"deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts now. it's 4:00 in new york. in 365 seemingly endless days, donald trump went from surprise victor to the skunk at the garden party. the stench of his divisive politics burying virginia gop candidate for governor ed gillespie and delivering democrats their most sweeping and deep victories in several election cycles. many republicans marvelled at the spectacle of gillespie, a one-time senior adviser to george w. bush who helped deliver a message of inclusion as gop chairman in 2004, a year in which bush won 44% of the latino vote in this country morphing into a trumpist republican. gillespie who ran for the senate in 2014 and lost that year by just 1% to democrat mark warner, he lost last night by ten points. some of the headlines virginians woke up to, quote, democrats win big statewide.

northam cruises to win as dems sweep top spots. blue surge and northam has surprisingly easy win. here's how tom perez celebrated. >> you have sent a message across the globe to south korea. donald trump, you don't stand for our values. >> i think he's happy. >> here's how donald trump responded to the thumping on twitter. ed gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what i stand for. don't forget, republicans won four out of four house seats and with the economy doing better. eli stokels and robert costa. all three of msnbc analysts. and with me at the table, msnbc contributor charlie, i told you so, sykes, author of "how the right lost its mind." republican strategist and i also

told you so, steve schmidt, former senior adviser to the dnc and bloomberg business week editor megan murphy. let me start with you, peter baker. lots s and lots of stuff about gillespie and virginia state politics. and lots and lots about how seismic this sort of turn of not just sentiment but of an electoral reality is. now there is a proof point, a score on the board other than donald trump's surprise victory a year ago about the flip side, the dangers of embracing trumpism if your name isn't donald trump. >> this is the first statewide big election, contested kind of state we've had. up until now, the president referred in his twitter posting you mentioned, he referred to four house special elections held but they were all republican seats held by republicans. this is a state that's been

contested by both parties for years. trending more and more blue. with a democrat replacing a democrat but seen as a tightening race with gillespie heading into the final days. those polls didn't capture what was really going on. didn't capture the turnout. turned out high in democratic parts of the state. and it's a reflection of, you know, an electorate that is tired of president trump's presidency. at least in the northern part of the state. closest to the washington, d.c., area. that doesn't necessarily mean anything for next year. we have to be careful about overinterpreting. off-year elections are what they are. lower turnout in a single state but having said that for the democrats who have had nothing but bad news in the last year, this was obviously a shot in the arm and president trump, it was a pretty big blow. >> eli, let's leave the interpreting for another day as peter baker suggests and just live in the size and the scope of the swing of circumstances

last night. as i see it, northam's win against the republican is significantly higher than hillary clinton's win was against donald trump. so they had the ability to turn out new voters. if we look at this -- if national democrats want to turn this into a model, there is, indeed, a way to defeat republicans who attach themselves to donald trump which should terrify every member of congress who so far has been reluctant to criticize the aspects of trumpism. >> and they are terrified from what i'm hearing. a lot of house republicans who have seen so many retirements and i anticipate there will be a lot more now after this. republicans look at this and they really don't know what the play is for them right now. as a party, it's hard to see what unites republicans.

they don't have any legislative wins to show for the first ten months of the trump administration, and you can understand why some of them made this decision to embrace trumpism because it seemed to be one thing that, you know, had a constituency that would hold. but the repellent effect on voters in the suburbs, a constituency that's been there for republican elected officials in most places for years and years, to see them just scatter and embrace democratic candidates, even though they don't identify as democrats to send a message to donald trump and to be so put off by the culture wars of trumpism. that is the stunning takeaway here. and the white house is today spinning very hard talking about, look, new jersey, virginia. these aren't part of our map. not part of our path for 2020. it doesn't really matter. we weren't expecting to win. those two states are going to have something to say about which party controls the house next year n that, obviously,

should be of high concern for this white house. >> robert costa, there is -- i don't know if cold war is the right term. it's a hot car going on between steve bannon and the bush presidencies. the twin legacies of president bush. bannon sliming the bushes and their attempts at comprehensive immigration reform. ed gillespie once says this about immigration. in 2006 in an op ed, quote, anti-immigration rhetoric is a political siren song. and republicans must resist its lure by lashing ourselves to a party's twin masts of freedom and growth. or our majority will crash on its shoals. freedom and growth were not the maemgs conveyed by the gillespie for governor campaign in virginia, were they? >> when you saw what gillespie campaigned on, what he talked about was usually the economy, yet he had advertising and he had these nods to kind of a grievance politics of the

