moti motive for those killings jeff sessions will discuss the white house plans for fighting the ms-13 gang. that's it for us. "morning joe," live in alabama starts right now. >> they tried to pull the 25th amendment. you hear corker and "morning joe," they're on that every day, he's losing his mind. right? 25th amendment, they're putting that out there. nobody can come down here and tell folks in alabama what to do. and i'm a virginian, so that's the last thing a virginian can tell somebody in alabama to do. by the way, morning joe, you called me a yankee because i'm from richmond, virginia the capital of the confederacy. that's right, joe, i got in some yankee stores, george town and harvard, that i don't think you made the cut on, brother.

[ music playing [ music playing ] >> we are live from mountainbrook, alabama, as voters in this state head to the polls. >> turn it up. >> -- [ inaudible ] . with us here to kick things off, can you hear it? can you hear it? >> we can hear it. >> national news and msnbc john heilemann, also with us, a former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department, jordan. the chairman of the republican national committee with the prompter making it roll real slow, michael steel is with us as well. i won't speak, don't worry. we have a lot going on. all right. steve bannon says you're not smart enough to go to his schools? where did you go? >> i went to the university of alabama, roll tide!

>> i'm confused. >> i'm really confused. so this guy. >> i'm really confused. >> this guy comes down here, he's trying to convince everybody he's not a yankee, not a carpet backer and he comes down to alabama. >> yeah, where was he? >> and insults alabama. he says, joe scarboro wasn't smart enough to go to good schools like me, he couldn't get into georgetown or harvard. >> harvard. >> oh. >> you're not smart enough. so, i will say this, though, in steve's defense, those are two fine schools. >> yes. yes, yes. georgetown. >> as a university of alabama graduate, i got to tell you, i've had people that went to both harvard and georgetown working for me since i was in my early 20s. so they're good schools. ivy's got good people there that have been working for me since i was in my 20s, so you know.

>> nothing screams populis him like the goodman sax coming into the city and screaming george town and harvard. >> get this, he goes to midland city and is bragging about being a populist and starts talking about what fancy schools he went to before he went to goldman sachs. bragging, i went to harvard and georgetown, steve bannon, guess how many schools i applied to? one, it was the one in tuscaloosa. i don't think this guy knows his audience. >> they call him a political genius. >> do they? >> you can see why. from that performance last night. >> all right. >> it's a perfect window into the faux fake populism and he went to goldman sachs. >> a har 1r5r boy, pocking

people that go to southern state schools him at least, listen. if are you that smart, steve, if you want us to know how smart you are, know what state you are in. >> if you are insult people, know where you are. it goes to the fake papulism out there and to the fact, i'm trying to figure out how bannon became the ronald reagan of the party where all these people, it's like, oh, yeah, this is the leader of the party t. fact of the matter is, he's not t. ramity of it is, the party is going to suffer the consequence of all this crazy after today. and i think it's important for people to understand and give a context regardless -- you should be smart enough to figure that out. >> these polls have so close. you have no idea how it's going to go. you got a fox news poll that has i guess doug jones up by quite a few points. >> ten points. >> a washington post poll has jones up by a good stretch. but you know, you got to go back

to donald trump's victory. i think donald trump always under performed in polls that were live. those people didn't want to say, yeah, i'm voting for him. it's just like doug jones, all right, like roy moore. i think in these live polls, a lot of people aren't going to admit they're voting for this guy. >> it also be that roy moore has never been that popular of a general election candidate in alabama him romney overperformed him by ten points if 2012. he historically has been someone that alabamans are mixed on. >> when he ran for governor, he came in i think fourth place in the primary there. >> right. >> last time you were in for supreme court's justice, he won by three points it was not a run away race. >> before all these accusations and the controversy came out, he says he's the best candidate, having said that, doug jones is

having help to get out the vote here in alabama from two top the democrats former president barack obama and vice president joe biden reported robo-call. joe jones. former secretary condoleeza rice calling it one of the most significant in alabama's history. >> you got to admit. did i not tell you the people in alabama are the most polite people. you are telling the teleprompter to go faster. you are always so polite. [ cheers ] >> no, no she was just saying the teleprompter was going too slow. they just clapd. they're polite people. >> confirmation, joe. clap for him. condoleeza rice wrote this --

jones was joined on the campaign trail by a number of celebrities, including nba hall of fameer alabama native charles barkley. >> there's no way possible this guy shawl number one be in an election. i mean there is no way. it's unbelievable in this guy is still in the race when people in your own party say they won't vote for you or support you, i am begging and urging everybody to get out, call all your friends, we got to at some point, we got to stop looking like idiots to the nation mr. trump comes to -- he won't even come here, but he sends steve

bannon only, seriously, only in alabama could you sandy white nationalist separatist who don't believe in race mixing to come to alabama three times and he would get cheered at a roy moore rally. that's crazy. that's crazy. >> charles barkley. >> also sad. >> people talked about him possibly running for governor at some time back. so. let's talk about the race and how it breaks down, john. right now, there are lot of republicans that don't like roy moore but they're sitting there, going into the voting booth today, do i really want to give chuck schumer another vote? that's what it comes down to do i really want to vote for a guy that is about as far left on abortion as you can be. think what this comes down to at the end, whether conservatives, whether republicans can hold their nose and elect doug jones

despite all their concerns about roy moore? >> it's certainly case given the structure of the politics in this state the deck is stacked against any democrat that runs for state wide office here so it's hard for roy jones to run against anyone. >> how much did donald trump win here? >> 28, in the 2008 and 2012 when barack obama had record tournout. he got 39% in 2008. so it's tough here, even if you are getting historic african-american turnout, if you are doug jones and you accomplish that, you know, off year election like this one is, you are still going to get a bunch of suburban white republicans basically to stay home or to switch over. >> you said something interesting yesterday, even if you drive up the african-american vote to historic records, that it's the white suburban voters the white

women, the white educated voters that will make the difference in whether doug jones comes up. >> you got to do both. it's hard for doug jones. it's hard to do those two things together because of the nature of the racial politics throughout the south. there is something deep in this. i'm not from alabama. i did not go to school here. >> sorry. >> one of the great character defects in my life. but i was listening to hal rhymes, a proud son of birmingham last night on television writing about this back home and his state has been covering politics here since the early 1960s. he was arguing last night this is about something deeper than the dynamic you were just pointing out. this is a state that's been governed by the playbook of george wallace now for 40 years and his argument yesterday was, this is for a lot of white moderate affluent sophisticated voters generally inclined in the

state, they are voting on something more profound, do you want doug jones, a liberal, roy moore? they're voting on are we ready to make the leap into the new south? we have been talking about the south for 30 years t. question is this state has been defined by national politics for 30 years t. question for them is a question about identity, what image do we want of the state in the country and doug jones for all of the things that might be wrong with him ideologically, he represents state with a degree of respectful choice where roy moore is not. >> i understand what hal rhames is sake, i'm not saying this to troll steve bannon, you look at the university of alabama what that school has done, the progress in the sciences, you look at the merit scholars to come there. >> you look at the level of graduates. >> you look around this city. you. >> you think of the restaurants here the culture here the commerce here. >> oh, birmingham has a great

extraordinary culture, a great southern culture. you look at what's happening over in tuck loose sarks i'm not saying this as an advertisement for alabama. i'm saying, this is what people are thinking. you make progress here. i remember talking to bob reilly. bob said he turned on the tv set and saw protests. but the protests were in germany. because they were moving mercedes manufacturing plants to tuscaloosa county. you know what, tuck loose sa county did is up a great job. i think they were the most profitable mercedes plant in the word, so they got them another class of cars. this is a state that's transforming. so that question that you are talking about is a question that certainly some people are looking at. they say, do we want what happened in north korea, what happened in indiana hang here? maybe i'll hold my nose and vote for alabama even if i'm not with doug jones? >> that's the big leap. all that aside, you still have,

to john's point, a core battle between the culture as it has existed and the culture as they want it to be. with the, as soon as i got off the plane yesterday, a gentleman an elderly gentleman at the airport comes up to me and he says, this is going to be a race. i looked over and said, yeah, it is. he said, do you know, but the culture here doesn't want to change. so it goes to, you know, he starts talking about how back when he was a young man how things were and how certain things were send and how other things kind of slipped by. that's the fight, joe, at the end of the day, that ying and that yang. >> you say you want a change, willie, it's like in new york city, there are a thousand different cull cures, in alabama, there are a lot of different cultures. there is a different culture in birmingham. there is a different culture you know in fair haute than in montgomery. a lot of different moving parts here today. >> it showed that way in the

voting. jefferson county has voted differently. it's true in every state. i think one thing doug jones has to worry about, though, we talked about historic african-american turnout. the idea you have to get obama if 2008 and 12 levels of african-american turnout. that's a pipe degree you 45d historic people and they voted for a democrat. he still lost by 22 points, barack obama t. idea that that turnout will be at that level and win him the race i think is unrealistic. >> i think we're looking at the other side of the coin, mika. >> mm-hmm. >> it may not be who goes out and votes who stays home. it may be the republican that says, i am not voting for doug jones, but i'm not voting for roy moore either. >> so willie what has been roy moore's strategy? >> well, he's hidden for the last week or. so he was out last night. he has been on damage control the last month or so fought doing an interview with a news

outlet since november 9th. in a sponsored web interview, he was interviewed by a 12-year-old girl. >> what is the most important issues to the voters of alabama if. >> well, i think one is religious liberty. i think we got to look at. that madison said a long time ago, if we don't preserve that, we will become tyrants and we will become slaves. >> and then there's this. roy moore's wife kayla took on what she claimed as an inaccurate depiction of her husband. >> oh, okay. >> of anti-semitism. >> fake news will tell you that we don't care for jews. i tell you all this, because i've seen it all. i want to set the record straight while they're here. one of our attorneys is a jew.

