until last night. i never expected the are red sox to roll over them and make a great team. a team that looked historically great look that bad. >> it turns on out the red sox are historically great. 108 wins. even as a yankee fan, i'm so happy for david price. he was shut down. he hadn't won a game in the postseason ever and he was absolutely dominant last night. the red sox, i have news for you, are the best team in baseball. >> jonathan lamere, we may have to at some point admit this because we predicted the yankees sweep at the end of the season. we predicted the yankees were going to beat us in the playoffs. we predicted the astros were going to beat us in the playoffs. but my gosh, one game after the other after the other. the red sox were extraordinary. you look at the entire series, our hitting and our extraordinary defense in the outfield, probably the best defensive outfield in our lifetime. they came together and we got a

great performance by price. got a great performance by valdi. we won it by doing a lot of things right. >> what we have been doing saying they were going to lose this whole time has been working. >> we will be swept. >> that's a nice run. it has to end here. sorry about that. >> 115 wins and our record on the road is just unrivaled. >> well, it's been knignice. the much maligned bullpen, stepped up here, even craig kim brell who had been a heart attack came through. he was bringing that out with him on to the mound and for him to finally get that monkey off his back, you can literally go

for it. >> he just looked nervous. he looked pand. >> and you could hear him in the interviews after the game saying oh, i don't have to think about this in spring training with, i don't have to hear about it throughout the season. but importantly, last night was a double header because you had a great red sox astros game. then you flip over to colbert. >> we had our stuff going last night. david price, look at me, the hair. >> the bright tie, the contrast between the shirt and the tie. >> this has been -- >> no, we were throwing the hardball so mika, which leads us actually to -- i look scared. i was scared. >> and then joe came up to me and said --

>> no. >> please stop that. that's just -- turn those off. thank you. >> oh, my gosh. long week. >> but, you know, it lines up. while we were doing that, you had the sox game. earlier you had donald trump giving another one of his pep rallies and he's been doing every two years. and what a contrast it really brought up. because we were asked the question on colbert, what is the democrats' message? who is the one democrat who has inspired you that's put the message together? and i will say for once in our lives, we sat there stunned. we had nothing to say which really, mika, leads to a reason for a lot of americans to ring their hands 18 days out from the election. what's the democrats' message? >> you would think we're doing so well right now, susan. are we -- like do we have this thing the down for the midterms?

>> well, the we -- i'm not sure what we -- >> i'm talking about democrats and i'm asking you from your perspective, does it look like democrats have this down for the midterms? >> they should, but -- things just keep happening. i mean, whether it's elizabeth warren or other things and they the don't have a clear message. the one thing that they do have going for them was they did a lot of really good candidate selection for individual races. so in the swing seats, you see very good potential. just can based on the candidates that were chosen. >> but the look at the big picture, and let's face it, as important as these midterms are for democrats, i see an unfocused and uninspired campaign. donald trump remains the chaotic centerpiece of this midterm campaign. but what else is there, brett kavanaugh, health care, foreign policy? what is the democrats unifying message? who is their marquis candidate? history tells us that democrats

should do well with a republican in the white house. but with 18 days to go -- >> only 18 days to go. >> the democrats have yet to fight this election on their terms. what is their message? that is how you create a wave. think newt gingrich's contract with america. think the tea party's war on obama care. bill clinton, of all people, says it's better to be strong and wrong in politics than right and weak. trump is wrong about so much, but he struts from rally to rally acting supremely confident. he is a bloated giant on the national stage who gives americans easy answers even if they are all wrong. democrats have produced exactly one national star. >> and this guy could lose by double digits. >> that's right. beta o'rourke could lose by ten points. think about this.

politico's lead story speaks the amazing truth to democrats. it's not impossible that despite the train wreck that is the trump presidency, republicans could keep control of the senate and the house. that's where we are. this morning, joe, willie and i are going to talk to two of the top democrats in charge of this campaign. senate majority leader chuck schumer and tom perez. the question we will be asking this morning, besides raising money, what in the world is this democratic party doing to check the most destructive parts of trump's rein? the answer they give matters. here is the president last night in montana laying out his campaign themes in blunt terms. >> this will be an election of kavanaugh, the cara van, law and order and common sense.

that's what it's going to be. it's going to be an election of those things. and we're doing a lot of good. the democrats have truly turned into an angry mob bent on destroying anything or anyone in their path. the shameful democrat mob. these people are starting to think of it as a mob. the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs. >> democrats -- why don't we go the other way. democrats support constitutional pillars. republicans support saudi killers. why don't democrats do things like that? >> that would work. >> come on, man. tell me, is there a message? you're the message man. what is the message? >> i'll tell you the message very simply is that it's the vote of a lifetime. vote for children because they can't vote for themselves

because they're taking away your health care. the swamp is getting swampier. we are losing our way as a country and we have a campaign called vote for me because i can't which is basically children saying delivering all the messages. the rich are getting richer. we are losing our way as a country. it is that desperate right now. the problem democrats have is they don't have any messenger on top of the message. you mentioned contract of america. contract of america went to contract of america without newt gingrich. but the central theme has to be health care. they're taking your health care away. the rich are getting richer. >> whenever we have these sort of conversations, we've had them just like we had them when we were -- that hillary clinton didn't have a message for two years. we've been complaining that the democrats don't have a message that's breaking through. and then people complain on twitter, oh, it's health care. oh, we're talking about -- really? is it health care?

because i'm sure not -- i'm not hearing any national message. i'm not hearing local messages in a poll that shows there's 14 out of 100% of americans think they're there's issue with health care this year. >> health care, jobs, rein in trump. those are the things president trump is talking about on the campaign trail. he's talking about jobs, he'ses talking about the economy. you may not like what president trump is saying at those campaign rallies, but it's clear what he's going after. the mob. i've improved the economy. i've fixed your life. america has become great again. democrats are race by race, i will say. if you go into iowa or if you go into missouri with claire mccaskill, they're talking about health care. so race by race, they understand about health care being the top priority, but you don't hear that as a national theme whatsoever. >> and we don't know that that breaks through. susan, somebody was talking to

me last night about how depressed the democrats were. they're just depressed right now. it's hard to think about the election. i'm sitting there going, you know, as a former republican, when we lose, we get really angry and reknock people's heads off their shoulders. and everybody -- it's just a natural instinct. they did something wrong to us. we're going to go after them. we're going to knock their heads clear off their shoulders. and don't say, oh, those republicans, so awful. that's what bobby kennedy did. that's what mario cuomo did. cuomo didn't sit around and, like, oh, i get beaten by the -- by the assembly. i mean, cuomo would go out. he was a strong, tough liberal. who is the democrat? this is a strong, tough liberal or the strong, tough moderate or the strong, tough conservative democrat that's going to lead this fight.

>> right. people want to see strong, tough leaders. and it was interesting. mike moore was on set and he said when he was speaking to steve bannon and bannon said the difference between you guys and us is that we go for the head shot every time. you guys are using pillows. you're having a pillow fight. that was the difference. i think that's interesting. and it goes even to the point on health care, instead of going after aggressively the problems with health care and telling the stories, they're not. but it's also a problem because health insurance rates are not up in double digits this year. they stayed steady or dropped the in some cases. so i think that was a hiccup that the democrats didn't plan on. >> so newt gingrich is a democrat right now. he would get on stage and he would do something like -- you know what? donald trump, he's going to kill you. he's going to kill you and he's going to kill your family. you know what? he lied through his teeth to you in the 2016 campaign. what did he say?

you were going to have better health care. it was going to be cheaper health care. it was going to be more expensive health care. lie. you're going to die. lie number two, goal to make you -- lie number three -- he is making you unhealthy and there will be somebody in your family that will die because of the lies of donald trump. he's a liar. and this isn't just lying about the budget. this is lying about killing your mother, about killing your grandmother, about killing your child. that's what the republicans are doing. that's what newt gingrich would do. who -- i mean -- >> joe, part of the problem with this, see the way you're delivering that message with passion, with rage? the problem is there is no messenger. if you look at a republican commercial that just ran, they put up bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, michael avanotti, they put up these characters, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer. there is no fresh aggressive

rageful voice. so not only is the message not there, on a national stage, you need a messenger. there is no messenger. >> how is that possible after all the angers the democrats had? they're going into a presidential election, they're two years away and there's no mess engineer something that's a real problem. >> and by the way, you look at the women's march, the first weekend donald trump was president, there were a lot of angry people there. and it wasn't an angry mob. democrats, this one is on me. are y'all ready? >> we're ready. write this down. >> okay. >> we're not.an angry mob. we're angry moms. we're angry moms because you want to take away our children's health care. we're angry moms because you want to gut our can children's education. you all are talking about ripping money out of our children's classrooms. you want to get social security. we're ainge ary moms because we have to take care of our kids.

we also have to take care of our moms in nursing homes. you're slashing medicaid. that's throwing old people, that's throwing our moms and our dads and our grand moms and our grand dads out in the street. susan, i'm just saying this as a republican. i'm not really angry this morning. the red sox won. i'm making a point. it's just not heart. why do democrats make everything so hard? >> they did it once before. don't you remember paul ryan pushing grandma off a cliff? they tried it. and that actually kind of work. but you're right. it's so easy for us to kind of talk about it and get riled up, but i just don't see how at this point in time the democrats are worried about getting the house. it's scary that they have not been able to lasso that group of people that for two years have been going out to rallies, that have been outspoken against this president. the kavanaugh hearings, everything. they can't anchor that anger. and that's their biggest -- that's the biggest obstacle.

>> and, folks, jonathan lamere, you haven't been staying up all night watching red sox games and throwing your arms around in the morning like i have. you are actually a reporter. what's happening out there? are democrats confident? i know their base in, but i'm talking about the politicians. the politicians aren't linked to their base, it seems to me. >> yes, there is a degree of being unfocused and contrast that with president trump. he may not like or agree with his message, but he delivers it night after night. this is what he thinks the final push is going to be about. they think the kavanaugh hearing for republicans, who were very pessimistic, now feel that the senate is all but assured they would keep and they feel like yes, they're is it still batting

some headwinds for the house, but they feel like they have a shot to hang on to it. they felt that the kavanaugh hearings, the anger, their man got on. we will see if that will still happen. but now we have this cara vanish which newt gingrich mentioned again this morning, saying it will be kavanaugh and the ca caravan. so much of this was about stalking up fear or concern about immigration and he's doing it again now. >> to your point, here he is laying out kavanaugh and caravan. >> i think two words are going to define the night of the 2018 election in the next three weeks. one is kavanaugh and the other is caravan. >> as you know, i'm willing to send the military to defend our

southern border, if necessary. all because of the illegal immigration onslaught brought by the democrats because they refuse to acknowledge or to change the laws. they like it. they also figure everybody coming in is going to vote democrat. >> willie, everything he just said there is a lie. i'm not saying oh, maybe this part -- no, it's all a lie. there is not an immigration onslaught. we've talked about the numbers over and over again. barack obama saw immigration go down. he's never going to send troops to -- it's all a lie. so instead of democrats getting angry about it, why don't you come up with a message? like if somebody lied about me, i'd tear them to shreds. i'd pick it apart and tear them to shreds. one time i said to a guy, he was saying some ugly things about

me. and i don't want to offend anybody this early in the morning. but i went up and i whispered to him that everybody told me not to attack you. they told me to stay away from you. i want you to know, if you punch me in the stomach again, i'm going to kick you in the face until you don't move. your family is not going to recognize you. >> ree torically, of course. rhetoric. ly yes. i said you can keep running your ads, but if you do, i promise you i'm going to destroy you. that's your mind-set in the campaign. donald trump is lying about children. he's lying about immigrants. he's lying about everything. he's lying with about the democrats. sthoo they should be angry. and they should focus their rage on a message that actually -- they've had two years to respond to this message. they still are just sitting

