pick your representative who's going to determine your future. we have this thing called google. people think the earth is flat. zboolg super easy to read. >> what does obama's shade look like? looks like that. "hardball with chris matthews" with up next. donald of arabia. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. it's hardly been two weeks since jamal khashoggi walked into the saudi consulate in istanbul and never came out. turkish officials say mr. khashoggi was murdered moments after he entered the consulate and his body dismembered.

looks like president trump is more interested in helping the saudis cover up than get to the truth. let's watch. >> the saudis are investigating themselves essentially. what do you think of -- >> they're a great, very talented people. they're not investigating themselves. >> president trump was asked today about khashoggi and an alleged recording, recordings nbc hasn't been able to corroborate. here he is. >> we're talking about a man who lived across the river in virginia. >> he wasn't a citizen of this country. >> you asked for this audio, video? >> if it exists, we have asked for it. i'm not sure yet it exists, probably does, possibly does. >> according to the state department, a spokesman there, secretary of state mike pompeo who just wrapped up a trip to

riyadh didn't even listen to that audio recording the turks say they possess. he did tell reporters that the u.s. wanted to give the saudis, catch this, space to come out with an answer. we're giving them time to cook up an alibi. let's watch. >> did they say that mr. khashoggi was alive or dead? >> i don't want to talk about any of the facts. they didn't want to either and they want the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way. >> yeah, right. "the new york times" reports that pompeo was dispatched to saudi arabia to deliver the message that, quote, a credible investigation and a saudi explanation of what happened had to be conducted rapidly before it imperiled the rest of the agenda that mr. trump and his lieutenants have devised with

the kingdom. according to multiple media reports now, the turkish government has alleged that saudi arabia dispatched a 15-member team to kill khashoggi while he was inside the consulate. earlier this week it was reported that saudis were prepared too protect the crown prince by saying khashoggi died in a botched interrogation manned by rogue agents. however, "the new york times" reporting that four of those 15 alleged killers were close to the crown prince himself. amid-this growing diplomatic crisis, "the washington post" reports that the crown prince has said to vacillate between dark brooding and rampaging anger. i'm joined by pbs news hour white house correspondent, david corn, and foreign columnist. david, are we part of an effort to find the truth or to help the

saudis with a coverup? what's our mission here? >> so far president trump in his own statements has seemed to me to be opening the way for the saudis to come up with, you know, a way to find a scapegoat. president trump talked about rogue killers having been involved. the evidence that's emerging, you referred to "the new york times" story. "the new york times" had a powerful report showing that one of the 1en to istanbul has been a close body guard with mohammad bin salman, the saudi crown prince in boston, in houston, in paris and madrid. that's pretty devastating evidence that mbs, as he's called, was himself involved in this process. but so far i see nothing from the trump administration that's really pressuring the saudis to make a complete account of this.

>> we've got an american resident who's missing, most people believe dead, most people think the saudis did it in that consulate. they had control of that room. are we using any of our agencies, the fbi or the cia to try to get to the bottom of this or have they been held back by this president? >> chris, i think that's one of the questions people need to focus on. it's something i'm looking hard at. jamal khashoggi, my colleague, somebody i've known for more than 15 years, was a permanent resident of the united states, living in virginia. that means in legal terms he was a u.s. person. if any information emerged through intelligence channels that he was threatened, there was for government officials a due

duty to warn. if they didn't learn information, why aren't they pushing harder for it? the saudis have been advertising their angry at him. those are some of the questions that need to be asked because this was not just a "washington post" journalist. this was somebody who had a status as a u.s. person living here. >> so well said. and i think just think if we had given him the heads up that the saudis were after him, he wouldn't have walked into that consulate and would be alive today. yesterday president trump was asked by the associated press if the allegations were true, would he reconsider the relationship between us and the saudis. he said i think we have to find out what happened first. here we go with guilty until proven innocent. i don't like that. that's trump talk. today he was asked if he was providing cover for the saudi regime when he said that. here's what he said now. >> i'm not giving cover at all. with tha been a very important

ally of ours in the middle east. >> david, it doesn't take -- this isn't like he's comparing it, i guess, to the kavanaugh case. we know that case. that was 36 years ago and there was murkiness. here's a case where a guy, his fiancée waits outside while he represent t goes in. he never comes out. there are 15 security agents, four or five close to the crown prince. one of them according to the "times," it was a doctor. i can't get into that because we have not corroborated it, but there's no other factor. there's only the saudis in their consulate and he never came out. >> a moment ago you mentioned the fbi and the cia. there's another agency involved here on our side, the nsa. if something happened like that in the turkish consulate, you

