tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN November 15, 2018 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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this is isabella janeane hill, 7 pounds, 4 ounces, 20 inches long, mom, dad, and baby isabella are doing great. there's ma'am, you can see her there with her precious little girl. we are so happy for you and congratulations, pam. enjoy that wonderful time. and thanks to all of you for joining us. "ac 360" begins now. good evening from washington, d.c. there is breaking election news out of florida. hand recount being ordered in the senate contest there. and it turns out that this happened without more than 700,000 ballots from florida's second biggest county. the reason for that, a deadline missed by just a few minutes. no recount in the governor's race, which appears all but over. we'll bring you that shortly. keeping them honest, we begin with an eruption of presidential anger at the russian investigation. however yo see it, it's clear that robert mueller is very much on the president's mind. he's been meeting with lawyers, going over written answers to questions that one of his
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attorneys said included "possible traps." and with the special counsel's next legal move expected shortly, the president woke up this morning and began tweeting. "the inner workings of the mueller investigation are a total mess. they have found no collusion and have gone nuts. they are screaming and shouting at people, threatening them to come up with the answers they want. they are a disgrace to our nation and don't care how many lives they ruin. these are angry people, including bob mueller who worked for obama for eight years. they won't look at all the bad acts and crimes on the other side." and then "a total witch hunt like no other in american history." now, in a subsequent tweet, the president says "universities will some day study what highly conflicted and not senate approved bob mueller and his gang of democrat thugs have done to destroy people. clearly, he's not a fan, but keeping them honest, you can take a dim view of the investigation on any number of grounds without uttering a single falsehood, which is not what the president does.
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for starters, if robert mueller is a thug, he's a registered republican one. as for the president's claim he worked for eight years as mr. obama, he was not obama's fbi director, he was the country's fbi director. >> thank you all for coming, general. thank you for being here. it is my honor to home nate robert s. mueller of california to become the director of the federal bureau of investigation. >> robert mueller was confirmed 98-0 in 2001, 100-0 when president obama renominated him. but as special counsel, he was not senate confirmed. special counsels don't receive senate confirmation. as for the claim that they've found no collusion with russia, that's not a factual statement. the special counsel said nothing one way or the other. we have no idea what, if anything, mueller has found regarding allegations of
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collusion. we do know he's indicted russians for alleged collaborating with americans, and indicted one of the participants of the trump tower meeting during the campaign and focusing on others, and now could be on the verge of indicting one or more trump associates with ties to wikileaks. now, of course, it's possible the president's rage stems from being falsely accused. but robert mueller has yet to accuse him of anything. it's also the president sees the walls closing in. whatever the case, he seems to be saying things that increase, not diminish, the scrutiny on him. reporting tonight in "the washington post," we touched on it s dossy has additional word on the questions which the president will answer. which questions are the president's lawyers planning on answering and which ones aren't they planning to answer, do you know? >> that's a good question, answer. i talked to rudy giuliani, the
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president's main lawyer today, obviously the former mayor of fork, who said they received the written questions, and they have not decided if they were going to answer some. there are at least two dozen questions or so that focus on pre2016 election day, the campaign and alleged collusion, according to the mayor. so we know about the questions that they are up to november 2016. the president's lawyers have met with him for maybe 10 or 15 hours this week looking at them and still wrangling with how many they want to answer and how many they don't. >> are the questions focused on the pre -- before he became president and president-elect, because that's all mueller was interested in or because that's all the president's team was willing to answer? >> that's all they have agreed to answer, anderson. they have not agreed to answer anything about obstruction or
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anything post election day or the transition. the president's team has been very reticent to agree to any questions after he began president, citing privilege, saying that should not be part of the investigation. and there's a lot of internal discussions going on whether they will answer any of those in the future. the only thing they've agreed to is considered questions before election day, as we reported this afternoon, it's unclear whether they're going to answer all of those or not. >> and rudy giuliani couldn't specify which questions create more legal issues than others? >> he would not. >> i know you have new details about a conversation between lindsey agrgraham and acting attorney general whitaker today. >> right. they met on capitol hill today and senator graham spoke to me and said the acting attorney general would not recuse himself from the probe, as many democrats want him to do. he said he did not need to
