developments as the parties deal with rallegations of sexual misconduct. al franken spoke today. >> hasn't your credibility been undermined? >> i -- i would say yes. and i have a long way back. i have a long way back to win back the trust of the people of minnesota. i've let the people down. i've let the people of minnesota down, i've let my friends and staff and supporters down, my family down. i've especially letdown the people who have seen me as a champion for women. i'm taking responsibility. i apologized to the women who have felt disrespected and to everyone i've letdown. that's a lot of people. in some of these encounters, i've crossed a line for some women, and i know that any

number is too many. >> jeffrey brooks is the washington correspondent from the minneapolis star tribune and spoke with senator franken today and joins us by phone. give us a look at senator franken's state of mind. he said, "i'm a warm person. i hug people. some women found my greeting or my embrace or hug for a photo inappropriate and i respect their feelings about that. in recent days, i've been thinking about how i need to be much more thoughtful about those situations." what has that intraspection been like? >> the senator has emerged to let us know that he's very, very sorry and very, very much wants to get back to work this week. so we'll see whether minnesota accepts his apology. >> his expectation is to get

back to capitol hill and get back to work. how challenging is that likely to be while members of the house and senate have been out of town? what's the reception likely to be once he gets back to the capital tomorrow? >> it's going to be interesting. he is a voice who would have been first out in front of a lot of issues coming up. minnesota has a big judicial nomination. he sits on the judicial committee and, you know, we'll see if he comes roaring out of the gates and questioning the way we would have expected. but i imagine a lot of people will be talking to him about, i know, did you inappropriately touch women during photo ops as opposed to talking about tax cuts or judges the way he'd like them to. >> there was an initial allegation, four allegations in total now, by two who have remained anonymous. what has he said about women making similar allegations? >> well, he said if you asked him two weeks ago, he thought there would have been no chance

any women could have treated him with disrespect. so his response when we asked him about that was none that he knows of and he certainly hopes there aren't any more. >> he said that he's apologized. >> he said he feels badly that the women in the photo ops who every single one of them described his hand roaming down to their backsides during photos with him, he says he's a warm person, he's a hugger but he does not share that same recollection. so he certainly stopped short of actually admitting that it happened without denying the women's accounts which is an interesting needle to thread. >> he said to you, quote, i've been a champion for women and this makes this all the harder. i know i'm not going to regain their trust immediately. there's no magic words i can say

here to make that happen. he addressed calls for his resignation. what did he say to you when you raised that point from the conversation that you had with him today, that being calls for him to step aside and to have the governor of minnesota appoint somebody to take his seat in the u.s. senate? >> he says that he believes that he can bring something valuable to the debate. he still thinks he can be an effective public servant and wants to put the word in to try to win back minnesota's trust. >> jennifer, you're the washington correspondent for the star tribune. give us your sense of how this is playing out in the state that represents. how has this affected his p popularity in the state of minnesota? >> it was a real heartbreaker for some of his supporters. he had been out front cheering on women who were sharing their

stories so a lot of reaction was, oh, no, not al franken, too. and the reaction from the minnesota republicans has been a full-throated war for him to resign. they say you cannot expect republicans to line up well roy moore if you have al franken there cutting the message. >> jennifer, really appreciate the time. that's jennifer brooks, one of three individuals who interviewed senator franken earlier today. let's bring in jeff bennett along with betsy woodruff, edward isaac divere and robert traynham and former governor of vermont, howard dean as well. isaac, let me start with you and ask you about the way this unfolded today. you are somebody who has covered washington and this is classic franken. he's gone to the local media to

make his case. >> the most important thing that he said is that he's not resigning. he's not responding to those calls to act on it in the way that some people would like to see here. but he also has admitted to an extent guilt on this in a way that is notably different from other people here. we saw a report over the weekend that donald trump has apparently questioned in conversations whether the "access hollywood" tape was even real. franken in his interview said, yes, the photo is true. it's there. it's a problem. but on the other hand, he's talking about that there may be more incidents that he doesn't know about and if there are, then he's sorry that they exist. it's an admission of guilt but a carefully threaded way of doing it. >> governor dean, we've heard from the reporter, jennifer from minnesota, the specter of administration has been raised

