of course, but 1989, think about what we have witnessed this year on the joyful side of the ledger. tiananmen square. the democracy movement is not yet dead. and then what has been going on on the communist world on both sides of this wall climax what has happened here tonight. the wall effectively has come down. and i mean physically, as well. that's a chunk of the berlin wall. men and women atop the wall tonight, hammer and chisel, taking it down symbolically because, realistically, it has taken down by the people in the last eight hours or so. they are crossing this wall, east to west and west to east. they are being joined once again as one, as freedom loving people, and no law can stand in their way. it's a night to remember. >> that was nbc's tom brokaw on

this date 29 years ago. >> and how amaiding that that was a nice that your father and some other people spend their entire life working for and fighting for that freedom, the freewaying of over 100 million people. your parents fled poland and czechoslovakia in the 1930s. that night on this day so many people were freed. so this news keeps coming at us every day. i got a call from some people i know in florida going, this race is not over. bill nelson is picking up votes. by night, you had a full on freak out by mark roub o.

rick scott is freaking out, too, alleging unlawful behavior when it doesn't go his way. >> when i was part of the republican effort back in 2000, our fight was to count all the votes. the republican party then, we were fighting to make sure that all the military votes got counted. if you want to see where the republican party is in 2018, 18 years after we were fighting to count all the votes, now it's marco rubio and donald trump the and rick scott that are freaked out that actually florida citizens may have their votes counted. also, donald trump has been about his big win not looking so good because every hour that passes by, it seems like more republicans are losing -- more

trump republicans are losing their seats. >> as we watch willie and joe, the spin from trump seems to continue over what is clearly a humiliating loss. as we're seeing, the democratic counts keep growing and it's a wave after all. we know democrats in the house will pick up at least 31 seats. >> wow. >> and that number could go as high at 38. as we mentioned yesterday, that's the gop's worst beating in a midterm election since watergate. and it is a wave, a big, blue wave powered by a record number of inspiring women candidates. it seems that president trump finally had hto pay a price for his misogyny. senate races in air and georgia, they could still possibly go to

the democrats. as the votes get counted and recounted, trumpism was on the ballot on tuesday. it was all about donald trump and trump theiism lost. the numbers are clear. the facts are clear. >> and you can go not only in the house races, you look across the country, over 300 losses, willie, over 300 seats lots. in legislative races. and, of course, we talked every day after the 2016 election about how devastating the losses were, the statehouse races for barack obama. over eight years, man, he's on pace to far eclipse barack obama. if this continues, the republican party will be absolutely gutted. i have to say for our friends who are republicans who watch this, this conservative has been warning you for two years that this day was going to come.

>> more than 300 statehouses at the local level. and we haven't talked about arizona where sinema has pulled ahead in that state. she'ses the democrat. martha mcsally, pushing the caravan in the final days. now sinema has pulled ahead. >> and those votes they're recounting are from her only republican district. >> so we have we have susan delpercio and eugene scott. caddie kay is with us, as well. let's dig a little further into those numbers of that blue away. the latest numbers show it could grow as high at 7%, more than

three times hillary clinton's margin in 2016. >> but donald trump did say this election is all about me. >> it was all about him and trumpism and it was a before you wave and the president. >> he did three times as worse in 2008. >> you could tell from him mood that perhaps he did actually know that these numbers were turning against him. as this "new york times" map illustrates -- >> that's 6 million. donald trump lost by 6 million votes. >> the cook report dave wasserman breaks it down this way. in 2006/2010, the party riding the wave won an average of 57% of tossups, 19% of opposite leans and % of opposite likely

races. in 2018, democrats won or are leading in 56% of tossups, 17% of lean republicans races and 3% of likely races. quote, in the house, this was a wave. and here is one example yesterday. karen handel conceded in the seat once held by newt gingrich. handel was defeated by a former flight attendance, breast cancer adviser and a gun control advocate whose teenage son was shot and killed in 2012 following a dispute over music at a gas station.