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recuse himself, but he also had not spoken to special counsel mueller about the investigation yet, and would be following regular order where special counsel mueller reports to rod rosenstein. senator graham said he committed to not shutting down the investigation and said that whatever opinions he had in the private sector before coming in, obviously matt whitaker was critical of the investigation and would not be part of his thinking now. we shall see. >> josh, thank you. >> thank you. i want to get more perspective now from one lawmaker, california democrat eric swalwell who sits on the house intelligence and judiciary committees. i spoke to him just before air. this notion that the president and his team are not answering any questions about obstruction of justice or anything about his time as president, does that surprise you that mueller went along with that? >> well, i think mueller wants to give him every opportunity to give his version of events, so that knowing the way the
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president conducts himself and he undermines and attacks the investigation, when a report comes out, i don't think mueller wants the president to say i didn't have my chance to tell my side of the story. so it's brilliant the way mueller is doing it. and the president is certainly not acting like an innocent person. i think he's given the president more and more rope to hang himself. >> giuliani was saying to "the washington post" that there's some issues legally for them, some of the questions create more issues legally than others. >> that's what someone who has a lot of exposure would probably say. if you didn't do anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about typically. >> so the notion of a perjury trap, you don't buy? >> a perjury trap can only capture purgers. >> according to lindsey graham that he won't shut down the mueller investigation, do you
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put much faith in that? all we know about whitaker's opinion is based on what he said prior to assuming power and prior to him having access to the information. >> we know whitaker has presujed the mueller investigation. we know that he has plotted with president trump eye cordaccordix reporting to wind this investigation down. so i don't necessarily trust lindsey graham's opinion. >> you think he should recuse himself? >> i think he should ask, but i don't see how there's not the perception of a conflict, with his prejudging and he was sam clovis' treasurer. sam clovis was a key witness in the george papadopoulos part of the investigation. >> i know you said that you want congress to pass a bill to protect mueller. republicans showed no sign of having any interest in that, even after the democrats, you
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know, assume power in the house, they're still going to control the senate. >> mitch mcconnell has shown no sign of interest, but others passed legislation to protect mueller. mcconnell is subverting the will of the majority and not allowing a vote. on the house side, we haven't seen any interest at all. but as we have this budget showdown, democrats are telling republicans in the house if you want us to give you votes because they're unable to get the votes on their own, you're going to need to protect the mueller legislation. >> so you're optimistic it could still happen? >> yes, if they want our votes. for two years, the republicans have controlled the senate, house and white house and they haven't passed a budget. >> congressman, thanks. >> my pleasure. a lot to talk about. a lot of people with views on it. it almost feels like election night. joining me now is my panel.
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senator senatorum, when the congressman says whitaker is compromised because he was the campaign treasurer for sam clovis, you say? >> really? even the assertion that he's prejudged the case, i mean, the reality is, that he was a pundit on this network, and he made comments that, you know, he did as a private citizen making comments -- >> before he had seen any documentation. [ overlapping speakers ] >> so no, the -- he's now on a role where he has a responsibility, if you look at the way he behaved in the attorney general's auchls, he's going to do what the president, you know, says with respect to
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being attorney general comment, as you heard from lindsey graham, with respect to the mueller investigation. this is -- lindsey is going to be the chairman of the judiciary committee. i think -- i know matt whitaker. i know him well enough. he's ngoing to do the job and nt inject himself into the mueller probe. >> this president, he's so transparent. he lies all the time, but his own thoughts and feelings, i admire how he's so wide open. the daily caller asked him about chris christie permanently replacing whitaker, what did trump say? he started talking about mueller. he talked about the legal opinion that said he could appoint whitaker, and he said, i'm concerned this is an investigation that should have never been brought or had. it's an illegal investigation. he asked him about matt whitaker
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and says the investigation is illegal. he's de facto ordering whitaker to shut it down. >> that's what he's talking about. of course -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> kirsten? >> i don't understand why what matt whitaker says as a pundit isn't relevant. you're asking about there's some magic wall between what happens here and -- >> there is. you take an oath of office -- >> but your opinions expressed here don't just disappear because you took an oath. he expressed some pretty severe opinions, i would say, including talking about -- >> do you believe that's why he got the job? >> yes, absolutely. the president, there's no question the president wants somebody who is going to do his bidding on this. so i don't know how you can be so dismissive of the things he said. >> i don't think it's about
