court and both ends of pennsylvania avenue. we're also talking to the congressman with one of the committees leading the impeachment investigation. we want to start outside the district court in washington. ken delaney is outside. roger stone is inside. this is kind of the scene setter, the stage-setter for his trial. talk to us about it's about and what we can expect. >> reporter: that's right, roger stone is one of donald trump's oldest confidants. he's been with him for decades and we all remember roger stone during the 2016 campaign claimed to have advancenge that wikileaks had the hacked democratic emails that everyone knew came from the russians. and for a time it seemed he was the lynch pin in efforts to prove the trump campaign coordinated with the russians. in january, the mueller team arrested and indicted stone and charged him with misleading the house intelligence committee as part of their russia investigation, and also with obstruction of justice and witness tampering, accused him of threatening his associate. so we have jury selection under way today. we may see opening statements by the end of the day. prosecutors are asking the judge to play a clip from the movie the god father ii in which a potential witness is intimidated, and the reason we're doing that is they allege that roger stone tried to used the same tactics. so far the judge has not allowed the prosecutors to enter this, but she hasn't ruled it out. it could be a fun one. >> interesting, to say the least. and that's a pretty quick timeline if you're thinking we could see opening statements today or tomorrow. can you talk through what could this all mean for president trump? >> reporter: hallie, i think it's the sleaze factor. donald trump will be mentioned at this trial. there's a netflix documentary about roger stone in which donald trump is quoted extensively quality roger stone a quality individual. but at this trial prosecutors are going to portray stone as a corrupt individual, a rogue operator. and stone himself has embraced the idea of being a dirty triktsster. so if stone is dwiktd and sent to prison, he'll be the latest in a long line of people close to donald trump who are exposed as felons and sent to prison. and as lawmakers evaluate trump's conduct that's going to be a factor and this trial will expose the extent to which the trump campaign was pursuing those hacked emails that everyone knew came from russian intelligence, hallie. >> ken delaney live for us in washington. thank you much. speaking of impeachment, there are new developments on that front over on the hill. geoff bennett is there and hans nichols is at the white house. geoff, we expect at some point today a couple of other key transcripts kept secret until now to be revealed by the house investigators and a couple of witnesses ended up being no-shows? >> reporter: this is a developing trend of white house officials who are now thumbing their nose at congress who are not showing up for testimony when summoned or in most cases subpoenaed. so today house investigators were set to hear from wells griffith, a national security council official. his behind closed door deposition was supposed to start at 9:00. 9:00 came and went, no sign of him. jamie raskin who is a member of one of the committees just came up and told reporters that deposition is not happening. later this afternoon house investigators were hoping to hear from michael duffy, an official with the white house budget office. i was told yesterday that he is not going to appear. so the two of them are the latest in a long list of officials who have been called for testimony this week, who are not showing up. and i'm told that house democrats aren't at all surprised by that. they in fact expected it. in fact, two of the big guns they had scheduled for this week, rick perry and john bolton, president trump's former national security adviser, both of them also not expected to appear. so this week house investigators are using this week to really wrap up the private factfinding mission that they've been on for the last month as they move to a more public portion of the impeachment inquiry. with public hearings which could begin as early as next week. now, an important part of this process is the release of these transcripts which you mentioned. so yesterday we got the transcripts of yovanovitch and mckinley, who state department officials who painted a picture of the political pressure being assigned to people, the state department officials as rudy giuliani and his two now indicted associates were running that pressure campaign at president trump's behest. that is the allegation that democrats make. today a adam schiff says he's going to release the transcripts of ambassador colt volker and gordon sondland, to run that shadow state department campaign, to pressure ukraine's officials to manufacture dirt on the bidens. >> and that will be interesting to see what comes out of that. and i know there's already been some information based on reporting from our sources that we have on volker and sondland's testimony. we'll have a chance to read it and so will folks inside the white house. they have not been happy, i think, with the way that this process has unfolded, as the president you were in kentucky with him last night, really went off yet again on this whistle-blower. >> reporter: the president