elections department. these employees, they are testing tabulators. there are more than 400 tabulators that they're going to be testing. this is going to take a week. actual vote counting will begin in just about two weeks. zblak. >> thanks so much. ac 360 starts right now. good evening. we begin with breaking news in the disappearance and suspected killing of the american based saudi journalist who was last seen walking to the saudi consulate in istanbul two weeks ago and never seen alive again. turkish sources, as you know, say they believe jamal khashoggi was murdered on the premises, dismembered and taken out in pieces. tonight new reporting, two sources telling cnn that the saudis are preparing not to admit that but to say instead that he died during a botched interrogation which mentioned that as of air time the saudi government didn't officially say

anything or admit to anything at all for his disappearance. keep in mind the latest denial is the focus tonight, namely president trump's willingness to believe that denial. in a broader sense there are many bad actors as long as they happen to be political allies who he's formed some kind of personal relationship with and with the saudi monarch and the crown prince, it appears to be both. here's what the president said earlier today. >> i just spoke with the king of saudi arabia who denies any knowledge of what took place with regard to, as he said, his saudi arabian citizen. i asked and he firmly denied that. >> you've only heard denials? >> excuse me, mike pompeo is leaving literally within an hour or so. he's heading to saudi arabia. we are going to leave nothing uncovered. with that being said, the king firmly denied any knowledge of

it. he didn't really know, maybe -- i don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. who knows. we're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat dmiel. >> well, that was before we began getting word that the saudis were preparing to admit to everything but ordering the hit, ordering jamal khashoggi detained, interrogated and taken back to the kingdom. presumably the president of the united states knows far more about this than we or anyone else does. why is he floating the idea of rogue killers? why did he seem eager to embrace the saudi leader's denial? it is what he does whether it's a country that attacked our election or a campaign chairman accused of massive tax and bank fraud. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people but i will tell you that president putin

was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> 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. >> manafort has totally denied it. >> denied it. >> the president, as you know, also discounts kim jong-un's wrongdoing however he's quick to say how well he gets along with kim. that language earlier today about rogue killers, it sounds a lot like the way he once tried to discount the intelligence's communities's theory that russia hacked the election. >> could be russia but it could also be china, could also be lots of other people. could also be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay? >> we should point out that we don't know exactly what happened. there's not a lot of speculation, obviously. a lot of rumors swirling around the story but the president's rogue killer notwithstanding,

turkish authorities say they know what happened. 15 saudi men were connected to jamal khashoggi's disappearance and possible murder. some appear to have high level connections in the saudi government. tonight if our sources are accurate the saudi government could be on the verge of changing its story in a very big way. a lot to watch for tonight and a short time ago the president was asked about the very latest reporting. jim acosta is at the white house. what did the president say? >> reporter: he was down in florida and georgia taking a look at the storm damage. he was asked about the latest report from cnn and from others that this was the result potentially of a botched interrogation, that jamal khashoggi died as a result of an interrogation that went wrong. the president, as you noted earlier today, was saying that perhaps rogue killers were to blame for all of this. he was much more careful in the way he responded to this question about the latest reports on all of this and here's what he had to say earlier tonight. >> i'm going to have to see what they say and we're working very closely with saudi arabia and

with turkey and they're working together to figure out what happened. and they want to know what happened also. so a lot of people are working on it, a lot of people. and we'll be bound very much by that. we'll see. i've heard that report. nobody knows if it's an official report. so far it's the rumor. the rumor report coming in. >> reporter: and, anderson, the president was really talking up the denials from the saudi king, king salman. just going through my personal in box, the saudi government has repeatedly put out statements denying any involvement in the death of jamal khashoggi and in one of those e-mails it talks about false media narratives, false media allegations. that's about as close i guess as the saudi kingdom comes to using the term fake news. >> what does it mean for the u.s./saudi relationship that obviously is important to the president? >> reporter: well, i think this is huge, anderson, because the president has put so much time