>> so, susan, we're seeing the impact in the united states senate of donald trump's humiliating loss on tuesday. and we're seeing it in the form of senators that clearly went to mitch mcconnell yesterday and said no, we're not following donald trump over a cliff. if you're corey gardner -- >> they finally see it. >> i don't live in missouri. i live in colorado and i'm up in two years. if you're susan collins, you go i don't live in indiana. i live in maine. that garbage is not going to work. suddenly, the emperor has no clothes. they don't fear him. and mitch mcconnell cam out yesterday and clearly said, no, we're not going to stop the mueller investigation. >> george bush said that he took a trumping. it looks like there was a trumping. all of these democrats were

trumped. and i think the other thing when it comes to the senate is when you look at the loud voices that are going to be in the house on the republican side, there will be a fight for leadership which is a frightening thought and there is a good possibly the freedom caucus may even grow and become stronger within the minority. that's going to have a senate with -- you know, really reacting in strong opposition to going too far off that cliff. >> and we've seen that again in the mueller investigation where you have the freedom caucus attacking robert mueller. chairman burr, from another swing state, will go, no, actually, russia interfered in the election. first of all, what's your take away from what we're seeing evolving from tuesday night and also how much tougher is it

going to be for donald trump over the next two years? >> millennials, people of color showed up and they've had a message and they say where the country is going in this direction, it's not where we want it to go. and that was a message sdreked to the president and to republicans and also to the democrats. and i think they gave hem sothe hope and said you can push harder. this is something that should terrify trump. this is someone when thought he had a mandate in 2016, oddly, should now know he does not have a mandate to do. and i think what will be interestinging is seeing whether or not the republican lawmakers that are in congress stick with the base who is still with trump or if they realize they have a

lot of people they have to the recognize in their respected districts that are not on the trump train. >> republicans are still sitting at 51. they may lose florida. they may lose arizona. certainly looks like they're going to lose one of those two. if that's the case, a senate year that should have left them with 54, 55 seats should be almost gridlocked. it's all of those republicans, two to one republicans in blue states that are having to run for re-election in two years that will never win as trump-style candidates that may have more of an impact on how washington is run over the next two years than any presidential campaign. >> 48 hours after the vote, democrats have a lot more to

celebrate in the house and in the senate, as well. those republicans up in bluish states in 2020 have to be saying to themselves, this is a really tough time for republicans. yes, donald trump seems to be a rather formidable candidate with his base. but let's take donald trump out of the equation and look at what the country looks like at the moment for republicans. it doesn't look good. if you don't have a trump-like candidate flying around the cub and rallying while, often largely male voters in conservative rerl areas of the country, then this clear looks better for democrats. democrats are growing in the areas where the country is growing among minorities and in the suburbs.

>> they've known what i've always said, kind of keep your head down and make it to the off year election because the voters are always older, whiter and more conservative. this vote happened in the off year will election. the electorate expands, more women will go out, more hispanics will go out. more black voters will go out. the democratic coalition only expands two years from now. >> and it's two more years for donald trump to do what donald trump does. that can be a drag on a lot of republicans and republicans in the senate will have to make some choices about how close do they want to attach themselves to him. i have a headliner for you. stop me if you've heard it before. florida recount. as we mentioned in florida, the state that brought the 2000 presidential election to a crawl, the races for senate and governor both now appear to be headed for recounts. returns coming in from broward county pushed andrew gillum and senator bill nelson closer to

their republican opponents. in the race for senate, just over 15,000 votes now separate rick scott and bill nelson. difference is less than .25 of a point. in florida law, that if the margin falls below more than a quarter of a point, a recount takes place. rick scott predicated he would eventually win. in broward county, more than 24,000 people voted for a g gubernatorial candidate but not another senate candidate. governor rick scott has now filed a thought against both that broward county supervisor of elections.

he's accusing election officials of rampant fraud and has ordered florida's department of law enforcement to investigate. >> we've all seen the the incompetence in broward for years. i will not side by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of florida. he day since the election, the left wing activists in broward county have been coming up with more and more ballots out of nowhere. we all know what is going on. every person in florida knows exactly what is happening. their goal is to keep mysteriously finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want. >> that is the governor of the state. last night, donald trump weighed in on twitter writing law enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with election fraud in broward and palm beach. florida voted on scott.

