the news continues with keir simmons. always great to see you in from london. >> great to be here. i hope you have a lot of layers to wrap up. it is absolutely freezing. i'm keir simmons at the headquarters in new york. it is a busy saturday with relevants on several fronts. who do you trust? president trump backing vladimir putin after denying meddling in the u.s. elections, trump taking the issue a step further claiming the investigation is putting u.s. diplomacy at risk. remaining defiant roy moore turns a deaf ear to a growing chorus of republicans calling for him to drop out of the alabama senate race and hints at new revelations about his accusers. >> these attacks involve a minor, and they are completely false and untrue. about something that happened nearly 40 years ago. >> and harassment in hollywood. the sexual abuse allegations

continue to pile up and george takei is the latest to be accused and how tinsel town will crack down. and president trump is once again trying to pour cold water on the notion that russia meddled in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. trump was seen speaking with putin while walking to a photo op at the asia-pacific economic summit today. one of the multiple chats that sarah huckabee sanders said were informal on the way to hanoi, trump was asked by reporters aboard air force one whether he spoke to putin about u.s. election meddled and he said, he didn't meddle. i asked him can, can you only ask him -- i can only ask him so many times. he said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. for more details about the meeting this morning. let's bring in chris jansing. they were so close, the president kept carefully on message for a week and then in

the past few days he views off script. >> reporter: well you would think he would be talking about trade which is a big message he had here. maybe about the agreement he reached with russia that rex tillerson apparently worked on. that has to do with syria and what to do about the violence there but now creating a controversy back home about the russia investigation and this time he is calling a politically motivated hit job and went a step further saying it is costing lives because if the diplomacy can't move forward, then in places like north korea it means people could indeed die. let me read to you some more of what the president told reporters aboard air force one today. i can't stand there and argue with him. of course, meaning putin. i would rather have him, you know, work with him on the ukraine than standing and arguing about whether or not -- because the whole thing was set up by the democracies. every time he sees me he said i didn't do that and i believe -- i really believe that when he

tells me, he means it. i think he is very insulted by it which is not a good thing for our country. he called this whole russia investigation artificially induced and again blaming the democrats, blaming hillary clinton, saying that she couldn't handle it. she didn't have a good hold on what to do about this. and again, folks back home in the intelligence community fighting back. michael hayden the former cia director said on twitter that he talked to the current folks at the cia and they say that they absolutely stand by their assessment. as have other intelligence agencies which concluded based on evidence that indeed, russia immediateled in the 2016 election, kier. >> chris jansing working through the night. thank you. north korea's nuclear threat has loomed over president tru trump's trip to asia, rallying leaders to stand with the u.s. to confront kim jong-un an effort that he said would be

more effective with russia's help. here is what he said to reporters on air force one. because of the lack of the relationship that we have with russia, because of this artificial thing that is happening with this democratic inspired thing, we could really be helped a lot tremendous with russia having to do with north korea. for more on this, let's bring in our panel, ambassador christopher hill, nbc dip expert and military analyst, general barry mccaffrey. and the president appears to be presenting us with a stark choice. protect american democracy by continuing to question russia interference or support american policy by allowing him to work with the russians. he can't have both, he seems to be saying. is there truth in that. >> i don't know what he is trying to say. he is saying don't criticize vladimir putin and if you do that is being anti-american. it is a message that makes absolutely no sense. and as someone who spent four years working on the north korea negotiation in this six party process, i could tell you that

the -- the north korean issue was never helped by the russians. they never did anything to move us forward. unlike the chinese who did try within their boundaries. that the point that russia can be helpful, whether it is syria or north korea, that is clear. but the notion that somehow we have to withdraw our concerns about what russia has clearly done in the u.s. elections, in order to get them to be helpful in north korea, i just don't quite follow it. >> the russians are engaged in north korea. i -- [ inaudible ] is the far far east of russia, closed to north korea, there are north koreans all over the place there. so the fact that they are engaged that, that issin disputable, isn't it. >> absolutely. northans are happy to live in val stock. so they have a lot of these kind of north korean workers there.

