Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20171214

Yeah, like the finale of the apprentice. What happened, why was she fired . This whole thing gets to the level and caliber of talent throughout the executive branch. There were some wonderful and exceptionally good people working in the white house. There are people who you wouldnt hire. Thats a great point. Lets face it, no one few what omarosa was doing. What was her job . Well, she was supposed to work in the communications side with outreach. So, but no one few what that really meant. But to mikes point, it is, you hire someone who doesnt know what the white house works, what their job definition is and to chief of staff kellys credit, he called her out. Again she went around him for the very reason she got fired for going around him in the first place, she got escorted out. The secret service says they were not involved in removing omarosa from the residence. If you feel you can walk personally into the first familys private quarters, what does that tell you . How did she even know where to go . Well, she certainly enjoyed quite a bit of access to the president. She had walkin privileges removed when general kelly came in. So shes been basically side lined for a while. She shot thought she could make one last maybe i dont understand, what was her job before this that made her qualified to have this job in the white house. I do not know. She was a character in the show and yoen i dont mean the apprentice she was a character in Donald Trumps white house show. Ill call it. She also served as someone to represent diversity. Thats a part of the reason she was there. I know ill get killed for saying that. You will. Okay. Well, well be following that. We will have much more ahead. We will be talking with a lot of different folks about that. But there is so much else going on. What just happened, joe . I just tried to walk into fields apartment. Oh my gosh, what happened . Did you get escorted out . We had a guard that wouldnt let me pass. Really . Hes in a little hoitytoity place. I think this isnt the time you walk in the boss office, but you feel the need in. I dont know. Well have to look into that. We will be breaking this out a little more later on, on the show. They said it seems a little familiar for me to walk in. Its familiar. Know your place, joe. I know. The president , lets get to the real news of the day, all tow that is fascinating. We will talk about it more. President trump says hes not responsible for roy moores loss in the Alabama Senate race. The Washington Post reports that trump has spread the blame for tuesdays loss to his former chief strategist steve bannon. Mitch mccontinental airlines and moore as well, citing senior advisers, the post ports trump blames bannon for urging him to support moore and mcconnell for being too aggressive in pushing moore out t. Post reports that trump is eager not to let the loss be seen as a referendum on him. But it is. And has said that he would have one alabama again, according to a Senior Administration official. Meanwhile, trump called doug jones to congratulate him on his historic win. Jones told reporters the call was friendly. It was a very gracious call. I very much appreciated it. He congratulated me on the race that we won. He congratulated me and my staff on the way and the manner in which we handled this campaign and went forward and we talked about finding that Common Ground to Work Together and he invited me over to the white house to visit as soon as i get up there. But jones did receive a call from his opponent. Did not. Did not receive a call, thank you. I didnt read that right. He did not get a call from his opponent roy moore works remained defiant if defeat ask we are, indeed, in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization and our religion and have set free of suffering humanity and the battle rages on. In this race, we have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. This has been a very close race and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state. Someone really thinks hes very important. Can you guys freeze that . You sit there, he is trying to look president ial or Something Like that. I couldnt help but look at yet another poor horse yanked by a rider that doesnt know what theyre doing. I know, having the literal mouth of the horse ripped apart because he wants to look powerful and ride it badly across the field to his ultimate loss. Oh well. Lets talk for a second, willie. There are, you know me, what could you say about me . Im a half flas full guy . Or glass half full, either way. Ye. Go ahead. Its fought friday. We have no right to be punchy. May i say half glass . We risk it. You got the idea. Are you still disturbed by fought being allowed into phils apartment. He kept saying, its all too familiar. Who who do you think are you . Its a little too personal. What do the kids say about she in. Youre an optimistic guy. Optimistic guy. So can you look at this and see whether he says it or not the president felt chasten enough to pick up the phone and calm doug jones. The republicans called doug jones. Again, were looking for the silver lining. I think thats fairly positive. On the spectrum of Donald Trumps tweets was gracious as Donald Trumps tweets goes as gracious as he gets. The next day, though, yesterday morning, he said, well i few he couldnt win the election, i was right. It doesnt reflect well on him. Ill say again, roy moore was a uniquely horrific candidate. There was a very good chance he would have loss even if donald trump had not thrown his support behind him. Mem brooks, if washington had stayed out of the way from the very beginning, mo brooks would have won the primary and been the senator right now. Im not going out of my what i to knock on pitch mcconnell. But mike this happens all the time when Republican Leaders try to get or any leader tries to get too clever by half. They try to get involved in primaries, because they knew mo brooks would be a pain in the they get a choice for roy moore, a loss for republicans or a democrat a. Loss for republicans. We can blame bannon. But steve bannon couldnt have kept mo brooks out of the race. The guy would have won the primary and hed be for right now. The results the other evening, its fought the first time that its happened. The baseline as you both pointed out, you had a uniquely horrific candidate running for the republican as a republican roy moore. But you also had months and months, 11 months now, nearly 11 months of total dysfunction in washington, nothing being able to get done in the congress. Youve had a culture, a society, a country, i think, exhausted be i the constant tweets of the president of the United States and the combination is just now, we wont vote for roy moore. But the weight of everything and its not just alabama. By the way, it was the cool kids move yesterday by the end of the day, yes, okay, he was there or, heres the big deal, alabama sent a message to the world. And the white house. And washington. And the message was, you know what, were only going to be pushed so far by our tribe were only going to let you push as hard. Can you only wave the bloody flag of partisanship so much. We will only be so swayed by abortion and these wedge issues. Both parties have used masterfully to divide. But were talking about the problems donald trump had. The problem the republicans have right now going into 2018, mika, just hor risk. Every single poll that comes out shows maybe donald trump can get reelected in 2020. But the republicans look like theyre going down in 2018. The party is in an interesting position. All this as a new Monmouth University poll says if the vote for congress was held today. 51 of americans would praefr democrat. While 36 would choose a republican. A 15point advantage for the minority party. Democrats must flip 24 seats in the house to win a majority. Can we go back for a second. We have kristen solstice anderson. Mika, look at these numbers, not those numbers, the ones before on the glass now. Here we go. 51 to 36. Now, kristen solstice sampson, i have been looking at these gen eric ballot tests for some time and maybe there was a time, those numbers were more skewed if one direction or another. I just cant remember when. That is if you are a republican and anything close to a swing district, youve got to be understanding here. You are probably not going to win. Reporter these numbers are ghastly, there is plenty of time, a year left until the midterm elections, less than a year. But theres time for those numbers to change and what youve got to be thinking if you are a candidate in those swing districts is what can i do to be the opposite of roy moore so i can be a good candidate. Even understanding that this National Environment is going to be an anchor on me, weigh me down, energize my opponent supporters, there will be a lot of voters, even if there is a good candidate in their district may say, look, i like you. I got to send a message to trump. But 15 points on the gen eric ballot. I mean those are just ghastly numbers and what you will see, republicans have leaned on the fact, well they say midterm elections are demographically more in our fate, right, its older voters, whiter voters. They cant count on that i dont think coming next november. You seen in alabama this incredible surge in africanamerican turn jut. In the Virginia Election for governor, you saw a big uptick in voters coming out in more progressive sort of areas, sort of white upper middle class liberal voters turning out. So youve got this Democratic Coalition coming towing. Theyre going to vote in much higher numbers than youd expect in the midterm. Well, republicans seem like they may be depressed. In alabama the other story is in these precincts, so many voters decided to stay home f. The enthusiasm is completely out of balance as it is right now that really spells disaster for republicans a year from now. It really does, you look at what the republicans, the republicans are in trouble now in large part because theyve done really stupid things in defense of the indefensible, which is donald trump. You look at what we talk about in this next spot. Look at what they were doing yesterday on the hymn. I understand partisans believe what they believe. Harsh partisans, yesterday on the hill, while donald trump was talking about taxes, they were denigrating the federal bureau of investigations, the fbi, which is a popular institution, they were attacking an American Hero, bob mueller, look at his record, look it up. I understand in the most hard core districts in america, this may play okay. Most americans want bob mueller to be left alone. Bob muellers already indicted three people. Like hes already had arrests. Hes bought the the everyday going and these are the sort of things that make voters in swing districts go, wow. These are not serious people and there is something seriously wrong s. My congressman trying to obstruct justice . Right. They were willing to take a leap for change to sandy message to washington. Right. But they dont want to be dragged off the cliff. Right. You know, ill just say the district where we were two morning, ago, Mountain Brooke, if you look at the numbers that came out, exactly the voter are you talking about, they flipped between 50 and 60 points to the roy poor election. 50 and 60 points. So they went for donald trump. They said, no, were not going as far as roy moore, also we are pushing back against what weve seen which is why we went to Mountain Brooke because that name is snon many us with highly educated conservative republican voters. You also said Mountain Brooke. You cant campaign in mountain broovenlth its suffering, its an undeal. Lets say hollywood, west hollywood, like the republican going into the campaign, no, you dont do it. Thats a democratic area. Or you know upper west side. Yet what willie said, a 50point swing in Mountain Brooke, alabama, where we were. That happens when you start attacking guys that sacrificed tear lives and service for america and guided america through 9 11. Susan, i know are you a steadfast republican, are you holding strong. I know. Nothing is changing you at this point. Do you have republican friends that are on the fence that are feeling a little concerned about the party . And what is it that is pulling them away from the party . Well, its donald trump. Its the lack of decency and honor that this president is putting forth in our country. Sometimes its so simple. It is simple. But i think at the same time republicans, like myself and other was are pulling away from the party are very concerned about the future of the party. This is it. If we dont stop this kind of trump pull apart of the party and we dont stop his agenda moving forward, then were as a party, we are going to be misfits come 2018, 2020 and its interesting, the republicans did that political autopsy in 2012. It wasnt wrong. Donald trump was an outlier and blew everything up. But these elections, virginia, alabama, show that republicans need to attract younger people. They need to attract women. They need to be diverse. This president is doing everything possible, including supporting roy moore to turn off those groups. I dont think the president has the capacity to change, but i do think the people around him do. And i do think the people around him, in fact the reason why i was very correct, al the past few days of the people around the president , men and women, i think theyre actually very intelligent people and they know how they could be advising this president if he would listen. They know whats wrong. Its really that simple. So lets look at the Monmouth University poll, President Trumps Approval Rating now 32 . Thats a drop of 8 points, those dis approapprove rose, a s fueled by a negative reaction among women, with just 24 approval. The president has lost 12 points with women since september. Including a 25point drop among women who identify as political incidents and a 9point drop in approval among republican women. Down to 67 thats important. Kristen, a 24 approval raterat rating among women. I never seen numbers that low. Reporter those are the republican women number at 67 . There are core groups within the republican coalition. So these are folks, theyre already republicans. But whether theyre young republicans, female republicans, trumps numbers