people in salem, oregon. we are now in a different phase as a show and as a country, telling you tonight we will not always be in this moment. i do not know what comes next, but i want to thank you all for being here for all ten years of it. i want to thank everybody who has worked on this show in the last ten years. if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't have made it ten minutes let alone ten years. but mostly i want to thank all of you at home for watching. thank you for letting us know when you like what we're doing and when you don't. i hope you stick with us with whatever we do next. my executive producer wants me to promise you i will get some new blazers, but i'm not going to and i probably also will not get a new haircut. ten years. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again on monday. last word starts right now. >> we are americans. we're supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them. >> a rare and scathing rebuke of a sitting president. >> i'm sorry i watched it.

but i fell asleep. ing. > it's the west wing witch hunt for the author of that naems -- >> anonymous. >> new york times op-ed moves full steam ahead. >> i would say jeff should be investigated the author of that piece. >> this is not normal. what happened to the republican party? >> all of us encourage the good people that are around the president to stay. >> that's not how our democracy is supposed to work. >> one after another, donald trump, he's lost it up here. >> we had the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics. >> they like to use the impeach word, impeach trump. if it does happen, it is your fault because you didn't get out there and vote. >> what is going to fix our democracy is you. vote. don't put your hand in the sand. don't boo. vote. vote.

>> i'm ali velshi in for lawrence o'donnell. 595 days after he left the white house for the final time as president, barack obama returned to the political stage with his most stinging rebuke yet of president trump. in his speech at the university of illinois, he attacked his successor by name. something former presidents virtually never do, and he said donald trump is pushing back against the founding ideals of our democracy. >> each time we painstakingly pull ourselves closer to our founding ideals that all of us are created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, each time we've gotten closer to those ideals, somebody somewhere has pushed back. it did not start with donald trump. he is a symptom, not the cause. he is just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. >> the speech came as donald

trump spent another day dealing with fallout from an anonymous "new york times" op-ed that claims there is a resistance among officials inside the trump administration. that unprecedented development was not lost on the former president, obama. >> and by the way, the claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the white house who secretly aren't following the president's orders, that is not a check. i'm being serious here. that's not how our democracy is supposed to work. these people aren't elected. they're not accountable. they're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this white house and then saying, don't worry, we're preventing the other 10%. that's not how things are supposed to work.

this is not normal. >> former president obama spoke again and again in his speech about the abnormality of the trump presidency as he called for voters to provide a check on the president by electing democrats in the midterms. he said this about trump's attacks on the rule of law. >> it should not be democratic or republican. it should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the fbi to use the criminal justice system as a to punish our political opponents. [ applause ] >> or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. i'm not making that up. that's not hypothetical. >> the former president was referring to donald trump's

calls for hillary clinton to be jailed and his threats to intervene in the russia investigation and his tweet calling on jeff sessions not to charge republican members of congress with crimes because it would hurt their chances in the midterms. but even while president obama was saying that, donald trump was threatening more new interference in the justice department. here's donald trump talking to reporters on air force one today. >> do you think jeff sessions should be investigating who the author of the op-ed piece was? >> i think so because i think it is national security. i would say jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because i really believe it's national security. >> is there action that should be taken against "the new york times." >> we'll see. i'm looking at that right now. >> you said last night that it's treason what happened. in this country, we punish

treason with the death penalty? are you serious about that? >> legal experts almost all agree there is no treason in that op-ed. treason as described in article three of the u.s. constitution is very specific. treason against the united states shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. none of that seems to apply to someone who pen add anonymous op-ed in which no threat against the government was made, no aid or comfort given the government's enemies. the white house press secretary tried to down play the president's comments. sarah sanders told abc that the attorney general wasn't directing the attorney general to open an investigation. he was simply, quote, opining. after his flight on air force one, president trump took the stage at a fundraiser in north dakota and gave his response to former president obama's hour long point by point take-down of his presidency. all he could come up with was

this insult about former president obama's speech. >> i'm sorry i watched it, but i fell asleep. i found he's very good. very good for sleeping. isn't this much -- isn't this much more exciting than listening to president obama? >> all right. >> join willinging us now, ben rhodes former deputy national security adviser to president obama and author of the world as it is, a memoir of the obama white house, yamiche alcindor, all three of political analysts. thank you for being here on a friday night. ben, i'm led to believe you might have been at a surprise party that was thrown for you. you could have called us and taken the night off. >> we all have kids anyways now so we're much less interesting than we were years ago.

