But the special elections that weve had so far in the trump era to replace those four people who left the house in order to join the administration, those have been interesting races so far. Republicans held on to both ryan zinke state and the mike pompeo state in kansas. But in both of those cases voters swung double digits in the democrats direction. Compared to novembers election result with bs the democrat in the Montana District did like 14 points better than the president ial race had gone for democrats in that state. In the kansas race, the kansas democrat did 20 points better than the democrats had done in the president ial results in that district. So 14point democratic swing, a 20point democratic swing. In both of those cases, though, those seats were republican enough that even swings that much in the democrats direction were not enough to flip the seat and the republicans ultimately won both of those races in montana and in kansas. Now, tonight its South Carolina and georgia. And South Carolina, it is considered to be another race that on paper at least would be very hard for a democrat to win. This is a race to fill the seat that was vacated by former South Carolina congressman Mick Mulvaney. When it came to the president ial race in that district in november, trump won there by 18 points. Now tonight this is the results that weve got so far. In that South Carolina race. Again this is the 5th Congressional District. Ralph norman, a real estate developer. Heys the republican candidate in the race right now. Hes at 51 . The democratic candidate in the race is archie parnell. This is a significant portion of the vote in here, 71 of the vote in. But its a threepoint race between them. Again this was a district that trump won by 18 points. Right now with 71 of the vote in, the republican in that race is only winning by three points. Now its an interesting district. Republican Mick Mulvaney held that seat comfortably for, i think, three terms. But before him, as recently as 2010, this seat in South Carolina, House District 5 was held by a democrat named john separat sprat. It has been a sleeper race compared to what is really the marquee event tonight. This is the race in suburban atlanta, georgias 6th district. This is the seat that was previously held by Donald TrumpsControversial Health secretary, tom price. Now democrats in contrast to that South Carolina race, democrats have thrown in as much as they could to try to help their democrat candidate in georgia 6, john of of. Running against republican georgia former secretary of state karen handle. Tonight is actually a runoffelection in georgia. There was a first round in april. 18 different candidates ran. Jon ossoff won by such a margin that he almost won the seat right there that night. For want of 2 Percentage Points in april, he was ultimately forced into tonights runoff by him and karen handle. Its interesting. Read a lot of the nationwide commentary on this today and i think people are really focused on how much effort democrats have put into this race, and they certainly have, everything from party money to prominent democrats getting involved in doing what they can to activists all over that district, all over that state and in some cases all over the country. But republicans have bent over backwards for karen handle as well. In a race that republicans you wouldnt think would have to work this hard to win. But karen handle has had inperson visits from National Republicans including House Speaker paul ryan and from the president himself who also recorded robocalls and wrote tweets in support of karen handles campaign. This district in georgia encompasses the northern suburbs of atlanta. Its considered a solidly republican district for years. Held by a republican since 1979. The last time there was a congressional seat a congressional race in this district back in november, tom price won reelection by 24 points. Before tom price held that seat it was held for two decades by former House Speaker newt gingrich. Its a republican seat. But georgia 6 is also an affluent welleducated district. They only went for trump over clinton in november by the narrow margin of less than 2 points. In terms of whats going to happen tonight, its rally anybo really anybodys guess. The 6th district was pounded by torrential rain most of the day. We also know there was heavy turnout in early voting, people who voted before election day, today. But in a special election like this with unpress dented amounts of spending in this race and National Attention and local dynamics, nobody is quite sure how to extrapolate from that big early vote to what the vote results will be at the end of the night tonight. Obviously it is still early. As it stands right now, theres about 46 of the vote in and it could bnt any close are. Karen handle at 50. 2 , jon ossoff at 49. 