marco rubio tweeted now democrat lawyers are descending on florida. they are been very clear they aren't here to make sure every vote counts. they are here to change the election. and rudy giuliani pointing the blame at hillary clinton. rudy wrote this. hillary's lawyers trying to steal florida election. they are still counting or creating ballots just in democratic broward and palm beach. >> can you believe where this guy has gone? can you believe how much he has tarnished his reputation? the guy that guided this city after 9/11. he gets booed at yankees stadium. i didn't know that's how he wanted to end his life as a public figure. susan, you actually have republicans, marco rubio, in the

fevered swamp of conspiracy theories. you talk about trumpism. and rick scott and donald trump, they're arm and arm and shoulder to shoulder saying that it's a conspiracy for every vote to be counted. the bush recount, at least what we were doing in northwest florida, we were fighting like help to make sure every military vote got counted. that's what we were trying to do. and it was the democratic lawyers back then that were trying to stop the that. i know. i was there for 38 long days. and we make sure every vote was counted. 18 years later, marco rubio actually wants the make sure that florida citizens' votes aren't counted. rick scott is freaking out. he doesn't want ballots to be counted. donald trump -- this is third --

>> can you be a little less obvious? >> this is third-world country stuff coming if it is republican party who i would think if if they wanted to be consistent with 2000 would be fighting to get every vote counted. >> and for 30 years, i've been working for republicans. they're always fighting for that recount. so this is -- it's just grud credit that that would change it. donald trump has been questioning the integrity of our elections. that's what scares me is that these comments that they're making have been brought out by the president over time. now he's calling on law enforcement to make sure that this conspiracy theory doesn't exist when it's the same law enforcement that he didn't believe when they said the russians were involved in our election. so he really just tries to muddle the water and it's very scary. >> sometimes close elections take three or four days, five

days, it's happening in arizona and it's happening in florida and they're just angry because the votes are coming from maricopa county and broward county. they are trying to stop the votes from being counted. i'll say it. they're trying to stop my vote from being counted. i cast an absentee ballot. or people like me who handed in an absentee ballot at the last minute. that's marco rubio's idea of democracy? >> i used to cover politics in maricopa county and spent this week talking to voters in miami and arizona. one thing a lot of people aren't talking about is voter suppression and the efforts to keep certainly people from casting their ballot. thee-hour waits in florida. some people were turned away.

some believe their ballots were changed or weren't clear. >> what about georgia where if the georgia election were held in the country of georgia instead of the state of georgia, the united states state department would be protest whag brian kemp was doing in the light of day. before the election, we were hearing about gwinnett county, incredibly important. what do we see? huh, the machines break down in gwinnett county. people have to wait three, four hours in gwinnett county. and kemp, he keeps himself in charge like some third world dictator. i'm running my own elections. >> and he was doing it with the support of donald trump. this is why his approval ratings are so low with millennial voters and women voterses, people who would have voted against hill.

he wants trust, he wants confidence. he asked on twitter why don't people trust me? it's this kind of thing. when people feel like they can't count on their government leaders to back them up, this is why you get this type of reaction. >> this is why the republican party is going xhoetly down the drain in a lot of ways. we're not expanding our base. no one wants to join us. now we have the reputation of trying to suppress votes and scare people. this is just really bad form. >> one, the dipsy is suppress the vote. the doodle of the dipsy doodle is don't count the votes that get in there. >> sold to you by donald trump. that's what he does. mika, 18 years ago, especially in northwest florida, we held a

huge rally. we marched about 3,000 people into county commissioners where only about about a hundred people were supposed to fit and we all stared at the county commissioners while they decided when they were going to count the ballots of the men and women who served in the armed forces overseas who we had one single principal. count can every vote. that's where the republican party stood 18 years ago. now marco rubio ask donald trump and rick scott, where do they stand? you know what? -- >> on the side of winning, no matter what. >> down the count the votes. marco rubio is what disappointments me the most that he's concocting a conspiracy theory. for what? why? why does he want to damage his reputation for the benefit of donald trump? >> and his future, because he had one. still ahead on "morning joe," brett kavanaugh and donald trump seem to share the same views on executive power.

