a local hospital in serious condition. moments ago we got a statement from the white house, from the president, who is once again using a terror attack to call for stricter immigration and saying, where necessary, the death penalty. nicolle? >> chris jansing, thank you. my thanks to my guests. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts now with the fabulous katy tur in for chuck. >> so good to be back and see you. if it is monday, 20, 20, 24 hours to go. and what be the final plot twist in the unbelievable alabama senate race. has everything changed, or that nothing changed? >> is alabama going to stand with our daughters? plus the president's accuse ers recharge the president.

and why the russia investigation could come down to 18 key day fs in 2017. this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. good evening. i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." tomorrow could change everything. alabama voters will either send an accused child molester to the senate, freaking out a lot of republicans, or deliver a stinging rebuke against the president, which is going to freak out a lot of republicans. a lot have changed since last year when president trump was elected despite multiple allegations of sexual assault. yet here we are wondering if the endorsement of a president accused of sexually assaulting women will clinch a victory for a senate candidate accused of

sexually assaulting teenagers. both the president and roy moore denied the allegations against them, but senate leaders have made it very clear that they're going to investigate the allegations against roy moore if he wins. and today three of the president's accusers held a press conference to demand that congress investigate the allegations against him, too. they spoke out the day after the president's own ambassador to the u.n. said this about his accusers -- >> women who accuse anyone should be heard, and i think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up. women should always feel comfortable coming forward, and we should all be willing to listen to them. >> as you might expect, the white house today dismissed the idea of a congressional probe into the allegations against the president. >> the president has addressed these accusations directly, and denied all of these allegations,

and this took place long before he was elected to be president, and the people of this country at a decisive election supported president trump, and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process. >> it begs the question, should those allegations be revisited? a growing number of senate democrats are now calling for the president to consider resigning over them, and in roy moore's case, even with the white house fully backing him, some republican senators say the allegations against him are just too much. that includes richard shelby, senior senator from alabama. he says his state deserves better. >> so many accusations. so many cuts. so many drip, drip, drip. when it got to the 14-year-old story, that was enough for me. i said, i can't vote for roy moore. >> and republican senator lindsey graham is warning the party that roy moore is going to

be tattooed to their foreheads if he wins. >> if he runs in 2018, it's republican, roy moore becomes your best friend. you'll be asked about 10,000 times what do you think about roy moore. roy moore will be what keeps on giving for democrats and by the time the 2018 election, at least 2018. >> whether moore wins or not is anyone's guess. right now supporters on both sides of this race are pulling out all the stops. president obama has gotten involved. he record add robocall to get alabamians to go to the polls to vote for democrat doug jones. joe biden recorded one, too. president trump recorded one for moore after firing up moore's base at a friday night rally, but on the ground, this is a tale of two very different campaigns. doug jones is talking to voters and speaking with the press today, but roy moore hasn't been seen in public in nearly a week.

let's go to a couple of my nbc news colleagues. vaughn hilliard in midland city following all things alabama, and peter alexander is at the white house. vaughn, start right there. where in the world is roy moore? i heard a roomer that he was in philadelphia over the weekend. >> reporter: exactly. let's start with where we knee respe know roy moore was. he went with staffers to a campaign party and met up way 12-year-old girl who interviewed him, her name, milly. a big donald trump supporter. the campaign posted that video here this afternoon. we don't know whether he went to philadelphia. there was an army/navy football game. i asked the deputy campaign manager whether he was at that game. said, "i'm not talking." this is the weekend before election day. right? usually there is a canvassing, phone-making effort and the candidate, comparing it to doug jones in selma, montgomery,

birmingham, huntsville, meeting with supportering and volunteers. looking at the campaigns you'd think the democrat would far and away win this. because it's alabama, there's a distinction to be made there understanding those two campaign situations. >> did i hear you correctly the campaign posted a video of roy moore being interviewed by 12-year-old girl. really? >> reporter: yes. they haven't interviewed with a news outlet since the initial allegations came out. >> that's what they thought was the best -- i'll leave that aside. robocalls for jones. obama is doing them. biden is doing them. roy moore is getting one from president trump. any indication that that's having an affect on the race? >> reporter: exactly. the robocalls from the president and former vice president will be going out here this evening. they were hesitant to bring out

