1:00 p.m. on the east. 4:00 p.m. in the west. no, the other way around. it's friday afternoon which means my time is up. so i'm going to have to give it over to "deadline: white house" kwith nicolle wallace. >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. do you believe the women? that's the question before republicans today when it comes to gop senate candidate roy moore. "the washington post" reports an exquisite and painful detail, stories of sexual misconduct with teenage girls as young as 14 from moore's time as an assistant district attorney in alabama. the story comes on the heels of tuesday's rejection of republicans up and down the ballot in virginia and nationwide, in part, due to a jump in turnout among women voters. here's the latest on the unfolding scandal.

the national republican senatorial committee has severed ties with moore which means they'll not contribute any funds to his candidacy. the president has weighed in through his spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders saying, like most americans, the president does not believe me can allow a mere allegation in this case, one from many years ago, to destroy a person's life. however, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, judge moore will do the right thing and step aside. the men and women in the u.s. senate who would be moore's senate colleagues on the republican side have largely stuck with a line that goes like this. if these allegations are true, then i think he should step aside. here's the partial list of senators to take that position. mitch mcconnell, cory gardner, rob portman, sues an collins, lisa murkowski, david perdue, jeff flake, john thune, pat toomey. so far among gop senators, only john mccain has gone farther

saying the allegations against roy moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. he should immediately step aside and allow the people of alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of. today former gop presidential candidate mitt romney weighed in saying innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections. i believe leigh corfman. her account is too serious to ignore. moore is unfit for office and should step aside. this is exactly where every decent republican should end up. and here's a less polite decision for them. republicans need to decide if it's worse to have a democrat in the senate or a pedophile. let's get to our panel. phil rucker, "washington post" white house bureau chief. michael steele, former rnc chairman, ron clan, former chief of staff to vice presidents joe biden and al gore. and the rev al sharpton, host of "politics nation" here is msnbc and president of the national action network in washington.

we're joined by susan page, "usa today" white house bureau chief. susan, let me start with you. you are joining us from washington, a town that has been rocked this week by these revelations. this was not the favorite candidate of the gop establishment and it turns out there was more than just his tiny pistols and unconventional ways and out of the mainstream positions that gave them pause. this is sort of journalism at its finest. the kind of reporting that read like the harvey weinstein accounts, carefully sourced, carefully documented. women who acknowledge that they understood that their reputations were not those of angels, but they wanted the mask to be taken off this man before he stood for election in alabama. can you talk about the ripple effects and aftershocks since this story broke yesterday afternoon? >> i think i totally agree the detail of the story that "the washington post" wrote and the fact that it was on the record

gave it a special power and authority. but republicans in a way are in a bit of a fix because they don't have standing with roy moore. they wanted luther strange to win the nomination. so it makes it harder for them to force him out at this point, although that is clearly what republicans would like to see happen. there's a new poll out in alabama in the past hour or two which has roy moore tied with doug jones, the democrat. and, believe me, that does not often happen in alabama. >> right. and phil rucker, susan is talking about, what's really close for a democrat. democrats are usually, i think they run typically 6 to 10 points behind in statewide elections. >> that's right. >> your paper had this account. these women, everybody should read it. i said this morning on "morning joe" that the actresses who have come out and spoken out about harvey weinstein are heroes. they are inspirational.

but they have things that these women in this story don't have. they have some celebrity. many of them had some wealth and not to make one victim better/worse than the other, but these women are heros in their own right. in their communities, in a state where republicans run, usually 8 to 10 points ahead of democrats, it's not popular to come out and tell a story about roy moore. >> and these women have kept these stories to themselves for decades now. it's not like they came forward because they saw roy moore as a candidate and wanted a piece of the celebrity moment or wanted to come forward and accuse him. my colleagues at the post tracked him down and over a series of visits and interviews, over several weeks, convinced them to tell their stories publicly and on the record and in the detail you see in the story which is why this is so politically devastating for roy moore and the republican party right now. >> chairman steele -- >> yes. >> the depravity of the conservative media to circle the