here. given how this has played out, is there a case here for senator franken to step aside? >> there is but certainly not by the republicans. to compare roy moore who was alleged to have molested children and was banned from a shopping mall because of this by the local police, what al franken did was to move his hand very inappropriately at photo ops, i think is stupid. now, i'm not defending what al did. what i want -- the point i want to make again and again is, we get bogged down, which is what the republicans want, to divert attention from what trump did aroy moore did. we get bogged down with who should resign and who shouldn't. i think what we all ought to agree on, i'd like to see republicans who own the house and senate right now, are willing to make fundamental institutional change so all of this is no longer outrageous like this. we need transparency. you can't pay john conyers a

$20,000 suit settlement for somebody he harassed and not have it be in the budget. that's the taxpayers' money that you're paying it with. >> indeed, it's republicans and democrats. >> that's right. we don't want to excuse anybody from doing this but also want to make sure that it's institutional reform and not a lot of crap about who should resign and who shouldn't. the issue is what in the hell are you going to do about it? >> betsy woodruff, let me ask you about this moment in particular and the congress that will be returning tomorrow. there's been allegations in washington and in all four corners of the country as well. how difficult is that going to be here, the desire for urgency, to deal with matters in the way that weave their way through the policy making on capitol hill? >> you know, it's a little

curious that so much has punted to the ethics committees here the way that democrats are talking about sort of -- democrats and republicans are talking about shifting these inquiries to the jurisdiction of the committee is kind of anal g analogous to bob mueller's purview. but there's serious credibility the way that bob mueller is doing and the way that ethics communities handle this. the senate ethics committee has significant staff overturn in the last few years. it's not a committee that is particularly -- seen as particularly formidable or particularly hard hitting or technically effective watchdog on capitol hill. so the fact that everyone is punting and saying the ethics committee will solve our problems really sounds like an effort of leaders in washington to advocate responsibility instead of saying that the facts

here, particularly in this case, are pretty simple. >> jeffrey bennett, let me ask you about the president's engagement with the special investigation in alabama and the president's reported reaction to his daughter and adviser ivanka trump saying that she was not keen on the president endorsing roy moore. i'm quoting from that piece, "evented his annoyance when his daughter ivanka castigated roy moore." >> david, the president has dropped all pretense that he's all that concerned about the allegations surrounding roy moore. people close to the president tell me it comes down to two things. one, he wants and needs and republican to hold that senate seat and the other thing is he doesn't want to be on the losing side twice in alabama, david.

you'll remember he backed luther strange against his better instincts. he was encouraged to back luther strange. the sitting alabama senator lost and the president knows who his supporters are and knows the same people who back him by and large back roy moore. it's a pure political calculation. when the president left for mar-a-lago last tuesday, a reporter asked him if he was going to campaign for roy moore. he said we'll see. i asked the president if he was going to in fact campaign for roy moore. he didn't engage but in speaking to some republicans involved in the alabama race, they say the president doesn't need to go to alabama to campaign. his implicit endorsement so far is endorsement enough. >> robert traynham, let me ask you about that. we saw tweets in which roy moore

was asked implicitly. chuck schumer and nancy pelosi were invoked and he's using those as proxies. >> how effective they are? i'm not sure that they are effective at all when doubling down on why roy moore should not be their colleague. these are congressional republicans. tim scott from south carolina, lindsey graham, john mccain, some folks in the house of representatives, mitch mcconnell, these are congressional republicans who have said no thank you and, by the way, they are congressional republicans that have floated the idea that if in fact he was to win, that perhaps maybe there would be talk of expulsion. i think they are very serious about this in many ways but here's the bigger issue here. the president will probably campaign for roy moore if in fact he's within striking distance. the last poll that i saw as a