have really fallen amongst those groups. These are folks still calling themselves republican. But i wonder to what extent trumps drop over the last month, at least in this particular poll is influenced be i the resurgence in talk like things like Sexual Harassment. If we see a specific genderrelated decline in his numberings. The reemergence of the access hollywood tapes the tales of the women who accused him of horrible behavior. If that coming back into the news isnt driving some sort of a backlash, then thats whats holding his numbers down further amongst republican and independent women. Finally, in a newly released poll in the state of iowa, president President Trump won he won by ten points in iowa. Hes had some success. Ten points, thats a huge win in iowa. Hes got to be doing well there. No, its just 35 according to company iowa poll sponsored by the Des Moines Register and media. Com. Trumps disApproval Rating is 67 a. Net negative rating of 25 points. Mike barnical, what do you make of these numbers . You know, its interesting the discussion this morning in the past couple minutes is interesting about the Republican Party. The president of the occupation, if you watched any snippet at all yesterday of the hearing with Rod Rosenstein. We will be getting no that. Many Second Quarter a very fair country. People have a sense of fairness about them in this land and they know in cases like this both Political Parties go to their corners on both sides, if you look visually, which is where most americans see their politics these days, you see someone like the republican guy jim jordan, he never has a coat on, hes snarling at Rod Rosenstein, hes followed by a series of republican members of congress and theyre smart. They are literally snarling in their questioning of rosenstein, with regard to bob mueller. What they think theyre doing, mike, is they actually think that theyre setting things up for donald trump. Yes. To fire bob mueller. Lets just lay this out right now. I think and we had joyce yesterday saying Donald Trumps not going to be indicted. He might be an unindicted coconspirator. Everybody around him may ends up going to jail. But hes not going to ends up going to jail. American versus a very short attention span. I still say this president can survive just about anything over team. One thing can you not survive, firing bab mueller, launching a crisis that would get him impeached the day after democrats took control of Congress Next year. There is nothing he can do to stop the democrats from taking control at least of the house next year. But you fire bob mueller, even he knows, thats a line he cant cross. You think he does know that . He knows he has mueller because of comey and he has to know, if he has if his lawyers are anything other than total idiots, he knows if he fires mueller, that immediately gets the states filing charges, he cant pardon against the state charges. If those kids yesterday that made fools of themselves attacking an American Hero that guided this country so ably through the after math, if they dont think that bob mueller is five steps ahead of them, they are fools, tear constituents should be ashamed they sent those children up to the hill. Because thats what they are. They are humiliating tems, theyre trying to undercut the rule of law and it doesnt ends well for them. You said it, though, bob mueller doesnt care, hes got his head down going his job. Joyce vance will be on the show later today still ahead on morning joe, republicans are moving full speed ahead with the tax cut bill despite calls from democrats to wait until the new democrat from alabama is seated. That aint happening. Plus, as we have been mentioni mentioning, republicans trying to undermine Robert Mueller and the Russian Investigation. We will look into that and play the heated deputy of the attorney general as he stands his grounds. You are watching morning joe. Well be right back. When youre clocking out. Im the one clocking in. Sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. I can even help with a silent night. Does your bed do that . I dont actually talk, but i can tell you how you slept. Im the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Lets meet at a sleep number store. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. All right. So were going through the greats of all time t. Greatest white house aides. I mean, examine. Right . Yes. My gosh, i mean. Jim baker, chief of staff. Oh my lord. Howard baker, chief of staff. You got to put kenen in there. There are so many great once. Omarosa. What . Hall of fame. Will they name the airport if washington after her one day like they did dulles . One of them. Wow. I mean, you were just laughing reading the headline almost like it was a year after reaction, you are laughing, oh my gosh, omarosa was a white house aide . I cant help it. A Long National nightmare. Gary bucci will be next. House republicans railed against special counsel Robert Mueller he will apparently be the next secretary of state. The president doesnt listen to this secretary of state. He undercuts him. Warp you talking about yesterday, poor rex . Hes looking okay, maybe this crisis will be one hour later, undercuts him again. Sarah huckaby sanders, by the way, i here there were some pharisees, mika, looking at the spec in your eye. You just read the new testament. Im wondering a preacher like mike huckaby is reading the new testament. I hope he does that judge be not be judged the beattitudes. You got to read matthew instead of leviticus. But thats all im saying. Im an opt mick guy. I like him, mike, but, really, going around like a philisine. A pharisee, what are you doing . Thats kind of embarrassing for you, fought for us, for you. What is a pound of sand me . I dont know, judge that ye be not judged . Its fought dirty or something . No. I didnt understand it. I dont know, where mika grew up in this bubble. Hasnt seen the godfather. Never saw the brady bunch. I get if you have here on this set. Thank you very much, joe. No, you are welcome. Im not saying that for you, for him. You shouldnt go around like some well, they think i was attacking the women in the white house. What they did is had a headline saying mika attacks women in the white house. No, i actually spoke critically and i do think that women can handle criticism equally to men, specific women who are around the are the who have specific jobs that theyre not doing and then i spoke about the men in the white house and the spec jobs that theyre not doing, so i actually spoke about the men and the women in the white house and how they are failing the country. Especially on moral ground in terms of bullying. Let me ask you something in terms of Sarah Huckaby sanders, people seem no love to take your words and wretch them from their proper context saying that you have i worry about that. Have you ever talked about the way she dresses or any of this other stuff . No. They always say you did. That you really were wird for herly mentioned once shes a mother of three. I mentioned that out of Great Respect. That is sort of like makes it even more important. To tell the truth. And to serve this country in a truthful way. And i even had a support for sarah. I dont think attacking helps. I think we need to support everybody in the white house to try and do the right thing. If you cant, leave. Thats all i ask. All right. Im sort of pharisee mike. Examine. Judge ye be not judged. What are you doing, you sounds like jim and Tammy Faye Baker from 1978. Stop it. I think the whole thing was contrived in a fox sort of way. In a mr. Fox sort of way what do you mean . It was fantastic. That is a great have you seen the pa majority . I have probably seen that movie a thousand times. Clooney excellent. No doubt about it. All of them, fantastic. And so it begins. We actually assign each one of the kids has a word, has a phrase from fantastic mr. Bucks him mine is, whenever they upset me and so it begins. All right t. Latest on the Mueller Investigation and there are updates straight ahead on morning joe. This is not a cloud. This is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. 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Than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. You realize the smartest investing idea, isnt just what you invest in, but who you invest with. I just say. A huckaby clip. No, what a sleazy thing to do. A sleaze bag you go and you actually talk about, mika never talked about marriage. She never lectured on the morality of any of that. What a sleazy thing for to you do. I just think that they didnt have what a judgmental predictably stupid thing for you to do. Its unbelievable. In other news, george clooney. Did you hear this story . Rande gerber, a restaurateur, Business Partner of his, tooled the story on an msnbc show, they went to a dinner party at clooneys house, each guest received a suitcase. What was in the suitcase 1 million in cash per guest 14 million. Thanks for being great friends, you let me sleep on your couches in hollywood, id be nothing without you. Thank you. George, you can sleep on my couch any time. In 20 bills. That would be heavy. You dont have to worry like johnny depp in proceed walking through the airport. Holy cow. Lets move on. House republicans railed against special council Robert Muellers investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election. In the wak of receiving tech messages from 2016 between two romantically involved fbi officials, in which agent peter strzok, who worked on both the Hillary Clinton and trump investigations called President Trump an idiot and shared proclinton views, mueller removed strzok from his post when he learned of the messages last summer, but that did not satisfy House Judiciary Committee republicans works yesterday questioned the mueller probes supervisors Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. We are now beginning to better understand the magnitude of this insider bias on mr. Muellers team. This is not just political opinions. This is disgusting unaccountable bias and there is no way that could not affect a persons work. How with a straight face can you sa i that this group of Democrat Partisans are unbiassed . These 10ths are also evidence. Theyre not evidence of an appearance of impropriety. They are evidence of an actual vitriolic bias and hatred for the subject of the special counsels investigation. What do you have to see in terms of the actions of people with demonstrated bias against the president of the United States before you will appoint a special counsel to investigate the clear bias that has infected the investigation . This is unbelievable and im here to tell you, mr mr. Rosenstein, i think the public trust in this whole thing is gone. Are you the guy in charge. Are you the guy that picked mueller. You are the guy that picked the memo to say why you fired comey. Can you disband the mueller special prosecutor. Can you do what we have all called for, appoint a Second Special counsel to look into this. What is it going to take to get a special second counsel to answer these questions and find out was period of tipeter strzo was. I think the inspector has 500 employees, he investigates misconduct of employees, that review he is conducting is what turned up those Text Messages. I am concerned that the special counsel may be casting too wide of a net. That he is trying to catch all the fish in the ocean, fought just the soviet sharks. Has he ever asked to expand the scope of the investigation . A lot of media stories speculating about what the special counsel may or may not be doing. I know what hes doing. Im appropriately exercising my oversight responsibilities. So i can assure that you the special counsel is conducting himself consistently to our understanding about the scope of his investigation. Have you seen good cause to fire counsel muler . No. If you were ordered today to fire mr. Mueller, what would do you . As i explained previously, i would follow the regulation, if there were good cause, i would act. If there were no good cause, i would not. And youve seen no good cause so far . Correct. Why after you have heard all the concerns here today, why are you satisfied with the course of the investigation so far . I am satisfied, congressman, based upon what i know, which i is different than what the accounts my appear in the media, i believe director mueller is appropriately remaining within his scope and conducting himself appropriately zplits unbelievable. Jim jordan actually said its unbelievable. We have a National Security adviser that is now, hes pled already and hes cooperating with bob mueller, we have the president s Campaign Manager during the campaign who has been arrested and is going, obviously, is probably going to be pleading out also. Youve got a person that Donald Trumps told the Washington Post was one of his top Foreign Policy people thats already pled guilty. Who else am i missing . Is there a fourth . So its just starting, this momentum is just starting. How many days ago was Donald Trumps National Security adviser arrested and pled and is now cooperating with the fbi . Two weeks. Two weeks. Jim jordan thinks the American People are stupid enough. Maybe because hes not wearing a jacket and hes one of us. Hey, look at him. His ties are untied. Why dont he just roll up his sleeves and put on a hard hat . So jim jordan is saying that now that theyre actually getting close to figuring out what went on and people have already admitted to wrong doing and they serve time t. National security adviser may serve time. Theyre now saying why arent disbanding this investigation how stupid do they think we are . How stupid are they and how stupid, willie, do they think we are . Well, its probably because they know whats coming so they have to undermine the source of the information. Thats what President Trump has done for the last 11 months, consider the source, dont believe them, dont believe the press, dont believe the women, now dont believe the fbi, dont believe bob mueller. What is important to point out the person peter strzok the fbi act was removed from the investigation last hold on, are you telling me that the Inspector General found these texts . By the way, id love to see these Text Messages during their hearings. You goes want to play that game . Show your tech messages during benghazi, show