Our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 659 of this Trump Administration and the president tries to turn his attention to the world stage as his selection to run the Justice Department acting attorney general Matt Whitaker is coming under increasing fire. Demands are growing for whitaker to recuse himself, pull himself out of the russia investigation portion of doj just as Jeff Sessions did before him because whitaker appears to have prejudged both the investigation and one Robert Mueller. And new reporting indicates that his previous business ties have attracted now the attention of the fbi. Before leaving for paris, trump was asked about the concerns over whitaker. Well, Matt Whitaker, i dont know Matt Whitaker, but i didnt know Matt Whitaker. Whitaker, who, again, i didnt know, okay . I dont know Matt Whitaker. So if youre counting at home, that was four denials which makes the following more interesting. He was very, very highly thought of and still is highly thought of, but this only comes up because anybody that works for me, they do a number on them. But Matt Whitaker is a very smart man, respected man in the Law Enforcement community, very respected at the top of the line. And further, hearing the president say today i dont know Matt Whitaker makes this even more interesting. But i can tell you, Matt Whitaker is a great guy. I mean, i know Matt Whitaker. Today the white house tried to clarify matters on this front saying trump, quote, had met whitaker but didnt know him well. The new acting attorney general also received high praise from Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who was in line for that job. I worked with Matt Whitaker. I think hes a superb choice for attorney general. Hes going to the a superb job. While everyone is on their own figuring out the motivation of that comment, back to whitaker and how he might affect the mueller investigation. Phil rucker of the Washington Post is standing by, coauthor of a new piece. Looking at bind trump is in over this appointment. Heres how they described the situation, quote, with the white house scrambling to manage public examination of whitakers background and leadership within the Justice Department, trump sought to douse speculation that he had installed the partisan loyalist to curtail the probe of russian interference in the 2016 president ial campaign. Today trump was asked about whitaker and mueller. Did you talk with Matt Whitaker at all about the probe . I didnt speak to whitaker about it. [ inaudible question ] i havent ruled out anything. I havent even thought about it. Did you ask Matt Whitaker to be involved in the russia probe . Its up to him. Do you want him to rein in Robert Mueller . What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But i watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions. That was our president on the south lawn today. The president may call the question stupid, but the u. S. Court of appeals in d. C. Has some form of the same question. Today they asked for a report from the doj and muellers team about the impact, if any, Matt Whitakers appointment might have on the russia investigation. And as we mentioned earlier, the Business Practices of a company that whitaker once advised have now attracted the scrutiny of federal investigators. Wall street journal reports tonight that the fbi, quote, is conducting a criminal investigation of a Florida Company accused of scamming millions from customers during the period that Matthew Whitaker served as a paid Advisory Board member. According to an alleged victim contacted by the fbi and other people familiar with the matter, mr. Whitaker as head of the Justice Department oversees the fbi in his new job. Washington post says the feds are not only looking at that company but at whether whitaker played a role in trying to silence the firms critics. Lets bring you two brandnew pieces of reporting as we bring in our leadoff panel on a friday night. Philip rucker, Pulitzer Prize winning bureau chief for the Washington Post. Tamara keith, White House Correspondent for npr. And mimi rocah, former u. S. Assistant attorney for the Southern District of new york, now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the Pace University school of law. Two things have happened. Number one, at 4 55 a. M. Paris time your president hopped on his phone and typed out matthew g. Whitaker is a highly respected former u. S. Attorney from iowa, he was chosen by Jeff Sessions to be his chief of staff. I did not know mr. Whitaker. Likewise, as chief, i did not know mr. Whitaker except primarily as he traveled with ag sessions, no social contact. He goes on to say mr. Whitaker very highly thought of armrest very highly thought of by joanie efrns, senator chuck grassley, terry branstad, former iowa governor, leonard leo and many more. I feel certain he would make an outstanding acting attorney general. Fast forward to other to another piece of news, from the New York Times. Goldman, sheer and smith report President Trump first noticed matthew g. Whitaker on cnn in the summer of 