him to do it. it doesn't mean he has to. >> my thanks to the panel. that does it for our our. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicole. same as it ever was. nothing going on. >> have a good show. >> if it's thursday, president trump continues to lash out. good evening, i'm chuck todd back in washington. just two days after the midterms, it was only two days ago that you went to the polls. and we appear to be dealing with a power who feels empowered and paranoid. he fired his attorney general and replaced him with a critic of robert mueller. he's threatened a war-like posture with democrats. he's threatened to investigate them if they investigate hum. his white house revoked a press credential and it's only been

two days since the midterms. the president, though, does seem to feelment powered and protected by an incoming senate he thinks is indebted to him. but he also seems to be worried about the power democrats have gained by winning back the house. and folk who is are about to find out what happens when a paranoid. president battles the people's chamber. the first battle grew brucing could be over the russia investigation. some are worried about robert mueller's fate after the president fired jeff sessions handing oversight of the investigation to the new acting attorney general matt whitaker. in addition to making public pronouncements about how mueller has gone too hard and for too long, whitaker also mused about what an incoming acting attorney general might do in h situation. >> us could see where jeff session ises is replaceed and that attorney general doesn't fire robert mueller but reduces

the budget so low that his investigation grinds to a halt. >> it's almost comical to hear that. according to "the washington post," he has no plans to recuse himself from overseeing the russian probe. a group of democrats are demanding that the administration preserve all documents and materials related and relevant to sessions' ouster. there's a group of republicans plus mitt romney who put out statements of allowing mueller to finish his work unimpeded without any interference. how far and how hard will the president be willing to push the senate? we're about to find out. the white house says the president's motive for firing sessions was related to the russia investigation. here's their answer to the question of why did the president ask sessions to resign. >> the president has made clear for a long time his

disappointment in the recusal from all things related to the 2016 election and campaign. >> does this mean the president expects whitaker to shut the investigation down or to limit it? >> no, that's not the reason that the president has asked him to step in as acting attorney general. >> it's the reason session was out, but it's not the reason whitaker is in. so says the white house. but in the old washington, republicans wouldn't likely have launched an investigation to find out if that statement was true. but house democrats seem all but certain to do just that and folks, this is just one imminent confrontation. you're going to expect a lot more. we have a panel joining us this evening.

hello to all. i want to go through a series of legal questions here. number one, you heard the white house say the reason for firing jeff sessions was his recusal of the russia investigation. could that be obstruction of justice? >> obstruction to lie, obstruction to pertain, i should say, you have to show corrupt intent. that's a hard thing for prosecutors to do to get into someone's brain, to get into their mind. >> et with just heard the intent though. >> we heard part of it from kellyanne conway. we'd need to hear if t from someone more. directly who said they spoke to the president. is it in and of itself obje obstruction of justice, not yet. >> now i want to to put something up here. this is an argument that's being made in an op-ed by neil kutt, l

and george conway. it's an op-ed that makes the case that whitaker's appointment is unconstitutional. noting that because he reports directly to the president and himself not senate confirmed tr another appointment at all, his last confirmation is 2004, it's a pretty compelling read. basically it says any action that he takes would be challenged on unconstitutional grounds. >> i have a couple reactions to that. number one, neil is is a lot smarter than me. number two, i think that their argument is intention with the vacancy reform act, which i read as permitting this appointment. >> you do? how? >> there are exceptions when someone resigns or is disabled. sessions resigned. for it to be filled by people with certain criteria.

it's not an endorsement of what happened. it's just my opinion that it's arguably legal. that's my third point. by arguably, i mean we don't know the answer. >> meaning this needs to be decided by the supreme court. >> it would have to be litigated. which is the answer to a lot of questions over the last few months. >> you have to find the lawsuit to litigate it. . somebody who has standing. >> have you thought about somebody? >> you could imagine a world in which a member of congress might have standing, although the courts have kind of constrained that. you could imagine somebody who is aggrieved by a direct order of the attorney general, but it would be hard, you're smarter than me, but you pointed out that this appointment was 210 days. so by the time you litigated this, it might be over with.

