in their hand. >> all right. my thanks to everyone at this hour. all of our guest versus come and gone over the course of the hour. that does it for us. i'm stumbling over my words more than usual. i didn't sleep much last night. chuck won't make any excuses, will you? >> i'm trying to figure occupant what news psych raleigh we in? >> as to if you start with what happened, can you work your way back with the course of an hour with what happened two hours ago. >> i'll try to figure that out. i'm as loopy as you are. it's wednesday, a divide vote, votes for government. oh, wow, caught me sipping more coffee. good evening, i'm chuck todd here in new york city. welcome to president trump has followed through on his promise to fire attorney general jeff sessions.

sessions made it clear he was submitting his resignation at the president's request. in other words, he didn't want to. this is obviously major news. it's shaken up oversight of the russia proevenlt it'sprobe. it's a move that could change the state of anything, from his enemys to a new separation policy at the border. we will get the latest. it's all happening the day after the election, which has consequences. democrats are now going to run the house. nbc news is projecting a 28-seat gain, fuelled mainly by gains and anti-trump voters in urban and suburban parts of this country. pretty much coast-to-coast in suburbia. they're already talking about investigating the firing of jeff sessions. republicans, meanwhile, capitalize and trump loving rural america to expand their senate majority. they've pickled up a net of two seats. florida and arizona remain too close to call so that number can go up to three or four.

we heard pronouncements from the president and house democrats about working together. but that was just, well, that was just talk. because then they started talking and, well, those messages were simply overwhelmed today by a presidential press conference that was quintessential trump i guess. it featured a number of threats aimed at democrats a number of dust-ups at the press and the president seemingly stroking his own ego. he threatened to have his republicans investigate house democrats if house democrats investigate him. >> you know, i keep hearing about investigations. fatigue. like from the time almost from the time i announced i was going to run, they have been giving us this investigation fatigue. it's been a long time. they got nothing. zero. you know why? because there is nothing. but they can play that game, but we can play it better. because we have a thing called the united states senate. and a lot of very questionable

things were done between leaks of classified information and many other elements that should not have taken place. >> at this press conference the president also threw pretty much every prominent house republican who lost under the bus, of course, it's not his fault. he claimed none of them loved him enough. he got into a number of verbal brawls with reporters. moments later, we heard from nancy pelosi, likely the next speaker of the house. she made it clear democrats will not be a rubber stamp for this white house. >> we have a constitutional responsibility to have oversight. we will have responsibility to honor our oversight responsibilities. you can be assure of one thing, whether we go down any of these paths, we'll know what we're doing and we'll do it right. >> we got a lot to cover tonight. we will get as much election reaction as we can in just a moment. first, let's go to the news of this afternoon. our justice correspondent pete

williams who has the latest on the attorney general's ouster. pete, obviously, there is not an acting attorney general. i assume it means he has the new responsibility, that is to be robert mil mueller's boss, rod rosenstein doesn't have to oversee that anymore. >> not only has to, but cannot. we think jeff sessions is at the justice department tonight and will be leaving and the new acting attorney general will be the man for the last year or so will be his chief of staff. matt whitaker a republican from iowa, a former u.s. attorney there in the george w. bush administration, a conservative republican who was a commentator for cnn. during the time he was a cnn commentator, he was critical of the robert mueller investigation. but let me walk you through this, chuck. number one, i think this is not at all surprising. the only thing is that it came so quickly. >> very fast. >> from mid-term elections. >> right. >> we expected it would come afterwards. i think the attorney general was fully expecting to get the call

from the white house, saying, now is the time. i think it was breath taking that it happened so quickly. not that it happened was the surprise. follow me through. trump is elected. jeff sessions becomes attorney general. he's still attorney general, short live after he becomes attorney general, he concludes he has to recuse himself from overseeing the russian meddling investigation because he campaigned for the president and the justice department rules say you can't investigate somebody if you were involved in campaigning for them. it was clear he had to recuse. >> that infuriated the president who consistently attacked the attorney general over the next several monthles. so with sessions out as the overseeer of the russian investigation, that became the job of the deputy attorney general who assumed that and only that responsibility of the attorney generals and as rod rosenstein has been pretty consistently supportive of robert mueller, publicly praising him, saying muler is doing the right thing here and following the rules. now with sessions out, that

means we default to what the special counsel regs say, which is that special counsel investigations are overseen by the attorney general. now we have an acting person, acting as the attorney general, so he, matt whitaker now takes over -- >> did you say acting, acting, pete? i had to cut you there? he is now the actling, acting attorney general? >> no, he's acting attorney general. >> okay. >> so he now takes over. >> could he fire mueller tomorrow, if he wanted to? >> so here's the answer. yes, but, the special counsel regulations say that a special counsel can be removed for cause and it says such as misconduct, malfeasance, inability to do the job or other good cause. so he can't just fire him for no reason or just because. he has to have some reason and you know, chuck, if he tried to do that, there would be an enormous firestorm.