can bet there are communications between the consulate and riyadh back and forth, before and after, during, and leading up to that. therefore, for trump to act like he has no agency here, he can find out probably with the turks who seem to want to get this out to some degree, i'm pretty confidence the united states, if it doesn't already, can very quickly have a very clear idea. the the bottom line is that he doesn't really care. >> no, he doesn't want to know. >> doesn't want to know he wants to deal with mbs like he does with kim jong-un. it doesn't affect him directly so that means he doesn't care. >> anyone who watches "law and order," any crime show knows the police always want to get to the suspects quickly. they want to get there before the menendez brothers corroborate the story. you want to get the fresh guilt

on the record quickly. you don't see, hey, guys, take a couple days to get your story together. we're going to give you plenty of space. who gives suspects in that case of murder space to figure out their defense unless you want them off the hook? >> i'll say this. i want to go back to what the president said about this journalist. one of the things he said was he wasn't a u.s. citizen. >> what's that mean? >> we're supposed to be the leader of people who want freedom. the president would say journalists shouldn't be getting killed in consulates. >> he's saying it's not my job. don't blame me if we lose the house this year. he's done this crap lately. >> there's that interpretation and this is a president who has complex business ties to all sorts of countries, including saudi arabia. as secretary pompeo was waiting with saudi arabia, they

deposited $100 million in the state department's account to help with the fight in syria. so what you have is the saudis essentially giving money to america saying, hey, here's some money to keep you quite while we come up with our answer. >> no such thing as a free lunch. the administration's limp response to the disappearance of khashoggi led to criticism of the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, who's been in charge of the middle east's deal. kushner being into the narrative that the crown prince is a modernizing influence to the gulf country. an official tosaying kushner's views of the prince have gone under an evolution. but he initially bought into this mbs, that's his nickname. kushner told major garrett in his new book that the prince was

taking on big, bold objectives. we have to give him space to accomplish it. these places are going to become jeffersonian democrats overnight. have we given the saudis permission, too much space to do their own thing? >> i think that there has ban desire to see saudi arabia as such a conservative country, a place that was in many ways sponsoring, sometimes funding extremism, move into a more modern phase. mohammad bin salman, mbs, seemed to offer for a time the promise of modernization and change. he went after the religious establishment, allowed women to drive, et cetera. and then kushner was part of that. i reported over the weekend that kushner called mbs and said we need you to come up with a culprit who's responsible for this killing.

we need to have a process right away. and i think that's illustrative of the way the u.s. is trying to help the saudis get well here as opposed to trying to find the truth. >> you know, i've watched the american public, especially the glossier media for years try to dress up people in that part of the world that you know so much about. they play up the assad family as modern in "vogue" magazine and she's so fashionable, the queen. therefore, modern. they did the same thing with the shah's family. but organized crime isn't out of date, david. you can be a murderer and still drive the right car. why do we always fall for the gloss? >> well, chris, you raise a great question. i think americans have wanted so badly for the muslim world to move into modern western space,

and sometimes we let those hopes blind us and we don't see that these are police states. that's the face of mbs that's being revealed, the face that's basically a dictator in saudi arabia, what amounts to authoritarian regime. >> don't forget about the point of the financial interests. trump has a property in "new york times" -- >> you think he's doing this because of personal interest? >> i think he has a relationship with the saudis. he has a property in new york, it's lost money for the last two years, it's making a profit at the beginning of this year because mbs booked a host of rooms in it. this affects how he sees the saudi kingdom. >> they always get rooms in his hotels. >> you have to follow the money and understand this is a president who likes strong men. in that interview with cbs when

leslie stahl says kim jong-un has human rights violations, he says he's a great guy and he's nice to me. that tells you where the president lands on things like this. >> during the cold war when it was getting near the end we were looking for not excuses to keep it going and get it hot again. reagan would see the shooting of korean airlines in far eastern russia or killing of anderson in berlin. each one of those times he could have said that's it, we're not going to deal with the soviet union at all, but he didn't come out and say they're innocent. he didn't participate in a coverup. he attacked them but continued the relationship. i don't know why trump feels he has to help exonerate them given them this space. this new term, space, to come up with an alibi. that's what he's doing. thank you both. i notice how careful you are on this. i appreciate that. it is very tricky stuff. thank you so much. coming up, president trump

seems to want it both ways. if republicans win in november, it's all thanks to him. if they lose, it's not my job. he's actually saying if they lose the house, it's not my job. plus the message coming from republicans in the midterm races. be afraid. isn't that cool? scare tactics. they're out there again, pushing that this time. they can't sell the record or the tax cut, so they're sowing fear. it's going to help or hurt republicans? depends where you live. this is "hardball." dball..