democrat is ahead by ten points. if roy moore is within the margin of error, i think the president will do some type of robocalls or go down there because it's so important to the republicans when it comes to the tax bill. >> let me ask you about the role of the democratic party here as this campaign continues. you see national figures keeping a distance as it plays out in alabama. the former mayor of new orleans was with me yesterday and talked about failure of the democratic party to engage with the deep south in a way that might have previously pioneered the 50-state strategy. what more does the democratic party need to do long term to engage democratic voters in the south? >> we're doing exactly what we should be doing in alabama. i think mark -- and for that matter, i as well until i did some investigating, thought that way, too. the dnc wasn't doing enough. the dnc is doing exactly what it should be. i've campaigned in alabama. alabamans do not want to be told

what to do in their home state. they'll get to the right decision. they're going to elect doug jones, i believe. but they are not going to be told what to do by people like me. i think the idea of sending bus loads of people down there to campaign in a political campaign, they know what roy moore is. alabama has changed a lot, too, since the days of george wallace. they have better jobs and car plants down there. the university of alabama is a very good university. it's a different state than it was. i think we ought not to rice the specter of the way things used to be by doing that. there was a lot of money being raised from all over the country and small donation for doug jones. there's a tremendous get out to vote effort by the campaign. i'm very happy with what national democrats are doing and so far i think that's wise. >> can i interject here quickly?

>> very quickly, robert. >> roy moore has ran for public office four times and ran for governor in the primary twice and lost. he's been removed or impeached twice. i think they know who roy moore is and they will make the right decision come december. >> jeff bennett, thank you. the rest of the panel will be back in a little bit. coming up, i'll talk to a democratic member of congress as john conyers departs the judiciary committee. for singing definitely dry mouth has been a problem for me. i'm also on a lot of medications that dry my mouth. i just drank tons of water all the time. it was never enough. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to continue singing. i saw my dentist. he suggested biotene. it feels refreshing. my mouth felt more lubricated. i use biotene rinse twice a day and then i use the spray throughout the day. it actually saved my career in a way. biotene really did make a difference.

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welcome back. congressman john conyers is not backing down in proclaiming his innocence amid sexual misconduct allegations but conyers will not be the ranking democrat on the house judiciary committee. he's announced he's stepping down from the leadership post due to an ongoing house ethics investigation over the issue. joining me is john garamendi.

your leader nancy pelosi was asked about what she thought congressman john conyers ought to do. >> we are strengthened by due process. just because someone is accused and is it one accusation, is it two -- john conyers is an icon in our country. as john reviews his case, which he knows, which i don't, i believe he will -- >> why don't you? how is it that you don't know -- >> he will do the right thing. >> congressman garamendi, i'll ask about her response in a minute but she believes he'll do the right thing. to you, what is the right thing? what does your colleague john conyers need to do? >> what he did do is step down from his position and to request an immediate ethics investigation. that has to be open, transparent and speedy. and then we'll see where it goes from there. but this is a process that is

under way. conyers has given up a very, very important position so he's made the first step towards dealing with this issue. the second step will be on tuesday when we return and the ethics investigation will be under way at that time. and hopefully it will be speedy, transparent, put all of it on the table, all of the accusations, all of the issues and we'll see what it comes to after that. >> congressman, you heard my colleague chuck todd try to get in there when the minority leader was saying that she knows all of the allegations. what do you think of her comprehension of what happened here and how has that affected your confidence in her leadership? >> i've known nancy pell feosi more than 40 years. she's very, very capable. i think she was caught in between. she was obviously involved earlier in discussions with conyers and the -- and his colleagues, our colleagues and

the decision by conyers hadn't yet been made so she was trying to -- she was in a very difficult in-between situation. and i don't think any of us know all of the facts. that's why this ethics investigation has to get under way immediately. those women that have brought forth their issues, we must assume that those are credible allegations. and let's get to it. let's find out what it's all about and then we'll see where we go from there. keep in mind that there are three ways for a sitting member to lead congress. one is to resign and the other is an ethics investigation that leads to an expulsion and the third is the next election. >> the house is scheduled to vote this week on new rules, on new requirements that staff interns would have to have more training and become familiar with the training surrounding sexual harassment. is that enough, in your estimation? what do lawmakers need to do here to combat what we've seen play out over the last few

