it undermines democracy. can't let that happen. >> the issue here has always simply been, we don't need no fraud. the question is whether the voter frauding is an issue or the voter frauding commission. on that we'll just say, we'll stay on the story so stay tuned. that does it for "the beat." "hard ball" with chris matthews starts now. trump's trump. this is "hard ball." good evening, i'm chris malhotra thus. in washington get on board or get out. that's the message for republicans uncomfortable with the new world order. according to the "new york times" today, quote, the president's brand of hard itch nationalism and gutt level cultural appeals is taking root within his adopted party and

those uneasy with grievance politics are either giving in or giving up the fight. the republican party is now the party of donald trump. what does that mean for steve bannon? is he the president's hench man, his gatekeeper, his commisar of trumpdom. he has declared war on mainstream republicans especially mitch mcconnell. let's watch. >> mitch mcconnell and this permanent political class is the most corrupt and incompetent group of individuals in this country. >> for mitch mccome and warren baker and karl rove and steven law, all the instruments that tried to destroy judge moore and his family. your day of reckoning is coming. >> we are declaring war on the republican establishment. that does not back the agenda that donald trump ran on and the president of the united states. it's a new game in town. we're going to cut off the

oxygen to mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell's biggest asset is the money. we're going to make it the biggest liability because we're going after these guys tooth and nail. >> there's a time and season for everything, and right now it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> war. when asked about bannon's challenge to purify the party of nontrump sters and replace them with full-fledged trump sters, mcconnell has characterized it as a threat to a governing party, a governing majority. >> you have to make it a party of winners. we plan to protect our incumbents and help people get nominated who actually can win elections. >> well, there are new signs that mcconnell is trying to fight back. according to the washington post today, allies of senator mcconnell declared open warfare on wednesday against steve bannon. open warfare. a super pac aligned with mcconnell plans to attack bannon personally as it works to

protect gop incumbents. the message bannon is toxic, stay away from him. here's steve law, the head of that super pac. >> our concern about steve bannon is really just limited to this, and that is that candidates who get wrapped around him will have to answer for his toxic views, things that he said, his associations with the alt right when democrats make him the star of their attack ads next fall. that's our concern and that's simply what we want to make sure the republican candidates know what they're getting if they sign up with him or get closely too aligned with him. >> who's going to win this civil war? ruth marcus is with the washington post, "the new york times" and robert acosta is with the washington post. i want to start across the list as i began it. ruth, it seems there's two purifying agds. there's bannon out there. oliver kronwall. i'm purifying the whole church and there's mcconnell snapping in line like a turtle to everything trump wants. i mean, they're both behaving

like purifiers and commisars. what's the civil war, who's the most trumpy? >> i think it's a civil war about who's going to control the future of this party, and it's completely up for grabs. >> inside or outside? >>. >> inside versus outside. >> yeah. >> and the thing that's so crazy about this civil war and the fact that it's erupting now though, you know, you take more delight in it if you were from the opposite ideological point of view if you didn't see the same thing about to happen with democrats probably, but the amazing part about it is right now this is the exact last time they should be -- last moment they should be doing this because they need to concentrate on passing their tax cut which will be their only legislative achievement besides judge gorsuch. >> jeremy, at the very time they're trying to get one thing done here, i'm not sure they care what's in it. >> that's right. >> right. yeah. >> they're deciding who's in, who's out. they're having one of these

purifying moments like in a church, they aren't coming apart. i do think they're both acting like "invasion of the body snatchers." are these people anymore or marching robots? they're acting like robots. >> this is what when republicans nominate someone who is not a republican. there is a civil war inside the republican party about what it stands for. with the election of donald trump, the party of cutting your taxes and boosting military spending is no longer there. this is a party of closed borders, this is a party of economic nationalism and that's really what you're seeing, the candidates who are going to be primarying the republicans. >> it's also the party of the person of donald trump. >> yes. >> robert, it's about the person of donald trump almost like a perrone party. it's like a cult. it's hard to believe any democratic equivalent of this, fdr. everything is about do you like this guy, do you support him, don't you?

