Transcripts For MSNBCW Meet The Press 20171210

Win actually damage the Republican Party in the long run . My guest this morning, tim scott of South Carolina and Bernie Sanders of vermont. Plus, Sexual Misconduct charges taking down three members of congress, amid whispers that dozens more may soon be implicated. And the effort by conservatives to undermine Robert Muellers russia investigation. Mueller is corrupt, the fbi is corrupt, the system is corrupt. While Donald Trump Jr. Tries to assert attorneyclient privilege to keep quiet with the conversation with the president. I will talk to house intelligence members, congressman jim heye from connecticut and joining me, nbc News White House correspondent hallie jackson, cornell belcher, david brooks, peggy nunes. Welcome to sunday. It is meet the press. This is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. It is possible to make too much of any one senate race. It is hard to overstate how much is at stake in alabama on tuesday. A win of doug jones will give the senate a 49 seat. The president s agenda with one less vote. Senate republicans will have an even harder time getting anything passed in that chamber. There is the Sexual Harassment issues. No matter how credible as republican roy moore has done is a successful strategy. Then theres the republicdemocr strategy itself. Well worry that the democrats will hang more in his daily antics around the next republican candidate. On friday, i travel to deep red alabama, which has voted for a democratic president ial nominee exactly once since 1960. What i found was Widespread Discomfort among voters in this conservative state, faced between choosing a democrat and a republican accused of assaulting underanyone girls. Reporter with two days in alabama, politics is the story. 60 miles where President Trump campaigned for roy moore, across the state line of mobile, people are getting used to be the center of attention. I have never seen as many signs for democrats in my life. There is a lot of doug jones signs. There is a lot of plenty of people voting for him but they dont want to put a sign on their yard. Reporter i talked to some of the suburban women jones hopes to win over. The multiple allegations against moore of Sexual Misconduct with teenage girls arent sitting well. Campaign strategist dean young defends moore. Judge moore did know some of the accusers and now claims he does not know. Judge moore knows everybody from alabama. So he does not remember people he dated . I remember everybody ive dated. Do you remember everybody you dated . I dont. Alabama voters still dont know what to make of the allegations. I need some proof other than word of mouth that it happened. Elaine williams, a welder at the shipyard which employs 4,000 workers, building combat ships for the u. S. Navy. They said the same thing about trump and he still made office. Oysters come fried and stewed and nude. Mobile is the kind of place with moderate and africanamerican voters which doug jones needs to overperform. Does doug jones have a message beyond roy moore . He demonstrated a courage in 2001 and 2002 when he went back nearly 40 years and got people involved in the murder for the black girls in birmingham. In order to distract from his issue, moore campaigns helicopter to see on abortion for jones when the general election began. You would not be in favor of saying ban abortion in 20 weeks or Something Like that . No, i am not in favor of anything thats going to infringe on a womans right and her freedom to choose. Moore needs to turn out with trump voters. What do you think is going to happen tuesday . I have no idea whats going to happen on tuesday. I think it is going to be really friggin close. Joining me now is republican senator scott from southern california. Welcome back, sir. Hey there. Welcome back to the south. I am from miami. You called for roy moore to move on. A couple weeks ago, you said youre not sure what you want the white house to do. I had a spokesman come on this show and essentially say, you know what, there is no senate seat that is worth electing somebody accused of child molestation. But now the president has turned and hes all in for roy moore. Are you comfortable that the leader of your party is all in for roy moore . Well, there are a number of people in my party that are not, including myself and Many Republican senators. The nrsc is not reengaged in that race, so the fact of the matter is our party is big enough to have disagreements from the top to where we are and will continue to work for ways to move this country forward by looking at the issues and the policies that will improve the quality of life of the average american. But within the party theres going to be disagreements and obviously were seeing one right now. Roy moore, if he wins, you reference the nrc, the head of that campaign committee, cory gardner of colorado, your companion there, he wants to see a tax on voting expulsion. Where are you on this . I think the constitution requires us to, a, if he wins, and still an if he wins, if he wins well have to seat him and there will immediately be an ethics investigation. Well have a greater opportunity to look into all the issues, the allegations and perhaps even talk with some of the folks who are witnesses. That will give us a clear picture. Ive always said that so far as far as i can