the likes of barack obama. they're going out because they need turnout, the democratic vote, in places like the black belts here. in jefferson county. they need the democrats to come out in this race. look at the other side. president trump is essentially making the pitch to republicans here in the state who have shown a willingness to vote against roy moore. recall the 2020 race, won by just 3%. this is a federal race. werther talking with republicans on the ground, many made the case because of the importance of the u.s. senate they are willing to vote for roy moore despite the allegations out there. president trump who is still very popular in the state was making that pitch to them through those phone calls here at the last minute. >> peter ashes man, a man accus molesting children, now getting a robocall from the president of the united states, who himself has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women. three came out today reiterating

they want congress to do something about it. they want congress to investigate. what is the white house's position officially on the accuse jers should they be heard or not heard? >> reporter: the white house says that this has been adjudicated. that americans overwhelmingly voted in support of donald trump. not that that in anyway negates the stories these women are sharing nap is the white house take and suggested, sarah sanders today, in the briefing, there are eyewitnesss to dispute these allegations of sexual misconduct against president trump. when i asked specifically for evidence who those eyewitnesses were, one of the white house spokespersons replied to me, with an e-mail that identified one man who was presented during the course of the campaign, dismissing the account of that woman you see in purple there on the left of your screen, jessica leeds from her account back in the earl y 1980, and second sample, katie blair, a miss teen usa in 2007, notable, 2006, excuse me.

what was notable about what she said was that when she was at miss teen usa saw no lewd behavior by president trump, but to be clear, the allegation against him was not from that pageant but a different pageant back in 1997. so obviously, this story has yet to disappear. in terms of the president's willingness, katy to get in on this. be clear, the robocalls made in support of luther strange, ed gillespie in virginia, both failed. here in alabama, these two share a base with the candidate, sarah base, and president trump, president trump feels confident putting his voice and efforts behind him. >> see if that works out in less than 24 hours. thank you both very much. let's get a republican perspective on this. joining me now, hugh hewitt, nbc news political analyst and host of "the hugh hewitt show" right here on msnbc and from the

review institute. thank you, gentlemen, for being here. let's just get to this race tomorrow. david, what happens if roy moore wins? what happens to the gop? >> i think it's devastating for the gop, honestly. i mean, the best way to guarantee that you're going to get more roy moores and more cranks running for gop offices is to vote for roy moore. elect a roy moore. this guy will be a walking campaign commercial for the democrats. i mean, he's going to make todd akin look like a scholar and gentleman, and, think about this. this about how much he is disrespecting gop voters. he's not even out on the campaign trail. he's asking people, asking the people of alabama to like theghr reputations on fire to hut him in the senate when he is not even exerting the basic effort a normal semicompetent sdnd to ask for their vote. it's disrespectful and of a

piece with this man. he's a disrespect 2ful, cons stishlly ignorant child molester that doesn't belong in the senate. >> a couple weeks ago on "meet the press" together, you were confidence roy moore would lose. are you still that confident? >> yes, i am. richard shelby appearing yesterday stating succinctly he already did not vote for roy moore has quite an impact. our colleague on msnbc, the "washington post," "washington weekend review" has been driving around alabama, i preface saying anecdote's evidence is evidence of anecdotes. seize a huge gap there of signs. doesn't see roy moore soin sig. people who live in alabama don't want to be seen as roy moore supporters because they are vocal and come after them on social media and in person, et cetera. steve schmidt just told nicolle

wallace on the hour previous that as vice president of the largest p.r. firm in the world, there isn't enough money to save alabama's fwrabrand if they ele roy moore. that's going to weigh heavily on suburbanite voters and a new fox poll tonight shows roy moore down by ten points behind doug jones. stunning. >> we should point out, polls are all over the place. >> true. >> and take the polling average, roy moore up by a couple points. polling in alabama is historically very different to nail down who exactly is going to come out to vote. so if he does win, say he does win, david, and he does face a congressional ethics investigation, why shouldn't donald trump face one, too? given they're both facing allegations? >> well, for one thing, the senate has got an opportunity and i think a constitutional obligation to decide whether or not to seat roy moore. there is a constitutional provision, essentially a fail