so the, what does it mean? it means that there is still a special counsel, robert mueller still does the job. but all the major decisions he has been clearing with rod rosenstein he clears with mat whitaker. >> at a minimum, he may have his sails trimmed a bit? >> it's possible. >> that's probably the most outcome for a while? >> potentially. remember, when mueller is done, under the rules, he submits a report to the attorney general, who then decides what is to be done with it. >> right. i assume a democratic house will probably try to subpoena that. pete williams, thank you very much. >> that just didn't happen. msnbc contributor and princetop university daniel poletka, michael steel is an msnbc analyst and former rnc chairman. i don't want to get in, sucked into session's world when we have a whole election to unpack. eddie, i want to ask on the

progressive side of things, was last night a good night or a bad night for the democrats? >> in spokeswoman ways, it was good, 28 seats. tial the initial objective was to take the house and the blue wave was america will not accept trumpism and will show up. >> it went better than you think? >> because of how crazy everything was. in terms of the objective. you got up to 28 seats, 25 for sure. you flipped what seven state houses, seven governor's seats. a diverse cold war of new people who will enter into congress. you think about felony enfranchisement, gerrymandering in michigan. there's a lat that has been happening. at the same time there was confirmation that trump's closing argument worked with part of america, which suggests that there is this deep ugliness here. >> i want to put up the national popular vote for the house. because there are some familiar percentages in it, danny. take a look at it as it stand

now. basically, it's 52-46. we have the national vote up. i'm not seeing it yet. there it is. so democratic votes, 52%. republican votes 46%. by the way, look at that turn joe wit turnout. not all the california races are in there. the number will probably get up close to 7 points. which is the exact number of the msnbc journal poll. not that i want to make sure people know that. danny, 46%. hmm, who got 46% two years ago? donald trump. i think we now know what the floor and the ceiling is in a trump republican party. >> so that's the problem for donald trump. you are exactly right. there is a good news story for the democrats a good news story for the republicans. also a bad 74 for both of them. for donald trump the message is dude if you keep talking to your base, if all you want to do is go out there and have rallies and throw red meat, guess what, 2020 is coming. sarah palin said i can see 2020 from this table, that's not a

good news story for you. on the ought side, there is an important message for democrats. you have to look at the list to remember, the darlings the great hopefuls, garcia in arizona, gillum in florida, abrams, o'rourke, porter, eastman, all of these guys, they lost. >> they didn't get the signature superstar. though they did get scott walker. that's probably their signature defeated. >> i like scott walker a lot. he's also been governor for two terms. he's really not popular. >> a fourth time. a third? >> let's be fair here, he's had a good run. >> walker fatigue. >> there was fatigue and wis with is is not a red state at the end of the day. >> michael, when you did the 2010, when you were on c chair, it's interesting here the popular vote margin i can put that up. it was 6.8%. the democrats will be at 7. what's interesting, it shows you how gerrymandered the house was,

it took democrats to get 7 percent to peck up 32 seats. republicans won the national house vote by 7 points in 2010. they picked up 60. >> i'm good at what i do. >> that's a reminder of the power of a gerrymander. basically twice as many seats for the same national popular vote. >> understand one fundamental thing, folks, we didn't have those 14, those eight-to-12 state legislatures at the time we ran those racings. we didn't have those governors drawing those lines for us. >> 2001, yes you did. it was a different republican. >> it was a different republican. but i'm saying. >> good republican path. >> good republican math. they weren't as gerrymandered as they are now. the impression is created that somehow this universe has always pre existed. it has not. it's come in degrees and elements. >> you believe it got worse in 2011?