tell, the allegations are significantly stronger than the denial, and im going to let my decision be made by the breadth of information and evidence im able to review during that process. There is a few Campaign Elements being used here. Doug jones is trying to fire up africanamerican voters, and he has this mailer out, and i know you dont have a tv screen in front of you but im going to describe it to you. Its an africanamerican male with a skeptical look on his face and it says this. Think of a black man who went after High School Girls anyone would try to make him a senator . What do you think of that . Thats getting close to the g gutter. When you bifurcate between those who believe roy moore and those who do not, that is a sign. 70 likely voters say they do not believe the allegations. So, really, a bigger question other than the question that you just presented to me is, how many voters believe the allegations and how many do not, and when you split that, you find a very telling story. Theres been concern that the election of roy moore will send a message about what the Republican Party stands for. You have been someone as a leader in the party to try and talk about inclusion. I wonder if comments like this that roy moore said when he was revering the age of slavery when he said, i think it was a great time in america at the time when families were united, even though we had slavery. They cared for one another. People were strong in their families. I thought about that quote and this tweet from steve king earlier this week. And he says this. Diversity is not our strength. Then he says, mixing cultures will not lead to a Higher Quality of life but a lower one. You dont want to associate yourself with that, but its associated with represent can party. What do you want to do about this . Very little i can do about people who speak ignorantly and you have to call it for what it is, number one. Bottom line, steve king and tim scott, when they arrived in this country, we were actually creating diversity because the native americans were already here. That is just a ridiculous statement. I wasnt supporting roy moore before the allegations. The allegations reinforced why i wasnt there. The good news is thank god for leaders like john radcliffe, trey gowdy, mia love, a Diverse Group of young thinkers who will take our country and our party in a better direction. I want to ask what happened when one of your colleagues announced his resignation. Let me play a little clip of what senator tranquilizfranken g that speech. Irony, and the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. First of all, do you think it was appropriate for senator franken to resign . I think senator franken thought it was important, very important for him to resign, number one. Number two, i will tell you there is no question his statement was inconsistent with reality. The truth is that there are a number of people within the party who are not supporting roy moore. Would you, though, talk about what he said about the president. At some point given this moment were in, should the president s accusers deserve time to sort of in a formal setting have lay out their accusations and have them sort of and let people judge for themselves . I think people have had the opportunity during the 2016 election to come to a decision. The truth is, as you and i both know, chuck, that the allegations or the accusations against the president were a part of the campaign. So most americans, if not all americans, who voted have is the information before the election, so for us to try to relitigate the election is impossible. Should people who have been victimized have an opportunity to have their day in court or their day presenting their information . I have no problem with that issue. And yet, if roy moore gets elected, you are going to potentially have another investigation into this via the United States senate. There is no place to have another investigation outside of congress about the president and his accusers. No question. But is that something that should change . Should you guys be looking at the president s accusers as well . Once again, i think there are two very different scenarios here. One, the senate has a responsibility and oversight over our members. I believe that if he wins, we are going to exercise that responsibility. The people of this country have the responsibility of choosing our president they have chosen. Let me ask you this about the tax bill. Youve been chosen to be on the conference committee. One of the biggest disputes that some have have to do with this idea of writing off state and local taxes. Let me ask you this philosophically. Why is it that corporations are going to be able to write off state and local taxes but not individuals . Do you see where the fairness argument in that sort of gets traction . I think the question about writing off ordinary business expenses versus writing off state and local taxes are two very different questions. One has to do with businesses. The other has to do with how we treat hightax states like new york and new jersey, and do we allow other americans in South Carolina, North Carolina to subsidize those high taxes . Were looking at ways to sweeten the salt solution. We have challenges without any question, so were going to sweeten that solution for salt. I tried hard on that, chuck. I noticed