Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Ari melber is in for lawrence tonight. Fly. Joy, are you having too much fun . Too much oh, i want to wish the best to rachel. I cant give her what you gave her. Nope you know, do you know this expression . More life . I do. I want to have more life and and more joy. Oh would you be willing to come on this show because theres a thing i want to talk to you about. Okay. Whos the most admired person in america according to americans. Would you be willing to come over to the sunset. Ill be right upstairs. Ill head up. This is a real thing. Joy, ill see you in a minute. Fly. See you soon. She has more fun and better at it than me. It looks fun over there. Joy reid will be on the last word in a minute. A real news story, i cou indica that the Donald Trump Legal Team is bracing for something more, something apparently worse coming out of the mouth of Michael Flynn. That is the key takeaway in a report thats making waves even on what might be a quiet weekend in washington from the Washington Post. Trump lawyers saying theyre looking at plans to depict flynn as a, quote, liar, seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or senior aides of any wrongdoing. One person helping craft the strategy describing flynn as not lowing. He said it himself. Hes a liar. The strategy apparently been in the works since flynns news first broke that he would be cooperating. He signed a legal Cooperation Agreement with special counsel mueller and that, of course, has been public for sometime. Why is this breaking now . The post reporting the administration has spent time here strategizing how to neutralize flynn in case flynn makes any claims. This is very clearly a shift for President Trump. If you watch the news and you probably do if youre watching this you will note that he has publicly and repeatedly done something very different from the Washington Post report of this new legal strategy. Donald trump was praising mike flynn even after firing him. Michael flynn, general flynn, is a wonderful man. I think hes been treated very, very unfairly by the media. I think its very, very unfair whats happened to general flynn, the way he was treated and the documents and papers that were illegally, i stress that, illegally leaked. I do feel badly for him. He served the country. He was a general. This man has served for many years. Hes a general. Hes in my opinion, a very good person. Well, i feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. Hes led a very strong life and i feel very badly. He may not be feeling badly tonight. Donald trump turning on mike flynn would be a significant change in the probe and i say regardless of where this probe heads. We dont know what mueller has or will find. Recall the daily beast in may saying they were warning trump about reaching out to flynn and a couple weeks ago trump wasnt ruling out a possible pardon for flynn. About Michael Flynn, would you consider a pardon for Michael Flynn . I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Lets see. You dont have to be a lawyer to say theres a long way from publicly saying youll see to pardon someone and having the lawyers tell the Washington Post someone sa terrible liar. Some of flynns family members thinking about that clip i just showed you saying donald trump should pardon flynn. This was a tweet taken down and posted by one of flynns brothers calling for just that. Meanwhile, new indications from an interesting report of yahoo News Reporter that muellers probe is deepening. He report that is in just the last few weeks, muellers investigators questioning rnc staff about the Party Digital operation that worked with the trump cam tony to target voters in key states and seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of the russian trolls and bots. Joining me now is noah shackman of the daily beast, tim obrien author of trump nation and msnbc contributor. Noah, the saying used to be are you bought or not . The bots on the one hand can seem like a relatively trivial thing although they have certainly had impact in various countries and yet bob mueller doesnt look at this as trivial at all. Why not . Because theres a lot of evidence what happened digitally on twitter and facebook, one of the decisive moves in the campaign and who controlled the bots . Bought the bots . And how they were coordinated is really the key issue. It may be the key issue that unlocks how much the russian fifth in the Trump Campaign activity proper interlinked. You think about the way that the Digital World has exploded through this campaign. And you have a large background in that as well as politics. There are Digital Footprints to things that are different. Watergate was a physical breakin and fingerprints and led to something. The idea here is that there could be, what . Records, flash drives, targeting data that would basically pinpoint who may have been in on this operation . Yeah. Look. I dont want to speculate too much about exactly what kind of data may or may not have been there but its true that, you know, theres no place to hide on the internet and everything does leave a kind of footprint. Tim, no place to hide and as the new yorker put it on the internet no one knows youre a dog if youre a dog and socalled fake accounts and trolls and Fake Identities of ideas of something behind the veil. Well, and i think i think its part of a fact pattern that bob muler is trying to assemble thats going to be i think parts of a threelegged stool. The first is collusion. The foundational reason for his investigation. The