[ music playing [ music playing ] >> okay. i'm going to admit it. i was kind of a fan. find kind of a crush. i actually watched "the part ridge family." i was obsessed k with the "brady bunch," the "partridge family" this idol of the "partridge family" died, david kassie died after a close family friend said he was in need of a liver trance plant. cassidy rose to star dom after he was cast to play keith partridge in the sit-com "the part ridge" family. they had hit songs like i think i love you. cassidy announced earlier this year he was suffering by

demensia. david cassidy was only 67-years-ol 67-years-old. >> did you watch? >> yes, i did. they were like the monkeys. nobody realizes, david cassidy was massive, massive reporting star and showing up at the houston astrodome at the time nobody did it. >> huge, massively successful. as you say no love from the critics. i will say in your high school, too the number of guys. >> i went to a girls school. >> a local girl school, the number of guys with puca shell necklace because of david cassidy, along with these songs, brought to the fullture. the brady bunch and the

partridge family were passive my brother loves puca shells. >> do you remember andy gibb? >> slightly later. >> only slightly. i'm 50. good morning, everyone, it's wednesday, november 22nd. we have political commentator susan dell persio, back with stories to tell. more work you have been doing there, nbc news, capitol hill correspondent and host of casey d.c., c'mon, guys. >> laser rock! >> i bet she has a puca shell necklace. >> she will have a tribute on ac already dc the brand, sprit it from casey d.c., this week another huge loss. >> another member of that great

fa fan. >> all right. well, good to have you all on board, president trump yesterday broke his silence on roy poor and the alabama senate race. trump took questions from reporters as he was departing the white house to board marine one. >> i can tell you one thing for sure, we don't need a liberal person in there, a democrat. jones, i've looked at his record. it's terrible on crime. terrible on the border, terrible on the military. i can tell you, we do not need somebody bad on crime, bad on borders, bad for the military, bad for the second amendment. >> mr. president is an accused child molester better than a democrat. >> well, he denies it. look, he denies it. few look at what is really going on and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it.

he says it didn't happen and you know you have to listen to him also. you are talking about he said 40 years ago this did not happen. so, you know. i'll be letting you you know next week. i can tell you, you don't need somebody who is soft on crime like jones. >> so do you not believe the accuser? >> what was your message -- [ inaudible ] . >> let me just tell you, roy moore denies it, that's all i can say. he denies it. and by the way, he totally denies it. >> so, casey, obviously, the president of the united states did do what the white house and kellyanne conway sort of tipped their hat to earlier, saying we need a contev e servetive in there that will vote along with the president's agenda, have you

the president of the united states yesterday saying we don't need a liberal. this is a defact o endorsement of roy moore and again it's once again the president finds himself on the opposite side of most republicans in the senate on capitol hill. what's it mean? >> mitch mcconnell is not saying he needs roy moore's vote in the senate. he thinks the opposite. he thinks roy moore for a variety of reasons would fought be a great member of the republican conference. i think the president and i talked to people who are familiar with his thinking in the wakeskating of roy moore winning this runoff election. he felt burned when mitch mcconnell and other republican leaders sent him down to campaign for luther strange. it was something that took am while to get over. now he still talks to steve bannon who of course is standing by roy moore. look at the kind of campaign

moore is now running. he is denying aenk everything. he is trying to undermine the awe accusers, saying they were lying. another was accused by multiple people recently who ran a similar kind of campaign and said repeatedly the women were like he now one his election. >> susan, the white house is trying to walk a line that can't be walked, they say privately, but they want to get tax reform through. by walking that line, it's a defacto endorsement of the candidate they say they're appalled be. >> it is, it has echos of charlottesville when you think about it, he says there are good people out there when there were neo-nazis killing one person. we look at it today. well, he said he didn't do it. well the president basically admitted i'd rather have a child

molester in the senate than a democrat. he set the standard. bob corkner charlottesville says he doesn't understand paraphrasing or the character of the country. once again clearly donald trump doesn't get it, we don't want child molesters in the u.s. senate. >> he says he denies it. >> totally denies it. >> he's taken the word of roy moore against the nine women. >> the white house isn't walking a line jaromir t. president endorsed roy moore yesterday. there is a reasonable chance he will campaign for roy moore. he i think the, casey came close to saying what i said is right, exactly right, he sees himself in roy moore. >> what's the impact? >> the imspakt now the president if he goes all if and ends up campaigning for roy moore the exact disaster mitch mcconnell foresees will happen, you will

see a biggest gift wrapped present for democrats heading into 2018. they're already sal ivating. for democrats headed into the mid-terms. a president, despite the fact that the rest of the party runs against roy moore the president of the united states now embraces roy moore, a ped dial. >> you are starting to hear, that obviously, on tv, fought only democrats but some conservatives that want to see roy moore lose on twitter are saying republicans rick being called the party of pedophiles. >> that label sticks a little

tighter if the president of the united states jumps in, doesn't it? >> it does, it's another very important data vote for women voters in the mid-term elections. look at what happened if virginia? what drove democrats to sweep the seats in areas previously where we're accepting republicans? a lot of the exit poll data say it was women. you talk to operatives behind the scene, what are they looking for? especially considering the broader national climate and the moment we are living in. women are more engaged if politics and feel as though there is more at stake for them with their votes with every passing day. i think this is something that you know republicans who are looking at the mid-term map, they know that. >> at the same, i very carefully say what the president said was not inaccurate. >> which is what?

>> he denies it. >> right. >> and they accuse him. and i do think that is something some voters will look at differently. look, there are cases like this that seem like a slam dunk even if they are 20, 30, 40-years-old because such a pattern is out there. it's still accusations versus someone pushing back. >> that does stay in a certain place. >> with voters. >> especially in alabama and i don't say that in any correct cal way or stereotypical way. it's a different culture that has had a different generational shifts over time, susan. >> it definitely sits, i look at 2018 when you look at nevada or arizona, you will see, there will be a fight in the republican party yet once again, is it going to be the party of child molesters or a party of

responsible fiscal republicans? that's how it's going to affect the president going forward is who wants his line i should stay say in a primary? >> he is saying i don't believe these women. >> roy moore can win this race. this is now about alabama. this is not about who wins that race? roy moore can win. the polls will be sketchy to election day for a million reasons, in the end, the president getting involved in way, it will get nationalized, for a lot of suburban women and spring districts that have watched the testimony of roy moore's accusers and seen the women talk too savannah guthrie on the "today" show, seen them on cam ramp. a lot of women around the country are regardless of how it plays in alabama, i agree with you, roy moore may win the race in alabama. but there are a lot of suburban women around this country who believe these accusers. they sounded extraordinarily credible. >> of course, they do.

again, i very carefully say what i said because i wouldn't want anyone to think the accusers don't sounds credible. they do sound credible to me. they are accusers. >> they are. >> if this would be a different state, i would be much more sure about the outcome. i'm not saying anything about alabama by the way. >> think about the politics, the president of the united states now saying clearly and out loud he takes the side of roy moore versus the word of the nine accusers. he made that very clear yesterday. so if your moral code doesn't dictate you come out strong against these things, maybe a strategic argument would appear, you will be saddled as you all have just said as the party of a pedophile for the rest of roy moore's term. be i the way the president will be saddled with that, saying you stood up in this moment of

truth, you stood up and took the side of an accused pedophile. >> before, though, we have been saying we don't know what will happen with the polls. people will lie, a lot of people will say you will vote for roy moore? that said, alabama of 2017 is not the alabama of 19 sfempblt it's not the alabama of 1997. >> oh, no. >> i think it's more likely than not that actually roy moore will lose. >> right. >> can i ask you a question? who votes in alabama if terms of age demographics? roy moore? the young people? if any off year elections where the president is not on the ballo ballot. the voters are older, wiser, more conservative. in virginia we saw women and suburban voters come out at an

extraordinary clip and washed away that natural built-in advantage. eddie gillespie didn't have horrific time getting loyal republicans out. just more democrats came out. i'm say it again, there are educated suburbs all around birmingham mountain brooke him homewood. parts of montgomery. a lot of mobile you have a lot of educated women standing in line a long time. i think just like virginia that could make a difference even in the headest of head states in america. >> in that case, you lose the seat and you've lost it. in the process of losing it, you become the party of pedophiles. which is a double whammy the president is trying to pull off here. >> for donald trump reports were for several weeks, willie, after he lost, the luther strange

race, he was beyond himself, he could not believe it and he was enraged, according to again this race. imagine he loses in the primary and loses in the gem election in a state they told me during the campaign if you lose this race,ly move to alabama because they love me so much. >> i remember the summer of 2015, in mobile, alabama, that was an earlial, he was embarrassed with luther strange. he deleted the tweets. if he does it again, sticks his neck out. not just for republican, but this republican, that's beyond embarrassing. >> all right. casey. jump in. >> quickly, one thing that

democrats have going for them here. is that they actually had a really food candidate who really fits their state. >> yes. >> it's not a situation where it's a nationalized race, you know, where the dfcc went in there. it's a progressive. it doesn't lean up. he is somebody who can actually go into churches with white voters and african-american voters, he fought this cold case with a kkk bombing. he is somebody who the democrats lucked out, quite frankly. >> he did not tell the truth about that. i think he said he was soft on crime. maybe soft on the crimes the president, whatever. the president seems to have a thing about race, an issue with it. so this candidate is strong, are you right, casey a federal judge blocking one of president trump's orders,

partially based on something he tweeted. those tweets come back to haunt you. >> time and time again. >> speaking of tweets, president trump is still fighting with the college basketball coach. where is john kelly? it's not working. >> willie, trump has to have stock in the shoe company. >> i started to think the same. >> and i promise he is going to tweet that he's going to take credit. i promise you, he will. >> he knows. >> exactly. >> he knows he is helping. he went to the washington post and shows like this. >> which he doesn't watch. >> he had the highest revenue ever. we had our highest ratings ever this year.