his tweets, early morning craziness, name-calling, nicknaming, calling foreign leaders, taubting trouble with him. if you don't like it all, you're not in it, you should get out of it. it almost is getting loo like a personality cult? >> it is. >> can you be a nontrump party today? >> no, they're targeting bannon instead of president trump. that's revealing of where the republican party is. they're not ready to break from president trump because they want to get the tax cut. he has a grip on the base. they need to fight the disruption within the party and that's why you have the effort against bannon. >> former senator tom coburn, a critic of trump, said we have a leader who has a personality disorder. that's pretty strong quote. but he's done what he actually told the people he was going to do and they're not going to abandon him. ruth, again, back to you. i mean, it is -- it is like trump is running the republican party, perhaps into the ground but he's running it. he really is.

>> well, he did tell the people who elected him that he alone could fix it, and i might have missed something, but i haven't seen anything quite fixed. >> that's true. >> quite the contrary, he's failed -- >> he's still got the 30-80. >> he's still got that. there's an interesting distinction between trump and trumpism. we were sitting here a few weeks ago and talking about trump cozying up to chuck and nancy. yes, he's had a lot of views that he's held for a long time but he also can -- >> that was a speed date. that was a speed date. >> it was never a marriage that was going to last, but he is much more flexible. trumpism is a different thing and bannon is really trying to cement trumpism and make sure that it outlasts trump. >> yeah. jeremy, who's in charge? is it the people out there who define who trump is because they hate the establishment, the cultural elite, all the things we have completely come to understand they hate. is that the thing that leads them or therefore leads him. can he redefine the hate?

can he say like nixon did, we're going to china and make friends with the commis. ragan could. can trump change trumpism? >> there's something so emotional about this movement i think that changing the ideology of it, chris, would be extraordinarily difficult. bannon himself has said that trump was a blunt force instrument to take economic nationalism as a movement and bring it to power, international notoriety, and that's what's happened. so like we often see in revolutions, the leader falls to the way side and someone springs up in his place. whether or not that person is as charismatic as trump, i doubt it but it's not always going to be trump. >> robert, you're an expert on trump. like a nightclub comic, i'm not putting him down in this regard, it's all interactive. he tries out a line for a week, if it works, he keeps using it. it's always interactive. it's checking in.

that's why he likes to have these rallies, so he can check in with what's working like a good nightclub comic. who's calling the shots, him or the crowd? >> he listens to the crowd. he used to tell me during the campaign that he would react to what the crowd was responding to and he would go with it. you see him in the white house now not being controlled by general kelly or by his son-in-law, jared kushner. it's all him watching television, real acting, thinking about what the people want. it's pure populism. >> senator bob corker offered another observation today of the president. let's listen to him. >> i think that when you have a governing model that's about dividing the country, when it's about resentment, when you -- when you only focus on keeping your base solid to the extent of really alienating other people instead of trying to bring our nation together to bring out the better angels in our citizens. typically presidents try to be aspirational in what they do.

they try to bring out the best in our country. that to me is not happening. i'm going to continue to rail against that in an appropriate way. >> well, it tells you something about corker, the centsenator f tennessee still gets up to do morning shows. he's making his case. what seems clear is the cavalry is not coming back to back up senators corker and flynn. here's where marco rubio was today. with trump. >> you know what the american people want to see us do, solve their problems. i don't think the american people want to see us up here yelling at each other. they want to see us fating for them. >> he was elected president. i'm going to work with him for the good of our country and we're going to try to get good things done. >> what's with this kiss butt thing? singing that guy's praises, he's going to come on and be a leader. he's going along with trump. he did it at the dinner last

week. every time challenges him, let's get together and have a little beer, let's work it out. i want it out. doesn't anybody have the right to criticize trump? according to him, no. >> they won't do it. >> what is this, the banner treatment, he's going to get bumped? >> absolutely. they're all falling in line. the republican senators sat there, listened to corker and flake, most of them agree. you have not heard a peep. >> yeah. >> crickets. and if you have a question about where the republican party is heading, look at the gubernatorial race in virginia where the republican nominee, ed gillesp gillespie, a bob corker type of republican, total establishment republican is running adds about ms-13 that look like willie horton. >> a full embodiment of -- >> and saving our statues. >> i think he wants to win. >> he doesn't love trump but he knows -- but he is a trumpista.