2017 and liked what he saw. So that july the White House Counsel Don Mcgahn ii interviewed mr. Whitaker about joining the president s team as legal attack dog against the special counsel Robert Mueller. So, phil rucker, he came up the organic way, saying things the boss liked. What do you make of what appeared to be an attempt to distance himself and now tonight at 4 55 a. M. All the way across the atlantic an attempt to defend the guy. Yeah, this is classic donald trump, right . As soon as one of his Associates Gets in hot water, embroiled in controversy, trump will try to distance himself. We saw it with paul manafort, the Campaign Chairman who he hardly knew, the personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Who he hardly knew. The truth is trump knew whitaker very well. He had several meetings with him in the oval office according to our reporting because, and get this, trump didnt want to get briefings from attorney general Jeff Sessions because he didnt want to talk to sessions. Because he was so mad at sessions. So he would get the briefings instead from Matt Whitaker. Hes very familiar with Matt Whitaker. Hes trying to distance himself in case theres any sort of controversy. Cnn has reported tonight whitaker has been cleared into the white house, in their words, dozens of times. Tamara, a lot of people noted the president just didnt look right today, that he looked angry, he looked tired, that its been a heck of a week. On that note, he goes over to represent the United States in france. What was it like . Whats it been like talking to people on the inside . This has been a week where tuesday night it looked like a pretty decent night or not the most terrible night ever for the president. He was able to put a positive spin on it, on the midterm election. As the week has gone on and on and on it looks more like the blue wave that he claimed didnt come. That has to be weighing on him, among other things. The questions do keep coming. Hes battling with the press as per usual, but in particularly tough ways. And then hes headed over to this event to mark the armistice, but where hes going to be with a bunch of different world leaders. And hes not like a particularly happy traveler either. Yeah, were getting that impression after two years of this. Mimi, i know mr. Whitaker had been a u. S. Attorney. But how can a white House Counsel in good faith, put rigor aside, the organic vetting and recruitment process that would result in someone being named not just chief of staff at doj but acting ag, and find this guy based on a television recommendation from the president and install him, if this New York Times report bears out . Thats not how we should be picking our attorney generals, anyone, whatever the president , whatever the party. I thought it was just me. We say this, you know, quite often during this presidency. This is not normal. And this is not normal. And its not good. And its not right. Because the position of the attorney general, its interesting, because the reporting you just said suggested he interviewed to be part of trumps legal team which i take it to mean maybe a lawyer, as part of the russia investigation, and now here he is as attorney general, those are two very different things, very different jobs with different goals and different responsibilities. And whitaker himself is reported to have said that he auditioned in this job basically on tv. You know, most of us who are former federal prosecutors, former fbi agents, who are on television, are doing it because we want to speak out about the rule of law and help people understand what is normal and what should be going on with the department of justice. He seems to have had a very different purpose. Hes entitled to his own views, his own personal and political views, obviously, and he can even talk about them on television. But what smells so bad here is that it just seems from all the circumstances that it is because of those views that he prejudged about this investigation and about mueller, that trump picked him. And thats just wrong. Phil, your door opens the reporting to the career staff at the department of justice. Every Cabinet Agency has them. They have worked for democrats as president , theyve worked for republicans. They are the people who make cabinet agencies go. They tend to care very deeply about the institution, especially if your job is justice and you are a lawyer and youve taken that oath. And your reporting is thats where there are troubles inside doj. There are, there is actually resistance brewing inside the Justice Department, according to our reporting, about whitaker, for a couple of different reasons. One, as mimi was speaking of, he seems to have a conflict of interest about the russia probe, given his connection, for example, to sam clovis, who is a political friend and i lally fr iowa but also happens to be a witness in the mueller probe. The other piece of this is people in the Justice Department dont feel hes qualified for this job, that he simply doesnt have sort of the qualifications and experience to be the attorney