your text why dont you reveal your tech messages and what you were texting each other while you were conduct an impartial investigation of benghazi for like eight years . But, anyway, i digress. He was removed from the investigation by bob mueller. Right. Last summer. During the summer when this was revealed back then. Oh so the process works . Yes, he found the texts and theyre bad. They go after donald trump. They say f trump. They call him an idiot. This and that. When those were revealed and discovered, they were removed from the investigation. As Andrew Mccarthy National Review said, hey, fbi agents, a conservative who has been very skeptical on the whole russia probe said these people are professionals, theyre allowed to have their own professional opinions. Strzok text looked like a big nothing, no corruption in her to jobs. Lots of people, me included, speak crudely and privately about politics. If you are okay with trumps outbursts, i dont see getting whipped up over this bs. Andrew mccarthy who said that he worked as a prosecutor in manhattan and he was a conservative constantly trashing liberals in private. But when it came to being fair, you put that aside. Everybody has opinions. Everyone does have opinions. As willie said, this guy was removed from the investigation. Bob mueller is a republican. Lets not forgot that. If theyre so worried about party politics. Hes a republican in charge of this investigation. Whats even more disturbing about the testimony, im not auditioning for a potential cabinet post or whatever it was, it was just about making grand statements tarp meaningless, they had enough to go with. This investigation, there have been hiccups along the way. Thats enough to call it into question. Do it with some pod racing. Then at least you look like you can set up the table. Whats even worse, how they did it and took away basically the wind out of the president s sail. For taxes. They stepped on the president. The white house operation as much as they want to feed the congress and what they want to say to undermine the Mueller Investigation, they should really focus on their own agenda. Mika, if they want to focus on a real hearing and they really want to get to the bottom of something, focus on jim i dont meanys investigation of Hillary Clinton. Ask why all the questions we asked, wait a second. In real time. How many people did you interview are on holiday weekends, why did you fought press her, why did you let cheryl mills be there as a participant in all of this, why did you let her sit there as an attorney . There are a lot of questions. Like meeting with the attorney general on the plane. Bill clinton, the president of the United States barack obama twice saying oh theres nothing to see here. Theres been nothing to do with National Security in all of this. The president , you know, basically putting his hands on the scale twice. Those are legitimate questions about the Hillary Clinton investigation. Go for it. But when youre trying to disrupt bob muellers investigation that has already brought down three or four people extraordinarily close to the president of the United States, you are making a fool of yourself. And are you trying to undermine the rule of law and ive said it boulevard and ill say it again and you a jack asses dont have to listen to me. Im a broken record here. But you are only leading to your own demise. You are going to get crushed. And next year in the elections and we have been warning you about this 33 thing. Listen if you are auditioning for the number one kissup to donald trump, too late. Lindsey graham won that award this past weekend. Hes on his tourist Advisory Board now for trump enterprises. Right . All you are doing is actually hurting republicans in swing districts and you are making nancy pelosi move one step closer to being the next speaker of the house. Dont underpine the rule of law. This will stay with you the rest of your life. Democrats, thank you. Still ahead, there has been a lot of fnger pointing at steve bannon after the republicans lost a senate seat in deep red alabama. One of our next guests say its President Trump who is to blame and more with kristen solstice anderson who asks in the New York Times, is trump driving young republicans out of the party . Morning joe will be right back. 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Because his kids eat a lot. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Packed with goodness. Welcome back. Christen, you have a new piece in the New York Times kwiett, at you write young voters in particular are burning off from both parties, especially the Republican Party and becoming independents and the remaining partisans are a more hard lined group. For republicans who are dismayed at the direction of the party, counting on a new generation to ride to the rescue may be overly optimistic. Young people have a chase to fight or flee. Time is of the essence for todays Republican Leaders to give their young supporters something to fight for. It rings true. Christen, alabama, i think 60 of millennials went for a democrat doug jones. I mean, lee county where auburn is, Tuscaloosa County where alabama is, i mean, i know those are republican places. The students really, really conservative. And yet they voted for the democrat yesterday. What do republicans do between now and november to make sure they dont bleed off as many young voters as theyve been bleeding off in virginia and alabama. I think the first thing republicans need to do is realize the issues that are going to drive young voters away from their party about onethird of people who call themselves republicans but dont love the direction of the party are issues like immigration, climate change, issues where republicans in the trump era have taken a hard line position, pulling out of the paris climate accord, sort of not having a clear solution on daca, building the wall. These are the things that in the polling that i took a look at, most divided young republicans who like trump and who dislike trump. If we see a further exodus from the party, issues like that will be the driver. Right now republicans havent for young voter who is are independent, they havent given them a reason to come to the party. And for young republicans who dislike trump, so many Republican Leaders have sort of shrugged and said okay, in the tremp trump era, its his party. I suppose you understand why they would do that, but for a lot of young republicans who say this isnt the party that i signed up for, this isnt why i want to be here, theyre not seeing a lot of leadership standing up and saying no, we want to save the party, and so in the absence of something to fight for as i mentioned, i think were going to see even more young people bleed away. All that will remain is a core of young voters who love donald trump. This is something that i think causes a lot of republicans to have a misperception of where young voters are. They go to Something Like cpac and maybe speak to a Young Republican Group and see people wear the red make America Great again hats. Theyre not realizing that everybody else has left. The reason why it seems like young republicans are so enthusiastic for the president is everybody is gone. And youre seeing that in polling where donald trump is still doing pretty well with republicans, but 5 to 10 of republicans have left the party according to some of the polls. Quickly, when i campaigned, whenever i campaigned at colleges, theyd say why dont you advertise more on the radio stations i listen to or tv shows i watch. I said because you dont vote. Older people vote. Younger people dont vote. Youve got to get out and vote. Thats why im here, to send that message. But now millennials, and i just saw this last week, theyre going to compete with baby boomers and be the largest voting group in america. Thats an extraordinary shift. Isnt it . Its an extraordinary shift, and the thing is bear in mind is the oldest millennials are voting a lot like the youngest millennials. They stretch into their mid 30s. Theyre beginning to vote more and more. Their political power is being felt increasingly, and theyre voting like democrats. Theyre not magically becoming republicans. This is something that should have concerned republicans a long time ago. It should really concern them now, and theyre running out of time to do anything about it. Christen, thank you so much. Coming up a new poll shows the president s Approval Rating sinking lower. The biggest drop is among independent women. And the part of the poll thats the most disturbing is for republican members of congress. The party, the generic ballot is historically bad for republicans. Donald trump has three years before his reelect. These republicans in the house and senate . Its ugly. And the white house undercuts Rex Tillerson again. Wow. Well explain when morning joe comes right back. At fidelity, trades are now just 4. 95. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. A trip back to the dthe doctors office, mean just for a shot. But why go back there, when you can stay home. With Neulasta Onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. Neulasta helps reduce infection risk by boosting your white blood cell count, which strengthens your immune system. In a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 . A 94 decrease. Applied the day of chemo, Neulasta Onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to neulasta or Neupogen Filgrastim . Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. So why go back there . If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. So we know how to cover almost almoanything. Hing even a swing set standoff. And we covered it, july first, twentyfifteen. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government . Sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. Im tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. Its why i left my Investment Firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. But here we are nine years later and this president and the Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse. They wont tell you that their so called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. Its up to all of us to stand up to this president. Not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. Join us. Your voice matters. I dont think steve bannon adds anything positive to the dialogue in the country. To see him on the stage with an american flag, he looked like a dishevelled drunk to wandered off the street, to have him have a major voice in politics is wrong. I think we should shut him. This is a guy who has trouble speaking his mind. Dont hold back. King, when i got into a fight with him on capitol hill, hed say, dont listen to joe scarborough, he just walked out of a tent revival barefooted in red neck heavy yriviera. And he did. I did. You dont wear socks. I dont wear socks. Its only thursday. Doesnt it feel like thursday . Shouldnt this week be over . Its not friday . We have republican strategist and political commentator susan delpursio, eugene robinson, bill crystal, and robert costa. We were just laughing at we had the steve bannon bite, but i think perhaps the most elitist he was elitist for mocking me for going to the university of alabama, but i think the most elitist thing that happened this past week was when bill christrystal tweeted at stoeve bannon and said you didnt really go to harvard. I mean, ivy league condescension is the worst. Its just a correct fact. I wanted to make sure i was clear that he went to Harvard Business school, not harvard institution. Its a good you didnt say that. You said it was a network. You made it sound like a coffee club. Well didnt you go to virginia tech, willie in. Virginia tech. Great school. Harvard on harvard elitism, thats peak. Thats the best. Its the best. Forget about harvard and yale, you brought up a great point about the numbers you were poring over in alabama. It speaks to how bad things are for republicans right now. We went to mountainbrook specifically because we thought those were the its a wealthy, welleducated republican enclave in birmingham, alabama. And ive never met anybody that wasnt a republican in mountainbrook in the 30, 40 years ive been going to alabama. Ive never seen the democratic side of Mountain Brook. Doug jones had to do well. You were talking about numbers out of there and the entire county that were staggering. Yes, i went into several of these. These are districts that i guess have reluctant trump supporters, upper middle class that trump held onto, that would be true of a lot of Republican Congressional districts. And jones won those by huge margins, 30 points or so. That swing it seems to me by the way, you have a silky smooth voice. Next time seriously, i think im listening to barry white right now. Go ahead. Yeah. Im not even going there. One quick point and ill stop talking since i sound so bad. Thank god. Everyone focuses on the working class trump supporters. Trump won because he held traditional republicans who didnt like him much but swallowed hard and voted for him. Thats who is at risk of being lost. Now you need to swallow hard. Yes. Water. The precincts i was talking about last hour with the 50 point swing, theyd be plus 15 and then plus 50 for doug jones. And then look at the turnout in traditionally democratic districts and other parts of the state in heavily African American we know some people who live in a small Rural Community not far from selma, and a couple of days before the election they were electrified. I mean, in a place you you just on an off year election you wouldnt see this level of organizing and getting people out of the polls. I have to say this is like nothing ive ever seen before in an off year election, the intensity, the organization on the ground, the people coming out, the fact that black voters across alabama came out at the same level they did for barack obama in 2008 is staggering. Bob costa, as were talking about Mountain Brook and some of these more educated republican enclaves across whether its alabama or virginia, im struck by my mind keeps going back to marco rubio who we september saying early on when others were saying marco was going to win. We september skept saying where base . What is his state . If marco had run in 88, 92, 96, 2000, probably would have won with the field he was running against. But