over an hour. that brings us to the end of our show. thanks for watching "velshi & ruhle." i'm ali velshi. >> and i'm stephanie ruhle. now andrea mitchell. four more women accusing roy moore of sexual advances and allegedly calling one teen while she was at school asking her out. >> she describes getting that phone call and feeling like everyone in the office was staring at her. she went back to class and told her friend. hard sell. president trump pushing the tax plan on capitol hill this hour, trying to get reluctant republican senators to close ranks, but the house is in line. >> i was asked, can you support the current version? i wouldn't vote for it. it's just that simple. but it doesn't mean that i don't want to vote for a real solution. so that's why i'll work with

senate, house and the white house to get one. and trophy tusks. international outcry today as the trump administration lifts an obama ban on importing trophy elephant heads from africa. >> to lose the elephants which are on a path to extinction, we have nothing but human apathy and greed to blame for it. that to me is an inescapable truth. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. four more women have now come forward accusing alabama senate roy moore of sexual misconduct, ranging from unwanted advances to assault, adding to an avalanche of allegations that threaten to bury his campaign. a total of nine women talking about improper sexual behavior more than nine years ago when

they were teenagers and he was a fledgling prosecutor. two more women accusing him of unwelcome advances. one of them, gina richardson, was working at a mall in gasden, alabama when then-30-year-old roy moore asked for her number. she declined, but a few days later, she said is he was in trigonometry class at gasden high when she was summoned to the principal's office over the intercom. she had a phone call. the man on the other end of the line said, gina, this is roy moore. i was like, what? he said, what are you doing? she said, i'm in trig class. she finally agreed to a date with a very forceful kiss from moore. moore has not responded to the claims, but he said the onslaught of allegations are absolutely false. joining me now is gabe gutierrez covering in birmingham and kristen welker at the white house. gabe, first to you. two of these new claims come from reporting by the

"washington post," two come from alabama reports,ers, al.com. but they top a lot of accusations of roy moore in the republican party. >> we had two other accusations pop up, one in al.com and one in the "washington post." you had four that came across an initial washington report, and then a fifth accuser, beverly young nelson, she appeared in that press conference with gloria allred. the allegations, as you mentioned, range from inappropriate flirting to all-out sexual assault. roy moore continues to deny this. he has a lot of support here in

alabama. he is holding an event for leaders who say they're sticking by him. we understand that they still plan to stay behind roy moore even though the national republican party has pulled funding from this race. local gop officials who we have spoken with say, listen, we don't like washington telling us what to do and we plan to stick by roy moore. this new spate of accusations coming from al.com and the "washington post." andrea? the jury is deadlocked, reportedly, in the menendez trial. the judge has yet to dismiss the jurors but we have yet to hear updates from there. we're hearing from the defense side, from abby lowell, that the jury is now deadlocked. meanwhile, kristen welker at the white house. that prominent trial involving a sitting democratic senator, menendez in new jersey.

more details to come, but let's go back to what's happening with roy moore, the candidate for a key senate seat in alabama. how does the white house handle this? we heard from ivanka trump on line saying there is a special place in hell for men who go after, just paraphrasing, children. but we have yet to hear from the president. >> reporter: the big question is when are we going to hear from the president, andrea? he was asked about it yesterday when he made those remarks for nearly 25 minutes about his foreign trip to asia. at the end of that, he ignored shouted questions about roy moore and all eyes are on the president. a lot of republicans feel he is the only person that can directly try to nudge roy moore out of this race because his approval rating is so high in this state. i think at last check it was hovering around 60%. we did hear from ivanka trump, andrea. let me read what she had to say

to the associated press. she said, there is a special place in hell p lrkl for people prey on children. i have yet to see a valid explanation and i have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts. the question is, what is the debate? what is the conversation going on behind the scenes? i can tell you one of the concerns is if the president were, in fact, to interfere or intervene in this race, it would have essentially the opposite effect to the one they're hoping for. it would energize roy moore's supporters around him. so the question is, is it better for the president to sit on the sidelines or to get directly engaged? we are going to hear from the president at some point about this, i would anticipate, andrea, before the end of the week, and he'll undoubtedly get some questions about this on capitol hill. remember, this is not only about the makeup of the u.s. senate, the credibility of this senator, it's also about the president's agenda. if the democrats win this race,

for example, that would make it tougher to get policy issues like tax reform passed, because the republicans already have a narrow margin in the sat, so it would be that much smaller. if roy moore were seated, then they have a difficult question to ask. would they, in fact, unseat him? a lot of discussion going on behind the scenes about what the next step should be. should there be a write-in vote? >> they just released a statement ahead of this event and they say, quote, we stand with judge roy moore, a man of integrity who has never waivered in his value of the unborn.