>> but i'm saying, he knows this. >> the "new york times," the washington post, doing extraordinarily well. he has the know he is selling a ton of sneakers right now. >> that's what i thought. this is professional wrestling. this the a fake fight between two guys who know exactly what they're doing. they threw out the bait. the other one takes it. lavar ball goes on and pounds his chest, big baller brand is going to have a great thanksgiving. i hope the president does, too. this is about selling sneakers, his three sons, marking them. let's read these early morning tweets this morning t. president called lavar ball a quote ungrateful fool and a poor man's version of don king. and that was before he started attacking hillary clinton and the nfl. so a busy morning on twitter. we await now. lavar ball's response and the spike in big baller shoes. >> the president is not interested in himself at all. i'm sure he wouldn't want to

download on spotify, what is that very drunk christmas? it's all about him. every word of it. it's quite air force base, since he's not interested in himself, he will not listen to that at all. >> you are watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. as you can clearly see, the updates you made to your plan strengthened your retirement score. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this? we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. nana, let's do this! aye aye, captain! ♪ and as you go through life -whoo! -♪ tryin' to reach your goal we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich.

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you'll always be up to date. you can easily add premium channels so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for. because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today. . >> we will be stronger and bigger and better as a nation than ever before. worry right on track. there so how does the press treat you? i'll bet you get treated better by the press than anybody in the world, right? >> i feel so good about myself. are you ready? >> the tradition festivus begins with the airing of grievances. i got a lot of problems with you people. now you're going to hear about

it. >> oh, man. >> i love festivus. >> however. mika has watched. i like, she has such a mind spot. >> yes. >> every "modern family" ever. >> ever. ever. >> every "office" ever. >> absolutely. >> she's one of these people. i'm not for some reason. i think i was working during those years, every single seinfeld. >> i love seinfeld. >> it's interesting. you don't know anything else about pop quiz. >> not that there is anything wrong with that, willie coming up, new reports say, no, seriously. >> she literally knows every seinfeld, every line from every "seinfeld." >> and "arrested development." >> oh my god, all time. >> just a little twist. something wrong. >> a little bit. >> yep. >> i wonder why that is? >> i don't know. maybe i work with -- >> new worst say bob mueller is

nor rowing in on jared kushner, the transition, the details are coming up straight ahead as willie, mika, myself and an entire panel are here for a long and enjoyable festivus weekend. >> not that anything is wrong with that. [ music playing ] fest vous. every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

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>> we are talking peace in syria, very important. we had a poll that went out an hour-and-a-half w. retalking strongly about peace to syria and north korea and ukraine. >> president trump and russian putin spoke on the phone for over an hour, a white house official says the topics included syria, in addition to ukraine, iran, north korea and afghanistan the call follows putin's meeting in with assad in

sochi. the author of the book "a world in disarray," richard haase for a hot spot round-up this morning. >> when i 8th every night at the olive garden, i'd have a tour of italy. instead of the tour of italy the tour of the world. >> towards the results. >> let's start, though, i love german. so let's start with that phone call. he talks for an hour to vladimir putin. was the biggest take away syria? >> essentially the russians and iranian versus won. >> the russians own syria for the most part, don't they? >> they are the two most powerful forces, ashaad is here for the forseeable future and then some the question is what happens to those lands?

gradually the russians move in. >> iran has large control over iraq, does it not? i had somebody tell me this past weekend, you can have whatever sanctions. >> southern iraq looks like an extension take a step back. iran has become imperial iran. it has influence from lebanon, which is nothing new, which is obviously one of the key things in the yemen civil war. >> iraq and obviously iran. >> it's interesting, this administration focused on the iranian nuclear deal. what do you do? we have cast our lot with the saudis. we have kals wit the weaker side we don't want to get heavily

involved. >> is what sunni arabs have been feeling has happened? that is the rise of iran? >> that's true. >> that's why they fear iran more than israel. >> it's a good sense, some of the barriers have broken down because they now have a common enemy, but this is in some ways a delayed consequence of the iraq war. without a strong iraq there. iran was the strategic principal. we are seeing the fruits of that now. so the exit of zimbabwe and mugabe, it was like the last "lord of the rings" you never knew when it was finally the screen was going to come down, is he gone for good? >> i think that's the real

challen challenge. >> is this one dictator to another? >> ro decemberia had it all the minerals the fertile land. so many people have left. this shows you what happens with terrible leadership. mugabe destroyed his company, the question is whether they will come back. >> people don't know when he went in there. there was so much hope for that country he wrote about it. peace has come to zimbabwe. again, it's been 37 years of horrid leadership. >> that transition didn't bring in something good, this transition, there are positive sides, it's wonderful. they can have real politics, not face threats, we'll see. >> so in richard, now placed on

the st. sponsor of terrorism list. yesterday there was an incident on the border. the united states says they broke the armistice, what's the impact from our side the united states side of placing north korea on the list of state sponsors of terrorism and ratcheting up sanctions? >> there are so many sanctions is negligible. >> richard, excuse me, this is incident along that border, defecting and being shot before he was rescued. >> this doesn't happen a lot. it's quite stunning this happened it may be further terrorism.

it's not clear yet we're prepared to play cards we have all this pressure, these threats, are we prepared to put forward these initiatives, so far it's not obvious. i think we should. >> it might be stabilizing, so it doesn't get worse, a freeze, no more testing. >> that would be a great deal. what are we prepared for a freeze on testing. that's diplomacy. >> ripped, a topic you've followed closely. one you have written about in yet another landmark bill.

it was not grilling. you talked how the security risks abroad are matched at home and the u.s. did he tell you believe and most rational thinkers believe is one of the great long-term debts for this country and yet we're looking at strapping another 1.5 to 2.2 trillion on the national debt with the tax be ill. >> we will drive up the relationship between debt and gdp. what this will do is crowd out domestic spending. because it will cost us more to pay what we owe. >> 99 to 100% of gdp. what impact does that have? can you explain to our viewers? >> it's the opposite of a virtual circle. what we have to do is pay more money, the debt goes up. >> paying interest on the debt. >> so we have to raise taxes, which we don't want to do, that slows growth, which is the opposite of what the tax zut meant to be. or if we spend more on the debt.

we don't want to cut defense, that means discretionary spending, or investment in our own future. that gets crowded out, squeezed. so there is that problem. foreigners say, hey, before we lend you money, places like china, japan, the two largest owners about american debt, they will get nervous. >> that will force us to raise interest rates and slow our economy. so everything done in the name of accelerating economic growth when it increases debt, it may force us to do things that will slow economic growth. we won't be able to invest in our future. >> that eats our seed point. that's what makes us competitive. in the long run, that's the basis. >> we are talking about crises abroad, what about here at home? susan you got back from puerto rico, which you described in one word. >> horrific. the six down there is unbelievable. i was up in the mound tonys on an aide mission with some health

care doctors in the red apple group the first day, we were able to open a health care clinic. what was amazing was to go up into the mountains and go to the poverty-stricken gnomes you can call them that with no water, no electricity bathe income dark brown water. this is the quality of life these people have and it is heart braking to see. when we talk about not having money for infrastructure, we don't have money in priek. there is no money exchanging, so the hotels are opened. they're not spending mine like tourists do, on our mission, instead of bringing supplies down decided to put money into the pharmacies. so we can circulate the money within the towns.

everything we did was on the ground. we were able to do most of all with just the community involvement. we didn't relate with the government. we went down there. >> and figured it out. >> did quick work. went back on this mission a and was able to have a tremendous effect. we will be doing it again. >> the numbers are staggering. you are hemorrhaging. the most educated and well loved. >> one of the scariest things are there are hospitals not performing procedures, because the medical supplies are made in puerto rico. people leave, when the factories are getting online, the pfizers and others, the work force isn't there it's come back. unfortunately, we will hear from this, people on the homeland are not necessarily getting procedures. not necessarily the first. >> now the president's tweets,

the military gender bans are coming back to haunt him with a federal judge. >> by the way, a federal judge appointed by a republican president. >> i hate when that happens. >> that story is straight ahead. zplmpblths

. so a federal judge yesterday temporarily blocked the entirety of donald trump's ban on transgender americans serving in the military. now this comes after a federal judge in washington, d.c. blocked parts of the ban a week ago t. president announced the ban, seemingly out of the blue on twitter back on july 26th. in his decision, maryland judges, appointed by republican president george h.w. bush called trump's announcement of the ban via twitter quote shocking, adding, quote, a capricious, arbitrary and unqualified tweet of new policy does not trump the methodical and systematic review by military stake holders,

qualified to understand the ramifications of policy changes, now, this is the latest judicial roadblock to the trump administration, following a travel ban to executive cities, just like those tweets are hurting the president with a lot of supporters, they say that and a lot of independents and persuadables is hurting him time and time again with federal judges blocking orders based on those tweets the white house called official white house policy. >> the problem is i believe those specific tweets weren't they at a time when he needed the a distraction. that's right, his house was scoured and there was a big story on the russia front. he did this hand fisted desperate tweet to distract t. problem is, if you don't think

about what you tweet, you end up paying for it. >> he's a day trader. >> i'm wondering. as we head into the how much do members on capitol hill at this moment think donald trump could at any moment under mine their strategy and taking to twitter as he under mines his own moves by taking to twitter as we pointed out with judges? >> john i would say it's a constant ever present fee, it's also a fear they have gotten used to living with and disregard it sort of happened, he said it should be included in the bill paul ryan and company said we will not do that.

it's a riskier path forward in the senate at the end of the day on tax reform, you never know with this president i don't think members know, they feel in this political everybody wants to get this done. at the end of the day, my sense is that will carry forward. >> there is a military reality. when donald trump surprised everyone with that tweet in july you had general dunford and mattis saying, hold on, we will study this. they know, they are the 1%.

