security adviser michael flynn says he could be cooperating with special counsel robert mueller's team. the investigation into russian collusion continues. sexual misconduct allegations on capitol hill the latest wave of accusations and its impact on partisan politics. we begin this small business saturday with a power struggle over who will leave the agency tasked with protecting you from big business. mick mull vaivaney was chosen, after richard cordray it was his last day on the job a week earlier than expected. so now there is one agency, two directors and no clear answer about who is going to be in charge going forward. let's go to msnbc's kelly o'donnell in west palm beach, florida. kelly, help us sort out what's

going on with the cfpb. >> reporter: congratulations, david, good to be with you today. welcome to msnbc, and to answer your question, this has a backdrop that is familiar in the era of the trump administration, where there is a difference on an agency that really had its start during the obama years, with a very different sort of political direction, and richard cordray, who was leading that agency, has stepped down to run for governor of ohio, as a democrat. so there's a lot of political overtones to this. because of the charter of the agency, he named his own deputy to be the acting director, and the white house, which has a very different view of the effectiveness and the role of this kind of a bureau, named its own mick mulvaney who runs the office of management and budget, who has been a sharp critic over the years. so there is a disagreement about who has the authority here under the law. the white house pushes back and says that there is a vacancy

filling statute in the code that allows the white house to do this until there's a senate confirmed appointee to be named and as budget director, there is an obvious sort of connection to the portfolio mulvaney has working in the executive branch. so this is a fight over turf, direction of this bureau, and it certainly harkens back to seeing president trump repeatedly chipping away or trying to undo things established during the obama years. david? >> kelly, the president has taken to twitter, he's been down on the phone with world leaders, played golf with tiger woods among others. what's he up to today on this saturday? >> reporter: well today there was a very early start for the white house press pool. the group of reporters on a rotating basis who are closest to the president, and travel with him whenever he leaves his residence. they started at 5:30 this morning, which is a couple hours earlier than normal, and by about 8:00 a.m. they were at one of the trump golf properties in west palm beach and they have

there for roughly six hours. the white house has not told us what the president is doing. one would presume he's either playing golf or enjoying the club or something like that. they did formally tell us he was playing golf yesterday with tiger woods, dustin johnson and an all-star foursome. they are reluctant to tell us what he is doing most weekend days and that's what we have today. so the press pool we believe will be leaving the club fairly soon, and no public events on the president's schedule. it is a holiday weekend. it is saturday. the president has done a number of foreign leader calls and has been involved in some other business, but he is enjoying part of the time with his family. the white house has really made a point of saying it's a working holiday as well, that's always a balance that white houses fight over time off versus the job always going with the president, no matter where he is. >> kelly o'donnell in west palm beach, florida, this saturday.

with me is robert trainham, former governor of pennsylvania and chair of the dna, ed rendell, also nbc news political analyst and "washington post" media columnist margaret sullivan with us as well. ed rendell, let me ask you about the path forward for the consumer financial protection bureau, something i know you were following closely through its incarnation. senator elizabeth warren intimately involved from its creation, she fighting for what richard cordray picking his successor himself. how do you see the path forward going here? >> well, first of all, i think this is going to wind up in the courts to determine who has the power to appoint an interim successor, but i think it's important that we focus on what this agency does. since its inception, it has saved american consumers tens of billions of dollars, they were being ripped off by large financial agencies, tens of billions of dollars. now the president has appointed somebody who thinks the organization has no reason to exist, similar to what he did

with the department of environmental protection. this agency is an important way to protect ordinary people from the swamp, from you know, the president was always talking about protecting mainstream from wall street, well this agency has been really the focal point of that, in the obama administration, and to put someone in charge of it who doesn't believe in the mission of the agency is really reprehensible, particularly from a president who said he was going to drain the swamp, and protect the little guy. >> b rrobert trainham, congress mick mulvaney said in a house hearing 2015 "i don't like the fact that the cfpb exist, i'll be perfectly honest with you." he'll be in charge of running the agency on an interim basis. what does it say about the way the administration is running parts of the federal government? does it seem at the state department for instance somebody picked to head that organization who wants to change it wholesale? >> absolutely. quite frankly i'm not surprised

