cement 2015 as the first time the gop controls both the house and the senate since the 109th congress. if that's a triumph or defeat, that depends on where you stand. one fact not up for debate, this is a record-breaking midterm when it comes to crash. a projected $4 billion. but voters, they're tuning out. interested in today's races is down compared to four years ago. can you prove them all wrong by simply going out and voting. midterm turnout is historically lower than in the presidential election years, so mathematically your vote counts even more. polls close at various times across the nation, so keep watch at the bottom of your screen for when your state stops. ari and i will be here long after polls close with the worldwide web of coverage throughout the night. now, that is a win for everyone.

but first let's jump into some of the biggest senate races today. good afternoon. i am krystal ball. as we come on the air, some 90 million people are voting in what our team has characterized at the longest, most expensive, most talked out midterm election cycle in our history. nbc's luke russert has managed to escape from capitol hill. he's in west des moines, iowa. luke, senate candidate -- republican senate candidate there joni ernst, one of the republicans' top recruit this is cycle, what do you think is happening there today in the hawkeye state? >> reporter: well, joni ernst is coming into election day with a lot of momentum. she had a seven-point lead with "the des moines register" poll. her opponent bruce braley made a series of missteps throughout the campaign. she seems to have capitalized on those. what's really interesting is there's been this question about who cares more about people like

me. joni ernst in "the des moines register" poll tested better that for a democrat to do is quite surprising. today is election day. comes down to the voters. i want you to take a listen to what some voters said to me about how happy they were to reach this day, for one reason, those annoying ads. >> skip all the ads and then you do your homework on the day of the lengz, that's how you vote. >> some of the commercials did help, but i think the debates helped me more than the commercials did. >> i haven't watched tv for about two weeks because i can't stand to watch the ads. i'm sure i'm with everybody else. >> reporter: and that has been the state of the race. it's been consistent all along, krystal. millions pouring into iowa from outside groups and from the party committees because if democrats are to win the senate, they really need -- keep the senate, rather, they really need to win iowa. and that is no guarantee, from what we've seen. now, i talked to earlier about the momentum the ernst campaign

has. democrats say they can counter that with their superior ground game effort. they showed it in 2012. they believe they can come back out tonight. they believe their early vote margin is not big enough. they grab votes, try to bank as many as they can because republicans usually outperform them on election day. we don't know if those early vote numbers will be able to hold. we'll see what happens tonight but i say a tip of the scale to the ernst side. >> luke russert in iowa for us. thanks for joining us. you know, it is a big day when msnbc analyst howard feinman joins us on set here in new york. thanks for being with us. >> thanks to be here. >> take us inside your brain. what are you going to be looking for tonight? what results -- >> you don't want to go there. >> i do. i want to know. >> let toure in a little bit. he can testify to the fact -- >> i'm all in. digging it. >> well, first, a general comment. this has been for the most part with some exceptions in some states and some issues, one of the most content-free,

substance-free, campaigns i have ever covered. i've covered a lot of them. it's disquiet in the country, an anger in the country about the economy. most people in america have not seen the real value of their wages increase literally in decades. people hate washington. they hate politics. it's almost as if they don't to want vote for anybody. >> they don't believe anyone can make a difference. >> that's a self-reinforcing cynicism that president obama temporarily broke through when he got ee electriced in 2008. now it returns and overhangs this whole election. the question of who controls the senate and the key state houses are both very important questions. both substantively and politically. the senate is the key because it's kind of been run as a parliamentary election. it's like mitch mcconnell's team against harry reid's team. will mcconnell take over? what will the republican agenda be? there are states you should watch early in the night to see how that's going. obviously, north carolina and new hampshire are two early

ones. we'll know, i think, early on, by 9:00 or so, whether this will be an early night and an early decision and a, quote, wave, or whether this is going to be a grind it out thing that's going to depend on the human hanging chad. greg orman from kansas or -- >> i like that. >> -- or the -- >> did you get a drafk made? >> the crabbers in alaska who get to send in their votes late, et cetera. that's my overview of the thing. some key governor races, wisconsin, scott walker who ran against the teachers again and again and again. does he survive? if so, he becomes a hero, for example. sam brownback who slashed taxes every which way, does he survive? overall, it's a pudding without a theme as winston churchill once said. >> it's election day which makes me nostalgic. if i could share with you a little family history. when i was growing up i would try to get extra credit for stuff that i was supposed to do. i would say to my parents, i did my homework.