general. Hes not been before senate confirmation. Theres a question out there about the constitutionality of even having him as the acting attorney general, given that hes not been senate confirmed. He was a staffer, a chief of staff at the Justice Department. The third point is there is infighting at the Justice Department and theres a sense that he was not loyal to Jeff Sessions when he was Jeff Sessions chief of staff and there are bad feelings but the building about that. He had been gunning for Rod Rosensteins job as Deputy Attorney general in reasons weeks, which brought bad feelings at the Justice Department. Tamara, this president uses kind of a 1950s phrase, central casting, which was a thing in hollywood, to talk about people he is drawn to. He is not drawn to the diminutive. Hes drawn to the opposite of that. Looks and bearing tend to matter to him in ways that allow him to overlook a lot of substance. So here is this guy, whitaker, who looks like he could start at right guard with any number of of nfl teams. And he was a star Football Player in college. So he is very much out of central casting. And this is a president who goes for people who have a certain look. And hes someone who goes with his gut. He really moves and makes decisions about personnel based on whether he likes someone, whether he has a rapport with them. Just look at ronny jackson, who he nominated for va secretary before that nomination blew up. That was very much about a personal rapport, and less about qualifications to lead a really big organization. In this case, its an acting position. Its not clear how long whitaker will stay in that acting position. Or who the president will be able to find to replace him. Mimi, tamara is right, as someone every night on this broadcast has said, dont overlook the word acting. However, in this acting capacity, he could have broad reach into the mueller investigation. I want to play for you something, one of our judiciary experts, ben wittes, talked about how mueller has fortified his case and his surroundings for such a threat. Bob mueller has been very strategically smart in spreading pieces of the investigation around different parts of the department. You cant fire your way out of this problem if youre the president. I also want to read something that ben wittes went on to write about this very topic. If trump imagines these investigations as a cancer on his presidency, they are a cancer that has already metastasized. Well, that gets your attention, doesnt it . It does. But i think it also i totally agree with what ben said. And, you know, the fact that mee pieces of this have been spun off to the Eastern District of virginia, to the Southern District of new york, and we dont even know, there may be other pieces of it, but the fact that whitaker is in the position hes in, even if temporary, he now overcea ceassees all of tha. Yes, he has much more ability to possibly control and limit muellers investigation because theres no direct reporting and oversight. But, you know, no one should think for a minute that u. S. Attorneys offices and u. S. Attorneys out there, even very independent ones like the Southern District of new york, they report to the acting attorney general as well. So that is to me part of what has been so kind of calculated and dangerous about this situation. He didnt fire mueller, which would have set off alarm bells and, you know, even bigger demonstrations in the street. What he did was much more subtle and makes it less clear about how much damage he can do. He put someone in a position who has oversight and we dont know yet whats going to happen with that. But it should set off alarm bells. A valuable point to make. Our thanks to Phillip Rucker, tamara keith, mimi rocah, door terrific first session of our broadcast. Coming up for us, a new trump tower meeting contradicts the president s many denials of hush money payments and knowledge thereof. One of the reporters who broke the story joins us next. Later, florida, georgia, arizona, still counting votes three days after the midterms. And now trump is once again throwing around the words corruption and fraud, or as we call it, friday night at the 11th hour. Please stay with us. Y with us. G and you want to make sure to aim it. Im aiming it. Ohhhhhhh i ordered it for everyone. [laughing] dad vo we got the biggest subaru to help bring our family together. Im just resting my eyes. dad vo even though were generations apart. What a day. I just love those kids. avo presenting the allnew threerow subaru ascent. Wave to grandma, everybody. avo love is now bigger than ever. The Pressure Cooker that crisps. Its the best of pressure cooking and air frying all in one. With tendercrisp technology, food will be juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside. upbeat drumming the ninja foodi, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. So a and as if thatyour brwasnt bad enough,tals it. 