and that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. andrea reports starts right now with kristen welker. hello. >> thank you, chris. and happy friday to you. on "andrea mitchell reports "i "and the wild west. president trump is blazing a new trail for the gop 18 days ahead of the midterms. >> this will be an election of kavanaug kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense. the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs. >> smear campaign and

conservative commentators raising questions about jamal khashoggi's past as the president seems to confirm that the journalist's death for the very first time. >> it certainly looks that way to me. it is very sad. it certain ly looks that way. >> and solo act, outgoing u.n. ambassador nikki haley stepping outside of his shadow and gets rave reviews at a charity dinner in new york. >> i get it. you wanted an indian woman, but elizabeth warren failed her dna te test. actually, when the president found out that i was indian american he asked me if i was from the same tribe as elizabeth r warren. and very good friday to grow. i'm kristen welker in for

andrea. the president is on day two of oohis campaign push acting as one-man wrecking crew to beat back the blue wave that republicans believe will wash over washington in november. >> and there are a lot of rigged things going on in this country and a lot of rigged things. and we fight like nobody ever fought before. and you know what we do? we fight and we fight and we win. >> and joining ne now a great panel to kick it off. my colleague at the white house, nbc national correspondent peter alexander, and nbc's gadi schwartz in arizona, and also pam stein from the daily beast as well. >> and so, you heard it, peter alexander, jobs and not mobs,

and he is not pulling any punches when with it comes to the democrats, and is that effective on the campaign trail? >> we know that anger happens to motivate angers and it is the idea of donald trump even joking about the montana manager who body slammed a reporter, and so the president is trying to sort of embrace the idea to rally the base and supporters. you know it is critical and you mentioned the critical sound bite that the president was saying and seemed that he was test i testing out the talk point that the republicans produce jobs and the democrats produce mobs which is eye rironic sounding as you been to the rallies sounded by 10,000 or 12,000 people who say among other things in loud chants "lock her up" which feel s like a mob in that room, but although, there is no violence certainly.

but this is the president's motivation, and something that he is going the take on the road again today. he is in arizona and in nevada tomorrow, and then he keeps going to houston, texas, and he is going to rally and support a man that he used the to mock lying ted cruz and now he is there to the advocate for him to try to stave off the effort by beto o'rourke, and then ultimately wisconsin next week. this guy is on the road a ton in the waning months before the midterm election, and they are calling it the closing arguments, and they are saying they are allowing him to be flexible and not the determine whether they will be going in the final days in the final election, because they want to see what the closing numbers are looking like in those polls, kristen. >> yes, i have my plane ticket headed out to houston monday, and as peter referenced one of the lines that is getting a lot of attention is the president discussing that physical altercation sparked by montana congre congressman greg gianforte and i

want to get your reaction. >> we endorsed him earlier, but i heard that he body slammed a reporter. and he was way up. and he was way up, and i said, oh, and this is like the day of the election or just before, and i said, oh, this is terrible, he is going to lose the election and then i said, wait a minute, i know montana pretty well, and it might help him, and it did. >> praising body slamming a reporter as we are covering the disappearance and what the president has said he believes is the washington post column cy -- columnist is likely killed. there is a statement out. all americans should recoil from the president's praise on the violent assault on a reporter doing his constitutionally protected job. this is amounting to the crime by someone sworn to uphold our

laws and the first amendment by someone who has solemnly pledged to defend it. we should never shrug the president cheerleading for a violent attack targeting a free and independent news media. and could that backfire from the president given the fact that we are following jamal khashoggi's disappearance? >> well, first of all a great statement from olivier and glad he put it out. could it backfire? i don't think so. honestly, if you notice and i was not surprised that the president made that statement, and probably got tick build the idea that you could body slam a reporter, and enjoyed the image that it could produce, but what is discouraging is the laughter and the applause of the people behind him, and this idea that it was just so funny that congressman assaulted a reporter and threw him down and broke his glasses and threw punches and plead guilty to it, and this is so funny no the crowd there. it is suggesting that there is a huge political appetite for whatever donald trump says about the imagery of the roughhousing

