they don't want to pay kellyanne conway to stand on the white house lawn and weigh in to partisan politics. it's wrong and that's where the sanction will be, from the public. >> thanks very much. and a very happy thanksgiving to you and your family. i'm juim sciutto. happy thanksgiving to you and your families. "outfront" with poppy harlow starts now. next, president trump stands alone. more top republicans defying the president coming forward to say roy moore isn't fit to hold office. plus, accusations trump counsellor kellyanne conway may have broken federal law. let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. i'm poppy harlow in for erin burnett. standing up to trump, more republicans going against the

president, coming out to say that roy moore is not fit to serve in the senate one day after the president staunchly defended moore. three more republican congressmen disagreeing with trump's assessment that any republican candidate is better than the others. >> i watched the other clip this morning about one of the ladies who came forward and how she's agonized over many years about what to do about it and it seems to be that most everybody that's heard those things that has more experience in this kind of thing than me seems to line up that this guy is a bad guy. >> i saw the man give his interview. me personally, i don't think it was sufficient enough. i certainly don't feel comfortable with his explanation. >> also today arizona's republican governor with more harsh words for roy moore. >> this was bad behavior 40 years ago and bad behavior today. if i was in the private sector,

i'd terminate this guy. i'd like to see a different candidate. officials at the rnc and senate committee say they are not restoring funding to his campaign, less than 24 hours after trump broke his silence for a week about moore. his only defense of moore was to repeat at least ten times that moore denies the allegations. in fact, a gop source close to the white house tells cnn that trump doubts moore's accusers and views the accusations as similar to what he faced during the presidential campaign. >> i can tell you one thing for sure. 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. it's neshterrible in the milita >> martin savidvidge is in

birmingham, bottalabama. how is this playing with voters where you are in alabama? >> reporter: that's exactly the question. it's been kind of a good news/bad news 24 hours for the roy moore campaign. tell you about the bad news in a moment. the good news, that kind of backhanded endorsement from the president. you're absolutely right, how is it going over here? that's what we wanted to find out. >> i believe in the second amendment. >> reporter: roy moore thanking president trump for his support. in an e-mail to his supporters, moore said, quote, we are thankful that his words before leaving the white house to celebrate thanksgiving were the strong words of support for roy moore. trump effectively backed moore by essentially telling alabama voters not to vote for the other guy, democrat doug jones. >> i can tell you one thing for sure, we don't need a liberal person in there, a democrat. >> reporter: but in alabama, it's not clear if the president's tacit endorsement

will change voter minds or the outcome of a white hot senate race. it's a question trending on conservative talk radio like talk 99.5 in birmingham. >> does donald trump's endorsement do anything for you at all? does it make any difference in your world? >> reporter: judging by callers' reactions, most have already made up their minds. >> i'm about as far right as you can get, like extreme. >> reporter: alabama is one of the reddest states in the country. conservative voters may have concerned about the allegations of sexual impropriety against moore, but voting for democrat doug jones who is pro choice in a decidedly pro life state is an even greater moral conflict. >> i wouldn't vote for the baby killer for hell nor high water. um, i don't believe in murdering children. >> reporter: show host richard dixon thinks trump's words will help moore, some. >> roy moore supporters who

weren't all excited about voting for roy moore once this came out, even a weak endorsement from trump might get those people excited. alabama is very much trump country. >> reporter: no one here seems to think that trump's backing is any game changer, not in a state where voters take pride in putting a thumb in the eye of the establishment, even the republican establishment. >> even if all of these allegations were proven definitively to be positive, i would still vote for him over doug jones. >> what we're getting nationally is, oh, alabamans would vote for a pedophile over a liberal democrat. >> in this circumstance, yes. >> reporter: now let's get to the bad news coming out of the roy moore campaign and that is the communications director, that's john rodgers, suddenly called it quits. the campaign is trying to downplay this, saying this was a decision they reached last friday. however, they also say it's because of the intense media scrutiny that they felt they needed a more experienced hand