>> they are dealing with racial issues, gender issues and issues like this they know how to deal with this. they said let us manage this the president were dealing with it at the granular level they've succeeded here. >> all right. well. casey, before you go, john conyers. go. >> well. where shall i start? >> look a. lot of people think this is the tip of the iceberg

on sexual harassment. i think in this particular case, there is a story in the "new york times" this morning i would commend to you that includes details about conyer's overall state of being. he is the deny of the house, 88-years-old, there is a lot of frustration within the democratic ranks this guy should step aside and make loom for new leadership. the "time's" reports he showed up at two separate meetings in pajamas, the woman filed the lawsuit earlier this year, decided not to go forward after a woman said she would keep it sealed t. environment the processes in congress for people

who are able to walk through the process, it takes forever to i think everybody is getting set on capitol hill for a a real seat changer on this. >> the detroit free press is say ing that he must resign. but i saw some reports yesterday and even before this part of the story came out that there were a lot. you talked about him showing up in pajamas two times. talked about the john conyers hasn't been mentally fit for the office for quite some time. democrats in washington and in michigan have feared that he would continue to embarrass himself. that he is too old and not fit mentally to be in the congress. >> i think there have been some

questions about how much good he's able to do now. >> i would just say. this pajama thing, i have seen you on this show in your bottoms. i have never questioned your sanity. >> i walk into 30 rock in my pajamas every morning. but that's at 3:00 a.m. >> casey hunt, thank you very much. >> here it comes. kasie hunt d.c. >> thank you, richard. >> happy thanksgiving. >> and what chapter are you going to in your book this weekend? >> we're smoking the turkey. >> chapter 14 is. >> coming up -- >> it was very moving. i didn't expect that.

>> coming up, the president contradicts his own point man ob capitol hill over whether he believes the women accusing roy moore of sexual misconduct. >> you work for the president. does the president believe the women or not? >> obviously, if he did not believe that the women's accusations were credible, he would be down campaign iing for roy moore. he's not done that. >> he's run eight races and this has never come up. 40 years is a long tile. the women are trump voters. most of them are trump voters. all you can do is you have to do what you have to do. he totally denies it. >> president trump seems to side with roy moore over the nine women accusing him of sexual misconduct is and leave open the possibility of campaigning with him. plus scrutiny intensifies on jared kushner. questions about his foreign contacts and possible involvement in the firing of jim

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world war ii. the british breaking the code. won the war over that one. einstein figuring out. >> should i clean my purse out. >> the man on the moon. >> you can also dpo back to henry ford and the whole assembly line. the industrialization of the nation. when people get discouraged. every time there's a great challenge, america answers. >> what are you laughing at? >> i'm so moved. i'm choked up. >> we had some ingenuity. >> can-do spirit. >> it's happened again. >> are you getting to your point yet? >> at the right time, it happened. >> america is already great. one daying in thanksgiving. figure out the final details for

your meal, taco bell has you covered. the company revealed the menu from the friends giving dinner. it had some of your favorite turkey day staples with a twist the way taco bell can do. light starters included butternut squash cha lieu pa bites. a classic spiral ham elevated with a glazed mountain due baja. >> yes. >> and when it came to the sides, the signature tacos were fused with mashed potatoes and corn creating a sim phony of flavor. >> there's also a recipe out there now for a turkey that's covered in crushed up cool ranch do eerrito doritos. >> that's actually what i'm having. >> just consider all these things as gather around the

table with your family. >> kalli is is a registered emotional support dog. i got another dog from the animal shelter. and she is official. she has a license. isn't that cute. >> how does she get along? >> they chase each other around. it's not working out that well. i have two registered e emotional support dogs. what does that mean exactly? >> we were talking about something critically important. >> no, it was disgusting. >> it was a combination of an enchilada and a a burrito. >> the kind of classic year of taco bell. >> i cannot tell you during college and law school. >> she has a barret on. i love her. >> that is just gross. >> much better conversation.

>> is that a dog in a barret? >> they just tied her to the front door. >> that was me, actually. >> she sleeps with me. >> the greatest innovation instead of having a tortilla shell, they are replace it with fried chicken. that was folded up around and you fill it with meat and cheese. >> top of the hour. >> is there a nearby taco bell we can go to after the show? >> it's america. of course, there is. >> can you check and see where the nearest taco bell is? >> they only have the breakfast menu at this hour. >> i'm very impressed with chick-fil-a is finally invaded the north. >> two blocks from here. >> for political reasons.

they were republican rats. democratic rats it would have bye-bye fine. be they are doing well. they are going up into connecticut. >> it's the top of the hour. 7:00 on the east coast. >> i'm inviting willie over to my house. >> i haven't approved that. >> she hasn't approved that yet. >> it's approved now. >> alabama and auburn game. the iron bowl. >> will you bring the cute kids? >> we'd love for you to come over. >> alabama or auburn? >> alabama is going to win. but it's on the road. auburn is good. i have two losses. >> she makes these massive eggs. they are like goose eggs. >> the big game is at 4:00 though. >> with us onset -- >> when you go and see 26,000 people on a cold thanksgiving. >> this is the most unassociated five minutes of the show. >> i have no idea. we have six topics going here.

sgl i'm a little worried. alabama has to be worried about auburn. then we have to be worried about georgia. but you think oklahoma piegt be the best team? >> oklahoma is really good. >> they had the slilt slip up against iowa state, but otherwise they are good. >> he also disrespect by the little kids. >> we have fine balm. >> joining us, susan is never going to come back if you guys don't shut up. >> who is your favorite college football team? >> i don't like college football. >> i'm a seahawks fan. >> for some reason, it's kind of bizarre. jack is a seahawks fan. >> they are fun to watch. >> one more time. john heldman is is here. carol lee, national political

reporter for nbc news joins us. she's just been waiting. >> another crimson tide fan i'm sure. >> and also with us -- >> taco bell, rescue dogs, what am i going here. >> she's like breaking real news stories. >> also with us for "the new york times" peter baker. >> peter is an expert on all the topics mentioned. he has something to say about every one of those. topics. >> taco bell, what's your favorite item? >> don't go there. >> it's gross, right? >> it's too early in the morning. >> favorite college football team. >> i'm an nfl guy. i'm a redskins fan. we're looking for more creative ways to lose tomorrow. >> that's kind of funny. >> you were wrong about peter baker. >> he doesn't want to play. he has serious things to say. >> so let's get serious now and talk about what's going on with

donald trump, roy moore, the state of the republican party. they have to be very concerned. democrats and a lot of never trumpers and also conservatives are starting to say, if donald trump and the republicans back roy moore and seat him, they are going to be the party of pedophiles. that's harsh talk. but how concerned are republicans on the hill? >> they are very concerned on the hill. this has put them in a terrible biebd. they at least have some degree of solidarity until yesterday where the republicans have taken a strong stand against roy moore being elected. now president trump has muddied the water. where does the national really party stand. on the one hand mitch mcconnell is saying, no, we don't want to seat somebody that's been accused o terrible things. then you have the president of the united states who seemed to say he believes roy moore gives him credit and a democrat would be worse. so up until now, that message had been pretty clear.

now it's kind of muddy. >> is this steve bannon? >> i think what's interesting is there's a contrary spirit. and the president. doesn't like being pushed into taking positions by what he sees as the chattering class of the washington elite. and i think his view is that if everybody is attacking him, this fellow roy moore, maybe there's a reason to standby him. he's got his own issues in the past that are obviously there and influence his view of how allegations are made. he believes he was unfairly accused if that's the case. you can see why he might be more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to somebody else who has been accused. >> he was a president weighing in yesterday in the senate race. >> i can tell you one thing for sure. we don't need a democrat in

there. i've looked at his record. it's terrible on crime. it's terrible on the border. it's terrible in the mull tear. i can tell you we do not need somebody that's going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad with the military, bad for the second amendment. >> mr. president trump is an accused child molester better than a democrat? >> he denies it. if you look at what is really going on and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it. he says it didn't happen. you have to listen to him also. you're talking about he said 40 years ago this did not happen. >> i'll be letting you know next week, but i can tell you you don't need somebody who is soft on crime like jones. >> do you not believe the accusers? >> wahat's your message for

women, sir? talking about sexual misconduct, you had your own allegations against you. >> let me just tell you. roy moore denies it. that's all i can say. and by the way, he totally denies it. >> mr. president, what's your message to women? >> women are very special. i think it's a very special time because a lot of things are coming out. i think that's good for our society. i think it's very, very good for women. and i'm very happy a lot of these things are coming out. >> do you believe the accusers? >> should assad go? >> he denies. roy moore denies. >> what about the women? what about the nine women? >> he's in total denial. 40 years ago is a a long time. he's run eight races and this has never come up. so 40 years is a long time. the women are trump voters. most of them are trump voters.

all you can do is you have to do what you have to do. he totally denies it. >> that was the voice of our kristen welker shouting a lot of those questions. the president of the united states effectively won't say it explicitly is endorsing roy moore. he's endorsing this man who has been accused of pedophilia, of having sexual relations with a 14-year-old. he also has a problem. if you listen closely. he has to say, i believe roy moore because he denies it. because the president of the united states has claims against him. if he says we have to take the word of the women, we have to take the credible word of the women in this case, that argument then would be applied to him in the 16 or so women that have accused him as well. >> that's exactly right. two things are happening here. there's the political calculation that we saw the president make yesterday. and that kellyanne conway previewed a few days ago.

