Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell 20181018

Well see if the cold pill works for the whole hour. Well see how this works. Well, you look great and we missed you. Thank you, rachel. A new reporting tonight by the Washington Post says the president of the United States and the Saudi Arabian family are not searching for the truth of what happened to the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. They are searching for mutually agreeable explanation, thats their phrase. And its not easy to find an explanation for why Jamal Khashoggi was seen entering the saudi consulate in istanbul and was never seen leaving that saudi consulate. In fact, its not easy to answer a single question about it if what youre really trying to do is get to an agreeable explanation. Did they say that mr. Khashoggi is alive or dead . I dont want to talk about any of the facts. They didnt want to either, and that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way. Did you talk about repercussions in case the saudis are involved . We talked about the importance of completing the investigation. That is the sound of someone whos looking for an agreeable explanation, not someone whos looking for the truth. The Washington Post is reporting tonight the Trump Administration and the saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman according to analysts and multiple allies. Also tonight the Washington Post published the final oped piece by Jamal Khashoggi which was delivered to the newspaper by khashoggis translator the day after he disappeared. Saying arab governments have been given free reign to silence the media. Its facing its own version of an iron curtain. And today the New York Times added more gruesome detail to what happened to Jamal Khashoggi inside the saudi consulate. The times source for this report was an unnamed turkish official who described an audio recording that allegedly recorded the sound of the murder and the dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. The times report, quote, after he was shown into the office of the saudi consul the agents seized mr. Khashoggi almost immediately and began to beat and torture him, eventually cutting off his fingers. The saudi consul then said, quote, do this outside you will put me in trouble. One of the killers replied, quote, if you want to live when you come back to arabia, shut up. And then the New York Times reporting turns much more gruesome. Quote, as they cut off mr. Khashoggis head and dismembered his body, a doctor of forensics who had been brought along for the dissection and disposal had some advice for the orders, according to the senior turkish official, listen to music he told them as he put on headphones himself. That is what he did to ease the tension when doing such work, the officials say. Heres what the president said today about the audio recording of the murder. Have you asked for this audio, video intelligence that the turks we have asked for it, if it exists. But you havent gottentouch am. We have asked for it, if it exists. Tonight the Washington Post is reporting u. S. Intelligence officials said they had no reason to doubt that turkey has an audio recording that shows what the officials claim. The post is also reporting that the chairman of the Senate Foreign relations committee, republican senator bob corker is saying that the Trump Administration had clamped down on sharing intelligence on the trumpkhashoggi case. He said Intelligence Briefings schedule for tuesday was canceled and he say told no additional intelligence would be shared with the senate for now. A move he called disappointing. Bob corker told the Washington Post, quote, i can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to saudi arabia. Leading off our discussion now tim obrien, also joining us is richard stengel, former under secretary of state, and evelyn farkas, all are msnbc contributors. And evelyn, let me start with you. It seems as i listen to this administration especially as i listen to the president the choice seems to either be donald trump doesnt care about the saudis murdering a journalist or donald trump approves of the saudis murdering a journalist. I dont see any other option in what i hear him saying so far. Well, lawrence, i would say he probably doesnt approve. Because when you remember when the story first broke he did tell leslie stahl in the 60 minutes interview that he found it horrendous and particularly horrendous if it was true of the murder of a journalist. So i dont think he approves. But i think youre onto something when you say he doesnt care. Because if he cared he would understand very clearly the implications of this on a human level, certainly. Were talking about somebody who lived here as a permanent resident, who was a colleague of people you and i know in washington, d. C. , and of course has family here living in the United States as well. Im not sure if theyre citizens or not, but i also think thats not relevant, although the president has made a bit of a beef about it. I think the main point is that this president is the president. Regardless of whether he understands it as a human, were talking about u. S. Interest and leadership inside america. So the audience is the American People first and foremost and then the world. And then he doesnt understand that values have a value for the United States when we are essentially going out in the world conducting Foreign Policy. So its not just money and arms sales and economic interests, military interests, but the values that america espouses, standing up for human rights and in this case something that was done so blatantly in our face, as Lindsey Graham said, and then the lies that came afterwards, we as a country need to stand up for the International Community and principles for all the other people trying to speak out, all the journalists trying to do the right thing, all the dissidents around the