>> look what's happening in the alabama race, judge rye moore. the number two republican in the senate, john kornyn went out and endorsed him. >> running toward trump. >> running toward trump. that's a perfect example how they are so afraid to get on the wrong side. 87% for trump among republicans. who's in the new class of republicans being a champion by steve bannon? meet, as you said, jeremy meet roy moore. there he is on horseback. chief justice of the alabama supreme court. twice removed from the bench. he refused to remove a monument of the ten commandments and then instructed judges in his state to ignore the supreme court ruling legalizing gay marriage. he backs criminalizing, there's a strong word, homosexual behavior. let's watch. >> do you think that homosexual -- homosexuality or homosexual conduct should be illegal today?

that's a yes or no question. >> homosexual conduct should be illegal, yes. >> con duck. well, he's called homosexuality inherent evil and crime against nature. judge moore advocated blocking a muslim elected official from even becoming a member of congress because he's a muslim. he falsely said there are countries under sharia law in our country, which is not true. he's attacked the entire religion of islam. here he goes. >> who teach it, you must worship this way are completely what our first amendment says. >> robert, which way is trumpism going? if it seems to be going on beyond where trump said. it's embracing this fellow, kelly moore, there's a real piece of work out in arizona. there's a blood thirsty politician. is he willing to go that far beyond where he went in the

campaign with this kind of cultural warfare that's beyond pat buchanan, beyond him? >> republicans are alarmed because they see what's happening in alabama. senator strange was given more than $10 million from the senate leadership fund. he still wasn't able to win. judge moore had these kind of views. was still able to win. they wonder is anyone safe even if you have the money? >> what do you think? is trump going further sflump ruth marcus, is he going further in the direction he ran in? >> if that step results, he will go there. >> jeremy? >> absolutely. i mean, the -- there's going to be a big test coming up at the end of the year because daca and the wall are going to be wrapped into this big bill that the congress has to approve. >> right. right. >> so it'll be telling to see, does trump veto that? is he willing to see the government go into a shutdown right after they've presumably passed a tax cut.

>> how can they tax people any money and spend it on a wall? how can working class people, white, ethnic background, be willing to support the waste of their money? >> that's why the republicans are clinging on to this idea of a tax cut, because they know there's not a consensus even within their own party to have a border wall along the u.s./mexico border. you have to get something that the base and the business community likes. if they don't get the tax cut, they're worried about the wrath of everybody in the party. >> there's not a working class white guy out there or woman who wouldn't get past the wall if they needed a job. they would go to get the job so they must know intuitively the wall won't work. thank you ruth, jeremy and robert. coming up, 2800 secret documents from the j.f.k. assassination files are being released this night, but president trump blocked the release of hundreds more for now. we're going to keep waiting for them tonight. they're coming out in the hours ahead and we'll have the latest

details next. plus, president trump weighs in on the virginia race. ed gillespie will save our great statues and heritage while ralph northam is trying to tie them to the white supremacists. they're getting dirty. this race could turn either way but it's certainly getting hot and dirty. the "hardball" roundtable is here. republicans move closer to a tax bill that will hurt the middle class. ain't going to help them. finish with nightly trump watch tonight. get ready, the invasion of the body snatchers. this is "hardball" where the action is.

