if you went to the rallies at heart and he said pipe bombs to twelve people who trump targeted by name. these are nuts these are crazy not to. listen we look at we can't stop people from supporting the things we do we can't stop people who look at our t.v. stations that a lot of nuts watch us or you know how you can stop accepting violent hate filled things that are inciting these people if trump stop saying globalist stop blaming george soros for caravans stop talking about how he likes to reporters who a beaten up and stops talking about enemies of the people maybe some people wouldn't take those words and turn to violence as well maybe you have maxine waters eric holder and the rest of the democrat who is true would stop doing the same thing really ok if you want to me can you point to me a terrorist attack carried out by a supporter of maxine waters please why you know why the terrorist attack all right could be small or big i think going into a restaurant and you have your wife and kids there and a little of a eleven if you wish what i think what happened down seriously i think no no no i

recall it if i'm not saying it's a quote sounds on raising it because because you're saying that what people are saying little people are saying that maxine waters is never inspired in any way a terrorist attack i must you to clarify for me and you all you've got is rest. they've they've they've inspired violence what happened recently with tucker carlson's home a teacher went to his home and terrorized you want to use or terror terrorize the wife and kids and is that what you're telling me what hope is being sent in the mail to all of them is the worst not and stop raising if it's not the same thing let me also say this let's just let's circle back as we finish this interview but to the midterms are we going to see a change donald trump post these midterms post these losses in the house governor losses or is it impossible for donald trump to change given changing political circumstances well i think he already indicated and he has been consistent about this reaching across the aisle will he change he will not change with regard to his

determination to keep america first but saying that even though he had some olive branch. is thrown across the aisle to the republicans and to the president so maybe just maybe and maybe we could at least hope for this that they'll all come together and do what's right for the country the democrats want to be successful the president is a strong willed individual he's been successful so far hopefully everybody's going to come together and do what's right for the country under his leadership see even religious and not know we'll have to leave it that thanks for joining me on up front. it's a pleasure thank you very much. on tuesday american voters delivered a check on president donald trump's power with the opposition democrats retaking control of the house of representatives for the first time in eight years but the senate remained in the hands of the republicans who increased their majority so what could democrats actually now do to rein in this president who just fired his attorney general joining me to discuss this all a sabrina siddiqi political reporter for the guardian u.s. based in washington d.c.

the staff writer for the atlantic covering american politics and policy from florida republican political strategist trouble critic and author of the book everything trouble touches dieties thank you all for joining me. sabrina to start with you the attorney general just session straight after these midterm results came in is the united states in the middle of a constitution of course on the verge of a constitutional crisis where we are we're only on the crisis spectrum well the president left little doubt that the reason he fired jeff sessions was because of his frustration with the rush hour probe he said that jeff sessions the decision he made to recuse himself because sessions had not disclosed his own contacts with the russians or in between sixteen campaign said that was his primary source of i or he obviously wants more control over the direction of this investigation i think it's the first step that he's laid out in the path toward potentially firing the special counsel that of course is what i think would trigger then that your constitutional

crisis and i don't think anyone is holding their breath about the prospect of republicans taking any action to rein this president in. a big piece for the atlantic about how jeff sessions is cracking down on civil rights eroding civil rights in this country which is what trump basically wanted him to do an issue that he had with jeff sessions a lot of people on the left are happy to see jeff sessions gone but they're not happy the way he's been got rid of the reasons he's got it is not fair to say others it's fair to say. a lot of them seem to be tempering. optimism because it all depends who will be named as jeff sessions real successor it's very possible that we could have even more trump asst type who goes into that office who is a loyalist who is going to crack down more at the border and who is going to advocate more sort of open police brutality as sessions and trump have done really well so you made a name for yourself being a critic of your own party in this age of trump the democrats now control the house

of representatives do you have faith in your former opponents the democrats do you have faith that nancy pelosi the new speaker elect that this party is right for this moment is able to hold to account in the way that you clearly want him to be held to account. well i think we have to hope that they are confident in their gauging in serious and probing efforts to hold truck to account across the whole spectrum of issues not only the russia probe but the corruption the syndicate throughout this of ministration and look i would have preferred as a conservative i prefer conservator already did their job but the conservative majority declined to do their job they declined to act like a co-equal branch of government for two and a half years and instead they acted as if they work for donald trump and so they face the electoral consequences of that because they have right now the republicans are complicit in donald trump's behavior and his is lawbreaking and explain to

