>> we'll have part two of this conversation for sure, so thank you for doing that. we have tried to reach out to the former congressman to get his reaction to the allegation. the "new york times" said a woman who identified herself as gary's wife, cathy miller, denied the allegation and said the term was yellow journalism. >> it just makes me so sad to think that, well, it wasn't gary miller that was a product of the environment. no, sir. we are born alone and we ndiaye lo -- die alone. it doesn't matter the company we keep. thank you for watching "velshi & ruhle." our colleague andrea mitchell is here with "andrea mitchell

reports." more money, more problems. cutting off moore's fundraising as gop republicans tell him to get out. >> if he cares about the values and the people he claims to care about, then he should step aside. >> he should find something else to do. >> if the choice is between a democrat and roy moore, i choose a democrat. >> your message for roy moore, senator? >> get out. lifting the veil. women in congress lift america's big secret, sexual harrassment and abuse. >> there are two members of congress, republican and democrat, right now who serve who have been subject to review. >> the young staffer is a young woman, went there and is greeted wi by a member in a towel -- it was a male -- who then invited her

in. at that point he decided to expose himself. >> coming up, we will talk with congresswoman jackie speier about her own story. jeff sessions' revolving account of the trump campaign's interactions with the russians. >> i don't recall it. >> i don't recall that. >> i do not recall such a conversation. i don't recall ever being made aware of that before. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in new york today. pressure is mounting as more and more republicans want roy moore to get out. he remains defiant. >> i'm playing a little part in this scenario going on in the country. obviously i've made a few people mad. i'm the only one that can unite democrats and republicans.

because i seem to be opposed by both. >> this has more supporters turning to dirty tricks with an anti-semitic twist. robo calls to alabama voters from a fake supporter pretending to be from the "washington post." >> hi, this is bernie bernstein. i'm a reporter for the "washington post." i'm calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate roy moore for a reward of between 5,000 and $7,000. we will not be fully investigating these claims, however, we will make a written report. >> the "washington post's" response, the call's description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. we are shocked and appalled that someone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism. president trump is deciding what to do about moore. we haven't heard from him yet.

we join nbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, we know you've been talking to white house officials about what they've been discussing with the president as he's back from this long 12-day trip. they're talking about taxes on the senate side and where will they come down on roy moore. >> reporter: andrea, i think we'll hear from the president sometime this week. it's not clear if that will happen today. what i can tell you is he is here getting ready again -- remember, he just returned late last night after that 12-day trip to asia, and he's been reaching out to lawmakers. according to mark short, the legislative affairs director here, he did speak to mitch mcconnell as well as house speaker paul ryan. short wouldn't read out those calls, but look, it is clear that tax reform and roy moore are clearly front and center here. what is the president going to do? there is broad agreement behind this at the white house, andrea,

that is roy moore cannot serve as a u.s. senator. but can the president directly intervene? a lot of republicans think he's the only one to do that, to make a direct pitch to roy moore to drop out of this race. but the flip side here and the debate within the administration is, will that have a backlash and backfire and cause alabama voters to essentially say that the president is trying to meddle in their elections? that's a very delicate fine line that the president will have to walk here. how is he going to see this situation? obviously we know that mitch mcconnell said they also discussed a few days ago the possibility of having jeff sessions run as a write-in candidate. will that happen? those are all unresolved questions that the point, andrea. i can tell you, though, this is a president who is in a reset mode here, i think really trying to determine what, if any, action he's going to take next. then as you point out, obviously tax reform a big priority for the president. >> down in alabama, vaughn

hilliard, first of all, there is all this information that's coming out now about allegations that moore had a history at the g gasden mall, which is under a microscope now, people coming out and saying that he was known to have followed young girls or women down there. i want to ask you about that. but first, the elephant in the room, really, is the exchange that just took place in the previous hour right here at msnbc with stephanie ruhle and ali velshi and roy moore's attorney. what he seemed to be suggesting here when he was pressed hard on what roy moore had acknowledged to sean hannity, that in the past if he was dating younger women, he would ask their -- women is a term, really, that probably does not apply -- that he would ask their mother's permission. and this is how it went. >> why would he need permission from any of these girls' mothers if they weren't underage?