safe, against the people electing a person who's not fit to be seated in the senate. that's job one for the senate to take care of its own. as far as the donald trump allegations, i have absolutely no objection to a congressional investigation of these -- of these accusations. i mean, they're very serious. there's multiple accusations and if the role's reversed and this was a democratic president facing similar accusations i firmly believe the republicans would want to futility, just calling for. complete exercise in futility asking the president to resign. at this point i think the folk hayes to be on if roy moore wins, the senate takes care of, to preserve the world's greatest deliberative body in not seating him. >> hugh, where is the line? the ethical line? where is the ethical floor, i guess, for who republicans will endorse for office? >> well, article one,

republicans. people sit in the house and senate are governed by their own bodies pursuant to powers given to those bodies to control the behavior of their own members. when al franken is getting tossed out or bob packwood, the constitution vests them to control their own ethics. the only power against the president is impeachment. so if new allegations arise or new facts in old allegations arise, post the presidential election, i think you'd see an upswell in chatter about im'maei impeachment but they haven't. they're talking about the same allegations today that were asked and answered by 62.9 million voters who voted for donald trump last year. go ahead? >> i was just -- keep going. >> so to me the line is, when does the appropriate body in this case for the american people to vote for the president or the congress to vote impeachment get the amount of evidence they need to move forward? there are clear ethical lines in

my mind. we talked about them before, katy, you ask me to articulate. it's whether or not a civil trial for assault and/or battery would get to a jury and would prevail as a preponderance of the evidence. same standard for everyone on every allegation of assault, child molestation or any unethical behavior. we saw another journalist topple today, rhine lizza, fired by the "new yorker." it's sweeping through the country. i welcome it. i can't say i am not without sadness for ryan, a guest on my show many times but it's going to roll down and keep rolling down. >> and if roy moore does win, david, are you confident that the republicans will keep to their word in having an ethics investigation -- and not just an investigation, but a thorough and credible one? after all, republicans have said a lot of things, about a lot of things and reneged on them as the goal posts get moved farther and farther back with this president specifically? >> i think there will be an

investigation. i believe it will be credible. you have to understand, what will then happen, the bannon wing of the party will launch their new scorched earth, a new scorched earth campaign against mcconnell, against senate republicans to demand they respect the will of the people, because roy moore is part of draining the swamp. so what you would have is, a new battle, a new version of the civil war that was, the republican civil war already taking place in alabama will move to washington, d.c. and be very, very intense again. now, as far at whether the republicans on capitol hill could weather that, and conduct a credible investigation, and if that credible investigation demonstrates what appears to be true here, that he is likely someone who has been a child molester, would they have the courage and the fortitude to expel roy moore in the face of the bannon assaults and the bannon wing assaults and maybe even donald trump assaults i

don't know. >> a really good question. thank you both very much. reliable red alabama is anything but reliable right now. we'll show you the places that could matter most for roy moore and doug jones, next. ( ♪ ) more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. (clapping) and the united states postal service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. ( ♪ ) because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. even the sm♪llest things if you wear a denture, you not only 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

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welcome back. at this time tomorrow we'll be bricking you the very first exit polls out of alabama. yes. exit polls, because even though this race is in ruby red alabama, it is impossible to predict what will happen tomorrow when senate votes start rolling in. those 5:00 p.m. eastern time exit polls will give a first look how the race might be trending. one thing we know in this race specifically is where to watch to see whether or not roy moore or doug jones is pulling ahead. joining us now to run through all this, our own steve kornacki at the big board. steve what will you keep an eye on? >> katy, numbers here.