can i get an extra dessert? >> that hasn't changed. >> doesn't sound any different from today. >> he's such a good boy. >> what are we talking about? >> i did my chores. i can get something extra. my parents would say, you're supposed to do your homework. you're supposed to do your chores. you don't get extras for that. i wonder as we look here at a race where we're hearing a lot about how republicans are doing better, but as we know because of the peculiarities of a constitution that difies up the senate and every two years of elections, they're running in states where if the presidential election were held, mitt romney would be president. i wonder if they don't go farther if those states, you're supposed to win in georgia, you're supposed to win in kansas. as you watch the returns tonight, what about the states not supposed to win which means they're making progress? >> that's an excellent question. as you know, there's the so-called big blue fire wall, which is the big blue wall, which is the 18 states plus the district of columbia that the democrats in presidential races have won the last six elections in a row. and the democrats start out with

242 electoral votes with that bloc. you want to look and see where the republicans are trying to pierce that. and there aren't many places, really, in this election where they're going to do it. some interesting ones to watch would be new hampshire. jeanne shaheen -- and new hampshire is a swing state, by the way. it's not one of those big blue walls. >> not super blue, no. >> it's not super blue. but shaheen was governor, highly respected. people thought she would win easily. scott walker kind of wonders across from massachusetts and says, i think i'll run in new hampshire. >> may have hitch hiked. we don't know. >> we don't know. >> a pickup truck. >> quantum physics. one or the other. if he wins, if you watch it tonight and he pulls off the upset there, i think that's significant and shows that republicans are really actually mining the disgust with politics and focusing exclusively -- >> and colorado as well. >> colorado clearly, another swing state. and it looks like -- like

udall's in trouble there. i would put that down to the kind of campaigning that democrats have done too much of this year. which is this kind of pointlistic thing, we're not going to talk about president obama, we're going to focus on women, narrow focus on women, narrow focus on health care, rather than say very much at all about what the democrats -- not just obama, but what the democrats have done and what they stand for, what they've achieved. president obama was in pennsylvania the other day. and almost as a throw-away line, he said, you know, in the last six months, the u.s. economy's done better than almost any other economy in the country. you know, we're back in many ways. no, it's not evenly distributed, so forth. but there's certainly some things that the democrats could have talked about positively about themselves. and i don't think they did. i don't think they did it. >> i agree with that. you know, i just can't wrap my head around the crazy amounts of money that have been spent in

these midterms. luke was alluding to that earlier. $100 million in one senate race in north carolina. the national journal has a piece out today talking about the impact of these ads. they had a moderator ask a group of what they call walmart moms, women that have stay-at-home -- kids at home, shopped at walmart within the last month. they asked them what they remembered from these attack ads. the first woman answered just in silence and finally said, you know, i'm trying to think. i've heard them 100 times. the next woman said all i got from all those ads is don't vote for that person because they're a bad person. vote for me. and finally the woman -- the last woman jumpeded in and said, i think we're so tired of hearing a bowl of crap. i think they speak for how many of us are feeling about these elections. so much money spent but not a lot of content to back it up. >> whatever content it's negative and personal. for the most part. they twist votes. a whole industry that's grown up as fact-checkers to try to unscramble the twists that candidates put in votes about

stands, so forth. i would say about $4 billion, at least $3 billion was negative. by the way, o$1 billion was negative against barack obama. we had a thing at "the huffington post" where we watched every debate, every senate debate, every gubernatorial debate and logged all the different comments. barack obama, the president was mentioned 700 -- i think 600 times or so. there were exactly seven positive mentions of the president. >> i hope somebody got combat pay for that. >> yes. air ariana is giving them an extra greek cookie. >> one reason we're in this position with republicans to presumably take over the senate, is when republican primaries were happening, the republican establishment pushed out the crazies. so we have no crazy gaffes, no todd aikens, no christine o'donnells, no sharron angles and that put them in the position to rebuff the democratic narrative that

