Think it will be true after 2016. So i think youre going to have a minuscule thirdparty vote. Its going to be up or down. Charlie cook, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it. Thanks. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Tonight, john bolton is out after a rocky tenure as National Security adviser. Its either a firing or resignation depending on which story you believe. Now the white house looking to hire its fourth National Security adviser in just three years. This comes amid a conversation already spun up over the president s changing the weather forecast, denying a business arrangement in plain sight, which may help to explain some big, bad, new Polling Numbers just out. Plus, a former counterintel chief of the fbi is here with us for an update on that russian asset who alerted america to putins meddling in our 2016 election. And Steve Kornacki at the big board with the North Carolina special election
results tonight as The 11th Hour gets under way on a tuesday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 964 of the Trump Administration. Real quickly here tonight, in political news, nbc news projected a short time ago that when all the votes are counted, dan bishop, the republican, will hold the North Carolina 9th Congressional District for the republicans. That special election in the district that trump visited last night. And as we get into the rest of todays news, the headline tonight, yet another staff shakeup in the trump white house. National security adviser john bolton is out. After 17 months on the job. Bolton was trumps third National Security adviser in less than three years. That means tonight, put a different way, they are searching for their fourth National Security adviser in three years time. Trump announced hed fired
bolton this morning on twitter writing, i informed John Bolton Last Night that his services are no longer needed at the white house. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions as did others in the administration, and, therefore, i asked john for his resignation which was given to me this morning. I thank john very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security adviser next week. Minutes later bolton responded with a post of his own. I offered to resign last night and President Trump said lets talk about it tomorrow. He also in a text message to nbc news wrote, i offered to resign last night. He never asked for it directly or indirectly. I slept on it and resigned this morning. Boltons predecessors had equ equally abrupt exits for their part. Mike flynn, you may recall, lasted all of 24 days. He later pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his communications with russia. Ironically, flynn was in Federal Court just today on related
matters. At the same time, boltons departure was being announced. Then there was h. R. Mcmaster, he was pushed out in March Of Last year after disagreeing with the president on several Foreign Policy issues. In another twist, nbc news Reports Trump has been reaching Tout Mcmaster for advice on National Security issues of late even while bolton was still serving in the post. Today white house spokesman hogan gidley echoed the president s explanation for john boltons departure. John boltons priorities and policies just dont line up with the president s and any sitting president has the right to put someone in that position that can carry out his agenda. That became no longer tenable so the president made a change. Hogan gidley in the drivedri, a reminder they have a Briefing Room there. Great and detailed reporting out tonight takes advantage of a deeply leaky white house to point out the tensions between bolton and the president. Washington post son tis on th board with this. Bolton did not like trumps
repeated meetings with kim jongun and had argued against directly meeting with iranian officials. He also did not like the president s repeated insistence that russia rejoin the group of seven nations. It had been reported one of boltons main adversaries in the administration is that man, Secretary Of State mike pompeo, a Smiling Pompeo talked about bolton during a White House Briefing held in the actual Briefing Room. That the nowformer National Security adviser was supposed to attend, himself, less than an hour after trumps announcement. The president s entitled to the staff that he wants at any moment. He should have people that he trusts and values and whose efforts and judgments benefit him in delivering american Foreign Policy. There were many times ambassador bolton and i disagreed, thats to be sure. Were you two blind sided by what occurred today . Im never surprised. The times writes pompeo, has proved more adept at managing the president and subordinating his views to mr. Trumps while mr. Bolton kept pushing his beliefs even after they were rejected. Mr. Pompeo did not see mr. Bolton as a team player but as someone who undermined the president s policies. And politico is reporting for months the Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson had been lobbying President Donald TrumpTo Fire John Bolton and frequently told trump that bolton not only wasnt on his team but was using the news media against him. That would be something approaching full circle for john bolton who came to trumps attention initially because of his frequent appearances on fox news. Ultimately, i think our objective should be to overthrow the regime in tehran. I think the only diplomatic option left is to end the regime in north korea. The question, how do you know that north korean regime is lying . Answer, their lips are moving. Then came this. Once bolton was on trumps team, signed up, trump often referred