has hinted at this the last 48-72 hours that he's gone back and forth about we're going to find damaging information about the whistle-blower. >> and releasing no evidence to back it up? >> reporter: correct, and nor has the president said affirmatively he knows exactly who the whistle-blower is. rand paul seems to think he knows who it is and he wants the press to print that. but the president, remember about four weeks ago when you asked him in the oval whether or not the president wanted the identity to be known and he said pretty close to saying they're working on finding the identity. that said, the president is raising this idea that he's very suspect, or she is very suspect, and then have a listen to how he put it last night. >> i actually want to release the actual conversation, and you haven't heard about the whistle-blower after that, have you? because the whistle-blower said lots of things that weren't so good, folks. you're going to find out. >> reporter: now, behind the president right there you see the read the transcripts t-shirts. those came in about 30 minutes before the president arrived. all those supporters wearing white shirts, red letters, read the transcripts. that seems to be the line of defense that the white house is falling back on. i will tell you, though, when you listen to what the president said on friday night in mississippi and then what he said last night in kentucky, they seem to be acknowledging the president himself, that he is actually -- although his name isn't on the ballot, for all intents and purposes it will be. and he said last night to his supporters you can't let me down. it would be a horrible thing if that happened. so there's an acknowledgment the white house needs to have victorys in the two gubernatorial races today. that's why the president has been spending so much political capital by traveling to these places. if you look at his twitter feed it's clearly on his mind. they're thinking about what the results will say as a barometer for support. >> thanks to you both. i want to bring in who served in the obama administration as a senior director and a senior adviser at the state department and i think it's worth fact checking the president here when he says the whistle-blower said lots of things that aren't so good. much of what the whistle-blower said in the initial complaint has been corroborated by the transcript, the rough call summery that the white house itself put out. yet the president seems to want to continue to try to put doubt in people's minds here. >> that's part of what they're going to do because the process isn't going in their favor. everything is now transparent and it's working according to the rule of law. the facts aren't in their favorite because as we see from all of the transcripts there is plenty of corroboration of how there was a campaign effectively within the white house to manipulate the state department, to manipulate diplomats through rudy giuliani. they effectively sicked their goons on career national security professionals and got them to leave so that they can make their own policy and their own ukraine bribery scheme available. and that's really ultimately what all of these transcripts that are being released are showing. so the whistle-blower effectively doesn't matter at this point. >> and that's the point that you're hearing from some on capitol hill, but listen, the person who triggered the information, we're now getting it from other people sort of corroborating this information. but you've also got questions about strategy. jim jordan, i want to play for you, was out on fox this morning and he was not happy with how this process has unfolded. and that's not new, but this part is. >> president trump didn't do anything wrong and what the democrats are doing is partisan, it's unfair and frankly it's ridiculous. particularly the way they've went about with these secret meetings in the bunker in the basement of the capitol. >> but the post has kind of an interesting take on this, pointing out that if you look at the transcripts that have been released so far, they call this the scatter shot strategy in the early days of the impeachment inquiry. trying to find out even though they are talking about transparency, trying to find out how different pieces of testimony got leaked, quizzing witnesses. >> the irony is there are republicans in these depositions as well. there are plenty of republicans who have been part of this process who have held to what the standard of the rule of law is. these are legal depositions and they happen behind closed doors and now they're releasing the transcript publicly as the next part of the process. what's interesting is they're going to try to start throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks and one of those seems to be none of this matters, it's not a big deal. because at the end of the day if they can't argue the process and the facts, they're going to try to dismiss that bribery happened. >> what are you going to be looking for out of gordon sondland's testimony that is set to be released at some point? >> his is particularly interesting because he technically has no role in the ukraine. it is not part of the european union. >> someone made the point that it is obviously key and important to the way -- >> you can see how they would interact but he seemed to supersede anything that bill taylor or marie yovanovitch, who were the ukraine ambassadors had to say. he veereveals the direct link t trump and secretary pompeo. >> thank you for being with us on set. we have a ton more to get to, because if it's tuesday with the nod to our friends at "meet the press," voters are voting. that could tell us about how this guy, president trump, might do come 2020. and this morning, new comments from him about what the u.s. may do next after that horrific attack in mexico. an ambush on an american family leaving some children dead, others hiding. one searching for help. all of it may be mistaken identity. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪ t-mobile's newest most powerful signal is here. experience it with the amazing, new iphone 11. and right now, t-mobile 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. that's right. get 4 unlimited lines and 4 iphone 11 for $35 a line. only at t-mobile. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. it's an honor to tell you that [ applause ] thank you. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. i love you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ have you ever seen a sitting president of the united states come to kentucky more than one time while president? it's not because we're a big swing state or so many electoral votes. he loves american and he loves kentucky. >> that's kind of also because it's an important state for president trump, though, right? that was the republican governor of kentucky. he is fighting for reelection today and as you heard, leaning quite a bit on the president this morning right before voting, presumably for himself in that race. kentucky is one of three states we are watching today where as our political unit puts it, republicans are playing defense on favorable turf in kentucky and the red state of mississippi on much much more challenging g in virginia. president trump is not technically on the ballot but you can see the elections as his final report card before 2020 hits, something the president even seemed to acknowledge last night. >> so important, you've got to get your friends and vote. if you lose, they're going to say trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. you can't let that happen to me! >> nbc news road warrior vaughn hillyard is in louisville, kentucky. we'll get back to vaughn in a second. i think you're with me, right, saving the day? >> reporter: hey, hallie. >> live tv, man. you never know if these trucks are going to work. vaughn was going to lay out sort of the dynamics between the republican and the democrat in this kentucky gubernatorial race. president trump is watching this closely. he was in kentucky overnight. he heads louisiana for another election in a few days. talk about how much today's elections are about donald trump versus just the candidates. >> reporter: these are competitive races. kentucky is obviously a republican leaning state and the balance of power in states like that tend to be voters who probably support president trump, probably oppose impeaching him, but are open to democratic candidates on the local level. and that is what the democratic candidate there is trying to do. he's highlighting issues like health care, which is probably one that democrats see as their single biggest advantage. the republican governor, matt beven, has tried to roll back some of the structures of the affordable care act in ways that could unwind coverage. the naturallization of state elections predates president trump certainly. but this is a republican state and if the republican does win, it's not necessarily a referendum on trump. >> and this is -- a lot of folks have talked about, the democrats, even though it is a red state obviously, kentucky, have a good shot with this candidate. this is about the most potentially winnable candidate they could put up. very close race. but there is some thinking that maybe the trump impact will put the republican over the edge. >> reporter: it's a middle of the road candidate, the son of the governor who is also popular in that state. and what president trump is good at doing is juicing the republican base. he also tends to juice the other side. so when he goes to a state like this and puts it all on the line, it ends up being somewhat of a referendum on him. but kentucky is a republican state, so if he does win he gets to claim a victory and gets to claim he helped the republican to victory, even if it happened otherwise. >> in virginia, the "washington post" calls it the most consequential election in a generation, with control of the state government at stake. you obviously haven't seen president trump out campaigning in virginia, but talk through the impact -- it's a local race, but it may have sort of this bell weather effect naturally. >> right, republicans have slim marj majorities in the house, but it's going to be an uphill climb. democrats believe that there's a whole lot they can do in virginia now that they have the governor's mansion if they're able to flip these key legislative seats in virginia. and the way these districts are drawn, if democrats do pull that off, it sends a bad o men to republicans for the swing states in the country. because virginia is the most competitive part of the country that's up for reelection. there's that and two other