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A new and important piece of reporting from the wall street journal today says President Trump played a central role in those hush money payments to former play ball model Karen Mcdougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The journal has new details about trumps involvement in trying to prevent both womens stories of affairs with him from becoming public. Quote, the wall street journal found that mr. Trump was involved in every step of the agreements. He directed deals in phone calls with Michael Cohen and others. The u. S. Attorneys office in manhattan has gathered evidence of mr. Trumps participation in the transactions. In august, Michael Cohen pled guilty to Campaign Finance violations, admitting he arranged payments to two women, presumably Stormy Daniels and Karen Mcdougal, quote, at the direction of a candidate for federal office, meaning his client donald trump. The journal also reports cohen has, quote, met with investigators for mr. Mueller and with federal prosecutors in new york seeking to provide information that could mitigate his punishment. His sentencing hearing, by the way, is december 12th. In april, you will recall, President Trump told reporters on air force one that he did not know about the payments to Stormy Daniels. Reporter did you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . No. What else . Reporter why did Michael Cohen say that . Youll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my an attorney. Youll have to ask michael. Reporter do you know where he got the money to make that payment . No, i dont know. Then in august, after Michael Cohen implicated the president , trump said he learned about both payments later on. Reporter do you know about the payments . Later on, i knew. Later on. But you have to understand, ainsley, what he did, and they werent taken out of Campaign Finance, thats a much bigger thing, did they come out of the campaign. They didnt come out of the campaign. They came from me. Rebecca davis is one of five by lines on this wall street journal reporter today, also still with us is mimi rocah. Mimis old shop, the Southern District of new york, is for lay people, the feds in new york. I want to come at this in a way that may make you answer it. What is now clear to you that the sdny, the feds in new york, have on either cohen or trump or both . As we reported today, even before Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in august, the federal prosecutors in new york had prepared an 80page draft federal indictment of mr. Cohen. That was in the process of being edited before he pleaded. But that material drew from the search of his home, hotel, and office, and it also drew from witness testimony from david pecker and allen weisselberg, as weve written in the journal. Since that plea, Michael Cohen has been providing them information. So we now know that a lot of what we wrote about today, including these meetings and mr. Trumps knowledge of these and his role in these arrangements with the women stemmed from months of investigations and now Michael Cohen is presumably going in there and backing up a lot of that. Mimi, you know your way around a keyboard and the feds offices in new york, 80 pages gets your attention . Thats kind of impressive. Yes. Thats a speaking indictment for sure, not just laying out the charges and the bare facts. We dont know how much of that conduct or charges, since that was about Michael Cohen, how much of that included trump. But its an important fact, as rebecca mentions, because it shows a lot of whats come out already, when Michael Cohen pled guilty, when he made that incriminating statement about trump in court and said he directed me, trump and his allies all came out and said, oh, Michael Cohen is a liar, hes just trying to help himself. Now we know that even before cohen pled guilty, the Southern District of new york had evidence that, you know, trump was involved in these hush money payments. So thats very important. Its always helpful to have someone who is an insider, who comes in later and tells you and walks you through it. And it sounds like theres more detail and a lot of it is corroborated, what they knew before, by Michael Cohen. The point is that the evidence against trump, assuming everything in this story is true, and im sure it was reported accurately, but meaning that everything thats been sort of told to them is accurate, you know, hes an unindicted coconspirator, trump, in the crime that Michael Cohen pled to. So does this violate any laws specifically . Unindicted coconspirator is a hefty choice of words. Unindicted coconspirator in violation of Campaign Finance laws. So rebecca, who is this david pecker fellow and why would it occur to you if youre donald trump or Michael Cohen and you needed to take care of a personal matter, why would it occur to you to go through one david pecker . So david pecker is the chairman of american media, which is and they own . They own the National Inqui inquirer. Oh, yes, ive heard of them. He has been a friend of Donald Trumps and Michael Cohens for decades. And they had previously done a lot they have a business relationship thats gone back, weve written about