a report from april ryan a white house correspondent, who said she tried to push her way into the residence to plead her case with the president directly and that the chief of staff had to eject her from the white house grounds. it's a very strange thing to see happening in any white house even this one. >> i worked there six years. never saw anyone removed from the residence. my thank to you all. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts with chuck glaring at me for the eight, nine, ten seconds i've stolen from the mike check. >> oh, hi. omarosa, now i don't have to! >> it happened in your hour technically. tonight, a big blue tsunami his the crimson tide. a democratic wave is building across the country. plus, mobilizing the african-american vote like never before. can the democrats carry that momentum into 2018?

and finally, the russia investigation. the deputy attorney general takes his turn in the hot seat on klim. capitol hill. >> nobody indicate add desire to remove robert mueller. >> this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd here in new york. still in election headquarters. welcome to "mtp daily." everyone with an r. next to their name has reason to worry. voters in ruby red alabama handed doug jones the upset win over roy moore, who the president endorsed. republican say they lost because moore was a terrible candidate, and he was. folks, they're missing the bigger picture. moore probably could have won if not for the president's rating.

under 50% in alabama. let me repeat -- in alabama. according to the nbc news exit polling a state he won by 28 points last year. he set48%. is that roy moore's fought? no. and strongly approved of the president, 41% strongly disapprove. intensity advantage to the negative side of things, but senate republicans today didn't pin the blame on the president, for what happened last night. they pinned it on one person. >> president trump was right when he went to alabama months ago and said roy moore can't win. >> well, we had a blemished candidate. everybody knows that. >> what message did the election send? >> that -- alabamians didn't want somebody who dated 14-year-old girls. >> hope it sends a message that -- you know, we can do better. republicans can do better. >> i thought that before any of this reporting came out over the

last couple of months with the republican nominee that it was a bridge too far, just with his -- his positions. >> and this afternoon the president reacted to moore's loss while meeting with republicans on the issue of taxes. >> a lot of republicans feel differently. they're very happy with the way it turned out but i would have, as leader of the party, i would have liked to have had the seat. i want to endorse the people running. we have to get more senators and more congressmen that are republicans elected in '18, and then you'll see a lot more of what we're doing right now. >> folks, an uphill battle for him to get more republicans elected. while candidate quality matter, nothing touches trump's political environment. appears to be getting worse. look at special elections this entire year. all in red states. there's kansas' fourth congress' district. won last year. in the april special, margin dropped to seven.

the montana race. remember that one? margin 16 points in 2016. dropped to 6 in the may special. how about georgia jicks margin went from 24 to 4. south carolina -- fifth. went from 20 to 3. that brings us to last night. republicans won the 2016 senate contest in alabama by 28 points. last night, they lost by 2. let's not forget about what happened on the election day itself in 2017 in virginia and new jersey. last month as well. dan mccrats ran up the score in both gun nay toral races and a tripledown effect down the ballot. and it was all thanks in part to, you guessed it, the voters' dip dislike of this president. joined now by the dnc chair tom perez. chairman perez, welcome back to the show. i assume you feel pretty good about last night? >> had a good night. it was a victory for ordinary alabamians who want a senator

who's going to vote, focus on good jobs, going to focus on health care. going to focus on the things that matter most to people, and doug ran a campaign where it wasn't about right versus left. it was about right versus wrong, and it's wrong for a party to put up a guy like roy moore, and the right for voters to go for a guy like doug jones, because he's fighting for everybody. >> let me ask you this -- what's the message now for 2018? i mean, look, doug jones, you could make a case, that, his basic message was "not roy moore." you've had parts of virginia, ralph northam a positive message on some issues but negative message, hey, i'm not with trump. is that enough, or do you need a message that's more than just the democrats aren't with donald trump? >> no. we need more than we're just the party of anti-trump, and have been putting forward that message. in virginia we talked about health care. and ralph northam as a doctor

talked about the importance of health care as a right for all not a privilege for a few, and the overwhelming number one issue for voters coming out of that ballot booth in virginia was health care. in oklahoma, we won three special elections this summer in beat red districts. these are state special elections. the issue, education. and when he listened to people, and i think that's what doug jones did. he listened. he understood that people want a better life for their children. they don't want this other side show that roy moore is about. they want a good job. they want to be able to work a full-time job and not have to live in stress, and that's why doug jones was all about #kitchentable. he focused on those issues. when we do that as democrats when we're listening and then when we organize early, chuck, and we organize everywhere, that's how we do well and i think we've been leading with our values in 2017 and it shows. >> let me ask you this --