the folks of alabama will not be fooled by suspiciously timed accusations without evidence. that's part of the statement, and that's something we've heard from a lot of roy moore supporters here. they've backed him for a long time, since the time of that accusation years ago. they don't believe the accusations. they believe they're politically motivated either by the national media or by his opponents, doug jones, who has denied any involvement in this. but again, the faith leaders, they see in roy moore a candidate who shares their views. in their view they don't appreciate these attacks from the national media. so again, andrea, these new accusations that have come out, they range from this inappropriate flirting to sexual misconduct. yesterday his attorneys actually held a news conference where they called into question that yearbook that the fifth accuser had put forward in that news conference on monday where she alleged that roy moore had

actually signed her yearbook at least a week before the alleged assault. his attorneys claim that the signature in that yearbook was a forgery, and they say it may have been lifted from a previous divorce case that judge moore was a part of. certainly his campaign is fighting back hard, pushing back hard against these allegations. they did not address specific questions about these latest accusations, but again, they are not backing down. and roy moore insists he will stay in this race for the special election on december 12. andrea? >> thank you to gabe and kristen. stand by because we're bringing in pete williams now on the menendez case. let's talk about this hung jury reported from the courtroom and what the implications are for the senator. >> it's up to the judge now. the jurors have said for the third time they can't reach a verdict. two times before the judge has instructed them to keep going. menendez' lawyers have said to

the judge in a filing yesterday that he should accept a mistrial as a justifiable outcome in the trial. there are bakely three outcomes, guilty, not guilty or mistrial. forcing the verdict to go back and say they have to reach a verdict is improper, that the judge should accept this and declare a mistrial. the prosecutors are saying the best thing would be to send the jurors back, keep going, and perhaps they can reach an agreement on some of the counts. the basic thrust of the case against him is bribery, but he's also charged with failing to report gifts from this eye doctor that he was accepting gifts from and some other charges. there are four different kinds of charges in the indictment. so the prosecutors are saying he could be convicted on some and not others and that that would be the right outcome. so the judge is going to have to decide what to do here. this is also strange, andrea, because the jury sort of restarted deliberations on monday after a judge excused a juror who had longstanding plans

for a vacation, so that alt alternate was brought in and they had to sort of start all over again to bring that juror up to speed. >> joining us now, nbc's steve kornacki. steve, as i understand the law, the judge could still resist these defense filings and again give them an allen charge or the dynamite charge to tell them to get back to work, but that could cause further complications down the road on appeal if it did go to a conviction. there are a lot of problems for this judge if he decides to proceed with this jury which right now he seems intent on. >> looking at the politics of this, too, it raises a lot of interesting possibilities because you have to remember bob menendez is up for reelection next year. currently he's up for reelection in 2018. he's maintained he'll be exonerated here, he'll be acquitted and run next year.

his democratic party has stood beside him. but you've got a couple scenarios here that create a potentially messy situation for menendez and democrats. one is, look, if this is declared a mistrial here and the government decides to go ahead and retry him, then menendez would be facing a second trial while running for reelection in 2018. would he want to continue as a candidate while facing that trial? would he pay a price with the voters to do so? would they say, the first time didn't really see anything, do we give him the benefit of the doubt? and again, the flip side, yes, if the judge were to go back and force the jurors -- sort of push the jurors toward a verdict and it would be guilty on something and there would be an appeal, then we would have the question would menendez be running next year? would he continue to run while on appeal? remember, if he's convicted on

