luther strange. >> roy moore has won the republican nomination for senate, defeating the fbt the man donald trump campaigned for, senator luther strange. >> so get out and vote for roy moore. do it. do it. >> and nbc news is now calling doug jones the apparent winner in this special senate election in alabama. >> oh, yes. president trump handed his second big political defeat. >> you are wearing crimson. >> i am, it is sweet home alabama day on "morning joe". >> no, wearing a crimson tide. >> that wasn't intentional. >> well, you know what, joe. >> you know ronald reagan, the doctor. >> the american flag. >> remember when ronald reagan's doctor said, sir, today, we are all republicans.

before they operated on him. >> the president and steve boone reason helping out the future, i guess. because every time they endorse a candidate, the candidate fails. it's fun. >> well, i mean, i don't know if it's fun. >> i'm having fun this morning. >> what's that about, louis and aymon, i don't get it. who a remarkable night. i got to tell you, it was a night. it once again proves that nobody knows nothing. there was a joke, somebody tweeted the early exit polls could show that john kerry was going to be the next president of the united states but he tweeted that, to which john kerry tweeted too soon. >> too soon. >> at 10:00 last night, i had been told by top alabama officials across the state that there were not enough votes for doug jones. this was at 10:00. then i talked to some people at

nbc and other places, it's too early to call this. but it certainly seems to be going against doug jones. then boom it showed he was going to lose six out of the seven swing states. >> that didn't happen. the vote verse a last word and, boy, they shocked the world last night. >> we want you to spell it out for, given your insight. let me set the table first. we have veteran columnist mike barnacle, former aide to the state department, elise jordan. associate editor for "commentary" magazine noah rothman and heidi pryzbilla and national political reporter for the "new york times" and white house correspondent for pbs "news hour" as well. not sure what happened there.

joe, before we break it out, what happened in alabama, what is your gut and what does this mean for the country? >> well, it's hard to say what i means for the country, for the party right now, there is no doubt there is a new loelgs that's come together in virginia. it came together in alabama the reddest of red states that donald trump said it was a place that people lochl the most. you saw young voters if tuscaloosa county who probably didn't appreciate, of course, their university being attacked him young voters in auburn. you saw in shelby county, where we were in mountain brooke. you saw a lot of educated republicans going out to the polls saying worry fought going there, of course the turnout among african-americans and other minorities, exceeded all expectations. you put that altogether. have you what happened in virginia as well. >> speaking of shelby county,

shelby, muhow much of an impact did for shelby's comments have on this and what does this say? >> as i said before, for shellby is not an outsider. steve bannon and other people that went into the state to try to impact that state, i request tell you when i went to school in the early 1980s started there, richard shelby was a congressman. had his local office right down the street on university boulevard. he is alabama. >> that guy has done more to help tuscaloosa county, the state of alabama, than anybody can imagine. when shelby came out and took an extraordinarily courageous stand, that told republicans, i cab good conservative. i can be a good alabama republican. and i can either stay home or i can vote for the democrat f. you look at the write-ness, there were enough write-ness, if all those write-ness had voted for roy moore, we'd be talking about

roy moore going to the senate this morning and fought doug jones. >> and steve bannon had a lot to say about a lot of people on stage at his rallies that were so ineffective in alabama. >> a lot of losses last night. donald trump, of course, the biggest loser last night, again, imagine he endorses two republicans in the state that he says is his top state a. state he won by 28 points and they both lose. steve bannon, yes, steve bannon, obviously, a big loser. you also, though, i am sorry, you got to look to mitch mcconnell, who was too clever by half. he didn't want mo brooks in there so he tried to undercut mo broovenlths he tried to under cut roy moore. he ended up within a hair of getting roy moore in there. and so, you know, mitch

mcconnell owes a part of this, too. he can point at steve bannon, steve bannon can point at him. you know, if they'd gone with mo brooks, a guy who is a hard right conservative, that that's guy, though that would have won this state easily for republicans. we wouldn't be talking about a democrat winning in the state of alabama. >> so i think, willie, and joe, that, definitely elise, that president trump helped doug jones win. i believe his tweet for anybody that was on the fend about president trump, for anybody, any woman on the fence about roy moore, i think his disgutting tweet about for kirsten gillibrand helped doug jones win. >> it may have helped in the last mont t. people in that restaurant in mound townbrooke, many republicans. >> they heardt in real dooim time and their gasps in general, those were the voters that helped doug jones win last

night. i said something on air about the african-american turnout. they had talked about getting obama 2008 level turnout. i think the word i used was pipe dream. i couldn't see without barack obama that was going to happen. they did it. african-americans turned out, think about that in 28 with barack obama, historic candidate on the ballot. >> just staggering. that is the most incredible story of all coming out. >> isn't that unbelievable? >> unbelievable. >> doug jones wrote into the senate on the back of african-american voters and some suburban republican women voters in the state. >> elise, one other thing, too, we can look -- we got to be careful not to look too much at donald trump, not to look too much at steve bannon. not to look too much even at these allegations against roy moore. as i said on this show before, people have known roy moore since 1995. and the truth is, people in

mountainbrook haven't liked roy moore since 1995. people in vestavia haven't liked him. he's too radical. they don't like the fact that he doesn't follow the law. so a lot of people, you saw on the exit polls, they had made their minds up even before the washington post stories broke. here you go. 57% have made this up. made their minds up before november. so this also, roy jones, i mean, roy jones, i'm thinking of pensacola here. roy moore owns a lot of this himself. >> roy moore has never been a strong general election candidate in alabama. he only eeked be i in 2012. his supreme court election. then mitt romney won by a wider margin even. i saw roy moore on his horse riding to the polls. so uncomfortable that poor horse. >> yep. >> totally off balance, he did not look like a southern

horseman, can i just say, if i'm going to be a little of a snob, he did not look like a horseman. >> a southern snob. >> a southern snob. he came across as so phony. i think that's what the people of alabama saw, too the inherent phoniness of his extreme religiousity. >> family news, if you are driving. >> that poor horse, quite frankly, he can't ride, he was pulling on the bit way too hard to abuse the horse so he doesn't fall off. >> they have ridden -- >> i know what i'm talking about. >> one of the more interesting aspects of the results last night, it's a intuition of willie talking about the gasps in the crowd yesterday when the krirs ten gillibrand tweet was read. >> ye. >> the african-american turnout. you have to ask yourself if are you a republican was doug jones

the scott brown. >> yes. >> of this cycle? >> a great parallel. >> let's talk about that right now. because this gifts, this is almost a perfect reflection of what happened in january 2010. scott brown i remember you telling me scott brown can win. scott brown replacing teddy kennedy if early 2010 is doug jones winning in the state of alabama one year after a massive election. barack obama was enduring wicked backlash from obamacare and, you know, like scott brown, doug jones may never win a state-wide election in alabama. maybe he will. i think that is the perfect analogy. it predicted a coming tidal wave ago ens the president's party. >> that's what would cause me some concern if i were a republican. >> so, noah, republicans were in

a no-win situation coming into this. i would argue for anybody that's tuning in, thinking that anybody here is gloating about republicans losing. no, actually the worst thing i would argue that could ever happen to my former porte whafb in mitch mcconnell and good people, good republicans had to wres welwhat they were going to do with roy moore. this may actually be a blessing in disguise for the gop. >> they dodged a bull net a way. it's a sat dade no for a conservative, it's a good day when you say it's a bad day for the party. >> i'm not sure it's a bad day. the party wants its soul back, it has to do the right thing. >> they lost a senate seat. the senate is in play in 2018. it probably wasn't before. republicans had a terrible turn jut problem. they are very despirited. republicans are not turning out. that's what happened in alabama in new jersey, virginia and

across the country. democrats are surging. it is officially bizarreo 2009 as you were talking about, lost new jersey, lost virginia, lost a big red state. now we will argue whether or not they will seat this guy in time to vote against big legislation that's unpopular. we will have if same arguments we had eight years ago. >> let's look at the counties that flipped, mobile county, trump won by 14 points, jones wouldn't p won by 14. >> . >> so let's focus on those

bottom two counties, go to heidi so heidi, tuscaloosa, home of alabama university. lee county home of auburn university. i can't think of two counties that show the republican party's problem with the young voters. again, i went to the university of alabama a. lot of conservative republicans there. but you look at what happened if tuck loose sa. you look at what happened in lee. you look what's been happening if republican groups, young republican groups across america. they are disassociating themselves with the steve bannons and the donald trumps and the roy moores for the most part and those college towns that are heavily republican college towns turned around 35, 36 points. >> reporter: we're starting to see the manifestation of what democrats have been saying for several election cycles. it hasn't happened in terms of demographics being destiny here.

the millennials will soon replace the baby boomers as the biggest voting demographic in the country. what we are seeing sheer an awakening among that demographic here with the presidency of donald trump, with what's happening here in alabama, with roy moore. and i think this also puts a spotlight, joe, on what's been happening, frankly, across the country that has been discounted and not really appreciated so far in terms of the over performance here of democrats. let's go back here for a second and look for example at some of the races that democrats lost but where we saw huge shifts like in kansas, 23 points, montana 15-point shifts. georgia, 6-point shifts a. week ago aspoke with a prominent pollster who told me even though things are close going into the election in alabama. the ground is shifting beneath us. and we are going to get wiped

out anywhere where there is even whiff of it being a swing race and sure enough, we saw that in virginia. >> you know where there isn't, where there hasn't been a big shift. >> where is that? >> utah. what is different about the republican party in utah than it is -- >> they don't like trump. >> very good points. >> they don't like trump. mitt romney, if he is watching. i hope he understands if he ran in utah, he would win in utah going away. heidi, by the which, i got to read a line from usa maine page says donald trump is not fit to clean the toilets in the shine the shoes of george w. bush. an extraordinary op-ed, which we will get into moore little next block. but it is, though, if you look also at what happened yesterday

and again everybody believed that barack obama's coalition was barack obama's coalition, it was not transferrable. yesterday across the state of alabama, black voters hispanics, others came out if numbers not seen since 2008 and actually matched barack obama's turnout percentage. >> i think what we saw in alabama was a democratic party running somebody who didn't just go into the xhiengts and say i want to talk about criminal justice. they ran a prosecutor involved in prosecuting the murders of four children killed in that famous church bombing in that state. there is this idea that african-americans want candidates who speak to them and have a record of showing up in their communities and doing good t. same thing happened in virginia when we saw the transgender candidate talking

about traffic t. democratic party needs to understand the candidates they are choosing needs to be the people that represent the values that they want to have. fought just people who are going to talk about them and have a sort of monogamous and candidates that all look same. >> also, there has been a recurring complaint among civil rights lawyers, the democratic party has taken plaque voters for granted. they show up every two years, every four years, they think they can put their name on the ballot and black voters will go out and put them over the finish line. i guess you are exactly right. with doug jones, here is a guy that has history with the community, that knows the community. that's been in the community not just in black communities across alabama but in all communities across alabama. >> that makes a difference, doesn't it? >> it makes a big difference. before the election of president

trump, i talked with african-american billionaire donors and protesters on the street and state candidates who says the democratic party isn't putting enough money into african-american outreach. they think it will happen, people will turn out because they have no other option. that's obviously not true. the african-americans need to see results in their communities for them to continue to back the democratic party. there need to be candidates that reflect them. you can't have a democratic leadership, mostly white, older, go into african-american communities and scream about criminal justice and think people don't want to talk about tax, health care and education as well. >> to underline these numbers, 2006, black turnout in alabama was 29% f. 2012, 29%. last night 29% in offier election without barack obama on the ballot. by the way the broader turnout including the secretary of state was 40%. remember his prediction, 40% turnout last fight.