wagon around a man, to not have sort of the decency to say that the republican party is bigger and better than needing this seat to be occupied by this man, who is an accused pedophile. >> you know, we shouldn't get this twisted because this is not about the republican party. it's not about any of the principles that have been espoused by the party. this is about the politics of the moment. getting the advantage over the democrats in terms of getting a seat in the senate. pushing forth a political agenda. and it's taken away from the story line that you've just outlined. instead of being focused on not if, then, but, oh, my god, are you kidding me? no. this is not something we stand for. they are taking the soft political route if you are an elected official. and the hard political route if you are part of the conservative media where you'll stand by your

man. the problem with that is all of that crap blows up in your face, too. and roy moore will likely win this election. this new poll notwithstanding. if he wins this election, it shows up in d.c., what then do your colleagues say? and how can you then go about creating distance when you've, through your silence or your if then or if when kind of scenario you've embraced him, you own this. >> let me read you two things. this is roy moore's statement from his campaign. judge roy moore has endured the most outlandish attacks on any candidate in the modern political arena. but this story in today's "washington post" alleging sexual impropriety takes the cake. national liberal organizations know their chosen candidate doug jones is in a death spiral and this is their last ditch hail mary. i want to read you something from jonah goldberg who writes, saving moore isn't worth it.

in the long run, senator moore would cost republicans more seats than the one he might give them. he'd be an albatross for every republican, including president trump who will be asked to take a side on every issue he would bring to washington. they'll be asked, why did you save moore then? it's a leader of a doomed movement certainly isn't worth it, not for the cost to the gop, not to mention our own souls. >> so, well, first of all, it's clear now that the phrase if true is to pedophilia what thoughts and prayers are to shootings. an excuse to avoid responsibility but as michael said, there's no avoiding this here. if roy moore is allowed to continue as a republican candidate if he wins, he'll come to washington and understanding rule number two of the senate. the senate will have to vote on whether to accept his certification election. any one senator can make that gl

go to a roll call vote. on day one they'll have to vote on whether he should be seated in the senate. there's no avoiding their responsibility or their involvement in how this comes out. >> and is there anything, rev, and i want to stipulate a couple of things. i think that everyone that i named on that list set out yesterday to say and do the right thing. i think their instinct was to get on the right side of this. but the reality is to say, if true, when four women retraumatized themselves by recounting a story that has to include the most humiliating and debasing moments of their lives is the result of saying if true. and as mitt romney points out, it's not -- this isn't a court of law. we're not waiting for the jury to weigh in. it's an election. it's enough to disqualify. >> i think romney is onto something, but the two things i

want to point out that are most disturbing. one is when you have an alabama official try and say this means nothing and compares the behavior of roy moore to jesus, mary and joseph, now, you know -- >> take me to church. >> i think that, nicolle, i've said many times under this era of trump that we can't go any lower. but as a minister, to hear someone say -- and this i'm not making up. an alabama official saying what is the big deal if roy moore did do it? mary was 13 when joseph got her -- fathered jesus. to compare. these are evangelicals who claim to believe in jesus christ and you'd compare this alleged pedophiler to the mother of jesus christ?

how low can you go to play politics? and then on top of that, the problem you got, and i respect a lot, our chairman here steele. and i think he made the right point, but i would say the problem, the dilemma the republicans have is where are you going to draw the line when you elect as president of the united states somebody that was on tape talking about what he did to women? so i guess we already have brought the white house down to a certain level so why not bring the senate the rest of the way down because we've already excused -- why wouldn't roy moore think he could get elected when we have donald trump sitting in the white house with that tape that was rotating all over the media, and he went all the way to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. >> to your point, what both of those scenarios tell s s tell s republican party has erased the line. there is no line. if this is not something that we

