Wrongful suit. Charlie rose out of work tonight after last nights Washington Post bombshell. Breaking on the russia front, a new report reveals what mueller is hoping to learn about kushner. What did trump and putin talk about for over an hour today . The 11th hour begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 306 of the Trump Administration puts the president at odds with the majority of his own party again. This time the wedge between them is Republican Alabama Senate candidate roy moore. Nine women have stepped forward to share their stores about alleged sexual misconduct. She was 14 years old when he was over 30 years of age. Moore has repeatedly denied any sexual misconduct. Republicans have called for moore to get out of the race. Theyve cut off his funding, theyve threatened to vote to expel him from the senate if he wins, a move so rare weve not seen it pulled off successfully since the civil war. The president was mostly silent about roy moore until, that is, today with a helicopter waiting on the south lawn the president broke his silence. Mr. President is an accused child molester better than a democrat . He denies it. If you look at what is really going on, and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it. He says it didnt happen. And, you know, you have to listen to him also. Youre talking about he said 40 years ago this did not happen. So, you know, let me just tell you, roy moore denies it. Thats all i can say. He denies it. And by the way, he totally denies well, he denies. I mean, roy moore denies it. And by the way, he gives a total denial. And i do have to say 40 years is a long time. Hes run eight races, and this has never come up. So 40 years is a long time. The women are trump voters, most of them are trump voters. All you can do is you have to do what you have to do. He totally denies it. Political reports it this way tonight, president Donald Trumps near endorsement of roy moore followed days of behind the scenes talks in which he vented about moores accusers. He was also asked about two elected officials facing different accusations by women, democrat senator al franken and john conyers of michigan. Franken apologized. Called for his own ethics investigation. Said he feels badly. The second woman felt disrespected. Conyers acknowledged today he has reach a financial settlement with a former staffer who accused him of sexual misconduct. He vehemently denies the allegations. Heres how trump answers questions about both of them today. I dont want to speak on the al franken. I just heard about conyers two minutes ago. As far as frankens concerned, hes going to have to speak for himself. Id rather have him speak for himself. Thats a different tone, the Al Frankenstein picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures two, three, four, five and six while she sleeps. The president was asked to reflect on the moment we find ourselves in right now and what his message to women is. Women are very special. I think its a very special time because a lot of things are coming out and i think thats good for our society and i think its very, very good for women. Im very happy a lot of these things are coming out, and im very happy im very happy its being exposed. The president there saying hes happy its coming out, hes happy its being exposed. We add the following caveat. Hes chosen not to believe roy moores accusers or his own accusers who surfaced during the president ial campaign. New poll numbers out on this front from Quinnipiac University whether the president respects women as much as he does money. 34 say he does. 59 say he does not. Brings us to leadoff panel tonight. Andrea mitchell, our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent, and jonathan swan, National Political reporter for axios, and ashley parker, White House Reporter for the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst. Welcome to you all. Andrea, during our opening segment, the question posed was how long can donald trump hold his silence on roy moore . We got an answer today. Were you surprised he took the stand . I was surprised he took the stand he took. When christian willker asked him is it better to support a child molester than a democrat, that is the kind of question that no president should answer in the affirmative. And it just seems as if hes torn. He thinks this is a good moment for women. He thinks that women should be pleased, that women are special, that this is a very important moment, as he suggested. But he does not, as you point out, believe these accusers. He i cant imagine whether he watched ms. Corfman and the interview with savannah guthrie. And he does not believe that woman . He doesnt believe any of these accusers . As he doesnt believe his only accusers. What politico is reporting is that he is identifying very much, apparently, with roy moore. Hes identifying with the situation that he faced after the access hollywood release in 2016. That is a very strange position. Hes also, of course, taking a position against his own leaders in the senate. That would not be the first time, and siding with steve bannon. Jonathan, this brings us back to trump compartmentalization, special time for women, some but not all. Youre among those who have been hearing internally hes been casting doubt on the roy moore accusers specifically. Hes been firstly, when this all broke with roy moore, he was trump was in asia. And staff were who were back in d. C. Were anxious because he was actually asleep when the story went down. They didnt know how he would react. They were gaming out different scenarios. He started being fairly circumspect, but this week hes been more open internally. He thinks this is political, the fact that Gloria Allreds involved we shouldnt necessarily believe these stories. Hes been casting more and more doubt over this, and really identifying with roy moore as the politico story suggested. Its no surprise to anyone internally he said