these areas were talking about, those are the areas marco rubio did really well with. You remember going back to iowa. Its where he really could bring it together. The problem is youve got trump voters and then rubio voters in places like Mountain Brook and parts of des moines, and it seems that this is a party splitting in half. How do they bring that together . How do they get a candidate that can win the rubio and trump voters . I was at the capital all day yesterday talking to republican and democrats in the senate, and joe, the republicans i spoke to like senator shelby and senator graham, they say this tax cut, they hope its going to be a thread that unites everybody for a little while, but they know the rubio voters and Trump Coalition arent going to come together because of a tax package and they know President Trump is as incendiary as ever in the way he handles his party. Democrats are trying to say this was more about alabama. This was a revolt against the trump agenda as senator Bernie Sanders said, a vote against trumpism. Republicans somewhat aware of this. Roy moore was a candidate with many problems. At the same time, this may have some consequences beyond alabama. You know, susan, if republicans on the hill think this is about policy, theyve got it wrong. When they say donald trump can tweet whatever he wants and thats just a tweet. Thats the core of the problem. Trumpism. I mean, this will come as a shock to a lot of people in the media, i think not only most republicans but a lot of americans like what donald trump says on immigration for the most part. Not the most extreme parts of it, but a lot of what he says would do pretty well. The tax cut not really popular, but the elements are driving away young voters that are scaring black voters, that are scaring women and getting them all energized. It is the harshness. It is the tweets. It is the extremism. It is the attack that ugliness. The ugliness of it all, that is making donald trump a toxic brand. It is, and when we look back at alabama and talk about how donald trump did, lets not forget he did it against Hillary Clinton which was a toxic candidate in red states like alabama. Roy moore when he ran statewide ran 10 points behind mitt romney in 2012. There was a lot happening at one time for donald trump to get that mass support in red states like he did in 2016. It does not transfer into 2018. Donald trumps brand is destroying the Republican Party. And if republicans dont get out of their bubble in washington and start seeing it, theyre so used to seeing individual story after individual story not going far and destroying, but it is having a cumulative effect, and weve seen it in special elections for Congress Dallas republicans are doing underperforming, and this is going to take them into a losing position in 2018, especially when we look at the core states that are going to get hit with the tax bill, new york, california, pennsylvania. Donald trumps words have real consequences. His tweets have real ko consequences. Anybody at this table see a poll where a president had Approval Rating of 27 with women . 24 . If republicans dont get that message from alabama, right . From alabama where the last time the seat was up democrats didnt bo bother to run a candidate because it was a foregone conclusion, its amazing. You were speaking of marco rubio. Hes taken to tweeting out not so random bible verses. This morning he tweeted one from e cheese yas tease. Even when walking in the street, the fool lacking understanding calls everyone a fool. Thats roy moore, i guess. Oh i dont think so. Mika has been doing an excellent job for me with the lemon water. Now can i talk for twentyseconds. I agree with everything said, but i would say what does it mean for the republicans on the hill to do something about it. They have had a chance for a year to distance themselves from donald trump. I think they wanted the chance to does the experiment work . What does it do . This is what they do. They separate themselves from Donald Trumps facts. Maybe they go, i like this tax bill. Its not perfect, but it brings down rates to 37 for individuals, but ill tell you what. That attack against kiersten ji gillibrand is offense ive. Immigration. Im with the president on that policy, but when he says that Mika Brzezinski is bleeding badly from her face, her going to stand together and call it out. I totally agree. That requires a sort of entrepreneur ship by republican members. They need to take the lead. Theyre so used to following leadership and deferring to the white house and deferring to their own to mcconnell and ryan. It will be interesting to see if they can hold on. Hold on. I have one more. We just spent ten months where we said this is where theyre going to break. I have one more. We dont like joe scarborough, but the president shouldnt suggest hes a murder. Thats another one. See . I mean, come on. I was 50 50 on that one. No. You know, guess what. The constitution provides that thats what the congress is supposed to do. Congress is supposed to put restraints on heres what they can do now. They can protect bob mueller. That hearing yesterday was laying the ground work for trump firing mueller. Why did 20 or 15 Republican Congressmen give coordinated statements. They were reading the statements. That was not random comments. They got together. They had guidance to attack the Mueller Investigation. They should understand. They do not understand. I think the president s own lawyers even understand dont mess with bob mueller. The republicans on the hill could defend him. Republicans on the hill dont understand this is the meltdown. This is the core meltdown. They just cant go there. By the way, breaking news, Walt Disney Company is buying most of the 21st century box, a 52. 4 billion deal. I dont think its fox news. I dont think its the tv networks but the entertainment side of it. Pretty significant. Including the simpsons. I have to tell jack that. We watch three of those a night. Its not right, i guess. I ask, bill, to your point, to taking on donald trump from the republican seat, whats been the cost of the people for people who have done it . Nothing. Theres been no cost. Thats not what they see. What were jeff flakes numbers . Bob corker stepped down worried about a primary challenge. They remain worried about the fact look, moore lost in alabama. Thats a great thing. 90 of the primary voters voted for him. If youre a Republican Congresswoman from alabama, its dicey for her to step up front in the Sexual Harassment suit and say im going to support legislation to protect bob mueller. I hope they do, but we shouldnt underestimate how far they are from going where we want them to go. There are some that have been able to do it. James langford, a member of the Senate Intel Committee tweeted yesterday, they are following the facts where they lead in a bipartisan manner. This Russian Investigation is not just important for the president. It is important for the presidency. Russians will try to interfere with our elections again. We must be ready. I have seen time and time again james langford, a very conservative guy from a very conservative state, that if they face alabama in the national championship, well lose, but still, i have such Great Respect for senator langford, and a good eye roll by mika. Hes shown character time and time again, and i dont think hes been hurt by it. Thats exactly my point on ben sass. You can be conservative. You can hold your conservative ideals and protect the institutions of the country and still support pieces of President Trumps initiatives. You can support tax reform and also stand tall in the face of some of the president s inflictions. I think the people of nebraska will stand by ben sass. And there is strength in numbers. The president is for being a bully, hell back down if theres numbers. Its almost the me too movement for the republicans to step up and say something. Republicans need their own me too movement. We talked about it time and again especially since virginia that the republican members as bill crystal said, find themselves in a difficult political fix. They need donald trump to win a primary, but if theyre in a swing state, they cant win the general election in this climate with donald trump by their side. Its a vexing position for them to be in, and in talking to senators privately whose names ill leave aside. They said the media and critics dont understand that their voters are so furious about the global economy, about their kids not having jobs, about their children having addiction problems, about the way the country is moving, that if they move against trump, they fear those voters, some of their core voters will look at them as allies of the establishment. They feel like theyre in a corner there because they do not want to be seen in this kind of very hostile environment for elected officials as allied with the establishment in either party, and so theyre trying to stay quiet now. Pass a tax bill and they feel like if the president ever came to the level of firing bob mueller, they tell me, that is when they have to turn. That is when they have to protect the integrity of justice in this country, but until then, they really dont want to feel pressure because of this fumiin atmosphere. It didnt look like it yesterday. It sounds like there were people in that room who were fine with with having bob mueller fired. I dont think thats the case. The thats not the line, then its just talk. Then its a bunch of tweets. I very much respect jim langford and i think he has credibility, but again, its the small number of those people thats most striking, not the large number. It is. We look at ben sass, and i forget what you said when i said i support the policies. You said it requires a political flexibility. Entrepreneurship. Yes. But this isnt really that hard. I mean, i probably held hundreds of town hall meetings. It would be easy. I did this time and time again when i went after newt gingrich. I said i support his positions. But hes on this, this, this. They understand that. With donald trump you can say we want these tax cuts. He cant suggest that a woman would be willing to have sex with him for political contributions. Thats not what you want your girls to grow up in. Thats not you can do that and even the most conservative districts can understand it. I think theyre afraid to. I agree. Brevity is a soul of wit. Especially when its i agree with lemon water. Thank you all. Gene, final thoughts . Final thoughts. I think tuesday was a very important moment in this whole arc, and well see if people recognize it as such. But i think it really was. Bob costa, final thought . I agree with gene. A democrat won in the deep south. The democrats were more invis n invigora invigorated. They feel a tidal wave could be coming in 2018 if they can win the culture war and make an economic pitch. Vladimir putin made remarks moments ago that President Trump will likely love. Well bring in keir simmons who is in moscow. Are they going to build the tower . Well see. Straight ahead. Plus i think the public trusting this whole thing is gone. It seems to me you have two things you can do. Youre the guy in charge. You can disband the mueller special prosecuter and appoint a Second Special counsel to look into this. Yes. Yes, you do really want to obstruct justice and fire bob mueller like a week or two after he actually got a National Security adviser to plead guilty to lying to the fbi and covering up god knows what. That really would be a great thing to do right now. Wouldnt it, congressmen . Actually, no. Youre alone on that. Republicans grilled the Justice Department over antitrump bias within bob muellers team. Joyce vance joins us next. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. We got a lot to cover today. We want to take a moment to recognize a very solemn seas anniversa anniversary. The fiveyear anniversary of the Sandy Hook School shooting when children were killed inside their school. Six school officials, staff, the principal killed as well. 26 in all. Five years ago. I mean, i wasnt here for 9 11. I didnt cover that in new york the way you did, but the newtown shooting is the worst ive ever covered. I went up there as soon as we got the news, and we were parked across the street, standing there, the kids bodies were still in the school. The parents were reporting to a fire house in front of the school to see if one of their children was among the dead. And it was five years ago today. And i think about the families, the parents of those kids, what they go through on this anniversary, but every day, and at this time five years ago at 7 25 in the morning, they were probably pouring a bowl of cereal for their first grader to go to school not knowing what was coming two hours later. Its we talked about this. Mika, i dont know that theres been anything as jarring other than september 11th, certainly in my lifetime of following news and reporting on the news than what happened in knewtonewtown years ago today. It just still its something obviously that the families will never get past. Its something that the town will never get past. And so many of these families are still fighting every day to make sense of it, but to also try to turn this tragedy into something good. You look at the numbers, the daily news, october 3rd wrote that there have been theres been nearly one mass shooting every day for the 1,754 days since the shocking slaughter of those 20 connecticut angels. And mike barnicle, there are times the American People, i mean, this shook the American People to the core. 90 of Americans Still support enhanced background checks. The number of americans that support a ban on assaultstyle weapons continues to go up. Americans support gun safety at higher numbers than ever before and so much of it came out of that, and yet, how does congress answer this just a week ago . Well, a week ago the house of representatives in the United States Congress Passed a bill called a concealed to carry reciprocity act of 2017. That allows you if you have a conceal carr conceal carry permit, to bring your gun to that other state and walk down a main street in that other state with your concealed weapon. You know, all of us have lived a lifetime where certain event have occurred and we think, well, this is it. The assassinations of a president , of a civil rights