>> afterwards. >> the republican what is they did in pennsylvania and worse. >> a lot has problems with this. can i say something to my democratic friend? can you just enjoy the moment, boo? c'mon, you took the house back, under these very strong difficult conditions and i'm listening to all these democrats whining and gnashing their hand complaining ability seats they lost. guess what, we lost some big seats in 2010 we were trying to get down the pike. that's a part of the ga im. >> part of the issue -- >> but you got the voters on your side. >> in georgia, we think of the abrams government election. one of the interesting features between 2010 and now, citizens united and the gutting of the voting rights act and how that has impacted the ways in which certain people participated in electoral process. what we see if waves, particularly in terms of voter suppression, voter i.d., there is some questions about what happened in florida. definitely questions about what happened in georgia. so you can see why some people --

>> i give you. >> the trend lines are good. >> one or two states, three states here. but citizens united? really? you go out raise your money. beto o'rourke raised more money than the republicans. >> it was a green wave. >> that did matter here. but the republican party has been totally remade into trump's party. in fact, donald trump enjoyed almost berating the republicans that lost. take a listen. >> carlos kcurbelo, mike coffma, too bad, mike. mia love. mia love gave me no love. and she lost. too bad. sorry about that, mia. and bosch ra com stock another one. peter rosscam. they decided for their own

reason not to embrace, whether it's me or what we stand for, but what we stand for meant a lot to most people. >> you are either with him or against him. >> yeah, yuck. you remember that really bad feeling you had in school when you didn't get picked for the team and you kind of felt like, oh my god. somebody was like, yeah, because you, you're that guy. you didn't side with me in x, y, or z. this is what donald trump forcibly reminds me of is 5th grade. let me tell you the republican party is either going to be a winning party or that 5th grade party in which the biggest votes with donald trump. because he sets the standards or it's going to be a party that stand up and includes a lot of people who donald trump thinks are losers and he didn't pick for his frisking volleyball team. >> but he's just going to -- look, i don't know how you win

elections long term if you throw away the suburbs. i give you an example. california. eventually it bit california republicans to the point that they barely exist out there. >> exactly. that's exactly the point. the demographic shifts in this country have been ongoing and they will continue in a direction you need to follow. sometimes we get in front of it. what amazes me is how the party has stopped paying attention to it. one of the ways we kind of got in front of that in 2009 and 2010 was understanding what was beginning to happen. how the country was changing and how the conversation needed to change that we were having in the country. >> but you know what, trump proved to be right. there was this idea there was the forgotten white folk that didn't show up. trump found a way to get them out there. strategically placed. >> left alone in the desert. so what? >> it worked. >> can we say something important here? we talk a lot about dem groovengs and house votes the whites long to the republicans

and hispanics and african-americans belong to the democrats. i'm sorry what i love about this elections, this is a great thing about america which we can still celebrate is actually people make up their own minds, hispanics, latinos, they don't long to the democratic party. they don't belong to the republican period of time. they are making choices as americans. >> when they move into your neighborhood, you have to engage with them. >> you do, identity politics. >> it's not identity politics. >> it goes so far. >> no, no, no, who is practicing the worst kind of identity politics the democrats or donald trump? >> donald trump is. >> i think it's a contest a race to the bottom. sorry. i'm sorry. you have elizabeth warren. you put that one down, i'll do you el with donald trumply think it's donald trump i think he's appealing to our worst angels. he re3450i7bds me of annual exaggerated version. he's worse than jesse helms in 1990 in express it appeals and dog whistles. >> you hear all the whistles. >> he's a fog hompblt these

aren't whistleles. it's an invasion of a hoard with rep recy -- leprecy. >> notice what he didn't talk about? all these people coming up on the caravan. >> it's over. >> there is no caravan. >> remember. >> demagoguery. >> when he went threw all his republican colleagues under the bus, his principal kindness is cruelty. he mobilizes it. >> confidently made. i agree about that. >> it's interesting. this goes to this wwe thing. there is a part of him, when he spars with the press, he'll say, i'm trying to give my people something, entertain them, forgetting the pipe bombs and fbi things happen on a regular basis. >> peru a president, not an entertainer. sometimes you need to happily, sometimes you need to consol and discipline you are still president. >> let me ask you this, how does nancy pelosi be the face of the democratic party in this environment? let's set aside her own baggage