finish with nightly trump watch marie callender knows that a homemade turkey dinner can make anyone slow down and pull up a seat to the table. that's why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. so that you can spend time on what really matters. marie callender's. it's time to savor. welcome back to "hard ball." defense secretary james mattis arrived in south korea where

he's talking about north korea. there's diplomatic talks and kim jong-un's regime are on their last legs. i never knew they were on their legs. nbc's keir simmons is there. >> reporter: defense secretary mattis is now here in south korea. the chairman of the joint chiefs, general dunford was already here. on their agenda is quite simply can negotiation work or are we heading for war in this region, a war that would potentially be devastating causing thousands, possibly worse, deaths in the -- even in the early stages. you know, chris, we spent a week in north korea and i have to say quite coldly that everyone we spoke to there did not give us the impression that negotiations is really on the table in the sense that if what the -- washington wants, if what the

u.s. wants is for north korea to freeze its nuclear program or even step back or reverse it, nobody that we spoke to in north korea gave us the impression that they thought that would be acceptable. now, look, admittedly, chris, the folks that we spoke to there going down to the dmz, the front line and the border with the south, all the way up an hour and a half outside of pyongyang the capital, but all those people we spoke to, they were in the higher echelons of society. people around kim jong-un but at the same time they gave us this one message mostly, and that was pretty unequivocal. like their ideology is very firmly held. their belief is in the supreme leader and they don't appear to be easily shaken on that. of course, chris, when you speak to the people of north korea you find people questioning exactly what they're really thinking, but you wouldn't want to gamble on that, not when the potential

for a war here is so bloody. chris? >> thank you so much. nbc's keir simmons with that report from seoul, south korea. up next, 2300 documents related to the jfk assassination will be released tonight. hundreds more will remain under wraps pending further review. you're watching "hardball." this guy isn't sure he can take it anymore. unwavering self-confidence. stuck in a 4-door sedan of sadness. upgrade your commute. ride with audible. dial star star audible on your smartphone to start listening today. only fleet enemas feature the lubricated gentle glide tip, for comfortable relief in minutes. not hours. fleet enemas. the start of fast relief. get your coupon in sunday's paper.

welcome back to "hardball." after being withheld from the public for 50 years, a portion of the remaining documents relating to john f. kennedy's assassination are being released tonight from the national archives. in a memo president trump ordered today that the veil be lifted. however, the president's agreed to a six-month further review period for the most sensitive of the documents. the secrecy around these files is still conspiracy theories for

decades after the warren commission said lee harvey oswald was the lone gunman of the president's death. even bobby kennedy questioned the report's conclusion. here's how bobby kennedy responded to hecklers during a campaign rally in march of 1968. >> can i just say that -- and i haven't answered this question before, but there is nobody in all of these matters as to who is responsible for the death of president kennedy than i would. i have seen all of the matters in the archives. if i became president of the united states, i would not -- i would not re-open the report. i think i stand by the warren smith report. i've seen everything in the archives. the archives will be available at the appropriate time. >> i've seen everything in the archives. due to the sheer volume of the

materials, it may take time before historians and anyone can draw conclusions of what they contain. joining me is pete williams, julia ainsley and evan collins. his most recent book is "being nixon." pete, what do you know about this thing tonight, the timetable of us getting anything interesting overnight? >> the quick answer is, not yet. let's go to the national archives website and it says at this hour with just a few hours on this date, stay tuned for updates. that's what it's said all day. to explain why, chris, you have to go back to the law. it was 25 years ago today that congress passed a law saying all the documents have to come out by the end of today unless, and that's the part that's held them up, unless the intelligence agencies appeal to the president and ask him to withhold certain information, and now we know that for the past couple of weeks the cia, the fbi and some

other agencies have been going back and forth with the white house saying we want these portions of documents redacted. we don't believe they've asked for any documents to be held -- withheld in full, but they've asked for lots of redactions. we're told the white house pushed back on that. they couldn't reach any agreement so the president finally said, get out what you can. what there isn't a guess agreement about, then i'll give the agencies six more months to see if they can't winnow back so that's where we stand tonight. >> let's look at the trail which is the -- the cia may have missed surveilling lee harvey oswald when he returned, he went and visited the soviet embassy, cuba committee. pro castro committee. all of these signs this guy might be trouble. later we learned he was going after edwin walker. he also according to his wife went after nixon at one point to