>> one of our attorneys is a jew. >> that will work. >> many of her best friends. >> a lot of my friends. >> i have a lot of black friends. yeah. so. >> what the -- >> and an occasional jewish lawyer. >> what the heck. >> that kind of says it right there. >> i don't know. >> no, actually it kind of does. it really does. >> that was a prepared remark. >> eless jordan pointing out something important. they worked really hard on that. that is the future of alabama? >> so, elise, we've seen with donald trump a, a guy that got elected by breaking every rule about campaigning, which is, you win by running 30 second ads. you win by having this great ground, donald trump won on the power of this celebrity. he didn't do what every other candidate -- he had no campaign

operation to speak of. it was shocking. with roy moore, if roy moore wins today, he also shatters all the old beliefs about running a campaign. you got to knock on doomplts you got to do this. you got to do that. knock on doors. he has been in hiding the past couple weeks. so if he wins, it is in spite of, of his own campaign. >> well, there is visry as to where roy moore was this past weekend. the weekend he is closing the deal to voters, he se nowhere to be seen. in contrast to that, dug jones is running all over the state, is staying and taking every last selfie video. his headquarters is booming and bustling. there is a lot of momentum. i was at his headquarters yesterday, volunteers were coming in saying we want science, we want to volunteer. i also point out a lot of the volunteers were a majority of women, too.

>> okay. we'll see. we shall see. i still don't know where this is going. i feel roy moore still got this. >> why don't we go around and predict that like in the virginia race, we'll be sure to be wrong. >> okay. that's an excellent idea. >> again, it's ha ready to say. we won't know for some time certainly we saw in virginia. women made the difference. >> women. >> we always talked about. we got reports throughout the afternoon, it was raining. there were women standing in line, they are going to be heard. i wonder whether that happens here as well. >> young voters repulsed by the republican platform and were making a stand against donald trump. how are youth voters going to swing if they come out in alabama. >> let me ask you something, if your relatives were voting in mississippi, had a democrat versus roy moore, i mean, it

would at least be split at the dinner table, wouldn't it? >> i think probably half wouldn't vote, a quarter would go ahead and vote for moore. maybe a quarter for the democrats. >> that's interesting. >> let's say one last this inc. to set the stakes of this race. we talked about this yesterday, we're here, it feels like the center of the university here more than it normally does in alabama. you got a situation here where not only is the president's agenda, this vote is incredibly important. we talked about what it means for who makes this choice, really in theened no one has more stake in this race than john alleged j. trump who has gone all in for roy moore in a state where republicans win, should win, almost always win, if we wak up tomorrow and doug jones wins this race, it will be yet another in the succession of earthquakes the republican party is feeling, donald trump is all in roar roy moore and a state or a republican should win, that i have gone all in for him, if they lose this race, it will

seem like an earthquake and a giant blow to donald trump. a giant blow to him. >> so i heard this yesterday, so it must have been true that doug jones could do 25 points better than hillary clinton did here and still lose. >> yeah. >> so he starts in such a deep, deep hole. >> which is why with he wins it will be an earthquake. >> donald trump has always said and said this to mika and me when we were talking, he loved alabama because he said i'm more popular there than anywhere else and yet you got by luther strange and he's gotten by roy moore. if he becomes the first republican in ages to lose, that's tough. >> not to mention the implication, in the senate where the vote would be 51-vine 49.

which they can't afford to lose a single vote where flake and corker. >> we are just getting started. there is much more from here live in alabama on a election day. you are watching a special edition of "morning joe". we'll be right back.

there came a time when another officer came through our base camp. he had served his tour of duty in vietnam and he was spending his last night of country and he took us to this place which turned out to be a brothel. we walked inside. i could tell you what i saw, but i don't want to ch it was clear to us what kind of place it was.

oojd r and roy turned to me in less than some time for someone to come up to us. and there were certainly pretty girls and they were girls. they were young, some were probably very young. i don't know. i don't remember that. i wasn't there long enough. roy said to me, we shouldn't be here, i'm leaving. >> so that was a veteran sharing a story last night about roy moore in the early 1970s, shortly after arriving in vietnam. let's bring in from montgomery, alabama, msnbc's vaughan hilliard. now, vaughan, first of all, it seems like you did half the things i told you to do in pensacola, florida. >> he hasn't gotten beaten up at bagelheads. >> i'm proud of you, that's number three. you spotted a number of undecided voters. they will be determining this race. how are they feeling going into the voter booths?

what is it looking like? >> reporter: good morning you guys, yeah, the sentiment we have been hearing from voters this week is not dissimilar from the one we heard on november 9th when we got down here and talked right after that washington post story broke. it came down to the fact, not only the focus has been on black voters, right and democrats and the obligation for them to come out and vote. it's going to take for the doug jones operation to turn out those republican crossover voters. there has been a willingness on the part of republican voters in the past to not vote for roy moore and vote for a democrat. you look at that 2012 he won just by 3% when he was running for chief justice. we have been looking at the numbers, if terms of absentee ballot requests and the returns from some of these particular county, you look at tuscaloosa, this is a conservative town that has a tradition of voting republican. in that race, back in 2012 the same ballot, they voted for mitt romney by 18 points and voted

for the democrat by five points. they are seeing six fold the number of absentee ballots turned in. in huntsville the home of mem brooks, more of that affluent, well educated white suburban population. this is an area democrats will have to get republican crossover voters in. there is high turnout in some of these areas where they need just tha that. >> all right. vaughan, that is, we talked about this before, john, you look at presidential elections, people always looked at macomb county, when you look at alabama, places you don't look usually are mountainbrook, homewood, eastern shore across from mobile, across the bay from mobile. because they always go republican. >> yeah. >> but again, if roy moore loses, it will be because there

are educated voters in the enclaves, those in alabama that can't go with roy moore. >> it's one of the great cliches in political turnout it comes out to turnout. of course it comes out to turnout. you see the models that talk whether it's a high turnout election relative to an off year. it actually is more complicated than that here, because of the distribution, there is this democratic belt in this state a. lot of other republican areas. can you imagine a world where if doug jones pulls this off, it will be looking like a democratic belt through the center of the state and holding turnout down in the traditionally republican areas, particularly to the ones you are pointing to, where it could be a win for jones, if a lot of those republicans just stay home t. kind of reliable republican voters in some of the areas you were mentions, if they decide i'm going to sit this one out, i'm going to follow for shelby's advice and stay out of this

race, there is a mix of turnout that could be high-low, in the right places geographically it's a path. it's a narrow path. we will say this over and over again, jones is the underdog in this race for all of moore's problems. it's more likely roy will win because of the structure of the politics here. you can see the pathway here. >> doesn't this remind you so much of martha coakley running against scott brown in massachusetts, ted kennedy's seat, off year election, special election. there is no way a republican will win state wide in massachusetts. >> right. >> for a senate race under most circumstances. >> a national wave going the other direction a. lot of revulsion with the president and the person who is the president was in office, anti-barack oball. >> at that point it was a backlash against barack obamaobaum care and the hearings. and you know, even the people of

massachusetts said, enough, we're voting for a republican this time. >> to that point i was chairman telt. i got a phone call from the chairman in massachusetts, spent two days on the ground, came back to washington, saying we're putting a half a million in this race for that very reason t. dynamics on the ground went against the conventional politics. in other words the people were of a mind to stay home in many cases. they weren't as excited about coakley t. national media about that campaign, they're weren't feeling that. it worked out for scott in the direction. so you can play to union's point, have you those same elements here, whether or not that lightning strikes dependings on how those voters feel the shelby voters feel about this. >> you look also at what happened in virginia, mika, you look how it broke, didn't break down as traditionally along

liberal or conservative lines, it started breaking down the level of education. >> yeah. was it generational at all? >> very generational. too. but also people that had a college degree or an ad advanced college degree the data showed were more likely to vote for northam. and that's just a huge trend that's been growing. >> we're further down south. >> by gallop self identification poll, it's the fifth or sixth most conservative state, donald trump by 28 points hasn't elected a democrat to the senate since richard shelby. it takes a candidate as bad as roy moore to make this a competitive race. >> is it thattory say it's about the country? >> yes. all right, coming up on "morning joe," what could a roy moore victory mean for alabama's

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. >> we saw the longest streak of job creation in american history by far a. streak that still continues, by the way. thanks, obama. >> i think it's laughable that president obama thinks he has anything to do with the success of where the economy is right now t. xi was just over 1% gdp when president trump took over and it has just gradually gone up. we expect it's possible to hit 4% gdp by the first quarter nextier. it has nothing to do with president obama and i think everybody knows it. >> wow. >> i don't know, everybody knows a lot of stuff. >> you know this trumpiness thing is going around. barack obama going thanks obama. he got a little bit of it. thanks obama. >> responding to that statement from former president barack obama last week on the xi, it was a sarah huckaby sanders. joining us now, treasury official and morning joe economic analyst steve ratner.

good tough here, steve, bright and early. >> bright and early. >> could we get you some coffee? >> it's an hour later in new york. >> that's right. we're up real early. >> are there business people concerned with roy moore getting elected aptd it might have the impact north korea faced, indiana faced. what does that look like? we're not saying that itself going to happen. we're not trying to scare anybody. obviously, this is a concern among the caliber crowd across the state of alabama interest sure. obviously if north korea, indiana, we're a little difficult. because they actually passed laws. here we're simply electing a for they won't like. certainly what you hear from the business community is a lot of nervousness, companies coming into this state from other parts of the u.s. as well as foreign companies, this is a big part that's gotten our xi going and the economy is not great. it's better than it otherwise would have been. i think you will see a business take a pause until roy moore is

elected until they sort it out. >> what kind of impact does it have on states like indiana, north korea? did it have an ever lasting impact? >> remember north korea has now reversed itself. so it was a fairly transitory kind of thing, same in indiana. but this will be more permanent. we'll see what happens. i think it will a have an effect. >> the overall economy, willie, you see donald trump battling, it's interesting all of these pitched political battles are happening at a time when the economy is going so well that you now have two presidents that are trying to take credit for that good economy. >> right. they're fighting for credit. >> that is president trump and the white house' chief argument for what they've done over the last 12 months, including judge gorsuch on the side. they've said, look at the dow. we've crossed a new threshold, look at the unemployment rate. they're calling this the trump miracle out of the white house. now that all started as you know

steve ratner under president obama and the job growth has trended down a bit under president trump. when you say you've had no legislative accomplishments in the first 12 months of your administration, they will say look at the economy. he has turned the economy around. >> you look at the numbers, for people driving, if we can put those numbers back up. the jobs created. barack obama, 200,000 a month. 170,000 a month, taking it up and most americans, john, if you look at the polls that we showed before, 50% of americans say that barack obama is the reason for the strong economy. up 37%. donald trump. but when people go to the voting booth. they're not think, hey, do i give barack obama credit for this or donald trump credit for this? a lot of times they're thinking am i better off today than i was two years ago, four years ago, and if the answer is yes, that helps the president in office.