there going, he's lying. that's not enough. >> the president is going to send troops to the border like he's going to build a wall across the expanse of the board he. it's all to keep that ball in the air. these are migrants. we can talk about what the caravan actually is. but, you know, the head shot that was referenced by steve bannon is impeachment. and that plays right into president trump's hands. he loves impeachment talk. what that says to him is he can go out and say they wanted to overturn your fair and free election. interestingly we've heard nancy pelosi say time and time again, we don't want to talk about impeachment. it's now clear, though, what that head shot is in place of impeachment. what are they going to talk about? >> so the head shot, were i a democrat, were i in charge of this campaign, it would be

corruption and donald trump's rich billionaire buddies, trump can talk about how he's turned washington into a sewer and he's there skimming the money off the top and how donald trump has created a plutocracy. he's creating winners and losers. he passes a tax bill and then he flies down to mar-a-lago on his private jet, he sits around the table with his billionaire buddies and he says, quote, you all should love me. i just made all of you lots of money today. you can't make a 30-second commercial out of that? show fat trump. show fat people all around. just show them from the waist down. just show these fat oligarchs around the table at mar-a-lago eating their caviar, slicing their steak and spilling wine all over with their fat little

fingers -- no, you can see it, can't you? >> yes. >> and have the quotes around his words. this is donald trump's washington. >> the rich are getting richer. they're taking your health care away. there's corruption. we've lost our way. we are not the america that we all believe in. i saw a very -- i feel a very sad thing post kavanaugh. there was rage even if there wasn't a message. as i talk to people, they feel defeated. they almost feel like instead of getting angry after the kavanaugh thing, i saw a real switch leading up to the kavanaugh thing. and then it was you talk to people and it was kind of, well, we can't do anything about it. it doesn't matter. >> that's what we were talking about. the difference between republicans and democrats. you do that to a republican, they're up all night going, i'm going to knock their head off. >> the other message, the real message is -- and people need to understand this. you can't put this in an ad. we are heading to facism.

i know that's insane. if we don't get the house back, look at the last two years of what's happened. multiply that by three. multiply that by five. >> what does that mean? >> you can't say that in message, but that, to me, is the scary part. >> it doesn't mean anything because democrats or liberals have accused over republican since 1960 of either being a facist, a nazi, or a member of the klan. i get the quotes. every year since 1960, they have accused republicans of being nazis, facists, kkk, you name it. what are you going to do specifically? >> specifically, they're taking health care away, the rich are getting richer. you've been duped. vote for your children you because it's start to go slip away. >> by the way, nobody here for bloggers advocating violence, steve bannon was the one who talked about the head shot. he was talking rrhetorically, r?

>> he was. >> we're talking more of a mind-set, mika. you get beaten in a supreme court pick, you don't go away defeated. you go away angry and you come back ready to, rhetorically, knock their heads off. democrats need a whole lot more of that over the next 18 days. >> and it's a tricky thing to navigate verbally because we have a president who advocates violence. and you just have to be careful because you say one thing and they all overrespond to you. still ahead on "morning joe," politics and the free press in the age of donald trump. a saudi-born columnist is murdered for criticizing the kingdom while the american kingdom praises a republican congressman for physically assaulting a reporter. that's what i'm talking about. that's still to come. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. cancer.

it's very personal. at cancer treatment centers of america, we use diagnostic tools that help us better understand what drives each person's cancer. like christine bray. after battling ovarian cancer for several years, her test results revealed a drug therapy that targeted her tumor.

today, christine's metastatic cancer is in remission. we're not just fighting cancer. we're outsmarting it. visit cancercenter.com. appointments available now. takes more than just investment advice. from insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest.

i call it my "comfortable future plan," and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. should happen everydred five hundred years, right?sional fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting. with drones to assess home damage sooner. and if a flying object damages your car, you can snap a photo and get your claim processed in hours, not days. plus, allstate can pay your claim in minutes. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands?

do you remember jamal khashoggi is dead? >> it certainly looks that way to me. it's very sad. certainly looks that way. >> did you learn anything new from secretary pompeo today in your meeting? >> just that we're waiting for some investigations and waiting for the results and we'll have them very soon. and i think we'll be making a statement, a very strong statement. but we're waiting for the results of about three different investigations and we should be able to get to the bottom fairley soon. and i'll see you on the plane. >> mr. president, what are you considering for possible consequences for saudi based on those -- >> well, it will have to be very severe. i mean, it's bad, bad stuff. but we'll see what happens. okay? thank you. >> so, jonathan, that was president trump yesterday when he was being asked, he's actually moved -- >> well, he's being moved. >> well, he doesn't get moved -- >> whatever it takes. whatever it takes.

he's being moved now to a pretty strong position which is while jared is quietly telling people behind the scenes, it will just go away, which is absolutely shocking that he would say that, but maybe it's not shocking. maybe it's just disgusting that he would say that. donald trump, though, actually has been moved to the point where he said looks like he was killed. if that's the case, we are going to have a very severe response. >> the sense is where does that trail lead? does it lead to mbs? does it lead to the king? and i think if that determines what the united states response will be. there is a suggestion that there's the idea of a fall guy being created here on the saudi side that can be blamed, that could perhaps lead to a leader punishment, if you will, from the united states. but, yes, he has moved. when i spoke to him, we did an interview with him earlier this week, the ap did. at that moment, he was still floating the the idea of the rogue killers, that he had this conversation with the saudi king. this a came up during the talk

that this the something that might have happened. certainly not a piece of information that appeared to about be in any sort of u.s. intelligence. >> you know, willie, nobody ever does the sort of things that they need to do when they're in a crisis. nobody ever takes the dramatic step that they need to take. but it's very clear that mbs is forever stained with the blood of khashoggi. forever. he will never be accepted into polite society. saudi arabia will always have this dark stain on them. you know, if this were a corporation, if this were a business and the saudi king were the ceo, he would say, son, we tried. didn't work out. you got over your skis. i'm going to have to name somebody else to run the country. that is what the saudis need to do today. they won't do it. >> they won't do that. >> but you know what? they need to because he can't work through this. he's finished as a respected

leader on the international stage. if you're saudi arabia and this guy is 33 years old, are you really going to be an international pariah for the next half century? people aren't going to need oil forever. that's an awfully risky move for them to make. >> and i think mbs thought he had more cover than he has with the united states because of his friendship with kushner, because he thought donald trump had his back in a way that he maybe didn't quite understand. he took this incredible step, apparently, to have a journalist murdered and now he's realizing as the businesses flow out -- >> mnuchin, by the way, that's a surprise. >> mnuchin cans canceled his attendance and the president has begun to distance himself from the prince telling allies he barely knows him.

>> oh, here we go. >> based on how the republicans came out so fierce against it, they said all those other relatives that got put in prison, they have a lot of friends here, a lot of money. a lot of people got screwed here and a lot of people on this side have been rooting against him from the beginning because those other crown princes and those other brothers and those other cousins were all -- they had tens of billions of dollars taken away if them. and that money, in a lot of ways, had a lot of friends over here inside the beltway. and so you're starting to see that rise. >> the enemy -- the saudis, if they don't know that this is coming, they need to understand this is coming because they're -- everybody that's dealt with the saudis, i have not, say they're extraordinarily arrogant. at least this crown prince is. but the king needs to understand people around him need to item te tell him, you've seen money go away. your investments are going to dry up.

silicone valley will be next. silicone valley has a real saudi problem. all the lobbyists, they're next. and then people are going to be going to colleges, supporters of free speech, supporters of journalist, and suddenly they're going to start seeing their universities divest in saudi arabia. that's going to happen because you cannot saw up a washington post columnist while he is still alive and behead him while he's still alive and take his body parts across turkey and bury them. you can't do that and still get investment from colleges. and you know what happens then? state pension funds. are you really investing in a country that saws up washington post journalistes while they're still alive? cuts off their fingers while

they're still alive? is that -- are those the values of this state? are those the values of california.? and it all drys up. so they've got a couple of choices. they can do what donald trump is doing right now and say, i barely know him. this was an experiment that ended badly. you're under house arrest, son. and then put somebody else in power there or they can be in the wilderness for 50 years. it's a pretty stark choice for saudi arabia. >> i described this horrific murder. to make it even sicker, coming up, we're going to tell you about a disturbing whisper campaign to undermine jamal khashoggi to try and help out the president. we'll have that coming up next. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver.

this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed? let's say it in a really low voice. carl? lowest price, guaranteed. just stick with badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com if you're waiting patiently for a liver transplant, it could cost you your life. it's time to get out of line with upmc. at upmc, living-donor transplants put you first. so you don't die waiting. upmc does more living-donor liver transplants

than any other center in the nation. find out more and get out of line today. but before you do that, you should meet our newest team member, tecky. i'm tecky. i can do it all. go ahead, ask it a question. tecky, can you offer low costs and award-winning wealth management with a satisfaction guarantee, like schwab? sorry. tecky can't do that. schwabbb! calling schwab. we don't have a satisfaction guarantee, but we do have tecky! i'm tecky. i ca... are you getting low costs and award-winning wealth management? if not, talk to schwab.

wait, the saudis need to understand "the washington post" is not going away. >> i don't think they're friends with the times, either. >> the guy that runs "the washington post," you know what that guy did? he took on the catholic church. the catholic church, the most powerful institution, certainly the most powerful institution in boston, he went to a boston newspaper and he took down the catholic church. you are so arrogant to think you're not going to see this for

the rest of the your life? you are so arrogant to think they're not going to pick your country apart every day? you will never have a day's rest. it will follow you and your country and your finances and your personal lives every second for the rest of your life. you screwed up. there's a stronger word you'd like to use but i've used it on this show once so i won't use it again. they're coming after you. and they're not going to stop. and they're coming after you not with saws, not with bullets, not with bribery. they're coming after you with facts. and a team of angry journalists who aren't going to leave a scrap on your country's bones unless you do something and clean this mess up. >> and the "washington post" is reporting on capitol hill whisper campaign to sneer jamal

khashoggi. it is reportedly led by some on the right. in an effort to defend president trump against criticism he appears to be defending saudi arabia's leaders over khashoggi's disappearance. four gop officials tell the post that in recent days, some conservative house republicans, who are these people? allies with trump have been privately exchanging articles from right wing outlets that fuel suspicion of khashoggi. highlighting his association with the muslim brother shood and his youth and raising conspiratorial questions about his work decades ago as an embedded reporter covering osama bin laden. yesterday, the rumors surfaced during a panel on fox news. >> now some things have come out and we're just reporting the facts. you know, lisa, we don't have to fall down one way or the other on this, but khashoggi was tied to the muslim brotherhood. >> that's iffy, harris, to say that he was tied to the muslim

brotherhood. >> what was it, then? >> throughout his career, he was a government spokesperson for the royal family. and at times had written and worked with some muslim brother members in saudi arabia. but he was always a -- >> muslim brotherhood. >> a spokesman or a journalist. so i mean, he's been tied one a lot of people -- >> can we sympathize -- >> i just put it out there because it is in the.contell la -- constellation of -- >> some people are using that to discredit him. >> i'm putting it in the mix. i'm just putting it out there. i'm just saying. like i'm just putting it out there. a complete lie. i'm just going to put it out there because that's my responsibility, to lie. that's incredibly irresponsible. >> a complete lie. and if you look at what a -- >> what a disservice. >> what the sleeaze merchants o

talk radio and other outlets are doing, they give sleazy a bad name. they're actually saying that he's affiliated with al qaeda. because he was a reporter. like a lot of reporters who reported on osama bin laden in the 80s and the 90s and the mujahadin. that's like when your father was working to try to overthrow the soviet government in afghanistan. >> yep. >> worked with mujahadin. guess what? that's what we're trying to do when we were trying to win the cold war. >> you have to understand history to be able to decipher that. >> but it's incredible. i guess if people want to ask how low the far right, the sleaze merchants can go, this is a pretty good place to start. this is a pretty good case study. >> time and again, we've seen