republican party. breitbart headline, type political slogans on gangs full of illegal undocumented immigrants. this was the kind of thing gillespie got tangled up with this time because he thought he needed to bring out those trump voters. but his race proved, at least in virginia, those trump voters aren't enough of a coalition to get you over the finish line in a swing state general. >> steve schmidt, ed gillespie is a good person and elise jordan put this nicely yesterday. his campaign didn't reflect the decency of the person that was our former colleague in the bush white house. ed gillespie's story seems like the perfect story. he came from working class family. worked his way up to the highest levels of power in washington and he didn't lose because of the reasons that steve bannon is smearing him with today saying he was part of the swamp. he didn't lose because of the reasons donald trump suggested on twitter. he lost because he sold his soul to the ugliest and darkest parts

of trumpism. >> he got wrapped up in the republican politics and the donald trump era. he lost because of donald trump and when they are citing these four house races, tom price, his last three elections, he had about a 66% average. the republican wins with about 49.5% of the vote. not for nothing because of tom price's corruption. he had to resign, of course. but not before the republicans invested $50 million into a republican seat. if you look at just the congressional races and understand in the last 118 years there's only been three times about the incumbent president's party hasn't lost seats in the first midterm. this should be a moment where republicans are terrified in the house of representatives over losing their majority. instead what the speaker says is, we're with trump, clarifying it completely. we now look at the american electorate and see clearly out of virginia. you have all the democrats are

against him. the majority of the independents are against him. and about 25% of the republicans are against him. so the democrats if they win in november, aren't going to be able to enact a progressive agenda. not while he's in the white house. there's one question on the ballot which is, do you want to have a check on donald trump because the republicans in the congress are completely incapable of exercising any oversight authority on any of the excesses in this administration from its malfeasance to its inkocompeten to its corruption. when we look ahead to november, nancy pelosi might be well served to start measuring the new drapes for her office. >> charlie sikes, why isn't paul ryan, while he's flexing and whatever he does in his px 90 thing this morning go, you know, on second thought, i've sold my soul but maybe i can get back some of my other organs by

standing up to this president when he does things that repel -- i mean there was a headline today about how trumpism and the manners in which ed gillespie phrased it, repel people in the suburbs. >> here's the message to paul ryan and the gop. the faustian bargain always ends with betrayal. the story never inds well when you sell your soul. this is what is so sad and ought to be so frightening to republicans because this morphing of ed gillespie, a decent mainstream guy into this bannon/trumpist troll, it mirrors what the republican party has been doing. a lot of story lines over the last year but one that is the most appalling is watching how the republican party has rolled over. first capitulated. now is enabling. now is modeling the behavior of donald trump. and what last night signaled was, if you keep going on this path, you will be annihilated.

and not just at the top of the picket but all the way down and that's got to give pause. paul rye san not going to push back as long as tax reform is on the table. they've talked themselves into thinking that the thing that's going to get them well now is a massive corporate tax cut that that somehow is going to solve the problem being created by embracing trump. >> let me ask you if the democrats have in the lieutenant governor of virginia a model or he just did everything right in a state that was very tired of donald trump, a state with very informed elect rat, especially around the d.c. suburbs or if there are some lessons and some ways to project onto other battleground states what happened in virginia last night. >> well, you are talking about -- not just in fairfax. >> right. >> he ran a safe campaign. people were criticizing his campaign that he wasn't showy enough, wasn't going to motivate

folks. that was wrong. you saw significant african-american turnout. 20% of the electorate. he did better with women than hillary clinton did. he did, you know, ed gillespie won loudoun county when he ran for the senate and northam won it by 20 points. a good message in the ex-urbs and suburbs. he wasn't scarey to independents. he ran a very, very good campaign. and i think what was also good about what happened in virginia is that the virginia democratic party was ready with a lot of candidates in the house delegate races. >> talk about the other sort of -- obviously winning the state house is a big deal but there's already a democrat there. but there were some historic interims made -- >> let's start with the fact that republicans had a 66-34 majority in the house of delegates before election day.