that. What do you mean, expand the production a little bit . What does that mean . There is conversation around the fact that in some of the blue states where the taxes are high, the property tax alone, they will not be able to use the 10,000 possible deduction. So allowing for income and property taxes, which would cost another 100 billion, by the way, to be options for folks in those states would be a better solution, and were looking at ways to make that happen. Does that mean youll raise the corporate rate from 20 . Im hoping that we dont have to. Were looking at things that the two bodies have very different approaches to mortgage interest deduction, which would save us about 25 billion that we could use to provide more relief to the salt or my sweetener in the salt, i should say. Sweet and savory is the type of cuisine that everybody seems to love. I hope so. Senator scott, i appreciate you coming on and sharing your views. Thank you. Senator Bernie Sanders, thank you and welcome back to meet the press. Good to be here, chuck. Let me start with the issue of taxes here since we just ended that with senator scott. I know youre not a fan of this bill at all. I know where you believe the priorities are all wrong. But what should has the Democratic Party collectively done enough, do you think, in the institutions of the house and the senate to stop this bill . Well, one of the absurdities of this whole process is the republicans made a decision to go forward without any Democratic Party input. What they made a decision to do is operate behind closed doors on an issue that impacts every single american that was not one public hearing. What this tax bill is about is nothing more than a gift to Billionaire Campaign contribut r contributors to the Republican Party. You have 62 of all the tax benefits going to the top 1 . 40 going to the top onetenth of 1 . At the end of 30 years, 13 Million People will pay more in taxes, 13 Million People will lose their Health Insurance and run up a deficit of 14 trillion. This is not a tax bill designed to help the American People. It is a tax bill designed to help the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations, and im going to do everything i can to see that it is defeated. I understand that. But whats realistic . You dont have the votes. Is it trying to find one more republican, or where are you . Thats not true. Senator corker has made it clear that its absurd that we would run up a deficit of 1. 4 trillion. Hes right. There are other senators. Senator rubio has his concern, mccain has his concerns, collins has her concerns. I would hope that the American People would say that at a time of massive income and wealth and equality, where the top onetenth of 1 owns more than the bottom 1 , why would we have more tax brackets for people that dont need it and then cut back on programs that middleclass people do need. By the way, one of the ugly aspects of this, chuck, is, as you well know now, what paul ryan is saying is, oh, my goodness. If the deficit goes up by 1. 4 trillion as a result of this tax bill, were going to have to cut back and cut Social Security, medicare, medicaid and other programs. Tax breaks for billionaires cuts the Social Security that is grossly unfair. Please remember what donald trump said in his campaign. He said, i will not support cuts to Social Security. President trump, keep your word. Veto that legislature. I believe you bring a poster board of that tweet or quote down to the senate floor almost weekly, for what its worth. I want to move on to what happened to one of your colleagues this week when al franken decided to resign. I want to play for you that was sort of a common refrain among quite a few conservatives. Heres newt gingrich. What you saw today was a lynch mob. Lets not have due process, lets not ask anybody any questions, lets not have any chance to have a hearing. Lets just lynch him. Al franken wanted the Ethics Committee to take a look first before he made any decisions. Bob menendez is in the midst of an Ethics Committee probe. Why should bob menendez be given time before the Ethnic Committee before you democrats decide his fate versus al franken . Bob menendez, as you know, underwent a lengthy trial. There was a hung jury. He was not convicted of anything. He could be retried. He may be retried, for what its worth. He may be, but thats where we are today. I think in terms of al franken, what you have in al franken is a friend of mine and i think has been a very good senator for minnesota. But what you have is a situation where senator franken acknowledged a wrongdoing on several occasions, inappropriate behavior, and he felt that the appropriate thing to do was off of his resignation. I think what the absurdity is senator, he didnt sound like somebody who thought it was appropriate. He sounded like somebody who was being forced to resign. He wasnt being forced . I dont know what was in al frankens mind, but the point is we have the absurdity now of the president of the United States who basically says on a tape that everybody in this country has seen, his pride in a sense in assaulting women. And he has not apologized for that, and he has, you know, not offered his resignation. So i think thats the absurdity. But i think in terms of what gingrich was saying, there needs to be a due process. There needs to be an association