this. certainly those in the conservative media who carried his water. there are people out there willing to give him cover on no matter what issue it is. this is a case, i know we're talking about this. it seems like trump is start to go distance himself from the royal family in riyadh. but the trump administration has bet big on mbs. they have made saudi arabia the linchpin of their middle east strategy to try to come up with peace in the region and certainly iran. and it is going to be difficult for him, then, to untangle themselves. so right now in this precarious moment, the president's allies are out there doing his work trying to give him cover. >> and you know what else doesn't work in middle america, willie and donnie? smearing a guy who is preaching reform against saudi sheikhs who carved his body up while he was still alive. that doesn't play well in peoria or tuscaloosa. >> forget politics. on a purely human level, if

you're you a part of the smear campaign can, think about what you're saying. think about what you're saying. you're saying a man who went into a consulate to get a marriage license and left in pieces in a bag after he was tortured and murdered, he's the bad guy? >> wow. >> that's what you're saying. you're saying he's the bad guy. >> just putting it out there. >> think about what you're doing. it's pathetic. and what are they going to do now, donnie, that donald trump, the president of the united states, whose bidding they're doing, seems to be moving in the other direction saying i think he was killed and it does like like mbs -- >> like everybody else, trump will leave toxicity in his path. i made a joke before we were going to break and alex yelled at me. little jared kushner is going to be very upset because his crown prince buddy, they're fought going to be able to do future dealings together and jared will be so upset because he had such a nice -- >> what's that voice you have? >> that's jared kushner because

his crown prince dbuddy who has worked so hard -- >> whose voice is that? >> that's jared kushner. >> no, it could be use. >> the little crown prince is -- >> stop it. stop it. >> i just can't stop it. >> well, no, listen, jared was hanging out all weekend with mbs. all weekend. right before he did what he did with the saudi -- the other saudi princes. he was there all weekend. and then he leaves and, boom, suddenly everybody goes under house arrest and gets tortured in the ritz and you wonder whether jared gave him the go ahead. listen, you do what you want to do. we're not going to bother you. >> the woman pushing back what marie harf, a former obama state department spokesperson pushed

back on those fox hosts suggestions that jamal khashoggi, a washington post columnist who was murdered at the hands of the saudis, that he wasn't clean. i don't know how gossip and rumors and smear campaigns enup being parroted by the press. that is as disgraceful as -- >> it is. fox news has done a good jobs at times over the past month or so calling people out. >> trying. >> and, boy, they should be saluted for that because that is so important. they need to call that out. >> i hope management does something. >> they need the call that out. >> coming up -- >> and by the way, we'll call donnie out. >> i can't help it. >> this is a deeply personal story. it hurts when a member of the press is treated this way and you have a president who calls the press the enemy of the people. and we have a press under siege when most of us are trying to do our jobs and stick to the facts. anyhow, coming up, president trump promised the biggest venue

in texas for his rally with ted cruz. turns out his campaign might not have been on the same page. we'll explain that ahead on "morning joe." >> go aggies. come on. i'm ken jacobus, i'm the owner of good start packaging. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back.

that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare. can i say it? what's in your wallet?

always a catch. like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's just here on the hilton app. just available to the public, so... book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay.

joining us now director of polling at the institute of politics at harvard university and steve kornacki is here. his new book "the red and the blue the 1990s and the birth of political tribalism" is on sale now. >> it's sold more than the guttenburg bible. >> my sister bought it. she loves it. >> he's projected past "gone with the wind" by saturday.

>> we have done an incredible service for the democratic party this morning. we have predicted them doomed. which means it is going to be the biggest, most glorious blue tsunami that has swept across the american landscape since 1974. are we being a bit too skeptical about democrats keeping this in play too long? >> i keep thinking there are two things happening simultaneously here and there's one segment of the country where democrats are doing even better now than they were doing a couple of weeks ago. in that segment of the country gets them to the cusp of the house majority and maybe over. that's the suburbs. they are consistent across the board. >> so consistent saying kavanaugh hearings actually helped democrats in suburban -- >> yes. the white college educated white

suburbanite. extremely motivated. in the past willing to vote republican for their local congressmen. >> in suburban districts there's enough of them to make democrats the majority party. >> potentially. i think there's enough to get them to the cusp of it. where the issue comes in and where it gets complicated, kavanaugh effect in the suburban areas that boost democrats there. if you want to call it a kavanaugh effect, say it was a natural thing that would happen anyway, when you get to districts where trump carried, get to districts that have rural portion in them things look more complicated. that's the piece of it where democrats are feeling more optimistic a month ago than they are right now. >> willie, i'll play dan rather on election night. i can tell you right now. we have another poll out of a state you know an awful lot about where suddenly 14-point race has become tight as a tick on an el paso night. >> if a frog had side pockets he

would carry a six shooter, joe. vanderbilt university poll, margin of error race, bredesen with a one-point lead. this goes to what we were saying was an outliar poll. >> let's see. this could be an outliar. here's what you got for a month. >> this is the taylor swift effect. >> you have bredesen plus one. so i tend to say average those together and i still think there's a shift in tennessee that we've seen being consistent in these other red states. i will say, there have been two polls since labor day inton that put bredesen ahead. one pollster found bredesen ahead in two polls.

>> the last couple of days we've seen a real tightening in this race, which we predicted of going to happen post-kavanaugh. one week out from kavanaugh democrats, let not your hearts be troubled. two weeks out you're going to see even more of a snap back, especially with all the horrors that are happening in u.s. foreign policy. but when we talk about tennessee, he can win. the democrat can win in tennessee. beto, a little tougher. what's getting in both of their days when they are clearly superior candidates, tribalism and you dug deep on tribalism in america. tell us about it. >> we just released a survey with real clear politics. we found five significant tribes that reflect the american electorate. the resistance is easy-to-understand. 90% oppose trump. 26% of the electorate. on the other side 26% are with

the right but there's a fissure. 12% call them make the america great segment. >> let's keep that up and if you're driving your car, the trump base is 12%. why is that important? it's important, john, because more and more people are talking about a gop challenge to trump in 2020. we were really surprised in mississippi when we had this sort of semi focus group. every republican said pence, nikki haley, oh, yeah i would consider voting for them. >> what divides two of them. they agree on economic policy but trump base is more concerned about state of capitalism, concerned about the minimum wage. mainland gop look like democrats when you look at the diversity of america, america makes us stronger. if there's any crack in this base it's likely to be around

the role immigration, diversity plays in making america stronger. one segment that doesn't get enough attention is what we're calling the independent blues. they were plus 12 for hillary but plus 20 or so now in democrats. slightly more neal than male. they agree with democrats on a lot of issues. health care, education. they don't think the federal government -- sometimes they prefer state government. i think of indemnify as a modern day reagan democrat. in particular they are concerned about the over use of political correctness, and americans have become too politically sensitive which draws them closer to the right. >> how energized are they to vote? >> they are energized. this is the difference we're seeing in these swing states. i think back to the 2004 obama speech in boston. they want to feel okay about having a flag at their house or going church without being looked down on by other members. >> doesn't that push them

towards trump and away from super progressives. >> that's why they are independent. the issues align them with progressives on cultural issues they are in the middle. they are the collateral damage of the culture war. >> it overstates, from everything i've heard, i'm sure you've seen it too, political correctness. the democratic party seen as being overly political correct, overly sensitive on every slight whether it's gender based or race based. by being, by overreacting in these spheres these independents believe. it's like when donald trump says things that are truly racist and truly offensive, they sort of brush it off and say i got extremists on both sides here. what aboutism. >> i start to wonder if democrats do have a big day in november, if they get a piece of power, the dynamic can change too because i think everything in politics ends up being reaction to something else.

we'll talk about what the reaction to trump has been. if democrats become the majority party in the house and the democratic party has moved left in the last two years what's the reaction? >> we're approaching the top of the hour and be joined by senator chuck schumer. >> he's here to talk about the democrats, also he's here -- i'm sure he's wearing a boston red sox cap. >> i'm sure he's not. >> we'll continue the conversation with him. john, can i ask you about this group called detached. 24%. who are they? you say they are the youngest of the five. where do they lean? >> they are depatched because they kind of check out of politics. what will make them reattach is the result of another survey in terms of school shootings. when we were trying to motivate young people we had a question

of 16 different issues that they helped develop through six town meetings across the country. from immigration to health care and jobs. school shootings was number one on that list. and those that can motivate these young people need to focus on that issue. i think this is a generation that is traumaticized and energized and we can see them coming together on this issue. >> also, of course, you look at the two things that, obviously, mika and i have seen with it our children. everybody else has seen it with their children. they have grown-up and seen one school shooting after another. for them it's not ideological. >> they are scared. >> it's like kids growing up in the '50s and '60s thinking their math class will be interrupted by a bomb. >> the way in which other

generations think about taxes and budgets that's how we think about life and death. >> access to higher education, cost of college insane. makes no sense. some of our parents went to school for free. places like uc berkeley. >> we're focused on the economic agenda of this generation in the upcoming harvard poll which will be out in a couple of days. >> we see a red sox fan in the audience. >> he's walking away. senator schumer is here. john, thank you very much. the senator will take your seat. as we reset here at the top of the hour. >> go sox. we'll see you tuesday. >> thank you, john. we have president trump in montana last night. we'll start there and then we'll talk to the senator about the democratic strategy leading up to the mid-terms with 18 days to go. here's president trump in montana at his rally last night. >> this will be an election of

kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense. that's what it's going to be. it's going to be an election of those things. and we're doing a lot of good. the democrats have truly turned into an angry mob. bent on destroying anything or anyone in their path. the shameful democrat mob -- these people are starting to think of it as a mob. the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs. >> all right. so apparently gilbert the guy who created bilbert recommended that rhyme. it's kult the president of the united states hears from a cartoonist that writes "dilbert"

and gives him his punch line. democracy in america. senator schumer, so glad to see you. >> congratulations. i don't know who to root for. i hate the red sox but we hate the dodgers. the three most evil men of the century, hitler, stalin, o'malley. every time they come up with some nobody, bradley, hit them out of the park. there's something special about that team. they hate them. they are special. i admire them. congratulations. grudgingly. >> we admire the yankees too. so, the first hour we've been asking what's the democrats message. >> what's going on? >> there are a lot of depressed democrats now post-kavanaugh. what's your message in this hour of power to get them up out of the pews and contribute to american democracy? >> amen. >> okay. >> now, very simple.