if senator doug jones votes with republicans a little more often than many of the other democratic senators, it's going to bother some base members of the democratic party. what do you tell them when they start to see, perhaps, doug jones maybe voting a few -- a little more often with the republicans than, say, harris? >> i've known doug 20 years. doug is the real deal. and doug's north star is what is in the best interests of alabamians? i have no doubt there will's times he will take votes. >> that you won't like. >> that i may disagree with. his north star is what is in the best interests of alabamians. he's a servant leader. he remembers his roots. son of a steel worker. he wants to make sure that people can live a decent life. there's too many people working a full-time job and living in poverty and that's not right in alabama or anywhere else and that's what doug will fight for,

and that independence streak is something that i -- i admire about doug, because he's going to put alabamians first. >> okay. let me ask you this. last month you said you're not talking about impeachment, but you know that a lot of members of the democratic party are. you've had a couple of house members force a vote on it, on the house floor. you have tidoug steyr. what do you say to progressives? you want a message not just anti-trump meaning not just about impeachment. what do you tell those in the democratic base that say, no, no, no, no, no, mr. chairman. they do want to talk impeachment. what do you say to them? >> here's what we agreed -- this is the worst president, perhaps, in american history. this tax giveaway to wealthy people and very large corporations that don't need it is an abomination. the effort to back door repeal

the affordable care act is unconscionable. the cultural corruption in washington like there was in alabama is unbecoming the executive branch. there's no doubt about that. that's why my focus has been on building that infrastructure, chuck that allows us to win elections up and down the ticket. while we're working to elect people from the school board to the oval office, because i think the most effective way to make this current moment in our history, a brief moment is to elect democrats up and down the ticket and that's why i'm working my tail off to do that, and where my focus is and i'm proud of the work we've done in 2017. invest in almost $1 million in alabama. >> you know, i had a state representative on yesterday on the democratic side of -- patricia todd. she said something interesting about the race. 2ki6 difficulty, frankly, the party structure was broken in alabama, and that frankly you could say the national democratic party was a bit out of touch in

alabama. what did you learn in doug jones' victory that says, okay, this is how the dnc needs to operate in places like in alabama that isn't necessarily as open to democratic, to base democratic policies all the time? >> well, you know, the reality is, we have a lot of work to do to make sure that the democratic party in alabama and elsewhere is firing on all cylinders. there's no denying that. what we did in alabama is, i think leadership is about humility. about understanding you're part of the team. we were part of team jones and what we did early on is to say, doug, how can we be helpful? and if someone who's prosecute add number of cases down in alabama, i understand that folks from washington coming in guns a-blazing con specks with is not the way to do it. so we were quiet, working with grass roots leaders, faith

leaders, elected officials locally one unmistakedly present, working behind the seens, doiseen scenes, doing all things critical to success. it's not about me or the dnc but being a team player. i'm proud of having been a part of doug jones because he's the real deal. >> tom perez, chairman of the democratic party, you've had to take lumps this year. i'm guessing this one makes you feel better. >> this is a good day. a lot more work to do all right, sir. thanks for shares your views. joining me now, congressman steve stibers, republican of ohioalities chairman of the campaign committee, translation, the point man in charge of keeping paul ryan speaker of the house. congressman, welcome back to the show, sir. >> great to be back, chuck. >> let me start with a basic question. why -- i've noticed a lot of people are looking at alabama

saying you know what? that was a roy moore problem. not a donald trump problem. do you look at a 48% job approval rating in deep red alabama and say to yourself, ooh, this could be a donald trump problem for republicans across the country? >> well, chuck, this was mostly a roy moore problem, because campaigns are about candidates. they're about the campaign you run, and the fund-raising that you have, and roy moore was a bad candidate. he was accused of very serious misdeeds, sexual misconduct. he wan a bad campaign. he wasn't talking about the things the people are alabama wanted to talk about and frankly he got out-raced. you can't lose all of those things. you might be able to be down on one, up on the other two if you want to win. this was mostly a roy moore problem and the question was, could the president say them and the president's numbers at 48-48, he couldn't say them. but he, i don't think the