to boltons aggressive stance on National Security issues. John bolton is absolutely a hawk. If it was up to him, hed take on the whole world at one time. I have john bolton who i would definitely say is a hawk and i have other people that are other side of the equation. Yeah, johns very good. John is a he has strong views on things, but thats okay. I actually temper john, which is pretty amazing, isnt it . Nobody thought that was going to im the one that tempers him, but thats okay. Boltons departure puts him at the end of a very long and growing roster of Trump Officials who have either been ousted or resigned since the beginning of this still young presidency. Deputy National Security adviser Charles Cupperman is taking over boltons job on an interim basis which brings us to our leadoff discussion on a tuesday night. Phillip rucker, Pulitzer Prize winning White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post. Jeremy bash, former chief of
staff at the cia and pentagon as well as former counsel to the house intel committee. And kimberly atkins, Senior Washington correspondent for wbur, bostons npr news station. Welcome to you all. Phil, id like to begin with you. Just tonight, Tucker Carlson, by the way, is quoted as calling this a great day for america and saying of bolton, hes a man of the left. What is your afteraction report . Was this Loyalty Problems or leaks . Was this outside voices or actual policy . Brian, its basically all of the above, and by the time bolton left the administration, the list of his detractors, of the people inside the administration who did not admire him, was quite long. It included, by the way, the first lady and the chief of staff, mick mulvaney. Trump and bolton have disagreed from really the beginning of this relationship, especially on north korea, but also on afghanistan, on iran, on other
issues. The problem for trump in recent weeks, however, is that boltons disagreements increasingly became publicly known through media reports. Bolton, of course, denies that he has leaked those sorts of details, but it bothered the president that the disputes that these discussions they were having especially on afghanistan and those peace talks with the taliban were coming into full view and there was really a breakdown in the way that the National Security apparatus of the administration was working. Bolton in the final weeks, according to my colleagues reporting at the post was not even on speaking terms with the Secretary Of State mike pompeo and trump saw that as a real problem and started to really resent bolton. I talked to a Senior Administration official, former official, earlier today, who said that bolton really acted like a big shot in the white house. He had a big entourage. His aides were more loyal to him than to the president , himself. The president ultimately got sick of that. Jeremy bash, two points here. Number one, this is hardly the
first time we have seen tension between two powerful jobs in the modern era. National security adviser and the white house. Henry kissinger and Secretary Of State. Point number two is an example from rand paul of some of the reaction today. Lets listen together. John bolton out of the white house, the threat of war around the world is greatly diminished. The president really does want to end the war in afghanistan. I think he could, but he needs people around him who support the vision hes putting forward. So, jeremy, after all this, do you think this marks any change in direction on policy for this presidency . Well, i think the president makes it up as he goes along. You know, he he improvises Foreign Policy. Theres no doctrinal north star. For that reason, john bolton who very much came out of the school of being a muscular internationalist, really favored
military intervention in the context of iran, did not like cozying up to putin, did not like the bromance with kim jongun, and obviously was very wary of doing a peace deal with the taliban that would remove u. S. Troops and intelligence professionals from afghanistan during the 9 11 anniversary week. And so this clash in some ways was inevitable and i think it shows you the extent of the chaos, the extemtent of the dysfunction. These are critically important jobs because donald trump is very lucky, we have not had a major National Security crisis, a nokidding fullblown crisis, an attack on the homeland or some significant military confrontation, and when that happens, you need professionals around you who can give you the honest facts and the best advice. Yeah, jeremy, i was thinking earlier tonight, we have a look at one of the Testing Sessions for what were going to see tomorrow evening. This is, after all, the eve of
the 9 11 anniversary. Hard to believe its been 18 years. And tomorrow evening over lower manhattan, we will see those two shafts of blue light that still puts a lump in your throat. To your point, god forbid we have not witnessed a genuine crisis because thats the day you realize the job of National Security adviser in the white house is one of the most consequential in the free world. Absolutely. The fundamental aspects of the job are to bring together the folks from the other agencies, the director of national intelligence, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the secretaries of defense and state and the other cabinet leads and to provide options to the president , to amass the facts, to consult with allies, partners around the world, and to give the president options to respond to a crisis. John bolton had basically become a Cable Tv Commentator in the white house. With no mandate other than to