>> look, the reality is whether if are you the president who is in office and the stockmarket is rising as it has been throughout donald trump's administration, you will claim credit for that. they hide in the corner when the stockmarket is going down, regardless of whether their policy versus anything to do with it or not, steve, i want to ask you this question, we saw yesterday, this is a fixation of mine, we saw yesterday with this tax bill the treasury department after months of promising a detailed economic analysis of why the tax bill will be so great for the economy and not so bad for the deficit, steve mnuchin finally came out with that analysis. tell us a bit about that. >> a deep analysis is not a hall mark. they came out with one page, that basically said if the xi gross .7 of the years ago it will pay for the tax cut. buried in there, it said you also have to have regulatory reform, a whole bunch of other things for that to happen.

half of what they're claiming would actually happen and so once again after having promised repeatedly they would pay for their tax cut, they put out their own paper that fails to pay for their tax cut. >> how do people work on the economic analysis? you worked for them. what's the raw, what are the number of miami at your disposal to do such an analysis? >> dozens. >> that was 478 words, it took them three months to come up with that. i'm a civil writer. ki go faster than that. c'mon. >> you were obsessed with that document. >> i counted them up last fight. what dong i was doing in my room last night. >> let's go back to the question, of who gets credit. there is a long lag between when a president comes in and given that he has not passed any laws. few separate it out, to be honest, there are rises in business confidence and rises in consumer confidence. i think you would give donald trump some credit for. that these jobs numbers the

growth numbers, this has nothing to do with donald trump. >> there are some things, though, elise, connected with donald trump and the feel tack under barack obama for eight years, there was a drag on the economy because of all of the regulations, that's something that certainly a lot of steve's friends that are investors, a lot of people on wall street say there's no doubt, wie can go ou, make more money, invest more aggressively because we don't have somebody in the white house fighting us all the way? i think your point of over all americans feel the economy is on an okay path. the economy is doing well. that's a picture point. that's president trump's triumph the economy seems to be doing well, in focus groups i've conducted recently, it's amazing to me, yes, how everyone is completely dwried over why, is it obama, is it trump? and it falls completely on partisan line, people agree the

economy is quite good. >> steve will be with us there ut the morning on today's special election edition in alabama. we are live this morning, just outside birmingham. if you are trying to figure out who's ahead the opinion polls aren't much help. steve kornacki will join us to help us figure that out plus the white house renews attacks on the media, with a heated exchange. >> pretty juicy? no one was accused of murder. >> only the president does that. >> okay. >> "morning joe" will be right back.

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hello there friend! hi! hey there. i'm an imaginary friend of a kid just like you. you're going through a lot right now and i know you're scared. but you're stronger than you know. but look, we'll get through this together. and remember... we at the imaginary friends society always have your back! we've seen it time and time again for the last couple of weeks a. number of outlets had to retract and rewrite and make editor's notes to a number of different stories. somewhere major impacts with moving marks. this is a big problem. we think this is something we

can take seriously. >> i think it doesn't make them fake news the question -- >> when journalists make honest mistakes they should own up to him. sometimes, a lot of times you don't. there is a difference, sorry, i'm not finished. there is a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the american people, something that happens regularly. you can't say, i'm not done. you cannot say -- >> that was completely fake, sarah. >> you cannot say that it's an honest mistake when you're purposefully putting out information you know to be false or when you are taking information that hasn't been validated that hasn't been offered any credibility and that has been continually denied by a number of people, including people with direct knowledge of an instance, this is something that -- i'm speaking about the number of reports that have taken place over the last couple weeks, i'm simply stating that there should be a certain level of responsibility in that

process. >> that's, of course, sarah huckaby sanners sometimes with a heated exchange in the briefing room for errors made in recent stories about president trump. she said something there purposefully misleading. >> like the president does, like, every day? i mean, my god. my god. how can they keep a straight face in the white house briefing room? i would literally laugh hysterically. how do you even listen to her say those things and not just walk out? at this point those briefings are useless. she does not say anything that is truthful, and she does not intend to. when she walks out there. >> they're yelling preach from the back. >> it's incredible. >> so, willie, obviously there were people in the briefing room that were offended by the suggestion that purposeful mistakes were made. >> misleading the american people.

>> purposely misleading the american people, there is, and we've seen it from the very beginning, there is a hostility toward this president as there was a hostility toward candidate trump from day one. and i wonder how much of that -- i just don't know -- i think the damage between the two sides is probably irreparable. >> there's no problem there was a new aggressiveness one president trump started to run for office. the last week or so the press has made a number of embarrassing mistakes. that's a fact. >> absolutely. >> and sarah sanders is right about that. but the idea that there are members of the mainstream press that are purposely misleading -- are there people with biases? of course. but the idea that they sit down with the idea of taking false information which is what she said and presenting it to the public is untrue.

>> i'll take this. hold on one second. what makes it even worse, what makes it incredibly bad and dangerous, quite frankly, a danger to our republic is that she's the one protecting a president who does that every day, who watches tv every day and tweets stupidity, lies, conspiracy theories, bullies people. he tweeted a conspiracy theory about joe that would have made headlines in any other administration, but people are so desensitized that her role is important. her role is to promulgate the lies coming out of the white house. i think what she's doing is helping damage this republic. i'm sorry. >> so -- >> i stand -- >> i'll let mika rest her case. i'll just say sarah huckabee sanders would have a stronger argument to make if her boss did

not -- >> didn't lie so much? >> did not put out so much false information whether it was through twitter. and again, this is not opinion. it's verifiably false information that goes out which undercuts her argument which, again, would have been a pretty strong argument, a tempered argument about some of the specifics if she'd just stayed with in a. >> we have two hours and eight minutes left in the show. we could spend all of that time listing the number of purposeful lies the president has told in the course of his president and campaign. >> maligning people and she defends him. >> mika, you have rested your case. okay? >> i thought you said she rested her case. >> now -- >> and we're on the same side. >> she finds out a few democrats are in the crowd, and suddenly she starts preaching. >> i think there's that. the other thing to the point about the hostility.

there is, willie is right, there is bias of various kinds in the press and have been far long time. the reality is in addition to the lies, part of what has driven the hostility is the way in which the president has created a hostile climate going back to the campaign where in event after event, where members of the press felt unsafe or felt as though the president was inspiring violence stirring up anger among his crowd, but we have colleagues who felt physically threatened and needed body guards in the campaign because they felt as though their physical safety was in danger because the president was not just lying but whipping up anger. that's part of it. >> we've been saying he did call the press the enemy of the people. i can tell you that let's just say the threats that mika and i get go up exponentially after he

takes personal attacks against us or pushes conspiracy theories out against us. i talked to a lot of people in the media that during the rallies would be in the press box, and he would point to the press, and it would get very ugly, and there were people that had to be escorted out concerned for their safety. >> every administration has some type of distrust for the prez. you think they're out to get you and asking too many tough question and they're biassed, wh whatever, but only nixon in my lifetime had this hostility to the press, the belief the press was evil and should be put in a box. and even using phrases like trump like enemy of the people. it's a scary time. >> still ahead on "morning joe." >> i know one thing. nobody can come down here and tell folks in alabama what to do. so tomorrow it's incumbent upon

you to go get everybody you can. >> i know one thing. nobody can come down here and tell folks in alabama what to do. >> oh, my gosh. steve bannon's so-called drain the swamp rally last night here in alabama. we'll be talking about that. plus kasie hunt joins us, and joyce vance. you're watching a special edition of "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪

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packed with goodness. this is what i love about "morning joe." every day on "morning joe," "morning joe" they're on that every day. the geniuses on "morning joe." excuse me. excuse me. on "morning joe" they tell me. "morning joe" you called me a yankee the other day. it was on "morning joe." "morning joe," those geniuses. right? on i think it was "morning joe," my favorite show. >> i guess it is. i mean -- >> oh, my god. it's great. it's great being loved. >> how much rent are we charging up in his head? >> oh, well, there's not much. >> i think he's just having fun, i really do. just a little poking having fun. i don't know. >> you poke back. >> half the people he's talking to have never watched the show. i think it's just -- i will say last night was a big mistake.

you go into central alabama -- >> yep. >> and then make fun of me for not being able to go to smart yankee schools like harvard and georgetown. >> where did you go to school? >> university of alabama. university of alabama. so that was sort of a misplay. i mean, because, you know, as i've always said -- >> have a cup of coffee. >> can i tell them the alabama joke i tell all over the place? >> go for it. >> i'm going to turn my back on the camera. so in every speech that mika has heard me give over the past, like, six, seven years, she always, she's like when are you going to tell the alabama joke in i always lure people in, and i go, well, you know, i went in the university of alabama so i'm not really good at math, and there's always one -- of course, we have great engineering school. >> oh, my gosh.