the more important point is whether or not this is technically legal is so out of the ordinary. it is just not proper to install this person not in the line of succession to take over as attorney general. >> one thing we do know about the president is he is unafraid of moving forward on dubious things. we saw that with dara. >> he doesn't mind the legal. >> his whole life has been spent in court. he has the money and now the aur. >> here's what i don't understand at the white house. if they wanted to appoint somebody to do their bidding on the mueller probe, why appoint somebody who has said how to do their bidding in the mueller probe. matt whitaker was on tv. maybe i could see a scenario where a recess appointment could then constrict the mueller probe and then there's all this. it's such a paper trail.

why be so blatant about it? do they not care about appearances? >> that's one way to ensure you're getting the right guy. he's gone on tv and laid out the game plan and endorse d it. you know, i don't know this administration does care about appearances all that much. i think we have quite a bit of evidence on that point over the last two years. but i do think that they have run into a potential constitutional problem. i thought the conway op-ed was a pretty strong one. and o to the extent there's a statutory conflict, you'd think the constitution would come first. >> there's a political issue here for the president that i think also makes him feel emboldened. i want to put up views about the russia probe both on mueller. first the approve and disapprove percentage.

we know who the 46% is. but the fact that there isn't a majority for it. then we ask this question. i'm not crazy about the wording of it, but a committee of multiple networks decided that this was good wording. however, it was asked, voters nationwide do you believe the russia investigation is is justified or politically motivated. 54% said politically motivated. my argument in trying to get rid of this question was you could be both. i believe it's politically motivated and make the case it's justified at the same time. >> i think that one thing that both of these answers show is there's an asymmetric warfare between mueller's office and the white house and the president's al lice. because mueller's office can't respond. it can't say we're doing a good job. we are not a bunch of angry democrats. we are not biassed against the president. they can't say anything.

. they don't say anything. and meanwhile, maybe they have some people backing them up in the house. but meanwhile the president has this huge mega phone where he's going after them. >> a lot of swing voters don't like this mueller probe. >> you hear the president or the people around him promoting alternative facts, all you're hearing is from the president. if you're a low frequency consumer or person who pops your head up every once in awhile and the only thing you're hearing is not the diligent work that robert mueller and his team are doing, but rather that it's a witch hunt, that's when kwlour going to believe. >> let me be a really boring prosecutor. >> it's got to be frustrating for a prosecutor. public opinion shouldn't matter, but it's hurting mooul aerolittle bit. >> public opinion doesn't matter unless you're talking about

something where public president bush matters like impeachment. in the case, it's just facts and law. what the public thinks of the facts and law don't matter. what matters are the 12 people in the jury box at the end of the day. >> however, the president has done a good job of branding this thing. >> that's right. especially with republicans. that's the reason he's got that 46% in that poll disapproving of mueller because he's made this a tribal issue. if you are a republican, a conservative, you are supposed to be skeptical of mueller and hostile to this investigation. that has largely succeed succ d succeeded. it's created a completely politicized investigation. now i think that chuck's point was right as well. we were talking about the norms that trump is violating. norms typically are enforced by public opinion, elections, by the political act of impeachment. the president and his team have

understood that that's the fundamental jury they have to influence. >> you were a u.s. attorney with matt whitaker. >> i was. >> there's a lot of people making assumptions. i know i'm a little bit these assumptions he's going to act ethically well. he's taken that oath before. i like to remind people that you never know what people are going. to do the minute they suddenly have the power. >> i think that's an important point. and i draw a distinction between what i us hope and what i fear. what i hope is that the gravity of the office impresses him. that the gravity of the department of justice which pulls people towards norms and rules pulls him in that same direction. >> like jeff sessions with recusal. >> correct. what i fear is that he was put there because he's already sort of cleared hurdles and articulated his disdain for the mueller investigation. i hope my hope wins out. >> he may want the job

permanently. >> that's what would happen. if you want to per nerm lent, you have to audition to the senate. >> and also i just think the more i learn about matt whitaker, the more concerned i am about him. reading his comments about the foundational case in which the supreme court in 1803 determined that it was the duty of the supreme court to say what the constitution means and what the law is. he was asked this a debate when he was a senate candidate what are the worst cases the supreme court has done. he said let's begin. this is not within the mainstream of legal thinking. >> let's begin with dread scott. it's probably one of the most important ever decided. >> let me bring up what may be the real motive here. that is, in recent days don jr. has been telling friends he's worried about being indicted as early as this week.