let's go to alabama, montgomery, alabama. roy moore has not conceded this race. he said this thing is not over yet. where does it go from here? >> reporter: yeah, good morning you guys. this was a room last night, it was the wrong party to be at number one. this is a room that had a sax joe, phonist. a silent crowd. before roy moore finally took the stage, this is what he said. >> you realize when the vote is this close that it's not over. and we still got to go by the rules about this recount provision. part of the problem with this campaign is we have been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light. we have been put in a hole, if you will, and it reminds me of a passage in psalm 40. i waited patiently for the lord.

that's what we've got to do is wait on god and let this process play out. >> reporter: you guys, i'm not a man from the deep south here. i haven't spent much time in alabama until this last month when i came out here the day the washington post broke the story on november 9th. what i've heard over these last five weeks from individuals in alabama is this is not a monolithic state. oftentimes, bam is painted with a broad stroke of just the standard republicanism. roy moore suddenly becoming the standard bearer of the party. republicans in this state as you guys were alluding to earlier have pushed back. this is, yes, roy poor took 80% of evangelical voters yesterday. still only 44% of actual voters in this state consider themselves evangelical. there is another faith community we were talking with on the ground yesterday. republicans, conservatives, that say roy moore does not stand for their values.

he is the individual in mid-november who engaged in a press conference with faith leaders who referred to gays as gay terrorists and mentioned ungodly republicans like mitt romney and john mccain. the other notion i want to push back on is at what point is the presumption that plaque voters are not going to show up at the polls and doug jones went to some of the last two weekends. he made the pitch to these very black voters. they came out in these numbers of 30%. this is a campaign at this point doug jones that when you were mentions tuscaloosa. doug jones a week ago sunday was if tuscaloosa, went to nine different churches. they had a field operation, despite this being a traditional town. they had phone bankers when i stopped in. doug jones made a concerted effort to run in that radical moderate in this race. running on the kitchen table issues of jobs, economy and health care and to not only democrats but also a good share

of republicans in this state t. message resonated. they reject road moore in this situation. >> unbelievable. thank you so much. elise, i want to end with you. we are southern conservatives from i was going to say alabama. really from northwest florida, georgia, alabama, mississippi, i've covered the south. you mississippi conservative, republican, more libertarian, for our party for so long at times we've had to apologize for our state, for our states, for our region. i remember telling my friends in alabama when i went there, you got so much to be proud of. i love alabama. i love this state. you guys are moving forward. you know, even if roy moore won

by one or two percentage points that still would have been an earthquake. but this really is the deep south our deep south, sending a message. even we can be pushed too far republicans in washington. even we can be pushed too far donald trump even we will draw a bloody line in the sand and say, you know what, we're going to take this does that not send a strong message to people like lindsey graham who had a backbone a year ago but is now advertising donald trump golf courses on his twitter feed. i'm dead serious. doesn't this sends a message to republicans across the deep south and across america? that there are limits. >> it's hard to lose. it has to hurt when you

completely lose your soul in the process. that's what we've seen happen with a lot of republicans as a southerner throughout the coverage of this race and roy moore reenforcing the absolute worst stereotypes of bigotry, closed mindedness and of absolutely no interest in public policy as a candidate. i am so proud the men and women of alabama said, no, we demand better. we expect better. nothing about this candidate is not acceptable. i just am so happy that those negative stereo types were enforced. >> bigotry when we had slavery, from a man that said the 13th and 14th amendments should never have come into existence and slavery should be if existence. or that women should have never gone the right to vote in the 19th miami. we say bigotry. we're using roy moore's words that even though they have the

washington post allegations are so deeply offensive that alabama voters just said no. >> listen, it's great you raise this issue. because alabama for the past five, six weeks as the world is focused on the race has had to carry the weight of its history each and every day. i can recall vividly going to alabama if 1987 and to cover the last few days of george wallace's governorship. i went to selma and looked at the edward pet tis bridge if selma, alabama, the sight of bloody sunday in march fine 65. the bridge was named after a confederate general. he is also a grand dragon of the clan. yesterday the vote in alabama was the people of alabama taking america by the hand and finally since 1965 crossing that bridge. they crossed that bridge.

>> and let me tell you something, i have been mocked by a lot of liberals in the northeast who never spent more than two seconds in the deep south for saying this. i will say it again. throughout my life i have been surrounded by people who have no tolerance for racism. it hasn't been whispered behind our closed doors. it hasn't been whispered behind school doors. it hasn't been whispered in locker rooms. and again, i've lived in georgia, alabama, mississippi, northwest. does that mean racism doesn't exist in the deep south? yes, it exists in the deep south. it exists if boston. it exists around the country. but there are people who are moving the new south forward and they have for 30, 40 years. and we really saw that last night. >> that itself another big step forward make no mistake, republicans will win this seat two years from now.

just like scott brown couldn't win in a general election. not going to happen. but last night. >> it was a message. >> they sent a message to the world. >> we will have much more ahead in the surprising bam pam senate rice. also ahead, white house press secretary sarah huckaby sanders find a way to defend president trump's disgusting tweet about senator kirsten gillibrand. we'll have reaction to that. the president also tweeting this morning, responding, obviously, to this show, which he really should not be watching. "morning joe" will be right back. >> turn to "fox and friends," please, mr. president. >> this entire race has been about dignity and respect. this campaign, this campaign has been about the rule of law. this campaign -- this campaign

has been about common courtesy and decency..

>> all right. so we were talking about the snobery elitist of steve bannon mocking alabama. mika, both you and elise, quite unimpressed with roy jones -- >> first of all, when you ride western, you don't use two reins, that hurts the horse. when you put it in front of a whole bunch of tv cool ras, it is forced to spook. he is ripping the horse's mouth. she a horrible, kroum horseback rider on top of being a -- . >> i only have been a western horseback rider, i am fought a fancy english rider. >> that guy does not know what he is doing at all. he's so off balance t. shores so

uncomfortable. >> he's using the horse to look like he is ridding into victory. you rode into being the biggest loseer, you hurture horse sassy as well as your party. >> you did sa kayla was a good rider? >> oh. >> oh, yeah, she's the horse woman. >> look at that. >> not like roy on horseback, who couldn't go the distance. >> couldn't make it. >> i didn't see this coming. >> you got to love it. kayla is calm up there on that horse. he is controlling the horse. >> it was probably a little bit of a foreshadowing the way he was riding that horse, almost bucked him off. now to the reaction of the president's tweet yesterday about senator kirsten gillibrand. i'd like to point out that's different than his other tweets.

>> you don't get in the wings yet. are you talking about tweets. finish the story. then noah can get in. >> whether or not there was sexual innuendo here, there was. here is pressing is sara huckaby sanders, i was hoping would tell the truth. she did not. here she was at the briefing yesterday. >> the president said today to senator gillibrand would do anything for campaign contributions. many, many people see this as a sexual enyou endo. what is the president suggesting? >> ah, i think that the president is very obvious, this is the same sentiment that the president has expressed many times before when he has exposed the corruption of the entire political system. in fact, he's used similar terminology many times when talking about politicians of both parties, both men and women and certainly in his campaign to drain the swamp, the system is clearly broken. it's clearly rigged for special interests and this president is someone that can't be bought and

it's one of the reasons that he's president today. >> what is he alleging would happen behind closed doors with her? >> he's not alleging anything. he's talking about the way our system functions as it is, that politicians repeatedly beg for money, that itself not something new and that comment frankly isn't something new, if you look back at past comments this president has made, he's used that same terminology many times in reference to men. there is no way this is sexist at all. >> is jill brand owed an apology for the misunderstanding of the president's tweet this morning, because many, including the for, thinks that it's about sexual inuenthes. >> only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way. it's about political partisan games people play and the prone system he's talked about repeatedly. >> i want to know how she does that and where the chief of staff is or where anybody else

in the white house is this morning or where they were after that tweet went out yesterday t. president should have taken it down t. president should have apologized if he didn't take it down. he should have apology jieszed for hurting senator kirsten gillibrand's feelings at the very least. he should have apologized for being a sexist pig, for sexually harassing on twitter, for using sex to denigrate women and again, i mentioned yesterday, the president is obsessed with women, especially some women, especially women who go on television and have a voice or especially women who serve in congress or in the senate who use their voices, any woman that stands up against him, he is obsessed with. he has some special problem with women and the women around him, his wife, who has a platform against cyber bullying. that's a joke. >> that is the saddest thing i've ever seen in this white house ever in my life. and his daughter, who came to

washington to work for the president and develop a platform for women, go home. go home. you are doing nothing if you stand by this president. and you should think of the country rather than your broond and i'll tell you right now, sarah huckaby sanders, i feel sorry for you, i started a hashtag for sarah and get your mind out of the gutter. i seriously support new your quest for truth, in your quest foregoodness. in your quest for love of country. because you haven't paid it there yet. i'm not talking about the women in the white house t. entire white house. all the men around this president. do you really go home to your wives and daughters and say this president know what is he's doing. this president stands up for women? do you do that? your wife's should kick you out. here's steve schmidt. >> she doesn't have a difficult job. she has an easy job. tell the truth to the american people. she's an assistant to the president of the united states, she swore an oath to the

constitution of the united states, which she disgraces every day as she serially lies hour after hour after hour every day. it appears mentions, just for a moment, how ab formal this is. the assault, the constant assault on the dignity and the majesty of the office of the president of the united states, and this is exactly the reason the president of the united states is not welcome in the united kingdom. because his presence standing next to her majesty the queen is such an affront to her dignity that it is has united the fractious parties of great britain in opposition to his setting foot on british soil. because of stuff like this. >> and we will be right back. ♪ what i want, you've got,

