we keep the folks in our thoughts as they head into another long night. for us, that's our broadcast for this tuesday evening. thank you so much for being here with us gand night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. a headquarters here in new york. gs headquarters here in new york. o news headquarters here in new york. onight from nbc news headquarters here in new york. dnight from nbc news headquarters here in new york. night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. buckle up, things are getting a little weird. we knew it would happen, but it's happening. since the president's national security adviser mike flynn pled guilty on friday morning, there have been some strange utterances coming out of the white house about this investigation that threat tones engulf the trump pressy. specifically there have been some strange utterances coming from white house lawyers about this investigation. we should have probably seen it as the first sign that mike flynn's guilty plea was really rattling the white house. when white house russia lawyer ty cobb gave his initial response to that guilty plea, as

if he was beaming into this news story from some other distant backwards planet where this was good news. mike flynn pled guilty to a single charge of lying to the fbi. and he simultaneously agreed to cooperate fullsomely and without limit with the special counsel's investigation on all other matters. and white house lawyer ty cobb greeted that news by praising, quote, the conclusion of this phase of the special counsel's work. as if oh, the mike flynn issue was all done now. it's as if you went to see a movie and as soon as the starting credits opened you stood up and led an applause and tried to get everybody in the theater to join in with you. we came to see the title, right? s that watt first odd response from the president's lawyers. greeting the mike flynn news as if it's done. as the flynn is a cooperating

witness chapter of the investigation opened, the president's lawyer praised the special counsel for wrapping up that part of the investigation. super weird and a sign that they were going to behave strangely after that play. second weird set of reactions from the president's lawyers came yesterday when john dowd argued to axous.com and then jay sekulow argued to the reporter that if the president obstructed justice or if the president colluded with russia, who cares. he cannot be an obstructor of justice because he is justice. and jay sekulow arguing to the new yorker that it wouldn't be a crime to collude with russia to interfere in the election because technically there is no crime called collusion. those claims from the president's lawyers yesterday flipped on what sounded like a laugh track in legal circles all across the country. but they did mark an important

moment in this presidency. the moment when the president's legal team stopped arguing that the president didn't obstruct justice or that he didn't collude with russia, they stoppeding ago maybe the president did those things but those things are okay for a president do. so the weird reaction of the mike flynn news over the weekend, the president can't commit a crime because he's the president news yesterday, well now we've got the next phase of the response also from the president's lawyers, it is also a little weird, it's a little hard to make heads or tails of, but basically what the president's lawyers started arguing today is that they are not just arguing with reporters, they're not just trying to shift the narrative about how people describe what's going on in the investigation, president's lawyers are now disputing the existence of an important new news story about the progress of the scandal and the investigation. they're not fighting about the

importance of this news story or the legal significance of this news story, they're literally disputing whether or not this story exists. this is the story for the record, this is the original version of the story. it's the english language version of a german newspaper, i speak as much germans a do russian so forgive me if my pronunciation is an insult to german speakers. and you can see the lead of the article, deutsche bank has been served. mueller's trump russian investigation engufls deutsche bank. deutsche bank has received a subpoena from the u.s. special counsel investigating possible collusion between president donald trump's campaign and russia. now, this is a german news story that's about a german bank so they are understandably focused on the implications of this for germany and for this german bank. but after they broke that story this morning, then it was picked up and reported out by reuters

and by bloomberg news and it very quickly became clear in our country that this isn't just an important story for some big important bank there are is an important story for our presidency. and that's because of two important things about this particular german bank. the first important thing to know about deutsche bank in this story is that deutsche bank is up to its german neck in russian money laundering. let's say i'm a russian crook. i'm a thief. i grew up like practicing judo with vladimir putin or something and so he has given me leave to steal stuff, pill lathe pension funds or strip all the assets out of some formerly state-run company, right. so i'm a russian bad guy. i've got some ill gotten gains, i've got some stolen money and i would like 10 to joy my stolen money. and so in order to to so, i have to secret those funds away somewhere where they won't get noticed by law enforcement, where they won't get taxed, and where anybody who might