leader, of senators, of Mass Shootings in las vegas and elsewhere. We think well, this is it. This is it. They will come to their senses. They will begin to address the reality that the majority of americans as you just said, want more stringent legislation to prevent mental cases from getting weapons, from being able to get mail order weapons, from being able to go to a gun show on saturday and buy a baa zozba. We thought when 25 people were killed five years ago, but 20 first graders in their classroom, we thought this is it, and we are still my takeist. And you look at the number of americans that have been killed by guns since sandy hook. Its unfathomable that Congress Still has refused to do anything despite the fact that 90 of americans want them to. They are playing to a small hard core Interest Group in washington d. C. , and not even listening to the majority of nra members who want theyll say that again. The majority of nra members, the majority of republicans, the majority of conservatives, want expanded background checks, and they want legislation passed, gun safety legislation passed. And they can start even working backwards from some of the most dangerous weapons out there. You can start at whether its the block giz moe on the gun or other types of weapons. We do have certain standards in our country. You cant have land mines on your yard. Those are deemed too dangerous. We have to force the country into sensible, responsible gun ownership. Youre right. Most nra members are for proper background checks. They have no problem with waiting. If i need a gun in 24 hours, theres probably a bad reason i want a gun in 24 hours. The government needs to start moving this, and this is one of the issues that we can start saying im for the second amendment, but we need to be responsible. This is something republicans can be moderate on and still hold onto their base. And the bump stock issue, willie, that after las vegas, after that horrific slaughter in las vegas, we heard that they might even move on bump stock. They cant even do that. Everybody says all the right things in the day in the shooting or the couple of days after. They wait and it goes away. It happened in las vegas. I want to say one thing about teachers and what we ask our teachers to do now. Vickie was a teacher at sandy hook found cradling, huddling, surrounded children. She was killed. Shfs prote she was protecting her kids. This happens in schools all the time. Our kids go to schools where our teachers are asked to stand in the way of a bullet to protect children. It happened in new mexico last week. Didnt get a lot of play in the press. A former student walked into a high school, killed two kids in the high school, two bright, young teenagers and a substitute teacher, katie potter, she was subbing that day, had to push a couch in front of a door, protect 17 kids as the shooter was shooting from the class. He couldnt get in. She saved these kids lives. And she said ill show up at work on monday if you need me. Were in the just asking our teachers who teach our kids. Were not just asking them in many cases to pay for their own school supplies. Were asking them to literally put their lives on the line for our kids. They do it every day. The fact that were still here five years later is unspeakable on so many levels. Well be right back. 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. [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. Tathey always refer to me why weras master sergeant. Ture. They really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. Weve got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. Had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. Usaa was there handson very quick very prompt. I feel like were being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. Were the webber family and we are usaa members for life. Usaa, get your insurance quote today. Its not up to me to give an assessment of how President Trump is doing. Its up to the american citizens. Those who elected him. Objectively, we see some serious achievements accomplished even the during during his president. With all due respect for the opposition of President Trumps opposition within the u. S. , it is an evident fact. I believe there are some things President Trump would like to do but so far hes been unable to such as the health care reform, some other avenues. He also had spoken about trying to improve relations with russia and the Foreign Policy. Evidently even if he wanted that, so far he was unable to do that due to the restrictions you are well aware of. You have to ask him if he still wants to do that or maybe, i hope he wants to improve relations with russia. Thats Vladimir Putin talking about President Trump at his annual end of the Year Press Conference today in moscow. Hes assessing Donald Trumps first year in office. Nbcs keer simmons was in the audience. Reporter president putin weeks after announcing he will run for reelection facing more questions about russias intervention in americas democratic process. All of this has been invented, made up by people who are in a position for President Trump with hopes of shedding a negative light on trump. He praised the u. S. President look at the markets, how theyve grown, putin said. I do still hope he wants to improve relations with russia. Listening in the audience, could this woman be russias next president . Shes a former reality tv star once called russias paris hilton, now a 36yearold mother who says hes ready to take on the controversial and powerful russian leader. Russian people are not stupid. They know that the system were living is undemocratic. My dream is to see this kremlin wall opened for all the people. Reporter she already has support suppor supports. What do you think of the idea of a woman becoming the president of russia . Yes. Reporter and detractors who allege shes running with putins blessing. A putin family friend, her father, was one of putins mentors. Are you president putins Good Daughter . No, im not. Reporter you can see why people would be suspicious that you are well, some people would say a kremlin stooge. They can say and they will say whatever they like. I think they should judge actions. Reporter her Election Office run by young start using social media, she has 5. 4 million instagram followers. Her account mixing fashion with politics. Politics is not something boring. Its not only old men sitting in suits and discussing inflation. Its fashionable. Reporter this morning putin denying influencing americas election. They see us as a threat. President putin taking hours of questions from journalists here as he always does. He was asked about a range of subjects. Another one that ban on russian athletes taking part in the Winter Olympics under the russian flag with russian anthem. He admitted that there are cases of doping in russia and so said its our fault. We gave them a pretext for this. At the same time as claiming the ban is politically motivated has in the past suggested its part of an american attempt to intervene in the elections here in russia. Mika . Keir summimmons, thank you. A lot to unpack there. Joining us now joyce vance, and former cia station chief who spent five years in moscow, dan hoffman. Dan, lets start with you. Your reaction to the fact that Vladimir Putin and im not being facetious here, Vladimir Putin sounded like he could have been a spokesman for the rnc. Yeah. Well, of course hes going to deny any medaling in tdling in election process. He was director of the fsb. He knows by denying something we did he adds a measure of conspiracy. Thats part of his plan to soil our democratic process. What about talking about donald trump as a successful president , the stock market going up . Him people getting in his way of doing the good things he wants to do . Is that just playing to Donald Trumps ego again . I think first, he likes to be in a position of grading the administrations homework. That elevates his status inside russia in anticipation of his elections in march. He wants to try to drive a wedge between the administration and the congress. If you recall it was the congress that pushed forward the sanctions, and i think Vladimir Putin is trying to play a to the that as well. Joyce, yesterday a group of republicans tried to sully the reputation of bob mueller. I love your reaction to what we saw in that hearing and Rod Rosensteins response. Well, Rod Rosenstein went to bat for bob mueller saying hed seen nothing improper in that investigation, and vouching for muellers impeccable credentials. These efforts, i think to sully muler in his investigation are really nothing other than the most recent efforts launched by this administration in its real effort to deplete our institutions, so violate the rule of law. Theyre preparing for inevitable indictments and trying to convince the public that when they come, theres something wrong with muellers investigation. Dan, as somebody who understands russia better than anything at the table. Two part question, what do you think putin wants out of this disruption hes causing in american clicks and in the 2016 election, and based on what you know, how do you suspect he did it in terms of getting with Paul Manafort or general flynn or all the allegations . How did he prosecuter that job . I think there are vodka bottles propped up in the kremlin right now. Theres no question russia mounted a discoverable influence operation using our social media sites so we would assume russia was involved and that would soil our democratic process. I think hes doing all this with his sights on the march 2018 elections. Hes aware his own opposition derives a lot of inspirational support from the United States, from our adherence to liberty and freedom and democracy. Its the greatest threat to russia. He feels like if he can take us down a notch, then he can say to his own supporters, look, if you think the United States is so great, theyre throwing stones from their glass house city on a hill. To follow up, we talked about 2016, but you think there may have been some influence in this past tuesdays election . Is that correct . I do believe that there is some initial forensics, if you look at some of the website, looking at the twitter feeds, theres some evidence that russianlinked websites were interfering with the election in alabama, and posting tweets about candidate roy moore. In favor of roy moore . Highlighting all the issues and some apparently in favor and just to get the issue out there. Right now theyre trying to tweet about or tweeting about the fbi. Joyce, Rod Rosenstein yesterday, a lot of people might think hes appointed by donald trump, that hes whatever, a political appointee. Could you describe the independent nature of Rod Rosenstein . So Rod Rosenstein was first a bush United States attorney. He was then reupped to serve to serve under president obama. Hes a career Justice Department employee. Hes independent. He has very firm beliefs about the right way to do things in those doj traditions and views. I think americans can feel good about rod being there. If i could just go back to the last point, i think its important to note that alabama not really an election where you would expect the russians to have a dog in that fight and to be all that engaged. There was a lot of social media activity, and although it was largely pro moore, really russias engagement there was an effort to drive a wedge between different groups and people to further exacerbate tensions and in that way to destroy our way of life. All right. Joyce vance, thank you very much. And dan hoffman, thank you as well. Thanks, appreciate it. Coming up, joe bidens touching moment with Meghan Mccain on the view , consoling her as her father battles the same disease that took bidens son, beau. Morning joe will be right back. one is the only number that youll ever need staying ahead isnt about waiting for a chance. Because one is. Its about the one bold choice you make that moves you forward. That you ever need the one and only Cadillac Escalade. Come in for our seasons best offers and drive out with the perfect 2017 Cadillac Escalade for you. Get this low mileage lease from around 899 per month. from around 899 per month. Eight hundred dollars when wet switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey. Oh. Thats my robe. Is it . You could save seven hundred eighty two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Going somewhere . Whoooo. Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. Senator john mccain has been readmitted to walter reid National Military center. His office says its due to normal side effects for his treatment for brain cancer adding the senator, quote, looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible. Senator mccain has missed voting this week and has been undergoing rounds of chemotherapy and radiation to treat glee oh blastoma which he was diagnosed with. Joe biden had this exchange with senator mccains daughter megan. Your sewn beau had the same cancer my father was diagnosed with six months ago. Im sorry. Theres a lot of hope. I think about beau almost every day. And was told that this doesnt get easier, but that you cultivate the tools to work with this and live with this. I know your family has been through a tragedy i cant conceive of. Look, look, look. Its not about me. Its about everyone. It is about everyone. One of the things that gave my son door raj was john. Your dad took care of my beau. Your dad became friends with beau. He talked about your dads courage, not about illness, but about his courage. So there is hope. Her dad is one of my best friends. After that moment, senator mccain tweeted, quote, thank you joe biden and the entire biden family for serving as an example and source of strength for my own family. Amazing. What else to say except that i tweeted yesterday that is joe biden at his best. Thats exactly who he is right in that moment. You know, willie, you see the former Vice President like that and you realize that the country is in real need of someone with empathy and compassion and clarity, someone who knows what its like to suffer a loss, to be wounded, to reach out to others, to be human. Thats the source of joe bidens strength. Thats what you saw just now. I also think Meghan Mccain is extremely generous to share what shes going through. Its so dueeply personal. I dont know how she got through that. But it 4e8 ps so many people who are in similar situations, to talk about this and share. Shes being incredibly generous with her very personal journey with her father. Also on the view biden was asked about a possible 2020 president ial run. I have no intention knnow ive done nothing now to put together any sort of operation to run. As i said, as most of you know, the problem is steams i say what i mean. If i were offered the nomination by the lord all mighty today i would say no, were not ready, the family is not ready to do this. If a year from now were ready and no one has moved in that i think can do it, then i may very well do it. Im being as honest as i can. It was a great show. It was really good. Up next, President Trump reportedly rejects the notion that he is in any way responsible for republicans losing that reliably red Alabama Senate seat. The Washington Post Philip Rucker joins us with efforts to undermine the Mueller Investigation. Breaking Business News as disney buys a huge trunk of 21st century fox, reshaping hollywood as we know it. Morning joe is coming right back. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. You or joints. Something for your heart. Wealth. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. What is this . When we love someone, we want to do right by them. But some things we cant control like snoring. snoring introducing theravent antisnore strips. Clinically shown to reduce snoring. Theravent. The answer is right under your nose. Clinically shown to reduce snoring. 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With us onset, we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle, republican strategist and political commentator susan del percio and columnist at the washington examiner, kristen anderson. We have a lot to get to. Its not friday yet. Anyone believe that . No. Feels like it should be friday. Weve got that friday feeling. Its only thursday. What the heck. Along with willie, joe and me, were going to get to the news. President trump says hes not responsible for roy moores loss in the Alabama Senate race. The Washington Post reports that trump has spread the blame for tuesdays loss to his former chief strategist steve bannon, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell as well as moore himself, citing senior white house officials and advisers, the post reports trump blames bannon for urging him to support moore and mcconnell for being too aggressive in trying to push moore out. The post also reports that trump is eager not to let the loss be seen as a referendum on him. But it is. He has said he will have one alabama again, according to a Senior Administration official. Meanwhile, trump called doug jones to congratulate him on his historic wins. Jones told reporters the call was friendly. It was a very gracious call, i very much appreciated it. He congratulated me on the race that we won. Congratulated me and my staff on the way and the manner in which he handled this campaign and went forward. We talked about finding that Common Ground, to Work Together. He invited me over to the white house to visit as soon as i get up there. But jones did receive a call from his opponent did not. Did not. Thank you. I didnt read that right. Did not get a call from his opponent roy moore who remained defiant in defeat. Were in a struggle to preserve our republic, civilization and religion and set free a suffering humanity and the battle rages on. We have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. This has been a very close wait and were awaiting certification by the secretary of state. Someone really thinks hes very important. You sit there and hes trying to look president ial or Something Like that. I couldnt help but look at yet another poor horse being yanked by a rider that doesnt know what theyre doing. Having the little mouth of the horse ripped apart because he wants to look powerful and ride it really badly across a field to his ultimate loss. Anyway, lets talk for a second, willie. You can look at this and see whether he says it or not, the president felt chastened enough to pick up the phone and call doug jones. Other republicans called doug jones. Again, were looking for the silver lining, i think thats fairly positive. On the spectrum of donald trump tweets, his tweet on Election Night was gracious, as his tweets go, as gracious as he gets. Yesterday morning he said i knew he couldnt win the general election. I was right, so somehow claiming victory. This doesnt help donald trump, doesnt reflect well on him. I will say again, roy moore was a unique think horrific candidate. Theres a good chance he would have lost even if donald trump hadnt thrown support behind him. If washington had stayed out from the beginning, mo brooks would be the senator right now. Thats why im not knocking not going doubt of my way to knock on Mitch Mcconnell, but, mike, this happens all the time when Republican Leaders try to get any leader tries to get too clever by half. They try to get involved in the primaries because they knew mo brooks would be a pain in the ass for Mitch Mcconnell. What happened . They ended up getting a choice between roy moore, a loss for republicans, or a democrat, a loss for republicans. We can blame bannon and we can blame steve bannon couldnt have kept mo brooks out of the race. The guy could have won the primary and he would be senator right now. The results the other evening, its not the first time in political history its happened. The baseline is you both have pointed out, you had a uniquely horrific candidate running for the republican running as a republican, roy moore. You also had nearly 11 months of total dysfunction in washington, nothing able to get done in congress. Youve had a culture, a society, a country i think exhausted by the constant tweets of the president of the United States and the combination is just, no, im goat not going to wrote for roy moore. Here is the big deal. Alabama sent a message to the world. And the white house. And the white house, and the message was, you know what . Were only going to be pushed so far by our tribe. Were only going to let you push us you can only wave the bloody flag of partisanship so much. We will only be so swayed by abortion and these wedge issues that both parties have used masterfully over the past 30 years to divide. Talking about the problems donald trump had, the problem republicans had right now going into 2018, mika, just horrific. Every single poll that comes out shows maybe donald trump can get reelected in 2020, but the republicans look like theyre going down in 18. The party is in a very interesting position at this point. All this as a new national Monmouth University poll says if the vote for congress was held today, 51 of americans would prefer a democrat while just 36 would choose a republican. A way of life 15point and vantage for the party. Democrats must flip 24 seats in the house. Mika, look at these numbers. Not those numbers, the one before. 536. Kristen solstice anderson, hi been looking at generic ballot tests for some time. Maybe there was a time those numbers were more asked you in one direction or another. I just cant remember when. If youre a republican . Close to a swing district, youve got to be understanding youre probably not going to win. These numbers are ghastly. There is plenty of time. Theres a year left until the midterm elections, less than a year. But there ies time for those numbers to change. What youve got to be thinking if youre a candidate in one of those swing districts, what can i do to be the opposite of roy moore so i can be a really good candidate . Understanding this National Environment is going to be an on chore on me, going to energize my opinion points supporters, there will be a lot of voters, even if theres a good candidate in their district will say, look, i may like you, but im going to send a message to trump. But 15 points on the generic ballot. Those are just ghastly numbers. What youre going to see, republicans have leaned on the fact, they say midterm elections are demographically more in our favor, older voters, whiter voters. They cant count on that i dont think coming next november. Youve seen this incredible surge in africanamerican turnout. In the Virginia Election for governor, you saw a really big uptick in voters coming out in more progressive sort of areas, white, upper middle class liberal voters turning out. Youve got this Democratic Coalition coming together. Theyre gong to vote in much higher numbers than youd expect in the midterm while republicans seem like they may be depressed. In alabama i think the other store riff is in many of these republican precincts, so many voters simply decided to stay home. If the enthusiasm is completely out of balance, as it is right now, that really spells disaster for republicans a year from now. It really does. Still ahead on morning joe, efforts to upped mine bob muellers investigation went into overdrive yesterday. Well play the key moments of the Deputy Attorney generals testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee. Theres one less reality show star in the white house this morning. Well dig into the drama that unfolded when the white house tried to show omerosa the door. Willie brought it up, gary bussey, next secretary of state. No. Its lindsey because he its him and rodman. Im not ready to report either. To deal with north korea . Yeah. The crisis on the peninsula. Gary played a bean buddy holly. He did a great job. Straight to bill karins with a check on the forecast. Who also played buddy holly a decade later. My version wasnt quite as good. Its worth a good watch. Lets get into the forecast. Mika didnt love the snow coming in this morning. A lot of people have delayed their morning commutes in and around southern new england and new york city and ifl if, even our friends in ohio, too. A lot of advisories being dropped. The snow is almost over with. In the last six hours it raced through pennsylvania. Snowing boston south wards and into rhode island. Whats worse is when you clean up this mess from last night and this morning, its not fun. Detroit had a couple of inches, windchill is 5. Green bay is minus 9 right now. The arctic blast has followed this latest snowy vent and that cold air will rush into the east during the day today. The good portion of this forecast is the rest of the country. Its really only the great lakes, ohio valley and the northeast. The southeast, a little chilly, but no complaints. Almost 60 in plaent, 72 in tampa. Still dry in texas. All of the west continues to be dry. Unfortunately for california, the fire weather is getting back into critical stage again. Its going to be windy again today and temperatures around 78 degrees. Even into tomorrow, not a lot changes. The only really change in the forecast is were adding wet weather in the pacific northwest. Havent been talking about wet weather there in a long time. Have to build up the snowpack. Denver tomorrow, 60 degrees, not travel issues. Still bitterly cold in the great lakes and the northeast. You have to wait for sunday where it will warm up into the 40s in many areas of the northern half of the country. New york citys snowflakes are melting. No problem driving around the city. Its the burbs where you have to be careful. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. At fidelity, trades are now just 4. 95. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. I love you, droolius caesar, but sometimes you stink. Febreze car vent clip cleans away odors for up to 30 days. Because the things you love can stink. My dads. Grandmas. Aunt stacys. What are the reasons you care for your heart . Qunol coq10 with 3x better absorption has the 1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 to support heart health. Qunol, the better coq10. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Muellers investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election yesterday. In the wake of the Justice Department releasing Text Messages from 2016 between two romantically involved fbi officials in which agent peter struck who worked on both the Hillary Clinton and trump investigations called President Trump an idiot and shared pro clinton views. He was removed from his post. That didnt satisfies house judiciary republicans who yesterday questioned Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. Were beginning to understand the magnitude of the insider bias on muellers team. This is disgusting unaccountable bias. Theres no way that could not affect a persons work. How with a straight face can you say this group of Democrat Part sans are unbiased, these texts are also evidence theyre not evidence of an appearance of impropriety. Theyre evidence of an actual vitriolic bias, actual hatred for the subject of the special counsels investigation. What do you have to see in terms of the actions of people with demonstrated bias against the president of the United States before you will appoint a special counsel to investigate the clear bias that has infected this investigation . This sun believable. Im here to tell you i think the public trust in this whole thing is gone. Youre the guy in charge. Youre the guy who picked mueller, who wrote the memo saying why he needed to fire comey. Youre the guy in charge. You can disban the mueller special prosecutor and do what we all thought. Whats it going to take to get a Second Special counsel to answer these questions and find out was peter strzok up to what i think he was. I think its important to understand we have an Inspector General that has 500 employeetion and a hundred Million Dollar budget. This is what he does. Investigates department employees. The review hes conducting is what turned up those sect messages. Im concerned the special counsel might be casting too wide of a net. Has he ever asked to expand the scope of the investigation . There are a lot of media stories speculating about what the special counsel may or may not be doing. I know what hes doing. Im appropriately exercising my oversight and responsibilities. So i can assure you the special counsel is conducting himself consistently with our understanding about the scope of his investigation. Have you seen good cause to fire special counsel muler . No. If you were ordered today to fire mr. Mueller, what would you do . As evidence