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. >> i have always believed that the people of alabama had more in common than to divide us. we have shown not just around the state of alabama, but we

have shown the country the way that we can be unified. >> let's bring in now from capitol hill, republican congressman bradley burn of alabama. he represents alabama's first congressional district, which is split in its support of roy moore and dug jones, congressman, good to have you with us. >> good to be with you, roll tide. >> roll tide. i remember when you got elected. we pointed out on this show sever several times this was, your win was the first move against the insanity of the party going further and further, i won't say right, nor anilistic. it was a special election and a lot of republican donors said, wait a second, we need to start bringing rational, sane leaders. you know, helping them win primaries. so, with that as your background, what was your take

away? noah and others, you don't want democrats winning elections, still, was there a silver lining for new last night's election? >> joe, this is the weirdest election i have ever seen. it started owithout a now disgraced robert bentley appointing the attorney general supposed to be investigating him to take jeff sex's place in the united states senate. then we had mitch mcconnell jump head in first if that campaign, spending millions of dollars, keeping good candidates out, which only made alabamans angrier, it got luther strange the former attorney general into a runoff with roy moore, a weak candidate. roy when he ran as a chief justice supreme court in 2012 only one by four percentage points the same day that mitt romney carried alabama by more points. these women came by with 35-plus

year allegations and all this national attention because it's a special election and still roy moore came within one-and-a-half percentage points of winning it. this is a once in a lifetime, maybe once in several lifetime elections in the state of alabama. i hope i never see this one again. >> i'm sure a lot of alabama residents agree with you. congressman, do you agree, earlier today i had said that in part you talked about mitch mcconnell, yes, steve bannon owns this along with donald trump, the loss, do you agree mitch mcconnell also by working aggressively to stop mo brooks from winning the nomination? >> i think mitch mcconnell has much about the outcome of this race as any other single person in america. mitch mcconnell should have stayed out of this race. if he would have, we'd have a republican u.s. senator coming up there, not a democrat. >> congressman, it's willie geist. i want to ask you, at the end of the to have, you made a comment, where you said, talking about the race, i do think it damages

our state, it damages our reputation. it damages the brand we are trying to sell across the country and the world, given that, by the way, it's a view shared by olot of alabama yoons, are you relieved roy moore lost? >> i can't say the word believe is the right word. i'm a republican and i want to see a republican senator here. so i'm not happy about. that i believe it's over. i believe all this national attention that's been so negative to the state of alabama is over. we're a good state. we're a state that has all these companies from all over the world come in here. we have world class universities, so the way alabama has been portrayed in the last five weeks is not alabama. 32-year-old men don't date teenage girls in alabama. that's just not alabama. so i'm glad it's over so that we can talk about the good thing about our state and, frankly, we can move on. we need to move on in washington. >> washington, you didn't campaign much for roy moore, you den show outward support for

him, did you end up voting for roy moore yesterday? >> i did. i voted straight republican. >> did you vote for roy moore? >> of course, i did. he was the only republican on the ballot. >> you could have written somebody in, that's why i asked. >> i know some people did. very few speaking did. but if you look at the number of people that wrote in, that's more than the margin of victory for doug jones, look, doug jones and i went to law school together. i know him personally. he's a good guy, he was a great prosecutor. but he and i are on different ends of the political spectrum. we have major policy differences, we on the congressional delegation worked together. doug will not find a better partner than you will find in me. i'm a republican, i want republican senators up here, not democratic senators. >> heidi. >> how much of this race was a rejection of the president, himself, given how much he put on the line here going into the final moments of the race?

he went down there and campaigned in a neighboring city. he pressed the rnc to give a cash infusion and there has been a lot of parallels made between some of the deck goingry or demagogic language used by owe by the president himself with muslims. >> with president trump, this was all about alabama. it didn't have anything to do with what's going on in washington or the national news media. i know that's not what you want to hear. you want to hear this is a hashinger for the state of 2018. in the state of alabama it wasn't. this was a purely unique election with so many unique circumstances in it. i don't think it will be replicated in my life. >> all right, representative byrnet. most important aftermath. clemson and alabama, how does it end up? >> oh, oh, alex. you let him go.

of course, that cough was, it's so obvious, i'm not going to ask it. >> being from alabama, that's a perfect question. >> all right, coming up, will democrats let doug jones be a moderate or will they push him to the left? we'll talk with the man responsible for getting democrats elected to the senate, senator chris van hollen of maryland. ♪shostakovich playing ♪

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by the way, "morning joe," you called me a yankee the other day because i'm from richmond, virginia, the capital of the confederacy -- that's right, joe. i got in some yankee schools, georgetown and harvard. that i don't think you made the cut on, brother. >> so, if you're playing at home -- >> by the way, just for the record, because people have been asking me about this. i applied to one school.

university of alabama. and when we went, when mika and i, harvard fellows this year. because, you know i want to share some of what i learned at the cap stone. i told those harvard students, because they're very polite to us that night, that i was very proud of them. i did. i said i'm very proud of them because they exhibited a civility that made me very proud as a man who had always talked about harvard as the university of alabama of the north. and they truly are. >> and you share the crimson, too, which is nice thing. keeping score at home, that was steve bannon making fun of where joe went to school, university of alabama in tuscaloosa. tuscaloosa last night was a flip. it went for trump by 20 points and for doug jones by 16. we'll have more on doug jones'

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( ♪ ) more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. (clapping) and the united states postal service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. ( ♪ ) because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. the last thing i want to do is be involved in a primary. get the whole family and bring them out to vote for big luther strange. >> roy moore has won the republican nomination for senate, defeating the incumbent, the man donald trump campaigned for, senator luther strange. >> so, get out and vote for roy

moor moore. >> and nbc news is now calling doug jones the apparent winner in this special senate election in alabama. >> that makes two defeats for president trump at the hands of alabama's voters, who just last year gave him a 28-point victory. the president is trying to explain his loss on twitter this morning. quote, the reason i originally endorsed luther strange and his numbers went up mightily -- >> actually, they didn't go up mightily but go ahead. >> is that roy moore will not be able to win the general election. i was right. roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him. doug jones is the apparent winner in alabama. the first democrat to win a u.s. senate race in that state in a quarter century. jones won with 50% to roy moore's 48% last night. the senator-elect was

speechless. >> folks, i got to tell you, i think that i have been waiting all my life, and now i just don't know what the hell to say. >> oh, my gosh. that's amazing. with us on set, former aide to george wncht bush, white house and state department's elise jordan, associate editor of commentary magazine noah rothman, white house reporter for usa today, heidi pryzbyla. reporter for "the new york times," and campaign strategist steve schmidt. where do you want to begin? that was an adorable speech, that little part that we saw. >> it was also -- >> heartfelt. >> the messaging was great, too. it wasn't an ideological speech but he talked about how decency won out. >> yes. >> talked about how values that i know unite most people in alabama and across the country

won out. and this is a stern and strong rebuke to donald trump, to the 33% strategy that i've been talking about for nine months now that steve bannon has convinced the president is his pathway to re-election. it is not. the president endorses ed gillespie, he loses. he endorses luther strange. luther strange loses. he endorses roy moore in a state that went for him by 28 points. >> it's the kiss of death. >> roy moore loses. i always said in politics and usually said about an entitlement system that is going to bankrupt america, demographics is destiny and demographics is destiny in politics as well. look at the two college towns. two college towns that went strong for every republican presidential candidate over the past 30 years.

tuscaloosa county, trump plus 20 just a year ago. now, yesterday, tuscaloosa county went for doug jones by 16 points, a 36-point swing. if you go east, southeast plus 23 for donald trump lee went for plus 17 doug jones yesterday. that's a 40-point swing. in a conservative area. you look at those numbers and then combine those, steve schmidt, with the numbers of black voters that turn ed out fr barack obama in 2008. in historic proportions. nobody believed. none of us believed that that would ever be matched again.

certainly not in an off-year election, in a special election where turnout -- what do we always say? turnout is always older, wider and more conservative in these types of races. not yesterday. what a stunning rebuke to donald trump. >> sure is. >> by the way, i must say this. a stunning rebuke by the very people who has spit on for the past two years, post charlottesville, with these white supremacy videos out of britain, his antequated views that are so deeply offensive to young people. they have spoken back. women speaking back. everybody that donald trump has rebuked is now punching back hard. >> very hard. i couldn't help but think last night about the inscription on ronald reagan's grave site, which is that in my heart i know

that man is good, that in the end what is right will always triumph over what is wrong and there is worth and purpose in every human life. that was reaganism. it's the opposite of trumpism. and we saw the stunning rebuke last night. and reagan famously said communism, it would wind up on the ash heap of history. we know for certain today, this morning, that bannonism and trumpism will wind up on the ash heap of history also. coalition of decent, of democrats, independents, republicans, of young people, of african-americans have rebuked this. the great eest acts of optimismn the history of this country was abraham lincoln's insistence that the capitol dome construction be completed in the middle of civil war. this incredibly accused child molester will never, ever walk

under that dome as a united states senator. and that's a good thing. it's a good morning in this country. and building off the shores of this country is a great wave. and it's going to hit in november 2018. and it will wipe this away. for paul ryan, for mitch mcconnell and all these leaders who have desecrated the conservative movement, desecrated the republican party, at midnight when that ball comes down in times square, set the clock, because the hour of reckoning is coming. >> the hour of reckoning is coming. and for republicans, for conservatives, you have an example. you have the example of ben s s sasse. we may not have liked his vote on the tax bill, but you have the example with john mccain. you have an example, many times,

james lengthford speaks up and speaks out. how to conduct yourself, how to still be a conservative in 2018. how to still be decent. how to still cling to those values of reaganism, how to still open your arms to the world and say we are americans. we lead the world. we do not put walls up to keep other people out. we throw open our arms and invite people who want to play by the rules, work hard, get ahead and pursue the american dream. we invite them to join us and become americans. and willie, last night, there's so much to look at. there's so much to digest. but you do have to look at this as one more example of what we've been saying around this set for some time. historians will look back on