saying that roy moore is the one more likely to implement the trump agenda in the sfat. then you have the other piece of this, which is the president sent a clear message that in this moment in the country where there's this big national debate and this issue of sexual harassment is is really coming to a head. he's going to take the word of the man over women. and that, in part, could be derived from what you explined, which is if the president were to back the women in this, he would be undermining when he did during the campaign, which is to try to discredit the women, say they were lying and to say that -- to issue repeated denials about accusations he face d. so it doesn't -- it sends a clear message and i think that the lit call ramifications of

that are yet to be seen. e we don't know how this race is going to turn out. we don't know how women voters are going to respond to the president taking sides this way. >> the fact that this is even a question i think probably has long-term ramifications for the party. we still remember the rape candidate which won. but i don't think it's that easy to predict what's going to happen on december 12th. i feel like the president was saying something that could definitely resinate in this environment. >> we also don't know what else he's going to say. he's going on a long holiday weekend now. he's going to be there with his phone. i'm concerned for these women. is he going to start attacking them. he's taking the first step by saying they are not credible. will he defend roy moore and go one step further. as far as the party goes, i have been a republican in new york, which is not an easy feat, for 25 years. as much as we have had to endure as a party, being a woman in the

party at times, this is the worst it's ever been. to have the president to back a child molester makes it even -- how do women continue to support this party. it's a challenge i'm starting to hear more and more of. >> so how do you feel about being a republican these days? >> i'm not a trump republican. >> i know that. i'm just wondering watching all this. >> i'm not ready to give up yet. i think there are too many hard working people and people who want to do the right thing. there are legislators. if people like me back out, where are they going to go? where's the support they need to have to succeed? i'm not willing yet. >> it's a hard time. i got it. we're following a new report that the mueller investigation is digging deeper into jared kushner's contacts with foreign leaders during the transition. according to "the wall street journal," the latest instance

involves the december 2016 u.n. resolution that condemned israel for building settlements in disputed territories. then president-elect trump posted to facebook it should be vetoed. it was adopted the next day after the obama administration refused to block it. people briefed on the matter tell the "wall street journal" that officials then began reaching out to senior transition officials including kushner. mueller's investigators want to know what role l kushner may have played in any talks. officials are already looking into the june 2016 trump tower meeting that kushner attended with a kremlin lawyer. and a december 2016 meeting with the head of a state-owned bank sanctioned by the u.s. then there are the two other meetings he disclosed with the russian ambassador. kushner has also had an issue disclosing foreign contacts on his federal disclosure forms.

he's had to update the list three separate times adding more than 100 people who had previously been left off. >> why would bob mueller be investigating them? would that be illegal if he was reaching out to the israelis and trying to influence the vote? >> there is the logan act from the 18th century that prevents american citizen who is are not in office from trying to undermine their government. it's never been prosecuted, certainly not in modern times. it's held out there from time to time when somebody does something that is counter to the administration. it's hard for me to imagine that's what bob mueller is looking into. >> that's why i asked. i can't imagine either. i don't think the obama administration was really excite ed about the possibility of israel being whacked at the u.n.

at the end of the year. >> we knew at the time that there were contacts between benjamin netanyahu's government and the trump camp during that debate at the u.n. one thought maybe that he has told the mueller people presumably that his contacts with the other russians was part of his role in the campaign. maybe they are looking to back that up to see whether that checks out and that was jared cukushner or was there somethin unusual about the contact with russians. >> mueller is is also looking at the angle of jared kushner playing the role and the firing of comey. it seems like there's a lot of attention on jared kushner and you wonder whether other people

in the white house are pointing fingers a the him either because he was at the center of all of this or because he has quite a few enemies in the white house. >> we know there's one person outside the white house who is point iing fingers at jared kushner and that's steve bah non. jared kushner was the point of contact during the transition for any foreign government. he had a on to of discussions with people representing foreign governance. the expansiveness of the investigation if he's looking at just meetings that kushner had with foreign governments, that's a whole other area. then you have the comey firing and that's another area. pafrt of what's happening is where a bunch of witnesses getting interviews and they are

talking. and kushner is coming up in these interviews. i don't know exactly where in the story, it doesn't purport to know, where mooueller is going specifically with the israel issue. we know at the time the o'ball administration was furious that the trump administration was taking these steps and trying to undermine them. i don't think we know where it's going, but it has this feeling of an investigation that's taking on a number of different fronts to come up with something or investigate thoroughly the president's son-in-law. >> steve bannon as never had affection for jared kushner. there's speculation that we hear from people that steve bannon is out there outside the white house now pulling the strings and maybe dropping some of these stories about kushner. >> there's no question that that

history is not a pleasant history. it's a history between the two of them and no question that steve bah nonis out there in obvious ways through the channel of breitbart and is working to try to undermine his rivals and people he sees as undermining the trump agenda. the bigger thing here is that if you think back about how we started this week with thai cobb still insisting that this investigation is winding down and that, well, i thought it would be over by thanksgiving. maybe not thanksgiving, maybe by. the end of the year. this thing is is cruising towards conclusion. wp the span of the last 48 hours and see reporting other things, it continues to amplify the opposite conclusion, which is this investigation is not winding down and is growing.

whether you want to say it's justified or not justified, it's growing rather than narrowing. i can't imagine the president hearing this happy talk is not reading these reports in the press and saying my lawyer totally out to lunch here because this does not seem to be the way this investigation is going. >> sounds like you might just be trying to keep him out of control. so peter baker, there's an hour call with vladimir putin yesterday. not so sure that there was a lot of news out of the call. what can you tell us about what happened and what the big takeaway was. >> in sol ways the call was interesting. they were going to have a sit-down meeting while in vietnam for the asian summit. they sort of talked on the sidelines. now it seems to have developed into this phone call on syria. vladimir putin is in the middle of putting together a regional deal involving turkey, iran and syria to reshape the region while president trump is sitting

back here on the sidelines. it's an interesting moment when russia is asserting itself in a region dominated by the united states. president trump signalled that he wants there to be peace in syria, but he did not say anything on the call, sfrs we're told, about whether bashar al assad, the dictator and president of syria who waged war against his own people, should step down. his aids say he just wants there to be peace at this point. that's his top priority. hasn't changed policy. you'd see what vladimir putin would get out of that. he's the one calling the shots right now in the middle east. >> peter baker, thank you so much. and peter, every time you come on, you leave with a parting gift of the san francisco treat and a $15 gift certificate to the nearest taco bell. >> and chick-fil-a. still ahead on "morning

joe," kellyanne conway sent the message. i'm serious. reports say some senate republicans heard it loud and clear. the gop starting to privately acknowledge that it's better to have a 52-seat majority even if it includes roy moore. that new reporting is still ahead on "morning joe." dad: molly, can you please take out the trash? (sigh) ( ♪ ) dad: molly! trash! ( ♪ ) whoo! ( ♪ ) mom: hey, molly? it's time to go!

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joining us now, white house correspondent shannon, and "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. jeremy, was the president saying something that might resinate with voters in alabama? >> absolutely. especially the subset of conservatives very loyal fervent

voters who are inclined to support roy moore. trump, i'm told, himself does not believe the allegations against these women. remember, this is a president who himself has been accuse d o a similar types of inappropriate activity with women. so he's naturally inclined to take their side rather than to actually believe them. so you have trump coming out and contradicting his daughter and mitch mcconnell saying, no, you have to listen to moore. >> i thought ivanka's statement stopped short of talking about roy moore. take something that someone else said and repeat it. she has not spoken out on this in a passionate authentic way, has she? what did i miss? >> i think the two statements are inconsistent.

ivanka is saying you have to believe these women. that there's a special place in hell for i abusers of women and trump is saying nothing like that. he's saying the judge denies it. you have to listen to the judge. these allegations have never come up before. he's casting doubt on the ve s veracity of the allegations. i think they are inconsistent. >> is there we're going to be talking about the defense fund, but is there a women's advocate in the white house? >> the interesting thing is there's a lot of strong, powerful women in this white house. kellyanne conway, sarah huckabee sand e ivanka trump, dena powell. >> the last one i agree, but i don't agree with the first four. i don't think they are strong or powerful or stand up for women in any way.

>> as far as standing up for women, i can't go there. but hope hix is very influential in the white house in the messaging. the president trusts her. kelli ann, he keeps her close. >> which is whatever. they also have a certain power because they are there around the president. but as advocates for women, who speak passionately and with their own voices on behalf of women. >> kellyanne conway went on fox and friends and laid the groundwork for this. the president has not come out and condemned roy moore, even

though there are powerful women in the white house. >> they don't work for the white house. they are not working for the kocountry. they serve one person. that's donald trump. and that's the difference, if anything. they are not working for the white house and all the people in this country. they are working for donald trump and going. >> that's my question. who is the ed a advocate for won the white house. because it's not the president. that we know. >> there are few people in the white house who aren't justed advocates for donald trump. >> my reporting out of the white house even in the last 24 hours is that some of the people you just laid out are appalled by roy moore. i believe that's true, but if it's true, why haven't any of those views per vailed on the president of the united states? if they are disgusted, why did he walk out in tropt of the cameras and say, he deny it is. >> if you take the argument that kellyanne conway made on fox that we don't want a democrat on

there. we need someone who is going to be on our side who are is going to be. ai ain anti-abortion and help us repeal obamacare. >> no senate seat is worth a child. she made it clear she didn't think it would be a good idea. but two days ago, that changed to let's get a republican. >> there's a consensus in the white house regardless of opinions, they will debate behind the scenes, but trump is the president. he's the one who gets the final call on these things. >> i have to ask one thing. do you think any of those women would allow roy moore to babysit their children? >> i have another answer to follow up, which is dead on. it certainly is about having the republican vote. it's also about the republican majority. if you lose that seat to a democrat, if you're republicans, you have to win either nevada or

arizona, which right now look pretty tough. and the map is already looking difficult for republicans. their advantage still, but likely that they could lose the senate if things go bad ly with this tax cut. if the russia investigation worsens next year and it's a bigger headache around republicans' necks. there's that factor as well. but i think also what people aren't talking about and this is a little short sided, roy moore is no more reliable a republican vote than doug jones. you don't know what the guy is going to do. and if i were mitch mcconnell or republican leadership who are saying right now quietly that it's better to have a republican in that seat than a democrat, i don't think i would count roy moore on team. >> shannon, you're writing about the trump campaign not paying don jr.'s legal bills anymore.