and i guess his own resources in investing in this relationship forming these close ties with the saudi government, his own son-in-law, jared kushner as you know, has been very close to the crown prince, muhammad bin salman. the question that the white house is going to have to face moving forward this week is whether or not the president was lied to by the king of saudi arabia or whether or not the king was in the dark. i will tell you, anderson, that the president has been over the last few days sort of diminishing the importance of jamal khashoggi's death saying again -- once again today that he was not a u.s. citizen, that he was a saudi citizen essentially implying that there's not a whole lot he can do and talking to my sources this evening, anderson, in both the diplomatic community and up here in washington, folks who are close to the white house, there is not a big expectation that the white house or the president is going to do much if anything about this once these final answers come in. >> jim acosta, thank you very much. cnn's arwa damon has been out ahead of this just about every

night from istanbul. she joins us from there. this expected explanation from the saudis, when's the latest on when it may be coming out or anything else you know about it? >> reporter: we're not entirely sure. one of the two sources at cnn i had spoken to had actually eluded to the fact that it might change because it was still the a work in progress. they sthad on top of the sort of over arching narrative that this was a botched interrogation that was meant to lead to basically the interrogation of jamal hash gi that led to his death. on top of that, this report would be highlighting that was expected, that it was not something that was sanctioned and that those who were responsible would be held accountable. there have been all sorts of delays, anderson, when it comes to allowing turkish authorities access to the saudi consulate, and this was after the saudis last week had originally said

yes to the turninks, that they would be allowed to enter. they asked that it be postponed. we saw the working group and tonight 7, 7 1/2 hours ago we saw the turkish team going inside the saudi consulate. forensics team in there as well as one would expect. we're not sure exactly what their investigation, what sort of information the turks are going to be releasing or exactly how this is all going to play out in terms of specifics over the next coming hours and days, but it certainly does seem that after days of denying having anything to do with khashoggi's disappearance, in fact insistence on the part of the saudis that jamal khashoggi left the consulate the same day he arrived, we are going to see the beginnings of a new narrative being put forward. >> if they come out with a new narrative it is completely at odds with what they've been saying all along, which is, oh, no, no, no, he left the

consulate and we know nothing about what happened to him after that. >> it is, and that in and of itself is quite likely going to raise a lot of questions because if they're going to come out and say this now, why did they not elude to it earlier? why were they so adamant in their denials and calling the media reports about khashoggi's death inside the walls of the consulate false news and part of the broad campaign to tarnish the image of the saudi nation. saudi arabia has been under a phenomenal amount of pressure as has been turkey to a certain degree to try to uncover exactly what it is that took place because at the end of the day even though at the core of this is the potential probable tragic death of jamal khashoggi, thiso geopolitical implications. we're seeing all sorts of dynamics come into play when it comes to various nations

relationship with saudi arabia, whether there are military ties, economic ties, whether they're part of the broader regional tensions that do exist at this stage. but this most certainly is an incident, is a death that has really taken on a far greater dimension than perhaps anyone could have anticipated, anderson. >> arwa damon, thank you very much. want to get perspective from someone who has watched up close as presidents of both parties have had to grapple with some difficult alliances and unsavory relationships. michael hayden is a cnn national security analyst. thank you for being with us. do you think this apparent explanation for khashoggi's death is a believable one? and if the saudis do end up going with this idea that this was a botched interrogation, do you think it gives enough cover to both the u.s. and to the saudis to move past it? >> so, anderson, i would characterize it as a plausible story. in fact, i was on air last week suggesting that that may have been what happened, an

interrogation rendition gone wrong but, you know, you don't get the benefit of the doubt when you take two weeks to develop your cover story. and so i think we have a right to be very suspicious about this. let me end where i began. it's plausible. i'd like to see a lot more evidence. now with regard to can you get beyond it? i actually think it is the purpose of both the kingdom and the trump administration could get beyond this as quickly as possible with as little impact as possible on american/saudi relations, and i think that's why the president has been sounding like he has for the past three or four days. frankly, anderson, i actually think that's a mistake from the point of view of the interests of the united states. this was not an isolated incident in mohamed bin salman's body of work. we've seen an awful lot of other activity, whether it's savage

attacks diplomatically on canada, kidnapping of the lebanese prime minister and so on. this is not out of the pattern. and so to let it pass without having some severe repercussions i think may actually just lead to deeper problems in the future. >> the proposed claim may also include the operation was carried out without clearance and without transparency. i'm not exactly sure what they mean by that. the idea that a group of interrogators/whatever they are, hit men, could enter into the saudi consulate in istanbul with the highest level of authority seems odd to me. how likely do you think it is that something like this, an interrogation of this sort if that's, in fact, what it was, not an outright hit or attempted rendition, would have been done without the highest level of authority? >> so when i said the story was plausible, i meant what happened in the consulate in istanbul,