second part and i think the more dangerous part is obstruction of justice. And the third part of this would be any kind of financial quid pro quos that would exist between the kremlin and trump. And i think those are driving forces behind anything that muellers going to look at and in that context bots and rigging facebook or at least fine tuning facebook to aid the Trump Campaign is part of all of that. Heres the question we cant answer and anyone in this wants to answer and that is why does it seem like everyone close to trump is freaking out this week . I dont think that theyre necessarily freaking out this week. I think theyre freaking out all along and i dont think theyre on message together. Donald trump is probably the worst client you could have if youre an attorney because hes never on message and he doesnt do what hes told. And if the lawyers themselves are gearing up to smear mike flynn, i dont think that meres that the president s on board with that strategy necessarily. He could undercut it. Lets show something about kushner and then go to you, noah. Kushner and potentially more exposure searching for a Crisis Pr Firm for press inquiries, a step taken by people who believe they could be facing criminal charges. Now, that lawyer abby lowell and who i have spoken to insists something to see here and yet again i would disagree slightly with tims analysis. I have spent months covering this case. Where people are in the white house on the same note and were cooperating. Yeah. A lot of republicans, outside of what you might call the extra fever fringe, a lot of republicans were holding their fire. Now youve got everyone from ken starr to bright bart eitbart tof Congress Taking on the fbi. The shift is now to smear the fbi and the mueller operation. And i do think that if youre seeing some extra concern i think its because of the financial front more than the digital front perhaps. You know, kushners not just facing problems in the Mueller Probe itself and also facing additional legal pressure about us, loans from deutsch bank which is sort of famously russia friendly on a property basically to buy the old the New York Times building and prosecutors here in brooklyn looking into that, too. Right. Hes not just particularly because of the timing of that loan, too. A month before the election. Right. So its not just facing sort of mueller pressure. Hes also facing pressure in brooklyn and who knows where else . Well, and this goes to something i want to play now which is congressman francis rooney. You know, in our jobs here, we talk about people and sometimes we talk about what they say on tv. Im not a big fan of, you know, taking shots at someone for a poorly chosen word. I think that happens to all of us if were being honest. But you have congressman rooney here coming back on. He said this about the purge of the fbi yesterday which is really stalinness language and then asked about it on cnn and we have to question. Trump is trump. We have to question if other members of congress and leaders taking us down a road of purges of our nonpartisan Law Enforcement. For viewers, play it. Take a listen to francis rooney. Are you sure you want to be throwing a word like purge around . Well, it might be a pretty strong word. Im not maybe the most nuanced political person in the world coming from a career in business but im pretty frustrated that all the things that have come out by the strzok and or and may or may not have taken place in the deputy generals macabe tim, your view on that . I think i think its very disturbing that were at a point in time that the law and order party in the united states, the gop, is fairly flagrantly both undermining and taking pot shots at Law Enforcement official who is are in the midst of a very well heeled and logical investigation, something that Law Enforcement should be undertaking. Bob muellers doing what hes charged with doing. Proceeding by the books. Hers what i dont get and throw it out to both of you for a final thought here. Part of our job as journalists to listen to all sides and then figure out whats logical and fair versus whens rank lies. So not false equivalency but to take all theories seriously. There are theories in the Trump Campaign world is one is something did something wrong and the president didnt and will be exonerated. Thats a reasonable theory. What doesnt strike me is reasonable that the theory that the fbi which very publicly announced all of its thoughts and suppositions about Hillary Clinton during a president ial campaign and then had a trump investigation that it kept completely secret to the point no one knew about it and nothing leaked until after the investigation and the same fbi now in the tank against donald trump. I cant as a fair journalist understand how thats a fair theory. Not just the fbi that trump has taken on. Hes attacked the federal judiciary, the media, any organization. Does this theory hold up in any way for you . No. I dont think it holds up at all. Not at all. The reason theyre attacking the ogss because theres something there. In the closing days of the campaign, comey felt the need to reopen the Hillary Clinton investigation because of pressure of agents within the fbi. If anything, i mean, from what i know of bureau guys, they tend to be more republican, more thats right. More inclined to an administration, not less to it. So i think the theorys just kind of nuts. Noah, thank you for joining us. Ill be talking to you in a second. Coming up, President Trump losing to president obama in a big National Survey that could make Donald