push his own views and his agenda. Thats what got him crossways but also shows how dysfunctional the National Security process has become under President Trump. Kim, at the start of our broadcast, we showed a piece of video that we didnt explain, and that was while this was all going on, shortly before the announcement, the camera crews that are always camped out in the driveway and the Briefing Room saw john bolton all by his lonesome on his cell phone come out of the Northwest Portico there in the west wing, no marine present, just standing there, still the National Security adviser to the preside president , making a phone call. Next time we heard his name, it was his departure. Kim, you covered this crowd for a long time. Youve talked to a lot of people. Is the lesson of this that if you manage up, your chances at longer tenure are better . Essentially. I mean, this is the white house that is run by President Trump. When he was first elected, there was a lot of talk, particularly when it came to things like the National Security apparatus, that President Trump might be sort of an empty vessel or a blank slate through which others could kind of govern and just use him as a means to get there. Were seeing increasingly that that just isnt the case. President trump likes to surround himself with people, as secretary pompeo said, who he trusts, but the problem is finding people who can trust him and trust that they would listen to his advice and do the job that they allow them to do the job that theyre there to do. President trump is very interested in who contradicts him, particularly publicly. I think this all came to a head, clearly, because of the reports that there was dissension within the white house, not just between bolton and the president , but of dragging the Vice President into it, too,
with news reports suggesting he was on boltons side when it came to that meeting with the taliban leaders that never happened. That seemed to really anger this president. One thing that im hearing from the hill, of course, from a lot of lawmakers, you talked about some of the republicans who were not sad to see bolton go. Certainly the democrats were not fans of bolton. I think Tucker Carlson is wrong there. Theres a lot of theres still a lot of dismay because theyre saying at a time where theres so many big issues in National Security and foreign relations, we have foreign we have Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu, for example, just as all this was happening was claiming that the United States was going to assist him or be cooperate with him in annexing parts of the west bank. Theres a lot going on, and the National Security apparatus is in complete disarray. Theres no sense of whos in charge. The president is Firing People on twitter. And all that makes it very
difficult for the United States to lead. So its a lot of chaos and confusion. Its something that the president doesnt seem to mind so much, but certainly folks on the hill and elsewhere are very concerned about it. Terrific point, where netanyahu is concerned. One of the stories that did get by today. Hey, jeremy, Newspaper Reporters love the expression, being mentioned for the job. Who is being mentioned for the job . I think ive read 10 to 12 names today. Who wants this job, phil . Well, its hard because this person will be the fourth National Security adviser and i think they were worried that their tenure would end badly just as the three predecessors had to worry. There are a couple people throughout the administration. There are some ambassadors currently serving in posts and there are some others from the outside who i guess trump likes their commentary. None of these are sort of the most prominent senior National Security progressfessionals fro
establishment. Someone will fill the job, although i think effectively pompeo will be like kissinger and serve effectively as both Secretary Of State and National Security adviser at the same time. Because everything goes back to henry kissinger. Phil rucker, your paper among those out with new polling and the number is rather shocking. Washington post poll, 38 approve, 56 disapprove. C, cnn poll, 39 approve, 55 disapprove. Either way, thats a long way underwater for a sitting president. Hes shown he has a ceiling thats under 50 , but phil rucker, a lot of people are drawing a clear red line from what weve been covering to numbers like that. Yeah, brian, those numbers are clearly alarming for the president and his Campaign Advisers as they look ahead to the reelection campaign. That is not a good place for any incumbent to be. He, of course, has time to make up ground, but he had an
opportunity this summer to try to, you know, build a Stronger Political foundation and did not do so. It turned out to be in his own advisers telling a summer of selfsabotage and missed opportunities and that in turn has been enraging the president in recent weeks. Its the reason youve seen him ramp up the attacks on twitter and at his rallies against the media, against polling, specifically. He went after that Washington Post abc news poll this morning as somehow inaccurate even though its obviously a Scientific Study of public opinion. And its just a sign, i think, for the trump team that there are some real dangers here as they look ahead to the reelection and they try to, you know, focus on an agenda that can broaden his support. To kimberly atkins, to jeremy bash, to philip rucker, our thanks for starting off our conversation so nicely on this tuesday evening. And coming up for us, the fallout from extracting a cia asset from deep within the