that this may have been an interrogation that just got out of hand. the part of the story that this was a rogue operation beyond the view of saudi authorities is not believable. now did king salman know about this? frankly, i think probably not. and so when the president is talking to his majesty and gets the word from the king that i knew nothing about this, that's probably true. it's far more difficult for me to believe that a controlling personality like mohamed bin salman would not know that something like this was going on or, conversely, anderson, that someone would attempt to do this without the cover of the crown prince. >> also, i mean, given that the crown prince had also, you know, i'm not sure even what the proper verbiage is, but, you know, locked people up in the

ritz carlton hotel in saudi arabia -- >> yeah. >> -- and got money back from them through whatever means, you though, we were unaware of what the means were, maybe some of those were ill-gotten gains, but there is a track record here. >> yes. no, exactly. and so -- but, look. i mean, if i'm still back in government and i'm trying to brief president trump, and i think this needs a more forcible response on the part of the united states, let me tell you the tact i would take, anderson. i would simply approach the president and say, mr. president, this 33-year-old crown prince had so little respect for you that he thought he could actually conduct a rendition of a legal resident of the united states working poor the washington post and you would not respond. that's how i would frame this for the president. i don't think that's a lesson he wants to teach other people in

the world. >> it is -- i mean, you know, when you step back from it, as you said, he's a resident of the united states working for the washington post. there are plenty of foreign nationals working for -- in u.s. news media, and the idea that they can walk into an embassy and be taken or chopped up or whatever it -- you know, interrogated is frightening. and the idea that nothing would be done about it is -- i mean, that's -- i mean, i know it's real polite, it's alarming. >> it's not just a question of values, it's a question of interest. we're teaching the wrong less zblons general michael hayden, appreciate you being with us. >> thank you. up next the trump doctrine with respect to the saudis and why the president may shrug off

their behavior. i'll talk that over with senator bernie sanders. senator elizabeth warren claims she has dna proof of some small native american ancestry. the president fires back with who cares. details ahead.

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to help manny overcome his fear. their gps took them to places out of a storybook. and they called grandma when manny felt sad about not being able to swim. overall, they shared 176 pictures. but when the moment came, they held their breath, and watched their son learn to believe in himself. again, breaking news. two sources now telling cnn the saudi government is prepared to admit that missing journalist jamal khashoggi was, indeed, killed during an interrogation gone wrong after he entered the saudi consulate in istanbul two weeks ago, he never came back out. the question tonight what will president trump do about this? on the world stage he denied a tough stance. take a look at "60 minutes" interview talking with the

president about why he won't cost the saudi's weapon deal, because it will cost jobs. >> would you consider imposing sanctions as a bipartisan group of senators have proposed? >> it depends what the sanction is. i'll give you an example. they are ordering military women. everybody in the world wanted it. russia, wanted it, china wanted it, we wanted it. >> do you agree vladimir putin is involved assassinations and poisonings? >> probably. >> probably? >> what about north korea talking about -- >> well, i consider it a so far great achievement. >> you say so far. >> it's always so far until everything is done. deals are deals, okay? whether it's a real estate deal or a retail deal, it doesn't matter. >> earlier tonight i talked with vermont independent senator bernie sanders to get his stake on the saudi situation and the

trump doctrine overseas. senator sanders, this new reporting that the saudis are planning to acknowledge khashoggi's death as an interrogation that went wrong. if that ends up being the narrative that they put forward, do you buy that? >> interrogation that went wrong. well, it tells me, anderson, that if the saudi embassy invites you for a little discussion, you may not want to go there. i don't know what that means. it sounds to me like they killed this guy. it was a dissident and a critic of the regime. >> on "60 minutes" last night the president vowed severe punishment if saudi arabia is behind khashoggi's disappearance. do you think he would actually follow up with that? i mean, if the saudi government did, in fact, direct this? >> no, i don't think so. i mean, that's what he said yesterday. god knows what he will say tomorrow. the president and jared kushner are very tight with the saudi

