welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. the president makes his controversial choice in alabama's senate race. he wants judge roy moore despite allegations he once molested a teenager. >> roy moore denies it. >> what about the women? >> and by the way. >> what about the nine women. >> he gives a toejts denial. 40 years is a long time. he's run eight races and this has never come up. so 40 years is a long time. >> plus, a fellow member of the

congressional black caucus says john conyers should step aside from a key committee post until the ethics committee investigates sexual harassment complaints against the longest serving member of congress. >> should step down an the ranking member with the opportunity if he defends himself and shows there's nothing there that he can come back. you can't in my estimation just in the scenario we're in to be the ranking member of the judiciary committee at this time. >> and a thanksgiving break but a packed agenda when congress returns. priority one for republicans, navigating objections in their own party from lawmakers who say the current tax cut plan would hurt their constituents. >> that's a school teacher and a firefighter, a police officer and a nurse, a construction worker and a bus driver making $200,000 as a family income. doesn't make them rich. that's middle income here. but that will result in eliminating those deductions for those hard working people and result in a tax increase for

those folks. >> we begin the hour with aylingering question answered. for the president, roy moore's resume and insistence he's innocent are enough. >> we don't need a liberal person in there, a democrat, jones. i've looked at his record. it's terrible on crime. it's terrible on the border. terrible in the military. >> mr. president are, he's an accused child molester, is it better than a democrat. >> he denies it. look, he denies this. i mean, if you look at what is really going on and you look at all the things that happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it. he says it didn't happen. and you know, you have to listen to him also. >> the president is alone off with his family in mar-a-lago and ice located when he returns to washington. the republican leadership says judge moore should step aside. the president's own daughter says there's a special place in hell for those who abuse children. but two weeks out from the

special election, the siding with 9 math that his view is more important than teens he pursued when they were in their teens. jeff, give us a window into the president's thinking before he made those comments. >> reporter: one of the reasons i'm told by talking to white house officials is it became easier to side with roy moore over the last nearly two weeks since the story first broke in the "washington post." of course, so many republican leaders came out against him, but in the intervening time, so much has happened in this tidal wave of allegations of sexual misconduct that have rippled throughout hollywood, the media, politics. it became easier for the president to side with the roy moore. they also believe, john, that he can win. he's not likely to get out of the race at all. so why would the president and the thinking of his advisers try and stand up and push him out if he's not going to go anywhere? he's already been burned at one point by supporting luther

strange who lost this primary campaign with roy moore. why try and go against the tide on this simply go with it, john. >> when you say go with it, the president's argument was not a liberal. let's get roy moore about the biggest question for moore for anyone who wins that seat will likely be the compromise on tax cuts. do they have assurance that roy moore despite his constant fights with the republican establishment will vote yes? >> reporter: john, i think that is the central open question here. no, they do not have assurance of that. that's why this is so befuddling in some respects. the white house is saying we need a republican to vote on this. roy moore was critical of the health care plan and said he wouldn't have voted for that. he's been blasting senate majority mitch mcconnell again and again. there are nof assurances he would vote for this plan. interestingly, the white house said they wanted to reach out to dras to get their support, as well. so doug jones, if he were to be elected, he would represent the

most conservative democratic constituency of anyone in the senate. so it's interesting that the president has thrown his lot in in siding with someone who is if he comes to washington, cooks a, be expelled or could cause so much trouble for the senate republicans, john. >> jeff zeleny with the president in florida. with us here in studio to share insights juliette hersch nooeld davis did, ryan lizza, bloomberg and cnn's lauren fox. an interesting controversial important decision from the president. his press secretary has been saying several days, we're going to leave this up to the people of alabama. the president saying i'm the president of the united states but i'm going to stay out of this. then they made a clear and conscious decision, the president did, to do this. why? >> well, i mean i think that jeff is right that they were sort of looking at the race and fundamentals of the race and the fact that roy moore is not going anywhere, there's no evidence he's going to step aside or change his position. he's denying allegations.

