he's said he's committed to quote, the rule of law. a lot more on this story tomorrow. i want to mention also we have john podesta, a council to barack obama, and joins me an a very, very busy week. don't go anywhere. hardball with chris matthews starts now. street fight. let's play hardball. good evening, i'm crith matcrithu chris matthews up in new york. obviously suffering from that rebuke at the ballot box donald trump struck out at his enemies today with all of his fury. he dumped the attorney general he's never forgiven for betraying him.

striking through the hours of after hour election morning grogginess to put his own man as attorney general, where he can crush the his torbic probe that threatens trump's family, his presidency. and the new a.g. has declared his personal hostility to the mueller investigation. and that closer to trump's heart the new a.g. has declared the notorious june 2016 meeting at trump tower in which donald trump, jr. met with russian agents offering dirt on hillary clinton was normal political business and no basis for a prosecution. pushing out jeff sessions and bringing in the obliging mat mi whittaker. it gives him an a.g. whose views of presidential power comports with those of the new smoupreme

court justice brett kavanaugh. and trump now moves to utilize his broad notion of executive power to crush mueller before mueller streaks at trump's family, a step he has reason to fear is imminent. the president delivered the news today by tweet saying, matthew whittaker, chief of staff to attorney general jeff sessions at the department of justice will become our new acting attorney general. trump added that a permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date. well, the moval came minutes after the president refused to comment on sessions' fate in his post-election press conference. >> and can you give us clarity, sir, on your thinking on your attorney general and your deputy attorney general, do they have long-term job security? >> i'd rather answer that a little bit different time. >> a few hours later. the president has long blamed his attorney general for the

appointment of special counsel mueller of course. and last august trump even called on sessions to stop this rigged witch hunt right now and he's repeatedly attacked sessions in public for recusing himself from the investigation. >> jeff sessions recused himself, which he shouldn't have done or he should have told me. i am disappointed in the attorney general. he should not have recused himself. for him to have taken the job for him to have immediately recused himself is a disgrace. >> yet through humiliation after humiliation sef sessions has resisted the president's efforts to force him out. and now we're learning he's not leaving voluntarily. in his undated resignation letter sessions addressed the president saying at your request, i am submitting my resignation. the president's decision to replace sessions with his former chief of staff gives trump a chance to stop mueller in his tracks. in fact, the new acting attorney general mat whittaker predicted

last year anyone replacing sessions may in fact halt the special counsel's investigation. >> i can see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> joining me right now is michael schmidt from "the new york times," hakeem jeffries from new york, mimi roca a former federal prosecutor. i want to all get your thoughts and a huge day we thought would be a morning after. it's a dramatic step. how far is this strategic he's going to find a way to stop mueller and much of this is instinctive revenge? >> well, this is something trump has wanted to do since the second month he was in office,

march of 2017. me believes that sessions' decision to recuse was the original sin that allowed mueller to be appointed. you have to understand the president sees the position of attorney general as someone who should be most loyal to hill. that is more important than the law and following the facts. that is what he sees. he sees it as a personal attorney to him. he's expressed this in private. he has said publicly he never would have made sessions his attorney general if he knew he was going to recuse himself. he saw the recusal a disloyal thing. finally today he did something he'd wanted to do for a very long time. the first biggest national republican politician to embrace ha his campaign. and now trump gets to do what he's wanted to do for a very long time. >> what is he -- is his goal now to get rid of sessions, bring in whittaker, his guy, probably his

toady, he's another nunez from what i can tell, brings this guy in and finds some way when the report comes from mueller, if mueller is around long enough to write this report, just bury it. this is worthless, i want to put this aside. how far is this gambit? >> we've talked about this in the past. he certainly thinks about impulse and revenge, we've talked about this too in the past, is one of the things that motivates him the most. he's always said if someone screws you over, you screw them over 15 times more. he's waited to the lowest moment possible to get rid of sessions. he doesn't just want a protector, he wants a tom hagen from the godfather, hew wants his own roy cohn. whether it's squeezing the funding out of the mueller investigation, outright firing him, coming up with other distractions, i don't think trump has thought that far down

