Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell 20191108

Portion of the anonymous book, which is, what, two weeks away from being published, approximately . Something like that. Yeah. And does it give you any setting for these meetings . I mean we dont know in these discussions whether this is a Budget Discussion or whether its a Homeland Security discussion. Is that the way it reads that you cant quite fix that . Well, it reads like somebody whos in direct contact with the president or somebody who was otherwise able to assert confidently that they can directly quote the president and describe not only his actions and his words but his demeanor. And whats described here is security stuff in part and the president s odd fixation on visual memes and visual cues even when he cant absorb anything with a comma in it. Basically anything that has more than one concept in it thats delivered to him in prose at more than one time. In many other white houses thered be ways of narrowing down the possibilities of who was likely to hear conversations like that. The trouble is this was the it certainly was for a long time maybe still is, the open door oval office where we have these reports of donald trump just waving all sorts of people in. There really isnt a gatekeeper. Apparently john kelly tried to be a gatekeeper to keep people out, but you couldnt really do that. So theres a kind of atmosphere in there where its very hard i think for people in that white house to keep track of who might be in the room at any given time. Yes, and thats actually part of what anonymous writes about is that the president would fix his mind on something, often something he got from television, decide he was going to do it and then randomly the next white house aide who he came across would be the person who was in charge of receiving that briefing from the president and potentially acting on it or conveying a message to the White House Press spokesperson that this should now be conveyed today the public as the new idea of the American Government and the new action that the president was ordering being taken, that it was somewhat random, that it was whoever he lit upon who was near him would then be roped into whatever the crazy idea was. And that is interesting in terms of his behavior and the process in this white house. But it also very much tells you it could be complicated to figure out who the person was who was at all of these meetings who witnessed all of these things. And the process of elimination may not apply here if literal randos walking by are drafted into these conversation. This book comes into after Michael Wolff has taken us through similar scenes in the white house. Bob woodward has taken us into similar scenes in his inside the Trump White House book. How does this read compared to those . What is the difference when youre holding an account that is written by someone who is part of the team in that room . This i mean, clearly one of the things that is somewhat unique about this is that its written from the perspective of a Senior Administration official and somebody who did not come into it disinclined towards President Trumps agenda. So its written from the point of view of somebody who isnt isnt there to be critical and isnt there to observe. Its from the point of view of somebody whos there to try to make government. So when i think youve had other authors characterize the feelings of their sources, even multiple sources in terms of how people around trump reacted to him or felt about his behavior, in this case you get in it in the first person, you also are privy to conversations according to anonymous that this author had with people in a similar role. Other people in Senior Administration jobs who were protrump who were nevertheless driven to actual panic in terms of trying to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. So youre closer to the i mean, i guess i would say youre closes to the source, right, because this is the source writing in his or her own terms. But its not inconsistent with the portraits that weve had through, you know, daily newspaper reporting on the behavior of the president and from those books that you described. It is all of a piece. And there is news in this book which has started to be reported elsewhere. Other people have started to see passages of the book. But the stuff that i was able to read tonight i think gives you particularly a window into the upset among people otherwise inclined to support this president who were horrified by and full of regret for their own decision to be there. I think, rachel, for me the shocking part of tonight about hearing you read it is not that i felt like i was learning something new about donald trump. The other accounts had all this kind of stuff in it. But it is yet another moment where you kind of sit there and you think about all of the people around donald trump who are going along with this including including the author of this piece. Now, this author takes us into the interior dialogue of how difficult that is and maybe i should have resigned at charlottesville, maybe i should have done this. But is that is that a look inside hundreds of minds of republicans in the house of representatives and in the senate . Or have they just stopped thinking about this . Have they just gone along with this long enough that they are just now robotically going along with all of Donald Trumps stuff . Its a very good insight and a very good question. I mean, i think that if we think the best of our fellow americans who have gone into Public Service and we imagine the best possible intensions for those whose hearts and minds we dont know ourselves, the best Case Scenario you can think in some of the worst moments like, you know, after charlottesville when hes praising the neonazi side and all of these things is that people maybe did think that they were the adult in the room and that by them being in that job things were going