one person speculated mueller could indict him for making false statements to congress about the trump tower et meeting. the point is that was the fear don jr. had in august. then we went to the quiet period where there'd be no indictments and now he's figuring summer vacation or fall vacation is over. he went back and forth to montana. and now he's worried again. >> he's not alone in that worry. his father is worried. and that's clear in his tweets and the way he talks about this witch hunt. and the other part is this goes back to loyalty and the intense loyalty that president trump demands from people around him, whether it's folks in congress or his own family or his attorney general. >> look what he did to the house republicans. >> that's the most fascinating thing about jeff sessions. he was the first name to endorse president trump. he was probable the most

effective cap net member in moving forward. and then because he recused himself by trying to do the right thing trump gets rid of him. >> what -- are republicans going to sit back? what he did to the house republicans, it just seemed he clearly was trying to send is a mafia message to the rest of the republican party. it was something else. how does that get received by some republicans? >> i would note first that you shouldn't rule out the possibility that the president is incapable of understanding that there are places in that country where being tied to him is a liability. every previous president has understood that. barack obama understood that. i'm not sure that donald trump with his intense narcissism and his need to personalize everything really gets that. so he may genuinely think

barbara comstock running in a district he lost in 2016 that it's going to be helpful to her to be more associated with him. >> i get tired of the explanation of saying, there's something wrong with him and therefore, that's why he acts this way. do you really think that's always the explanation? >> there can be multiple explanations for something. i think partly he does want the republican party to feel towards him tr top to bottom and he's been pretty successful this that. as we all know, the new republican conference in the house and the new set is of republican senators is in general going to be more people who are loyal to him than in the past. largely because the people who didn't feel necessary to be totally tied to him were in swing districts and they lost. >> simple as that. stick around.

up ahead, with jeff sessions gone and democrats taking over the house, what's the future of the robert mueller investigation? and later on an update on two senate races that may be headed in a different direction than we thought on election night. direction than we thought onle ection night. ♪ ♪ -[ slurping ] ♪ -act your age. get your own insurance.

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the senate minority leader chuck schumer issued that warning yesterday. how can they protect the special council with republicans still in control of the chamber? good to see you. let me ask that question. right now the president has made a recess appointment or acting appointment. there's questions about its constitutionality that have been brought up by a former acting solicitor general and former justice department official. what can senate democrats do about this appointment, anything? >> the most important thing we can do, and i have been issuing these warnings for almost a year, and the good news was that virtually every republican senator, both publicly and privately, assured me don't worry. there's no way trump would ever fire mueller. i think lindsey graham said it

would be political suicide. so fist and foremost, i hope my republican colleagues will stick to their guns. we even passed a bill out to protect the special prosecutor that came out of the judiciary committee 14-7 broadly bipartisan and then never brought to the floor because the majority leader said, well, there's no way trump is going to interview in the mueller investigation. we knew sessions was going to go, but what i expected to appoint someone that was already constitutionally or already senate awe proved like rod rosenstein. instead he picked this guy who i have never met before who seems like his biggest redeeming trait is that he's a trump loyalist. i would argue et he has two major concerns or reasons why he should frankly recuse himself, which he said he won't, but et recuse himself from any oversight of the mueller

investigation. one, he's already and very clear what he feels about in writing and orally. and secondly, you would follow this the fact that he was the campaign funder, treasurer to the guy connected to george papadopoulos and he's been a witness if not a subject of the mueller investigation. >> you think that's enough for rekoocusa recusal? >> i never practiced law, but on any legal basis, either one of those are reasons for recusal. i have heard reports, i don't know if this is true, but there's been press reports that the office of judicial ethics out of the department of justice has issued an opinion that says he should recuse himself if he doesn't adhere to that, there's no requirement he adhere to that, but if he goes against the office of office of ethics, that would be a big red flag.