regime and i have little doubt that the united states, at least the trump administration, would do everything it can to protect the saudis. in my view, we have got to rethink our arms deals, the sale of huge amounts of weapons to saudi arabia. i think if, in fact, it turns out what i believe to be true is that khashoggi was killed by the saudis, it requires some sanctions and it requires a fundamental rethinking of u.s./saudi relations. >> the president has up until now given the saudis obviously the benefit of the doubt saying they have vehemently denied any involvement, that rogue killers could have been the ones behind this. it's interesting. he does seem to have a public history at least of believing denials whether it's roy moore said he didn't do anything. people say they didn't do anything. that seems to be kind of his go-to response often.

>> it's convenient denials. putin said -- you recall when he was in helsinki, putin said, we had nothing to do, no involvement in trying to sabotage u.s. elections. well, every intelligence agency in the united states government said otherwise and then trump after his discussion with putin says, mr. putin told me they had no involvement. and i believe him. well, you know, he is now a great, you know, friend of kim jong-un in north korea, one of the worst autocrats and dictators in the world. he loves the guy. you know, mohamed bin salman in saudi arabia. i think this speaks, anderson, to the fact that we have a president who has very strong authoritarian ten den sees, who likes strong men all over the world. we are seeing those

authoritarian ten den sees. he attacks the media. first amendment rights. that's what media is about. hacks and independent judiciary. of the many issues i have with trump, this movement to an authoritarian type society and support of authoritarians should be of concern to every american who believes in democracy. >> if there is a trump doctrine, you saw him in the "60 minutes" interview, it seems like he is willing to overlook moral outrages in the election, alleged assassinations. it doesn't seem like na this president or this administration has a vision of america. they were critical of obama for not believing in american

exceptionalism. it doesn't seem like they have a view of america being different than the rest of the world. >> worse than many of the leading countries in the world. it saddens me to see all over the world they do international polls. they ask people all over the world, what do you think of the united states of america? we used to be very, very high up. we love the united states. we respect the united states. we want to come to the united states. now that international feeling, that approval has plummeted under trump because people see a regime, an administration right here in the united states that is not standing up what has historically been what the united states is supposed to be about, that is support for democracy, support for human rights, support all over the world. >> senator sanders, appreciate your time. >> thank you. 23 and she.

senator elizabeth warren, the dna test she says puts the claim of her native american ancestry to rest. what the cherokee nation thinks about that. why president trump says who cares even though he has cared enough in the past to mock her forward. and my first call is crunch. ♪ delicious 100% real chocolate embracing the lightness of crispy rice. crunch. the chocolate bar all americans love.

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not too long ago president trump had a warning. listen. >> just stick with us. don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. and just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> well, today he's asking us not to care about an insult that he repeatedly hurled at a sitting u.s. senator and he's asking us not to believe what he said on tape in front of a crowd of thousands of people. also late today he tried blaming the target saying she, not he, owes the country an apology. keeping him honest. it's textbook gaslighting. asking people not to believe what they see and hear challenging reality. it all centers on senator

elizabeth warren releasing dna tests showing she has distant native american ancestry. warren says she was raised believing that ancestor was a member of the cherokee nation though she makes no claim of actual tribal citizenship. the cherokee nation said using a dna test making any dna test and i'm quoting here is inappropriate and wrong. when told of the tests today here's what president trump said. >> senator elizabeth warren releasing the results of her dna tests? >> no, i have no -- who cares? >> mr. president, you said -- >> who cares? >> who cares? i mean, who on earth would ever make a big deal about elizabeth warren's heritage and say it ought loud? but who would say it on camera? if they ever did say it on camera who would ever say it again and again during the campaign and, well, actually well into office. who, indeed, would say that?