that right now is looking at 50/50, which is unbelievable. i get a lot of credit to tom periello who lost in northam who after that campaign decided to focus all his energy on winning the house of delegates. and an historic candidate, the first transgender candidate to win in danica rome. you know what she ran on? a transportation issue. that her -- traffic. and -- >> everybody hates traffic. >> everyone does. she ran against the guy who says he was the virginia king homophobe or something like that. and so what was really smart about what democrats did there and what hopefully the dccc is doing now is you can't win house seats without good candidates. and so you need to expand the field and play everywhere. and stretch your opponent to the point they have to spend resources they don't have. that's what happened in virginia and what they're trying to do in the house battle. >> danica rope me is historic.

everyone who feels left out, marmgin marginalized, everyone who feels this administration doesn't stand for what you believe in. it's really the what to watch and what the takeaway from last night. you look down ballot and what happened. when you look at the turnout, particularly among white college educated women. and one thing we haven't said, the youth vote that turned out so absent in 2016. republicans should be terrified. they're running against two important, important changes which is just demographic changes more broadly and also the trend toward urban and suburban areas. those areas are getting larger, not smaller. i see it difficult to find any route forward if you run on rural outside urban areas, largely in the south and middle of the country. that glath way is narrower and

narrower. >> the other thing this is going to do is it's going to lead to great recruiting classes for democrats. it's going to inspire them. no republican is thinking of running trying to navigate the bannon wing of the party. >> why do you have to? hasn't bannon now been proven not just cynical and sinister but stupid? >> absolutely. and then in the house, when you are looking at members, john boehner looks really happy to me. i don't have to deal with crazy people all day. i need this like i need a hole in the head. i'm out of here. >> the trump base didn't really erode here. >> i was in their kitchens on sunday. now they feel like it. >> noncollege educated white voters still turned out but the tsunami of the democratic voters that overwhelmed them. we have to hit pause. we'll stillon this topic and when we come back, trumpism roundly rebuked last night. the question, will republicans

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i think this was a referendum. a referendum in the division and divisive rhetoric in the country right now.

i think it's important for republicans to self-reflect all the way -- start from the top all the way down. i do think it was a referendum on the national politics. >> was it a referendum on donald trump? >> i do believe so. i believe it was a -- i support the president. if i agree with him, i'll say so. if i disagree with him, i'll say it. i profoundly disagree with him on his view of what happened in virginia last night. i think that it was a referendum on the president. >> that was republican congressman scott taylor of virginia breaking with many colleagues today by admitting that last night's election was a big loss for the republican party and that donald trump had everything to do with it. as michael tackett writes in "the new york times," during the campaign, mr. gillespie draped himself in mr. trump's clothes. it shows the limits of trumpism and republicans will have a choice about how clearly to embrace it. our panel of reporters and guests are back. let me start with "the new york times" piece which goes on to say, mr. trump posted messages

promoetsing mr. gillespie including on election day but didn't campaign with him. an extraordinary recklition that appearing with the president of his own party would hurt more than help. something that's rarely happened since richard nixon was engulfed by watergate. peter baker, to be fair, i worked for and you covered a president who after 9/11, didn't campaign a lot for republicans because of what had just happened. but what does it say about this white house moving forward that they now have a proof point that the president is toxic in battleground states? >> yeah, that's right. and this is proof positive that any future republican candidate in a competative state, particularly that's trending blue the way virginia is, is going to think twice about wanting trump -- president trump to be part of his campaign or her campaign. now what was interesting as mike wrote in that piece, ed gillespie tried to have it both

ways. tried to keep trump out. didn't use the president's name and his ad. certainly didn't use it on the stump and he tried to adopt some of the tactics and messages and ideology that president trump has stood for. it didn't fit or suit him. as you point out, that's not the ed gillespie we knew in the past. and one thing voters sense is when someone is not being true to who they purpose they may agree with trump's point of view. if it's carried by a candidate who doesn't seem to believe it, it doesn't sell very well. >> i pulled together a list of what you were referencing. all those leaving office. sam johnson, lynn jenkins, ileana ross-lehtinen, john duncan. we've got them all on the screen. what comes of the ones who have announced their resignations but still have time to serve left in washington. do you think you see more bob corkers? do you think you see more jeff flake or do you think they try to pay it forward to paul ryan

