the test. likely the president will be watching, most likely tweeting too. >> that is one of the only certainties there is in life. like death and taxes. kaitlan, great to see you. thank you so much. and thank you all so much for joining me at this hour. a very important day to be handing it off to my friend john king and "inside politics." thank you, kate. welcome to "inside pollitics." i'm john king. voters outside of columbus picking a new congressman and giving a good clue as to whether this november will be difficult or disastrous. plus, rick gates back on the witness stand after admitting he and paul manafort routinely broke the law to hide millions made. it's a big court test for the special counsel. and groundhog day meets law and order. the president yet again urged to

curb his twitter habit, this time after suggesting, yes, his son met with russians expecting what would have been illegal campaign help. >> you don't have to be a scholar, but when you're out there protesting, it sends a signal to people, why are you protesting? if you're right on the facts, you don't need to protest. i'm not one of the president's lawyers, but if i was one of the president's lawyers, i would say, listen, if you're right on the facts, and i believe that they are, i'll take them both at their word, let the investigation play itself out. i think what has them riled up is they feel cornered. >> back to the president's legal dilemmas in a moment. first today, a giant test, a political test for the president and his republican party. voters in ohio's 12th congressional district picking a new congressman. just that this special election is close tells us the 2018 midterms are already a steep

hill for the president and his party. a republican loss might tell us more. if the gop can't hold this district, which last elected a democrat back in 1980, then it's a pretty safe bet democrats will recapture the house in november. that would not only stall any trump legislative agenda but also put investigations, possibly impeachment, on the table. there are longer term questions too. if republicans keep losing in the suburbs s th, is that just are acti -- reaction to the trump presidency or a long-term shift? the president tweeted this morning, casting the democrat as, quote, controlled by nancy pelosi, among other things. that democrat is danny o'connor, who hopes to benefit from anti-trump sentiment in the suburbs but smartly prefers not to talk about the president. >> we're crisscrossing this district talking to voters about kitchen table issues like paying your mortgage, like having access to a safe and secure retirement, like making sure

that we're investing in an economy that works for everyone. >> that extends to the russia investigation, robert mueller? you don't hear that over and over? >> barely ever comes up. >> cnn's ryan nobles, you see him there, is in westerville today. what are you seeing on the ground? >> reporter: john, it's been busy here today. some of the voters i talked to said this is about what they would expect for a normal general election. this odd special election happening the first week in august. they're not accustomed to voting this time of year. a lot of people on summer vacations and the like. but we are seeing a steady stream of voters. the lunch rush just pushing through here in this key franklin county district. to that point you made about danny o'connor and his role as it relates to president trump, we really pressed him yesterday about the president's role in this race, and he simply didn't want to talk about. it seems he wants to benefit through it by osmosis to a certain degree, doesn't want to attack the president. meanwhile, his republican opponent, troy balderson, really embraced the fact president trump has been here on his behalf.

he really believes that will lead to an enthusiasm bump for republican supporters, particularly in the outlying counties as you get further away from columbus, where the district gets even redder. balderson counting on the president's support to push him over the finish line, but there's no doubt that this is a close race. no one really expected it to be a close race. the state's governor john kasich saying this should be a slam dunk for republicans, and it's anything but. the latest polls showing this as a statistical tie. to your point, john, if balderson ends up coming up on the short end of this race or even wins by only one or two points, that could really shape the fall midterm elections going forward. john? >> okay. ryan nobles, appreciate the live reporting. let's take a closer look at the district. it's the 12th congressional district. you see it right here. it is all red. it's just north of columbus. here's one of the things we'll look for tonight. as ryan just noted, one of the counties is rural.