>> sure. that's a good question. culturally speaking, i would say there are differences. i looked up ali's background, and it's awesome you have such a diverse background -- >> what does ali's background have to do with dating a 14-year-old? >> i'm not done. >> answer, please. what does ali's background have to do with dating children, under 14-year-old girls. >> there are certain requirements for marriage. >>al ali is from canada. >> ali has also spent time in other countries. >> i don't know where you're going with this. >> it's a stunning conversation there. i can only call it clueless, and i don't know what he was talking about, but it certainly seemed to have ethnic and racial

overtones that were clearly offensive. vaughn, to you. >> reporter: it's clearly confusing what's happening on the airwaves, in d.c., and what's happening on the ground here. it's completely different. tonight is when the 20-member steering committee is meeting in birmingham tonight. this is a group that if it desired to could remove roy moore as a candidate of the republican party here. but just an example of the fifth district, they had their executive committee last night. 35 to 40 members unanimously backed roy moore in a resolution. four of the steering committee members of the 21 were there last night. they were part of that unanimous vote. we're getting little nuggets here and there. roy moore is having a fundraiser tonight. where? they're only saying it's in state. he has no other public events. the other part of that interview was the lawyer's interesting

elusion to a press conference roy moore is having tomorrow. we don't know anything else. right now there is an 11 to 1 spending advantage for tv and radio airwaves for democratic doug jones over roy moore. so all of this is going on. what are people in alabama seeing? they're seeing an alabama republican party stand behind roy moore and doug jones on their television sets. andrea? >> kristen, as we try to find out what the president is going to do as he wrestles with this and whether they'll put up jeff sessions as a write-in candidate, which has all other sorts of implications for the mueller probe, this is sean hannity who had that very unusual conversation on the radio last friday with roy moore who said i would always ask for their mothers' permissions. this is what sean hannity had to

say last night. >> to me the judge has 24 hours. you must reasonably and fully come up with satisfactory explanations for your inconsistencies that i just showed. you must remove any doubt. if you can't do this, then judge moore needs to get out of this race. >> that's a pretty good leading indicator what president trump may end up having to do. >> reporter: it certainly is, andrea. that may be our best clue as to where president trump stands right now on this. if you have sean hannity starting to break with roy moore, that's a real problem. here's the other person that has been notably silent: steve bannon. we know he's overseas, he's giving a speech in japan. but he hasn't weighed in, andrea. we haven't seen the bannon branch really rush to his defense in these recent days. it's a real indication that the bannon sort of populist part of the party that was supporting roy moore may be breaking with him. vaughn talks about the divide

between washington and alabama. of course there is a divide between the establishment and the more far right republicans like sean hannity, like steve bannon. we are seeing that part of the party really start to cave in. that's going to put a lot of pressure on roy moore. andrea, obviously all of this has political stakes for the president's agenda. if that seat were to fall in democratic hands, that could affect not only tax reform but all the other policy matters president trump wants to accomplish having jeff sessions fill in. again, this is something that's being buzzed about behind the scenes but would allow the president to dispatch of an attorney general who he has criticized publicly while also trying to preserve that seat for republicans, andrea. >> i think they have bigger problems than one seat, because if he's elected and it's even seated, it's going to have implications for all their other 2018 races. thank you, kristen, and thank you, vaughn, as always. republicans are springing

another attempt to assert the underpinning of obamacare. it's an effort to bring down the budget deficit of the tax impacts and also to rattle the conservative base, but will it backfire? garrett haag is with us. garrett, what is your read of this? >> the republicans all feel good about this. they feel the tax bill is popular enough and the pressure is high enough on everyone in the party that if they put this mandate appeal into the tax bill that none of the usual suspects who voted against various obamacare repeal revisions will jump out and essentially derail what has become such a huge priority among republicans. they feel like this is a way to get this obamacare repeal promise taken care of, by attaching it to something that's frankly much more popular than their efforts to do this separately. what it does do is it forces both parties back into their corners. the idea that democrats like joe

mansion or clair mccaskill or any of these red state democrats who could conceivably be coerced to support this bill in the past, that's pretty much over now. democrats are going back in their corners and making this as a health care issue does sort of unite the liberal base in a way that the tax discussion on its own merits didn't really. there is an added emotional element that gets put into this, but again, republicans feel like they've found an attractive-enough vehicle to carry this across the finish line, that they feel like they're in the catbird seat here a little bit. >> although it has big implications for how to reconcile it once it goes back into the house. it was already going to have to go through that process. garrett haag, thank you very much for taking the temperature on capitol hill. meanwhile, partial recall. what finally jogged jeff sessions' memory about trump campaign contacts on russia? stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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attorney general jeff sessions again tried to correct the record during hours of testimony on tuesday. now he is recalling that he was aware of a meeting he attended between trump campaign officials, including the candidate and foreign policy adviser george papadopoulos who later met with russian intermediaries. sessions had fiercely denied that he had lied to congress in october when he said he was not aware of any such communications with russia. but sessions said during his

