of msnbc live and i will see you tomorrow morning on today. andrea mitchell reports starts right now. right now on andrea mitchell reports, it is a mass shooting outside of a country music bar outside in l.a. and 12 are killed including a sergeant who ran towards the building trying to save lives. >> we were were trying to get behind the car or something. >> and we tried the take cover. >> we heard the bang-bang of the gunshot, and it started to go crazy. >> forced out, jeff sessions is ousted as attorney general, but the president never getting over session's legally mandated recusal of the mueller inv investigation investigation. >> i can see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with the recess appointm, and he does not fire mueller, but the budget

is so low that the investigation grinds to a halt. >> and rbg is hospitalized. the 85-year-old supreme court justice and liberal icon fracturing three ribs after a fall at the supreme court. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington as we cover yet another mass shooting, and this tragedy is unfolding today in thousand oaks, california. 11 people at a country music bar mowed down by a lone gunman just after 11:00 in the evening. responding within minutes to the 911 call, ventura county sheriff ron helus rushing through the door to save lives, but he was shot and later died at the hospital. the gunman was found dead at the scene. the gunmsergeant's commanding

officer speak of the loss >> he was running into danger and not walk. and he ran into danger hoping that he might save someone else's life. he made the ultimate sacrifice. but he did it as a hero. >> the suspect is 28-year-old ian long, a marine corps veteran who had a long gun with extended magazine. police do not know a motive. this morning many of the survivors in the teens and the early 20s are in shock trying to the describe the horrors they witnessed late wednesday night. >> i heard gunshots come from behind me. i turned around and i saw a guy standing at the door with the gun in his hands shoots. i saw three people drop, and by then, i was halfway off of the dan dance floor and i jumped into a dog pile of people on the other side. >> the first thing that i saw

him do is to gun down the girl at the front of the counter and i saw it clear as day and i will not ever forget that for the rest of my life. >> these people are my family and i felt hopeless, because all i could do is to hide under a table. i didn't have a knife and i normally have a knife, but even if i did, it is useless. >> the horror of this all, and joining me no is joe fryer and nbc national correspondent chris jansing. and joe, first to you, the scene there, and such shock and horror in this community and one of the safest communities in america. >> yeah, that is right. first of all we don't exactly know why this happen and the sheriff made it clear that so far they don't know of any connection that ian long had with anyone at the facility or the facility, itself, and so that is going to remain a question, because the authorities are planning to execute a search warrant at his house which is about seven miles

from here. and so he lived nearby. this club was packed with college student, and borderline bar is a draw for kids who want to listen to country music and do line dancing. and the gunman came in reportedly came in and shot a security guard and other employees before opening fire on everyone else. at this point, the question is why. authorities have said that they have had some minor interactions with long in the past, and nothing major. the most recent was earlier in the year in a apri april a and were called the to his house, because he was irate and crisis intervention team was called in and there is some discussion about the possibility of having ptsd because he is a marine veteran and at that time they did not do a 5150 to do a hold for treatment, and authorities say that is the last interaction

with him. >> and joe, one quick question about the gun. because this magazine had an extended magazine and so he had at lot of ammo on him. >> yes, and the sheriff was really not a able to tell us how much ammunition was inside of this, but it is a glock caliber and extended magazine, but he does not know how many rounds were inside of the weapon and it did allow him to fire a decent number of shot, and there were people inside who said that he seemed meticulous and seemed to know what he was doing, and precise in the shooting. andrea. >> well, a trained ma heerine ae would know how to handle a gun. and chris, you are there outside of the reunification center and some people have not found their the loved ones. >> nobody has been notify and for the people inside of this center, andrea, it is a long and

excruciating wait. many of them have been there for as long as seven hours. one father got a knock on the door at 1:00 in the morning, and friends of his 22-year-old son saying that they were afraid that he was inside of the bar. some of the families that went from hospital to hospital to hospital and finally when they opened up the reunification center came here. a short time the ago, the local councilman who happens to be a minister told us that the scene is exactly what we would unfortunately expect in there. the longer the wait, the more intense the emotions have become. and a t lt lot of people are cr, and lot of people are pacing. officials are doing everything they can to get these notifications ready to go as soon as they can and even if they have one, they will take that familied -- that family member aside with the chaplain or the advocate or counselor the make the official notification which they hope to do very, very