notice the vote count. only about 15,000 votes total in a presidential vote. the question is, does the president's support turn them out in big numbers? troy balderson needs that tonight, needs big turnout, needs numbers something like this in the morrow county part of the district. then you get closer to the urban areas, but not close enough. delaware county, the second biggest county in the district. look, 72% there to 25%. again, here you have more voters. you're starting to get into the more populated areas. troy balderson must keep this red tonight. he needs margins something like this to offset the democratic votes closer to columbus. so watch delaware county tonight. then this, franklin county, where ryan is right now. this is the biggest county in the district. this is the biggest slice of the district. not all of franklin county is in the district, but the slice that is, you see it. it's closer to columbus. what have we seen during the trump presidency? republicans struggling in the suburbs with younger voters and especially educated suburban

women. if this stays red tonight, then the republicans likely will hold the seat. if this is blue at the end of the night, then democrat danny o'connor has a chance in a seat the democrats haven't won since the reagan presidency. so if you look at this, one-third of the votes here in the franklin county part of the district, why then, oh, why? is this a gaffe? is this honesty? this is the republican candidate on election eve. >> my opponent is from franklin county. franklin county has been challenging. we don't want somebody from franklin county representing us. it's really important that we move that needle tomorrow. it's back to that whole community thing again. i could go on and on and on and tell you how important it is to have a community behind you. that's the only reason i won that primary. and it shocked franklin, it shocked delaware county. it shocked all those counties, the bigger populated area ones. >> oh, boy. with me to share their reporting and their insight, katherine lucy with the associated press,

michael bender of the "wall street journal," and jackie kucinich of the daily beast. is it a gaffe, is it honesty? you have one-third of the votes in this area. is this open honesty actually from the republican candidate, not a gaffe, saying we know the republican party is changing and my votes have to come from the rural areas, less populated areas or else i lose? what is this? >> i think this was probably an attempt for him to get voters out. troy balder sson's state senate district includes one county from the vote tonight. it's very rural, definitely trump country. i think that was his attempt to -- his very inartful attempt to get those voters out. i don't know that there was a broader message. i think he wanted to get his people out. his donors all during the primary, from that county. he needed those people to show up. however, franklin county, you're

talking like tens of thousands of voters versus more than a hundred thousand voters. >> flipping the bird at a big third of your voters is kind of interesting. he's lucky he did this the night before the election, not a week before the election. the democrats don't have as much time to take advantage of it. we always say this is going to be a huge national message. in this case, that's not an exaggeration, right? we're inside 100 days to the midterms. the dynamic starts to lock in at this point. if republicans lose or just barely eke this out, what does it tell us? >> it tells us they have a problem in the suburbs, no matter what. as a former franklin county resident, that's where i was born, or where i grew up, the votes there matter. i was talking to a republican this morning talking about those suburb ban vote suburban voters. he does know voters who are mad at trump and are going to cast a vote for danny o'connor because they're not happy about where the trump presidency is going. the alarm bells are going to sound. this is a district that's plus seven republican. if that whittles down, this

republican told me he thinks that balderson is going to eke it out. that said, if he wins by 1%, 2%, though a those are inroads and alarm bells. these two candidates are not exactly setting the world on fire. they're kind of generic dem and republican. there isn't the sort of fiery candidates we've seen in some other places. so the fact you kind of do have this generic ballot, i think you have a lot of people here in washington who are sending the money that way to candidates around the country keeping a close eye on this. >> and it's going to narrow the window here where trump is going to be influential or where candidates are going to welcome him. not to one up you, but i also am a former ohio resident. what we're seeing in this race here is a couple things. as jackie mentioned, this candidate has not exactly been setting the world on fire. we were tracking closely at how these candidates were performing at trump rallies. we saw, what, four rallies in 12

days. balderson was by far the least polished and didn't hit his marks as well as the others had. you saw these -- it kind of helps explain that video we saw, his gaffe. but if trump is going to go to these rallies and go to these districts, he's going to want to win. this one looks like, at best, a jump ball. if they come up short, the question is going to be who's going to welcome trump into their backyard? >> you see here, you see this is a great district to look at what i call the shotgun wedding that's the republican party under donald trump. especially suburban women, they find the president toxic. they might like the tax cuts, might like the blooming economy, but they don't like his personal behavior, his tweets. we've seen that. alabama has a democratic senator because of this dynamic in the suburbs. look back at the special elections throughout 2017 and into this year. but you get into these white,