a global audience watching the show how much of a obstacle the democrats faced in terms of the voting system in terms of the voter laws we saw a long lines at some polling stations in places like georgia how hard was it for the democrats to win this just win this majority analysis given the way that the election system is set up in this country well i think explaining all the difficulties in our lesson system we may not have enough time to do that but if you look at it from beginning to end say what it takes for a voter in georgia to get to the polls you have to register which is not a universal thing across different countries you have to have voter id has to be strict photo voter id in georgia you know they had lots of difficulties with people who were voting absentee who were mail in ballots there were polling places that have shifted. under secretary of state brian camp george is close something in order of ten percent of all the polling locations in the last five years so lots of people really rural states have to travel longer now to go vote and that's

all before we get to the long lines before we get to now there is a there are thousands of provisional ballots that have just been placed in a box there are people who are saying listen i was running for governor in georgia it was right in the election we have multiple states now where secretaries of state who are administering their elect. and there are also running for governor just very interested as you cool us elections freedom for no. i don't think the justice department will consider. the question i have is other democrats up to this moment nancy pelosi the speaker elect is now taking charge again of the house she said on election night we're going to react with bipartisanship is going to be a bipartisan marketplace of ideas a lot of democrats are thinking hold on you know these elections don't look so free and you've now fired the attorney general there could be is this really the moment to be trying to do business as usual trying to go but the good old days of bipartisanship when some would argue the american republic the american democracy is at stake well that pledge of bipartisanship will fall apart the moment that the

president tweets something outrageous and then it takes democrats on a different track he's constantly talked up a big game about pursuing a bipartisan infrastructure deal we haven't seen a serious proposal from the white house in nearly two years now i think the challenge for democrats is really going to be staying on message and not going after every shiny object because as we know the president is very limited what is the message while i think that one is going to be restoring a check and balance through the investigative powers that congress has which gives already to subpoena documents and witnesses the white house is preparing for an onslaught of investigations it's not just about the firing of james komi potentially jeff sessions and interfere with the mother probe it's also looking into his business dealings in moscow potentially subpoenaing his tax returns with supposedly has not seen misuse of taxpayer dollars by several cabinet officials in this administration looking at some of the ethics violations potentially in the

white house the way that the trump organization has potentially profited off the office that the family now holds and if anything what that does is it reinforces many of the avenues that republicans did not pursue because they did not want to pick a fight with the president that may now well change is there anything that came out of these midterms this week that you think will give republicans pause make them think you know what maybe we shouldn't souls to the trump wagon as closely as we have. well a lot of the folks to have had a pause already were forty four retirements and now well under thirty five defeats those folks have all learned. better where you fall on the spectrum donald trump is political poison unless you were in the deepest of red areas that we don't have many swing seat republicans left anymore and will hurt in texas one of the only ones who survived almost everybody else who either opposed trump that he was insulting from the podium like me a lot. or who strongly favor trump like kris kobach they got their tails handed to

them and the fact of the matter is once you become somebody who is not defined by principles or policies or politics of the republican party or the conservative movement you become to find out what comes out of donald trump's twitter feed that day you become contingent upon donald trump's rise and fall given every mood and at every impulse he has and so a lot of people learned that lesson in the party and they don't understand. why the power he has over the base so shrunken as it is has remained so strong no matter what happens the they can't understand that they're in a cult now not a party. indeed and really you mentioned a democrat shouldn't chase off the shiny objects people who have chased off the shiny objects a report since i think it's fair to say how much is donald trump being able to play the media and how much is going to change before the next election and twenty twenty the challenge is that and the media has this argument that he's the present

united states and so his words matter now there's no question that that's true but you look at the way in which we've been talking now about his war with the media a day after he fired the attorney general which was the day after his party suffered significant losses in the midterms is a distraction from the distraction from the midterms so i think what the media is going to have to continue to try and refocus on some of the themes that have been that have prevailed during the course of the trumpet ministration one of them is of course this question. of the russia probe and the potential obstruction of justice at the white house but the other for it comes back down to this idea of the breakdown of norms and the threat that he has posed to the democratic process and to the institutions that are so vital to this country and i think that oftentimes we do get back to that conversation but i wouldn't hold any or i wouldn't hold my hopes in the media not still getting distracted by the tweets i think that's going to challenge and so democrats are going to have to kind of work within that construct and try and rise above that conversation and it's even worse than the destruction of from my perspective tommy from being