shoot him but all of these signs and they missed it. why would you protect the name of an agent at this point? why would they redact names if there was missing surveillance here? >> my understanding is it's names of people who were cooperating with the u.s. at the time in mexico who are still alive. if any agreements that we had with foreign governments that we promised we would never disclose, that kind of thing. that is apparently the sort of thing they're worried about. what all the scholars tell us, all the historians that have looked at this, they say they don't believe there is anything in these documents to get us changed the bottom line that lee harvey oswald was alone. she hasn't seen it and hits understanding of what the agencies want to redact is the way i've just explained it. >> pete, you're always great. thanks so much. we'll all be sort of the christmas eve feeling tonight. what's going to be in our stockings tomorrow morning.

i want to go down to julia and then to evan. what are you going to do tonight? tell me about the process. you're going to be on this thing. >> it is. we have a team of reporters at the d.c. bureau with nbc combing through these things. there are a few areas we want to really concentrate on. some of these are personality profiles of oswald, of people he would have spoken with. we want to put together a picture of what they had on oswald before the shooting and what they had afterwards. were there any things withheld simply trying not to embarrass the agency. >> let's talk about this. in march of '68, late in the game for him near the time of his death, everybody i had been coming across he always said as did his brother before teddy died, much more recently, they did believe the warren commission. yet you hear these utterances from people that he had his doubts. >> i believe people who say he had his doubts, bobby was racked with guilt about his brother's

death and at some horrible level blamed himself. >> was it a mob he went after? was it going after castro? was he not backing up the bay of pigs? >> bobby thought one of them had, fear, fear that he actually had. povin, those are conspiracy theories that aren't true. i think oswald killed jfk. >> i do, too. >> and there was no conspiracy. >> what about the jerry bruno. he put out the trip. there's no way the conspiracy theories could be true because we didn't put out the plan. how can anybody plan to put oswald in that job, six or eight weeks, whatever to plan this? >> all of the stories have looked into this mp at the end of the day oswald acted alone.

nonetheless, there are nutty conspiracy theorists. >> oswald could have had a crucial witness in determining whether he was part of a larger conspiracy. two days after the assassination of john f. kennedy he was shot and killed by jack ruby. here's how the scene played out on live television on nbc. >> there he is. there is lee harvey oswald. he's been shot. he's been shot. lee oswald has been shot. there's a man with a gun. absolute panic. absolute panic. >> three months before he took the president's life he admitted to being a marxist in a local tv interview. >> are you a marxist? >> i have studied marxist. >> but are you a marxist? i think you did admit on an earlier radio interview that you consider yourself a marxist.

>> i would very definitely say that i am a marxist but that does not mean that i'm a communist. >> well, that distinction is lost to me right now. julia, years ago my wife and i got to see the king tut's tomb. there's nothing left. it's all been taken to the british museum. do you get a feeling we're going to get there to an empty museum? >> i think so. there has been so much conspiracy filter around them that putting out anything could put some of those conspiracy threats to rest. >> part of it is he took this to his grave. in piecing together why some of this information would have been held back, the time, the height of the cold war. people really on edge about what other governments might have been planning.