are reporters. so it won't have an impact unfortunately and that is discourage inin inning -- can discouraging, but it is producing irony of the lack of civility, and the mobs of progressives turning this country into a violent mayhem, and you have a president up there, the leader of the party applauding a violent act. so to a degree that it does matter, it is sort of diffuses or takets the oxygen out of attack line of the republicans using in the past few weeks. >> and the other line, carol, it was about immigration. the president pushing hard this idea that he is going to block what is referred to as these caravans of immigrants coming to the u.s. talk about that in the context of your reporting, because of course, we learned yesterday there was a big blowout outside of the oval office between john bolton and chief of staff john kelly. >> well, the president is obvious

obviously very frustrated. this is the signature issue since he announced that he was running for presidency, and it has not gone the way he would like. and 80% rise in immigrant families at the border. there's now, he has this caravan coming from honduras that he has latched on to use the issue again to rally the base and to get his supporters riled up to try the get them to turn out to vote, because this is something that they care so much about. insoo inside of the white house, it is causing divisions among the staff. there was a meeting that involved the chief of staff john kelly and national security adviser bolton and where they came to blows over what our reporting shows and bloomberg was the first to report this that bolton criticized the homeland security secretary kirstjen neilson with who is a close ally of kelly's, and proposing policies that kelly was pushing back on, and he feels that he is the author the ti on this issue, given that he used to be the homeland security

secretary and there is generally tensions between the two since bolton came in the spring. >> and we have been watching kelly's job, and is he going to be there or go or and no, no, he will be there and any indication that it is the final straw for him? >> well, it is something that as you talk to people inside of the white house, as you do, that kelly is seen as a hot head and that he has a temper and there are these flare ups. he is largely also seen as someone who has been diminished in the role of chief of staff as traditionally is, and the white house put out a statement not long ago saying that he would stay through 2020 to tamp down some of the speculation that he would leave, but there are those who think that he won't make it to 2020 to say the least. >> and sam, weighing in on the broader issue of immigration, because as carol points out, this is one of the president's big promises on the campaign trail in 2016 and yet you don't

have ard boer wall up, and carol cited the statistics, and is this something that out on the campaign trailment in trail, ino voted for trump may not be likely to vote for him again? >> well, you could make a case that the ardent supporters are depressed about the fact that there is no border wall, and the current trends are in the other direction, and you say that the base may stay home, but on the other hand, trump has weaponized it as a political issue, and the border crossings are high and if not higher and therefore you must come to the polls to elect more republicans to do x-y-z, so it is tough to see how to play it out in that sense. but immigration as a topic tends to be in the middle of the main preferences for voting for the public right now. it is diminished, and sorry, it is lower than for instance the economy and health care can and tax taxes.

so i don't necessarily think that it plays a massive role, bu but it is being used to gin up the base. >> and one place it is going to be is arizona tonight. and ga candi, the president goio throw out some red meat, but democrats are feeling opt mimisc to flip this tra the dission ally republican state, so they need to get the hispanics and the younger voters to come out in force to flip this seat. >> yes, whatever the president says is going to be met by his base, and maricopa county is one of the counties that gave him the biggest amount of votes in the last election, but another thing that we have noticed here in the numbers of arizona is an uptick of the youth coming out to register to vote. we have seen 230,000 more youth ages 18 to 34 to register to vote than the last midterms, and so it is giving the democrats a little bit of hope, but i will have to tell you that it is the last time that we saw a major

turnout and many of the melissa harris-perrys was anoth-- and me millennials in this sea of red was red for ed, and many of the teachers and millennials were charged up trying to get more money in classroom and they had a referendum to put on the ballot, and they collected 270,000 signatures going out door-to-door to knock on people's doors to telling them about why they should support this referendum. then, before the mid termses, that the referendum has been kicked off of the ballot by the supreme court here, and a lot of the progressive teachers now worried that all of the momentt tum that the registration drives, and the -- the registration drives and the mome momentum, and they won't turn out so they are worried about apathy, and millennial apathy and gen z apathy, and last time

only 19% of the younger voters turned out. >> and we know that you will be watching it, gadi, and it is all about the turnout in the end for sure. and one of the lines that is watching is coming overnight from nikki haley the outgoing ambassador, and i want to get to you, because she made soom remarkable comments while speakin speaking, and some of them in jest, and some of them more serious. let's ta take a listenke a list >> all of the democrats only know how to obstruct, resist, demolish and delay. they destroy -- >> some people in both parties describe their opponents as enemies or evil. in america, our political opponents are not evil.