so that is going on for a while and it is helpful if russia kind of joined the rest of the known universe and stopped this kind of thing. but the fact of the matter is, russia is not trying to be helpful with us on north korea. they should be. but the notion that this is tied up where their obvious meddling in the 2016 election, is something i just don't understand what the president is frankly talking about. >> general mccaffrey, president trump appears to understand that millions of lives are at stake over the north korean nuclear crisis. >> yeah. let me start off by saying that i think chris hill is entirely correct. the chinese are the key to unraveling this north korean problem. the russians are creating mischief wherever they can. and they are batting way above their average. russia is now a relatively backward third world country with a lot of nuclear weapons. a gnp less than that of italy, a

milt whose active component is barely bigger than the u.s. marine corp. and they are creating problems for us and threatening their neighbors around the periphery. so the russians aren't a solution to this. and the notion that we should ignore their very active and clever cyber campaign against western european democracy in the united states is utterly nonsense. but back to the real point, north korea is on a collision course with reality and a lot is exacerbated, in my judgment, by mr. trump mocking and making light of this 33-year-old brute who dominates north korea and who unfortunately now has more than 60 nuclear devices and the means to deliver them at least in the region. our current posture with a very limited diplomatic engagement is possibly leading us to war on the korean peninsula.

>> i was in north korea for a week, just recently, and i have to say, north korea's response to president trump's speech in south korea fits with everything i've heard. they are calling him a destroyer saying he is begging for nuclear war. how should, jim mccaffrey, the president respond to that kind of language to north korea and should he at all. >> well, he shouldn't. the two leaders could be blunt, into adolescent exchange of comical threats. but nothing is funny about the potential of an null out high intensity ground and air war in the korean peninsula. one which i might add, the south korea armed forced and the u.s. would destroy the nkpa in less than months and it would be a humanitarian zaft and it is likely to go nuclear and it might entail a nuclear device fired at u.s. naval facilities in japan or guam.

so again, i think the notion is it has to be a multi-faceted approach, not just diplomatic and economic, and covert action, but ways in which we can apply strategic leverage to the chinese. hint at the possibility of upping taiwan's capability, hint at the possibility of the japanese going nuclear which is a thoroughly bad idea. bringing in the neighbors of china who are uneasy about the south china sea. so we have to get engaged and massively invest more in our strategic ballistic missile defense. we have a reasonable effort now. it is got to get a lot better. >> ambassador hill, let's talk about diplomacy and the tate department. the ambassadors diplomats that i speak to just talk about a near depression for many of them in terms of the way that the white

house handles that side of things. give me how that fits with the korean issue? >> well i think you got it. it is a very grim picture. and it is so much worse than anyone expected. with former chairman of oxon mobile coming in, you think he would understand systems and understand how to use staff. after all, to have np envoy is to extend your reach and you want to show that you could be in several places at the same time and do you that through a staff who by the way absolutely willing is work with rex tillerson. he was considered quite the savior when he walked into the c street entrance in early february. but it hasn't proved that way at all. so i think the united states as our secretary of defense has sold noeted on a number of occasions, is really being shortchanged in diplomacy and what we need. this issue with china is not an issue where we say to china, hey, this is a problem for you, you ought to handle this and then we'll give you some

consideration on trade issues. the issue is to work with china to have a day in and day out understanding with the chinese about what we want to see out of this and what they could expect to see out of this, how we can work together, and not how we can outsource it to china. so that is a diplomatic game and it is a diplomatic game that goes on every day. and for the president or for the secretary of state who thinks this is a one-person sport, this is a team sport and you have to have a big team engaged in these issues and everything needs to be worked in advance. you don't just show up at summits and hope something good will happen. pulling a rabbit out of a hat. you need weeks of stuffing the rabbit in the hat and a lot of work and they are just not staffed up for it and the worst thing is we have a secretary of state who i don't even think understands what it is to -- to be staffed up. so very -- very depressing situation as your question implied. >> i want to thank you for

spending some time on a saturday with us. despite calls from a growing number of republican lawmakers, roy moore refuses to drop out of the alabama senate race. up next what president trump had to say today about the accusations against him. >> at this point, there is no proof, the timing is just so suspicious, right before and -- and he's had 40 years when all of this could have come to light and it is still just a few days before a special election. nice man cave! nacho? [ train whistle blows ] what?! -stop it! -mm-hmm. we've been saving a lot of money ever since we switched to progressive. this bar is legit. and now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. i can get used to this. it might take a minute. -swing and a miss! -slam dunk! touchdown! together: sports! touchdown! ♪ ♪

