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tv   Ronan Farrow Daily  MSNBC  November 3, 2014 10:00am-11:01am PST

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deadly consequences. richard bran is waiting for answers from the investigation. >> the ntsb meeting the investigation and we go by exactly what they tell us. if the deployment did take place early, obviously they are indicating that that may well be the cause. we need them to examine that further and let us know. >> a sad story. copilot killed in the crash. the pilot is recovering after surgery. we will keep tabs on that. the wednesday is once again open for business. for the first time in fact, 13 years after the september 11th attacks. the first tenants arrived to work at one world trade.
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kond naft began moving. it is the tallest skyscraper in the u.s. we are a day away from the mid-terms and these are races that could change the balance of power in the senate. republicans need to keep their current states as well as gaining three to have the majority. democratic blood in the water so far. kentucky seat looking ever more likely to stay with mitch mcconnell and a gain over iowa where members show joni ernst closing the gap for the currently democratic seat. looming over democrats on the trail, president obama and particularly president obama's low approval rating right now. 42% is where that stands. the president hit the trail last night in pennsylvania with one simple plea. >> listen, y'all have to vote. that's what this comes down to. you have got to vote. this is straight forward. i have a simple message.
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we got to vote. >> joining me here in the studio, chuck todd of "meet the press." thank you for doing this. you have a lot on your plate. what should we watch? what are the races that in your opinion will make or break control of the senate? >> all the states that have senate races up and you said they need three to correct people for now. we are assuming they need six. we are assuming three are the heavy favorites. montana, south dakota and west virginia. everything in yellow is what is too close to call. the closest races here. here are the ten. we have a fun board here. you read that kentucky number. let's go ahead and throw kentucky in there for now. arkansas is that you can't find a democrat who believes pryor will pull it out. right now they are at 47. they are looking for four more. iowa. you mentioned that poll.
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let's assume that happens. colorado is something like nine out of the polls. >> a lot were wishing it were this easy. >> can you imagine? 49. now they need two more. new hampshire and north carolina to me are the wave tests. polls close at 7:30, 8:00 at night. if this is a closely -- if this is a close campaign, they do. if they don't, the numbers start falling. if they don't, we are here. they need two out of these four. this is going to take a while. we can take four days there before we get a full count. the independent that is favored in kansas. we don't know what he is going to do. keep him in the middle here for a while. georgia and louisiana. >> let's talk about that. georgia and louisiana in particular could be in limbo for a long time. >> it could be. louisiana has a provision if nobody gets 50% they vote in
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december. is that for the majority or will they need more louisiana and georgia. alaska becomes very important to the democrats if they pull off alaska and let's go ahead and assume the kansas guy will be with the democrats, republicans have to win both of these run offs, no the just one. let's say that's your december run off, january 6th, three days after congress is sworn in, that's when we may find out who controls the u.s. senate. it could come down to georgia in january. >> what are is the longest time frame that things could be in limbo? >> let's see. what happened with al frank in back in 2008? it took us until june before that was done. it depends on how close things are. realistic as far as elections. georgia is january 6th. we could be waiting as long as then to find out who is in the
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majority. if everything splits evenly. 19 they don't split that evenly. it's possible that all the states that we think democrats could hold. it's possible they lose all of them and we are looking at a big victory for the republicans. >> we are so much in the home stretch, hours to go and a long time before we get answers on this. chuck todd, thank you. >> isn't this fun? we can sit here. >> if only it were that easy to resign federals for people. he is doing fantastic work on the ground and not just with his toys. catch his show sunday mornings. in these final hour, the ground race is about the ground game. it's a lot of questions about who is shaking the most hands and kissing the most babies. if you ask leaders from either parties, they say they are. >> what's going on here in florida, i have been here for the last several days. the most enthusiasm and the best
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ground game here in florida, rick scott is going defeat on tuesday to elect the first democratic governor. >> let me take that to the chairman. you worry the democrat will beat you on the ground? >> the problem they have is that their message is not working. our ground game is whipping their ground game. >> we do know that both sides, volunteers and candidates are out in force and on the move. this is one of our favorites from instagram of scott brown's staffers caping him strumming his guitar from watching football to pass the time in what was a very long bus tour. you have to get to know the state. just wrapping up her own 13-day bus tour. which are going to prevail? bill burton for the president and evp and managing director of the global strategies group.