they ran wild at this time. >> is part of it at the left. they cannot stand it. somehow the right wing did it. somehow they did it. >> people want to believe things. that's how you have conspiracy theori theories. any time something happens there has to be an explanation. even though there's a truth, there has to be a broader plot, a broader conspiracy. >> that's the truth. every time we have a mass shooting, every time we have that it's some zero. you only know about them because there's bad. >> thank you, joanne. good night looking for the christmas stockings. >> it will be a long night. up next, president trump jumps into the virginia governor's race making it a referendum on confederate stat use. how's the culture war going to play with voters? i don't know. i think this is very tricky. this is "hard dls balance" where

the action is. do not go gentle into that good night. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

wnot thinking clearly, so theye called the fire department for us i could hear crackling in the walls. my mind went totally blank. all i remember saying was, "my boyfriend's beating me," and she took it from there. our first truck was on the scene within five minutes. i am grateful we all made it out safely. people you don't know care about you. it's kind of one of those things where you can't even thank somebody. to protect what you love, call 1-800-adt-cares we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me?

they're promoting divisiveness and hatred and bigotry. he's trying to hit his target, mr. trump. >> that was democrat ralph northum responding to negative ads that were put forth by his opponent. with the election 12 days away now, president trump has weighed in himself writing ed gillis pi

will turn the really bad virginia economy numbers around and fast. strong on crime. he might even save our great statues, the rest of it, i don't know what it is anyway. heritage. gillespie has not campaigned with the president. he's often embracing the issue of confederate monuments. let's listen to the latest campaign ad from gillespie. >> ralph nor thumb will take our statues down. >> i'm for keeping them up, he's for taking them down. that's a big difference. >> the virginia democratic party has circulated a mailer. the northam campaign stands by that message. i'm joined by jerry conley. congressman, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> you're a bit of a moderate close to the center.

let me ask you this. a couple of weeks ago ed gill gillesp gillespie, who dpaf a tough race a couple of years ago, mark warner. >> in a republican year. >> he's a serious political leader, figure in the party. he said he wouldn't answer a public question. what do you think of robert e. lee. now he's embracing the stat use. he's saying it is an issue. what has changed in this party, this election dynamic where a guy that was afraid of an issue, so cultural, now sits on the other side. >> i think it's a sign of political weakness. he has recognized he has not succeeded in unifying his base. he had a very contentious party and he almost lost. >> toy a real right winger. >> he has amnesia. >> he won't let him in the state. >> in northern virginia. i don't know who he is and who you're talking about. >> he wants the stat use down. >> here's a kid from southern

new jersey who's chaining himself to stat use of nathan bed dron forest. if you're going to be a phony, at least be sincere on it. >> where are you on robert e. lee? >> well, i think you've got -- >> where are you on robert e. lee? >> i'm going to tell you. you have to separate history during acts of defines. i think those are two different things. if they were put up as a statement about integration, we have to remove them. >> we have jefferson davis in northern virginia, we have the lehigh way. washington university. we have one right on the main street. where do you draw the line? do you take the stat use away from gettysburg, the confederates and keep the northern generals? i wonder this. where do you draw the line? >> you can't whitewash history

and believe that it didn't happen. when names weren't made deliberately -- >> what period is that? in the '50s and the '60s. they were everywhere. >> during the time of massive resistance. >> that's an ugly part of our history. we need to re-examine. >> if it's a statement of history from right after the civil war, yeah, if you want to put up a different statue, you with grant, i'm all for it. >> timely getting a hearing by the way. i like the way the britts do it in westminster abby, they do it all good. they have a bloody mary, henry the eighth. >> thank you. you can see why he's a very popular fellow in his district. the jfk documents have been 30esed now. we're going through them. they can come out any minute tonight. up next the "hardball"

roundtable. bad news for trump. plus, the house narrowly passed a budget today. the states with high taxes, new york, new jersey. don't want to vote for a bill that doesn't give you a tax deduction for your high estate taxes. they're worried and you're watching "hardball." jet engines into turbo powered safety inspectors. dairy cows into living, breathing, data centers. and though it seems like magic, it's not. it's people and technology working together. magic can't make digital transformation happen. but we can.

discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover.