>> the president says a lot of things that because he repeats them, there are people who believe them. polls show anywhere 18% and 4an 40% of people start to believe the stuff the president says and one of the things he's saying is this anonymous op-ed may be a national security issue. we have asked all of our national security experts about this, none of whom can identify what the national security issue might be. >> yeah. it is the mindset of an authoritarian. criticism of him is somehow a threat to the national security of the united states. it is not. there's no threat in that op-ed. there's no crime in publishing that op-ed. frankly, i would suggest that the threat to the national security to the united states is a president of the united states who wants to take the justice department and use it to punish his political enemies. as president obama said today, that is not normal. that is not how our country is -- has functioned for hundreds of years. that is not how our founders intended this country to function. so the threat that we see every

day is a president of the united states who wants to disband with the real rule of law in this country and politicize investigations, politicize justice in this country. >> eugene, "the new york times" responded to the president's call or his suggestion or what the white house calls on opinion but his call to jeff sessions to investigate "the new york times." they responded like this. we're confident that the department of justice understands that the first amendment protects all american citizens and that it would not participate in such a blatant abuse of government power. the president's threat both underscore why we must safeguard the identity of the writer of this op-ed and be as a reminder to a free and independence press. >> there are a lot of people who think that writing this letter -- this op-ed was bad form. there are people, including president obama, who think it is not actually doing the country any favors to work in secret in the white house against the president but not critique all of what he's doing. but this is a different issue. threatening "the new york

times," threatening that the justice department will go after this person, that feels a lot like dictatorships in countries unlike the one democracy in which we live. >> right. but it is not the first time we have heard president trump sound like a wanna-be dictator. he's done it all the time. the question really is whether this is a serious threat, whether he seriously is thinking about or even jeff sessions would be thinking about some sort of criminal investigation of an op-ed. it's ridiculous on its face. whether he wants to attempt this or it's just donald trump bluster of the kind that we have heard from him literally for 40 years. you know, he always threatens i'm going to sue. i'm going to do. this i'm going to do that. we never does it. so it could be just blowing off steam.

but, you know, is it normal? no, it's not normal. we haven't done normal for quite some time. >> that's a good point. >> yamiche, the president until he had this op-ed to complain about had for about 24 hours before that bob woodward's book. here's what he said about bob woodward's book and libel laws that need to be changed. >> totally phony quotes. i mean, totally like fraudulent books. they're like fraudulent books. and then we're supposed to take it because we have lousy libel laws. mike and john, could you do me a favor? create some libel laws when people say stuff bad about you, you can sue them. would you please? would you please do that? wouldn't that be nice? >> this is very interesting. he was talking to mike rounds and john thune, the senators. can you please create some laws that when people say something bad about you, you can sue them? that's not actually what our

libel laws are designed to do. >> the thing that's really important here to not lose sight of is that bob woodward, a veteran washington reporter, is staking his credibility on this book. president trump who has had all sorts of credibility issues is saying that the things that he -- that are in this book are not true. what we know is that multiple sources, apart from bob woodward, have said that people in his administration called him a moron, they talked bad about him, the chief of staff questioned whether he's capable of doing his job. then there were all these reports before the book came out and before the op-ed where i had been hearing from sources and other reporters had been hearing there are people working within the trump administration who were not drinking the kool-aid all the way saying we need to stop this man from doing this and make sure even if we agree with conservative values in some ways and think the economy is going well, we cannot let him run the country because he has issues. a source told me personally there were times when senior officials would have to brief people saying no matter what he tells you, the white house