in the communications job. but to change a communications director this close to election raises a lot of eyebrows, poppy. >> it does indeed. marty savage, we appreciate the reporting. thank you. app ry april ryan, tom bates, and kiersten powers joins us. tom, let me begin with you given your position there in alabama. what do you think after seeing marty's piece and from all the folks you talk to. do voters care what trump thinks about moore, or do those other republicans who spoke out against moore carry more weight? >> i think marty did a good job of capturing where we are now. trump's statement yesterday i think will give some voters cover to vote for roy moore, but right now both candidates are fiercely focused on a small segment of republicans who

believe the allegations and are really struggling between party loyalty and moral values. if it goes party lines, of course more wins. if it goes values he may not necessarily win. i don't think his platform really reflects what the majority of folks in alabama think at this point. >> kiersten, we learned in the presidential election in 2016 voters are not always honest when it comes to what they tell polsters. we saw the trump effect right after that "access hollywood" tape dropped in october. voters didn't want to admit they were going to vote for the president but went on to do so. the latest poll we have out of alabama shows the democrat, doug jones, is up by 8 points. the moore campaign says don't believe that for a second. here's the chief campaign strategist, dean young. >> fox news puts out their fake polls and everybody else can. the people of alabama don't go for what y'all are trying to sell. >> okay, that's his take. now that the president has

weighed in with such staunch support of roy moore, does that give other republicans cover to say how they really feel? >> first, it's a little hard to believe an 8-point lead by a democrat. is that what you said? you said the democrat is up 8? >> yeah. >> that's very hard to believe, even in these circumstances. roy moore already wasn't a particularly strong candidate prior to this happening. i think he was up about 6 points prior to this in a state that trump won by almost 30 points. but at a minimum, the polls seem to be neck and neck. the other thing is that they have definitely eroded -- his support has eroded since the news broke. so it's being factored in. does trump make a difference? it certainly doesn't hurt him. i think it probably helps him but we need to remember the primary where republican voters chose to ignore what trump had to say and went with roy moore in the first place. i think that it helps him

margeally. i don't think it's a game changer. >> let's remind people, april, of what the president says in his defense of moore just yesterday. >> he denies it. look, he denies it. he totally denies it. he says it didn't happen. he said 40 years ago this did not happen. let me just tell you, roy moore denies it. that's all i can say. he denies it. and by the way, he totally denies it. he denies. i mean, roy moore denies it. and by the way, he gives a total denial. he totally denies it. >> in the same breath, i should note, april, that he also said women are special and this is an opportunity time for women in this country. but you have the rnc, you have the national republican senate yal committee saying we're not reversing course, not restoring funding to the roy moore campaign. what does that tell you? >> it says a lot. it says a lot. when the president looks for loyalty and unity, when he's looking for republicans to stand

by him on capitol hill and also at the rnc, and the rnc has broken ranks by not giving funding and support to roy moore. people on the hill, you have senate and house leaders who have said, look, there's credible evidence about this. you even have senate leader mitch mcconnell talking about, look, we're going to find a way to get him out if he wins. and i listened to the former head of the rnc, michael steele, saying this is not about the republican party and it's not about the women. what does this boil down to, and we're going to wait to find out to see if the president next week -- he's going to give us word next week if he's going to campaign for roy moore. this is beyond politics. this is beyond politics. >> tom, i'm old enough to remember when the president wanted luther strange to win this race, right? that was like a few weeks ago. him out campaigning with roy moore knowing what he know now would be quite an optics issue potentially for this president. when it comes down to it, back

to the question about the polling here, do you believe there is that sort of secret moore vote in alabama? >> yeah, i do think there were some in the earlier polls that were going to vote for roy moore and perhaps didn't feel comfortable saying it. i think this race right now is super tight and the fact that it is is actually newsworthy in and of itself. but it's going to come down to just really a handful of folks and i actually don't think the national news and the pundits and others in d.c. are going to affect the race very much. i think a lot of decisions are going to be made over thanksgiving, and i think again there's a handful of folks really struggling with this party loyalty versus voting for somebody who they really feel is unfit. >> kirsten, quickly, ivanka trump touts herself as a champion for woman, just wrote a book on this, said about roy