president cost him the election, but the president couldn't all by himself save roy moore from having a bad campaign, being a bad candidate and having bad fund-raising. look, everybody's looking for some sort of -- >> everybody's looking snore sort of anything it to figure what in 2017 have we learned to tell us somebody about 2018. i understand it's only a handful of races but there's a pattern. kansas 4, the montana special, georgia, south carolina. then you had the general election of virginia and new jersey, and then had you alabama. now, the good news for you is your committee still won all of races i pointed out, but if you look -- >> 5-0, chuck. >> right. however, in every one of those places democrats overperformed republicans underperformed, and by november and december, those underperformances turned into democratic victories. is this a canary in the coal mine that you're concerned about? well, we are ma

>> we are making preparations and making sure we're ready but we can't overestimate both virginia and alabama. virginia was a blue state. got a little bluer and alabama was a roy moore problem. you know, campaigns are about three things. like i said. they're about the candidate. they're about the campaign you run, and they're about money. and in those special elections, i told my team, i don't want to by blowouts. as long as we're outside the margin of error, like we were in utah. like we were -- and by the way, in utah we exceeded the margin of the district. >> okay. >> that was just a few weeks ago. the one that went unnoticed of our five, but in both -- both south dakota -- >> south carolina. >> excuse me. south carolina and utah we didn't have to do much, but in the race where is we did get involved we got involved in kansas, montana and georgia, we didn't by blowouts but victories and that's what we immediate to do, a need to do. they're on defense in min. we have them on defense in nevada, on defense in arizona.

i feel pretty confident right now there's five democrat retirements of competitive districts. five republicans retirements in competitive districts. the difference, in our retirements, we have great candidates like dino rossy, raised $1 million in 20 days and frankly, they've got lackluster candidates and we're going to pick up tim wall's seat and i think a few others. >> what's the nrcc position on primaries? i know you're always with incumbents. i'm curious if there's ever an exception on an incumbent front? any exception. would blake farenthold be an exception? >> in a business where someone had a serious misdeed and there was a -- there was credible evidence. right now there is an ethics investigation going on, on blake farenthold, you know, i've never been shy about providing leadership and i would provide leadership in those cases. i publicly asked roy moore to

step aside, and, know, i won't be shy to ask our folks where their allegations that are serious that come forward to step aside. so -- >> blake farenthold -- we shouldn't assume he has guaranteed nccc support yet until this ethics investigation is done? >> until the facts come out. that's correct. >> let me ask you about open primaries. are -- you have a lot of interest groups that want to mess around in primaries. is the nrcc going to try to pick candidates in primaries? are you always going to stay out, or do you have a hard and fast rule? >> the ncrr has a policy of staying out of open seat primaries. there are a lot of people around town that get involved in open seed primaries. my job, hold our incumbents, whether they have a tough primary or tough general election. so far we've been able to do that. in the last few cycles we've haven't had many incumbents in primaries and not many be in

general elections. my goal, make sure we hold our majority and continue to make a difference for the american people. like the tax reform bill we're going to get done i think will grow the economy. it will put pressure on wages and increase people's salvis, and grow our economy and i think it's going to be a big victory and i know there az of naysayers out there, but when people see the impact of this on the economy, i feel pretty confident we're going to be able to run on the economy in 2018, chuck. >> steve bannon. asset or liability for republicans in 2018? >> women that depends if you're in a primary or general election. >> so sounds like you think he's more of an asset in a primary, more ofof a fliblt liability in elections? >> can be an asset in primaries, asset or liability depending on the district.

>> . >> republican from ohio. thanks for coming on. a lot more in what happened in alabama. we heard the spin. break it down, analysis and what it really means for the house and senate next year. be back in a moment. ( ♪ ) more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. (clapping)