by this. betsy devos at the department of education has not filled top positions, she herself said that the department of education should perhaps be abolished. take a look at ben carson, the secretary of, over whatever agency he's -- hud, take a look at rick perry over at energy. all these people are on record as saying that these departments should be abolished. the president is on record saying he wanted to drain the swamp and make the government a little bit smaller. so two things very quickly. one, look, you can disagree with president trump. you can disagree and be angry he is our president but he does have the right to do this and he's consistent by putting people in place that want to shrink the government as opposed to grow it. i don't agree with that philosophy. i think there should be some qualified people in these roles, particularly at the state department, particularly in education, but the reality is that this is a person who won, and the reality is that this is a person who is our president and the reality is

constitutionally he has the right to do this. >> margaret sullivan, let me turn to you in the tempest over the "time" magazine cover. the tweet the president said "time magazine called to say that i was probably going to be named man person of the year like last year, but i would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot and i took a pass, said thanks anyway." tell us about this cultural touchstone for so many years. . >> the president cares deeply about the cover of "time" magazine. he even has some, you know, fake "time" magazine covers of himself in his different clubs around the country, and i think that this is something that he would love to have for a second year in a row, probably knows that it's not coming his way. it does seem like a strange fight to pick but that's so often true with this president. i don't think that it was a very serious outreach, if there was

one at all, from "time" to the president. i'd be very surprised if they did this two years in a row or even were considering it very strongly. so it's a weird kind of tempest in a teapot. there may be some truth to the idea that there was some contact with the president's office over this. ari fleischer i saw tweeted not too many hours ago saying that when george w. bush, when he was president, you know, that there was a similar approach from "time" and that never came to pass. giuliani ended up on the cover but there was some sort of well, you're being considered. so you know, but i think we have to take "time" magazine at its word that this was never a serious sort of contact. >> and "time" tweeting yesterday the president is incorrect about how we choose person of the year. "time" does not comment on our choice until publication which

is december the th. governor rendell, is this merely another distraction or what does it say to you about what the president's prioritizing here? >> who cares? i don't think any of us care. the american people don't give a hoot who is on the cover of "time" magazine and we wish deeply that our president would concentrate on other things. >> let me ask you, robert traynham about the meeting on capitol hill on the subject of tax reform this week when he comes back from florida this weekend. what does he have to do to get the republican caucus behind him? >> he needs to be quiet and stop tweet being tax reform in general and behind closed doors he needs to speak to members of congress, particularly the republican senate about the nuances of tax reform and he needs to impress upon them he's serious about this and something republicans need to do because they need a political win, obviously they failed on the obamacare repeal, so this would be a huge black eye if, in fact,

congressional republicans cannot pass tax reform, but secondly, he needs to impress upon them that the last time that this was done was back in 1986. comprehensive tax reform needs to be done and all income brackets adjusted. the question whether or not from a policy standpoint the president actually understands his own tax plan. i talked to a couple of people on capitol hill that says they're underwhelmed by how he doesn't understand how complicated this truly is and also, too, to my earlier point the more he talks about this and tweets about this, like he did with the affordable health care act, the more he offends members of congress. >> margaret sullivan, let me ask you about the president's engagement with this issue and others. he spent more than 80 days on trump properties over the course of his first year in office, i think back when the tax debate was beginning the trip to asia lasted two weeks. how much do you think republicans want him involved in this process at a granular

level, picking up on what robert just said? >> probably not terribly much and i tie all of this back to the tweets about "time" magazine and fighting with various public figures. i think there's a huge element of distracting from the main thing, whether that's the sexual harassment charges against roy moore, sexual misconduct, or other things, this sort of chaotic politics of distraction i think is actually what's going on here. >> margaret, thanks so much for the time, margaret sullivan with robert traynham and governor ed rendell. >> thank you. two lawmakers are asked to resign after allegations made against them and president trump defends roy moore. how politics plays into sexual misconduct allegations next. >> i can tell you one thing for sure. we don't need a liberal person in there, a democrat. small businesses show their love to you.