now the president has a loyalist in charge of the justice department as matthew whitker takes over. >> have you heard? this guy, by the way, he got busted in a scam, right? the ftc said this the guy was involved in a scam, right? and he's still there. he went on cnn, said some outrageous things. he is a conspiracy theorist who doesn't believe the russians were involved at all in trying to hack the election. i mean, even the white house is freaking out, cwhich leads to te question, why did you appoint this clown in the first place.? >> well, it would lead to a lot of questions that might be answered -- >> oh, one other thing. >> yeah? >> kellyanne conway's husband who is a constitutional scholar in his own right, a brilliant mind, whether you agree or disagree with him saying, hey, this appointment is unconstitutional. >> so we'll talk to his

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that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. if bob mueller and his small u.s. attorney's office, as i've heard it described today, does go beyond the 2016 election and get into trump organization finances unrelated to the 2016 election and, really, unrelated to russian coordination if it even exists, i think that would bes crossing a red line. i think that's when the deputy attorney general who is the acting attorney general for the purpose of this investigation, rod rosenstein who i served with in the bush administration, he needs to step in and pull the reigns in on bob mueller if he

gots goes outside the bounds of his investigation. the left is trying to sow this theory that essentially russians interfered with the u.s. election, which has been -- >> let me.stop you you right there. stating as a matter of fact that it's been proven that the russians have not interfered goes against everything the u.s. intelligence office came.up with again and again. >> what was the director of national intelligence -- and, again, all of these people appointed by donald trump, what was the dni's solution? >> there was russian interference in the election. >> i'll just give you an all of the above. >> was she the one that said that american democracy is at risk because of the russian interference? >> yes, even she said so. >> wow. >> those comments were just heard were made by the man tapped by donald trump to

replace jeff sessions as the acting attorney general to oversee the russia investigation. matthew whitker is his name. despite growing calls from whitker to recuse himself from overseeing robert mueller's russia probe, he has no plans to do so. the post says those sources do not believe whitacre would approve any subpoena of president trump president as part of the investigation. >> steve bannon was the one who when he left the apartment -- >> still a lot of questions about that. >> what did he discover? i saw breaking bad. that is usually used for -- >> cast aexpirations, but that's a heavy duty chemical. >> you could do clorox or

windex. if you give the dog a bath, you might want to use something stronger. >> so whitacre has previously called it a witch-hunt, right, the mueller investigation. he is on the record very clearly saying that this has no legitimacy, the mueller investigation. >> and the ftc says he was in a scam that robbed people of their life savings. what was that about? all i saw was a visual of like a ba bathtub. >> it seems there's always some ethical question with these appointments.

>> neal, good morning. neal has cowritten another op-ed entitled trump's appointment of the acting attorney general is unconstitutional. mr. which isker has not been named to some minor post. he's now vested with the law enforcement community of the united states dwoft. we cannot tolerate an invasion of the textually precise design. senate confirmation exists for a simple and good reason constitution equally matthew whitker is a nobody. so, neal, explain that a little bit. what in the institution would prevent whitker from being the acting attorney general? obviously, he's not gone through any senate confirmation process for starters. >> yeah. so i'm kind of old school about this. i've always kind of thought attorneys generals need to be confirmed by the senate, that you couldn't just install your own lackeyan.

and by old school, i'm not just talking about the design of the institution and that's what the piece i wrote with george conway is about. why do we have this thing called senate confirmation? because in article two of our constitution, it says that the president can't install heads of a department on his own, that is there a whole deep reason for this. and justice thomas, who happens to be the president's favorite justice, just wrote an opinion about this a couple of years ago and he said, look, our founders were were worried about maybe we're going to have a corrupt president one day. that you can't just have him install his lackeys in as heads of the department because that would destroy the checks and balances in the executive branch itself. you know, it's interesting, neal, that there are quite a few conservatives, not just conservative attorneys, and conservative constitutional schoolers, but even rank and file hard core conservatives and he said just to be clear, you