what he said today publicly. Ashley, as ive always said he says very little by accident. I want to show you what he said about the challenger in alabama. Well talk about it on the other side. I can tell you one thing for sure. We dont need a liberal person in there, a democrat, jones, ive looked at his record. Its terrible on crime, its terrible on the border, its terrible in the military. Ashley, where do you think that came from, where was that road tested . I can tell you exactly where that came from. It was road tested first as we all say by Kellyanne Conway, did an interview on fox friends yesterday morning where she basically said as much. She made the less affirmatively for moor and moore against doug jones calling him a liberal. Saying we cant give this senate seat up. Some people thought she stumbled into that interview. Shes very savvy, especially on tv. Before she did that she went to the president and said this is the most effective way to talk about this and message this. What do you think . He said i think thats a good idea. Go out there and try it and see what the reaction is. From what ive heard he liked the reaction, thought it was positive. He echoed that privately to aides. While he wasnt thesly expected to talk to reporters, they never know what hes going to do on his way to marine one, they werent surprised when he said what he said, kelly ann road tested it. He appreciated that strategy and had been talking about behind closed doors. Backing moore in this race, lets talk about the timing this week. As of today less than 24 hours after the bombshell in ashleys paper, charlie rose is out of work. Youve got conyers, thrush and franken all in trouble and the timing of the president s remarks today against that backdrop. And the fact that this National Conversation has reached such a fever pitch, critical mass, if you will, charlie rose, a shock to many of us, to a lot of those of us who have been guests on his show, known him for years, to his colleagues. You saw the expressions on gayle king and Norah Odonnells face today as they eloquently reacted with such anger and sorrow at the same time and pain because of their relationship. Their close relationship with him. We are at really important turning point. I thought so before. I thought so back with clarence thomas. I was wrong. I thought so after bob hackwood. It has reached this point. More women in the senate, more women in congress, more positions of leadership. Women are feeling empowered. Interestingly when theyre in groups, single women, individual women, rather, do not feel as empowered as hopefully the post and the times in their reporting have gathered enough stories so that people feel, i think, the solidarity of being in a group. And i think that perhaps not in this election, i still dont think that roy moore is going to be rejected by the voters. Thats my own sense just from the reporting weve done down there, but i think that something is happening that is real, that is viable and cannot be changed in the industries across america. Jonathan, im going to agree with my colleague that i dont think theres any doubt that were having a National Moment to use Norah Odonnells word, a reckoning. Was the president saying women are special, this is a special time for women, his version of saying i acknowledge were having a moment . It was his way of getting through that moment. Thats all youre going to give me. Honestly, like, i dont think hes thought deeply about this as a cultural moment or a time for, you know, selfreflection or anything like that. Hes from what i can tell from talking to people, sees this in very political terms and through the lens of his own experience last year. So i dont think that this was some sort of thoughtful moment for donald trump. But what i would say is, you know, weve been talking you know, we had this whole thing about, you know, december was going to be tax reform and the spending will. I think decembers going to be dominated by a number of people losing or ending their careers. Some of them will be on capitol hill. This is not ending. This wave is just gathering force. Ashley parker, our viewers last saw you on a military helicopter on the president s asia trip with our friend jonathan la mere from the associated press. Im sure that brings back nothing but fond memories in a black hawk for you. But that is a long way of saying you were present when the president spoke on air force one about believing putin. Well, today he spoke on the south lawn about believing roy moore. Is there a through line here . Yeah. I was struck by both of those and that the president seems incredibly willing to believe what he wants to hear. So he doesnt necessarily believe everything he hears. But when he wants to hear it, you hear him sort of argue very forcefully for, well, so and so said it, he zunt say so it must be true. He just says look, they said this and they believe this and they really mean it. That cant be discounted. I think in certain ways the president is reflecting himself there. Oftentimes when the president speaks he deeply means what he says in that moment, even if he said things to the contrary in the past and plans to say things to the contrary if the future. In a with he sort of intuitively understands vigorous denials and is kind of compelled by them when he sees them in other people. Andrea mitchell, a brief final question. You are after all our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent. The subject of haiti came up this week. What is the Trump Administration doing to haitians who are living here, some of them have had children here, since the 2010 devastating earthquake in haiti . This is the very community he went to in florida and said you may not vote for me but i will protect you. I will take care of you. And now hes basically changing the rules of the road and saying that the people who came here after that horrendous earthquake in 2010 will be returned, will be