refuses to commit to that deal because they knew president trump in a room would give away things that the white house couldn't back up. >> let's listen to a little bit of president obama's sharpest criticism of donald trump in his speech. he did something unusual, he named president trump. he spoke directly about him. he made a reference to white supremacists and nazis. let's listen. >> it shouldn't be democratic or republican to say that we don't threaten the freedom of the press because threw say they say things or publish stories we don't like. [ applause ] >> i complain plenty about fox news. but you never heard me threaten to shut them down. or call them enemies of the people. we're supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them. we're supposed to stand up to

discrimination and we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to nazi sympathizers. how hard can that be, saying that nazis are bad? >> what does it do? the president makes a point and the rest of us are nodding saying, how hard can it be? we went through this after charlottesville when we said wait a second, did he say what he just said? does this do anything that barack obama comes out there and says, very eloquently, the obvious? >> it depends whether you voted in the election. one of the things that president obama did was not just talk about democrats and try to rev up the base and say moderate democrats get it together, but he also said if you're sitting at home waiting for some saviour, that's not going to happen. a large percentage of our population that did not go to the polls at all in november 2016. i think the president is trying to appeal to those people saying get up and make a change because we're counting on you.

i think that's key and the fact that of course the president's -- president obama is saying he's going to be out on the campaign trail. if he's out there and using his swagger and really the obama touch on other candidates, that could make a difference. >> some of these people didn't show up in 2016 as a habit fewer people show up in midterm elections. the president continued that refrain, don't boo, vote. he seemed to be saying that's not democrat, that's not republican. was he giving permission to republicans, maybe moderate republicans, maybe people that don't want to vote for trump but they're not really democrats to come out and say i need to fix this and the only way to do that is to vote democrat? >> absolutely he was attempting to do that. he was speaking to democrats and progressive democrats, moderate democrats, moderate republicans, anti-trump republicans and every independent in the world, and he

was trying to say vote democratic. even just strategically as a check on this administration. his theory of the case is that you have to make that very, very broad appeal. you know, my theory of the case would be that you have to make the broad appeal. you have to make the narrow cast appeal to progressive. you have to make, you know, 1,000 points of light basically just to try to boost that turnout because that's what it's going to turn on. >> all right. the three of you, thank you. ben, stick around with me. au jeanne robinson and yamiche alcindor, thanks again for joining us. coming up, what happened to the republican party? that from president obama today as he squared off against the gop. more of the former president's return to politics after this. this is an insurance commercial. but let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance. which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing.

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what happened to the republican party? it's a question that former president barack obama asked in his speech at the university of illinois. taking direct aim at donald trump but also at the republican party's acceptance of his presidency. this was a speech warning voters that the behavior of trump and the republican party is a threat to american democracy. if you couldn't listen to all 65 minutes of barack obama's speech, here are some sections you couldn't afford to miss. >> progress doesn't just move in a straight line. there is a reason why progress hasn't been easy. and why throughout our history

every two steps forward seems to sometimes produce one step back. sometimes the backlash comes from people who are genuinely if wrongly fearful of change. more often it's manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because it helps them maintain the status quo and keep their power and keep their privilege. and you happen to be coming of age during one of those moments. it did not start with donald trump. he is a symptom, not the cause. over the past few decades, the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has

unfortunately found a home in the republican party. this congress has championed the unwinding of campaign finance laws to give billionaires outside influence over our politics. systematically attacked voting rights to make it harder for minorities and the poor to vote. handed out tax cuts without regard to deficits. slashed the safety net wherever it could. cast dozens of votes to take away health insurance from ordinary americans. embraced wild conspiracy theories by those surrounding benghazi or my birth certificate. rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change.