republicans are crazy. this is a thoughtful thing they did. mcconnell spoke about this yesterday in lexington. we've learned, he said, a couple of lessons over the last two cycl cycles. if you don't nominate really credible candidates you have a chance of not even taking advantage of a good year. talk about how that laid the groundwork for this moment we're in now. >> as i said, to an extent i've never seen before, especially the senate races, have been run like a parliamentary election. pretty tightly controlled from the top and from washington. by harry reid on one side, mitch mcconnell on the other. they're allies among the consultants, their fund-raisers, independent donors, billionaires and millionaires who contribute. they set that as their strategy. now, i don't know any republican who really is necessarily convinced that all of what we've said, notwithstanding, that this is going to be a huge wave for the republicans. and the reason is that people are just -- voters in general are so turned off by politics.

they have so little sense of hope that you need hope in the kind of lift of a driving dream to create a wave. but, yes, on the other hand, mcconnell's right. if they had nominated some of the real tea party crazies, the democrats would have better chances. that didn't happen. good example is joni ernst. at the beginning everyone said, the hog castrator, she has to be a crazy. turns out she's so farricly compared to sarah palin. and she actually overperformed. in other words, everybody dismissed her as this kind of weird candidate. she turned out to be pretty substantive, so they benefitted from low expectation there is in iowa. >> i mean, she has a lot of extreme positions but she was able to message well and be an effective candidate. >> very effective candidate. >> so great to have you. >> wonderful to see you guys. >> happy elections day. >> ari, 2:00 in the morning. >> we will not miss that, i'm sure. >> let me make clear, here on

the set. >> there you go. >> all right. >> and on that note, up next, we're going to head down south and zero in on key races to watch tonight with a live report from atlanta. that is a look at a polling location right there that you're taking a look at. and everyone's favorite southern gentleman, jimmy williams, will join "the cycle" for tuesday, november 4th. election day, 2014. go out and vote! you're driving along,

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we're back with less than four hours before the first polls start tonight. that means four hours until the first results. but several key races might be either too close to call or below the 50% threshold those states require for a declared winner. that includes likely run-offs in georgia and louisiana, two of the southern states all pundits will be watching very closely. msnbc's suzy khim is in georgia. it could be a long night. both states are preemptively prepping for a run-off. >> reporter: both candidates have proven to be quite strong. i don't think either of them is going to break the 50% threshold. talking to voters, i think they are prepared to sort of dig in for the longer haul, too. both sides seem to be cultivating this image their own party's candidate is going to be the outsider, the one who's going to challenge the poisonous

partner sanship. david perdue is running as a businessman, who's had lots of experience running companies, creating jobs, but that's proven to be a big liability in this campaign. michelle nunn has slammed him again and again for the prevailing outsourcing of jobs. even yesterday he dodged questions from my colleague kristin welker as to whether he's actually outsourced job. michelle nunn is running as someone who can be a moderate, independent, work on both sides of the aisle. her father, sam nunn, is still revered throughout the state. efforts he was a center tris, deal-maker, the kind you don't see around the senate these days. she has managed to bring that image across to voters, even some of the most die-hard republicans i spoke to, they have a fairly positive image of nunn. i think they has succeeded in sort of coming across as her father's daughter.

they're also hoping, i think, both parties, that they'll be able to carry on some of this engagement if there is a run-off election. democrats are decidedly the underdog. they're trying to turn georgia at least purple again if not pure blue. i spoke with house minority leader, stacy abrams, she says she's hoping democrats will realize they have to bring out their friends, their neighbors, that this will have to be a thing if they face a run-off, which would be -- not until january 6th. so, 60 days in politics, that can seem like quite a long time. so, that would be another gruelling, perhaps, end to the race here in which both sides have really poured a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort to sort of engage the folks on the ground and get them excited about an election in a midterm year hasn't got everyone's hearts racing, necessarily. >> it's all about the turnout. thank you very much. we'll all be watching tonight as well. and for more on georgia and the