first of all, how much were they and tell us what's behind this story. >> so the trump campaign paid out about $300,000 so far for don jr.'s legals. and there's concern it's not a superpac. they can only raise a certain amount of money. he and other staffers will be a major drain on the trump campaign's funds. same withing with the rnc. they paid $200,000 in president trump's legal bills. the rnc is no longer paying his legal bills. as the white house has said and ty kolb says this investigation should be wrapped up soon, our sources say it will go well into 2018. we're looking at millions and millions in legal fees. >> a fund for campaign staffers is being set up? >> there's two discussions going on now. a fund for campaign staffers.

another funds for white house staffers. >> why would they need this? >> to help pay legal fees. there are dozens of staffers in the white house who have minimum of $30,000 for one interview with mueller. the big question on the table is whether the president will be able to contribute to any of those. and that is still on the table. there's no decision that has been made yet, but that's something that's being considered and obviously comes with an enormous ethical question about whether someone at the center of the investigation giving money to witnesses in an investigation is a conflict of interest. >> this is really what you have to ask yourself if you work in the white house. do you really want to work there? would you? ien can't even imagine. this is just a mess. thank you so much. it's great to have you on the show. coming up, two things republicans care about deeply.

debt and tax cuts. but are they willing to sacrifice the first to satisfy the second. that conversation is next on "morning joe." trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief. we create machines that make every experience more real. because the best feature of a pc gaming machine

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i want to congratulate the house of representatives for passing a vital and historic tax cut last week and i'm very hopeful the senate will do the same very soon. we're going to give the american people a huge tax cut for christmas. hopefully that will be a great big, beautiful christmas present. >> president trump promising this week a big gift for christmas in the form of tax cuts. but a growing amount of analysis is showing that the plans currently on the table will push this country's debt even higher. joining us now is columbia university professor and director of the center for sustainable development economist dr. jeffrey saks. i think it's a big, beautiful, huge christmas gift. but for who? >> for the trump family. >> really? >> absolutely. billions of dollars in ending

the estate tax, in these gifts to the billionaires. it's not only worthless for most people in this country, it's actually a huge burden on them. because it's going to raise the debt phenomenally. it's going to mean future cuts in. medicare, future cuts of basic services in this country. and there are already saying it's going to automatically trigger medicare cuts just after this starts. it's the most outrageous policy we have seen in budget policy in ien can't even remember a comparable deal. >> i want to ask you this. if you had to name a redeeming quality in this bill, what would it be? >> even what they were trying to do, i'm going to put it this way, to create some incentives for investment, the senate says, no, those will be temporary because they are not i affordable. so what they are doing is giving a gift of $1.5 trillion to rich people and they are saying,

quote, we'll have incentives but those go away after five years. you can't even make this stuff up actually how completely crude it is. people don't understand it. it's all painted if it this glorious we're going to help workers. >> it's beautiful. >> we have already a deficit of $700 billion right now. the debt is rising rapidly. and we're playing games with the future of this country that's really you can't even imagine. >> let me ask you this question. if back in 2016 as we headed into the election towards election day, there was a pretty broad consensus on the part of a lot of democrats in addition to a lot of republicans, that the corporate tax rates should come down. there was a bargain they wanted to strike that's very different from what's in this bill. just address the question of corporate rates and whether or

not there's any merit to the notion that u.s. corporate rates have made american corporations compared to corporate rates in other. developed democracies. >> it's a very tiny difference. the reason is there's a head line rate of 35%. then there's what we call the effective rate, which is what companies really pay. that's much, much lower. and people can get online and look at the study of the congressional research service, which shows if you look at the effective rate, it's basically the same as the other high income countries. so the head line is misleading to begin with. why? because under our tax code, companies get what's called accelerated depreciation. they get benefits in being able to write off their investments. that's the real benefit to all of this. and that means that the things that are stated in the headline are not correct. maybe you could take the top rate down, the head line rate on

a little bit, but you have to pay for it. and to take it down this way is basically just to give to people who already own the stocks. that's why the stock market is up so much. but that's owned by a very small proportion of americans. and that's the gimmick that they have. they are giving $1.5 trillion. it still does matter. and this will hurt us for years and years and years to come as just a hand out to the richest people in this country. >> you have been concerned for a long time about debt in this country. we are racing towards 100% of gdp in the next 15 years or something like that. what would this tax cut mean to the acceleration of the debt in this country? >> both parties i've been against that don't you care about the future of this country. back in 2008 when we talked about it on the show then and

afterwards, the democrats wanted to spend a lot. i said how are we going to pay for that. the debt at that time as a share of our national income was 37%. today it's 77%. if this thing goes through it will be 100% plus. it will be 150%. shall we just give everything to china. should we forget the future of america. >> let me take that point and jeremy jump in. in terms of the party overall. one of the reasons many believe that donald trump is president is because both parties have let americans down. does this bill continue to do the same? >> it does. i guess as a republican, i've never seen or heard of a tax cut on the table that didn't require entitlement reforms. donald trump made a lot of promises on the campaign trail. he's broken a lot of promises on the campaign trail. if we wanted to have meaningful conversation on middle class tax cuts, we could probably get democrats involved even if we

talked about entitlement reform. isn't that the only way we get from here to there? >> what's sad is there's one obvious place to make savings and that's in health care. not by cutting people off the benefits, but because the costs are so astronomical because we have monopolies in drug pricing. monopolies in local health services. no one talks about that because the lobby of the health sector is so powerful that they don't want to talk about the prices that we're paying. >> jeremy, last word. >> the bottom line is this is a corporate tax cut. americans do not believe it will help their bottom line financially. something like 16% of americans according to the latest poll actually believe this bill will cut their taxes. so it's not great politics. if republicans don't get it done, they feel they will pay a steep cost with voters. i'm not so sure that's really true because this is not at the

front of voters' minds. you ask them what they are worried about. they are worried about health care and worried about having a job and not getting blown up by north korea. so the idea that this tax cut is something that republicans absolutely must ram through by before december is more of a concession to the donor base than it is to their actual voters. >> jeremy peters, dr. jeffrey saks, thank you both. happy thanksgiving. up next, plenty of eyeballs on alabama. it has nothing to do with roy moore or the senate race. we'll explain that, next on "morning joe."

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i don't want to filibuster on a show, but. i want to say one thing first. nine years ago we were together and i was giving you credit for something. i want to accuse donald trump of ripping you off. nine years ago you called me and said how do we change alabama.

how do we make alabama great again. and you came up with the idea to bring nick saban in. you wrote an op-ed and came on our show. look what happened. nine years later, alabama is in the midst of a dynasty. america, thank joe. >> that was ours last year giving credit to joe. will the crimson tide will another national championship this year under nick saban. joining us is espn college football analyst paul finebalm. >> that's why everybody loves me that calls in. they love my politics. they love this show. >> the favorite son. >> the favorite son. more like prodigal son. >> look what's happened. he saved alabama. now he's trying to save the world. >> that's it. so far, so good. >> by the way, before we get to that. that's very true.

and i said it with a smile on my face, but it's an absolute fact. i will say it a thousand times. without joe scarborough years a the university of alabama off raised its standards and quit hiring a bunch of losers for head coach and gone after nick savin. joe had a tremendous impact on what we're doing and on college football. >> it was a rather pointed op ed in the birmingham news directed toward the people that were running the football program so thank you for that. you bring up a couple of fascinating statistics. i love your show. every time i miss birmingham and miss alabama in the fall, i turn on your shows. couple of unbelievable stats you brought up. one, the last national championships have been determined by whoever won the iron bowl. they've gone to the national

championship but even more remarkable than that nick sabin is what, 0 and 5 or 0 and 6? that's unbelievable. >> that goes back to lsu. it's interesting that he has not done well against the better teams and but it's interesting if you go back on the iron bowl. i sat here a year ago this week listening to all the national pundits talk about how michigan ohio state was the greatest football game in history and i remember that stat. if you go back to 2009 through last year including this year now probably, every iron bowl has had an impact on the race. not only as the winner gone on and played for the national championship, the unyear they didn't play was 2014 and alabama was in the playoff. it is the most significant rivalry game in the country -- the michigan ohio state game is

important but it's not the iron bowl. >> so paul, let's talk about this iron bowl. alabama goes to auburn. alabama of course undefeated and number one rankinged but auburn's been playing really well. they lost early in the season. who do you like in the game? >> i like alabama and i say this because you better think twice before going against nick sabin. he's just absolute money. i realize in vegas the line favors alabama by three or four but the feeling is that auburn is going to inthe game. i was in auburn two with weeks ago for the georgia game, auburn is playing very well and not that the country is overly concerned about alabama's deficiencies. they just replaced a junior five star with a freshman five star that's the way things roll. but i think there's a little pressure on auburn in this game and alabama has just dealt with this so many times. they came from behind two weeks

ago at mississippi state and my sense is they'll do it again. >> and nick sabin doesn't get a chance to be an underdog very often or even people thinking that it favors auburn. give him that opportunity to go in and say look at all we've done, they still don't respect. >> by the way, not that i need to -- willie, your school and my school are playing this week. >> i understand. >> and the winner will win its first game this week. >> we started hot. we were 3 and 0 and a lost season there. >> i was in nashville for the alabama game and these van der belt students were screaming at me saying we're going to beat alabama and i thought that school was supposed to produce smart students. >> bring on alabama. >> don't do that. >> i knew we were doomed. >> let's paint a scenario, paul,

where auburn pulls off a mild upset. they win they go to the championship game. alabama's season is over but they still only have one loss. could they still get into the playoff if they lose on saturday, alabama? >> yes. if auburn wins out and beats alabama and beats georgia again, they're in the playoffs. alabama will need help and there are a number of scenarios that could enable alabama to get in but in my mind they would be the best one loss team in the country. clemson lost as syracuse which is a team that has imploded down the stretch. they won't have that 13th data point. this is what the football committee talks about in terms of a conference championship but last year ohio state didn't win the big ten and they made it into the playoffs. >> let me ask you, a couple other teams, miami, how good is miami? >> i think they're very good. they've won their big games at

home the last three weeks. they won a sleepy game against virginia. i still would favor clemson a little bit in that acc championship game next week. that game's in charlotte. considering mark rick got fired at georgia two years ago because he couldn't beat nick sabin, he's done a remarkable job and that's another subset of the fcc right now, there are already two vacancies, they'll be five at the thanksgiving weekend and it's all because of one person, the man you hired in alabama. >> you make sure to tell people calling in -- wisconsin are they good? >> they're good, my sense is they'll lose to ohio state in the big ten championship game. >> lrts. espn college football analyst the great paul finebaum. happy thanksgiving. always good to talk to you.