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shutting down the mueller investigation. i do think rod rosenstein is still involved. whitaker is his boss, but rosenstein is still involved. i think where whitaker becomes hugely important is when mueller issues his report, does he redact it, does he say this is not for the american public to view? this needs to remain private. and then you end up with a huge constitutional fight here on your hand, and i think the president would like it to be deep sixed. and maybe whitaker would agree with him on that, and that's a problem. >> david, just moves on to the president's tweets, why do you think he is so worked up, agitated, worked up, however you want to describe it? clearly, he's going over it with his lawyers about it. >> that's why. he spent three days, the last three days with his lawyers. look at donald trump and how he has behaved as a private citizen and now as president relating to this probe. we know how much this probe is
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under his skin. so sitting in a room with his lawyers being forced to confront the reality of this probe and not just the created reality on twitter for donald trump is a whole different universe. so he's clearly a, frustrated. but b, trying to set a predicate for this report when it comes out for how it's going to be received in public. the only thing i would say to you, we know from donald trump that there's one reason jeff sessions was fired, right? one reason, because he recused himself from the probe. >> correct. >> so the whitaker replacement was to get someone who did not recuse themself from the probe. that's the entire reason why sessions -- why the vacancy existed and he found somebody who he wouldn't have that kind of an original sin with. >> the mueller probe is there, it's probably close to the conclusion.
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they're going to be issuing a report. you just can't shut it down. trump's idea of what -- i agree, kirsten, that he picked whitaker because he wanted someone who was going to be tough on the probe. but the reality is, he can't be, and won't be. because it's just politically untenable to do so. >> that is not right. there are a thousand ways that he can choke off, that whittaker with choke off this probe, and he signaled them on cnn as the president was sitting in his pajamas, eating ice cream and watching television. that's why the president ticked him. you cannot be certain of what whitaker will do. he can cut the funding, he can refuse to turn that report over. he could gut the report. there could be a court fight about executive privilege. what the president has done, this is not just a question of his outrageous behavior towards
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sessions, because of sessions' independence, this comes in the pattern of firing comey, as well. the president wants a lap dog, contrary to what we get at the justice department. >> matt's not a lap dog. >> let's just assume the report comes out, what then? there's going to be parts excised. this is a political exercise, as you all know. the president is not going to be indicted. this is about impeachment, which is a political exercise. is it the political will -- [ overlapping speakers ] it will be a battle about executive privilege. at the end of the day, will the house of representatives impeach -- are there high crimes and misnedemeanors that the president has committed that the house will impeach? it will be over and everyone will move on. >> isn't there some value in understanding what went on? >> absolutely. but this is really -- why is the president doing it? this is a political battle.
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i was there in the senate for the impeachment of bill clinton. the senate didn't want to impeach, the house did. and it was a political luoser. when it gets to the senate, if the house impeaches, it will be dropped like a hot potato. that's what is going to happen at the end of the day. >> i think the president has spent the last month before crowds that adore him, and he was all excited about the election. and it didn't go that well. he comes back to the stark reality of three days with your lawyers, which would drive anybody crazy. and he realizes, and this is an open book take home test that his lawyers have done the answers for, for him. they're going over these answers, and it's difficult. as rudy giuliani pointed out, and by the way, if i were the other lawyers, i would be so furious that giuliani, he shouldn't be doing this, saying
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some of these are problematic, some are perjury traps. really? bob mueller can ask what he wants. it's not going to help the president for rudy to say this out loud. so they have to make sure everything is accurate. so they've written these answers. the president has to sit down with him and he has to say well, yes and no. it happened that way and it didn't happen that way. and he's frustrated because he doesn't like the process, and by the way, there's no guarantee that he won't have to testify on obstruction. this is just part one. this is collusion. mueller has not given him any promises about part two. >> mueller has said they will follow the doj guidelines. >> part one is very problematic. giuliani says we can't answer some of this. it's the president realizing oh, my god, before i get to what we
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thought was the problem, obstruction, i've got collusion problems. that's why you get these crazy tweets, collusion, no collusion. >> let's take a quick break. we'll pick up the conversation when we come back. and later, how a florida u.s. senate recount will play out in all the uniquely florida factors that played into make thing such a close and chaotic race. whooo! want to take your next vacation to new heights? tripadvisor now lets you book over a hundred thousand tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world! like new york! from bike tours,