anything, you can bet the instant that happens, the republicans and the u.s. senate will move to have him expelled. that would take 67 votes. that would take two-thirds supermajority for that to happen. democrats have been sending indications that they wouldn't even consider going along with that until early january. the reason for that is in early january, new jersey's newly elected governor phil murphy, a democrat, will take office. at that point if menendez was resigning his seat, then the new government would make an appointment for menendez' seat. if menendez left the seat before that, the lame duck governor would get to make that appointment. so the democrats are making signals that they're fine with menendez at least if he's acquitted until january. the problem is if there is an appeal situation. the possibility of a mistrial,

if the government says, we're not going to drop this, we'll have a new trial next year, that would coincide with menendez' reelection campaign. the democrats would have to decide if they're willing to stand beside a man on bribery charges, or if they would allow someone to run against him. >> it's so complicated personally and politically. we don't have steve. let me bring up the fact that this situation was compromised and they knew this going on in the mcdonald case, the governor mcdonald case. that was the decision by the supreme court that gifts from friends are okay as long as there is no state prohibition against such gifts. >> the mcdonald rule created -- if you want to prove bribery, you have to come with something very pointed, very specific, very clear. there was a moment in this trial, in fact, where menendez' lawyers moved to have the thing

thrown out, basically because of the mcdonnell precedent. the judge mused about it in open court and was asking, should we even be hearing this case? he thought about it for a weekend and came back the following monday and said, no, we're going forward. that will go to a jury. obviously if menendez is convicted, there would be an appeal, menendez would appeal this, but it raises the distinct possibility that menendez, if convicted here, would succeed on appeal. sort of the way bob mcdonnell himself did. that would be the other question here. if menendez is convicted and the mcdonnell precedent is going to ultimately exonerate me here and i'm going to press forward on appeal, would democrats sign up with that? would they say, yes, we're on board, menendez. we want to go through that with you. or is there a sense he becomes a

political liability? if you look at the charges, legally here there is one argument. if it becomes a political argument with menendez running for reelection, he has to explain to voters why he went to bat for a guy defrauding medicare. that would be action the government was looking at here. they were saying menendez, in sort of going to bat for dr. melvin here who defrauded medicare services, that menendez was doing that because of the gifts, was doing that because of the contributions. if menendez beats this legally and there is no connection, the jury says there is no connection here that we can find, we can see in terms of the gifts and contributions, he was only doing these things as a friend, well, he still did the things. that becomes a political question. legally it's one thing to prove bribery. if menendez is not denying that he actually took these actions, he's just saying these are not the actions of a politician bought by a donor, he's saying these are the acts of a friend. these are actions looking after

anybody who is a constituent. then those actions become political as well. >> thank you for breaking into this news and pete williams as well. now accusations against democratic senator al franken when he was a comedian on a uso tour in 2006 before he was elected to the senate, before he was in politics. this is an issue. nbc correspondent kasie hunt following that story from capitol hill. kasie? >> reporter: andrea, good afternoon. we do have this new allegation of groping from lu ann tweeden. she's a morning radio host out in los angeles. she alleges she was on a uso tour with senator franken back in 2006. that's when he was a comedian before he was elected to the senate. she says he wrote a part into their skit that required him to kiss her and that he tried to rehearse the kiss backstage that made her uncomfortable. then she also published a

picture that was given to her of her asleep with senator franken mock-groping her. so in a statement senator franken's office apologized to leeann tweeden. i'm going to read this statement here. quote, i certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but i send my sincerest apologies to leeann. as to the photo, it was clearly meant to be funny but wasn't. i shouldn't have done it, end quote. we have various reaction on capitol hill. senator mitch mcconnell, the majority leader in the senate, calling for anne ethics committ investigation into this accusation. schumer was supposed to have a press conference at 12:30, but that event has been canceled. there is no exact connection necessarily, but there has been quite a bit of radio silence

across the board from democrats on this issue so far today. we're going to keep trying to get reaction here to this new allegation and we'll keep you posted. andrea? >> thanks so very much. all things on capitol hill today, kasie hunt. joining me now, elise jordan, republican adviser and msnbc political analyst. and michael steele, spokesman for house speaker john baynor. and an investigative reporter for al.com who broke the story of two more accusers last night. carol, to you. there's been backlash from the lawyers, the party, the so-called big, bad "washington post." you went out as an alabama reporter. what have you found and what about the credibility of the women with whom you've spoken?