the line. but he knows if he has his guy there, all this is possible, and we still don't know when there will be a report, if there'll be a report, how much longer mueller has to go. he's just getting his person in there. so if he ever wants to pull the trigger he has someone who can do that for him. >> by appointing mat whittaker as his acting attorney general, trump appears to have installed a trump loyalist at the top. whittaker has publicly defended don junior's decision to take that meeting to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> to suggest there was a conspiracy here, you would always take that meeting -- >> you would always take that meeting so -- >> if you have somebody you trust saying you need to meet with this individual because they have information about your opponent, you would take that meeting. >> whittaker also wrote in an op-ed in usa today he would

indict hillary clinton if he had her case. that was his shorthand for you're not going to protect this guy from anybody. and chief of staff john kelly, this is so cute, privately described whittaker as quote, the west wing's eyes and ears of the department of justice. so he's been the mole over there for the president and now he's the top man. congressman, everybody says, well, trump's going to get stopped. somebody's going to stop him. nobody's stopping him. >> well, the american people are beginning to stop him, and i think that's one of the things that happened last night in giving us control of the house of representatives. and if his ultimate objective is to try to prevent mueller's investigative report from becoming public, he obviously fails to understand that on january 3rd when we take control

of the house of representatives we will have oversight and subpoena power and will not allow him to bury any report and/or hide the facts from the american people. >> so suppose, we don't know what mueller's going to do. do you know? is he going to go to indictments, to a grand jury, to a report? what do you think he's going to do with mueller if he's not stopped by trump? >> it's not clear he's concluded in terms of indicts moving forward. there was definitely a pause in the window of the election and outside of that window i think that investigation will likely continue and we'll see some people held accountable. the law does provide he has to issue a report only to the department of justice, not to the american people because an independent counsel has expired. that's why it was so important for us to take back the house of representatives on the oversight responsibility because we can prevent them from burying that report. >> mimi, i have a hunch that trump has very few people he's

not willing to dump, throw them under the bus. look what he did to the republicans that didn't endorse him or embrace him as he put it in the election. he laughed at them. he loved saying you're fired. that's his giggle. his kids are different. it's clear he cares about ivanka and her husband jared. my instinct has been at some point mueller is going to prosecute them. trump can't hold out his kids to be indicted because people told him he can't pardon them. doesn't he have to stop mueller in his tracks right now? >> i think this is as bad as him having fired mueller and maybe even worse and let me tell you why. first of all, he's done it in this stealth way. i don't know i've thought of trump as a very smart calculating guy, but he is here

now. >> he is president. he got there somehow. >> well, and we can debate that another time. >> when i walked past trump tower here on fifth avenue i don't know about how but i'm impressed. he does own that building. >> this is calculated move. he gut this guy in who can control not only the mueller investigations but the southern district of new york, he has got more control now over lots of different arms going into trump's family. and that is really dangerous, and he's got cover now. >> we only got one lawmaker here. i've watched the pattern of this thing. why kavanaugh? there's a lot of guys around like kavanaugh. he picked a guy who said the president of the united states has strong executive authority and you really can't limit that authority. and then he pick whittaker.

>> i think the good men and women of the department of justice and the fbi won't allow the type of shenanigans he may try to undertake going forward without it being opposed. >> but this is their boss. >> but they also know we have a constitutional responsibility to be a check and balance on an out of control house of representatives. and the control is no longer in the majority. >> you mean nunez and company. >> nunez and company. >> the reporting on this, where's it going tonight and tomorrow, how far trump is heading in this direction of strategic defense? >> well, that's really the question. and how long would whittaker be there? is whittaker the person trump

wants to be the attorney general in the rung run? is he testing him out here or putting him there to keep him there even if congress won't confirm the person that he wants? there's a lot we don't know here and what the president's true intentions are. >> what about lindsey graham? does he want lindsey there sph. >> lindsey graham, chris christie, would those folks come in? and is trump going straight for mueller? does he want to have mueller fired? i think that would create a massive reaction that would be negative for the president. it's not clear -- i mean, the president often likes to do things to distract, and he probably knows deep down inside yesterday's election was not as great as he made it out to be. >> i see that number of senators as critical to his new confidence in this area. he doesn't need to two women for another confirmation, that