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he is here on the other side and director for rick santorum's campaign. another that was quite a debt and a lot of time pizza parlors. he is an adviser for cox. howard fineman is a journalist who covered both sides and the "huffington post." all people who know ground game well. hogan, when you were campaigning in 2012, rick santorum went to every pizza parlor in ira. romney was out in force. the president won handly from new hampshire to colorado. how have rnchings gone about making inroads? >> it's interesting because the race you touched on in 2012, i remember talking to people back then and they said listen, our ground game is so much better than 2008. i remember saying i sure hope so because mccain got his teeth kicked in. the 2008 campaign app rad us is not the standard.
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that was a different ball game. barack obama and the democrats were not sitting on their hands. they were growing their base and pulling people on to their side. it was massively better than ours was in 2012. what republicans realized and much like the democrats who cook the page out, they expanded and made it bigger and won the election. republicans have done the statement thing and we have seen what they have done. they have developed better mechanisms and you see it in states all over the country. like iowa for the first time in early voting history, republicans have turned out in more numbers than democrats. it looks like the things are working, but only time will tell if the ground game will be successful. >> what's the biggest obstacle for democrats? >> the obstacle is we are in a tough environment. with a president in the second term, they do always lose seats in that term. almost 29 on average in general.
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one of the things that democrats do to keep it close is invest heavily in a ground game. because they so outraised the nrcc and invest in a lot of ground game and tv. keeping us with the republicans and the outside groups and the other things that are happening out there. what i think is astounding here is that we are in this tough environment, but still talking about places like georgia and kansas and kentucky. i think it's a testament to the ground game. >> you have a positive message. a mark of a lot of races is the presence of big surrogates and the absence of candidates wanting to link themselves to a particularly prominent elder statesman. what does that say about the democratic party right now? there so many people. mary landrieu and allison grimes that have been aggressive in saying i am not tied to this president. >> a couple of our reporters at the "huffington post" subjected
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themselves to reviewing tapes of every senate debate this year and most of the gubernatorial debates and found that president obama was mentioned 500 times across 130 or so debates. he was mentioned positively exactly seven times out of 500. that gives awe a sense of the tenor of this thing. the democrats have tried to say that they are on their own and they are bill clinton democrats and independent democrats and bipartisan and don't mention democrat and barack obama in an effort to avoid both the history and the presence and the history and the presence of the president. it hasn't helped them that much because what it's done is further weakened the president in my view. he has been subjected to a billion dollars worth of negative advertising with no
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response. that is the effect of it. whether that will save -- it's not going to save allison crimes i don't think. it may save jean shaheen and may allow michelle nunn to squeak through because of the republicans and not because of her strength. >> i top the get your take on this in a second, but if the democratic candidates are flabbing the president and atting to his woes, do they risk alienating democratic voters with that divisiveness some. >> they have to worry about self-inflicted wounds. if the republicans are saying how terrible the president is and they are saying the president is not that great, you have a president whose numbers are more and more depressed, hurting democrats on the ticket everywhere. as a result i think that maybe if we can go back in time and think about how they position themselves around the country, they could have helped to
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elevate what good things were happening in washington. how it helped. >> there is no positive message coming out about any democratic accomplishments and there have been some as the president himself was saying on the road, the economy is not for everybody. in general the economy has done pretty well in the last six months. we look better than europe does and most of the rest of the world. that's a tough message to sell. if you don't sell any message as everyone knows, an attack unanswered is an attack accepted. >> they are possibly passing up an opportunity about the dems. >> it's not new. when elizabeth dole was swept up, george bush was so unpopular we did with dick cheney. that shows you how unpopular he was at the time.
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elizabeth dole got swept up in the tidal wave that was barack obama. he is no longer a tidal wave, but an under toe. he is pulling them out to die a slow cold death. howard mentioned the economy, sure. it's really only affecting the top 1%. the people are not feeling anything better. that's the problem with democrats in this election. >> in terms of the ending of titanic. what do you think of the issue of early voting? we have seen a number of measures that crack down around the count roy and in general limning access to the polls. these are all ways of getting minority and democratic voters to the polls. how much does the democratic vote stand to be hurt by that? >> i think that early voting is an important thing not just for democrats or republicans, but for the country. anything we can do as a nation to make it easier for folks to vote is a good thing.