just walked into by happenstance and this story line popped up. we now have a record from our presidential nominee on -- in his own words. this is a scenario where -- >> on tape. >> this is the roy moore situation is a he said/she said. but this is the actual individual saying these things. it's very clear going back to the election that getting elected, taking control of the white house and controlling the powers, the levers of power in washington was more important than drawing that line you're talking about. so i think we can't get this twisted and think somehow that we'll be able to hold onto our moral card and play it against democrats in the future and other republicans for that matter when we've actually thrown it out. >> this isn't a he said/she said. there are 30 separate sources in that "washington post" story. the woman in question, the 14-year-old told her mother shortly after the time. told two friends around the

time. plen plenty of people in jail on less evidence. what is this all about? the reverend referred to the joseph and mary story. that's the story of no room in the inn. this is about trying to get tax breaks for the innkeeper. the republicans are determined to hold the senate seat to pass these tax cuts, pass their agenda, and they're willing to go to unconscionable lengths to make that happen. >> phil rucker, i want to ask you to weigh in on the conservative media response. i watched an interview with an editor from breitbart yesterday who wanted to carve out of "the washington post" report the single account from the then 14-year-old and he went on television and said the only act that would be illegal would be the sexual contact with the 14-year-old as though a 32-year-old man kissing and dating 16-year-old and 18-year-olds was fine simply because it wasn't illegal at the time or now in alabama, and i

understand that since we've been on the air a few minutes before, sean hannity has been airing some of my comments. i want to ask you about the depravity of conserve tifr media in defending their man donald trump, and defending roy moore who is now, again, not an if true but four women have given their accounts. you either believe them or they don't. i believe them. he's now a known pedophile. i want to ask you about being a practitioner of journalism in a time when the conservative media will circle the wagons around anything and anyone and call something true and report it the way this was, fake. >> well, i think this is the consequence of the last year we've been through where we had the president of the united states using the term fake news with abandon, labeling any story that's entirely true and real but unflattering of the president as fake and not believable. and his supporters around the country, including in alabama,

believe it. that's the troubling thing. what we saw was before "the washington post" story came out, breitbart came out with a story preempting it. it was as if the moore campaign gave breitbart information that the post was working on this story and they put out a hit piece against the post before our story even came out. and it's all to try to galvanize conservatives, trump voters, roy moore supporters to think this is some sort of liberal media hit job that can't be trusted or true when it's anything but that. it's a real documented, thoroughly reported, meticulously written story that's completely real and believable. >> susan page, let me ask you to weigh in on the hypocrisy. i keep an eye on fox news. i have a lot of friends over there. there was endless, breathless coverage of harvey weinstein's downfall. and the accounts from mainstream media outlets like the new yorker and "new york times" were accepted as gospel. this is an account reported as

meticulously, if not more with all of the concurrent reporting from the victims at the time of the sexual misconduct on behalf of mr. moore. and there's a totally different response because the person who carried out the behavior is not some liberal nemesis. can you speak to the hypocrisy of the way these stories of sexual abuse are received and covered by the secondary media and the kind of effect it has on sources, if you were trying to cover a story like this. >> i think it's distressing. i think all of us who are in the news media have an obligation to cover these stories in a way that's straightforward and not colored by bipartisanship. and i wonder, though, what readers and viewers and voters in alabama, how they're going to feel. one of the interesting things that's happened with this wave of accusations and allegations of sexual misconduct and assault and abuse by powerful men in the

news media, in hollywood and in business and in politics is -- i think americans are inclined to believe the women coming forward and that's a shift. that is a cultural shift that we've seen taking place with this new waff. that's quite encouraging and it's important because this if true construct, what's going to prove it's true if roy moore continues to say it's false. it just comes down to, do you believe them? do you believe the women or do you believe roy moore? >> that's exactly right. go ahead. >> just real quick on the if true. i have a question for folks raising that question. i don't remember the if true when bill clinton's accusers came forward. i don't remember people saying, oh, let's give mr. clinton the benefit of the doubt here. we're not sure. you know if it's true, then -- so that for me is the stark contrast here in political context of why the hypocrisy is something you can't stomach