and get him his little tax bill? >> i think you'll see a bit of both. there is sort of broad consensus among republicans on the hill that it will be good to get some sort of tax package passed, although there are also a lot of worries about whether the president can play a productive role in that given his tendency to throw things off the rails, to say that he likes a proposal from the house and then say, well, we don't like that as much as he did with health care. they are walking on egg shells over there on capitol hill about what the president is going to do and perhaps they'll be a little more strident when it comes to letting him know he's not being helpful. at the end of the day, the president has a constituency and it's a matter of what is left of what used to be the old republicans constituency. if it's not there for these lawmakers and that's what's driving a lot of these retirements, it's hard to see what leverage they have in their remaining months on the hill. >> robert costa, i want to ask

you how you think steve bannon and donald trump will seek to cauterize the effects of last night. what will they do? when they are in a corner and they are mad, they are sometimes their wildest and most fascinating to cover? >> bannon and the president are similar but they're different in their reactions to this. we've seen the president with senator strange and to an extent with gillespie try to work with the republican establishment because he knows he needs more republican lawmakers to feel comfortable and to be in office if he wants to get anything done in congress. still struggling to pass that tax bill. failed on health care earlier this year. bannon is building his own political kingdom on the right trying to reshape the republican party. in a sense destroy the republican party as we know it. and so while president trump needs the republican party as a vessel, bannon does not. and so if it continues to fall apart, that only fuels in a way his own populist, nationalist dreams. >> you were shaking your head,

charlie sikes. >> yeah, you think about it, you now have a situation where the most important piece of legislation in congress will pass in spite of the president of the united states. >> tax reform. >> the tax reform he's not leading. we haven't seen his tax returns at all. he's saying that he's going to be hurt but how would we know? >> he's putting his accountant on the phone to talk about -- >> exactly. so it is -- and this whole question of we have to pass something. it doesn't matter what in order to have a win. but the net effect of the president in contrast to say ronald reagan or george w. bush, when they push through will be negative at best. >> steve, do you think -- i instantly thought last night, one of the people who might be a little safer tonight is bob mueller and his team. that if the president had looked politically powerful, if it had appeared that more than 33% of

the country thinks he's groovy that maybe there would be more political pressure on members of congress to mess with mueller. it seemed to me last night that we now have a very stark image of the limits of what governing with 33% of the country behind you looks like. >> look. he has the lowest approval levels of any president in the history of polling this soon into his term. and the third lowest of all time. his weakness is his defining characteristic. every world leader that he's dealing with in asia understands how weak he is. everybody understands how weak he is with the possible exception of the leadership of the republican party in the congress. >> you think they don't know or do you think they just don't have the fortitude to take it on? you really think they don't know? >> part of the problem we have in this country through a totally broken redistricting where the politicians pick the voters is this. steve bannon is correct.

his ability to project power into republican primaries, right, low turnout primaries, he can end any what's called a normal person's career. that being said, the bannon wing can never win a competitive general election. and so if you're going to lose your seat, probably better to do it in the primary. it's a lot less work, right? you have to play golf between the primary and general election and not sweat it. but, look. when you get into a competitive general election, when you look at the fall-off of percentage vote in the four special elections we've had, these elections last night remind me of the special elections in 1993, in the kentucky first and second districts where these two districts had never in their history elected a republican and they drop into the republican columns, the kentucky one, the kentucky two, and it signaled the earthquake of 1994.

>> reminded me of the campaign we did together in california. was it '98? the whole ticket two years after pete wilson's prop 186, the immigration stance. >> and today the republican party is smaller than decline to state registrations. the big question, is this the beginning of the end of the republican party? and i think that's the proposition that's on the table. >> i want to ask you really quickly. there's been a lot of national attention to the disarray in the democratic party but that's really distant and almost unrecognizable with the picture of virginia last night. >> after you lose an election like we did in 2016, you'll have people at each other's throats. it's not the same sort of division that you're seeing in the republican party. we have some issues that we have to deal with in terms of our messaging and how we appeal to white working class voters. how we can turn out at better numbers, african-americans,

latinos. we need to have a persuasion campaign for those voters. but there's a fundamental fight for the soul of the republican party going on that i hear steve talk about and charlie all the time. and you, too. people -- >> we lost. >> no, i think what's going to happen is -- >> i wish there was a fight. >> in the next month and a half, folks are going to go home for thanksgiving and see what's happening and they'll say i've had enough. >> so interesting. we thank peter baker, eli stokel and peter costa. the night that the women grabbed back. your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish.