explained previously, i would follow the regulation. If there were good cause, i would ability. If there were no good cause, i would not. Youve seen no good cause so far . Correct. Why, after youve heard all the concerns expressed today, why are you satisfied with the course of the investigation so far . Im satisfied, congressman, based upon what i know which is different from what accounts may appear in the media, based upon what i know, i believe director mueller is appropriately remaining within his scope and conducting himself appropriately. Jim jordan actually said its unbelievable. We have a National Security adviser that is now hes pled already and is cooperating with bob mueller. We have the president s Campaign Manager during the campaign who has been arrested and is going obviously is going to be pleading out, also. Youve got a person that donald trump told the Washington Post was one of his top Foreign Policy people, thats already pled guilty. Who else am i missing . Is there a fourth . So its just starting this momentum is just starting. How many days ago was Donald Trumps National Security adviser arrested and pled and is now cooperating with the fbi . Two weeks. Two weeks. Jim jordan thinks the American People are stupid enough maybe because hes not wearing a jacket and hes one of us. His tie is untied. Why doesnt he just roll up his sleeves and put on a hard hat. Jim jordan is saying that now that theyre actually getting close to figuring out what went on and people have already admitted to wrong doing and may serve time. His National Security adviser may serve time. Theyre now saying why arent you disbanding this investigation . How stupid do they think we are . How stupid are they and how stupid, willie, do they think we are . Its probably because they know whats coming, so they have the to undermine the source of the information. Its what President Trump has done for the last 11 month. Consider the source, he says. Dont believe them. Dont believe the press. Dont believe the women. Now dont believe the fbi. Dont believe bob mueller. Peter strzok was removed from the investigation last summer hold on, willie. Are you telling me that the Inspector General conducted an investigation, found these texts by the way, id love to see these guys Text Messages during their hearings. You guys want to play that game, show your Text Messages during benghazi. Why dont you reveal your Text Messages and what you were texting each other while you were conducting an im parable investigati imperil impartial investigation of benghazi. So the process works. He found the texts and theyre bad. They go after donald trump. They say f trump. They call him an idiot, this and that. When those were revealed and discovered, they were removed. Andrew mccarthy of the National Review said, hey, fbi agents a conservative who has been very skeptical on the whole russia probe said these people are professionals. Theyre allowed to have their own professional opinion. The texts look like a big nothing. Lots of people, me included, speak crudely privately about politics. If youre okay with trumps out bursts, i dont see you getting worked up over this bs. Andrew mccarthy said he worked as a prosecutor in manhattan. He was a conservative constantly trashing the liberals in private. But when it came to being fair, you put that aside. Everybody has opinions. Everyone does have opinions. This guy was removed from the investigation. Bob mueller is a republican. Lets not forget that. If theyre so worried about party politics. Theres a republican in charge of this investigation. Whats even more disturbing about the testimony im not sure if they were auditioning for a potential cabinet post, but it was just about making grand statements that were meaningless. They had enough to go with. This investigation, there have been hiccups along the way. Thats enough, you want to call it into question, but do it with some moderation because then at least you look like you can set up the table. Whats worse is how they did it and took wind out of the president s sail. Talking about taxes. Exactly. They stepped on the president. The white house operation, as much as they want to feed the congress of what they want to say to undermine the Mueller Investigation, they should really focus on their own agenda. Mika, if they want to focus on a hearing and they really want to get to the bottom of something, then focus on jim comeys investigation of Hillary Clinton. Ask why all the questions we asked. In realtime. Why every time did you interview her on holiday weekends, why did you not press her . Why did you let cheryl mills in there who was a participant in all this, why did you let her sit there as an attorney . There are a lot of questions to ask. Bill clinton meeting with the attorney general on the plane. We were there. We talked about it. The president of the United States, barack obama, twice saying theres nothing to see here. Theres been nothing to do with National Security and all of this. The president basically putting his hands on the scale twice. Those are legitimate questions about the Hillary Clinton investigation. Go for it. But when youre trying to disrupt bob muellers investigation that has already brought down three or four people extraordinarily close to the president of the United States, youre making a fool of yourself. And youre trying to undermine the rule of law, and ive said it before and im say it again, and you jackasses dont have to listen to me. Im a broken record here. But youre only leading to your own demise. Youre going to get crush ed net year in the elections. Weve been warning you about this 33 thing. Listen, if youre auditioning for the number one kissup, to be the number one kissup to donald trump . Too late. Lipid see graham won that award last weekend, hes on the tourist Advisory Board now for trump enterprises. All youre doing is hurting republicans in swing districts and making nancy pelosi move one step closer to being the next speaker of the house. Dont undermine the rule of law. This will stay with you the rest of your life. Democrats, thank you. Coming up on morning joe, Washington Posts Philip Rucker has new reporting on the republican efforts. Nbcs Kristen Welker will help us get to the bottom of omerosas dismissal from the white house. Dramatic. Very dramatic. Dragged out . Tried to run into his personal quarters there . Thats what theyre saying. Tripped off an alarm allegedly. Thats like familiar. Well talk about that. I wonder what mike huck key is going to stay about that. [ keyboard clacking ] [ click ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ clacking continues ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. 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Borrow up to 100,000 with low rates and no hidden fees. Find your rate in just two minutes, and take on your debt at sofi. Com. We want to give you, the American People, a giant tax cut for christmas. When i say giant, i mean giant. [ applause ] the typical family of four earning 75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than 2,000, slashing their tax bill in half. Its going to be a lot of money. Youre going to have an extra 2,000, but there are many more things than that. It would be wrong for Senate Republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly elected senator from alabama the opportunity to cast his vote. Our hope is that Mitch Mcconnell will do the right thing. Our hope is that Mitch Mcconnell will hear what the voters in the suburbs of alabama said, help us. Its our hope that Mitch Mcconnell will realize proceeding with this tax bill will be a dramatic, dramatic death nail for the Republican Party in 2018. Welcome back to morning joe, joining us now, nbc White House Correspondent Kristen Welker. Kristen, the white house says republicans in the house and senate have reached an agreement on their tax package. What can you tell us . Weve spoken to multiple republican sources, mika. Here is what we know so far under the bill, the individual tax rate will drop from more than 39 to 37. The Corporate Tax rate this is a big one for the president will will be slashed from 35 to 21 . That very thorny issue of deductions for property and state income taxes, the s. A. L. T. Deduction bs will be capped at 10,000. Perhaps the most controversial part of this bill, it repeals the obamacare individual mandate, ending the penalty for not having health insurance. According to projections, thats the move that can leave as many as 13 Million People uninsured and alienates moderate republicans, meanwhile adding urgency to all of this is the stunning gop defeat in alabama as you heard chuck sheemer talking about. Yesterday President Trump was asked to respond to the Election Results and ask if it would hurt his agenda. A lot of republicans feel differently. Theyre happy with the way it turned out. As the leader of the party, i would like to have had the seat. How could that loss affect your agenda Going Forward . I dont think its going to affect it. I think were doing a lot reporter democrats, as you just saw Chuck Schumer say, are pushing to have that tax vote delayed until doug jones, the democrat winner is seated. The reality is check its unlikely republicans would agree to that. Meanwhile, tracking another big story at the us whoment one of the most fap famous faces is now out. Nbc news learned according to a source from the white house that omerosa newman, a former apprenti apprentice star was escorted off the property after trying to reenter to discuss her leaving. She says she insisted she was resigned and was not escorted off campus. Were digging into that throughout the day today. Okay. Look forward to hearing more. Kristen welker, thank you very much. Joining us now, New York Times reporter and political analyst for msnbc and nbc, yamiche el sin door. You were one of the first to break the omerosa story. We want to play what she told abc news moments ago. I resigned, amend i did dont that in the residence as being reported. John kelly and i sat down in the situation room which is a very secure, very quiet room in the white house and we had a very candid conversation. I wanted to make the oneyear mark. That is one of the goals that i set out to and then get back to my life. You resigned, you werent fired as being reported . No. You know, i like to hear all of these interesting tales, but i have to tell you that theyre 100 false. There were a lot of things that i observed during the last year that i was very unhappy with, that i was very uncomfortable with, things i observed, i heard such as . I cant expand upon it because i have to still go back and work with these people. As the only africanamerican woman in this white house, as a senior staff and assistant to the president , i have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people. When i can tell my story, it is a profound story that i know the world will want to hear. Yamiche, what is she alluding to . There are two things. From the sources ive talked to, they said omerosa was uncomfortable with several things including President Trumps response to charlottesville. Your viewers remember its when he said there was violence on both sides. She was pretty upset about that. All my sources tell me she was asked to leave, she was actually fired, that she was getting under john kellys scene. John kelly was pretty mad at her because she was sending articles to President Trump, back channelling to him around the chief of staff. As people know, john kelly has been trying to syphon off what information the president gets and try to keep him focused. Omerosa is someone i was told was trying to take the focus away. As a result, she was asked to leave. My sourcing tells me she was asked to leave and escorted off the white house grounds. Whether that was through secret service or security, my sources tell me she was i was not told that she was physically dragged, but i was told that she did not take it well, that she was very angry and as a result they had to get other people involved. Yamiche, the secret service put out a tweet yesterday saying it was not involved in the removal of omerosa from white house grounds. Part of the reporting we heard, also, is she tried to enter the residence to speak with President Trump himself. My reporting tells me she did not try to enter the residence, but they have said she was very angry and also very angry she didnt have access to the president once john kelly got into that new role. So i would think we would be able to find out on some sort of document or the way they track actions inside the white house whether or not shes telling the truth or not. Yamiche, do you know anything about that . I think at this point now there needs to be more digging into whether or not theres any Public Record into how this conversation went and whether or not i think what is interesting about the secret service tweet, while they say they werent physically involved in taking her off the grounds. They made sure to say her pass has been terminated. Thats an interesting point to make. Shes saying shes going to be on until january 20th. My sources say shes getting paid until january 20th but actually isnt working anymore. She doesnt have the access she needs to do her job. I think its interesting for her to try to save face and say this is what im doing still, still having to work with my colleagues when my sources tell me shes not working with the colleagues anymore. I should tell you at the end of the day, omerosa was not well liked by her colleagues, by other staff members. She was seen as someone who was a bomb thrower, someone who is aggressive. She has a lot of enemies in the white house who could be telling people stuff because they dont like her. Thats something thats very clear when interviewing people at the us who. She could be saying, yes, i also didnt like this situation and then when i talked to john kelly and he brought to my attention the things he didnt like about my job, i also expressed what i didnt like. Maybe they did come to ought mool understanding. My sourcetion tells me she was fired. All right. Lets bring into the conversation White House Bureau chief at tthe Washington Post and political analyst for msnbc and nbc Philip Rucker. Philip, what are you reporting this morning . Good morning, mika. We documented the whole year, this first year of the trump