions of power to straighten this mess out. Certainly an interesting way of framing that. Can i ask you about africanamerican voters in alabama . This clearly, if doug jones is going to win, he needs to win over black voters and have them turn out to the polls in numbers similar to what the former president barack obama was able to do. Do you see signs there that doug jones is energizing that community . Well, i know hes trying to energize the community. And it is possible. It is difficult. I was the last of the only southern elected official to win both majority of white and africanamerican votes in an election. Its something that took me decades to do to build up that trust both in the White Community and Africanamerican Community. But it can be done. So well just have to wait and see whether, you know, the effort by the democrats is enough to pull out these africanamerican voters. The difficulty is that jones has just not been around long. He hasnt distinguished himself in any other on any other issue other than the prosecution of the ku klux klan. So its not a race between two people who have established themselves and whose views are well known by the voters. Former alabama governor don siegelman, thanks for coming on the show again tonight. We appreciate it. Thank you. So lets talk through this a little bit. Africanamerican voters in alabama. There seems to be some ambivalence, i suppose if you will in the reporting about where they stand here with doug jones. Whats your sense, jeremy, of whether the Jones Campaign is doing what they need to do here . The problem is the candidate. Hes not a very inspiring guy. He doesnt go out there and barnstorm and set crowds on fire. Its just not theres a mismatch there between the intensity of the democratic electorate and the candidate that the party has chosen to represent them. They also put up, and i want to show you this. Its a mailer that the doug Jones Campaign sent around that as you can see at the top says think of a black man went after High School Girls anyone would try to make him a senator . Michael steele, this has oh, wow. Earned some criticism. Whats your feel of that . I would definitely see the criticism on that one. Yeah, it the race aspect of this is whats actually fairly understated or even not really addressed for the vast majorities of this campaign until just this last week when newly discovered tapes of mr. Moore talking about the last great moment in American History was when black folks were slaves. So i take exception to that particular point of view, but it clearly set in motion a different kind of energy. And whether or not africanamericans who are now sort of keying in on this race see that and other aspects of this race as a reason to get out and vote for jones who is underwhelming in that regard and certainly ads like that are the typical kind of stuff that the party people put out there thinking its going to move people. In farkct, all it does is ticks people off. Well see how this actually plays out. Reminds me of virginia where the democrats didnt have a compelling candidate. There was a lot of folk ous what the africanamerican turnout and vote would be. Under the age of trump this was seen as the test case. How theyre going to respond to the Trump Administration in that particular case. In the end, in virginia, it was women who decided it. The former governor is right. Women will have a big impact in the midterm elections and 2020 election. Im just not sure theyre going to do what he says. If you look across the special elections that democrats have been in this year, i dont know if they fielded a compelling candidate in any of those elections. This will be a challenge that going into next year if theyll recapture the house. Theres a certain amount of h inertia that antitrump is going to create but they need better candidates. Maybe its too late in some regards but thats going to be a key factor going into next year. We are just Getting Started right here on kasie dc. Still to come, well hear from one of roy moores supporters. Alabamas secretary of state. And later how things go from Cable Television to the president s twitter account in moments. But first, accusations mount against male members of congress. Three resignations in one week. Well talk about where investigations stand. Kasie dc is back in a moment, live from washington. Shawn evans its 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. 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What does it mean for republicans in roy moore becomes a senator and senator franken has resigned. Im not supporting roy moore. I wish the rnc wasnt supporting roy moore. If hes found to have molested children, it would be a defining moment in the history of the United States senate. Does this set a precedent where they can look at past behavior . What does this mean for republicans if roy moore becomes a senator . I dont know. Thats what everybody is trying to figure out now. It was al frankens speech on the floor of the senate that drew the biggest headlines in the ongoing effort to return some dignity to congress when it comes to Sexual Harassment. There have been major advancements in the case of four other congressmen, both democrats and republicans. Congressman trent franks was going to stay in office until the end of january, but instead he quit on friday citing the health of his wife. But this was after a former aide told the Associated Press that franks repeatedly pressed her offering her as much as 5 million to carry his child as a surrogate. According to politico, two female aides were confuss about whether franks wanted to attempt in vitro fertilization or have sexual relations with them in pursuit of this goal. Franks tried to persuade a female aide that they were in love by having her read an article that describes how a person knows someone is in love with them. Franks claims he has never coerced or had or attempted to have any sexual contact with a member of his congressional staff. Then thursday Democrat John conyers. His seat will sit open for nearly a year after he announced his resignation and endorsed his son to replace him. Multiple aides accused him of Sexual Harassment triggering an investigation. Roll call reports the Treasury Department paid 2 220,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging harassment that involved florida democrat alcee hastings. Hastings has denied the claims calling them ludicrous and told roll call hed not seen the settlement and didnt know until after the fact saying, quote, i am outraged that any taxpayer dlrps needlessly paid to a former congressional staffer. One republican congresswoman has called on blank farenthold to step down. He used federal tax dollars to settle a claim. Hes drawn nine challengers in his upcoming election. Joining me now is capitol Hill Reporter leigh ann caldwell. We have, obviously, you and i have been working on a lot of these stories. This was, i would say, a week where i couldnt we couldnt have made it up. What happens next here . I mean, yeah, you cant make tup. Three members of congress, two members, one senator, resigned in one week because of these allegations. I think what happens next is, do more and more peoples names keep coming . And more and more allegations and women keep coming forward . I think that, you know, you mentioned the alcee hastings. That story dropped friday night. Didnt get a lot of attention, i think, because of the intensity of last week and all of the reporting that was done and all the other cases. Were going to start a new week tomorrow. Theres going to be many questions. But the members of congress, the colleagues have a huge decision to make that is every Single Member that has allegations against them now going to be forced to resign, or are they going to let some sort of process play out . Michael steele, you are nodding. What do you see as a difference, if there is one, between how the two parties are handling this . Nancy pelosi earned quite a bit of blowback for seeming to defend john conyers on meet the press. Democrats this past week ran al franken out of town based on what were a series of photographs and allegations from people that, you know, some are out there are arguing are not as serious as what some of these other people have been accused of. Paul ryan has been pretty quick to clean house, it seems, when he has been faced with Something Like this or discovered Something Like this. They, obviously, are potentially dealing with roy moore. How