nothing will dissuade him. he has r next to his name and that's all that matters. >> thank you very much. >> good to be with you. >> thanks. that's all. rachel maddow show starts now. >> thank you. it has been an unexpectedly difficult year for the republican party since they won complete control of congress and the white house one year ago today on election day last year. we're a year on from that triumph from the republican party, one year on from election day republicans in washington have passed zero major legislation, nothing, despite controlling both houses of congress and the white house. one year on, president's campaign chairman is out on $10 million bond and wearing an ankle bracelet and another trump campaign official out on $5 million bond wearing ankle bracelet, not counting the skpan

adviser who has pled guilty and cooperating with the ongoing investigation of this president and his campaign and potentially his administration. one year on, republican party is on the hook for at least hundreds of thousands and many millions of dollars in legal fees for the president and his family. but it's not just them. criminal defense lawyers have been hired by everybody from the vice president to the white house communications director to even the white house counsel. even their lawyers have had to get lawyers this past year. but unlike the president and the president's son, everybody else in the trump administration is having to pay for their lawyers themselves. just one year on from that big victory, white house has already lost two communications directors, chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, national security adviser, deputy national security adviser. press secretary, deputy press

secretary. chief white house strategist, confirmed -- and also fbi director which may be most consequenci consequencial loss of them all. but while the administration is flinging off people like hairy dog after a swim, phenomenon not limited to republicans in the white house. on capitol hill at least 20 serving republican members of congress are resigned or declared they will leave office, including a number of committee chairs in congress. one year on from the big republican victory, this president is viewed more unfavorably by the american public than any president in the last 70 years. and the one great hope for republican accomplishment in this first year of theirs, one great hope, tax reform, it is already hemorrhaging even republican support amid the reports that the bill they're advertising as tax cut bill will actually raise taxes on nearly

half of america's middle-class families. latest reports are republicans in the senate may not even want to try on this taxes anything anymore, at least not anytime soon. so that's been the year they've had in power. 365 days, one year since they won. that's what happened since they won. the biggest parliamentary wonder in washington is who else is going to get arrested. they've accomplished nothing in terms of holding the reins of power in government. given those prevailing winds, you can understand why republicans generally might have felt disconcerted about the fact that yesterday in states all over the country it was time for americans to go to the polls again. you can understand why republicans might have been a little apprehensive about yesterday being election day. but their worst fears really did come true last night.

they lost the republican supermajority in georgia, legislative seats they gerrymandered to be so republican democrats hadn't tried to contest them as recently as last year. heck, why not, let's contest them anyway, and democrats won the seats. republicans lost control of the last legislative toehold they had over in new york state, lost his seat in westchester county to a democrat.

but he is going to lose that fight and 70 to 80,000 people in maine who currently do not have health insurance are going to get it despite the best efforts of maine republicans. democrats unseated republican mayors in hfz and north carolina. in brook park, ohio, endorsed trump and lost his seat to union auto worker in uaw. also lost governorship in new jersey. chris yichristie will leave offe as least popular governor not just in new jersey but in history of polling approval ratings of governors in any

state. christie's lieutenant governor was trounced last night, democrats returned to control in new jersey and just for good measure, trump supporting city councillor who posted this online will the woman's protest be over in time for them to kick dinner? he lost his seat last night to a democratic woman, ashley bennett. 32 years old, never run for office before, but found something inspiring in the way this year has gone in america and presumably something inspiring in the character of her local officials, one of whom she's retired and hopefully he may learn to feed himself. poor soul. biggest loss of the night for republicans was lost governor's race in virginia, ralph northam beating republican ed gillespie

easily. yeah it means a democrat is succeeding a democrat as governor of virginia, but when terry mccall won in virginia, won loudoun county and prince william county by single digits. ralph northam won them by more than 20 points. nine points overall, more than any democratic governor has won in a generation. polls said it was toss-up. last night was anybody's guess. when the polls are that wrong, say it's going to be tie and democrat wins by nine points, the way polls are usually wrong is that they miss turnout because they miss enthusiasm. i don't know if democratic enthusiasm was motivated by northam being at top of the ticket or not. but democrats nearly/maybe taking the state legislature last night in virginia, that is something that really nobody thought is possible.