weeks? >> certainly this is a very, very important step in that we must do that. we must all be aware and all be sensitive. in addition to that, there is 435 members of congress, 100 senators and one president elected to run the nation. to be responsible for the good and for the future of this nation and we have an obligation, all of us, from the president right on down to all members of congress and the senate to have the highest ethical standards. unfortunately, over time, and this has gone on forever since the very beginning of our republic, there have been shortcomings, failures and, in many cases, out and out scandals of great proportion and very serious issues. so we have to get through this. but this resolution that would require all of us, including our staff, and it's not just a problem amongst the members, the elected members but also staff

and it goes on. so we are aware and we have to abide by that high ethical standard so let's get on with it. >> there's a meeting on tuesday between congressional leadership and the president of the united states, of course, we're facing a potential government shutdown here. what message do you want leadership in the house, leadership of your party to carry to the president? what are the nonstarters over funding taking place over the next few days? >> let's understand that the december 8th deadline for both the extending the debt limit as well as funding government is going to be preceded by a very, very significant and, in my view, a horrible vote on the tax cuts. take $1,500,000 out of the

coffers and then what do you do with the debt limit? we're $600 billion right now in the current year's deficit and now you add another couple hundred billion to that over the next decade. a trillion and a half. this is a very, very fundamental and crisis thing for the united states. this tax cut has to stop. it doesn't make any sense in its particulars. why would we give the wealthiest 1% of americans and the corporations 50% of a trillion and a half dollars, 1,500,000 over the next decade? this is the texas two step. it's in their budget, the republicans have already said what they intend to do and that would be the second step that

might occur as early as december decembdecember 8th. 60% of the medicaid money goes to seniors and nursing homes and $500 billion out of medicare. that's the texas two step. oh, we've got some things to deal with. first the tax issue, which is bad. and then coming up right on that is the deficit to extend the debt limit and fund government. >> congressman, thanks very much. texas two step. john garamendi, thank you very much. >> thank you, david. james comey taking aim at president trump over twitter. what the former director is taking issue with, next. ly want a clean feeling every day, you want your denture to be stain free. did you know there's a specialty cleanser that's gentle enough for everyday use and cleans better than regular toothpaste? try polident cleanser. it has a four in one cleaning system that kills ten times more odor causing bacteria than regular toothpaste,

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liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." jim comey's tweet was sent out half an hour after trump's twitter attack on cnn. joining me is nick ackerman, betsy woodruff as well, isaac dovore and robert traynham. nick, let me start with you and this tweet i just mentioned. what do you make of jim comey's engagement in this process? what do you make of the way that he's re-engaging here? >> well, i think he's concerned. he's had a firsthand look at what the president wants to do. he was told by president trump to drop the investigation into flynn, which he considered an incorrect -- it was basically a request to obstruct justice and stop a valid fbi investigation. so i think he's out there, you

know, trying to re-engage and certainly our first amendment liberties are at stake here. when president trump comes across and says you wouldn't believe cnn, it's fake news, that is absolutely absurd and then to say the only real news in this country is fox news is even more absurd. i mean, what president trump is interested in is conspiracy theories and alternate facts. and that's where he stands, unfortunately. >> betsy woodruff, let me ask you about this component part and what we've seen play out over the last few months. the u.s. government does something and the russia government retaliates with the u.s. government requiring to register as a foreign agent. how has all of this been playing out? >> it's not necessarily a huge shock that the kremlin is cracking down on foreign reporters.

they directed russia that there would be a retaliation on american western media folks working there. now, obviously the work that american journalists are doing overseas and russia and eastern europe is certainly not even remotely analogous to what russia has been doing in the united states. that said, the way that the kremlin is responding the way they are is not a huge shock. this is what putin does. additi additionally, many western journalists who have worked in that country have been mysteriously killed and seen their rights dramatically restricted. it's important to remember that even though putin seems to be retaliating against american media, the real people who have been hurt the most and impacted the most by his government are the actual russian journalists who are there day in and day