the challenge is not only firing mueller, but the chance to cut back on his budget or stop an indictment or other items. >> kellyanne conway did make this pledge yesterday. take a listen. >> you don't expect there to be a change in any way, mr. whitaker won't be dealing with the russia investigation? >> no, i'm not aware of what you asked previously, which is in making this move the president is trying to shut down the investigation. i know the media has asked for a better part of the year is he trying to fire robert mueller, is he trying to fire rosenstein. none of that has been true. >> so she denied previous things being true. i could parse that a thousand times and i didn't hear an answer there. >> there's an easy way to clear this up, to bring harmony back in terms of those of us who are concerned about this in the senate. make this guy, mr. whitaker,

take a recusarecusal. continue to be acting. we'll be anxious to see who trump puts forward for permanent, but have him recuse himself. there are clear legal grounds for him to recuse himself. if he doesn't when we already know his written and oral views on the mueller investigation, that's a huge red flag and again, it may not be a straight firing of mueller, but i think it will clearly be impugning the investigation. >> you want you to react to something mitch mcconnell said in response to questions about the house amping up some investigations into the president. take a listen. >> well, 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 oursund in the next election. so the democrats in the house will have to decide how much presidential harassment they

think is good strategy. i'm not so sure it will work for them. >> presidential harassment, is that what all of this is? >> you know, within a cabinet, let's take the president's c cabinet so far where you have had as many members have to resign under scandal and more under question at this point. i don't think that's harassment. i think that's appropriate oversight. in terms of the issue i have been so focused on, the russia investigation, let's let the mueller investigation finish and get facts out. we don't know what manafort, cohen, what all these figures who are now working with the mueller investigation, what sdo do they add to the investigation. let's let that come out and we'll see what the house does. >> very quickly, now that adamship is the intelligence chair, what does that do to the senate intelligence committee working with the house intelligence committee? is that going to improve that? or because the rank iing member

isn't going to be on the same page, it's meaningless? >> i hope that we're able to work more together. one of the things we have to do this year is pass an intelligence authorization bill that's very important in terms of 99.9% of it already done. we ought to get that across the finish line. i know from our investigation on the senate side we're going to keep a bipartisan. we're going to continue to follow the facts. frankly, a lot of the folks that we need to see are the folks that are still in legal jeopardy or pled guilty with mueller. the sooner we can get to those folks, the sooner we can get done as well. >> i us got to leave it there. thank you for being on. much appreciated. up ahead, the democrat dominance in the house and even more red seats are expected to go blue as the counting continues. how close to 40 will the democratic pickups get? we'll talk with a texas democ t democrat, that's coming up. democrat, that's coming up

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welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with good news. no, great news. the threat of the caravan has passed. banished, disappeared. just like the usual suspects. and like that, poof, it's gone. nobody has ever seen it since. it's a mayth. a spook story. you know the caravan, the wurn filled with really bad men, middle eastern men, terrorist

men and women, job-stealing women and children. paid for by george soros children. >> large organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. they have injured, attacked. >> we're not dealing with babies here. these are rough, rough people. >> drug dealers, predators, blood thirsty ms-13 killers. >>over whelming your schools, depleting your resources and endangering your communities. >> yes, that caravan. how do we know it's gone? the go-to source of all things caravan, fox news, that's how. according to fvox, the morning show, made 11 mentions of the caravan on friday. 10 on monday. 9 on tuesday. since then, nothing. they did speak spanish. there was one mention on wednesday. today, nothing.