between somebody who pats somebody on the backside and somebody who commits terrible acts against women. And furthermore, what we need in this country, we need a cultural revolution. Because its not just famous people who are harassing women. There are people all over this country, women who are working in restaurants who are being harassed every single day. We need to change the culture of how we treat women on the job. I want to ask you about the issue of impeachment. Here is tom stire. Hes a billionaire activist. He may run for the senate in california. Hes been playing these ads nationwide. He brought us to the brink of nuclear war, obstructive justice at the fbi. Hes taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down News Agencies that report the truth. If that isnt enough for impeaching a dangerous president , then what has our government become . You just established you want him to resign chuck, chuck, what i just said is al franken felt it proper for him to resign. Here we have a president who has been accused of many women by assault, who says on a tape he assaulted women. He might want to think about doing the same. Understandable. But let me go to this impeachment question here. Is tom stire right, that its time to look at that option . There was already a house vote this week. Many democrats werent able to get on that bandwagon yet. Where are you on this issue . I think there is a process that has to be followed. I think mr. Mueller is doing a very good job on his investigation. And if mueller brings forth the clear evidence that there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians, i think you have grounds for impeachment. But jumping the gun does nobody any good. You have to bring the American People onto this issue. You dont want to make it a partisan issue. I want the American People to clearly understand why that is the case, why it makes sense, why it is the right thing to do. I dont think were there right now. Thats what the Mueller Investigation is all about. By the way, i am deeply offended by republican efforts to try to discredit mr. Mueller. When he was fbi director, efhe s a great guy. Now that hes doing his job here, republicans dont like him. I think thats really very unfair. Thats an issue we will be diving into later in this show. Senator sanders, as always, thank you for coming on and sharing your views. I appreciate it. Thank you. When we come back, would republicans actually be better off if roy moore loses . And later, as the Russian Investigation moves closer to President Trump as senator sanders sort of hinted at there, the president s allies are attacking Robert Muellers legitimacy. Are they laying the groundwork for the president to fire the special counsel . 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. Looking for a hotel that fits. Whoooo. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. Welcome back. Panelists here, david brooks, columnist for the new york times, chief correspondent hallie jackson, cornell belcher. Welcome. Ifls just down i was just down in alabama, and we saw a quick clip. I think it encapsulates what i just witnessed as well. Take a listen. How many of them do you think are being paid . All of them. All of them . By a show of hands, how many of you think all the women are being paid . Seriously . There you go, david brooks. I will tell you my sense is that, it is the republican that will never vote for doug jones. To me the big thing about this race is politics really matter, we care about politics, but there are things that matter more, the fate of your soul, the quality of your faith, and are those things less important than politics . Were seeing, yes, politics is more important than your faith and your morals. The votes for roy moore are more important than the allegations against him, according to some people. They say we dont know whats going to happen in this race. But when it comes to these allegations against roy moore, if he ends up in the senate, they cant vote to expel him. The people knew before they voted about these allegations and that is the distinction with al franken when its information that comes out after youve been seated. When i hear people talk about populism here, i know its tribalism, right . All roy moore has to do is be their tribal lawyer and theyll excuse anything else going on. Particularly when you talk about a place like alabama, alabama is at a pivotal place. We can talk about a lot of issues on the ground, alabama right now, the world is watching. A state that is trying to rebrand themselves, trying to become a manufacturing and technology hub, the world is watching. Are you going to be a forwardthinking state thats going to attract fortune 500 companies . Atlanta and birmingham, you know this, were at the same place years ago and atlanta said were too busy to hate and became this cultural and Economic Center of the south. Birmingham could easily be atlanta today if they had done that. Whats going on today, technologically, industrially, very sophisticated. I have to say, guys, in fairness, im very interested in republican turnout in alabama. If a number of people will think, im not a progressive, i cant vote in this direction, but i aint going to support this guy. I think that will probably decide a lot. Let me pause you here, because that vote is looking for an extra piece of information