to be better because they were not that bad a person and they would stop things from going as bad as they could. And so not quitting and not speaking out in order to hold their place in the administration or in republican politics was somehow going to benefit the country. Clearly this anonymous author was in that position when this person wrote the oped last year, saying literally the adults are in the room. We want to reassure you, america, dont worry were trying to thwart the worst stuff he wants to do. That is not the tone of this book. The tone of this book is people trying to thwart his will the administration is not enough. A, the best ones are gone already. And, c, even the ones who are still there are not able to do enough to protect the country. And this is warning about danger to the country and the fact having some selfproclaimed adults in the room isnt enough. So if that is the best Case Scenario of how some people of conscience have been there supporting or sticking up for this president , this is an argument against that. It really a warning is the is the most kind of understated title that book could possibly have. Thank you very much, rachel. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a lot, lawrence. After the democrats big win in kentucky this week, charlie cook will join us tonight with more good news for the democrats about swing states, the swing states of michigan, minnesota, pennsylvania and wisconsin. Those four states, charlie cook is taking a look at where donald trump is now sinking in the polls in those states and why hes sinking. And it is about the issues. It is about tariffs. Its about the issues that democrats are bringing to the campaign. There is surprisingly strong support in those states for progressive policies like the Green New Deal in charlie cooks new research. Charlie cook will bring us all of that at the end of this hour. But first, we have some breaking news, as rachel just mentioned. Nbc news has confirmed that the House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed white house of chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tomorrow morning at 9 00 a. M. That deposition had been scheduled but the delivery of the subpoena tonight is a new development. We will have more on that in a moment. Donald trump wanted to hear the words biden and clinton from the president of ukraine. We know that now. He wanted to hear those words in a public announcement by president zelensky that ukraine was investigating biden and clinton. That is the under oath testimony of george kent that we will be hearing in public next week in the first televised hearings of the impeachment inquiry. The transcript of george kents closed door deposition was released today. Also today, the impeachment inquiry conducted its first closeddoor deposition of a member of the Vice President s staff. Jennifer williams is an adviser to mike pence on europe and russia. None of her testimony has yet been released. George kent is the Deputy Assistant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs. Ukraine is in his jurisdiction, which gave george kent a close up view of what he said under oath was Rudy Giulianis campaign of lies about ukraine. A campaign that Rudy Giuliani says he conducted entirely on behalf of the president of the United States. George kent is one of the witnesses along with the acting ambassador to ukraine William Taylor, whose testimony forced Gordon Sondland to change his under oath testimony to try to avoid perjury charges. Gordon sondland, Donald Trumps completely inexperienced and incompetent ambassador to the European Union added a fourpage supplement to the transcript of his deposition saying he now agrees with ambassador William Taylors testimony and george kents testimony after reports of their testimony had helped him refresh his memory. George kent testified under oath that Gordon Sondland told him that donald trump, quote, wanted nothing less than president zelensky to go to a microphone and say investigations, biden and clinton. Those were the magic words. Those were the words donald trump had to hear before he would hand over military aid to ukraine. Investigations, biden and clinton. Ukraines survival depended on those three words investigations, biden and clinton. But as george kents testimony shows, president zelensky, even though he was new at his job realized how wrong it would be for him to say those words. President zelenskys staff made it very clear to george kent that they understood how wrong it would be for president zelensky to be forced to say those words and how wrong it would be for president zelensky to be forced to investigate american political rivals of the president of the United States. George kent was warned by ukrainian officials Rudy Giuliani was working in the shadows to try to control ukrainian policy. The ukrainian minister of the interior told george kent that giulianis method was to throw mud. Quote, and i said, throw mud at whom . And he said, a lot of people. I asked him whom and he said towards masha, towards you, towards others. Question, masha is Marie Yovanovitch . Kent, former ambassador yovanovitch, yes. George kent provided hours of details about Rudy Giulianis activities which george kent referred to repeatedly under oath as, quote, a continuation of his campaign of lies. Rudy giuliani can sue george kent for those words, can sue him for defamation, for calling Rudy Giuliani a liar, conducting a campaign of lies. Giuliani could sue if and only if george kent is not telling the truth and the full truth about Rudy Giuliani. But Rudy Giuliani will not sue george kent. George kents description of Rudy Giulianis campaign of lies now lives in the congressional record forever. But Rudy Giuliani could find himself in a courtroom because of his campaign of lies. Rudy giuliani is now the subject of a criminal investigation of his activities which has already resulted in the indictment of two associates of Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Giuliani spent the last few weeks searching desperately for a criminal defense lawyer to represent him and being repeatedly rejected by a number of high powered attorneys before finally landing on Robert Costello who served as an intern for Rudy Giuliani when Rudy Giuliani was the head of the u. S. Attorneys office in new york, the same office that is currently investigating him. And of course the life lesson is always be nice to the interns. You never know when youre going to need them. Leading off our discussion tonight is democratic Eric Swalwell of california. Hes a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the house judiciary committee. He attended george kents deposition, and he attended Jennifer Williams deposition today. Congressman swalwell, thank you very much for joining us. Really appreciate it. I want to begin for a moment with of course. And lawrence, as a former congressional a former congressional intern, that advice is absolutely right. I knew that was coming. I knew that was coming. Good word for the interns. Jennifer williams testifying today, what can you tell us about her willingness to testify and what resistance was put up or not in getting her to testify. Well, ill address what rachel read earlier and you alluded to in the opening, the concerns expressed by anonymous. Well, anonymous talks a lot about the adults in the room, and i would suggest the adults in the room respond to lawful subpoenas, and today Jennifer Williams was one of the adults in the room. She showed up, and that in and of itself is helpful. And every time a witness has shown up, weve learned new information to fill in the time line and understand who was a part of the defense dollars for dirt scheme, and who was doing honest Foreign Policy work on behalf of the United States. And so we filled that in. Were ready to move into these open hearings next week. And, you know, ms. Williams, i thank her and so many others who have bravely served our country but have been patriots when our country needed them to respond to a lawful subpoena. George kent, i ask what can you tell us about what she might have added to your understanding of the case today . Well, ms. Williams, you know, worked for the Vice President in the same role that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman worked for the president. And so, you know, in many ways its, you know, corroborating what you hear from other witnesses. And lawrence, if she said something today that exonerated the president or was an arrow pointing in the opposite direction of where all the arrows are pointing in this scheme, i could tell you that. But thats not what occurred. We saw more corroboration of this shakedown scheme from President Trump. But also to you your point about Rudy Giuliani, we now have a number of witnesses who have described Rudy Giuliani being told to them by President Trump as rudy is our guy in ukraine. So you have this Agency Relationship between Rudy Giuliani and President Trump. A sharp Straight Line between the two of them. Even if Rudy Giuliani is carrying out some Foreign Policy position, that is Donald Trumps Foreign Policy position. And the two are inseparable. The when you look at george kents testimony in recognizing that hes going to be one of the public witnesses next week, one of the things i noticed in the release of the deposition transcript today, as with every one of them, is that the democrats release a summary of highlights of the testimony that the democrats want us and everyone to focus on. Those are elements that you believe make the case or direct where the case is going. The republicans issue no highlights for any of the depositions. In other words, there are no lines in these depositions, not a single line, that the republicans want us to concentrate on, want us to report to the American People. And when you read the depositions, you see why. There isnt a single moment where the republicans make any kind of defense of donald trump. Thats right, lawrence. And thats why it was so disingenuous for the past few weeks and theyve suggested they would see how innocent the president was in this scheme. Actually it was more harmful to us that the public was not seeing the transcripts as we took on all this incoming from the republicans as they made their process attacks when in fact if theyd seen their transcripts at that time the public would have understood that therefo there is a fair process, the facts are very, very concerning what were seeing here. And so now we will move to public hearings, and its my hope, lawrence, that the republicans get serious. This is a serious allegation against the president of the United States, an extortion scheme. And its time for them to start acting like the adults in the room. Before you go, we know theyre not going to get serious. Thats a good thing to say. Its not going to happen. We know theyre going to try to create as much of a circus atmosphere as possible because all they have is divisionary circus tactics because they cant deal with the evidence. Is their planning going on among the democrats about how to deal with the chaos that the jim jordans and others if theyre in the room will try to create . Chaos is a consciousness of guilt, and if they want to bring chaos to the proceedings, lawrence, as people in uniform, wounded warriors, immigrants to the United States, Public Servants raise their right hand and tell the truth about what this president did, the public will look at the seriousness of these witnesses compared to the stunts by the republicans and theyll say theyre only doing this because they have a guilty client that theyre trying to defend. But, again, as ive said to you before on the show, lawrence, they are not the public defenders of the president of the United States. They are representatives of their constituents and they have a duty to the constitution and, again, they have a reset opportunity next week to start conducting themselves that way. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it. And when we come back we have new reporting tonight about how donald trump almost almost got away with his extortion scheme with ukraine. 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There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. To do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. We have breaking news reporting tonight about just how close donald trump came to forcing the president of ukraine to say investigations, biden and clinton the words President Trump wanted him to say. After Gordon Sondland told the president of ukraine that ukraine would get mow more military aid from the United States without a Public Statement by president zelensky about ukraine investigating joe biden and Hillary Clinton, president zelenskys staff began debating whether they should comply with President Trumps demand and if so exactly what president zelensky should say. The future of their country was at stake, everything was at stake. And so they went so far as to schedule an interview on cnn with Fareed Zakaria, in which president zelensky might have said what President Trump wanted him to say or something close to what donald trump wanted him to say. But as that interview approached where president zelensky might have said the magic words into a microphone as donald trump wanted, politico published an article based on a leak that military assistance for ukraine was being held up. And then the Washington Post published a similar story. And as the New York Times reports tonight, word of the freeze in military aid had leaked out, and congress was in an uproar. Two days before the scheduled interview, the Trump Administration released the assistance and mr. Zelenskys office quickly canceled the interview. Not only had the news leaked out that donald trump was holding up assistance to ukraine, but what the Trump Administration already knew was that a whistleblower complaint had been filed against the president that was a very accurate description of President Trumps extortionist telephone call with president zelensky. Joining our discussion now is joyce vance, a former u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of alabama. And ambassador wendy sherman, former undersecretary of state for Political Affairs in the Obama Administration and an msnbc Global Affairs contributor. And ambassador sherman, as you read this account, this kind of day by day account of what was going on in ukraine, aides to the president of ukraine thinking maybe we do have to say this in order to save the country, were it not for the whistleblower and were it not for politico, which is to say were it not for a free press and a whistleblower, who knows what might have happened. Indeed, lawrence. This is incredibly tragic. You know, we heard from george kent today in that transcript that hes a Foreign Service officer who believes his job is to really insist on the rule of law. And it appears that masha yovanovitch, the ambassador, lost her job because she pushed for the end of corruption and the rule of law of in ukraine, and that wasnt liked because it got Rudy Giuliani in President Trumps way to get done what they wanted to get done and the deal they wanted to make with zelensky. So its just rather heartbreaking to hear that a young, new leader of a country whos trying to do the right thing and bring that rule of law to his country, to really escape from the shadow of russia is indeed almost to the point because over 14,000 people have died since 2014, 24,000 people have been injured, he doesnt want more people to die, the javelins would really create fear among the russians. They could deal with the tanks. Here we have this young president trying to do the right thing, our Foreign Service officers trying to do the right thing. And yet he had to think about seriously making this deal in many ways with the devil. Joyce vance, whats your reaction when you hear republicans say, look, in the end ukraine got the aid so whats the problem . You know, one of the problems with this administration, lawrence, is that so much happens every day that its hard to keep track of it. But i can remember back in the early days of the Mueller Investigation where republicans said, well, you know, its one thing if its just colluding. If there was an actual crime, then we can talk. But as long as theres not an actual crime, theres nothing serious here. And what we have with trumps conduct in ukraine is an actual crime. The bribery statute makes it illegal for an elected official, for a public official to seek something thats of personal value to them in exchange for being influenced in an official action. So we wade through all of this that sort of surrounds these ukrainian events, but at the bottom what we have is a crime. Theres no other way of looking at this, and that makes the response, the lines of attack that we see from republicans all the more perplexing. And wendy sherman, whats your reaction to what were reading about the ukraine side of all this . Here they have american officials, Gordon Sondland, these people trying to give them exact wording of what they want the president of ukraine to say, and theres a lot of resistance. They are resisting. They recognize in ukraine whats wrong with this. And they delay and delay as much as they can and they schedule that Fareed Zakaria interview for a couple of weeks down the road. And theyre just constantly trying not to do this thing that donald trump is trying to force them to do. Indeed. Thats sort of the good news, lawrence. President zelensky and the people around him knew this was wrong. They didnt want to get in the middle of american domestic politics. They didnt want to do this deal with donald trump brought to them by Rudy Giuliani and by Gordon Sondland. They knew that it was wrong, and yet the safety, security of their country you know, there was a