i think there's a fair amount of desperation in the white house at the thought they could lose this race. we saw the president came out for luther strange roy moore's primary opponent during the race. that didn't matter. the people of alabama chose roy moore. and i think there was a worry that if the president didn't step in and sort of shore up that very narrow but still intense group of people that is very much in support of roy moore and feels like this is a witch hunt and unfair and it's the establishment coming after him, they could lose that seat and that that would make things even more difficult than they are right now on the hill for the president's agenda. >> you had such a dramatic turn. kellyanne conway signaled the president's position before he did by going on tv by saying doug jones is a liberal. we can't have that. she had said no earlier no senate seat is more important than a child. when she said that, there was an assumption roy moore already win anyway so we can stay clean on

this one? >> at that point i think they were holding out hope maybe the republicans could make a decision to get rid of roy moore, replace him with a write-in capped or have intervention by the local leadership. when the local leadership said they would support him to the end, they decided it's not necessarily easy to leave this alabama safe republican seat and have it go to a democrat. they decided to shift gears. what the president did was basically reinforced the defense that roy moore is making that this happened 40 years ago and this should have cape out earlier. he refers to moore's denial as a total denial, not necessarily something that can be poked -- something where you can poke holes in it as many have so far. >> as the president spoke, supporters of roy moore were having a big event independent alabama. he denies did the allegation. if you watched leigh corfman on the "today" show she gave a compelling account. so teed family members back at

that time. this is a pastor friend of rye moore. he says it didn't happen. the pastor seems to have a different take. >> judge roy moore for graduated from west point and then went on into the service, served in vietnam and then came back and was in law school. all of the ladies that or many of the ladies that he possibly could have married were not available then. they were already married. maybe somewhere. and so he looked in a different direction. and always with the parents -- younger ladies. by the way, the lady that he's married to now, miss kailey is a younger woman. he did that because you know, there's something about a purity of a young woman. and there's something about something that's good that's true, that's straight. he looked for that. >> he's a friend of the judge making that case. >> well, and i think what we've seen here is that roy moore, there was a pattern of behavior.

i think one of the allegations against him was that you know, there was a period of time where women who worked at the local mall were concerned when he would come into stores. there was a pattern of behavior here that he was pursuing younger women. and i think that you know, that is not disputing. that claim. when even supporters are saying look, he just liked younger women. that's just how he was. >> what does this say? we'll watch the elections two and a half weeks in a moment. i want to get to the democratic candidate and whether he can win this race anyway and particularly in this environment. what does this say about an already bad dysfunctional sometimes horrible relationship between the president and his own party in the sense that you have the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell on record saying we have to find a way to prevent this from happening, having the lawyers do the research they can do, and explored the idea of trying to have a write-in candidate. they have essentially told the staff and lawyers and of everybody, look in every law book, under every rock. is there a way to get away from

this. they have not taken off the table if roy moore wins, they will somehow try to deny him the seat. what does this say to the republican establishment and by the way, crickets from the republican establishment since the president said this. what does it say about that relationship. >> they are totally at odds, the white house and the republicans in the senate just about every single republican senator has withdrawn his or her endorsement much moore. and the president comes out and after sort of not saying anything fully backs him and says all the allegations are not true. you know, in the back of his mind, we can't know this, but he's been accused of sexual harassment and he's also denied it. so maybe he sees someone that was in a similar situation as him. whatever the reason he decided to come out for moore, the republican position in the senate cory gardner who runs the campaign arm of republican senators has been very strong, very vocal and said this guy needs to be expelled from the senate if he gets to washington. now, there hasn't been as much