kremlin, apparently. And later, despite a revolving door of departures, the president repeatedly denies any chaos in his administration. All of it as our allies and a adversaries look on with great interest, as you might imagine. All of it as The 11th Hour is just Getting Started on a tuesday night in view of the executive office building. Of course i have ever since i started renting from national. Because national lets me lose the wait at the counter. And choose any car in the aisle. And i dont wait when i return, thanks to drop go. At national, i can lose the wait. And keep it off. Looking good, patrick. I know. vo go national. Go like a pro. Now, theres skyrizi. I have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 3 out of 4 people achieved. 90 clearer skin at 4 months. After just 2 doses. 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. I feel free to bare my skin. Visit skyrizi. Com. Big dreams start with small steps. But dedication can get you there. Easily set, track and control your goals right from the chase mobile® app. Chase. Make more of whats yours®. Hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. Because theres always another team looking to punch one in. A Spectacular Touchdown Grab with nfl redzone from nfl network on xfinity, you get every touchdown from every game on sunday afternoons, all season long. Watch every breakout star, every heartpounding running attack, and every big time defensive stop. Sundays were made for football on xfinity. Thats simple, easy, awesome. Add the Sports Entertainment package for nfl redzone. Click, call, or visit a store today to learn more. A former russian asset who had been living in the Washington Area has been moved to a secret location after his role as an informant to our country came to light this week. New york times reported the man who was one of the cias most important assets was a key to their conclusion, in fact, that putin, himself, ordered the 2016 meddling into our election. The source was extracted from the kremlin in 2017. The times puts it in perspective, and we quote, the move brought to an end the career of one of the cias most important sources. It also effectively blinded american intelligence officials to the view from inside russia as they sought clues about kremlin interference in the 2018 midterm elections and next years president ial contest. Russian state media today identified this potential source, said he did work for the russian government but downplayed the role he had. Here for more, frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director notably for counterintelligence and michael schmidt, Pulitzer Prize winning washington correspondent for the new york times. Frank, in order to have
practiced counterintelligence for as many years as you did, it means knowing a lot about intelligence. How valuable would someone like this have been to us . Brian, this is the kind of human source that you can go an entire career and never be exposed to. To have someone thats called a recruitment in place at this level reportedly with access to Vladimir Putins office is exceptionally rare, and americans through this unfortunate leak are getting a very rare glimpse of the human stakes involved. This human being risked his life, risked his family, to work for our team, for the United States, and reportedly among the information he provided was information detailing putins direct involvement in russian interference with our 2016 president ial election, putins personal desire to see trump
win. Thats the kind of thing that americans need to understand. People whove never read people in the senate, in the house, whove never read the Mueller Report who write it off, laugh it off, as something insignificant, need to understand the human toll and the human side and this story depicts that in great detail. Michael schmidt, does this first of all, the warning from Robert Mueller at the hearing about their current meddling in our political process was one of the few things that came through from that day. That soundbite may be the most repeated in our media. Second, the loss of this asset, has it added to the view, the government types you talk to, that our preparation for their interference in 2020 is either flatflo flatfooted or straightup hampered . Well, whatever information the government had in 2016 that
got them to that conclusion that putin had played a role in trying to tip the scales for trump will not be there coming into the next election. And that just means that the Intelligence Community will be at a huge disadvantage as they try and figure out what is actually going on around the election. And that means that theyll have to rely more on intercepts. That means theyll have to go out and find sources. But developing a source like this takes a very, very long time. Its not just something they can just go out and get. So my sense is that coming into 2020, they will be flying blind in a way that they werent in 2016 because if you remember back to that period of time after trump got elected and the Intelligence Community came out with this document, it was such specific information. The Intelligence Community put its full weight behind this document and you sort of understand why they did that if they had such a good source. So, frank, for our viewers
who have not read into the depths of this story, its reported this asset was close enough to putin, physically, and in his political orbit, to have taken photos of the papers on put putins desk. Having established that, might just use the expression, flying blind. Thats scary enough. If were flying bind is the worstcase scenario that russia also changes its playbook a bit in how they come at us. Yeah, every time you have one of these leakages, and every time you have to exfiltrate a source at this level, you have to understand the Damage Assessment and the adversary will change their methodology in order to try to avoid this kind of detection again. But michael touched on some of the shortterm ramifications. The broader ramifications are not just with russia but imagine now trying to recruit highlevel source from china, north korea,