>> well, peter, nikki haley is clear that she has no plans to run for the office in 2020 and supporting the president, but those comment last night are raising a lot of eyebrows and people say it is a direct rebuke of the president. >> yeah, no, i think that it was interesting to hear from nikki haley yesterday. now, obviously, she is a little bit more free to speak, because the president is soon her former boss having made that announcement that she is departing as the united nations ambassador, and she is one of the individuals in donald trump's orbit who would seem to get some traction if she did try to primary the president, because she is successfully able to bridge the divide between the trump era of the republican party and the more establishment of the republican system that exists right now, and by leaving and announcing the departure before the midterms, it gives her more credibility and also a little bit of independence and distance to say things like she

did yesterday and among others saying that the political opponents are not evil. kristen. >> fascinating stuff. great conversation. peter alexander, and carol lee and sam stein and gadi schwartz out there in arizona. thank you, all. and awe whisper c-- and a whisper campaign to discredit jamal khashoggi. that is ahead on "andrea mitchell reports." it on my own. not until i tried chantix. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. it reduced my urge to smoke to the point that i could stop. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-threatening.

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the white house says that

they are givinging the saudis more time to finish the investigation as to what happened with the washington post columnist jamal khashoggi who was last seen entering the consulate in turkey. some conservatives are mounting a whisper campaign smearing khashoggi in defense of trump in the way he is handling the killing, and take a listen. >> some things are coming out, and we are reporting the facts and we don't have to fall one way or another, but he was tied to the muslim brotherhood -- >> and that is iffy, harris, to say that he was tied to the m muslim brotherhood. >> and there you have it. and joining me now is democratic senator patrick leahy of vermont. thank you for being here. we appreciate it. senator leahy, your colleague jeff flake after reading the washington post article which said that there were some

discredit of jamal khashoggi, and they said it is reprehensible, and do you agree with jeff flake? >> i agree with jeff flake, it is reprehensible, and it is amazing that i never thought as an american or united states senator that we would see our country trying to the justify murder. i was a prosecutor for eight years and i handled a lot of murder cases. when donald trump says that, well, we have to wait and see what the saudis might find. khashoggi walked into the saudi consulate, and that is the place where if you dropped a pencil on the floor, they would know it. he never comes out, and two weeks later, well, we are waiting for them to find out what happened. i will tell you what happened, he was murdered. he was murdered by the saudis, and he was murdered, because he stood up for the free press, and murdered, because he disagreed with him. and let's show the united states

actually cares for freedom of the press and stand up and say so. he was murdered. >> to be fair, the president has said that there will be strong actions that he will take if in fact he is able to prove that or he has enough evidence to point to that. i want to play to you what we heard from president trump yesterday and the closest that we have heard him saying that he does believe that khashoggi is dead. listen to what the president had to say. >> do you believe that jamal khashoggi is dead? >> it certainly looks that way to me. it is very sad. it certainly looks that way. >> mr. president, what are you can considering for possible consequences for saudi -- >> well, it ha as the be severe. that is bad, bad stuff, but we will see what happens. okay. thank you. >> and a couple of questions out of that the -- and let me have your reaction. >> we don't have to see what happens. we have the magnetski act, and

we have democrats and republicans in the senate to take the act right off of the act right now to cut off visas, and cut off financing and do a number of things to show the w saudis that the united states does not condone murder. you don't have to wait 2 1/2 weeks to say, oh, golly, we are going to do something, i think. we have a law on the books, and let's just apply the law. >> and the president makes the point let's give saudis time to conduct an investigation, and what is wrong with that argument, senator? >> 2 1/2 weeks to conduct an investigation that happened on their property in a small building. they could have done that investigation in 2 1/2 minutes. the longer it is is delayed, the more they are trying to find an excuse, and the more they are trying to allow people to come up to smear mr. khashoggi.