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if people are worried, they should think about the policies and whether they appeal to a majority of americans. if you look around the country, hogan made a good point. in iowa republicans made a big gain on their field operation. i was traditionally one of the greatest field operations we had because of the infrastructure we put in place. they made big gains, about you in places like colorado, they will be able to get the votes and drag them back to the mail boxes and eek out a victory there. >> can i just say quickly that the difference here, the old type of turn out the vote used to be like harvesting a wheat field. the new turn out that is driven by data and digical exactitude is more like hunting truffles. one at a time. getting those people to the
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polls. >> no matter how you do it at this point, this looks like republicans are doing a good job of doing those two things. >> we will see if that comes to pass. our very own rfd ground team. thank you all of you. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> the call to action is on this subject. we are celebrating the voting viewers. you told us what time you would be voting. a lot of morning people. just take a voting selfie on the way to the polls outside your station after voting. democratically treatme democratically themed. the that turns out to be a democracy. keep it here on msnbc. rachel and chris matthews will anchor tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. eastern.
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don't leave to take the selfies yet. a major rally in ferguson is happening. this is different from what you have seen before. they have a democratic message and some are saying it could reveal something that will make or break the control of the senate. missouri congressman emmanuel cleaver is up next. don't go away. ♪ ♪ ♪
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that will only happen if they turn out at higher than forecast rates. a lot on the line here. joining me now is emmanuel cleaver from missouri from kansas city. thank you so much for being here.
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50 of all, i want to ask you about tonight's get out the vote rally in ferguson. what impact do you think the pain and frustration of ferguson could have at the polls? >> people in ferguson will turn out in larger numbers than anticipated and a lot of the prognosticators i talked about in a dismal turn out among minorities, i don't think that's going to be the case. we don't have anything big on the ballot in missouri. i think this is kind of a warm up of what's going to happen in 2016. the people in ferguson, we have unique problems because it's a transient community. there a lot of rental properties. people now are being given the information if you move, you don't have to reregister, but send in a change of address card. i think people are frustrated and angry and this is the
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democratic way, the nation that we live in is a democratic nation and that we go to the polls to express our unhappiness. i think that's what you are going to see. >> we are on the subject, eric holder a couple of minutes ago weighed in on the charges with a no-fly zone with the protests that were targeted against the press. take a listen to this. >> the transparency i think is a good thing. the american people need to understand what happened or what was happening or is happening in ferguson. anything that would artificially inhibit the ability of news gatherers to do what they do is something that needs to be avoid avoided. >> congressman, is that kind of a no-fly zone standard operating procedure or does it reveal
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something not good about where missouri authorities's focus was? >> we were there and we can both speak. if you want to see government acting badly, that's what we saw in ferguson. there were people from your network with cameras being pushed down the sidewalks. i think that was a very overt and dastardly move on the part of police and others to keep the media from reporting what was going on. transparency was under attack in ferguson has much as it is in china or any other place. i think that's horrible that we had that kind of a situation in ferguson. it created i think or helped to create the atmosphere where there is mistrust that is growing almost daily instead of subsiding. >> a lot of people feel that
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that held a mile an hour mirror to a national set of problems and racial tension. president obama wrote into office on an unprecedented minority voter turn out. a lot don't see that happening again. these are mid-terms and not a general election. that is to be expected. do you think there is something to the idea that the democratic party let down the black voters that turned out in force or lot of the connection with them? >> i don't think there has been a loss of connection. african-americans have been democrats since fdr up to 90%. i don't think that will change. of course that is disappointment. i wrote an op ed the week after president obama was sworn in in which i said we had to be careful about inflated expectation. i had a relative to tell me that his community would be transformed if the president was elected. >> and i am heartened to hear