republican-leaning states that tell us a little bit less about the national climate. >> live for us there with that analysis. i believe -- thanks for jumping in because vaughn's shot went up. do we have you back, my friend? there you are. it's because you're walking and talking, my friend. messing with that live shot feed. so you had a chance to catch up with both of the kentucky candidates. i don't know if you could hear about the dynamics a bit, but i want to know what you are hearing on the ground. >> reporter: both in mississippi and here, you're dealing with two republican figures that are frankly not all that popular. governor matt bevin is seeking his reelection and his favorability is not that high in the state. so whibash irhas been trying to focus on education and health care here in the state and jobs. and matt bevin, if you watch him on the air waves, it's been trump, trump, impeachment, trump. i want to let you hear directly from him just a few minutes ago when i asked him why he has nagzleized this race so much. >> why nationalize this race so much? >> do you watch the news? when you ask, it would indicate to me that you have sort of come out from under a rock. >> we're talking about -- >> is this a civics lesson now? you think i don't understand what the role is? talk to the average person, ask the next 100 people who come in here if they care about this impeachment process, and they will tell you almost to a person, that they do. because they find it to be a charade. it's an absolute sham. >> reporter: hallie, as you just heard him in his own response say, of course, he's going to continue to talk about trump even when it comes to today, election day. this is a place that donald trump won by 30 percentage points. and matt bevin is looking at a democrat and noting a former governor was his father. and was a popular figure here in the state. so matt bevin, in order to try to shore up support brought in donald trump last night. mike pence was here last week. he's tried to use the trump presidency to rally support. i called up last night susie campbell, a farmer who i met last year. they voted for donald trump and matt bivin and i called in check in ahead of election day to where she was at, and she said she intends to go vote for bashirbecause bevin has made himself to be a bully and she wants kentucky issues to be o focused on. >> with the impeachment inquiry going public, one of rudy giuliani's associates is changing his tune. the new signals this guy may cooperate. plus, new reaction to today's witness developments on capitol hill. we're talking about congressman steven lynch, a member of the oversight committee in just a minute. but first, you know the giants and cowboys got one last taste of the halloween season? did you catch this moment that is viral? a black cat taking over the field in the middle of the game and ended up in the end zone. the more superstitious among us might have a little evidence, the giants went from up 6 to down 19 after that interruption. can't say i'm upset. >> announcer: sponsored by wayfair, everything for your home at wayfair.com. ays than on. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com seeming to suggest sending in the u.s. army to help in mexico as he and the rest of the country wake up to word of the horrific attack there. the violent ambush that killed members of an american family. the president delivering a message that the u.s. stands willing and able to help mexico fight drug cartels. sam brock is in our la bureau. this is such a devastating story. can you tell us more about what we know happened and where this goes from here? >> reporter: it's heartbreaking. as far as we know, there was just a group of families in three different cars who were traveling from one mexican state to the other one. they were possibly confused for being part of a rival cartel. the mexican president coming out this morning and calling it a lamentable situation. it's hard to see this as anything other than utterer heartbreak. at least nine people killed, six of them children. >> reporter: nine americans killed in mexico in what appears to be an ambush by an organized crime cartel. the victims were american women and their children. the americans living in mexico had been traveling with their children to arizona for a shopping trip and were in the mexican state of sonoma when they were caught in the crossfire of gun men. among the dead, miller and her 6 month old baby tins. donna johnson and her son trevor and christina langford, but her baby faith mirror asurvived. >> they were traveling and their family come under attack and there was a number of vehicles, three of them in particular, that were shot and one of them was set fire. my understanding is that there was some children that was able to escape out of the vehicles unharmed. >> reporter: one of those children just 13 years old, walking about 14 miles to get help after hiding his bleeding but living siblings in the bushes and covering them with branches. mexican police and military forces dispatched to the area overnight searching for the gunmen. it comes amid a string of violent episodes in the country. 