out. >> robert traynham, let me have you respond to that about these attacks on freedom of the press and free speech. what are the ramifications of that, as you see it? >> it's the pillar of transparency. don't you find it ironic that a former fbi chief is talking about the need for transparency and talking about the need for free press? james comey, i've never met him before, but to my knowledge, he's a true patriot and someone who has always put the country first and someone who has put american values and american troops first and foremost. it sounds like he is kind of teaching us, if you will, reminding us, if you will, about those truths and sending a message to the white house by saying, mr. president, yet again, please, please rise up to the occasion and put american values first and please be american. >> does this make him more of a target in a way? we've seen pete bharara out on

twitter. does this make him more of a target and what are the consequences of that? >> i'm not sure jim comey could face deeper consequences from president trump than he has already. he's been fired. he has a book coming out in a couple of months that will be, i think it's fair to assume, pretty rough on president trump based on what we've seen so far from his testimony. it's likely to cause problems from trump at least in the immediate and beyond that. we don't know how much jim comey is going to say in that book and how much he'll be able to say, based on the various restrictions on what he can reveal. but it does seem like what he has established himself as is someone who will be an opponent of president trump and a thorn in his side. all he has to do is tweet about

something he didn't even mention president trump's name. we all know what he was saying and he can call attention to this issue, which is an important each. president trump is cracking down, at least rhetorically, on the media. the difference between what is going on with putin and with president trump is that while putin is doing all of the things, attacking russian journalist,s, he's not attacking r.t. which is owned by russia-state media. the president is attacking cnn international which is not part of the american government and he's doing it as journalists are under fire and adding to that fire himself. if not for everything else that we've seen about the president's approach to the media, in and itself would be an amazing thing. >> nick ackerman, let me ask you about another story in the news. michael flynn's counsel was

sharing information with president trump's counsel. that is not going to continue. how do you forecast what might be happening here? >> i think it's pretty clear to me. i've been doing this for 40 years. i've been a prosecutor. i'm a defense lawyer. i've done it from both sides. the only reason that you would get out of a joint defense agreement is because you're cooperating. it doesn't just happen that flynn goes walking into the prosecutor's office. there's a two-step process really here. first, the lawyers go in. the government wants to know what is it that you're client can provide, what testimony can they provide, who can they provide it against? and they get a proffer from the lawyers and at that point the government brings in the client and interrogates him under a queen for a day which means that what he says can't be used against him but the leads can be

used to further the investigation. so once they get to that point, it's very, very serious. based on how comfortable the prosecution feels with what the person is saying, judging against the evidence that they already have, fudging against what makes sense, then in a case like flib, they're going to insist on at least a plea to a five-year felony and a full-blown cooperation agreement. it's at that point that the lawyers are going to notify the other members of the joint defense agreement, we're out of here. no longer are we part of that agreement. you don't wait -- i mean, "the new york times" has reported that maybe there's just negotiations going on now. we've got to be well beyond that if they've notified the white house that they're no longer part of this joint defense agreement. >> white collar jurisprudence. betsy woodruff, let me ask you about jared kushner. the diminished role that he's playing in this white house, of course, he's been involved in these allegations of russian

interference as well. "the new york times" supporting that you do whatever you want philosophy when reince priebus was the white house chief of staff. what do you make of the favor that he enjoys or doesn't enjoy in this white house today? >> one thing that's become clear to me is in the course of covering the mueller investigation and ever since it was rolled out months ago is that jared kushner and his legal team are facing a significant amount of anxiety because of these investigations and flynn's potential cooperation is actually an important piece of that. just to take a step back, we know flynn and his attorney have essentially been waving their arms over their head saying we're interested in telling you guys things. we know things. in fact, flynn's attorney all but said that his client had a story to tell back months ago and flynn potentially was going to sit down with congressional investigators. that raises questions as to what exactly flynn knows. here's what we know flynn knows. flynn was in the room when

sergey kislyak, the controversial russian ambassador, sat down with a meeting with, who else, jared kushner. flynn has been at kushner's side through the campaign, through the transition and even in the early days of the trump administration before he was ousted as national security adviser. he knows a lot about how the foreign policy of the administration back when it was new was coming together and it's likely that he has information that could cause kushner anxiety. the fact that kushner's role is being marginalized doesn't mean it's caused by the investigation but we certainly can't discount the russia story as a potential driver of his marginalized. >> nick ackerman, betsy, thank you. senator al franken breaks his silence. will he survive this? our panel weighs in. congress has a lot to do on its to-do list and not a whole lot of time.