conversation about that in recent days because i think partly because of the way the white house responded. but that is still the defacto position of the republican leadership as far as i know, if he wins, they're going to start an expulsion process and kick him out of the senate. look, i think the white house's view is they want tax cuts so bad, they don't care who has this seat as long as the republican vote. nobody wants that tax vote bill more than mitch mcconnell and the leadership in the senate. >> as you pointed out before, there is no guarantee he would vote for this tax bill as it is right now. he is a person who has talked a lot, he has pop uist happy tos in his campaign, he's more trump than trump in a lot of ways. he could very well get to the senate if he wins and say i think this is too much for rich people and businesses and blow up a carefully constructed and tenuous situation right now with that bill. but it does kind of take you back to a little more than a year ago when the "access

hollywood" tape came out and the republican establishment reco recoiled and said what do we do. and donald trump was obviously very you know, he denied the allegations and he was very sort of belligerent about that this was an attempt to take him down and go after him. his supporters rallied to his side after that. i think they're hoping that's what happens for roy moore. >> at that moment, many members of the establishment sent the signal they thought trump should withdraw from the race. it didn't happen. the question now is, the final two weeks of the race, can doug jones, the democratic candidate win. he is a liberal if you look at his positions on issues. he's trying to run in a very red state. it's a tough challenge anyway. he had when these stories first broke, he stepped back a little bit and said i'll let the voters process this. here's a new ad with a clear shift. >> jeff sessions says, i have no reason to doubt these young women. and richard shelby says he will absolutely not vote for roy

moore. conservative voices, putting children and women over party. doing what's right. >> quinnipiac polled this question if a political candidate is accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, would you still consider voting for him if you agreed with him on the issues or would you definitely not vote for them. 27% said yes, they would. 62% said no, they would not. among republicans yes 43, no 41. interesting data. it's one poll. the question is, this is going to play out for two more weeks. is the democratic candidate, does he have a chance to win this race? >> i don't think you can run this race if you're doug jones and not talk about the allegations leveled against roy moore. they're so powerful and the only reason we are talking about the democrat in the race in alabama right now. i think that ad was a very smart one. he uses voices well respected conservative voices like jeff sessions in that add. i think it was very powerful. >> he needs moderate women in the suburbs. go back to virginia a couple

tuesdays ago, he needs moderate american women in the suburbs to vote for him. if they stay home, they may not be enough. >> and some of the conservatives to say forget it. it's tools ugly to stay home. roy moore does this have very passionate base. if he can depress that, that helps. >> he needs a little bit of the democratic magic we saw in virginia and across the country earlier this month when there was this is sort of wave of people coming out from the suburbs and from cities to vote against a lot of them said they were voting against the president. he needs a mix of that birmingham, mobile, democratic strongholds have to turn out in order to have a democrat win. democrats haven't won in statewide elections in more than 20 years in alabama. he would need a mixture of enthusiasm on his side and depressed enthusiasm among the republicans. >> i think richard shelby was the last and he switched parties. i remember that story from a prior life. we'll continue to cover this

race in the days ahead. do national democrats go down and try to help? does doug jones want them to? >> does donald trump go down and campaign for roy moore. >> he didn't rule that out yesterday, another stunning part of that statement. when we come back next, an urgent search on thanksgiving eve for three missing sailors. uh oh...a painful sore throat? not now. take cépacol instamax. look! unlike regular cough drops it contains 2 max strength pain relievers and cools in seconds. bye bye sore throat. take cépacol instamax.

mopping robotthe from irobot. its precision jet spray and vibrating cleaning head loosen and scrub stains. all while navigating kitchens, bathrooms and those hard to reach places. you and braava jet from irobot. better together. this is dave, his dog cooper, we sell socks. why socks? we found out that socks are the number one most requested clothing item at homeless shelters. so for every pair we sell, we donate a pair to someone in need.

but first we had to fix this. socks shouldn't fall down. fixed. lack of arch support? fixed. socks shouldn't have an annoying seam. fixed. the result? socks so comfortable we've been able to sell and donate over two point five million pairs. get an additional 20% off your first order at bombas.com.