you know, i have handled a lot of murder cases in my earlier career. when you have got a murder like this, and when you have something like that, and you have total access to the building where it happened, controlled by the saudis, how much time do they need to investigate? >> i heard you saying that you wanted there to be sanction, and the president has been asked over and over again repeatedly if he is willing to scrap the arms deal that he struck with saudi arabia, and he has said no, because he believes it is going to impact the u.s. e economy, and what say you, senator, should the president consider scrapping that arms deal? >> why not. we have a law on the books that would mean that. i don't want the president of the united states saying, oh, any country do anything that you want as long as you buy us off. we are too great a country for that. we should not be taking bribes from saudi arabia or any other

k country. it is just infuriating. >> and so just to be clear, you would if in fact the president decides to take some action, you think that he should scrap that arms deal? >> i think that he should follow the magnitskey act, and limit visas and transactions. this bill pass ed overwhelmingl with the democrats and the republicans voted for it. all the president has to do is to follow the law. the saudis have obviously not followed the law, and show the world that in the united states, if we have a law on the books, we actually believe in it. >> and senators, treasury secretary steven mnuchin has said that he won't attend a conference next week in saudi arabia, but however, we have learned that he is likely going to attend a summit late r in riyadh that is going to be combatting terrorism, and what

do you feel he should do with that summit? >> that comes across as a flim flam. of course he should not go. the saudis, if the they commit murder, but, oh, golly, we will have a summit to see how to stop terrorism. i think that murder is a pretty terroristic action. >> thank you for your insights, senator. >> and over the h hill. why some people are feeling c conflicted about hillary clinton. life was tough in cuba in the 60's. my mom was fired from her job, so she started making cakes to support us.

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as democrats zero in on trying to take back power in the final stretch to november, one high profile figure is diving deep into the political fray. hillary clinton has largely been media shy until now launching a midterm intervention if you will and taking on a decidedly sharp tone aimed at the former opponent, but some democrats are w

wondering if the strategy is going to hurt or help the party. and with that is anne carney "how do you solve a problem like hi hillary" out today. thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> and some say that hillary clinton should stay out of it, and making con trtroversial comments about bill clinton and his time in office and others say, why shouldn't she be a part of the conversation, because she had the popular vote. >> yes, on the one hand, she had the popular vote, and has every right to speak about truth, and why isn't joe biden or john kerry or bernie sanders who don't have the same chorus of people saying why are they still talking, but hillary clinton does. on the other hand, she has a unique tool that rallies the trump base, and her approval ratinging is not above 38% since the election, and she is still, so, she inevitably is getting questions about her husband's

affairs in the '90s and the metoo movement, and how is this h helping the democrats for her to be the one to speak out, and there is a divide, and of course, she has a right to be out there, and sometimes the interviews end up backfireing on her. i don't know if it is translating to the democrats running in the midterm, but it is a fraught situation of what to do with her right now. >> and yes, she has backlash about her answers about her husband's time in the office, and so does he, and they need to come up with a answer to that question that keeps coming up, and she is reaching out to t he reporters behind the scenes. >> and one thing in the reporting that is interesting is that she has been going over and over her mind is the end, and one of the things that she accepts blame for and she sees a lot of the election as it is robbed from me, and she understands that she screwed up the relationship with the press and she should have done a better job of having a better relationship with them, and she started to put out feelers and curious about the reporters who

