nia malika henderson is in for john king. a rallying cry from president trump. >> we need somebody in that senate seat who will vote for our make america great again agenda. >> what alabama voters are saying in the final push from both parties. and revealing documents in the russia probe. e-mails between two former trump campaign advisers now in the hands of prosecutors. plus, harassment allegations consume the hill. three members of congress, gone. >> i know in my heart that nothing i have done as a senator has brought dishonor on this institution. >> the resignations and the reverberations beyond

washington. "inside politics" is sourced by the best reporters, now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm nia-malika henderson in for john king. it's the final countdown in alabama's u.s. senate race. in two days voters go to the polls to decide between invaluable candidate roy moore and his opponent doug jones. moore is accused by multiple women of sexual relationships with teenager girls while in his 30s. but controversies didn't stop president trump from fully embracing moore. he's using a robocall and another one to be released tomorrow. the president had this message on friday for supporters at a rally in florida, which is just beyond the alabama state line.

>> we can't afford to have a liberal democrat who is completely controlled by nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. we can't do it. so get out and vote for roy moore. do it. do it. >> democrat doug jones has his own form of star power. several top-tier black democrats are stumping for him today. the aim of that move is to get african-american voters energized and to the polls. >> i'm here to try to help to get some folk awoke. those people that don't understand the opposite of justice is not injustice, it is indifference, inaction and silence. you have to get some folk woke. >> while each side knows about the polls -- >> if you look at the ballot,

you have two options. you can vote for roy moore or vote for the straight republican ticket, which is roy moore. >> obviously, in the last month or so, his character has been under scrutiny. i will make my first democrat vote ever. >> reporter: how do you feel about that? >> mixed. >> cnn's sarah murray, gnat viser of the boston globe, and eliana johnson of politico are here. sarah, i'm going to start with you. you covered president trump as a candidate. what do you make of his embrace of roy moore? we saw that on friday and in the robocall coming out tomorrow. >> the white house was trying to navigate how to deal with the bombshells coming out on roy moore. but it seems the president has gotten clear and brought his aides along with him. look, we need this guy, we need

his vote, and we're going all-in on that. the president has made a political calculation in this. they need as many republicans as they can get in the senate. he wants to try to notch more legislative victories on the cusp of tax reform. and it's very clear he's not going to let allegations of molesting teenagers get in the way of that. >> sort of the calculations that you imagine a lot of voters in alabama are making, too. the voters in alabama tomorrow, some of them will hear from the president with his robocall apparently releasing tomorrow. and he's going to say, if alabama elects liberal democrat doug jones, all our progress will be stopped full. roy moore is the guy we need to pass our make america great agenda. and that is basically what we have been hearing from him on the stump there. he's also been framing doug jones in a way that essentially says he would be a lap dog puppet for pelosi and schumer. and i think we have some of that

sound. >> his name is jones and he's their total puppet. and everybody knows it. he will never ever vote for us. we need somebody in that senate seat who will vote for our make america great again agenda. which involves -- which involves tough on crime, strong on borders, strong on immigration, we want great people coming into our country. >> roy moore sounds a lot like donald trump there in terms of what he would do. and one of the things you see for doug jones still very ill-define in a lot of the minds of voters there, that's what we are hearing from the reporters down in alabama. >> the other interesting thing is this, this is the first election that will kind of prove a guide on whether trump's presidency was an anomaly. right? whether or not voters will

overlook the earth call shortcomings of a candidate. whether they like a guy who is sort of plain spoken and up-ends the establishment of his own party. so it's sort of a test. and you can see, sort of see trump, he regretted back with luther strange in the primary, wishing he maybe would have gone with roy moore. and now he's really sort of coming out a little bit. he's not going to the state -- >> he basically did, though. he can see alabama from the border. >> yeah. >> in one of the things, doug jones, he has a pretty impressive bio, not very well-known. we'll put some of this stuff up, he's 63 years old, an attorney from birmingham. he never has ran for office. was appointed as attorney for the northern district of alabama. he prosecuted cases against the

kkk. his move now is to energize the african-american vote down there. but still some mixed messages down there, right? in terms of who he is and isn't trying to fill the gaps in with during the last hours. >> there's a case to be made that he probably would vote more with donald trump than chuck schumer in a lot of ways, if you were to win and he wants to remain the senator from alabama, he would have to vote, probably be the most conservative democrat in the senate. so -- these special elections are notoriously hard to determine what the turnout is going to be. this is december, off-year election, we don't know, of course, they are trying to energize the african-american vote. is that being successful in that? what do all the terms meet to republican voters. will people stay home? >> or decide to vote for jones instead. those are questions we really don't know about. the polling has not been consistent for us to get a