there's a choice issue there in terms of women's right to choose. he's got enough republican males, to put it bluntly to get a confirmation. >> you know, chris, we call this the mueller investigation, but really it's an fbi investigation. it was started by the fbi after comey was fired. the special counsel was appointed to oversee it and run it. if you get rid of mueller that doesn't necessarily end the investigation. you would have to get the fbi to shut it down, to fire all those prosecutors, and that brings the fbi director and lots of other officials into the picture. and the question is would they go along with it? so i think to truly get away with smothering this, even strangling it budgeitarily, you know, speaking would take a lot of people it go along with that. and if they don't, you could have something that looks 100 times worse than nixon's saturday night massacre. >> so you don't think he'll fire mueller? >> i'm not sure right away.

you get rid of mueller, it doesn't mean the investigation goes away unless you're ordering to shut it down. and that's why nixon lost his presidency by ordering to shutdown -- >> everybody else here knows him and trump sees the presidency as a family acquisition. sees the federal government as a family business. and the way he looks at it perhaps like an organized criminal at times. and i think he looks at it this way, he wants somebody like that in the justice department for him. he's not going to take a licking. he's not going to let his kids go to prison. he will not let that happen. and i'm just watching how many steps will he take to prevent that from happening, because he will take those steps. thank you, michael schmidt, and

mimi roca and david corn. president trump is taking the fight to them as we have said. what a press conference. it was street fighting. not much dignity there, not much dignity at all. this is "hardball" where the action is. (engine roaring) (horn honking) okay, okay, okay... (clatter) ( ♪ ) feeling unsure? oh... (nervous yelp) what if you had some help? introducing the new 2019 ford edge

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welcome back to "hardball." with the news he's decided to fire his attorney general, jeff sessions, president trump has ensured a big political battle with a new democratic majority in the house come comes in january 3rd. even before this sessions new trump signaled a combative posture today towards the democrats. he warned if they used their new powers running the house, the power subpoena, he won't hesitate to use the senate republicans to go after them. it's already a street fight. >> they can play that game, but we can play it better because weave 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. >> in fact trump even went so far as to say he would benefit if that happened. he wants a fight. >> it would probably be very good for me politically. i could see it being extremely good politically because i think i'm better that that game than they are. >> charlie sykes, of course, is contributing editor. thank you, both. it looks to me like we all watched that press conference today, he was in a fighting mode. the press was to some extent, too. but he wanted a fight, he wanted a little blood to show on people's noses, it looked like a fight. i've never heard in my life the president saying i'm going to use the subpoena power of one branch of the u.s. congress to prevent the other one of doing their job of oversight.

heidi? >> oh, well it would be a test, chris, for congressional leaders. because clearly the house has showed they're willing to play ball and it's led to a deterioration of bipartisanship there. in the and senate we have not seen that. this would be a test for leaders. the president will also make good on leaning on senate leadership and senate committee chairs. but just like he doesn't control the house, he doesn't control the justice department. he shouldn't control the just department, and he doesn't control the senate. >> het me ask you, you had some news. >> that's right, chris. i was just communicating with senator blumenthal, and since may senator bloomen thaul has been working on a break the glass option to try and protect mueller's work. as crow know senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has refused to move legislation to protect mueller that was moved out on a bipartisan basis from

the judiciary committee. this is a break the glass option that would simply require that mueller's work be protected in the event that he is stifled or fired. and senator bloomenthal has been talking with republicans about this for a couple of months. he thinks there is some support for it because it is simply at this point about transparency. to make sure no matter what happens if mueller were squeezed that his work could be provided. >> that's a great question. because the house judiciary committee talked about that committee's attempt to somehow subpoena the records of robert mueller. and even if he can't publicly pronounce them, they could get the records and pronounce the results for their own impeachment purposes themselves. charlie? okay, charlie, can you hear me now? let me get back to heidi.