presidency, and u. S. Russia policy and specifically what this government has done to respond to russian interference in the election in 2016 and help safeguard our systems ahead of next years midterm elections and the president ial reelection. We found the government has done very little. Thats in part because the president continues to be skeptical of the intelligence conclusi conclusion. We document a number of scenes where hes fought with his advisers who have been urging him to publicly acknowledge this intelligence. He will occasionally only begrudgingly do so and regret it later. He believes this intelligence acknowledging that its true upped cuts his legitimacy as president. Undercuts his victory, electoral victory that we know hes so proud of. I think importantly he thinks it impairs his ability to forge a friendship, a bond with Vladimir Putin that can help the United States in areas like north korea, iran, syria, some of the intractable problems in the world. It has left the government paralyzed with how to respond to this electoral threat. This piece comes at a fascinating time given that president putin had the press conference where he listed some of the accomplishments, propping up President Trump. The president signing add deshl sanctions passed by congress. The piece details the president s private reaction at the time. Philip and his colleagues write, trump saw the bill as validation of the case that russia had interfered as an encroachment on his executive authority and a fatal blow to his aspirations for friend ship with putin. In the final days before passage, trump watched msnbcs Morning Joe Program and sued as joe and mika declared the bill would be a slap in the face to the president. He was raging, one adviser said, he was raging mad. After final passage he was apoplectic and the adviser recalled it took four days for aides to persuade him to sign the bill, arguing if he vetoed it and congress overturned the veto his standing would be permanently weakened. This is another case, philip, where the president of the United States is watching cable news and reacting in realtime with implications for american policy. Thats right. The president did ultimately seen that sanctions bill, but he had a signing statement that was extraordinary. He took greati issue with the bill. He felt it encroached on his authority as the executive, as the commanderinchief. He thinks it has hurt the u. S. Relationship with russia which hes been so committed to making warmer and friendlier. Phil, we know the president has president done much to fortify our elections, but what about other states . Are they looking for federal money . Are they concerned about the task force that mike pence was supposed to oversee and hope we would build some security within each state . Where does that stand right now . We are looking with the election less than a year away. Are our systems safe . Well, the actual election machinery the elections are run by the states. Various states are taking different measures to secure their systems in sort of a physical sense. Theres not been, based on our reporting, any president ial level National Security Council Meeting or cabinet level meeting to address russian interference and what to do about it. There continues to be work at a lower level with the staff and the white house at the National Security council to develop some options, to think about ways to retaliate against russia, to think about ways to respond in a cyber area, but it has not been elevated to tpts attention. Yamiche, youve been covering all the events on the hill, the republicans pushing back against the Mueller Investigation. I come obviously with my own point of view on this. But can they do this with a straight face . They can do it with a straight face and have been doing it with a straight face. Essentially theyre doing that because they want to seem as though theyre loyal to President Trump. One of the things this president reguards more than anything else is people who are loyal to him, who will do his bidding, make the same arguments he wants to make. A lot of lawmakers are feeling the pressure after the schisms in the Republican Party to paint mueller as this partisan person. Theyre also very aware if the president fired Robert Mueller there would be a backlash to that. Theyre being very careful in how theyre wording it. Yamiche and philip, thank you for your reporting this morning. Thank you. An enormous shift in the entertainment industry. The fed gives the economy a vote of confidence. Morning joe is coming right back. 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. Going somewhere . Whoooo. Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. The markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Nbc news has set this up, the omerosa desk. Carlos lazato, from 2016 omerosa. This is what she said on frontline. Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. Let me say that again. Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. Its everyone who has ever doubted donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. Its the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. So the question is, kids, is that actually a line from a white house aide or actually a line from general zod . Maybe its a line out of the last jedi. Weve been telling you about major news out of the Business World this morning. He shook his hand and crushed it, right . They had done something freaky with kryptonite, and it reversed it. Crushed his hand. Ou. Put him at 32 in the Approval Rating. I am going to get my purse out, and im not going to clean it. Im going to hit him with it. With disney announcing its buying 21st century fox assets in a deal worth more than 52 billion. Cnbcs wilford frost has the details of this major deal. Disney striking a 52. 4 billion deal to buy various assets from fox. The deal includes foxs studio, cable channels, stake in hulu and International Assets like sky in europe and star in india. Fox will get stock in disney and be left with their broadcast and sports networks. The deal will give disney a crucial boost in content and scale allowing them to launch a stand alone Online Service soon. Disney stock up nearly 10 since the start of november when news of the possible deal started to emerge. Fox down about. 5 today, but up nearly 25 since early november. Big final hurdle will be regulatory approval. Joe, i know youre a fan of the simpsons, their Predictive Power coming up again. This from 1998, this picture. Amazing stuff. Oh, my gosh, they are predictive. What the simpsons have predicted, its amazing. Let me ask you, was this driven in part by the succession i wont say struggle, but the questions surrounding rupert murdocks succession for some time . Theres definitely a part of that. It gives liquidity to divide the disney stock amongst family members. Interesting, many thought James Murdock would be included in the press release, possibly getting a role. That didnt happen. Bob eiger, disney ceo has been extended to 2021. Not clear whethfox shald holder and the murdock family about 35 . Wilford fox do they own superman now . I like superman. The original was the best. I thought it was the best. Coming up, joe takes us inside the biggest rivalry in sports. Gene hackman is anybody better. No, hes out in new mexico painting. Thats what he does now. Lives in sante fe, paints. Oh, my gosh, such a great actor. I got to say, i dont want to be too predictable. I know where youre going. Tenenbaums. Favorite hackma role. Thats my favorite hackman role. Hoosiers is up there. Hoosiers is amazing. I got to say, here we are, im sure mika agrees with me, willie, here we are, 17 years into the new century, i got to say, there have been some great movies that may be my favorite thats in this century. You flip past, im watching it. Youre going to like us Digging Deeper here. The other day when we had the snowstorm, my 8yearold son and i went out and were throwing snowballs at trucks. My wife said, what are you doing . It was like hackman, when he takes then out and lets them live a little. Theyre riding the garbage truck, dice. We all have a little royal tennenbaum in us. When it comes to gene hackman, you think of either popeye or royal. One of the two. I love him. Next, joe take us inside the biggest rivalry in sports. And im out of here. Well be right back. Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to donald trump. Everyone who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him, it is ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. So we know how to cover almost almoanything. Hing even a swing set standoff. And we covered it, july first, twentyfifteen. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum to to me hes, well, dad. Son pro golfer. So when his joint pain from Psoriatic Arthritis got really bad, it scared me. And what could that pain mean . Joint pain could mean joint damage. Enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop further damage enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma other cancers, nervous system and Blood Disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. Tell your doctor if youve been someplace where fungal infections are common. Or if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for Heart Failure or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Since enbrel, dads back to being dad. Visit enbrel. Com. And use the joint damage simulator to see how your joint damage could be progressing. Ask about enbrel. Enbrel. Fda approved for over 14 years. At bp, everyone on an offshore rig depends on one another. Thats why entire teams train together in simulators, to know exactly what to do before they have to do it. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. Here with cohost of men in blazers, roger bennett. I promised we wouldnt talk about the next star wars. She loves talking about football. I do . My father actually was an avid fan and had our family play soccer. Because he finds it to be the ultimate in strategy and quick thinking. Far too quick for me but poland, world superpower. There you go. Thanks to your father. Want to talk about the premier league, joe scarborough. Its so good, this project. The midweek games in the premier league, Manchester City powerhouse runaway. Unbelievable. Go to wales to play the welch cleveland browns. And this one, brace yourself america, was a barebottom spanking. Um city, up early, brace yourself, heres a little character. David silver with an origami flick of the goal. Then running through the trees of the enchanted forest. Theres the wonder beloved, with the strike technically called a wolf blitzer. As you play sweet Georgia Brown for this one, its david sylva again. Hes newborn this season. Hes twice the hair and twice the man. This guy is like vince laombard. Heres Manchester City, 15 wins on the road, a british record. 129 years of the league, longer than south dakota. Heres wayne rooney whos a little bit like kenny powers meets lebron james. A hometown hero. Back to his boy town club with a dodgy hairline, still scoring goals. Everon everton, americas team. Nine goals in just 12 shots. Proof of what don king used to say, you dont get the results you deserve, you get the results you negotiate. Everton, americas team. I think i could have knocked that one in. Depressing. Well done, wayne rooney. We got some news to report here. This is exciting. This joe, joe scarborough, is hosting a new show titled this is football which takes you inside the tradition and rivalries behind the english premier league. Take a look. Passion, strength, finesse. An 11man band fighting to find their perfect harmony. We call it soccer but the rest of the world calls it something else. Football is not just a sport. Its a way of life. That transcends geography, culture and class. Football has always been stirred up in the stew of politics and history. So i head to manchester england. A working class city. To find football and an ageold rivalry between city and united. With one foot in the future and one in the past. It was time to come facetoface with the storied theater of dreams and walk the streets of the old. A city that survived on football and music for more than a century. And a city divided to its core. What happens if a guy walks in with a blue shirt tomorrow . Wont get in. Wont get past the door. No. You dont let city fans in . No, dont like em. Hate is a strong word. I dont hate united. Goal so the shows a little soccer but mostly slow motion shots of joes head shots. This is football hosted by joe. Debuts on tuesday december 26th at 4 p. M. Eastern on nbc sports network. Looks really cool. Roger what we tried to do is show americans just how intense the rivalries with. Its hard for them to understand how tribal it is, how primal it is. Im amazed you came back without a beer belly and a neck tattoo. That in its own is worth working. First america gives us megan merkel, now were giving you joe scarborough. You can speak to this, hard core football fan. He wakes up early on saturdays. He watches the games. Those computer soccer games. Mika, in the equsequel to th when he goes over, thats the show. Ive tried. Were going to get her over for the third. So final thoughts, mike . Well, final thoughts about soccer or football, but all of this omarosa talk, as weve been talking about it, i just keep in the back tof my mind think they cant pass Childrens Health insurance. Something he talked about in the press conference. My final thought is i hope the people who are seeking publicly open hearings to undermine the fbi. Some people saying we have to look at the fib, its corrupted. I hope they rethink that. Mika. Well, im still waiting for the president to take down that tweet. Honestly. Im kind of stuck on that this week. How about you . Judge not that you be judged. Judge not that you be not judged. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Joe, thanks, mika. We begin this morning with one thing. Tax reform. This one is big, kids. Republicans have merged their two bills to come up with the most sweeping tax reform legislation in 30 years. Thats a win maybe. It is actually a holiday gift or is it a lump of christmas coal . One thing is for sure, it is going to impact every single one of us and were going to need to talk about it. Starting with democrats. Theyre doing their best to hit the brakes on this