other key southern races, let's bring in msnbc political contributor jimmy williams, executive editor of "blue nation review qult qul review," i love having you on the show. >> especially with your election bow tie. >> democratic bow tie. go democrats! >> i want to ask you about that because the one person seemingly ab september from the south this election cycle has been president obama. how is that going to play tonight? >> since he's the leader of the democratic party, that is probably a problem. especially in the south. look, the south is a funky little place, isn't it? it's always played an important role in the electoral politics of the country. that is not -- that is still the case today. so, i mean, every single race that matters, for the most part, is being determined in the south, right? the senate -- whether the senate goes "d" or "r" is determined by the south. look at alison lundergan grimes

of kentucky. she can't win in that state unless she gets democrats, mod ran republicans and the african-american community to vote for her. what could-d she do? couldn't even say she voted for the guy. kay hagan said she voted for him. michelle nunn said she voted for him. she may win tonight, if not on january 6th. mary landrieu said it. she cannot lose in the state of louisiana without the black-american vote. here's the deal, if you -- if you're a democrat and you dis the head of your party, who happens to be black, guess what, they're probably not going to show up to vote for you. it makes common sense. >> you're proving our point we can't talk about southern electoral politics without talking about race. let's dig in further about what you call the funky little place and how it deals with race. i'm not just talking about voter i.d. i'm not just talking about getting black voters out to the polls. i'm talking about the whole racial anxiety stew that is southern politics. please, sir, talk about how race is haping this campaign thaw

see. >> well, i mean, go ahead and write off the over-60 crowd in the south. we're only talking about the south, right? you have to write them off. they're predominantly white. they vote predominantly republican. it's a fact of life. just take them off the table. then you got millenials. they don't care about social issues. they've grown up in, for the most part, a post-racial society. so race isn't so much a big deal to them. so, take them off the table. we know where they're going to be, which is for democrats. if they show up to vote. what you have to care about, independent women and people in their 40s and fifs 50s. that's who you've got to get. that's my age, well being a man in the 40s and 50s. if you can't appeal to moderate and independent women in the south, who have kids in school, who have jobs, et cetera, et cetera, then you're not going to get their vote. and guess what? every single one of those candidates in the south is a woman.

so, that's smart. the problem, though, is that -- and i've said this on sunday, if -- i believe, and i firmably believe this, if we did not have an african-american president in the white house as we speak right now, mary landrieu would not be in trouble. kay hagan would not be in any kind of trouble. michelle nunn would win overwhelmingly. and, you know, maybe alison lundergan grimes would do well. >> i don't know that's the case. >> i absolutely believe that. racism is not just a southern problem. if you don't believe me, you know, look at the boston bussing riots. that happened in boston, not in charleston. so, you know, the idea that race does not play into this is absolutely a factor. it certainly is. >> jimmy, if you were the grand strategist of the democratic party, we should be so lucky as to have you in that role, how would you advise democrats to shift the party or to shape the party or to be able to appeal to white southerners? or should we just write them off and say, they're never going to

be with us? >> no, no, do not ever write off white southerners or southerners anyway. i said that before. they determine these elections. for a couple reasons, first and foremost, because the social issues are just not -- listen, if you want to have a conversation with democrats about whether or not you're for pro-equality, pro-women, pro-privacy, pro-choice, pro-voting rights and pro-equal rights, i'm pretty sure those are all democratic principles. you ought to lean into those things. you ought to talk about them. you ought to embrace them. you ought to lean forward, remember our slogan, and you ought to own those. guess what you're for? you're for people. when you're against people, then people don't want to vote for you. but if you're for people like lbgt, african-american, hispanic-american, et cetera, women, and their privacy and leaving them alone when they need to be left and loan and helping them when they need to be helped, like here in south carolina, 30% of south carolina's black population is below the poverty rate. what is the one thing that the governor of this state has done?

denied medicaid funding because of obamacare. and guess what? she doesn't even count on that vote. so, if i'm a democrat in this state, whether it be a white democrat or a black democrat, i would absolutely lean in on those issues. and that's not just a south carolina thing. look at barack obama. he won virginia twice. almost won north carolina twice. lost it barely the second time. and south carolina, mitt romney only won south carolina with 53. john mccain with 52. that's a changing south. those old white people, they're going to die some day. and who's going to be there to replace them? people that want you to be for them, not against them. >> jimmy, you should run for office. a pretty good rant you had. >> no way in hell would i run for office. i get to be with you guys. >> that's right. jimmy williams, thank you for being with us. up next, a look at how the weather is holding up as folks head to the polls. you know what else election coverage needs? a little fishing. the most interesting races to watch according to us.