>> i found a lot of stories that are very similar to what was first reported in "the post." i found the women that i spoke with very credible. it was my job to be skeptical of stories that i hear, but ivet d i vetted them to the best of my ability and i found them to be very believable. one woman i spoke with said roy moore grabbed her butt when he was a private attorney in 1991. she was there with her mother on some custody issues, that he had flir flirted with her and made her feel very uncomfortable, then grabbed her toward the end of their visit. >> another woman you spoke to, kelly harrison thorpe. she was underage at the time. she was 17. >> yeah, she was a hostess at the red lobster in gasden where

roy moore was practicing. he came into the restaurant, she said, and asked her out on a date. he was in his early 30s at the time. she was 17. she said she asked him, do you know how old i am? and he said, yes, i date girls your age all the time. she turned him down, told him she had a boyfriend, and she said that he left. >> as someone who covers politics and has been covering this down there, what is your sense of the mood, the political mood as well? because we hear that the local party is supporting him, the state party is supporting him. there is obvious anger and discomfort in washington among republicans, among the republican senators. where do you see this going? is he going to stick it out? we're, of course, waiting to hear what the president will say as well. >> yes. roy moore has always kind of prided himself, i think, on being an outsider type

candidate. he seems to be digging himself in at this point. he has given no indication that he will step aside like some of the national republican leaders have been asking for. here in alabama, the statewide gop seems to, at least at this point, appear to be sticking with him and still supporting him. >> the fact that there's so much us versus them down there, the "washington post," the washington establishment being looked on as bad guys. we see a lot of local interviews of men as well as women saying they would support him even if it were true. is that a statewide reaction or is that limited to gasden and his hometown? >> no, i would say that's a statewide reaction, but the really statewide reaction is mixed. his supporters do absolutely seem to be with him until the end and are willing to think that maybe there is not a lot to

these allegations or that they're politically motivated. but there are a lot of other people in the state, too, who have expressed to me in e-mails and messages that they are glad we are doing some digging and trying to find out what really happened. >> if you could come back, anna, and elise, i want to bring you in as well. we've got steve bannon in the mix as well. we have yet to hear if he's going to run away now that sean hannity and others have expressed doubts about moore's version of the story. we have yet to hear from the president. how does the president handle this division in the party? >> andrea, it's really personally tricky for donald trump because of all the sexual assault allegations that the president himself has faced throughout his political career. so for him, he doesn't necessarily want to weigh in. he can't say, i believe the

women, because the obvious fallout is, well, should we believe the women who accused you? donald trump is trying to avoid this topic, but he'll eventually have to comment. you look at how his pattern of sarah huckabee sanders gives a statement and then donald trump yesterday was avoiding it when he was giving his follow-up about the asia trip. and then it makes you think that a twitter outburst is probably going to be how he eventually responds. >> we do note, michael steele, that moore tweeted, bring it on, to mitch mcconnell. what is the pathway for them? we keep hearing things like resignation from luther strange. i don't know how that would fix it. do they try to get him to step down from alabama and get a write-in for him.

>> i think the thing to focus on is people from alabama are going to choose the next senator for the state of alabama. no one from washington is going to make that decision. at the same time, people from alabama deserve a better choice than roy moore. whatever mechanism is better to give them that choice is the better way forward. >> do you see that republicans in alabama would vote for a democrat? >> i have actually talked to some who said they are voting for a democrat and i saw the ad for democrat doug jones last night and that featured republicans saying they were voting for jones and not for moore because moore was too divisive. some have expressed they will be writing in a candidate other than moore, and then there's still a lot of moore supporters who i think are with him until the end. >> at least, jordan, you talk about the president's own

vulnerability going back to "access hollywood" and things from the campaign. as we saw then, immediately after the "access hollywood" tape which is when we not only had the wikileaks dump but we had all the republicans bringing out the bill clinton accusers in the debate in las vegas. you have a lot of people saying, does this resurrect the association with bill clinton, his accusers? would they throw a blind eye to what everyone is saying? >> i think the best disinfectant is going to be sunlight, and reporters like anna clair talking to the victims of these crimes and letting them tell their stories. i'm proud at this moment that women are being believed overall, and that's a sign of progress, that women are more comfortable telling their stories to try to prevent predators from preying on other women. >> then, of course, the politics all being mixed in.