a quote unquote the liberal media in the u.s. doesn't know how to cover a president who basically is openly authoritarian openly nationalist openly violating the norms that sabrina mentions the media almost wants to go back to business is usually phony trump would behave a little bit normal they would play a lot of and they just don't quite know how to cope with this guy will it seems to me the so much of liberal media mainstream media whatever you want to call it has been used to covering politics as if it were already reality t.v. as it were a grand game and they cover the palace intrigue. they frame everything as sort of a debate between equals and to consider everything that's not if not in good faith to be actually advanced in the purpose of winning the game. you have somebody like trump who has very sort of existence is predicated upon being in front of reality the cameras to wards rigging that game towards what he

wants to do and he knows that he can go and say something that's totally false and not be called on it last question i know you're a regular on cable news so sorry to put you in this difficult position but jeff zucker head of c.n.n. said recently when we stop covering trump our ratings go down surely that's trump's greatest weapon going into the twenty twenty reelection campaign trump is the center of america's political dialogue you can't look away from it. the i think the point is correct that the networks are have a lot of trouble confronting it they don't know how to cover a reality t.v. star they don't know how to cover someone who who really is an amoral liar most of the time he doesn't is no sense of shame and the and the degree to which he's willing to deceive the american people is unprecedented you know it makes nixon look like a piker and so we end up with a situation where the networks they can't look away there's always a train wreck and it is a legitimately newsworthy to watch a president drag the american people you know toward

a situation where they're not looking at this is republicans or democrats but they're looking at us as people who are worshipping an authoritarian want to be on one hand the people who are fighting against it on the other it's we we live in a remarkable moment in our history and it has to be covered brick sabrina thank you all for joining me on upfront done so show up front will be back next week. it is isa's stigmatised the time suffering and still sung by society people whose tune time to a penny from the realty come down why eaves and then they don't have a place in the water can be done says that they are no longer al qassam and community. meets the health workers which challenging ok attitudes into a king tirelessly to combat the prissy india. ancient enemy.

you stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al jazeera. stories generate thousands of headlines. separate the spin from the facts facts. the listening post on al-jazeera. israeli special forces killed at least seven palestinians including a hamas military commander after an operation in gaza.

you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up. in yemen one hundred fifty more people are reportedly killed in the battle for the port city a food data. supreme court is hearing petitions challenging the president's decision to call snap elections plus. words can't describe the devastation. in california struggling to cope with the state's worst wildfires on record thirty one people were killed over two hundred a missing. bus to gaza where israeli troops have killed seven palestinians including a hamas military commander entering the territory as part of

a special forces operation. an israeli officer was also killed while another was wounded in han eunice in southern gaza the israeli military says it intercepted three out of seventeen rockets fired from gaza after the operation the prime minister benjamin netanyahu has cut short son official visit to france to return to israel. is a senior hamas official in the southern gaza strip he told al-jazeera an israeli unit escaped over the border. or you know there is this for sure. you'll do it. to say to. go there went inside crying you're history there are a bit to go to work and then there are also some kind of a warm and down to. the car which carry these serious speeches you had to or some collaborators did try to escape to go to these reporters there but they are surrounded by for the boy to. press them

a pretty good. i don't doubt that the group tried to cover. this cross over the could have created all of this about just through us. striking here and i. so i think it was very dangerous there are excellent expect that this fight to go over with you would hope because stephanie decker joins us live from west jerusalem staff israeli forces operating in this way how much of a rarity is this. well they never announce and i think it's safe to say that israeli intelligence operatives do operate inside gaza whether this seems to been some kind of cross border special forces operation however you know how masters accuse israel of having what they call collaborators

eyes and ears on the ground when it comes to intelligence gathering and i think by the nature of these operations you never hear about it so you know this is something that seems to gone very very wrong particularly at a time when the two sides seem to the making some headway when it comes to true cease fire negotiations an operation that the israelis are saying was not intended to kidnap or kill any operative any what they call terrorists but it was an operation to safeguard the security of israel and hamas is saying that you know they they found these operatives and then there was a firefight and israeli airpower then intervened to allow these operatives to escape now as you mentioned one israeli soldier has also been killed in that exchange how mass is praising this publicly and also on twitter one of their senior spokes person tweeting that this is a victory for hamas of how this was carried out perhaps that can be seen as

a way out of an a potential escalation because we know egypt has been very active behind the scenes trying to calm things down we've had no rockets out of gaza for the policy nine hours or so things are quiet israeli prime minister has however returned to israel from paris he is here because of course it was such a serious situation but for now peter the situation is calm stephanie thanks very much well my comment has more now from washington. we've approached both the white house and state department for comment but as yet there has been none forthcoming this comes at a sensitive time for the united states it was just a week ago that president trump's representative jason green black held a meeting with prime minister netanyahu in israel at that meeting the issue of gaza was discussed the u.s. very keen to see stability returning to that particular area as