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the message across the bort that people are voicing what you said and trying to get the voters out there. we are seeing a lot of voter apathy. particularly with respect to minority voters to get to the poll that might fly in the face of the voting rights act being overturned and more restrictions on early voting that affect minority voters. do you think black voters are being disenfranchised? >> of course they are. someone said said we ought to be doing whatever we can and making the adjustments to maximize in the world's leading democracy. people are putting up barriers. we are using, those of us in position are of leadership are using those voter id laws to try to inspire african-americans to
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come out. i think that the turn out is really going to be a lot larger tomorrow than anticipated. we have seen predicted. to be sure, in some instances we heard elected officials in private settings didn't know the cameras were running saying that the goal wants to stop african-americans and other minorities from voting. that is obscene in this country. >> you are not the first to suggest that. an honor to have you join us. coming up next, she captivated millions around the country with the decision to end her own life. this weekend brittany maynard did just that. the call to action on this show with her passing. has she changed the national debate. her final message when woe come back. don't go away, everybody. how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40,
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>> she died the way she chose to die. she revived the death with dignity debate with the call for that right. after suffering seizures ask severe head pain she decided to end her in oregon on saturday. she used the doctor-prescribed aid in dying and posted this final message on facebook. today is the day i have chosen to pass away with dignity. she revived passionate debate about a subject that was out of the news for several years. in her final video, brittany focused on her family. >> so if november 2nd comes along and i have passed, i hope my family is still proud of me
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and the choices i made. >> our thoughts are with her family right now. brittany died as she intended, peacefully in her bedroom in the arms of her loved ones. let's take a look at other story spiking on social media. the very first basket went fittingly to lauren hill. a freshman with inoperable brain cancer. they allowed her school to move up for two weeks to play while she is still healthy enough. she scored the first and the last basket in the winning game. and it was a nail biter in chicago last night when high wire dare devil walked between two skyscrapers with no safety net blind folded. he walked more than 600 feet above the ground. finally, our friends at snl had fun with nurse kaci hickox and
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her quarantine. >> what have you been doing since you broke quarantine. >> whatever i feel like. i took a dip in a public pool. ooh. volunteered at a kissing booth. for halloween i handed out about 100 loose m&ms with my bare hands. there you go. kidding! yeah! >> snl still got it after all these years. two states that could decide whether power changes hands in the senate. we will take you live to, a wa and kansas. don't go away, everybody. everyone has questions about money. you know, i think about money kind of a lot. -money's freedom. -money's always on my mind. credit cards. -mortgage. -debt. it's complicated. it's not easy. i'm not a good budgeter. unfortunately, i'm a spender. i would love to learn more about finances. so there's questions about the world that all of us have,
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he is ready for the battle he is facing. >> the victory can be one of the victory to assure a republican majority in the senate to change things and get things done in the gridlock. as far as pressure on me, i have always taken every campaign seriously. i'm a marine and we take the hill regardless of the hill. >> speaking of fighting words, did tom harkin get a little teardrops on his guitar in this fight? >> i don't care if he is as good-looking at taylor swift or as nice as mr. rogers. if she votes like michelle faulkner, she is wrong for the state of iowa. >> i don't care is she is as good-looking as taylor swift. he had a commanding lead in the polls. she responded yesterday. he compared me to taylor swift so i'm going to shake it off.