>> pocahontas, that's this elizabeth warren. massachusetts is represented by pocahont pocahontas, right? >> i call her pocahontas. that's an insult to pock could he hon tas. >> pocahontas. >> pocahontas. >> what an insult to pocahontas. >> i've got more indian blood in me than pocahontas and be i have none. >> to answer president trump's question, he cares. clearly. he made this an issue even if you can call urling racially loaded insults making something an issue, and now he kind of wants to ignore all of the evidence of it including presumably what he said in front of some of the most courageous people who ever lived, navajo code talkers. >> we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago. they call her pocahontas. >> so today senator warren called his bluff and the president first said, who cares, asking us to ignore all the

times that he, himself, cared asking us to ignore that he is the one who called her names over and over. he turned the gaslight up to 11 with his answer of this. >> mr. president, you said -- >> who cares. >> $1 million -- >> you better read it again. >> so he said he didn't say it. keeping him honest, that must mean that on july 5th of this year he never said this. >> i'm going to get one of those little kits and in the middle of the debate when she proclaims that she's of indian heritage i will say, i will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity paid for by trump if you take the test and it shows you're an indian. >> so he says he didn't say it. he did. and later today inspecting hurricane damage in georgia he was no long der denying that he had said what the video clearly shows him saying. instead he wiggled out of it on a technicality.

his million promise only counts if she wins the election. make of it what you will. >> i will only do it if i can test her personally, okay? that will not be something i enjoy doing either. >> do you oher an apology? >> no. i oher? she owes the country an apology. >> what you're seeing, what you're hearing is not what's happening except in this case it is. joining us now is kiersten powers. former trump campaign aide michael kaputo. great to have you on. michael, is it fair for the president to say who cares when he was the one who has brought this into the forefront? >> i think he was just dismissing it out of hand. clearly this is something he's used as a punch line for two years now, ever since she first attacked him when he was running for president and she was acting as an anti-trump surrogate. he also, you know, mentioned that in the debate he would offer her a million dollars to prove that she was of native american dissent and in this

test today she revealed that it looks like she's got less indian -- native american blood than probably even the president does, which is pretty hilarious, actually. >> kiersten, is this much ado about snog how do you -- how do you see what the president is saying about this? >> well, i think this is one of those things that's actually a more difficult situation than it appears on the surface. donald trump was, you know, making fun of her using this racial slur, talking about -- actually, poke could he hop tas was a teenage girl who was kidnapped and held hostage by white settlers so it's not a funny story. that's obviously really bad. the way this came up is it came up during her senate campaign and it was unearthed by reporters. she did unearth it. she's gotten a lot of criticism since then and to today from

native american leaders and from indigenous people. they're saying this dna test doesn't prove that she's part cherokee because that's actually a tribe, it's not something that a dna test is going to prove. i think it would have been better if she would have just originally said, you know what, family lore, this is what i thought. i made a mistake. as michael said, i don't think she has much more, you know, of this in her dna than most americans so, you know, we all hear stories in our families and say, i heard it wrong. she said something about her great-grandfather having high cheek bones. donald trump, that's not his motivation. it's not he cares about her misappropriating culture, he's just acting badly and making racist attacks. >> michael, does it make sense to you that elizabeth warren would go back to this and make this produced video and have

this reveal so close to the mid terms? i mean, just from a political standpoint does it make sense? >> well, i think i would look at two people that made statements today, ian bremmer, the political scientist said clearly she's running for president and, boy, did she make a mistake doing this because it's going to get worse from here. jim mascena, the obama campaign manager said, oh, my gosh, why are you bringing this up 22 days from the mid term elections? this is completely off message and now we're going to be talking about this for days. so i do hope she continues to talk about it as a republican so we can continue to keep the democratic party off message as the republicans try to keep the house of representatives? >> kiersten, do you agree with those assessments that it's an odd time to bring it up? obviously she feels that she needs to address it. is this the right time and the

right way? >> it's a strange time and i don't feel that she did need to address it. i don't know that many democratic voters or independent voters who weren't going to vote for her over this. if you're going to address it, there's another way to address it. just say you made a mistake. don't do a dna test and tell everybody that you have this heritage that you don't have. the dna test didn't proof the point she says it was proving. the dna test can't make you a member of the tribe. that's not something politicians typically do. she's gotten herself backed into a corner. people are saying, this was so smart of her to do. she's drawn attention to something that's been a donald trump attack line and i don't think you have to like walk into

that trap. >> kiersten powers, michael kaputo, thank you for being on. more breaking news, a victory for president trump in a defamation lawsuit filed by stormy daniels. a district court judge dismissed it. he said that a composite sketch of a man who had threatened her was in his hands. the judge said it is not defamatory. in addition, the judge ruled the president is entitled to attorney's fees. president trump took a couple of oblique swings at defense secretary james mattis during his "60 minutes" interview on sunday. we'll see what general mat tuss had to say and why it might be a