>> and there's always one alabama fan in the crowd, and i'll go you went to alabama too? they'll go yeah. and i said we don't have to be good at math because every year we only have to count to number one. roll tide. you got to it before i even got to the punch line, it's going to happen against this year. >> all right. dr. grier is here, so be polite. >> dr. grier agrees with me. >> how are you? >> she said thank you for inviting me. thank you for helping joey get through school with alabama. >> i'm a baptist, but i was crossing myself. steve bannon last night said that -- >> "morning joe." "morning joe." "morning joe." >> he said you weren't smart enough to go to the schools he went to, harvard and georgetown. the crowd half clearheered becai

think some of them knew you went to alabama. >> i love harvard and yankee schools so much. i've had people who went to those schools working for me since i was in my 20s. >> it's election day in the state of alabama. we're live in the town of mountainbrook. and with us this hour we have former chairman, republican national committee michael steele, caskasie hunt, her name now kasie d.c. we also have the president -- what was that music? >> ac/dc. >> oh. that sounded good. i like that. president of the -- >> it's like when we tell jokes, whenever we tell jokes at 6:15, and mika would start laughing at

9:00. >> it takes me a while. >> time release humor. >> the one about the license plate with the tofu. what? all right. anyhow, we have tom bates here, president of the alabama media group. it's very, very good. alabama's senate race right now in a dead heat just hours before voting begins. a fox news poll shows doug jones with a ten point lead over roy moore. we should note the poll included both land line and cell phone participants but the newest emerson tracking poll shows moore with a nine point lead. the result of the elections may depend largely on voter turnout as some republicans weigh sitting out rather than voting for roy moore. another poll says will turnout is higher, doug jones will get an advantage, but if it's lower, moore has an advantage.

last night moore returned to the campaign trail with a message for undecided republicans. >> one thing i don't like the media, they've said a lot of people who are republicans claim they're going to vote for me and just ignore what they believe. i'm gonna tell you. if you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me. >> so, tom -- >> that's easy. >> wow. that helps a lot. >> yeah, saying don't vote. >> tom, i wonder if a lot of republicans are going to stay home and not vote? >> i think so. within a small slice. we're really dealing with a small slice of folks who have really been struggling with the allegations, but also the fact they've never voted for a democrat. i think we'll see some suppressed turnout there. it's a question, the women's vote, and i think for the first time, though, i think we will

see a chance for a democrat in the last ten, 20 years that seemed impossible prior to the start of this election. >> and this is all about roy moore. right? i mean, roy moore, can you explain? roy moore was a controversial figure in the state of alabama even before "the washington post" stories started coming out. even before the allegations about roy moore being with underage women. he came in fourth place in a primary the year bob riley won? >> that's right. not an overwhelmingly popular figure in alabama. as an aside, thank you for coming and thank you for the things you say about alabama. this is a great place to live and work. we are much more than roy moore here. and there's a real momentum here that i feel. it's one of the reasons i moved

here. >> the momentum you're talking about in birmingham, across the state of alabama? >> absolutely. and more companies moving here, more folks staying here after college. this is -- we've got nice people. we've got good food. this is a beautiful state and a great place to raise a family. the damage roy moore is doing to our reputation is unfortunate. i will say that i think jones will win. it's going to take an inside straight. we're talking about an inside straight for this to happen, but i think we'll do the right thing today. moore is not wildly popular to your point. >> i've heard what tom said from so many people over the last month or so. friends of mine from alabama, the state feels like it's moved forward so much in the last 20 and 30 years. it's made so much progress in

terms of business and race registrations and to have roy moore win would set them back so far in their perception. it would give up to a caricature of the state that they feel like they've outlived. >> unfortunately, it's a caricature, mika, that roy moore's own statements, again, that have nothing to do with the allegations but roy moore's own statements in the past actually seem to play to the worst in. >> allegations, look at them based on this. controversial statement roy moore has made over the years. his contention that muslims should not sit in congress. his notion that families were more united during the time that we had slavery. his quote that homosexual conduct should be illegal. when he said that 9/11 was god punishing perverseness. his personal belief that president obama was not born in the united states.

his referring to the people of color as reds and yellows. his stating islam is contrary of the u.s. constitution and that we'd be better off without the last 17 amendments which are basically all the rights gained since 1794. and also, of course, the amendments that outlawed slavery and allowed women to vote. >> and don't forget the comment this summer about sort of finding himself more in line with russia's president than ronald reagan. >> you see, reagan ran in the 80s. what do you think he would see of the proximity between the u.s. and the russian president right now? >> one thing i've learned right now in politics is not to think for somebody else. as for ronald reagan, i couldn't simply begin. >> he said russia was the focus of evil in the modern world.

>> he'd say that very well about america, couldn't you? >> reporter: do you think? >> well, we promote a lot of bad things. you know? >> reporter: like? >> same-sex marriage. >> reporter: that the very argument that vladimir putin makes. >> well, maybe putin is right. maybe he's more akin to me than i know. >> it's pretty fascinating that a guy would still be in a race in the state of alabama after saying that america is the focus of evil in the world and that he has more in common with vladimir putin than he thought. >> everything that reagan stood for and everything the party stood for quite honestly, it turns it on its head. the fact that you're going to have this kind of conversation and say that the source of the evil empire is better than anything we're doing here is just outside of where the republican party is, and the

fact that roy moore embraced this and the fact that republicans, particularly the leadership, has come around and embraced this is very concerning for the party long time. this is just one election. this is going to play out in subsequent elections. >> if there is a long time. you look at the numbers of millennials breaking against the party. the brand crisis increases exponentially. republicans could do nothing to help nancy pelosi become speaker of the house more an do nothing to help chuck schumer set up more senate seats than elect roy moore today. that's a crisis for the republican brand. let's break down numbers right now. what are you looking at? you've been down here. what should we be looking at to try to figure out whether roy moore is going to win today or doug jones? >> a couple things. clearly you want to watch

turnout in key parts of the state. the kind of what they call the black belt as well as here in birmingham as well as some of the people that we have in this crowd today who may have voted republican in the past and many are saying especially some suburban women are saying i can't do this. and i think the list that we just walked through, it's important -- it's almost gotten lost in the last couple of months, this long list of other things that roy moore has said and done over the course of his career that we're enough to have mitch mcconnell spend millions of dollars to make sure he never became a u.s. senator. >> let's talk about donald trump and his decision to get involved. he wasn't going to get involved. he decided to come to my hometown of pensacola to talk there. he didn't wooant to go into al because he didn't want to be seen as enforcing roy moore. when he enforces roy moore. he does an interesting robo call

for roy moore. it sounded like his interesting jerusalem speech. donald trump has gone all in for roy moore after it looked like he was going to hold back. do you know what happened? >> it sounds and based on reporting we've done at nbc news, he felt burned after he was urged to come here in favor of luther strange, and he lost. he felt like the leadership in capitol hill led him astray. he made a mistake and didn't follow his instincts. this president has dealt with his own past in a public way. it's related to sexual misconduct. he often tested people on their loyalty base on the how they acted toward him in that moment. i think there's an element of am i going to stand by this guy who says that none of this ever happened? i think there's an element of that as well. >> yeah. so what are -- what would make a

republican say a southern baptist republican, faithful evangelical going to church every week with concerns about roy moore? can you explain to our audience across the country why they would hold their nose and vote for roy moore? >> let me first say the beliefs you went down the list of roy moore, that's not alabama. and that is not what the majority of us feel in this state. a lot of folks have never voted democrat here before. i think president trump coming in and saying i need this vote i think has given some people cover. this feeling that somehow this helps president trump's agenda. if this was a local only race, if we were talking about the governor's race coming up, i think roy moore gets crushed because i don't think there's any of those factors that help people weigh the fact that they don't approve of him.

. >> if you listen to the event last night, it seem there are three buckets of roy moore supporters. there are the ones who support him on the merits. they like what he believes and says. he wants to put god back into government. there are people who say they buy the argument that we need the republican vote. we can't give to it a democrat. and then there are the people, and this was the crux of steve bannon's speech last night, who buy the argument that we can't get people from the outside come in and tell us what to do, like steve bannon, but that was the thrust of his speech. we're not going to let "the washington post" or mitch mcconnell or have the establishment tell you how to vote. it's us versus them. >> i think for mitch mcconnell if roy moore does win and go to the senate, steve bannon has a war set up for him that he can continue to throw fire on for the next six or eight months.

it's a nightmare. >> i have to say one thing about the difference between elected a governor and a senator. you look a little closer to the character of somebody you're voting for governor for that's going to be running your state day in and day out. instead of somebody that's going to go to washington d.c., go to hearings and vote. you know how roy moore is going to vote 75% of the time. he may be crazy 25% of the time. but if it's a choice for governor, people look a lot closer. in the state of florida, usually, you would get sort of more the bob graham types, these moderate characters. >> and states have a way of working that out. they look at their federal office holders differently. they see the guy or gal as governor as the one handling the money at home.

they're closest to the kitchen table. they're the ones who in the sense are the mayor of the entire state. the federal office, they send them to washington to represent their interest. >> you vote my way. >> you vote my way on abortion and taxes. >> which is why the portion issue is oddly playing the way it's playing here. because there are no federal abortion issues right here now. there's nothing that's earth shattering or changing before the supreme court which would have nothing to do with the united states senate. that's been an argument that a lot of the moore supporters have put in play because of jones earlier statements about abortion. >> that's something i heard chris matthews talk about on "hardball". about how jones got out so fast taking a pretty hard core position on abortion when he could have said that he supported a ban on abortion after 20 weeks and he would have been with the vast overwhelming

number of alabamians and also i think that's a majority number across the nation. so it's not like he would be painted as pro life. did that hurt him early on? staking out a pretty hard core position on abortion? >> it hasn't helped him. but i think it speaks to his character. i mean, he is not someone who will change his position for political expediency. and i think for folks who are looking to vote for a democrat for the first time, you could do a lot worse than doug skroejone. that our opinion. there's nothing in legislature that's going to change abortion in the next year and a half. the one i looked to was richard shelby. i think he has more sway over the undecided voters than steve bannon and even charles barkley who he loves.