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talking about the president's anger against the russian investigation and the breaking news about the questions he and his attorneys are said to be working on right now and have been for several days and what robert mueller's team might be getting ready to do, now that the midterms are behind us. it's making for plenty of suspense and tension, apparently some venting by the president. back now with our team. does -- gloria, when rudy giuliani speaks like this, does
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he have permission from the president? is this like an organized strategy? >> uh, no. but i do think -- i think that the lawyers who are doing the negotiating with the mueller team, and i think rudy giuliani is sort of the president's spokesman. i think the president would like to have rudy giuliani more involved. i think the other attorneys would like to have rudy giuliani less involved. and so i think it's a sort of a bit of a tug of war. the president is very close to rudy. he trusts him. he thinks rudy understands what he's thinking, and he believes giuliani has done a good job, and i think he's right about this, in discrediting mueller. >> why would mueller agree to just -- to not dealing with any questions about obstruction and not anything while the president was president? >> well, bob is a shrewd player having worked on cases with him, having been against him. i think that he has wanted to go
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into a delay of game. it's like a four corners offense. he's using the clock to build his cases. i mean, anderson, look, you've got the guilty pleas, you've got over 30 people and companies indicted. he's been turning. he's got cohen in his corner now, manafort, gates. he's taken his time. trump thinks oh, great, i'm negotiating for all these months now. bob is using the time. he knows what he's doing. he's getting answers on collusion. people thought, well, maybe the president suspect exposed. now we know from rudy, there's some uncomfortable questions there. there is potential exposure for the president. >> and i don't think just because he isn't asking about obstruction now that we should assume bob mueller is never going to make a play to ask questions about obstruction. >> but we don't know a time frame --
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>> i would be surprised -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> that's the question, that's how it is going to be answered. >> the president can't shut up on television or twitter. maybe he has all the evidence he needs. i agree with david, we don't know. >> paul? >> i think he wants the obstruction questions face to face, so he can look the president eye to eye and size him up. mueller has had a lifetime of sizing up defendants. >> do you not believe this is coming to an end? >> it's coming to an end, but if i were mueller, and he's way better than i am, but i wouldn't allow written questions on state of mind. that is, i don't want the president's lawyers to write this up. we do have evidence already of what he was thinking. he told lester holt he fired comey "because of this russia thing." i don't know, maybe he fired him because of this russia thing, which suggests there's
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obstruction of justice. i would want it fill -- filmed by the american people. i want this president, under oath, asked why he took these steps to obstruct justice. i think the evidence is clear that he did, but i still think he ought to have the chance to answer those questions. >> the only reason that might not happen is i don't think either side wants a lengthy subpoena battle. the president's lawyers would say you're not going to give them because of privilege issues. if mueller disagreed, they would have to go to a subpoena fight. this is where mr. whitaker comes in. before you could get a subpoena, you would to go to rod rosenstein, and now matt whitaker. >> that would be decided by the court. >> but you have to get permission. you have to get approval. if whitaker or rosenstein said no, they couldn't do it. >> again, we talked about it off
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camera, the woodward book talked about ty cobb seeing mueller and saying hey, look, i dare you, i double doc dare you, drop the mike and walked out of the room. and we haven't seen him much since then. >> senator, do you think this is going to become -- do you think mueller h gwill get a chance tok face to face about obstruction? >> no. >> the only reason he's going to take the fifth is because he's guilty. >> we know why -- >> we know why he fired comey. >> if he was trying to obstruct justice, he did a horrible job. [ overlapping speakers ] the reality is, he's upset about it, he's vented about it. he said some things, but he's never done anything to obstruct sh investiga this investigation?
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>> why did he fire comey? >> incompetence is a big one. >> half the democratic party wanted to fire jim comey. >> this is a guy who had a comedy of errors -- >> he said in an interview he fired him because of the russia probe. >> trump says lots of things. you're sitting here telling me that you believe the president when he said this. most of the time you tell me you think he lies all the time. >> he lies about facts -- >> he says horrible things about women, because that's what he thinks about women. he lies about facts. >> you can't choose your lies. >> donald trump does every day. [ overlapping speakers ] >> the president says things at the heat of the moment that sometimes don't accurately reflect reality. >> you're his lawyer, you don't want him to testify.