14 police officers were killed october 14th in an ambush stemming from violent clashes. days later, cartel gun men set off a series of vicious attacks after police captured el chapo's son. the government forced to release the son just hours after capturing him. a spokesman for the u.s. state department telling nbc news they are aware of the reports of the most recent attack but so far have no further comment. the u.s. ambassador to mexico tweeting the safety of our fellow citizens is our top priority. i am very closely following the situation between sonora and chihuahua. >> and the age of the victims ranging from 43 years old, to two 8 month old twins. >> it is devastating to hear about. sam brock reporting on that for us. we are watching to see if president trump has any plans to speak with the mexican president here today. also in washington with more no-shows, we're learning about a key witness who has had a change of heart. he's pals with rudy giuliani. now he says he may be willing to cooperate with impeachment investigators. his lawyer tells nbc news he will honor requests for documents and testimony, quote, to the extent that ler legally proper. the president says he doesn't know him personally. he was a key figure in the administration's dealings with ukraine, helping rudy giuliani hunt for dirt on the bidens apparently trying to get rid of yovanovitch, no. massachusetts congressman steven lynch joins me. thank you for joining me on the show today. >> good to be with you. >> leb talk about parnas here. do you believe house democrats should grant him congressional immunity so he can speak more freely to you without it being used against him in a criminal case? >> i think we need to consider that. i would rather confer with my colleagues on the committee and with our attorneys as well to determine what the best conditions might be. certainly we welcome additional evidence. i think that's always helpful. but the conditions under which he might testify, i think are open to question. >> and you're in talks with him? can you at least share that much? it seems as though obviously you are. >> i know the committee is. i'm not directly in conversations with him. but i know the committee is and our attorneys are. so i think whatever conditions bring the most truthful testimony and the most helpful testimony to light, i think that's what we would like to do. >> let me ask you about somebody else who may or may not testify in front of your committee and others here, and that is former national security adviser john bolton. somebody who i knew when i was covering the white house as i do in my day job here. he could have very explosive testimony, as you know, given that witnesses said he repeatedly raised concerns about rudy giuliani's dealing with ukraine. he has said he won't talk to you unless maybe he has a subpoena. that could be one of the steps that has to happen. given that, are you ready to subpoena bolton? has that happened or will it before thursday? >> it has not happened yet, to my understanding. but you're absolutely right, hallie, i think national security adviser bolton has a unique perspective here. also, from the previous testimony many -- well, several of the witnesses have been very helpful in terms of pointing to mr. bolton as someone who pushed back on the effort to use the state department as an instrument in the local election here, as someone who pushed back on efforts to get ukraine's president, mr. zelensky, to interfere in the u.s. election. so the testimony so far -- and by several kwcorroborating witnesses -- i think has been helpful in viewing mr. bolton as an adult and as someone who was very much acting according to the rules, according to law. so his perspective would be very, very helpful. >> if you do get his perspective, at least at this point it would be behind closed doors. there will be others who will speak openly in public hearings as adam schiff and others have talked about. we haven't seen any postings for that to figure out the timeline of when that happens. how does this inquiry not go into 2020, congressman? are you under the assumption that come january, you'll still be doing that? >> i don't know. as you know, the last couple of -- i was down in washington yesterday and we had four no-show witnesses. we probably have a couple more today, one again tomorrow. i'm not sure if that will delay the overall process. we're also still waiting on documents, even though we know what the documents say, because witnesses have described these documents to us. we still are waiting to get the official documents from the state department so we can proceed. so it could possibly kick over into 2020, but i'm not certain of that at this point. >> you just -- i believe you put yourself in the running to run as chair of the oversight committee in the house. there's been some criticism that maybe you're too moderate for the caucus. do you think that's right? >> is that right? well, actually, i am a moderate democrat, so i don't know if i'm too moderate. i think if we're trying to persuade the american people, you want to have a perspective that is reflective of the american people, right? you don't want just one narrow segment. and, look, i was an iron worker for 20 years. i strapped on a pair of work boots and went to work every day. i grew up in the housing projects here in south boston, so i had sort of a working class blue collar background so i think that might help people relate to us as democrats, instead of seeing us as an elite group or an extreme left group, that