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comcast business. built for business. we are back. it is time for election weather. of course, that means "cycle" chief meteorologist raphael miranda. >> oh, thank you. >> happy election day. >> happy election day. >> you said it was going to be beautiful and it is. >> it's a beautiful day in the northeast. there are a few trouble spots out there but overall weather is not an excuse today to not vote. you can't use that. >> never an excuse. >> never an excuse. >> that's true. >> especially not today. we're dealing with beautiful weather across the northeast. one trouble spot, the south. texas especially having a really rough day. that's going to continue, unfortunately. but for us in the northeast, we've been enjoying above average temperatures. lots of sunshine from boston down to d.c. here's our trouble, the cold front now draped across the country. the worst weather right now across north texas. dallas especially and areas south of there, flash flood watches are in effect.

we've seen over an inch of rain in places like wichita falls. this rain is moving very slowly. flooding could be a problem in places like texas into new mexico. d.c. near 70 degrees. sunshine across the upper midwest. beautiful weather in the southwest as well. it is raining in seattle, we have showers there and temperatures in the 50s. it stays quiet tonight here in the northeast. we have one more beautiful day tomorrow post-election day. then that rain spreads into the deep south, still enjoying fantastic weather, hot in southern california. look at tomorrow's high temperature. 87 in los angeles. above average in new york. above average in l.a. the rain continues, wouldn't you know it, in seattle. you want to enjoy the beautiful weather in the northeast because starting on thursday, all this rain works its way towards us and then it gets chilly again thursday, friday. we're talking about a repeat of those brisk temperatures we saw for the marathon week. that's going to happen again this weekend here in places like new york city and boston. so, winter is slowly starting to ease in, guys.

fantastic day outside right now. you want to enjoy it and soak in some of that sunshine with temperatures in the 70s. krystal? >> indeed, thank you so much. pick a race, any race, tonight it could be the deciding fak tosh of who wins the majority. it really is that close. so, which races are we at "the cycle" watching closely tonight? let's take that to the table. obviously, a lot of key senate races, north carolina, new hampshire, colorado, iowa, that we have touched on. but i'm actually going to be closely watching the gubernatorial race in kansas. and that's an interesting one you've got incumbent governor sam brownback who, you know, keep in mind kansas, a very republican, very red, very conservative state. he enacted in office essentially what he called a conservative experiment. the largest tax cut in kansas state history. it's had devastating economic impacts. it's had a devastating impact on the schools there. so the democrat in that state has a shot to win tonight. that's an interesting one to

watch because it should act as a check for republicans that even in a red state like kansas, you can't go too far. there is a limit to how conservative your voting population is. >> what's the matter with kansas? >> that's really interesting. >> we've been talking about the senate races but a lot of interesting governors' races going on. one i've been watching is in florida. i don't know if you heard of it, had the fan incident. >> oh, yes, yes. >> florida, sthat one -- >> down south. >> whacky voting. >> there's a reason why it's probably one of 9 most important purple states in the country before the presidential elections. it's a good litmus test for how people are feeling in terms of where we're at right now. a bunch of different constituency groups, urban, rural. this race, though, i find interesting because you have rick scott, who i think is a terrible politician, in my personal opinion. but running against him, charlie crist -- >> tell us how you really feel. >> this business guy was going to bring jobs. i had a lot of family in florida