a prelude to introducing president trump's initiative for a resuscitation of the long dormant peace process now back in september president trump said that he would make public his plan within two to four months that brings us to the beginning of december but also we heard in the past week from the president trumps representative that this plan is ready for presentation within days or possibly weeks so certainly the u.s. keen on pushing forward with this initiative from president trump the violence in gaza obviously a bit of a stumbling block at this particular point but remember that president trump is intent on pressing forward with this initiative despite the fact that one of the major parties the palestinians will have nothing to do with it they refused to negotiate they refused to discuss the initiative this because they do not see the u.s. as an independent impartial arbiter in the whole matter and do not believe that they

would get anything from it believing that the aim of the u.s. initiative the president trumps initiative is to guarantee above all else the security of israel. is a professor of political sciences. university in gaza he says tensions in the border area months increase in the coming days. why it's true that the situation has been quite calm for the past few weeks as a result of intervention by egyptian security delegation who has been. traveling back and forth between gaza and on the law until of eve to broker a cease fire between hamas and the israelis and also as a result of qatari inten vin intervention in which the government of qatar polygyny to give one hundred and fifty million u.s. dollars to provide fuel for the gaza power station arm also salaries for the hamas

employees in gaza for the next six months now whether this is what you did raid the israeli military operation in the hunt in this area will. skin it the military situation between gaza and israel it will be seen in the next hours and days but it seems to me that the situation is under control right now but the egyptians from the early hours of this israeli raid intervened and tried to convince both parties both hamas and the israelis to stick to the cease fire and then the eruption of violence but it seems to me that still the situation is very shaky it's very fragile and we might witness an escalation in the next coming hours and days the u.s. says renewed its call for an end to the hostilities in yemen in a phone call with the saudi crown prince the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o reiterated warring parties need to hold talks to

end the civil war some reports say at least one hundred fifty people were killed in the past twenty four hours street battles support calles two residential areas in the main port city of who data thousands of civilians are trapped by the fighting a pro-government alliance backed by the saudi and the rocky coalition is trying to seize control of the city from hoofy rebels mohammed atta who has more now from neighboring djibouti. fighting going on in a list three problems in the heart of the city and also. fighting in this is happening in a compound in the universe then they also clashes in the whole the whole spittle which is supported by the international red cross we spoke to red cross officials who told us they walk around the hospital. in the operations of the hospital which is still open but. on the minimal levels now.

they have been through some of the residential areas with the government. and massive offensive that cut it out in the morning on the whole having been repulsed by the whole the fight is the immediate cause right now is for the safety of the more than six hundred thousand people who was still in the city people of north. to flee the city in the days leading up to these new offensive there are also concerns about what the fighting could do to the services on the vital day when more than seventy percent of yemen imports go through and the major concern is also about the delivery or aid which is needed by more than fourteen million people. to assure that the operations of the port continue.

britain's foreign secretary is traveling to saudi arabia to talk about ending the war in yemen discussing the killing of. jeremy hunt is the first u.k. minister to visit there since the assassination of the saudi consulate in istanbul more than a month ago. and the saudi crown prince. well friends and family . have held a vigil in his memory in turkey his fiance a teacher gingers was among those at the gathering in istanbul showed she was killed by a saudi hit squad more than a month ago when he went into the consulate to get paperwork the french president emmanuel mccraw has expressed concern over the fate of two saudi princes who have not been seen or heard of since being detained in saudi arabia ten months ago prince abdullah zs been selman bin mohammed al saad and his son were last seen

entering the royal palace in january a letter has been released showing the french foreign ministry has been asked by the president's office to monitor the situation the younger prince known as ghazala is seen as a link between paris and riyadh and holds a diplomatic passport the prince is represented by a french lawyer who says the being held without charge because of their views on crown prince mohammed bin salma they were sure that there is i called on the u.s. president donald trump who as known to all has his own mandate on the kingdom of saudi arabia to exercise pressure on the crown prince in order to release them i also requested the french president where it is more difficult since france hardly intervenes in such domestic issues however it was only the french president who he did my call and handed over the dossier to the foreign ministry to act and seek answers from the saudi authorities with more political chaos in sri lanka today after opposition parties decided to petition the.