do politics play into this. Is there a difference . Yeah, there is. Theres the difference between taking the high ground, which the democrats have done, in terms of pivoting off the early mistake by nancy pelosi and really now sort of overcompensating to a certain extent where theyre really pushing hard against all of their members. The republicans are, you know, clearly in that sense of being in the majority trying to do the, you know, the block and defend and protect kind of move. And that, unfortunately for the republicans is not a really good look given the subject matter of Sexual Harassment to look like youre defending and blocking and making excuses. So the politics for both parties are opportunistic in the sense that for the democrats, they see a chance to score political points and to use it going into next the next election cycle to sort of beat them down with the Sexual Harassment argument. And for republicans, its the opportunity to try to create some separation, do a little heisman move between them and some of the others inside the party. But theyre mindful of the fact the numbers are limited. Theyre sitting there in the senate saying were only two down and if we lose one, we have a problem. So frankens exit came under the sheer tonnage of pressure from his own party and it sets up an additional seat for democrats to defend in 2018. But some lawmakers cautioned about rushing to judgment in cases of Sexual Harassment. Each case has to be evaluated on the merits, of course. We shouldnt have trial by newspaper. Everyone should have a chance to adjudicate the evidence and advance their claim or defend their cause. Franken didnt have to resign. There was clearly no due process. But when you have everybody coming after you, thats what he chose to do. There needs to be a due process. An investigation between somebody who pats somebody on the back side and somebody who commits terrible acts against women. And what you saw today was a lynch mob. Lets not have due process. Lets not ask anybody any questions. Tloots lets not have a hearing. Lets just lynch him because when youre done lynching him, well be so pure. Well feel so good. This is a party which is losing its mind. What do you make of this . You did just have four, i think, was it middle aged or older than middle aged white men pronouncing Sexual Harassment and it may be different if we went to female senators who do seem to think that actually there is black and white here. And that somebody who misbehaves needs to go. Certainly on the democratic side. Im not sure about the democrats on the high ground. The test will be when they have a senator or congressman in a competitive district or state. Theyre fairly assured that al franken will be replaced by another democrat and john conyers as well. Theres some political calculation certainly on their part that they dont want to look anything like the party of roy moore going into the next election. And leigh anne it was women that stood out, took the kind of stood out front and were the ones who first called on al franken to step down. Yeah. And i think the Democratic Women pushed the democratic leadership to do something about it. Senator schumers statement didnt come out for hours afterward. He met with franken, as you reported, kasie, at schumers apartment here in d. C. But i think the Democratic Party, they decided that they wanted they wanted to be a clear contrast, especially as roy moores election is on tuesday. And they wanted their party to not have any sort of double standard and not be able to point to republicans who are still could be serving. There is this one slightly odd paradox a lot of women are feeling that im hearing talk about, and you raised it. Hastings hardly got any attention because there sore many of these cases. Were seeing that to some extent in alabama because there are so many women. Each one loses some weight and thats something women are concerned about. That the cases will stop getting attention because there sore many. Theres a slippery slope here. And i know democrats are worried about this privately. And Democratic Women i have spoken to on the hill who are saying, ooh maybe we should pump the brakes here because by getting rid of al franken, we have now set the bar so high that allegations could come now against just about anyone and thats the standard. Theyve got to go. By getting rid of franken, theyve set that standard. If there are allegations against you, you have to go. If there had not been the photograph, al franck efranken have returned. Due process is an important piece they overstepped. They drew the line and were going to do a drew process effort and then, boom, here we are. Got to leave it there for the moment. Leigh anne caldwell, thank you. When we come back, weve long known President Trump has an affinity for television. Who do you talk to for military advice right now . Well, i watch shows. I mean, i really see a lot of great, you know, when you watch your show and all the other shows and you have the generals and you have certain is there a goto for you . Just ahead, inside a gripping New York Times piece that looks at what the president sees on cable tv and how it sometimes ends up on his twitter account. Were back after this. There are ordinary eggs. And then theres the best. We like cage free, and which ones just taste fresher and more flavorful . Only egglands best. 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Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other Money Managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. This s electricity. This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. A massive new piece in the New York Times goes through in intricate detail, the president s media diet and his staffs efforts to playing it. In the morning, energized, infuriated, often a gumbo of both. Mr. Trump grabs his iphone. Sometimes he tweets while propped up on his pillow, and then theres this. Before taking office, mr. Trump told top aiditose think of each president ial day as an episode in a Television Show in which he vanquishes rivals. People close to him estimate that mr. Trump spends at least four hours a day and sometimes twice that in front of the television. Sometimes with the volume muted, marinading in the no holds barred wars of cable news and eager to fire back. Im not sure how i could spend eight hours in a day watching cable news and i work in cable news. When he was paid to watch tv, i still dont understand what he was getting paid for. I want that job, if it exists. He was getting paid to watch tv, he still couldnt do it for eight hours a day. Its incredible. But it speaks to what we already know about this president. Is he is image obsessed. And he has to know everything that he is being said about him and has to react to it and he cannot help himself. How do you think that this afer affects hisability to get anything done. They have these careful negotiations on massive pieces of legislation and the president sees something on television and tweets about it and there goes the deal. It thrives on a notion you can predict how players are going to respond to certain policy ideas, certain retorts from the other side. Thats not how this president operates. Hes all about instant response. And how i feel in that minute may be different from how i feel the next minute and that creates a difficult job for his staff. Thats the most difficult part. How does the staff manage a policy formation and Development Process when the president , when the principal is so unpredictable. And the story dug into that as well talking about how john kelly is trying to vet the stories that go to the president and how Keith Schiller gave a story that was not cleared by john kelly to the president and was shown the door not that long after. Is john kellys job totally impossible . This is such a fascinating piece. If you have nothing else to, do after you finish watching your show after. An hour and a half. Sit down and watch this piece. So much in it. That detail about how news circumvents john kelly. What john kelly is trying to do. How the president respects john kelly and wants his approval at certain times. All of that and the pushback on the piece. And that thing of its all his image and his brand is just so important to him. And wanting to be in the headlines. Even if theyre negative. It suggests john kelly may be the only guy who can do this job. And they reported he views kelly as a peer which was an interesting