we've had this problem. heidi, can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you. >> so what about the steps that can be taken by either houses. you raised the question about bloomenthal talking about it, but he's got to get it through the republican majority. they've got about 54 republican senators standing in the way protecting the president, not questioning the president or helping mueller but hurting mueller. >> early indications are that we've seen a major shift from last summer, chris, when it seemed there was bipartisan agreement in the senate, that they would stand strong against any move on the special counsel. the early reactions we're seeing in the senate is simply one of the strongest from frankly the guy who's leaving, senator flake, but we're not seeing a strong response from anybody else. and democrats, they don't take control of the house until january. so folks that i talked to, sources that i've talked to say if anything happens, it could happen pretty quickly in terms

of mueller potentially issuing indictments and a decision will need to be made in the senate whether there's going to be any kind of push back. and right now we just don't see that indication. >> well, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell warned democrats. let's watch him. >> the whole issue of presidential harassment is interesting. i remember when we tried it in the late '90s. we impeached president clinton, his numbers went up and ours went down and we underperformed in the next election. so the democrats will have to decide how much presidential harassment they think is good strategy. i'm not so sure item work for them. >> i don't think the democrats should take advice from mitch mcconnell because he's not operating or speaking in the their best interest or the interest of the country, in that

regard. why would anybody think that's the right thing for americans, charlie? >> i don't think they're going to take that advice. you know, it occurs to me, though, that president trump insulted two institutions today. he insulted the u.s. senate by implying they would become complicit in his obstruction of justice by going after the house. it would be interesting to hear from mitch mcconnell on that as well. he also insulted the department of justice by putting in the acting attorney general's position really a pliable lackey as opposed to a credible attorney general. and it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. i understand the people who say that they're seeing this strategic genius here. this almost smacks of desperation. when you think about the president waiting until the day after the mid-term elections, this day when we know mueller may be, you know, ending this

pause, to take an action this extreme, this dramatic. >> well, how about this. suppose he knows that mueller was waiting until the election was over, you know, like michael was waiting for the mother to die before he kills his brother, he's waiting for that. so he says wait a minute, any day now he's going to come out with something against me and my family. i'm going to operate first. i'm going to get rid of this a.g., put in a guy that's pliable, i think that's fair and take steps to get rid of mueller. how do we know this isn't the last step? how do we know there's not another step he takes along the lines of i'm going to prevent mueller from grabbing my kids, because i really think that's what it's about. trump has got to protect his family against indictment. >> chris, the problem here is transparency at this point because this is what was described to me and my colleagues when we were reporting on this issue as the

so-called straitjacket approach that democrats on both the house and senate were concerned about is if there are those next steps taken we don't know. we don't know that the president would outright try to fire mueller but he would squeeze him and try to cut off his resources. >> we'll find out. >> we wouldn't know at least at this point. >> that's something the new acting attorney general whittaker has already said, he can start starving the guy. suppose he says no more type writers, no more assistance, no more clerical help, you're finished, buddy. just don't talk anymore because i'm not going to pay for your room rent anymore. what's to stop this new attorney general from doing that to mueller? >> that almost strikes me as too clever, as if we won't find out about it. if he says no to the special prosecutor remember this has to be reported to congress. he's also probably not going to be able to shutdown the southern

district investigates. that's why i think maybe they think that this is the way they're going to have a stealth saturday night massacre. but nothing like this is going to be -- there will be transparency at some point. and that's why what happened in congress has changed the reality. and i'm not sure that the president fully understands how much trouble he is in or what he has done by taking this particular step. there's no question about it, it is a significant thug move by the president to take this action today, you know, when we're hearing about the anxiety about don junior. i mean this is the day that's been circled on the calendar for a very, vaesh loery, long time. and it certainly indicates he was fearful mueller might drop something very, very soon. >> to take up arms against the sea of troubles and end them, and my question to trump is probably thinking very much like

hamlet, thinking i better act. up next, president trump flips the script. listen to this. >> that's such a racist question. that's such a racist question. honestly, i mean i know you have it written down -- let me tell you, that's a racist question. >> accused of asking a racist question joins us next on "hardball." you know her, one of our great people here. we'll be right back. (music throughout) the meeting of the executive finance committee is now in session. and... adjourned.