soon. at this press conference a short time ago, andrea it was another local officer who said that he knew one of the victims ron helus very well and he described him as a good officer a good friend and husband. and he said poignantly, i thought that he went in so that others could come out alive. and then the councilman added that we will have some funerals in this town. we ask for your prayers. andrea. >> i heard earlier that ron helus was only months away or maybe a year away at most from the retirement, and planning his are retirement, and leaving a wife and son, and i mean, the incredible heroism there. >> yes, he fryer, i wanted to play for you one of the neighbors interviewed by our sister station knbc today about this loner, and this guy who had been in the military and lived nearby and had some problems

burk no one really knew very well. we will watch. >> he was most ly a private person, and hardly ever saw him. he lived alone with his mother. his mother, and she and i were pr pretty good friends, and he was in the military for a while and i could never really talk to him. he would not come out of the house that much and when i did see him drive by, i waved at him and he would not wave back. >> e joe, a lot of questions are going to be asked if the they missed something at the disruptions at least one incident and he was evaluated and nobody, no alarm bells went off. >> yeah, that is right. again, as a ventura county authorities told us that really, there were small minor inter interactions with him over the years and the one that stands by is the most recent one in april. they sent a crisis intervention team called in and had a discussion with him. he seemed irate at the time, and

some issues to discuss and he did discuss that he was dealing with ptsd are relate nd to his service in the marines. he was decorate and looks like at least one deployment overseas i could see, but again, this interaction they had, they had to make a decision at that point, was it severe enough to do a 5150 hold which would essentially mean for say 72 hours involuntarily holding him in a mental health facility. they decided at the time it was not necessary. you know, hindsight is 20/20 if they should have looked into it more, but at that time, that is the interaction and as far as the sheriff's department is concerned, they have not had any other interactions with him since april. >> for you both, thank you, and what a horror for the community. thank you for being there. and coming up next -- sessions over. the firing of jeff sessions raising concern about the future of the russian probe. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. card from capital one.

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after publicly shaming him for more than a year, president trump in effect fired the attorney general jeff sessions yesterday. sessions is being replaced by his chief of staff matt whitaker who is acting attorney general and overseeing robert mueller's counsel that is investigating

the russian meddling of the investigation of 2016. and joining us is mimi roker, and msnbc justice and security reporter pete williams. and pete, you have been so busy on all of these issue, and first of all, jeff sessions and matt whitaker and any indication that he would be nominated? is that outside of the realm of possibility or are they looking at another list of people? >> itt is likely that they are looking at somebody else. under the law, you can't put someone in as under this circumstance as an acting person in thecancies reform act if you intend to nominate this person, and so i am thinking that somebody else is going on to be nominated, but, you know, that is just a guess. i would they they would not put this person in the acting

position under this law of the intention to nominate him as attorney general. >> and pete, the other issues is that he is now going to be briefed presumably on all aspects of the mueller probe, because he is in charge of it, and so he has to the decide, you know, how, tensive it c extensi and the funding and the indictments under him and what is the range of his power right now? >> first of all, you have to think that it is a speed bump for bob mooueller, because rod rosenstein was present at the creation, and the fbi investigation had been going on, and then rosenstein made ate special counsel case and appointed robert mueller and wrote the road map early on for mueller to follow, and of course, he has been briefed all along, and because matt whitaker worked for the attorney general, and the attorney general's staff has been as recused as the attorney general, and so he does not know anything about the investigation from the inside and he is going to have to be

briefed up. the budget that is periodically decided on, and i think that it is every six months and i have to the look at the reg again, and that is not the first order of business for him, and yes, under the special counsel regulations of the special counsel has to basically clear major or at least inform the attorney general of major decisions that he will make. so people that he is going to bring before the grand jury and major investigative steps, and people that he intends to the indict, yes, he has to brief whitaker on that, and if he decides that if the attorney general decides to stop any of those things or say no, he can do that, but he has to notify congress if he does those things. >> and the reason that i am raising the questions is because, pete, and matt and mimi well know that matt whitaker has a very public position on this the before he was chief of staff to jeff sessions he was a former attorney and prosecutor there in