report in the george kent testimony that indeed the president changed his view of ukraine after phone calls with Vladimir Putin and with victor orban of hungary, both people who do not have ukraines future in their minds unless that future becomes part of their orbit. And so its really distressing what the president tried to do here, and the only good news in all of this is that president zelensky and the people around him resisted as long as they could, understood what was going down here and wished they didnt find themselves in this place. Joyce vance, i want to get your reaction to what we might expect in the public hearings next week because we have seen such a spectacle the republicans make of public hearings in the house of representatives that its hard to predict, its a level of chaos that even experienced people in washington cant quite predict. Youve come from the world of courtrooms where theres so many more constraints on behavior, theres so much more order, its impossible to get out of hand the way these republicans do in these hearings. Have you as youve watched t hearings thought of any way procedurally given that they have the right to speak, but any way for the democrats to try to maintain control over the proceedings and make sure that whats happening is actually relevant to the investigation . You know, not only have i watched these hearings, lawrence, ive lived a little bit of it. This summer i testified on the hill on the house side on the Mueller Report and experienced firsthand what its like to be in the middle of this back and forth five minutes per side bantering. And i was struck by how serious the questions were about substance from the democratic side and how flippant and sort of spurious the republican comments were. And, you know, thats what you do when you have no argument of substance that you can make. The republicans are still in that position now when it comes to ukraine. What will be different next week is this process change the democrats have written into the rules where these hearings will open with 45 minutes of questioning on each side by staff attorneys. That i think is a total game changer. It gives each side and particularly the democrats here who are sort of the proponents of this activity, the opportunity to give the American Public a cohesive narrative. Its hard to sit down and read through all of these transcripts for people with busy lives and day jobs. But theyll be able to watch i think in pretty short, pretty precise snippets the key moments here, and the Key Information gets conveyed in a much more meaningful way. The fiveminute back and forth is still going to happen. Its the nature of the beast. Voice vance, ambassador wendy sherman, thank you both for joining us tonight. Appreciate it. Thank you. And when we come back, House Republicans have a right to call witnesses at the public hearings in the impeachment inquiry. And they have a deadline for their witness list. 11 20 a. M. Saturday morning. Well explain to you exactly why it is 11 20 a. M. When we come back. If you have moderate to thsevere rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. 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This year, turn black friday into buick friday, all month long. Current eligible nongm owners and lessees get 20 below msrp on most of these 2019 buick models. Republicans have until saturday at exactly 11 20 a. M. To submit the list of witnesses they want to call in the house impeachment inquiry. That deadline is exactly to the minute, 72 hours after House Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff notified the republicans of the schedule for public hearings. House rules allowed the Minority Party 72 hours after that scheduling announcement to submit their witness list. Chairman schiff and the democrats on the committee have essentially veto power through a Committee Vote over any witnesses that republicans might want to call. Traditionally the Minority Party is usually accommodated when it asks for witnesses. But the republicans are no longer a real congressional governing party. They are simply chaos creators. And their witness list will tell us just how much chaos the republicans will try to create. Chairman schiff has told the republicans in writing that their witnesses must be relevant to the issue being investigated, which is President Trumps request from the president of ukraine for an investigation of joe biden. Some republicans are insisting that the whistleblower be called as a witness. But those same republicans complain about hearsay testimony, which is the only kind of testimony that the whistleblower could provide. The whistleblowers complaint was a written description of what other people told the whistleblower about the president s phone call with the president of ukraine. That is hearsay. The whistleblower has no personal knowledge of what was said on that phone call until, of course, we all got the knowledge of what was on the phone call by seeing that partial transcript of the phone call when it was made public. And, of course, calling the whistleblower as a witness would reveal the whistleblowers identity which is what the whistleblower law is designed to prevent. Calling the whistleblower as a witness is the kind of stunt that the democratic majority on the committee will have the power to prevent. The public hearings will have drama, they will have condemning testimony about the president of the United States. The hearings will include confusion also if the republicans get their way. At minimum they will try to introduce confusion to the hearing. And if what theyre saying is very hard to follow, that is the point. At least they will be taking focus off what donald trump actually said to the president of ukraine. The republicans actually conducted themselves very politely, very kind of quietly. They had very little to say in the closed door version of these hearings in those depositions. They were very professional in those. 