really good feel for the race. it's also interesting that roy moore has sort of been nowhere to be seen over the last few days. he's not been campaigning. and the whole strategy since the allegations have come out has been essentially to attack the accusers but not really answer any questions from a reporter on the ground. we'll see if that is true. >> and to sort of let donald trump speak for him, right? i mean, donald trump obviously there on friday. that's been in the local newspapers there and in the robocall as well. the democrats frame it as a coward that he's not out there. and he could also be confident in some places. >> i think it is strategically shaf sri. from two factors here, he saw the republican establishment essentially overnight abandon roy moore, the senator committee, cut off funding for the republican national committee, and he saw roy moore as a kindred spirit abandoned by

the establishment when things got bad. but also the entire tax bill played out during the senate race. and that bill only passed the senate by two votes and drove home to the president how precarious his situation is in the broader political landscape and how important it is to have steady, solid republican steady the hand. >> if republicans lose, they have to worry about how to deal without roy moore in the senate. one writes, for republicans, there likely can be no truly good outcome. if moore wins, the party will have preserved the seat bill. for the republicans, it's a hot

mess. if moore lusoses, the will be spared his sentence. you covered congress, there are talks from mitch mcconnell and others that say, if roy moore wins, he will have a cloud around him. an ethics investigation. how will that work if they have someone in there like that? >> you can't just turn around and expel him. but this is rare, that has only happened a handful in history. to get to that point, you have to take time, build a case, go to the floor, so he could be a senator for some time before we

get to that point. the concern from the republican senatorial committee is if he's a senator, that there are candidates and people who are up for re-election have to deal with them. as a senator, you have to distance yourself. it's going to be an ongoing problem. as i pointed out there, if they lose the seat, the democrats suddenly have a chance to take back the majority, something you thought not possible. >> it does seem like we're all acting as roy moore for the republican party. no, donald trump was the moment of reck anythioning of the repu party. he also has a dozen allegations of sexual misconduct against him. a lot of republicans jumped ship, but the rnc stayed with him and helped him through election day. and it was not just the allegations of sexual misconduct, it is everything trump stayed from african-americans to hispanics.

the notion that the brand of the republican party is on the line may make them feel better as we are on the earth call cusp. you were at the cusp with donald trump. it is clear where the republican party went on that. >> we'll discuss that more in the next break here. one of the most conservative men on capitol hill tinders his resignation amid allegations he offered to pay one of his staffers to carry his child. up next. nahelps protect eyesin blue from damaging blue light, filtering it out to help you continue enjoying your screens. or... you could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] nature's bounty lutein blue. because you're better off healthy. run, jthe power of in to tempur-pedic sleep with our 90-day trial and being the highest ranked mattress in customer satisfaction by jd power, it's easy to love. find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic.com was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh

people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters. and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy.

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it was a week of reckoning as sexual allegations brought down many on the hill. the latest congressman trent franks resigned after asking a staffer to be a surrogate. a prominent conservative tells cnn that congressman franks offered the staffer $5 million if she successfully conceived his child. franks is one of the three

lawmakers to resign last week after women stepped forward to say the men had sexually harassed them. eliana, every time i read that sentence, it is one of the most bizarre stories to come out, period. so, i mean, tell me about sort of reactions on capitol hill around this. and this sense that this could be the tip of the iceberg there. >> well, this is a jaw-dropping story. >> unprecedented, yeah. >> obviously. pretty unlikely that we'll see something like this, but that being said, i do think it's undeniable that reporters on capitol hill, lawmakers on capitol hill, are bracing for other sexual harassment allegations. and that the democratic party this week, essentially, sacrificed senator al franken as the author of politics in order to prepare themselves and to arm themselves in this fight. and they are getting ready to be

able to prosecute the case that they occupy the moral high ground of getting ready for roy moore to get elected. and to say that they are taking a completely no tolerance position from groping to rape and they won't tolerate it. and really to put republican ossen the ropes. >> and this was franken earlier this week from the senate floor talking about his resignation from the senate. >> there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the oval office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with a full support of his party. >> so eliana, talk about the moral high ground that democrats want to stake out. it's a hard place to be, and