way of looking at it. Reality tv presidency. It is here for as long as they occupy the white house. It is part and parcel of the challenge for the media and the press to now almost to be in competition. You have the Competition Among the Cable Networks and Competition Among the newspapers. Youre in competition with the white house as well because the president sees every day as an episode and, quite honestly, probably sees sometimes every hour as an episode within an episode. And that is, to your point, very hard to navigate when you are doing Foreign Policy and domestic policy. He sees things in binary terms. Strong, weak, low energy, high energy, these kind of formulations. Thats exactly how he, again, sees himself. It is black and white. And his enemies, you are either with him or against him. If youre against him, hell come at you. One other piece of this i liked as well as the legislative director has taken to making baseball cards of members of congress, essentially handing him like to milwaukake policy more pe because the president likes personalities and can understand personalities and it just seems to be the people in the white house who have found a way to get to the president and those who can bend their way of doing things to trump rather than thinking trump is going to pend on them. Katty kay, thank you for being with us tonight. Coming up, the battle brewing between mitt romney brewing . Its already brewed and donald trump. Later tonight at 9 00 headliners takes a look at the life and career of joe biden and whether he wants to add the title of president to his already quite long list of achievements. More kasie dc when we come back. Thats good. Lica misses you. Im over it though. laughter thats fine. I miss her more than you anyway. Hey, my window is closing. Yeah thats okay. Alright miles. I love you. phone hangs up yeah i love you too. When youve got no plans but with your comfy pants, grab a Marie Callenders roasted turkey stuffing. With mashed potatoes and made from scratch gravy. Spoiler alert, things are about to get good. Because me time calls for Marie Callenders. Discover card. I justis this for real . Match, yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. 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I dont want to give the democrats and media an opportunity to blow this up and come up with a phony i totally understand what youre saying but the bottom line is its getting really old to constantly hear Robert Mueller called people into his office to interview hope hicks, really . Come on. Donald jr. , all of these interviews and then the media speculates as if theres this major watergate scandal going on when Everybody Knows if there was any collusion between donald trump and the russians it would have been leaked a year ago. House Intelligence Committee member peter king went on to say that donald trump jr. Answered nearly every question he was given and based on that, he sees no signs of collusion with russia. Committee could still subpoena the president s son for unanswered questions. The top democrat had a different take today saying the evidence so far is very troubling. We do know this. The russians offered help. The campaign accepted help. The russians gave help. And the president made full use of that help. And that is pretty damning whether it is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of conspiracy or not. Joining me now Nbc News National Security and justice departmenter julia ainsley. Thanks for coming in tonight. So where do things stand now . We were just talking about this New York Times piece and one of the things they talked quite a bit about are the efforts to kind of manage how the president is hand ling these ongoing russia investigations. Why does that matter . Weve heard for some time that the president s legal team in house is trying to tell him, be calm. This will blow over. And it will wrap fairly quickly. But, of course, what were hearing from the mueller team and evidence that weve seen so far theyve been compiling is that it is much larger than that. Could drag on well into next year. We know that they are already compiling about 400,000 documents on paul manafort. Things that the president may have thought were already wrapped up. There seem to be a lot of threads being pulled here. As we can see, the president who has a voracious appetite, especially for tv news, is very image conscious, is starting to get to a point where hes taking all this maybe more sensitively than his lawyers want him to. And then the tweets come out, which is, of course, to their disadvantage. Of course, there have been some, frankly, mistakes made over the course of the last week that has maybe in some ways contributed to this being politicized. There have been a fair amount of three, i think, probably, of the larger mistakes in the media have come this week. Some people not understanding whats happening inside the courtroom with Michael Flynn thinking he was definitely going to cooperate against the president. People jumping the gun on what Deutsche Bank was subpoenaed for. These things really work to the president s advantage because he can jump on and say, look. This whole thing is a hoax. People are running away with it. And i think especially on the hill when we look at Something Like the house intel committee, we know that that investigation has been politicized for a long time. A lot of people think the Senate Intel Committee is running the more adult show over there. But what its really going to come down to are muellers final findings. And theres very little the president can do right now about the trickle out of these indictments that were probably going to continue to see. And lanhee chen, what could the president what impact could his talking too much about this, if, for example, he is starting to follow this potentially, could he incriminate himself completely or what are the risks for him . There are legal implications. Its always better to say less when theres a pending investigation. The other issue is in the court of public opinion. Is there something hes going to say thats going to tip the level of balance the way it shouldnt. Theres been an opening created for conservatives to basically start to discredit this. Even those conservatives maybe before who were skeptical of the president now say, wait a second. Now some things that start to add up to a problem. For Robert Mueller, this investigation always required him to be completely above reproach and that sliver has entered into the minds of some conservatives they can use to criticize this investigation. Theres an entire news network devoted to this, right . If you turn on fox, almost every hour in primetime is dedicated to undermining Robert Mueller and justifying his ultimate removal as special counsel. So trump do you think he doesnt watch that . Of course he does. Weve talked a lot about the president s viewing habits tonight. We have to leave it there. Julia, thanks for coming in tonight. Just ahead hello, mr. President elect. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me. Governor romney, so good of you to come. [ laughter ] this isnt going to work is it . I dont think so. Mitt romney and donald trump on a collision course in utah . Well talk about that with lanhee up next. Proof of less joint pain and clearer skin. This is my body of proof that i can take on Psoriatic Arthritis with humira. Humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. Its proven to help relieve pain, stop further joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. Humira is the 1 prescribed biologic for Psoriatic Arthritis. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. 