because that outrage did not exist before. why should it exist now? you take these women at their word. and as you know, if four women coming out saying the same thing, 96 women coming out saying the same thing. if one woman says the same thing, that should be enough for our society to go -- >> and that's a republican chairman saying that about bill clinton, but i think there's something else that's very dangerous that i think you pointed out with the panel this morning on "morning joe." it says a lot to our young people when we can discipline hollywood moguls and athletes and not have the same level of outrage for presidents and senatorial candidates. i mean, are we serious? we're sitting up here talking about people that are going to run our lives as opposed to people that entertain us. and people that entertain us go right away. but people that are going to run the country or be in the u.s.

senate, we're going to sit around and act like we're going to compare them to mary, joseph and jesus? >> it's a good point. i love all these great points made by great, enlightened men. the vast majority of men, i venture to say, not predators. roy moore speaking out this hour. we'll have his first comments on this story. and it sounds like a scene from the thriller. the feds looking into whether mike flynn was offered $15 million after the presidential election to kidnap and transport a political enemy of the turkish president. we'll be right back. go slow. ♪ come on mom! ♪ let's go! ♪

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we're back. we're getting our first bits of sound from roy moore on sean hannity's radio program a few minutes ago. let's listen. >> sean, first let me say this. these allegations are completely false and misleading. more than that, it hurts me personally because, you know, i'm a father. i have one daughter. i have five granddaughters, and i have a special concern for protection of young ladies. this is really hard to get on radio and explain this. these allegations are just false. >> what do you make specifically -- let's start with what they talked about, that you had struck up a conversation with this young woman who was 14, leigh corfman. her mother says you offered to watch the girl while the mother went inside for a custody hearing which they confirmed it actually happened at that time. do you know ms. corfman.

do you know the mother? >> i don't know ms. corfman from anybody. never talked to her. never had any contact with her. allegations sexual misconduct with her of false. i believe they're politically motivated. >> it's a three-pronged defense. breitbart carving out simply the allegations of sexual misconduct against a 14-year-old as the only act that was illegal. there was roy moore in an interview with sean hannity. let me play you steve bannon talking about the bezos amazon "washington post." >> the bezos amazon "washington post" that dropped that dime on donald trump is the same bezos amazon "washington post" that dropped the dime this afternoon on judge roy moore. now is that a coincidence? that's what i mean when i say opposition party, right? it's purely part of the

apparatus of the democratic party. >> is it a coincidence that donald trump talked about grabbing women in the bleep and roy moore grabbed a woman when she was 14 years old? chairman? >> yeah, you know, dropping a dime, it didn't have to -- the president himself said it. this is on videotape. it's not a surprise. what do you expect the press to do, not report what the man said? but again, this is part of that other narrative, that fake news narrative. can we just push back with the fake news stuff because all we're hearing right now is fake news. it's a fake transition away from the story line, discrediting these women, not taking them seriously and trying to create another narrative to protect whom? moore? is that what -- we're now in the protection business? >> we're in the protection business. i understand from sources close to sean hannity that roy moore was his candidate, that he

championed him. steve bannon championed him. brooeitbart associate with roy moore. this, to me, is the bannonization, the hannity pull of the party into the gutter. >> and again, you know, i appreciate the leaders and what they've been saying, but i think mitt romney and john mccain have drawn the bright line that needs to be drawn. you have got to. if this does not offend your sensibilities, what will? >> and should they go so far as to endorse the democrat? >> you know, that's going to be a tougher nut to track from a purely partisan political perspective to say a party should go out and endorse the democrat. that's of less concern to me than what you do with the nominee you have. you work the system to get that nominee to stand down, to put somebody else's name on the ballot in a write-in capacity.