about roy moore. Let me show you something that may have handed them that extra piece of information. Heres Gloria Allred from friday. Why not disclose in an initial News Conference that those words were, you know, written by her . Well, i mean, theres a lot of other things that we have not disclosed which support beverly, which we will disclose when there is a hearing. There are voters, peggy, that are looking for any thread to make them feel slightly more comfortable pulling the lever for moore, and i have plenty that believe that Gloria Allreds client back. A President Trumps ally stepping up to under mind mueller. And a closed door hearing, Donald Trump Jr. Tried to clais Attorney Client privilege of his conversation between him and donald trump. It is quite a lot to unpack. Joining me now is a member of the house committee, is jim heyes of connecticut. Wet come. Thank you, todd. Let me start with some seven or eight hours, just characterize Donald Trump Jr. Is forthcoming. Would youwo describe him as forthcoming . Yes, i would. He answered a lot of questions. There was one issue where he declined to answer a question about a conversation he had had with his father that may be relevant to the don jr. Meeting at trump tower. Apart from that, i would say he was forthcoming. When did he invoke this privilege . It was a conversation he had with his father right after the meeting itself, or was it a conversation he maybe had with his father to try to spin the disclosure of the meeting . It was after the meeting, and since we didnt get to hear the substance, we dont know. Im not a lawyer myself, but every lauri know says there is no attorneyclient privilege when youre talking between yourselves, so we need to get to the bottom of that. His lawyer said, you guys dont have the ability to make him answer the question. Was there an effort to try to force him to answer the question . In its ess, investigations, does not need to acknowledge any privilege, including attorneyclient privilege. Now, he was there voluntarily, and in the course of this investigation, the chairman, mike conaway, who is doing, by the way, a terrific and fair job, has said to witnesses, if youre here voluntarily, were not going toyo compel testimony. So we may need to subpoena him or get him back under a compulsory process. Is therees a process to comp him to testify that isnt a subpoena . There may be, but the point is he was there voluntarily, so if youre there voluntarily, were not going to force you to answer questions. Aydelott of questions for him. Theres always been this discussion about whether the president when the meeting was disclosed, the president was on air force i and his first overseas trip, and there is some reporting that the president himself helped draft the initial son. Ment by his heres what the president s lawyer said to me in july on this issue. The president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement. It came from Donald Trump Jr. So thats what i can tell you because thats what we know. Again, Donald Trump Jr. Said the same aithing, that it was in fa from him. Does that statement still hold up baseded on your questioningh of Donald Trump Jr last month . Because of this novel claim of aiprivilege, we dont know wt happened in that investigation. So he used that privilege claim to just deny any dvr conversation wz hs with his fat period . No, just this conversation, and why deny that particular conversation . There are things that are lied aboutab up front, that are obfiscated, that ared forgotten. Why would he choose to deny talking about that particular conversation . The russian lawyer that was a partn of this meeting has alrey testified in front of you, and she seemed to testify that all donald jr. Cared about was he wanted clinton dirt, and when she couldnt provide it, he was disinterest disinterested. Did you corroborate that account . What we got was from five different people in that w room. The stories match up pretty consistently, that, yes, Donald Trumpp jr. Was not particularly interested in adoptions, he was not interested in the nowitzki act, he was interested in dirt. So the question is what happened afterwards . Was there wfollowup . Was dirt conveyed in any way, shape or form and was it used . Weve seen a desire to contact the russians, but the question is was there cooperation . Now, did the russian lawyer admit that she was coming on behalf of thee russians to talk about sanctions . Its a little unclear exactly who was doing what to whom in thaton room. This russian lawyer is a woman who has worked to reverse the nowitzki act for a locng time. My sense is that was her interest. Mr. Goldman, the one who got this rolling, perhaps thought there was dirt knowing this might be interesting to people like Paul Manafort and donald jr. We have yet to interview Paul Manafort. There will beon an interesting interview. Did anyone ask why don jr. Didnt go to the fbi when it appeared the russian government was trying to make contact with the campaign . T the question got asked, and you know, we got a similar answer to answers that we have gotten about other odd behavior. With jaredf kushner its now known that he had in conversation in which he sought a backck channel, perhaps, at t russian a embassy. Again, the question was, wasnt that aiodd . The answer we get in these situations, hey, we were