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welcome back to "hardball." during the closing days of mid-term campaign which ended yesterday, president trump proudly called himself a nationalist. that's the new word he loved. he said he wanted to end birthright citizenship, of course the 14th amendment right to everyone born in this country citizenship. at his free wheeling and combative press conference today refusing to take any responsibility for the tone that he set in the campaign. >> how do you see your role as a moral leader? mr. president, just how do you see your role as a moral leader? >> there's so many people, i'm sorry. >> as a moral leader, though. >> i think i'm a great moral leader and i love our country. >> why are you pitting americans against one another, sir? >> we won a lot of elections last night, we did very well

last night, and i think it's going to have a very positive impact. >> michael cohen repecently sai you called black voters stuped, and the rapper little john said you called him uncle tom. >> i don't know who little john was. >> he was on the apprentice. >> he was? oh, i see. >> have you ever used racist remarks? >> i don't use racist remarks. >> the president also lashed out, accusing her of asking a quote, racist question. and here's that exchange. >> on the campaign trail you called yourself a nationalist. some people saw that an emboldening white nationalists and nupeopow people are saying there's some people saying you're supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. what do you make of that? >> why do i have among the highest poll numbers with the

african-americans? i mean, why do i have my highest poll numbers -- that's such a racist question. honestly, i know you have it written down and you're going to tell me -- let me tell you,th s that's a racist question. >> yamish, that was a pretty fraught moment there. tell me your reaction to him. >> reporter: really the president was frustrated because reporters were doing what we do best which was ask questions and really demand answers. sis president as you've said has talked about any birthright citizenship. vus today a white nationalist, a man named patrick casey who heads up a group was tweeting about visiting the white house as someone who's a self-described white nationalists. i think the president's anger was boiling over there, and i think my reaction was that of most reporters which was to press on. next i asked about middle class

tax cuts, because i can't allow the president to really go off and not really stastay on target and do my job. >> this president doesn't observe what you might call today identity politics. he has different knocks on different groups. white women are ugly, horse face, the comments he said about african-american are low iq or unqualified, a yale law graduate running for office down there in georgia was unqualified. did you get a sense from all of that that led you into the question about the tenor he used? >> i think the president, his anger was boiling over because of a lot of things. at one point during the press conference he was literally pacing back and forth. i thought he might walk off. i think some people see this as the president attacking a woman of color. of course i'm a black woman. he was also attacking april ryan, telling her to sit down.

jim acosta, and calling reporters hostile. i'm not sure the president was singling out people because of their race. but the president was very obviously upset with the reporting we were trying to do there. and i talked to some white house aides who say the president feels particularly aggrieved when we ask about white nationalists because he feels it's an unfair question. >> let's talk about this campaign. you come from south carolina, and i was thinking about georgia and florida where you had incredible african-americans candidates. do you think trump's tenor and language from the caravan to all the ethnic comments he's made to the way he sort of talks, to put it lightly, do you think it had an influence on those defeats? did he give permission to those voters? >> absolutely i do. absolutely i think it was racist to say that stacey abrams is not qualified to say andrew gillum is not equipped to be -- >> equipped. >> equipped, right.