>> thanks so much guys. always a pleasure, joe. still ahead. a navy plane crashes in japan overnight with 11 people on board. the president said tweeting about lavar ball, don king and the nfl. and when given a choice between an accused child molester and a democrat, the president chooses the accused child molester. the big question now is whether he plans to campaign with roy moore. we'll be right back. [ clacking continues ] good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours.

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okay. i'm going to admit it. i was kind of a fan. i was kind of a crush. >> kind of? >> i actually watched -- i was obsessed with the brady bunch, the part ridge family and happy days. that's how old i am. and there was a time in my life and watched tv and this idol of the part ridge family has died. david cass did i's death came after a close family friend said over the weekend he had been hospitalized for organ failure. cassidy rows to stardom after he was cast to play keith partridge. for four seasons the show built an allegiance of fans.

cassidy announced earlier this year he was suffering from dementia. he died surrounded by loved ones. david cassidy was only 67 years old. did you watch? >> of course. it's like the monkeys. it's never got any respect in the '60s. same thing here, what people don't realize david cassidy was a massive, massive recording star and live act filling up the houston astro dome at a time nobody else did it. >> massive, massively successful. people loved him. i will say and i'm sure this is true in your high school and your high school too, the number of guys of young boys -- >> i went to a girls school. >> at the local boys school near your girls school the number of guys in pookca shell necklaces just because of david cassidy.

>> oh, gross. >> brought to the culture and they were -- the brady bunch, the part ridge family. >> do you guys remember andy gib? >> sure. >> slightly different family. >> i'm 50. >> good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, november 22nd. we have heilman but also joining us this morning we have republican strategyist and political come men tater. just back from puerto rico with some stories to tell, my god the work you've been doing there and nbc news and host of kasie dc. >> oh, yeah. >> i bet she has a pooka shell necklace. >> she'll have a tribute on ac/dc, the band, how they got their name and inspiration from

kasie dc, another huge loss in the music field. >> another one of the members of that great band. >> all right. well, a lot to get to this morning. good to have you on board. president trump yesterday broke his silent on roy moore and alabama's senate race. trump took questions from reporters as he was departing the white house to board marine one. >> i can tell you one thing for sure, we don't need a liberal person in there, a democrat, jones. i've looked at his record. he's terrible on crimes, terrible on the border, terrible in the military. i can tell you for a fact, we do not need somebody that's going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad with the military, bad for the second amendment. >> mr. president, is an accused child molester better than a democrat? is an accused -- >> well, he denies it. if you look at what -- what is

really going on and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it. he says it didn't happen and, you know, you have to listen to him also. you're talking about -- he said 40 years ago this did not happen, so, you know -- >> are you going to campaign for roy moore? >> i'll be letting you know next week. but i can tell you, you don't need somebody who's soft on crime like jones. >> do you not believe the accuser? what is your message to women, sir, during the pivotal moment in our country where we're talking about sexual misconduct, you had your own allegations against you, what do you say to women? >> let me just tell you, roy moore denies it. that's all i can say. by the way, he totally denies it. >> so kasie, obviously the president of the united states did do what the white house and kellyanne conway sort of tipped their hat to earlier saying we

need a conservative in there that's going to vote along with the president's agenda. you have the president of the united states yesterday saying we don't need a liberal. this is an endorsement de facto endorsement of roy moore and, again, once again the president finds himself on the opposite side of most republicans in the senate on capitol hill. what's it mean? >> mitch mcconnell is not saying right now that he needs roy moore's vote in the united states senate. he's saying the opposite. i think mitch mcconnell thinks roy moore would not be a great member of the republican conference. the president -- i talk to people who are familiar with his thinking in the wake of roy moore winning this runoff election, he felt burned when mitch mcconnell and other republican leaders sent him down to campaign for luther strange. it was something that took him a little while to get over and now he's watching this unfold.

he still talks to steve bannon who is standing by moore. look at the kind of campaign that moore is now running. he is denying everything. he is trying to undermine the credibility of his accusers. he's saying that they are lying and there's another person who is accused of sexual misconduct by multiple people very recently who ran a similar kind of campaign and said repeatedly that the women who brought the accusations were liars and he now -- he won his election. >> so susan, the white house is trying to walk a line that can't be walked. we heard it first from kellyanne conway which is that they'll say on background in privately they're appalled by roy moore but they can't afford to have a democrat sitting in the senate. by august that line, it's a de facto endorsement of the candidate they say they're appalled by? >> it has echos of charlottesville when he said there were some good people out there.

he's like, he said he didn't do it. the president basically admitted i'd rather have a child molester in the senate than a democrat and he's set the standard for our country. bob corker back in charlottesville said he doesn't understand para phrasing or the character of this country. we don't want child mow lefters in the u.s. senate. >> he says he denies it, he totally denies it, so in other words, he's taking the word of roy moore versus the nine women who have accused roy moore. >> the white house isn't walking a line any more. he endorsed roy moore. he i think -- kasie came close to saying what i think is right. which is to say he sees himself in roy moore, not -- >> what's the impact? >> now the president -- especially if the president goes all in and campaigns for roy moore, the exact disaster that mitch mcconnell now foresees where you're going to see a

thousand campaign ads calling republican the republican party of pedophiles, this is the biggest boat gift wrap present for democrats heading into 2018 you can imagine. they're already salivating. regardless of the outcome of this race, it's one seat. for democrats heading in to the midterms, a president who despite the fact that the rest of the party has run away from roy moore, if the president runs toward him and embraces him, this is a huge gift for democrats who will say the republican party, the head of the republican party, the president of the united states now embraces credibly accused roy moore in the senate. we'll see that played out over and over for the next year. >> and you're starting to see it on tv, not only democrats but even some conservatives that want to see roy moore lose on twitter, are saying republicans risk being called the party of

pedophiles as john heilman says. that label sticks a little tighter if the president of the united states jumps in, doesn't it? >> it does and it's another very important i think data point for women voters in the midterm elections. look at what happened in virginia. what drove democrats to sweep these state legislative sweeps that they hadn't across the state in areas that were previously sending republicans? a lot of that the exit poll data suggests it was women and you see that kind of as you start to talk to operatives behind the skeensz, what are they looking for and especially considering the broader national climate and the moment we are living in. women i think are more engaged in politics and feel there is more at stake for them with their votes with every passing day and this is something that republicans who are looking at the midterm map like mitch mcconnell and others, they know

that. >> at the same time i very carefully say that the president -- what the president said was not inaccurate? >> which is what? >> he denies it. >> right? >> and they accuse him, and i do think that is something that some voters will look at differently. look, there are cases like this that seem like a slam dunk even if they are 20, 30, 40 years old because such a pattern is out there but accusations versus someone pushing back and that does stay in a certain place especially in alabama and i don't say that in any critical way or stereotypical way but it's a different culture that has had a different generational shifts over time, susan. >> it definitely sits there. i start looking toward 2018 when you look at the primaries in states like nevada or arizona and you're going to see, is it going to be -- there will be a fight in the republican party yet once again, is it going to

be the party of child molesters or is it going to be a party of responsible fiscal republicans and that's how it's going to effect the president going forward, where does he draw the line or who wants his line i should say in a primary because he is saying i don't believe these women. >> roy moore could win this race. this is now no longer about alabama. this is not a race about who wins that race. the polling is going to be sketchy all the way to election day for a million reasons. in the end, what the president getting involved in this way is going to get nationalized and the reality is for a lot of s suburban women who have watched the testimony of roy moore's accusers on television, have seen the woman talk to savannah guthrie on the "today" show, seen these women on camera, regardless of how it plays in alabama, i agree with you, roy moore might win this race in alabama but there are a lot of

suburban women around the country that believe these accusers. >> of course, they do. i just very carefully say what i said. i wouldn't want anyone to think the accusers don't sound credible. they do sound credible to me. they are accusers and if this were a different state i would be much more sure of the outcome and i'm not saying anything bad about alabama, by the way. >> think about the more ality of it. the president of the united states saying clearly and outloud that he takes the side of roy moore versus the word of the nine accusers, he made that very clear yesterday. if your moral code doesn't dictate that you come out strongly against someone that's been accused of these things, maybe a political strategic argument would prevail, which is you win this seat, this senate seat for roy moore, you will be saddled as the party of a

pedophile for the rest of roy moore's term and the president will be saddled with that. you stood up in this moment of truth, you stood up and took the side of a accused pedophile. >> before, though, and i've been saying that the polls we don't know exactly what's going to happen with the polls because people are going to lie. a lot of people when you call up and say are you going to vote for roy moore, that said the alabama of 2017 is not the alabama of 1977. it's not even the alabama of 1997. i think it's more likely than not that actually roy moore will lose. >> right. >> except, can i ask you a question? who votes in alabama in terms of age demographics, morge, the young people? >> in any special elections, in off-year election, when the president is not on the ballot, voters are older, they're wider and they're more conservative. what we saw in virginia, though,

was, we saw women and suburban voters come out at a pretty extraordinary clip and wash away that natural built-in advantage. eddy gillespie didn't have a time getting loyal republicans out, just more democrats came out. there are educated suburbs all around birmingham, homewood, you go parts of montgomery, a lot of mobile, you have a lot of educated women going out there and standing in lines a long time. i think just like virginia that could make a difference in the reddest of red states in america. >> and in that case you get the worst of all world, you lose the seat and in the process of losing it, you become the party of pedophile which is a double whammy that the president's trying to pull off here.