really, really busy, and what the heck, we thought we would throw it out there and see. Don jr. With respect to this information, said, its not illegal to listen. Downplaying to most eyes things that looked odd. Donald trump jr. Once talked about and almost bragged about how much russian money was important to the real estate empire, and he said it back in 2008. The scope of your investigation when it comes to fcinances on te house side, how far back does it go . It onlyes goes back to 2008 russia can point to cooperation with russia in 2016. Robert mueller can look into the kinds of things they looked into with Paul Manafort. Paul manafort is charged with money laundering, tax evasion, all sorts of things that are not part of the congressional investigation. The way i think about it is our job is to really think about what happened with the hack, the russian attack on ourt electio whether there was cooperation, whether there was leaks onl tha. Criminal activity is very much in the realm of what bob mueller isis doing. You just heaped praise on the acting head of the intelligence community, mark conway. The Ethics Committee has been cleared of an ethics violation having to doio with his actions here. Could he unwind his recusal and chair the house Ethics Committee again . He always chaired the committee, he just stepped away from the investigation. To be comfortable doing that, i think devin would sort of have to drop the role that he has played wherehe he has decided to devote himself to the investigationof of whether ther was improper unmasking. We had a whole 1972 bill where there was a section about unmasking and how you have to report unmasking events during president ial elections. That was a negative thing. I like and respect he haevan, b sadly in the last couple months hes devoted himself to things like wiretapping and he needs to exclude himself from these distractions. Some would call it impartial. Others would say hes not impartial, hes just trying to invoke the other aspects of this. I try to be pretty careful in the language i use. Im not saying there was collusion. I am an investigator, i want to make sure there is impartiality. I looked at all the intercepts that were unmasked and how they were done. Do i think that process can be bettertt and more sharply defin . Was it used improperly by sam power or susan rice . There is absolutely zero evidence that that was the case. Jim hines of the house intel community. Appreciate it. When we come back, some signs that republicans may want to start looking over their shoulders next november. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. 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Republicans this year went from 42 to 37 while democrats have remained flat at 44 . Across three different age brackets, republicans are down four or five points. The party is down four points among those with a College Degree and five points among those without a College Degree. But the biggest is women, particularly white women. White women are down 7 points. This november those numbers are essentially reversed. 41 say they are republicans while 46 of white women now call themselves democrats. Why do these numbers matter . Consider this. In the november virginia governors race, republicans dropped two points in their party i. D. And democrats gained four from the 2017 election. The result . A race that was supposed to be a nile biter turned into a row for the democrat. This happened in virginia, and it doesnt stay in virginia. An election for democrats next year could actually happen. When we come back, some new reporting on the president s unique tvwatching habits. Announcer coming up, pregame and postgame brought to you by boeing. I saw the change in rich when we moved into the new house. But having his parents over was enlightening. You dont like my lasagna . No, its good. Hmm. Oh. Huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. Blow on it. You see it, right . Is there a draft in here . Im telling you, its so easy to get Home Insurance on progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents. But we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United States Postal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. End game brought to you by boeing. Continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. Back now with end game. I want to talk about the franken standard. Ruth marcus, a familiar face here wrote this. Theres no doubt in the case of al franken that the democrats better with minnesota senator gone. Theres more doubt about whether justice was done. I agree. None of it is acceptable. What worries me is the rush to judgment. This is a country trying to establish. Certainly a u. S. Senate trying to establish new standards for acceptable behavior. There were seven or eight women, some named, some not, who came forward with stories about senator franken who says he had treated them very badly. It was a kind of serial creepiness. There was the horrifying photo that he posed for, almost as if to memorialize a certain abuse. So it does not strike me as unreasonable that he stepped down at all. It strikes me as in line with a national attempt to declare so that we all understand what the rules and ways of being are now. Jonathan alter says democrats will come to regret this rush to judgment on franken. Do you believe that . I dont. I