8 . Look at the raw numbers to see. Its just less than 500 votes between them at this point out of 120,000 votes cast. Right now super tight but again, not yet half of the vote in. For a better look at whats happening and whether or not we can logically extrapolate from the vote that we do have in, were going to bring in now were the great Steve Kornacki. He will be honchoing the big board tonight. Thank you for being here. I love these things. Youre good at these. Tell us what we can tell from the results so far. We can see some interesting signs here. If youre a democrat supporter, ominous signs. Karen handle leading the vote that we have. Take a closer look at the district. Heres what you have to be worried about if youre a democrat looking at these results right now. It looks like the vote that is left to come in is disproportionately going to be from right here, cobb county. This is the conservative heart of the base. This is the votes that will being tabulated today, cast today, karen handle is leading by 16 points. This is where youre probably proportionately speaking youre probably going to have the highest total of sameday votes. Where ossoff got into the lead earlier tonight, he has had a very big margin, 60 of if early vote in dekalb county. However the sameday vote that were seeing right now, true across the district, handle doing better in the same day vote than the early vote. If youre jon ossoff, the bottom line right now the returns, well see what hapts as we get more. But you probably wanted to see a bigger number in the early vote. He got 60 in dekalb. He probably wanted to be up 64 , 65 . Somewhere around there in the early vote. He actually was under 50 in the early vote in Fulton County. He probably wanted to be winning that outright. As i say, promorportionately speaking, a small number of votes. So all of those signs right now ive been talking to some republicans who feel good about this. If youre a democrat, youre nervous. But there are still a lot of votes out there. Its a volatile election. Weve never seen a special election like this for a lot of reasons. Weve been surprised before on Election Nights. You put it up there in South Carolina, the South Carolina 5th district, the republican leading by 3 points. Republicans feeling a little better on this. I have just been told that the Associated Press just now called that race in South Carolina for the republican, for ralph norman. The area that was outstanding, one republican county and also the rock hill area, outside charlotte. So it looks like this thing is going to tick up if this got to a 6, 7point win for norman in this district. But as you say, this is a district, last year wu were upwards of 20 points in the president ial election. Its one that democrats will certainly want to brag about getting closer but of course the other story tonight is republicans are saying democrats when are you going to put a win on the board and again that comes back to georgia. Well see as the votes come in. Let me underscore what you said on this georgia race. When the Fulton County numbers started coming in, thats when it seemed to me that the m thes got shaky in terms of what theyre expecting from ossoff. Did they expect that he would g ahead in Fulton County and ahead by a lot. Fulton county is half of the district. Its the biggest county. The closest of a swing county of these three. If youre a democrat, your target overall was 50 . You wanted ossoff to crack 50 . Were talking 49. 9 . You wanted to be at 50 of all of the votes. If youre a democrat youre saying the advantage is the early votes. Were going to run up a bigger score in the early vote. Heres the problem. In the early vote at least in the inperson early vote, doesnt count the mailin ball lots, 48. 6 for ossoff. I think the expectation from democrats is youre north of 50 in the early vote, it comes down with the same day. Instead they got 69 68. 6 in the early vote. And at least from the precincts weve seen so far has had karen handle leading in the same day. As i say, the fact that cobb county disproportionately is underrepresented at this point. If there was a turnout effect from the bad weather today in the district, does that have any partisan implications that you could foresee in terms of what was expected for same day election day voting rather than the early vote . It all depends. There have been anecdotal reports. And ive heard republicans saying this. That the turnout this is where if youre ossoff you want to get 60 , 61 of the vote. He got 60 in dekalb. There have been reports that the turnout in dekalb less than expected. Well see in that turns out. Be thats something else. Obviously if you get into an election like this where its going to be decided by a point or two, you could blame anything, whichever side you turn up on. Whatever we say about the anecdotal information weve got about election day, weeks later when we finally get the real turnout numbers, it always turns out what you can see on election day take it with a huge grain of salt. Anecdotes are worth as far as you can throw them. Let me tell you that we have got the a. P. Associated press calling the race in South Carolina tonight. Thats the race to fill the seat vacated by South Carolina republican congressman Mick Mulvaney. The ap projected that ralph norman the republican would win that race. Nbc news projecting that ralph norman, the republican candidate in South Carolinas 5th district will be the winner of that race. Thats cooked in terms of that having a projected winner. It will be interesting to watch the numbers as they continue to come in, even though there has already been a call. And thats because democrats will be watching those margins. This was a very republican district. Donald trump won comfortably by double digits. Ar think parnell was able to come in close there. Democrats didnt spend much to help him unlike in georgia where both sides have spent so much, that in georgia that is the most expensive congressional race that has ever been conducted in our country. Were going to continue to watch to votresults from the voting tonight. Ive got other news to bring you, including this late breaking news from the the New York Times. Plus an exclusive tonight about something thats going to get very very unfrt kcomfortable in court. Concerning trump and his business ties. Thats all ahead tonight. Thats all ahead tonight. Stay