donald trump's election, a race he lost by over 3 million votes, and point to that as the death rattle of much of what has been wrong in this country for 300 years. >> and last night was a scream from the people who wanted that to die last night. we should point out, roy moore was a uniquely horrific candidate. he was as bad a candidate as you could possibly imagine, someone incredibly accused of molesting teenage girls. the democrats had that working for them. but the question you have to ask the republicans you're both talking about right now, including the president of the united states, is was it worth it? was it worth it to put your name and your reputation out there for a credibly accused pedophile in order to win one vote in the united states senate, which you now do not have? it's the worst case scenario. you didn't get the vote you said you needed. and now you are also attached as having given your support or having said nothing when this man -- again, a credibly accused pedophile -- was running for the

senate. >> by the way, noah, the woman who was ashamed of the name romney, who ran from that, i believe, great name is the same woman that decided the rnc would get behind a credibly accused pedophile. >> yeah. for a really piddling donation. which demonstrates the problem that the party is in. it wasn't as though the entire republican party rescinded its revulsion for roy moore when donald trump got back behind him. the national republican senatorial committee's cory gardner. >> he's great. >> paul ryan. i don't care what the polls say. i'm not endorsing this guy. he doesn't belong in congress. that demonstrates a way in which republicans can navigate this thorny area. turnout is down across the board. there is a tsunami coming and

republicans know it. >> what does it take, heidi, for republicans to understand that the tsunami is coming. but perhaps they want to get a little gut going and go with their gut like, perhaps, senator shelby did. >> it's impossible not to read this, when you look at those huge shifts, as a repudiation of trumpism. i also want to give credit where credit is due here. is there anyone among us who doesn't think that we wouldn't have a senator moore today if it hadn't been for these brave women who came forward and told their stories, who were on the stage there, as the results came in, crying with doug jones winning? and the free press, which helped them share those stories. i think this is a testament to those women, a testament to the first amendment and a testament to just how much the issue of sexual harassment is resonating in this country. there are a lot of demographic

groups that weren't analyzing today like the millennials and african-americans, but there's also many republican women who revolted against this story. yes, six in ten had decided their votes ahead of time. but there were a number of people who decided in those weeks, when those stories were coming out. >> so, steve bannon's breitbart news declared republican saboteurs flip seat to dems. amnesty advocates, with a smiley face emoji. bannon did not respond to questions as he left roy moore's headquarters last night. an aide for bannon said, quote, after doing everything in their power to throw this election to the liberal democrat, the mcconnell establishment should expect the very same america first movement that elected president in 2016 to be out for their blood in 2018.

this is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you're running. not only did steve bannon cost us a critical senate seat in one of the most republican states in the country but he also dragged the president of the united states into his fiasco. so, yamiche, a lot of finger pointing this morning. steve bannon was up on the stage, getting ready to take credit for that victory. now he's running for the hills. >> you'll see a lot of blame. president trump in the tweets he's doing this morning, reckoning with his own sense of failure. he was really haunted, i think, by his endorsement of luther strange that then felt flat. when roy moore won that primarily he wanted to follow the will of the people. president trump has almost lost control of his own messaging. that this idea that steve bannon is now the one that will be the puppeteer, picking candidates and whispering in the president's ear saying this is what you need to do. president trump is not trusting his gut, leaving that to steve

bannon and steve bannon has proven with this race that he's not the best person to be picking candidates. it's really important to note, as heidi said, while there's these brave women and journalists putting these stories out, in some ways a lot of people are celebrating the fact that a child -- someone who was accused of molesting a child didn't get a senate seat and that's supposed to be a huge celebration and shows that america has come a long way. that seems to me awfully problematic when we think about our society, that we're patting ourselves on the back by the fact that someone who was supposed to be molesting a 14-year-old can't get a senate seat. i think there should be expectations that are even higher than that for this country. >> elise? >> one thing that last night showed, though, is that, again, this tribalism that has infected politics for so long -- i'm going to vote for my side no matter what. i'm going to support -- sorry, i've got to turn this around. mika's talked about this for 15 years, 16 years. i've got to turn this around.

the tribalism that democrats showed when there was credible evidence that bill clinton raped juanita broderick. the tribalism there was every bit as intense as any tribalism i've ever seen on the right. the people apologizing for bill clinton, the professors, the feminists, the liberals, the journalists, the editors. so this tribalism cuts both ways. as an independent, i can say this now. it's not just my former republican party, it is the democratic party. >> that's why we're here. >> yes. that's why we're here. yes, i will stop on this day and say thank god that there is at least a line we have now found in one of the most conservative states in america that people won't cross. i hope we can say the same thing about democrats as well. i'm sure we can. >> hopefully, it is the start of

a new era. i wonder what steve bannon's next play is going to be when it comes to mississippi. >> yeah. >> is he really going to try to primary roger wicker now, going to try to use a failed candidate, chris daniel? did we learn if they adjust their model and put money into organizing in african-american communities that they can produce results if they have a candidate who is culturally of the place that they are running? i think there are a lot of lessons in this race for democrats. >> a lot of lessons. >> roger wicker in mississippi, he came in with me in '94. he is a conservative's conservative. he will win that seat. unless steve bannon decides to go in and try to bloody him up. and this raises, i think, a more

significant question. is steve bannon really trying to elect republicans, or is steve bannon trying to destroy the republican party? noah? >> he has been pretty clear he wants to destroy the republican party. >> he wants to go in and tear things down. >> right. >> does steve bannon win when a republican, even like roy moore, loses? >> i think you can't -- we've been talking about mitch mcconnell and his pac and steve bannon and donald trump. who is responsible for this? voters. voters voted for roy moore. voters had every opportunity to reject this guy and decided not to. why? because there is a prickly affectation. that is maga. that is all it is. who do you frustrate more? if somebody can strike that posture, they will appeal to voters. it's not about personality or policy. it's about demeanor. and as long as that matters, that's where the republican

party is going to go off the rails. >> steve schmidt? >> mathematics seems to be an underappreciated virtue in the bannon wing of the republican party. this notion that 32% is good enough to be the majority party in the united states. and it's not. this is a president who has the lowest approval levels in the history of polling for someone in the first year of their term. he's clocking in at number three lowest in the history of polling as a president of the united states. and as we turn into 2018, the repudiation is coming. bannonism, as toxic as it is, as disgusting as it is, as vile as it is, bannonism hasn't destroyed the republican party. it's the republican leaders, the collaborators, these sellouts who fold ed -- not even with th pretense of a fight. they just folded to it.

scared to death of this guy's website. and the line is drawn. the die is cast. >> lindsey graham goes a year ago from calling -- >> right. >> -- donald trump a kook to a year later to attacking the press for calling donald trump a kook, ewing the exact same words he used a year ago, then goes golfing with donald trump and advertises his where is the lindsey graham that john mccain knew and worked with? >> lindsey graham is a friend of mine. >> mine, too. >> gives me no pleasure to say this. this country is in short supply of statesman. for a long time, lindsey graham was on a track to become one. what i would say to my friend, lindsey graham, is take a

weekend off. don't do this. do the right thing. because lindsey graham, with regard to what he's doing with donald trump over the course of last year where he was and where is he, is making a fool out of himself. we're at a moment in time we have serious national security issues, the korean peninsula, what's happening in saudi arabia. we need the old lindsey graham on the line. not this new lindsey graham. we have enough of these guys. and women, frankly, in the republican party. and we think about the chairwoman of the rnc. i want to make a point on that, regarding the romney name, is this what she got into politics for? is this what she climbed the ladder for, to launder money to a credibly accused child

molester as chair of the republican national committee? that's what she spent all these years, all these hours volunteering for the cause of the conservative movement? this is why she's involved in this? it's now time, i think, for a lot of republican leaders, to take a deep breath, think about the republican party as an historical institution, an important institution in the life of this country and what donald trump has done to it. because we're at the very last hour, very last hour for any possibility of its redemption. >> well, the last time alabama elected a democrat to the senate was in 1992. and that person was current senator richard shelby, who became a republican two years later. what do democrats plan to do to keep the senate seat they just won blue when it's up again in two years? we'll talk to senator chris van hollen, who chairs the committee

responsible for getting democrats elected to the senate. much more on yesterday's surprising democrat win in the alabama senate race. who possibly could have seen this coming? >> i just don't, right now, believe any polls. i mean, moore will probably lose but who knows? i think it's more likely than not that actually roy moore will lose. you have a lot of educated women going out there, standing in lines, i think, a long time. i think, just like virginia, that could make a difference even in the reddest of red states in america. i've got the feeling we're in missouri territory with todd aiken. >> really? >> i think the support is bleeding away. >> i agree. >> and doug jones is.

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this is roy moore, ride iino

his massive loss. actually, it wasn't massive but it was a loss. steve schmidt, you're a rider. >> i am. >> because i already had my say. >> really? >> oh, yeah. >> animal abuse is what we're looking at here. this guy thinks he rides horses. tell me what's wrong with this video? >> i don't know where to start. first off, nobody who knows how to ride a horse holds the reins out like that. >> no. >> and i just -- i feel like there's some criticism implied toward the horse. and that horse didn't get a vote about the jackass on his back. >> clearly the victim. >> sassy horse there, good horse. he's got no control over him. >> good horse, bad rider. >> no control over him. what a terrible rider. >> she does not want that man on top of her. >> no, she doesn't. that's a good horse of the someone ought to buy that horse and -- >> i would buck him off. >> but he is a man who has no

business being on a horse, riding a horse and any more than he does being in the u.s. senate. >> yep. especially if you look at the very beginning of that video, if we could roll it at the top again. people of alabama spoke and i think sassy has spoken as well by making it very clear she does not want that man -- >> by the way, with regard to the cowboy hat. >> look at this. look at this. >> nobody -- nobody -- no true cowboy -- >> that's animal abuse. >> wears a cowboy hat inside. that goes for sheriff clarke, too. all these wacko cowboys we have projected into our national discussion in life, you don't wear a western hat inside. >> thank you, sassy. sorry about what happened to you. >> senator cory gardner, leading the republican's 2018 senate campaign effort and who spoke out strongly against moore had this clever statement on doug jones' victory last night. quote, tonight's results are clear.