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well, republicans have been dealing with party fracture and sexual harassment allegations and the democrats have been dealing with, well, the same thing. the allegations of sexual misconduct against minnesota senator al franken has been a major distraction for the party. franken was asked today whether he has considered resigning. >> no. no. the ethics committee is looking into all of this and i will cooperate fully with it. listen, i know i have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of the people i've letdown. >> today, democratic conyers stepped down in the wake of accusations of sexual harassment. let's turn to our panel, politics reporter for "the daily beast," betsy woodruff and isaac dovere and robert traynham and former governor of vermont howard dean.

howard, let me turn to you and between that exchange with chuck todd on "meet the press" and house leader nancy pelosi. could she have taken a stronger position here? >> i think it would be to put teeth in the ethics committee. it's been like the hr department and big corporations. they are there to protect the institution and not to help people who work for the institution who have been wronged. so, you know, some people are going to have to resign when we find out what went on. what i'd like to see is some teeth in the ethics committee and i don't think we have teeth in the ethics committee because it's a good old boys network that gets along and protects each other and that's got to come to an end. >> what does that say about that's the way that process is including and this isn't the way for this to unfold. what recourse should they have? >> i don't think that's good

enough. they may want to have some sort of a special prosecutor not so much to prosecute all of these people but some of them could be prosecuted and some of them can't be. but to have an independent investigation of what's going on, i don't trust the ethics committee to do that. >> betsy, as somebody who knows capitol hill well, how much is that distrust endemic to capitol hill today? >> i would say that's a wide view. the job is not to figure out whether or not young staffers were a i tacked by their bosses. a lot of what the ethics committee does is handle questions about overseas travel and about staffers receiving gifts or what parties staffers go to, ethical issues that are certainly complicated but that aren't in the case of allegations that conyers and franken face that could potentially rise to some criminal wrongdoing or something that would bring significant civil liability.

the idea that all of a sudden the ethics committee is going to swoop in and solve the capitol hill sexual harassment problem is something that anybody who has spent time on capitol hill can tell you is honestly a kind of fansful notion. the way that capitol hill handles these types of allegations, as governor dean said, is essentially designed to protect members. look, if you're a woman and want to allege that your boss, a member of congress, sexually mistreated you, you have to -- it could take weeks. you could potentially have to go to mandatory mediation so that could mean you have to sit down with the person who you alleged attacked you. the idea that that is a way to protect victims is itself a real head scratcher. in addition, one of the woman who bought this forward with senator conyers, she had to sign

a document that would not reveal what happened. >> lisa bloom, the attorney for that accuser, said she'd like to see john conyers remove that provision of that agreement so she could speak out. is there a loud and clear call on capitol hill for that to happen? >> the change in nancy pelosi's own take on this just today is pretty amazing. she called conyers an icon on "meet the press" a he nd then conyers stepped down and she said zero tolerance means zero tolerance. one of the other factors is not is this an important position, conyers is known on capitol hill for not being fully there all the time and i can speak to my own encounters with him over the years and thinking of one about two years ago when i was asked him some questions about obama

and the difference and the p presidents that they've seen and he seemed to lose the thread of the conversation over the course of it. so all of that gets put into the cauldron here of what is going on overall with congress and our culture and this new attention to what is obviously a very big issue, not just on capitol hill but all over the place. importantly, going through republican party, the democratic party and not being addressed by the leadership of congress at this point so far in any way other than to say we should do sexual harassment training maybe. >> robert traynham, let's peer into that cauldron, looking what they need to do between now and the end of the year, there's tax cuts, tax reform, agree on a budget to avoid the shutdown. there's the issue of repealing

and replacing the daca program as well. what confidence do you have that this legislative body will get to any, certainly not all of that, over the next couple of days? >> less than 10%. i think the only thing that congress will get to, because legally they have to, and that is some kind of legislation. the question becomes whether or not leader mcconnell and leader ryan will have enough legislative data to get that done. there's no doubt about it that they want to get a tax bill done. i get that. they have to get the cr done. the real question is whether or not there is enough legislative heft to get those two things done and then push daca to the beginning of next year. >> my thank you to you both. coming up, we look ahead to giving tuesday and the growing concerns about what may happen to charitable giving if the tax

bill is passed. we'll be right back.