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as a candidate i promised we would pass a massive tax cut for the average everyday american working families who are the backbone and the heartbeat of our country. now we're just days away -- i hope -- i hope. you know what that means, right? from keeping that promise and delivering a truly amazing victory for american families. >> welcome back. that was president trump and he says that house and senate republicans have a deal on taxes and they're rushing now. republicans leaders in the house and senate say they've reached a

principle agreement on their sweeping tax package. remember, house and senate passed two different bills. still have to be reconciled and passed again by both houses. so what's in this principled agreement? sources tell nbc news, the corporate tax rate bumped up from 20% to 21%. appear sweeteners for wealthy people in the blue states. individual tax rate dropped from 36.6% to 37%. no state local tax e deduction, dut that helps from there. and mortgage interest deductions upped to $750,000. and john cornyn says the senate goes first. shooting to start this on monday. calling republicans not to move forward, says chuck schumer new a new senator, doug jones, is sworn in. that's likely not going to

happen. mcconnell. >> mark: will get the tax bill done before he has to swear in doug jones. back with more how the political world changed a bit last night. we'll be right back.

bringing in tonight's panel, steve kornacki, and senior editor at the "new york times." not responsible for the crazy needle. and steve schmidt. >> right last night. >> oh, okay. it's right at some point. moves all the tile. can alwa time for a second. >> right. >> and steve schmidt, msnbc contributor and former strategist. actually, call you a strategist, right? >> some of your time. >> start there. what's the state of the republican party this evening? >> bad. bad. republican's party in a lot of trouble, and i think there's a real question whether the

republican party survives trumpism. what we see and what we know is that particularly for younger voters, they imprint on a party and stay with that political party for a long time and you look at the returns, you look at young voters, you look at african-americans. hispanics. asian-americans. you look at republican women in suburban districts, taking a walk on all of this. what you might well see is the decimation of the republican party. >> so you don't -- >> in 2018. >> you disagree with the republican spin that said alabama was not a trump problem but a roy moore problem? >> the republican party through the republican national committee and the republican president of the united states went all-in for a credibly accused child molester, religious extremist, someone who had been removed from the bench two times, who talked about the good old days when we lived in slavery.

this won't be forgotten. this doesn't reset on monday. the damage with the lack of public rectitude and probity, the assaults on the dignity of the office of the president of the united states. this isn't an nfl game where next sunday we get another shot. this all accumulates. >> i mean, one thing that you pointed out that really stayed with me last night was when you look at job approval numbers among those who came out to vote in alabama. 48-48, in alabama. and as you know, what alabama is what? like a 30-point republican advantage typically? and you also have the fact that the way that the republicans from trump, mcconnell, et cetera on down handled roy moore, the acrobatics, back and forth. we're not with him. let the voters decide, it just feels like -- reflective of a broader identity crisis. >> the interesting thing to me

last night in the results i thought was different than virginia is a question going forward as you look at the traditionally republican suburbs. virginia, northern virginia, basically democrat. energized democrats in virginia. in alabama, you had folks who voted for trump last year. suburbanites, college educated white suburbanites right outside of birmingham county where he got 73%. moore was down to 56%. i wonder going forward how much of that slippage from suburbanites willing to vote for trump in '16, how much of that slippage is a factor in '18? >> by the way, as bad as we're painting a picture of a rough period of time right now for the republican party. what would today look like if roy moore won, steve? >> well -- >> didn't they dodge a -- bad as it seems this morning for -- you know, mcconnell and everybody that's going to do this. aren't they actually -- could be worse? >> elections have a binary outcome. win or lose. in this situation, no matter the

outcome, democrats would win. would have fallen back to the snex skirmish line which would have been, are they going to seat him? at least trump, had says, hey, he says he didn't do it. mitch mcconnell said i believe the women. which means that he believes the guy's a child molester, and if they did seat him, he'd be hung around the neck so that every republican in the suburban district and voters would have a chance to at a national level weigh in in november. look at the four congressional special elections, and look at the underperformance, for example of the georgia six race. romney 67% trump around 50% price, three-term average, about 66%. republican gets in there. >> 52%. >> right. 52%. the trend line is down. if you're sitting there and i was a -- an alumni of the campaign committee for house republicans, this is absolute, hit the red panic button time. >> tried to not sound like he

was -- >> look at the generic ballot question. already democrats have a significant advantage when you just ask, no candidates, would you prefer a democrat or republican? if you look at the groups that are obviously very energized, that favors democrats. african-american turnout was really impressive. young people, even in southern conservative alabama counties were turning out. it feels like emotionally the tide and the energy and enthusiasm -- >> can you keep it up 11 months? how do the -- granted, we asked the same question in january of 2010 when a guy named scott brown won a shocking seat in a state the incumbent won by 28 points. >> really is. you're making a good point there. i think, look in one way the republicans were better off yesterday having moore lose. it is going to spare them i think some grief in the next year but i think the bigger question for '18 that moore raises for republicans is that he got nominated in the first place. this is not isolated.