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That data runs across our network and we use it to optimize the timing of lights, so that traffic flows easier and travel times are shorter. Who knew asphalt could help save the environment . Nbc news is now reporting that President Trump is trying to keep mitt romney out of the senate by encouraging senator orrin hatch of utah to run for an eighth term. According to the Washington Post, trump once asked rnc chairwoman ronald Romney Mcdaniel if shed stop using her maiden name publicly. After steve bannon faced a wave of criticism for attacking romney for, quote, hiding behind his mormon religion to avoid military service, President Trumps team seems to distance the president. Last night the president spoke with governor romney and he has a great relationship with governor romney. They spoke late last night after the Congressional Ball here at the white house and they had a wonderful conversation, according to President Trump. A source close to romney later told nbc news the call would be best described as a, quote, courtesy call. So lahnee, this has been a very complicated relationship. You think . Between these two men. Yeah. Where do you think governor romneys head is now and what happens next in this senate race . Well, look, i think if governor romney makes a decision, hes going to make that decision in some ways on his own and its going to be independent of other factors, in my mind. Again, this is just me speaking about what i think and how he would approach this. But obviously President Trump does not want mitt romney to be in the senate. Obviously. I mean, thats very much is clear, right . Because there is no one that would bring the level of experience and gravitas like mitt romney. Mitt romney is not afraid of donald trump. Hes another jeff flake, bob corker. These are the types of people that donald trump does not want in the senate challenging him day after day after day. And its part of the reason why he is quietly supportive of some of the efforts that steve bannon has been trying to agitate behind the scenes in driving some of the incumbent republicans out of the office and picking challengers to run against sitting republican senators. And one thing that sort of stuck out to me, because i was trying to square in circle of President Trump did strongly consider governor romney to be his secretary of state. No, he didnt. Well, they had dinner together, et cetera. Governor romney believed it was a serious offer. If he had done that, he would have worked for President Trump and i think the president has learned, in his time here in washington, bob corker said it directly to him, i dont work for you. Right. It would be a much different proposition. It would be a very different proposition. I think in the first instance, romney realized he got pumped by the president on this whole secretary of state thing. Punked . Yes. This was payback and by trump for all of the early beef between the two of them. I see, to your point, mitt romney candidacy for the u. S. Senate and possible win as nothing short of a shadow presidency. Uhhuh. That donald trump cannot stomach and will not tolerate. And will do everything, everything he possibly can to make sure that the current utah senator orrin hatch is in that race and running. But i think, to lanhees point, if mitt romney wants to run, he runs. Regardless of i think theyre friends a theyed like to figure that out. But if mitt romney makes a decision to run, he would be the next United States senator of utah. Jeremy, michael, thank you for coming in tonight. Really appreciate it. Still to come, live to alabama for the latest on the ground there in states of play. And tonights kasies dvr. Our best of the sunday shows. And as we go to break, a lot of you, have is my favorite, have been posting photos of your dogs watching our show using the dogswatchingkasiedc. Tweet us your photo. Kasie dc is back for another hour in just a moment. I go with anoro. Go your own way copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way with anoro. Go your own way oncedaily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that Work Together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. Anoro is not for asthma. It contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. The risk is unknown in copd. Anoro wont replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. These may worsen with anoro. Call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. Ask your doctor about anoro. Go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro. Com. Your privacy makes you myt number 1 place to go number 2. I love you, but sometimes you stink. Febreze air effects doesnt just mask, it cleans away odors. Because the things you love the most can stink. And try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. Breathe happy with febreze. President trump broke with decades of u. S. Policy this week. Fallout over President Trumps decision to recognize jerusalem. What this does is just say whats real. You know, just say whats realistic. Its just reality. Jerusalem is the capital of israel. How does it help the Peace Process . This is actually going to help us fast ball, advance the ball, move the ball, move the ball forward. I still dont see how it will move the Peace Process forward. Dont come back and tell me i told you so. Its hard to say how much is at stake. In two days, faced with choosing between a democrat and a republican accused of molesting underaged girls. And he now has the full support of the president. Who gave moore his full endorsement. They are putting party before people. I couldnt vote for roy moore. I cant vote for roy moore. The allegations are significantly stronger than a denial. This is donald trump on trial in alabama. Somebodys not telling the truth. And its not judge moore. So you are calling lei Leigh Corfman a liar . Shes not telling the truth. Do you remember everybody you dated . I dont. Welcome back from the south. Were so far south, were north, as the joke goes. Welcome back to kasie dc. Joining me now, msnbc political analyst, heidi, former rnc strategist Kevin Mclaughlin and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution lanhee chen. Thank you for being here tonight as we continue this conversation about roy moore. And kevin, i did this the to you the last time you came on the show. You obviously were very involved in trying to get republicans elected to the senate. The nrc has split from the rest of the party and said no way are we going to support roy moore. What happens if roy moore wins . You said you think hes going to win. Do you still think that . I still think hes going to win. Special elections are always special and turnout is harder to predict. Doug jones has done everything that he can to turn out moore voters. I think its fivetoone. Doug jones has a math problem. There are not enough democrats in alabama. If he wins, i think hes going to be one of the most ineffective senators of alltime. I dont think anyone is going to talk to him and hell realize how clubby the senate is. Nobody will do any legislation with him. It is a pretty exclusive club. Yes. Election day is coming up on tuesday in alabama. In the coming days, steve bannon and Corey Stewart will be there to help roy moore. Democrat doug jones is trying to avoid being called a washington liberal. With time running out, senator cory booker and former governor Duval Patrick both campaigned by his side this weekend. This is not about what you stand up and say to the cameras. Its about the boring, unglamorous, every day work of being a legislator fighting every single day for folks taking constituent calls, not caring if theyre black or white. Dont let me get in trouble now. If they are gay or straight. Its about representing all of the people. But we havent seen the democratic stars like barack obama come to massive events for them, like they did for Ralph Northam in virginia, despite mark ruffalo begging him to go to alabama. We havent seen stars like alyssa milano, who descended into john oshoff. He is doing that delicate dance that democrats have to down south. Get the word out but in the right way. Still, that hasnt stopped mailers like this one from making the rounds and we havent heard much this one, the radical doug jones liberal agenda, they are trying to turn this race, democrats, or avoid turning this into a national candidate. Theres no question, because im pretty sure if you look at nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, they are not doing very well. And to the extent that you can nationalize the race and pin him to them, thats what this has been about. Thats what the president has tried to do and every republican strategist has tried to do. It makes sense. Plus, they are hoping for a depressed republican turnout. All of those who voted for Luther Strange, the republican who lost in the primary to roy moore, there may be people who legitimately feel depressed about their options in this race and stay home and thats what democrats want. So by sending somebody like barack obama down there, hollywood down there, you have the opposite effect. Right. Whats your view of this . I just think that doug jones is the run of the mill democrat and thats the problem. You come back to it, if they had