Trumps obama derangement issues more pronounced. Later, whens trump exhaustion . Do you have it and could it have midterm indications . daniel jacob for every hour that youre idling in your car, youre sending about half a gallon of gasoline up in the air. That amounts to about 10 pounds of Carbon Dioxide every week. malo hutson growth is good, but when it starts impacting our quality of air and quality of life, thats a problem. So forwardthinking cities like sacramento are investing in streets that are smarter and greener. The solution was right under our feet. Asphalt. Or to be more precise, intelligent asphalt. By embedding sensors into the pavement, as well as installing cameras on traffic lights, we will be able to analyze the flow of traffic. Then that data runs across our network, and we use it to optimize the timing of lights, so that travel times are shorter. Who knew asphalt could help save the environment . We have more legislation passed including the record of harry truman. A listening time ago. We broke that record so we have a lot to thank. Hard to hear a little bit but its not true what president said just there. Historians, Fact Checkers rebutting that false claim of President Trump. He said it today and made the same claim last week when he signed the tax bill. Here is the actual deal, mr. President. A lie is still a lie no matter how many times we tell you and well show you why you should know its a lie. 94 bills signed since taking office, historic low compared to his 9 press december sos and topping harry rue than record, untrue. Take it from the Truman Library saying we dont have a figure but 240 to 250, according to statutes at large. Congress passed 292 bills in the session. You could sub frakt from january to april, a few vetoes and that figure. Theyre as we say in the weeds. The weeds showing donald trump was not telling the truth. What about his other achievement as the most unpopular president in the history of National Polling . Well, according to a new gallup poll, theres insult on top of injury because americans in a separate question apart from approval separately named president barack obama today as the most admired man. This is the tenth time of that honor and obama won all eight years president and 2008 of course coming into the office. This also marks the First Time Since 2008, ouch, donald trump, a sitting president didnt top the list. And heres another little factoid. Americans voted Hillary Clinton the most admired woman 16th year in a row because maybe people and not the Electoral College are involved in this poll. More joy, joy reid working late and back with me, tim obrien. Joy, i want all the feelings, all of your analysis. All the feeling. Of this. Yes, yes. But these polls are funny because as you know they often follow the president. Yeah. Billy on the street and puts a mike in peoples face on camera and name a person. The president. Right. But that tendency has run into a brick wall for some reason this year. Its interesting. No matter which way you look at the poll, as true admiration or name i. D. , it is going to drive donald trump insane either way. Tims a better expert on dromps psyche and the fact is donald trump is either less popular and loved by than barack obama and drives him crazy. Negatively obsessed with obama or less wellknown than barack obama. That also hurts. Painful. On the women, because the kay gallup asked this, most admired man and woman. Hillary clinton up there. Michelle obama behind her. Behind her, oprah winfrey, Elizabeth Warren and angela merkel. You think about alabama where women and specifically africanamerican women were so key to changing the state red to blue. What does it say that so many of the women on this list, this question to both of you, seem to be of the left or center left persuasion . Well, i mean, i think well find out what that means when the midterms roll around. You can set your watch right now to how long it takes for donald trump to start tweeting about this poll. Because i agree with joy. I do think it drives him nuts and he is ranked below a woman he a woman he defeated in a president ial election. And the president he succeeded. This kind of stuff grates at him. And its right where he lives. And hell dismiss the polls as lacking credibility. He tends to cite polls that favor him as being more credible than those that dont but it drives him nuts. Gal loup is sort gallup is a standard. Not lefty Public Policy poll and going to hurt. I have to acknowledge beyonce bae on the poll. Number ten tyked with melania. Tied with beyonce. Its significant. The admiration that people have for people like more than three. Rice and nikki haley. It does show theres a greater diversity of who people know and care about. And admire. Thats not a good not good news for the Republican Party which is still essentially the party of older white america. Right. And in terms of the people that theyre putting forward. I want to play president obamas interview here, joy. Youre big online. Youre on tv and online and he did something that he often does. Not cater or a bumper sticker. He kind of here at the end of the year. He used this discussion with prince harry and you know and covered and spent time around the obamas and i think thoughtful when he does do an address or a speech or an interview. He clearly wanted to make a point about the polarizing and antireality elements of the internet. One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases. A good way of fighting against that is making sure that online communities dont just stay