testimony after reading news acts of what papadopoulos told the government, he was then able to recall certain details about his meeting with the former aide about russia. >> i do now recall that the march 26 meeting at the trump hotel that mr. papadopoulos attended but have no clear recollection of the details of what he said at that meeting. after reading his account and to the best of my recollection, i believe that i wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the russian government or any other foreign government, for that matter. but i did not recall this event which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago. >> joining me now is nbc's justice correspondent pete williams and "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt. welcome both. pete, first to you. he's got a credibility problem

with both the house and oversight committees because of this memory loss, this failure to remember, and all of these contacts that have subsequently emerged between the campaign and russian intermediaries. >> the democrats on both sides of those committees are not satisfied with his answers. what he says here is the bottom line for him has not changed. what he says is beginning with his confirmation hearing and continuing through all the subsequent appearances on the hill, he's basically said the same thing, that he doesn't remember any conversations, he didn't take part in any conversations with anyone trying to improperly influence the election. that's been his bottom line. and he says that some things have jogged his memory but that they're all consistent with that bottom line, and that's where the disconnect is , i think, between him and the democrats. >> michael schmidt, i want to talk to you about brett tally, because there is a lot of controversy, certainly in

democratic circles but also in the wider community about brett talley who was nominated as deputy attorney general, and it turns out he does not disclose that he is married to the chief of staff of the white house counsel which helps sign off on these allegations. >> the interesting thing about his wife is she is chief of staff to don mcgann, the white house counsel. she took notes after the president met with mcgann after these crucial moments and phases of the past ten months, like after mcgann met with the president to discuss the firing of comey. her notes are now in the hands of bob mueller. mueller's investigators interviewed her in the -- sometime earlier this month to make sure they understood her notes about her conversations with mcgann.

now, none of this was known when they voted on him getting out of the committee. there is no indication here that the white house put him up for this because of his connections to her or her connections to the mueller investigation, but in his questionnaire to the senate in which he was supposed to talk about his interactions with the white house, he did not mention that his wife worked for the white house counsel. >> and i know that there were objections from diane feinstein and others on the judiciary committee, but that was a party line vote. he was cleared for a floor vote. so they have the votes to confirm him this week. >> correct. and he has not been voted in on the floor yet. this information that we had came out on monday. we don't believe it will have any real impact on the republicans, you know, the republicans basically would have known a lot about this nominee and they have gone along with the voting committee, so we don't think there would be any hangup there. there is some indication the democrats may go back and ask him more questions in the

questionnaire about why he did not disclose that his wife worked in the white house and had such a crucial role. it remains to be seen. the trump administration has been very successful at getting their nominees through. this has been one of their biggest legislative successes of the past year, and my guess is he probably still will get through. >> speaking of that, cedric richmond, who is the head of the congressional black caucus, questioned the attorney general about the diversity or lack of diversity of these nominees. >> in terms of nominating judges to the bench, our information tells us that out of all the judges that have been nominated, i think 91% have been white males. does that foster diversity? >> i'm not aware of the numbers, but we should look for quality candidates, and i think diversity is a matter that has

significance. >> pete, there is an implicit suggestion there that they haven't found qualified candidates who are diverse, but i don't want to put words in his mouth. but there really is a remarkable lack of diversity in these nominees we're all just getting through. >> in this particular group, yes. i think to be fair to the justice department here, i think the truth is they have a very limited role in this entire process. more so in this administration than in others, but whenever there is a republican administration, you know, there is people outside the government who spend months and months and months putting up a list of these people that can be handed to the administration when it comes in. that's how neil gorsuch got nominated, that's where a lot of these nominees come from, the federal society and outside groups that really sort of have their engines idling waiting for republicans to get elected so

they can step in and have a turnkey operation. that's one of the reasons, as michael points out, this has been so successful for the administration. i think the role in identifying these candidates is pretty limited. >> doesn't it seem as though they should have a role, the attorney general? >> i'm just telling you how it really works. >> it doesn't work that way in previous administrations, previous democratic administrations, but it clearly is very different right now. >> there's a more limited role to outside groups in democratic administrations, i think that's right. but that's only because the federal society is just better organized. >> pete williams telling us how it really works. thank you, pete. thank you, michael schmidt. coming up, deal or no deal. president trump's claims about what he brought back from his asian trip. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. attention: are you eligible for medicare?