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because enough is enough. at this point, what i am voicing publicly is what every single private citizen is saying across america. why are the rules for politicians in washington different than they are for everyone else? >> sexual harassment allegations continue to dominate american politics, on capitol hill john conyers and al franken are the subject of the most recent allegations, this coming week the house is expected to vote on

a resolution requiring anti-harassment for all staff. gop senate candidate roy moore is not backing down as he runs in a special election against democrat doug jones. moore got a vote of confidence this week from president trump. von hilliard is in auburn, alabama. december 12 they cast their votes. what are you hearing from those in attendance at the game this afternoon? >> reporter: afternoon, david. the alabama versus auburn game, alabama versus auburn. this is the attention where the state is, not so much on the political race. that doesn't mean we don't ask questions about politics and i want to play you a sound with one auburn faithful, auburn grad, alabama native charles barkley, who we caught up with a little bit ago. >> everybody's going crazy over this sexual allegations.

roy moore to me when he brought in steve bannon should have been disqualified. how can you have a guy running with the white separatist running for political office? we got a lot of black people in this state who are amazing people but to run a campaign with a guy as your chief advocate who is a white nationalist, a white separatist, that should have disqualified roy moore way before this women stuff came up. >> reporter: david, just 20 minutes ago we caught one doug jones the democrat here running. he's an alabama grad himself. he's here. roy moore, this is his ninth day without being seen publicly. the question is, when do we see roy moore next? not until monday. we did catch one doug jones and i asked him specifically about charles barclay's comments, roy moore and white separatists. he said he's not into name calling. he's the radical moderate trying to convince republicans to come

to his side, a substantial amount he'll need to pull off a victory. >> i think we're going to win, that's all i know. we've got a really great -- there are just thousands of supporters that have come out it owork for the campaign. we've been talking about all the issues that matter to people from day one. you get sidetracked on other things but we were talking about the economy, we were talking about health care. those are thei issues people cae about the most and it's resonating with folks. >> reporter: this race is very much up in the air. you talk to republican voters there's many that suggest they're not going to vote at all, there's others saying they're having a hard to imgetting to doug jones and others adamant they'll be willing to vote for a democrat for the first time. it's difficult to guess and looking at the polling, some polls have doug jones up, roy moore up. remember it's been a long time since there's been a competitive race here in alabama so tough to look at polling in the situation. we have 15 days. roy moore will be in ft. payne

in the northeastern part of the state monday. >> another competitive contest to focus, vaughn hillyard joining us from auburn. debbie dingell from the 12th district in michigan. great to speak with you. kathleen rice, your colleague in the house made a few moments ago, we played them on msnbc. she expressed how things are proceeding going to the ethics committee, indicating perhaps more needs to be done to that. what do you say to your constituents and others that it should be taken outside of the congress, not before the ethics committee? >> we're still a nation of laws. i find that the allegations are disgusting and deeply disturbing. as we unfortunately saw last week we have to be careful. if you're working for a media company or private business, you've got a little more ability to move quicker. ethics committee is what's there, but i think it needs to go to the ethics committee. it needs to be innocent until you're proven guilty but there's

certainly a lot of very disturbing allegations and ethics committee and the leadership of the republican and democratic party have to make sure that this moves quickly, and people are stepping up to what's here, because it isn't okay, it isn't okay anywhere and david, what's really bothering me is we're focused on hollywood, focused on congress, focused on the media. we're not going to get real change or what's really wrong in this country is the waitress, the factory floor worker, the lawyer trying to make partner, the doctor, even a hospital. i cannot tell you, it has been hundreds of women in the last week who have come up to share their story, and we've got to figure out yes, congress needs to act, what we're going to do next week isn't enough but we have to act so women are protected across the country at every level. >> what is the path forward for you then? he mentioned there will be a vote in the house new policies that could be put in place for capitol hill members and their staff as well. as a lawmaker what can you do to make this less of a grievous problem? >> we'll do that next week, it's

a first step and needs to happen and if anybody votes against it i would be surprised. we need to be open and transparent. there need to be no secret deals and quite frankly taxpayer money should never be used with someone's behavior who were those people. it shouldn't be done in corporations either. it shouldn't be shareholders shouldn't be or corporations shouldn't get tax deductions for secret deals. the challenge for all of us, how do we change this culture? i don't know a woman across the country that doesn't have a story, and i thought okay, it's my generation. i can't -- a 21-year-old girl came up to me last week and said i'm the waitress you talked about today, a 22-year-old girl, saying within an hour, my boss shut the door and told me to get up on the table and dance. this isn't okay. so men and women together have to come together to figure out how we're going to once and for all say this is enough, because