virginia has state senate and house. senate wasn't up but this is part in balance, the house. state house of delegates. 66 republicans and 44 democrats. republicans would have to lose 16 seats they currently hold to democratic opponents for the democrats to take control. last time -- 16 seats? ridiculous. last time democrats picked up more than one seat in house of delegates in single election was a decade ago and that one swung four seats. as recently as last week in virginia saying picked up six or eight seats would see it as huge victory and validation of their strategy, most optimistic aiming at ten seats. dream pick-up. took at least 15 seats. claiming 16 but 15 is safe call,

probably four seats going to runoff. this is just unimaginably good night for democrats in the sense that nobody predicted it was possible that democrats could take that legislature. unimaginably good night for democrats and kind of bad night that the republican party might have most feared after the kind of year that they've had since their big election day one year ago today in 2016. i think though that it's worth seeing this as more than just a pendulum swinging back sort of thing. if you look at specifics of what happened last night, something important to see about the difference between the parties but also in what each of the parties is trying to do right now with trump in the white house. major party system, two major parties, would think approaching same thing from different angles. no, totally different agendas right now and totally different

animals as parties. one way to see the difference. 15 seats in virginia where incumbent office holder or previous was republican, 15 of those seats in virginia where the republican lost his seat to a democrat. this is half of those seats. and we organized them in numerical order by district number. republicans turfed out last night. here are the democrats who did the turfing out. as you can see, kind of a different looking bunch. this giant swing to the democrats last night is going to make the virginia legislature a very different place. other half of the republicans who lost their seats last night, republican incumbents or in the case of open seats, guy with the asterisk, last to hold the seat, all republican dudes who lost seats last night, saw them flipped to these democratic

candidates. right? even before the recounts are factored in, democrats took 15 seats held by republican men and 11 will be held by democratic women. virginia democrats have put the first latina candidate in their state legislature, seating first openly transgender state legislator anywhere in the country. none of that diversity is a gimmick or effort on democrat's behalf. that's what happens when lots of different kinds of people decide to up and change their lives and run for office. that's really new. not same old republicans against same old democrats. it was republican, pendulum goes to democrats. that's not what happened. this is was not that. whole new crop of people. in the last legislative election

in 2015, democrats didn't contest enough elections in legislature to try to win back the house. two years ago same 100 seats available. two wreyears ago, democrats ran candidates. last night ran 90 and despite nobody expecting it, may have won whole legislature because of it. democratic leader told the dispatch, quote, the day after the trump election it began raining candidates for us in virginia. not just the same old people running, whole new crop of candidates who became inspired, didn't previously think themselves as politicians before this remarkable year we've had. tons of people who ran for first time last night because they for some reason have been moved why

what has happened in this country in the past year. in a lot of cases they were people who ran even when it turned out to be really hard personally for them to run. >> i had a brother who struggled with alcoholism and ptsd for decades. i lost him in march, two weeks after i announced for this. it was devastating. and hard to go on. but there are others like him. and i intend to make sure that they have more chances than he had. in virginia we're paying medicaid taxes that go out of state. we are turning away $6 million a day, we need it badly. that money could so help the people in our state who need it.

but only if backed by a govern who believes that people like my brother are worth saving. and worth helping. and that's why i'm here. my name is wendy gooditis, i'm democratic nominee for delegate in virginia house district 10. >> she won last night. up against republican incumbent won three times already, not perceived to be in danger. won last time by 25 points but last night wendy gooditis beat him. first time candidate. here she is as women's march last year and here's jennifer carol foy. >> loves a challenge. one of the first african-american women at bmi, first in family to graduate from

college and law school. in january this public defender announced candidacy for house seat that covers part of prince william and stafford, had concerns about policy she viewed as antiwoman. >> why not me? if not now, when. >> new challenge, learned she was pregnant with twins. day before the june primary put on bed rest. husband worked the polls for her. >> i'm so blest, i have wonderful husband who picked up the slack. out on election day for 13 hours in 93 degree heat. >> won the nomination, then a bigger challenge. babies, identical twin boys, came very early. born at 23 weeks. alex and xander weighed in at 1 1/2 pounds. >> very nervous. but i'm a woman of extreme faith. what happens will happen. i believe babies will be born and be healthy and miracle will