sometimes it's a squishy place to be with members on the democratic side with allegations against them. >> yeah, you saw a shift this past week. i mean, capitol hill has been very slow to respond to these allegations in a way that hollywood was not, the media has not been, in terms of when the allegations come forward, people tend to lose their jobs very quickly. so this week was different in that sense where now they are cascading and it has started. and it is kind of unclear where that leads, but to eliana's point, the democrats are trying to claim the moral high ground here, where they did not wait for the ethics committee investigation to conclude. women, particularly democratic women, came forward and said, it's time for al franken to go. and that sort of is what caused -- franken did not apologize or admit to anything in his speech, aside from the fact he can't do his job

anymore. >> moore didn't apologize -- yeah, but this is where credit is due. the senatorial committee is not backing roy moore. cory gardner was out there to make it clear he doesn't believe roy moore belongs in the senate. he believes he should be expelled. this is a small, this is a sliver of republicans standing up to roy moore. we have seen mitch mcconnell say the voters are going to do whatever the voters are going to do. mimicking what donald trump is saying, but republicans are staking out a moral high ground, but it may get lonely. >> and we have more on this moment. here's what he had to say. >> we need a real culture change. we need to recognize this is a pervasive problem that women face, not just here in congress,

but through every industry. and this really is a watershed moment and needs to lead to lasting and positive change. >> so you cover the hill, that's one thing to say this is a watershed moment, and it's another thing to do a watershed moment that is not necessary to make it a watershed moment. folks on the hill, what are they prepared to do? it seems case by case. >> it is, there's a process on the hill, but it is convoluted and secretive in terms of -- actually, filing the complaints and holding the members accountable, the public does not know what happened. there's taxpayer money spent to settle these cases. we don't know where the settlements are going. some of them are starting to leak out. there's going to be an effort to try to change that to make it more transparent. there are some members who want to see all the settlements that

have happened -- >> it is $17 million part of that, yeah. >> the question is, does any of that become public? we are starting to see leaks make that public. and that is putting pressure on the members who were at paul ryan's conference. he is not resigning but asking his colleagues to step aside after reports of making a settlement in that regard. and other members are not stepping aside, like ruben cuen from nevada, and a swing state district in that state. he's basing calling from pelosi to step down. he's been defiant. so you'll see them play out in a messy way as well. >> there ultimately is so much that leaders can do. short of expulsion, that you have not seen in any great length since the civil war. >> yeah, it will be fascinating to watch, and the democratic

congressman cue nrn. and whether they will eventually bow to the pressure. but we have seen them get creative with their defenses. cuen's defense was amusing saying nancy pelosi and other democratic leaders were aware of his behavior. and as a result, shouldn't have to step down. >> and he said he will pay back the money. >> it is all good. >> we'll see how long that can be maintained. >> particularly as new si-- may there will be strength in numbers. we'll see. up next, two former trump advisers, hundreds of thousands of documents, and they are all in the hands of the prosecutors involved in the russia investigation.

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two former trump campaign advisers are expected in court tomorrow facing charges stemming from the russia investigation. the court appearance comes as prosecutors delve into a massive trove of evidence involving paul manafort and rickga gates. they have 4,000 documents,

400,000 documents. they are labeled as hawked by investigators. and there are 36 electronic devices including laptops, phones and phone drives. so far, mueller's team obtained 15 search warrants. prosecutors also revealed some of the e-mails between manafort and gates about ways to combat political attacks over manafort's former lobbying work. according to the court filings, they discussed how to frame manafort's work in ukraine suggesting he never worked for russia or for the russians. and that for the other work they, quote, need to beat back the idea that this was nefarious work. so what is mueller after here as this investigation has gone on for five months and cost $7 million. what is he up to? >> one, there are several efforts here. one to build up a case against manafort and gates in court. these are documents that will be

turned over as part of the discovery process. the other side will have a sense on exactly knowing what they have. but it also shows really the aggressiveness of bob mueller's investigation. we have known for some time that this has been an exceptionally or rather aggressive investigation. they have really done what they can to try to turn over every leaf here. clearly, they have an enormous amount of information that did not appear in the court, initial court filings, that they know about that presumably could fuel their investigation in other ways to look into other people. and we do know that hope hicks, the white house communications director, also was interviewed by the special counsel. this investigation is still ongoing with still more people to interview, despite gates and manafort will be in court tomorrow. there's a lot more people that special counsel has to interview. and we'll see where it goes. >> it certainly goes wherever