if we don't, you know, we had anita hill. it didn't change. i lived through that. how do we make real change in. >> you said, congressman, you were disgusted about the allegations against john conyers. senator al franken apologized to are what he had done. is that enough, in other words what the senator had to say, was that enough to satisfy you? >> i think we have to get into the ethics committee and see if there are going to be more allegations coming forward and it may not quite frankly be enoug enough. >> is there nor outside of the process you'd like to see the senator and congressman conyers do? >> i think the allegations on the house side are very serious. it's the allegations of taxpayer money being misappropriated, appearing in your underwear. that is just like so totally unacceptable. it's not unacceptable to touch a woman's body without her permission.

we got to have a real conversation in this country. i think too many men don't understand what women find offensive, but you know, if we're going to be fair, men have to deal sometimes with women, too. this is a complicated discussion that we can't -- we've got to have. it's a real emotional, complicated subject but no means no. sexual assault is not okay. do you not have the right to touch a person's body, a woman who never feel uncomfortable. >> how would you rate the quality of the conversation, are we having enough conversation with nuance, senator franken coupled with the allegations against harvey weinstein, are we painting a too broad brush? >> first of all i would never say what al franken said, did was okay. people -- men are -- it's not just -- it is men and women. women, women in my generation, it's almost like we're starting to have post traumatic stress.

woman said that to me. we've got all these stories you just dealt with. if you were a woman you got labeled a troublemaker. earlier guest on msnbc was talking about those kinds of things. people may not realize their behavior is offensive to another person. we need to have real conversations and understand what is comfortable, what's not, what's appropriate and what's not inappropriate and what people could do ten years ago is simply not okay. it wasn't okay 30 years ago or 40 years ago. it's really not okay today, and we need to be -- no, this isn't an in-depth or produbroad enoug conversation. you're trying to have it, david, but it's a tough conversation we've got to have. >> before i let you go, let me ask you about the most recent wrinkle, twist and turn in the russia investigation first reported by the "new york times" a couple days ago, michael flynn has stopped cooperating with president trump's attorneys. what do you make of that news? what does it tell you about the course of this investigation? >> you know, i've heard every

ounce of speculation that's out there and i've heard a thousand theories. what i think is important is that the independent counsel be allowed to do this investigation, and we follow where the facts are and this is a very important national security issue, and a very important investigation to this country. >> always good to talk to you, thank you very much, congressman debbie dingell. more than two dozen children are among those killed in a mosque attack in egypt. how the country's military is responding as a manhunt continues for the terrorists responsible.

here are some of the other headlines we're watching. president trump's latest battle is with "time" magazine. the president claims "time" told him he'd probably be person of the year for the second year in a row. he responded probably was no good. magazine says it doesn't comment on the choice until publication on december the 6th. president has a new head of the consumer watch dog agency the head of the office of management and budget, mig mulvaney has been tapped. mulvaney will keep his job at the omb while he leads on an interim basis, that move sparked controversy because the director stepped down and wanted his deputy director to get the job instead. a new information today

about three sailors killed in a navy plane crash in the philippines sea earlier this week. the navy identified the servicemen. turning now to that horrific mosque attack in egypt, we warn viewers some of these images are difficult to watch. the number reported dead has climbed to 305, including 27 children. egypt's military launched a number of air strikes in retaliation as a massive manhunt continues for more than two dozen armed attackers. bill neely is in cairo, egypt. what is the latest information we have on this attack? >> reporter: yes, good afternoon, david. after the massacre, the military backlash, egypt's president sisi sent his war planes into the skies over the sinai peninsula and they've been targeting vehicles said to have been involved in the attack, and what are described as arms and ammunition dumps said to have been used by the terrorists involved in this massacre.