prosecute me or persecute me for the way that i illegally got this money, they won't be able to find it and reclaim it. trace it back to me. so let's say just for the sake of argument the amount of money that i, crook, want to get out of russia is like $10 million. if i want to get $10 million out of russia, i ideally want to convert it from rubles into some other currency, preferably dollars. in order for me to get that money out of russia without anybody noticing, it has to look like that money is leaving the country as some part of legitimate transaction, and, on the down low, slightly i probably also immediate it to be okay with putin that i'm taking that money out because he tends to know these things. that's where deutsche bank comes in. there's a lot of ditch ways to launder money, but from about 2011 to 2015, deutsche bank ran this scheme that was not very complicated at all when it comes to money laundering schemes.

but because it went through a big legit european bank, this scheme they were running was super effective at moving money not just once but lots and lots of times, tons and tochbs monies out of russia and into the west and they were able to keep the scheme going for years before people finally started to realize that even though this was a legit looking european bank there are was a huge fairly simple criminal operation that they were running with russian illegal money. and it, again, it was pretty simple. i mean, usually money laundering is designed to be purposely complicated so you can't follow the money. this was a simple scheme. you can't just ship your money from russia like wire it to the cayman islands or cypress or new york or london and deposit it. you'll get caught doing it that way if you're a russian crook. so instead what you do is you say i don't want just to send my money abroad to park it somewhere, i don't want to just open an account in a foreign country and move it there, i can't do that with money like this.

instead, i want to buy something. so you need to have something that you're going buy for a lot of money. so you have somebody abroad go to deutsche bank and they tell deutsche bank abroad hey, i have something to sell. i have like this highlighter, and i want to sell this highlighter and the price of this highlighter i want to sell is $10 million. miraculously at that same moment, you pop up in moscow with your $10 million in i will gotten rubles and you say hello deutsche bank moscow office, do you know anybody who's selling something i might be able to buy for $10 million. i was thinking of investing in a high lighter do you know anybody that's selling one for $10 million? and deutsche bank says you know, we can help you out with that were we can do that transaction four and help you aught with that. think about how the money moves. i'm the dude in russia, i hand $10 million in dirty rubles over

to the deutsche moscow option. they say thank you much you just now purchased a highlighter. then in their other office abroad, in london or whatever, that deutsche bank's office, they pair their client $10 million in euros or dollars or whatever, and they, you know, collect the highlighter that's just been sold. and that's it, that's how the money mufss. $10 million goes in in moscow, $10 million pops out in london. and thanks to the fake jerry rigged sale price of that item they'll were supposeedly buying and selling there, that $10 million highlighter, you just moved $10 million from moscow to london using the offices of deutsche bank do it. and your ill gotten $10 million that you stole from little old ladies in moscow somewhere is no longer on the books as money that you stole from those little old ladies, it's now money that you can access in the west because it's the proceeds of a lawfully transaction conducted by a big legit european bank. that's how it works.

they don't do it selling highlighters or selling some other tangible goods, they do it with stock trades instead, but that's the principles. they use real stocks, they used a real bank, but it was all fake for the purposes of just moving money. it's what they call mirror trading. and you can see how the mirror works there, right? i want to sell something for 10 million bucks, i want to buy something for 10 million bucks and pooch, the money moves. somebody selling in london or cypress or some tex shelter island somewhere and somebody else buying in moscow. and there was something like 6,000 of these fake mirror trades. and in most these cases, the buyer and the seller were actually the same entity. there weren't two different people who where are really buying and selling anything to anyone else, these were just fake sales events. fake stock sales that were -- they used real stock but the whole point of it was just a way