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who's been under fire by republican opponents of the mueller probe today gave a rare interview to the "wall street journal." defending his conduct in overseeing the investigation, rosenstein said people are entitled to be frustrated.

i can accept that, but at the end of the day the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence. it comes at nbc reports the president's former attorney and fixer michael cohen today pet with federal prosecutors at his lawyer's office in new york. we'll be right back. york. we'll be right back. that's why capital one is building something completely different. capital one cafés. welcoming places with people here to help you, not sell you. with savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. that are easy to open from right here or anywhere in 5 minutes. no smoke. no mirrors. this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet?

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welcome back to "hardball." with 20 days to go before the midterms, president trump has been hitting the campaign trail hard for republican candidates with a very persistent message. >> a vote for her is a vote for me and everything we stand for. it's a vote for make america great again. that's what it is. >> a vote for mike brawn is a vote -- did you ever hear this before? make america great again. >> and a vote for steve is a vote for me.

>> a vote for david is a vote for me. >> a vote for mike is a vote to make america great again. it's very simple. >> and a vote for cindy is a vote for me and make america great again. >> get out in 2018 because you're voting for me in 2018. you're voting for me. >> me, me, me. in an interview with the associated press yesterday, that interview, the president had a different message. all of a sudden asked if he bears responsibility if republicans lose the u.s. house of representatives this fall, trump said, no, i think i'm helping people. he went on to add, i don't believe anybody's ever had this kind of an impact. in a tweet today trump lashed out at the ap for their headline calling the outlet fake news. for more, a great pollster and strategist, director of progressive programming for

sirius xm radio. why is trump not saying not my job all of a sudden or don't blame me if we lose 30 seats? >> that's his tendency to not take blame for anything. but the bottom line is that the stage was set, if you would, as soon as he was elected president that in off-year elections the party of the white house has lost members of congress. >> 29, not 30 or 40. here's my feeling. this is a bit of a push for people to get out and vote. if you're a woman concerned about what's going on, starting with harvey all the way throu , through -- i don't know how you cannot show up or vote republican if you're one of them because i'm just asking you. you only get one vote. it's binary, yes or no, dual the way things are going? that's the booth. that's all you got in there.

it's not multiple choice. you have to vote "yes" or "no." that should help democrats because they're the party that's taking on trump, obviously. >> i do think that's true. there's a little bit of nuance when you're talking about the difference demographics of women. for example, in 2016, as you know, donald trump won 53% of white women, but he lost the majority of all women. that means that black and latino women and aaip women are voting for democrats. normally that does impact the outcome of certain elections. you saw that in alabama with doug jones and you saw that in virginia. so i do think that there will be an impact and those groups will be the turnout machine that brings democrats to victory. but i don't know that it's it's one magic bullet because of the majority of white women supporting republicans historical. that may change because in the #metoo era, we're in a whole new

world where women are standing up for themselves and telling their truths and speaking out. this could be a tipping point in terms of the future of the gender gap, in terms of how it falls, whether it falls on the rep or democratic side. >> let's talk about texas, the race between beto o'rourke and ted cruz. that's one race where the president is going in. he's heading to houston on monday to campaign for ted cruz, a guy he's never really liked, against o'rourke. in a series of tweets this morning, trump called o'rourke a fake, a flake, rather, and said ted has had long endorsement of his. in the debate last night, o'rourke came out swinging and cruz, using trump's 2016 nicknames. >> senator cruz is not going to be honest with you. he's going to make up positions and votes that i've never held or have ever taken.

he's demonstratishonest. >> it's clear the pollsters have told him to come out on the attack. if he wants to call me a liar, that's fine, but john adams famously said facts are stubborn things. >> wow. he was ready for that. >> he was ready for that. >> he's much taller, i noticed, than cruz. he is, go ahead. is trump the new -- let me try something. i think cruz, why would he like trump? he said his father killed kennedy. give me a break. he did. so he invited him when he was in trouble. now he's up in the polls and i think he probably wished he didn't invite him in, just thinking. >> but the real test here is are you supporting trump's agenda? there are lots of republicans that don't like his persona, but they like his policies. there's a large group of republicans that like both. but the bottom line is that ted cruz voted 91% with the trump