embraced a rising absolutism from a willingness to default on america's debt by not paying our bills, to a refusal to even meet, much less consider, a qualified nominee for the supreme court because he happened to be nominated by a democratic president. none of this is conservative. i don't mean to pretend i'm channelling abraham lincoln now, but that's not what he had in mind, i think, when he helped form the republican party. it's not conservative. it sure isn't normal. it's radical. it's a vision that says the protection of our power and

those who back us is all that matters even when it hurts the country. it's a vision that says the few who can afford high priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions set the agenda. and over the past two years, this vision is now nearing its logical conclusion. so that with republicans in control of congress and the white house, without any checks or balances whatsoever, they have provide another $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to people like me who i promise don't need it and don't even pretend to pay for them. it's supposed to be the party supposedly of fiscal conservatism. suddenly deficits do not matter. even though just two years ago

when the definite was lower, they said i couldn't afford to help working families or seniors on medicare because the deficit was in existential crisis. what changed? what changed? they're subsidizing corporate polluters with taxpayer dollars, allowing dishonest lenders to take advantage of veterans and students again. they made it so that the only nation on earth to pull out of the global climate agreement, it's not north korea, it is not syria, it's not russia or saudi arabia, it's us, the only country. there are a lot of countries in the world. we're the only ones. [ applause ]

they're undermining our alliances. cozying up to russia. what happened to the republican party? it's central organizing principal in foreign policy was the fight against communism. and now they're cozying up to the former head of the kgb. actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from russian attack. what happened? republicans who know better in congress and they're there, they're quoted saying, yeah, we know this is kind of crazy, are still bending over backwards to shield this behavior from scrutiny or accountability or consequence.

seem utterly unwilling to find a backbone to safeguard the institutions that make our democracy work. >> all right. coming up, will president obama's blistering assessment of the trump administration and republicans wake up his supporters and make a difference in the midterm elections? that's next. -♪ he's got legs of lumber and arms of steel ♪ ♪ he eats a bowl of hammers at every meal ♪ ♪ he holds your house in the palm of his hand ♪ ♪ he's your home and auto man ♪ big jim, he's got you covered ♪ ♪ great big jim, there ain't no other ♪ -so, this is covered, right? -yes, ma'am. take care of it for you right now. giddyup! hi! this is jamie. we need some help. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist

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these are extraordinary times. and they're dangerous times. but here is the good news. in two months, we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance to restore some

semblance of sanity to our politics. what's going to fix our democracy is you. >> joining us now is jeremy bird, former national field director to president obama's 2012 campaign and partner at 270 strategies. jonathan alter is also here. he wrote "the center holds, obama and his enemies." thanks all three of you for being with us. jonathan, let me start with you. what's the effect of the president's speech today and others that he'll be making? this is his opening salvo for the midterm elections. but who will come out and vote, perhaps, as a result of hearing president obama? >> well, one of the most interesting things he said in a fascinating speech that i recommend people watch in its entirety was he uses a statistic from the 2014 midterms that only one in five young voters -- >> right. >> -- turned out.

if he can't bring that up and others bring that number up, democrats are not going to win the house of representatives. people think this is in the bag. there are certain complacent democrats who really think this is in hand now. it's not. the demographics of these midterm elections are stacked against democrats. they have to change that calculus. he's going to be in orange county tomorrow making a speech. i hope he's out there all fall. i hope michelle obama, who has been reluctant to campaign gets out there on the trail because it's on. as he said, this is the most important election of our lifetime. >> jeremy, president obama also spoke about democratic ideas. so, you know, we're trying to make sense of who he's talking to. he was speaking about democratic ideas, talking on the things that democrats are and should be running on. let's listen to that. >> democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage.

they're running on good new ideas like medicare for all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate debt free and democrats talk about reforming our immigration system so yes, it is orderly and it is fair and it is legal but it continues to welcome stripers and dream areas from all around the world. >> jeremy, what do you think? >> i think his message was right on. he was talking about what we need to see over the next 60 days and what i think we have seen from a lot of candidates. we have to run on something. we have to run on a vision of progress. we have to run on a vision of unity and bringing the country together. he talked a lot about the candidates out there. up and down the ticket. not just senate, not just house. all the way up and down the ticket. they're more diverse. we have a ton of women running. just dynamic interesting

candidates. what he was talking about is how important it is to run for something, to run on something and how important it is for those folks to get out and vote for those candidates. >> one of the things that frustrates me is that on a daily basis, the current president, president trump speaks a lot about things that he's done to the economy. and i always have to show charts that go back to 2008 and 2009 and show the trajectory. the president decided to get in -- president obama decided to get in on the action today talking about donald trump's claims about the amazing economy. let's listen. >> when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started. i'm glad it's continued. but when you hear about this economic miracle that's been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers and suddenly republicans are saying it's a miracle, i have to kind of remind them, actually,