iowa and involved in politics, and in is one of the things that he said as recently as july 2017 about the mooueller probe. >> those same code of federal regulations govern the budget of the counsel, and so that is within the purview of the attorney general and i could see where jeff sessions is replaced and he does not fire him, but he reduces the budget so low that the investigation is going to grind to almost a halt. >> i mean, he brought it up in the interview. and matt miller, this could be a strange the -- ra strana strang and halt to the mueller probe. what point should he recuse himself? >> one is the statements that he made about the investigation and not just the one you showed, but he has weighed in on the underlying content that anybody would take that meeting at trump tower and it is appropriate to do so and we know that meeting is under investigation, and questions about the legality, and he appears to have the mind

made up about that, and so when you take the those, and there is a question of whether it is appropriate and in the interest of the justice and the justice department and the integrity of the investigation because of his statements to continue to oversee it. and then there is a further question, because he has a relationship with sam clovis and chaired a campaign of his four years ago, who is wone of the ky witnesses, and been to the grand jury and because he has a relationship with him, he may be technically required to rerecuse himself, and that is a call for him ultimately to make at the advice of the career ethics officials, and it is important what they have to say and what they advice him should be public if the justice department does not make it public, and the democrats in the house of representatives should demand it. >> and he should heed their advice? >> ultimately, he can, and it is depending upon how the advice is given. and this is a bright line. like in jeff session's case, it was a bright line and he had no choice to rerecuse himself, but

oftentimes they will say it is a close call and we think that in the interest of the justice department and the interest of people having confidence in the investigation, it would be advisable for you the recuse yourself, and he could ignore that. it would be the wrong thing to do and bring a sdandle and the department's credibility under questi question, but he could do it. >> and mimi rocah, as a former u.s. attorney, how much has mueller farmed out and how much is protected. we saw it coming, and the truth be told nobody including jeff sessions expected it the morning after the election. >> right. the timing is certainly kind of suspect in the sense that it feels rushed, because we know that sessions wanted to stay even until the end of the week, and he was told that he could not do that. and so andrea, yes, mueller obviously, and a great chess player himself, and he has foreseen this coming. it is not so much just that sessions is out, but it is who he picked to put in it, right? i have said it before and i will

say it again, the prosecutors don't believe in coincidence, and it is not a coincidence that this man whitaker was picked given the vocal views and not only about the mueller probe and that he think s ths that it shoe curtail and that it is illegitimate, but he has extreme views on basic things like the world of law like marbury versus madis madison. and so this man is not just in a position to oversee the mueller proep, but other cases in the justice and that is including the cases that mueller had the foresight to refer out to other attorneys offices like the southern district of new york which is reportedly believed to investigate the trump organization, and so this is a huge red flag for all of those reasons. >> and finally, pete, to put on one of your other many hats, dr. pete williams, if you will. ruth bader ginsberg and obviously such an iconic figure

and so many people concerned because she had a fall at home or -- >> no, at the office. >> at the supreme court office home, and then ended up in the hospital. >> right. and now they say that she has three broken rib s on ts on the side, but that seems the be the extent of the injuries, andrea, and no punctured lung or anything like that. broken ribs are uncomfortable and i don't know how long back to the court, and she would have been there for the ves titeur sear mowny for brett kav knew, but she is in the hospital. and the question of wlit is fhe is going to be fair if he will view this different as when he was a paid commentator on cable television and the people s supporting him say that the views may have made him attractive to the white house the put him in this job, but he may see it differently now that he is viewing it from the

inside. >> and indeed. we all wish rbg a speedy recovery and point out after the major cancer surgery, she came back in a week. >> never missed a day on the court. >> incredible. thank you, pete williams and mimi rocah and matt williams. and a it is the of confusion. brian kemp is stepping down from that post, but declaring victory in the race of governor but his democratic rival stacey abrams says not so fast. and when we get the latest from georgia on "andrea mitchell reports" next on msnbc. shaquem get in here. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick,