someone who is more of an alabama democrat, he would have been fine. But on issue set after issue set, hes a democrat and thats a problem in alabama. I hate to tell everyone that. I just dont see how how big of an issue is the abortion issue . I think its a big deal and hurt him right out of the gate and hes done very little to overcome that. He hasnt looked for issues to find Common Ground with conservatives. Now, i do think one of the things ill be watching on Election Night is Shelby County in birmingham and thats where roy moore won 63 of the vote in 2012 but lost in the primary. Thats an affluent the birmingham suburbs, thats where people thats the targetrich environment for doug jones. If hes going to win, hes got to do well there. Hes got to gin up the africanamerican vote and comments that he made about slavery and harkening back to the days of slavery when we really had family values. And then, also, hes got to get white voters and those white voters are most likely gk to oi be, if this happens, moderate american women who are offended about what has just taken place and if some of these women cross over, thats really what were going to be watching on Election Night. Joining us now from birmingham, alabama, is nbcs own vaughn hilliard. Vaughn, youve basically moved to alabama in the last month. What are your takeaways sitting here two days away from this election . Exactly. If were looking at statics, i think we should be looking at some of those 2012 counties where roy moore, the loss to the democrat that he was running for against chief justice but mitt romney turned around and won by overwhelming margins. For instance, tuscaloosa, a conservative town where roy moore lost by five points but on the other side mitt romney won that county by 15 points. But im also looking towards wednesday. In the conversation that will take place, if in fact, roy moore wins this, its a conversation of what do the democrats in the deep south look like. The louisiana governor is the only democrat representing the deep south on a statewide significant level and some of the interesting conversations weve had with folks on the ground here, kasie, are those that are rigid in running for a republican and believing that their partys candidate, regardless of the allegations against him, are. I want to play sound bites that weve had these conversations where ive asked people because roy moore has called this a conspiracy. Just this morning he called it a scheme behind the allegations that have come forward. Hes played himself to be a victim in this scenario and not unlike what we heard from President Trump in his own race and its been kind of roy moore of his career. When he was removed from chief justice twice, it was sort of us against the world, similar to what we heard two months ago in his campaign against Luther Strange. I want to talk to you about some of that sound where some of the voters are coming to his defense. I dont believe none of them. They were probably paid to do that because why didnt they do it when he first ran . Who do you think paid them . I dont know. I dont believe that what theyre saying is true. Do you think its republicans paying these women or organizing them . I dont have who knows. Who knows. I dont know. I dont know if they are necessarily in cahoots but i would say it might be a conspiracy in that somebody might be paying them off. I think theyre out for money and theyve been pushed by the other people to say things that are not true. Who are these other people . I just i wouldnt really like to say that on tv. Sure. So you think that and i think Luther Strange is probably behind a lot of this. Theres part of you that wants to believe roy moores denials and what he is saying about these women . I would say yes. Reporter kasie, if roy moore wins on tuesday night, hell have run by running a ghost campaign. They have little operation and far from a robust canvassing phonebanking operation. Hes running on a conspiracy and has not had a public event since tuesday. This is the last weekend before the election. Usually theres a big getouttovote effort. Roy moore is essentially riding in to tuesday banking on the fact that republicans will come out to vote him because hes a republican in alabama. Kasie . Vaughn hillyer, thank you. Lets talk about what we heard from those women talking to vaughn. I kind of wonder if there hasnt been a pen due lum swing and when these allegations came out, a lot of times if the negative information, if you get it right before election day, people react to that negative information with their vote. It seems like were coming around to the other side of that. Timing is everything and the allegations are shocking and theyre amazing. But as you can see, the people on the ground in alabama are not buying it. The other thing that is amazing is roy moore got more votes in the gop primary than the than all democrats voted in the democrat primary. 162,000 votes for him in a contested primary and 150,000 votes cast by democrats. Roy moore is doing the right thing to win here. Hes just going to lock himself in a room and hope to god those 162,000 people turn out. This is going to be a low turnout election no matter what, right . If you go to a roy moore rally, youre going to find roy moore supporters. What about those anguished republicans that weve talked about, the people who really sincerely have in their gut a problem voting for someone who has the record that roy moore has. What are they going to do come election day . Thats really the undercover question here because, no surprise, if you go to a roy moore rally and ask someone, do you think these accusations are true, they are going to say, no, i dont, because im voting for roy moore. Joining me now is the recently elected mayor of birmingham. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on your recent inauguration. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. Talk to us a little bit about where you see the residents of your city coming down on this question for doug jones instead of roy moore and Africanamerican Community turn out in bigger numbers than expected for doug jones . I think youll see numbers that are higher and doug jones has done a successful job in recent weeks of communicating and getting his message out. And for those who do come out, i think they will go for doug jones as well. What do you think of the job doug jones has done . Clearly you need africanamericans on your side and hes going to need them in really large numbers. Has he done enough to speak to that constituency . As it relates to blacks and africanamericans within not just birmingham but the entire state, ive seen that message be more vibrant, louder as well as constant communication via direct mail, social media and other channels. I think to this point, tuesday, we will see a higher turnout among africanamericans for a special election than we have seen in the past special elections. What do democrats need to do in alabama and its still, at the end of the day, alabama is a republican state and what do democrats into he had to do to clean up their own house, in your view. I think weve got to find democrats not just likable but understanding the importance of listening to the voters that they want to represent if any of us take the time, its interesting that voters have a message to relate to. I dont believe that, just because youre a democrat in alabama, you cant win. Its all about how we connect with the voters to turn them out to want to vote for us and i believe its not just for this special election but from the Gubernatorial Election in alabama in 2018, its an opportunity to set the stage in the south to win future elections. Mayor, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Is there any sign, do you think that what happened in virginia could be true in alabama . If doug jones wins, this is just a flash in the pan for democrats . This is just a sign of a broader cultural warning signal to us. I want to bring in this as a cautionary tale about whats happening with the disillusion in this country of faith in the free press. Why do these people not believe these women . They dont believe them because many of them havent even read the full media accounts of their stories. They dont even know the full story. The only information that they are getting is you hear woman after woman giving an account of mailers that have come out to them from the Moore Campaign and thats because theres such hostility in this part of