moore there's a special place in hell for people who prey on children. >> we've seen before where she defers from her father on issues and it doesn't seem to move him much, especially on this kind of issues. he's dig into making his own political decisions. roy moore, he regretted immediately that he hadn't endorsed roy moore. roy moore was always his kind of person than luther strange and he went along with the establishment and he regretted it. >> thank you all very much. have a great thanksgiving. i appreciate it. "outfront," next, president trump goes one-on-one with the father of a ucla basketball player. does the president's later twitter attack hit a new low? and breaking news of abusive behavior against congressman john conyers. a woman who worked for him on the hill said she was called

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president trump. president trump refusing to let go of his feud with lavar ball. the president tweeting today, it wasn't the white house, it wasn't the state department. it wasn't father lavar's so-called people on the ground in china that got his son out of a long-term prison sentence. it was me. too bad. lavar is just a poor man's version of don king without the hair. just think, lavar, you could have spent the next five to ten years visiting your son in china but no nba contract to support you. remember, shoplifting is not a little thing. it's a really big deal, especially in china. ungrateful too. this twitter rant comes after ball showed a lack of appreciation in the president's role in his son's release. >> if he said he helped, that's good for his mind. why even got to say that. if you helped you shouldn't have to say anything. if i help somebody, i don't walk around saying, i helped you now.

i would say thank you if he would have put him on his plane and put him on. if i was going to thank somebody, i'd probably thank president xi. >> jeff zeleny is out front. jeff, the president chose to engage in this fight on twitter early this morning, 5:30 in the morning, two and a half hours before he took to twitter to address the navy plane crash in which three americans are still missing. why? >> poppy, he did. it was actually about 90 minutes before sunrise here when that first tweet came out about 5:25 against lavar ball. of course those three words there in all caps i think spoke volumes. it was me. the president trying to seek credit for this of course but it's also, poppy, we've seen a pattern of this throughout most of the last year. the president is also trying to change the subject, trying to produce a distraction, trying to set the tone of the day. one thing he did not talk about at all today was roy moore, the alabama senate race which of course was in the news. the president wanted to revive

those old grievances and drive the conversation. but it was a bit odd for him to be tweeting like this when there was a national security event happening. it's not every morning that there's a plane crash that happens in okinawa in the pacific ocean while the president is waking up. so that was a bit odd. but he was briefed on it around 8:00 or so this morning we were told and then he tweeted about that shortly afterward. what i'm struck by here is the president wants to be in the conversation. other presidents, president bush i covered, barack obama i covered, they enjoyed being on vacation. the white house went to great lengths today to say the president was not on vacation. he did spend five hours at his golf course here which is fine. no one would ever blame a president for doing that. but the white house would not even say he was playing golf. all he know he did today was sent out a lot of tweets. >> jeff zeleny, thank you very much. ben ferguson, host of the ben ferguson show and former white house aid under the clinton administration, keith boykin. nice to have you both here.

ben, why? why tweet about this again, 5:25 in the morning. i'm walking into work and this is what i'm reading and it's not until 8:00 a.m. that he tweets about the navy plane crash with these americans on it. i don't understand. help me. >> one, he wasn't briefed at 5:00 a.m. about the navy. as you just heard jeff say -- >> he reads the news. we all do. >> he was briefed at 8:00 in the morning. i think it's appropriate for the president to wait until he's briefed to find out what happened with this plane crash. the other thing is i don't know why people are so surprised. this is what donald trump is going to do with his twitter. whether you like it or not, he's going to be blunt. he's going to fight back. they've said that from the white house. i don't know why anyone is surprised that the president decides to tweet about things like this. is it my style? no. i wouldn't do it this way. clearly the president believes that this is what he should be doing. he did it through the entire campaign. but i think to imply that somehow he tweeted about this