strange because until tuesday morning nothing could stop the breathless coverage of this supposed threat. not the pittsburgh synagogue shooting of actual death and destruction, not the mail bomber, actual threats of destruction and thot the midterm elections. no, something happened on tuesday. something on tuesday that made the caravan go away? what was it i was just saying about the midterm elections? don't get too comfortable. something tells me this threat will be back. maybe in the fall of 2020. siciao embark on a concert tour, with the majority of which will be down south. atlantic city? the deep south. this thanksgiving... in the deep south, there's gonna be problems. when you see me worried... tony. you'll know if i'm worried. how about some quiet time. it's amazing you said that, my wife used to say that all the time. their journey inspired an unexpected friendship. i don't think i ever met anyone with your appetite. [ laughing ]

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democrats are on their way of netting 35 house seats. right now democrats have a net gain of 31 seats with more expected as votes are counted in the comes days. remember that during the popular vote gathering days. the california numbers come in heavily democratic as they keep coming in.

they will likely win more house seats out there and maybe overall than they did in 2006. that's in large part because this time democrats captured suburban districts and strongholds from georgia o to texas to arizona to california. that includes defeating house rules committee chairman pete sessio sessions, who has been in since 1997. the texas congress-elect joins me now. congratulations. >> thank you so much, chuck. glad to be here. >> i have to say i thought a lot of us thought you had an excellent chance of winning and this was going to be a close race. i'm surprised by your margin. 6 points was a lot in this day in age. were you surprised at how big your victory was for a swing district and what do you attribute it to? >> i wouldn't say we were surprised.

we were pleasantly -- it was a pleasant surprise, i'll say that. we worked extremely hard. we had so many people engaged in our campaign. we were taking the message door to door. we increased turnout here in a way we haven't seen in a midterm in a long time. i think that played a big part of it. >> to defeat a committee chairman, i'm sure voters said it was part of the dallas morning news editorial. i think it was part of the dallas mayor's complaints. but part of the reason i think dallas city officials ended up supporting congressman sessions at time by saying he brings stuff back to dallas. how did you navigate that issue because that's usually something that some elected officials are concerned about. losing seniority in congress. >> i think the people here are ready for a change. they are ready for fresh ideas, new leadership.

these are not positions for life. they are positions that if you stop doing the job and you lose touch with your constituents, somebody comes along, thn you can lose your position. that's what happened here. i think i had a story to tell about who we were here in north texas because. i was born and raised here by a single mother and relied on this community. i had some insight into what north texas families are facing. that's what people responded to. >> if you decide to run for reelection, and you ask voters again in 2020 to support you, what's the one accomplishment you think you have to have in order to justify your reelection? >> that's a good question. if i have my way, the first bill of congress will be an infrastructure bill. we are one of the most congested cities. we are growing. rapidly. et we need that investment. president trump has said he wanted to do it. i think we put it on his desk. maib we can get that signed. >> i want to ask you about something you said that was interesting that you were speaking about your own

background as somebody who is not white. and you said this in an interview. there's some topics i have to talk about differently and some subjects i'm not going to be the one to lead on the issue. you have to be honest and say, you know what, as a young black man i'm probably not beginning to be the flag-bearer for that. what do you mean by that? what issues do you have to navigate carefully? >> i just what i meant by that is that there are some realities that we have to face that maybe i'm not always going to be the voice of certain movements. what i try to stay focused on the a all times is what's most important to the families here in north texas, what they are talking about at kitchen tables at night. those conversations are pretty similar across all kinds of groups. how are we going to send our kids to college and a good school down the street. conversations are universal and those are the things i stayed focused on. >> you think there's some voters who somehow if you spoke out on

a racial injustice issue that while they supported you when you didn't speak out on racial injustice,s they would on this? >> i don't know. i know that when i have tried to focus on are things that are broadly appealing, that have cross racial, cross class appeal. those are the things that i think are also what are most on voters' minds. >> you have drawn the attention of the folks over at the republican national committee. they put out a press release. who will break the pelosi promise? they put you in a category of this. i'm putting it up on screen. you don't get to see it. but it says this. they said you are a part of the, quote, i am going to avoid the question because of how deeply unpopular pelosi is in my district caugcusaucus. it was referring to the idea would you support nancy pelosi for speaker of the the house. now that the question is on the table, are you planning to support nancy pelosi for speaker of the house?