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to think that grown women would wait 40 years to come before -- right before an election to bring charges is absolutely unbelievable. [ applause ]

>> why now? >> welcome back. roy moore remaining defiant today, denying accusations of sexual misconduct since "the washington post" detailed allegations that he initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in 1979. many republicans are trying to distance themselves from the scandal calling for the party's candidate for senate in alabama to step aside. two have rescinded endorsements an the gop fundraising arm has bailed on moore. president trump meantime side stepping the issue and asked by reporters about his political future, he said, quote, i have not seen very much about him, about it. and you know i put out a statement yesterday that he'll do the right thing. despite the fallout, roy moore said he is still in the race. joining me now, vaughn hilliard in alabama and analyst and former bus cheney senior adviser and katherine van pell, at the washington post. vaughn, talk about the

conversations you're having with voters there. ordinary folks who still support roy moore. what do they say to you? >> reporter: despite senator danes and lee rescinding endorsement of roy moore, and the nrsc saying they will no longer help him in fundraising, here in alabama we saw a standing ovation when he entered and after he left. this is a group of gop-ers outside of birmingham and conversations back in his home town. i was in a convenience store in his home town and a dozen people said the roy moore we know is a nice man. alabama is familiar. he's been in public office for several decades. i talked to the rnc committee man from alabama just last night and he was telling me if there is anybody that is looking to establi establish -- a write-in campaign, luther strange, the current senator, they should pack up their bags because if it

costs roy moore the election over the democrat, they should go and look to move north of the mason-dixon line. if you are looking here on the ground, alabama republicans seem to still be very much behind their candidate. >> robert, help us understand what vaughn is talking about there. the local politics. how is that playing out? why does roy moore continue to get so much support on the ground there? >> apparent lip he's -- apparently he's a popular state governor and part of the alabama supreme court. and someone a very dominant picture in local and state wide politics for quite sometime. when i started in television in 1996, i remember reading about roy moore with respect to the ten commandments being in the courtroom and so forth. when i was in alabama for the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement, i remember seeing huge billboards in birmingham and montgomery and mobile with roy moore's face on.

it he is a local celebrity. he is very father-like in that regard. but that is beside the point. everything that i just said is absolutely beside the point. if in fact someone is saying that they were sex ufl lay salted -- sexually assaulted or molested, it doesn't matter when this came out, it could have come out ten days ago or ten minutes ago, it makes no difference. and what is baffling people are pushing this aside and saying it is politics when it is everything do to do with what is moral, allegedly. >> roy moore attacking "the washington post" saying there will be revelations about motivations and context of this article. any idea what he's talking about? >> i think he's just spinning. he's trying to figure out how to get away from these incredibly incriminating allegations. which are backed up -- >> i doubt they are coming back to us. >> which are backed up by 30 sources who were contacted and who spoke with my colleagues at

"the washington post." there is very little roy moore can do. even his own defenses don't really make a whole lot of sense. he's saying well it was 40 years ago. but it is not true. why are they coming forward now. really? so if it were 40 years ago it would be okay. is he saying that the women who were accusing him of sexual misconduct should have come up with a more convincing story, if it was only ten years ago he would have stepped aside. it doesn't make any sense. and he's doing the best he can to hang on. and believe that the fact that members of the senate who are calling him to step aside are saying, if the allegations are true, i think that is just baloney. they are giving themselves an out in the event he refused to step aside and still manages to win this election. i think these senators need to be put on the record now as saying voters, do not vote for this candidate, if you do we will refuse to seat him. i think mitch mcconnell needs to

be on the record today as saying that. >> robert, many republicans will be worried not that roy moore might lose the next election, but that he might win it and turn up in the senate. >> yeah, i mean, look -- this is a very, very big deal. this is horrific if it is true. but even before the allegations came out, recall ma members of the members on the republican side did not want roy moore to be their colleague. so this is really, really bad. and it's interesting because i was listening to his comments this morning when he said, well, all of the women that -- all of the young ladies that i went out with, i had their mother's permission. >> he said girl's actually. >> pause there for one second. if you have to ask for their mother's permission to go out -- there is something wrong with that. at the end of the day there is something wrong with that. and so i -- what i found troubling with that statement is that the person asking the question didn't ask a follow up by saying what i just said. this is just crazy.