happen here. that's exactly what happened. >> boys are now three pounds, still in nicu. where carol and her husband spend evenings after campaigning and work. she says never considered dropping out of the race. wants more women in the general assembly. >> usher in new change. women are multifaceted and can do all things we focus and put our minds to. >> she and her husband spent every night in the campaign in nicu with premature twins who she didn't know she was pregnant with when she signed up to run. bed rest for primary, and husband took off work to show up for her that day at the polls. last night she won that race. first time candidate. after hillary clinton lost the presidential election to donald trump last year, young people who had worked on the clinton

campaign started a simple group with a simple slogan. called run for something. to get young progressive people who have never run for anything before to run for something. easy to remember the mission. run for something at local or state level. start as small as you feel you need to. supported ten candidates last night for virginia house. six of them won. after trump was elected last year, young democratic congressional staffers started a group or concept called indevicibi indivisible to get people to pressure locally elected officials to say no to trump agenda and run. over 200 indivisible groups in virginia alone, one started by wendy gooditis and now elected to seat that may result in virginia turning legislature

blue. bernie sanders supporters started our revolution to promote progressive candidates at every level. jennifer carol foy is one of their candidates and elizabeth guzman, one of the pioneering latinas who took a seat last night as well. those three groups who sprung up since the election in remarkable year we've had, mention them because off top of my head, but there are a gazillion of them. whole idea of democratic organizing over the past year hasn't been a theoretical exercise. not political science. the democratic year of organizing we've just had has resulted in a lot of individual americans changing their lives and becoming political actors in ways they never had before. and it turns out it can be a life-upending deal to move not just from citizen to voter and

voter to marcher and marcher to activist but from activist to candidate. and sometimes you find out you're pregnant or you lose your brother, but you're running now and that's your life now. and i just -- add one last point here in terms of how this last year as changed us as a country and political animals. on the republican side, the republicans obviously -- i mean don't make bones about it. the republicans -- best way to say this, republicans have the trump issue to deal with. alpha and omega of 2017 problems. we're going to be talking tonight about some of the latest sworn testimony just emerged in scandal that increasingly appears to be subsuming this presidency. latest member of the trump administration to receive subpoenas from law enforcement.

but the -- while the republicans are dealing with that very unusual situation, for the democrats, last night is first manifestation we've seen of how much democrats have been organizing. democrats and progressives have been organizing over the past year to run candidates, recruit, make people think of themselves in our political system differently than they used to. make people think of themselves as political actors, not just observers, recruit huge new crops of new candidates and activists, build new support for new candidate in myriad grassroots ways and win elections because of it. saw it last night in spades. but last night also showed why it is that last democratic president, barack obama and his former attorney general eric holder, have decided to spend the last year working on something very different. what they've been working on is obscure seeming thing,

redistricting. why choose that to work on first year of the trump era? virginia, 11 congressional seats. a year ago tonight, roughly equal numbers of votes cast by virginiabns for democrats and republicans. 3.7 million votes cast. almost even. democrats about 16,000 more votes than republicans did. but despite that even vote that actually favored democrats a little bit. of the 11 congressional seats in virginia, republicans took 7 of 11. votes even but republicans got the seats because of redistricting, jegerrymandering tilt the playing field towards republican even when democrats get more votes. that was last year. last night democrats ran the

table in virginia beyond their wildest dreams. look at dreams cast for state legislature last night in virginia, our estimates right now, 54% were cast for democrats in legislature versus about 44% for republicans based on the totals so far. even with that democratic ten-point advantage in number of votes cast for legislature, doesn't translate to the democrats taking over the legislature because republicans' redistricting. redistricted the legislature, gerrymandered the districts, so even when democrats win in landslide like they did last night, republicans' worst nightmare, they still maybe hold on to control. we don't know yet, got to see about the recounts. this is how well they gerrymandered it in virginia.

when it's even, republicans win by a lot. democrats get more votes, republicans still win. tons more votes, republicans still win. only way democrats maybe win is demolish the republicans like they did last night and still some maybe as to whether or not democrats are allowed to get control. based on the recount. lots of democrats have done lots of things to organize and try to win and results last night were very impressive. president obama and eric holder started working on this boring redistricting thing to try to get democrats to win legislatures, win races and undo republican gerrymandering, and last night for all the democratic victories, that's a perfect example of why that's time well spent. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs!

and just announced... get 0 % apr for 72 months plus $1000 cash back! take advantage of these exclusive holiday offers during the ford year end sales event. and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan

that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide. advil liqui-gels minis. our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. a small new size that's fast, cause it's liquid. woohoo! you'll ask, what pain? new advil liqui-gels minis. when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.