the people of alabama deemed roy moore unfit to serve in the u.s. senate. i hope senator-elect doug jones will do the right thing and truly represent alabama by choosing to vote with the senate republican majority. with us now is senator cory gardner's counterpart, senator chris van hollen, leading the democrat's 2018 senate campaign effort. welcome back to the show. do you plan to interface with the senator-elect any time soon? >> well, yes. we've been working with doug jones throughout this period but the big news of this election was that the people of alabama voted for dignity. they voted for integrity over partisanship. i think this was a really important day for the country and for alabama. and doug jones is going to come to washington and do exactly what he said during the campaign. he is going to represent the people of alabama. he's going to listen to their views and do his very best to

represent the folks who elected him. >> senator it's willie geist. no question, though, incredibly significant win for a democrat in the state of alabama. but it was against a terrible, atrocious, child molester accused candidate. why do you think it's more than just people going out voting against roy moore, do you see something that you can extrapolate from this outside of alabama? >> i do. just last month in november from virginia, new jersey, to races throughout the country where you -- excuse me -- you had a huge turnout, not just of democrats but independents and people really rejecting the crude trumpism that we've seen. and what happened in alabama was despite the fact that donald trump went down there and tried

to make this all about party politics. the people of alabama solidly rejected that. and i think you saw that last month. and i think you saw it yesterday in alabama. clearly, the candidates matter. we had a terrific candidate in doug jones. he had a really important turnout in the african-american community. as well as in suburban areas. you put that coalition together and the reality is that it made a difference in alabama. i do think that while there were obviously some special circumstances in alabama, putting that together with what happened last month around the country -- you see voters who are fed up and want to send a message they don't like trumpism and want to go in a different direction. >> one of the elements that senator-elect jones mentioned last night in his acceptance speech had to do with exactly what you just said. the elements of governing and the fact that, you know, he was

talking about increased congeniality. one thing he failed to mention was the failure to fully fund the c.h.i.p.s act. you're in washington, united states senate, supposedly a great and revered body. why can't get the democrats get together with the republicans on this one element alone? people want to know, what is more basic than children's health? >> well, that's exactly right. it was really good to see doug jones immediately call upon congress to get that done. look, the democrats have been pushing hard since september. republican colleagues to do what we've done in the past on a bipartisan basis, to renew the children's health insurance program. republicans have refused to do

that. you've got, especially, republicans in the house of representatives, opposing the idea of moving forward on that. so it's one example of a totally dysfunctional washington right now. we would like to see people work across party lines and real tax reform where people work together rather than what's turned into a mons trosity of a tax bill and the american people have seen this for what it is, which is this big huge giveaway to big corporations. it's going to be paid for by millions in the middle class. so, those kind of issues, children's health insurance program, trying to make sure we have a tax reform bill that works for everybody, not just the folks at the top. those were important messages that doug jones did talk about in alabama. and i think it's important to note that. >> heidi? >> senator, pivoting off of that, what do you think a doug jones' victory means for the

republican agenda going forward? first, am i right that it will unlikely have any impact, that it will go through before he is seated and then trying to repeal obamacare, possibly passing entitlement overhaul reforms? >> well, first of all, i think mitch mcconnell should now, you know, allow doug jones to come to washington. he has now been duly elected by the people of alabama. he should have a vote for them on the pressing issues of the day, which includes the tax bill. what we see instead of, of course, republicans trying to jam that through before doug jones can be sworn in. but the fact that doug jones talked immediately about the importance of the children's health insurance program shows that he's very focused on these kitchen table issues, issues of economic security and he's going to represent the people of alabama. i mean, there will be times that

he agrees with the democratic majority, times he disagrees, just like every member of our caucus. at the end of the day, the issues he talked about were these issues of economic security, kitchen table issues and i think that's what he's going to keep on doing. look, this was a big rejection of the ugly, divisive politics that donald trump has brought to the country. and that's why this was such an important day for alabama and such an important day for the united states. seeing this happen in alabama sent a political earthquake and hopefully a message that the kind of really undignified, gross politics that has come to exemplify this white house doesn't have a place in this country. >> amen. senator chris van hollen, thank you very much. >> thank you. seth moulton tweeted it's a

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president trump received a slight bump in his approval numbers this week, quinnipiac university poll shows trump is up 2% since december 5th with 37% of american s approving of his job performance and 57% disapproving. the poll asked voters if russia tried to influence the 2016 presidential election. 73% said yes and 22% said no. among republicans, those numbers narrowed with half saying russia did try to influence the election. when asked if russia influenced, changed the outcome of the election, 41% said yes and 28% said no. and the poll found almost six in ten voters believe that trump's reason for firing former fbi director komey was to disrupt the investigation into russia meddling.

asked if they should investigate the claims of sexual harassment against trump, 25% said no. thoughts, heidi? >> it is amazing how much the president himself is starting to turn this me too movement back on himself, mika. i was back on the hill yesterday. after that gillibrand tweet hit the unity among the democratic women was so swift. ied with gillibrand's office about all the calls coming in. and immediately the issue erupting on twitter. so i think going forward this issue of sexual harassment, just like we saw with the election in alaba alabama, is boomeranging on the president. i think republicans are unlikely to go ahead and hold those hearings. if you saw yesterday there was also a movement in the house among more than 100 democrats who said they want hearings, but representative trey gowdy issued

a letter. even though he denied or rejected that request, he did say he would refer it to the department of justice. >> and as you were speaking, heidi, i've been getting texts all night from people who are pretty joyful on both sides of the aisle. this young person who attends college who will not be named just said, wow, a pedophile didn't get elected to the senate. #makeamericagreatagain. i guess it's a small step in a very deep swamp. coming up, usa today editorial board wrote, in part, a president who would all but call senator kirsten gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the library. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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congressman being you've been a critic of your party's leadership. what's your reaction to what happened last night in alabama? >> this is a huge win for americans not just democrats, someone who has no business being in the united states senate. it shows when we put forward good candidates and get our base energized and activists working we can make a difference even in the deep south. this is an important victory. we can't rest on our laurels. anyone who takes this as a sign that everything is fine in the democratic party and we don't have work to do, we need more of a vision for where america should be going under our leadership is wrong. we still have to figure those things out. let's be excited about this

victory because it shows that we are getting back on track to win in 2018. >> is there a danger of democrats overreading a win against a guy that was accused multiple times of being a pedophile? >> yes, absolutely. there absolutely is. that's why i'll continue my call for a new leadership. not just talk about how trump is an awful president but our future plan for the country. how will we win jobs back for people in middle america who aren't getting paid what they used to? what's our tax reform plan and how will we put forward a strong national security when the president has exposed trem endos weakness with his erratic behavior as commander in chief. >> willie geist. served four tours in iraq with the united states marine corps. someone who has been floated as

one of the young stars in the party, what you believe. you can fold in last night if you want to. what you believe the message of the democratic party is now, as we turned the quarter into 2018. what is the democratic party? who are you guys? >> i think there's a lot of confusion about that right now. frankly, what we should be is a party that will make sure that everybody in america, no matter where you live, has a role to play in the economy of the future. a lot of people in 2016 abandoned the democratic party because we felt like we weren't feeling their pain. we weren't realizing that a lot of people have lost their jobbers are not making what they used to, that jobs are going away, not due to immigrants, like trump says, but because they're being automated out of existence. let's have a realistic plan to face this economic transition that's affecting everybody across america. and rather than trump, when he says go back into the coal mines

and that will fix it. how to make sure that everybody in america has a role to play in this new economy. that has to be core to our message. republicans have left a tremendous opening when they think we can go back in time to fix today's economic problems. >> congressman, willie alluded to this in his greeting to you. when you were in iraq within a rifle company, i bet you didn't know whether the members of your platoon, squad, were republican, democrat or independent. you just knew you had a job to focus on and get done. now you belong to a body of people, 435 of them, where incidentally you're ranking member in ways and means committee. a huge tax bill, generation-altering tax bill was introduced and as ravenging member, he saw it about an hour before it was introduced. what's your level of frustration, dealing with this

group compared to the group that you led in iraq? >> well, it's entirely different. the marines i led in iraq, as a very junior officer, were able to put the country first. i served with marines from all over this country, massachusetts and vermont but also from alabama. one of my great heroes in my platoon was from alabama, from texas, california. we came together with remarkably different backgrounds, different religious beliefs, political beliefs. at the end of the day, we were able to set aside those differences to do what's best for our country. that's the kind of leadership we need in washington. when tip o'neill worked with reagan in the 1980s, he didn't have to do it in a bipartisan way. he could have passed out of the house a partisan tax bill without bringing a single expert

into the congress to tell us what its effects would be on the middle class, on the american people. but that's what our speaker has chosen to do, pursue this in an incredibly partisan way. i mean, if he was really confident that this was a good if it was confident this was a good tax bill, why wouldn't he bring in people to tell us the effects before we had to vote on it. that's why i'm working hard to recruit service veterans. i have 19 candidates for the house of representatives in 2018. all of whom have served their country before in the military or elsewhere. they've literally put their lives on the line for the country. they know what it means to put the country before personal or party politics. i think that's the kind of leadership we need in washington, and that's also how democrats can win back the house in 2018. >> thank you. greatly appreciate it. let's get final thoughts for the hour and noah, let's start with you. final thoughts for the hour?