cover trump. so he went after one of our colleagues cecilia vegas main t news conference and called her afterwards and left a voice mail and i don't know the content, but she reached out after the exchange and i am told that it is not a one-off and putting in the feelers to the press >> stunning. and all of this is leading to the question of 2020. >> yes. >> and the question is, why do you want a better relationship with the press, to what end. >> could she run again? >> yeah, yeah. >> and this is what you write in the article, and of course, philippe who worked with her in the state department said it is highly unlikely and zero, but it is not zero. do you think that she would run again? >> it is not zero that she would run for president for a third time, but it is not they i heard and talked to a lot of people for the story, and my impression is that she thinks about it, and once you want to be president, you don't stop wanting to be president when you feel it was

stolen from her, and this is how she views of what happened, but she knows that she can't do it with a sense, so probably a small sliver of the brain this of giving it a go, but i don't think that -- sarah sanders tweeted, has chris mas come earer -- christmas come early, and so the answer is no. >> and so blue crush, can the democrats keep up the momentum to take back the house in 18 days. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." there lots of people who are confused about which medicare plan is right for them. hey, that's me. i barely know where to start. well, start here with me, karen. i'm a licensed humana sales agent. well, it's nice to meet you, karen. i'm john smith.

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love that music. that means that the midterm is very close away and just 18 days in fact, and new warning signs for the house republicans who are hoping to stave off a so-called blue waive-- blue wav new cook report says that the democrats are heavily favored to win back control, but it is not a done deal yet. joining me to talk about this is the national correspondent steve kornacki and dave wassermann head of the cook report. and david, break it down a little bit and looking at the numbers, because you say that for the republicans, 46 seats are toss up or worse, and for democrats it is three seats that are tossup or worse. what are some of the factors and why don't the democrats have this locked up if it is a blue

wave? >> well, it is a lopsided battleground right now, and there are a couple of reasons why the democrats are a clear favor to be re-taking the house even though they are freaking o out there. is a historic number of open republican seats and 41 districts of the 240 republicans hold with no income can bents on the the ba-- income can bents - ballot, and the second number is that trump's numbers in a lot of the white collar districts that trump holds bases cli suck, and the third reason is that democrats are benefiting from the self-inflicted wounds and a couple under indictment, and a couple have said things that gotten them in trouble on the campaign trail. >> and they say they like their odds say the democrats, but are we nervous in part of what happened in 2016 and in part, because the turn outis never guaranteed. >> right. and part of the reason that the interpretation of the polls was so bad, and i would argue worse

than the polls themselves in 2016 is that people failed to understand the gnaw chur of undecided votes, and they tend to break against the party in power and in 2016 that is democrats can and hillary clinton who had controlled the house for eight years and the problem for the republicans in 2018 is they hold everything. and so the und decided in the generic polls will slightly break towards the democrats. >> and steve, you ru looking clo closely at a race in maine today, and it is part of the country that we saw trump country? >> yes, that is right. western and northern maine and talk g aing about the southern districts coming way, but this gave away my surprise, but the fun fact is the ali and liston fight was lewiston, me aimaine, why are we talking about that? well, in trump country in 2016,

and getting that map, and maine is one of the two states that give gives out the congressional votes by district, and that district voted for donald trump , and if you are looking at the race right now in 2018, the house race there, if i can get it up on the screen, and there it is, and look at the swing by obama from nine points to trump by ten and almost a 20-point swing from 2012 to 2016, and this is the heart of the blue collar and noncollege educated white voters and this is where you saw the swing to trump, and you have a republican income can bent here, and the polling that is dead even polling in this race, a race, and you have an extra twist up here in maine where nay do this thing, and instant runoff voting. what that means is that if both of the candidates fail to get 50%, because there are a couple of the third party candidates in the race, then they have sort of the second choice of the third-party candidates and add them into the totals, and it is a complicated thing, but this is the kind of the district where the democrats need to have