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>> you would never put your client in front of him. you would fight tooth and nail. >> i walked a client into bob mueller when he was a attorney in san francisco, i knew the client was telling the truth. i had no qualms about putting him there. we know that trump is a born liar. that's why nobody -- rick, i'm surprised at you, because it's not just talk. it's action by donald trump. it's firing comey. it's helping his son cook up that phony statement. it's his constant attacks on mueller and the rule of law. we have law in this country. it applies to all of us. >> i think attacking bob mueller is not obstruction, sorry, it's not. >> if he fired comey, he took these other actions -- >> there were lots of reasons to fire jim comey, lots.
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>> if he did it to interfere with this investigation, to benefit himself -- >> if. >> his friends or family members, that's obstruction of justice. >> and paul will tell you, the clintons said lots of nasty things about ken starr, it's not obstruction. >> i think the senator is right, it's not obstruction to criticize mueller, either. the president of the united states, when it was bill clinton, had no legal power to fire ken starr. he was unchecked, unbalanced. and totally independent. mr. mueller works directly for donald trump. and now the one go between is mr. whitaker, who, is i think, going to do everything he can, as he promised to starve this investigation. >> if you're one of president trump's attorneys, one of the difficulties is you're not sure if your client is telling you the factual version -- it could
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be his current version -- >> i was just saying to gloria during the commercial, why do we believe he's being 100% factual with his attorneys? >> we know he said things to sarah sanders that turned out not to be correct. >> exactly. even people in his confidence, in his circle, he doesn't have a track record of being 100% truthful with him. >> so if he's your client, do you walk him down the hall? >> trump? never. [ overlapping speakers ] >> imagine the abnormality of the situation that we're in. imagine if bill clinton had fired janet reno. he's fired the fbi director, fired his own attorney general. he's hired somebody who is a stooge for him. >> matt whitaker is not a
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stooge. you know, this is -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> this guy was a u.s. attorney, he's a -- >> and? >> and he came on this network and said if you were going to do this, how would you do it? >> all right. i want to thank everybody. good nonelection night coverage. the deadline has come and gone in florida. how many times have we said this over the yearses? with one race close enough to go to a hand count, the recount in the state's second largest county won't count because they missed the deadline by two minutes. details ahead. this is dell cinema technology
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it's all happening again in florida, minus the hanging chats of 2000. the headline is the u.s. senate race in florida is now headed to a hand recount. it is just that close. rick scott leading bill nelson by 0.15%. the governor's race is outside the margin for a hand recount. that's where we stand after the
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dead hooin for t deadline for the machine recount past, but in broward county, it didn't count because they missed the deadline by two minutes. first of all, what are you learning about the next phase of the recount? >> reporter: anderson, we have entered a period of time now where these races have really consolidated after that first automatic recount of all the machines. the machine recount. now we know that the senate race is within a quarter of a percent, which is pretty smart in the context of 8.5 million votes. what's going to happen now is all 67 county also begin a second phase of counting and manually recount all the under votes and over votes that took place across the state. this is an exhaustive process, but they have to have it done by sunday, with the goal of determining whether or not we can definitively say who won this election. i should point out, anderson, we're keeping a close eye on the governor's race, as well. that was within a half a
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percentage point after the count finished on saturday. that race pretty much stayed as what we expected. the numbers did not change that much at all. so the governor's race, that count is over, and we can say that ron desantis will be the next governor of florida. but the senate race, the numbers have not changed that much since the initial count. so if bill nelson has any hope of overcoming rick scott, they'll need a miracle during this hand recount. >> how is it possible that broward county missed the deadline by two minutes? >> reporter: it's really head scratching. and nobody really has a good explanation for exactly what happened. and i do think for the people of florida, this is disappointing. it wasn't just broward county, it was palm beach county that did not make the deadline in him and hillsboro county was unable to make it through the machine recount. what this essentially means is they're going to revert back to the initial numbers from the
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first count that ended last sunday. so it's not as if those votes aren't going to count, they just did not get that exhaustive second run through if machithe . we know the numbers from broward county. they didn't change that much, in fact, they were better for rick scott. it's just more about the process and making sure that each one of these voters has their voice completely heard, according to the rules. and that just didn't happen in florida this time around. >> ryan, appreciate it. with mesh now is jeffrey toobin and david boyes, who was lead counsel for al gore in 2000. david, decides maybe some unwanted flashbacks you may be going through, what goes through your mind when you look at what's happening there over the last several days? >> i think a couple of things. one thing that goes through my mind is that things have actually gotten better. we don't have hanging chads, we don't have disputes about
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whether something ought to be counted because it was dimpled or not, and you don't have the sunlight test holding up the magnifying glass. you now have optical character recognition ballots that are something that you can look at and determine the voter intent in a manual recount. so one thing, it's gotten better. the second thing is that this is not nearly as close as 2000. opposed to trying to make up 400, 500 votes, they're talking about making up more than 10,000 votes. and to do that, you're going to have to find something happened with those machines in terms of not counting all the votes. you'll figure that out with a manual recount. but i think the chances that this vote changes is much less than it was in 2000. >> jeff, you made that point, as well. and certainly the -- what we have seen now in the governor's race in florida backs up what david is saying.