>> sometimes the republican party's leadership, sometimes leadership means telling voters they're wrong. paul ryan, cory gardener and others in the party did that. donald trump went in the wave. the party needs leadership and sometimes that means saying the party is wrong. the president is wrong. the voters are wrong. this is right. >> heidi? >> let's stress what this means in washington for control of washington. what was just unthinkable maybe even just a few weeks ago is now the case which is that the senate is a tossup. they can now only afford one defection. we went into this with a map that actually favored republicans, and this is at a time when it's looking like there could also be a wave election in the house. we need to actually start asking democrats tougher questions about what they do to make americans' lives better. >> mike? >> you know, i think last night was a real awakening for the country in that the state of alabama was able to show us, all

of us as americans that they were able and willing to shake off the dust of history that has followed alabamians and alabama unfairly for too long, and they did it, and they did it proudly? >> elise? >> i'm with barnicle. i'm proud of the men and women of alabama who rejected a candidate with a bigoted history and crossed party lines to do it and make that choice. >> steve? >> when you think seth moulton, he's among the best of the type of people that you can send to the united states congress. but what we saw last night is that the reality is our american people, our fellow countrymen are more decent than so much of our politics and our political class. and you saw them rise up last night. and that's got to be chilling for this republican majority which has just sold its soul

toward this indecency in the era of trump. >> willie? >> this coalition that turned out in a way that people didn't fully expect them to do. the expectation from the attorney general would be 25% for the number of turnout. it was 40%. the numbers for african americans were equal to those in 2008 when barack obama was on the ballot. turnout won it for doug jones. we have much more ahead in the alabama race. i'm killing time to see if we have an update. we do. jones has pulled within 3,000 votes. it's a small dump of votes that came in, but jones has moved within 1400 votes of roy moore. >> wow. that's a high school. >> we got another -- jones has taken the lead. the margin that was 817 votes. to reset with 87% of the vote counted, the democrat doug jones is now taking the lead. >> that was moment by moment

last night with the rage, steve kornacki, and that was the turning point. >> you saw in the video why they call him the rage. >> the board of rage. >> we'll talk about the winning coalition for doug jones last night. we're make in mar c morial. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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you to get a friend, get the family, and bring them out to vote for big luther strange. >> roy moore has won the republican nomination for senate defeating the incumbent, the man donald trump campaigned for, luther strange. >> get out and vote for roy moore. do it. do it. >> and nbc news is now calling doug jones the apparent winner in this special senate election in alabama. >> oh, yeah. president trump handed his second political defeat. >> mika is wearing crimson. >> i am. it is sweet home alabama day. >> wearing a crimson tide, tie. >> that wasn't intentional. but it worked out that way. >> well, ronald reagan, the

american flag, remember when his doctor said sir, today, we are all republicans. before they operated on him. >> the president and steve bannon are really helping out the future, i guess, because every time they endorse a candidate, the candidate fails. it's fun. >> well, i mean, i don't know that it's fun. we have -- what's that? >> i'm having fun this morning. >> what's a about, lewis? i don't get it. >> anyway, what a remarkable night. i have to tell you, it was a night, it once again proves that nobody knows nothing. >> there was a joke -- there was somebody who tweeted that the early exit polls could show that john kerry was going to be the next president of the united states. i think it was tweeted to which john kerry tweeted, too soon. >> at 10:00 last night, i'd been told by top alabama officials across the state that there were not enough votes for doug jones.

this is at 10:00. and then i talked to some people at nbc and other places saying well, it's just too early to call this, but it seems to be going against doug jones. and then, boom, it explodes. this is what happened to donald trump 5:00, 6:00, exit polls showed that he was going to be lose six out of the seven swing states. that didn't happen. the voters have the last word, and boy, they shocked the world last night. >> we want you to spell it out for us. given your insight, let me set the table first, we have mike barnicle. former aid to the george w. bush white house and state departments elise jordan. associate editor for commentary magazine, noah rothman, and heidi przybyla and national reporter for the new york times yamiche alcindor.

very good. not sure what happened there, but i'll tell you, joe, before we break it out, what happened in alabama? what's your gut? and what does this mean for the country? >> it's hard to say what it means for the country, for the party right now, but there is no doubt there is a new coalition at least that's come together in virginia, and it came together in alabama. the reddest of red states, a state that donald trump said was a place where people love him the most, and you saw young voters in tuscaloosa county who probably didn't appreciate, of course, their university being attacked. young voters in auburn. you saw in shelby county you saw where we were in mountain brook, you saw a lot of educated republicans going out to the polls saying we're not going there, and then, of course, the turnout among african americans and other minorities just exceeded all expectations. you put that all together, and you have what happened in

virginia as well. >> and speaking of shelby county, shelby. how much of an impact did senator shelby's comments have on this and what does this say? >> as i said before, senator shelby is not an outsider. steve bannon and other people that went into the state to try to impact that state are outsiders. i can tell you when i went to school in the early 19 80s, started there, richard shelby was a congressman. had his office on university boulevard. he is alabama. that guy has done more to help tusk lu-- tuscaloosa county tha anybody. people said i can be a good alabama republican and i can stay home or vote for the democrat. if you look at the write-ins,

there were enough, if all the write-ins had voted for roy moore, we'd be talking about roy moore going to the senate this morning and not doug jones. >> and steve bannon had a lot to say about a lot of people on stage at his rallies that were so ineffective in alabama. >> a lot of losses last night. donald trump, of course, the biggest loser last night. again, imagine he endorses two republicans in the state that he says is his top state, a state he won by 28 points and they both lose. steve bannon, yes. steve bannon obviously a big loser. you also, though, i'm sorry, you got to look to mitch mcconnell who was too clever by half. he didn't want mo brooks in there so he tried to undercut mo brooks. he tried to undercut roy moore, and he ended up within the hair

of getting roy moore in there, and so mitch mcconnell owes part of this too. he can point at steve bannon and steve bannon can point at him. if they had gone with mo brooks, a guy who is a hard right deserveti conservative, that guy would have won the state easily and we wouldn't be talking about a democrat winning in the state of alabama. >> so i think, willie, and joe, that definitely elise, that president trump helped doug jones win. i believe his tweet for anybody that was on the fence about president trump, for anybody, any woman on the fence about roy moore, i think his disgusting tweet about senator kirsten gillibrand helped doug jones win. >> it may have helped at the last minute. the people in that restaurant where we were in mountainbrook yesterday, they heard it in realtime. you heard their gasps. i think in general those were

the kind of voters that helped doug jones win last night. i said something yesterday about the african american turnout. they had talked about getting obama 2008 level turnout. i think the term i used was pipe dream. i couldn't see how without barack obama on the ballot that was going to happen. they did it. african americans turned out in the same numbers they did in 200 8 with barack obama. a historic candidate on the ballot. >> that's staggering. that is the most incredible story of all. >> isn't that unbelievable? >> unbelievable. >> doug jones road into the senate on the back of african american voters and some women suburban voters in the state. >> elise, one other thing. we can look. we have to be careful not to look too much at donald trump, and not to look too much at steve bannon. not to look too much even at the allegations against roy moore. as i said on the show before,

people have known roy moore since 1995. and the truth is people in mountainbrook haven't liked roy moore since 1995. people in the eastern shore haven't liked him. he's too radical. they don't like the fact that he doesn't follow the law, so a lot of people you saw on the exit polls made their minds up even before "the washington post" stories broke. here you go. 57% had made this up, made their minds up before november. so this also roy jones -- i mean -- joy jones, i'm thinking about pensacola here. roy moore owns a lot of this. >> he only eked by in 2012 in his supreme court election and mitt romney won in a bigger

margin. i saw him riding to the polls on a horse, so uncomfortable. the horse does not look like a southern horseman, if i'm going to be a little bit of a snob. >> a southern snob. >> he came across as so phony. i think that's what the people of alabama saw too. just the inherent phoniness of his extreme religiousness that was dispelled by the numerous credible allegations. >> and here's -- if you're driving -- >> well, that poor horse -- >> a picture of the horse, screw you and the horse you road in on. >> they have ridden -- >> i know what i'm talking about. >> one of the more interesting aspects of the results last night, it's a combination of willie talking act tbout the ga in the crowd when the kirsten gillibrand tweet was read. the african american turnout. you have to ask yourself if

you're a republican, was doug jones the scott brown of this cycle? >> yes. let's talk about that right now. this is -- this is almost a perfect reflection of what happened in january of 2010. scott brown, i remember you telling me scott brown could win. scott brown replacing teddy kennedy in early 2010 is doug jones winning in the state of alabama one year after a massive election. barack obama was enduring a wicked backlash from obamacare. and you know, like scott brown, doug jones may never win another statewide election in alabama. maybe he will, but i think that is the perfect analogy, and it predicted a coming tidal wave against the president's party. >> right.

that's that would cause me some concern if i were a republican. >> noah, republicans were in a no-win situation coming into this. i would argue for anybody that's tuning in thinking that anybody here is gloating, that's about reaso republicans loosing. the worse thing that could ever happen to my former party would have been in mitch mcconnell and good people, good republicans had to wrestle with what they were going to do with roy moore. this may actually be a blessing in gis dis guise for the gop. >> they dodged a bullet in a way. it's a sad day for conservatives. it's a good day for america when it's a bad day for the republican party. >> if the party wants it soul back, it has to do the right thing. >> in a way. they have a narrow senate majority. the senate is in play in 2018. it wasn't before. republicans have a terrible

turnout problem. republicans are not turning out. that's what happened in alabama. that's what happened in new jersey. it's officially bizarre-o. we're going to argue about whether they'll seat this guy on time to vote against legislation. >> let's look at a few of the counties that flipped to doctor. mobile county jones won by 14 points. trump won madison by 17. jones took it by 17. tuscaloosa was a 20-point victory for trump. jones 16 points ahead there. >> i'm sorry. what? >> you're saying a 36 point swing in tuscaloosa county? >> the home of the school you attended. you weren't quite smart enough to get into the other schools but 36 points lead. in lee county a 23 point margin

turned into a 17 point win for democrats. let's focus on the bottom two and go to heidi. tuscaloo tuscaloosa, lee county, home of auburn university. these -- i can't think of two counties that show the republican party's problem with young voters. again, as you know, i was with the ufniversity of alabama. there are a lot of conservative republicans there. you look at tuscaloosa and lee, you look at what's happening in young republican groups across america. they are disassociating themselves with the steve bannons and the donald trumps and the roy moores for the most part. and those college towns that are heavily republican college towns turned around 35, 36 points. >> we're starting to see the manifestation of what democrats have been saying for several election cycles but hasn't

happened in terms of demographics being destiny here. the millennials will soon start to replace the boomers. we're seeing an awakening among that demographic with the presidency of trump, with what's happening in alabama with roy moore, and i think this also puts a spotlight, joe, on what's been happening across the country that has been discounted and not really appreciated so far in terms of the over performance here of democrats. let's just go back here for a second and look, for example, at some of the races that democrats lost but where we saw huge shifts like in connecticut. 23 points. montana, 15 point shifts. georgia, six-point shifts. about a week ago i spoke with a prominent gop pollster who told me even though things are close here going into the election in

alabama, the ground is shifting beneath us. and we are going to get wiped out anywhere where there is even a whiff of it being a swing race, and we saw that in virginia. >> you know where there hasn't been a big shift toward democrats? utah. what's different about the republican party in utah than it is elsewhere? >> they don't like trump. >> very good point. >> they don't like trump, and if mitt romney, i hope he's watching, and i hope he understands that if he ran in utah, he would win in utah going away. it is, though, if you look, yamiche, also at what happened yesterday and, again, everybody has believed for good reason that barack obama's coalition was barack obama's coalition. and it was not transferable. but yesterday across the state of alabama black voters,

hispanics, others came out in numbers not seen since 2008. and actually matched barack obama's turnout percentage. >> i think what we saw in alabama was a democratic party running someone who didn't just go into the communities and say i really want to talk about criminal justice but they ran a prosecuter who was involved in prosecuting the murders of four girls who were killed in the famous church bombing in that state. and there's this idea that african americans want candidates who actually speak to them and have a record of showing up in their communities and doing good. i think the same thing happened in virginia when we saw the transgender candidate talking about traffic. the democratic party needs to understand that the candidate they're choosing needs to be people who represent the values they want to have, not just people who are going to talk about them and have a sort of candidates that look the same. >> we'll somewhere much more ahead on the stunning results of last night's senate race. plus the white house appears to be in disbelief that anyone

would see sexual innuendo in the president's disgusting tweet about senator kirsten gillibrand. we'll have reaction on that. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> let's be clear. the president is a moral vacuum with no shame. he's not going to resign. the kind of stuff he was doing by tweet today is beneath the office. it's exhibit 3,000 of that. no one realistically believes this president who has demonstrated no shame is going to resign.