success besides the suburbs. >> and one of the districts that is running neck and neck which is going to be keeping us up late on election night, and we love those kinds of race, and david, talk about the race that steve is talking about in the broader context, because you say it is an example of the trump surge zone, and what do you mean by that and what other races bear that out? >> yes, a handful of the competitive districts where the republicans are having diffic t difficulty where they have voted for obama in the past and went for trump in 2016. in the last month, they have polarized the map further, because the republicans are recovering the ground in the trump districts, and the democrats are stretching the lead in clinton district, and the important part of maine is that bruce polliquin is trailing, and so it is maybe an exception to the rule. >> and the senate, the thinking is that the republicans will hold on to the senate and maybe expand the lead there, and what do you make of that? >> well, it is a tale of two

midterm, because the senate is going to be decided by red rural states and the house by the suburbs, so i will give you this stat that we worked up a couple of months ago. if every single election result on election night were an eight-point uniform swing from the hillary clinton and donald trump run, the democrats would simultaneously gain 44 seats but lose four senate seats, and so it is amazing how close we may be to that outcome right now. >> and steve, what do you make of the analysis or do you think that we could have another big e lek shun night surprise? >> well, we could have election night surprises and they would not be surprises if we saw them coming, but it is the story of the last couple of weeks where there are divergent paths where you can say, okay, the democrats are getting everything they dreamed of in the midterm year and look at other parts and say, hey, the republicans may have something to crow about here, too, the day after the election, and maybe two different elections for two different americas. >> okay.

we are getting excited and getting close. steve kornacki and dave wassermann, thank you for the great conversation, and check out steve's new book "the red and the blue, the 1990s and the birth of political tribalism." you don't want to miss reading this, and it is a must-read before the midterms. thank you, steve. and coming up, oh, what a night, 45 years ago, the beginning of the end for president richard nixon is ahead on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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45 years ago tomorrow, president richard nixon took the unprecedented step of firing the special prosecutor investigating the watergate cover-up. nbc senior correspondent tom brokaw takes a look back at what became known as "saturday night massacre." >> the u.s. court of appeals has ruled decisively against richard m. nixon and his tapes. >> reporter: it was a sign of a cover-up and nixon had been fighting to keep the tapes se secret, but now a court ordered him to turn them over. >> the president nixon says he will not comply with nor conform

to turn over to tape, but he will supply a summary of the tapes. >> reporter: the white house prosecutor archibald cox responded in a historic nationally tell the vised news conference. >> in the end, i decided to stick by what i knew was right. >> reporter: he had rejected nixon's plan saying that it did not comply with what was promised to him. the prosecutor and the president were on a collision course. >> the country is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. >> reporter: nixon ordered richardson to fire cox, and richardson refuse and resigned. his can deputy also refused and also resigned. solicitor general robert bork was made acting attorney general and he fired cox. >> the president's motive was to solely remove the confrontation

of the koconstitution as quickl as possible. >> reporter: but he did not turn over the most incriminating tapes and he went after the tapes. >> i have never heard such outra ray jous, and vicious and distorted reporting of 27 years of public life. >> reporter: in the end, of course, richard nixon had only himself to blame. >> and joining me now joyce vance former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor, and joyce, thank you so much for being here. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> when you are looking back at that piece by tom brokaw and you are thinking of where we are today with the special counsel investigation into the russian meddling and are there parallels that you can draw? >> the parallels are so strong and it is so painful that as a country we are in the same point of time again perhaps this time in a far more serious situation involving foreign intrusions into our election, and echos of

the tacky sttackistocracsy and t justice ever since thenme. it's one of the most important precept and our hope is that that carries forward today. >> and one of the things to your point, joyce, that really struck me was when you heard tom talk about the independence of the special counsel. what we have right now is an attorney general who has been attacked by this president and our reporting suggests that he may go after the midterms. does that threaten the position of special counsel robert mueller, having stressed the fact that the president has said he had no plans to fire mueller? we want to make that clear. >> legally this special counsel is in a different position than the special counsel was during watergate because the legal rules that establish the office are a little bit different.