those are the steps the party needs to be looking at. my concern, just capitulating the race and saying we're going to back the democrat. stay in the fight but just don't fight with this guy as your lead dog. >> i think also we're looking at how republicans and alabamans are going to define themselves. are we now operating under the mo modus operandi that it does not matter what you've done as long as we can win and we're casting all the old rules and standards for leadership and elected office out the window. it doesn't matter, even if you're on tape. bezo and "washington post" didn't expose donald trump. donald trump exposed him. but it doesn't matter as long as we win. if that's the m.o. now in american politics, we need to say that and own it because i don't think most americans would do that. and i think that is what we're

looking at here. and for people and i've got to keep going to that as a minister. for evangelicals to sit there and allow them to compare this to mary the mother of jesus, and i understand that roy moore's brother now has defended him saying they're doing to him what they did to jesus. so just in the span of this show, he's went from joseph to jesus. he will have been the one that god created the heavens and earth with by the end of the show. is there any shame left in the republican party? >> i can answer that, no. how do democrats win this seat? >> we have a very good candidate down there. alabama is a tough state for democrats. doug jones is a good middle of the road sensible candidate. he prosecuted members of the ku klux klan. he's a centrist democrat who is supported by the party. but i really think this isn't about whether or not we win the seat. i hope we do. i'm a partisan democrat. >> it's a battle, not the war. >> but the real is, are we

really at a place in our politics where one of our two major political parties says you can have sex with a 14-year-old girl when you were a district attorney and be our candidate for the united states senate? i hope if it was my party, i'd be speaking out against it. i give great credit to the republicans like you and michael speaking out against it. but that's a moral principle. this isn't like a political question at this stage in the game. >> how disorienting is it to sort of be in a climate -- i was out last weekend in pennsylvania talking to trump voters. democrats who voted for trump. they're all still with him. i knew they would be. good to see them. and when i asked them about the russia investigation they said you mean into hillary? how disorienting is it to sort of carry out journalism, carry out our politics in this climate where 33% of the country doesn't know that three of donald trump's former campaign aides were indicted last monday? >> well, that is part of that fake narrative.

you create that narrative, create an alternate universe. it makes it tough for guys like phil to get out there and tell the story. what he's reporting on, as you went out and talked to people is what people are telling them when they don't like that, then they turn that narrative around. that's not healthy for the party or our democracy. it's not healthy for the political environment as a whole. then we get down this rabbit hole where you don't know what to believe. and so that's a big problem. >> 67% of the country does. it's the another. >> but then how does that translate at the ballot box? that's going to be the ultimate test. now it was -- >> don't know know last tuesday -- >> we do and we don't. that's what i'm looking forward to seeing how when these narratives come into clear focus for people, how do they process it? you just said, you met with voters who when you ask them about the russia investigation

said into hillary, well, that's a microcosm of a very large audience of people who still look at that question that way despite what phil and "the washington post" or anybody else is reporting. >> the question i have in alabama is what happens to those sort of more mainstream conservative chamber of commerce business republicans in alabama. there are a lot of them in birmingham and montgomery and mobile. are they going to be embarrassed to have roy moore? >> susan page, i want you to listen to a little more of roy moore and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> -- you might as well not run because when you run, you're going to get allegations. first i would tell these individuals, they wouldn't make good judges. they wouldn't make good people in the judicial system because you are innocent until proven guilty. in this case, this woman has waited over 40 years to bring a complaint four weeks out of an election? it's obvious to the casual

observer that something is up. we're also doing an investigation, and we have some evidence of some collusion here, but we're not ready to put that to the public just yet. >> so you are trying -- >> collusion. let me ask you to weigh in on this sort of feeble attempt to get back on offense. i'm guessing the 33% that was okay with donald trump and thinks he said on the "access hollywood" tape and roy moore's champions in the conservative media are going to help him push this line. back here in reality, let me ask you about this idea that if an accuser or a victim of sexual assault doesn't report it right away that they're somehow lying. >> one of the things the post did in their story that made it stronger is that they acknowledge that the woman making this allegation, it had messy financial situation, a complicated life.