this before. But in august 2015, as we have written about in our story today, Michael Cohen arranges a meeting for david pecker and donald trump in Donald Trumps office. At this time donald trump has risen to the top of most polls and he meets with david pecker in his office and says how can you help me with my campaign. David pecker says, one thing i can do is something they call catch and kill. We can figure out who these women are who are going to come forward with stories about you and we can buy them and dispose of them, baicsically. Thats how politics goes these days. Our thanks to Rebecca Davis and always to mimi rocah, we appreciate it. Coming up, claims of Election Fraud from the white house as midterm ballots are still being counted. Steve kornacki, believe it or not, is back at the big board to walk us through the latest developments, having had nourishment, when we come back. music throughout burke seen it, covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum if you way too often. E moves then you might have a common condition called dry mouth. Which can be brought on by many things, like medication and medical conditions. Biotene provides immediate, long lasting relief from dry mouth symptoms. It is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. Plus, it freshens breath. Biotene. 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Fast foods first and only ribeye burgers are back, america. Try them today. All of a sudden, theyre finding votes out of nowhere. And rick scott, who won by, you know, it was close, but he won by a comfortable margin, every a couple of hours it goes down a little bit. Prior to departing for paris today, the president incredibory weighing in on the Florida Senate race. He continued his attacks throughout his transatlantic flight, he was busy, he must not have liked the movie, unleashing a flurry of unsubstantiated allegations about socalled electoral corruption. Meantime, the midterm vote count continues, and while he has had time to take on nourishment, Steve Kornacki is at the big board for the midterm that will not end. Thats right, brian, we still have votes coming in. In arizona, we can start in arizona on that senate race right there. Look, the reason the votes are still coming in is arizona is a very heavy mailin ballot state. So theyve just collected and theyve had all these votes that were sent in, in the runup to the election. They are slowly processing them. Theres this whole procedure where they get the ballot, they have to try to verify the identity of the person who sent it. So it takes time. This does happen normally in arizona elections. But what has happened is that Kyrsten Sinema in the last 24 hours or so, the way the count has gone, shes caught martha mcsally, tonight she extended the lead further. She now leads by 20,000 votes statewide. There are still an awful lot of votes to be counted in arizona. We can show you where they are and tell you something about them. The bulk of the outstanding vote is in Maricopa County, about half of the population of the state. About 70,000 votes from Maricopa County yet to come are from a particular collection of ballots, ballots that were sent in before election day. Theyre heavily the ones that have been counted in the last day. They seem to be favoring sinema. We have 70,000 ballots likely to favor sinema. After that there will be about 195,000 that are counted from a second collection of ballots. These are ballots that people brought into the polling place on election day. They had them at home, they filled them out, they brought them in on election day. These are likely, republicans say, to favor mcsally more than sinema, although the extent of how much theyll favor her is unclear. There are 60,000 from down here in pima county, tucson, a blue area of the state where sinema has been running up the score against mcsally. Then there are about 50,000 sort of from the rest of the state. So if add all of this together, youve got well over 300,000 ballots still to be counted. The bottom line is sinema has taken the lead. She should do very well with these 70,000, should do very well with these 60,000, could hold her own with these 195. Its tough for macsally to make these up. But it will take days, through the weekend and into next week. Of course the other big drama on the senate front is in the state of florida. You see the margin, 14,000 votes and change, bill nelson behind rick scott. The counting will continue of provisional ballots between now and tomorrow, around the state. We expect that will knock a little bit off this margin for scott. Nelson will draw closer. The final margin is going to be within, it looks like, that. 25 threshold which means that this would go not just to a recount but to a manual recount. Theyll take out the ballots, inspect them by hand. The counties have until tomorrow to report their final results. Assuming it stays under. 25 , you will get that manual recount. If scott is going into that thing ahead by 5, 10,000 votes, that will be a lot for nelson to overcome. Quickly, the other final issue thats emerged in florida, is in broward county. 