deported even though they had been given special temporary protection. There are some 59 to 60,000 people involved here. And they have no place to return to. Haiti has since had the hurricane. Haiti is the poorest nation in the hemisphere. Youve spent time there, i spent a lot of time there in the 90s during the wars, the first u. N. Occupation as well, the special forces and now the u. N. Bringing cholera to haiti. They havent recovered from that. So it is extraordinary. Theyve already done this as well to people from nicaragua, and we expect this is just the beginning of what Homeland Security is going to do in removing these special protections for very endangered communities. These are also folks who are working hard every day and have forged lives as americans. Absolutely. In this country. Andrea mitchell, jonathan swan, ashley parker, thank you all for a terrific leadoff conversation on a tuesday night. Coming up as we go forward our first break, does the president s lawyer really think the Mueller Investigation could be over in days . He responded today exclusively to this network. Plus, what did the president is putin talk about for over an hour today . That and more when we continue on a tuesday night. When you have a cold stuff happens. Shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. Thanks for the ridealong, captain ive never been in one of these before, even though geico has been ohhh. Ooh ohh here we go, here we go. You got cut off there, what were you saying . Oooo. Oh no no. Maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years . Is that what you wanted to say . Mhmmm. I have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. Geico. Proudly serving the military for over 75 years. You ok back there, buddy . Hblack friday savings event. C get the limited edition tempurlegacy Queen Mattress set for the best price ever. Or save up to 500 on select adjustable sets. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com. We had a great call with president putin. Were talking about peace in syria, very important. Were talking about north korea. We had a call that lasted almost an hour and a half. That merely 90minute telephone call today the longest conversation between donald trump and Vladimir Putin, the two president s spoke informally during the president s asia trip. The president told air force one putin seemed insulted by meddling in our election. Every time he sees me he says i didnt do that and i really believe when he tells me that he means it. He says i didnt do that. I think hes very insulted by it if you want to know the truth. Hes very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country. The president s ongoing desire to give Vladimir Putin the benefit of the doubt on most things has heightened the tension. For more, bring in our guests, joined by mike mcfall, u. S. Ambassador during the obama administration, and baker, former cobureau chief for the Washington Post. Both gentlemen, were happy to say, are nbc analysts. Ambassador, you first, people want to know how a phone call could last 60 to 90 minutes. Talk about the mechanics of this. Youve been there for these. Set the scene. I assume you have the principles, you have the president , probably a navy comes person, note taker, probably state department or nsc types in a Perfect World and youve got simultaneous translation, which is time consuming in and of itself. Do you also have People Holding up realtime notes to prompt the president what to say next . Well, brian, ive got to confess, i dont know how this president does these phone calls. I did work at the white house for three years with president obama. I did many of these phone calls with russian leaders when obama was president. The way it worked then was you did a package, you did a long series of talking points where you were trying to advance your Foreign Policy objectives. That was all spelled out. And then in the room usually its just two or three people, no state department people, only white house people. I was always there, and i listened to both the russian and english because i spoke both languages. And sometimes as you go through with the simultaneous translations you pivot one way or the other to try to advance what were trying to achieve. What i dont understand from the readout tonight is what we were trying to achieve in this call. We discussed these hard issues, im not sure exactly what american Foreign Policy interests were advanced. Do you think it was just putin saying, look, i had a great day with assad, i wanted to let you know . Without question, president putin wanted to talk to trump after he had just met with president assad, something that hasnt happened for years, by the way. Right before he sat down with the leaders of turkey and iran tomorrow in sochi to try to negotiate. He reached out to other leaders, saudi arabia, turkey, to prep them from what hes going to do to do tomorrow. What President Trump was getting out of it, i dont know. Were not at that table. We dont have a representative in sochi today with respect to the transition plan for syria. Peeter baker how does putin hear trump and how do other governmen governments hear trump when he advanced that readout of his conversation about insulting putin over these repeated denials that he meddled in our election . Well, certainly encourages president putin to continue them. He sees interlock ter, a partner, whos buying his story. Therefore hes encouraged to keep it up. It was striking, and ambassador mcfall was getting at this, how much president putin is the driving force in whats going on today in the middle east. America has, to some extent, pulled back. Thats not entirely just President Trump. There was some of that arguably under president obama in the last part of his administration. President putin sent in Russian Forces in 2014 and using the military force and using the political change, especially in the last year under President Trump hes filled th