mitch mcconnell immediately calling for an ethics investigation. i'm not sure how the ethics committee had jurisdiction over what he mayor m or may not have done. >> i think all these facts should be a reminder that respect for women is not an issue. and to accept that would be a mistake. trump at capitol hill at this hour trying to rally republicans for tax reform. the house expecting to pass the tax bill, their version, but the senate is working on a very different version, which includes eliminating the health care mandate from obamacare, a critical underpinning to the health system. the party is under pressure to get legislation to the president's desk by christmas. joining me now, nbc's garrett haag on capitol hill.

we're waiting to see the president. he's just been at a republican caucus and we heard a little bit inside the caucus what he was telling them. as we keep the lens poised on folks coming down the wahall. >> the secret service has some sort of a lockdown position. you can see my shot but i'm sort of off camera here. the members described it as a pep rally atmosphere. the president was very c congratulatory toward the leadership for getting this bill passed in the house, which it looks like it will. he also apparently talked a little bit about the china trip, describing some big victories ahead related to trade, china, the rest of the asia trip. then he took selfies and shook hands, sort of worked the room a little bit.

i'm told now he was asked to speak to ted bryant. i'm standing right now with the combined capitol hill and white house press corps as they wait to hopefully ask him a question or two. >> before i let you go, garrett, there was some action on gun laws where they're at least taking some bipartisan action, we understand, to try to get a loophole that permitted the texas shooter to not have his family abuse record. it perhaps, perhaps woof would have kept him from buying an illegal weapon. >> richard curry and jim bloo n

bloomenthal have been trying to work these back door issues for a long time. the ally from texas came on board with this. even orren hatch from the finance committee said he would be a part of this bill. it urges states to improve their own backgrounds, but so little has moved in this or any recent congress on gun issues. there was some optimism, particularly on the democratic side, that, however done through the congress. >> garrett haake, we know where

to find you. thank you for everything. >> i'll be here. the man who covered russia's involvement in the dnc hacking, sharing how he discovered all of that. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

it's been a year and a half since we first learned that the dnc learned that it had been hacked by the russians. we are for the first time now learning how they made that discovery, what they did. it's a fascinating story. marine corps rob johnson is telling the story of how he discovered the breach. joining me now, rob johnson, admin of a security firm. tell us what happened. >> absolutely. i can't go into the details, but as with any investigation, there is always this up front kind of sprint to the finish line. at the very beginning of any investigation you have this sort of aura of urgency where you need to get things done, you need to find information out quickly and your goal of these investigations is to really figure out, one, how they initially broke in, two, what the damage possibly is, and three, what's your best strategy or best effort that you can put

forward in order to really mitigate the threat or remove the threat from the network as a whole? >> how quickly did you realize it was russians? >> i've been tracking russians throughout my entire career. i would say since about 2011 i've really been kind of knee deep in tracking russian cyber operations. i saw them during my time working network security in the marine corps, i of course saw them as chairman of the joint chiefs, dnc as well. so i've become very accustomed to viewing what exactly these russians are doing, these specific cyber actors talking gb-29, and i've become very attuned to what they're after, how they like to access things off networks. just that experience, i think, that broad experience over a very long range of time has helped me out in every single investigation i've ever done and

every russian breach for the past five or six years. >> we heard a lot of criticism during the campaign that the dnc didn't let the fbi in. they didn't take the warning seriously when they first heard the warnings. is that your experience with the dnc? >> my experience is really what's been widely reported. the fbi was very helpful and very involved in the investigation. you know, as reported in other news articles and agencies, they play a critical role, you know. my assessment of kind of the afterma aftermath, the fallout after the senate investigation hearings and all these other things, is really that i wish the fbi, knowing what we know now, this is some months later, right, that the fbi played a more critical role earlier. but, of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and you find information out many months after the critical investigation, what they knew and what we knew. it's a very important situation to note that i think all parties