trump goes. he was in florida and in some ways came up in a chant from his supporters and his response. [ chanting ] >> this system, there will be a lot of changes. this is a rigged, this is a rigged system. this is a six system from the inside. >> sarah, you have been to a lot of locker room chats, there are some issues here. what do you make about donald trump talk about the deep state and discrediting what is going on? >> well, first, the catch phrase came back around to bite. but yeah, i don't think it should be a surprise to us at

this point. or the president would have believed to call a witch hunt. that could be referring to the state department or referring to a lot of things. but we know that the president feels like this has an impact on the ability for him to do his job. he felt like it would undermine his relationship with former deals aloud. but it just gets him harder to get legislation done. we are so focused on the russia investigation and you don't have to look further than his twitter account to see the frustration with this. >> this week we heard from a family member involved in the russian investigation, george

papadopoulos. >> george papadopoulos, i thi think -- i think they wanted to disassociate from the first person who decided to actively cooperate with the government on the right side. and probably the easiest way out is to dismiss his personality and lower him to a low-level volunteer. >> she's not the best source either. so far we have heard from trump. and his adviser sort of down-playing papadopoulos. we have the fiancee saying this is an important document and there's a cast of players here. papadopoulos, you have flynn and hope hicks, which is very key

interview. they play these bit parts and then are out of the orbit. that's not the case for hope. >> you can say that for don jr. who talked to folks on the hill. here's comments on what he said and whether or not he's been forthcoming. >> he has a serious case of am knee that. he was nonresponsive on a serious case of amnesia. he was by his father and campaigning with his father. you get the idea that he didn't spend much time talking with his father. >> questions, eliana, about the june 2016 meeting apparently in

his testimony in statements. >> let me across the p papadopoulos thing. he was not an integral player in the campaign. doesn't mean he was a coffee boy, but he was a member of the foreign advisory committee that itself was a mess and did not -- was not central to the trump campaign. but donald trump jr., on the other hand, was the central player on the campaign and the fact that he's signing an absurd tire present. and it does seem ridiculous on its own. it does seem like an avoidance of questions as he and former presidents say this meeting was completely inconsequential.

>> the question is whether donald trump jr. will -- so far, let's discuss this first before we push it. that's what mike connolly told me last week. >> we'll see if he comes back. >> we'll see if he tells the committee what happened. we'll see. coming up for us, a promise made, a promise kept. we're taking stop of the biggest campaign promises. has he lived up to this memorable promise? >> i'm very good for jobs. i will be the best president for jobs that god ever created, that i can tell you. morning on the beach was so peaceful.

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ks doing, huh? we have created 4.2 million jobs. we have factories pouring back into the country. did you ever think you would hear that happen? i used to tell you it would happen. consumer confidence is at a 17-year high. think of this. it was not like that in your last administration. >> that was president trump on friday night reminding the crowd that in case they missed it, the economy is booming and things are going awesome. by many measures, he's right. unemployment is at a 17-year low. the stock market is at record highs. and for the first time, americans are starting to agree with the president about who deserves the credit. according to new numbers from quinnipiac university, just as many americans credit president trump with the state of the economy as president obama, and for president trump he was there on friday and fresh off the twitters this morning, he's

tweeting about his accomplishments. he had this to say, things are going really well for our economy. a subject the fake news spends as little time as possible discussing. the stock market hit another record high. unemployment is now at a 17-year low. and companies are coming back into the usa. really good news and much more to come. also tweeted about the tax cut bill getting closer and closer on the tax cut bill, shaping up better than projected. the house and senate working very hard. senator, end result won't only be important but special. special indeed. mat matt, i'm going to you. you wrote a special article on donald trump and the promises he's made. and one of the sentences from your article you said, in deeds if not in words, he's proved a lot more billionaire and a lot less blue collar. talk about what you have seen from this president over his many months? >> he came into office on a very populist message. and that quote was in reference

to his son, donald trump jr., frequently calling him a blue collar billionaire. and he did kind of adopt to that sort of style in the campaign, talking about the forgotten men and women of america. and he was going to lift them up. no doubt, the economy is doing well. but the question a lot of times is, who is it doing well for? and in the tax bill and in a lot of the things that he's done as president and his zbochbing style has benefited more of the wealthy than the middle class. so i think the notion of him being a populist as a governing president is not true. and he has not lived up to a lot of that aspect. >> one of the things he also promised to be was to be the world's greatest deal maker. here he is talking about funding the government and avoiding a government shutdown. >> we are all here as a friendly, well-unified group.