online. That they move offline. You find areas of Common Ground because you see that things arent as simple as have been portrayed in whatever chat room youve been in. Its also, by the way, harder to be as obnoxious and cruel in person as people can be anonymously on the internet. You know, Barack Obamas a candid individual. Both disdainful of what social media and the internet can and ran the most internet and tech savvy campaign we have seen in modern history and top ten tweets of the year because hes savvy about the way he uses social media to bring people together, to put forth this message of belief in the country and institutions and basically opposite way of donald trump and more successful at twitter and also drives donald trump crazy. Also, we are reminded yet again that barack obama is rational, classy, sophisticated and well spoken. And its how we want president s to be. Whether you agree with him politically, ideologically or of the same party, theres a marked difference between the way the expresident rolls and the way the current one rolls both online and offline. You know, theres a way, ari, in which barack obama is in a sense if you think of the presidency as a national avatar, obama is who we hope we are and donald trump is who we fear we are. Right . Something guttural about trumpism and playing to the base fears of other people, anger, rage, neediness, like core of the need and black hole inside himself is kind of what america fears like the crass part of ourselves is becoming whereas barack obama is the emblem of what presidencies used to be the eisenhower model. Model of the presidency as aspirational. Above the fray. Above the fray. Yeah. You know, barack obama is not a guy whens going to freak out about where he stands in the gallup poll and comfortable in his own skin and very well aware of what his talents are. Thats not donald trump. Joy, you make a deeper point as you so often do that politics is not only about what we want to do with our resources, our country, right . But its really who we want to be. Yeah. And there is there is a superficial appeal to trumpism because it reminds me of the joker in battman saying your only allowed as good as youre allowed to be and maybe we should all be worse. Thats appealing far moment until you say does everyone want to live in that environment . What some call lowest common denominator . Trump is like the president he most admires, Andrew Jackson. You know, Andrew Jackson was a horrible figure, venal quasi pollulist and indulged for violence and then Teddy Roosevelt busting up the trust and i think about eisenhower, fdr, the national dad to bring us back from the depths of the depression. Donald trump doesnt want to be the models but Andrew Jackson and indulge the sense of violence and thats not healthy in a presidency. Why you put it thinking about 2017, reflect on the year, so much menacing language, so much aggressive language. Picking fights with individuals that before this presidency were considered off limits for good reason. Gold star families and say at the end of the year think who we want to be off limits and not be normalized. Joy reid, im going to say it again. Its what we do on tv, tim. Drive things into the ground. Yes. Joy just said, so everyone heard, yes, you do, ari. More life, more joy. Joy, tim, thank you very much. Thank you, friend. Coming up, even Trump Supporters experiencing something thats called trump exhaustion. Democrats think it could help next year. Get awesomely fast wifi that gives you coverage here, here and here. And it even lets you take a timeout. Nooooooo yes amazing speed, coverage and control. All with an xfi gateway. Where i could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldnt lose any voters. Okay . Its like incredible. Who can forget that bizarre claim from donald trump about his popularity in 2016 . Recent elections in virginia and alabama suggest some of even his voters in red america have had enough. In a new interview, joe trippy to lead doug jones to the improbable victory in alabama this month talks about what voters including republicans were saying about trump exhaustion. I think whats going on is trump, even with his own supporters who like him, hes created enough hostility and chaos that they dont want more of it. They can tolerate it with him but they dont want more. They really want people to work together. And that feeling of potential exhaustion or fed up with the chaos also evident not just in joe trippis theory but trump voter who is spoke to Emery University researchers in august. Take a listen. Remember. Everything youre hearing from people who voted for trump. He has got to be his own worst enemy. He he he couldnt be any worse at achieving goals in politics. Everything he does is outrageous. He just doesnt have that soft touch. Okay. To sell you on what he wants to accomplish. Hes just hes let me down. Hes such a flawed individual. He makes a travesty of the office. Hes incredibly obtuse. Thats a great word. An i voted for him. Now back to democratic strategist joe trippi saying the energy could backfire. Republican women started to move to us, younger republicans started to move to us, and the intensity among democrats didnt diminish. In fact, over time, kept building and building. Trumps creating all of it. Right . Hes creating that energy among the base. At the same time, hes creating enough chaos and divisiveness that republicans who would never ordinarily vote for a democrat, ill vote for somebody who wants to try to find Common Ground and get things done for me even if theyre a