exactly where i was going. and that's just flat out racist. but i think his attack on yamiche, you know, she was there, i wasn't. so she felt anger coming out of the president. to me it looked deliberate, it looked staged. because he is reinforcing this notion that he's encouraged that there's all this racism being directed against white people. and that sort of reinforced that. i thought his whole performance today, watching it on television, looked intentional to me. it looked like he came in there ready to pick a fight. he calls on jim acosta, you know, his great antagonist knowing what's going to happen. then he goes to peter alexander with whom he's had, you know, back and forth. he yells at april ryan, knowing

she's going to yell back. it looked to me like a guy who wanted to be seen having a fight with the media. >> yamiche if he wants to make the press look like his enemy, he did a pretty good job. it does seem like he lost the argument, lost the house of representatives for the rest of his term here. he lost the big argument in the popular vote last night. clearly the popular vote of this country went against him, but he wants to somehow start another way of judging the way things are. what do you think of you and everybody else today, going head to head with him in the press conference? >> i think two things. i think first the president does feel wounded by the fact republicans lost control of the house. this was a president who campaigned, even though he's saying that he focused on senate races, he called a lot of house candidates up on stage with him and was barnstorming across the country making sure republicans held onto the house and senate.

and he lost one of the big chambers. as far as going back and forth with reporters i think he was in some way looking for a bit of a fight. he didn't get a fight out of me. i wasn't fighting there. what i was doing was posing a question which is what reporters are going to do. there was a white nationalists today tweeting about being at the white house today. so my question was timely and it was fair and it's what i do. >> what did you see in his eyes when he's looking at you? >> i mean i saw someone who i think was very, very frustrated and very, very angry at the fact i was bringing up the fact that some people think he's emboldening white nationalists. as eugene said, i think there was some performance there. but he was genuinely frustrated with reporters because he'd just finished yelling at april ryan, and acosta and peter alexander.

>> it's amazing to watch somebody i know like you fighting it out with the president on equal terms. it's something else. i guess that's good for democracy despite all this other hellish stuff we're talking about. it was awful what he said in the campaign, and i do agree with you and your reporting about this nationalist thing here. african-americans have been in this country a lot longer, by centuries than most white people. the idea that you're not part of the nation is an absurdity and, you know, is just pure racism, by the way. that is racism. up next after taking a victory lap or a perceived victory last night -- who's perception? trump turns around and fires his a. g. he wanted to start another stink, which he has done. the front page tomorrow will be that picture and the fact he's dumped the guy who think e he thinks betrayed him. but what's he afraid of? how close is mueller to getting

him and his family? that's the big, well, as we used to say, $64,000 question. you're watching "hardball." hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. you hear that, karen? liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges. how mature of them! for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. liberty mutual insurance. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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the new lincoln mkc.mix. connecting the world inside, with the world outside. so you can move through both a little easier. introducing the well-connected 2019 lincoln mkc. welcome back to "hardball." democrats took back the house last night, as we all know, flipping at least 28 seats, maybe 14 more. but in the senate republicans expanded their majority picking up two additional seats with the florida and arizona seat races still to be decided i think they can get as far as 54.

in a press conference today president trump took a victory lap and took credit for the republican gains. let's watch. >> this vigorous campaigning stopped the blue wave that they talked about. i don't know if there ever was such a thing. but could have been. if we didn't do the campaigning, probably there could have been. >> what lesson did you learn most from looking at those results? was there one thing as you reviewed them that you'll change your strategy not just for congress but going forward? >> i think the results that i've learned may be confirmed. i think people like me. >> you're a man who likes to win but last night was not an absolute victory for you. >> i'll be honest, i thought it was very close to a complete victory. >> a little over an hour later the president tweeted he's fired his attorney general. let's bring in tonight's "hardball" roundtable.

steve israel and former new york governor christine tod whitman, and gabe. thank you all. we're covering all the bases or almost all the bases. governor, first to you. what did you make of trump's timing? firing the a.g. in the middle of this investigation, and everything of his life was on the table in terms of his family, presidency and his liberty, basically. he fires the man leading the prosecution? >> that's because i think he's worried. he's worried what's going to happen when the democrats are sworn in and in control of the congress. i wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get bob mueller and the investigation -- get bob mueller fired and get the investigation over before january. >> i'm with you. >> it's very clear that a lot of people in the white house and around the president essentially and said to him for months and months, listen, we know you want to get rid of sessions but you