type of thing. so i think i could help with that. i think i could bring people in who have had -- who work for a living and who struggle at times. i think we could get those people to our supporters. >> congressman steven lynch joining us framed by the fall foliage in massachusetts. thanks for being back on the show. coming up, the department of justice, the current or former administration official out with a tell-all two weeks from today. so what, if anything, can the administration do to stop the book from hitting stores? but first the president's son is out promoting his own book, "triggered". he's defending his attacks on hunter biden, attacks some describe as hypocritical. watch. >> aren't you benefitting essentially from your father being president? >> not even a little bit, from the politics. i've benefitted from my father's name. i'm not going to hide from that. so has hunter. there's a difference when hunter biden is coming back with $1.5 billion from china because of his father's taxpayer-funded office. >> fact check here, that $1.5 billion number is not accurate, not the case when it comes to what hunter biden apparently took home. a lawyer says he was never paid for his role on the board, and has not profited financially since he became part owner of the chinese private equity firm. this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. cologuard: colon cancer and older at average risk. i've heard a lot of excuses to avoid screening for colon cancer. i'm not worried. it doesn't run in my family. i can do it next year. no rush. cologuard is the noninvasive option that finds 92% of colon cancers. you just get the kit in the mail, go to the bathroom, collect your sample, then ship it to the lab. there's no excuse for waiting. get screened. ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers. 25 cent boneless wings at applebee's. ♪ born to be wild... born to be wild...♪ get 'em while they're hot. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein bars. try lemon cake. this morning the publisher of that book, a warning, the anonymous tell-all of the trump administration is getting its own warning from the justice department. they want info on the author whose identity is still a secret, arguing that person might be violating confidentiality agreements. i want to bring in judiciary committee pete williams. is there anything or not that that the justice department can do to put a stop on this thing? >> reporter: i don't think so. it is true that anybody who works in the intelligence community or has access to classified information has to agree not to disclose it and sit anything they write for pre-publication review. that's true of anybody who works in the government. there's an additional requirement that anybody who works in the intelligence community has to submit anything they write about anything to the intelligence community for review. and if they don't, they can be sued. you may recall, for example, that the obama administration went after the navy seal who wrote about his experiences on the bin laden raid, and said you didn't submit your book for prepublication rereview and he had to cough up a lot of money that he was paid for the book. the government takes this seriously. the additional trick may be this. and i don't know how this works. but apparently, we know that anybody who worked for the trump campaign had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, because h remember amarosa was sued. what are we looking at mou? we'll get to this in just a second. the question is if anybody works in the white house, whether they handle classified information or not, just the privilege of working for the trump white house, do they have to sign a nondisclosure agreement. now back to what we just put on the screen. here's what the justice department says to the publisher. if the author is a current or former senior official, publication of the book may violate the legal obligations. then it says we want you, please provide us with your representations that the author didn't sign any nondisclosure agreement or have access to classified information. and if you can't do that, then provide the nondisclosure agreements the author signed or the dates of the author's service in the agencies where the author was employed. now, it doesn't explicitly ask for the name of the author, so i suppose the publisher could satisfy the letter from the justice department if they do it without the name of the author on it. but clearly it's a warning from the government that if the publisher goes ahead, you know, they could sue the author and try to get the money back. they say we didn't sign any nondisclosure agreements and we're going to move ahead. >> pete williams breaking it down for us in the washington news room. interesting stuff. thank you very much. we've got more interesting stuff coming up. one of the other 2020 democrats diving into the controversy between congressman jim cliburn and pete buttigieg over the claims about homosexuality and african-americans next. can you heal dry skin in a day? 