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how is that, senator harkin. score one, but we are not out of the woods idea. the make or break races from the ground. kelly o'donnell in kansas. i will start with you, luke. how much has this comment fuelled ernst at this point and is it going to hurt braley? >> i don't think it's going to sway a lot of voters, but where it hurts braley is it's an unforced error that the campaign has to acknowledge where they tried to do an all out assault with more pressing issues because of this being dropped last night. it happened last week. because it was dropped last night, it takes out the ability to talk about the issues. not to mention he is now in eastern iowa trying to get out the vote. who is by his side? tom harkin. he is not being separated from this at all. it's a gift according to the poll that you soed with the-point lead. >> what are the numbers looking
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like now? does we have the neg up? i'm impressed that you didn't work in a single taylor swift rrc reference. >> you hit it all. you knew you were trouble. >> that's what i was looking for. >> real quickly. traily is tied in the quinnipiac poll. the des moines poll is more of the gold standard. on the issue of who cares more about me, ernst is beating him. for a republican, we are significant. he is trailing by three points. those things are tough to overcome. democrats have a better ground game, but if joni ernst is tough, it's tough to see how he pulls off the win tomorrow night. >> a little taylor swift in the mix can't hurt. you are doing great work out there. head over to topeka, kansas where pat roberts is in the
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political fight of his life. kelly o'donnell is there following the story. thanks so much. senate hopefuls are starting to pull away in iowa, but kansas is a toss up. how likely is it that he is one of the only incumbents to lose in the cycle. >> he is the most endangered tomorrow night and winning three times before, he won with more than 60% of the vote. this is a different place for pat roberts. he is trying to call on kansas to say look at the potential for a republican majority in the senate. if that's smug want, vote for him despite his own problems and some of the tired of him factor you get with incumbents. greg orman is saying that washington is broken with both parties. tell kansas to go an independent route and maybe if he were to win, he would be an almost instant power broker in washington trying to really decide which party to go with. that's one of the question
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marks. he has not told people which party he would align himself with while remaining an independent in washington. this is hard to get a sense of because of that. >> looking at the campaigning he has been doing, what he is focused on is shoring up the base. he had bob dole and mid-romney hitting the trail. do you think that is more of a priority than winning over swing voters and independents at this point? >> what he has been trying to do is remind people who have been regular villain voters in kansas and they are the majority and trying to overcome his negatives. the weakened approval rating he had. and to really make a case that an independent like greg orman is something to have questions about. that's the republican point here. they are saying he has been much more of a democrat on issues and on where he spent his own money to back other candidates. they are trying to turn him into a democrat and he said no, he
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doesn't think either has done a good job. ronan? >> get out of that wind. thank you so much for that reporting. >> it's kansas, ronan. >> har is on the ground. ground game in action. last week in our call to action, we asked you to take a picture of yourself and tell us what time you plan to vote. we have the second step in that. show us your process as you head to vote. for that call to action, we are going to ask you to take a selfie as you head to the polls outside after you cast your ballot. give us your democratic selfie. send them via facebook, twitter or instagram. we will show them on air tomorrow. we have a nifty web tool for you to use. if you are confused or want help, the project has information on everything you could possibly need to know. your polling place and ballot information and everything to navigate the voting process. hope it helps. the number one story that you said you wanted to know more
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about. it's interesting. a disturbing development in liberia where some blame the ebola outbreak on one minority. details on your under reported story of the week, coming up. huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know words really can hurt you? what...? jesse don't go! jesse...no! i'm sorry daisy, but i'm a loner. and a loner gotta be alone. heee yawww!
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bottoms up, america. see you tomorrow. same time. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything. welcome back, the state of maine and kaci hickox may travel freely in public, but must monitor her health. of course less good news abroad. in west africa, the situation is growing more and more dire. today a fifth doctor in sierra leone died of the virus. 4,960 deaths total. there is a blame game in liberia that is now pointing at gay men and women.
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in may, louis ziegler said one of the major transgressions against got is the act of homosexuality according to local media reports. you told us this was the under reported story you wanted to hear about. we are bringing it to you. from the daily beast, he has been writing about this. thank you for taking the time. give us context here. why the public outcry against gays in liberia? >> the under reported story is scapegoats of gays. this is not unusual. it's not unusual to blame the other, the foreigners or the gays or the west for outbreaks of plagues and natural disasters and this plays right in. it's not the only place in the region. terrible for lgbt people. this is part of a larger wave. some of which has been caused by westerners traveling abroad and spreading a hard right message around sexual minorities.
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>> why does religion provide such fertile ground? >> this should tound familiar, plaming plagues on people. when pat robertson blamed 9/11 on abortionists and gays. religion plorovides explanation for things. people are looking for any explaination. it would rather be far-fetched than none at all. >> this sort of is a phenomenon we are not equated with in the united states. this trend of blaming gay men and women for the ebola outbreak reached our shores. one christian radio host making a similar argument. what is at stake? could we see it spring up more? >> there was the case in arizona where someone traveled to east africa and the police said you
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have been to west africa and it was actually zambia 2500 miles away. i think it's easy for us to say it's liberia or west africa and that could never happen here, but it does happen here. i wouldn't put anything past a group of scared people. >> here the conversation may happen. it's not something we condone, however at least there is not quite the preponderance of death threats we know in subsaharan africa. that is very real. putting it further into context, we have a book on the subject if people are interested. jay michaelson is the author of god versus gay. an interesting voice on the religion and scapegoating. up next, what would a gop senate do 20 change thes balance of power in baush wash. could pop make a within congress work to his advantage? that surprising take with one of
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it does important to understand, as important as this election is, as i described to michelle, a midterm election is different than a presidential election. particularly this year. the senate contests that are understandably so closely followed, the vast majority are taking states the president did not win in the last presidential election. so, the electorate is different. >> white house press secretary josh earnest a couple minutes ago at today's white house briefing talking about the impending midterms. we're in the final hours before the polls open and republicans are waiting at the gates for control of the senate. what does a hypothetical gop senate look like? ted cruz has one answer. he sat down with the washington post and detailed a to-do list for a gop senate.