2 Million People, giant county, heavily democratic. It does appear very possible here that the design of the ballot in broward county, where the senate race was off to the left hand side, in the far corner, there were far fewer votes cast in the senate race than in any other race on the ballot. Democrats think potentially that might have cost them some crucial votes out of broward county. And real quickly, the house, the number as of now, democrats have turned over 30, and there are 11 outstanding raises, we just dont have an answer on them yet going into the weekend . Yeah, you can see the Second District of new mexico right here, that one were waiting on a call. The most fascinating one i think is in maine. This is the Congressional District that donald trump won and got the electoral vote out of in 2016. The two candidates, neither one of them hit 50 . And maine does instant runoff voting, which means the other candidates on the ballot, the voters selected a second choice, so theyll do an instant runoff there in the coming days. They say instant, it takes a few days to do it. But that might be the most fascinating race. Were still in the midterms, its not safe to go back to life as usual. Thank you so much for being at the big border for us. Tonight, no other way to put it, the president was angry, angry at the midterms, the White House Press corps, and the president of france. And he let them all know it. Another friday in the new normal, when we come back. Hi susan hs honey . I respect that. But that cough looks pretty bad. Try this new robitussin honey. The real honey you love. Plus the powerful cough relief you need. Mind if i root through your trash . New robitussin honey. Because its never just a cough. On your wild west vacation. Guarantee youll find gold but we can guarantee the best price on that thar rental cabin or any hotel, home, boat, yurt, whatever. Just dont get carried away with the wild west thing. Hey guys. Get the best price on homes, hotels and so much more. Booking. Com, booking. Yeah discover. O. I like your card, but im absolutely not paying an annual fee. Discover has no annual fees. Really . Yeah. We just dont believe in them. Oh nice. You would not believe how long ive been rehearsing that. No annual fee on any card. Only from discover. When youre in the white house, this is a very sacred place to me. This is a very special place. You have to treat the white house with respect. You have to treat the presidency with respect. Just moments after that lecture on respect, President Trump went on to do something were now somewhat used to. He attacked the free press. He resorted to name calling. As many have pointed out, in just these last three days in addition to jim acosta of cnn who the president mocked again today, some of the president s most vicious verbal attacks have been directed at black female journalists. On the campaign trail you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening white nationalists. I dont know why you say that, thats such a racist question. Reporter do you want him to rein in Robert Mueller . What a stupid question that is. I watch you a lot. I ask you a lot of stupid questions. The same thing with april ryan. I watch her get up, you talk about somebody who is a loser, she doesnt know what the hell shes doing. With us tonight, mara gay, member of the New York Times editorial board, and we convinced Phillip Rucker to stay with us. Mara, these are great reporters, one of them who the president called stupid today did very well at harvard, we understand. What are we watching today . Race baiting, racism, is something that trump feels very comfortable with. He feels that its a way for him to connect with the deepest red of his base. Thats a sad statement about where we are in american politics. But i also think its more of an effort to undermine the free press. He didnt just choose any black women to go after. He chose, as you said, people who are part of a free press. So the exercise is to undermine the press by having them be, you know were us, were good americans, and theyre the enemy. So the best way in the United States, unfortunately, to call someone an other, if you want to otherize someone, still, 300 years later, is to show that they are black in this country. Thats where we are. And image wa just want to point too, Michelle Obama touched on this, not only are our press freedoms undermined, but these individual reporters, what they go through is hellish, and, you know, the kind of threats, the kind of hate that we dont talk about. Absolutely. Ive gotten some myself. But i cant even imagine being on the front lines like they are. Hes putting them in harms way. Phil, having traveled with that merry band in another era, the White House Press corps is usually pretty tight. You know april and yamiche and abby. Youve worked with these women. These are women of esteem, being taken down publicly. Yeah, you know, abby phillip was a colleague of mean at the Washington Post until she joined cnn. We covered this white house together. She