working class areas, and that's where trump has brought new voters to the republican party. ron brownstein characterized it this way, after flipping the bird to franklin county, revealing a message for the trump era gop. the party is consciously trading suburbs for small towns. it's saying what you really mean. we don't consider those voters who we are anymore. but if you just do demographics, that's where they live. the republican party can't win in the cities, the urban areas. their only hope of being competitive in a competitive statewide race, looking forward, how can you be competitive if you can't win in the cities and can't win in the suburbs? >> you saw with president trump in '16, he built coalitions that weren't relying on urban areas in states like pennsylvania, for example, where philadelphia and pittsburgh often dominate. he built a winning coalition there. so i think he has shown some ways to do that, but what's not

clear is does it work for anyone else but trump? trump found a way to do this, but going into these midterms, it's not clear that's going to work for anybody else. >> the other thing i wanted to point out, these are big parts of this district. they all have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. so the economic message isn't pushing him -- it may push him ahead, but it isn't having the same resonance that it might in other places. you can probably speak to this better. >> absolutely. 2016 was, in ohio, many ways a vote for economic change. these were people who maybe felt left out of the global economy to a degree. and columbus was really sort of an anomaly. they've had a strong economic growth throughout that time, so i think that you really do see sort of that dichotomy of the chamber of commerce republican versus a more maybe tea party or more rural voter in this district. it's a very good microcosm, i think, for the rest of the country. >> the other question, too, is

what republicans stay home. we're going to see that in this race and also midterms. it's not just who you're turning out but the quiet voters who aren't going to show up. >> and that's a great point there. that's where we've seen a lot of the suburban women factor in. they just stay home. and this president, can he get voters to come out to vote for congress? in those rural areas, it's a fascinating question. you say, i'm with the president, but i don't care about congress. >> a big piece of that trump strategy is sort of relying on a depressed vote for your opponents. that seems to be one of the trends here so far post-trump. democrats don't seem to be staying home in any of these races. >> one thing trump has done is energized democrats. >> this is a super strange time to have a special election by the way. it's august. kids are returning to school next week. a lot of families would consider going on vacation this week. turnout is going to be a little stranger than normal, but i think the energy from the final days of the election will probably fire it up.

>> fascinating race. we'll count the votes tonight and come back to it a bit later. up next, paul manafort's defense team about to get a crack at cross-examining the star witness, but has the damage from rick gates already been done? you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

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welcome back. rick gates the key witness testifying against his former boss and partner paul manafort on the stand right now, ed backing up one part of his story. e-mails presented in court show manafort did direct him to commit fraud. yet gates told the jury that during that time he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his partner manafort by filing false expense reports. shimon prokupecz joins us now. what's the most significant thing happening today? >> there's been a lot of significant things when you think about it. certainly those e-mails. direct evidence by the prosecution of e-mails that show

manafort was directing how the money be moved from the ukrainians to these overseas accounts. gates really going over kind of the nitty-gritty details of this scheme, of how manafort was involved in it, who the ukrainians were. this was all about, gates says, money being paid to them for their campaign work they were doing on behalf of the ukrainians. a couple new things we did learn was that gates and manafort were interviewed by the fbi in 2014 regarding a forfeiture investigation involving the ukrainians. gates says manafort directed him to go talk to one of these ukrainians about the fbi interview. he went to france to do that. we also learned there was an e-mail from a suspected russian intelligence official. now, this e-mail is from 2014, where manafort was getting paid, money was being moved from this

person. he's been indicted by the special counsel. he's suspected of being this russian intelligence official. he was moving some of the money, paying manafort. there's an e-mail where they are talking and gates is saying that manafort is concerned, that he needs money, he's not getting paid. he writes, this is to calm paul dourn down, meaning he's going to be sending money. certainly little details but significant here for the prosecution's case. >> shimon prokupecz, appreciate that. keep us posted. pretty soon they move to the cross-examination. that should be interesting. paul manafort, chairman of the trump campaign, rick gates, deputy chairman of the trump campaign. this trial has nothing to do with the trump campaign. this is conduct before then. it does get you into the conversation about this is great insight on the swamp, number