world and to really stiffen the spines of other democrats and other countries and other leaders around world because thats what the United States does. You worked with secretary of state john carrie. Whd he today be saying we dont want to know any facts, any answers. What would we be hearing from the secretary of state of the Previous Administration . Youd get a very stern warning to the saudis about this. Wed be looking at all the range of things that could have an affect on them from arms control agreements. Youd be looking at something called the magnitsky act which allows the president of the United States to sanction International Human rights violators the same way we sanction oligarchs. Youd be looking at the sanction of the princes in saudi arabia. Saudi arabia has been our ally since fdr met with king sahud in 1948. Even when we were selling arms to them we were saying you cant use them on your own people. The Trump Administration has a complete hands off transactional approach. They say heres the weapons, heres the technology, use them as you like. Thats whats disturbing. And i agree with evelyn we need to talk about human rights and the way were dealing with our allies and adversaries. Tim, your reporting in bloomberg is trump and kushner put saudis first. How much does that explain what were seeing . I think it explains a lot of it. This is freelancing on Foreign Policy coming home to roost. You cannot run a sophisticated Foreign Policy in the middle east on the heels of Jared Kushner through most of the period he didnt have full security clearance. What he did have was a failing skyscraper on fifth avenue his family was desperately trying to refinance. He lobbied the chinese during ininvestment during the campaign and transition period. We know he spoke to at least one saudi investor. And the president essentially let him lead this tilt towards saudi arabia in a real politic sense its a bold work against iran. I think they saw it as a pure business opportunity. And everything the president has said when hes pressed to explain why he doesnt want to just cleanly and clearly condemn the apparent murder of khashoggi is he says that saudi arabia invests a lot of money in the United States, and we have a big arms deal with them. And in fact hes misrepresented the bona fides of the arms deal. Hes overstated how much its worth and when the moneys going to arrive. I think in the back of their minds they see the saudis as potential business partners. And you know theyve had a completely hands off approach of the war in yemen where american weapons are being used to kill thousands and thousands of civilians. The u. N. Released a report just yesterday theres a famine of among 10 Million People in yemen. So the american weapons that we are selling them, that the taxpayer is supporting, and that was something the Obama Administration was very concerned about. On the arms sales, arm sales have been used in a variety of ways by American Administrations including to try to obtain better behavior from the regimes that we have sold arms to. Right. I mean, lawrence, you know, its one way that we actually have ongoing influence. Because they need our arms. This is the problem. The president also doesnt understand that the saudis actually need us at this point more than we need them. We dont rely on them for oil as much as we did in the past. I think in fact theyre the second importer after canada if im correct on tat. And then the arms deals, youre right. They signup to buy a bunch of arms and they signed up to 110 billion. And under obama it was 115. And some of those dollars are for the same program. It doesnt matter. What they do spend, we get to watch. We make them sign agreements they wont transfer any of the technology. We watch what theyre doing, as rich said. We have ongoing hard core diplomacy with countries that use our weapons to ensure they dont use it in ways we disagree with because then we can sanction them and not provide spare parts they need, not provide training and other things they need. Rick, youve had a oneonone meeting with Mohammed Bin Salman your last year in the state department. The two of you oneonone for a couple of hours late at night. What do you know about him, what have you gained about him that could guide the way we watch what were watching now . The meeting was at midnight in saudi arabia. He was a very powerful and impressive figure, hes physically large. He talked about the openings he was planning on doing. Allowing women to drive, opening theaters. He talked about an issue the u. S. Has been talking about for decades which is saudi mohabi schools, and its a very severe form of islam some people think is reason for extremism. The problem is he feels no impunity to what he can do. Hes completely consolidated power, doesnt report to anybody and has an authoritarian tendency nobody represses and weve seen what the result of that is. Tim, when donald trump said publicly the saudis, they buy a lot of apartments from me, of course i like the saudis, is that all you have to know about donald trump and the saudis . No, thats not all you had to know. And he felt unprompted to go on twitter and say i have no investments in saudi arabia or russia either. And hed been playing this game for a number of years which he says i dont have investments in these countries. The reality is they have investments in him, oftentimes in the United States. What do you mean by an investment in him . Well, theyre buying his condominiums. He had russian buyers for scores of his condominiums. He had partners of russian descent on projects like soho. The entire Saudi Arabian government bought the entire fifth floor of trump tower in 2001. This goes far back in his history. Even prior to that bailed trump out in the early 1990s when he almost went permanently bankrupt. When a saudi bought his yacht. And its one of the biggest clients of the Trump International hotel