those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016. >> he's talking about the monthly job creation numbers. but one wonders whether truth matters anymore. plm came out there and spoke the truth about a lot of things. donald trump doesn't. and yet somewhere between 20% and 40% of people tend to believe him on an ongoing basis. >> the amazing thing is when barack obama took office, the economy was entering potentially a great depression. not only did he lift it out of that potential great depression, he set in course the recovery that continued through the last several years of the obama administration into the trump administration. i think what we see though is because of an ecosystem that the right wing has built of politics and media, the opinion of how the economy was doing among their voters shifted dramatically so people who before the 2016 election thought republicans who thought the economy was terrible suddenly thought it was great when donald trump was president when in fact it was a steady state of an obama recovery that copied under trump. the most important thing here,

though, is the obama coalition turned out for barack obama in 2008 and in 2012. they did not turn out in the midterm elections in 2010 and 2014 or frankly in 2016 in the presidential election. now there is a chance of that coalition of young people, african-americans, latinos, others to come out and vote because we can see with our own eyes before us every day that the republican party is enabling this radical behavior, this hostility to workers, this hostility to democratic norms that we see from donald trump every day. if that obama coalition can turn out in the midterm elections we have finally some accountability and a check on this out of control presidency. >> jonathan, for people who like barack obama, they can't get enough of this stuff. is there some chance, though, that barack obama becomes the foil that donald trump loves that barack obama becomes the thing that donald trump continues to talk about? >> well, i think there is some worry about that in the obama camp.

but remember obama is 25 points more popular than donald trump. that's a pretty good margin. he can go head to head with him and trump can insult him and say he fell asleep in his speech, whatever he wants to say. most americans are siding with obama. most americans, including large numbers of republicans on twitter today were nostalgic for president obama because as fdr said the presidency is preeminently a place of moral leadership. now the ex-presidency is that place for moral leadership. and the contrast between a president of impeccable character and proven good judgment, a former president of impeccable character and proven good judgment and a current president who is of the lowest character of anybody that's ever held the office is very striking and something that democrats can capitalize on. >> ben, how long has obama been waiting to make this speech?

>> a long time. i see him all the time still. look, part of it was deference to the norm of a former president not criticizing a successor. part of it was he wanted to let other democrats express their voices and step forward and fill some of the leadership void. but it's all hands on deck now between now and the midterm election. this is important to see if we can check this president, frankly. it will help determine the outcome of the presidential election in 2020. you will see president obama out there making this very same case on the stump for candidates across the country mainly to try to turn out his supporters. he welcomes that contrast with not only donald trump but what the republican party has done because i think people can assess two brands of leadership here and frankly, i think people in this country want to see future politics that looks more like how barack obama practiced politics than how donald trump has. >> i wonder whether you can make it back to that surprise party. it's 10:38.

if it's worth a salt, it's probably still going on. ben rhodes, the author of "the world as it is," and jonathan alter a columnist from the daily beast and jeremy bird a former national field director for president obama's campaign. coming you be, beta row roark be is one of the keys for the democrats flipping control of the senate. he's storming on to the national scene and republicans in texas are scared. that's next. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer.

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campaign rally with the president next month, despite this. >> his father was with lee harvey oswald prior to oswald's being, you know, shot. i mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. >> this man is a pathological liar. he doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. he lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. >> he's a nasty guy. nobody likes him. nobody in congress likes him. nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. >> the man is immore. morality does not exist for him. >> ted cruz, he comes in bible high, bible high, puts the bible down and then lies to you. i mean, it's unbelievable. >> we're liable to wake up one morning and donald if he were president would he have nuked denmark. >> i watched ted cruz this morning, oh, i can't listen. so dramatic. can't watch. >> donald, you're a snivelling coward.