it is absolutely crazy that we're talking about someone running for the senate or let alone dog catcher, this is so wrong on so many different levels and this is where all politicians, no matter when you are democrat or republican, this is right or wrong. and for those people to stand up and say this is wrong, this is -- we're better than this as a society and whether it is ten minutes ago or ten years ago, or 20 years ago, it makes no difference. >> right. and as a father of daughters, you find yourself wondering at what point will the politics end and people just start thinking as parents. this could be my child. thank you so much. harvey weinstein, kevin spacey and louis c.k. and now george takei, the impact it is had on the entertainment industry and the new task force created to deal with it. what powers the digital world. communication.

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the spotlight on hollywood sexual harassment continues to illuminate the entertainment industry. george takei denying allegations of a 1981 sexual assault by a former model. in tweets posted this morning he said, quote, the evens he described back if the 1980s simply did not occur. the latest bombshell accusation from anthony edwards who said he was molested as a child by producer gary goddard who said he denies. louis c.k. has been dropped by his agency, manager and publicist just one day after he admitted that sexual harassment claims made by five women in a new york times were true. joining me now is katie fran, legal analyst. katie, at what point does this scandal become more than just shocking headlines. let's start with louis c.k. could he face criminal or civil charges. >> we know that louis c.k. issued a statement yesterday and

it was a full and completed mission of liability. however, i suspect that his lawyers vetted that statement thoroughly before he made it. and made sure that there were no applicable statute of limitations from a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution that would expose their clients from what we know i think 2005 was the latest of any of the interactions that he had with people but that is only what we've heard so far and there could be people that come forward that might have fall within the statue of limitations. >> talk more broadly. louis c.k. stands out because he admitted that the allegations are true. how does that have a standing from the legal perspective. there will be others who advise them not to respond in that way. >> imsure there are ton of them -- i call then the group of enablers. it takes a village, a village of handlers and agents and lawyers and managers that are probably telling their clients not to open their mouths. louis c.k. stands out because he said i did. we have heard complete and total denials from all of the other

perpetrators named so far. it makes the case against them more difficult to prove from the civil and criminal perspective and if there is a applicable statue of limb -- limitations then this will control and dictate what happens in those cases. >> and in many cases the people say they knew. does the law extend to them? if you stand by and let something happen, if you like, are you legally responsible? >> it creates this idea of complicit behavior and that could rise to criminal exposure. more often than not, it is the civil liability that arises. not only from a business setting where perhaps they allowed the perpetrators of this abuse to continue to do. but people like managers, people like lawyers, people who really knew what was going on, had the ability to stop it and failed to do so could be looking at themselves on the firing end of a lawsuit or perhaps even something as high as a criminal prosecution. >> it could go as far as a

criminal prosecution, even for somebody who wasn't the perpetrator of the alleged act but simply involved -- in kind of turning a blind eye if you like. >> it depends on the facts of each specific case. and so i will not make a general universal statement. but i will say, if you are doing things like covering up and it is not just turning a blind eye as you've just used as an example, but it is more of a civil exposure standpoint and not so much from a criminal level. >> katie fang. the on going headlines are stunning again and again. next the political fallout from sexual abuse allegations against the gop senate candidate roy moore. will it even matter to his supporters? we'll hear from them after the break.