christine o'donnell, todd akin, richard mourdock. republicans have given away by nominated candidates who are easily dismissed as fringe candidates all sorts of winnable races. how many primaries in 2018 is this going to happen again? >> steve bannon, as someone pointed out, if he won, said, look, i'm in charge. losing, it's a conspiracy. >> of course. grievance is central to trumpism and bannonism. the victimhood. it's not just roy moore. look at chuck grassley last week when he's talking about the estate tax and doesn't like the people who spend all their mmon booze and women and movies. >> where was that -- >> how out of touch can you conceivably be? you think of the image of orrin hatch angrily gaveling down and shouting at, you know -- the -- i forget what democratic senator he was yelling at, but like the image of observe across the board on this stuff. it's devastating for the

republican party. you have such a profound disconnect culturally, and in this moment of time from the republican leadership in congress and the clul people in the country. ip think there's going to be a high price to pay on november 18th. >> by the way, i'm hearing, talk about history repeating itself, steve stieber said, they feel the effects they're going to like it. where did i hear that before? pass the health care bill, when people feel the effects they're going to like it. took about eight years to decide they liked obamacare. not eight months. this is a challenge on taxes. >> and pulling on the tax bill, it's not popular among the middle class. not popular among lower income voters. and the tax bill is -- you can make the argument with the health bill that eventually some people got the benefit of it, and became accustomed to it, didn't want it to e go away. the tax bill is straightforward who gains.

this tax bill so far has not been popular. >> raidses an interesting question for jones as a senator. all sorts of people wondering will he try to be the conservative alabama senator or the national democratic senator? look at all the democratic senators right now in trump states in this white house they've put no political pressure on them all year to choose between the two. >> doug jones becomes best friends with donnelly. right? that dude, whatever joe donnelly does, you do i mean, there's only three occasions in the last 118 years where the incumbent president's party has picked up seats in that first midterm. this isn't going to be one of them. and so the head winds are against them. structurally. even if this was a high-functioning presidency. >> thank you all. these two are steves. up next, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, boy, was he in a hot seat. a big one. not just any old hot seat. we'll be right back. ( ♪ )

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welcome back. for several hours today deputy attorney general rod rosenstein was grilled by members of the house judiciary committee and in many respects felt republicans and democrats were conducting two very different hearings. some republican members seemed to trying to discredit robert mueller's investigation. question s messages between strzok and an fbi lawyer he was

romantically involved with. they were harshly critical of then candidate donald trump saying things like "god, trump is a loathsome human" and "f trump." >> this is not just political opinions. this is disgusting, unaccountable bias, and there's no way that could not affect a person's work. were you aware of just how biased mr. strzok was? >> no, i was not. >> and maintaining he is not aware of any improprieties. strzok was taken off the case when mueller found ot about the messages last summer. meanwhile, democrats on the committee wanted to know what would be done to protect robert mueller if the president ever tried to make a move to fire him? >> i am not going to be discussing my communications with the president but can tell thaw nobody has communicated to me a desire to remove robert mueller. >> so defendant mueller's character and maintain that

mueller has been acting kwith the scope wirth the scope of his invert gatien. we'll break it all down when we come back.

welcome back. there is no question about it. 2017 was a wave year for democrats at the poll, looking ahead to 2018, some democrats hope that wave become as tsunami that sweeps them into control of both the house and the senate. after last night, the gop advantage in the senate will be cut to one seat and the vice president's tie-breaking vote. tough for senate democrats but only need to net two seats to take control and if they can win in alabama maybe they think they can win anywhere. arizona, nevada, tennessee? who knows. only nebraska and texas. anyway, joining knee now, one of the best political andy chandic in the business. charlie cook. mr. cook, welcome back. >> thank you, chuck. >> alabama. a lot of roy moore, roy moore, roy moore, roy moore, roy moore.