were involved as best they could at the time. they were giving their best effort, but in hindsight, i wish there was more involvement earlier. >> have you talked to bob mueller's people? have you talked to the committees about how this hacking occurred as far as your best understanding? >> no. and my knowledge of these kinds of investigations is really at the technical level. i don't think what these investigations are typically after -- the technical details typically rest with me and it's often covered up by -- another breach involves an 829. you take a look whether it's at

that speed or svr, russian svr, it's kind of a toss-up, but an invasion like that, that experience, that intelligence knowledge, knowing how these russians operate, yeah, absolutely. looking at the evidence, looking at everything, no doubt. >> was the dnc sloppy about all this? >> no. i think any organization, they're never prepared, right? i mean, when you look at what organizations do, and this kind of leads into expectations. like what can we actually expect an organization to do? and when it comes to the russian intelligence services, right, can you really expect -- is the expectation really that a small or medium business, which really the dnc, the chairman of the joint chiefs, it's kind of under a thousand workers and work force. the ratio of security personnel to actual workers there is really, really small and can the expectation really be can we expect these types of organizations to be successful

when battling the russian fsb or gru? me personally, the answer is definitely no. that's the job of governance. that's the job of intelligence in the military. their legal responsibility is to defend against these types of attacks. i don't necessarily think the expectation is that medium-sized organizations can effectively make a defense against these services. >> robert johnston, thank you. >> thank you very much. leonardo da vinci's 500-year-old painting of christ sold for $450 million in christie's auction house in new york. >> what would you like, 318? >> 400. >> 400 million. selling here, $450 million is the bid, and the piece is sold. >> a buyer's fee was added to

the final sales price bringing the total to a whopping $450 million. the name of the buyer has not been released. they are now the owner of the only privately held da vinci in the world. if you believe it is actually authentic. there is still controversy swirling in the art world about this painting. going neutral. barry chapman on the looming threat of going nuclear with north korea. the power of the threat. you're watching andrea mitchell on msnbc. quick question. do you want the same tools and seamless experience

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i spoke the truth about the evil crimes of the north korean regime, and i made clear that we will not allow this twisted dictatorship to hold the world hostage to nuclear blackmail. we have to denuclearize north korea. we have ended the fail strategy of strategic patience, and as a result, we have already seen important progress, including tough new sanctions from the u.n. council. >> president trump after his trip claiming progress on north korea on the nuclear talks that are going on with asian leaders. joining me now, retired four-star army general nbc

military analyst barry mccaffrey. thanks for joining us. the hearing that was held before the foreign committee on tuesday, addressing the consequential question for the first time in decades of who has authority over the u.s. codes? covering that hearing, it wasn't so much what you would do when the missiles were flying and should the president have the obligation to retaliate unhindered, but the question was does this president have the ability to launch a preemptive nuclear strike? where did you come down on that? >> i think a lot of people are particularly anxious after the u.n. general assembly speech where he specifically threatened a nuclear attack on north korea. then the back and forth about short and fat and that kind of thing has left people concerned

about whether the president really understands the armageddon nature of potential nuclear conflict. andrea, set that aside. our nuclear deterrent strategy was essentially put together, a theology of nuclear weapons during a confrontation with the soviets where there were tens of thousands of potential weapons on both sides, and we were fearsome of being attacked by the russians with no notice, lose our second strike capability, and the whole notion was you don't want to incentivize preemptive strikes. so it ended up way lot of systems that live on to this day. it's time to rethink them. and it may well be that we should adapt a two-man rule. no one in the entire nuclear chain of command unilaterally can do anything, can activate a code, can launch a missile except the president of the united states. and there is a good argument

that we ought to rethink that and have the vice president, the secretary of defense, you know, two out of the three have to validate a nuclear strike. that would include imminent nuclear strike, in my view. >> i want to ask you about some of the testimony we heard from a former general who was in charge of strategic air command. he was trying to reassure the senators that a general can say, well, sir, i don't think you're right. they can argue with the president. that said, they still can't stop him. they can argue and they don't have to obey what they consider a disproportionate response or an illegal order, but then he can replace them with another general. so the bottom line is he still has unitary authority. >> he's a wonderful man. i was surprised his testimony -- better take into account the words of former secretary of defense bill perry, one of the most marvelous public servants we've ever had who said, look, don't think changing the current

rules will allow the president to make a decision on his own. he can't. you've got 15 minutes to make the decision before d.c. goes up in smoke. so again, this system was built to deter the russians from a first strike. the north koreans unclassified have around 600 nuclear weapons. they cannot possibly knock out the u.s. chain of command, nor can they overwhelm our defenses at this time. it's a good time to look at it again. one thing that ought to be said, andrea, and it's sort of a harsh statement, but everyone in that nuclear release authority is under what's called prp, personal reliability program. and a hint of alcoholism or legal troubles or instability, a hint of it, and you get pulled out of the prp.