here's some news not getting a lot of attention but i think is potentially a huge deal. this summer, same day that white house senior strategist resigned from the white house and took up all the oxygen in the room, steve bannon. this guy also resigned. karl icon. serving with the president. adviser to the president on regulations and around the time that he got the white house advis adviser gig, carl icahn starting putting bets in the market on one of the issues he was advising the president on. patrick roger keith reported in

the new yorker magazine talking about how white house could earn him hundreds of millions of dollars if white house took his advice and paid off for his businesses. that's a crime. statute that makes it illegal to work on any matter in which they may have a direct financial interest. which carl icahn did. that was a real problem potentially for him and white house. and that friday night, this summer in august, i remember the new yorker posted that piece and at the same moment, minutes before, on the same day that steve bannon was resigning and nobody noticed, carl icahn quit and immediately he and white house started to insist, there

was nothing to quit. he never had that job at all. that job he just quit, he never had that. white house started to say that carl icahn never had formal appointment or title, even though they formally announced his employment and title. started saying carl icahn was just a public citizen. at the time the public ethics sent out emergency flare tweets calling on justice department to investigate this behavior on the part of the president's adviser. later told us the matter was on their radar. that's where we left it in august. carl icahn quit and sensing that law enforcement authorities were following behind him closely out the door. since then continued to call the new york attorney general's office to talk about the matter. still on their radar.

called carl icahn's office enough to make me feel rude but had no response. 12 weeks since he stepped down and haven't heard anything more formal about whether or not law enforcement authorities were chasing him down on this matter. hadn't heard anything until now. started to get rumblings on wednesday of last week, reuter's reported that carl icahn's oil refinery unwound a short position in market. karl icahn dumped out of this bet on the matter he had been advising the white house about. stepped down in august. why did you then dump out of the bets? learned about that wednesday. then friday, icahn enterprises filed a quarterly report.

under item 5, other information, they revealed something else going on here as serious as a heart attack. revealed that the federal prosecutors and u.s. attorneys office for the seventh district of new york recently contacted icahn enterprises seeking production of information pertaining to our and mr. icahn's activities relating to renewable fuel standard and mr. icahn's role advising the president. told this we are quote, cooperating. so that other information note on page 59 of the quarterly filing went under the radar until today when bloomberg broke the news of federal investigators issuing subpoenas for kacarl icahn and his compan. wants you to know, made no so

there's that the. but subpoenaed the heck out of carl icahn, trump's adviser on regulatory affairs and demanding information about what he was doing in the markets while advising the president on matters that could affect the price of his behaviors in the market. carl icahn story is the most banana republic story we have in the trump administration and now involving subpoenas and federal prosecutor's office. can't say we didn't see it coming. watch this space. shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. only have a sore throat? get long-lasting relief for up to 6 hours with new alka seltzer plus sore throat relief.

but can also loweresterol, your body's natural coq10. qunol helps restore this heart-healthy nutrient with 3x better absorption. qunol has the #1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 qunol, the better coq10.

this is a man named william benny, worked for national -- back in the day. kept busy. russian state-sponsored tv, less than a year ago, expliciting his theory that whole idea that russia hacked anybody's e-mails as part of the 2016 election, that's a hoax. says the hack was actually inside job, dnc hacked itself to make itself lose. here's bill not on russian television but info wars with host alex jones who says sandy hooks shooting was false flag

operation with child actors and federal government is turning us gay with juice boxes. saying that dnc didn't just hack itself, but dnc hacked by intelligence community itself to make donald trump look bad. and what? no that doesn't make sense but a baroque sort of plot if you let it wash over you. also the nsa is working to establish a world government. bill binny. last month he was personally interviewed one-on-one for an hour by the director of the cia, because the director apparently felt that bill binney's theories which he expounded on rt and into wars, felt he merited attention of head of america's premier spy agency for an hour, one-on-one, why would he do

that? according to bill binney, mike pompeo called him in for this meeting. reported by intercept and confirmed by nbc news. called him up, asked him in to langley at quote, the urging of president trump. president trump has asked the cia director to take that meeting with bill binney. if only they had intelligence resources or community to call on to gather factual evidence about whether russia hacked the dnc. i guess they don't, instead get the guy from rt and info wars tlt, why not, he probably knows better than anybody. this is a strange story that's broken over the last couple of days but also potentially a serious story, particularly for the robert mueller special counsel investigation.