of the trump hotel in washington. And the signal this is sending to the world is that the president of the United States can be bought and sold. If you need to curry favor or if you need to be able to run rough shot over your region, as long as you do business with the Trump Administration and with the president personally you can pretty much do whatever you want. I think its a low point in u. S. Foreign policy, and its really unusual. Evelyn, if this had happened in a Previous Administration where you didnt have the questions of how much does donald trump owe financially to saudis, how much does the president involve financially with saudis and all of that was out of the picture, and we could expect an honest attempt by an administration, an American Administration to deal with this, its still very difficult to deal with, isnt it, given the saudi geopolitical position with the United States . Yes. I mean, lawrence, you still have to balance, right, the hard National Interest with human rights and dealing with this kind of extra territorial, extra judicial killing. I think this did cross a line, again as i mentioned, because the killing was conducted in a consulate in turkey and then they lied about it to the world, to us. You know, it does cross a line. Which is not to excuse yemen or any of the other terrible things they did. And i think as you said for any administration it would be difficult. We have other allies and partners we deal with. We deal with china and they also have a bad human rights record. But we find a way to express our displeasure. But in this case absolutely it has to be more than that. It has to be economic because they lied. Frankly, speaking the saudi kingdom needs to hold people accountable up to the crown prince. I mean if i were pompeo i would have gone in there and given a very strong message from my president. You know, if it a were different president he would have been saying we need to facts now. First of all, where is this man, is he alive, you know, et cetera, et cetera. Right now all pompeo did was secretary pompeo went there and said, well, the fox is investigating what happened in the chicken coop, and then he flew over to turkey which is basically the farm where the chicken coop is and seem today dismiss i mean, we havent heard anything out of him about what he heard in turkey. And we do know from one of the the, i think it was the Washington Post report that he didnt want to listen to the tape. I guess i wouldnt want to either. But really the Administration Needs to tell the American People and certainly congress what they know. Thank you for starting our discussion tonight. And when we come back, donald trump tries to disown Michael Cohen once again after reports indicate Michael Cohen has spent 50 hours with prosecutors discussing the trump Family Businesses. And John Heilemann will join us with a special report from the north Dakota Senate race tonight. And later well take a look at pennsylvania where donald trump won by one percentage point. But now the trump candidates in pennsylvania are in big trouble including the trump candidate for senate who was trailing by 15 points. After walking six miles at an amusement park, bills back needed a vacation from his vacation. So he stepped on the dr. Scholls kiosk. It recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain so you can move more. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Breaking news tonight. Nbc news has confirmled that don mcgahn is out as white house counsel. The New York Times which first reported the news says mr. Mcgahn may have also caused more damage for mr. Trump than any other white house official in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Mcgahn has spent at least 30 hours with mr. Muellers investigators laying out how mr. Trump tried to interfere with or quash the inquiry including by trying to fire mr. Mueller himself in the summer of 2017. Federal prosecutors met with President Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen today at his attorneys office. A person familiar with the matter tells nbc news that Michael Cohen met with, quote, a group of federal and state Law Enforcement officials investigating various aspects of president Donald Trumps Family Business and Charitable Organization according to cnn. Com. Yesterday President Trump was asked about Michael Cohens plea deal with federal prosecutors for the first time with the Associated Press. Quote, cohen testified under oath in federal court that you directed him to commit a crime. Did you sir . Trump replied totally false, totally false. The Associated Press followed up so hes lying under oath. And trump replied oh, absolutely hes lying. And coMichael Cohen was a pr person who did small legal work, very small legal work. In april when cohens office and hotel room were raided by the fbi, President Trump said this. Its a disgrace. Its frankly a real disgrace. Its an attack on our country in a true sense. Joining us now John Heilemann, cohost of executive show times the circus. And mimi roca. And john, President Trump in accusing Michael Cohen of being a liar tells the lie that Michael Cohen was just a small player in his operation that had very little to do with donald trump. Yes, barely knew him. Its hard to imagine hes had an opinion of Michael Cohen. Hes heard of him none whatsoever. The only thing he said was he did very little legal work for donald trump because hes not really a lawyer. He also didnt do much pr work, although he did represent trump in the press to some extent. What he did for trump in the decade or so he worked for trump, not a little bit but a lot for many hours every day, and if you ever dealt with trump you knew Michael Cohen was the guy you had to talk to have any kind of interaction with donald trump. What he did was not legal work or pr work, but he was the guy who cleaned up Donald Trumps problems. The ray donovan guy, the guy who