and they're disappointed with rick scott and the options they have. you have charlie crist who i find his career to be totally fascinating. we talk about politics in absolutes. here you have a guy who is republican governor of florida. then left to run for senate. midrace changed to be independent. then became a democrat. now running for his old job again in the opposite party. and it looks like he has a real shot of winning here. one thing you should also look at this ballot, though s legalizing marijuana. that's on there. democrats hope that brings enough people to the polls to give charlie crist that extra boost. >> you mentioned charlie crist, he may be the only candidate in this entire election who backed the impeachment of president clinton and then went out and campaigned with him this fall. it's always fun when they do that. i've been looking atlas lass, which could keep us up very late. it's a fascinating race. it's not one -- >> we'll be up late. >> we will. it's been defined by some national issues we hear so much about. it's been a lot of local

economic and fishing and national resource issues. let's take a look at just one part of the debate. >> you cannot have a one size fits all federal approach to fisherie fisheries. that's one of the dangers with federal regulation, federal laws with regard to our fisheries. they're very unique. it has to have alaska-specific elements after it. >> going after the pirates out there, taking our fish illegally and making sure they're held accountable for it. as i mentioned, this is the first time in the act, parks and rec will be part of the equation because it's an all-encompassing fishing policy we'll have. >> another big issue is republicans are saying f they win, lisa will take over the interior chairmanship in the senate. those are the races we forget about -- >> so local. >> ted cruz's obamacare plans, they're focused on that.

they also have minimum wage and pot on the ballot which could affect who turns out. >> certainly could. campaigning matters. we lose sight of that but if you're getting out, shaking a lot of hands, especially in a small state like new hampshire, which has expectations of politicians, knocking on your door, that could make a difference. scott brown is an extraordinary politician. social sciences show shaking hands, persuasion can happen face to face. jeanne shaheen is the first woman in the history of america to be governor and senator, right? so she's clearly a tough person who knows how to win races. alex wagner spoke to both of them. let's take a little look at that. >> if you hold onto your seat, are democrats going to win the senate? >> we're focused on new hampshire. we want to make sure every supporter who said they're going to support me gets out to the polls. >> how is your ground game

compared to jeanne shaheen? >> we'll find out in about, what, eight hours. >> you had a big shakeup with the field staff. are you sure they're going to get the vote on? >> what do you mean, shake up? what's going on with your zip cote code if you don't win on wednesday night? are you going back to massachusetts? >> that's a silly question. >> silly? >> krystal, i heard about polls that have one point separating in both directions, so no idea which way that goes. >> that is definitely one to watch. >> could be a long night. >> you heard what we think. now msnbc wants to know what you are thinking about on this election day. tonight starting at 10 p.m. eastern, ari melber and i are hosting digital decision 2014 live on msnbc.com. we want you to weigh in and participate in that broadcast. so, do you think that democrats should have stood by president obama more in these midterm elections? tweet your answer with #msnbcyes if your answer is yes.

or tweet with #msnbcno if your answer is no. >> what if it's maybe? >> visit vote.msnbc.com to watch the show at 10 p.m. eastern to see the results. [ narrator ] mama sherman and the legion of super fans.

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show off a pair of depend and show them it's no big deal. because hey, it's just a different kind of underwear. join us. support the cause and get a free sample of depend at underwareness.com cycling now, embattled running back adrian peterson just this hour pled no contest to reckless assault, a misdemeanor. the judge ruled peterson must pay a $4,000 fine and perform 80 hours of community service. it could also mean a return to the nfl this season, depending on what nfl commissioner roger goodell decides. but goodell has an intense week ahead of him. he's required to testify at ray rice's appeal hearing tomorrow and thursday. and there will be no limit on the amount of time goodell will testify. and he will be questioned by famed sports labor attorney jeffrey kessler, who many describe as goodell's nemesis.

kessler is the lawyer who helped win free agency for nfl players in 1992. kessler is expected to grill goodell on rice's infamous elevator tape and what goodell knew and when he knew it. goodell will face that clash unless he cuts a deal with rice before tomorrow, which could anger many and make it look like goodell caved in to rice. we have friend of the show andrew brant, espn analyst and former owner of the green bay packers. what would goodell fear the most or what questioning out of kessler would roger goodell fear the most? >> tomorrow, toure courtroom football begins tomorrow, ray rice appeal. this is the thing everyone has been waiting for since september, since the videotape was reveal. the crux of the case is going to be was there a civil kind of collective bargaining version of