to move tons and tons and tons of illegal russian money out of russia and into the west. and i mean tons of money. this was multiple billions of dollars, more than 6,000 trades using multiple deutsche bank offices over a period of years. and part of the reason they got away with it for so long and to such a huge extent is because this big legit seeming bank was involved. they couldn't have done it without deutsche bank fa significasill tating these trades. and deutsche bank couldn't do it without connections in russia. because nobody gets hundred of millions, let alone multiple billions of dollars shuffled out of russia without the russian government being in on it and saying okay. in the new book "collusion" it reports out some of the apparent russian government involvement in this scheme. you know how they say in american personnel is policy? in russian politics, personnel

is policy, it's money, it's also criminal connection dollars. a gueye named andre cos continue, somebody who vladimir putin has installed at the very top of russian state-run banking, he is thought 0 to have kgb/fsb ections of his own. putin put him in charge of a state-run bank called veb. they're famous in our own country for having sent jared kushner to meet during the transition, what was that about? but at one point had he been installed by putin as the head of veb. he later installed him as the head of tb which is another state-run bank with very close ties to russian intelligence. when did it came time for deutsche bank to staff up its office in moscow, one of the people they installed in that office was andre's son, also handedly named andre cos continue. soons documented by luke harding in collusion, the spigot turned

on. billions of dollars in elicit russian money flowed through that office, started getting spirited out of russia through that deutsche bank moscow office and this multibillion dollars scheme they were operating. deutsche bank rab that scheme out of their moscow office using their offices in the west as well. but that whole thing happened, they did that because they could thanks apparently to their connections to the russian government and putin. they did it because they could. but deutsche bank also did it because they got paid, right? because they got a cut. you're moving multiple bills of illicit dollars, yeah, you're taking a cut. that moscow office of deutsche bank according to harding started clearing profits of a half billion to a billion dollars a year in profit. that one office.

thanks in large part to that office aries relationship with the state reason hundred bank which happened to be run by andre costin's dad. so, if that bank, if deutsche bank is now getting suspected by the robert mueller investigation, one reason that's important is because deutsche bank is one of the clearest windows we've got into russian money laundering over the last ten to 15 years. but you know what? it's interesting to know that mueller is looking into that. but it's not like this hasn't been investigated before. it's not like he's about to uncover this scheme. part of the reason we all know about the scheme and i can talk about it on tv is because deutsche bank and it's money laundering scheme got busted a few years ago. in january of this year they paid over a $400 million fine for that russian money laundering scheme to new york state, new york state is home to the headquarters of lots of domestic and international banks so lots of financial crimes yet prosecuted and pursued by new york state financial regulators.

so they had to pay -- deutsche bank had to pay over 4-million dollars to new york state because of that money laundering scheme. in addition to new york state going after them, one of the interesting dogs that didn't bark during the first year of the trump administration is that even though deutsche bank settled that case with new york state and paid that gigantic 4-million dollars fine to new york state in january, a lot of people were expecting that that was the small penalty, that the big fine they were going to pay, the one than wouldn't be hundreds of millions of dollars, that would be billions of dollars, that would be paid by deutsche bank after the feds got through with them. it's one thing to have new york state regulators coming after you, it's another thing to have the justice department coming after you. so people expect that it was going to be a ginormous fine against deutsche bank, maybe an huge fine when the justice department case about russian money laundering came to its conclusion either in the courts or in a settlement. well that russian money laundering case against deutsche

bank had been run in the justice department by the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. he was fired by president trump, even though president trump had previously assured him that he could keep his job. well since then, since the start of the trump administration, it's possible that the justice department's russian money laundering case against deutsche bank has been chugging along quietly in the background and we don't know anything about it, but it's moving along full steam ahead and someday we're going to find out something dramatic's been going on. maybe that's happening and we don't know about it, but from all outward appearances, the justice department investigation for deutsche bank and in this russian money laundering thing, since the trump administration has been in office that investigation appears to have gone dormant. that was the phrase cnn used a couple weeks ago when they checked in on that justice department case against deutsche bank for the money laundering thing, they found that it had gone, quote, quiet, gone dormant. the reason i say that's the dog