within the last few hours the death toll has gone up again to 305, including 27 children. more than 120 people still injured, many of them seriously in hospitals here, including here in cairo. we've been learning more about this attack. we've been talking to a teacher who lives nearby, and he said the gunmen were firing almost uninterrupted for 45 minutes. and he says he personally knows 20 to 30 of the dead in that time. the egyptian government says that up to 30 gunmen were involved. they positioned themselves right around the mosque at every window, and at the main doors, so that really there was no escape. it's a small mosque, nearly everyone inside was either killed or injured. the gunman began with a suicide bomber blowing himself up. they had also unfurled the black flag of isis and were wearing

black uniforms. isis hasn't formally claimed responsibility for this attack but no one is in any doubt isis was responsible. it's very active in the sinai peninsula, it has been for years. it brought down a russian-bound aircraft over the sinai two years ago killing more than 200 people. it has targeted security forces by the dozen in the sinai, and it's also targeted coptic christians across egypt including attacks on churches. this is the first time isis has attacked a mosque, and that is really very significant. there is deep anger here at a massacre of muslims. the real question is, will that anger, that backlash stop isis in its tracks, stop it gaining ground here in egypt? remember, this was the worst terror attack not just in modern egyptian history, but in the middle east, for years and for president sisi it's a real problem going forward, because yes, there's a short term

military response, but he hasn't been able to get a grip on the sinai peninsula problem and if he stands for anything as a former army commander, for stability, for security, but there is neither of those things in the sinai at the moment. so three days of mourning here. we've had mass funeral. sadly, mass graves in that time, and massive anger here after this attack right across egypt. david, back to you. >> bill neely in cairo. coming up new developments in the investigation in russian corruption. michael flynn may be cooperating with prosecutors and what implications that could have for the commander in chief. tonight the story of one family with five children at risk of heart disease an the emotional journey they took through multiple heart transplants. here's a clip. >> it was on june 8th, it was a friday, r.d. day i think. we were sat down and told of our five children that all of them either had cardiomyopathy or had

flaggers or symptoms that they watch that can turn into a cardiomyopathy. >> heartbreak saving the binghams airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today. because where there's a y, there's an us.

former national security adviser general michael flynn may be cooperating with special counsel robert mueller's russia probe. the "new york times" reports flynn's lawyers notified president trump's legal team they are no longer communicating with them about mueller's

investigation into russian election interference. the white house denied flynn would cooperate in a way that would implicate the president saying "there is no angst at the white house about the fact that general flynn is taking whatever steps he's taking that seem to be in his best interest in light of the facts unique to him. the presumption is that flynn may be cooperating, likely on turkey, but there is no concern at the white house that flynn will implicate the president." joining me is andrew desediro and mike, with the podcast the gist who i toiled with back in the day. let me ask you how the tenor of this changes as a result of the report by the "new york times." >> first of all that statement is a master class in using the passive voice and indestruct construction. i don't know exactly what it meant. it was speculating if the white house was upset with what this report reveals and what the report reveals is as you said, flynn broke off or flynn's lawyers broke off contact with white house lawyers and that

would indicate that it's likely he either has a deal or is talking about a deal with the prosecutor. this is pretty simple. you get the smaller fish to flip, to get the bigger one. you get the perpetrator of the smaller offense to get the larger one and the thing is, the thing to know about this and i hope we get to talk about the flynn turkish connection which is bonkers but if you're flipping three-star general and former national security adviser michael flynn he's a pretty big fish. he's a shark. that would seem to indicate there is someone higher up that the mueller and his team are targeting. >> andrew, let me ask you about the aquatic ecosystem, given what mike just said. who are the bigger fish left if in fact he were to flip or cooperate with robert mueller? >> michael flynn is one of the biggest fish, to be frank with you. this is someone who was with the president throughout the campaign, throughout the transition and of course the first very tumultuous month of the administration when we found out that the acting attorney

general sally yates had actually thought that the russians could be blackmailing michael flynn because he misled vice president mike pence about his conversations with the russian ambassador during the transition, and a whole other host of issues. so to be frank with you, this is just someone who knows so much about sort of this ecosystem that you're mentioning about the president and the campaign and the potential connections to russian operatives, and this whole idea of collusion that robert mueller is investigating. >> mike pesca, you brought up the turkish connection, that was reported in detail in the "wall street journal" talking about work he was doing with the flynn intel group now disbanded, working with the turkish government. what did we learn about the role he was playing there, how might that come to bear in this investigation? >> the latest revelation is that he was working on some sort of propaganda or information film to denigrate the erdogan rival fatula gulan who lives in.