welcome back. the u.s. navy dealing with a serious sad incident this thanksgiving eve. trains port plane with 11 people on board crashed as it made its way to an aircraft carrier off japan. most rescued but three are still missing. barbara starr has the latest on what we know. >> reporter: good afternoon, john. in fact, u.s. and japanese forces as you say are copying search and rescue operations off the coast of japan looking for three missing u.s. navy personnel still all 11 on board this small plane were members of the u.s. navy we're told. this was a c-2 aircraft.

it's a small transport plane and it regularly ferries people back and forth on and off aircraft carrier decks. it had left its station on the coast of japan and was flying out to the ronald reagan. when it crashed, helicopters from the reagan weren't able to move quickly and rescue eight people. they are on board reagan we're told and are in good condition. still the search on this thanksgiving eve, as you say, for three who are missing. it has been a very tough year for the 7th fleet out in the pacific. 17 sailors killed earlier this yearner two separate collisions with u.s. navy ships and cargo ships out there. the "uss john mccain," the "uss fitzgerald" both involved in deadly collisions. there have been a total of five incidents with navy ships throughout the year out in the 5th fleet area in the pacific region. this accident, this airplane accident not connected to any of

that as far as anybody knows. but still, very much the priority right now the is to find the missing. john? >> barbara starr live at the pentagon. i want to echo the sailors and their families in our thoughts and prayers as well as for the search and rescue crews. we now want to show you can't miss remarkable footage just released that captures a dramatic chase that happened several days ago along korean demilitarized zone. the man seen running from the jeep is a north korean soldier who fled his post and bolted across the border trying to defect. those men coming up behind him opening fire, former comrades on the north korean side. other cameras captured various parts of this chase which happened back on november 13th. you see right there the soldier running across the road. the defecting soldier shot at least four times. but he survived. is expected to be okay. this clip we show you now shows him lying against a retaining wall on the south korean side where an official says two people had to crawl on the

ground worried about fire to reach him. remarkable. that soldier now recovering in a hospital in seoul. amazing it video there. up next, the president enters thanksgiving with no major legislative achievements but he is having plenty of impact on the bench. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. now, i'm earning unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase i make. everything. what's in your wallet?

allow you to take advantage of growth opportunities. with a level of protection in down markets. so you can head into retirement with confidence. brighthouse financial established by metlife.

anyone who calls it a hobby doesn't understand. we know that a person's passion is what drives them. [ clapping ] and that's why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com.

welcome back. when it comes to accomplishments in congress, president trump would like to have a lot more things to be thankful for this thanksgiving holiday week. but as he sits down tomorrow, he may express gratitude to senate republicans for approving a good number of his judicial picks. they've already given their

blessing to eight of his appellate court nominees, five more than obama confirmed. three more than george w. bush. it's an accomplishment mr. trump likes to point out. listen to him last month. >> something people aren't talking about is how many judges we've had approved whether it be the court of appeals, circuit judges. whether it be district judges. but the judge story is an untold story. nobody wants to talk about it, but when you think about it, mitch and i were saying that has consequences 40 years out. depending on the age of the judge. but 40 years out. >> not and you told story as the president says but certainly an undertold story in the sense we do focus on the obamacare debacle, now the big questions about tax cuts. this is a giant legacy-shaping moment for this president. i want to show you the opportunity. it's not just that the senate republicans changed rules. it's easier to confirm judges than it was before. the issue is look at this according to "the new york

times" graphic. almost half it the federal appeals court judges right now serving with eligible for senior status. you can semi retire. you still hear some cases but not at the current workload. you stay on the bench. there's a vacationcy and you can fill. look at the median age of the judiciary, 6 right now. 44% able to be take senior status. here's how ron klain, chief of staff to joe biden and al gore someone who worked in senate for a long time put it. if conservatives get their way, trez prump will add twice as many lifetime members to the judiciary in the next 12 months as barack obama named in eight years. american law will never be the same. whatever your position, he's right. and this is the single most important issue to conservatives who had doubts about donald trump and weren't told by the sort of never trump part of the republican party that you can't support him. this was the single most