democrat. And trust me. A lot of people in alabama had to do that. Right . Thats, i think, a winning message in a lot of these swing districts. There arent that many swing districts that are plus 28 trump out there. Im joined by larry sabato of university of Virginia Center for politics and James Peterson at Lehigh University and host of the podcast the remix and a msnbc contributor. James peterson, remix the facts for us. Do you think this trump exhaustion actually can win people over . I mean, its clearly thats part of what took place in alabama, ari, that, you know, folks are exhausted with the chaotic sort of coverage of the trump presidency. But also, the chaotic actions of this administration. Thats everything from the russia investigation to the ways in which he interacts with the media, to the ways in which he tries to generate and or create policy. We have to remember that part of the big story in alabama is africanamericans coming out to vote. So its actually both of those things that i think are really, really important for 2018 Midterm Election that is theres a base and men and women, a combination of that paired with trying to appeal to folk who is are absolutely exhausted. W the Trump Administration at this time. Larry . Look. Alabama was an extreme case because of an extreme candidate. I dont think how much of what we learned in alabama will really apply to other races in 2018. But, ari, one thing let me let me give you one and then go back to you. One of the most interesting things for alabama as you know is the numbers guy was that to james point american african turnout was higher than in an obama president ial year. Is that something that democrats can mobilize . I think they can. Whether they will depends on the candidates and how good the campaign is and every one will be different. What i was starting to say while alabamas an extreme case, virginia was not extreme in any way. Contrary to roy moore and in contrast to roy moore, you had a mainstream republican candidate who at one time had been a bush moderate more or less, ed gillespie. He tried to run at least to some degree as the person he once was. He kept trump away. It was pretty obvious he didnt want to connect to trump and what happened . He lost in a near landslide. It was supposed to be a close race. What i think is more likely to happen in 2018 is not what my friend joe trippi said. Joe was describing alabama. It isnt that you will have a lot of republicans, ari, who will end up voting democratic. What you will have is a fair number of republican who is are fed up, who are turned off, who have had enough and they will not vote. Right. Thats where theyre going to be. Yeah. I mean, james, we talk so much about turnout because turnout wins elections just like defense wins championships. Ask your dad. Thats what dads always say. When you look at what larry is saying, disaffected republicans who may not love the democratic option but after two years of trump chaos, they are just not in the mood. Yeah. We should distinguish of swing districts versus heavily republicans versus heavily democratic. Alabama is not a swing state. Trump won alabama by 28 points . But if you so virginia is very, very different. The reality is that the democrats have an opportunity to galvanize a base thats interested in making change politically and changing seats in the house and changing senatorial positions and if you can harness that, i think the way you harness that through black women and people of color, attaching it to the issues intersectional with the folks that vote most strongly democratic most regularly. When you combine that with the copanelist talking about with disaffected with the Trump Administration that really in many ways is destroyed the gop brand. I think if you talk to republican insiders, none of them are happy with the ways in which trump represented the gop brand from the president ial office and so i think the combination of those ings where the democrats have an opportunity to make up some seats in the house and in the congress in the midterms. James, i think you make an apt point, particularly about what unites people and intersectional. In alabama, jones ran a lot on c. H. I. P. Health care for kids. This affects poor kids. Thats a winner, ari. Thats a winner. Regardless of race. Although theres overlap there. Larry, let me read to you something from the ap. I dont know if you have friends oik loo blaming everyone else. Im on a faculty, ari. Im on a faculty. I thought this was a telling small detail and telling from the ap that might be bad news from trump. Recently trump bemoaning the republicans loss in alabama blaming Jeff Sessions whose departure of the senate to head doj necessitated the election. Whether one likes or dislikes Jeff Sessions i could tell you he had zero role in that race. Attorneys general keep a wide berth from elections. But donald trump seems to think that the fact that Jeff Sessions went to doj created this issue and then i would point to im not telling you anything you dont know, larry. The reason Jeff Sessions went to doj is donald trump offered him the job. Ari, we know one thing about donald trump. He always starts with the premise that nothing is his fault. Then whose fault is it . Hes pretty catholic, small c catholic about that. Hell attack almost anyone in or out of his party. Thats utterly absurd. That kind of attitude is what turns off, again, moderate republicans, but it really energizes democrats and the one group we havent mentioned, millennials. Yes, they have a lower turnout generally than other age