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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. welcome back. president trump is just back from his 12-day asian trip. he is promising great results, a big event in the white house in the next day or two. he is tweeting, our great country is respected again in

asia. you will see the fruits of our long but expensive trip for years to come. the president is touting he'll have that big announcement in the coming days, but there are major doubts. msnbc political analyst and long-time journalist before that and editor, he came back with what? we're seeing that some of our asian allies, because they are part of tpp, have been doing trade deals as a part of this. >> yes. remember, the obama administration tried to focus more on the largest economic transactions in the world. the day donald trump withdrew from tpp was xi jinping's happiest day in office. and that is because he was trying to put a competing infrastructure bank together which included all our allies in the u.k. and then it all goes poof.

but at the same time, the other illusion that trump has is that somehow it's easier to negotiate bilateral agreements with 20-something nations than doing tpp, and he's wrong about that, and they can take advantage of us much more easily in those bilaterals than they can in that collective agreement. >> one of the examples i was pointing to the other day when he was still over there was japan had slapped a 15% tariff on the imports of american beef. this was just a couple months ago, our great ally of japan. they had, at the same time, a 27% tariff, far lower, on australian beef, because they're in the tpp. there are great advantages of being inside the circle than outside the circle. >> there were something like 17,000 tariffs would have been reduced inside the tpp. i read some reporting that trump had said to the japanese car manufacturers, can't you make more of your cars in america?

two-thirds of the japanese cars are made in america, and by the way, they go back and forth to canada and mexico for their parts, which is part of the agreement he wants to get rid of, which is nafta. >> in fact, they have been manufacturing toyota cars and other japanese cars in america, in kentucky, since 1980, to my personal knowledge. we've been doing stories on that for decades. so all of this at the same time as russia expanding his influence. the president is back and has embraced vladimir putin to an extraordinary degree and his officials tried to sort of walk that back. but the russian officials with this president is so remarkable. you wrote about this on politico today and how russia has expanded its reach. talk to me about just how the u.s. is so unprepared to compete against the sophistication of the russian propaganda and russian on-line community. >> we remember a long time ago vladimir putin was a kgb agent when the wall came down. he said, oh, my god, we spent

billions on weapons and it was soft power that pulled down the wall and destroyed the soviet union. he started investigations way back when he became president. what they used was something called active measures. it's a soviet term which is basically information warfare. they did it -- we were talking about this before. they've been doing it in europe for a long time, that study on brexit. and what they did in europe and the u.s. became a template of what they did in the 2016 election. >> it started when they moved into ukraine, and it's just expanded. they tried to do it in france with macron. they got pushed back. it was unsuccessful in france. they tried in germany and didn't get anywhere. they've now put influence on america and pulled out of brexit. after you joined john kerry's state department, you got a call

from former secretary of state hillary clinton. and you didn't know why she was calling or maybe to congratulate you, but, in fact, she was calling to warn you about russia, and this is what you wrote. you remembered her saying, the state department is still issuing press releases while putin is rewriting history. >> yes. >> pretty stringent warning. >> not to criticize the state department for releasing press releases, but she was on to this russian disinformation effort way more than lots of other people were. >> this is long before she was running for president. >> this is long before she was running for president. she had already left the state department. she observed what happened around the annexation of crimea, and i personally experienced because i was a victim of these russian bots and honeypots and all these different things, which i had never experienced before. she was very knowledgeable about it. >> let me just explain, you as the head of the office of diplomacy in the state department started issuing critiques of what russia was doing. what happened to your --

>> we made fun of it a little bit, #diplomacy. we were tweeting out russian dissolution. people calling me a propagandist, a hypocrite, all these things. then people started experiencing it in 2016 here. >> i want to ask you about what happened overnight in zimbabwe because the strongman, 92-year-old benghazi, overthrew the military because he was going to, when he stepped down, put his wife in power. i know you're an expert in all of this. >> mungabe was once a powerful guy when zimbabwe was liberated. he has now become an autocratic

dictator. he did want to put his wife grace, who is only 52, in office. in fact, the zimbabwe military -- i don't condone a non-democratic c ouroup, but if interrupts his life plan to have his family succeed him, he's doing it. the senate historic committee takes a look at the nuclear possibility of a strike. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." they stole her kids' mountain bikes and tablets along with her new juice press. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped her with homeowners insurance. she got full replacement on the stolen goods and started a mountain bike juice delivery service. call geico and see how affordable homeowners insurance can be.