>> charles barkley was great last night. >> i want to say quickly on abortion, it always fascinated me on campaigns, you'd have campaigns and i remember in one campaign they were asking us all these questions. there was a huge debate about abortion, and they asked me. my whole thing was i didn't talk a lot about the social issues. i talked about economics. i just said pro-life. and it moved on. there's this huge screaming headline, it just struck me. the absolute obsession on the issue of abortion struck me more when i was leaving and i thought back, okay, i cast thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of votes up here. went to thousands and thousands and thousands of hearings. how many of them were on abortion? hardly any. it's just one of those cultural symbols that puts you on the side of john wayne or jane fonda, but you're exactly right.

there aren't a ton of issues that you face. >> yeah. okay, so still, tom, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. still ahead, live here from alabama, the polls open in less than an hour. steve kornaki joins us to break down the race. plus we'll reveal the lie of the year, and the president is tweeting this morning. he's not tweeting about today's special election, though. >> really? >> but about the russia investigation. and fake news. also former u.s. attorney joyce vance joins us. this special edition of "morning joe" live in alabama is back in a moment. this is not a cloud. this is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. this is a financial transaction secure from hacks and threats others can't see. this is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data

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this is not a fair and balanced media. this is not -- they don't give any pretense.

they know that. lock her up. senator sessions, are you listening? [ cheers and applause ] >> this would be senator session's seat now, wouldn't it? come on, senator sessions. work with us on this one. >> that was steve bannon last night at a roy moore rally seemingly calling on attorney general jeff sessions to go after clinton clinton ahillary . this morning reports president trump's team wants an additional counsel to investigate. that's night a doj official was demoted and had closalleging th

official's wife worked for fusion during the campaign. the news of the personal attorney told mike allen the department of justice and fbi cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by the obvious conflicts of interest. these new revelations require the appointment of a special counsel to investigate. joining us former u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama. joyce vance. thank you for being here. she's a rock star here in alabama. so, joyce, what do you make of that report we just read which is that the white house wants an additional special counsel to look over the investigators as they investigate? >> it's unprecedented and makes to sense at all. i think we'll see the deputy general, the department attorney general put a stop to that. it's worth saying that bruce

ore, the doj employee under scrutiny is a career employee. he's run a drug enforcement program for years. no word to know if it was a professional or personal capacity. i think the rush is judgment is unwarranted and political. it's not really what we expect to see in the jus disdepartmet t department. >> you've seen over time, the rolling effort, over the last week at least, the charges, nonstop charges. people swinging wildly at bob mueller, at the investigation, and it all seemed to follow the news that's pretty devastating for the white house that they've got mike flynn cooperating. how much is tied to the fact that they feel the walls closing in? >> the closer mueller gets to the oval office, the more we see these efforts to delegitimize

mueller. mueller is a marine, former u.s. attorney, and has been a prosecuter for years. i think if the president takes real steps to push mueller to the side, then we'll start to find out what people on the hill are made of. >> i think that's a constitutional crisis and a line even this president understands. he can't cross it. if he does, it's a constitutional crisis. >> the president is tweeting this morning. >>, good. >> about -- it literally draws a laugh when you see the president is tweeting this morning. he writes despite thousands of hours of wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the democrats have been unable to show any collusion with russia. so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who i don't know or have never met. fake news. >> all right. so he's moving from russia now to the allegations. so joyce, it's interesting when

he says this is a fake investigation. i mean, how many people have been arrested? >> well, we've got four indictments today. >> they're low level just coffee people? >> only the former national security adviser, one of the people who traveled constantly with the president during the campaign. >> also the president's campaign manager, the person he told us personally during the middle of the campaign paul manafort's the one i need to help me with the republican nomination because he knows how to get the delegates. >> well, he was only the campaign manager for a little while. >> michael flynn was only by his side 24 /7 and sitting next to him for everything. they were like this. >> it seem to me, kasie, that's an argument that just has to be falling on deaf ears. i noted there have been a couple of people who let's just say haven't bathed themselves in glory that are going out attacking on the hill, attacking bob mueller, but when you hear

from paul ryan, when you hear from a lot of the republican leaders, weren't they still saying we need to stay out of robert mueller's way and let him do his zblob. >> job? >> yes, that's been the vast majority for republicans on capitol hill. they want this question of what happened resolved, and a lot of them have taken much harder lines and stronger stances toward russian interfeern in re the election, and they're baffled by why the president isn't doing anything about that. >> he said in that tweet it's democrat trying to investigate him for collusion. it's not democrats in fact it's bob mueller. he can try all he wants to discredit bob mueller, for it's not going to work. >> and by the way, it's bob mueller, republican? >> appointed by george w. bush. >> yes, a republican appointee. it all started when you had jeff sessions, his own attorney

general recusing himself. under jeff sessions, alabama republican, alabama conservative, bob mueller had his authority to begin this investigation. >> yeah, of course, we remember the circumstances under which he had to recuse himself. >> yes. he has hd to recuse himself. and rod rosenstein knew they needed it. >> should we look at the 2017 lie of the year and see the choice? the winner for the lie of the year -- >> let me do a drum roll. >> it's pliti fact, right? >> yes. the winner is, donald trump. all right. and what was it specifically? >> it have his may entriintervi about why he fired james comey.

>> in fact, when i decided to do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story, an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. >> so they write a mountain of evidence points to a single fact that. in russia meddled in the u.s. election, period. >> and republicans across the hill agree with that. >> yeah. they continue saying when the nation's commander in chief refuses to aknologycknowledge a to u.s. democracy, it makes it difficult to address the problem. for this reason we name that as our lie of the year for 2017. by the way, donald trump is the first time two time winner for

lie of the year. he won for a series of lies during the 2016 campaign. >> very good. >> somebody should send him an award. >> it's like winning the cy young twice. joyce, everybody is laughing about what he said to lester holt, but as this investigation moves down, it's going to be harder to prove collusion. it's going to be a lot harder to prove collusion. on the obstruction question, though, you look at what he said to lester holt where he talked about getting rid of comey to end the investigation. what sarah huckabee sanders said around the same time that he wanted the investigation to end. what he said to the russian foreign minister and the russian ambassador to the united states, where he said we got rid of that nut job comey, and the tweet where he said yes, i had to fire flynn, because he lied to the

fbi. is it not safe to say if donald trump had not gotten in his way with interviews, with tweets, with reckless claims, that the legal challenges that he's facing now would either be minimized or be nonexistent? >> you know, it's always the coverup. prosecuters love a good coverup. that's how you often will find a public construction case will end. much more on the corruption or the perjury side of things than on the charges. this case is a little bit different, because the president most constitutional law scholar believe you can't indict a sitting president, that bob mueller won't do that. whether it's insulated from his conduct at the end of the day is an interesting question, but you're heighright. we would not be where we are

with the full level of disclosure but for the president's stumbled. >> self-inflicted. >> recalling the night in 1973 during indictments -- >> that's not a problem. there are even some folks inside the justice department who are arguing now and outside of the department that you could indict a president, but the way i look at that, the lawyer, the appellate lawyer from the office is known for being a careful, straight up the middle kind of day. it would result in litigation and wouldn't be closure to the country. i don't think we're going to see it here because the appellate lawyers on mueller's team will counsel against something so risky. >> more importantly, alabama, clemson, who wins? >> alabama. >> thank you for coming on the

show this morning. coming up, three different polls are painting three very different pictures of where today's senate race here in alabama stands. steve kornacki joins us to break it all down on "morning joe." from the very beginning ... it was always our singular focus. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. and these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's now time to go to what all the kids call the board of rage. let's go to our board of rage desk in hong kong where willie geist is standing by right now. willie? >> how angry is sne. >> we have a delay, but i'll take it. let's go to new york, the national political correspondent for nbc, the great steve kornacki, the rage. >> the board hasn't malfunctioned yet. there's no rage yet. but look, it's election day in alabama. happy election day, everybody one down there on the set. what would it like for a democrat to win in alabama? this is what elections normally look like in alabama. president trump winning this thing by 28 points.

what's the formula for jones? >> it starts in jefferson county, birmingham, the suburbs around birmingham. you want to get a big turnout of black voters. you want the suburbs like where you are, you want they want to flip and go to jones because they can't stomach roy moore. you'd want if your jones, to be getting north of 60% in jefferson county. what else are you going to need? look at here in huntsville and madison county. same type of traditionally republican voter. you're trying to flip them. look down to the southern part. mobile and right next door, baldwin county. it's huge and fast growing, traditionally republican. kind of place republicans should get upwards of eighty percent. this stretch of the state right here, a dozen counties, a couple more you see as red, these are heavily black counties. the question isn't if the democrat jones is going to win.

the question here becomes turnout. when barack obama made phone calls in the last couple days, it's about turnout particularly in this part of the state. i'll tell you there is a formula here. roy moore was on the ballot five years ago. his last election in alabama he won, but barely. he won it by -- 51.5 to 48.5. it was a three-point margin before the scandals. so there is a path for jones, a democrat today. >> wow. hey, steve, as you went across that black belt there, as they call it down here, doug jones talked about needing historic african american turnout to win tonight. obama-level turnout from 2008 and 2012 where easteven obama l. is that realist to expect that much turnout? >> this is 2012 when obama was

reelected. this is how he did in alabama. he got 95% of the black vote. it was turnout. 28% of the electorate in alabama was african american. now, you compare to that preobama, more traditional levels. you were looking at 23, 25. that's a question here. how close can you get to -- if you can get all the way up to 28% today and you're a democrat, that's your dream scenario. maybe you don't need to get all the way when you just look at the difficulties that -- look, roy moore barely won in 2012. add this sandal and maybe you don't need the full obama. but you need close to it. no question. >> steve, if you're talking about mountain wrook abrook and other than shore by mobile. if you're talking about those areas, that second line you're talking about, whites with college degrees. those are the areas it seems

especially women with college degrees, those really seem like if this is going to be tipped to doug jones in a historic way, that really seems like the line that has to go hand in hand with that barack obama turnout. >> yeah. look at it this way. traditionally, again, when they normally get blown out like hillary clinton did, a democrat is probably going to get cumulatively, i don't know, 15% of the white vote statewide. if doug jones wins, i think the number has to be about 35% of the white vote, but to get it, it's the divide you're talking about. the college educated more suburban people on one hand. how do you get the 35%? i think you probably need to basically break even with college educated whites if you're dough jon jones. be in the ball game. probably with noncollege whites he's still going to get clobbered.

about a little more than a third of the whoit voite vote. other states, democrats can get a third of the white vote easily. alabama racially polarized. it's a historically a difficult challenge. >> all right. john? >> i believe kornacki. >> i believe steve. >> the man just knows his stuff. >> he does. >> so, again, you're from mississippi. talk about this. what you're looking at. do you think that this is possible or at the end of the day, are people going to vote -- i always -- >> suppressed vote. >> i always told new people getting into politics people have habits. all right? and i always used not to get too deep in the weeds here. i said my family was a crest family. you can have as many come galga commercials as you wanted. we bought crest. i always said that because i said look and see voting habits.