first and foremost, better health care at lower cost. it's the number one issue in america. >> what's that donald trump says. >> except he's raising the cost and people know it. let me just say this. mitch mcconnell gave us a gift in the last three days. he showed who the republican party really is. they won, cut medicare, medicaid, social security. day, two remove 30 million people from health care. day three, join a lawsuit that gets rid of pre-existing conditions. health care, you know -- someone shows you who they are believe them. that's a game changer. what mcconnell did in the last three days is a game changer for us. >> so number one, he talked about cutting entitlements. i want to go to number three because the president is saying republicans will always support pre-existing conditions. republicans all running around scared saying we all support

pre-existing conditions. let's not put too fine of a brush on this. that's a blatant lie. explain to people watching why that's a lie. >> i said to the president yesterday not personally but on twitter, if you really believe it, drop your lawsuit. right now the president has a lawsuit that will cause pre-existing conditions to go away. 19 republican attorneys general joined it including two running for the senate. they are so scared that they are being hammered on this lawsuit, they say i'm really for it. if you're really for it, get off the gd lawsuit. >> willie. >> the other thing you've raised is the deficit. which republicans and conservatives have preached about for generations as you know, blowing a hole through the debt, blowing a hole through the deficits, a trillion dollars by next year and yet there's this tax cut that loin anticipateds to that. is there something in there for democrats to hit republicans with. >> absolutely. >> have they been doing that

effectively? >> yes. this election is neck and neck. and as i said, mcconnell gave us a gift. that's a game changer when he shows who he is and really wants to hurt people. >> shouldn't be democrats be ahead by 20 points. >> i'm talking in the senate. in the house it's not neck and neck. a year ago if i came on the show and said it's neck and neck you would have said forget about it. in states where we thought we were way behind we are next and neck. in states where we thought we were neck and neck we're ahead. number one reason, let me go back. health care. abc. cbs. fox news. number one issue health care. every poll show they favor democrats by 15 to 20 points. we're closing on that issue and help us just have victory in state after state after state including place that people didn't expect. >> let's talk about nevada, a

state where john ralston said yesterday if the hispanic vote is 13%, 14%, democrats win. 11%, 12% it's a toss up. 10%, republicans win. i'm sure you've heard the statistic. over 50% of hispanics report that they have not been contacted about this election. are the democrats going to reach out and touch their natural base over the next 18 days? >> absolutely. >> why haven't they yet. >> we have in a lot of places including nevada where we have a strong turn out operation that's been going on for years. and the hispanic community, guess what their number one issue is. surprise, health care. >> shouldn't they be voting for democrats. >> they will. the hispanic turn out, we have found, is first on our side by large margins. and on health care you talk about navy, dean heller he's on tv in commercials that we put

on. i'll never get rid of health care. i will never vote to repeal aca it hurt too many naevadians. >> what's the combination of victory that has you winning the majority. >> it's neck and neck, as i said. i won get into specific states. but across the board we're doing better in places that we never thought we could. >> where? >> all over. you name it. you name the state we're doing better than we thought. >> north dakota. >> heidi heitkamp, that's our toughest state, but heidi heitkamp is the best retail politician i've ever met. north dakota has 600,000 people. >> did she make a mistake the other day -- >> she apologized. they know how much she has done for north dakota. the soybean farmers are getting hurt by these tariffs. heidi has done so much. she's opposed the democratic party on certain issues. >> why is she behind in the

polls. >> the second toughest state we're running in. it's a very republican state. did you see who endorsed him yesterday? >> yeah. >> nick sabin. the one person who is more popular than anyone else, i won't name the name in west virginia. >> were the kavanaugh hearings helpful to democrats or republicans or both? >> let me just say, it energized both sides. we knew things would close in september. the states we're running in talking about the senate not the house, you always have republicans going back. so we knew it would close. what's happening now in the last week, the tide is moving back in our direction. because, number one, i'm sorry to say again and again, it's health care. health care. health care. and they are losers on it. then mcconnell says what he says. it's like a closer for us. >> what did he say again? >> he said three things number one because of the deficit created by the huge tax break which mainly went to wealthy

people and they can campaign on that any more. number one he said because of the deficit we got to cut medicare, medicaid, social security. day two, he says we ought to repeal aca. repeal aca. kick 20 million people off health care. last poll 54% americans support it. day three he supports the lawsuit that gets rid of pre-existing conditions. >> so entitlements, and get rid of aca 20 million people and number three, pre-existing conditions. that's a lot right there. >> i was struck a couple of minutes ago. looking at the different segments of american society. he talked about political independents and tipped through a number of areas where trump and republicans are very vulnerable with them. he said one thing that's complicating the equation, they

detest pc culture, political correctness culture and maybe they sense the democratic party and liberals in general are, don't see it that way. is there too much political correctness in this country? >> i think there is too much political correctness in this country, but i think health care is far and away the dominant issue. there's a lot of political correctness on both sides all the time and it's not the biggest issue. not even close. biggest issue with independents is health care. number two is drain the swamp. we have health care, lower cost, better health care. more jobs. infrastructure. and three, drain the swamp. independents, that's the sweet spot for them. >> speaking of drain the swamp, you say you're overperforming every where. that raises the question new jersey. you have a candidate running for re-election who had a hung jury in a federal corruption trial and your party pumped in $3 million into that campaign. >> bob menendez has done a great

job for new jersey. one of the most hardest-working. but mr. hugin embraced trump. donald trump has hurt new jersey more than any other state. close to a million commuters use the gateway tunnel. he's oppose toitopposed to it. which state was hurt by the tax cut? new jersey. as the voters learn that mr. hugin and mr. trump are one, he's going down. bob menendez has worked so hard for new jersey, and they are so hurt by trump that menendez will win wayne by more than people think. >> senator, we saw that in the summer the corruption actually was the biggest issue on voters minds and it's when the generic ballot was the strongest for democrats. and i hear you today give you

know the three things that mitch mcconnell said, you lay it out very well. but where's the energy? where's the punch? where are we going? we're so in the weed on these things. you said you could write a perfect script. you only get 30 seconds for a script. how do democrats play on that moving into 2020 and tart getting behind something that can solidify them. frankly the republican party, my party is in shatters. >> we have one theme that we can run on in every state. you look at the republican races, they don't have anything. they tried the tax bill. that didn't work. they tried immigration. that didn't work. so now they are busy name calling. i'll take health care. substantive issue which people care about over all the name calling they are doing in every state. >> i think they have brett kavanaugh and i think they are proud of that. >> they may be proud of it and a lot of people aren't and it's energized a lot of people. look at the little

contributions, the 15s, 20s and 10 dollars, that shows the enthusiasm. look at the mobilization. we're finding in our get out the vote operations, volunteers. we have -- they are flooding the headquarters in state after state, even republican states. the democratic enthusiasm is incredible. i cut my eye teeth in the vietnam war. okay. i was protesting, i was against the war, nonpolitical. i've never seen more energy in the street. that energy in the street toppled the most powerful man in the world, lyndon baines johnson. >> who are your stars for 2020? >> we got to fight hard in 2018 and then we can talk about 2020. i'll tell you this we'll focus on issues that matter to people and the republican party is learning that their sort of diversionary issues are not the

core. >> the president seems to be moving towards conceding thatia ma -- jamal khashoggi was killed inside the saudi consulate. he's moving in that direction after a briefing with the secretary of state. if that's the conclusion of u.s. intelligence he was murdered and ordered by the crown prince, not as a political or emotional matter but as a practical matter what should be the punishment from the u.s. government >> first, the president moving so reluctantly, somehow when he finds these dictators doing brutal things he likes it. that's very bad. this is a broader point for the united states. we've always been not only the strongest power in the world and god bless us and god bless our military. they are great. but we've been the moral beacon. the shining city on the hill. that not only is a morally right thing to do, it helps us because when we're the shining city on the hill and we profess

democracy and freedom the rest of the world follows. if when we don't, as donald trump is doing now, emulating dictators, that reduces all these barriers in the world and dictatorships hurt us. >> what do we do. >> we should say to the sawsaud. there are ten ways from sunday to show saudi how angry we are. if the crown prince continues in this direction he won't last very long. >> what are the top three of those ten things we can do? >> we have all kinds of political, military and intelligence alliances with them and they need us. their enemies are iran. i'm not a big fan of iran, as you know. we can do many, many different things. this isn't just one this stance. what they are doing in yemen, bombing a school bus. how many children were killed? i don't remember the number. but it's horrible.

it's not going serve him. he came on as this reformer. that was working great. he has a lot of enemies. when he loses support for his white hat reform and starts wearing the black hat, he's going to lose out within saudi arabia. he's making a huge mistake and i can't quite figure it except maybe that's his mentality. >> senator chuck schumer thank you very much for being on. >> i'm not going say go red sox. i won't say go dodgers. >> all right. >> and the giants. where is barnacle? we've not had a good year in new york sports wise. tell the giants owners, offensive line. >> message has been sent. we'll see if it's been received. thank you very much for being on. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> i'm doing okay, i'm president. hey, i'm president. >> the republican health care

plan, while they are laughing, 23 million americans lose their coverage. protection for pre-existing conditions gone. medicaid slashed. and older americans hit especially hard. all to give huge tax cuts to the rich. another broken promise by politicians. >> i am going to take care of everybody. everybody will be taken care of. >> donald trump's republican party, bad for your health. >> in may of last year our "morning joe" producers whipped up that mock ad on which issues democrats could focus on leading up to the mid-terms. we just heard from senator schumer on that. up next the chairman of the democratic party, tom perez joins the conversation. we'll ask him. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. ♪ (woman) one year ago today mom started searching for her words.

and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide.

discover.o. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. - [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system.

unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. >> i don't care about politics. look i don't care about pokemon

but that doesn't mean it won't keep coming back. that's what people in power are betting on that you will check out, you won't vote. when you opt-out, that's what allows other people to essentially fill that void. it allows them to do nothing about the things you would like them to see government do. if you want to throw a wrench in their plans, throw them out. vote in somebody better. >> former president barack obama in a new video making the the case against some of the excuses americans give for not voting. our next guest is leading the effort to mobilize democratic voters, chairman of the democratic national committee tom perez joins us now. also with us, professor at princeton university eddie jr. and professor' u.s. naval war college and author of the book "the death of expertise" is on

board. >> i get halfway through econ 101 and then drop the course. tom, i'm hearing it. the word is getting around. it's disturbing a lot of democrats. a report that over half of the hispanic voters in america say they have not been contacted by anybody about getting out and voting. one, that true? two, if it is true what are you guys doing about it over the next 18 days? >> it's all about outreach. it's all about the, blocking and tackling. our operation, our investments and the hour is not just the dnc it's the whole democratic infrastructure, eco system. our investments are more than any other mid-term election. >> how do you reach that specifically. if you gate good hispanic turn out you win arizona and you win nevada. >> we have out registered

republicans in nevada 6-1. latinos, east las vegas. registering voters. in pennsylvania, in florida we purchased that area code. folks that had to leave the island because of the storm settled in florida. we go to a vendor, give me the area codes that have been pinging for a month. we identify hundreds of thousands of puerto ricans in florida. 80,000 in pennsylvania, and we're organizing right around them. organizing infrastructure is morrow bust than any mid-term cycle. we've been contacting these folks for quite some time. we got a lot of partners. democrat primary turn out was up 89% this year from 2014. not just lieutenant, asian-americans, african-americans, rural voters. we too often ignore rural

voters. and the energy is there. right now it's all about blocking and tackling and all about talking -- >> you just said it. it's all about blocking and tackling. you can talk about what donald trump did over the past two years. but it is knocking on doors, i.d.'ing voters, getting them out to vote. will republicans beat democrats again. >> wisconsin, you know wisconsin, we have had the largest investment we ever had in a mid-term cycle. by the way, there are 12 governor races right now, republican governors where we have an opportunity to flip them. we invaeftd year ago, there was a race down in the southwest corner of wisconsin where a state senator in beet red trump territory was able to win that race. in april state supreme court race. because when he an organized infrastructure on the ground, that democrat wins by 11 points.

scott walker is in trouble and that's because we organized, organized early, organized every where and fielding candidates every where. in ohio the state legislature, every state house seat and every state senate seat has a democratic candidate. that hasn't happened before. that gets people excited. >> professor tom nichols, i'm wonder if your impression is the same as mine. a guy that's voted republican my entire life, i find myself in a strange position now -- >> how are you going to vote? >> wanting democrats to provide a check on donald trump over the next couple of years. but i've been extremely frustrated that after the kavanaugh hearings, a lot of my democratic friends are like oh, this is so terrible. they just seem beaten down. it's not exactly the dna of the republicans we grew up with, is it? >> no. and on this, i should add by the way i represent my own views not the naval war college. on this i'm on the side of james

madison. i think the answer for america is divided government. we tried one-party rule. it wasn't worked out very well. but i think you're right that the republican approach to this has been strangely empowering of one party, majorityian, strong executive government which was never really our bag. the democrats do seem kind of defeated by that or disspirited by it and in mid-terms that makes a difference. republicans will show up as they always do. >> eddie, are you discouraged? >> hell no. >> that's what i'm talking about but that's because you're from mississippi. >> i don't feel it. >> i'm not discouraged at all. the interesting thing is this. i've been listening to you all morning. this is a rhetoric trap. if democrats come out and do the thing we just said, republicans almost have an immediate response. >> who cares. republicans don't care.

you go after them. you don't care rhetorically if you're punching the guy in the face what he says to you while you're punching him in the face. republicans don't care. is the answer to democrats is to stop caring what donald trump says. >> i agree. when you get popped in the mouth you need to know how to respond after you get popped in the mouth. the challenge democrats face, the moment we say go on the attack, accused of going low, the moment when they go on attack it actually plays into a republican rhetorical strategy of being the victim. which has been part of a kind of reactionary kind of politics since the time of edmond burke. the idea of being victimized by liberals, victimized by moral hypocrite, victimized by these limousine rich folk have been the basis of mobilizing republicans for a long time. when we hit back it almost feeds into the loop.