i'll tell you why that is next.

when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you are being treated for an infection or have symptoms.

or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz. including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. now's your chance at completely clear skin. just ask your doctor about taltz. last month cia director mike pompeo told summit that u.s. intelligence community's assessment is that russian interference in the election last year didn't affect the outcome of the election. that is not the u.s. intlejs community's assessment. they made no assessment on that.

didn't check. had to rescind the comments after he made them. followed the "washington post" scoop that mike pompeo has reorganized the cia so that one part of the agency that didn't used to report to the director now reports directly to him, counterintelligence mission center, the part of the cia who turned up evidence of trump campaign officials making contacts with russian officials. that's the part of the cia that produced intelligence information which led to the russia investigation in the first place. that part of cia now has been reorganized internally to report directly to mike pompeo. former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade recently made a public argument that wakes me up in the middle of the night. mike pompeo could stop robert mueller in his tracks.

could potentially deny the investigation access to classified intelligence that the special counsel might need to make his case. as former public prosecutor who worked on terrorism cases, number of times would have to go to cia for permission to use classified intelligence in a case, and cia's call whether or not to give it to you. if you can't make the case without that intelligence, you don't have a case. in addition to other things that mike pompeo has done, president ordered him to take a one-on-one hour-long meeting with a guy who goes on russian media peddling conspiracy theories about the russian attack on the election that contradict everything that his own cia has found out. president directed him to take

the meeting. to you know, get the real facts. i know it's as weird as it seems but is it potentially not just weird but dangerous. joining us now, ned price, spent a decade at cia. mr. price, thanks for being here. appreciate it. >> thank you rachel. >> laid out a few things about mike pompeo that have appeared in the news in recent months. misstatements about russia's interference definitely not affecting outcome of the election. reorganization he made of the cia, in terms of who has to report to him directly, now the meeting he took with bill binney, guy who has spun conspiracy theories on russian tv and into wars tlt, i've seen them in the press and bother me as lay observer. to somebody with cia experience, does that seem like part of a pattern to you? >> they bother me too.

i've heard from former colleagues. individuals still on the inside that they bother them too. fact of the matter is, ever since the cia was founded in 1947, there's been an understanding that intelligence and politics don't mix. cia needs space to provide policy makers with unbiased, unvarnished intelligence analysis that they need and deserve. that's why it's been so troubling to see president trump, time and again, put his finger on this scale, on the intelligence scale, whether as republican nominee casting aside the intelligence community's high confidence assessment that russia was actually behind this, or in this case, asking mike pompeo to meet with bill binney at cia headquarters, implicit signal that donald trump himself believes in this crazy theory. to me the most proximate analogy is if george w. bush asked

george tenet, director of national intelligence, to meet with 9/11 truther about the 9/11 attacks. that's same scale as what we've seen. >> barbara mcquade has made the case about cia leader, pointing in worst possible direction in terms of his politicizing intelligence, it's possible he could interfere with law enforcement looking into justice issues in the russia scandal because he could conceivably block intelligence from being used by prosecutors to make their various legal cases as more and more people get indicted. does that seem far-fetched or is that something the cia could do under leadership that had that inclination? >> not far-fetched at all. what mueller is involved in is counterintelligence investigation and cia is

intelligence agency collecting foreign intelligence, some of that flavor. two ways he could impede the investigation. one, what is already in cia's holdings, could deny requests on the part of mueller's team to hand over intelligence that cia has collected ever since the so-called russian active measures have gone into effect. good news is pretty comprehensive intelligence assessment done at beginning of this year and in production of this intelligence was analyzed and report was produced, public version released january 6. the more concerning aspect is prospeculative information that cia could come into contact with. now that mike pompeo is the guy who they report to directly, there is a concern including among current cia officers that

mike pompeo could take that information, run to the white house, not to speak truth to power but muffle that information, make sure it never sees light of day and make sure especially it never sees the hands of mueller's prosecutors. >> which means mueller wouldn't seen know to ask for it to be declassified for use in court setting if he didn't know it existed. ned price, thanks for being with us. we've got a lot more to get to this busy night. stay with us. a healthy helping of delicious gravy. ♪ marie callender spends time on the little things, so that you can spend time on what really matters. marie callender's. it's time to savor. aleve direct therapy. has met its match. the only remote controlled tens device that's drug free,

and wire free for deep penetrating lower back pain relief. and now get aleve direct therapy with $20 off at your local rite aid. grandma's. aunt stacy's. what are the reasons you care for your heart? qunol coq10 with 3x better absorption has the #1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 to support heart health. qunol, the better coq10.