that didn't bark in the trump administration, is because while deutsche bank was in this years long, multibillion dollars money making scheme to laurnder money out of russia, they, also cultivating an otherwise sort of inexplicable major financial relationship with now president trump. let me quote luke harding again from his new book "collusion" '. a kremlin bank vtb run by prox sies of the russian intelligence services had captured deutsche bank's moscow outpost. deutsche bank london and new york divisions were beneficiaries of this arrangement. while it was going on, deutsche bank in new york lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the future president, right. so this is the second reason why it's very important to the american presidency right now if deutsche bank really did just get subpoenaed by the special counsel's office. there's the russian money laundering thing they're up to

their neck in. there's also their relationship with their president. this is the trump international hotel and tower in chicago. to build this lovely tower, the president borrowed over $600 million from deutsche bank. that itself is remarkable because mr. trump as a businessman by the 2 thousands he was very famous for finding ways not to repay loans that he had taken from banks. it became part of his business image. he bragged about that and wrote about it in his books as one of his see creates to success. whenever banks loaned him money and he didn't want to pay them back or didn't have a way to bay them back he would write about how he saw that as the bank's problem. he had been bragging about it and briegt it for decades. by the time trump was boer bow, orring money for this fwhilgd chicago in 2005, there were not very many banks who wanted to do business with him anymore.

but deutsche bank for some reason, they were happy to. they loaned him the money in 2005. by 2008, he had already started defaulting on his obligations to repay that loan. so deutsche bank came after him for a $40 million payment that he was supposed to make on that loan. he responded instead by turning around and suing deutsche bank. he said, no, no, i'm not going to pay you the $40 million i owe you, instead you need to pay me $3 billion. because you caused the financial crash. it was -- that was insane. it was that kind of thing that had resulted in all of the other major banks who deal in major real estate loans deciding they would never again do business with the trump organization or donald trump. but for some reason, in 2008, after trump said he couldn't pay

deutsche bank back what he owed them and he filed this insane lawsuit against them and tried to get out of paying them that money, for some reason after he pulled that in 2008, deutsche bank didn't decide to cut him off. they decided to give him a ton more money. they decided to double down and triple down, they started doing tons more business with him. and nobody quite knows why. and nobody quite believes that they have seen a complete or accurate statement of the president's financial situation. but as best as we can tell from around the time that he became president, deutsche bank holds the lion's share of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the president has in outstanding debt. that's deutsche bank on the far right side of your screen there the. money that they've loaned him that he has outstanding in terms of loans with them include that loan that they kept going on that building in chicago, even after he defaulted and sued them over it. it includes loans for his golf course at der ral. it includes $170 million he took as a loan from them for his

hotel in d.c. compared to other lender, deutsche bank has been inexplicably generous to him. and at the same time the bank was we now know laundering billions of dollars out of russia in a scheme that appears to have been tied to the russian government. a combination of those two dynamics led max seen walters to start pushing the administration on this very early on. on march 10th, max seen waters said that her financial services committee should examine the deutsche bank's money laundering operation and assess the integrity of the scheme given the trump's interest in the matter. and they had no from tr in doing any such thing and she's just a democrat on the commit teebtd republicans runs the committee. so a couple of months later she was just like okay, i'm going to write myself to deutsche bank.

she wrote to deutsche bank and she told them they needed to hand over to her committee, to her, the ib ternl reviews they'd done as a bank on their russian money laundering scandal and on their banking relationship with the president and his business and his family. deutsche bank responded to that demand by saying, no, we're not giving you anything. but maxine waters did not give up. by july, this summer she was still pushing. >> donald trump is clearly hiding something when it comes to his finances. there are many unanswered questions. why does trump refuse to rebiuid his tax returns to the public? why was deutsche bank a bank that has been fined for russian money laundering and many other violations of the law willing to lend hundreds of millions of dollars to trump after his bankruptcies when no other bank would lend to him?