she comes w. she has a negative with the country. i think this would be a challenge for any democratic leader. you have a president that loves to essentially do the rhetorical arts the leader of the democratic party is not comfortable with that on a good day. she'd rather be behind the scenes. >> mike and i were talking about this earlier in the day. she's in a hard spot. one of the interesting things about the mid-term, we saw the energy of the organizers giving a new direction to how the democratic party will mobilize his constituencys. the dnc is trying to keep up. if she comes in, the first thing she says is bipartisanship, infrastructure bill, trying to reach across the aisle. >> that energy down there, that wasn't -- you should have seen my twitter feed. >> meanwhile the president wants to make her a wedge. >> on the one hand, i don't want to denigrate nancy pelosi for trying to be an adult. we don't have enough adults. on the other hand, i think we all recognize that there has

been an element of, oh, nancy pelosi as the fidel castro of the democratic party. you don't want to hold on be that 90-year-old guy. grip it. gripping the gavel. >> i was wondering where you were going. glad you made that turn. >> it's an act. >> all right. we'll pause. we're going to pause here. up ahead, can house democrats protect the special counsel, robert mueller, from being fired, if he's fired before january 3rd? we'll be right back.

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we are back. democrats may have won back control of the house, but president trump didn't wait until they actually took control to fire jeff sessions. so what, if anything, could congressional democrats do to protect special counsel robert mueller in his investigation before january 3rd when they officially take power? a democrat from illinois won re-election and isco chair of the democratics committee and may be running for something else. congresswoman, first of all, crawls on your getting re-elected yourself and to your party. >> thank you, chuck. i appreciate you having me here. >> let me start first with jeff sessions. >> okay. >> if the acting attorney general fires robert mueller before january 3rd, do congressional democrats have any leverage to stop snit. >> well the reality is right now we hold no levers of power in washington, d.c. that all changes on january 3rd, obviously, when the new u.s. house of representatives is sworn in. but you know this is all a part of the court of public opinion. donald trump is going to do what

donald trump is going to do. we saw that today. but look at, have a little histor historical perspective here. this is the second time in american history where a u.s. president tried to fire his way out of a terrible situation and if we'll go back a few years ago it didn't end up in a very good place for richard nixon. donald trump is going to do what donald trump is going to do. but we are literally a matter of weeks away before democrats will be in control of the house and we'll have a lot to say about this. >> you know, interest our national exit poll here at the network, we did throw a couple questions on the russia probe and on the mueller probe and there was more people that disapproved of the mueller probe. 46% than approved of it. 41. i'm curious, is that the sentiment you probably heard in your own district if it ever came up? >> and i've talked with you about this before, chuck. i walk the grocery store aisles. i do the supermarket saturday asking people, what's on your

mind? what do you want me to know before i head back to washington. typically it's not the mueller probe that comes up. time after time it was health care, price of prescription drugs. the things that people talk about and worry about as they lay their heads on their pillows at night. so we just have to -- the truth should be our guide. whatever the polls show about people are in favor of the mueller investigation, if they're against the mueller investigation, the truth should be our guiding star and in the end the truth does come out. i'm confident of that. >> you think pretty quickly the house judiciary committee when chaired by democrats ought to open up on the fire something. >> well, jerry adler will be the incoming chair of the judiciary committee. adam schiff will lead the intelligence committee. elijah couplings will head the oversight committee. they are honorable, smart men. i am confident whatever they do,

it will be the right mandate. >> democrats have the house, what do you think the mandate is that gave that you power? >> i think we stayed relentlessly focused on what people care about at home. back to what i heard from people in the 17th congressional district. >> you got to fix health care. >> health care. well, it's health care, alongside in that same alley is the price of prescription drugs are out of control. we need to make sure drug companies, if they want to raise their prices 10, 15, 100 times what they are today and increase it so much higher tomorrow, they need to show why they're doing that. did they pay a lot more in their research or are they trying to hijack the american public? so it's health care and then number two, we are going to rebuild this country again. at least we will do our part. we'll pass a trillion dollar transportation infrastructure package to rebuild our road, our bridges, our locks and dams, take rural broadband out to the 23 million americans that don't have access to it the third part of that chuck the mandate is

that we clean up the mess, right out back behind me is that beautiful view and as bowl as that looks down below, it's pretty seedy. we've got way too much self dealingness going on, donald trump that raked in $40 million when he was president because we have four dignitaries and lobbyists staying at his hotel. >> that kind of stuff we need to put an end to. we are ready and we'll rise to the challenge. >> let me ask about immigration. is there a part that says the great wisdom of america said, they sent democrats to the house to protect pre-existing conditions. they sent republicans to the senate to build a wall? being a little facetious here. but it seems to me that one of the arguments you can made is the american people said you guys go figure it out. we gave you divided government, which means we don't want either one of you to have full power. >> i don't think there is anything wrong with a divided government the american public calls for that divided government, meaning the publicly