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number one, can you guess it? hearings on president obama on what cruz calls lawlessness that has sadly pervaded this administration. and appealing obama care. 50th time is the charm, including all those house attempts. what could the gop mean for the president's final years? joining me lynn sweet, washington bureau chief for washington "sun-times." thank you so much for taking the time to join. >> hi, ronan. >> do republicans see favorable new poll numbers as public endorsement for everything they've been trying to do, up to and including repealing obamacare? >> absolutely not. if you have a republican senate f it turns out they win control, you have a very influential and will become more influential bit of senate moderates. now, moderates don't really exist as a force in the house, ronan. as everyone listening knows. susan collins, mark kirk from
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illinois, up for re-election in 2016, plus some others could be a critical mess. there is going to be an internal dissent that the republican senate leaders have to face with when they take over. they cannot come off the block and start doing a ted cruz agenda. that also isn't going to be what other 2016 republicans want. so, it isn't necessarily a total loss for what the obama agenda is. but you will have a group of moderate republican who is will play a bigger handle. for example, senator kirk. he wants the first thing to come up. if the senate turns republican, it will be a tough vote on his bill for tougher iran sanctions. you have everybody's floating agendas but the one thing some republicans are going to demand, fueled by the 2016 presidential hopefuls, is that they show they can govern. >> the hill predicts pretty starkly that the president will need to stock up on veto pens
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after what they are projecting, a gop senate win. are there any policy areas this president could focus on that have bipartisan support, where progress could be made even with that kind of a setup on the hill? >> i think so. it will be small issues. might be consumer finance issues, might be some fixes in obamacare because the administration has always said they're open to improving it. open enrollment period starting on november 15th. i think that will ignite critics but there's not going to be a repeal. the senate republicans have always been more reasonable than their house counterparts. >> lynn, really interesting and surprising angle here, foreign policy suggesting president obama could use a gop congress to his advantage. do you think that's a possibility? >> absolutely. because you have hawks. let me take the senator kirk example again, super hawk. wants tougher iranian sanctions. the administration can give to
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iran, where they are doing their nuclear negotiations now and say, hey, you better go with us because right behind us are people that will force a tougher hand than the ones who want to deal with it. >> it's always a pleasure to get your reporting on a time like this. thanks for the time. >> thank you. >> that wraps up today's "r.f. daily." stay tuned tomorrow at 1 p.m., an all-star show as well as right now, straight up ahead for "the reid report" with my colleague joy reid. don't leave. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.
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happy monday, everyone. i'm joy reid. we have a busy hour ahead on trr rr. with less than 20 hours to go in the midterms, it's off to the races. we'll take you to a key battleground states for who holds advantage on election eve. colorado will it come down to
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latino voter turnout? we're headed south for a look at impact new voter i.d. laws are having. in florida, can charlie crist inspire enough black voters to help him take back the senate? the big question tomorrow, can democrats keep control of the upper chamber for the final two yourselves of president obama's term? if you believe the polls, momentum seems to be on the republican side, although well within the margin of error. according to the final nbc news/wall street journal poll before the election, 46% of respondents favor republicans controlling congress while 45% say democrats should. in other words, it's all tied up. the results will come down to one thing, turnout. in kansas where senator pat roberts is locked in a tight race with greg orman. kelly o'donnell is live in topeka. how is it looking for roberts and the independent orman? >> reporter: well, it's a really interesting race because we don't se