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the day after president trump took office, billions of people frustrated by the results of the election turned anger into action. cities around the country filled with protesters. it was called the women's march.

one chant we heard over and over that day, we're not going away. at the time, many on the far right saw it as a punch line. march around all you want but it doesn't change the fact that trump won. so the question we all ask, would it make a difference? last night we got our answer. among female voters, democrat ralph northam beat republican ed gillespie by 22 points. hillary clinton beat president trump by only 17 points among virginia women. our panel is still back. megan, is just strikes me that even people who try to get this right get this wrong. i was surprised that northam did five points better than hillary clinton did among women in virginia. >> yeah, that number last night was a stunner. it's exactly right to frame it. and that there were many of us, myself include, who saw the wave of women mobilizing in the immediate aftermath of the election. and have this, what felt like a real moment at the time and that they were going to take a place to play and drive the agenda.

they were not going to let it drop. it seemed to dissipate. what's been so interesting in speaking to people and looking at the results last night it also is city councils, school boards, races down ballot, places we aren't really looking where women have gotten together. they've expanded the field. the democratic party did a really good job identifying candidates of trying to take more women up and also women last night put their money where their mouth is. those numbers are stunning. particularly college educated women in the suburbs of northern virginia. if we map this trend nationwide and look at places around st. louis, around chicago, around denver if we go through and look at how much of an impact they're going to have going forward, this is truly the end of a republican party that can get by through race, through fear, through anti-immigration to what women were really voting on last night was, forget about economic populism and all that we heard. i'm voting on that this administration, this government, this does not stand for what i

stand for, what i want my children to believe and what i want my sons to believe in and my daughters to believe in is not represented in the white house right now. i'm going to come out and make my voices heard. >> it was an erroneous assumption to think that a woman at the top of the ticket was going to do better than a male lieutenant governor of virginia. >> it is interesting when you think about it because all of those themes you just touched on were there one year ago today. and so the question is, where were those votes one year ago today? why did you not get that kind of a margin? io would they come out and vote for a middlea aged white guy in virginia when they didn't vote for the first female nominee for president. how weak a candidate hillary clinton was. how badly suited she was to be the candidate to be the foil against donald trump. here's a man who a month before the election is basically exposed bragging about sexually assaulting women, whose attitude towards women was so clear and yet there was something uniquely

toxic about hillary clinton that made it impossible for her to fully capitalize on that. >> i think it's something different. i finishing you athink if you a child you've spent the last 12 months mooting the television. you've muted your conversations with your friends. hi, honey. how was your day at work. i can't even tell my husband about my day at work with the children around. when he trolls female anchors about their plastic surgery, someone who grabbed them in the -- mothers have by and large said i don't want someone like that as the figure head of our country. >> and they've seen -- it's one thing when you are in a campaign. now he has governed and led the nation -- >> he's governed just like that. you still have to mute the tv. >> the idea he was going to change and become more presidential hasn't happened. we've seen how he's attacked and denigrated women.

and one of the key voting blocks will be suburban women and women in ex-urbs and also african-american women who turned out in heavy numbers in virginia. but the other really important thing that happened yesterday is that not only did women turn out but they also elected women leaders. you had a manchester new hampshire mayor, woman, elected first mayor there. the first african-american woman of charlotte, north carolina, elected. two women in a run-off in atlanta. so that's really important. and i think we're seeing groups pop up. a march on that is now focusing -- >> that was the women's march? >> yes. they're organizers and organizations that were affiliated with that around the country launched and they're now focussing on electoral politics. >> what percentage of the people who marched a year ago, how many of them had voted back in november? >> but why -- people bring that up all the time. why is that relevant?