groups but thats been changing. Trump is energizing them to vote. Younger people. Theyre as antitrump as any other age group, any other age cohort that we have. Theyre always on the phones. Well, thats how they communicate. Why they see whats going on. They need to go to the polls. Hard to get their attention. You know . Its a side point. Tell me about it. Larry, james, thank you for your insights tonight. Theres a world leader that donald trump refuses to criticize and it looks like hes strongarming his way to another term in charge of russia. What donald trump could be learning from Vladimir Putins domestic politics. I just finish. But i dont want to talk about months. I want to talk about years. Treatments have gotten better, so. Im hoping for good years ahead. Thats thanks to Research Funded by the american cancer society. The same folks giving me free rides to treatments, insurance advice, and a place to stay during chemo. I need that stuff like you dont know. And now that you do, please give at cancer. Org. Vladimir putin officially running for a fourth term at russias president. Today he submitted paper work in moscow to declare the candidacy. The victory a foregone conclusion banning all serious opposition. Putins russia is not anything approaching a democracy. But if putin needs someone to defend the leadership, heres someone whos been willing to do it before. Putin likes trump. And he said nice things about me. He called may genius. If he says great things about me, ill say great things about him. Do you respect put snn. I do respect him. Putins a killer . A lot of killers, got a lot of killers. You think our country is so fairness . In all defense to putin, saying hes killed people. I dont know that he has. Have you been able to prove that . Put season a nicer person than i am. This week the person, Vladimir Putin, took extraordinary steps to bar his only really truly wellknown and serious opposition challenge exalexei navalni. Youve probably heard of the opposition and the consequences facing. Here is Rachel Maddow on this in february. Hes a smart, charismatic opposition leader. Funny and uncompromising in the way he stands up against putin and did well running for mayor of moscow recently and declared the intention to run for president next year against Vladimir Putin. Obviously, that cant stand. Two weeks ago a court in russia convicted him on random charges involving timber futures. When that hammer fell on him, one of our smartest russia watchers said the Trump Administration notably said nothing. Rachel was on that as soon as it happened so were russia watchers who understood what the implication was. Tonight, i can report that Russia Central Election Commission is now using that saying he cannot run against putin under the rules because of that conviction rachel was reporting on. To be clear, human rights experts and watchers of the region say this is clearly a plilt cli vote mated move to block the candidacy, not an actual real legal situation. I can show you, as well, this new video today and calling putin horribly afraid and calls for protests across russia on january 28th as well as a boycott of what is now a very one sided president ial election. What does all this mean for Donald Trumps strongman, the man he said the nice things about . Well go next to someone on the ground in moscow, the Washington Posts moscow but owe chief david filipopov next. Hi, im the internet you know whats difficult . Armless bowling. You got this, jimmy you know whats easy . Building your website with godaddy. Pick a domain name. Choose a design. You can build a website in under an hour. Now thats a strike get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. Build a better website in under an hour. I love you. I believe he believes that and thats very important for somebody to believe. I believe that president putin really feels and he feels strongly that he did not meddle in our election. There you have it. Joining me is David Filipov, the Moscow Bureau chief of the Washington Post and im joined by evelyn farkas, former Deputy Assistant defense and a msnbc analysis. David, we go to you first because you are there in the action. How expected was this . You firs because you are there in the action. How unexpected is this . What are you hearing . What comes next . Okay, well so remember that putin is saying its a fair election. Everyone who wants to can run as long as they dont have a criminal conviction, which he says is politically motivated and the european code of rights says it was politically motivated. But that notwithstanding the kremlin is saying this is a free and fair election. Anyone who wants to that gets the petitions can do it. The fact is the kremlin doesnt want him to run because hes the one person call frg a lot of change. Hes not the most popular guy here, but hes got a lot of name recognition. The russians are already saying were meddling in their elections just by commenting on how theyre letting people run them. They can say what they want. Were reporting on it, not interceding, obviously. But it goes to the larger way Vladimir Putin does something that is also reminiscent of what donald trump does. Walk us through what were witnessing because putin obviously has to balance what we might call the appearance of impropriety with stopping someone early who he clearly sees as some kind of threat. Right. There are these charges which as david said are considered trumped up charges against novalni. His crusade against the kremlin has actually hinged upon fighting corruption, and its resonated. And