if they voted in republican primaries two years ago, four years ago, six years ago, they're going to vote this year. this is bigger. if they voted republican their entire life, are your friends and family members faced with this challenge, i'm going to break this habit? >> i think culturally the problem here is even if you're from alabama, you've been embarrassed by roy moore for years, you're a republican who doesn't necessarily support roy moore, making that shift to vote for a democrat is an impossible leap that you don't want to do because you don't want to strengthen the democrats in washington and do anything that's going to hurt president trump's chance of passing his agenda. i think that do the voters stay home and doug jones actually has organized enough and has a ground game and he's driving african american turnout, he's driving youth turnout? that's the big question today. >> sometimes we overthink this.

there have been times when i've gotten into a voting booth where you think you're going to vote for somebody and you get in a voting booth and see the name and go i just can't do it. >> that might happen many type over today in alabama. kasie hunt, final thoughts? >> i think to elise's point about whether you really can break these long-standing habits, i think there may be some changes here. the media environment around this race is different than any environment any of the voters have been dealing with before. it's a national election, and to the question of whether sending roy moore to the senate is going to help president trump pass his agenda, i'm not convinced of that. i think the fractures in the republican party are actually the thing that's holding him back the most in terms of pushing legislation on capitol hill, and to a certain extent,

doug jones might be more of a wash than roy moore. >> roy moore has talked about policy less than even donald trump who is not exactly a policy person. >> they have their putin connection in common. >> if jones wins this race, the richard shelby thing will be written about as the most historical race. that will be the permission slip for a lot of republicans who stay home. just stay out of the race. that will be a pivotal moment. today's senate race has been one of the most contentious in alabama's history. but republicans and democrats agree with each other on one thing. we'll talk about what that one thing is ahead on "morning joe."

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today you got kristen jill brand and bernie sanders saying you all have to step down because of billy bush weekend.

i thought we litigated that. didn't the american people already vote on that one? alabama is the fire break in all of that. judge moore is a different deal. you understand that, right? >> white house chief strategist steve bannon campaigning roy moore last night, polls no alabama open in just a few minutes. 7:00 a.m. central time. republicans as energized today as last year when donald trump beat hillary clinton by 28 points. special election day edition of morning joe continues in just a moment. live from alabama. ( ♪ )

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this outsider is coming down to lecture. >> steve bannon, it does think, unfortunately. and he's dead wrong that people in alabama are so stupid. hiss problem is, he thinks it's

1962 in alabama. you know why, that's because he's a yank who worked at gold win sax. he's a yankee who worked in hollywood. >> by the way, morning joe, called me a yankee yesterday. just because i'm from richmond virginia. the capital of the confederacy. that's right. i got yankee schools, georgetown and harvard. that i don't think you made the cut on brother. welcome back to morning joe, live from alabama. >> did you hear that, joe. >> apparently, steve bannon decided when talking to alabama crowd to make. >> in rural alabama. >> to make fun of the university of alabama. which is fine. and yeah i went to alabama, but he says i wasn't smart enough to get into what, yankee schools

did he say. >> georgetown and harvard. >> yankee coming down. telling alabama people how to vote. and then you've got a yankee saying you can trust me because i went to yankee schools and i'm smarter than you idiots that had to go to school in alabama. >> yes >> it's a winning message, steve. why don't you package that one up and take it across the country. >> good on you. voters here go to the polls today to choose the next u.s. senator and with us this hour, we have national affairs editor analyst for nbc news and msnbc. washington anchor for bbc world news america is here. columnist at alabama media group and al.com john. this man walked in. i swear i thought charles barkley walked in. >> no. >> but it was him and everyone was screaming for him. >> they were actually calling

him. i did you not. defender of the free world. is that your license plate. >> like i said, that would make me a huge failure if that were the case. the defense rests. >> this is a race like no other in alabama. talk about it. >> i've never seen anything like it. makes me recall the brewer wallace race of early 1970s in which a lot of more moderate people in alabama really put a lot of faith in albert brewer winning the election. it didn't happen. a lot of people were crushed for years. you know, today is going to be a similar kind of day. >> you said we went to alabama. >> we did. >> i was writing about machine politics while you were fighting at -- on the other end, the political end. >> even in college. >> i know this would shock you, but the machine had run alabama politics. >> that's unreel. >> for about 150 years.

with my light touch, i ran to abolish the machine and abolish student government. >> did it go well. >> yes, it did. because they got rid of it about four or five years later. >> but it clawed its way back from the grave. >> it did, but reformed. >> reformed. everything is reformed. >> john, what's your sense of things. everyone is talking about making a prediction in this thing. polls are hard to read. what's your sense talking to people about this race. >> i've never seen this much energy surrounding a democratic candidate. you know, the numbers are really hard to make. so my head tells me moore is probably ahead four or five points, but my head also tells me there's no way to protect what's going to happen today. i would not be surprised by anything. >> we always talk about outcome. you know what, there are some

elections where it really matters more than others. getting a a always matters, but sometimes you want to race by 5-15 points in an off year race, special election we saw it in virginia. eddy gillespie didn't do poorly with republicans. 96, 97, 98%. more democrats came out and were motivated to come out. in the rain. stayed in line to vote. this is all turnout. turnout. turnout. >> super close race in off year election. turbulent times in a race that's been nationalized where there's been all this media attention. where so many deep cultural economic identity factors that are playing in if you talk to alabamians about what the race means to them or what it means in the context of 30 years or 40 years of alabama politics, the turnout not just the raw number,

but where the turnout goes up or goes down. >> we don't want to overstate it, but there are actually seeing trump part two. >> at the time, say the world is watch i watching. reporters down here. i'm not the only one with a funny accident. people from germany, france, ma dole have a. mull doe vans have found alabama >> i think the sexual harassment

allegation allegations are a debate. that some are having. you could go on and on with no answer to that. because they are allegations. well, the things that he has put on the record over the years, that he has said, that he believes in, those are truths. >> many john considered disqualifying including myself. long before "the washington post" broke this story. >> from the most significant things are his failure to abide by oath of office. to uphold the constitution. those are things going forward the senate is going to have to deal with if you're coming in and already proven that you don't really follow your oath. >> also, if you don't believe women should have a right to vote. if you don't -- if you believe that slavery is when families were closest together and also get rid of the 13th and 14th amendment. >> that's the most stunning thing. get rid of all the amendments after ten. i mean, you know . . . >> doug jones really last night. one of the sbreinteresting thin

that came up there is also the sense of alabama is either looking forward or is it looking to the past. is it going to be a state doug jones, are we going to be a state where i can sit down with kro ceos and tell them come and do business. we're a business friendly state. or a state continuously looking back ward and has the reputation of a state that looks backwards. >> this is one thing we were talk about before. doug jones being the first one to really kind of squarely talk about this question of alabama's identity. he's confronting this question. how does this fit into history. do we want to be part of the new south we've been talking about for 30 years. to have a candidate addressing those issues in a direct way has never happened before. to your point, mika, i think it's important. they are only accusations. they are credible accusations of. >> i know. >> and the point, the reason i think it's relevant is it's one more element of what is so crazy about this, taking place in the

broader context, not just donald trump, but the incredible moment we're going through. reckoning with sexual harassment. >> absolutely. >> upheaval. >> you remember the focus group that we aired yesterday. i believe on this show. which showed that people really in dispute over the political motivation of the allegations against him. >> here's the thing. >> you look at what he said before. >> if you talk to roy moore supporters and talk to the people. if they believed the allegations against roy moore, if they thought he actually had molested a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s. they would be outraged by it. they do not believe it. they don't believe the women. they don't believe "the washington post". they think it's forces aligned against them. dove tails with what sarah huckabee sanders. the media purposefully deceives the american public. there are a lot of people voting

for roy moore who believe that there is a concerted effort to take them down and to take down their way of life. >> which is why, mika, you're dead on. you can say, even if you believe all of these women are lying. even if you believe that, then, judge roy moore by his own words. he has said that families were closer together than the last time america was great was when we had slavery. he has said, women shouldn't have the right to vote because all amendments after the tenth amendment should be wiped out. he had said that all of the 13th and 14th amendment, which basically were the anti-slavery amendments would have never taken place. america was better off before we had 13th and 14th amendment. he had called america the center of evil in the world. >> there's enough there before

the allegations as important as those are. john, you said there is one thing that republicans and democrats in alabama agree on. what is that? >> that's that they want this thing to be over. and i can't state that enough. there will be a lot of wailing on one side or the other after it's done. this is as you can see. >> it's been very intense. >> absolutely. >> merry christmas. >> yes. we hope. >> well, we'll see. so last night at a rally for doug jones. charles barkley made a plea to the audience and it's made a lot of waives. it's making its rounds on twitter. people really felt that he made a very strong connection with the audience. take a look. >> there's no way possible this guy should, number one, be in an election. there's no way. i mean, it's unbelievable that

this guy is still in the race when people in your own party say they won't vote for you or support you. i am begging and urging everybody to get out, call all your friends. we got to at some point, we got to stop looking like idiots to the nation. mr. trump comes to -- he won't even come here, but he sends steve bannon. only in alabama, could you send a white nationalist separatist who don't believe in race mixing. come to alabama three times and he would get cheered at roy moore rally. that's crazy. >> so in that chart. charlgs barkley of course back when he was rumored to be republican actually in the past some people were talking about him one day running for governor. still a popular voice in

alabama. >> right, for the most part. >> yes. when he says that, i think about the marriage in the past with civil rights issues and george wallace. we would be remisif we said a lot of support roy moore from across the country. right now it's more depressing. it's not just alabama. it's the state of the nation. lt here we are. >> charles barkley can get away with saying -- any outsider that said something like that would be laughered off the stage or howled off the stage. he can get away with saying that. >> charles barkley can get away with just about anything. >> i notice that was one guy steve bannon didn't go after. he did by the way as he was going through the list of people. talking about republicans who in his view didn't properly support roy moore. he also mentioned condoleeza