important issue to conservativ s who said we don't care about all the other problems with trump, we want a republican president to fill those courts with nominees they knew would be recommended by the sort of conservative legal movement which is the exactly what's happened and also the single thing that the mcconnell people will tell you is why mcconnell trump should give mcconnell a little bit more credit. because he's responsible for pushing these through the senate. as you pointed out, this is the main accomplishment for the right so far and it's mcconnell that has done it. >> i traveled around kentucky in august with the majority leader mitch mcconnell. one of the issues he talked about over and over again was neil gorsuch. this was the issue that had folks in the room standing up in applause. this is more than just the supreme court. a lot of americans don't pay attention to the lower courts but evangelical voters during the campaign absolutely did which is when you talk to them, they said we don't like trump or what he does here or there, but we've got to vote for him because the courts are so important. >> and the people sitting around

this table will be having these conversation, trump appointed judge. they'll move up to the appellate court judges. a giant legacy for any president. lisa murkowski, one of the -- how will she go on tax cuts question. a key in obamacare wrote something in the fairbanks daily news monitor that tells me she's preparing to vote for the republican tax cut bill. her office says she's still undecided. she says i believe the federal government should not force anyone to buy something they do not wish to buy in order to avoid beingtached. i won't read the rest of it. her office says this is not a final yes on the tax cut bill but that tells me she certainly is leaning that way. correct? >> i think that's correct. this is probably the least popular portion of the obamacare law. democrats didn't love the idea of mandating anyone to buy taxes but you have to eat your spinach if you get the full health care coverage, you have to force people to have coverage if you

want to keep the cost down. republicans haven't figured out a way to override the entire law but taking away the most unpopular piece which is probably one of the reasons murkowski is okay vote for this piece of the law even though she voted against the full overhaul. overhauling the entire plan is something republicans haven't been able to do yet. >> we're seeing more broadly with that statement, she's leaving the door open, leaving herself room to come around to this tax bill. as her office says that, doesn't mean she's there yet. it has to be encouraging for the republican leaders on the hill who are really, really working this to know she's a possibility for the yes column. beak accepting the notion of having the individual mandate repeal in there puts her in play. and then it gives her a lot more power to negotiate what she needs to have in the bill in order to get her to all the way to yes. >> especially because the math 52 republican senators, remember the obamacare debate.

the different issues but half a dozen, maybe 10 or 11, maybe 14 republican senator who have differences about it. for some it's i don't want to take out the individual pan date. others it increases deficits. increasingly, it seems an apparent because of adding the repeal in the senate, very hard to get any democratic votes. you see some republican senatorses there who have concerns. white house has tried to get democrats. this is senator tom carper, democrat of delaware. he's taking you inside a meeting in the white house. the president was off in asia but he called into this meeting tom camper is there with a bunch of other democrats trying to see if there's any possibility they can find common ground on taxes. he here you go. >> gary, why did you do this? why don't you just take the phone from your cell phone back and just say, mr. president, you're brilliant and we're losing contact. i think we're going to lose you now, good-bye. that's what he did and he hung

up. >> are you saying gary cohn faked a bad connection to get the president off the phone? >> i don't want to throw him under the bus, but yes. >> i think you just did. >> that's the bus. the bust drove past right there. >> the bus is passed. >> high drama if it happened that way. interesting. gary cohn who already has tensions with the president now from the white house spokesman senator carper's claim is false. essentially you have a democratic senator saying look, we wanted to have a conversation with the senior staff. the president wasn't helping things. just get rid of him. >> just showing a sort of lack of respect for the president certainly. doesn't seem like cohn got carper's vote. i think he's going to be a no on the tax bill if he's saying that story. this statement, i mean, it's not fully a denial of exactly -- they're saying it didn't happen but it does cop port with what carper said, he got him to leave the room and not interrupt their