first you mentioned the exit polls. alabama is usually so non-competitive, didn't even take an exit poll last president's election. back to 2012, the last time we got a comprehensive exit poll from alabama. when we get it tomorrow, what will he book at? with know jones will get the lion's share of the black vote. obama got 90% in 2012. more important, the question of turnout. how many black voters will turn out? a number there. when obama ran in 2012, on the ballot, the number hit 28% of the electorate was black. in the past, it's been more like 23%, 25%. how close is jones able to get to that 28% mark? that would be very high turnout. the closer to 28%, the better news for democrats. the other key, democrats have to flip white voters in the state. have to flip a lot of them. the two different groups sort of by social class. look at white with a college degree, non-college white. look, the bread and butter for

jones will be the college educated white suburbanites. he needs a lot of them. how many? look at it this way. total among white voters if you're a democrat, to be in the game in alabama, probably need 35% at least. comes much more from the suburbanites, we think, if jones is able to get it. basically has to run neck and neck with moore among college educated whites to get a shot at get tlting that 35%. show you what it looks like if a democrat. you can always count on these 12 counties, heavily black counties. the question here, again, is turnout. how many voters? flipping white voters, madison county, outside huntsville, suburbs. shelby county outside of birmingham, probably talking about that a lot tomorrow night and in the south, you've got mobile and right next door, baldwin county. that's where jones has to sbeea

into that traditional republican support. >> my eyes will be glued to you and that screen tomorrow night. thanks, steve kornacki. accusations against president trump, when we come back in just 60 seconds. ay chec, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪ the ford year-end sales event is in full swing. ( ♪ ) you are going to be a big surprise. (whining) aww, i see a big puppy. i see a b-i-i-g pu-u-ppy. hey greg! that's ford, america's best-selling brand. now get exclusive holiday offers, with 0% financing for 72 months across a full line up.

for a limited time, get an additional $1,000 cash back on top of 0% financing for 72 months. get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. welcome back. it's only monday, but plenty of news to dig into. bring in tonight's panel. brett stephens, op-ed columnist with the "new york times" and msnbc contributor. nick comp soasorry. and kaitlyn huey burns national political reporter for "real clear politics." wow. start with how we led the show, and accused child molester being endorsed, hopefully getting help, if you're the roy moore campaign, somebody accused of sexual misconduct. what does that say about the state of affairs in alabama or in our country, brett? >> first of all what it says is something about the state of affairs of the republican party. which is that you're watching

this 170-year-old institution swiftly marching itself towards destruction. one of two things will happen. roy moore is either not going to win, and a democrat will anyone the state of alabama for the first time in many, many years. or roy moore is going to win and the party will forever be branded as the party of donald trump, and of roy moore, a pedophile. it will be the grand old pedophile party. >> can republicans even claim the title of republican any longer? feels like they've moved so far away from what our, had been considered republican values? >> i think the republican party i was attracted to as teenager, the party of reagan, the party of optimism, of in many respects of inclusion that believed in -- the importance of immigration. believed in an engaged america, believed in free trade and the benefits free trade brought the united states. now it's a party of protectionism, xenophobia,

narrow christianism. among the many things roy moore has done telling all of us jews we're going to hell was among the least attractive. >> or the i shouldn't be able to vote? >> we could spend our entire show. >> and there should be slavery. >> going from one horror to another. remarkable also is, to become a party of extraordinarily narrow partisanship that all that matters to it is retaining that particular senate seat. >> incredible. >> there's a biblical story giving up your birthright and that's what republicans are doing right now. >> a really great column, david brooks, republicans selling themselves to donald trump-ism over the weekend. shue check it out. democrats are, i guess, feeling renewed to try and stand up against the president. you have a number of senators calling on him to resign. >> uh-huh. right. >> obviously, donald trump is not going to resign. what do you make of democrats

who are saying this publicly? >> a question, conceiveston gillibrand, corey booker and others, a litmus test for the republican party? remember, just last week they really -- pretty much pushed out al franken as a way to say, look, we are not going to tolerate this. we have a zero tolerance policy trying to put that spotlight back on republicans here. they're certainly doing it in advance of the alabama senate race but certainly as we saw today, the bigger target, of course, is the president. now, he's never going to resign. we kneow that and the white houe said it still denies all of those claims and sarah huckabee sanders essentially said, we had an election and he won. i think that's going to sit very poorly with a lot of folks and kind of energize the democratic base. we'll see what happens. >> jump off that, though. we had an election. donald trump won, which is the white house's argument for negating all of the accusations leveled against him. still being leveled against him.