iran, and they look you in the eye and say, am i going to get exposed on the news . Am i going to be my name provided to the president and might that president leak this information . Isnt this the same President Trump who said he doesnt like Human Sources . Isnt this the same President Trump who said he would never have allowed the cia to recruit kim jonguns halfbrother as a source, so its a difficult time for the intelligence world. Were headed into the 2020 election and we may be facing an intelligence desert. And, mike schmidt, one of the guys youve written a lot about, mr. Flynn, back in Federal Court today looking for all the world kind of cool and rested. Still a free man able to breathe free air. And it had us thinking about asking that question all over again, why all the lies about russia . And is it possible, mike, were
getting further from knowing that answer . Its been three years almost since mike flynn made his false statements to the fbi about his contacts with the russian ambassador. We still, as a public, do not have a great clarity on why he made those statements. We still dont really understand that. And now theres more questions about whats going on. His lawyer saying that he doesnt want to pull out of his Plea Agreement but trying to cast doubt on this case. Its just another Curious Development here. It was only a few months ago that mike flynn had a deal from the government which would recommend no prison time and now that has sort of been all thrown Up In The Air and theyre trying to throw mud at the government on their case here and it just doesnt make sense. So as we see with the story today about the source, issues on russia, counterintelligence, spying, these things take a very long time for any of us to get
clarity. Two of our returning veterans. Our thanks. Frank figliuzzi, michael schmidt, gentlemen, thank you both for coming on tonight. The question one of trumps top advisers called, quote, the most ridiculous question he ever heard, happened today. Well play it for you when we come back. Tech at safelite autoglass, we really pride ourselves on making it easy for you to get your windshield fixed. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace
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nothing. A good many people were getting ready to go to work tomorrow morning in current time. God forbid what happens with this president , this white house staff, if we have a national emergency. Thats where i think the buffoonery, the chaos, the lack of process, the lack of interest in policy detaidetails, trumps inability to recruit and retain mature, experienced, leaders, all comes home to roost because at some point were going to have another National Security event that will require teamwork. It wont require donald trump acting on his own and hes not going to have the people around him he needs to make effective decisions. I thought this press Conference Today that Steve Mnuchin did with mike pompeo was quasi farcical because they came out, i think, in a demonstration of force to say we have a National Security apparatus here and we stand up if for that. Heres the reality. The top two slots at the department of Homeland Security are vacant. The National Security advisory is vacant. Dni is vacant. Theres not a white house appointee atop the army. Theres not a white house appointee atop the air force. As they start an investigation into scotland. As they start an investigation into scotland. Its rudderless. Donald trump like all president s needs advice. Donald trump especially needs advice because hes ill informed and undisciplined. Michael steele, should we stay up late waiting for a lot of reaction to the departure of bolton and fellow republicans calling for rigor in the Selection Process of the fourth National Security adviser if three years time . No, i dont think we should so we can all kind of turn in after this show and get a good nights rest because thats exactly how donald trump wants this to play out. Keep in mind as tim has just laid out, there are several very key important vacancies still in existence in the national
security space, alone. Before you get into other aspects of the government writ large that have an acting in charge or in some cases no one, so thats how trump likes it. Its laughable when you hear him tweet out or see him tweet out that he doesnt like that theres no chaos here. Everything is under control. This is the man who tells us that he thrives in that space. To tims point about being informed and educated and republicans should be concerned about this, particularly given, you know, the question you raised at the beginning about what happens if we have a National Security emergency, is the fact that donald trump does not want to be instructed. He does not want to be informed because he knows it all already. And so we should take comfort from that and i think americans will have to weigh that going into the next Election Cycle whether or not what they hear and see from this president does, in fact, give them comfort, that should another 9 11 happen, god forbid, that this administration would be
able to handle it because right now, it is the the bet would be it would not be. Tim, a good number of people, a lot of them admittedly in newsrooms, Heard The Bolton News this morning and thought, what else is going on that were going to miss while covering this . Susan glasser of The New Yorker tweeted tonight, does anybody remember sharpiegate . We do. Just days ago the president tried to change the weather forecast. And that got us to thinking about his first full day in office when this president , indeed, tried to change the weather. Lets remember together. It was almost raining. The rain should have scared them away, but god looked down and we said were not going to let it rain on your speech. In fact, when i first started, i said, oh, no. First line, i got hit by a couple of drops. And i said, oh, this is this is too bad, but well go right through it. But the truth is that it stopped