agenda. that's going to make a connection between the two of them, and that's recent history as opposed to 2016. >> yes, but they're used to being told the human factor. trump's strong endorsement of cruz is surprising given the animosity between these two gentlemen in 2016. let's watch. >> i watched ted cruz this morning. i can't listen. so dramatic. can't watch. >> this man is a pathological liar. >> lyin' ted comes in and holds the bible up. he holds it high, right? he holds it high and then he lies. he lies. >> the man is utterly amoral. martial doesn't exist for him. >> his father was with lee harvey oswald prior to on his wall being shot. >> i don't get angry often, but you mess with my wife and kids,

that'll do it every time. donald, you're a sniveling coward and leave heidi alone. >> because he made fun of her looks. he said his father helped kill kennedy, his wife isn't good-looking. personal, you can't get much personal than him calling him a lying sack of whatever. >> you a azure lina, they're in love now. >> it's funny watching him muster the anger to push back on trump. but the bottom line is it shows ted cruz thinks he's in a bit of trouble because if he didn't need donald trump he wouldn't use him to campaign for him because i'm sure he doesn't want to need the help of someone who attacked his wife and said his father killed jfk, which are completely ridiculous things to do. but also ted cruz is propped up by dark money and the koch

brothers. so i do think that he feels the pinch because you see bay toe raising $38 million in a single quarter. so there clearly is a lot of energy in organizing behind the democratic party right now. that's been building over many election cycles. it's not comparable to a state like virginia, chris, but i was there in 2008 and i remember seeing the polls leading to the election. i remember seeing those polls that had john mccain up seven points leading in, and it was a moment where you put your head down and you fight through the tape. and so in 2008 barack obama was able to win virginia the first democrat to do so in 44 years. so i think bay toe has momentum on his side because he's the underdog. people do not like donald trump, all the polling shows that people are going to vote against donald trump. that's the main reason why they're making their choice for

democrats in this election. so i think, you know, we don't know what's going to happen until all of the votes are cast, but certainly there is a message being sent that people are not happy with ted cruz. >> well said. you've lost that nuance you had a few minutes ago. that's gone. thank you. clear argument there. up next, conservatives are trying to scare voters to the polls this november, the same arguments about immigrants and islamism, immigration, the usual. this is "hardball" where the action is. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven? (vo) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? (vo) a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk?

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welcome back to "hardball." risk of losing the majority in the u.s. house, republicans have waged a fear amongering campaign now to scare voters away from the democrats. since august some republicans or their allies have gone so far as to portray democrats as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers because according to "the new york times" republicans have been only marginally successful in leveraging the usual tools like bragging about low unemployment, tax cuts, a new trade deal. instead they've resorted to negative ads like this. >> he's working to infiltrate congress. he's used three different names to hide his family's ties to terrorism. his grandfather orchestrated the

steve kerr. >> reduce payments to families of americans killed by libian terrorism. >> so out of touch, he lobbied for terrorists' rights, backed billions for iran. he's done enough damage in washington. >> whoa. in each of those ads the republican claims are overstated or outright false. according to "the new york times" the democratic candidate has repeatedly denounced his grandfather's actions at the munich elections and he's a christian, not a muslim. ohio candidate was not involved in his law firm's work settling terrorism-related lawsuits that had been filed against libya. one was vin dated by the increment which ruled that detainees had a right to a

hearing. "new york times" columnist joining me. let me go to michelle goldberg about this. you know, i know from republicans that months ago, not a million years ago, they thought the tax cut which benefited everybody a little bit, some people an awful lot, rich people, would benefit them, and the deregulation would help them. it doesn't seem to, so they resorted to the negative usual scare clorows up. >> polls show that the tax cut benefited corporations tremendously and ordinary

people. a lot of people -- it's true there are a lot of people employed, but things are still very, very, very rough. people are still living paycheck to paycheck and they're still worried about what they understand republicans want to do to the social safety net. so republicans are running this campaign that still worked for them in the past. they've realized in the age of trump that their economic policies or traditional economic policies are very unpopular, and that the way they motivate their base is through xenophobic terror. >> david, your erstwhile party is targeting social security, medicare and medicaid as the cause of our debts, our deficit. in other words, the three things that trump was smart not to touch they are going after.