meeting anymore. >> it's an example of what you hear privately from members of congress all the time. they don't think the president is helpful in deal cutting motel when the rubber is hitting the road and you need to talk turkey on specifics of a policy issue. the president weighing in has not helped in the past. he hasn't gotten far into the weeds on the tax bill. clearly that's not something some of the centrists or more conservative democrats want or people like gary cohn hope are charged with getting this deal want. >> the white house is incredibly sensitive to this idea that the white house is an adult daycare center for the president that he needs to be managed that you have to take the phone away and get him off the phone or you know, there was a story this week about the national security adviser saying the president lacks the wisdom to understand foreign policy and he has the wisdom of a kipder gartner. that's why the statement came out so quickly. the white house trying to push back against these stories that the white house has become this adult daycare center where the president needs to be controlled

and managed and sort of talked to. >> these stories drive trump crazy. we know he pays attention to these stories. if he reads about a staffer doing something like this, we know from covering this white house that it's not a happy day for cohn today. >> keep an eye on the twitter thing. up next, democrat john conures can facing new pressure over sexual harassment allegations. f harassment allegations.

this is charlie not coughing because he took delsym. this is charlie not coughing while not to waking zeus. and this is charlie not coughing while getting really into nana's party. nothing lasts longer than delsym for powerful cough relief. essential for vinyl, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests

and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. a must for vinyl. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™".

somesend you and your family overwhelrunning. y can... introducing febreze one for fabric and air. no aerosols. no dyes. no heavy perfumes. it cleans away odors for a pure light freshness... so you can spray and stay. febreze one, breathe happy.

we need to be ready for my name's scott strenfel and r i'm a meteorologist at pg&e. we make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california. welcome back. there's new pressure today on john conyers, the dean of the house of represent tins.

his hometown newspaper says the democrat should resign in the wake of word he used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment complaint. as a second allegation surfaces, a fellow member of the congressional black caucus says conuyers deserves a chance to defend himself but should step aside until an investigation can be conducted. >> the appropriate thing is he should step down as the ranking member of the judiciary complete. and be subject to this ethics investigation. so it can be determined whether or not there's a practice or pattern and then appropriate consideration should be made at that time as soon as the ethics committee finishes its review. >> that's a very important statement from the congressman meeks in the sense that number one, he's a senior democrat in the congress. number two, a trend of john conyers who serves with him, a friend and colleague of john

conyers saying do the right thing for yourself and your party and step aside. >> i think there's a lot of controversy right now on capitol hill and a lot of concern that this is just one of many shoes that could drop. and democrats want to make sure they are on the right side of history here and that they are calling on their members in the same way they have called on republican members when they have been in the spotlight on this issue. i think you know, with the roy moore accusations they don't want to be perceived as being hypocrites on this. that's part of the reason why you see democrats saying we're not going to mess around with these allegations. we'll have an investigation and if the findings are you've done nothing wrong, we can restore you to the committee. for now, i think you need to step aside. >> there's also the potential some of these members of congress have heard more privately than what we know publicly. there's some reporting some of these issues have been sort of an open secret in some members' offices. i believe that may be behind some of the calls for action to take place quickly.

i think a number of these dras want to be able to have consistency when they call for roy moore to get out of the race or when they attack president trump. if they don't call for their own members to do the same or have some form of punishment, they can be accused of hypocrisy. i think that's one of the reasons you're seeing more democrats come out against members of hair own party. >> i think they're struggling to figure out what is the proper response to an allegation. is it the death penalty immediately call for the person's resignations? ? the underlying facts matter, the severity of what the offense is. senator menendez was in a corruption trial and no democrats asked him to step down. so i think the franken case, i think a lot of democrats are trying to figure out what is the severity of the underlying allegations are there. some people think that maybe the punishment should have been more