wept to moskow and many other countries around the world. Is trump telling the truth Michael Cohen was not much of a lawyer for him . Yes. Is donald trump telling the truth about anything else related to Michael Cohens in his life, no that is grotesque lie. Cohen has willingly assisted and provided information critical to several ongoing investigations, according to two sources familiar with the situation in a string of meetings that have exceeded more than 50 hours. Mimi roca, what does that tell you . Thats a lot of time. Everyone should understand, though, no ones going to take Michael Cohens word at this value. Theyre not going to write down what he says and then, you know, go into the grand jury and base charges against anyone or any entity on that alone. They are going to try and corroborate and crossreference and, you know, doublecheck as much as they humanly can. And that is often a lot. Particularly when were talking about information about the Trump Organization. You know, it sounds like cohen is giving information in so many different avenues here. We know hes talking to mueller or thats whats been reported. We know now hes talking to the Southern District and the new york a. G. s office. Thats going to dove tail with the tax investigations we know the new york a. G. s office was looking at. Clearly the Southern District is expanded beyond Michael Cohen and is looking more broadly at the Trump Organization and its role in these hush money payments and other things like that. Cohen has so much different information and johns exactly right. It doesnt matter what you call him. You can call him a pr person, you can call him a guy, it really doesnt matter. It matters what he knows and thats whats being conveyed now and thats whats important. Very busy prosecutors have decided to spend 50 hours with him. Lanny davis made a comment to the Associated Press today, and they report it as cohens attorney lanny davis said his client had two words for the president s claims on truth versus lies, audio and tape. He said the president should be worried. John heilemann, lanny davis two words, audio and tape. Yes, that sort of clarifies the point mimi was making. What we should really call him is hes the guy who has the goods and the goods are in the form of audio. To mimis point is yes, Michael Cohen is also a liar. And im certain if he thought he could get away with lying to prosecutors to cep his sentencing going forward, he could get away with it, too. Hes trying to stay out of jail, so he has an incentive to tell the truth in this instance, and the second thing is some of the audiotape. Much more of it is not yet public. In the end the value Michael Cohen has to bring to prosecutors and the threat he poses to donald trump is the breadth of his knowledge and to ability to back it up not just with his word but hard evidence in the form of audio. Roenstein said this today to the wall street journal. It reports mr. Rosenstein offered a forceful defense of the inquiry saying the public would have faith in its findings. At the end of the day the public will have confidence the cases we brought was warranted by the evidence and that it was an appropriate use of resources. And mimi, that is strong expression of confidence by Rod Rosenstein who knows that these findings will be thrown into a political cross fire. Its also just extraordinary that he did this interview and that he did it now so close to the election, shortly after the meeting with trump on the plane that made people sort of question whether he was still operating independently. And i wonder we dont know for sure, but i wonder if thats part of why he did this. There were some mixed messages in some of the things rosenstein said. But i think that quote you pointed to really seemed to be saying, look, theres stuff coming down the pipe. And whatever happens the people are going to be watching this investigation. And thats a strong statement for him to make right now. And given the Justice Department rules on this they can relax between now and election day that the special prosecutors wont be reviewing anything dramatic or serious during that time. I think thats right. And look, we saw some reporting i believe in bloomberg that sources close to the the mueller inquiry were suggesting that mueller was pretty close to rolling out some charges, the kinds of things that were suggested by the rosenstein interview right after the election. And certainly weve all been waiting for a long time. We thought bob mueller was more or less done with the exception of an interview with trump he was more or less done with the obstruction inquiry. Those charges are ready to roll. I think, you know, republicans can breathe easy between now and november 6th, but we can have a pretty busy time immediately following november 6th before thanksgiving, even if its possible. John heilemann is going to stay with us. Hes reporting from north dakota tonight, and he will be back with his report on the north Dakota Senate race with heidi heitkamp, democratic senator trying to hold onto her seat. Hell join us with that report next. All Money Managers might seem the same, but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. Fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. Some only call when they have something to sell. Fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. And while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. 