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we want to keep our communities safe. this is our community. this is where we live. we need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live. together, we're building a better california. in georgia's heated governor e governor's race republican brian kemp has today resigned his post as secretary of state under threat of a legal challenge from stacey abrams as trying to use his state office for declaring the contest. she is vowing to make sure that all of the votes are counted to spark a runoff. she edged closer for the opponent after absentee ballots were counted, but still faces a uphill battle. and morgan, you were covering this election night, and it is continuing to go on.

and what are the chances of stacey abramss to get to the runoff -- >> well, yes, andrea. >> what is the latest? >> that is what we are trying to find out here, and this is a high political drama situation on the ground here in georgia, because this race is still too close the call and breaking news, we know as you mentioned that governor nathan beal did in fact receive the resignation t letter this morning from the former secretary of state kemp, but he held a press conference where he claimed victory and he said that the governor's mansion is his and he will begin the transition into that office and he expects this election to be certified quickly, but andrea, on the other hand, we are in close contact with the abrams' team, team, and they are holding a press conference when we last saw them and they are saying the same as last night, we simply do not accept his claim for victory and they will fight until every single vote is counted, but within the last hour, they are

bringing forth new litigation on bea half of one county where the mail-in ballots were affected by hurricane michael. speaking of the legality of all of this, that is why we are in front of this federal courthouse, and five individual georgia voters who brought a case against former secretary kemp who says that he cannot crown himself governor while he was overseeing that election, and now they have had their desires answered because he is no longer going to be overseeing the election, but andrea, the numbers right now, and interesting thin in georgia in order to win the race, you have to have more than 50% of the vote, and kemp has 50.3 and abrams has 48.7, but that is the issue that the team is bringing up, because there are thousands and provisional absentee ballots not counted and deadline for friday at 5:00 p.m. for anybody who has the provisional ballot issues if you were in the mi military or the overseas, those ballots have to be counted by

friday at 5:00 p.m. in order r to count, and 23,000 votes are necessary for a recount and more than 25,000 necessary for a runoff and so we are waiting for the very end to see what happens and when this election and votes are certified. >> morgan radford with the state of play in a race still opening. and still other cases open include that one in georgia, joining us is our political editor mark murray. mark, talk about first of all, the karen handel race, and what is the update there? >> yes, nbc news called lucy mcbath, the democrat as the apparent winner that georgia district 6 where the special election took place where handle beat the opponent. and this time, mcbath has done so much better in the three big counties of the district and particularly in fulton county

where karen handel's home base, and th and this is going to bring the democratic pickups to 31 total on the net side, and depending how the california districts go, the democrats could end up by the end of the season netting between 35 and 40 house pickups which is more than the 2006 midterm cycle. >> and macbeth by the way is running for office, and we should point out partly motivated by a killing of her s son, her young son was killed in a terrible police incident, i believe. so she is very strong on that issue. let's talk about arizona, because we still have votes yet to be counted in arizona. they have a slow paper count there. >> and well, andrea, it is not only talking about the votes, but nearly 700,000 votes according to the resident arizona expert vaughan hillyard and most of the votes are in maricopa county which is of course, the phoenix area, and when you are looking at the

senema/mcsally split, it is right down the middle, but there are e e ports of tens of thousands of votes in pima county where sinema did better than mcsally. a lot of the people believe it is 50-50 and a lot of the counting will start at 7:00 p.m. eastern time, and when we see if mcsally can maintain the 15,000-vote lead or if sinema is going to catch up. >> and briefly n florida, what are the chances that nelson will get the recount? >> well, he is going to get the recount, but the question is if he can be able to come back, and the republicans are confident that the situation is not going to change much. but our own ali vital thel, andrea, mark ally yas who is heading up the recount effort say that the democrats are confident they may pull this