doug is right. >> that's how you decide who wins elections. >> we can spend a lot of time talking about the toxicity of hillary clinton's campaign and nontoxicity. this was a referendum on the president. they've seen him govern and seen him lack leadership and continue to strip away what is most important to them. they've seen him fail to set an example for their children. they see a future that looks scary and looks more like the bannon wing. and they've said -- >> we saw that before the election. >> we saw all of that. >> he won across three states by 78,000 votes. a very narrow victory. pulled it inside straight. so when you think about the dallas shooting, one of the stories of it, one of the heroes of it, johnny smith. the young african-american who runs into the bullets, saves 33 people. he is shot twice when he's trying to get to a group of kids. and it's a white cop who runs into the gunfire and saves his life. that's also america. so when the country is seeing

this indecency play out every day. his attacks on a 26, 27-year-old pregnant woman with a 6-year-old whose husband has just fallen in action as a green beret. fight with her attacker and last night we saw was enough. enough. and decent people, this was a mix of democrats and independents and republicans. it was a coalition of the decent in this country that rose up yesterday. >> i like that. >> as goofed a last word as we'll get. when we come back, in his sights, donald trump's justice department squares off against cnn this afternoon by throwing a wrench in a proposed megamerger between its parent company and at&t. questions about whether the concerns are legal or political retribution. when you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, the unpredictability of a flare may weigh on your mind.

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at&t is buying time warner and thus cnn. a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. >> threat? meet reality. that was donald trump calling out the proposed at&t purchase of time warner after it was announced last near. while he was a candidate and now his justice department has taken a step to challenge the merger. news out this afternoon details how the department of justice has called on time warner to sell turner broadcasting. the group of channels that includes cnn before the merger can be approved. "the new york times" reporting, quote, as originally envisioned, combining aee ining at&t and ti would yield a giant company. if the justice department

formally makes either request for approval, at&t and time warner would take it to court to challenge's government's legal basis for blocking the transaction. the times also writes this. president trump has long accused cnn of harboring a bias against him. separately, mr. trump has criticized the proposed merger from a populist perspective. analysts have said there were few legal grounds on which to block the transition. the ceo of at&t saying he has no intention of selling cnn should the merger go through. joining us is media columnist jim routenberg. donald trump has also threatened to twitter to look at the licenses of our company, nbc. so how do you decipher that which is policy and that which is political retribution from this administration? >> well, neither one is policy. first of all, he threatened nbc's license. nbc doesn't have a license.

its station has licenses. and those -- >> facts never got in his way, jim. >> and that's why until now, people would write some of this off as bluster. incredible anti-press rhetoric which i've never seen is always troubling. i'm a media columnist but now we have potential government action and this would be the rubber meeting the road because we're not hearing about legal justifications but we do -- the thing we know is that he hates cnn. he literally had an image of him beating up a cnn anchor. a funny doctored footage but not really funny because it was a physical threat of violence. >> let me play some of what you are speaking to and let's you and i talk about it on the other side. >> i'm not going to give you a question. you are fake news. >> what we've learned about fake over the last little while. fake news, cnn. fake. >> i like real news. not fake news. you're fake news. >> so, jim, if you take this

body of attempts to smear cnn at every turn, does that complicate his legal position? >> well, i've talked to a legal expert just before i came on your show here who said not necessarily. there's probably a stronger legal case to be made. this isn't like the immigration travel ban where you can point to statements on the campaign trail and bring them into court. not necessarily the way that you'd want to go legally. however, it still shows this is the president may finally be willing to use the levers of executive power. the levers of executive power to go after the press. that's a very big, horrible deal. hasn't happened since nixon. >> and, jim, are any of your sources talking about the climate that he's created at doj where we know he's made it public through his twitter feed and his public statements that he's personally enraged with his attorney general for not staying on board and overseeing the russia investigation to protect him from it. that he has absolutely no qualms

viewing the justice department and the fbi as political tools to be used as he sees fit? >> as we say, reporting is ongoing. some of it is right there in front of us. >> come on. give us a little something. >> what we do know is the timing here happens to come after president trump was in a rage that cnn had broken the news there might be pending indictments related to the russia investigation. just another time when he was in a rage about cnn. suddenly, you know, around the same time, we have questions about this deal. questions that trump has made it clear, trump has made it clear he may want to disrupt this emergencier as a way to pressure cnn and more importantly its parent company. >> i don't know as much about authoritarian regimes but i have been told you don't lurch toward is you slide there one freedom at a time. this seems like a pretty bold move. >> let's unpack this and look at