controlled house come january 3rd that we work together and some our nation's problems. that's what people want us to do. and i think there is a misperception if anybody says democrats don't want secure and safe borders. look, there is nothing more important to democrats, republicans, americans, than to keep our families safe. and so, do we want a safe and secure border? of course, we do. donald trump made that promise that it was going to be mexico pay fogger that wall. all of a sudden he's ready to hand us a $25 billion bill to build a wall, where let's just make sure that our border is secure. and we can do that in many ways beside build a wall. that just, that's now just become a symbol for what donald trump wants to fight with people about. >> you have developed quite a following along some of your colleagues on capitol hill among other democratic activists. they'd like to see you a little higher in leadership than you are now. are you interested in running up the ranks a bit, running for

majority leader or whip? >>ly run for a leadership position. we are sorting it all out. we will see where it end up. i hope my colleagues put their faith in me. >> we'll be watching. thanks, appreciate it. up ahead, how a record setting historic night is changing the actual face of politics in this country. welcome to the place where people go

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when we launched this campaign, conventional wisdom dictated that this race was unwinnable. >> we voted and we won! and we did all of this together! >> today is a milestone, but it is really a beginning. >> it will hear my voice. it will hear your voice. it will hear all of our voices. >> we're taking our voice to washington. >> here in minnesota, we don't only welcome immigrants, we send them to washington. >> welcome back. those are some of the new faces on capitol hill, more than 100 women will serve on capitol hill in the next term. first time ever. more than two dozen of them for the first time and that also is a record. among them sharice dafsd will be

kansas' openly gay woman. rashida taleed. the first latino women from texas to serve in congress. how about that. these will be the first women to represent iowa in congress on the democratic side, obviously, joan ernst, first republican elected. the first ever elected to congress in iowa johanna hayes, president obama honored as national teacher of the year. she will be the first african member of congress from connecticut. of course, there's alexandria ocasio cortez, who is the youngest woman ever elected to congress. just 29. i believe a few months younger than thinkanour. in iowa. we had some outside the beltway. who states elected their women

governors. and colorado elected jared polis, the openly gay person elected governor in the country. gay man that is. needless to say, it was a historic night across the country. it's quite, quite a night for new faces. we'll have more right after this. the fact is, there are over ninety-six hundred roads named "park" in the u.s. it's america's most popular street name. but allstate agents know that's where the similarity stops. if you're on park street in reno, nevada,

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welcome back. ballots are still being tab lated in some house districts. but the wednesday morning quarterbacking has already begun. president trump says several republicans who lost re-election bids faltered because they did not become or embrace him. >> you had some that decided to, let's stay away, let's stay away. they did very poorly. carlos kur bella. mile coffman. too bad, mike. barbara com stock was another

one. i think she could have won that race. but she didn't want to have a embrace. for that, i don't blame her. but she lost, substantially lost. peter roscomb didn't want the embrace. eric paulsen didn't want the embrace. >> wow. unbelievable. he named names. here at the big board with our explanation why democrats were able to net at the moment 28 seats in the house. i don't think it has to do with not embracing prumpl. in the case of most of these races, you heard the president mention it came down to rocking the suburbs. joining me now is none other than national msnbc correspondent pete kornacki apparently didn't get no sleep. >> montana was not called. i'm not going to sleep. >> fair. by the way, he named names. >> yes. >> every time you think he's, oh, he can't go that low. he'll go. >> every white house has its list of members from the same

party they don't really like. they usually don't have the president broadcast it like that. >> no, today too bad, mike. >> it's drinking. these stories. >> these districts rejected president trump two years ago, 23 of the 30, higher education levels than the national average. 20 of the 30 pickups, higher median income. this is turf the democrats should have had two years ago. >> the minute the 2016 election was called, you could circle most of these districts and say unless trump radically changes his style, these republicans are in trouble in 2018. >> that's what happened. every suburb in america from sea to shining sea, from virginia beach, the california races aren't on here yes. because they're not called. we know we are going. >> a couple of those. >> the middle of the country. suburbs, des moines. we can go to oklahoma city. we're going, oh, where did this come from? department this fits the model

in oklahoma. >> it doesn't have to be a clinton district. a lot of these were won by clinton. few got a big chunk of the districts that's in a city or a metro area with a lot of college degrees, a younger population a more diverse population. >> that was on fire over the last two years politically. it showed up in these races. >> look at this, colorado 6. denver suburbs, mike coffman. he almost lost by ten points. >> comstock tracked almost exactly the clinton result. clinton ran away, comstock got buried. >> this is a majority the democrats have built in the same way the republicans have a majority durability in the senate. >> the thing the question at the trump era was this shift in the suburbs. this massive shift. is this going to last beyond 2016? this clearly is a problem for long-term republicans. >> look at the shift there. is a quote/unquote accident.