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all right. we were talking act tbout the elitism of mocking alabama yesterday. you and elise yesterday unimpressed with -- >> first, you don't use two rairain reigns. that hurts the horse. when you put a horse in front of

tv cameras, it forces him to -- he's a horrible, cruel horse back rider on top of being a loser this morning. >> mika. >> i only ride -- >> like an idiot. >> i'm not a fancy english rider. that guy does not know what he's doing at all. he's so off balance and the horse is so clearly uncomfortable. >> he's using the horse to look like he's riding in victory. you road into being the biggest loser in alabama this morning, and you hurt the horse, sassy. >> you did say kayla is a good rider? >> yeah. she handled herself well and is clearly comfortable. but roy? he couldn't go the distance. >> couldn't make it. >> kayla is comfortable. she's controlling the horse.

>> it was probably a little bit of a foreshadowing the way he was riding that horse. almost bucked him off. now to the reaction of the president's tweet yesterday about kirsten gillibrand from the new york democrat would come to my office begging for campaign contributions not so long ago and would do anything for them. he put that in parentheses. i'm not going to argue if there was sexual innuendo here. there was. and here is sarah huckabee sanders who i was hoping would tell the truth. she did not. here she is at the briefing yesterday. >> the president said today that senator gillibrand would do anything for campaign contributions. many, many people see this as a sexual innuendo. what is the president suggesting? >> i think that the president is

very obvious. this is the same sentiment that the president has expressed many times before when he has exposed the corruption of the entire political system. in fact, he's used similar terminology many times when talking about politicians of both parties both men and women. and certainly in his campaign to drain the swamp. the system is clearly broken. it's clearly rigged for special interest, and this president is someone that can't be bought, and it's one of the reasons that he's president today. >> reporter: what is he alleging would happen behind closed doors with her? >> he's not alleging anything. he's talking about the way the system functions. that politicians repeatedly beg for money. that's not something new. and that comment, frankly, isn't something new. if you look back at past comments this president has made, he's used that same terminology many times in reference to men. there's no way that this is sexist at all. >> reporter: is gillibrand owed an apology for the

misunderstanding of the president's tweet this morning? because many including senators, think about about sexual innuendos. >> only if your mind in the gutter would you have read it that way. he's obviously talking agent political partisan gapes that people often play and the broken system he's talked about repeatedly. >> i want to know how she does that and where the chief of staff is and where anybody else in the white house is this morning. or where they were after the tweet went out yesterday. the president should have taken it down. the president should have apologized if he didn't take it down. he should have apologized for hurting gillibrand's feelings at the least. he should have apologized for being a sexist pig, for sexually harassing on twitter. for using sex to denigrate women. the president is obsessed with women, especially some women. especially women who go on

television and have a voice or especially women who serve in congress or in the senate who use their voices. any woman that stands up against him, he is obsessed with. he has some special problem with women. and the women around him, his wife who has a platform against cyber bullying? that's a joke. that is the saddest thing i've ever seen in this white house ever in my life. and his daughter who came to washington to work for the president and develop a platform for women? go home. go home. you're doing nothing if you stand by this president. and you should think of the country rather than your brand. and i'll tell you right now, sarah huckabee sanders, i feel sorry for you. i've started a hash tag support for sarah. i support you in your guest for goodness and love of country because you haven't made it there yet. i'm not just talking about the

women in the white house. i'm talking about the entire white house. all the men in the president, go do you go home to your wives and daughters and say this president stands up for women? do you really do that? your wives should kick you out. here's steve schmidt. >> she doesn't have a difficult job. she has an easy job. tell the truth to the american people. she's an assistant to the president of the united states. she swore an oath to the constitution of the united states which she disgraces every day as she serially lies hour after hour every day. this is abnormal. the assault on the dignity and the majesty of the office of the united states, this is exactly the reason the president of the united states is not welcome in the united kingdom. because his presence standing next to her majesty the queen is such an affront to her dignity

that it is united the fractious parties of great britain in opposition to his setting foot on british soil because of stuff like this. >> and we will be right back. your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says, "you picked the wrong insurance plan."

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huge turnout yesterday. and that's because the democrats hustled. and people have got to understand you don't turn out, they're going to turn out. hat tip to these guys at the dnc. they slipped in under the radar and did a great ground game. all the other convergence of forces, just outhustling and outworking people is a big one. >> steve bannon this morning. >> yeah. his first public comments after republicans lost a senate seat last night. the one he was fighting for in alabama. >> before we go into all of steve bannon's high profile losses, i know that's where we're going because i can see the teleprompter. i want to talk about this is -- you know, everybody -- whenever you say turnout is everything, people on twitter go duh. well, guess what. a lot of campaigns don't get

that. i remember in 2007 barack obama, you were saying barack obama was going to win. and i laughed it off. everybody else laughed it off. i said this is howard dean, 2003. and then i saw a new york times article in 2007 saying they were piling money into turnout operations. they were piling money into building a grass roots. i said uh-oh. this guy -- >> exactly. >> -- could win. when i herd the superpacs that had gone in for doug jones were spinning it on get out the vote operations, i did okay, wow. well, steve ban seasnon is righ there. they got out their votes. that's how you win elections. and for everybody that goes duh, guess what. most campaigns don't understand it. >> and alex, you told me about tv byes? >> jones was outspending 10 to 0

overall. and they got republican women out to vote who probably didn't need much incentive to vote against roy moore, but they got out the democratic votes, african americans, young people, moderates turned out, but they got republican votes as well. >> and mike, also, donald trump got out. republican votes against donald trump, and democratic votes. >> yeah. that's true. but to your point, joe trippy ran doug jones' campaign. joe trippy ran howard dean's campaign. he knows the importance of getting the vote out. they had a substantial sum of money toward the end of the campaign. that's what it was spent on. >> when president trump tweeted yesterday and we were on the air, i felt in my gut this would help the democratic doug jones. this would help roy moore lose. >> the kirsten gillibrand tweet? >> yes. it was basically a vote away from the republican party, and a vote away from trump and a vote away from roy moore.

it was too disgusting. it was over the line. any woman in alabama that was close to the fence or on it at that point walked away from the republican party. at least temporarily. >> suburban women will be around in the fall of 2018. >> so are young voters and black voters and hispanics and all the people that donald trump has kicked around for the past 11 months thinking that that was somehow his pathway to victory. it's his pathway to 33%. it's his pathway to defeat. it's the republican party's pathway to extinction. >> yeah. and by the way, i shouldn't discriminate. i think a lot of really good men, a lot of people from all walks of life found that tweet disgusting. and decided to vote for the democrat in alabama. joining us now is the publisher and co-founder of real clear politics tom bevan. >> tom, a couple of things. first of all, polls. they're worthless. you look at a poll that has -- >> wait a minute.

>> you have jones up nine points the same day you have another poll that has -- >> it's how you read them. >> -- moore up nine points. every exit poll is wrong. i said don't tell me the exit polls. they're always wrong. i started calling alabama officials at 7:30, what's it look like? jones didn't get the people he needed out in the black belt. he didn't get -- i mean, we're having high voter turnout in all the areas that roy moore needs. this is going to be a big night for roy moore. i was getting calls from people at the network about 8:00 -- we went to sleep. woke up at 2:00, i saw breaking news from the hollywood reporter. hollywood celebrating doug jones' win. i said god, they really are stupid and out of touch. and then i saw the next, and he won. everybody is wrong. nobody knows nothing. >> well, listen -- >> now your turn. >> okay. >> wow, what an intro.

>> in pollster's defense, if standard polling is basic math, that was an equation. you had a special election and charges against roy moore. >> but this comes against a backdrop of 2016. all the state polls and everybody telling us like they told us in 2004 john kerry was going to be president, and people telling us donald trump lost six out of seven battle ground states. >> exit polls are always wrong. that's 101. don't pay attention to the exit polls. the early numbers are almost always way off. as far as the polling goes in this race, it was all over the place, and it depended on the pollsters trying to figure out who was going to turn out. and people didn't depending on what even using the same responses, depending on what you modelled the electorate as, i could woman come up with a roy

or doug jones victory. >> there's no way to tell whether donald trump would have a historically high ground game for white working class voters in pennsylvania to wisconsin. >> that's right. and so look, this was a unique case, i think. where you did have in the course of 24 hours, a poll showing roy moore up nine, doug jones up ten and one having it tied. in our average, it was 2.5 points. there were five polls showing roy moore ahead, two showing doug jones ahead and one showing the race tied. it was rated as a tossup. again, if you look at individual pollsters, there were some big misses. again, it's a tough environment with special elections in general, but this one with all the added complexities of it, that's what made it really tough. >> the overall pattern in 2017

has been for republican candidates to see a dropoff in support from trump's 2016 levels in the kansas fourth district special election the republican margin dropped by 20 points. in georgia's sixth it went up by three. 15 point drops for the republicans in montana's and south carolina's fifth districts. >> wasn't that dude in montana the one that beat a journalist up and got arrested? >> it happens. no. >> and he's in congress now? >> yes. >> wow. >> democrats held steady with the margins in new jersey and gained three points in virginia from 2016 results and yesterday in alabama republicans had a 30-point dropoff from the margin trump won by last year. >> elise, you know, we were talking after trump's elections saying democrats look at the local level. you lost over 1,000 state legislative seats over the past seven or eight years. democrats should do that now.