one, and while donald trump the candidate would have had no way of knowing these guys were involved in illegal activity, it was well known in town that they were involved in the more shady part of the swamp, yet he brought them in. >> one of the aspects of what prosecutors are trying to show is even though this is not directly related to the trump campaign, there could have been a certain period of time when manafort, who was used to a very lavish lifestyle as we've seen with the ostrich jackets and whatnot, was short on money. even though he was working voluntarily for the campaign, he did have these relationships with russians and ukrainians that he could have used in his favor to make some money. >> that's a great point. "the atlantic" talks about this as well. is this something that was handed to the special counsel? the fbi has been looking into these two going as far back as 2014. the justice department said, you take this too since it involves some of the same issues. is it just an isolated case, or mueller has shown once he can

get a campaign insider talking, what flows is damaging. the opening pages of a much more complicated tale, meaning can you connect this to the 2016 campaign, or are these just two guys who are apparently now admitted lawbreakers and trump made the mistake of hiring them? >> a lot of attorneys watching this are asking that very question. if it gets to the point where manafort sees a conviction coming, or if it's clear this is happening, then if mueller can flip manafort, and a lot of people are speculating behind the scenes that's what a lot of the motivation here is to try to get manafort talking. as you mentioned, the story is about -- or this trial is about tax evasion, also bank fraud. it tells us a lot about trump world. it tells us a lot about washington. just a fascinating personal story here of a political

operative and a mentor and a protege turned against each other. really, some folks think that manafort's best shot here is today, to basically have his attorneys disthem bowl hembowel one-time protege. it may be their last chance. covering the campaign and the start of the white house, rick gates is a survivor. he's deputy campaign manager, but he wasn't really quite number two. you had manafort there. you had the kids. you had the family. even after manafort left, you had bannon, kellyanne. somehow gates just stayed around all the time, into the transition. one story i heard was it was a right-ranking campaign official, there was an issue with gates. face to face, i need your badge, you're not coming back in, this is your last day. next morning at the all-staff meeting, there's gates sitting at the table, and no one could figure out how he did it. that was a story about rick

gates over and over again. so keep an eye on rick gates. he really is a fascinating character. >> that seems like a lot of people in trump land too. they never seem to go away. i think the other thing we see is it gives us some insider understanding of mueller's methodology. in addition to learning what we're learning about these two individuals, it shows the depth of detail we're hearing, the amount of evidence they have, the way that they're going after this. the big thing i think we've all talked about a lot and keep coming back to is we just don't really know the extent of this. we deponeon't know what mueller knows. this suggests a very deep process. >> to that point, we'll get to more a bit later, the preparation, the e-mail, the documentation that tell the truth or else we'll show you this that proves you're not telling that truth. up next, president trump really doth protest too much. why his advisers think his tweets, especially about that trump tower meeting, are make things work. todd. hold on. [ engine revs ] arcade game: fist pump!

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now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. advice from the president today, a lot of it coming from friends. if you want people to stop talking about something, lead by example. a source telling cnn president trump has been urged to stop tweeting about that 2016 trump tower meeting between his top advisers, including his son, and several russians. he's been advises that his tweeting, no surprise here, only gives oxygen to the topic, and in this case perhaps evidence to investigators. it seems just about everyone,

including former advisers trying to telegraph that message to the boss. >> when you're out there protesting, you don't have to be a scholar, but the words doth does protest too much, well, why are you protesting? if you're right on the facts, the facts will unfold in a way that's favorable to you, and you'll be better served not talking about it. >> that from anthony scaramucci there. the advice coming as the president's legal team prepares a response to the special counsel's latest proposal about an interview with the president. it's robert mueller's birthday today. yes, it is. sounds like he's not getting a gift from the white house. the president's attorney rudy giuliani telling "the washington post" we have a real reluctance about allowing any questions about obstruction. the president still hasn't made a decision, and we're not going to make a final decision just yet. that sounds a lot like groundhog day. we haven't made a final decision. we don't want you interviewing the president about obstruction. let's start with that. i get the sense here that's a

no. if you keep over a period of months sending robert mueller the same answer, that's a no, isn't it? isn't that a, we dare you to subpoena us if you won't back down? >> unless you're representing president trump, who's said many, many times that he wants to do the interview, i think he's the wild card, as always, in this entire process. how many times has he been told to stop tweeting about the travel ban, about this, about some other things i've probably forgotten long ago? he never listens. it'll stop for a time, then something will set him off. and it's just hum aim and his p. in theory, that's a no, but again, it depends on what the president says. >> to your point about the substance of the tweet, the president tweeting now in his clear language that donald trump jr. and these others took this meeting with known russians expecting dirt on hillary clinton. donald trump jr. himself yesterday saying that's what happened. in his view, no big deal.