welcome back to "hardball." we're watching three important stories. first up, "the daily beast" is now reporting on how the head of a data analytics company called cambridge analytica which worked with the trump campaign helped to find hillary clinton's missing e-mails. also, republicans got their act together to pass a budget that paves the way for a tax reform. the first step. and finally the president today

declared a health emergency to fight the opioid problem. let's bring in our panel. everybody here, i'm going to try to get to hot stuff for people to think about here. starting with you. tell me about this thing that you're working on. >> what i reported yesterday is the closest known connection between people on the inside of the trump campaign and julian assange. trump's own cia director has characterized wikileaks as a hostile foreign intelligence service and this is something that julian assange confirmed to me. trump paid $6 million to and julian assange. this is a great interest to investigators, both on capitol hill -- >> you're trying to gather trump with getting the e-mails out of the public light. they did it. trump did it? >> we don't know. people at the very top, on the inside of trump's inner circle

wanted to help julian assange potentially distribute material that he could have obtained illegally. >> in response to betsy's reporting for the daily beast the trump campaign issued the following statement. we as a campaign made the choice to rely on the voter data of the republican national committee to help elect donald j. trump. that's not true. i found sec filings that they paid cambridge $6 million in 2016 for their companies. it's owned by robert and rebecca mercer. another sign, sabrina. >> yes. it's important to know that cambridge analytica was involved with the brexit campaign. the trump campaign initially after the election bragged about its data apparatus, not just speaking about the rnc but talking about some of the ways

in which they micro targeted voters, including ways in which they tried to engage in voter suppression tactics. >> as we say in journalism, this has got legs. you keep working on it. >> there's a lot -- >> let me ask you this. >> yeah. >> what have you got? >> there's a lot -- >> about the budget. >> so the house republicans passed the budget with one vote to spare in the house. there's a lot in there but the only thing that matters is the tax aspect of this. they want to pass the tax bill through that drastically reshapes -- >> how does a republican member of congress from new york, new jersey high tax state go back and say, yeah, i took away your deductions. >> those are the ones that voted no. there are a handful of purists who voted no because it doesn't go far enough but most of them were new york and new jersey republicans who cannot go home and defend that the state and local deductibility will be gone. >> kill them. if you're paying -- if you're paying 10% the marginal rate or

11% state taxes, you lose that, you're paying another 5% of your income in taxes. >> if you're a large family in the middle class in, say, staten island making between 150, 300,000, your property taxes are high, you can no longer deduct them, this is 1/3. >> good-bye, mr. donovan? >> well, he's one of the no votes for that reason. peter king, another no vote. this is a huge issue. >> i like those stories. that will not go away. sabrina, your story? >> today the president declared a state of emergency over the opioid crisis. this is one of the greatest health crises. 175 deaths per day. more people are being killed by opioid related illnesses than traffic accidents, gun violence. >> how does this happen? >> addiction to painkillers. >> does it take time? >> over doses is the leading cause certainly, and then, look, the point here is that this

touches every socioeconomic level and it has ravaged working class white voters who supported trump. he did not announce anything substantive. he's not allocating new funding towards them. that's what they needed. >> she said before signing the order declaring this a public health emergency president trump opened up about his older brother who had his own addiction problems. let's watch the president. >> i learned myself, i had a brother, fred, great guy. best looking guy. best personality. much better than mine. but he had a problem. he had a problem with alcohol and he would tell me, don't drink, but he really helped me. i had somebody that guided me, and he had a very, very, very tough life because of alcohol, believe me, very, very tough, tough life. he was a strong guy, but it was a tough, tough thing that he was going through. but i learned because of fred.

