what bannon says on capitol hill, among people in power and leadership and things like that. i m not sure anybody in the quote/unquote establishment cares what he has to say and i think people rightly or wrongly think they re in the position in alabama because of bannon and i don t think that s a fair read of the situation but, again, i don t think there are many people on capitol hill waiting to take queues from steve bannon. annie, let s talk about this poll. it shows that democrat roy jones democrat there doug jones, excuse me, has opened up an 8-point lead. do you buy that poll, annie? you know what? two things. one i will say on the poll, i do buy it. i think that there s been a number of polls, one from a republican committee saying something quite similarly and hearing some of the campaigns internal polls are showing a similar picture.
election we saw a lot of folks who perhaps wouldn t necessarily tell a pollster that they would be willing to vote for an extremely controversial candidate. trippy was saying that their internal polls at least, for what this is worth, put the race in single digits before any of this came up with roy moore and you have to remember that roy moore, you know, he has been elected statewide before. but in 2012, he only won by a couple of points. i mean, it wasn t some sort of overwhelming blowout so, you know, it does suggest the fundamentals are there for sort of a more of an even race than we would think of when you think of alabama. we ll have to leave it there. annie, jake, enjoy the weekend to both of you. thank you. thank you. we have some breaking news in russ investigation. the publicist to set up the don jr. meeting with the russians to allegedly get dirt on hillary clinton, he is now ready to talk to robert mueller. we have the exclusive reporting
of their support until they get somebody further right than him, like judge moore? alabama is not an example of those voters moving away from president trump. he still remains their leader in spirit but he s not their director and that s a really key distinction. they re not taking queus from this white house and if you re a republican on capitol hill, he can t pull strange across the finish line and then you start to wonder if maybe i should retire. we saw senator corker say that yesterday. others, i m told, are mulling the same. let me go to annie linsky. is there a republican party? there s mitch mcconnell, he s there, but he seems to have no relationship to the president. the president would rather deal with his fellow new yorker chuck schumer and have chinese with him out of those little white boxes, he s more at home with him than this guy from kentucky. i don t even know what he does anymore. he can t pass anything.
circuses. he thinks our reporting is that he thinks this nfl controversy, which he has stoked, is actually good for him. this is a country that s dividing the country that thinks it s to his political benefit. route 40 on a friday night, the guys on the stools telling us i think you may be right. there may be a mix on this. robert, eli, annie, what a trio. coming up, the devastation in puerto rico is massive, unfortunately, and the trump administration is pushing back against the growing criticism but is it doing enough? even republicans are warning about it. we ll talk to the governor of the puerto rico, next. plus, roy moore s victory in alabama challenges the republican party as we know it. trump has helped create something on the right, something that he can t control. the question is whether democrats can exploit the republicans lunch republican republicans lurch on the right. and tom price used private
the enthusiasm towards has campaign. for more i m joined by round table tonight, the boston globe s annie linsky, washington post columnist eugene robinson and a usa today senior political recorder, heidi. let s start here. if all we get is that little squeezy statement from the fbi director. i think if that s it, and i don t think it will be it, i think there will be more, i think comey s going to have to talk, but i think this ultimately blows over and the election is still advantage clinton. i mean no loss in points? maybe she loses a little bit because of voter suppression, maybe there are some of those republicans that were maybe going to vote for her and they decided to stay home instead and that goes advantage to trump ultimately. but yeah, it s bad, but i don t know that it s game changing or outcome changing. so the news suppresses as well as republicans. i never heard the word used like that.