asks smart questions. Ive never known her to ask a stupid question. As you mentioned, she went to harvard. Shes an intelligent, professional journalist. Its a real shame what we see happening here. One of the most interesting things the president said at that press availability this morning was, he gave that lecture about the white house being a sacred place and how you have to respect the white house, respect the office of the presidency. And people who have observed trump a long time will say he likes to project, and that hell project onto others the criticisms he faces himself. And you have to wonder, how can he expect everybody else to respect the white house when hes tweeting horseface and calling the press the enemy of the people and day in and day out, doing things that cut away at that president ial decorum. And going after peoples intelligence which were not used to hearing in adult life. Its an appeal, i would call it fascist politics, lets call it what it is. Its projection and its an appeal to emotion. Its not an appeal to reason. We all know that those were not stupid questions. In fact those were the most important questions of the day. Right. And so rather than actually win the argument on reason, which you cant do at this point, hes appealing to peoples emotions and hes kind of exploiting our worst divisions. And that is its like the opposite of the better angels. And its really dangerous, is what it is. Somewhere you just made jon meacham smile for the subtitle of his book. Mara and phillip have agreed to stay with us over this break. As we go to this break, i want to show you a graphic image. The cover of this coming weeks new yorker magazine. Its important to our conversation. Its a great piece of art, especially for those who have been knocking and are now ready to come in the door. More about this when we come back. You do, too, but not in time. Hey, no big deal. Youve got a good record and Liberty Mutual wont hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. You hear that, karen . Liberty mutual doesnt hold grudges. How mature of them for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. You want relief fast. Only new thermacare ultra pain relieving cream has 4 active ingredients, to fight pain 4 different ways. Get relief fast with new thermacare ultra pain relieving cream. avo lisecond chances. You many but a subaru can. You guys ok . You alright . Wow. avo eyesight with precollision braking. Standard on the subaru ascent. Presenting the allnew threerow subaru ascent. Love is now bigger than ever. Former first lady Michelle Obamas memoir is set to be released next week. In it she takes the current president to task for misogyny and for, among other things, the birther conspiracy that he promoted against her husband. She writes in part, quote, the whole birther thing was crazy and meanspirited. Of course its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. She goes on, what if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to washington . What if that person went looking for our girls . Donald trump with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my familys safety at risk. Asked to respond today, trump said this. I guess she wrote a book. She got paid a lot of money to write a book. And they always insist you come up with controversial. Well, ill give you another controversy back. Ill never forgive him for what he did to our United States military. Mara gay and phil rucker remain with us. Mara, there is that obvious thing that sets Michelle Obama apart from our other first ladies. But i choose to dwell on something else. Princeton undergrad, harvard law school. Weve never had anyone with her basis of education in that job. I tend to think that side of Michelle Obama, the effective, whipsmart communicator is the one this president and others are about to see. Shes going on a tour of venues the likes of which bruce and jayz and beyonce play. Absolutely. Its just this split screen, right, between the white house as it is right now under donald trump, which depending on his mood could be circa 1938, circa 1955. And then you have Michelle Obama, and youre right back to kind of a vision of america thats more inclusive, thats more forward thinking. And im thinking as a political writer, can her tour and her book help keep people energized after the midterms . And i think that is that would be a really great use of her prodigious talents. Phil, i want to read you a quote from the memoir, her distaste for what we cover here every night, the current political climate. Ive lane awake at night fuming over has come to pass. Its been distressing to see how the behavior and the political agenda of the current president has caused Many Americans to doubt themselves and to doubt and fear one another. I sometimes wonder where the bottom might be. All of us have family and friends who have said some form of that exact quote to us. A lot of us this week. And shes giving voice to it. In many ways shes sort of the moral conscience that doesnt approve of this president. We remember the Convention