>> congresswoman maxine waters has been johnny on the spot on this issue from the very beginning. republicans on the various committees have had no interest whatsoever in pursuing this line of inquiry. but the democrats really have. >> donald trump has said a number of times that he has had nothing to do with russia, and i want to ask you director if you're familiar with deutsche bank and its $300 million loan to donald trump and his organization? >> that's not something i'm going to comment on. >> director, are you aware that deutsche bank has been investigated and fined over $400 million by new york state for failing to stop the corrupt transfer of more than $10 billion out of russia? >> i think generally from press accounts. >> so an individual's association with a bank that has had dealings with russian money laundering, that would be something that would be a red flag for a counterintelligence

investigation i would assume. >> that's a hypoi don't want to answer. >> that's a hypo, a hypothetical i don't want to answer. james comey did not want to answer those questions from congressman eric swalwell back in march. but now according to this paper, deutsche bank, how'd they put it? deutsche bank has been served. or maybe they haven't. this is where this story today diverted from fascinating to uh? two of the president's lawyers today put out identical statements claiming that this isn't real. there is no subpoena. both jay sekulow and john dowd put out the same statement that no subpoena has been issued or received. we've confirmed this with the bank and other sources. okay. then another white house lawyer ty cobb seems to have put a telling finer point on it saying today, quote, previous reports today about subpoenas for financial records relate together president and his family are false.

after ty cobb told that to the "wall street journal," the journal changed their subheadline of their story, i kid you not, subhead had previously said that mueller's subpoena had requested data and documents about president trump's deutsche bank accounts. they changed the headlines so it now says the mueller subpoena isn't about president trump's accounts, it's about people or entities close to mr. trump. you know what? that said, the paper was first to report this, they're not changing their reporting at all. bloomberg and reuters were first outlets to pick up on the story after it was originally broke. reuters updated their headline on the story but neither reuters nor bloomberg change thard story today, changed their reporting despite the white house lawyers crowing about it. if the epic russian money laundering machine, that is deutsche bank, is now handing over financial records to the mueller investigation, if they're handing over records related to their financial relationship with the president and his family or people near him, this is the next great leap in this scandal.

this is where you get to when you follow the money. which is how these things always get solved. and the president's lawyers are being a little nutty about this, like they have been on a number of things since the flynn scandal broke. are they just being nutty? are they only correcting part of this? are we sure these subpoenas have happened? why are some news outlets changing their stories about this today and others are sticking with it, sticking with their original reporting? this is really, really important stuff and it's getting weird just as fast as it's getting interesting. greg ferrell from bloomberg news is here next. dad: molly! trash! ( ♪ ) whoo! ( ♪ )

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sorchts today with this important new reporting about special counsel robert mueller looking into reportedly the president and deutsche bank, we got one story after another all reporting despite these interesting denials from the president's lawyers that, yes, special counsel robert mueller has subpoenaed that bank that's extended hundreds of millions of dollars to the president in recent years when other banks didn't want anything to do with him. now, what exactly the special counsel is trying to get, whose data or records he's looking for, that part we don't have clarity on. part of the reason we don't have clarity on it is because of the president's lawyers saying there's no subpoena. people who have reported this out today say, in fact, there is. regardless of the ways in which there's some muddiness around this today thanks to the pushback from the white house, think there's one good reason we should have all seen this coming today. over the sumner mid-july we got this from bloomberg news. mueller expands probe to trump's

business transactions. quote, the u.s. special counsel investigating possible ties between donald trump's campaign and russia in last year's election is examining a broad range of transactions involving trump's bisss as well as those of his associates according to a person familiar with the probe. according to that source, quote, fbi investigators are looking at russian purchases of apartments in trump buildings, trump's involvement in a controversial so he hoe development in new york with russian soshtss, the 2013 ms. universe pageant in moscow and trump's sale of a florida mansion to an alla gart in 2008. when that story came out in july, there was quite a lot of pushback 0 to but bloomberg stood by their reporting as did the follow the money reporter who broke that news. an he's here with us tonight amid what appears to be a white house freak out over today's news that his earlier reports were correct and that part of mueller investigation now involves a subpoena, one that deutsche bank appears to be complying with. joining us now is greg ferrell,