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pursued sexual relations, many supporters are standing by him. >> he is a great guy. i think -- [ inaudible ]. >> anybody can make allegations. until it is proven in a court of law i am not going to say anything because that is a united states law, you are innocent until proven guilty. it is slander to accuse someone -- [ inaudible ]. >> nbc news interviewed a dozen republican voters in alabama and all voiced continued support for the u.s. senate candidate. most say the allegations against moore are false but would vote for him even if they turned out to be true and they believe he is a good man and should be forgiven. joining me now is joyce vance from university alabama school of law and her husband ran against him against in and paul,

just trying to get a sense why people would stick with a candidate when these kinds of alleged revelations are emerging. are you getting any sense of a shift in his local support? >> not specially. you have to remember that alabama is probably the red estate in the country. and a lot of republicans are just put off by the mere idea of a democrat taking the republican seat in the senate. however, there was a -- an opinion savvy poll released yesterday, moore had been leading that poll by six points. the poll results yesterday had the race tied at 46% each. so that may be more indicative of voters across the state. but as far as hard core republicans, they elected donald trump and there was allegations about him.

i don't think they'll treat roy moore any differently. >> joyce, your husband was the last person to run against moore in a state wide election. can you just describe your experience with the moore campaign? >> so i think judicial race and that was a race for the alabama chief justice of the supreme court. those are very different sorts of political races than senate races. in that race the democrat who is my husband lost by about four points and now we're seeing polling that shows jones essentially neck and neck with roy moore, into the next week i would expect to see more polling and we'll see if that poll holds up. but the similarity between this race and the earlier race, my husband was involved in, is that it will come down to turn out and who shows up on the poll day. and this is a special election, there are no other races on the ballot. typically many alabama voters pull the lever and vote for the entire republican or democratic slate of candidates.

but that won't be a factor in this election. there won't by a presidential race or other race at the top of the ticket to force voters into a partisan vote. at the end of the day alabama voters have to look at the allegations and make a decision about whether moore has the character they want to see in a u.s. senator. >> in his remarks paul moore alluded there might be more. take a listen. >> there will be revelations about the motivations and the content of this article. >> paul, do we have have any idea what he might be referring to? >> he said yesterday that his campaign was conducting their own investigation into the charges. we hear about -- the sort of investigations all of the time. president trump is referring to different investigations that did not yield any results yet. i think the best thing that roy

moore and his campaign can do is to give those results of that investigation, whatever they may show, to get those in front of the public and change the narrative. because the narrative is fast building against him. and i'm not sure if there is anything he can put forward that will sway people who deserted him to bring them back to his camp. >> is there something about outside of -- of holding his support -- "the washington post" was the newspaper that made the revelations, it is many republicans from outside who are calling for him to step aside, does that -- for some folks there, does that actually drive them to get behind him more, paul? >> i think to some degree it does. and again not to go back to president trump again, but he has vilified the media to such a degree that the trust worthiness of the media, whether it is right or wrong, has been undermined. and so people look at the media

and they always think there is an agenda at hand, particularly when you have a newspaper like "the washington post," republicans can look at it and say they've endorsed doug jones and written critical stories about judge moore's foundation, this is another part of the attack and that is exactly the na -- narrative that roy moore is putting out there. but when you read the story, it is air tight, there is nothing that he's said to far to undermine the details revealed in that story other than to say it just didn't happen. >> we appreciate you guys sharing a camera. thank you. stay with us, joyce. we'll get back to you in the next segment. a solution for syria. president trump and vladimir putin agree on a peace plan for syria. but what about the crisis with north korea? who the president blames is slowing down his agenda when it comes to u.s. relations with russia, next.

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the u.s. intelligence community cop firps that russia meddled in the u.s. election but president trump is still not prepared to concede that russians interfered. instead the president told reporters he believes president putin when he said there was no meddling by the kremlin. to dive further into the comments, let's bring in our channel. joyce vance with us again and jordan fabian, white house correspondent and kevin sir illy. and jordan, the president said he could keep asking about putin about interference in the elections, yes, he can -- he said he can't keep asking. but he can. he could ask him again and again and again. because new revelations keep emerging. why is president trump so against that? >> well it is striking but you have to remember, this is the president's stance for months now. he hasn't said he believes this