that was -- they acknowledged that. and they still found her account credible. i think it is dangerous for somebody like roy moore to then try to smear the accuser. it sounded like he had an investigation going on. but he said one other thing that's important. four weeks before an election. there are still four weeks to go before the december 12th election. that is plenty of time for this story to unfold. you could end up with republicans in the worst possible situation where they stick with roy moore and he loses the election. that's entirely possible. this is a credible democratic nominee. obviously, in a state that tends to go democratic. one of the more interesting things is 82% of the people surveyed were aware of these allegations. in the space of 24 hours, most of the state, it's very -- i assume tuned in. sometimes the willingness of one woman to come forward with a story of abuse encourages other women who faced the same abuser to do so. that might be one thing to watch

for in the next four weeks. >> and i think -- i respectfully disagree with susan. i think if he stays on the ballot and loses, that would be -- the republican party would be spared the rebranding of the entire party is standing shoulder to shoulder with a pedophile. >> but the problem with that is then that small group that you were talking about who are very vocal, that bannon's side of the table will use that over the next year and -- >> to do what? >> trust me, it will go into challenging candidates. >> they are already doing that. >> but it gives them more firepower. >> i think that this mythology of steve bannon. the worst thing about steve bannon isn't that he's sinister. he's an incompetent boob. >> it's what people are thinking and feeling on the ground. they are tapping into that and using it. >> they have economic anxiety. they want us to get out of nafta. they don't want us to apologize

for pedophiles. >> you talked to them. steve bannon wasn't in that room with you. >> but there's no magic of steve bannon. the magic in that room is about isolation, getting out of nafta. >> i think that a lot of them are afraid of the bully. and if you are afraid of the bully, you ought not be in leadership. they need to stand up to bannon. you cannot let somebody run candidates like this and maintain the integrity of your party. >> i get that, and they tried to defeat that. they had the president himself behind luther strange. they did all of that. and they lost. >> all right. the beat goes on. up next, the mueller investigation and sensational new line of questioning for the president's former national security adviser. was he offered millions of dollars to kidnap a political enemy of a foreign government? many interesting places.

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what would be your criteria in choosing the senior administrators? >> track record. great competence. love of what they're doing. how they are getting along with people. references. i mean, no different -- you need people that are truly, truly capable. >> capable of what is the question at this hour. donald trump's incoming national security adviser mike flynn was not spending his time measuring the drapes in his fancy new west wing office during the days after his boss' surprise election a year ago this week. nbc news is reporting according to four people familiar with bob mueller's special counsel investigation, mueller is vf gating whether flynn was meeting with turkish officials after the election to discuss removing a muslim cleric living in the united states to turkey. in exchange for $15 million. according to nbc's report, the meeting allegedly took place at

the upscale 21 club restaurant in new york city, just blocks from trump tower where flynn was serving on the presidential transition team. flynn was offered upwards of $15 million to be paid directly or indirectly if he could complete the deal, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. investigators are also looking into whether flynn's son played a role. "the wall street journal" goes further adding the removal of a political enemy of turkish president erdogan was to be done, kwoerkts forceibly. flynn left some bread crumbs hard to miss. he published an op ed entitled our ally turkey is in crisis and needs our support. phil rucker, we know flynn is in trouble. it's sort of an open secret that flynn was caught lying to federal agents between the time of the election and the inauguration. our network has confirmed that mueller has enough to bring charges against mike flynn sr.

and the son. what do you make of this coming out now that he was basically in the process of doing a deal for an extraordinary rendition to a turkish prison for $15 million after his boss won election as he was on his way in to serve as the country's national security adviser? >> it's really remarkable. we should remember flynn was not some carter page figure floating around. >> he wasn't like low-level george. >> not the coffee boy. he was the central national security figure in this incoming administration. he was helping run the transition at trump tower every single day, helping the president-elect decide who to hire in national security and foreign policy roles in the administration and we knew he was going to become the national security adviser in the white house. to have this meeting to be effectively a foreign agent negotiating with the turks is extraordinary and wrong. >> and to be someone who on the day of the election was still