>> how hard is to it say, wait a second, poor victimized republican, you won the supreme court, you won the house of representatives, you won the senate, you own the presidency, you own the bureaucracy, you got your own state-run television station is what people would say. yeah. they come back at you trying to be victims and you just mock the hell out of them because they run the world. they are a monopoly. this is like -- you know henry ford in 1912 whining about, you know, somebody that's got a horse and buggy factory ten miles away from detroit. it doesn't make sense. >> president trump's entire presidency and campaign is built on victimization. now it's the world. we're being treated unfairly. but to eddie's point, mr. chair

marc anthony, i want chairman, i want to ask about that. you've had cory booker say surrounding them where you see them. we got to come out and punch back. donald trump has taken that, again, to eddie's point and used that as a rallying cry. these mobs in the street. he's calling them mobs out there. do you think it's a good idea for democrats to talk about those kinds of things? should democrats follow ted cruz into restaurants and make a scene and post that on social media. is that a good approach? >> here's the approach we're take. this is the vote of your lifetime. they are trying to take away your health care. they are will take away your medicare, medicaid and social security. that's what's on the ballot, folks. if you have a pre-existing condition they will make sure you don't have access to health care. if you have a high bill for pharmaceuticals they won't do a damn thing about it. we're fighting for your health care. we're fighting for your education. we're fighting for your future. we're fighting for our

democracy. we need guardrails in washington because of the culture of corruption and the reason why i talked about florida and wisconsin and ohio and these states, we need to win these governor seats and we can because these are 12 year election cycles and people understand that phone evers when he becomes the governor of wisconsin and gretchen in michigan, they will be in the driver seat for redistricting. house playing field is not level. >> you're talking about issues and rightly so. >> we're talking about health care. >> the president wants to talk about your tactics. do you believe this idea that erik holder put forward which is the anti-obama doctrine when they go low we kick them. >> when they go low we go vote. our blocking and tackling, joe, is better than it's ever been before.

and, again, this is the vote of your lifetime. >> i love that, because i've gotten into a scrap with people that go into restaurants scream at people and make all these scenes. i'm like no, no. don't waste your energy doing that. >> vote. >> set up phone banks. knock on doors. >> everybody who -- >> just said it perfectly, i'm just a dumb country lawyer. i wish i thought about saying that, when they go, low we vote. >> that's it. that's how you beat them. >> if you listen to the chairman's message, the tone of what you just said was assumptive, strong. they are taking your health care away. this is your vote of the lifetime. you had a strength and a presence without sounding victimized or whiney and both what you said and the way you said it chest out, strong, this

counts, this matters, vote of your lifetime, taking health care away, stand up, be counted, we're the good guys. that's the tone. so i just think if everybody is listening to what you just said that's it. by the way you do the big message with one thing. they are taking your health care away. you know it's a bit of an exaggeration. >> hold on a second. you say it's an exaggeration. say it as a republican, mitch mcconnell talking about social security, medicare, medicaid. you got republicans running around suing to take away pre-existing conditions. the white house is right there with them. so are all the republicans. and then donald trump is promising to take away health care for 20 million people. that's pretty simple. >> tom perez, thank you very much. >> we'll ask tom about saudi arabia and what's next.

>> plus on the campaign trail last night president trump praised a congressman who body slammed a reporter last year telling the audience he's my guy. >> he was actually charged with a crime. >> we'll play that for you straight ahead. >> he's talking about mobs? pleaded guilty. he's talking about mobs? life was tough in cuba in the 60's. my mom was fired from her job, so she started making cakes to support us. the first account that we opened was with bank of america. since then, we have grown exponentially. to me, food is love. and i think food brings people together. everything in life is about giving back. you're only as good as what you leave behind, when you leave this world. ♪

hais not always easy. severe plaque psoriasis 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. more than 250,000 patients have chosen humira to fight their psoriasis. and they're not backing down. for most patients clearer skin is the proof. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems. serious allergic reactions and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. join over 250,000 people who have chosen humira. ask your dermatologist about humira & go.

by the way, never wrestle him. you understand that? [ laughter ] any guy that can do a body slam, he's my guy. we endorsed greg very early. i heard he body slammed a reporter. i said oh, this is terrible. but wait i know montana very well it might help him and did it. >> president trump praising a republican congressman who was charged and pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter last year. >> you know what's amazing in that image. there were 27 faces behind the president. all white. when have you ever seen a politician stand up at a rally and not show some mosaic who we are. >> there were two points of

context here, joe we should think about. that was right after he was talking about the left wing mobs. the mob who surrounded people in restaurant, who protest judge kavanaugh in the halls of congress. in the next breath he talks about a congressman who pleaded guilty to beating up a reporter. physically beating up a reporter. second point of context is the murder, the apparent murder of jamal khashoggi. what's in the headlines front page of every newspaper a reporter "washington post" columnist who was brutally tortured and murdered and he's been hedging with the saudi government about whether or not that happened. >> throughout the campaign donald trump repeatedly said beat up protesters, i'll pay for your legal bills, drag them out. that's how they did it in the good old days. what's your take on a president that's praising a reporter being beaten up in the united states, and at the same time dragging his feet over what's going on in saudi arabia with a virginia resident? >> first, the comments about the

gentleman in montana were awful standing alone if nothing else happening in the world. you don't want to see president of the united states encouraging violence against journalists. it's not who we are. but to make that comment at a time that a journalist who works for "the washington post,""," a resident of the united states has been dismembered and murdered is awful. it's just a continuing pattern that the president really admires people who engaging really strong arm tactic, whether it's putin killing people in britain, or the saudis killing people in turkey, both nato, countries, by the way. he has an admireiation for that kind of approach to things. >> tom, did we turn a blind eye to the dark elements in our party. i ask as a former republican who defended my republican party

against charges that we were racially insensitive, that we played to the lowest common denominator. were we blind to that in our party? >> to some extent. i think sometimes we wanted to believe that everybody was in the party for the same reasons that we were. we didn't want to look too closely at some people standing next to us or pumping their fist or part of a rally and that we were, you know, sharing a ride with people that we didn't want to think too much about. so, i think some of it was a blind eye, some of it was tribalism, some of it was the natural imperative of being in a two party system and always wanting to win those fights. but, yeah, we have some things to answer for in terms of turning a blind eye and not listening to things that should have been pretty obvious to us. >> saudi arabia has been an ally for those of us who believe -- i'm not speaking for you, i'm talking about myself, that iran's growing power in the

middle east needs to be balanced. what do we do now? how do we remain in an alliance with a country that would carve up while still alive a "washington post" columnist? >> we can have disagreements with our allies and we can have crises with our allies but we have to be who we are. we have to take a stand for what's right. we had falling outs with our allies in the past when they've become undemocratic, going back to greece or turkish coup. we can do this, but we can't, our going in position can't be to looker to way and say well bad things happen what are your going to do? that's not a policy and that certainly done reflect, in my view, done reflect who we are as americans. >> tom nichols thank you very much for being on. please come back and join us once again. still ahead just over a week

since hurricane michael slammed into florida's panhandle and the recovery effort is still in its early stages. our team went down to one of the hardest hit areas to see what's being done help the commune there. those inspiring stories are coming up. i know that every single time that i suit up, there is a chance that's the last time.

300 miles per hour, that's where i feel normal. i might be crazy but i'm not stupid. having an annuity tells me retirement is protected. annuities can provide protected income for life. learn more at retireyourrisk.org

discover.o.can provide protected income for life. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. cancer survivor. surviving for five years is a big deal. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives.

at ctca, they have a huge celebrate life event. that was amazing, because the whole day was about all of the survivors. i'm excited about my future. visit cancercenter.com to schedule an appointment now. i'm ready to crush ap english. i'm ready to do what no one on my block has done before. forget that. what no one in the world has done before. all i need access, tools, connections. high-speed connections. is the world ready for me?

through internet essentials, comcast has connected more than six-million low-income people to low-cost, high-speed internet at home. i'm trying to do some homework here. so they're ready for anything. all too often day's big headlines are drowned out by president trump and one of those important stories is the recovery efforts along the florida panhandle in the wake of hurricane michael. you remember, i think it was -- who was the man in the oval office going on and on, kanye. who was it while this was all going on. we have a report on some of the hardest hit areas for a firsthand look at the aftermath. >> reporter: at daybreak we drive south down a highway 98. timber and steel lay twisted across stark landscape.

we pass the air force base. the hangar in ruins. we arrive at mexico beach to find residents already there to salvage what remains. >> it's destroyed inside and just trying to get out what we can that we can't replace. >> realizing the door blown in, roof came out, windows blown out. stuff went down the stream. >> reporter: this is where you live with your kids and family. >> the park was down the street. it's gone. just hard. >> reporter: did you ever imagine this was -- >> i wouldn't have ever imagined it would happen in my lifetime. it has and you deal with it. you keep smiling and thank the gloord good lord i got my family. >> there's disaster every where you see. things can be replaced. people can't. >> it's horrible the devastation. the people, wow, amazing. >> everybody is so positive

here. >> we're blessed. we're standing. we're alive. >> what we're seeing right now is a lot of minor injuries, trauma injuries, cuts, scrapes, stuff like that. seeing some ine have not sought treatment. so now the injuries are affected. >> 70% of the town is completely gone. >> most of these people out here, they don't know what to do next. we're trying as best we to give them shelter, food, water and make sure that they're stave. communication is still an issue. there's a lot of running, four, five streets down that hand live. >> people are going forward. >> tom, here here, what do they need to do to make this effort a success? >> there is an amazing gap between needs and availability of health care in this region. the hospitals are mostly closed.

this clinic we are standing in, is one of the only free clinics people can come to and pay nothing for health care or medicine. this is an incredible important clinic for people that lost nothing, everything. >> no lights. >> so what are the needs here in this community so hard hit which the hurricane in. >> most of the medicines people have lost medicines in the hurricane. >> the people have, the medications are blown away, literally. >> you are all a part of this. it's your community. . >> it's pull us all towing so well. in a week, the recovery's fantastic. i'm falling apart right now. i have been survived. we put talks on them. the insurance company has come tomorrow. we will make it.