think we can call people we can have respect for people just like with conyers. I think conyers san icon but we also have to hold him responsible. I also think that this is an important cultural moment. Im having conversations as a guy, i think we should shut up and listen but im having conversations with my young boys about this thing in a way we would not have. Kudos for these courageous women standing up and bringing this to the forefront. Im going to make a hard turn here to the mueller probe. Because im curious if youre starting to hear inside the white house what weve been seeing on a certain cable channel in primetime at night. Let me play a montage of mr. Hannity and ms. Ingraham. We now know tonight is one giant cesspool. Its full of corruption, partisanship and unbridled bias. Its the epitome of the washington, d. C. , sewer and swamp. With every passing day we learn more about the shocking antitrump bias of bob muellers team. Also, judge, it looks like Robert Muellers team is stacked with people who just hate the president. You starting to hear that. Ty cobb, the president s lawyer in house lawyer that sits in the white house doesnt ever get involved in that commentary. Is the president starting to feed off of this . You would not see the president people who support the president coming out on television and talking publicly about it if they didnt think that the president wouldnt be angry with them for doing it. My sense is what youre seeing is the boiling of the froth slowly. This started and the president talked about it as a witch hunt. In the white house very publicly says at the posium they were at when we asked sarah sanders. The president is going to continue, too Lou Bob Mueller to do his job. Theres real questions being raised about muellers credibility with the fbi agent that was let go. Thats a major issue, for people republicans allies of the president. Ill also tell you moodwise, you cant overstate the paranoia and concern in the west wing about this investigation, although the president im told loves to be talking about his tax bill. Hes feeling pretty good about where he is right now. You think the groundwork is being laid for the president to have at least some support to fire mueller . And you know, from their point of view, hey, these republicans, these establishment republicans, hey, they swallowed roy moore and all this other stuff. Why wouldnt they swallow firing a bob mueller. Does anybody think the republicans are suddenly going to draw the line at that. They would. If mueller were fired, the pushback would be huge. It would be a huge scandal. And there are people in the west wing who dont want that to happen. Who understand what a political swarm that would be. Part of this pushback on fox and other news stations and outlets. Part of it is i remember, lets kill ken starr. The late 1990s. It was the Democratic Party and Democratic Media trying to kill the Republican Special prosecutor. That said, it is so important. So much depends on the Mueller Investigation that its not bad, i think, if people look at it in a strict way and just say make sure everything is on the up and up and fully credible and not partisan and not partisan political creepiness. Theyve got to be clean or it wont they should ask the clinton folks how that attacking independent counsel thing worked out. As unpopular as ken starr was, he did get his articles of impeachment. He sure did. Guess what. Im out of time. Im sorry thats all we have for today. Well tell you about what the president watches later, i promise you. Well be back next week because if its sunday, its meet the press. You can see more end game in post game sponsored by boeing on the meet the press facebook page. Sponsored by boeing on meet the press facebook page. amanda vo i adopted scrappy on a fluke. And he totally has a superpower. Didnt know i was allergic to ibuprofen. And i had fallen asleep. scrappy barks amanda he was totally freaked out, digging and pawing at me. And when i woke up i realized that i was in anaphylaxis and went to the emergency room. I dont know what i would do if he wasnt there. Hes the best boy. vo through the subaru share the love event, weve helped the ascpa save nearly forty thousand animals so far. Get a new subaru and well donate two hundred fifty dollars more to help those in need. amanda put a little love in your heart. But on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. Like most people. Fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. Fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. Im glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. For some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. And improves function. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. Common side effects dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can do more with my family. Talk to your doctor today. See if lyrica can help. Tonight things go south in alabama. This is kasie dc. Welcome to kasie dc. We are live from washington every sunday from 7 00 to 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight, stars fall on alabama. Indepth coverage from across the state and were joined by the old guard and the new. Former governor Don Siegelman and newly elected birmingham mayor. And well be joined by alabama secretary of state john merrill who has supported roy moore through it all