>> it was a 20-minute meeting. it ended up being about essentially nothing that was relevant to any of these things. that's all it is. and that's all they've got. look, that's not the premise that got them in the room. then they -- it was essentially, you know, a bait and switch to talk about that. everyone has basically said that in testimony already. i mean, so this is nothing new. >> it's nothing new, except it's the son of the president on the record after the president of the united states in a tweet said donald trump jr. took the meeting expecting dirt on hillary clinton from the russians. if they gave him that dirt, he says it didn't happen, but that means he knew going in that's what he wanted. that's illegal. it is illegal to accept campaign cash or campaign gifts, which that information would be, from a foreign national. is he not saying right there, yeah, i went into this meeting expecting -- maybe he didn't know it was breaking the law, but that's for the lawyers to argue. >> they've changed their story a couple times on this. it keeps getting clearer and clearer what this meeting was and about.

to his point about questioning or saying this is all mueller has, i don't know that he knows that. i'm not sure he knows that. i think there are still several questions we haven't had answers to about this meeting. there are certainly more questions. we'll see what mueller has. to your other point before, you're right. trump does not -- trump is inclined to have this interview. the attorneys are pushing him back. at some point, no answer is an answer. mueller is going to have to make his decision. >> i want you to listen to one more part of this interview. the president's supporters always accuse reporters who ask questions about the trump derangement. listen to laura ingram here. she's trying to ask a relevant question of the president's son, and -- >> do you want any comments on that? they're hitting you on that for contradictions. they're calling it worse than

contradictions, obviously. >> hello? >> donny, what is your reaction to all that? we're going to see if we can reconnect with donald trump jr. on this because we can't seem to hear him. donny, you hear that? we don't know where he went. >> i guess maybe he wasn't expecting a real question. >> maybe he was taking mooch's advice there. >> there's still a lot of questions that need to be answered. we're not getting answers in that interview. >> he says there, you know, that was the premise that got them in the room, meaning they were going to give me dirt on hillary clinton. they are russian nationals. you can't accept that from a foreign national. if he didn't, he can say the crime didn't happen. also, he's on the record saying he went into the room anticipating a crime to happen. >> it seems that as this is going on, trump junior clearly knows this is getting bad. we know from reporting that the president is getting worried

about his son. again, he continues to dig this hole for his son. i'm not sure how many times laura ingraham has had technical difficulties on this show, but this seems to be a way to sort of evade answering the questions. they probably thought they were getting a friendly interview. when the real questions started, we lost donny on the phone. >> i would like to see in the end all the transcripts of how many people who are interviewed by the special counsel say, i didn't know, i didn't know, i didn't know any better, i didn't know, i didn't know. before we go to break, another key player in the russia probe, the deputy attorney general who likes to show his sense of humor. having a little fun today channelling tim mcgraw during a speech at the justice department. >> always stay humble and kind. those are important attributes of prosecutors.

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♪ welcome back. exhausted firefighters in northern california now dealing with the largest wildfire in state history. the so-called mendocino complex fire north of san francisco has now burned more acreage than the entire city of los angeles, making it bigger than last year's thomas fire that scorched much of ventura and santa barbara counties. president trump says the crisis is being exacerbated by bad environmental laws, which he says are hampering access to water. michael cohen, the president's long-time lawyer, facing new legal trouble. "the wall street journal" reporting cohen is under investigation for tax fraud. prosecutors looking into whether cohen underreported on his tax