can have an acting attorney general like sally yates, but you cannot have an acting attorney general for an ag position. yates was confirmed as a deputy ag. whitker has not. there's a professor and a constitutional lawyer who, you know, was about as expansive for george w. bush and framed the presidential authority and even he came out saying, wait, no, this is so unconstitutional. a approximately does not have this authority. >> that is 100% right. obviously you have emergency situations and the attorney general dies or is forced out or something like that. you need to have someone temporarily fill their place. but that has always been someone who is understood to be senate confirmed. you have several people that have been confirmed. when congress confirms those

people, they know one day that person could step in if the attorney general resigns or something like that. we've never had a situation like this, certainly not in our lifetime where the president reaches down into the bowels of the president department to skip over all the people in line of the justice department which is enumerated by law, by congress. i think there's a deeper fundamental problem here which really underscores this president's constitutional ensusiance. when i worked in the justice department, one of the things we thought the most about, we have these authorities you can use the cabinet and all these shorts of stuff, but you have to be circumspect in using them. those laws are written broadly for a reason which is there may be some real crisis. what is the crisis here that requires skipping over the people in the justice department who have been senate confirmed? there is only one crisis and it

looks like donald trump is afraid of mueller, he's afraid of what's going on so he's willing to break the constitution to stop it. >> that california conservative lawyer who -- >> john yu. >> john yu. he's saying, listen, i'm for expansive presidential powers, but this is not close. this is unconstitutional. >> right. >> and i think that that underscores the kind of -- you know, george conway and i are writing this. we do not usually see things eye to eye. we come from other sides of the constitution. but the constitution is a bipartisan document and absolutely i think you can get schoolers on the left and the right and even ordinary citizens who say what is this? how can the president bypass our fundamentalal parts of our constitution.

what's the emergency here that could possibly justify doing this? >> just two quick questions. can the dm doj ethics lawyers say he muft recuse himself and how long can trump go and hurt the mueller investigation before this is all settled in the counts? >> so there is an ethics office and in general, that office does opine on these things. so ordinarily they would opine and say you can or can't do this. evidently that happened with sessions and rosenstein. but evidently the trump department is set on destroying the career officials and i don't know how many faith we can put in that. how many damage can whitker do? he could do immense damage just in the last 24 hours. he can turn over mueller's files to trump. he is the attorney general vested with all of the awesome

powers that that office entails, including seeking putting people to death the and supervising all prosecutors in this country even the 94 who are senate confirmed and, yes, including supervising robert mueller. this is a constitutional crisis. >> putting it that way, it sounds very daunting. caddie kay. >> the checks and balances built into the system, i guess the question is what happens next? where does the power lie now to stop the president from being able to put whitker, who has not been confirm, into this position? >> i think there's three paths. one is what we're starting to see yesterday which is citizens rising up and saying what in the world is going on? we cannot do this. number two is congress. donald trump is now facing a house of representatives controlled by democrats and they

have it fully within their power to say we are not going to fund the justice department while its fake attorney general is at its helm. we are going to fund parts of it. they have all sorts of things like that. and number three is the courts. and there are litigants every day in this country who face adverse justice department action, criminal testifies, civil, all sorts of things. and any of those people can sue. senators can sue saying, look, my job. but the reason i ran for office is because i believe i wanted a role in the consent and the nomination process in confirmation hearings. when you look at what mr. whitker has said in your clip, it's very clear this kie goo never pass a confirmation hearing. >> thank you for being on this morning. >> thanks a lot. eugene, here we are a couple of days after the election. donald trump has once again put

mainstream republicans in a terrible position. i'm sure many of them are hoping that some of the rumors thatter were coming out from the white house yesterday, that chris christie is on his way being put up for attorney general, that happened sooner than later. this is a terrible position for republicans to be in. >> it is. but it is a position that mainstream republicans have put themselves in. donald trump has shown always who he is going to be. there is no surprise there. >> i talked before about those republicans that have to run in purple states, corey gardner in colorado, susan collins in maine, chairman can bburr in no carolina. even kansas has just elected a democratic governor and you've got joni ernst in iowa. a lot of people in a lot of swing states. i can't believe they won't speak out today on this.