we have a big race in alabama but you look at a lot of local races, democrats are overperforming in delaware county, pennsylvania. democrats winning county seats for the first time in 100 years. this is up and down the ballot. >> and the momentum is on the democrat's side right now. you look at how much anger there was motivating people in virginia to come out and vote. motivating people in alabama yesterday. i still just -- it is staggering that red alabama is putting in a democratic senator in the united states congress. i think that the just -- the change of that and what it means for president trump and his agenda and the 2018 landscape is something that really should be of concern to the white house. >> so tom, we've been talking about the numbers here, the exits getting into some of the cross paths about african americans turning out in obama 2008 levels. african american women in particular.

i'm talking about gender. we've been talking about education. as someone who studies the polls, which leaps out to you as decisive for doug jones? >> he needed the trifecta. he needed to win independents. he did it by nine points, and he needed republican crossover votes and he got it. we were talking earlier in the year about democrats hadn't won anything, but they've performed well from kansas to south carolina, virginia. now alabama. but i think the biggest potentially decisive shift is republican -- educated republicans in those suburbs. if those folks go for democrats in 2018, it will be a blood bath for republicans. >> help us out here. if republicans for the republicans that are watching right now on the hill. what do they need -- if you had groups they needed to focus onto make sure they didn't get swept away by the tidal wave that

steve schmidt was talking about earlier, what groups do they focus on specifically? >> college educated republicans in the suburbs. that's what they have to win. they can't lose those folks. 2018 will be about turning out your base. and this is the tricky part for republicans. they need trump voters to come out and vote in all the states but they also -- they can't afford to lose the educated college educated republicans in the suburbs. they're going to have to find some way to fuse those two together in order to avoid getting -- losing the senate and/or the house. >> is it what we said after virginia. all republicans find themselves in you can't win the primary without donald trump. and you can't win the general election with him. >> look, 2018 will have obvious a national overlay to it, but it's going to depend on the individual candidates and the individual districts and the individual states. if republicans have good

accounts who run goods you mentioned get out the vote effort. they should be the map favors them in the senate in particular. they should be able to defend their states and perhaps pick up a couple of seats if they can. if they have good accouncandidao run good campaigns. otherwise it could be trouble for them. >> thank you. >> you did good. >> absolutely. >> up next, bob mueller's team reportedly completes a critical phase in the russia investigation. that is next on "morning joe."

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robert mueller's special counsel team has completed interviewing white house officials. that's according to the president's attorney who confirmed the news to the l.a. times. adding that he hopes the special counsel's office brings the probe to a prompt and appropriate conclusion. the special counsel's office has declined to comment.

meanwhile another member of the president's legal team has confirmed to nbc a report that the white house would like to see a second special counsel appointed to investigate the investigators for conflicts of interest within the doj and the fbi. meanwhile we should mention that rod rosenstein is set to go before the house judiciary committee to testify on the mueller investigation. turning to the latest in the crisis with north korea, rex tillerson now says that the united states is open to talks with pyongyang with no preconditions. >> we're ready to talk in time north korea would like to talk. and we're ready to have the first meeting without precondition. let's just meet and let's talk about the weather if you want. we can talk about whether it's going to be a square table or a round table, if that's what you're excited about. but can we at least sit down and

see each other face to face? it's not realistic to say we're only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program. they have too much invested in it. and the president is very realistic about that as well. if there was any condition at all to this is that, look, it's going to be tough to talk if in the middle of our talks you decide to test another device. it's going to be difficult to talk if in the middle of our talks you decide to fire another one. >> that's good talk. that's good, straight talk. i think more that americans need to hear or north korea, the world needs to hear. the statement released after the remarks, they said in part, quote, the president's views on north korea have not changed. north korea's actions are not good for anyone. it comes as a delegation has arrived in north korea and after a russian foreign minister told tillerson last week in north korea is open to direct talks

and russia is ready to help broker them. this morning russia and china say they're encouraged by tillerson's remarks. mike, it's time for us on the brink of a nuclear showdown, it's time for us to stop engaging in fiction. that makes politicians in washington d.c. feel better about themselves. i mean, north korea is a nuclear power. >> and they're going to remain to be a nuclear power. >> they're going to remain a nuclear power unless the united states decides they're going to go in unilaterally and start a war that to going to kill up to half a million people on the korean peninsula. that's -- now, if you're for that, if you think it's worth that, go for it. debate that. but we can no longer maintain this fiction that north korea is not a nuclear power, or that they will give up their nuclear weapons without us going in and starting world war iii.

>> here's the dilemma. it's a dilemma for the united states as well as for china and russia who supposedly according to news report are trying to ease us into the negotiations. is this the official administration policy? will the president of the united states stand by the secretary of state? i mean, just a few months ago he said he's wasting his time in talking at north korea. who are we to believe? what are the russians and the chinese and no t north koreans who believe? the secretary of state or the president who is liable to destroy the statement with a tweet. >> when sarah sanders says what she says, he's right. now talking about speaking without preconditions. in other words, they can keep their nuclear pursuit up and running while they're talking. what is the administration's position? that's the question the world wants to snow. >> well, rex tillerson's position, that's the conundrum. we can go and speak about north korea in terms that are

reasonable and that our allies are immunable to in the international community, but does it matter if donald trump says he's just going to take on rocket man unilaterally? you have the divide between where donald trump is, where jared kushner might be and is secretary of state rex tillerson just flying solo over at the state department. >> but you know the secretary of state's message, mika, was also an important message to north korea, which is, you know what, if you want to flex your muscles, don't waste our time. if you want to sit down and negotiate, we'll sit down and negotiate, but we're not going to be in the middle of negotiations and then have you fire off missiles to try to prove a point. you do that, we're not coming to the table. and that's something that china -- if china is throwing their arms open to the world and china is trying, again, to be the world's preeminent power leader, that's something that they have to make clear and that's something russia has to make clear about north korea.

if the united states comes and sits down with you, with no preconditions, then you're not firing off missiles during that to undermine it or else we walk away from the table and we walk away from our support for you. up next, democrats hope last night's alabama senate win will slow the republican tax cut push, and there is precedent to that. we'll explain ahead on "morning joe." we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich.

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democratic leaders are ready to capitalize on the momentum in a bid to slow the republicans' push to get their bill over the tax line. senate minority leader chuck schumer is holding a press conference in about an hour to call on republicans to delay a final vote on tax reform until jones is seated. democrats are point to the 2010 decision by then majority leader harry reid to wait for republican senator scott brown to be seated after his election victory before they held a vote on the affordable care act. >> with us now let's bring in cnbc's brian sullivan today. >> the red team has the ball on the 7 yard line. there's two minutes left to go. they want to get the ball in the end zone and pass tax reform. the blue team is saying time-out, we have a player change. do the right thing. hold this up. the gop is going to try to push this tax reform plan in as fast as they can, implement it by january 1st. chuck schumer obviously has

something to say about that, guys. >> what do you think? do you think that's going to happen? >> what do i think? it doesn't matter. i think they'll try to get it done. i think they'll get something on the president's desk by the end of the year. we'll see how that looks. if you want to point to two republican winners, marco rubio and susan -- susan collins is arguably the most powerful senator in the united states right now because she will hold the key to whether or not this gets done. she wants to see the final bill. cnbc has reported three numbers you need to know. 21% likely the corporate tax rate. 37% the high end on the individual side down from 39.6 and $750,000. that is the max allowable mortgage amount that is deductible. currently it's a million. >> so talk about marco. every time we talk about suburban republican voters i think about marco rubio. the reason marco rubio didn't win anything last year was because that was his strength. but in a republican primary, that's gone away.

i wonder how many of these candidates are going to ask marco rubio if they're in suburban republican neighborhoods to come campaign for them next year. >> it's the reascention of marco rubio, joe. he wants that child tax credit in there. susan collins wants the deductibility of charitable giving in there. they have a lot of power because we just lost a republican senator. they'll try to push this through. 51-49. i mean this is tight. the predictive markets, the betting markets in europe give a 79% chance that tax reform will pass this year. >> boy the way, that's about the same number they were giving roy moore to win this. >> i think these predictive markets and the polls have proved equally as adept in predicting the future. >> individual mandate, this is -- let's not forget this is a tax bill, folks, but also a health care bill. good point, mike. this is also a health care bill. she wants that, charitable

giving. rubio -- it's going to be tight the next couple of days. >> so sully, the white house, republicans in congress selling this as a middle class tax cut. this is a program designed to help the middle class. is it? >> depends on what side of twitter you listen to, willie. >> no, no, economics. not twitter. >> not to be whatever, what's middle class? if you live in connecticut, new jersey, new york, california, massachusetts, and you're an accountant and a teacher, you're probably going to see a tax hike because of the removal of state and local deductions, itemization, et cetera. if you're in the midwest, lower cost of living, lower tax states, you probably see a bump in your income in after tax because you're going to lower your tax deductions. this is, i think, a ploy to get people to move from connecticut to tennessee. >> it's working. >> brian sullivan, thank you. i have a couple of options for -- >> you have a couple of tweets here. >> i have a couple of options for people who might be upset

about the president's tweet against senator kirsten gillibrand. and this is for all people, good, decent people, not just women, but for decent people who think women should be treated as equals. you can report this tweet to twitter, and i'm doing that right now. if twitter asks you, you can go on the president's tweet and report it by clicking on the right side and then it asks you how is this tweet abusive or harmful? and i'm going to hit it's disrespectful or offensive and i think you all ought to do that. i'd ask you to go on my twitter -- >> mika, hold on. let's go back to the last one. for people that are riding in the car mika's tweet asks, twitter, please take down the offensive, dangerous content. #take down the tweet. what's your next tweet? >> go on my twitter @morningmika and retweet if you think the president should take down the tweet and there's a #take down the tweet and also #support for sarah because the press

secretary has been so sad on this issue that i think she needs support in her quest for honesty and decency and love of country. so too does everybody in that white house right now. so please, act on twitter. and twitter, please act. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> mika brzezinski breathing hot fire this week. good morning, i'm stephanie ruhle with a very big morning, starting with tide rolled. in a stunning upset, alabama elects its first democrat to the senate in 25 years. >> this entire race has been about dignity and respect. >> roy moore refusing to concede. >> when the vote is this close, then it's not over. >> this morning, president trump saying he was right about moore all along. hmm? the big winners and losers and what last