>> what i have said from the very beginning and what i believe regardless of what the rnc has to say is we need to look at who is running and talk to them and hear what their ideas are for how they will lead the caucus. i want to get some commitments from them on what we can get for north texas. i have some leverage in this position that i'm in. i think that's a good thing for my area and i want to use ma ta. >> what if she's the only candidate? >> if she's the only candidate, then that's a different conversation. but right now, i think from the discussions i'm hearing that we will have some discussion about who will be run ining tr this. >> you expect multiple people to -- have you heard from other people who are thinking about running for speaker? >> i have not personally. but i believe from what i've been told there may be. i'm going to wait and see what that is. i also haven't spoken with nanye

pelosi about this. >> has she not asked for your vote yet? >> not directly, no. >> congratulations, you haven't gotten here yet. i see you're still in dallas. we look forward to having you onset. >> thank you, chuck. >> congratulations. thanks for sharing your views. up ahead, we debut our new segment. it's 2020 vision time. (music throughout)

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come on, did you see the graphic? we have an eye chart and everything. we have met the midterms. today a new segment on "meet the press." 2020 vision. who has it? we're 452 days out from the iowa caucuses, but that won't stop the ring from filling up. recent history says we could see big names really soon like maybe tonight. >> a lot of rethinking, regrouping at the white house. >> let's go back to november 2006. >> the democrats have been awarded control of the house of representatives. >> the last time democrats flipped the house. just two days later, a democratic contender filed papers to get into the presidential race. >> thank you, thank you, thank you preponderance. >> tom vilsack. then it the outgoing governor of iowa looked to be a force in the first in the caucuses. but ended up being the first to drop out just three months later. so who will be the first big name democrat to announce this

year? keep an eye on governor john hickenlooper who was just in new hampshire on halloween. but it's not official yet. then again if you live in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina or nevada, check your local diners this month or frankly tonight. because you just might see the first democrat to jump into the fray for 2020. in all seriousness, a lot of people expect four to six candidates to be in this race before the end of the year. we'll be back with election updates, right after this. we'll be back with election updates, right after this. liberty mutual accident forgiveness

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don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can... to help protect yourself from another dvt or pe. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. welcome back. time for the lid and some election updates. we have a bunch. republican brian kemp is claiming victory in the georgia governor race. . stacey abrams says there's enough outstand lg ballots to potential ly force a recount. very condition fusing in georgia. in florida the senate race

appears headed to a recount, which could turn into a manual recount. the governors race in florida is also now currently within the margin for a mandatory recount. but remember andrew gillum has conceded that race. in the very tight senate race in arizona, there's 650,000 uncounted ballots. but we're beginning to get some of those results at 7:00 p.m. eastern. so stay tuned. chris matthews will have those results at the top. and finally, three more house seats flipped red to blue. georgia 6 is where it all began. and katie hill won in california 25. at the moment, democrats have netted 30 seats in the house. one of the democratic seats in minnesota is officially been called for the republican. the panel is back. what does the perception of

tuesday night and the split decision if nelson wins the recount and? >> i think since election night when republicans basicallynight, when we can breathe a sigh of relief and thought the house could be worse. the senate is looking good the governor's losses were arizona substantial as a lot of republicans thought. everything since then has made it look worse for the republicans. if we had the same kind of results all on election night, there would have been a more negative reaction from republicans. i suppose the question is going to be whether the perception sort of is baked in from tuesday night, wednesday morning, which is, after all, when post-people were paying the most attention to the elections. but i do think particularly if republicans lose the arizona seat and the florida seat which they sort of counted on, they figured after tuesday night they had won, i think it starts to look like a significantly worse election than the republicans