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the president has a sole authority to give that order. whether we are responding to a nuclear attack or not. once that order is given and verified, there is no way to revoke it. >> republican formal relations chair bob corker, a frequent critic of president trump. i'm sorry, we're talking about nuclear power and he was holding a very serious hearing on capitol hill. a hearing not seen in more than four decades, a discussion of the president's unchecked power to launch a nuclear strike. let's get the inside scoop from national political reporter carol lee and "new york times" reporter nick montessori. nick, first to you. he held that baumeeting because his concerns. he was concerned that president

trump was going to start world war iii with north korea, and he was worried about how kim jong-un was going to respond, and what came on it of this hearing in frustration is there is almost nothing that can be done without unsettling the nuclear deterrents that have been in place for 75 years. >> the president has full authority to launch weapons, there is no countermanding or second guessing, and the entire system is designed tore spefor o allow a counterattack within minutes. there is no filter to question the president's decision, and that system was not designed for the idea of a president who, like senator corker, there are people who regard him as erratic or not capable of making the right decision or perhaps making a rash decision about the most important thing you can do as president. >> i want to play chris murphy yesterday, carol, who has one

thing he's concerned about with the president, and notwithstanding the speed we would have to respond if we were under attack. the question is about whether or not he would launch a preemptive first strike. >> we are concerned that the president of the united states is so unstable, is so volatile as the decision-making process that is so quixotic that he might order a nuclear weapon strike that is so out of step with international security interests. >> carol, the testimony yesterday was that there are options for the military if they think an order is not proportional. but the option is to basically say, sir, please don't do that, or it's ill-advised, but ultimately the president can replace that general and get that carried out. he's got the sole authority. >> right, and that was sort of part of the frustration, i think, at the end of this

hearing where it was clear that there weren't any immediate solutions, as bob corker said. when you look at what you mentioned earlier this idea of a preemptive strike, the obama administration reviewed whether or not to have a no first use policy and decided against that. i think if you're the president and congress is trying to tie your hands, it can potentially weaken you on a world stage. that was the concern, i think, for the obama administration in terms of first use, and yet now you have congress trying to hem in the president on this particular issue, and yet you have a congress that hasn't really wanted to take any type of war vote in quite some time. if you just look at the debate over whether or not to have a new authorization for the use of military force. but, you know, i think it sounded to me like after this hearing this issue is still not going to go away and that

they're going to come back and revisit it and see if there is some sort of way to have another check on the president. >> the legislation is to let congress have a vote, but as you pointed out, and nick, we've both seen that tim kaine and others have not been able to get congress to act on a war authorization in afghanistan after all these years. so how could you have under a scenario where america is at risk a role for congress or anyone else to entintermediate h the president. nick? >> they're worried about north korea primarily, and they're worried about an escalating war of words, a president who decides to act irrationally. usually there is an ambiguity about what lines need to be crossed to take that step. the president going in one

direction, the secretary of state going in a different direction, and these wars can start when the two sides don't understand what the other is really prepared to do. it's hard to imagine that being improved by having congress get involved. you can imagine a congressional debate about a preemptive strike on north korea and what north korea would do in response to that. it's unimaginable, actually. >> we'll have to leave it there. nick couldnnt ese srcontessori thank you. we'll talk to a congresswoman who was calling out a member of the house. you're watching msnbc. what if... "people" aren't buying these books online, but "they" are buying them to protect their secrets?!?! hi bill. if that is your real name. it's william actually.

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two years in a row. that's amazing. chevy's a name you can trust! members of congress are trying to change the good old boy network on capitol hill, even to face consequences for their misbehavior. barbara comstock and democrat jackie speier shared their stories at a hearing tuesday about harassment from their male colleagues. >> this member asked a staffer to bring them over some materials to their residence, and the young staffer is a young woman.

went there and was greeted with a member in a towel. it was a male. who then invited her in. at that point he decided to expose himself. she left and then she quit her job. >> there are two members of congress, republican and democrat, right now who serve. these harasser propositions such as, are you going to be a good girl? to perpetrators exposing their genitals, to victims having their private parts grabbed on the house floor. >> moments ago congresswoman speier as well as jill of new york are providing consultation on the hill. jackie speier, thanks for being here. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> how would change the existing process which involves a 30-day

cooling off period, whatever that's supposed to mean. how would you close these loopholes. >> this resolution was created to discourage the start purpose. a 30-day period for mediation at the beginning of that mediation period have you to sign a nondisclosure agreement. and at the end of mediation, another 30 days for cooling off before you can either file a complaint with the office of compliance or file a lawsuit. so, you can see how that's very discouraging. and the victim has to continue to work in that office during that period of time. >> and explain the power that members of congress and senators have over their offices. these are victims. there's a -- >> they are. >> -- complete power over staffing. >> that's correct, andrea. they are like little companies in and of themselves. they have their own budgets.