severe. i think they're struggling to figure out what is the proper response and how to apply it fairly in all of these cases. >> i also think we're seeing unfolding in realtime members of congress are grappling with how to do this publicly because these allegations have happened in the past and it's been dealt with in a very secretive process that was shielded from public view. mostly constituents didn't know about it. mostly the public didn't know about it. there's an office that paid out some of the settlements in the past we know an it's not that it was some state secret but there was a mechanism and there is a mechanism that exists to deal with these claims that was very much 'sheeded from public view. we're in a moment now where the public is learning about allegations across the board in a range of different industries. i think what they're coming to realize is this capital be a secret anymore. they have to figure out a way to deal with allegations publicly in a way that's consistent and defensible across party lines. >> it's an interesting and very important point.

there's a conduct question and there's a process question. and in the process question, to your point, i think these people are paid by the american people, elected by the american people, the money paid out so far came from taxpayer funds. should that be the case going forward. some victims would also like privacy. that's an issue in the second complaint against conyers. a lawsuit was filed and a staffer said he's repeatedly coming to her desk, covering and attempting to hold her hands. that case was filed and withdrawn because she wanted the case to proceed under seal. conyers office says the former staffer voluntarily decided to drop the case. there's a process question here that has to be handled, as well, one to give transparency and two to respect the privacy of victim who's want to come forward but should have a process respectful to them. >> exactly. one of the problems we've seen from the congressional process is that a lot of these cases individuals come forward and then have to go through mediation for 30 days.

the person who is alleging this happened to them. now, that's a deterrent. a lot of young women wouldn't want to come forward knowing they'll have to continue working perhaps in their office while undergoing mediation. the house offices are tiny. you're going to be working in very tight quarters with someone who you may be alleging assaulted you or harassed you. that's difficult. that's very tough. >> one question going forward, i should note before i move on, the detroit free president editorial today said the congress man should resign. they said the revelations of his harassment can dal and documented use of taxpayer dollars to bury the scandal. the congressman said he has no plans, too. one of the conversations even before this if you look back at the virginia results from a couple weeks ago and the new jersey results was is the current conversation but also the election of donald trump creating a backlash effect or

political effect? please call did what you will where 2018 will end up being a year of the women. we did see a great impact opt virginia results, dramatic results of women voters, but the turnout was a huge factor in women candidates winning in a lot of delegate races in the state of virginia. in 2018, for the united states house, 354 female candidates. in 2016, only 181. u.s. senate candidates women in 2018, 38. 2016, 19. >> yeah, i think emily' list, the democratic organization that supports female candidates, they, these numbers are rough but i think they said in a traditional cycle they'll recruit maybe a couple thousand female candidates. in this cycle, it's off the charts. many times that. that is frankly a lot of that recruitment that jumped into these races happened well before the post weinstein era that we're talking about now. >> right, this was in the

pipeline. the big question is going to be, are we going to see success on the part of these women candidates and are we going to see a swell effect in terms of turnout and intensity among women voters to elect women candidates in response. these are not policy issues right now. these are people's personal lives. i think it's an open question whether people translate their feelings about the allegations against trump, the allegations against roy moore and al franken and john conyers into actual votes for political candidates. it's sort of an untested thing i think we'll see the effects maybe a year and a half from now. >> a fascinating question. up next, would you like some politics with your pumpkin pie? perhaps some tweets from your president? fast acting zzzquil liquicaps help you fall asleep fast, like stop staring at the clock fast, like stop worrying about your boss fast, like wow, you're already asleep fast. when life keeps you up... zzzquil helps you fall asleep in as little as 20 minutes.