returns. investigators also looking into whether cohen got loans without proper documentation. iran now enduring its first day under new u.s. sanctions. quote, the most biting penalties ever, according to president trump, who also says anyone doing business there won't be doing any business with the united states. as a result, the maker of mercedes-benz says it's suspending activities in iran until further notice. iran's auto industry is just one sector affected by the sanctions, which could be expanded again in november. the outgoing house speaker paul ryan says she's very comfortable with the decisions he's made and that he'd make them again the same way. that's just one comment that appears in a new "new york times" profile which also quotes the outgoing speaker as saying the president tweets so much because he, quote, just wants to see your heads explode, referring to the news media. speaker ryan also mentions how trump used to call him a boy scout and how he eventually realized it was an insult. it's something he's shown a sense of humor about though. just listen. >> at one point, the president

actually insulted me. i know that sounds kind of surprising. he described me as a boy scout who's boring to talk to. it didn't hurt my feelings. what hurt my feelings was when my wife agreed with him. >> it is interesting to watch the final weeks or months of the paul ryan speakership in the sense that he was mitt romney's vice presidential nominee. a lot of people thought he would run for president last time around. he came to washington as a passion n passionate conservative who said he was going to balance the budget and put the fiscal house in order. what's he going to go away with on his list of things i will do in washington? >> kind of in like a lion and out like a lamb. i covered paul ryan for years. there were big dreams for him, and his speakership even, how he came into the speakership. john boehner was wounded. he was going to bring everyone together. trump was a real wild card. you have to imagine -- and i think a lot of fortunes would be different had the republican

party had another republican at the top of that ticket, but i think paul ryan's career trajectory would have been completely different had he had a president that was a little more amenable to the traditional establishment track. >> i would say -- i mean, the one key thing he goes back with is the thing that i think keeps a lot of establishment republicans sort of in line with trump, tax cuts. that was a huge goal for paul ryan. they did get that done. so he goes home with that. he also is leaving, and the article talks about it, it's an interesting time, an age to be leaving this role. he's exiting quietly. >> guys in their 40s when they're at their height of power. happens all the time. >> sure. coming up, a look back at that ohio race coming up today and the campaign ad wars. >> dishonest danny o'connor. >> troy balderson, he'd be more of the same in washington. the sleep number 360 smart bed intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts. so you wake up ready to run the world.

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welcome back. today's special congressional election out in ohio will give us a fascinating read on the midterm tea leaves. voters in the district, though, likely be glad when it's over. glad because of all the attack ads they have been bombarded with will finally stop. here are the two that have been on air the most. >> o'connor supports amnesty for illegals, and o'connor opposes the border wall. danny o'connor would join the resistance. >> troy balderson supports a corporate tax giveaway that racks up 2 trillion in debt, forcing massive tax hikes on our kids. >> over $7 million spent on tv ads for this one congressional race. on the democrat side, more than 80% of the money came from danny o'connor's campaign. just the opposite on the republican side. outside groups spent close to 90% of the money on the ads supporting troy balderson. all that outside money from republicans tells you they're scared. they should not have to spend a nickel in this district, but

they're spending a ton. also interesting that the attacks on immigration, unemployment is low, the republican tax cut they say is a success, but they're trying to drive out base turnout by putting immigration front and center. >> because it wasn't working. if you look at the early ads, it was about the economy. apparently it wasn't resonating with people. they're also message testing. they're looking at the rest of the map and seeing if this immigration play will work because they just kind of using him as candidate tofu and seeing -- if you put him in that -- i don't know where to go with that metaphor. >> i like it. another issue, we know the president is an issue, especially in the suburbs, where particularly suburban women say we don't like this president. the republicans have tried to make nancy pelosi an issue, saying if the democrats keep winning, the democrats will control the house and you'll get nancy pelosi. >> o'connor admits that after months of trying to hide it, he'd support pelosi for speaker, and with liberal nancy pelosi,

we'll have open borders and higher taxes. >> i'll work with president trump and congressional democrats if folks will sit down and be serious and commit to rebuilding this country. >> to your point about message testing, it will be interesting in a heavily republican district if you can't make nancy pelosi the boogie woman. will we keep seeing that through november? do the republicans have anything else? >> we've seen this over and over again. republicans have been pretty successful with this nancy pelosi messaging. we've seen this for years at this point. republican voters know well when they see this ad, they know to associate a democrat candidate with nancy pelosi and liberal views. in a district like this, it could work. what we were talking about earlier with highlighting the employment gains, things like that, talking about the economy, we're just not seeing that positive messaging at all because voters are extremely polarized at this point.