can't do it because the mid-terms are going on. >> your mom is dead and i can kill fraido. >> and he said this was another big victory for himself. >> i don't think this is the end. he has two months now, a free fire zone without a house of leadership there. he can do a lot of damage, it seems to me. >> oh, no, i think we're being setup for both a constitutional crisis and obstruction of justice. and he's going to run up the clock the next two months. >> which of your former colleagues has the stones to go after this guy and say we're going to impeach the guy? who's going to do it? name the person? who's going to lead the party because i don't see it from republicans at all. >> first of all, i don't think the democrats should be unilaterally focused on investigations and impeachment. they need to focus on investigating the president

where it's warranted, but they also have to deliver to the american people on medicare drugs -- they've got to do both things. >> i like that part too, and we'll get to that. but my question is if he fires mueller who's going to stop him. >> if he fires mueller before democrats take the congress? >> right now. >> i don't think anyone can fire him before. he made this decision to announce the firing of the attorney general, step on the after glow of the democratic victory and number two, i think the governor's right. he knows something bad is coming. and he's trying to address that -- >> when i hear from your part like lamar alexander and all these wimpy comments, and he goes i hope he doesn't go any further, and he's already done it. >> i know, and it's very disappointing because just saying things like that isn't good enough. you've got to act. and they have the ability to put

the brakes on this as he undermines the very basics of our democracy. >> he's turned the democratic party into the maxine waters party and made it look like it's a hard left party so it's made it hard to show their job and t don't seem to want to do that. >> on the other hand the american people don't agree with that, based on results from two nights ago. >> last night. >> sorry. >> seemed like it. >> his game here obviously is to try and divide democrats and he has, in fact, said, listen, if democrats try to go after me i'll continue to dry to divide them and make sure the focus is on how crazy those guys are. democrats are going to investigate him -- >> why do voter reelect people who have been convicted or under investigation? menendez if your state, this guy in california. don't they have any sense that says, i don't care whether i'm a democrat or republican, i'm not voting for somebody with ethical problems, i'm not going to do it, they reelect them.

>> certain states and certain districts that have a partisan gravity. that guy may be a crook, but he's my crook. unfortunately it's the reality. >> thank you, steve israel with the bad news. thank you christine todd whitman. we miss your republican party, where is it? >> i'm looking for it. >> thank you. gabe debenebetti, thank you. we're going to show you some scenes of the glory of stuff today. what a strange event. look at it, it's even physical, they're coming at each other. look at the assistant to the president pulling a mic out of the guy's hand. it got physical. you're watching "hardball." ♪ -[ slurping ] ♪ -act your age. get your own insurance. [ child babbling ]

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to put it mildly, the media coverage set a new record in a new standard. >> if i may ask one other question -- >> that's enough. cnn should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. you are a rude, terrible person. you shouldn't be working for cnn. peter, go ahead. >> in his defense, he's a diligent reporter. >> i'm not a big fan of yours either. >> i understand. let me ask a question -- >> you aren't the best. >> just sit down, please. when you report fake news -- no. when you report fake news, which cnn does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. >> well, late today the white house announced it was suspending the hard pass of that cnn reporter jim acosta. so they're using the power against him, one of the press. you're watching "hardball."

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trump watch wednesday november 7th, 2018, did we expect the day after the midterm elections to be like this? no. but did we know this day would come? yes. donald trump brought this street fighting ways to the white house when he came there. when someone is coming at you, you strike before they strike you. today trump struck. it won't be the last time. he forced out his ag and let in a man who will accept as normal political behavior that others

might easily discern as advancing criminal conspiracy by russians. what's trump up to? he wants to eliminate a threat to his family, his presidency and his liberty. and that's "hardball" for now. he's fighting for his life. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> whoa. i didn't know what happened. >> democrats reclaim power. >> i could fire everybody right now. >> a cornered president lashes out. >> if they do that, then it's just all it is is a war-like posture. >> and fires his attorney general. >> sessions should have never recused himself. >> tonight why the sessions firing represents a direct threat to the investigation of donald trump. >> beginning to look more and more to me nefarious. >> what we know about the trump loyalist now directing the mueller probe. >> i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced -- >> what dem