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S that include specific residential address, they know its very common for residents of reservations to simply use postoffice box address in all of their identification. The suppression of the tribal vote and senator heitkamps decision to vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh meant that her campaign was going to be in an up hill climb in which they could not afford any mistakesch and then the heitkamp campaign made a serious mistake. The challenger criticized the me too movement about being for victimization. And as the New York Times reports, mr. Kramer said they cannot understand this Movement Towards victimizization. They are pioneers of the prairie. These are tough people whose parents were tough and greatgrandparents were tough. Saying we are all survivors of domestic violence, Sexual Assault or rape, we are all north dakotans, we are all prairie tough. The heitkamps camp failed to check with every womans name who appeared as a signatory. Senator heitkamp never mentioned this was mistake made by her campaign staff. This has caused tremendous concern and hurt for a lot of the women who were listed. Its its very humbling for me to stand here and say how as an advocate for victims for violence that we did something that added to their hurt. This is a bad, bad mistake. Were going to do everything we can to take responsibility and to make that this never happens again, but also make sure that we are repeatedly saying how sorry we are to the people whose names were on this letter that did not authorized their names to be used. You seemed emotional about the thing from today. This is very hard. I mean my whole life has been protecting victims and part of that is protecting their anonymity. And to have this happen is unacceptable, and its wrong. And i think we need to own it, i need to say i think way too often people say were protecting victims, and what does that mean . Well, that means that you take ownership when youve done something that hurts victims, and thats what im trying to do. And John Heilemann is back with us. John, what ive been struck by in her explanations is that she as she says takes ownership of it, this was a staff mistake. I mean, this was not something she did but she takes ownership of it. How does that answer playing with the audience you saw deliver it to . I think it played well with that audience, lawrence. I think the way in she owned it, she took a bad situation. She has no explanation for it, they have no excuse. They let someone go from the campaign today. But in that room from heitkamps supporters i think she owned the mistake and apologize for it. I think as a political matter its left her campaign which you suggested in your intro in a difficult place. She was starting to see someday light with kevin kramer pulling away even before the kavanaugh vote. The margin has widened during the kavanaugh confirmation controversy. We havent seen polling since the vote itself. But because of the polling in the state on kavanaugh she knew that taking that vote was going to imperil her career even more than it was already in peril. She told me later in this interview, she said, i knew this was the hill that i was choosing to die on in some ways, that i was making a vote that was a very tough vote. I know i had to make it, and i knew it might cost me reelection, and i was willing to do it. Shes spirited and shes tough, but the circumstances here are very, very have very difficult for her going forward. And this mistake she made on monday has not made anything better. You can watch politics for a long time and not see a senator cast a vote where the senator knowingly is very, very aware this could cost an election. How is the kavanaugh vote what does she hear about the kavanaugh vote on the campaign trail . I think shes hearing obviously, and were hearing this going around talking to voters, too, as we have in a lot of places in the country. There are clearly a lot of women who admire that agree with her for voting no, who think she was that her main political virtue in this state is not someone whos shes with trump about half the time, against trump about half the time. What people admire her for is her political independence. And theres a lot of people here whose attitude is politics has gotten way too tribal in america. Its a conservative state, but a state as you recall put people like the u. S. Senate democrats of an independent center strike. They like that about heidi heitkamp. And i think there are a fair number of voters and say it was a vote of courage, a vote where she was voting against the easy politics of the moment and what the polls told her to do. So she gets credit for it in some quarters, but you also run into a lot of conservative voters in this state. Its a very red state. Shes the only democrat statewide here, the state legislators, the governor, the other senator all republicans, and very republican. There are a lot of voters here, especially a lot of men we run into think its disgusting she voted against kavanaugh and kavanaugh got railroaded. She is not backing away from the Sexual Assault issues raised by the kavanaugh hearing. Lets take a look at the new ad that the heitkamp campaign is running. And this is an ad thats emerged after this controversy with the print ad. Lets look at this. When he dismissed Sexual Assault. There was no type of intercourse or anything like that. Nothing happened in term of a sexual event beyond obviously the attempt. You see there is a hypersensitivity. You shouldnt be surprised when women are abused. When someone disagreed with him kevin kramer said he wanted to quote, wring their neck and slam them against the wall. So, john, the heitkamp campaign is not pulling away from that issue. No, and i think lawrence it goes back to the thing we talked about. I said i dont know ive seen many tougher votes than the votes she took. And she took it she was the attorney general of the state for two terms. Shes prosecuted a lot of Sexual Assault cases. Her mother was a victim of Sexual Assault and harassment. This was something that came out in the wake of that kramer comment about women playing victim, and she revealed her mother was a victim. So she made her choice on this vote, and i think she recognizes thats the hand shes playing. And if shes going to play that hand and die on that hill, not going to go down without fighting this issue on the way out. John heilemann, thank you for joining us from north dakota tonight. Appreciate it. Coming up, donald trump won pennsylvania by one percentage point. But the Trump Republican Senate candidate is now down by 15 points. Opportunity is everywhere. Like here. And here. See . Opportunity. Hi cinturones por favor. Gracias. 