double jeopardy attached to ray rice? was he indefinitely suspended for the compacted saexact same circumstances for which he was suspended two games? that's the argument from peter ginsburg, lead lawyer, and kessler, saying goodell is reacting knee-jerk reaction to the public reaction to the tapes and there was nothing new rice said. the nfl will counter. as you said, they're going to say, hey, wait a minute, there was new information. what ray rice told us, and his wife, about that incident back in february and when he told us this summer was vastly different than what we saw there on tlfil. so it's going to come down to again, now we'll find out transparency, the facts of what really happened. >> do you think there is a chance they cut a deal with ray rice before this all goes down? >> i hope not. i'm on my way to cover it for espn.

i think that -- >> you can take a little vacations. >> it seems to me that you talked about roger goodell caving in that perception. i think the nfl pa/rice/legal side really wants to get into this. they really want this case. they want to expose, if they can, information that this was just, again, a knee-jerk reaction, a public relations, a making it up as they went along -- >> but surely roger doesn't want to get into this? >> he might. let me talk about his case, too, because i try to point out both sides. listen, he has the power of conduct hearings. he has the power. he could preside over this himself but he's wisely deferred to an independent arbitrator, barbara jones. so she according to labor law is supposed to defer, unless there's egregious conduct, defer to the initial hearing officer, who is roger goodell. he's going to argue labor law. he's going to argue, how many of us, the public, the media, were

shocked and surprised on what they saw on september 8th versus what they heard about ray rice for five months? that reaction plays right into the nfl's situation because that's going to say, hey, listen, we're not the only ones. the whole country was aghast between what we heard about it and what actually happened. >> and you're trying to fairly shine a light on the argument's offer. the problem is the rest of the country didn't have the burden of fact-finding he has in had kind of proceeding so it ultimately goes back to him. the rest of us found out what leaked out as it came. does anything change if the nfl's ratings don't change? >> well, let me get to that in a second. i think as far as this case, the nfl's going to have to turn, if you will, on ray rice. they have supported this kid, and i think a party we're leaving out here is the ravens. ravens senior officials were part of this. they supported him to the hilt,

as i've talked about before. ray rice is an adverse witness to the ravens. they'll have to say in so many words, he lied to us, he duped us. he told a fick tastitious tale the help of his wife. the gloves will come off. there's a chance on the courthouse steps they settle on punishment between two games and indwept. i get the sense in listening and reading the tea leaves this is going guard. they both agreed on this arbitrator, a former judge, a by the book judge, and we'll see what happens. as you mentioned, here we are again, the conduct, the power of the commissioner is at stake. that's a big deal here. we'll see it again with peterson, which we'll talk about in a second. the idea that roger goodell's power is being diminished is something we've talked about here. beyond all of this, there are negotiations going on with the union about cushing thrbcurbing. >> are we going to see rice or peterson back on the field

again? if so, is that a benefit for the nfl? >> i'd say they probably wouldn't want that soon. i would think we'll see them both back on the field, but i just don't know in 2014. i think 2015's a much better chance. now, here's what has to happen. rice has to have his suspension lifted, a, and the team has to be willing to sign him, b. exact same thing for peterson. he has to be taken off this inventive list they use, commission list, and the minnesota vikings have to want him back on their active list. should they not, they would release him and he'd be free to sign with anyone else. whatever you call this, toxicity, this radioactivity that was so prevalent in september is probably not completely gone. and i would think teams would be hesitant to say, hey, the way the season is going halfway through, why do we need this? we'll talk about it next time. >> well, i think it's going to be easier to get a.p. back on the field than ray rice back on the field.

andrew brandt, thank you very much. up next, new details on what happened in that virgin galactic space plane crash and a look inside nasa. ♪don't stop now come on mony♪ ♪come on yeah ♪i say yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪'cause you make me feel like a pony♪ ♪so good ♪like your pony ♪so good ♪ride the pony the sentra, with bose audio and nissanconnect technology. spread your joy. nissan. innovation that excites. [singing] ♪mony mony ring ring! ...progresso! you soup people have my kids loving vegetables. well vegetables... shh! taste better in our savory broth. vegetables!? no...soup! oh! soup! loaded with vegetables. packed with taste.