before the plane crash that somehow he wasn't prioritizing when he was briefed at 8:00 and tweeted about that plane crash at 8:30, that's a little bit unfair. >> the president's tweet, too bad, lavar is just a poor man's version of don king without the hair. there have been many who asked with this debate specifically, is there race at play? how do you see it? >> yes, there is race at play. it's clearly a part of a pattern the president has been engaged for quite some time when he started in his campaign attacking mexicans, attacking musli muslims. he started his political white house if you will with this whole sort of attack on barack obama for five and a half years, questioning his birth certificate, not the white house but his involvement in politics i should say. this is part of what he's doing right now with the haitians. he's going after the haitians,

after lavar ball, marshawn lynch, fredricka wilson. he's repeatedly attacking prominent african-american figures in order to distract attention from the other things he should be working on. he's not focused on as you mentioned before, he woke up at 5:30 in the morning, he wasn't talking about the u.s. navy aircraft in the pacific. he wasn't talking about sergeant la david johnson's remains which were discovered. he wasn't talking about sergeant la david johnson's remains. he was not talking about the 50% of puerto ricans who don't have electricity. he's not talking about north korea and nuclear missiles. he's not talking about the fact that he just endorsed a child molester essentially for the united states senate. what he wants to talk about is racially divisive issues and that's troubling from the president of the united states. >> let's just say i accept the premise for a moment that this is racially motivated. if the president's tweet was somehow racially motivated, then

explain to me, keith, why the president would use political capital while meeting on very serious issues with the president of china to then have influence on that leader to get three african-american basketball players out of prison from probably what would have been five to ten years? you can't say that the guy is being racist at one moment when he actually was sitting down with a president of a foreign country and getting three african-american basketball players -- if you're claiming it's about race, out of a country and keeping them out of jail. that's not racism, sir, as much as you want it to be about race. >> fair point, keith? >> yes, it is a fair point. i was one of the first people to congratulate or compliment the president when he announced that the three basketball players were coming home and he had done something to help them. i'm not completely sure that he did for the same reason -- >> don't say it's racism. >> let me finish. i'm not sure that he actually did contribute to this at all but he says he did and the same way he says he had the largest

inauguration in history which we know isn't true. he's always claiming credit for things. >> no one has discounted the president -- >> the president was clear -- >> wait, wait, no. >> keith, keith, you can't make up facts here. >> i do know -- i'm not making up facts. i don't know why -- >> you are. >> i do know that the president has a history of racism. i do know he's willing to believe vladimir putin -- >> the race card gets old. >> he's willing to believe -- >> guys, we're tight on time. ben, final response to that. >> the race card gets old when you play it all the time while the president -- and it's been confirmed -- did get involved, did talk to the president of that country. the fact is he helped three african-american basketball players keep out of prison for what would have been five to ten years. if that's what racism looks like, you can call me or anybody else a racist every day of the

week because that's not racism, sir. that's the president doing his job and you should actually call it that. >> gentlemen, thank you. >> doing one good thing does not negate everything else that he did. >> it's an important debate. thank you. a former staffer claiming tonight that john conyers mistreated her. she says she was summoned to the democratic congressman's office only to find him in his underwear. she is my guest next. massive migration of hurricane survivors from puerto rico to florida, could this be a game changer in the next presidential election? >>by the n answer, it was too late. td ameritrade's elite service team can handle your toughest questions right away. >>good to know. we got your back kate. help from real traders. only with td ameritrade. the ford year-end sales evente. is here. i can guide you in? no, thanks , santa, i got this. looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across