with us. When it hurts, it hurts. When i cant do something, it makes me feel isolated. With aleve, you can stay strong longer because only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Tylenol cant do that. I get to be present and enjoy what i love. This is my pain. But i am stronger. Aleve. All day strong. All day long. Nits softer than ever. New charmin ultra soft is softer than ever so its harder to resist. Okay, this is getting a little weird enjoy the go with charmin were keeping an eye on the results from the voting tonight in georgias 6th Congressional District. Repeating the notice, most the Associated Press and nbc news projected a winner the other special election tonight. The win held in South Carolina. Both the Associated Press and nbc news projecting that the republican in that South Carolina race will win. But i also want to bring you some breaking news tonight as were continuing to watch the results come in from georgia. We got breaking news late tonight from the the New York Times and it concerns cia director mike pompeo. Mike pompeo has been an increasingly interesting figure in the trump russia investigation. One of the key allegations related to possible obstruction of justice by the president , which were told is the subject of investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, one of the key allegations is that the president may have asked the director of National Intelligence, dan coats, if he would intervene with the fbi to try to stop their russia investigation. Now, when that was first reported this month by the washington post, the post also reported that cia director mike pompeo was in the room, he was in the oval office with trump and the director of National Intelligence dan coats when the president allegedly made that request. That coats should intervene with the fbi. Now thats interesting. In terms of trying to corroborate that allegation. If mike pompeo was the witness to it, presumably investigators would hawant to hear frim him a to whether or not he could corroborate that allegation. After that story came out we reported that the leaders of the Senate Judiciary committee had asked mike pompeo whether the white house talked to him, whether the white house had ever talked to anybody at the cia about the fbi dropping the investigation into general flynn. We reported last week that cia director mike pompeo missed the deadline for responding to that question from congress. He just did not respond. Well tonight we have this brandnew reporting from the New York Times about cia director mike pompeo and Trump National security adviser mike flynn. It concerns the what happened during the 18 days between the time that salary yates warned the white house that mike flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. What happened between the time of that warning and the white house fired him. Despite concern that flynn could be black mailed he was privy to cia secrets. That tells you a big part of what theyre reporting tonight. Quote, mr. Pompeo was sworn in three days before sally yates went to the white house. He testified last month that he can dp didnt know what was said at that sally yates meeting. By that time c rks airks officials had attended meetings with fbi agents about mr. Flynn and reviewed the transcripts of flynns conversations with the Russian Ambassador, according to several current and former american suttecurity officials. They knew that they were looking at a quote compromised situation. A situation where the National Security adviser could be black mailed from the russians. Continuing from the times report tonight, quote, mr. Trump waited 18 days from that warning from sally yates before he fired mike flynn. During that period mime pompeo, director of the cia continued to brief mike flynn and the president. He continued to deliver the president s daily brief, that highly classified intelligence briefing every day for every one of those days to the president and to mike flynn. Now if cia officers had been privy to not just the warning from sally yates that she gave the white house, but if cia officers were also priviley to special intelligence that led to that warning, if they had reviewed the transcripts of flynns conversations with the Russian Ambassador that he was apparently not telling the truth about, if the cia had that granular level knowledge about what might flynn had done wrong and what he might have been lying about in regard to his contacts with the russians, then why did the director of the cia keep giving him the secret information of the government for nearly three weeks . Well, the white house went on including general flynn in that top secret daily briefings, conducted for the president by cia director mike pompeo all that time. Now the question. Did mike pompeo personally know the concerns about mike flynn when he continued with those briefings . Did the cia director know there was a compromised situation for the National Security advisor while he kept giving the potentially compromised official very secret information . The the New York Times tonight reports one Unnamed Administration official says that whether or not mike pompeo knew personally about the concerns of mike flynn, he hadnt told the president about those concerns. This is very serious stuff. It has remained sort of an interesting, at least for me, an increasing point of focus as to why mike pompeo has not been asked directly in open session about these things that he was apparently in on as this very serious stuff unfolded at the white house, these allegations about dan coats and now the questions of why he was still giving t