so the president with his tweets and his rhetoric won wonders if he was an air force captain launch officer, whether we keep him in the program. >> wow. senator barry mccaffrey, never one to mince words, but deep thoughts. thank you very much. do i call you senator? that was a big demotion. general barry mccaffrey, thanks very much. and breaking news -- that's why i said senator, because senator franken responding more completely to those allegations of inappropriate behavior and now senators including fellow democrats calling for aen ethic investigation into his conduct. let's get the inside scoop. heidi, now claire mccaskill and patty murray both saying that they are joining the senate majority leader's call for an ethic's investigation into their fellow democrat al franken. >> you've got a combination here

of leadership and of these more vulnerable democratic senators. i think the party realizes that no one in this town can cast stones. we're all in a glass house. it's both parties that have a problem. and that they are going to set the tone for how this party responds to their own problems by immediately calling for this investigation. but also i wanted to mention andrea that these women senators who are now going to speak up, they're the women, including patty murray, who came into this congress in the year of the woman in 1994, which was a direct response to the clarence thomas hearings and anita hill controversy. so these women are going to feel a special responsibility to take the lead on this when it's in their own party. >> we now refer to the year of the woman ironically because it was thought to be but then of course it didn't turn out to be. and going back to garrett haake on capitol hill. we see coming down the hallway the entourage. there is i believe the president, general kelly, trying to spot on our screens.

we see the chief of staff of the -- garrett -- >> yes, that's right, the chief of staff is with him, gary cohen was chatting with him on the way in. it looks like steven miller in the front here. as you can see there approaching us, we have sort of a line of police officers keeping us back, but as he comes to the line here, we'll try to ask him about roy moore and senator franken and see if he's interested in gauging on either of those topics. >> garrett, i know you've got some big pipes so we will pause here and listen in to see if there is any question. there is the president. pauses. he's got the vice president with him. shaking hands as he comes down the hallway. as you know, he ducked a question in the diplomatic room yesterday when a shouted question from kelly o'donnell about roy moore, something he has not wanted to talk about. the vice president approaches, garrett, i think you are on

front line there. >> that's right, give me one second, andrea. mr. president, should roy moore step aside, sir? mr. president, should roy moore step aside? sir, any reaction to the al franken news, sir? >> garrett, i couldn't quite hear, was there something said when he -- i saw him wave his hand, was there any response at all? >> looked like he was just mouthing thank you as he sometimes does when he doesn't really want to engage with the questions, andrea, but you heard, you know, a serious attempt to get him to engage on the roy moore question. i also asked if he had any response to the allegations against al franking, thinking perhaps he might be more willing to talk about that subject breaking today but no answer from the president or vice president on either as the entourage departs here. >> and, garrett, heidi is still with us here as well, because we've been talking about these new allegations against al franken, the allegations come from an abc radio anchor woman

who spoke out today in los angeles and she's referring to something that happened in 2006 when she was on a uso tour and it was to the war zone i believe in afghanistan and, in fact, heidi, she said that he was rehearsing a skit with her. he was a comedian, no longer with "snl," not yet in politics, rehearsed a skit that required a kiss and he had written it and written it with her in mind and she said there's no need to rehearse and as i recall he insisted on rehearsing. she claims that he kissed her in a really inappropriate way, that she was repulsed by that, angry about it, pushed back against him, and avoided him for the rest of the tour, and then when she was asleep on the c-17 flying out of the war zone, that he mugging for the cameras in a clear bullying fashion mocked her and groped her. >> it's clear that she --