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new tonight, the longest serving congressman from texas apologizing after a sexually explicit photo of him was posted online. republican joe barton who served 17 terms in congress doesn't deny the photo is legitimate and says in part, quote, while separated from my second wife prior to the divorce i had sexual relationships with other adult women. each was consensual. i'm sorry that i let my constituents down. what does this mean for this political future? >> reporter: poppy, in the short term he says he's staying put. he is not resigning and that's according to the pr company who is helping him deal with the fallout from this. to emphasize this just a moment, this is a city member of congress and even though he says this was from a consensual

relationship, these are incredibly lewd photos out there on the internet of him which he does not deny are legitimate, as you said, so there certainly is a significant cloud hanging over him. >> this also comes amid growing questions about the fate of the democratic congressman john conyers, now another woman has come forward accusing him of sexual harassment and just like conyers' own hometown paper, the detroit free press, a democratic congressman is calling on him to resign. what can you tell us? >> congresswoman kathleen rice is calling for his resignation and said in a statement, quote, representative conyers should resign. i've reviewed the allegations against him and they're as credible as they are repulsive, whether it happened 40 years ago or last week, settlement or no settlement, democrat or republican, harassment is

harassment, assault is assault. we all know credible allegations when we hear them and the same is true of hypocrisy. the detroit free press is the congressman's hometown newspaper and was out with a scathing editorial today also calling on him to resign and specifically saying that he believe he attempted to bury these allegations of sexual harassment by paying off one of the accusers from his own office's budget. >> sun land, thank you for the reporting. breaking news, another woman coming forward with accusations tonight against congressman conyers. melanie sloan says she was harassed and verbally abused while working for the congressman in the '90s. he is denying any wrongdoing through his attorney. melanie sloan is out front with me tonight. thank you for being here. i know it is a difficult conversation to have. i appreciate it. let's begin with this, what happened to you and when? >> i worked for congressman conyers on the house judiciary

committee staff as minority counsel from '95 to '98. while it was a great job, i was working on crime policy, i was very excited to be there. i had previously worked for house member -- then house member chuck schumer and i also worked on the senate judiciary committee for joe biden. i was very happy to be in congressman conyers' ju ddiciar staff. he became increasingly abusive to him. one occasion whery was organizing something for him in new york and he brought his toddler son and forced me to be behind the stage baby sitting his son during the entire hearing that was my hearing. there was another instance where he hauled me out of a meeting with a bunch of domestic violence advocates and started screaming at me at the top of his lungs. he fired me numerous times only to keep me.

he once started yelling at me for not wearing stockings and i responded, but you're not wearing socks. there was of course also the time where i walked into his office and he was in a shirt and underwear, and i just turned around immediately and left. >> on that last note, you were, i believe, melanie, summoned to his office, is that correct? he called you, asked you to come. you didn't just show up. he asked you to come. is that correct? >> yeah, somebody would have told me that he was ready to talk to me and then he was just not dressed. i want to emphasize though the way it seemed to me at the time, i was not sexually harassed by congressman conyers. i was harassed by the congressman, verbally abused repeatedly and it was very unpleasant to walk in on him in his office in his underwear, but it was a very short moment and i think it was more a question of him just not really caring that i was there and not being very concerned about what he was

wearing. >> did you tell anyone about all of these instances? >> i did, in fact, talk about all of these instances. i went to my supervisors. i was becoming increasingly upset about what was going on in the office. i was having a very hard time. it was emotionally very debilitating. i also spoke with somebody who worked for the then minority leader richard gep hart and i asked them to intervene and see if they could help me with congressman conyers. i did a lot of work with women's gru groups and i asked somebody from a leading women's group if she might be able to intervene and she told me that he was really great on their issues so the answer was no. eventually i called a reporter that i knew that i had worked with on some policy issues and i tried talking about some of these things. he called some other people to confirm some of the things that i said and another woman who worked for congressman conyers on the committee told him that

he was mentally unstable. he then told me that he couldn't be sure i wasn't mentally unstable even though we had worked together for years and he wouldn't do anything with the story. >> so no one listened to you essentially is what you're saying? >> right. >> let me get some responses and get you to react to them from dick depgep hart. he said he doesn't recall you raising your kesconcerns. he did go on to condemn any abuse like this. also the lawyer for congressman conyers just told us, attorney arnold reed, just told us that you were in conyers' office about a month ago and were, quote, laughing and cajoling with staff members. he doesn't mention the congressman specifically being there at the time. he also says i'm not even sure why it's a story because the individual admits that my client doesn't harass. >> i was in the judiciary office