leave heidi the hell alone. >> cruz appears to need trump's help. the texas senator is currently facing an unexpectedly midterm challenge from senate candidate beta o'rourke. o'rourke is polling within 4 percentage points of cruz according to latest nbc news poll. he is running neck and neck with cruz in terms of campaign donations and a video of o'rourke defending nfl players decisions to take a knee during the national anthem recently went viral online being viewed over 50 million times. nbc went down to follow the o'rourke campaign and he joins me now. cal? >> we wanted to give you a slice of this race and the place that it's taking place in of course. we have done so with conservative talk radio as both your guide and your sound track. >> beto. beto. >> he's hip, cool.

ted cruz isn't him and cool. his new trick is to go to those places, hold a rally, get people to show up and say the things that they like to hear. >> i am concerned about the polls. i don't necessarily know where they're polling people at. >> there are people coming out in el paso. there are people coming out in fort davis. >> i don't see one ted cruz sign. i see beto signs. >> i don't see ted cruz signs. i'm concerned if ted cruz really wants to win this race, where is his people at. >> you go to some of the reddest places in texas it, places like abilene, so reliably red you can see it glowing from outer space. there is really something very special happening in texas right now. >> i talk to a lot of people and nobody i have ever even talked to, i never met one person who, are they polling, the illegal immigrants? >> to everyone in this community who gave me a chance to succeed,

i want to tell you, i'm going to make the absolute most of it right now. >> three minutes after the hour, robert francis o'rourke, better known as beto, feels it's very mirren to take a knee. >> i can think of nothing more american than to peacefully stand up and take a knee for your rights any time, any where, any place. so thank you very much for asking the question. >> do you have any response to ted cruz attacking what you said about the nfl? >> no. >> thank you. >> it doesn't appear that robert frances beto hurt himself with the ramblings on and on and on about there's nothing more american than taking a knee. as a matter of fact, it looks like it might have helped him. who are these people? >> they're american. you know, we should be able to -- if you want to kneel, be able to kneel. and if you don't want to kneel, you want to stand up, go ahead and stand up. >> i got a list of questions.

for beto, beto oh rourke otherwise known as roberto roark, do you really think you're going to win with your his pandering? >> ted cruz has been out there and he hasn't really represented anybody. especially when it comes to hispanics. he hasn't really stood up for what hispanics are for. >> >> we are going to have to talk about some of the democrat party say if we're competitive in texas it is as good as a win. i'm going to tell you it is not as good as a win. just watch the hearings that we've seen this week. >> remember the fact the polls don't indicate that turnout in midterms for republicans is much stronger than democrats. ben o'rourke would have to be running ahead of ted cruz, as opposed to what's behind. >> especially when you're polling likely voters. what's going to win this election can beto is specifically latinos who live

along the border. >> if beto o'rourke could pull out a win, that would be something. but what are the chances that texas turns blue in 2020? we'll be right back with more from cal and jeremy bird. you're turning onto the street when you barely clip a passing car. minor accident - no big deal, right? wrong. your insurance company is gonna raise your rate after the other car got a scratch so small you coulda fixed it with a pen. maybe you should take that pen and use it to sign up with a different insurance company.

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the freedoms that we have were purchased not just by those in uniform, and they definitely were, but also by those who took their lives into their hands, riding the greyhound busses. the freedom riders in the deep south in the 1960s. i can think of nothing more american than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights, any time, anywhere, any place. >> texas democratic congressman and senate candidate o'rourke in a campaign moment that went viral. jeremy founded battleground texas, an organization devoted to making politics competitive for democrats. that's the point, jeremy, it is not that o'rourke might win a senate seat, which he might, but to a lot of democrats in texas, just being able to compete for a senate seat across texas' many counties, and start to build an infrastructure is a big achievement. there hasn't been a texas democratic senator since the '80s.