maybe, maybe mark sanford district. but i'm not so sure. >> remember the south carolina primary in 2016. trump did take every congress am district. his weakest, though, by far was south carolina one. >> why? coast. charleston. >> higher income. >> higher income. >> more college degrees. i guess fork '22. >> i was going to say. >> can we show you? this shows you. 55-39, that was the trump margin there. that's probably the -- >> trumpiest business. >> even that one she had earlier issues in the district. that's probably the biggest surprise from that group to me. >> so i think it's one of these things people realize this democrat make majority is not going to be hard to reelect unless there is a collapse on the top of the democratic ticket in 2020. >> the big question that's emerging to me as a new democratic strength in the ush interests here. as long as trump, himself, is there reenforcing. the question to me is the ground that republicans gave back in these rural blue collar areas. in the north, the mid-west, is

that ground he can win back in 2020. >> sometimes can you look at the map and see. right? you can see it in arizona why we see it as a swing state. democrats can win. if you want to visualize it. but you look at floridales, you see why, there's strong suburban vote. >> i felt like i was having de ja vu watching the florida results. those early returns looked like the early returns for:and it pivoted in the same counties at the same time in the same way the thing that didn't happen, though, when that happened in '16 it portended something that swept across the country. i think ohio and florida are the two that really seemed to dig in along closer to the 16 lines yesterday. >> we have to close up shop. but i'll tell you about ohio. does it belong on the presidential battleground? that's the question. >> i would think not in 2020. >> that would be my guess. steve kornacki. now you can get some sleep. >> until 2020 the countdown. >> you got to get to sleep.

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less than 449 hours. but before we look ahead, with have unfinished business with this year's senate race. florida's bill nelson is calling for a recall. without rick scott. however, florida is not complete without a recount. there is a down ballot that's closer that will get a manual recount that should have a trick him-up effect. arizona's senate race between kierstin sinema and republican martha mcsally is too close to call. because there may be 500,000 uncounted ballots. we may not know a winner tomorrow night at the earliest. i think it will be next week when they announce the 400,000 early polling ballots. then there is stacy abrams. she has not yet conceded in georgia's race, hoping brian kemp will force a runoff next month. she needs to somehow net 16,000 votes in extraneous uncounted votes.

provisional ballots. all that stuff. we'll see. we already know there will be a runoff in mississippi since neither democrat mike espey or republican appointed senator cindy hyde smith won a majority in that special election state to fill out the rest of the term with thad cochrane. if you are having a hard time to let go, still plenty of election to go around at least the next few weeks. we'll be right back. oh good, you're awake! finally. you're still here? come on, denise. we're voya! we stay with you to and through retirement... with solutions to help provide income throughout. i get that voya is with me through retirement, i'm just surprised it means in my kitchen. oh. so, that means no breakfast? i said there might be breakfast. i was really looking forward to breakfast. i know... voya. helping you to and through retirement.

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investigation, 51% approve. 46% disapprove. this is the same group of voters that also wanted democrats by, they got to revise about 8 or 9 points. but they wanted democrats to control the house. these aren't mom -- mother lovers, although that 46% does match the all things trump 46%. >> right. i think that's probably what it is. at the end of the day, chuck what it means is he's done a phenomenal job branding an anti-mueller message. it's effective. now, when you peel that back, do people want to see this probe end and go in a different direction or the president has kind of shut it down? probably not. but the narrative that he's elicited works. it works for a lot of people. >> here's what the president said today about the mueller probe when sort of asked if he was trying to end it now. take a listen. >> i could have ended it any time i wanted. i didn't. and there was no collusion. there was no anything.