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Hes a harvard graduate who speaks seven languages and spent several years posted in ukraine fighting corruption including during and after the orange revolution. He currently serves as the Deputy Assistant secretary for european and eurasian affairs. Joining our discussion you evelyn farkas, former secretary of defense in the Obama Administration and former staff member on the House Foreign Affairs committee. David jolly, former republican congressman from florida. They are both msnbc analysts. And david, i normally defer to the elected or former elected officials first, but evelyn knows george kent. And so we are going to begin with evelyn telling us what we can expect to see when george kent testifies next week. I think youre going do see a real straight shooter. And its really interesting reading the transcript because if you thought bill taylor was a straight shooter and stood up for the constitution, george is even more pointed. You know, he uses kind of a bit of colorful language, but hes a serious guy. And hes not afraid. I mean, what comes through there very clearly more so we dont know what taylor was doing behind the scenes, but george lays out clearly what he was doing, what he was saying. Hes not afraid. I had actually picked up a little bit some of my former colleagues saying i hope george is okay. I didnt really understand. I just heard that whisper a while back and now i understand because hes been fighting this fight for the truth, for the constitution, really, for months, maybe years, actually. David, your former republican colleagues are very different people behind closed doors in the closeddoor depositions. Theyre actually quite professional. They do go off in some irrelevant directions here and there, but most of them had nothing to say which was the most professional choice they could make in those depositions under the circumstances. Whats going to be different next week when the cameras are on, when your former republican colleagues take their seats in this hearing . Yeah, theyre going to be playing to the cameras. And if there is a political strategy in this for republicans, theyre playing not to lose the base. Theyre not going to win anybody over with their political hijinks. They have to keep the base riled up with their conspiracy theories. Because they cant go into 2020 with an eroding base. Theres the jim jordan, matt gaetz kind of comprise caucus argument this was all a conspiracy theory. Mark meadows makes the case it all stopped at giuliani, never reached the president. Ted cruz says the president never had criminal intent. Senator ted cruz and johnson said this is routine, happens all the time. Lindsey graham says the president is simply too stupid to engage in some type of corrupt practice. But what each one of those arguments requires of the American People and why they fail ultimately in the eyes of the American People is its asking the voter to believe secondhand information and interpretation of politicians over the firsthand factbased coordination of people who were there, bill taylor, Gordon Sondland, ambassador yovanovitch, george kent. Each of those saying yes the president was involved, yes he was coordinating it, yes there was intent, and yes there was impeachable activity. Which leaves republicans with only one argument which they have failed to yet resolve and come down to which is its simply not impeachable conduct. They dont want to reach that argument yet but its inevitable they will have to. Evelyn, george kent i cant figure out how you attack his as a witness, but republicans are going to spend a weekend trying to figure out how to do that. I mean, i think theyre going to look really bad if they start to attack him. Hes going to stay calm, cool and collected. Thats the person i know so if they attack him theyll look foolish. And he knows his stuff. He knows ukraine really well. They cant confuse him. He knows how the governments supposed to work. And, you know, i think they can say all they want to say and try to confuse, but hell remain unflappable. Evelyn farkas, david jolly, thank you both for joining our discussion tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you, lawrence. And when we come back, donald trump is averaging 59 disapproval in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, minnesota. States he has to win. Thats according to new poll numbers. Thats next. woman when you take align, you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. vo align helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets 24 7 with a strain of bacteria you cant get anywhere else. woman you could say align puts the pro in probiotic. So where you go, the pro goes. vo go with align. 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You cant let that happen to me. They let it happen to him. And after a big defeat for the republicans and donald trump in kentucky this week, theres new polling tonight about four swing states that very narrowly gave donald trump his Electoral College victory. In 2016 donald trump beat Hillary Clinton by less than 1 percentage point in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. And in minnesota, which is also included in this poll, Hillary Clinton beat donald trump by just less than 2 percentage points, so all very close states, and there are dangerous signs for President Trump in a poll released today by the Cook Political Report and keizer family foundation. Among registered voters in michigan, minnesota, pennsylvania and wisconsin, 59 disapprove of how donald trump has handled the presidency. In pennsylvania, 61 disapprove of President Trump. In michigan, 58 disapprove of President Trump. In minnesota, 58 disapprove of President Trump. And in wisconsin, 57 disapprove. The poll shows that defeating donald trump is the number one motivation for voting in 2020 in those states. And this poll also has revealing numbers about a democrat running stronger than joe biden in three of those states, and after this break we will discuss that and what this means for donald trump with charlie cook, the editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report. We would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun we needed somebody to lean on all we need is someone to lean on tmobiles newest most powerful signal is here. Experience it with the amazing, new iphone 11. And right now, tmobile has the best deal on iphone. Get 4 lines of unlimited with 4 iphone 11 included for only 35 a line. All on a signal that goes farther than ever before. Thats right. Get 4 unlimited lines and 4 iphone 11 for 35 a line. Only at tmobile. 