investigate great gatetive reporter for bloomberg news. you blush when i cover that stuff, sorry, i don't mean to embarrass you. let me just ask, you i've tried to explain the potential importance of the deutsche bank subpoenas. did i say anything that struck you you as wrong or we should clarify? >> no. it was interesting you correctly noted it's strange to get that level of pushback from the white house. >> and the white house is pushing back, help me understand this. because we saw a few things change today, once the president's lawyers started making these statements about their not being a subpoena. and it's hard for me to parse exactly what it is that they are contesting. we saw reuters change their headline but not their article. we saw "wall street journal" change their subheadline but not their headline or their article put guys are just standing by the reporting. do you understand what it is that they're raising an issue with? >> well, needless to say after the strong pushback we went and, you know, we were confident that, you know, the original reporting is correct. >> okay. >> so we stand by that. i do think that you've got to

look at a subpoena for records related to trump as whether or not it was for all records related to trump or if it was lots of business transactions that touched on trump -- trump family, trump associates, et cetera. >> okay. >> so there's a lot of wiggle room there. as you refer to the story in july, when you're looking into all these real estate transactions that occurred over so many years, of course a lot of them would have been done through deutsche bank as well as other banks. so to that extent i didn't find the deutsche bank part a surprise. >> when we talked about deutsche bank and their potential -- them potentially being of interest to the mueller investigation, when you did that earlier reporting this sum, he are one of the things weapon talked about was the deutsche bank may have been well within its rights when it refused those requests for information from the u.s. congress, had they responded to maxine waters and said they were not going to send you anything. they were polite about it and wrote towel at democrats on the committee. but you said at the time as far as you understood the compliance obligations and the privacy on

gations of banks in this regard, they were not allowed to respond to anything but a subpoena. >> yes. i think they would need and would want to have a subpoena to cover themselves. they can't get a reputation for just giving away sensitive client information. they can defend themselves by saying an arm of the u.s. government issued a subpoena rierg requiring us to turn over this information. they have this now. they didn't have it when the other members on the house service dollars committee asked for that information. >> we've heard the president tell "the new york times" that if the mueller investigation started looking at his personal finances and his business deals would consider that a violation, that might be something that he would consider to be out of bounds for the mueller investigation. we've seen this very strong and in my estimation a little weird reaction from the president's lawyers today now that this story about the subpoena has come out. given that kind of reaction and those kind of red flags that the trump side has waved about this, do you think that they are right to be freaked out? do you think this is potentially of an area of real danger for

them in terms of this investigation? >> i think what happens with the mueller investigation is because his -- it's been such a black box that any small show or particularly the news as you highlighted last week about general flynn, has the tend enc to freak people out. i wouldn't be so hyped up about this because the mueller team seems to be approaching in a rational way. months ago they issued a subpoena for records for lots of banks regarding paul manafort and low and behold a couple months later you had a detailed indictment of manafort and gatss that had a mountain of information about business transactions, financial transfers from siep press to a variety of dealer, landscape arc dekts here in the u.s. so they collect that information. this didn't appear to be a fishing expedition, it seems that the mueller track record seems to be to go find something when they think there's something of interest there. but we shouldn't assume that it's nefarious or roof some of

wrongdoing as much as it's necessary for them to make the next step to did what never going to do. >> so we can observe or freak out by the president's lawyers, there's no reason to assume that that is warranted. but this is a serious matter in the terms of of the way the mueller investigation say approaching i don't think he's on a fishing extradition. there must be a reason for them to want to get information they want to get. but i don't think we should get all hot and bothered that something's happening next week or by christmas. >> i get hot and bothered whenever they do. greg, thank you, really appreciate. thank you. much more ahead, stay with us. y. y. except for one of us. i write them a poem instead! and one for each of you too! that's actually yours. that, that one. yeah. regardless, we're stuck with the bill. to many, words are the most valuable currency. last i checked, stores don't take "words." some do. not everyone can be the poetic voice of a generation. i know, right? such a burden. the bank of america mobile banking app. the fast, secure and simple way to send money.