i didn't. they went after hackers in mass co-. i don't know about that. they went after people with tax problems from years ago. they went after people with loans and other things. nothing to do with my campaign. >> eddie, i do think the president is thinking, i got until january 3rd to clean up this mueller probe or the democrats are in charge of it. >> absolutely. he knows the mid-term elections are of. he knows mueller the quiet time he gave him is now going to get loud. this understanding of executive power. you combine it with the data you showed about the exit poll. i think that's a combination of branding the witch hunt, but it's also a part i think, chuck, of folks who are voting who want policy. they want congress to do something to address their condition. and the mueller probe is happening. it looms large. but they want something else. >> you know, danny, part of this, sometimes i think the

president is baiting the democrats on like the more he goes to the mueller probe, they feel as no you don't get to end it, we're going to defend it, even though i think they believe they have to do what eddie said. >> she a master of that, baiting, look at that pelosi line today. >> oh my god. >> he's very, very good at that. >> i rose a bit of an eye roll. >> i was about to say what is not a bit of an eye roll? but i do think on a serious you know point, that if the mueller probe is all about getting paul manafort, about getting a bunch of people who lied to their investigators, to lie to the fbi, that's going to be seen by the public as a huge waste of money and waste of resources. it goes to exactly what you said, which is a huge distraction from doing things that are actually in service of the nation. >> you know the problem he has, though, he looks like he's a bit too anxious to get rid of the mueller probe. >> exactly. he can never stop. >> he can't give it up.

i'm sorry. you sit there, that's not how innocent people act. although i know donald trump is a special case. >> he is a special case. it does go to the fact he know what is those connections may lead to. he know what is his relationship with the russians -- >> he's afraid what else they might find. maybe nothing to do with russians. it may not be exactly the up and up. >> it's ivanka, jared, don jr., everybody. >> and the word around town largely was something was going to happen of this election with the mueller probe, you know, sometime this week or next week. i think today's noise was a little getting in front of that in anticipation of fear coming together and here have some more shiny objects for to you talk about. >> one thing, danny, mueller is a formidable figure. he's a pretty serious guy. i can't believe if he had nothing. >> so he's a very serious lawyer and investigator. but i'm not entirely persuadeed that he's decided that there is something and there is nothing

up to this point and you don't hear -- you hear this from serious democratic analysts and serious republican analysts. there is nothing mueller has done up to this point that leads us to believe -- >> that's leaked. >> again, we all pay pretty close attention to this. i have not seen anything that leads me to believe that they were more than incompetent, stupid, willing to do things that might have been stretchy but never got the opportunity. there's nothing -- the president says this and he sound like a car tune character, but there actually is nothing that should lead us to believe, so far, caveat, so far that we know that there is some collusion there. >> that's what's the reflective in the poll. that's the line. >> he's still acting like -- >> he can't help it. >> you know what forces that so is the fact that mueller has -- >> the message. >> what enforces that is the

fact that mueller has acted the by a he's acted. he's shut down the noise. >> all right. guys, thank you very much. much appreciated. thank you for being up here in new york. up ahead, voters take the initiatives. >> tech: at safelite autoglass, we really pride ourselves on making it easy to get your windshield fixed. >> teacher: let's turn in your science papers. >> tech vo: this teacher always puts her students first. >> student: i did mine on volcanoes. >> teacher: you did?! oh, i can't wait to read it.

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the house has flipped. the senate has not. the bevy of new ballots initiatives have passed. washington state approved few gun laws, raising the age limit to buy an assault rifle in that state to 21. idaho, nebraska, utah voted to expand -- wait for it -- medicaid. it will give health coverage to 3,000 more in those states. perhaps the most dramatic votes as usual were in florida the sunshine state overwhelming approved an amendment to give ex-felons a right to vote after they served their sentences and florida band oil drilling indoors and both bans were in the same ridiculously worded amendment. anyway, yes, both offshore oil drilling and vaping on the same amendment. they put an end to racing. all tracks have to close their doors by 20 when the.

michiganders voted out medical marijuana. there might have been a blue wave last night. but there appears to be a green one at least in the u.p.. that's all we have for tonight. we will be back tomorrow. "the beat" with ari melber begins right now. breaking news tonight, president trump firing attorney general jeff sessions late today and installing a trump loyalist as bob mueller's new boss. we have this story for you from several angles. the two biggest stories are licked. donald trump removing jeff sessions and nailing an active attorney general who talked of de-funding the probe and democrats are taking the ga vel and subpoena power after this blue wave. they marked them by a state wide margin in yesterday's misterms. sessions made it clear in his letter that his new out tonigh