>> sabrina, who are the bad guys in this opioid problem. >> pharmaceutical companies. >> are doctors giving prescriptions too freely? are the drug companies pushing this stuff? >> the drug companies who certainly have tried to make opioids more available on the market as opposed to the other way around. there's also high priced prescription naloxone which reverses an overdose. thieves can't afford that medication. really the point here is that trump, he needs to deliver more resources and instead he has backed many proposals that would slash funding. >> roundtable, stick with us. up next, these three all will give me scoops. more scoops. they already gave me more for tomorrow. this is "hardball" where the action is. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. it can help relieve your belly pain

and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are easier to pass. do not give linzess to children less than six, and it should not be given to children six to less than eighteen. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach-area pain, and swelling. ask your doctor if 90 days of linzess may be right for you.

this week that the clinton campaign and the dnc helped fund that research that ultimately produced the now infamous dossier on donald trump. it's still unclear, however, which republican campaign or group initially funded the opposition research project on trump. back during the republican primary. today senator marco rubio denied he was the one. let's listen. >> as far as it being my campaign, it wasn't. i was running for president. i was trying to win. if i had anything against donald trump that was relevant and credible and politically damaging, i would have used it. i didn't have it. >> your campaign never funded any of the initial research and you're right, that initial research was done before christopher steel, the former british spy, got involved. i want to be precise, your

campaign had nothing to do with it, right? >> with gps, that group, absolutely not. >> we'll be right back. ♪ everyone deserves attention, whether you've saved a lot or just a little. at pnc investments, we believe you're more than just a number. so we provide personal financial advice for every retirement investor. if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective.

if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both symptom relief as well as remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. while not reported with entyvio, pml, a rare, serious brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. if your uc or crohn's medication isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach. i had purpose and i loved it. you are my hammer out there. ♪ i'm only human... don't let these young guys see you fold. thank you for looking after my son.

we're brothers, we look after each other. thank you for your service. rated r. we're back with the hard ball roundtable. betsy, tell me something, give me a scoop. >> david cotter has been named as the new irs commissioner. he'll take over when ron kosman's term is up. he does not have experience in the irs. however he has worked against it at his law firm, ernst and young. that firm settled for upwards of $100 million with the irs and the justice department because it marketed tax shelters. >> maybe he can close some of them. >> it's kind of interesting. >> congress has let children's health insurance program expire on the 1st of this month. 9 million kids depend on this. it's been around for two decades. it always gets extended as a matter of course. there's no end in sight. it's gotten caught up in the politics of obamacare and various other things that people

want to do. >> scott brown, ambassador of new zealand, counselled after complaints of inappropriate behavior and harassment. >> what did he do? >> made lewd comments to women. some said he was staring at them while representing the u.s. in a party at samoa this summer. when we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. you're watching "hard ball." excuse me, are you aware of what's happening right now? we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks...

actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that. i love you, droolius caesar, but sometimes you stink. febreze car vent clip cleans away odors for up to 30 days. because the things you love can stink.

...you might be missing to stasomething... ♪ ...your eyes. that's why there's ocuvite. it helps replenish nutrients your eyes can lose as you age. nourish your eyes to help keep them healthy. ocuvite. be good to your eyes.

trump watch thursday october 26, 2017. the republican party of autumn 2017 resembles the 1956 movie, invasion of the body snatchers. a leadership that weeks ago kept its distance from donald trump has become a party of trump items. it's much like in the movie, one day the person is a real life human being and the next moment they have all the advisable aexperiences of that previous human being but are speaking rep cats marching to the call of donald trump. invasion of the body snatchers. it's a frightening yet true description of a party where those who remain human and individual and distinct pull out of the way rather than be replaced by represenatatives of their former self. u.s. senators who feel the transformation coming over them decide to bolt rather than have their reputations destroyed by the zombie substitutes in the white house. here's a preview of what's

happening courtesy of that 1956 classic. >> everyone, they're here already! you're next! >> who's next? who's the next republican senator to race for the doors rather than be replaced by the body snatcher. that's "hardball" for now. it's all true. aisle wi "all in" starts now. >> the uranium sale to russia and the way it was done so underhanded. >> the plot to stop robert mueller. >> there's no way the american people can trust robert mueller. >> tonight as the mueller investigation closes in, new signs that trump is getting desperate. then -- >> they are trying to take away our history and our heritage. >> shades of charlottesville as the virginia governor's race becomes a referendum on coed