conclusion that russia did meddle in the election. and it came even a more striking contrast this weekend with mike pompeo coming out and reiterating the cia director hand picked that u.s. intelligence community has in fact verified this happened but you have the president on the other side of the world, putin saying it hasn't. and this is a problem that is going to keep continuing for him down the road if he doesn't change his stance. >> kevin, do you think the president's denial is an attempt to distance himself from the investigation. >> well i would agree with jordan. the bottom line is that vladimir putin is a former kgb guy and his deputy comes director released a statement and said that it didn't come up, contrasting what the administration said, which is that it did come up in the brief five-minute conversation. but there is no question that cia director mike pompeo reiteration about the fact, the

facts that russia did meddle in democratic political institutions on both sides of the aisle, including trying to get into more than 20 state wide electoral systems and meddling into silicon valley, big social media companies and at the end of the day united states lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have to figure out what they are going to do to prevent this from happening in 2018 and 2020. that said, this is a tough spot for president trump. because he also needs to work with russia on syria, on north korea. and to some extent we've seen nikki haley to do with regard to north korea sanctions on that front. >> and that is the point that president trump makes, that the russian scandal domestically if you like, is getting in the way of his ability to pursue foreign policy. does he have a point there? >> yes, somewhat of a point. kevin is right to point out that russia has supported the north korea sanctions at the u.n. security council but if you look at syria, they haven't done

anything to push bashar assad to give up power or cease the fighting in the civil war and the ukraine same thing. they are not getting deliverables out of putin and some are very concerned that by meeting with putin and by putting out join statements like the one from the state department yesterday, that is putting the kremlin on an equal footing with the united states and that is something that is very concerning to experts, especially with this robert mueller investigation ramping up and escalating in the background. >> and joyce, talk, if you like, as if you were giving legal advice to the president. with robert mueller's investigation, is the back drop to all of this, would it be better for president trump legally speaking if he just conceded that russia interfered or just didn't comment on it at all. >> typically the best strategy in the courtroom, but in life is to concede what you have to.

it seems puzzling that the president continues to dispute the conclusion of the intelligence community that there was meddling with the election, we see not only was there interference in 2016, there appears to be on going interference in brexit, today there were reports that in the spanish situation, there is interference and we suspect it is ongoing in state and local elections in alabama. so -- >> right -- >> so this seems like a disingenuous choice. >> so by not conceding, if there is anything to concede on the part of president trump, legally speaking, that is a smart way to proceed, isn't it? >> i think perhaps his best strategy would be to stop talking about this situation at all. when you are a subject or a target of an investigation, the best thing to do is to quit tweeting and commenting and let the cards fall where they will. >> and jordan, robert mueller's team is looking no whether paul

manafort tried to set up a quid pro quo with turkish officials to carry out their directives including the return of the tush. >> president chief rival in exchange for $50 million. if true, how much trouble does that present for michael flynn and for the trump white house? >> it is important to remember that charges haven't been brought against michael flynn yet but if thur true, they are serious. and what robert mueller can do is use the charges to put pressure on michael flynn to become an informant and reveal what he knows about any possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia during the 2016 election. remember, also, that michael flynn's son -- michael flynn jr. is accused of being part of the plot reported in the media so they could use that -- prosecutors could use that against michael flynn as well to put additional pressure on them.

>> and paul manafort has been indicted and george popadopoulos admitted lying to the fbi and other names dragged into the investigation, is trump in jeopardy of impeachment by his own party. >> i'm not going to get ahead of the investigation. there is no question -- no one is seriously considering impeachment in the congress, i'll say that, in the republican-controlled congress is thinking that. but on issue of the investigation, this is been washington's dirty little secret for quite sometime. chairman chuck grassley put it to me the other week. the idea of lobbyists not disclosing when they are representing foreign governments, whether it is russia or ukraine factions, that is not just a republican, but a democrat problem. case in point tone yoi podesta so it will shift the disclosure

laws here in washington. >> thank you all for joining us on a saturday. riding the wave. democrats still on a high after several big wins on tuesday but can they keep it up. next the takeaways from this week's elections and whether trump supporters are starting to have a little buyer's remorse.