thought. >> then i think it's -- we're sitting at a net zero with the mississippi runoff, deciding things. >> i think ramish has been failing to listen to president trump. it sure sounds on wednesday. this did not go as well for republicans, except for the ones that failed to embrace him. the perception from tuesday night to wednesday morning reality is interesting. in the end what is going to matter in the senate is how many votes mitch mcconnell has to play with. >> more importantly, not just that, actually, it's how many votes does she have to play with that don't have to require lisa murkowski. >> that was actually my.. susan collins is a point. think of a senate, for example, wheriev flake's insistence on an fbi investigation for brett kavanaugh would have been that. it's just the way, but we don't

need your vote. that's the difference. >> the difference between 53 senators and 51 republican senators is the difference between lisa murkowski mattering or not mattering. >> it's a big deal as you said the president has been claiming victory. whether it's with the investigation we expect democrats to launch for the rest of the time that president trump is president or anything that comes his way, he needs those republicans and he needs loyal republicans. and i think that's going to be tough for him to find the other interesting thing about these recounts is so many people are pointing to gillum's loss, abram's loss, that 2020 can't be an aggressive democrat. i think the slim arguments alone argue against that. >> thank you. i'm with you. you look at the sun belt, beto, gillam and abrams, you can say maybe they all ends up o for 3. two are still kind of up in the air. but as a group, they got a heck of a lot closer than cent ris

democrats did? >> the problem for democrats is you don't want to be in a position where 2020 you are getting really close to getting those states. you don't want to get caught in between as well as you need to be doing in the mid-west. you have promising signs. you will break through in 2024 in some of those sun belt states, but you are just fought there yet. >> by the way, i want to put up the house national popular vote. i find it, first of all, it's reassuring on turnout. i am pleased to know over 100 million the raw vote is over 100 million. 52-46. it's likely to grow one more point and then it's a seven-point spread. geeze, what poll had a seven-point spread final poll? i'm feeling proud of my pollsters. we nailed this electorate the competition i situati

composition. this end may end up being bigger than the spread republicans had in 2010 and essentially republicans got the seat. >> well, hole lo jerry bandering. hello presidential sorting. >> there it is. >> we all cluster with our like-minded friend. that's the new america. >> all right. guys. i got to leave it there. ramish, thanks, for being remote. militia u mush apprecia much appreciate it. florida, how do i love thee? let me recount the ways. first, thanks for jimmy fallon inviting me to the "tonight show" thanks, jim many i. >> you have been on tv all night and all day, did you think you were going to get a little break today? >> no, i have been operating on election nights on gummies and coffee. >> what do you mean in. >> gummies, gum my bears. >> animals? >> well r, ever since the trump

presidency started. >>

t, you got it, shaquem. alright, let me see.

[ready forngs ] christmas? no, it's way too early to be annoyed by christmas. you just need some holiday spirit! that's it! this feud just went mobile. with xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. and with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. ...you're about to find out! you don't even know where i live... hello! see the grinch in theaters by saying "get grinch tickets" into your xfinity x1 voice remote. a guy just dropped this off. he-he-he-he. . well, in case you missed it, there are a lot of folks around this office having unpleasant flashbacks, why? we are waiting for the florida and governor's race. those two races are heading to a recount the florida's governor's race looks like it will head to a recount.

ah, florida, we are facing not one, not two, but three florida recounts? i know that some of our viewers maybe two young to remember what happened last time. let me take you back to the last year of the 20th century 2,000. >> this is the mtp daily news flash. presidential candidate george w. bush and gore locked in a battle for the white house. one state stand in the way. florida, home of sand and surf. home of pop pop. home of the world's smallest police station. the vote margin online contact world wide web internet. hold on to your hanging chads america, it's captivated the winner magnified. one thing for sure, there's a whole lot of work to do.

get it? hole? that is a punch card. >> trust me, there is a signature issue in duval county. oh, good luck, america. that's all tonight. "the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> good evening. we have an interview with the top prosecutor who ran this probe and served in the obama justice department. also the incoming chairman on the house intel committee is already making moves to protect mueller against trump's new acting attorney general. we will get into it live. later in the show, my first breakdown of what i think tuesday meant. why the blue wave is so large and some are intent on making you think oils. we met a man quickly becoming the most famous lawyer in america and one of the most controversial. acting attorney mathieu whitaker.