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it comes after a member of house democratic leadership, south carolina congressman jim clyburn said many black voters see his sexuality as an issue that's, quote, hard to overcome. >> i'm talking about a trope that has developed among some, and the reality is that sadly and unfortunately, in all communities, bias occurs, and in particular homophobia. i've spent by entire career fighting against it. but to label one community in particular as being burdened by this bias as compared to others is misinformed, it's misdirected and it's simply wrong. >> earlier this month, a leaked internal campaign memo showed pete buttigieg's campaign held focus groups in south carolina that suggested being gay was a barrier for the candidate. the campaign has denied leaking that memo and says they don't buy into what they call the homophobia narrative. i want to bring. >> you heard senator harris call the comments nonsense and a trope. what would you call them? >> i think we should focus on what voters care about, which is equality. voters in this primary season are really focused on identifying cants that support equality. we should separate our history from the data. we certainly know that in many communities we have been burdened about homophobia and racism. but the data clearly shows that voters across this country support nondiscrimination protections. approximately 70%. and within the black community, 65% of those voters support anti-discrimination protections. so i don't think that we can say categorically that black voters will reject any candidate because of their sexual orientation. the data proves otherwise. >> so given that and given the focus that you are making and the importance you're placing on equality for voters, are you frustrated that congressman clyburn would say something like that? >> we need to put it in perspective. we realize that any voter brings their own experiences to the table but we by the data. at the human rights campaign, we have been working day in and day out to make sure we educate voters on what's important and they tell us what they care about. they've told us repeatedly that they care about equality, that they do support candidates who will be advancing equality. i respect the congressman certainly, but i think he's bringing his personal experiences to the table which are valid. but they're not reflective of what black voters actually think across the board. >> you also had that leaked campaign memo we just mentioned from mayor pete buttigieg's campaign. they said they didn't leak it, it's not from them, that they don't buy into what they call a homo phobia narrative. tell me how you see that memo. was it a mistake? >> let's recognize that in this country we are still grappling with racism. in this country we're still grahamalling with homophobia and trance phobia. there are people in our community that engage in racist and bigoted and dlim tory actions. we've seen it from the hate crimes data. that's true. we also know there's a larger group of americans that support equality and that exists in the data, is reflected in the data. i think that's what we need focus on. at the human rights campaign, we're working across all 50 states to make sure we talk to voters about what's important to them, and they keep on telling us they support pro equality voters. we have 11 million lgbtq voters across the country. they'll be showing up to make sure they elect a candidate supporting equality. >> you talk about all 50 states. i want to ask one specifically that you have your eye on today, virginia. we talked earlier about the local race, virginia democrats have a chance to take over the state legislature. why are you looking at that so closely? >> we've spent months on the ground in virginia. we have an opportunity to elect a pro equality majority. for the first time in 25 years we may be in a position to seize both the house of delegates as well as the senate. we are advancing -- we have been working on the ground to make sure we get the word out to make sure people show up to vote today. we are very optimistic we have the opportunity to seize both houses, we will be able to change the landscape. as an exam, for the past several years we have sought non-discrimination legislation in virginia. it's passed the senate but stalled in the house of delegates, stalled by the republican leadership that is restricting equality for lgbtq people. in virginia there are no protections if you are discriminated against in housing or employment. and we've been trying to get those pieces of legislation passed. with a pro equality house of delegates and senate, we can change the laws in virginia and we can make sure that the commonwealth citizens are respected and honored in the way they should be. >> alphonso, thank you for being with me. >> thank you for having me. craig melvin sitting down with two people on olooking for common ground on gun laws. we'll be back with what our sources are saying. sources are saying make fitness routine with pure protein. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. when i needed to create a better visitor experience. improve our workflow. attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah, and now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com. i need all the breaks as athat i can get.or, at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? 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also, it's election day in america. while we're still a year out in a race for the white house, we're closely watching key statewide races that could have major implications for next