florida a little less than 2 points. eugene, michelle, david, sahil, thank you so much for joining us. president trump tweeted today that white house counsel don mcgahn is leaving his job, which apparently came as a surprise to mcgahn. could it be because of mcgahn s extensive cooperation with special counsel robert mueller. plus, take a look at where things stand in the battle for the senate. the match-ups are set in florida after last night and crucially in arizona. some new poll numbers to show you about. and the hardball round table weighs in on the big progressive upset in florida. we were just talking about that. and on jeff flake and donald trump battling over the meaning of the arizona results. finally, let me finish tonight with a different florida governor s race, one that may have changed american history. this is hardball, where the action is. this is hardball, where the action is. ur new car? you d be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i m go
senate races, the match-ups now set coming out of last night in florida, in arizona, so we said in light of that, why don t we reset as we get close to labor day here the state of play in the battle for control of the senate. so right now, obviously, here it is, democrats with 49%, republicans, you have the unfortunate passing of john mccain. that brings their numbers down to 50%. there will be an interim replacement of a republican moving in there so republicans will soon be back to 51-49. that s how we will go into the election. that means democrats in november, if they want to get back the senate, they need to post a net gain of two seats. remember, 50-50 tie, mike pence the vp breaks it so democrats have got to net two. that sounds, on paper, like not much but of course the story has been democrats on defense in so many places on this map. we re getting a sense, though, of how these are starting to take shape. the blue states, they are in trump states, states trump won in 2016.
berman. welcome to new day. prosecutors laying out their case against president trump s former campaign chairman. they charge paul manafort orchestrated this conspiracy to avoid paying taxes on millions of dollars that he made working for a political party in ukraine and then he lied to banks to gets loan. manafort s defense team accuses his former deputy rick gates of embezzling millions of dollars. after pleading guilty, gates is now the prosecutor s star witness. cnn learned president trump closely monitoring the manafort trial, watching television as he traveled to florida last night. the white house strategy pretty clear. allies of the t the continpresie to try to distance mr. trump from manafort, the man who ran the campaign for three months going through the republican national convention. joe johns has the latest on the trial from alexandria, virginia. good morning.
hitting the campaign trail in florida last night urging the crowd to vote republican in the upcoming mid-term elections and throwing his support behind the candidacy of congressman ron desantis to be the state s next governor. president trump: we need to elect ron desantis as your governor. i know him well. he is a great guy and will be an incredible governor. i don t do these endorsements easily. i don t need to be here but i love this state. i appreciate your support, mr. president, but i appreciate more the leadership you are showing for our great country. sandra: let s bring in ron desantis s challenger in the republican primary adam putnam. thank you for joining us this morning, sir. what did you make of the rally last night and the direct mentions of your opponent?
in the world than even the russia probe where everyone knows he s lied a lot about a lot of things. what does it tell you, to pick up on margaret s insight there, that he s lying so much in that way, as a kind of aggression? yeah, but i don t think it s aggression, ari. i think mueller is like a boxer who keeps cutting off the ring on trump. you re right to bring up the bertherism thing. his political career was built on that lie. and then he s been going on and on. and we can call it on him all we want. but there s enough suckers out there who would believe this president if he told them water wasn t wet. he tocontinually says the medias the enemy of the people. you know what happens, you get goon squads like in florida last night. trump s supporters according to a new poll say they actually rely on him, 91% rely on trump more than any other source for