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it was a minuscule -- i think it was just a handful of votes difference. what do you make of the fact that broward county and others missed the deadline by two minutes >> two things. the florida electoral system is still awful and run by incompetent people with inferior machines. it also has laws that are way too strict. i mean, there is absolutely no reason why two minutes should make a difference in whether a more accurate count is reported. so there remain problems in the florida electoral system. but as david said, the system is better than it was 18 years ago. i mean, the punch card system is far worse than the optical scan system in place now, but it's still no bargain with what they have. >> david, do you have recommendations for changes that could be made to make it even
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better? >> well, for one thing, i think jeffrey is entirely right. the deadlines are too strict. some of these counts just can't get done in that time available. i think a second thing is they've got to have working machines. palm beach county doesn't have working machines. i actually think that if you take the supreme court decision of bush v. gore seriously, that presents an equal protection argument. because one of the things the court said is that you can't have people in one county not having as good a chance as having their votes counted as people in other counties that's exactly what happens when you have defective machine like you do in palm beach. so two things. one is, give them a realistic amount of time. and second, make sure the machines are working. the optical scanning ballot system is a good ballot system, but the machines have got to work. i think that's easily correctible with a trivial
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amount of money. >> if i could just reiterate a point david made earlier. i mean, the bush/gore recount in florida was a matter of ultimately a little more than 500 votes. the margin going into the manual recount is more than 12,000 votes. that's a close election from a political perspective, but it is not a close election as recounts go. the odds that nelson can make up this in a manual recount strike me as close to zero. i mean, that is a lot of votes for a recount. and i don't think anyone should be under the impression that this election is on the verge of being overturned. >> that's an important point, david. you said unless there's a massive problem with the machines, that making up this kind of a deficit is nearly impossible. >> that's right. but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, though. everybody who is ahead always
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tries to end the game. people who are ahead at the end in the 8th inning of a baseball game try to make it an eight-inning baseball game. you have a manual recount, if you're within a certain margin. clearly, we're within that margin. nobody disputes that. and people ought to let the process work out. not try to change the rules in the middle of the game. i think the chances that it's going to change are very, very small. i think jeffrey is 100% right about that. the people ought to let the process play out and not try to truncate it. >> david, jervegs thank you very much. one more piece of election news to bring you. a call-in, maine's second congressional district jared golden defeating the republican incumbent. with that, that brings the number of democrat pickups to 33 seats. seven races, all of them close, stay tuned. up next, president trump
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facing heat for skipping one veterans day event overseas. he visits u.s. marines today. i'll talk it over with senator tammy duckworth, an iraq war vet. hi. i'm paul. i switched to sprint because they have a great network and i knew i'd save a ton of money. sprint's nationwide lte advanced network is now up to 2x faster than when i switched. and their total lte coverage is 30% larger. that's big news!! don't forget unlimited. sprint's unlimited can save you nearly $1000 in the first year over verizon and at&t. just think what you can do with all that extra money. (vo) up to two times faster than before. see how you can save nearly $1000. for those with hearing loss sprint. visit sprintrelay.com.