>> reporter: we head north, a community coming together over a hot meal. many of the residents here were trapped for days by downed trees. >> the roof remembers it fell in and cut my arm. i didn't go to the hospital that day tshls trys were blocked, had me blocked in. >> i would say, how is it working? . >> it's working. it's working, fingers are working. so you cut the tendon up here the triceps? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: what are you going to do with that piece of metal when you get home? beat it up with a hammer in. >> yes, sir. >> we had thousands of people come through here, the thousands of lives. >> absolutely. i shed a lot of tears. at night i try to hide it during day when people come up to me, try to set their emotions. it's harvard to see somebody else go without nothing. a lot of people here don't have nothing. >> our classmate put on facebook, he was up here cooking. >> reporter: he was cook income a wheel barrel. >> in an actual wheel barrel.

i was like, oh my god, we came, my daughter, we have been serving every day. i don't care who drives up, what you drive up here, come up here and get a free meal. >> having people look you around is a blessing. >> that's all i want to do is be a blessing to somebody. we thank you all for coming and listening to us little town folk. it mean a lot. everybody forgot about us. we need this. our community need this. nobody know about marion, florida. nobody, but now they go. >> and dr. dave campbell who also reported in that piece joins us now along with louis, he did a great job and it's good to have you here. it's staggering what you all saw. >> and dave, when you called me from you know basically my back yard. >> yeah. >> you said this was the worst hurricane you've ever seen with

the exception of maybe as bad as andrew. you are saying that as a guy that is a florida native and lived here almost six decades. >> yeah, through an drew, through all of the other hurricanes that have come through and to see a small area like mexico beach devastated and knowing that that area of the panhandle is very highly concentrated post. lots of people have no insurance. there are lots of unprivileged people with medicaid cost sharing, which is almost like not having insurance. if you have no money. >> who is giving up the medicine, that clinic? >> that was a church-based group that americares was able to connect with. they're a big ngo humanitarian relief company. what's most impressive about the panhandle, all that relief we saw was church-based. >> you know, i think the big wake-up call for a lot of us

were those first morning after picture from the drones that travel over mexico beach. you said,py gosh, it looks like a nuclear bomb drop there. i listened to your interviews and the optimism and the gratitude and the silver linings they found. at least they have themselves, theirselves and their families. i have to imagine that's the only thing that gets you through on day one going forward. >> the sense of communities we found with blacks, white, browns, rich people, poor people coming toke over a hot bar-b-que grill to cook food brought in by others from their freezers the food is going bad the lines of individuals to get a hot meal is staggering. >> i have to say in mississippi after katrina, i was shocked that while the deposit was letting everybody down, not shocked. i was actually surprised and thild to see the churches all stepped in, in a huge way, it

didn't matter what denomination it was, what color the people in the church were. they all came towing. incredible relief. >> i'm a southern boy, but there is something about what i just saw the power of community in a time of crisis. the south presents all sorts of trouble but it's also i guess a colonel of what the country can be. but i want to ask you a question, as we saw human beings joining towing to respond to the crisis. did you see the presence of the federal government anywhere? were they around? >> some. >> fema was there. we had in the concentrated mexico beach area the next was there. we had the wonderful opportunity to interview mayor gillum from tallahassee a stalwart defendant of the areas in the panhandle

and his presence really brought a lot of people together down there, he was out in the field helping out. and i found that the combination of the state the federal, and the churches was really astoupding. >> and we'll be covering this more, hearing more of that. is this a part of your district in. >> it was to see all of tindell destroyed causes a problem as far as the military goes. the human suffering is just beyond words. i mean, but again to see those people coming towing like they did, it is so inspiring. what a message for all of us this morning. >> dr. dave campbell. thank you very much. still ahead, president trump comes up with a new slogan to try to rally republicans ahead of the mid-term elections. plus, new reporting that some on the right two are allied with president trump are mounting a whisper company to smear washington post columnist jamal

khashoggi. this as u.s. intelligence officials say it is inconceivable the saudi prince had no living to his death. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. it was here.

i couldn't catch my breath. it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. i needed answers. my doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's natural blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. for afib patients well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of stroke. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® can cause serious,

and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. welcome back to "morning joe." it is friday. october 19th. still with us, republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan del percio. white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan la mere, johnny deutsche is here. let's face it, as important these mid-terms are, i see an unfocused and uninspired campaign. donald trump remains the chaotic centerpiece, what else is there?

brett kavanaugh? health care, foreign policy? what is the democrat's unifying message? who is their marquee candidate? history tells us that it's a given that democrats should do well with the republican in the white house. but with how many days? 18 days to go. >>? only 18 days to go. >> the democrat versus yet to fight this election on their terms. what is their message? that's how you create a wave. think newt gingrich's contract america, think the tea party's war on obamacare. bill clinton of all people says that politics is better to be strong than wrong in politics than right and weak. trump is wrong about so much. but he struts from rally to rally acting supremely confident. he is a bloated giant on the american stage who gives americans wrong answers, even if they are all wrong. democrats have produced one national cycle. >> one star.

and guess what. >> this guy could lose by double digits. >> that's what we're looking at right now, beto o'rourke could lose by ten points. think about this politico's lead story speaks the amazing truth to democrats. it's not impossible but despite the train wreck that is the trump presidency, republicans could keep control, listen carefully, of the senate and the house. that's where we r. so here is the president, last night in montana, laying out his campaign themes in blunt terms. >> this will be an election of kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense. that's what it's going to be. it will be an election of those things. >> we are doing a lot of good. the democrats have truly turned into an angry mob, bent on destroying anything in their

path. the shameful democratic mob. these people are starting to think of it as a problem the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs! >> democrat. wait until we go the other way, democrats support constitutional pillars. republicans support saudi killers. why don't democrats do things like that. c'mon, man, tell me, is there a message? you are a message man. what itself the message in. >> actually, we have been working with democrats. next week -- >> what's the message? >> i'll tell you the message is it's the vote of a lifetime. vote for children, because they can't vote for themselves. they're taking away health care the swamp is getting swatchier. we are losing our way as a country. we have a campaign vote for me because i can't. which is basically children dlifg all the messages, the health care taken away the rich

are getting richer. we are losing our way as a country. it is that desperate right now the problem is the democrats don't have a messenger on top of the message. you mentioned contract america. it wouldn't have been contract america without newt gipg rich. the central theme has got to be health care. they're taking your health care away. the rich are getting richer. >> that's the thing. whenever we've had these conversations. we had them when we were -- complaining that hillary clinton didn't have a message for two years. we have been complaining that the democrats don't have a message that's breaking through. and then people complain on twitter, oh, it's health care, oh, we're talking about -- really, really, is it health care? because i'm sure not hearing anything e any national message. i'm not hearing a local message. we have a poll that shows 14 out of what 100% of americans think health care is the issue this year. what is it? >> well, that poll matches up,

health care, jobs, reign in trump. those are the things president trump is talking about. talking about jobsch his economy. are you better off now than two years ago? you may not like what president trump is saying on those campaign rallies, but it's clear what he's going after the mob. i'm i i've improved your life. america has become great again. democrats are raised by race, if you go into iowa, they're talking about health care, so race by race they understand about health care being the top priority, but you don't hear that as a national theme what sophie. >> we don't know that that breaks through. you know, susan, somebody was talking to me last now how depressed the democrats are. they're depressed. >> it's hard for them to get -- it's ha ready to think about -- i'm saying, you know, as a former republican, when we lose, we get really angry and we knock people's heads off their

shoulders. and everybody -- it's just a natural instinct. they did something wrong to us we're going to go after them. knock their heads clear off their shoulders. don't say, oh, those republicans, so am. that's what bobby kennedy did, what mario cuomo did. cuomo didn't sit around, oh, i get beaten by these simply. cuomo would go out. he was a strong, tough liberal. who's the democrat? this is strong, tough liberal or the strong, tough moderate or the strong, tough conservative democrat that's going to lead this fight. >> right, you make a good point. people deep want to see people depressed. they want to see strong, tough leaders. it was interesting, mike moore was on set a month ago. he said when he was speaking to steve bannon. bannon said, the difference between you guys and us is that we go for the head shotf time.

you guys are using pillows. you are having a pillow fight. that was the difference. i think that's really interesting. it goes even to the point on health care. instead of going after aggressive will i the problems with health care and telling the stories, they're not, but it's also a problem because health insurance rates are not up in double digits this year. they stayed steady or dropped in some cases. so i think that was a hickup that they made. >> newt gingrich would get on stage and he would do something like that you know what, donald trump will kill you and kill your family. you know what, he lied to his teeth to you. what did he say? you will have better health care. it was going to be cheaper health care. test going to be more expansive health care. lie. you are going to die. lie, inb two, we're going to make you -- lie number three. he is making you unhealthy. there will be somebody in your

family that will die because of the lies of donald trump. he's a liar. this isn't just lying about the budget. this is lying about killing your mother, your grandmother, killing your child. that's what the republicans are doing. that's what newt gipg rich would do. through, i think. >> joe, a part of the problem, the way you are delivering that message with passion, with rage the problem is there is no messenger, if you look at the republican commercial, here are the faces they put up, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, michael avenotti. they put up these characters. there is no fresh aggressive rageful voice. so not only is the image not there, there is on a national stage, there is no messenger. >> how is it possible after the anger they had after the 2016 election. they're two years away. there is no messenger. that's a real crime. >> by the way, you look at the

women's march the first weekend donald trump was president. a lot of angry people there and it wasn't an angry mob. here we go. democrats this one is on me. are you all ready? >> we're ready. >> write this down! >> gosh. okay. >> we're not an angry mob. we're angry moms. because you want to take away our children's health care, we're angry mobs because you want to gut our children's education. you all are talking about ripping money out or our children's classrooms. we're angry moms because we have to take care of our kids and our moms, in nursing homes. you are slashing medicaid. that's throwing old people. it's about moms, our dads, our grandmoms and grand dads out in the street. this is a republican? >> i'm not really angry this morning i'm making a point.

it's not hard why the democrats make everything so hard. >> they did it once before. don't you remember paul ryan pushing grandma off the cliff? it worked. it stuck with it. you are right, it's so easy for us to kind of talk about it and get riled up. but i just don't see how at this point in time the democrats are worried about getting the house? it's scary that they have not been able to lasso that group of people that for two years have been going out to rallies that have been outspoken against this president the kavanaugh hearings, everything. they can't anchor that anger and that's their biggest obstacle? >> folks, jonathan and me, you haven't been staying up, you are throwing your arms around. are you a reporter. what do you see out there? are democrats confident? i know their base s. i'm just

talking about the politicians the politicians aren't linked to their base, it seems to me. >> they emphasize, we were talking earlier about the push on health care, that they feel good about. yes, there is a degree of being sort of unfocused and contrast that with president trump who you know you may not leak his message or believe his message. he delivers it night after night. we saw yesterday he very much distilled it. he i had it out. this is what he thinks the final push will be about. they think the kavanaugh hearing that were pessimistic now peel that the senate is all but assured they will keep. yes, they are batting head winds for the house. they feel they have a shot to potentially hang onto it. think think the kavanaugh hearings and the anger that unleashed, that that has not dissipated yet. we will see, still 18 days to go, their man got on, it's not like they were denied. they don't have that righteous anger like this was stolen from us. now we have this caravan issue,

which newt gingrich mentioned a few times early this morning, laid out on fox two days ago, say it will be kavanaugh and the caravan, perhaps the president was watching. that became his speech last night. particularly for this president, 2016 was so much about stoking up fear or concern about immigration an he's doing it again now. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump says it certainly looks like jamal cash oak is dead. so what is the administration going to do about it? you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet?

let's do an ad of a man eating free waffles at comfort inn. they taste like victory because he always gets the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed, when he books direct at choicehotels.com. or just say badda book, badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com.