Speech she gave in 2016 where she said when he goes low, we go high. That was a calling for a lot of democrats in that campaign, and i think her book is going to be powerful for that half of the country. Trumps going to have to figure out how to navigate this. She is a very popular figure. Shes not a politician. Shes not her husband. Shes not hillary clinton. She will not be easily demonized or given a nickname and diminished. Shes probably the most powerful and popular political figure out in public life right now. Mara, in 45 seconds of brilliance, do you think he will find a outlet of communication skills . Or will he make the mistake of treating her like everybody else . I think itll be the latter. I almost flinch to to think about what its going to look like, but at the same time i do have faith in americans that most people can see through that. You know, we need voices out there, not so much, you know, democrats. But just people who are willing to speak truth to power and to come in morality, to humanity that were losing every day having this man in the white house. Let that be our closing quote. Coming up for us, a report tonight on a night bordering on hell for over a quarter Million People in Southern California. burke at farmers, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a huge drag. Nothing worth losing sleep over, because we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum at booking. Com, we cant guarantee youll good at that water jet thingy. But we can guarantee the best price on this hotel. Or any accommodation, from homes to yurts. Booking. Com booking. Yeah discover card. I justis this for real . Match, yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. The last thing before we go tonight, yet another unfolding disaster in Southern California. Last night we reported on the mass shooting in thousand oaks. Today some of the folks there didnt have the opportunity or the time to mourn or to pause because of the evacuations due to the approaching massive amount of fire. Now measured in the tens of thousands of acres, easily 150 homes gone. It has a quarter million californians on the move. Its led to the closing of the 101 freeway and the evacuation of the city of malibu and then some. Nbcs Gadi Schwartz filed this report earlier tonight. Reporter the wall of flames came in the dead of night, two fast moving fire storms within miles of each other. Firefighters unable to stop their advance, instead focusing on evacuations. We have to make sure. The Fire Department says get out. Youre going to get trapped. The fire is on us. Reporter 101 freeway, one of the most traveled in america, shut down in both directions as flames jumped the road making a run for the coast. This is an eerie site. Seldom do we see the freeway empty. Its been shut down in both directions as fire has breached the freeway and is burning towards the ocean. Oh, my god. Reporter in the community ever westlake village, fires ripped through their canyons. Reporter were you able to get everything out . Just my papers. Reporter she says shes worried her home of 35 years might be lost. Are you scared . Yes. Absolutely. Well, were safe, okay . Were safe. Reporter others evacuated with everything they could, including horses. Fire was all around me. I couldnt see anything except smoke and fire. Reporter we see people who waited for the last possible minute get out while the flames get so close. On the ridges above, firefighters work to beat back flames that felt like a blast furnace. Just like that the fire comes up the ridge. Were falling back for safety. Evacuate the area. Reporter in malibu, panic as a plume of smoke threatened more destruction. The entire oceanside city ordered to evacuate, causing traffic jams. It feels like the garden of eden just turned into the gates of hell. Rain wilson, kim and kanye west. While another brush fire broke out in griffith park. You see the potential for this fire. Reporter forcing the closer of the l. A. Zoo and evacuation of some animals. Southern californias santa ana winds are unrelenting. The fire uncontained. As we move forward, you know, we have predictions, but we dont know what Mother Nature is going to give us. Reporter communities now praying for relief from more tragedy and loss. Gadi schwartz, nbc news, westlake village, california. Were thinking of our friends, family, and fellow citizens in Southern California tonight. That is your broadcast on a friday evening and for this week. Thank you so much for being here with us. Have a good weekend and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. We are covering several developing stories right now. Florida is heading for a recount. Were going to have the latest live with Steve Kornacki. The elections and the fallout continues. And you know who else is here . Lawrence odonnell. Hes going to discuss what it means that the democrats literally picked up more seats this week than they have in 40 years. A special fallback, i was talking wutang with chuck todd. Tonight on this show i have George Clinton from funkadelic and carole king and harry