a couple months ago, that's certainly true. these are all instances that took place 20 years ago. i don't see whether my being in the judiciary committee office talking to staff what that would have to do at all with what happened with congressman conyers all those years ago. i agree that it's not the same as the sexual harassment allegations that other staffers are making, but there were things in those allegations that i felt like i could confirm. for example, the baby sitting that i had been asked to engage in baby sitting. so i felt like it was important to say so. let me just say, i didn't come forward with this. somebody from "the washington post" called me, and at first i was only interested in talking about it on background and then i thought about it for a few hours yesterday afternoon and i thought this is sort of exactly the problem. people don't want to go on the record and in washington i'm sure like in other industries but particularly here, loyalty is considered paramount and it's

very disloyal to talk about the bad things that happened, particularly in congress, and i'm sure i'm far from the only woman who's had really bad experiences and i'm sure women have had much worse experiences than i did but people are so afraid to come forward and i feel like if people in the entertainment industry and the media industry can come forward, it's also important for people in government to also talk about their experiences on the record. it's not really my shame. it's the congressman's. i shouldn't be embarrassed about what he did. >> melanie, do you think that congressman conyers should resign? >> you know, i have not thought about that. i definitely think congressman conyers should be held accountable for his conduct and particularly the sexual harassment allegations which i think are very serious. i think the kind of abuse i suffered from congressman conyers while not acceptable at all is not necessarily uncommon. i think there are other members of congress who have behaved perhaps equally as badly to their staff, men and frankly

women. nobody gets held accountable for their mistreatment of congressional staff and i think that we need to change the entire attitude and there needs to be a place for people to go and complain and actually be heard and have a possibility of some kind of repercussion which were none in my day. there was nothing i could do. i did everything i could think of and there was no way to fix it. >> and thus the legislation put forth by democratic senator kristen jill abrand and congressman jackie speier trying to change the system at the haerlt of it. >> right. >> thank you very much. out front right now, democratic congressman jeffries sits on the committee with congressman conyers. you just heard what i heard from melanie. what's your response? >> what melanie has made clear is there's a system in congress that's broken and needs to be remedied so people feel comfortable coming forward to report allegations of misconduct

or concern or hostile work environment which melanie appears to be describing without fear of retribution. that's an important lesson and i think we all can take away from this moment that we're confronting in america right now. >> we'll see what happens, what accountability there is. do you think congressman cony s conyers -- you sit with him on the yu dijudiciary, should he r? >> the allegations are clearly disturbi disturbing, disappointing, deeply troubling. the ethics investigation should be thorough, taylor swift, cosw importantly, it should respect the dig any of the women who are part of it so they are not chilled in being reluctant to come forward down the road. >> let me get your response to what gregory meeks of new york also told me this morning about what he thinks conyers should do. let's listen. >> if he defends himself and

says there's nothing there that he could come back, but 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. i think he should step down. >> do you agree? >> it's going to be very tough for congressman conyers to proceed as ranking member moving forward. that's a decision -- >> what do you think? you sit on that committee. this is your ranking member and your party. should he be leading that right now? >> i think the process is going to have to take shape moving forward and hopefully will unfold in a swift manner so -- >> do you have faith he had lead the judiciary committee right now? >> my view is that we're going to come back to congress last week. the congressional black caucus will meet. the overall democratic caucus will meet and we should come to a collective decision and not make these decisions on a case-by-case basis. we need an overall standard.