>> and for donald trump, reports were for several weeks, willie, after he lost the luther strange race that he just -- he was beyond himself. he could not believe it and it just -- he was enraged, according to inside reports. imagine if he gets involved in this race actively and goes down and campaigns and he losses in the primary and he loses in the general election in a state that he told me during the campaign had his most faithful followers and said if i lose this race, i'm going to move to alabama because they love me so much. >> i remember the summer of 2015 that event he had in alabama, in the football stadium where the place was packed. that was an early signal to a lot of people. he loves it down there. he's been rebuked once with luther strange. he deleted all those tweets in support of strange and if he does it again, and sticks his neck out, but for this

republican, that's beyond embarrassing. >> kasie, jump in. >> one thing that democrats have going for him here they actually have a really good candidate who fits their state and who is -- it's not a situation where it's a nationalized race where the dscc went in there or didn't understand or it's a progressive that doesn't line up. he's somebody who can actually go in to churches with white voters and churches with african-american voters. he fought this cold case with kkk bombing. he is somebody who -- the democrats lucked out, quite frankly. >> the president did not tell the truth about that. i think he said he was soft on crime. maybe soft on the kinds of crimes that the president, you know, whatever -- the president seems to have a thing about race an issue with it. so this candidate is strong, you're right, kasie. still ahead on "morning joe."

>> as many of you know, i have been very active inover turning a number of executive actions by my predecessor. however, i have been informed by the white house counsel's office that tater and tots pardons cannot under any circumstances be revoked. >> president trump pardons two turkeys and joked about killing president obama's birds. >> come on, that's just uncool. what's wrong with you. i'm not sure the easter bunny would approve. "morning joe" is coming right back. >> you're embarrassing yourself. can i give it to you straight? that airline credit card you have... it could be better. it's time to shake things up. with the capital one venture card, you get double miles on everything you buy, not just airline purchases. seriously, think of all the things you buy.

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>> we will be stronger and bigger and better as a nation than ever before. we're right on track. so how does the press treat you?

i'll bet you get treated better by the press than anybody in the world, right? >> are you ready, drumstick? >> the traditional of festivus begins with the airing of grievances. i've got a lot of problems with you people and now you're going to hear about it. >> i love festivus. >> so mika has watched -- she has such a blind spot. >> yes. >> she's watched every "modern family" ever. >> ever. >> she's watched every office, ever and she's one of these people and i'm not for some reason. i think i was working during those years -- every single "seinfeld." >> when i was in labor, i watched "seinfeld" like binged it. >> it's interesting that you don't know anything else about pop culture. >> she knows every "seinfeld,"

every line from every "seinfeld." >> and arrested development. >> they're all a little sick and twisted the shows i like. just something wrong. >> wonder why that is? >> maybe because i work with -- coming up on "morning joe," how the future is history for russia. a new book explains how russia moved from soviet rule toward democracy and back again. "morning joe" is coming right back. let's get the big guy in place. the ford year-end sales event is here. i can guide you in? no, thanks , santa, i got this. looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs! and just announced... get 0 % apr for 72 months plus $1000 cash back! take advantage of these exclusive holiday offers during the ford year end sales event.

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was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters.

the message to any one listening is clear. in effect, russia accepts the use of chemical weapons in syria. how then can we trust russia's supposed support for peace in syria? how can anyone take russia's proposal of politic talks seriously? >> we had a great call with president putin. we're talking about peace in syria, very important. we're talking about north korea. we had a call that lasted almost an hour and a half. we just put out a release on the call, but we're talking very strongly about bringing peace to syria.

we're talking very strongly about north korea and ukraine. >> joining us now staff writer at the new yorker and best selling author ma sha guessen. how totalitarianism reclaimed russia, just received the 2017 national book award for nonfiction. very good to have you on the show. congratulations. >> thank you. >> also with us former d.o.d. official, now a senior fellow at the atlantic council, dr. evelyn farcus. marcha, how concerned should we be that the future is history? >> we should be very concerned. what i was trying to figure out when i set out to write this book is how people turn away from democracy. we all assumed and by all, i mean western journalist we all

assumed russia would be democratic and it turned out there's not so simple. there's quite a few lessons in the book how people choose not to have democracy. >> are there lessons in the book for the united states of america? >> i think there are. i didn't have that in mind when i was writing the book but i think -- i think people do have reasons to turn away from freedom. >> so talk about in russia, talk about the transition from what happened on december 25th, 1991 to yeltson's reign and how corrupt it was and the social and political anar can i that seemed to spread across the country? was a part of his ineffectiveness what led russians, many russians to want somebody that was a bit stronger like putin? >> i actually think his

ineffectiveness lay in a different area. the fact that russia didn't look for a new story after 1991, the fact that it didn't look for a post imperial identity. the fact that it didn't reckon with its past, with the legacy of state terror. all of those things basically made people want to go back to a time that was simpler, the imaginary past. >> driven by resentment mainly. it seems that russian foreign policy, a lot of the people observed for some time it's been driven by resentment, by what they no longer were. >> but it's also what they discovered they hadn't been. one of the most traumatizing things that happened to people when they traveled abroad, they realized that even poor european countries actually lived better than people who considered themselves pretty well off in the soviet union and it was a strong sense that they had been denied something that was theirs. >> i want to read a part of your prolog and then you can take it

to dr. vrgs argas. >> i spent my 30s and 40s documenting the death of a russian democracy that had never really come to be. at one point, i was convinced that i would be writing the story of the decline and fall of the putin regime. soon after i found myself leaving russia for the second time, this time as a middle aged person with children. and like my mother before me, i was explaining to my children consider we could no longer live in our country. the specifics were clear enough the russian citizens had been losing rights and liberties for nearly two decades. the crackdown, the wars and even russia's reversion to time on the world stage are things that happened that i witnessed and i wanted to tell this story. but i also wanted to tell about what did not happen. the story of freedom that was not embraced and democracy that was not desired.

how do you tell a story like that? >> is that true that the people in russia did not want democracy or that it was not presented in a way that they could digest it? >> i think there's a brilliant book that eric from wrote in 1940s and he talked about the need to escape from freedom and freedom becomes an unbearable burden because it brings with itself so much uncertainty and that goes a long way to explaining what happened in russia. >> evelyn, you look at polls, you read in the western press at least that suggest vladimir putin is a very popular leader in his country. seeing -- >> what else are they going to say? >> i've seen over the past few eekz, i read in foreign affairs that stalin's popularity is rising once again. he's now of all former russian leaders, the man that may have

been responsible for the 30 million people. now he's gaining a bit of reser genesee. what does that tell us about where this country is right now? >> the strong man is putin right now. he has helped to rehabilitate stalin. he's made it acceptable for people to accept stalin. victor os troughski, a russian journalist wrote a book about the fact that some people did have hope in the 1990s so i just wanted to add that. obviously we are all still hoping and rooting for russia but under putin, he's not interested in obviously any democracy except for the veneer of depositimocracy. >> are you suggesting he doesn't have popular support? i'm not doing putin's bidding but i think -- >> i don't know. >> i think that when we're talking about the kind of support that we're talking which

is 86%, we're no longer talking about the public expressing its opinion. there's no public or opinion. we're talking about measuring the degree of totalitarianism. those are totalitarianism numbers. there's no political conversation, there's no alternative. >> from what you found, though, are the russians more often than not pleased with putin's performance? >> actually, if you look -- that's a great question, if you look at the polls closely, when they're asked to express their opinion on putin, they say they support him. when they ask about specific aspects of the job they're not so happy but the thing about the return of totalitarianism, it brings back both of those things, they can think both of those things at the same time. >> i'm getting to a larger point and the question is what do the russian people then want themselves? >> that's a question that she

would have a better sense of. right now we have a president who is round little and rightly criticized for being too sympathetic to putin. my question is to go back further than that. ten reagan and gor ba chof and the role the west was playing in the end of soviet toll tal tearion, what were the failures of the west if there were any, before donald trump, in allowing putinism to come take hold in the period over the course over the last decade or so? >> my take on it is if i can, was not that we expanded nato and government the russian government nervous about militaryism. we failed to understand that when the soviet union collapsed that this was actually a huge shock to the russian people, that they -- that they didn't want -- the russian leaders and people didn't want to become just another european state and that's all we offered them. you can join the european union

and you can join nato and you can be like france and they didn't want to be like france. when they say they didn't feel treated with respect, that's what they mean i think. whereas, of course secretary albright and say we did treat them with respect, it was that fundamental lack of understanding that they were suffering a loss of empire just like the french, aus treeions and others, the brits, the brits were able to soften the blow to their people because of us because we were the little brother. >> how devastating was it to the russian psyche and how problematic was it for american and russian relations when barack obama called russia a regional power? >> we were pretty deep into renewed conflict by that point. i don't think it was devastating for the russian psyche. it was insulting. the west doesn't take us

seriously had really taken hold in russia. >> so what could the west have done to take up where evelyn just said about the ways in which we may have misplayed the sense of what russians wanted and their sense of lost empire and to treat them just like another member of europe was not enough? what could of happened? what would have happened in the late 1990s that might have eased the transition? >> the fact of the of the matter that i don't know that anything could have happened and i wouldn't overestimate the role that the west has played in it. i'm not even sure that russia itself court of law done anything differently. the tragedy of the soviet past is so enormous that i don't know if it's possible to reckon with it. i know that didn't happen but i don't know if that's possible. >> shifting awkwardly to another topic, you wrote in the "the new yorker" an incredible piece that was entitled when does a water shed become a sex panic and we're talking about sexual