>> we know entitle the spending has to be rofreformed, but you can't ignore the deficits created by a tax bill that's been rigged to favor the rich that has abandoned main street families. they can't sell that, so they're selling fear, and that is an act of desperation three weeks before an election. understand having ads about national security are not new. we saw that famously in '64 with the daisy ad, we saw it in the hillary clinton/obama race with hillary in a 3:00 a.m. phone call saying i'm prepared to lead. what's different is they're not selling messages of national security qualifications. they're selling fear that brings out these cultural wars that republicans vfgt how to manipulate to win elections. >> it's not just fear of terrorism that republicans are out selling right now, it's fear

of immigration itself. last night on fox, laura ingraham warned if democrats take control of the house, they'll replace american voters with immigrants. here she goes. >> your views on immigration will have zero impact and zero influence on a house dominated by democrats who want to replace you, the american voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever increasing number of chain migrants. >> wow. what do you make of that, michelle? that's pretty direct and raw. >> one of the side effects of the nightmare of the trump presidency is that fox news has given itself increasingly to white nationalist progressed, the language of being replaced comes straight out of the marchers out of charlottesville last year. steve king who's probably the most openly white nationalist member of congress. >> from iowa. >> said you can't renew our

culture with other people's babies. at the time it was widely denounced. everyone realized that was too racist even if the modern republican party. a year later that language is mainstream in what the republican party has become. >> do you think they've tested this and that's why they're doing it? do you think that's why they're doing it, dave? >> without question. again, they know fear sells and they are pedaling this very disgusting fear when it comes to culture wars. listen, to the point that was made by the tv host, you know what? if we have greater voices of diversity in our country, whether they were born here, naturalized or em graded here, good for us. that makes you say smarter nation and makes i say more equipped to face the problems we face as a multicultural country. instead of trying to expand their coalition of voters, they're simply trying to

energize those who are left within the tent. it's shameful. go back to the national security conversation. they are attacking patriotism, like we saw the attacks on max cleveland, a vietnam warrior. we see attacks that are without question dividing us cultural as a nation and at some point we have the question the fitness of republican decision makers. >> i can why you're not a republican anymore. you can't talk like one. thank you. up next, president trump's inserting himself into these midterm elections in a huge way. but does that knife cut both ways? you bet it does. depends where you live, i think, but you're watching "hardball." . it's a long-distance run and you have the determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for over ten years. it's the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists.

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traffic and roads... a mess, honestlyrents going up,le. friends and family moving out of state, millions of californians live near or below the poverty line. politicians like gavin newsom talk about change, but they've done nothing. sky-high gas and food prices. homelessness. gavin newsom, it happened on your watch. so, yeah. it is time for a change. time for someone new. welcome back to "hardball." less than three weeks away from

an election that will determine who controls congress, both houses can split, but it is the man sitting in the white house who wants the attention drawn all to him. in the first 17 days of this month, october, alone, this president has held eight rallies, conducted nine major interviews, and made himself available to answer questions on at least 22 other occasions. donald trump is showing no signs of slowing down. in fact, he has four campaign rallies lined up over the next five days. in one of his appearances today, trump said this would only last through the midterms. >> are you going to keep up this pace of media after the midterms or is this a run-up to the midterms? >> probably not. no, this is for the midterms. we want to win. we want to get the republicans nominated and we want to get them elected. >> let's bring in the round table. white house reporter for npr, washington anchor for bbc news, and wire for the "daily beast." >> he's come back like a big

marshmallow man in ghostbuste "ghostbusters" at the end. he's all over the place. >> republicans don't hope it ends up like that, but the issue is a lot of times his poll ratings will go up when he's not in the news when can think about other things. >> why is he doing this? >> because he also thinks that he is his best messenger. the problem is you never know what he's going to say and what controversy he can start off. >> how can women not vote on trump if he's in their face. he says i'm the issue, doesn't that make you vote yes or no on trump? >> he's banking that his base is still with him. he loves being at the rallies. a lot of this is that he's really enjoying himself. but he's trying to give it both ways. he's saying that is vote for me, donald trump, i'm effectively on your ballot and then saying, but

hold on f we lose, it's not my fault. >> there's no comey report coming out before the election this time that hurt hillary. it's not like he has an easy break. there's no opponent to trump. it's just trump, take him or leave him. >> i don't know if he and steve bannon steve bannare talking, b what he told him to do at them suburban women are gone. >> you won't get them. >> but what you could do is you can get those people who came out in 2016 who were not really politically active or maybe were old democrats, and they voted for you. you can reactivate them. i don't know if he's talked to bannon, but he's followed that play book to a t. it's worked where the