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One of it reasons why donald trump is of no value to republicans running in pennsylvania now is that donald trump from the first day of his presidency has done absolutely nothing to appeal to any voter who has not already voted for President Trump. President trumps Approval Rating has been holding in and around a stable 43 . Ben bradley, jr. Has been studying the vote in pennsylvania and talking to voters how donald trump won the state. Hell join us next as we consider why donald trump cannot seem to help Pennsylvania Republicans now. And im still going for my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im up for that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. So whats next . Seeing these guys. 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Through internet essentials, comcast has connected more than sixmillion lowincome people to lowcost, highspeed internet at home. Im trying to do some homework here. So theyre ready for anything. Joining us now, ben bradlee jr. , the author of the forgotten how the people of one pennsylvania county elected donald trump and changed america. Ben, when you look at the way the republicans are running in pennsylvania now, trailing democrats, possibly losing five Republican House seats, if the base in pennsylvania is sticking with donald trump, if theyre still sticking with him, why cant he transfer that support to other republican candidates . Well, you spotlighted lou barletta. Hes one of the people i profiled in my book. And he was donald trump really before donald trump. He focused on illegal immigration as an issue and took it national really. And he was one of the first to endorse trump. The question will be whether trumps coattails are long enough to pull him over in the senate race against bob casey. It looks like theyre not at the moment. When you talk to trump voters for your book and i guess it was several months ago you were last able to check in with them for the book. Of the 12 in your focus group only one trump voter was in doubt about donald trump at this point. Right. I checked in with them much more recently even after the book closed, ive been in touch with them informally. And that number still holds. Of the 12 i profiled, 11 say that if the election were to be held the 2020 election were to be held tomorrow they would enthusiastically vote for trump. Only one has slipped into the undecided, as you mentioned. I guess the question becomes both for the midterms and 2020 is what is the ceiling on trumps base. Is it a ceiling . And if he were to lose, say, 1 in 12 in pennsylvania, then he would lose the state. I mean, thats he doesnt have that kind of margin there on his 2016 win. No, he doesnt. He only won the state by 44,000 votes. And the county that i focused on, luzerne county, supplied 26,000 of those votes, or 60 . So without this county, luzerne, he wouldnt have won the state of pennsylvania or perhaps the presidency to the extent pennsylvanias demographics are similar to the two other key swing states, michigan and wisconsin. And ben, that county as you report had been voting democratic for several previous president ial elections. They hadnt voted for a republican since 1988, bush sr. Theyd voted for obama twice. But they surged for trump. And he won it by 20 points. You had all these democrats crossing over to vote in the republican primary for trump. And of course they stayed with him for the general. They said that the they felt that the Democratic Party had left them rather than them leaving the Democratic Party. And when we look at the Midterm Election results coming in from pennsylvania, what will you be looking for . Well, barletta will certainly be one barometer. But it will be a referendum on trump. And the question is after the redistricting in pennsylvania how many house seats will the democrats pick up . It looks like at least four. Ill be look at those things. Ben bradlee jr. The book is entitled the forgotten. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thanks. And tonights last word is next. If your moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis or crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. 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Theres something really terrible and disgusting about that. I agree. How would you sum up your administration so far . It is vicious. Its full of lies, deceit, and deception. Speaking of which, if you get rid of jeff sessions, who would you replace him with . Pillows and blankets. Stephen colbert gets tonights last word. This weekend msnbc is going to los angeles for politicon. Msnbc and nbc will host films and panels with many of msnbcs hosts and reporters who cover politics. If youre in the area join us at the Los Angeles Convention center or go to politicon. Com to find out more. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Tonight the final article written by Jamal Khashoggi before he vanished from inside that consulate in turkey. The topic, a free press. Meanwhile, President Trump still seemingly on the side of the saudis. Plus Rod Rosenstein tonight defending the russia investigation, calling it appropriate and independent. Weve got a former u. S. Attorney standing by with more. And this president is a lot of things, but subtle he is not. A day after publicly calling a woman horseface hes talking about his popularity with collegeeducated women while placing himself between two women for the cameras to see all of it as the 11th hour gets under way on a wednesday night. Good evening once again from