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welcome back. on the heels of black friday and tomorrow being cyber monday comes your chance to give back. it's called giving tuesday. over past six years, it has become a global giving moment. it's a grass-roots effort of individuals, businesses and organizations from across the u.s. and 98 countries all together. go to givingtuesday.org to find something in your organization. joining me is the president and ceo of save the children. what does your organization do and explain it in the context of a huge crisis. >> our big mission is focused on

children as you could tell by the name. we focus on health, education and protection of kids in kind of normal circumstances and then in emergencies. working in 120 countries. as you mentioned, yemen and also the crisis in bangladesh are two huge ones. yemen is a hunger crisis at this point. millions of people on the verge of starvation. it impacts children. >> explain the difficulties of getting aid to people in those places. i think of yemen in particular, the fiscal difficulty of getting that there. how do you go around that? >> it's very difficult. yemen is tough because of the blockade. it's also difficult once urine side the country, because where you have active fighting, obviously, you are trying to get around that and reach the most vulnerable kids, particularly. so that can be really dangerous for our teams on the ground. you have to balance this issue of keeping people alive and

actually getting the aid into the places where it's most needed. places like yemen and somalia are some of the toughest places we work around the world. >> you have deployed a lot of resources on refugees who left syria. you have studied the impact that this has had on children who have left that area in particular. how bad is it? what do they face? how can you combat that? >> with syria, one of the most difficult things is it's been going on so long. this is the seventh year of this the syrian war. these children, some of them have grown up their whole childhood and now they are 6 or 7, their whole childhood has been in a crisis, either as a refugee or in the country being bomb and shelled. that's a tough thing, not only physically for kids but the psychological wear and tear on a child is huge. a lot of the work we're doing now inside syria and in the five countries surrounding syria is

focused on the psychological well-being, trying to get kids to be children again. realize that they actually have a future. we do a lot of things like getting kids to just play and learn. education is probably the most important thing that we're focused on for syrian refugees. it gives kids that sense of something normal and it also gives them a sense that they have a future, which is so important when they have been through this kind of stress for so long. >> how does your work change as the crises unfold? there's the yemen crisis, which is still rather -- you been involved here in the u.s. after hurricane harvey as well. how does the work change as time goes on? >> i think this year particularly has been a really tough year because we have had so many disasters. typically, we would have a team that would be working in a country on the ground. when you have a disaster, you bring people from all over the organization into that country. because of the many disasters,

we have a hunger crisis in east africa, we have yemen, we have the issues of the row rihingya, have the three hurricanes in the u.s., we have run out of people to send to the emergencies. it's been an extraordinary year in terms of the disaster response piece. >> quickly here, we were talking about tax reform. there's an incentive for people to give. how concerned are you about that going away and not unsensitivizing people to give in the financial way? >> there's two things, the estate tax and the deductions. i think they will have some impact. certainly not happy about that. but i do think that a lot of people give because they believe in the organizations. like save the children and others. we're hopeful that that won't have a huge impact. >> thank you very much for the time. the president and ceo of save the children joining me in new york. because msnbc is a signature media partner, we ask for your generosity which will mean so

much to so many. please stay with us for updates throughout the night and breaking news as it happens. have a great night.

we were in love. >> they were so happy at first. sharing a lover's perch atop a cliff. but romance turned to danger. she fell from the edge. >> i would call this an accidental death. >> but was it? >> she said that if anything happens to me, you will know who did it. >> a mystery of nearly 20 years heads into court. and the husband is on the precipice. >> did you kill your wife? >> i did not hurt jody. >> what happened on the cliff's edge?