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in that "60 minutes" interview leslie stall asked the president if defense secretary james mattis would be leaving and the president said he wasn't sure but didn't stop there. >> what about general mattis, is he going to leave? >> well, i don't know. he hasn't told me that. >> do you want him to leave? >> i have a good relationship with him.

it could be that he is. i think he's sort of a democrat if you want to know the truth but general mattis is a good guy. we get along very well. he may leave. at some point everybody leaves. everybody -- people leave. that's washington. >> is it true general mattis said to you the reason for nato and the reason for all of these alliances is to prevent world war iii. >> no, it's not true. i like general mattis. i think i know more about it than he does. i know more about it from the standpoint of fairness, that i can tell you. >> on his way to vietnam tonight secretary mattis said he's never talked to the president about leaving. he's telling reporters, quote, i'm on his team. he's never registered to a political party. joining us to discuss the political and policy implications, leon panetta, and copacabana beach's chief political analyst gloria borger. >> the notion that president trump knows more about nato than

secretary mattis, i'm wondering what you know about that? is that something that should concern people, that the president thinks that? >> well, as we've found out about this president, he knows more about everything more than anybody else so it doesn't surprise me that he would say he knows more about nato than jim mattis. it's just -- it's just one of those exaggerated statements that i think the public has adjusted to from this president. >> gloria, why do you think the president calls secretary mattis sort of a democrat or said he was sort of a democrat in the "60 minutes" interview? >> he went from mad dog to reports now that he calls him democratic dog and it's really not surprising, anderson. they disagree on so much. when you think about the south korea war games, they disagreed on the president stopping those, the demand, the space for it,

nato, the paris climate deal. i think there have been a lot of disagreements. mattis is good at keeping it close and not going out there and talking about it, but now that the president has, it seems to me he's doing to mattis what he's been doing to jeff sessions. >> secretary panetta, what's the role when the president is undermining mattis and suggests he's leaving. >> well, there's no question that it undermines the defense department and, frankly, it undermines our national security because jim mattis i think is without question probably one of the more respected members of the cabinet, he knows military issues, he knows national

security. he knows when to go to court. he's been a restraining force. so the fact would send a message who really is strong and has the knowledge that is necessary for secretary of defense is somebody who the president doesn't necessarily go along with. and that's just sending a horrible message to our national security establishment. >> gloria, we now have the situation it seems like where pretty much all the cabinet secretaries who have meetings over seas with other world leaders or are in negotiations, i'm just wondering why they believe the president is very willingly to publicly undermine basically everybody ashtd him.

>> everybody. >> it makes it essential that somebody meetings with mattis would know that what mattis is saying is actually what u.s. policy is? >> how do you think is going to happen. he's backed up and that's his real problem rate now. when tillerson was there, mattis and tillerson was kind of together and felt like they could speak for the president at one point. and i think now he's clashing with the president's top advisors and he can't speak for the president. and now the president has publishically, publicly said this. so the question for mattis that i'm sure they're asking abroad just as people were asking me in this country about how sessions is, how long can he last.

he has to leave. does the president have somebody else he wants to ask? maybe lindsey graham who says he doesn't want the job. if you're exactly that. for whom does he speak? >> the president, when he was runnin he, you know, kind of trumpe his love of generals, trust in generals, letting genera make decisions, listen to the generals. all of that just doesn't seem to be the reality. i mean, mcmaster is gone. the doubts about mattis now. i mean he's been very critical of many of his generals. >> you know, one thing that seems to be clear about this presid is that he has a proble with people that are perhap more knowledgeable and more admired than he is.

and so we've seen a list of those people leaving the admini whethe it's gary cohn, whether it's nikki haley, whether it's h.r. mcmaster or whether it may be jim mattis. the reality is this president has a hard time accepting advice from people that are are more n knowle and understand these sprekted the outside world. for that reason, it creates this kind of tension that always result when there is somebody who is very good in the cabinet who happens to be doing his or her job. the president just doesn't like it. >> secretary panetta, thank you. apprec it. >> sure. >> thank you. i want to chec chris and see what he is working on.