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Help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. Talk to your rheumatologist. Right here. Right now. Humira. New polls show Elizabeth Warren leading in three swing states. Elizabeth warren leads the democratic field with 25 in michigan, 25 in minnesota and 22 in wisconsin. Joe biden leads in pennsylvania with 27 to Elizabeth Warrens second place of 18 . Joining us is charlie cook, the editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report, columnist for the National Journal and hes also an nbc news political analyst. Charlie, lets begin. I want to get to the democratic numbers later because they are really kind of surprising in those states but lets begin with the president s situation in these swing states that youve polled. Well, we look with the kizer family foundation, the structural damage that the president sustained. Its very, very substantial. I mean, when you look at, you know, 59 either strongly disapproving or somewhat disapproving, thats pretty substantial. 41 approve or strongly approve or somewhat approve, and it shows sort of the potential that democrats have to bait him if they come up with a candidate thats not that doesnt become terribly polarizing themselves. This is for the three states, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin that effectively elected him, these are really, really tough numbers if democrats can capitalize on them. Your polling indicates that these are both probably temperament regarding trump but issuebased differences. Things like the tariffs, these voters dont like. The trump tariffs. And then things like the Green New Deal, surprisingly popular in some of these states. What we did, one of the parts i really found interesting is we looked just at primarily swing voters and how did they feel about seven different progressive propels. And what we found is that three of them were actually pretty popular. Popular to citizenship for people here illegally. Green new deal and a ban on future sales of assault rifles. Those were really three pretty popular things, but then there were two that were very unpopular, one was eliminating the ban on or detaining people that were in the u. S. Illegally. That was very, very unpopular with swing voters and the other is a National Medicare for all that eliminated private insurance. That was very, very unpopular with swing voters and then two that were sort of in the middle eliminating banning ownership of assault weapons with a mandatory buyback. That had like 54 support and 45 opposition and then banning fracking hydraulic fracturing. That was sort of the other way. About 54 were opposed to the ban, 40 were in favor of the ban. So somewhere in the middle but it was interesting to look at the swing voters and see how they differ from where the Democratic Base is, and thats something that democrats really need to keep in mind. And lets take a look at how Elizabeth Warren is performing in those states. I think if you had just asked people to bet who is going to have the lead in those states, biden would have been the natural have the lead in those states, but Elizabeth Warren doing really well there. Yeah, in the this polling, it was a lot of it was back in october, a little earlier and it was sort of before you started seeing some of warrens numbers kind of tapering off a little bit because she was really on the rise and then she sort of flattened out during ore beer viewing period where a lot of the questions about, you know, the cost of her plan and medicare for all, eliminating private insurance, i should say that kind of pushed her down a little bit, but this was back sort of before she was getting that pushback. So my guess is if you took the poll today, they would probably be a little lower for warren than it was back when the interviewing, most of the interviews took place. Again, to go back to the trump numbers, it looks extremely difficult for donald trump there, and its a policybased challenge that he seems to face with these voters. Well, its policy but its also personality. Is that, you know, everything is how do you view him . And that sort of overshadows Everything Else but there is a descent amount of support for some of these Progressive Agenda items if democrats sort of pick and choose them carefully and not get off into eliminating private insurance and things like that. Charlie cook gets tonights last word. Thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. Thank you, lawrence. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with broms starts now. S the 11th hour with broms starts now from the book from an anonymous warning of a cruel, dangerous president and a socalled steady state of administration staffers struggling to keep the wheels from falling off. The white house calls it a work of fiction. Impeachment evidence against this president is piling up. Todays new testimony warns of rudys campaign of lies in te ukraine. Mike bloombergs people say hes hedging his bets, todays surprise views threatens to shake up the democratic race and the president calls him his biggest mistake. Tonight, Jeff Sessions jumped back into politics. The 11th hour on a very busy thursday night begins right now. Good evening, once aga