right now the rules are such that if there's an ethics investigation that could be lodged, not in this instance but in others, by a political enemy, it should not necessarily trigger an automatic standing down of someone from the ranking member. but in this context with these disturbing allegations, perhaps we need to go in a different direction. >> given all that you've said about the accusations against this democrat, what about roy moore? should he be held to the same standard? he's not in the senate yet. we'll see if he wins. he's not open to an ethics investigation like al franken or john conyers. for roy moore do you give him the same latitude? >> the people from alabama are going to make the decision. the allegations as i understand them involve child molestation and pedophilia, the most serious allegations in this instance of someone who's trying to be part of an exclusive governing

opportunity as a member of the united states senate. i think both chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell are correct in saying that if he were to be elected by the people of alabama, immediately an ethics investigation needs to be convened to look into these very serious charges. >> we appreciate you being with us. >> thank you, poppy. happy thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving to you as well. next, kellyanne conway facing accusations she broke the law when she spoke out about the alabama election. could one of the president's closest confidantes get fired? nearly 200,000 puerto ricans devastated by hurricane maria now living in florida. what could that mean for that state politically? could they swing it in democrats' favor? ahead. pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong.

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tonight, kellyanne conway facing accusations that she broke the law for weighing in on the alabama senate race. a top former ethics official, walter schaub, says conway violated the law that prohibits federal employees from publicly endorsing a candidate or using their official position to weigh in on the election. it's called the hatch act. here's what she said. >> doug jones in alabama, folks, don don't be tooled. he's strong on crime. weak on taxes. >> so vote roy moore?

>> i'm telling you that we want the votes in the senate to get this tax bill through. >> schaub had filed a complaint with the u.s. office of special counsel to investigate this. former white house ethics lawyer, richard painter, is out front with me. you know this law, it dates back to 1939. did she break it? >> oh yeah, this is a slam dunk violation of the hatch act. the hatch act applies to every executive branch employee other than the president and the vice president. you are prohibited from in your official capacity using your official title endorsing a candidate or opposing a candidate in a partisan election. she's standing there on the white house lawn in front of the white house. she's obviously giving an official interview. the press corps hangs out there, waits for people to give official capacity interviews. she can't do that. if she wants to go in her personal capacity somewhere else without using her official title and she wants to endorse a racist or a pedophile or anyone

else for any position anywhere, she has a first amendment right to do that as a private citizen. but not using her official title, not on the white house lawn. that's a slam dunk violation of the hatch act and the penalty is firing. he would not have tolerated that in the bush white house when i was there. if someone had endorsed a candidate in that capacity in that location. >> if she were to be fired that would have to come from the president but the white house is responding tonight. let me read it. they say ms. conway did not advocate for or against the election of a candidate and specifically declined to encourage alabama voters to vote a certain way. kellyanne conway went on twitter and she wrote what potus says below equals exactly what i said yesterday on "fox & friends." so they're saying nothing to see here. your counter argument is? >> that's a flatout lie. we just heard her talking about doug jones. doug jones is a democratic

candidate for that senate seat. she is trashing on the opposition candidate. that is taking sides in a partisan election. that is a violation -- >> but richard, this isn't the first time. you'll remember back in february when she was on the white house lawn again and she was talking about ivanka trump and she said, quote, buy ivanka's stuff. that's spurred a bipartisan letter from the leadership. nothing happened. no disciplinary action. you say strike two. so then what? >> well, it's unfortunate that we have repeat problems with a number of people in this administration including kellyanne conway. now, that first violation was of a separate position, office of government ethics regulation. i think it was very serious. i might have fired her for that or recommended firing her for that but that's a lot less serious than the hack act violation which is a statute going back to 1939.

it's critically important that official position not be used to interfere in important elections. that's a lot more important in our democracy than whether she's schilling for ivanka trump clothing on "fox & friends." this is serious business. it's a very serious offense. >> richard painter, thank you for being with us. have a great thanksgiving. >> thank you, poppy. "outfront" next, puerto ricans escaping their hurricane ravaged island, heading to florida. how this massive migration could change the political landscape not only in florida but nationwide. and francis for coppola offers anthony bourdain a meal he cannot refuse in ancient southern italy. (avo) when you have type 2 diabetes, you manage your a1c,