it's a well-knit together group of people. and we hope to make great progress for our country. >> we're hear in the -- >> we're here to resume out the year. >> resume conversations. >> i'm grateful for the leadership of the party. >> in some ways, partisan trump here, just the next day. >> it's time for democrats in congress to drop the threats of shut downs of government. and support a clean appropriations bill that fully suspects and funds our military. we can't play games anymore. >> the deal around the

government, there are also promises to keep. if there's a wall there, if there's increased spending in terms of the military. what are you hearing in terms of the strategy? >> this is an interesting moment for the president because the last time he struck a deal with chuck and nancy, he caught a lot of criticism from the bangs. the president is thinking about the kate stinely case. >> i think these are all elements in the president's brain tom for right now. >> how much of a hot mess could

this be -- >> the question is how do they deal with the neckline. the white house has a two-week agreement. >> bravo to that. >> the question is, the next time around. and most likely, the expectations are going to be yet another difficult -- they are not going to have the year-end spending bill. they have from march to the deadline to agree with them. so they can a.

>> we'll see if they get all the money. >> that does seem like a hot mess. you bring about this. quickly on israel. what do i talk about that? >> absolutely. he did fulfill a major campaign company. to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, trump did it earlier this week. and against pushing back against the ad vise -- tell me what you are hearing from their sources. and the key question behind her departure.

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was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters.

hesumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. making the coffee erupt with flavor. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. that erupts with even more flavor. which helps provide for win's family. and adi the goat's family too. because his kids eat a lot. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. packed with goodness.

let's head around to the "inside politics" table to see what our reporters are hearing from their sources. >> the president's national deputy security adviser is going to be leaving the white house after a year serving there. we expect she's probably the beginning of what will be a wave of departures. not unusual in any administration, but certainly in a tumultuous white house, this wave could be bigger. one thing to watch is not who is leaving, but how does the white house fill the positions. this administration has struggled since day one to staff its west wing. and that certainly isn't getting any easier as the russia investigation looms larger over the trump white house. >> we'll see where that goes and what kind of new faces we'll see around the white house. matt? there's been a lot of chatter about orrin hatch and what he's going to do. there are some signs pointing to

him deciding to run for re-election. he's got president trump in his ear pushing him to do so. he has a fund-raiser scheduled for january. but the time is up for him to make a decision. so watch that. and also watch mitt romney much rumored to want that seat if hatch does not run. but if hatch decides to run, romney still wants a role. and so watch him and sort of what he may do if hatch runs. >> and that conflict between mitt romney and donald trump -- >> it's real. >> and a big question this week is what will devin nunez do. the chairman of the house intelligence committee, he stepped aside in april amid concerns we may have misclassified intelligence and briefed the president about concerns he had whether mask were -- he had to take charge of

the investigation and let the woman -- what he has not done is attended the classified hearings and led negotiations over what witnesses are to come, connolly and the top democrat in the committee, adam schiff. if he does decide to run the investigation, thu impacts things. democrats would be upset about that and inflate tensions in this bipartisan committee. >> in mid-november when the white house was first asked to respond to the allegations leveled against by roy moore, and then the president was in asia. the first line said, like most americans, the president doesn't believe mere allegations in this case should be allowed to

disrupt the position. and i think it helps to explain the effect on roy moore's candidacy. and he may make light on the sexual allegations coming out of congress in broader american life. >> that will be interesting to watch. that's it for "inside politics" today. thank you for sharing some of your sunday with us. jake tapper is next with an exclusive interview with richard shelby from alabama with more on the senate showdown between roy moore and doug jones. "state of the union" is up right after this break.

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all in. president trump urging voters to elect the man credibly accused of sexually abusing two young teenager girls to the u.s. senate from alabama. >> vote for roy moore. >> but not everyone in the republican party is with the president. the senior senator from alabama, a republican who did not vote for roy moore, is here next. plus, historic move. >> we finally acknowledge that jerusalem is israel's capital. >> president trump checks off one of h