the country and in the deep south towards the media. They see us as an Interest Group and i think thats a cautionary tale. It does seem to me, kevin, that one lesson that Mitch Mcconnell has won the hard way, it strikes me that if roy moore w wins, those lessons are negated. I think it may have to do with heidis point, that the way that people consume information is different. I dont think its like a regional thing. In the Republican Party, theres incredible distrust on all levels. Like people you would say, that guys not crazy. But they really have a lot of distrust in Mainstream Media because they believe its incredibly biased and on campaigns whenever theres an article that is bad, in the New York Times, what i do is send it out to my email list and say, listen to what they are saying about us in our campaign. Its what we do. So, im sorry, that predated donald trump. And is that coming out to bite the Republican Party . Roy moore wouldnt have won if Luther Strange if people had believed things about roy moore, about his past, even before these stories came out, he was viewed as not as a credible candidate as you could have gotten if people had actually believed that. But people will tell you that Luther Strange had an uphill primary. He was a guy in washington and an uphill climb and all the money in the world might not be able to save him in this primary, as evidenced. Alabama secretary of state john merrill is standing by. Well talk to him about his partys nominee and trying to read the tea leaves of absentee ballots in one key county. Kasie dc is coming back live from washington. chris the very first time i met bruce i saw on his lapel hes got a purple heart. bruce we started talking about the service. I outrank him. chris [laughs] yeah. Meals on wheels reaches so many people. Its impactful beyond anything ive ever done in my life. bruce the meals and his friendship really mean, means a lot to me. vo through the subaru share the love event, weve helped deliver over onepoint seven million meals to those in need. Get a new subaru and well donate two hundred fifty dollars more. chris and bruce put a little love in your heart. Fixodent plus adhesives. Theres a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. Just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day fixodent. Strong more like natural teeth. We are here to have other availabilities. I cant remember what day we are in now where roy moore is in hiding and comes out only to be seen like the groundhog and every so often to see whether or not he can see his shadow. Alabama secretary of state john merrill is predicting voter turnout to be at least 25 for tuesdays special Senate Election between roy moore and doug jones, which would be a big increase from the 14 who turned out for the republican runoff in september. That prediction is based on what merrill describes as a high number of absentee ballots coming in. One placing an absentee ballot in tuscaloosa county. There are six times as many absentee ballots as seen during the primary and runoff, which suggests its a pretty high turnout on tuesday. That could be good news for the democrat. In his 2012 race for state chief justice, roy moore lost the county to democrat bob vance even though mitt romney beat president obama there for a 17point margin. It could be a good sign for roy moore. Joining me now is john merrill. Sir, thank you for joining us this evening. Really appreciate it. I want to ask you thank you for allowing many he to be your guest. Thank you. And i want to ask you about your own vote. You say you cast an absentee ballot for roy moore. Do you find the accusations against him to not be credible . No. My vote has nothing to do with the allegations made by these ladies. And i think its very important to know, kasie, this election is not about me. Its about judge moore, about doug jones and, more importantly, its all about the people of the great state of alabama. And on tuesday, the people of alabama will have their voice heard but not just the people of alabama but the people who choose to participate in the whole process. You say that these allegations have nothing to do with your vote. Why do these allegations not matter . Well, because this is not about me, not about what i choose to do or my family but its about the people of the state of alabama. What about this man who molested them or harassed them. What our people are having to do is they are having to sort through all kinds of information as being introduced from a lot of different sources all over the nation and trying to determine what they think needs to be given attention when they decide to cast their vote next tuesday. So again so its also very important wait. Are you saying that the information is not credible . Youre saying this information is not credible . No, i didnt say that. Thats not for me to judge. Why is it not for you to judge . Its not for me to judge whether or not those ladies are being sincere or accurate in their description of what occurred because im not a judge or a member of a jury those things are not related to my job. Are they related to your vote, sir. To ensure that we have safe, secure elections, to ensure that the people of alabama, when they vote, they vote one time and their voices heard and counted the way they cast it. So youre saying that this information is not relevant to your job as secretary of state. Is it relevant to your vote . No. Its oem relevant to the people of alabama. Thats the most important thing to them. Not about who john merrill is for or decides to cast his ballot for. Its only about ensuring that we have safe and secure and Credible Elections for the 3,328,107 registered voters in alabama and we want all of them to participate. Let me ask you about the voter i. D. Law thats relatively recent in your state. Yes, maam. Do you have any concerns about its implementation . No, no, no. Were very excited about what weve been able to do, kasie. See, one other thing that weve done is ensure that each and every eligible u. S. Citizen as a resident of alabama is vej sistered to vote and has an i. D. We have 865,117 new voters in alabama. We want to ensure that all of them have voter i. D. S. When people cant go to the mobile units or go to the local registrar offices on numerous occasions, when its been presented to us that people cant get out and go to those festivals or occasions, weve gone to their homes and given them photo i. D. S because we want everybody to be able to participate at the level that they want to participate. Sir, do you think that both doug jones and roy moore are capable of honorably representing alabama in the United States senate . Yes, maam. I dont think theres any doubt about it. Ive met doug jones on a few occasions and find him to be an honorable person who is wellintentioned and has represented our state well as a u. S. Attorney when he was in that role and i applaud him for service to our state and nation in that role. I have known judge moore for several years. I found him to be an honorable person who has served our state with the high level of the character and integrity, a dedicated christian who is solidly a member of the constitution. Secretary john merrill, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you, kasie. Still to come, politico just named her one of 18 people in washington to watch this year on their power list. The congresswoman joins us next. Liberty mutual stood with me when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. Liberty did what . Yeah, with Liberty Mutual all i needed to do to get an estimate was snap a photo of the damage and voila voila i wish my Insurance Company had that. Wait hold it. Hold it boys. Theres supposed to be three of you. Wheres your brother . Wheres your brother . Hey, wheres charlie . Charlie . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. You give us comfort. And we give you bare feet, backsweat, and gordos. Everything. I love you, but sometimes you stink. Soft surfaces trap odors. Febreze fabric refresher cleans them away for good. Because the things you love the most can stink. 