advocating on behalf of, obviously, now we know one of his paying clients, the turks, and to then have gone brazenly into the white house for it to have taken sally yates to go to white house counsel -- does this raise more questions for you? >> it raises a ton more questions. you worked in the white house. the national security adviser is the second most important staff person in the white house. >> right. >> and so to have the number two person in the white house doing a deal at the 21 club -- >> to kidnap. >> to kidnap someone in our country and export them overseas. that would be rejected as unbelievable if it were a plot in a hollywood movie. it's so ridiculous and profane and wrong. and clearly that may well have been it. sally yates told the white house counsel had legal problems and they didn't fire him. they didn't fire michael flynn until that came out in the newspaper weeks later. so for weeks after the white

house staff knew, the president knew, his counsel knew. he remained with access to the most sensitive secrets this country has. it's a nightmare. >> and what do you think the president's inner circle is thinking now. chris christie has said on this program he did not recommend mike flynn to be national security adviser. there were all sorts of red flags out there about michael flynn if you scratch just below the surface. he asked jim comey to see to it to let him off the hook. how involved -- do we now need to know what donald trump knew and when he knew it? >> we definitely need to know what he knew and why he would defend against all kinds of advice. i think americans need to understand that we're talking about the person in mike flynn that would have been what condoleezza was or colin powell. can you imagine if we heard colin poweller condoleezza rise,

both republicans now, had had this kind of meeting? the power he would have had here. >> what's would you have thought of mike flynn to say i'm going to meet him at the 21 club and see if he'll kidnap a guy from living in pennsylvania for 15 mill. what do you think of him if that's your opening offer. >> yeah, obviously, when donald trump said he picked only the best people, it seems he missed the mark with mike flynn. and there are plenty of warnings michael flynn had a lot of problems even before. during the transition, congressional democrats sent a letter to mike pence, saying, hey, here are all the problems with mike flynn. you should know about this. nonetheless, vice president pence, president trump put this man in the second most important job in the west wing. and that is a horrible error in judgment and a potential national security threat. >> susan page, some emerging theory now that the president may end up being too scattered to have colluded with russia.

but he may very well face a lot of scrutiny about whether or not he obstructed justice by asking jim comey to see to it to let michael flynn go by crafting this phony baloney story aboard air force one about a story his son had. how much of a liability is mike flynn and mike flynn jr. to this presidency? >> i think a tremendous liability. of course, we've been waiting for the shoes to drop on mike flynn. it's been clear he's at the center of the special counsel's investigation. some thought that mueller is just waiting until the president is back in the country before we hear something more specific about what's coming with michael flynn. and the reason it's so serious for this white house is that this is not somebody who was just involved in the campaign. this is someone for whom, say, an indictment would bring these charges ripe to the center of the white house itself and would mean there would be someone who had a lot of information about what the president himself was

doing. i think that's one of the things that gives some white house people some concern. >> a lot of concern from what i'm hearing. susan page, thank you so much. when we come back, i was a good soldier. i had purpose and i loved it. that's a line from a new movie out called "thank you for your service" but it describes a whole lot of people who are invisible to the millions of americans who don't have the privilege of knowing anyone in the military. those people who keep us safe and ask for next to nothing in return. when we come back, the director of the film and the fathauthor the book that inspired it join the table. 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 at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

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astrazeneca may be able to help. accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer, and like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger who's mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political and start doing what's right. our country depends on it.