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taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. ask your doctor about victoza®. tonight the president is preparing to celebrate thanksgiving at mar-a-lago in florida. a certain puerto rican evacuees fleeing could have an impact on florida. awe thee that jones is out front. >> reporter: linda gonzalez says starting her life over in florida is like being reborn as

an orphan. she was forced to leila res -- flee la res, puerto rico after the hurricane destroyed her home. gonzalez says she lost everything over night. she and her son joined a wave of evacuees arriving in orlando three weeks ago. some 170,000 puerto ricans landed in florida according to if you believes. while all of them may not put down roots here, many will. some are comparing it from a boat lift in cuba when immigrants landed in south florida reshaping toll picks -- politics as a voter block. the -- and unlike cubans, puerto ricans, the vast majority who lean democratic are already citizens. they can vote right away as long as they register. florida is a perennial swing

state, trump won here by just over 100,000 votes and barack obama won twice. eight years of a flash finish and subsequent recount handed the vote to george w. bush. >> that group can be pivotal in a swing state so their impact and effect on statewide elections vote for governor, u.s. senate and of course for president, could be very dramatic. >> reporter: but plig science professor michael mcdonald says white retirees from the northwest and northeast, many who deem puerto rican are likely pouring into the state. president trump toured the devastation with weeks after the hurricane. >> we spent a lot of punish on puerto rico and that's fine, we saved a lot of lives. >> reporter: gonzalez says the

federal government should have done more after maria and she's still hurt the the president said the people of puerto rico should do more to help themselves. it hurts, we're human beings she told me. he should not have spoken to us that way. a trained chef, gonzalez plans to stay here and build her life. as for 2020 and casting a ballot for trump, i asked her would you vote for him to remain in office. >> no. >> reporter: and she was quite definitive on that last point there. i med linda gonzalez at a nonprofit called latino leadership that's already helped some 5,000 puerto ricans setting here in the last few months. many of the families she's met, especially those with young children are planning to stay. she also says her group has focused on voter registration in

the past and likely to do so again after they help the families meet the immediate needs. poppy. >> thanks athena for the report. happy thanksgiving. finally on bower dane unknown he visits southern italy and recovers the culture. he sats down with erin and talks about what make it so interesting. >> the heel of the boot. last year we had a really great time shooting with the director who said you have to go to this part of italy. so i was like, anywhere else, different languages, different dialect, food's different. extraordinarily beautiful history. so packing up the expensive camera equipment, the largest grew we ever had, we went and did an amazing show. >> and did it live up to your

expectations? >> it did indeed. we among other things, other than eating and drinking very well, and have many adventures, i had the privilege to sit down with brad cope la who opened the hometown where his father and families grew up. he returned to that small village and bought the manner house -- his family's former fascist oh pressers and turned it into a hotel and restaurant. >> and you say you spent some realtime with him. here's a bit of your conversation. >> this is a dish we call the koda that how to you call it? >> pig skin. >> this is a football.

>> wait you had this as a young kid? >> yeah. i hated it. now i don't. >> you say you really had a chance to talk to him. >> yeah. >> that he opened up, food wide. >> he's always been classic, you look back at his interviews, very reluctant to talk about his career. he talk about the sense of shame and but happiness he felt after the success of the god father. this is interesting to me because he seldomly talk about that film. but imagine, his great success made him happy in a lot of ways. >> why do he feel shame? >> he said it was a film that nobody wanted. and suddenly it was the biggest thing. i showed up to talk about food and wine and his hotel in the area. we went off on a fascinating tan jint that informed and resonating throughout the rest

of the show. >> oak. i condition wait to see it. thanks. >> that's what makes anthony burr dane so good. do not miss it, coming up sunday night. ac 360 starts right now. on these last two days leading up to thanksgiving the president of the united states handed out food and endorsed on his blessing. just kidding. i'm john ber plan in for anderson. we're thankful you joined us after what had been a notable day-and-a-half in the presidency. it turned out yesterday afternoon the president performing this bid of thanksgiving stick at the white house pardonening two turkeys name drumstick and wish bone. the p