out, and when we have to see how this goes. >> two senate races not the determined. thank you, mark. i hope you get some sleep very soon. >> very soon, andrea. very soon. >> and turning back to the breaking news in california, 12 people killed late wednesday night by a 28-year-old lone gunman and former marine ian -- including a police sergeant who ran into the building. >> and we will convoying him over to the ventura office. >> and very emotional time there for the people there in the community and the colleagues of sheriff helus. >> it is horrific here, andrea. in thousand oak, quite literally

hundreds of thousands law enfor here lining up, and locals as well, because the 29-year veteran of the ventura county sheriff's department is one of the first people the go inside of that borderline bar and grill with two officers from the california highway patrol, and he paid the ultimate sacrifice while trying to save other lives, and he will be taken by lawn s f lawns forment procession to the -- law enforcement here from the less than half hour's time on to the 101 northbound to ventura county medical examiner's office. no other way to say it, this sergeant is and was a hero. we talked to other law enforcement officials here on the ground and you can see by the turnout how deeply it is

affecting all of them. and agencies not just from ventura county and simi valley and moor park and they are here to pay respects no. doubt about it, he saved the lives of people inside of that borderline bar and grill. and he can did not wait tactically for backup or the permit terer to be established, he went inside of there and took fire almost immediately. and because of that, people were able to escape and save their own lives, and as we said, he paid the ultimate sacrifice and he is survived by his wife and one son just one year from retiring after 29 years on the force here in ventura county. >> oh, jacob, i know how hard it is for everyone out there, and i cannot even imagine. thank you for bringing that to us, and of course, we are waiting to hear who those vi victims are, and the other victims and the families still waiting for the identifications. and so it is a terrible, terrible scene. thank you, jacob. we will be right back.

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cnn should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. you are a rude terrible person and you should not be working for cnn. >> in jim's dps i have travelled with him in washington and he is a diligent reporter who busts

his butt -- >> i am not a fan of yours either. >> you call yourself a nationalist, and -- >> i don't know why you would say that is such a racist question. >> and the president trump sparring with the reporters in a fiery post election press conference and in retaliation taking the extraordinary step of suspending the credentials for white house correspondent jim acosta who has had a contentious relationship with the president. and republicans who lost on election night, and slamming the republican senator jeff flake. >> but mia love gave me no love, and she lost. too bad. sorry about that, mia. and bob -- barbara comstock is another one who could have won that race, but she did want to

have any embrace. and peter roskam did not want the embrace, and -- so, pure and simple, jeff flake, i retired him. i am proud of that, and i did the country a great service. >> joining me is nbc political analyst, and peter alex sander at the white house, and msnbc contributor, the white house correspondent for pbs newshour, and you sparred with the president yesterday at that news conference, peter, and pete alexander i should say. i started to cover the white house back when jimmy carter was president and been through ronald reagan and contentious bill clinton and my own sparring moments in the east room there, but never have i seen a press pass suspended for a correspondent. >> yes, it is a very best it is exceedingly rare if not unprecedent and we have reached out to the historians and the way that the white house has been covered in the history, and they cannot show us any evidence

of this. and the bottom line as this took place, the president came in looking for the fight. he believes that the press as his foil reflects well on him and is good on him and makeses the base like him more, and if he had a issue with jim acosta, and we know that the two of them have tussled in the past, and he could have called on somebody else, and he didn't have to call on him, but he knows it is going to play well for him in his mind, and jim acosta the thinks it is going to play well on him asking tough questions of the president, but our responsibility is not about us, but it is the story and which is why i tried to cool the temperature when i said that frankly, you know, this is a diligent reporter, and, you know, somebody who busts his butt like the rest of us everyday and then continued my question when he attacked me and the lesson of any is that we can only continue to keep doing this every single day. >> and from look at the tape, and even though there is an edited version of the tape that the white house put out, no evidence of the physical move