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a scene from "thank you for your service" based from a book of the same name. i read the book when it was out. one of the books that changed me, cracked my heart open and made me aware of the seismic struggle so many veterans face when they return home. wounds more difficult to be dealt with when they can't be seen. join me, the writer and director and author of the book i read "thank you for your service" that inspired the movie. let me ask you first, jason. these aren't characters in the movie. these are the real lives of real americans, and i wonder -- i wonder, you also wrote and directed "american sniper" which brought the reality of war to so many people that live separate lives from our military people. can you talk about what drives to bring us together? >> we forget about these guys. i've seen it happen. i saw it happen to chris and he

came home to book deals and acclaim. these are blue collar soldiers. it's a tragedy that we forget about them and something i've set my eyes on and felt like i could do something about it. >> i guess where "american sniper" brought us into the battlefield this brings us into the battle they face at home. somebody comes back with pd sd or ttpi and it's hard enough to get these diagnoses and get on the right regimen to deal with them, but it's difficult to access the services? >> a lot of these guys, hard to get to the point where they feel they're ready to go seek help and then they get to the v.a. and find help is very, very illusive. and it was covered well in this book, but i don't think a large population of civilians have any idea that these -- what these guys go through and how tough it is to get services. >> david, i read the book.

i got one of the early copies. i gave it to everyone that i know, and i wonder if you can just talk about some of the people that have stayed with you and what it feels like to see it played out by actors on the big screen? >> they've all stayed with me. it was that kind of reporting, and i'm glad you liked the book. if you haven't seen the movie i hope you get a chance to see it. authors, i guess, aren't supposed to like the movies. right? but i love this movie because i think jason found of heart of what i was trying to do through my reporting in my book and brought it forward in a way that's very moving and very searing, i think. >> can you talk about what, what the sort of pride factor is for these men? they've stood up to unthinkable challenges on the battlefield. they have seen things that most people can't even process, if they even want to, and then they

come home and they have a hard time talking about what they've seen. they have a hard time reconnecting with their nuclear families and their communities. can you talk a little more about that struggle for people who don't know? >> sure. yeah. you know, and it's not just people who have been soldiers, who have been in combat and are now home. it's also their families. what unifies all the people that i wrote about in my book is, no matter how well they behaved and many of these people have just behaved during combat, and in the recovery process in ways that i wish i could summon in my own life. just -- just great, great people, but inside of them for whatever reason is some small corner of, of shame, in many cases, that they're dealing with. there is a guy both in the movie and in my book, i mean, imagine this. he was blown up in a humvee. his leg was broken.

he got out of the humvee. realized there was still people inside. now, this happened. i was there. so i'm telling you the truth. made his way back to the humvee and pulled two dpis out. and then he realized there was somebody else in the humvee that nobody could get to, who burned up and who died in the humvee. which caused this man who had behaved so perfectly in that moment, i think, to my thinking, to begin having a dream, and the dream, again and again, was the guy he didn't save and in the dream he was on fire saying, "why didn't you save me?" so this is what this guy who behaved so well gets to contend with. it just filters out from soldier through families through all the recovery processes going on right now in communities across the country, as these wars continue, and the aftereffects of the wars continue. >> jason, let me ask you quickly. will you continue to make movies, people not in the military, people who are heroes

but also movies about our neighbors, relatives and our friends and we are at a point where the people who protect us are a small part of our population and a lot of people not in the military don't know them or see them except through books like david's and's films through the ones like you're making? >> yeah. until this becomes personal. until these wars become personal, we're going to continue to enter interthem. it's my home we can enter into conflicts as noble as the men and women we're sending over there. so to bring the story of nobility and the brotherhood and the sacrifice that these guys have made to the screen is -- feels meaningful. >> it is. it is. thank you both for your work. jason hall andfinkal, thank you so much. we'll be right back. patient. stay with me, mr. parker.

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go see or read. >> glad you did the segment. a democrat, republican, support or oppose, the wars in iraq and afghanistan, giving everything to our country. we owe them a lot better than we're giving them. >> innocent victims of a really broken politics. they deserve better than what our politics is delivering. >> and we should see them as heroes for all of us, and i think that is right. you can't be bipartisan. veterans, all of us should thank them for serving. >> amen. thank you to you all. that's for our hour. nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts now. hi, chuck. >> you know what your husband and i have in common? >> hurricane fans. >> right. doing the same thing tomorrow night at 8:00. go canes! >> you, too. >> if it's friday, roy moore speaks out. tonight, how the accusations