( ♪ ) ready to juvéderm it? correct age-related volume loss in cheeks with juvéderm voluma xc, add fullness to lips with juvéderm ultra xc and smooth moderate to severe lines around the nose and mouth with juvéderm xc. tell your doctor if you have a history of scarring or are taking medicines that decrease the body's immune response or that can prolong bleeding.

common side effects include injection-site redness, swelling, pain, tenderness, firmness, lumps, bumps, bruising, discoloration or itching. as with all fillers, there is a rare risk of unintentional injection into a blood vessel, which can cause vision abnormalities, blindness, stroke, temporary scabs or scarring. ( ♪ ) juvéderm it. talk to your doctor about the juvéderm collection of fillers.

talk to your doctor you can do things like change your settings, learn tips and tricks, troubleshoot, and even manage your account. finding your xfinity username or wifi password, restarting your equipment, or paying your bill is easier than ever with x1. x1 help. another reason to love x1. say "teach me more" into your voice remote to get started. . >> jamal khashoggi is dead? >> it certainly looks that way to me. it's very sad. it certainly looks that way. >> did you talk to secretary pompeo in your meet something. >> we are awaiting investigations and results. we'll have them soon. we will be making a statement, a

very strong statement, but we're waiting for the results of about three different investigations. we should be able get to the bottom fairly soon and i'm see you on the plane. >> mr. president, what are you considering for possible consequences for saudis based on those -- >> well, it will have to be severe. it's bad, bad stuff. we'll see what happens. okay. thank you. >> so jonathan, that was president trump yesterday he was being asked, he's actually moved. >> he's being moved. >> well, he doesn't get it. >> whatever it takes. >> he's being moved now to a pretty strong position, with i is, well, jared is quietly telling people behind the scenes, it will go away, which is absolutely shocking that he would say that. but maybe it's not shocking, maybe it's just disgusting that he would sigh that. donald trump, though, actually has been moved to a point where he says, it lookles like he was killed. if that's the case, we are going to have a very severe response.

>> the sense is, where does that trail lead? does it lead to mbs, the king? i think that will be the occupation response to this will be. there certainly is a suggestion there is an idea of the fall guy created on the saudi side that could be blamed or lead to a lighter punishment, if you will, from the occupation. yes, he has moved. we did an interview with him earlier, the ap did. tant he was floating the idea of the road killers. he had the conversation with the saudi king. this came up during talk. this is something that might have happened, it's certainly not a piece of information that appeared to have been any sort of u.s. intelligence. >> you know, willie, nobody ever does the sort of things that they need to do when they're in a crisis. nobody ever takes a dramatic step that they need to take. but it's very clear that mbs is forever stained with the blood of khashoggi. forever.

he will never be accepted into polite soviet foreign ministry saudi arabia will always have this dark stain on them. you know, if this were a corporation, if this were a business and the saudi king were the ceo, you'd say, son, we tried. didn't work out. you got of your skis. i'm going to have to name somebody else to run the country. >> that itself what the saudis need to do today. they won't do it. >> they won't do that. >> they don'twon't do it. he can't work through this. he is finished as a respected leader on the international stage. if you are saudi arabia and this guy is 33-years-old, are you really going to be an international pariah for the next half century? you know what, people aren't going to need oil forever. that's an awfully ricky move for them to make. >> i think mbs thought he had more cover than he had with the occupation balls of his friendship with jared kushner and donald trump had his back in a way that he maybe didn't quite understand.

he took this incredible step, apparently, to have a journalist murdered. now he's realizing as the businesses flow out and he had the people not showing up for the conference. >> mnuchin, by the way, that's a prize. >> mnuchin cancelled this event. i think the big tell, you can have paul manafort or michael cohen in the time's story the prince distanced himself telling allies he barely knows him. >> oh boy. >> that's a donald trump right there. >> that's a bless your heart moment. >> it's amazing how the republicans came out so fierce against it. they said, all those other relatives that got put in prison at the ritz carlton, they have a lot of friends here a lot of money. there were a lot of people got screwed here. a lot of people on this side have been rooting against it from the beginning because those other crown princes and those other brothers, those other cousins were all, they had tens of becomes of dollars taken away

from them. that money in a lot of ways had a lot of friends over here inside the beltway and so you are starting to see that rise. >> you know, because the saudis, if they don't know, that this is coming, they need to understand this is coming. because everybody that's dealt with the saudis, i have not, say they are extraordinarily ar gant, at least this crown prince, but the king need to understand people around him need to tell him, this is what's happening right now. you've seen money go away. your investment is going to dry up, hollywood is going to dry up, silicon valley is going to be next. silicon valley has a real saudi problem. >> yeah. >> all the lafbobbyists in washington, d.c. that do the bidding and have been for decades, they're next. people will be going to colleges, supporters and free speech, supporters of journalism and suddenly they're going to start pressuring their

universities to divest in saudi arabia. >> and we're going to dig deeper into this straight ahead the remains of jamal khashoggi haven't even been recovered yet, but there is already a whisper campaign under way to discredit him and embolden his apparent killers. >> that is next on ""morning joe"." (chime)

- [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system.

♪ when the moon hits your eye ♪ like a big pizza pie ♪ that's amore ♪when the world seems to shine ♪like you've had too much wine ♪ that's amore ♪ bells will ring ♪ ting a ling a ling ♪ ting a ling a ling more to love. applebee's new neighborhood pastas. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

wait, saudis need to understand, the washington post is not going away. hey the guy -- >> i don't think their friends at the time's -- >> the guy at the washington post, you know what that guy did? he took on the catholic church. the catholic church, can most powerful institution, certainly in boston, he went to a boston newspaper and he took down the catholic church. you are so arrogant to think you will not see this the rest of your life. are you so ar gant to think they're not going to pick your country apart every day? you will never have a day's rest. it will follow you and your country and your finances and your personal lives every second for the rest of your life.

you screwed up. there is a stronger word i'd like to use. but i've already used it on this show once. so i won't use it again, they're coming after you. they're not going to stop. they're coming after you not with saws, not with bullets, not with bribery, they're coming after you with facts and a team of angry journalists who aren't going to leave a scrap on your country's bones unless you do something and clean this mess up. >> the washington post is reporting on a capitol hill whisper campaign to smear jamal khashoggi. it is reportedly left by some on the right in annest to defendant president trump against criticism he appears to be defending saudi arabia's leaders after cash oak's disappearance. four gop officials tell the post in recent days some conservative house republicans who are these people? allied with trump, have been

privately exchanging articles from right wing outlets that fuel suspicion of khashoggi. highlighting his association with the muslim brotherhood and his youth, raising conspiratorial questions about his work decades ago as an embedded reporter covering osama bin laden. yesterday the rumors surfaced during a panel on fox news. >> now some things have come out and we're just reporting the facts. you don't, at least you don't have to fall down a one way or another on this, khashoggi was tied to the muslim brotherhood. >> that's iffy to say he was tied to the muslim brother hood. >> so what was it then? >> throughout his career, he was a spokesperson for the prince family and worked in turkey and at times written and worked with some muslim brother members in saudi arabia. but he was always a spokesman or a journalist. so he's been tied up with a lot of people. >> just put it out there,

because it is in the constellation -- >> people are using that, though to discredit him. i'm not saying you are, some are. i don't like that. >> i this i some of his tweets showed sympathy to the muslim brotherhood as well. >> in the mix, i'm putting it out there. that's very trump-like. i'm just saying. i'm just putting it out there. a complete lie. i'm just going to put it out there because that's my responsibility to lie. >> jonathan, a complete lie -- >> that's irresponsible. >> a complete lie. the sleaze merchants on capitol hill are doing the sleaze merchants on talk radio were doing. i won't mention their names, it's so sleazy, incredible. i guess if people want to ask how low the far white right sleaze merchants can go, this is a pretty good place to go, a pretty good case study. >> time and again we seen this, the president's allies on the hymn, certainly in the conservative media who carried

his water, when he thought and accused obama of tapping trump tower. there are people that will give him issue. maybe it seems like trump is starting to distance himself from the royal family in riyadh. but the trump administration has bet big on mbs. they have made saudi arabia the linchpin of their middle east strategy and try to come up with peace in the region as a bull work as threats of terrorism there and certainly iran. it is going to be difficult for them to untangle themselves. so right now in this sort of precarious moment, intoday the president's allies are out there doing his work to try to give him some cover. >> coming up, 45 years ago tomorrow, president nixon fired water gate special prosecutor ash archibald cox. we will look back through american history through the lens of today's developments in lens of today's developments in the russia probe.

we've hadfor a long time.is in san francisco and half-measures haven't fixed it. homelessness doesn't just hurt homeless people. it hurts all of us. that's why we're all voting "yes" on c. the plan is paid for by corporations that just got a massive tax break. it's time for them to give back by helping all of us to fix our homeless crisis. with more affordable housing... expanded mental-health services... clean restrooms and safe shelters. vote "yes" on c. it helps all of us.

[ music playing ] . >> deputy attorney general rod rosenstein apparently agreed to meet with the house judiciary committee and house i don't have sight committee. he is expected to face questions about a "new york times" article about warring a wire to speak with the president and invoking the 25th amendment to remove president trump from office. rosenstein disputed the story. as we await the findings of robert mueller's investigation and russia's interference, there are growing worries about how president trump might respond. will he try to block the investigation? fire the attorney general, perhaps, try to get mueller fired? it all seems unprecedented. we have been here before, 45 years ago tomorrow, president richard nixon fired prosecutor

archibald cox triggering what became known as the saturday fight mass ter. it turned out to be the beginning of the end forenixon. senior correspondent tom brokaw could have had the nixon white house. we asked him to look back for us. >> reporter: in 1973, president richard nixon was under siege, watergate and more. >> good evening, it is an all out war. >> the yom kippur war in the middle east was a risk of u.s.-society confrontation. the resignation of vice president spiroagnew. >> i hereby resign effective immediately. >> i will have nothing more to say at this point. >> reporter: the naming of a new vice president. >> congressman gerald ford of michigan. >> and that same day a fateful court ruling. >> the u.s. court of appeals has

ruled decisively against mr. nixon's position on his secret white house tapes. >> white house tapes, potential evidence of a watergate coverup, for months, nilen had been fighting to keep them secret. now a federal court ordered them to turn them over, saying the president was not above the law, but nixon had other plans. >> president nixon announced he will neither appeal or comply with a federal court order to turn over the tapes. instead the president said he will provide a summary of the tapes. >> reporter: the committee challenge sam urban was skeptical. >> i would insist on a verbatim transcript, i'm not ready to accept anybody's interpretation of what the transcript would mean. >> nixon's proposal to have a 72-year-old senator listen to the tapes was undercut by stenis, himself. >> in the end, i can't guarantee

the authenticity of it. >> it came from archibald cox. >> i read in one of the groups this morning, the headline, cox defined. i do want to tell you that i don't feel defiant. in the end, i decided that i had to try to stick by what i thought was right. >> sox rejected nixon's plan saying it violated a promise made by attorney general elliot richardson five months earlier. >> mr. cox will have full independence as far as i'm concerned. he has been given or will be given an appointment, full authority to investigate all aspects of the water gate case, itself, and other related matters. >> the prosecutor and the president were on a collision course and on october 20th, 1973 that collision came. >> good evening the country tonight is in the midst of what

may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. >> nixon ordered richardson to fire cox, richardson refused and resigned, his deputy also refused and also resigned. solicitor gem robert bourque was made acting attorney general and he fired cox. >> that's a stunning development and nothing even remotely like it has happened in all of our history. >> the news caused a sensation in the white house press room and sent reporters scrambleing to telephones. then the deputy attorney general for civil rights was wizing away at richardson that night. >> the fbi had been hired to secure the office of the attorney general. one took his cot off, threw it over hess shoulder, as he saw the chest holster, they marched into the attorney general's office, elliot richardson was extremely graeshs and said, welcome, gentleman, the office

is yours. >> reporter: one white house source said the motive was to remove a confrontation as quickly and possible without addressing himself to that point that the president may have an even more grave constitutional crisis on his hands. >> the saturday night massacre triggered a firestorm of protests. >> more than 50,000 telegrams pour in on capitol hill today. so many western union was swatched. most of them demanded impeaching mr. nixon. >> the president is gambling, gambling that the congress doesn't have the courage to impeach. >> up to now impeachment talk in the house has not been taken seriously. this angry public reaction could soon change that. >> the president was forced to back down. >> president nixon in a startling reversal has changed his position on the secret white house tapes, has abandoned his offer of a compromised summary and will obey a court order which says he must give the tapes to the judge. >> this president does not defy