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>> congressman john conyers stepped down today, the michigan democrat announcing his retirement effective immediately. following a string of allegations of sexual misconduct including a new allegation from yet another conyers staffer levied against him today. congressman conyers has denied all of the sexual harassment allegations against him but pressure had been mounting saidly from within his own party that he should resign. so now as of today he is out of congress. he has retired today effective immediately. very different story playing out in alabama where the republican candidate for u.s. senate has faced allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances to teenagers when he was a grown man in his 30s. despite those sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against teenagers, roy moore seems now to be picking back up

support from national republicans. the national republican party had cut ties with the moore campaign last month, but as of last night they're back. they have reinstated their support of alabama republican senate candidate roy moore. now, what's a little weird about this, and a little telling, is that nobody at the national republican party, nobody at the rnc wants to admit to who made the decision that the rnc would get back into business with roy moore. nobody will even talk about their decision to do it. tonight, buzz feed is report, quote, no one at the rnc is actually defending the decision publicly. when asked for comment, rnc officials would only speak, quote, on condition that they not be identified. quote, senior party leaders punted questions to spokespersons who decliepd to comment. the silence speculated several gop sources is reflective of tensions between the rnc and the white house. but in getting back in bed with roy moore as it were, the rnc is

essentially following president trump's lead. there's one person i know to speak to about this who i think knows how this all turns out more than anybody else i can imagine. and he's our guest next. i love you, couch.

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roy moore is not. [ cheers and applause ] >> this is about decency and not a political party. and anyone who thinks otherwise should be ashamed. i damn sure believe that i have done my part to ensure that men who hurt little girls should go to jail and not the united states senate. [ cheers and applause ] >> that is doug jones, the dratd running for u.s. senate in alabama, the man is he facing is roy moore. that's also the man he was referencing in those last remarks. roy moore appeared at an event tonight in fair hope, alabama, with former white house strategist steve bannon. >> this is going to be decided by the good men and women in alabama next week. but the whole nation and the entire world is watching. >> we've got six days left and the people -- and the people of alabama are going to speak to the people in washington, d.c. they don't want me up there.

i know that. they don't want somebody up there with an independent mind, somebody that will do what they believe is right under the constitution [ cheers and applause ] >> nor do they want someone tho who makes them answer questions about 14-year-olds for the entire time that you're in the united states senate. joining us now from tonight's rally which just wrapped up in fair hope, alabama, is john archibald. mr. archibald, it's great to have you with us tonight. thank you for your time. >> thank you, rachel. >> what was the rally like tonight? what was the mood like? i understand there was a good crowd but also some protesters? >> there's some protesters who cleared out and were allowed to walk away. it was in a barn in south alabama where sweet home alabama played continually for a while. but there was a ruckus crowd, much of what you would expect when steve bannon came in. he got a lot of applause. >> steve bannon obviously runs

breitbart website, he was very closely associated with the president's electoral victory and with the trump white house. is he considered to be a powerful figure in alabama? a lot of people have been trying to game out at the national level whether it makes a difference that the president has now explicitly endorsed roy moore. do bannon and/or the president have enough sway to make a difference potentially in the vote? >> i think they do. i think steve bannon is pretty popular and he was certainly here honestly sometimes he seemed popular than roy moore did, certainly when the crowd was more attentive when steve bannon was speaking than when roy moore was. but, you know, he made it fairly clear in his -- bannon made it clear in his discussion that this is a referendum on trump in alabama and i thought that was a standout moment. >> john, what do you think people watching this race for this final week now around the country obviously it's important