pence. the "wall street journal" did follow-up reporting recently is talking about a conversation that flynn had with turk irk is officials. the plan they would kidnap gulan, and this would be subverting united states policy. the turks officially asked the united states, we want this guy, we feel he's behind the coup. the united states official policy said no, there's not enough evidence for that. we're not in the business of surrendering people who are here legally on a green card just based on your word, and apparently some turkish officials even put out a price figure of about $15 million, what can we do to essentially kidnap this guy who appears to be a burr in his saddle. what is crazy, i don't know how far mueller has gotten on that but if he has gotten far and thinks it's serious, and still wants to cut a deal with flynn,

as opposed to fully prosecute flynn, what does that tell you about who he's looking at above flynn or other crimes that might be more serious than the one i've just been detailing. >> andrew, what could this tell us about michael flynn's son in the "new york times" piece, a healthy dose of caution what this could mean in terms of who is cooperating with whom. at the center this is michael flynn jr., he was the chief of staff to his father in that organization. how fine a focus are investigators taking on him? >> well, another reason that michael flynn could be cooperating is not necessarily to implicate the president but to protect his son in some way. so that's also a layer in this and something to add to what mike said. michael flynn concealed around $500,000 worth of payments he received from turkish interests from his foreign agent registration act lobbying forms he did not disclose. that's an important layer to

this and fits into the pattern of michael flynn before he was entering into the administration or a government employee, trying to negotiate on behalf of the u.s. government, which is a potential violation of a very ancient law in this country called the logan act, so that's something robert mueller could be looking at as well and this ties into of course his conversations with russian ambassador sergei kislyak about the potential for lifting sanctions on russia as the trump administration was come in. meanwhile the obama administration was leveeing new sanctions and multiple sanctions and it's all coming together with michael flynn in terms of what we could know where this investigation is heading next. >> mike pesca let me quote from jay sekulow he said "this is not entirely unexpected. no one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about general flynn cooperating against the president. it's important to remember general flynn received his

security clearance under the previous administration." how important is that in your estimation and what can you tell us to remind us about the role michael flynn paid during the transition in the early days of this administration? >> you're a three-star general you have a high security clearance. he got his third star during the obama tenure. he started in the military or first commissioned in 1981 so that's a little bit of a distraction tactic. doesn't matter when he got his security clearance. probably matters when he violated his security clearance. if that happened it would be while working with donald trump. we were talking about mike flynn jr. viewers don't reelize this is a total loose cannon, behind the whole pizza gate thing. flynn, the father, has a lot of exposure. who knows what the deal will be if there is a deal but it could be like andrew says just to get his sop off the hook and another thing to consider, manafort so far hasn't taken a deal.

flynn is 58, manafort is 68, so maybe they're both looking at if charged they would face like ten years in prison and manafort just says no terms of my lifespan that's not worth it and flynn says something like i'm going to fight it. it seems they have him dead to rights on the fara act disclosures on the $500,000, on a couple of things that are serious but not as serious as this turkish connection we've been talking. >> andrew, how did this change the landscape in washington, d.c.? we were talking about the connection to the government of turkey, a lot of talk about what was registered and not. is the lobbying landscape shifting in washington as a result of the turn the investigation has taken? >> absolutely. people are being much more cautious about this. i know that reporters like myself are paying much more attention to these the fara forms disclosed regularly by the justice department and something

michael flynn did not do and it seems to be a pattern of many in this administration forgetting or just not listing these connections. we've seen jared kushner implicated having to constantly update these financial disclosure forms and one more thing to note about michael flynn and his importance here. the fact that he was all with the president throughout the campaign those he could provide the missing links when it comes to the conversations that george papadopoulos and carter paige were having with folks in russia that we now know as a result of this investigation what carter paige has testified to the white house intelligence committee, the senate intelligence committee and what george papadopoulos, what we know about george papadopoulos lying to the fbi about what he did in the campaign. of course he was indicted by the mueller probe for that, and is now cooperating. so because flynn knows so much and is such a big player in this investigation, he could provide many of those very important missing links. >> andrew, mike, my thanks to both of you.

thanks very much. still ahead, all eyes on alabama. will the scandal surrounding gop candidate roy moore affect how voters cast their ballot? we'll look at the latest poll numbers after the break. sarah huckabee sanders fields questions from reporters every day. one of those is about her baking skills. she tweeted this picture of a chocolate pecan pie she says she baked for thanksgiving. the problem many people are not buying it, accusing her of finding a stock photo of a pie online and passing it off as her own. how is that for fake news? yes. this is the j.d. power award for dependability. now i want you to give it to the friend that you think is most dependable. ohhhh. ughh. wow. that's just not fair. does she have to? she doesn't have to! oh, i don't? no, but it's a tough choice, isn't it? yes. well luckily, chevy makes it a little easier. cause it's the only brand to earn j.d. power dependability awards for cars, trucks and suvs -