the legal versus political. on the legal side, this deal is what we would call a vertical integration. these two companies aren't competitive. it's seen as a combination of content and distribution. there's been many people who have looked at this and said the ain't trust risk is low. the people who have sid that include the now head of antitrust at the doj. but what's happened is he has said that since he's come on board and looked at this deal, there's a lot of talk that he is scrutinizing it from a different way which is a consumer harm angle. and one thing that's very interesting about this is this is the kind of populist deal, this sort of -- this is going to hurt you, limit choice, drive a price that is something that donald trump loves to talk about. excluding even the cnn aspect on the political thing. what's interesting is you have a new head of antitrust at the doj that wants to come in and make his mark. this huge deal. but it's wrapped in the cloak of everything jim was just talking about. a president who has openly

criticized this deal. a president who has shown no qualms about politicizing the doj, fbi and any other state entity and an entity at cnn that he has specifically criticized. we should also mention that some of the reporting on this is conflicted. there's sources from the doj saying it was at&t that had offered to sell cnn. i find that very hard to believe knowing that randall stevenson would be able to use it as a crown jewel. very murky situation and politically dangerous situation. we have to sneak in one break, but we'll be right back. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls... and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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so steve schmidt, a cynical observer of our politics might think this is donald trump seeking political retribution in a very personal manner. not just against a network but a man who enraged him as head of cnn. >> we should take him seriously. he's delivering on a threat. he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt here. this administration has been one of its hallmarks, its ill liberalism. attacks on constitutional freedom, basic rights, and later on this trip he'll stand with the philippine strongm duerte. never would any president of the

united states stand next to him and trump loves it. this has to be viewed in that context. >> there are legitimate questions about the merger of companies this size, but i think this is the kind of thing that the republican in the u.s. senate need to investigate, look into it, because of this back story. it's not just his attacks on cnn or his attacks on, suggesting he'll take away nbc's license. remember the threats aimed at jeff bezos in the "washington post" suggesting maybe we'll change the way we attack amazon. somebody whose instincts are, if there is a media outlet i don't like what can i weaponize from the government, retaliate? the comparisons to nixon are not strained. you know? here is somebody who does appear on a regular basis, looks around. says what can we do to inflict pain on my critics? what government power can we do to make this uncomfortable for people in the news media. that ought to be deeply, deeply

troubling. >> and did it at charlottesville, ceo of merck standing up saying we can't tolerate this. african-american of merck. >> he quit his advisory -- >> exactly. and you know, also another merger going on, big merger, between sinclair broadcasting and -- >> let me guess. there are -- >> there are community groups mobilizing. not exactly this. that sinclair will have a disproportionate share and disproportional say on what is put on the air. >> sinclair happens to be pretty friendly with the trump world. >> pretty friendly with the trump world. >> i predict you'll have a story online in the next, i don't know pshgs , 60 minutes. new developments's can you tell us where this is heading? heading for a courtroom showdown? >> heading for a courtroom showdown unless cooler heads

prevail and the justice department doesn't kind of press forward with this threat. but the companies are fully telling us they are ready to go to court. they believe they will win. they have the legal arguments on their side. again, because this is a vertical merger. you know, does the administration or does trump himself win either way? because the stock prices were affected today. you know, this is a chilling signal, no matter what. any news company that may cross him know there's could be executive branch interference. whatever happen, the damage may be done. >> quickly, steve, is this just a fight? he loves being in a fight. >> he clearly loves being in fights, big, small and stupid, all the time. >> all the time. sneak in one more break. thank you for making us smarter with your camera. we will be right back. 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave

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i love this panel. my thanks to you all. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> how are you, nicolle? supersizing our panel. you'll love t.it. >> i watched you last night. thanks for bringing the news. >> fascinating stuff. we'll keep it going. thank you. if it's wednesday, trumpism got trumped. the democratic off-off year wave. >> it's smell awave coming. >> will the blue crush on election day 2017 become the new rule? or simply the off year exception. plus, more republicans call it quits. how is the president's party working to regroup for 2018? finally, 70