i know you believe, hey, outlier, black swan, all of that, but i'm curious -- trump at 48% in alabama. is that not like another piece of evidence in this canary in the wave coal mine? >> yeah, sure, but i think people are equating -- look, there are all kinds of signs that you and i have watched this, watched mid-term election as long time and have seen waves up front. this is what they look like. 36%, 37% approval rating, for every one person that strongly approves two strongly disapprove that the party i.d. for republicans has dropped five points in a year. state legislative seats, 33 gone from republican or democrat this year. only 4 from democrat to republican. this is what waves look like, but having said that, i think yesterday was less about trump and more about moore. that if republicans had

nominated luther strange or any joe or jane generic republican, any neb of the republican house nomination, republican wos have won easily. this guy was toxic before we knew he had an unhealthy interest in teenaged girls. now, but -- to your point, did minority turnout come out? did african-american turnout out in big numbers? yes. that's what democrats will need next year and a lot of white voters, instead of voting with their feet they voted with their fannies. they chose to stay home, but so i don't think it's mutually exclusive. you could have all of these signs of a wave, of a, anti-republican wave, and yesterday still is about moore and less about trump. >> how does -- how does democrats -- how do democrats sustain this energy that they have and i guess we probably asked the same question after 2010, after the scott brown victory. same thing. it was like, wow, a wave's developing, but can they sustain this for 11 more months?

that's the question i had. >> i think president trump's approval ratings and the intensity of his disapproval has been very, very steady. i suppose two or three more quarters of 3% gdp growth, you know, maybe picks up a little bit. frankly i don't see -- i think would take a black swan event for this to change the dynamics, but where i disagree with a lot of people is they say e hayou h to have a message. in mid-terms i don't think you need a message. >> usually don't. do you? >> 2020, a problem for democrats. here, this is just not being donald trump party, not being in control of congress. they can be against stuff and still have a really, really good election. the thing is doug jones, what -- what were, was his policy -- he was not -- roy moore. he wasn't -- he wasn't roy moore nap was sort of the gist of it.

>> and it worked. >> another fascinating aspect about the president's approval rating, this atmosphere. because the economy is humming. and it's probably with a little bit of a boost with this tax cut short term. debate whether this could sustain anything long term, but it's clear there's a lot of indicators that 2018 will have more economic good news. is it just -- has trump wiped out that as a, as an opportunity for him to sort of gain political credit? >> the fascinating thing is during the monica lewinsky affair, during impeachment, you know, people were not inclined to nominate president clinton for husband of the year, but the economy was good, and voters didn't want to rock the boat. they didn't want to throw him out of office, and it ended up hurting republicans in the mid-term election, but this is very different. to have the lowest job approval rating for any newly elected president in history at a time

of really good economic growth, 4.1% unemployment, never seen anything like this before, but could a sustained growth move him up a little bit? but, you know, what we've seen is, when you've had presidents that had approval ratings under 46% going into election day, a mid-term election, the average is a seven-seat senate ross and 4 loss and 40-seat house loss. not those numbers bought 24 or more seat gain for democrats in the house, majority? yes. would it be a two-seat, could it were be two seat? absolutely. so -- you know, sure. ten months, ten and a half months is a long time. >> but -- the canaries have lined up, and in various coal mines. charlie cook, thieve therleave . usually means more races on the board. that happens after this.

a lot of activity for you and others. thanks. why tonight i'm obsessed with other people's obsessions. >> you're seeing a turnout advantage, enthusiasm advantage in the heavily black areas of the state. so that is a key thing that's happening for jones. th served i. i do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. she thinks she's the boss. she only had me by one grade. we bought our first home together in 2010. his family had used another insurance product but i was like well i've had usaa for a while, why don't we call and check the rates? it was an instant savings and i should've changed a long time ago. there's no point in looking elsewhere really. we're the tenneys and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today. i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424.

what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with other people being obsessed with the same thing last night. obsessed with elections,

turnout, our pal steve kornacki in his l last night as well. >> skeletal sketchy. early. you can see about a quarter vote in. this is a narrow race. a question of, is it going to be just enough or just short for democrats? >> where else could moore get joets behind. got to manufacture votes every single red county in the area i just circled here has 100% of the precincts reporting. not getting more votes out of there. sitting there, trying to give you a moore scenario. can be come up with one. >> our boiler room just wanted kornacki to do that. vamp and vamp and vamp. we love kornacki around here. he love his smarts. kornacki, a national treasure. this isn't real until steve kornacki tells me it's real. love enthusiasm. somebody tell steve kornacki to breathe! occasionally he does it. i want what steve cokocorkornac

having. a little "harry met sally." and in fact, one viewer suggests msnbc needs to make a split screen with steve kornacki silently playing with maps, a perm neanent feature of primeti. take that that under advisement. for now, back with the man himself and the rest of the panel. ♪ give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions- and open up a world of possibilities. ♪ save 30% for the holidays at ancestrydna.com new ultimate surf & turf event. and that means five mouthwatering pairings to choose from. like our new feast with