if roy moore wins tomorrow, despite all the allegations and accusations against him, what foot does the republican or leg does the republican party have to stand on to call for an ethics investigation into roy moore and not an ethics investigation into donald trump? >> great question, katy. probably they'll say, child abuse, a child molester is a worse thing than someone accused of sexual assault, but you're right. distance between moore and donald trump is not so vast, in terms of the credibility of the allegations, the timing, the number of circumstances. in both cases you had mean were accused of a pattern of predatory behavior, and i think it actually hurts trump a lot, hurts the president a lot to have moore in the headlines and giving democrats a good reason to come back and say, you know what? forget this thing about a referendum. majority of the country was against you at the ballot box, and it's time for you to go. obviously, he's not going to listen. but that's going to be something that electrifies democrats and

makes suburban voters and middle of the road voters think twice on making the same bet on him, i think in a couple years. >> do you think that's where it will focus? moderate republicans who just didn't like hillary clinton and held their nose and voted for donald trump? i mean, are we -- are we talking about 2020 as if it's going to be like 2016? >> i think this is going to be a very different election. one of the categories that emerged in 2016 is that you had a lot of middle of the road voters who hated both candidates for various reasons, and ended up coming down on the side they hated donald trump a little less than hillary for whatever reasons. that argument will be hard to sustain for them when it becomes the party of it's not trump/pence. the trump/moore. that's going to be the branding of the party and if i were a strategist, i would hope for a victory allowing you to push

this point relentrelentless, fr purely political standpoint, there is an upside. >> steve bannon, built a brand being an outsider, fighting the establishment. wouldn't you want to stand behind someone like roy moore who enflames the national discussion and angers liberals and angers the news media, and he can come out and say, i am just like donald trump. i am fighting for you, and do the same schtick, same populist schtick over again in 2020 that was so effective? >> that's why it matters that the president endorsed roy moore. it has implications beyond the senate race in alabama. it you're a republican in congress now and want to move forward with an ethics investigation on roy moore, do you get pushback from the president? roy moore is not going to go the way of al franken. we know that, if elected. not going quietly. >> would have already stepped aside. >> right. exactly. that brings up the questions about what republicans do even after this race, whatever the

outcome is. >> do you have any confidence -- what are r were you going to say? >> wee searing the beginnings of something that is a mirror of the rise of trumpism. people angry at immigration, angry at the changing character of the country, rose up, saw each other and saw a champion and that they were strong together and voted for him. we're seeing it now with the women, just dealing with this stuff for so long and now it's finally out in the open, and it's enraging for them and enraging for us, but i think it creates its own political power, and we're going to be seeing the results of that for, for elections to come. >> for a long time, we've been testing the proposition if you're sufficiently shameless, you can go anywhere, because no one's going to stand up to stop you, and donald trump was a pretty good proof that shamelessness can be a winning strategy. roy moore may have brought up to the lardstrategy.

we'll see tomorrow. have to leave it here. stay with us. it could come down to 18 days. whether the president will break in the robert mueller investigation. us. it's what this country is made of. 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.

why the russia investigation could come down to just a matter of days. that's ahead. first, josh lipton is here with the cnbc market wrap. hi there, josh. >> thanks, katy.

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my name is jamir dixon and i'm a locafor pg&e.rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california. welcome back. turning now to the russia investigation and nbc's exclusive reporting that special counsel robert mueller is drilling down on a critical 18-day period that could determine whether president trump himself is in legal jeopardy in the russia investigation. mueller's team is trying to piece together what happened in the white house between january

26 and february 13th, and whether the president may have obstructed justice. january 26 is when acting attorney general sally yates warned senior white house officials that national security advisers mike flynn was susceptible to blackmail by russia. 18 days later, flynn was fired. why did the president satake so long to fire flynn and when did he learn flynn lied to the fbi? joining meese, mike quigley, democrat of illinois, who sits on the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, katy. >> a simple question to start. is your committee investigating whether or not the president obstructed justice? >> well, i think it's become a prong of the investigation. it's not the original floor we are looking into but in a necessity de facto it is, although i'm not sure the

majority a agrees with that. >> why do you say that? >> it hasn't been a focus of the majority and they haven't helped us move in that direction, but doing the interview we are currently working on at views documents, it's inevitable. i'd like to think we'd have cooperation from the senate side and what's taking place in mr. mueller's side will help us understand if the president obstructed. >> what majority is taking in his investigation? >> we work with mr. conaway very, very well. unfortunately he's not the person who signs the subpoena. we are dependent on mr. nunez who has taken on rogue investigations of his own. as this point in time it's not certain whether he will allow us to subpoena those already questioned, refused to answers questions such as mr. sessions,