a landslide in the waiting hours of tuesday's governor's race in virginia. polls have democrat ralph northam ahead of his republican opponent by two to five points. come tuesday night, northam blew expectations with a nine-point victory. how much did president trump have to do with the results? and are democrats honing in on a model nationally for next year's mid terms? joining me now, senior adviser robert trainam and director of strategic communications for hillary for america. that's a question that every

strategist is trying to figure out. how much was tuesday specifically a referendum on donald trump? >> well, i don't think it's -- to me, there's not a question. i mean, it was absolutely a referendum on donald trump. you know, look, his popularity in a lot of these states has gone down 15, 20 points since he was elected about this time a year ago. so it absolutely made an influence. look, this is a huge night for democrats, the best night that we've had in five years. we made major gains in virginia, we flipped the control of the washington state legislature to democratic control and a lot of this is because democrats finally were focused on the down-ballot races. republicans have always had the edge on down-ballot races. so very excited. democrats feel very good, but make no mistake, this is absolutely a referendum on donald trump and his divisive agenda. >> robert, a referendum on

donald trump? >> northern virginia, which the democrats won in unbelievable numbers, is a microcosm of the united states in many ways. northern virginia has a lot of first and second-generation immigrants, a lot of brown individuals, a lot of democrats. and so i believe, based on the exit polling that i've seen, they've said, look, this is not what we're interested in. this is not why we came to this country, this is not what this country's all about. so there's three things that i believe put the democrat over the top. number one, it was this vacillating back and forth on the affordable care act. secondly, the offensive nature of the wall language and the xenophobic language coming out of the republican party. and thirdly, i think a lot of moderate democrats, and even republicans, were saying, you know what, this is just not -- i'm not comfortable with this language coming from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. so one was a moral issue and the other two were policy issues. >> can the democrats rely on

anti-trump fervor to turn out their voters? it's a truism in politics that you don't rile your opposition, you try and kind of leave them alone. is the effect of president trump in the end that he is motivating democrats in a way republican presidents haven't for a long time? >> look, he's absolutely motivating democrats and a lot of independents and a lot of moderate republicans who just don't stand for what the divisive policies that he stands for. but going forward, democrats do have to maintain this momentum. we've got the mid terms coming up in about a year from now. we've gotta keep this momentum going. we also need to continue to give people something to get excited about. it's not enough obviously to run against donald trump, we've gotta give people real hope and policies to stand on, which is what we are doing, but that's a challenge that democrats have moving forward, to make sure that our message about reforming

health care, but not repealing it, about giving the middle class tax cuts, instead of big corporations. those are messages and actual policies we've got to implement moving forward, in order to give democrats something to be excited about, beyond just being against trump. >> and the roy moore issue rates even more of a challenge for republicans essentially. >> no doubt. there's two things that really unified republicans when they were -- when democrats were in control. it was barack obama and the affordable care act. there's two things that really unite democrats now, donald trump and the affordable care act. fast forward to your question now about roy moore, we talked about this before. it just baffles me that the republican party, my party, is supposed to be the party about more values. it's supposed to be the party about, look, literally, if in fact, i just can't -- it just makes my blood boil, the fact that there are so many

republicans out there that are being hypocrite cal on this issue. >> robert and adrian, thank you both very much. >> robert, you're welcome to join our party. [ laughter ] >> i'm not sure that's quite happening yet. >> thanks, guys. >> putin denied it and president trump said he believes him. for the second time the russian president has denied meddling in the 2016 elections. next a report from vietnam following their meeting at the asia pacific economic summit. h . but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

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xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate. ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. in the mirror everyday. when i look when i look in the mirror everyday. everyday, i think how fortunate i am. i think is today going to be the day,

that we find a cure? i think how much i can do to help change people's lives. i may not benefit from those breakthroughs, but i'm sure going to... i'm bringing forward a treatment for alzheimer's disease, yes, in my lifetime, i will make sure. >> i'm keir simmons at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's a busy saturday with major developments on the russia front. president trump is again trying to stamp out any suggestion that russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race. the president was seen chatting with vladimir putin at the asia pacific economic summit earlier today. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders confirming this is one of multiple informal conversations between the two