not only that its sort of link said to youth in russia, the people who have grown up under putin. So 18yearolds and around that age group who knownothing more than their lifestyle increasing until recently. So those two things together have made novalni pretty effective. So the demonstrations he called for earlier this year, people came out in about 180 localities, i believe. Hes not as interested in courting just the elites. Hes trying to get more regular people out there. So putin wont even call him by name, and he says hes guilty of these fraud charges. Hes allowed the daughter of the former mayor of st. Petersburg of moskow, rather, his former colleague to run. She is probably theres a question about whether shes really in an adversarial relationship with him, but she certainly knows shes not Strong Enough to beat him. So david, why is it important to putin to try to engineer the appearance of a fair election, and how do folks in russia view the putintrump relationship now . Well, exactly. The appearance of democracy is very important to putin. He thinks hes going to lead the legacy as the man who brought russia, you know, into the stable modern democratic world. Now, when you ask people in the country do you believe that, they kind of shake their heads and roll their eyes but they say, you know, hes the only person now ready to govern russia. When you ask people in the kremlin why do you let him run, they say hes got no experience running, all he does is criticize people in power. Im like oh, yeah no one like that ever wins a democratic election in a country, right . Its very important for putin to give the appearance this is stable election, a stable country. We actually have the real thing, everybody. Do it like were doing it, and russians buy into the idea stability. This of course brings us to the island banomo. The fake island. It does not exist. But there were ones who tricked nikki haley into this phone call. One more matter is island binomo, its not far from vietnam in the South China Sea, you know. You know binomo . Yes. And now this land makes the situation in the South China Sea even more intense. And were aware of that and weve been watching that very closely, and i think well continue to watch that. Yeah, so first of all lesson number one, if you dont know about something, just say you dont know about it and youll like into it. She shell handled herself well during most of the call. Just to back up a little bit, the call was conducted by these two russian guys. For years theyve bip doing these prank calls. Its sort of like howard stern except not as dirty and theres a political angle to it. Because what they do is ask questions and they either want the person on the other end to embarrass themselves and embarrass their country. So a lot of people theyve called are actually ukrainians or theyve called to try to embarrass ukraine or their country. What is the core purpose of their satire. And they also illicit information. What are they getting at . Theyre showing americans are ignorant, and we have a stereotype of russia, that were always blaming russia for everything. Theyre showing we in fact are pulling strings with making our partner countries do things at our bidding. So they were pretending in that call to be the Prime Minister of poland. Well, were out of time but i feel we gave binomo enough time. I want to thank David Filipov and evelyn, thank you. Up next tonight last word. To get our best offer of the year zero percent financing for seventytwo months, plus an extra onethousand cash back across a full lineup of ford cars, trucks and suvs. So hurry and save big on americas bestselling brand. Its the final days of the ford year end sales event with zero percent financing for seventytwo months plus an extra onethousand cash back see your ford dealer before jan 2nd and save. They appear out of nowhere. My secret visitors. Appearing next to me in plain sight. Hallucinations and delusions. These are the unknown parts of living with parkinsons disease. What stories they tell. But for my ears only. What plots they unfold. But only in my mind. Over 50 of people with parkinsons will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. And these can worsen over time, making things even more challenging. But there are advances that have led to Treatment Options that can help. If someone you love has parkinsons and is experiencing hallucinations or delusions, talk to your parkinsons specialist. Because theres more to parkinsons. My visitors should be the ones i want to see. Learn more at moretoparkinsons. Com finally tonight the Big Questions prince harry asked president obama. Boxes or briefs . Sorry, we dont answer those questions. Lebron james or Michael Jordan . Jordan, though where love lebron, but im a chicago guy. Aheatha franklin or tina turner . Aheathas the best. This one i have to defer on. Harry or william . William right now. Barack obama just not answering your questions when he chooses appropriately. Tomorrow i want to tell you about one special thing im doing. I have a closing comment on 2017 and why we need more humphrey bogart. I will explain all if you tune into the beat tomorrow. And you can always email me. Thats our show. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Tonight new details on Donald Trumps legal strategy. The Washington Post reports the president s team is ready to paint mike flynn as a liar. All while trump still isnt ruling out a pardon. Plus no end in sight. It seems Robert Muellers team is bringing in new witnesses. Well reveal whos reportedly been questioned