the middle section keeps getting smaller and smaller. so a positive message like that might not work as well. >> they don't want scare people to the polls. >> a number of candidates are saying we're not going to get into who we'll support, this isn't what this is about. he's really talking about working across the aisle. that's clearly the pushback. >> distance from washington still helps. it helped president trump. it still helps on both sides in this race. when we come back, ohio is not the only election today. a controversial trump endorsement in one state and a democrat trying to make history in another. and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you

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today's special election in ohio will no doubt test the midterm mood for republicans. other states to keep an eye on tonight include kansas, missouri, michigan. also a critical day for democrats. back to michigan, for example. vying to become the nation's first muslim governor. he's branded himself as the medicare for all candidate, and he's earned some big-name support from liberals like bernie sanders and alexandria ocasio-cortez. but will their support be enough to help el-sayed? we talk about a lot of these republican primaries because the president's in charge of his party right now. it's more front and center. but these democratic races, including michigan governor, democrats think they have a chance to make progress. this is a fascinating primary.

>> absolutely. we talked about message testing. this is a big one. you have a lot of democrats looking at this, looking forward 2020, whether these statewide messages are going to work. this is obviously a lot bigger than a congressional district in queens. >> and to that point, can you sell the bernie sanders message, the ocasio-cortez message in the heartland? abdul sayed says yes. >> i think the democratic party has gotten complacent about how we win elections and more importantly about who we serve. we cannot continue to take money from the same corporations if we say that we're the party that works for the poor and working of our country. and we cannot continue to apologize for our message. >> certainly bernie sanders won the primary in michigan, so we know there's support and interest in this kind of message.

although, i think this speaks, again, to the divide within the democratic party that we're seeing a candidate like this in michigan, seeing danny o'connor in ohio, and how do they work out what works for 2020. it's not really clear right now where that debate is going to land. >> we're in the laboratory of that. in the wake of this, the president of the united states, a republican, endorsed the kansas secretary of state, a republican, against a sitting republican governor in a republican party. they think he's the weaker candidate. why? >> if you're a democrat, that's your first priority tonight. you're watching michigan to see what statement the base is going to send tonight. in the not too distant future, you're going to have to keep your eyes on this kansas race. if trump is successful and gets this candidate in, the party sees a real opportunity to take the governorship in kansas because kobach is such a controversial figure. for trump to jump in at the 11th hour, you know, he's sort of

damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, no matter what the outcome. if kobach loses, trump spends political capital and has potentially put his party in a worse position. >> he's obviously at odds with the republican party. a lot of people were surprised by that tweet yesterday. frankly, i'm surprised it took the president this long to put out that tweet because he's been such a big supporter of kobach. he likes to reward loyalty. so this is sort of a clear sign of that. >> he also likes making endorsements. he likes things he can do unilaterally. endorsements is one of those powers he can flex. >> he likes proving his power with the republican base. what republicans will tell you, mostly privately, is they don't think he understands his role as the leader of the party. sometimes this candidate is more competitive. but he doesn't like that part. >> he has done a little bit of a better job of that recently. we were kind of watching his performance in these rallies.

we saw him kind of give a lukewarm endorsement to candidates in the past. in the last few weeks, he's been very on message and trying to get support for the candidates he's backing. >> we'll count the votes tonight. hope you come back to see us tomorrow. that's it for today on "inside politics." again, see you this time tomorrow. wolf starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we start with more dramatic developments from the paul manafort trial. his former protege rick gates oon the stand once again today. he testified about e-mails that show manafort directed gates on what to do with money coming in from secret offshore accounts. gates also told the court he created invoices for fake amounts of money for use in wire transfers. this follows gates' stunning testimony yesterda