they're supposed to develop their own human resource policies, employment policies, and they're independent. but they do have the office of compliance to which staff can access, but no one's even known about it, for the most part. as we have found, most people don't even do the training. now, the speaker has made it clear, and i've introduced legislation as well along with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to mandate training for both members and staff on sexual harassment prevention. that's only one step. this office must be changed. right now if you go through mediation, the general counsel for the house is representing the harasser. you as the victim have to hire your own counsel. this legislation will create a victims' counsel. it will shorten that process so you don't have to go through mandatory mediation. you do not have to sign a nondisclosure agreement. it will also apply to interns

and fellows. right now they are not covered. and as you know we have a lot of young people working in the capital. they're bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, anxious to succeed. and when something like this happens, their careers careen. and many of them leave. that's not fair to them and it's not fair to the institution to allow this to fester. and for the congress to, frankly, be complicit in allowing sexual harassment to continue in our offices. >> i'll say. i mean, claire mccaskill was recounting yesterday how she was harassed as an intern and didn't feel she had any power. felt her career could be short-circuited if she complained. you can understand that. you were recounted, i think, there have been 260 settlements over the last 20 years that have cost taxpayers an astounding $15 million paid out quietly to silence victim of all types by capitol hill. >> so, there have been 260

settlements. over $15 million in settlement moneys paid for by the taxpayers. now, not all of these were sexual harassment cases. some of them were racial discrimination, some were disability discrimination. but the fact that that kind of money has been paid out quietly, silently and that the victims get solace from that. the perpetrators can go along and continue to be serial harassers. >> is this still going on? >> yes, it's still going on. >> and should people be called out? i mean, senator graham said it's good to get this stuff out and people should name names. >> this legislation would require that once there is a settlement, that it would be posted on the office of compliance website. if a member is responsible for the harassment, they will be

required to repay the u.s. treasury. >> it's been 22 years since senator packwood was forced to resign under threat of expulsion after the ethics committee found a full array of provable charges against him. this was an ethics committee led by mitch mcconnell, by the current majority leader. but it took forever to get those cases read into the ethics committee. it just seems the process is completely ossified. >> it's a process that was created to protect the harassers and not to provide benefits to the victims. so victims won't come forward. they won't come sfward because the process is so cumbersome. they won't come forward because they want careers in the congress. so, they'll try to find a way to move from one office to another. and it should not be like this. and so it's been allowed to fester, in part, because this system has protected the

harassers because it's been silent and not transparent. so, we're going to shine a bright light on it moving forward. >> what is your message to the interns, the pages, the young people and others who are worried about calling out someone who are afraid to step up and do a very brave thing, which is to put your own future on the line by going up against power. >> my message to them is that we need you to come forward. we need to clean up congress. and it's time for people to be held accountable. it's time for you to get the kinds of compensation and/or conditions in which to work where it's not a hostile work environment and you should never be subject to quid pro quo, never. >> congresswoman, thank you, for you what you and kristen

gillibrand are doing. stay tuned to msnbc. next hour, former senator barbara boxer speaking to craig melvin about her own experience with sexual harassment on capitol hill.

thanks for being with us. remember, follow us online on facebook and twitte twitter @mitchellreports and craig melvin is here. right here. >> always good to have you in the flesh. >> thank you. >> always good to see you. thanks, my friend. good afternoon to you.

craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. no moore? all eyes on the white house this afternoon as we await president trump's response to the roy moore controversy, the alabama senate candidate remaining as defiant as ever, as his attorney defends him here on msnbc in what can only be described as a bizarre interview. two for one, senate republicans now including the repeal obamacare's personal main date as part of their overall tax reform bill. will their gamble pay off or tank their legislation. and harassment on the hill. long and open secret on capitol hill. now pushed into the spotlight. former senator barbara boxer will join me to share her very personal story of sexual harassment by a fellow lawmaker. the tehama county sheriff holding a news conference on the shooting. you can see the news conference