gai against the white house press intern who went to pull that microphone away and that is the predicate and the excuse for pulling the press pass, and, the president told you you were asking a racial question, and you were asking from the racial vectives. >> i have interviewed white nationalists who believe that the president is a good thing for their movement a on the other hand question that there are people all around the country who are wondering whether or not the president is concerned if white nationalists are excited about his campaign and his presidency, and i should say they traveled to all of the different states in west virginia, florida, and in california and people were asking all of the time, what is up with the president? why is he calling himself a nationalist? and the fact that he said that the question was racist, i had to keep pressing on and, andrea, you have been doing for it years, but i have been doing it a little bit less than you, and i have to learn from people like you who show the poise and judy woodruff and other people who have taught me just press on and keep asking the question and do

your job and that is what i tried the to do yesterday. >> and of course, the anchor is judy woodruff who was my leader. she was at nbc and my senior correspondent at the white house, and peter baker, you watching all of this, and you have cover sod many presidents and wr -- covered so many presi and so many members of the press corps, and you have heard the president call the media the enemy of the people, and it does hurt the media. >> and jim is right that if he did not want jim's questions and he thought that he was too rude, he would not have called on him and he went in on, that and they went into that intending a ruckus, and one of the white house aides said this is going to be fun before it started. and this is what he wanted to happen. now, the idea of pulling a credential is taking it to a different level and that is beyond the show, and beyond, you

know, even the rhetoric that we have seen so far and it is first sustained other than a couple of the one-offs, and sustained efforts to punish a report they don't like and as you say that the individuvideo is silly and not show anything that they are talking about at all. you have to agree with the way that jim handled his questioning, and you don't have to defend his approach necessarily, but to say that this is not the right thing and there is not a rudeness exception to the first amendment. if you don't like rude reporters then don't be president of the united states, because as you say, andrea, we have seen a number of them. and ronald reagan never threw out sam donaldson, and george bush never threw out helen thomas, and they were not such fragile flowers that they could not stand up for themselves. >> and indeed. a little bit of richard nixon and dan rather and a moment back there in the '70s in houston when dan rather was asking a question, and nixon just put him down, and you know, presidents have that platform, and they can hurt the press as much as they

like, but i have to tell you that ronald reagan as tough as the press corps was, peter alex san deshgs he never took the action against us, and he went through a lot of difficult moments with the iran contra, and we asked the questions, and he was always a gentleman about it. >> and andrea, the point is that on this broadcast, you have been talking about the significant news of this day, and the recent now new departure of jeff session, and the reactions to the midterms and what i says about the president's standing and the standings of the real check on the power to democrats, but the bottom line is that it was a convenient distraction just hours, within hours of the major headlines coming out and again today, the white house putting out a new statement on this topic, because they would rather talk about than the headlines where they are facing new scrutiny right now. >> and we will talk about it all of it. thank you very much. peter baker, and peter alexander, and anish cancandor,d thank you for your poise and

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would you like to be attorney general? if asked, would you serve? >> no, no, no. thank you very much. >> that is lindsey graham on election night denying any interest questions about just who could permanently replace sessions as democrats prepare for a fight when they take back the house. joining me now phil rucker white house bureau chief for the "washington post," michael steele former spokesman for house speaker john boehner and ron clain. let me just share with you all there is a question now still over matt whittaker's position now as acting ag. we have a new op-ed just posted in the "new york times" by none other than neal cateo and george

t. conway iii who rights that it is unconstitutional, reiterated recently under national labor relations board opinion written under the appointments clause of the constitution written by justice thomas, clarence thomas. ryan clain, i will defer to you, the most senior attorney at this table as to whether it's not some of the other clauses but it's the appointments clause not the vacancy act that says that a staff officer at justice who was the chief of staff could not become, in effect, for at least seven months if he remains as acting, he has to be confirmed by the senate. >> yeah. i mean, i was chief of staff to attorney general janet reno. it never dawned to anyone that you could make the chief of staff who is not a senate confirmed person the acting attorney general of the united states. there are two problems in this, one, there is the statutory problem, the problem that jeff sessions was cleared so the president lacks the authority to make whittaker the acting attorney general but then the