consolidation -- it's the play they're trying to do. >> you can oversaturate approximate market. sunday night was a ratings failure, too much trump means you stop hearing from him on television and that can be a problem. >> he was rated 2 to 1. >> it's good for the senate where the states are redder, but it's not good for the house where you do need those suburban mothers. >> he's not going to help in the house race but he'll help the senate races. >> but the risk is that you could turn people off, and so if you have those people, new york city he's not going to get the suburban women, but there could be some republican women who are, like, do i really want to go vote right now? >> he might be able to push that the other way in montana. with trump in there, who knows? senate majority mitch mcconnell is raising the alarm about the national deficit and

blaming it on entitlements otherwise known as social security, medicare, medicaid. the three most popular programs which are the reason why most people vote democrat. and i think the republicans are insane to raise these three. when i was in this business, i would have jumped with joy. they're going after social security? they're crazy people. let's watch mitch. >> it's very disturbing and it's driven by the three big entitlement programs that are very popular, social security, medicare, and medicaid. >> the deficits have ballooned under the republican control for the last two years and have reached a six-year high climbing the $779 billion in 2018. for a party that once ran recently as 2010 and going after -- putting them as the party of fiscal responsibility, fewer republicans are making that part of their campaigns. deficits are not going to get the democrats but you go after those programs that affect every

family, they're nuts. >> president trump realized that. when he was asked by the ap about mitch mcconnell saying this, he said, what? i hadn't heard that. i don't know anything about entitlement reform. >> i watched the senate debate and tideological turf. none of it was deficit talk. but mitch mcconnell spoke the truth. the republicans do want to reform these entitlement programs, but from a political standpoint it couldn't have come at a worse time. every republican running for congress right now is running on protect entitlements, the opposition wants to ruin them and then mitch mcconnell says we need to think about this tough stuff. >> what did we learn from 2016, trump supporters, republican voters, don't want those programs touched either. there's a big gulf between the elite of the republican party in washington that preaches reform and the voters who say i like these programs. >> george will said americans

are conservative, they want to conservative the new deal. the round table sticking with us. these three will tell me something i don't know up next. republicans are going after medicare, social security, and medicaid. you're watching "hardball." ank m highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms...again. and online equity trades are only $4.95... i mean you can't have low cost and be full service. it's impossible. it's like having your cake and eating it too. ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs. how am i going to explain this? if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management.

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understand the instructions, deaf they don't hear the instructions, could have schizophrenia. >> see one behaving. >> maybe their hand is twitching near their pockets and they're autistic, think it causes a threat. >> we're near a homeless shelter. horrifying with michael avenatti, something you don't know, he's actually making serious concrete moves behind the scenes in preparation for this run he's been floating for president. he's consulting with actual democratic operatives, building out a website, purchasing voter data lists. >> why are you talking about the avenatti presidential run? >> you wanted something you didn't know. i try to give something -- fresh information. >> i appreciate your goal. >> playing by the rules of the show, chris. >> trying to limit it to the real. you really think he's got a shot? >> i didn't say that. >> the point is, he's running,

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trump watch wednesday, october 17th, 2018. the president of the united states as you've heard has been defending the right of the saudi crown prince to the presumption

of innocence. jamal khashoggi, however, an american resident, walked into the saudi consulate in istanbul two weeks ago. his fiance waited outside. he never walked out. we know this because the surveillance cameras show him going in but don't show him coming out. where does this establish an assumption of innocence on the part of the saudi government into whose consulate mr. khashoggi walked into but never walked out? where does this establish a presumption of innocence when according to turkish officials there were 15 saudi agents waiting for mr. khashoggi on the other side of that door? where are those 15 agents, including people close to the saudi crown prince himself, at least one of whom has been photographed with the prince all around the world. well, the reports of what went on in the istanbul consulate range from the horrific to the grotesque. the reports suggest that mr. khashoggi's life ended in the most ghastly way, separated from people who valued him and cared

about him. he can be sure the saudis will end up with some cover story, a way to get someone at a low level to take the fall. why is the president of our country, that has long taken the high ground in this world agreed to be an accessory to the fact of this horror? why is this country's chief of state bending so low to serve the cover-up? that's hardball for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in". >> these could have been rogue killers. >> first rogue killers, now a new alibi. >> it depends whether or not the king or the crown prince knew about it. >> tonight as trump provides cover. >> i'm not giving cover at all. >> growing concern the president is helping the saudis their khashoggi story to protect his own business interests. with former cia director john brennan and senator richard blumenthal. >> spent 40 million, 50 million, am i supposed to dislike