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We dont take no for an answer. We fight for what we want. Even for the things that were once a given. Going to college. Buying a home. And not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. But were only as strong as our community. Who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. Sofi. Get there sooner. Welcome back to kasie dc, weve spent a lot of time about Sexual Harassment in congressional offices. Now this are female lobbyists who have faced sexual coercion a and over drinks a woman asked for support over a bill he was working on. He reportedly replied, you can have my vote if you have sex with me, miss alarid recalled the lawmaker saying, although he used cruder language for sexual intercourse. He told ms. Alarid that he had the first name of his wife so he would not get confused if he called out in bed and then kissed her on the lips, she said, shocked and was 32 at the time, pushed him away. When her bill came up on the floor of the new mexico floor of house of representatives, it failed by a single vote, including a no from the lawmaker thomas garcia. As she watched from the house gallery, mr. Garcia blew her a kiss and shrugged his shoulders with his arms spread. Representative garcia denies those claims. Heidi, you have a news story out about some of this. But this is weve heard a lot of stories but this is im struck by the part of the story that said learning how to deflect advances like this is, in fact, a skill that must be developed by female lobbyists because its so pervasive and that access, in and of itself, is the key to their jobs and call upon them so much that its a job skill. Whether its congressional aides or lobbyists, long term are there going to be, and you know this so well, kasie, chose changes within congress and in the statehouses to the actual rules that make this behavior harder because, you know, at the time of anita hill and clarence thomas, a lot of women who ive talked to, many of them are mentors, said, look, it was a similar feeling at that time that we had that things were really going to change and the Media Attention went away. They did not change. So that is the challenge upon us, to make sure that the rules change so the culture starts to change, too. And in the case of this lobbyist, it can be hard to write a policy to try to deal with Something Like that so it has to be a cultural shift, youre right. Okay. Just ahead, black balled and baby sitting, were going to be talking to the attorney for one former hill staffer who got an 84,000 settlement from her former boss but now she cant find work. Plus, congresswoman pramila speaks next. I love kiwis. Ive always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. Super poligrip free. It creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. Just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. Try super poligrip free. I dont think congress is equipped. I dont think they have the tools to do the kind of accountability that the American People are searching for. That was new york senator kirs st Kirsten Gillibrand as the Sexual Harassment claims against Blake Farenthold picked up steam. The investigation will intensify now that his accuser, lauren green, has agreed to appear before the committee. Nbc news confirmed that farenthold reached an 84,000 settlement with green in 2015. Greens attorney, les alderman, is joining me now to talk about this case. Thanks for taking the time tonight. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me, kasie. First of all, i should say that farenthold has said, quote, im relieved that the Ethics Committee is going to look into this matter and confirm the decision of the office of congressional ethics which recommended that the committee on ethics dismiss the allegations concerning representative farenthold. The office of congressional ethics is separate from the Ethics Committees. They will often recommend one way or the other to look into something. In this case, they have decided to impanel a subcommittee, which is an escalation of an investigation. Are you and your client, is this a positive step and what changed to cause this escalation . Well, im not sure what caused the change in the escalation . I think its a positive step in that it hopefully brings this thing to a conclusion. Miss green has agreed to cooperate with the investigators. Shell be giving an interview hopefully before the end of the year and doing whatever she can do to help the Ethics Committee and its staff to come to a decision in the case. And so thats it can only be a good thing. What has happened to your client in the aftermath of reaching this settlement . Shes the rare person who put her name to this kind of along the way here in a lawsuit and she has said in interviews that shes been essentially blackballed from jobs. What was her experience in the aftermath of all of this . Everybody has to remember, she did this in 2012, 2013. She came forward before me, to, before there was this environment of support and empowerment and essentially she was out there alone doing this. It was a very, very tough decision for her to come forward. She knew, based on things she had heard from friends on the hill, that it was probably going to be very damaging to her career on the hill but she had the bravery and tenacity to go forward with it even though she knew that there was going to be a media circus around it and that media secircus then did happen. Her name was all over the papers and she was giving interview requests all the time and shes just a very private person and didnt want that. It just kind of came along with filing a lawsuit. And the result was exactly as she had been warned. She couldnt find another job here in d. C. And then, you know, has been out looking for her next career move for a little while now and facing some serious difficulty largely, i believe, as a result of the Media Attention that she received. You know, nowadays, your next employer is going to google you before they hire you and when they see that you filed a lawsuit against a prominent congressperson, they are going to have second thoughts, unfortunately, and thats what has happened, i believe. The House Speaker paul ryan has yet to call for farenthold to recall his seat although the allegations in miss greenes case and the settlement are not dissimilar circumstances from what we learned about john conyers who nancy pelosi, democratic leadership, eventually called on to step down and who has now resigned, retired, i should say, from congress. Do you and your client believe that representative farenthold should step down . Weve never confirmed nor denied that that settlement payment thats been reported went to my client. Theres a confidentiality agreement in the case and we just cant comment on that. But to the bigger question, i think is, should all of these Congress People who are being accused of Sexual Harassment, should they have to resign . For me, you know, a one size fits all policy, it works just as well with due process as it does with clothes. A lot of time youre going to get a bad fit. I think you have to let due process work and let the committee on ethics actually go through its process, talk to the witnesses and make findings and then recommend the punishment after considering all of that and actually after considering what their recommendations have been in similar instances in the past so were not having kneejerk reactions and what they are going to do is create a backlash thats going to harm the movement so i think we need to take a breath and make sure were doing this the right way even if it takes more time and i think everybody will be better off. The victims, the accused and the American Public because were going to have decisions that we can more faith in because theyll be done at the end of the process that hopefully gives everybody a right to be heard thats my own opinion. Thank you very much for your time, sir. Appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks so much, kasie. This farenthold news comes as trent franks and john conyers have all resigned amid Sexual Harassment allegations. Congressman Pramila Jayapal is a cosponsor of a bill ending forced Sexual Harassment. She joins me now. Congressman, thank you for joining me. I appreciate it. I would pick up where mr. Alderman left off. How should this conversation proceed and how should people be punished when theres bad behavior that has been uncovered . Is this an equalizing of the scales . I think its an equalizing of the scales. We have for decades, maybe more than decades, a lot of these incidents happening all over. Women were not able to come forward at that time. Finally, were at a place where women are coming forward and the pen due lum is swinging. I think ultimately were going to have to have processes within congress, within the private sector