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when used daily. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture, use polident every day. despite the fall-out for republican candidate roy moore over sexual misconduct allegations, the democrats are still continuing to fight for an edge in the alabama senate race. a new report suggests doug jones is having a problem getting african american voters energized. a big problem because they lean democratic. just two and a half weeks before election day, will dems be able to pull it together? joining me now, former mayor of new orleans, mark murial.

let me ask you what experience you have two states away that could be brought to bear in alabama. what does he need to do here? >> doug jones need to activate the local officials, the local ministers, grassroots politicians, who are considerable in the african american community in alabama. and to some extent, he's paying for the price for the national democrats ignoring the south and ignoring the importance of the african american vote in the south. but i think he's got an opportunity. those elected officials in the alabama legislature, those city council members, those county leaders in alabama, if they're activated, this is not about bringing in outside interests. it's about activating and energizing and the message has to be that this is, number one, going to be an important hedge for african american voters against the trump agenda. but like in louisiana with john bel edwards, a test of whether a

moderate democrat can win in the deep south, and when a moderate democrat can prevail by putting together a coalition in the deep south. i think jones has a shot. and let's see what happens. >> how difficult is the calculus here, you mentioned you have the party, capital p, in washington, coming to influence the election in a way that would be palatable to those in live in alabama. >> you obviously need national money. there's national money coming from the right and the left, and you need that type of support, but i think distinctly, elections in the south are not simply about national issues. i think they're about local issues. they're about local personalities. and i think that in alabama, like louisiana, like mississippi, like georgia, when you get to the rural areas, the small communities, the people trust their local leaders, their local officials. if they see their local officials enthusiastic, driving home a message of how important

the election is, then i think it can make a difference. and i also think that the non-partisan infrastructure in the south has been considerable. and it's people who say, it's important to vote, because voting is important, because democracy is important. even if they're not saying, vote for jones. you've gotta activate that and i think doug jones has to do with the forces behind it. this is one of those gut-check elections. what mr. moore is charged with is reprehensible. and like some other incidents, situations we've seen, it's not one incidents or two incidents, it seems to be a long, long pattern, and that accumulation, i think, strikes at the very heart of whether the voters are going to vote for decency over indecency and reprehensible conduct. >> having a conversation with representative debby dengel and she was talking about the need to have a conversation with

sexual harassment. are you surprised by the degree to which we're having a conversation about sexual harassment? >> i think we're having a conversation about sexual harassment. what doesn't surprise me is that when it comes to voting, notwithstanding indecency, i mean, we saw it in the presidential election, people may be voting ideology, brand, culture. they may be voting race. those dynamics seem to be stronger than sort of what i call this individual assessment of two candidates. i always thought that actions like roy moore's accused of are disqualifiers, because they go to a person's essence, to their character, not where they stand, not how they would vote, but who they are as people. and that in america and in american democracy, we don't want perfect people, but we want decent human beings to represent us, be they rs or ds, left or right. >> what we've seen on twitter,

the president tweeting about "time" magazine, anning toinizing -- antagonizing lavar ball. what do you make of that? >> it's distraction to satisfy his base. yet while all of this takes place, you have a tax plan that will not benefit the president's base, certainly wouldn't benefit middle class americans or african americans or latinos. so in many respects it's a distraction from the substance. >> mr. mayor, thank you very much. we'll be right back.

i'm david gura at msnbc headquarters in new york. on a weekend in this millions of americans have traveled for the holiday, president trump is in familiar territory -- his own property. the president spending this morning at his golf resort in west palm beach, florida. he's visited his properties 102 days he's been in office. kelly o'donnell joins us live from west palm beach. how has the president spent this saturday thus far? >> well, no public events on the president's schedule today. he went to the west palm beach version of his trump national golf course. there's multiple ones here in florida. spent about six hours on the ground. white house officials haven't said what he was doing. you might presume it's golf, but they haven't officially told us