rice. and shelby and said there's a special place in hell for republicans who don't support roy moore. >> taking a shot at ivanka trump. >> was that an attack on ivanka trump who said of roy moore. >> it sure sounded like it. also. >> so bannon is attacking ivana trump now. >> don't make fun of her. >> he lumped in condy rice in this room. i think people understand what condy rice means to the state of alabama and city of birmingham. something who lives so close to the bombing of the 16th street baptist church when she was a little girl that she felt the earth shake. she felt the explosion at the church. and lost a friend there. for him to talk that way about condy rice particularly in the state of alabama. >> it's especially disgusting. >> yes. >> so roy moore's ten point win

in the september runoff was a biggest victory of a bannon backed candidate yet he championed paul ryan's 2016 primary challenger. paul who lost by 68 points. backed john mccain 2016 challenger. kelly ward lost by 11 points. in the primary for virginia governor. candidate cory stuart fell short by one point. shortly after claimed ed gillespie has joined his cause. gillespie lost by nine points in the race. writes from the national review, obviously bannon backed protest candidates don't always lose, but the perception that he is a brilliant tactician is wrong. rich lowry argues in the -- it was trump whose power as a communicator gut levelled political instincts and celebly overcame his manifest failings in a race against a democratic

opponent who proved worst candidate. >> thank you, billy. >> genius and trump operation. wasn't bannon. it was trump. >> catty this has been an ongoing point of contention which mika and i actually saw one day early in the white house. when somebody mistakenly talked about steve bannon's strategy to union voters in front of donald trump. and donald trump snapped their head off and said it wasn't steve bannon. he came on at the very end. steve bannon is masterful at painting himself as the architect of donald trump's victim. and for some reason, the press always playing along. >> and every time he gets himself on the cover of time magazine or any other magazine and makes it look like he's the greatest political strategist in history ever. that's going to anow the president. it's also not true.

listening to the steve bannon rally last night. number of things he said that seemed to just come from his gut, but which were strategically stupid things to say in the context of where he was was astonishing. the condy rice going off to the university of alabama. pointing out harvard and georgetown. supposed to be elitist. you would like to think there's always been this thing about the trump administration. some big overreaching plan. some grand wizardry plan going on. i just couldn't see it last night. i just thought it was somebody speaking saying smuf not going to go down very well. >> by the way, after steve bannon jets out of alabama today, he's going to head to new york city where he is the headline speaker at a manhattan fundrais fundraiser. who represents the populist unclaims of the hamptons. >> oh, good.

>> i think its banking on the belief that alabamians don't have a finally developed sense of irony. he may be right. >> oh, good gracious. >> what are you feeling right now? scared to say. >> i'm getting tequila no matter what. >> all right. my kind of day. >> thank you so much for being on the show. coming up, the polls are now open here in alabama. we are going to go live to reporters on ground. nbc gabe gutierrez brings us strange moments in this strange race. morning joe live from alabama. back in a moment. ♪ a wealth of information.

#. with us now. let's bring in nbc news

correspondent gabe gutierrez. >> hi, kbabgabe. what a long strange trip it's been. >> it has. >> tell us what you've seen down here. >> been here the last couple of weeks. based in atlanta. talking to voters has been incredible to see. a lot of roy moore voters. going to stick by their guy. being seen as a referendum on president trump and his policies. and guys as you know very well, this could have a major impact on next year's midterms. take a listen. >> this morning, it's anyone's guess who will win alabama's crucial special election. the latest polls are mixed. republican roy moore trailing democrat doug jones by ten points in one. leading in others. >> protesters demonstrating at a a rally. >> i want to make america great again with president trump. i want america good and she

can't be good. >> he once again denied allegations of sexual misconduct with teen girls decades ago. kayla moore accusing the media of trying to portray her husband in a bad lights. >> the news will tell you we don't care for jews. one of our attorneys is a jew. >> steve bannon. >> former white house strategist steve bannon firing up the crowd. ripping into republicans who said the former judge should drop out. >> there's a special place in hell for for republicans who should know better. >> moore taking no questions from traditional reporters. instead one of his rare interviews went to pro-trump super pac online video. interviewer a 12-year-old girl. >> what are the most important issues to the voters of alabama. >> i think one is religious liberty. >> his opponent democratic doug

jones sees the race differently. >> the majority of the people of alabama say that it is time that we put or decency, our state before political party. >> experts say turnout will be crucial. jones calling on former nba hall of famer charles barkley to help get african-americans out to vote. alabama native with harsh words for home state. >> at some point we have to stop looking like idiots to the nation. at some point, i mean, listen. i love alabama. we have to draw a line in the sand so we're not a bunch of dam idiots. >> for mark reynolds, evangelicals, that make of half of the vote will be key. >> all this going on is nothing, but bull crap. >> like donald trump, my brother

liked donald trump starting in like 1987 or 88 whenever part of the deal came out. sort of stuck with him. right. alabama, for better or worse, depends on what you think. . people have a long history with roy moore. i remember that guy come to northwest florida campaigning in northwest florida at some event i was at. he's been. like these people know him. or live hove him or hate him. >> last week, president trump was there at the rally. spoke with a lot of people there that knew roy moore and knew him because of the ten kmaecommandm. people look at what's going on and can't understand why they're sticking by him despite the allegations. a lot of people say he's not talking about the issues. depends what issues you're talking about. to these people, he is talking about the issues. gay marriage, transgender

rights, they do believe finally they have a candidate that is telling it like it is. you keep talking you ask him how much evidence they need in order to believe the allegations. they don't blooif elieve it's a conspiracy. >> just take the allegations out of the equation and take ha he says and what he stands for, that's what they're voting for. >> they want somebody who has their religious convictions. they feel very strongly about. interesting too, the way the whole campaign is shaking up, it's so unusual not to see he's just disappeared. you try to get him to speak on the record. it's difficult. doug jones has been campaigning other the last couple of days. multiple stops. even sew only a meeting once a

day. takes three or four questions very scripted and shunned national interviewings fs for tt part. >> people in alabama staying by him, they stood by him. we talked about how roy moore was kicked out of his seat on court twice, but a lot of people see is a guy that stood up before putting the ten kmaemt commandments. being placed on public ground and even willing to give up his seat. again, if you love roy moore, you love roy moore, and you don't care what "the washington post" says. the question is, how big is that support for him. >> really speaks to cultural wars waging over the last ten or so years. they're playing themselves out here. roy moore along with donald trump and steve bannon and others have tapped into that

particular vein. what i'm curious about in terms of what you've seen on ground is a lot of folks have been putting a great deal of emphasis we talked about here this morning, the black vote. at the end of the day, we know the reality of it is, every black person many the state can show up and it's not going to be enough to get this over the line. it's the white female voter who holds the cards to whether or not roy moore becomes the united states senator. we need to be honest about that. it's the white female voter. >> let me talk to that female voter because coming up, gabe gutierrez. >> thank you. >> coming up, moments ago president trump posted a pretty suggestive tweet about one of the woman senators who has called on him to resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct. we will have that for you, next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back to morning joe. senator called for donald trump to resign yesterday amid sexual

misconduct allegations. this is the president of the united states tweet. lightweight senator, a total fl flunky for ch kky for chuck sch would do anything for them. is now in the ring fights against trump. very disloyal to bill and crooked. used. exc exclamation point. i just want to -- i just want to say something beyond the fact that is reprehensible that the president of the united states would say something so derogatory and disgusting about a woman, we're not surprised mr. president. you do it all the time. you treat women terribly and you treat the women around you even worse. you treat women like punching bags because it's fun for you because you are intimidated by women. that's your problem. okay, but for the people who work for you, you need to act.

sarah huckabee sanders. good luck today in the briefing. don't lie. and do not defend the president of the united states for what he did. if you do, you have no -- you should resign. >> it just makes my blood boil. it makes my blood boil. kristen jill brairsten gillibra >> it's so gross and beneath the office. >> i'm looking at this now. you can imagine trump writing this and hoping for exactly the reaction he's just got. >> well, a vote for roy moore is a vote for donald trump. good luck for that alabama. >> he does it to provoke an

reaction. it's obscene the implication coming from someone in the oval office and would do anything for them. the language is appalling, but he likes the fact that this then creates a bias. that's what is sick about it. >> the thing is though, steve. what i've never understood is i've understood it from the start of the general election. last year, this is what i call the 33% solution. this is a sort of thing that may harden supporters, but at the end, you're turning off swing voters. you're turning off independents. you're turning off a lot of women. you're turning off a lot of educated voters. you can look at sure enough he's sitting at 32%. 33, 35, 36%. sure enough. there may be people like yeah. give it to them, donald.

maybe some older white males. i don't know. he offends so many other people he never allows himself to move into the 40s. >> look, he's got a special problem with women. beyond that, he's has this inability to not respond any time he's criticized. this was an extreme criticism. people say the mildest things about him and he lashes back on twitter against them. whatever you want to call it approach of his and it's ultimately going to bring him down. can't make enemies of everyone around you, mitch mcconnell, consist consi kristen gill brand or whoeverir kirsten jill brand. >> donald trump can no not be spoken to about anything.

he gets very, very obsessed with certain women. everybody else, working around the president, if you're day is not consumed about getting him to take down that tweet. please leave. you are worth nothing. you don't care about this coup try. you don't care about women and you will support a man who does something like that. read that tweet. read what he put in present sees and decide what you're going do do at work today. if it's anything less than making him take down that tweet or quitting, i feel sorry for you. >> we've seen this thyime, and, again. seen the attacks a lot of women. seen a lot of attacks against mika. personal attacks against mika. lies. there is a strange silence from the women around him that women that were supposed to be moderating forces and here he is

suggesting that kirsten gillibrand would do thinking. >> let's just say it he's suggesting kirsten jell brand would have sex with him in order to get campaign contributions. the president tweeted that this morning. >> so the question is, willie, who is the first woman that works with donald trump that steps forward and says enough? who is the first woman that says, i just can't continue working here? maybe it's the force for women. maybe it's ivanka trump. maybe she will finally stand up for what is right since her father just literally sexually harassed in a cruel way a woman on twitter. ivanka, you stepped in there to talk for women, to speak for women, to have a platform for women. where are you today? >> it's essentially enabling her father to be misogynismisogynis

to weaponize his platform in a way that no politician in this country ever has against a gender. it is ongoing. it's sustained and not going to stop and i don't think it's going to be tolerated. this country is having a cultural moment right now. >> we're done. >> you wonder whether you wonder about the cultural movements and me too movement and the effect it's having on someone like donald trump. how much it must be unsettling him. the idea women are fighting back. saying this is enough. we won't be treated like this. we won't have sexual indue when doe thrown at us in a tweet in the morning. i'm not sure he can handle that.