immediately. It was amazing and then it became really sunny. Then i walked off and it poured right after i left. It poured. Tim obrien, youve written the guys life story. What have we learned . What we have learned is that donald trump is so counterfactual and in his own sort of Reality Bubble that hes willing and constantly denying the very thing thats right in front of him. And the reason he does it is in part because i think hes remorseless and he doesnt really have a conscience about telling lies. Or misrepresenting whats going on. He does it routinely. I think whats catching up to him now, however, are facts and data. The difference between Inauguration Day and people throwing ponchos or plastic cloths over their heads while hes saying it isnt raining, and whats happening now at the National Weather service is over the last two years hes gotten his hands onto the wheels of the federal government. And he is now bringing other people along with him into this game and its unfortunate and i think it should concern americans of any political stripe because what hes trying to corrupt here is his data and facts. The National Weather service came out in order to keep the residents of alabama calm in the interest of Public Safety to say, no, theres a storm not coming here. Trump said there was. This absurd sharpiegate debate ens ensued. Were in the ninth day of it at this point. And trump pushed it so far so get the head of noaa to come out on his behalf and say, the National Weather service was wrong, mr. President , you were right. Even though the data and the facts show that not to be true. And that actually ties together a lot of the events weve seen over the last week. Mike pence staying at doonbeg, the air force staying at turnberry, bill barr deciding to have his Christmas Party at the trump white house. All of these various institutional players are essentially kowtowing to the president either by not observing the fact pattern or
paying him this sort of patronage in order to please him and thats not the way Good Government is meant to run. And to me, thats not even a partisan or ideological issue. We should run a government by the facts. You have a president whos not only ignoring the facts, hes trying to deceive the public. Michael steele, lets back the bus right up and go over it again. Perhaps lost in the argument over crowd size is the fact that his first day in office, the president said it didnt rain during his inauguration speech. All those pictures on the righthand side including 43 shrink wrapped were during the course of the inauguration speech. Nothing was time shifted forward or back. Remarkable to look back on. Yeah. Between marco rubio and george bush 43, it was priceless moments of, like, yeah, its kind of raining out here, but, again, i think tim laid it out the absolute correct way. Its counterfactual. It is a narrative that is created from the very first day on that podium looking at the nation. He started this Reality Television presidency. And every day theres a new episode and within those episodes there are episodes at times, and so if truth and numbers, facts, and information comes out thats contrary to that, he is going to consistently and insistently say that this is the truth as i see it. And then you get the sycophants who value their job and pleasing donald trump more than they do serving the American People will come out and say what they say and host parties at his hotel and claim that, oh, yeah, we always land the planes 2,000 miles out of the way or we always take the president ial the Vice President ial party and plant them 130 miles away from the event because thats thats more cost effective. I mean, it just doesnt make any
sense, but in his world, it does. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us over the break. Coming up, you may have heard last night, we put it this way, there are two kinds of impeachment. Regular and diet. Which kind do you think the democrats are serving up right about now . [narrator] do you remember that day . That day you met your hero . Ms. Bird, do you think i could be a champion like you . Of course you can. And you can call me sue. [jibber] Jibber Jabber, coming through salutations, famous female of orange round ball. Would you like an autograph . [jabber] excuse me. Crowd Muttering [woman] is that paper mache . Its you. [woman] wow. [narrator] Jibber Jabber ruins everything. Is it . [woman] i am confused. [narrator] at Symetra Life Insurance Company were cutting through it, to help you choose the Retirement Benefits and Life Products that work best for you. For a restless nights sleep. Apain settleducts theres a better choice. Aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12hour painrelieving strength of aleve that dares to last into the morning. So you feel refreshed. Aleve pm. Theres a better choice. My body is truly powerful. I have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. Because i can still make my own insulin. And trulicity activates my body to release it like its supposed to. Trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes. Its not insulin. I take it once a week. It starts acting in my body from the first dose. Trulicity isnt for people with Type 1 Diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Dont take trulicity if youre allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, or severe stomach pain. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin
increases low blood sugar risk. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. I have it within me to lower my a1c. Ask your doctor about trulicity. The president s resorts are hotels that he owns. People are traveling. Its just like any other hotel. I know people will look at it, i dont know that thats different than anything else. Is it different than if i go and stay or eat at a marriott here or eat at the trump . The president isnt asking me to. Hes competing in a private enterprise. Its nothing something he controls in that process, so if if its in the process, they can stay there. May have sounded like the trivago guy but thats the top
republican in the house of representatives. Our two guests remain with us for this conversation. Tim obrien, what do you make of that you can stay in a marriott or a trump hotel . Heres the difference, brian. The man or woman running the marriott isnt the boss of the attorney general, the Vice President , or the head of the air force. The person running the marriott is not the head of Kevin Mccarthys party. Whether or not the president of the United States is directing any of these people to patronize his hotels at a bare minimum, the fact that they go there creates a very bad look. Its atmospherically wrong. It looks like youre patronizing the president to line his wallet. Even if youre not. At a minimum, thats a problem. The reality is this cant be far from anybodys mind that it might make good sense for them to go to a trump hotel. We know that when mike pence first went to doonbeg, his own chief of staff, mark short, said he decided to look at doonbeg because the president suggests to him, hey, youre going to be
in ireland, you might as well stay at my hotel in doonbeg even though its 125 miles west of dublin and far from where most of your meetings are going to be. Pence later walked that back and said the president didnt push any of that along. This is all Conflict Of Interest issues that hung over trump when he got inaugurated coming home to roost. And by the way, a lot of those people are staying at properties, particularly the ones in scotland, that are losing money so it also raises the question of whether or not hes using taxpayers funds to put the military up at his hotel to help his bottom line. Hey, michael steele, im watching Meet The Press Daily today as all good americans should and i hear chuck todd with an explanation of what the democrats are up to that was unique to my eyes and unsparing, so we have put it on the screen and were going to all read it together. And it begins the House Judiciary Committee is launching an Impeachment Investigation for the purpose of investigating the possibility of an Impeachment Inquiry. Now theyre taking a big step to
formalize the rules of the Impeachment Inquiry that doesnt officially exist yet but one the democrats say now its gone past me theyve been doing and theyre now going to do more seriously to potentially recommend articles of impeachment to the white house which the senate is not going to consider no matter what. Or to put it more succinctly, congress is back in session. Michael, what is this were looking at . Because speaker of the house is not impeaching the president. They dont know what theyre doing. They dont know. I mean, come on. That is the worst word salad you could possibly come up with. I have no idea what that means. I dont think anybody knows what that means. The fact of the matter is no ones talking about impeachment. I mean, youre going to bring this conversation up again, thats fine, maybe maybe a lot of folks on the Progressive Left are really still hyped up about it. Just do the work. Just come back, put some good bills on the table that forces both sides to have to push this president to make decisions and lay out your case for next year. All year. All of this other stuff is just at this point i think, brian, a lot of noise and confusion like that paragraph or two that you just read. Two guys who have done the work. Returning veterans tim obrien, michael steele. Gentlemen, thank you. As always, for coming on. And coming up, North Carolina held a special election tonight. We have Steve Kornacki at the big board after this. Fact is, every Insurance Company hopes you drive safely. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Yesss, im doing it all. The water. The exercise. The fiber. Month after month, and i still have belly pain and recurring constipation. So i asked my doctor what else i could do, and i said yesss to linzess. Linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. Linzess is not a laxative, it works differently. It helps Relieve Belly Pain and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. Do not give linzess to children less than 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to less than 18, it may harm them. Do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include gas, stomach area pain, and swelling. Im still doing it all. The water. The exercise. The fiber. And i said yesss to linzess