the law. >> reporter: the president was forced to change his mind by the political events closing in on him, but nixon did not turn of the most incriminating tapes and he went after the press. >> i have never heard or seen such outrageous, krishs reporting in 27 years of public life. >> what is it of the television coverage of you in the past six months ha so aroused your anger? >> don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. one can only be angry with those he respects. >> reporter: in the end, of course, richard nixon had only himself to blame. >> history shows the american people will put up with a deteriorate deem each as the demands are outrageous as they often are. he will not put up with anyone that claims to be or try to be above the law, immoo unto the rules applying to everybody else. it seems to be known

instinctively that if anyone acquires that privilege, it will be the end of this country. >> absolutely fascinating, tom brokaw, joins us now, great to have you along with pluser prize winning columnist and associated editor of the washington post, eugene robinson. that was an incredible piece, tom, what would you pick out as the gravest parallels that we might be seeing today in. >> well, there are substantial ditches. first of all, with goods were there for nixon. he was on the tape. we didn't know exactly what he said at that time. but he was obviously protecting them. we don't know, in fact, whether this president has so grossly violated the tenets of his office. there was no tweeting going on at that time. there was no "morning joe" of discussion of guilt or innocence going on constant lit. it was tightly held, it was said while all that was happening richard nixon really was a

maimed of the occupation saving israel, which had been invaded by, in effect, syria and egypt with the backing of russia. israel was in the balance and in the closing days, sotomayor said richard 96 isn't my president. it was all that stuff going on at that time. i have one anecdote, we could see it was building towards saturday. dan rapts and i did the saturday fight "nightly news" for his network and as we left we thought something may happen. we get to fork. it's obviously going to occur. we do the news, race to the airport, eric saveroi, the sage of cbs was sitting in an aisle seat, people were coming up, what's going on? he says, i can't talk about that. he comes back to dan and me, what the heck is going on? i have to make a speech up in new england. ethereal man. >> i'm dying out here. >> that's inc elbe. >> i want i it strikes me tom as

watching that as we hear of trump is thinking of firing jeff sessions, thinking of firing rod rosenstein, in fact, to try to remove him, richard nixon found out you cannot fire your way out of the problem. >> they had oddly enough in the white house they had a certain orderliness about what was going to has been, nixon and haiku were talking constantly. here it's just ball all day every day long. so it's a lot harder to keep track now of what is going on and i must say the other thing is, we had no social commentary at that time, nobody coming on, at 7:00 i start the phones for the next day for the "today" show. i didn't have to go on wr snbc and talk about what's happening. we are dealing in a much more org nilesed fashion. >> there was also no twitter. so we had no window of what's going on into nixon's head the

way we do. do you get a sense of what he was thinking if ever? really in. >> it was tightly held. not the people close to him were leak. that pat but can fchanan, he sa cox, the country will understand. i think when you are in the white house you don't understand that the public has a different attitude about presidential power than you might. you think it's absolute. they say, look, that's not the case at all. so that's a big, big difference. >> hold on, willie, every time this week, he promotes his show, his sunday "today" show. >> then he has to run. they have the sandwich boards outside. he will have to go to time's square. what do they do in. >> not to interrupt, i'm leave and continue, ryan reynolds is my gentlemen he went and bought a begin company, no movie, no show to promote. he reach out and said, hey, i i

bought a begin company. we sat down and talked his recent purchase. >> that's what we're thinking of doing. i tweet and it caught my eye. unfortunately it hits a little too close to home. willie tweeted this. took my 11-year-old into a pediatrician. as she sat call, beautiful and poised on the same little exam table where dr. lewis tested all her newborn joints 11 years ago, something unexpected washed over me, my daughter asked, dad, were there tears in your eyes? >> i did not see that coming. a visit. she had a belly ache. i instantly can see this little baby in the diaper having her hips rotated. all of a sudden she's 6'2" in 11th grade. how did that happen? >> when i see children, mika tries to steal the children. >> i love them. >> i say to the parents, goes by too fast.

don't blink. >> don't blink. >> it's true. >> all right. don't go. we need to do stuff. >> before you go, i have one moment, i want to make a plea on behalf of those of us who are a guest on the show. i was just on the "today" show, this is their lesser breakfast in the morning. >> that's awful. >> it's a wonderful, wonderful -- >> what is that? >> i would never eat that. >> you come to "morning joe." -- >> i would never eat that. >> that's the better breakfast. >> in the sft least of the "today" show. this is the most of "morning joe." >> it is a working breakfast with meat and potatoes. >> wait a minute. >> we have to go! okay. ah. >> so, tom, you know people try to draw parallels between donald trump and others, i will say, you talked about the orderliness

for all of 96 nixon's failings, his weaknesses, his character flaws, he was still a man that worked within the system, that respected the system and when the supreme court ruled turn of the tapes, you know, we had to turn over the tames. i don't know that donald trump would do that. >> well, i would find it hard for him not to do that. there will be people at the door who say you watched all of us as well and maybe people from the february fib as well, nixon, in fact, is one of the most complex politicianles we all covered. he had extraordinary dark side. but he also had a vision about what he wanted for the country. people forget he gave us e and welfare reform. there were so many things he did. he opened the road to china for example. he talked constantly about that. there was this paranoia about

everybody out to get him. that was the, da, dark side. as i said, i don't know if we'll ever know, two great books, one in the final days. the other one is a book about nixon and who he is and that book, you know, is really one of the great, great books. evan thomas wrote it. a great biography. >> yep. >> if you want to know nixon from beginning to end, evan thomas wrote a wonderful book about him. >> just recently. by the way the final day, still, you can pick it up any day, 50 years from now, it's just as compelling. >> speaking of books, by the way a huge difference, nixon read them. he read lots of books. he was a student of geopolitics. he read everything. he was a brilliant man, crazy but true. >> by the way, he got more votes than everybody else. >> the biggest margin in history just a year before all this happened.

>> but it is, though, it is interesting, while you are there, while you are covering nixon, you got to cover the dark side of everything that he's been doing. but it's in a sense like truman, morally different of course. but the further people got away from truman, the more they realized he created the postwar order. but nixon, just like tom was say, he opened china, he gave us the epa. >> just those two things changed the world, by the way. >> you could just go on and on and on. remarkable. >> he went to the middle east. he was given that reception by the egyptians. every road that he went down. >> his dark side was really dark. >> he deserved what he got in the end because of how he

handled all that unfortunately. >> tom brokaw, thank you. up next, president trump jumps full force into montana politics. straight ahead on "morning joe." it's time to join the know your value community. know and grow value in business and in life. come join me on december 1st at the palace hotel in san francisco. hear from emily chang, senator harris, elizabeth vargas, katty day and many, many more who will arm you with the tools you need to grow your value. and women of california, here's your chance to enter the grow your value contest and pitch me on stage. why you deserve a $25,000 bonus. learn to develop your brand, your voice and achieve your greatest potential.

let's get started. show of hands. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online. so we improved everything. we used 50% fewer ingredients added one handed pumps and beat the top safety standards the new johnson's® choose gentle

when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com.

and jon tester loved the democratic mob in the effort to destroy the reputation of a great man, admiral ronnie jackson. >> last night's campaign rally in montana. was the president's third visit to the state in the past three months. nbc news correspondent cal perry recently traveled there. what did you find? >> it's a race about authenticity, not necessarily who's the better rancher, although that's a thing that's happening in america in 2016. it's independence specifically independence from d.c. politics. what does it mean to be montanan? >> it's beautiful here. you've got mountains. you've got the lakes. you've got everything. >> i wouldn't leave here for nothing. whenever god comes to earth, he stays in montana. >> we have a lot of great

things. the last best place. >> montana is mountains. in my opinion, being in the mountains means hunting, fishing. >> reporter: here, the way you live your life outdoors matters. people attack tester because he doesn't have a hunting license. rosendale is from maryland. in the past, he's voted for the state to control these public lands. >> millionaires from back east, maryland and other states, bought it all up and blocked it all off. >> reporter: you said maryland because of rosendale, right? >> just saying. claims to be a cattle rancher. doesn't even own cattle. >> i think the problem with tester is he portrayed himself one way when he's in montana but when he's in washington, d.c. he's voting most of the time with chuck schumer and liberal democrats. >> reporter: people who live here call montana the last best place. you can go in this part of the state where you're hunting on horse back to an entirely separate part of the state. yellowstone river. people come from all over the world to fish. is there a difference?

>> i don't believe there's any real difference at all on public land issues in the state of montana on either side of the aisle. we all believe in public land. it's just all a question of whether you want the state to manage it or the feds. >> reporter: who should control public lands, the state, the federal government? >> the state. >> reporter: tell me why, sir. >> because the feds -- there's too many bureaucracy. everything is done in d.c. nobody knows what goes on here in the west. >> i think the state is more qualified to control public lands then the federal government sitting on their ass in washington, d.c. >> folks sincerely believe if somehow we transferred the public lands to the state that everything would be solved, they'd have a much more direct access to the people who were making decisions about management policies on the land. the truth of the matter is, we can't afford to run our office of public assistance. we had to close down our mental health center. we had to close down the job placement center. if you can't fund just basic social services for the state, how are you going to suddenly

manage however million, many million acres we have of public land in montana? the answer is we're not. >> i think whoever's managing those lands, be it the state, the federal government, providing as much access as possible to the public for their lands should be one of the highest priorities. >> you cannot be dogmatic. you can't be overly partisan. if you are, you can't get anything done. >> there's a big divide between urban and rural. in order to fix that, people need to see the west. they need to come out west and experience it and talk to people in the west firsthand. >> listen, at these trump rallies, he plays these trumpian notes. the one that's increasing is we need more senators to vote for trump. save me. he talks about one of them is going to get sick and tester's not good enough and we can't trust him because he will vote against me. >> how does that resonate? >> it's resonating in montana because he's whipping votes. i don't want to speculate on

what he's whipping votes for but we should all get jon meachum's book about impeachment. >> jon tester, a guy who many would think should be safe this year, is he in trouble? >> because of what rosendale said last night. rosendale went on stage. he didn't talk about himself. he didn't talk about what he stands for. he said send me to washington so i can protect donald trump. that's his message. >> very bizarre. >> jon tester as part of an angry mob. i just don't see it. i don't see it. >> all right, that's gene robinson's final thought this morning. susan. >> susan, final thought. >> final thought is i think there's a real possibility the democrats may lose the house and that is frightening for a whole host of reasons. >> final thought, everything hinges on the unlikely vote, the nonvoter, those are the folks who will change the direction. >> yes. >> final thought, it all comes down to -- >> bring it home, joe.

>> whether you're talking about nick saban winning national championships or you're talking about alex cora winning world series, comes down to it is bas basics. for the red sox, it's basic baseball drills. for the democrats, they will not win. if they don't do the basic blocking and tackling. if they're 55% of hispanics in america that haven't been reached out to, the democrats will not win. they've got to do the basic blocking and tackling. >> 435 districts. you win it district by district, state by state. you talk to the voters. you ask them for votes. you get them to the polls on election day. you do that basic fundamental work in politics. and you win. because 60% of the country, you know, opposes this administration -- >> i started running when i was 29. nobody expected me to win. like, what's the magic? i knocked on 10,000 doors.

i planted 10,000 yard signs out there. there's no magic. >> ask people for their vote. they like that. >> all right. that's the message of the day. all right, that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle -- >> should you say go brewers? >> they're playing tonight, come on. >> stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, mika. good morning, everyone, i'm stephanie ruhle, starting with a rallying cry. president trump revving up the base in montana, blasting democrats on several key issues, with just 18 days until the midterms. >> the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs. >> and an nbc news exclusive. twitter now suspending a network of suspected bots pushing pro-saudi talking points in the