back during watergate, the special counsel was fired for gross misconduct but today we live in a world where it's possible for the leadership at justice department to fire the special counsel or to severely constrict his resources or the type of work he can do. so yes, the leadership at the top of the department really matters. >> what for you, joyce, is the big lesson of the saturday massacre that you want folks to be mindful of right now? >> elliott richardson went on to be a folk hero in american history and american life. in fact, you talked just in the past segment about the congressional race in maine, too. i went to college in maine in lewiston and honored him in 1980 when i went there and venerated his tradition. my hope is the lesson to learn is that we have heroes in american society that we need to listen to those heroes, we need

to be unafraid to do the right thing. that our country is faced difficult moments before and has survived and that it can survive this challenge, too. >> what a great message. i want to turn to paul manafort who's, of course, the subject of the special counsel investigation. he's already been convicted of a number of crimes. we know there's a hearing in federal court this afternoon. what do you expect there, joyce? >> so i think what we'll see is a little bit of a tension of the process typically used in the eastern district of virginia and what goes on in much of the rest of the country. eastern district of virginia has this notorious rocket docket we have talked about. they move things through pretty quickly. in many districts judges wait to sentence a defendant until he's finished cooperating with the government. everyone can assess that value of the cooperation and the defendant may receive sentencing credit for what he's done to help in other cases. that doesn't usually happen in the eastern district of virginia. we'll find out today if the

judge wants to take a little bit of extra time or wants to go ahead and proceed to sentencing now. >> joyce vance, thank you so much. appreciate your help locking back at the saturday night massacre and look forward, as well. >> thanks. and coming up, stuck in the swamp. another cabinet official mired in controversy. we'll explain. that's next. we're back after a quick break. stay with us. welcome to the place where people go to learn about their medicare options... before they're on medicare. come on in.

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interior secretary ryan zinke is hoping a report puts allegations in the rear-view mirror. "the washington post" details a push by the secretary's aides to approve prohibited travel and activities for his wife. the family subsequently paid for and that the secretary directed his staff to find a volunteer position for lolita zinke and raised suspicions. lisa, thank you for being here. >> thanks. >> so can you walk us through some of the red flags that sparked this investigation into the first place? >> sure. so, the investigation was done by the inspector general's office at the interior department. and what they were looking at is whether secretary zinke violated a federal law that prohibits someone who's not a government employee from traveling in a government vehicle. and in this case, what they found was that loli zinke as she

goes by has traveled numerous times with her husband in his government vehicle which is basically, you know, run by his security detail. and that technically that did run afoul of the law. but what the lawyers at interior said was, you know, this really makes no sense because as a cabinet secretary, ryan zinke can't drive in his own car when he's on official business. so, what happened was they kind of changed the rules. you know? to accommodate him. and they claimed that, you know, in reality, well, it's really okay to make an exception for this rule for the secretary. >> let me read you the statement from the department, lisa, which writes the inspector general report proves what we have known all along. the secretary follows all relevant laws and regulations and that all of his travel was reviewed and approved by career ethics officials and solicitors

prior to travel. does this allow the secretary to move forward? i just want to make the point, he is not the only trump official for this type of scrutiny. >> that's right. former inspector generals who we spoke to last night told us that the rules are a little bit fuzzy on this prohibition against non-government employees riding in official vehicles and that, you know, occasionally it does happen, especially let's say if a cabinet secretary is on vacation and they happen to be on vacation with their security detail. well, you know, in theory, you know, the wife or their spouse would maybe ride with them. so, i think that, you know, the interior department is shading things a little bit but they are essentially saying, well, we changed the rules for secretary zinke because we felt that that was most appropriate. another interesting element of this inspector general report is

that zinke tried to get his wife a job as a volunteer so they wouldn't have to face this problem. >> all right. lisa rein, thank you for your fantastic reporting on this fridayment really appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. and that does it for edition of "andrea mictchell reports. i'll turn it over to stephanie ruhle in for "velshi & ruhle." happy friday. >> happy friday to you. good afternoon, afternoon. i'm stephanie ruhle. ali velshi off. it's friday, october 19th. let's get smarter. >> the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs. >> in our toxic political environment, i've heard some people in both parties describe their opponents as enemies or evil. in america, our political opponents are not evil. >> greg is smart. by the way, never wrestle him