welcome back. if you're already settled in for the thanksgiving holiday, you're lucky. you're probably dusting off the recipe books, maybe setting the dinner table, getting ready to eat yourself into a turkey coma. according to a new poll, you're bracing yourselves for a bruiser of a fight. maybe over the green beans. the mayor ris poll showing a whopping 58% of americans dreading the thought of having to talk politics around the thanksgiving table. one in three americans eager to have a debate. i'm guessing a few of those sitting around the table here today, no politics. as for the president himself, safe to say he prefers his turkey with a heaping side of tweets, spending the holiday at mar-a-lago resort, he is tweeting already. he tweets anywhere but when he goes mar-a-lago, they tend to

start 59:00 in the morning. here's one from today. we'll be having meet is and working the phones from the winter white house in florida. stock market a new high. many companies coming back to the u.s. military building very strong. president upbeat about the meetings and phone calls. not long after that am i correct that he went to the golf course? they don't tell us he's actually golfing there was a white pool report that went out to the reporters where one of the communications people said it was going to be a low key day. that went out in the pool report. there was a quick correction because there was sensitivity to the idea that the president was not going to be having a bunch of calls and meetings but instead relaxing. they had to correct that to a it was going to be a low key day for the reporters there but not going to be a low key day for the president. shortly after he went to the golf course. we're not sure what he's up to. apparently he's down in the florida weather enjoying some of the sunshine and it looks like they're a little bit sensitive

to the idea he's having a holiday. when he see the tweets, it's clear the president is focused on things like the nfl and his controversy with the family of ucla players who were imprisoned in china. it's clear the president is focusing on a lot of things other than the tax bill and tax reform and policy issues. the white house is a bit sensitive to the idea he may be focusing on something else other than policy. >> i was saying during the break, i covered the white house for nine plus years. any president has a right to be relaxing. he should be transparent. to your point about lavar ball, the president tweeting at 5:20, it wasn't the state house or lavar's people on the ground in china that got his son out of a long-term prison. all caps, it was me. too bad, lavar is a poor man's version of don king without the hair. lavar, you couremember lavar

shoplifting not a little thing. it's a big thing especially in china. i'm grateful. full. >> lavar ball should be grateful the president helped get his son and the other players out of prison. why the president has to be thanked so much and mad he hasn't been thanked is an interesting snapshot of the president i guess. >> you tweet like that and i mean previous presidents would leak a story to "the new york times" about all the things the president did personally to make this happen. in one sense having a president fully transparent and no unventilated thoughts and they go straight out to twitter is helpful in ubtding who the guy is. but i don't understand why this president needs the kind of praise that he constantly craves and yes takes a gratuitous shot at this poor guy and compares him to don king. it seems beneath the office of the presidency. >> it's also thanksgiving week. he did the turkey pardoning yesterday.

i think he was making a go of being kind of presidential and wishing good tidings to the whole country and putting politics aside. to bring up something like this. >> he is. >> takes away interest that. >> he's in the 31% eager to talk politics. everybody at the table have a wonderful thanksgiving. thanks for joining us. jim sciutto takes over after a quick break. ♪

i'm done. done with figuring it out for myself. i'm done with surprises. i'm done with complicated. if you're on medicare, and ready to be done with complicated, turn to unitedhealthcare and our medicare advantage plans... like aarp medicarecomplete. these plans can combine your hospital and doctor coverage, with prescription drug coverage and more, all in one plan for a low, or even no, monthly premium. so call now.lan for a low, or even no, monthly premium. so call now. we can answer your questions, even help you enroll. i deserve to get the most out of my plan. we'll make sure your doctors are all connected, you know what your copays are...

and you can save on prescriptions; plan members saved an average of over 5000 dollars last year. medicare open enrollment ends december 7th. if you're done with complicated, if you're doso done... complicated, so done... call now to enroll in a plan from unitedhealthcare, like aarp medicarecomplete. [sfx: mnemonic] >> i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. it is 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching around the world, thanks for joining us. the president of the united states endorsing an accused child molester for the u.s. senate. question now is, will some republicans fight back if roy moore wins? escape from north korea. incredible video of a defector running for his life. shot in the back. all in a daring attempt to cross into south korea. we'll see what happened to him. and jared kushner's lawyer accuses senate investigators of playing gotcha games