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liberty mutual insurance. ntsb officials say the investigation into the virgin galactic space plane could take up to a year. they did release a timeline of the last moments in the flight identifying an anomaly but the grash isn crash isn't deterring richard branson from his space touring mission. >> it's been a horrible setback,

particularly for michael's family and for mike himself, but, you know, we owe it to him to continue and that we will do. >> since the late 1950s, the men and women of nasa and visionaries like branson have deared to take us to new heights and now in his new book a photographer shows us what it really takes to get there. for three years he got a rare glimpse into one of nasa's final space shuttle mission. he's compiled some stunning photos, along with essays from nasa techs and astronauts. the people and places of space exploration, it has a forward as well by john glenn. michael is at the table. good day to you. >> hi. >> what moves these type of space enthusiasts to do what they do? >> it was my experience in dealing with so much of the labor force that these men and women often come out of simply the passion of wanting to be a part of something greater than themselves. and whether it's the technician

working on the tiles, folks working on the shuttle, all in service of space flight to the engineers, they saw neil armstrong descend to the moon. there's just a sense of wanting to be a part of something greater than themselves. >> in the book you profile some of the men and women behind the astronauts and the spaceships that really are responsible for so much. one of technicians said these beautiful ships did not belong to the astronauts, they belonged to us, the technicians and engineers who worked the fleet every day. most astronauts understood this and frequently thanked us for allowing them to borrow the birds for a couple of weeks. >> that was greg cecil. greg was a paramedic in west virginia, actually. all of his life he wanted to be part of the space program. he took some classes, moved to florida this 2000, 2001 and got a job working on the tiles. that was his dream to be able to

do that. and so the culture within setting a spaceship ready for flight is hundreds, often thousands of people and he was one of them. and absolutely committed. there's nothing really routine about it. but being in a hangar with a spaceship working on the tiles and doing that. so the crews would come in realizing these hundreds of people are supporting the spaceship. like what goes on in a studio, all in support of -- >> yeah, what we're doing is just like rocket science. >> no, it is. >> each of those jobs, the responsibilities on the shoulders of the person to do it perfectly and precisely is incredible. the space shuttle launch director, he would decide whether or not to go forward on scrub a mission. i can't imagine having that weight resting on my shoulders. >> mike was a remarkable man -- is a remarkable man. he had been there since 2000. he gave that go ahead for

columbia. and when you see all the computers, you see the whole vast array of putting a spaceship into space, you look out the window and said is that final decision mine. they are people i know. they have families, they have kids. am i ready to commit them to this mission. it's a gut check. i mean basically it's a gut check. >> you talk about some of the challenges of photographing outer space from outer space. you helped train some of these astronauts on how to visually communicate their mission. it's not just point the camera out the window and pressing. >> like an iphone, right? no. when i was invited to provide the crew, it was more than just technical. they have people that provide them technically and how to set the cameras and ikons and what have you. what got me involved was what was the quality of light like in

space. when i talked to many of the early apollo astronauts, they said they wished they had slowed down so they could take in the experience. my sense with this crew was, as complex as this was could there be some smell the roses moments where they could stop and say, wow, we're in space, look around that environment and see it all new for the first time, for the children, for the grandchildren, for their brothers and sisters, so making snapshots that say more than a conventional -- >> and that give us some sense of where we are in this big you know ye-- universe. i know abby was also saying with election day today, she was wondering what the midterm turnout is going to be like on the moon. we don't know yet. michael, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> that does it for "the cycle" today. you can catch us tomorrow. election coverage continues of

course all day on ms. -- msnbc. primetime coverage starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern. for all you second screeners, krystal and i will host msnbc's digital decision coverage. that live stream starts at 10:00 p.m. eastern. and then at 2:00 a.m., craig melvin and i will bring you the late-breaking speeches, the returns, what's up in alaska. we'll have it for you overnight. stay with us. now with alex wagner begins "live from new hampshire" right after this. it's time for the entrepreneur of the week. sherri owns her business introducing locals to great food around the town. she's not only grown her business but helped promote the downtown area encouraging diners to eat locally rather than at

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