mr. trump and, many many, others. >> are you referring to don junior? >> the most common answer by mr. trump and trump associates in this investigation is, "i don't recall." or they call up some privilege which doesn't exist or simply refuse to answer. on the eric prince testimony released, refused to answer my questions as to his past dealings with uae officials. these are important. at some point in time those questions need to be answered. if mr. munez doesn't dictate that, frankly it will take house leadership, probably meaning the speaker of the house to step up. do we want the american public to know what took place? is this just mr. mueller with the subpoena power to force these questions to be answered? >> you're calling on paul ryan to put pressure on devin nunes? >> he should play an active role, see where we are in the invest gaegs and recognize what he need to have answered.

at some point in time this investigation will be stymied by the fact that we don't have the ability to compel answers. most of these witnesses are here on a voluntary basis. they can say, i'm just going going to answer, or take a privilege, as mr. trump jr. did, which indeed does not exist. >> what exactly do you want to nail down with don junior? >> what took place, what was said in his conversation with his father about the meeting at trump tower with the russians offering dirt on hillary clinton. >> do you have reason to believe that they did have a conversation about that? >> i have reason to believe they had a conversation after this event took place. all we know so far from his testimony is that he was talking to white house personnel through text, and that the president was there, was present on the other end of the conversation. >> so you know that the

president was present with the person, or people, that don junior was texting? >> right. >> huh. >> and at this point in time he's refused to say anymore that has taken place in a conversation. >> so you haven't been able to get to him, get from him whether or not that person relayed that information to the president at the time while they were texting? who is the person he was texting? >> i think it's, the president's communication's director at the time, but they also made clear there was a conversation that trump jr. had with his father subsequent to this in which they're claims attorney/client privilege. in this case, the privilege itself has not been exerted by the president of the united states. so it simply doesn't exist. even if it did, it wouldn't a y apply in this case. >> don junior is not the president's attorney. in your opinion what do you

believe happened with the president when it comes to mike flynn? are you under the impression or have reason to believe that the president did know that mike flynn lied to the fbi in that 18-day period before the white house fired him, and the reason they gave at the time was that mike flynn lied not to the fbi but to mike pence? >> yes. i think we know there's a significant gap in time. we know that the acting attorney general warned them and we also know in the charging document, mr. flynn made it clear he was not a rogue agent nap he was directed to do what he did and he reported back. so what we know at this point in time is that he's cooperated and there were people, several people, at the white house that knew exactly what he was doing. >> and a number of your democratic colleagues are now calling for the president to resign. sanders, gillibrand, booker, do you think the president should

resign over allegations of sexual misconduct? >> several weeks ago i said the same thing for a u.s. senator and a congressman who had done, in some cases, less than the president did, though i expect the president do ever resign? no. do i believe his acts were at the same level? absolutely. >> congressman mike quigley. thank you very much. >> thank you. and we will be right back. at planters we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party. just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up.

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for sexual harassment allegations but hasn't faced the kind of pressure to step down that some of his others have. while he may not be forced to resign, holding on to his seat next year is getting challenging. ffive challengers according to the state. farenthold said last week he would repay that money, just this weekend farenthold acknowledged the "chronicle" he and his entire staff, congressional staff, underwent sensitivity and sexual harassment training last year after two female staffers complained of gender discrimination and "sexualized commentary" in his capitol hill office. more "mtp daily," right after the break.