harassment and all the stories in the news that have been coming out. can you explain what you mean by that, just that question alone? >> so i think that there's something that happens when we talk about sex, which is that -- certainly when we've been talking the last few weeks, we started lumping everything together and basically the line between rape and bad sex has begun to blur and when we're talking about actual rape, actual abuse of power, actual systematic stuff that's one thing. when we're talking about somebody like glenn thrush the "the new york times" reporter who was just suspended on allegations of sexual misconduct from the one piece that has been published so far, basically appears to amount to several bad dates. that is too far on that spectrum. >> i guess the counter to that would be and i've been studying that a lot, reading a lot about

glenn thrush and i'm not sure where to put that in this conversation as well, but it involves alcohol, office parties, not blaming anybody involved who shouldn't be blamed, but it is in a different category. how do we categorize? how do we categorize in the world of harvey weinstein, charlie rose, mark on our show. >> al franken. >> louis c.k.? >> do we put them in categories? all the men should be gone? >> all the men. >> do we want to hear from them because my concern has been that there are some men that do want to come forward and -- and admit to their failings, do we want to hear that? >> i don't know. i don't know, actually, that we want to hear that. what we need to talk about is power and we need to talk about

abuse of power and we really need to try to distinguish between situations where the man had the power and abused it and i think the way that i think of the weinstein stories for example, they're stories of hostage taking -- >> that's a different category. >> they couldn't leave and even -- even if they went up to get their oscars, they knew they came tainted, they came tainted with the sexual abuse, they came tainted to the silence to which they had acquiesced. i don't think that when we're talking about al franken we're talking about power. >> and yet when you talking about a sex panic, you open up websites and they'll have a picture of harvey weinstein and glenn thrush and roy moore. >> right. >> and al franken. >> that's exactly right. >> that's a problem. >> so everybody as far as the sex panic goes, everybody gets

painted with with the same brush. >> that's why we call it a sex panic. >> i think we will need categories because someone like me who made my career because powerful men helped me and i had access to them, i could travel with them when i was a junior and that led me to really important jobs because i got to know those males very well, professionally and personally, and then once i became senior and i was working in congress, some members there, you may know, joe, had either outright bans. they wouldn't travel with women because of how it would appear, nothing was even happening, but and others would just not talk about it but you knew that you couldn't travel with your boss unless there was another person, a male on the trip. if you're really senior you need to be on the trip where your issue is being discussed, let's say it's in afghanistan and you're the counterterrorism expert. >> right. there's so many different ways. you have to come back. thank you very, very much. >> congratulations. and you have a lot of admirers

on twitter because the second you won this, my entire twitter feed was lit up with congratulations. >> in a good way. >> thank you very much. we've posted an excerpt from her new book, the future is history, how totalitarianism reclaimed russia on our website, msnbc.com. the search is under way for three navy personnel after a plane crashed near japan this morning. but there are signs of hope. that is next on "morning joe."

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another incident involving the u.s. navy. the navy says a navy c 2 a aircraft crashed into the philippine sea southeast of okinawa japan around 1:23 a.m. eastern time. the aircraft was conducting a routine transport flight and carrying 11 crew and passengers

and was on route to the "uss ronald reagan" which has been participating in exercise in the area. eight of those on board have been rescued and are in good condition. presently the search is ongoing for the remaining three. officials say they don't know what caused the crash. at the top of this hour, the president tweeted the u.s. navy is conducting a search and rescue. we're monitoring the situation. prayers for all involved. still ahead, this morning, new york magazine marks 50 years of ground breaking stories. >> 50 years! >> and eye-catching coverage. up next we're joined by the magazine's long time editor. a look at the most memorable moments from a half century worth of headlines. >> we spoke with the great adam moss and he said the most remarkable things of those 50 years of them surviving 50 years in a tough environment is they were able to survive even john heilman. >> even my expense reports.

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than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. the updates you made to your plan strengthened your retirement score. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this? we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. nana, let's do this! aye aye, captain! ♪ and as you go through life -whoo! -♪ tryin' to reach your goal with us now, legendary editor in chief of "new york" magazine, adam moss. the publication is celebrating its 50th anniversary commemorating the occasion with a fantastic book. high brow, low brow, brilliant,

despicable, 50 years of "new york" magazine. >> first of all, it's huge. and then wait, adam told me a secret, joe. help me out with this. help me out. this is so cool. >> unwrap it. there you go. >> you get a gigantic approval matrix of 50 years. >> but now put the cover back on. >> i'll work on that while we interview adam. go ahead. >> you know, this really has been such an iconic magazine, and you have been legendary editor. what is it -- what is it about this magazine that's so important to this city and obviously the people who love this city outside of the tri-state area? >> well, i think it comes down to what clay felker principally founded the magazine on, which is very simple. new york is not a place, it was

really an idea as a way of looking at the world. there was a kind of cosmopolitan point of view that was political, social, culinary, it was consumerist, which was -- he understood something before it was true. he kind of made it true. and then it became an export and became this philosophy of cities everywhere, in the united states and globally. and that's -- it was just a powerful idea. it gets more and more powerful. it's very powerful in this day and age when the city point of view and the rural point of view are actually at war. so it just was a super compelling idea. >> that city over 50 years. >> yeah. >> has changed so much. >> it has. >> the landscape. it's been bull dozed over, it's been knocked down, it's been built back up, it's been made in different mirrors' images.

it was the ungovernable city under john lindh ssay. then you show up in the 1990s and think maybe i can take my family to broadway. >> that's actually the story of the book. so one of the things we learned when we were sort of studying our own history for this 50th anniversary was that the magazine in 1968, the first issue came out, martin luther king was assassinated that day. and the magazine itself was founded in the midst of -- the city was at its lowest moment. it was disintegrating. people were leaving in droves. and the magazine had this strange idea, because it was optimistic. >> right. >> the idea was that it believed in new york at a time when new york -- the third issue of the magazine was a city on the eve of destruction.

and the book itself is meant to tell the story of the rise of the modern city, the rebirth of the modern city. and more than an anthology of the magazine's stuff, we try to use that stuff in the service of telling the story of the change you're talking about. >> are any of you willing to admit here that new york is just overrated? >> says a washington guy. >> let's go through some of these covers. >> a little crowded? >> a lot of traffic. and sam stein often comes to town. >> and we do have to say two of the worst airports -- >> let's be honest about this. if it weren't for the pizza and bagels, what else do we have? >> we talked about the first issue, april 8th, 1968. then july 22nd, 1968, a gentile's guide to jewish food. >> one of my favorite covers. >> august 17th, 1970, who murdered who in new york.

>> should be who murders whom, by the way. >> very good editors. december 20th, 1971, ms. magazine. >> it was launched in the pages of the magazine. gloria stein 'em was a contributor. >> tribal rights of the new saturday night. >> which was the basis of saturday night fever, of course. the interesting thing about this story is that it was made up and nik cohn later admitted he made up the story. the illustrator drew these pictures which actually were the inspiration for the film. >> in the artwork, new york, if you look at the old "new york herald tribune" that's basically -- >> yeah, the logo. >> february 11th, 1985, a different kind of donald trump story. >> tell us about that. >> well, this is an amazing

story because this was a story by tony schwartz that was actually eviscerating, scathing about trump. trump loved it. and then as a consequence of this story, he hired him as his ghost writer or his co-writer. ghost writer, for "art of the deal" so in some ways this article created donald trump. >> january 9th, 1992, bill clinton, who is this guy? >> one year published on january 20th, one year before he became president. this was the first time he was on a cover of any magazine outside of arkansas. and joe klein, who was the magazine's political correspondent at the time, picked him out and said this guy is going to be president. >> and he was right. >> from bill clinton to eliot spitzer, march 24th, 2008. >> my favorite cover of our little time there. barbara kruger, we gave her the picture. she put the brain on.

there you go. basically he resigned on a tuesday, closed the magazine on a thursday. >> i don't get that. can you explain a little bit? >> i can tell you, white space is very powerful. less is more. >> let's get a couple more in. april 2nd, 2012, lena dunham, very cool. november 4th, 2012, hurricane sandy. the city and the storm. wow. >> so we've called you a legend, said you're the most incredible person ever, and we've said that for a very long time. >> i get that every day. >> sam gets it every day. so let's end with a negative. is there a story that you missed that you wish you would have gotten? is there a story -- >> there always is. >> -- put out there that you look back at and wince? because all we have to do is go back 24 hours from right now. oh, my god, did we do that on tv? >> well, i will say i actually have a ready answer to this question because we spent -- after we had done the bill cosby

cover, after we had all of the wonderful gabe sherman coverage of roger ailes, we tried for many, many months to do the harvey weinstein story. >> i knew you were going to say that. >> you know, we knew the story, we just didn't have the documentation on the record, testimony that would enable us to publish it. and so "the new york times" did, "the new yorker" did, they did great jobs. but that's the one that got away. >> but there's so many more -- >> appreciate your honesty. >> there were so many more that they caught. we'll turn this into something positive. you need to get this. great christmas gift. just remember, this is such an extraordinary magazine and such an extraordinary editor that they even survived john heilemann. >> i'm serious. i don't know how you do it honestly. what is it about you? okay. "50 years of new york magazine" is out now.

adam moss, thank you very much. and that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning breaking his silence. the president weighs in on the alabama senate race, all but endorsing, all right, endorsing roy moore. >> he totally denies it. he says it didn't happen, and, you know, you have to listen to him also. >> wow. meanwhile across the aisle, trouble for the democrats. the longest serving member of the house, michigan congresswoman john conyers admits to using, are you ready for this, taxpayer money for a sexual harassment settlement. now the "detroit free press" calls for his resignation. plus more fallout for a tv legend. charlie rose fired from cbs as one of his accusers speaks out. >> i feel like what's his intention? does he want me to feel ashamed? >> and uber under fire. 57 million customers