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the president has been facing criticism for not holding a veteran's day ceremony over the weekend. today with that as a back drop he went to a few military events. he and the first lady visited the barracks in washington. earlier i spoke about this, more with tammy duckworth and army national guard veteran who lost both her legs when her helicopter was shot down in the iraq war. i'm wondering what you make of the president's visit to the marine barracks. do you think this was sort of in reresponsible to the criticism he received? >> i think it's 100% trying to make up for the fact that he couldn't be bothered to stand in the rain to honor our heroic
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dead on veteran's day, he's had a terrible week, and he's trying to take credit for things he's not done. and cover the fact that he's not had a miserable and he's not been there for veterans. >> he touts the strength of the u.s. military, his commitment to troops. does it concern you that he has yet to visit troops in any active combat zone? is that hard to square with what he says about his support for the military? >> there's a lot that he says that doesn't square with what he says about the military. if he cared about the troops, he would go visit them in a combat zone. he certainly wouldn't send 5,000 troops to texas to defend against a caravan that is on its way to tijuana. veterans have not gotten their payment for housing allotment. he's failed miserably, when it comes to supporting our troops
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and their families. >> talking about troops being sent to the border. secretary mattis said yesterday, when talking to the troops being sent to the southern border and the role they'd be playing. he said, they would be there as confidence builders. certainly the u.s. military has a lot of priorities. is confidence building one of them? >> no, if anything. those 5,000 troops being sent to the texas border when the caravan 1,000 miles away is headed toward california, and they're being sent to the border over thanksgiving and potentially over christmas is, if anything, it's going to bring down the troops moral. it does nothing. he did this as a political statement, and it doesn't help our troops, it doesn't help readiness. if he truly wants to support our troops he should pay attention to making sure we have a strategy for north korea, that he provides the funding to support our veterans, those are going back to school in a g.i. bill. he fills the 40,000 vacancies that exist in the va right now,
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in programs that have everything to do with homelessness to mental health. >> you said you were celebrating your alive day. can you explain what that is and why you call it that? >> it was the anniversary of the day i was wounded. it can be a day of great sadness looking back at my injuries or a day of celebration and thanks. i give thanks on that day, i choose it to be my second birthday to thank the men who saved me. they are my moral compass many i live every day to make sure they're never embarrassed or ashamed for the work i'm doing right now in the senate. and to live up to the sack faces they made. it's a time to think back on what are we doing here, what can we do to support our troops, to make sure our military men and women and their families are well supported. >> i appreciate your time, thank you. >> thank you. let's check in with with chris to see what he's working on for cuomo prime time.
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>> how are you doing down there in d.c.? >> i'm good, ready to come home, though. >> we're going to be looking at the latest in the elections and what it means, and a short focus on florida. the drama down there, two minutes late, and none of the votes will count. really? we'll take you through the implications down there, and we're going to be looking at what took the president by such surprise today that he went nuts about the mueller probe. and what does this mean about what might come next. we'll be taking those two on in deep fashion. >> all right. a lot to look at, six minutes. coming up, the latest on the lawsuit cnn filed against the president and other white house staffers over jim acosta's press pass being revoked. okay, okay, okay... (clatter) ( ♪ ) feeling unsure? oh... (nervous yelp) what if you had some help? introducing the new 2019 ford edge with the confidence of ford co-pilot360 (tm) technology.
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yesterday. the judge said he would make an initial ruling this afternoon, that's been pushed back again with the next hearing scheduled for tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. there are two issues here, the judge is expected to rule on a temporary restraining order. then there's another issue, cnn is asking for permanent relief and a declaration that revoking his press pass was unconstitutional. we'll keep you posted for the hearing. i hope you watched our show full circle today. we had a lot on the fires in california, i hope you don't miss full circle every day. it's our daily interactive show on facebook. the nutds continues, want to hand it over to chris on cuomo prime time. >> thank you very much.
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i'm chris cuomo, welcome to prime time. somebody told the president something that got him really upset about the mueller probe today. what does he fear coming his way? so much that it made him go on a twitter tear? is he signaling that his new acting a.g. may just quash the investigation all together. big election news, big win for the democrats in the house. we have the very latest in the state of play, there are seven races still not called. bad news from the democrats in florida. one county was two minutes late in reporting results, the republicans are refusing to count any of them. governor scott's main man on the recount is here to make the case. and the go fund me story that made us feel all the feels turned out to be a big fat lie. can donors get their money back. are the scammers going to go to
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