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but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. time for the lid. i thought today's hearing, peter schrock. there were two questions that really bugged me. question one, how do you figure out political bias in fbi agents? that specific question wasn't asked. and number two, when do you think you have to recuse yourself, since you may have been involved in the comey

firing? nobody asked those direct questions. this was a total show. >> it was more than a show. there were no indepth drawing of lines about these ethical concerns. what it really was, it felt like both sides setting the table for 2018 where the story will dominate. so on one side, the republicans tried to discredit the investigation and sort of lay the predicate. on the other side, the democrats want to make sure that mueller won't be firing and are pressing on that. but you're absolutely right. these bigger questions that the american people might be interested in, how do you know the difference between a political opinion and a bias that affects an investigation? >> there were some critical questions but they weren't asked. these text messages, in some cases, okay, you can't have them on an investigation. >> and i think the republicans, if you just look ahead as they're saying to the public

battle. republicans want to say, this goes pack, this is everybody's strategy. it is a witch the hunt. it is partisan. political motives here. republicans have ammunition to make that case publicly. this is something they'll be pointing to. and again, you are you're looking for the battle lines. they've been handed something they can use. >> i was surprised that democrats didn't press this issue about rosenstein and the question that he was asked to write the memo. it is clear they're asking a lot of questions about what, when did the president know certain things about michael flynn. and i'm going, how long can the justice department keep this part of it up? >> absolutely. i was anticipating that and rosenstein has such a particular and peculiar point in what is a very divided wash and both sides being so heated about this. >> it does seem if republicans really want some special counsel for the special counsel, or they

say no, no, for other parts of the special investigation. he could do this and he hasn't. that's a question they have to be able to explain. >> and that gets into the question. what kind of pressure are they getting behind the scenes? are we getting more public pressure from the president himself saying this is something they should be doing and does that pressure itself become an issue? >> do you think mueller dominates 18? do you think that's the dominant story? because it's coming because he's getting closer and closer? >> he's getting closer and closer, all the indications are. and then it back's rolling news story. it's not just what is he up to? here the initial charges. it becomes how is this playing out legally? how is this playing out in court? the figures remain and it feels like that has a way of overshadowing so much of what might happen in people's agendas. >> as a campaign tactic, it is interesting.

look. some democrats don't want to talk impeachment. tom perez is one of them. there's a whole bunch based on it. >> and charlie cook said to me, you said something in your last segment about not needing a message. short of impeachment, just letting this news play out. let go the investigation be one of the dominant stories on top of trump's tweets. it deletes atmosphere, wouldn't you like a check on this guy? and that becomes the democratic message. >> and ask any consultant, they say it is the easiest message. do you think that party needs a check? that president needs a check? the answer is always yes. no matter how popular. and a late thanks to steve schmidt who had to run. in case you missed it, a major milestone for women in the senate. that's next.

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finally, in case you missed it. minnesota is about to make a little bit of history. tina smith, the current lieutenant governor, will be the choice to fill al franken's seat when he officially resigns. once she is sworn in, she joins amy klobuchar. for the first time in that state's history, both of. state's senators will be women. the number of states could be counted on one hand. minnesota will join california, new hampshire and washington state who all currently have two female senators. kansas and maine both have also had all female senate

delegations in the past. so minnesota's new senator will bring the number of women serving in the senate to a record high of 22. so, just 28 more seats to go to make things equal in the upper chamber. that's all for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more mtp daily. take it away. steve bannon went to alabama. donald trump doubled down on roy moore. but last night was not about the politicians or the breitbart pundits. it was about the people's decision and alabama voters told roy moore, no means no. >> and nbc news is now calling doug jones the apparent winner. in this special senate election in alabama. >> i have been waiting all my life and now i just don't know what the hell to say. >> for the first time in a quarter