>> we saw that picture. >> it's clear she felt bullied from her statement. i read through the entire statement. and she said that the harassment in her words also included snide comments after he rebuffed h her -- she said she did not report it at the time because she felt they were in a war zone and she thought people wouldn't believe her, and so she kept it to herself, but she also said she had representative spire on her radio show, a week or so ago, where she shared her own story about having been assaulted as a young congressional staffer, and that gave her kind of -- brought back some of these memories and gave her the motivation to go ahead and speak out. and of course what is particularly potentially troubling here is also the retaliation aspect of this, that she felt like she was not only harassed, but that bullied in the aftermath. you see senator franken handling this in a very different way coming out immediately with his

statement and apologizing and saying that women need to continue coming forward and that he himself supports an ethics investigation. >> speaking of the ethics investigation, as we watch pictures of the presidential motorcade leaving capitol hill, we are expecting a white house briefing from sarah sanders some time around 3:00 this afternoon which of course will be carried live. you see the wave from the president now as he leaves capitol hill to go back to the white house. this statement from senator shermer, as this has moved remarkedly quickly. saying sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated. i hope and expect that the ethics committee will fully investigation this troubling incident as they should with any credible allegation of sexual harassment. it's interesting, heidi, because the democrats had been watching the republicans twisting in the wind, if you will. the republican leadership. about how they handles the roy moore problem.

and now they've got a problem with one of their own. >> which is inevitable, honestly, the way that this story is going. it's rippled across hollywood and now it's rippling across washington. yes, democrats have long had a campaign on -- republicans being the ones who have the war on women and of course that is from a policy perspective but the last thing they need is to look like. s when it comes out that they have this problem and their party as well. andrea, i think this is the start of something. there may be more who come forward. there may be more members of congress. let's hope not. but they have to be ahead of this. given where they are in terms of messaging on republicans and on roy moore especially and the fact that this is a sitting senator. >> and we -- you know, we've seen -- you referenced what happened in the 1994 campaign, we've seen what's happened to women in politics.

and what barbara comstock, the virginia republican member of the house and also jackie spears, you referenced the california democrat, what they were talking about is there are sitting members who have not been called out by name in both parties who have been abusive according to their account. >> franken says in his own statement that these events of the past several weeks has caused us as a culture and as a society to take a second look at behavior that both men and many women frankly have said that they just accepted as normal. and so we are seeing a cultural shift in that many of these instances are things that happened in the past but not so recent past, this is 2006 that we're talking about, but it is a culture that is now being exposed and being called to account. >> and we have some part of an interview with leanne tweeden, the deputy -- excuse me, kabc radio anchor woman speaking out about happened back in 2006.

her story about al franken. >> and i'm coming towards him and he comes up and he grabs me and he puts his hand behind my head and he aggressively comes in and he mashes his mouth up against mine and he sticks his tongue in my mouth. as it happens, it happens so fast. he puts his tongue in my mouth and his mouth is just wet and slimy and to this day i call him fish lips, okay, because it's disgusting and it's like how i describe it in my mind is, like, when a dog -- when you're holding a treat for a dog and i own a dog and they're salivating while you're holding the treat, that's just what it reminds me of. >> well, it's an incredible violation. >> of course and, you know, my husband now, was my boyfriend then, all i could think about is why would somebody do that? he's married, i've got a boyfriend. i was violated. i was disgusted. that's not what i was expecting. all i can think about is that what you wrote that in the script for so you could do that to me. i was angry. i wanted to punch him in the face. >> and we're going to have to

leave it there. th that is the story. craig melvin will pick it up. we will bring you details on the elephant story tomorrow. a lot of breaking news, melvin, take it away. >> craig melvin in msnbc news headquarters in new york city. a very busy day in washington, d.c., on capitol hill, president trump as you just saw there leaving the capitol a few moments ago. his visit in anticipation of a house vote on tax reform. that vote we're told will likely happen any moment from now. kevin mccathy on the floor on the house right now debating that bill. afterwards, we are expecting public remarks from house speaker paul ryan. so that's happening on left side of the screen. the right side of your screen, again, president trump heading back to the white house. the other big story of the day of course, fallouts of senator al franken. now this woman coming forward, accusing the sitting senator of an unwanted sexual advance. we'll get to that story in just a moment.