it was always our singular focus. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. and these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now.

i have a new idea for you.

on the one-year anniversary of last year's presidential election after a night last night when the democrats ran the table in off year elections in virginia and across the country, if you are looking for a little steadiness, if you're looking for a little -- hmm -- measure of perspective, if you're looking for inspiration coming to your beloved country in this era, this short dan rather book which's just come out. it's what unites us, reflections on patriotism. a great dan rather joins us now so i can congratulate him on the book. very nice to see you. thank you for being here. >> always a pleasure to be with you, rachel. thank you very much. >> dan, i want to ask you what you thought -- we thought we would have you on the air last night for the -- the first night that your book launched and then things went crazy in terms of breaking news. what were you thinking with that

split screen of the president in south korea and watching the democrats roll things up at home here in terms of last night's elections? what do you make of this moment we're in right now? >> well, obviously, there are two of the biggest headlines of the week so far. the president's language for the most part in this south korea and moving on to china has been more muted than the language before. he said some terrible things of north korea, accurate things but, you know, he's handled himself well. i noted and i think i mentioned to you, rachel, he delivered a speech after getting off to a shaky start well in south korea but it's hard to make out what the policy is, you know, from time to time he makes these threats to north korea but i think if you look at the south korean visit an then moving on to china, the following things are pretty obvious. number one, we've said it before and bears repeetding that china

is the key. if there's going to be any real progress toward getting the north koreans to at least slow their nuclear development, the chinese have got to be a major player and i think that's one thing that's clear of this. the president has been at least in his rhetoric zigzagging some on north korean policy but having said all that it would be a mistake not to recognize because it's so that we're probably closer to an outright war with north korea than we have been in a very, very long time. now with policies and politics and the vote last night, clearly a sweep of nearly a sweep of the democrats. their best night since when obama's election i guess in 2012. however i noticed that the democrats were celebrated and naturally because in some ways they were surprised by the margin that they won in some races and the message was a

repudiation of the tone if not indeed the actual substance of the trump presidency. and a point of what i'm trying to write and unites us, the book, we need to light the embers of hope and have some optimism and i find at least some bit of that in these election returns. it's a reminder that votes count and in the end you can march, you can protest, you can say you're part of the resistance and biggest thing to do is organize and get out the vote. the democrats did that very well this time. and there's no other analysis available other than the one to make many republicans up for re-election next year make the fingernails sweat, these returns from last night, but it's a little early for the democrats to be moon walking in the end zone. they've made a start and taking a while to reverse the trend that started with trump's election. >> dan rather's new book is

called "what unites us: reflections on patriotism." i want to thank you for the reflections on steadiness. that's helpful to me in thinking of politics right now. not just a pendulum but steady as a country. you're an inspiration. congratulations on did good book. thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you. >> nice to see you. all right. we'll be right back. stay with us.

we create machines that make every experience more real. because the best feature of a pc gaming machine is the power to make you forget it's there.

get $200 off at dell.com/gaming. ( ♪ ) get $200 off at dell.com/gaming. you're searching for something. whoooo. like the perfect deal... ...on the perfect hotel. so wouldn't it be perfect if... ....there was a single site... ...where you could find the... ...right hotel for you at the best price? there is. because tripadvisor now compares... ...prices from over 200 booking... ...sites ...to save you up to 30%... ...on the hotel you want. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. whstuff happens. old shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. hey, at the top of the show i talked about the new jersey

county counselor who post third degree response to the big women's march in january. this is what he posted. will the woman's protest be over in time for them to cook dinner? the new jersey pop tirn last night lost the seat to a rookie democratic woman, 32-year-old woman, ashley bennett, never ran for anything before and found inspiration in her local public officials. tonight, on "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" he is speaking with among other people that woman, ashley bennett. i'm telling you, for real. he's got her. that does it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. now it's time for you to watch "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. i just rushed over here from barnes & noble on the upper west side where i was signing books tonight for my new book. >> oh good. >> guess who was sitting in the front row. >> i don't know. >> the famous judy who you have made famous -- >> the lady from the diner? >>