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projected winner tonight. North carolina, 9th Congressional District. The battle of the dans. Bishop Running Against Mccready for the democrats. Mccreadys second time out. If youll recall, State Officials would not certify the results of this race when they ran it in 2018. Thats after evidence surfaced of an illegal scheme by the campaign of mark harris, who ran as the republican, the last time around. Bottom line, a red district since the era of kennedy stays red, but we have Steve Kornacki to look at how it all went down at the big board. Hey, steve. Hey, brian. Its a fascinating story here. What happened in this district. You mentioned the bottom line, dan bishop the republican wins this district by two points. Will now represent it in the house. This was in 2016 a trump district, a big trump district. The president won this thing by double digits in 2016. Comes down to a twopoint republican victory. Tonight why was it close . Why was the republican ultimately able to prevail . There were two different storylines that kind of c converged in this district tonight and eech of them is a microcosm of what we talk about nationally. One of the stories was right here in the suburbs that circle might even be too big, the area im talking about. The densely populated suburbs of south charlotte, about a third of this district is in Mecklenburg County. And this is that we talk about it all the time. Higher income, College Educated suburbs. A place that trump won that portion of the district by three points in 2016. Mccready tonight wins it by 13 points. So thats the kind of swing weve been seeing in metro areas, suburban areas across the country, in the trump era, away from the republicans, toward the democrats. If you had said it at the start of the night, thats where mccready was going to end up in Mecklenburg County, you might have thought mccready was going to win the election outright. Why didnt he . Why did bishop survives . Its the other major storyline in american politics. We saw here. And that is the rural vote. The eastern part of this district when you get away from charlotte, you get away from the
suburbs, these are more blue collar, rural, exurban areas. Thats where the election day vote, half the votes early vote, half the votes election day in North Carolina. It was the election day vote, folks who went out in the rural parts of this district came through big for bishop the republicans. Does it have something to do with the rally trump held on election eve in this district . Thats certainly possible. But it was a big rural turnout. Republican turnout for bishop. Big suburban turnout for mccready. Two different storylines. Bottom line twopoint win for the republican. Steve, stay right where you are. I want to expand this conversation by one to include bill kristol a veteran of the reagan and bush administrations editor at large of the bulwark. Bill happens to be teaching this semester at Davidson University in North Carolina. Lucky for those students. Also lucky for us to bring in bill to talk about this from North Carolina. So bill, i heard it said tonight on Cable Television that a 5149 win for the republicans in this
district will send such worrisome signals about the suburban vote to sitting members of congress that were going to see another round of retirements. Do you concur or should it not be viewed that harshly . Its possible. If you represent a District Like davidsons just outside the district. But ive been there a day or two a week. Ive seen the race fairly up close. I think steves analysis is exactly right. The suburban swing wasnt quite big enough to offset the rural swing the other way. There was also some underperformance among minority voters for the democrat in the district. But at the end of the day The Big Picture, the forest as opposed to the trees, an 11 or 12point margin for romney and for trump goes to a twopoint margin for the trumplike candidate, the trump for whom trump came in this district. Obviously you cant extrapolate exactly from that. Mccreadys a more moderate democrat than the democrats are likely to nominate nationally. Trump is maybe a better candidate than bishop. But i would say just stepping
back and looking at The Big Picture if this happens across the nation trump is not going to get reelected. If this happens across North Carolina trump wont carry the state. That is to say, trump carried the state by four points last time when he won the district by 11 or 12. So if he wins the district only by two, hell lose the state. If he wins the district by five or six, hell lose the state. So i think, you know, democrats would be very disappointed. Mccready was a very good candidate i think and would have been in my opinion a good congressman. But nonetheless, if things go where we are now is not a good place for trump or for the Republican Party. Hey, bill, i just wanted to give you a headsup. The leader of the free world who for the record tweeted out a cat video Saturday Night is now on the board having tweeted this. Just this. Trump 2024. Your reaction. Well, maybe he expects to lose in 2020 and then hell run again in 2024. Ive always wondered everyone assumes if trump loses in 2020 were done with him, but why do we think that . Bill kristol, thank you. Steve kornacki, thats why they pay bill kristol the big bucks. Steve, this broader question. And i know you never do opinion. But if youre looking for danger signs for the Republican Party in the american suburbs writ large, i know a guy like you could find them. Its right there. Its Mecklenburg County. Its that we could zoom in here. I say its geographically tiny. Its right here. Look, dan mccready, its a 12point win for dan mccready. This is actually better than mccready did last november in this part of the district. He won it by 10 then. He wins it by 12 tonight. In this same slice of the district im showing you right here trump won by three in 2016. So this is an area densely populated area that trump was able to carry as a candidate but as president twice now in a Congressional Election its gone double digits for the democrat. If you have that happening in Mecklenburg County and you have that happening in places like that across the country thats a big trouble sign. Were flattered to have you both, gentlemen