for the balance of power in the senate, it's also important in terms of what these two parties stand for and how these allegations against moore were handled and all the rest of it. what do you think people watching this nationwide should have an eye on for the next week? what do you think is important and how do you think it's going to work out? >> well, i mean, i think it's going to be really tight. i mean, i have not seen the democrats this motivated in maybe ever, honestly. and obviously roy moore's people are also highly motivated. it's going to be intense and it's going to be -- it's going to be something kind of election we haven't seen in alabama probably in my lifetime. and obviously everybody knows turnout's the key to getting it out and that's what's going to happen. but it is -- it is -- it is intense. >> john archibald columnist of the birmingham news and al.com joining us from right outside a roy moore rally tonight. it's nice to have you here. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back.

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in was outside the district office in virginia, while siem mun tainously in the river this this was outside barbara comstock's office on capitol hill. >> i have spinal muscular

atrophy. >> i have spinal muscular atrophy. >> i cannot go to the bathroom. >> i cannot go to the bathroom. >> or take a shower. >> or take a shower. >> without assistance. >> woult assistance. >> this is provided by medicaid. >> this is provided by medicaid. >> it took my god given right. >> it took my god given right. >> to work and live like everyone. >> to work and live like everyone. >> so then leads to a filing cabinet. >> don't send me to a filing cabinet. >> don't kill me. >> don't kill me. >> kill this bill. >> kill this bill. >> megan anderson who was one of the activists at the capital today along with hundred of people with disabilities people advocating for those folks. they were outside house republicans today pleading with those members of congress to not

vote for the republican tax bill that among other things, will cause 13 million americans to lose all health insurance coverage. this was outside pennsylvania republican ryan costello's office today where several people were eventually a rested including one woman with a double mass equity toemy was demonstrating shirtless with the word shame written on his back. there was also a sit-in out side darryl isis office andouts side dana row bucker's office. crowd also ke sended on new york claude did i tenney's office. graduate stood dents were outside paul ryan's office protesting the devastating cuts to higher education and the tax bill. we're told nine of them were arrested. and while there was this particularly intense action on capitol hill today, it was another dave protest against this tax bill all over the country today too. this was roseville, california, outside tom mcclintock's office. they had over a hundred people in roseville today. this was portland oregon today.

demonstrators were in north carolina today. it says the aster risk it says for millionaires only, courtesy republican congress. republicans in congress are planning to gin up a final version of this tax bill before it goes to trump's besk, that means it isn't finished yet in terms of what's in it. it isn't passed yet either that's why you're going to keep seeing this. that's why people are not letting up. back pain.n to move.

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the wrution olympic committee put on a glitzy event last week to roll out its exclusive new team uniforms and fan merchandise ahead of the winter games that start in february. they had nice turtle necks and snazzy scarves. they also had this for the russian sports fan who has everything, a sweatshirt that proclaims in english i do not do doping. the international olympic committee for the past year has been investigating extensive state-sponsored doping program among russian athletes. today they released their decision in that matter and russia will be banned from the winter games which, again, start in just two months. russia will, however -- or excuse mitt ioc will allow clean athletes, individual clean athletes to compete in pyeongchang even if they're russian but they won't be allowed to compete for russia. these athletes will be tro dutsd adds olympic athletes from russia. they'll be only allowed to wear generic uniforms that barrett

olympic flag not the russian flag. vladimir putin has said it's purely political and meant to humiliate him. he hasn't responded directly to today's announcement but expect that when he does respond it won't be pretty or classy, but now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. i know you were talking about some of the protests that are going on for the tax legislation, which we have to keep reminding people has not passed, has not become law even though the republicans tried to pretend that's what happened in 2 senate. the "wall street journal" reporting tonight, this will not surprise you at all that, the republican california delegation of house members are now worried that maybe they can't vote for a bill that repeals the deductibility of state and local taxes, including income taxes in both bills, house and senate completely eliminate the deductibility of state income taxes. and now the house republicans from california would like to see that restored. >> and you know, the big group