Nbc news characterizing that race for governor as too early to call with the polls closed. Democrats are bracing themselves for a comforting victory, where, of course, another devastating defeat. Recent polling has shown northam with a slight edge but within the margin of error. Gillespie, an aid to george b. Push, is trying to help his establishment bonifides. If he wins, he can provide fellow republicans how to campaign in theably of trump. Lets get the very latest from the race from our own steve kornacki. Steve what do we know . Well, it was 7 00. The polls closed in new jersey. We were an hour away. As you just showed. We have no actual votes in just yet. What can we show you from the exit polls . Lets look at a few of the key questions, we can tackle there. First of all, see if we can call up the areas. Okay. That should call it up. Here we go, the trump factors,
starting in virginia, the president , his Approval Rating, clocks in at 43 , by comparison, last time they had a gover
like here. hold on. all they want to do is impede. they want to investigate. they want to go fishing. and i watched bob mule. and they have nothing. there is no collusion. there is no obstruction. they have nothing. it s a disgrace. so the president, max, is talking about people who were impeding and the word disgrace was used there. i m going to put the irony aside for a second, max, and ask you what s your reaction to the president s reaction. well, it s kind of typical donald trump. i mean, it didn t matter what was happening. he is going to claim a victory anyway. after the mueller report came out, which was the most damning indictment of a sitting president i think we ve ever seen from any special counsel in u.s. history, listing these tenets of obstruction of justice
mueller got he said i did not exonerate him, and he said no, i did not conclude that there was no obstruction. and then adam schiff got bob mule tore say the behavior of seeking out and accepting assistance from a foreign power was unpatriotic, wrong, unethical, and, in fact, a crime. there was so much weight put on bob mueller by democrats. they expected him to bring new light, new life to this report, and to somehow change the national conversation. what was your view not just of his performance but of the substance of what we heard yesterday. let me take the second part first. nothing about the substance changed. mueller told us two months ago that if he were to testify, and he didn t want to, but if he were to testify, his report would be his testimony. and so what you saw in pieces yesterday was just his report. right? so the fact that the president wasn t exonerated, it was in the report. the fact that russia massively
and not just trying to react to what happens on a wednesday morning in this summer. now, kasie hunt, this is all a very measured approach by nancy pelosi. i can see how many would find that frustrating when there s such obvious signs of legitimate reasons to start proceedings right now. but isn t the next step to continue in making that case? to bring don mcgahn forward to testify? to gather that information and have a complete case? it takes time. nancy pelosi wants donald trump to not be president of the united states anymore, and she thinks the best way to do it is to beat him in 2020 as bob was laying out, there s no real end game here for getting the president out of office with an impeachment inquiry. that s simply not what s going to happen. so if you re nancy pelosi, you re looking at the entire map. you may be focussed on the state
mcgahn finally to testify? they keep asking each other inside of the house democratic chamber? when are they going to get him to make an illustrated case against the president on that front? among republicans they feel like they ve escaped politically. they know the democrats are going after the president s finances and his conduct. inside the white house you have a president that wants to use this mueller investigation and the house democrats as a foil. but he does not have a real plan yet to address russian interference and foreign interference in the 2020 campaign, and the republicans refusal to move forward with certain pieces of legislation like the secure elections act in the senate and leader mcconnell s refusal to bring up certain pieces of bipartisan legislation, that s a message democrats are hoping to drive the white house so yes. bob, the president, we heard the white house was happy, but the president seemed agitated at