that really look at all of these allegations, quickly, transparently and with accountability. But right now the process that we have is not there. The committees that are empowered to look at these things within congress simply do not have what they need to really be able to take care of these things quickly and so there are efforts to try and change that and at this point we have to hold ourselves to a higher moral standard and when you have its true that not one size fits everything but when you have multiple allegations, youve got outside confirmation, i do think its incumbent on those lawmakers to step aside and, you know, allow us to continue to allow the American People have faith in their elected officials. Do you see a distinction with whats gone on with john conyers and senator franken . Do you think what he did was any less bad, should have had a different punishment or do you agree with those calls . I think the hard thing is, if youre having a conversation about did he grope a breast or how many times did he grope and what circumstances, its the wrong conversation to have. I think that we are at a place where women need to have the ability to come forward which they havent had before and this could be a watershe had moment and it depends on how we deal with it. If it swings too much to the other side again, its going to be very discouraging for women. I think its an empower thing that women are coming forward. I know a couple of the women named in that article in the Washington State senate when i was there. Ive heard these statements from lobbyists and certainly every single one of us as women in vary yous businesses has dealt with these on different levels. Everyone has a me, too, story. Everyone has a me, too, story of some kind. With all of the emails and letters that ive gotten, 95 are saying thank you, thank you for continuing to speak out on these issues and for making sure that we address them as a country and thank you for believing in us. Women. Somebody who was here earlier on the show, i think it was jere jere jeremy peters, mentioned that including newt griingrich that this was a linchpin. Nikki haley was asked about it in the context of the president. Take a look. How do you think people should assess the accusers of the president . Well, i mean, you know, the same thing, women who accuse anyone should be heard. They should be heard and they should be dealt with and i think we heard from them prior to the election and i think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up. And does the election mean thats a settled issue . You know, thats for the people to decide. Women should always feel comfortable coming forward and we should all be willing to listen to them. Just strikes me that the tone is much different. Its very different. I think i wrote a piece for Huffington Post and said to all the guys out there who call themselves feminists, who are proud because they have daughters in the workplace or sisters or whatever, this is the time for you to speak up. In order to make the Culture Shift were going to have to make, we need men to be standing up as well and we need to fundamentally change how we respond to these allegations because for too long we just havent believed these women. And it seems like the other piece of this is more women actually being in positions of power. That makes a big difference. We have that conversation all the time in my office. Its hard to imagine some of the things being said and done and there was a Lieutenant Governor candidate in michigan who has an ad based around this interesting strategy. I think it gets to the point that it was women who have broke the story and women continue to cover the story in a big way and i think it has been women in the senate, for example, who really called on al franken to step aside so i think it matters that we have power and were in these halls. Congresswoman j, thank you. This is electricity. This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. Your body was made for Better Things than rheumatiod arthritis. Before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. Xeljanz xr is a oncedaily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. It can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate. Ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. Oh very nice. Now im turning into my dad. I text in full sentences. I refer to every child as chief. This hat was free. What am i supposed to do, not wear it . Next thing you know, im telling strangers defense wins championships. Well, it does. Right . Why is the door open . Are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood . At least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. I mean, why would i replace this . Its not broken. Translato. Well, tyler, i guess you could say that al franken is on santas naughty list this year. And what about roy moore . Which list is he on . It is not really a list, it is more of a registry. Thanks, snl. So were going to do quick i cant believe it is almost 9 00 lrp. We will do quick final thoughts. Kevin, what are you watching for this week in alabama . Im watching for africanamerican turnout in kind of the mid section of the state, counties like montgomerie and jefferson. If you see high turnout for africanamericans throughout election day, i think doug jones is in for a big upset and thank Charles Barkley for his help in the campaign. Thats what i say. Heidi, what are you watching for in alabama . Not just the africanamerican turnout, but also what i referred to as the seething soccer mom, whether we will see any crossover in any meaningful number among moderate republican women because, of course, this is the demographic we saw shifts in for example in georgia six. This is the demographic that the democrats already think they have an in with. If you see the dccc is sending out mailers, targeting Something Like 90 house members for failing to come out and condemn roy moore. And i think thats what im watching for in the kind of broader perspective pushing ahead to 2018, is will we see alabama is obvious very different from virginia which is basically a blue state, only you would probably argue it is already a blue state if not purple, and we saw that so much in their Gubernatorial Election, women essentially standing up. We have seen it across the map, too. Virginia. With women candidates stepping up across the board. Yeah, and i think the fallout is like what happens on that wednesday which vaughn talked about in his piece, like how does the senate react. Does it freeze the senate more so throughout the Election Year in which you have a compressed calendar. Regardless, can they get anything done or is it going drain all of the issues and all of the time for people campaigning . And what does Mitch Mcconnell do if he has senator roy moore . I feel that the early part of the year he has to stick to the promise he made, which we asked as early as this week, will you change your position. No, there will be an ethics investigation. How much oxygen is that going to get and take away from other agenda items theyre trying to push. Every time theres a new revelation that confirms everything that the Washington Post has already reported how much air time does it get. Quite a bit. That has to do it tonight here on case kasie dc. Thank you for tuning in and thank you to all of the dogs out there, especially tonight our featured canine, eric colesons dog seen here. Tell us your dogs name. We love it. Join us from 7 00 to 9 00 eastern. Good night from washington. Mo we are the driven. The dedicated. The overachievers. We know our best investment is in ourselves. We dont take no for an answer. We fight for what we want. Even for the things that were once a given. Going to college. Buying a home. And not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. But were only as strong as our community. Who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. Sofi. Get there sooner. Im chris matthews. After 36 years in the senate and another eight as Vice President , could joe biden make another try tore the white house . In this headliners a revealing look at what makes joe run. Could joe biden have defeated donald trump . Oh, you dont know. This is the great whatif. I say to democrats and republicans and independents alike, dont sell this country short, folks. Joe biden has spent a lifetime as a political power player. He just had encyclopedic knowledge
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