>> how you doing there, anders >> i'm all right. how you are? >> better than i deserve. >> there were weighty questions taken on. what is behind the shift in the saudi story if according to cnn source thez ma source make this shift. have a nebras here. is the senate willing to move if the president doesn't? it's a weighty question. we have the next step in our invest reaflt the crisis the kids are in mo than i knew. that is eight min now. thank very much. see you then. tomorr it will be three weeks until the midterm elections. both sides are pouring in millio of dollars, controlled both the house, senate and maybe at stake. just going to talk with john king and the first of regular visits between now and election day on this program. we'll with john. ck's mom callee t-ball league eight times to help her shy son make some new friends. his parents shared videos of highlights, dance moves, and jimmy carlyle stealing third...

almost. they sent seven texts when a new friend invited nick for a play date. but in the end, they put their phones down, and watched as nick finally felt part of the team. that last place was pretty nice. i don't like this whole thing. i think we can do better. change is hard. try to keep an open mind. come on, dad. this is for me, son? principal. we can help you plan for that.

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weeks from tomorrow. we welcome john king who will start appearing on the program regula let's this off. we'll start on the biggest factor hanging over every race. presid approval ratings. usuall good predictor of how a politi will do. and the most recent cnn polling shows that president trum weapon a rating of 41%. disapp rating of 52%. just in terms of numbers, john, the president isn't obviously on

the ballot. how mu of the coming mid terms are about president trump? >> almost exclusively. there are some exceptions to the rule. but almost exclusively. midter elections are about the presid and even the president now says i'm not on the ballot but i'm on the ballot. that is why we head into the final three weeks, we have the democr in the lead and plenty of room to take control of the house of representatives. 206 seats are solid democrat. 201 are solid republican. why? becaus of what you just mentio let's take a look at the number mentioned the cnn poll. post poll. look at the president's approval rating 43% approve. 53% disapprove. look at how americans say they'r going to vote for congre three weeks from now. 53% disapprove of the president. 53% say they're going to vote for the democrats. 43% approve. 42% say they're going to vote republ there is a direct correlation betwee you think of the presid and how you'll vote for congress. if you think of the president

41, 42, 4 3sh3, right around 40s is why republicans worried. the president is up a little bit. but lohistory. presid at 45%, three weeks out, same exact time frame. in his first midterm, the democr beat. a lot of republicans think this year to them looks like 2006. presid 37. the republicans lost the house. presid clinton was close to 50 at 1994, his party took a whippi if you look at where president trump now and compare it to history, the repub headed for hard times. unless president can change the numbers in the next few weeks. one more quick point, a number of factors. this is the overwhelming factor drivin this pro democratic enviro climate nationally. again, 36% of american women approve of the president's performance. 37% of women are voting republ but here's why it matters.

six in ten women disapprove of the president. six in ten women voting democr for congress. this giant gender gap right now is the big asset that the democrats have that looks very good. >> what about the whole id politi being local? how mu this rings true in the congressional races? >> it's an important question. rememb the presidential electi we talk about the national polls. hillar clinton was ahead. yes, she won the in ational v e vote but she won the election. suburb democrats are up. rural, republicans are way up. that's why you do see republ starting to think okay. we feel better about these lean republ seats in rural areas. democr feel very good about suburb want to zoom in quickly here. it's in the state of virginia. you come up here. we'll know on election night. democr need to take the close in suburbs. can they win the districts that are somewhat suburban but have rural. that is the tug of war. becaus of the rural numbers, they f better about the seats that are in red areas.

but if it's blue or purple, democr have the advantage, anders three weeks from tomorrow. >> all right. john, we'll be with you a lot. thanks very much. remind don't miss "full circle on facebook. you get to pick the stories we cover. can yo see it week nights at 6:25 e news continues. want to hand it over to chris. "cuomo prime time" starts right now. >> thank you anderson. saudi arabia may be changing the sketch story on the missing journa why should we buy this one. and when i say we, i mean you and me. the president is fine with whatev his pal the king tells him y does he take the saudi king's word at face value and says let's take a measured respon when it comes to his own standa of proof back home, i'll show you a shocking contra so shocking that congress may have to act