other problem that nooet cateo was on last night that the constitution requires that the principal officers of the executive branch agencies must be senate confirmed officials. >> like rod rosenstein. >> and sally yates in the past. >> traditionally the deputy attorney general if that position were vacant at the justice department the solicitor general has served as acting attorney general. robert bourque when he was assistant general served as acting attorney general when richard nixon fired the attorney general. senate-confirmed people should lead executive branch agencies not a political appointee that the president stuck in there. >> phil rucker, from the white house perspective the white house is gearing up now as the democrats are taking over and the democrats are -- have a challenge here to moderate their language, focus on as nancy pelosi did infrastructure going forward not just on investigations, but the battle lines are clearly drawn. >> they are, andrea, and it's clear that the democrats are going to begin launching investigations perhaps first into the circumstances

surrounding the ouster of the attorney general jeff sessions, we saw indications of that yesterday, and the challenge for democrats is going to be keeping that caucus united. there is pressure from the liberal base to be very aggressive in investigating trump and meanwhile there may be some desire from pelosi, as she said yesterday, to try to find some areas of common ground with president trump and we know from our reporting that the president is looking for ways to try to exploit any differences among house democrats to try to basically pry a wedge between pelosi and other democrats who want to deal on infrastructure with those who are newly elected who rose up through the resistance movement and are coming to washington to try to block the president at every turn. >> well, he was trolling throwsy yesterday by praising her and saying on twitter that if you need some votes to become speaker we will throw you some republican votes if you have problems with your own caucus. michael steele, you worked for john boehner, you've been through these transitions before. that was as painful as it was

for nancy pelosi to give up the gavel to john boehner, it was done gracefully as i recall. >> of course. this is a big transition, it's a momentous part of our democracy, and i think that speaker pelosi obviously is experienced in this job, she's going to have a heck of a time getting to 218 votes from our caucus, but i think most likely she will and she will return to her position as speaker and she is going to have a terribly difficult job managing as phil said the fire breathing elements of her caucus who want nothing more than to burn the white house down with the president in it and the desire to get something done, whether it's on infrastructure or another area an accomplishment that they can go back to their voters in just two years' time. >> in fact, some people -- some of these young new resistance-led members who have been elected, you have all of these women, feel that she knows the ropes. i mean, if she had had joe crowley, for instance, or some other challenger, an experienced guy there, but he was defeated in the primary by one of the

fire brands. there is no one else really who could step in of the younger generation -- >> one of the biggest guarantees of her eventual success in this process is the dearth of other options. there's not a next generation -- a clear leader of the next generation of democrats and the number two and number three, mr. hoyer and mr. clyburn are almost the same age, same generation as nancy pelosi. >> ron, you worked up there for the judiciary committee just very briefly, this is -- this is really serious stuff, though. the president was so defensive and testy yesterday, partly because he's declaring victory when, in fact, he's facing an onslaught from the house. >> i mean, i think you saw a president who feels like the walls are closing in on him. the house is now democratic, mueller is near doing something, they're going to face oversight. i mean, you know, this looked like a kind of a caged animal yesterday in the white house and we're going to see more of that,

not less of that as this progresses. >> on a golf course somewhere there is a guy, your former boss, michael steele, with some cabernet -- >> a cigarette in one hand and merlot in the other. >> we will be right back. stay with us right here on msnbc. green book is the feel

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does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online, on facebook and on

twitter @mitchellreports. here is ali velshi and stephanie ruhle. >> have a great rest of your afternoon. good afternoon, i'm ali velshi. >> and i'm stephanie ruhle. it is thursday, november 8th. let's get smarter. >> breaking news this morning, 12 people killed after a man burst into a popular california bar packed with college students and he opened fire. >> this is by far the most horrific thing that i've seen in my 41 years. >> this all unfolded on a busy wednesday night, the bar we're told was packed with more than 100 college students. >> the sheriff spoke about sergeant ron helus, his colleague and friend. >> he ran into danger, he didn't walk, he ran into danger hoping that he might be able to save someone else's life. >> as soon as it all started it just went to utter chaos real quick. >> we just tried to get out and get behind a car, get behind something. >> we just tried to take cover. >> we are just praying for our friends that we haven't heard from, but, yeah, i -- it's a traumatizing