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welcome back. it's time forary the lid." our panel is back. msnbc has new reporting out saying that the mueller team is heavily focusing on 18 days. the moment that sally yates told don mcgahn that michael flynn l to mike pence and the day he was fired. what happened in those 18 days, and what did the president know when? the tweets that dowd claims he tweeted with the incorrect "kong: skull islankong g -- >> the person who sent that tweet, his lawyer, it's hard to believe the president didn't send that tweet and that raises some very natural questions about, you know, the traditional question bag back to howard baker, 1974.

what did the president and when did he know it? an important part of the story, though, is the effort by the president's apologist, but people on the right to say this has nothing to do with the russia collusion story, allegations of collusion with russia. all this happened after the election. after they were in office. bob mueller is on a fishing expedition. i would remind these same people that monica lewinsky had nothing to do with ken starr's original agreement and these are the same people who went for bill clinton, in fact, impeached him. >> what do you make of "the wall street journal" editorial board? >> well, i used to work for "the wall street journal" editorial board. i respectfully disagree with this view, okay. that paper was happy and i was there at the time to point out that there is an organic connection between the russia investigation and then trying to find out what exactly the

national security adviser of the united states had promised the russians, how did that affect his behavior and why the -- why the president or the administration didn't seem to act on what they seemed to know was lying to the vice president and the fbi. >> so, what's the difference here? why is it obstruction of justice for bill clinton and, oh, no, the president can't obstruct justice when it's donald trump? >> i think it's obvious that lying about a consensual affair in the white house is a lot worse than lying about colluding with a foreign adversary. that's the only possible explanation. it's politics obviously and impeachment is always a political act so the discussions around it are always a political act. >> just before he was being sarcastic. i didn't want to think that. want to think otherwise. >> look, what we've seen almost every stage of this investigation is that the white house and the president's camp's statements about their interactions haven't held up over and over again.

not every time, but many times and so the question is when the president moved to fire the fbi director, what was on his mind and what did he see coming down the pike? that's the essential question. >> can you say that -- the closer this investigation gets to donald trump gets to his family members, the more nervous they arguably are becoming, look at what's going on with michael flynn. >> sure. >> the louder the calls from fox news, from certain republicans have become, is there a correlation between the two against robert mueller who up until this investigation was, you know, unimpeachable. >> right, make newt gingrich who held up mueller's integrity and then recently has been questioning the investigation altogether. you have seen a concerted effort by republican allies of the president to also undermine the investigation in terms of their rhetoric on this and that's significant because you do have michael flynn now. you do have michael flynn

cooperating with mueller. you do have him talking to the special counsel and he was, you know, charged with lying, pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. >> but when -- >> this is the other thing that i find so extraordinary. you say, well, you know, he lied to the fbi. well, why? if there is nothing here, why are you going -- i mean -- >> right. >> extraordinary. >> why would you lie to the fbi? >> why? >> that's exactly why it's such an interesting story and so damaging that so many republicans simply want to shut this down. let mr. mueller do his work. he was appointed. people should be reminded he was appointed as fbi director by george w. bush. >> registered republican. >> could there be an argument made the administration, the incoming administration didn't feel like the intelligence community was on their side? i mean moike morell said i'm questioning whether or not it was okay to get political last

year. when he saw a bunch of us getting political endorsing hillary clinton, criticizing him or questioning him, he kind of can understand why the president maybe felt like these guys aren't on my side. we only have ten seconds. >> republicans always face challenges from the institutional side of government. the way in which trump responded by claiming it's a deep state conspiracy against him is very telling about what he fears. >> i got to get better at shortening my questions. guys, thank you very much. appreciate your time and still to come, unleashing -- unleashing fun on capitol hill. i had a long flight, guys. the pet project that's all about byp bypawtisaship. naship.

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nfrjts case you missed it, headlines are littered with stories about growing divides between political pacs and while bi-paw-tisanship may seem farfetched, they're trying to break them down for one day. in case you missed it it is the howl-i day party. they're sponsoring them for dogs of all color, breeds and political creeds. treats were on hand for the pups and sweets for their human

friends. partygoers were able to loosen their collar and unleash the seasonable joy. guys, in this ruff and tumble political climb, any attempt to bridge divisions are nothing -- is nothing to sniff at. that is all for today. chuck will be back with more "mtp daily." "the beat with ari melber" starts right now. ari, remind not to take a transatlantic flight and try to read a script like that at 5 owe p.m. >> as they say in the news business, woof. >> all right. take eight way, go, go. >> did you work on that script for a long time? >> yes, i worked very diligently on it if my name was naema pierce. she did a wonderful job. she does a great job with the puns. >> i don't know if you know this, but some people watching "the beat" and now 35 seconds in know i have a soft spot for terrible jokeso