there hasn't been a statewide election of a democrat since the '90s. >> yeah. it's a state that -- it is a purple state, if not trending blue, if you took the population, not the electorate. what we have to see in 2018 moving into 2020 is the electorate needs to look like the population. the democratic primary in texas doubled the turnout from 2014 to 2018, from about 560,000 to over 1 million. we're seeing that happen. you saw 2016, we were -- the election was closer in texas than it was in iowa. you're seeing that happen as the electorate starts to look more like the population. texas will become a battleground state and, eventually, will be a blue state. >> the reason some is going purple is because people are moving into texas. high-tech jobs in houston. the oil brings people in. there are a lot of hispanic voters. ted cruz is hispanic. o'rourke is not. he has a hispanic first name,

because it was a nickname as a kid. >> they're running in opposite directions on that front. >> how are -- o'rourke is going out there registering voters. >> yeah. he's visiting every county in texas, something ted cruz has not done. he provides an interesting alternative. he is a young face. very charismatic on camera. he represents the folks who live along the border. one of the questions i have though is what is the chilling effect that the administration's immigration policies have create d along the border? there are some people not comfortable putting their names on a clipboard at a rally. they don't trust the government because of everything that's happened. that has to be one of the things he's going against. >> what does success look like for o'rourke? does he have to win, or does close feel like a success? >> look, he's running to win. i think we're seeing a candidate unlike any other. he is a special candidate. you see his energy, the dynamism, the way he's running

his campaign. he's been to all the counties in texas. 259 town halls. he's out-raising ted cruz. he doubled the money cruz is raising in the last quarter. no pacs or special interests. he's running a campaign like we haven't seen in a long time in texas. he's not running to get close. he's running to win. i think the fact he is as close as he is, the kind of campaign he's running, and what he is building, that will be there for the future, that's what excites me. there's 1.2 million more voters in texas right now today than there was in 2014. the state is growing. those people are folks that, if we can get out to vote, it will become a blue state. >> thanks very much. jeremy and cal, thanks for the piece. tonight's last word is next. as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing. i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe.

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where are we taking him? i have no clue. we're just tv doctors. if this was a real emergency, i'd be freaking out. but thanks to cigna, we can do more than just look heroic. we can help save lives by getting you to a real doctor for a check-up. nurse, this thing's defective. please don't touch that. we are the tv doctors of america. together with cigna reminding you... to go, know, and take control of your health. doctor poses! cigna. together, all the way. this sunday, msnbc will present an in-depth look at the iran-contra scandal that rocked the reagan administration and

shook the public's confidence in the federal government. narrated by lawrence o'donnell, it explores one of the biggest presidential scandals in u.s. history, and includes candid interviews with a top reagan adviser. >> it is taking shape as one of the most controversial foreign policy developments of president reagan's years in office. >> it was a bombshell. the u.s. sale of missiles to iran in order to free american hostages. >> reagan's first response was to deny any connection to it. >> a charge has been made that the united states has shipped weapons to iran as ransom payment for the release of american hostages in lebanon. that the united states undercut its allies and secretly violated american policy in trafficking with terrorists. those charges are utterly false. >> he really misrepresents what he knows.

>> everything that we sold them could be put in one cargo plane, and there would be plenty of room left over. >> if i may, the polls show a lot of american people simply don't believe you. >> it was virtually pandemonium. everybody was scrambling to try to get the story straight. >> top officials in the reagan white house go into complete coverup mode. i mean, destruction of evidence. >> "this happened," secret war, secret deals, airs this sunday, september 9th, at 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. that's tonight's last word. the "11th hour with brian williams" starts now. tonight, the president intensifies his hunt for the author of that anonymous op-ed. he is asking his attorney general to find the leaker under the guise of national security. plus, sentencing day for george papadopoulos, the man at the table with candidate trump, who offered to broker a meeting with putin. tonight, his lawyer is blaming president trump. 44 goes after 45. obama is back.

he's calling out trump by name. he's rallying the dems and wondering what has become of the republican party. all of it as the 11th hour gets underway on a friday night. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 596 of the trump administration may well be remembered as the day the previous president got in the game. >> the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has, unfortunately, found a home in the republican party. >> much more on barack obama's re-emergence a bit later on in this broadcast here tonight. first, the current president is escalating his effort to find and unmask the anonymous author of that explosive op-ed piece in the "new york times." today, unbothered bid what the president would do if that happened.