they've had time to walk away. not only have they not done anything, but defended him when asked about this. if they defend this because it's nothing short of what you just described. no other way to describe what he wrote in the tweet today. >> none. >> if they defend this, i don't know how that look. >> sarah huckabee sanders. today is your day. hold on a second. i'm speaking. >> yes you are. >> today is your day. today is your day. so i know that your go to line that you talk about backstage before you go out in front of the podium to speak to the american people representing the president of the united states, today is your day to not actually say when the president is punched, he punches back. that would be an appropriate response. today is your day to say the president is a sexist. the president's tweet was totally, totally inappropriate. and that i can't work for a president who would say something like that about a female sitting senator for the state of new york.

there's no excuse. you've kwgot to do the right thing. you've got to stop. today is your day. do the right thing. >> let's not forget and let's not close the block without remembering that he's done a lot more than send a tweet. there are ten women out there on tape who he assaulted and who are part of that me too movement. so he feels that hostility because it is directed to him because he's a perpetrator of it. >> he felt it yesterday because they were all on tv yesterday. >> you can just be sure that the fact the three of us here are literally shaking in anger, that tweet meant a lot. that tweet said so much about his character. that tweet said so much about how this white house is run. that tweet was one of the worst things i've seen so far in this presidency, actually. >> here's why it's sounder mining. make it to the stage of senator. do everything by the rules. be as good as the guys around

you. thank you for coming on. coming up, we'll talk to former rnc official. and former aide to jeff sessions supporting the democratic in this alabama race. plus, one other upcoming guests has a message for roy moore. and it's thank you. we'll explain why, next on morning joe.

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joining us now former aide to republican senator jeff sessions and rnc staffer. glad to be here. >> how do you think things are going. >> this is such a crap shoot. i really have no idea.

this race could turn out any way today. certainly eagerly waiting. >> you endorsed doug jones. >> i did. >> okay. roy moore got up to speak and about ten minutes in my very proper father put the napkin on the table and said get your purse. he's just not my family's brand of politician and not a republican i want representing the party. >> it's a problem not only for your father, but a lot of judges and a lot of conservatives that he decided which laws he was going to abide by and which laws he wasn't going to abide by. >> exactly. for a judge incredibly insulting. amazing to many a lot of republicans voting for him because of the supreme court

seat that he may get to a point. i think this is a man who has twice been removed from office for not respecting a supreme court order. >> right. it's conservatives always wanted to say he goes, i'm pro-life. if there's a law pro-choice. is he going to follow law or make the law. >> i thought boy, that's what a conservative does. you follow the law, right? >> roy moore is really shown himself to be more of a theo kat than anything over the course of his career. i'm impressed with you because it's a brave team to step out against your family. we know how tribal politics can be. have you had a lot of blow back. >> i've been called everything from a traitor to a rhino,

republican and name only. which i like you think that is what we could call roy moore. he's more of a theo kat than republican. it's unfortunate for people to say i'm disloyal to my party. i would say by not supporting a candidate i do not feel lives up to the standards of my party, much like mitt romney. that is loyalty at its most courageous. >> do you think republicans like you who can't vote for roy moore will do what you're doing and vote for doug jones or more likely just to stay home and stay out of the race. >> i think it's going to be split. i think you're going see some write in a candidate like senator shelby did. i think some definitely will stay home. they've never pulled that ticket for a d in their life and not going to do it now.

>> stay with us. reporter and columnist for alabama mri report co-reporter. josh moon. latest column titled thank you roy moore. reads in part, sometimes in america, especially in the south, we tend to get a little complacent. comfortable in a dazed like state walking through life accepting the world we inhabit every day for the way it is. then you came along roy. we thought it normal in a state with record pavr overty. also got a close look at ever present race problems. big bright spotlight has been focused on alabama and its problems and i'm more certain than ever before the good people of alabama are fed up and motivated to be something about the bad people of alabama. so josh, given you view and what you wrote there, how do you

handicap the race tonight. >> you know, for some reason, i have a feeling doug jones is going to win this. maybe that's just wishful thinking. maybe it's me wanting people to believe in the people of this state a little more after see accide ing what had happened over the last month. good people to get out and do something about what has been going on in this state for a long, long time. i think you kind of seeing that momentum for that campaign here late and i'm hopeful it's going to be enough to put him over the top. >> but explain how much of an uphill battle that will be. obviously it's a state donald trump won by 27, 28 points. so how hard is it to get from here to there for doug jones or any democratic. >> it's pretty difficult. roy moore is a different kind of republican. he's a republican that other republicans don't like. that helps a lot if you're a democrat in this race. you can bring some republicans

into this because he's always been a guy who has been out on that island by himself. now he needs that support he has never saw and never shared any of his money that he's been able to collect in his foundations and other things along the way through his political career. d so he's now, you know, trying to go back and get these people that he's shunned for his entire political life and a lot of them are unwilling to go with him. >> tracy, that is what is so instrumental about roy moore, he's always been a political island unto himself. hasn't done well in a lot of republican primaries in the past. barely elected the last time he ran statewide by a couple points. tracy, it could be if roy moore lose, it could be those republicans that are his undoing at the end. >> i hope that proves to be the case. you're right, he is an island. i mean, those who say, oh, well, i'm going to vote for him because he's going to tote the party line, roy moore totes the roy moore line. he's got a history of being a rebel and preferring to make

headlines rather than voting with the party. >> tracy james, josh moon, thank you both so much. >> thank ya'll, appreciate it. >> we're going to be covering much more still ahead live from alabama on this special election day. morning joe will be right back.

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[ crowd booing ] -- condi rice and all that little bobby corker, all the establishment up there, all the establishment up there, every day that doesn't have trump's backing or they don't have his back at all. what they want him for is that corporate tax cut. that's all they want him for. as soon as they get that tax cut, you watch what happens. there's a special place in hell -- [ applause ] -- for republicans who should know better. >> he's having a good time, isn't he? >> he's having a good time, enjoying himself. >> as someone said recently, he looks like a man always ready for a safari to break out.

>> at any time. >> exactly. >> i'm just saying though, you look at steve bannon, steve bannon has become the center of sort of his own party. like when he was at breitbart when he got into the trump campaign, i mean, this is a good -- this is a good example of in politics, paul simon, not the songwriter but the senator from illinois said always remember. in politic, sometimes when you win, you lose. sometimes when you lose, you win. he's out of the white house. and -- >> he's having a ball. >> he's like a pig in butter we'll say. he's enjoying himself. >> he's having a ball. but, you know, like we've said before, this race, there's a lot on the line in this race here at alabama. there's a lot on the line for national politics. there's a lot on the line for donald trump. maybe even more than for democrat democrat, there's a lot on the line for steven bannon. >> i had the honor and pleasure of watching the entirety of mr. bannon's comments last night. he really is, to your point, he was like a stand-up comedian.

he'd walk the stage and go "what else, what else?" he didn't want to get off the stage. eventually had to get roy moore up there. >> have you noticed on the west coast, they call it this thing. back here we call it -- >> yeah. >> so now -- >> i was going to say, he's out of the white house but still in the president's head. >> guess what, us talking about steve bannon right now, who's that driving it, donald trump? >> exactly. >> i mean, he's center stage. >> go bannon, go, go bannon, go. >> yeah. so the question is though, i mean, let's say roy moore wins, is this the beginning of the great divide inside the republican party, where we actually see it tearing apart? >> i think it's the actual seeing it because the divide has always been there. it was there when i tried to get it through with tea party and a lot of other things. i think this is just the exposition of it on the national stage in a big way. and the entrails that come out, you can read them, not good. >> yikes. >> it's already a wide open

wound. if roy moore ends up in washington, it's going to be day after day, news cycle after news cycle of salt in that wound over and over. is he sitting on committee chairs. is he, you know, a part of the republican conference. it's going to become i think a litmus test. >> you know there's a middle ground. they can always expel him from the actual republican caucus without expelling him from the senate. >> they can exclude him from day one. >> by the way, not kicking him out of senate, but just saying, we don't want you to go. >> they will play with him because the numbers in their states tell them they have to. >> remember the senate majority leader announced if roy moore wins tonight he will come in under an ethics investigation. that will be his first day, the ethics committee. i agree with you, expelling roy moore from the senate, overturning the will of the voters is not a terrible precedent. >> it's a dangerous precedent to make. >> you know what, alabama can solve that problem for us all. >> how's that?

>> the will of the voters. >> i know. >> the voters could just express a kind of different will. >> that's right. >> you know. >> what was that? >> you-the jones campaign? >> news busters is going to call you devilish again. >> sorry, the idea of credibly accused pedophiles in the united states. >> what is happening here in alabama is going to be consequential as we move forward. i think just as important is the reaction to the president's latest tweet. and if men and women do not -- men and women in congress do not rise up against that in unity and men and women in the white house do not get around that president and get him to take that down, we're in a bad, bad, bad point for women in america. >> kirsten gillibrand responds.

kirsten gillibrand responds, you cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the oval office. that does it for us here this morning. we want to thank all the folks here at chow bar seven in beautiful alabama for their hospitality. and listen, come down and visit alabama. and if your son and daughter's looking to go to a great college -- >> it's actually a really good -- >> -- don't believe steve bannon, i can tell you the university of alabama is the greatest school. >> roll tide! >> now to stephanie ruhle. >> thank you so much, joe. thank you, mika. 2017 what a year it is. good morning, everyone.