it doesn't make smart political sense. >> it would make sense because they represent voters who are genuinely concerned about this. the reality is he's saying things that are concerning about what the justice department could do in the relationship to the relationship between people of color and law enforcement. jeff sessions made quite a few decisions that people were concerned about. if no one says why is this person the top law enforcement official in our land with, lawmakers could see a significant change in 2020. >> the comments he made like the one he we just played came when he was a private citizen. that's not the standard. if he has control over the bob mueller investigation, if he has control over the special counsel, all of the country and all of those senators you talk

about know exactly where he stands on it, whether he was a private citizen or testifying under oath and he shouldn't be overseeing that investigation. as we said earlier, he will not recuse himself. >> and as mitch mcconnell said yesterday, that mueller investigation is going on. >> at least he said that. still ahead, in the wake of a mass shooting at a california bar, a war of words has broken out between the nra and, doctors. we'll show you how doctors are responding to what the nra tweeted about them. ng to what ta tweeted about them insurance that won't replace

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we're learning more about the victims of yesterday's mass shooting inside a southern california bar. a vigil was held for the 12 people killed when a gunman walked into the borderline bar & grill in thousand oaks on college night and opened fire. among the victims, 27-year-old tela venice, a navy s.e.a.l. and a survivor of the las vegas shooting that killed 58 people at the route 91 harvest festival. >> my son was in las vegas with a lot of his friends and he came home. he didn't come home last night and i don't want prayers.

i don't want thoughts. i want gun control and i hope to god nobody else sends me any more prayers. i want gun control. no more guns. >> there's also 22-year-old youth baseball coach cody coffman whose dad spent all day yesterday trying to track down his son and then got the news he was gone. >> my first born son, only him and i know how much i love, how much i miss -- oh, god, this is so -- oh he, son, i love you so much. >> meanwhile, the nra is now in a war of words with doctors who consider gun violence a public health issue. the day before yesterday's mass

shooting, the nra tweeted, someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. the tweet included a link to the nra's lobbying arm, which criticized an article published in a medical journal a week ago about reducing firearms injuries and deaths. doctors across twitter soon hit back, including one of the authors of the piece, defending their right to speak out. others wrote poignant replies such as unless you're working beside me in my pediatric e.r. while i code a child dieing from a gunshot wound and his mother screams in a way that stays with you forever, you need to stay in your way. gun control and gun violence is absolutely my business. and, quote, we are not self-important. we are important to the care of others. we are not anti-gun. we are anti-bullet holes in our

patients. others took a more sarcastic tone asking, quote, nra, are you on call? we have lots of gunshot cases for you to treat in cleveland if you have the time. want to take? call this saturday. >> eugene, you spoke to the a doctor yesterday that responded. >> yeah. joseph saccharin. he is a gun violence survivor himself and a trauma surgeon and was disgusted and quite frankly shocked that these lobbyists, these individuals who have no idea what it is like to have had that personal experience that he's had and to have the professional experience and to have it be his norm and tell him that he's not supposed to be a part of this conversation, he's an american citizen, first, and it's so fascinating who we allow to talk about these things and who we don't. we have people like donald trump weigh in and people, these pundits and people who don't have any policy experience and no background in what these implications have on real people talk. i think that's why the election of lucy mcbath was so important

to so many people. she herself is the mother of a child that was killed by gun violence and jumped in the race in the last minute after the parkland shooting. and to take a republican district that was once held pos by newt gingrich who obviously has very different positions on this and say she wants to be an advocate for gun violence, it's just been telling, and i think it gives us a clear direction on where the country wants to go on this issue. >> a gun control advocate winning a seat in suburban atlanta. willi willie, it's like the conversation we had with joe manchin earlier this week, and joe was like, you know what, don't talk about the three guys, the three lobbyists in washington, d.c. who call themselves the nra. the nra members agree with me, joe said. agree on gun safety. and my gosh, you take somebody like dr. dave campbell, i talked to him about this, and dave is a

back surgeon but he spent a lot of time in the er dealing with a lot of gunshot wounds, and he was deeply offended despite the fact that guy has more guns than i can count. he and his sons have been hunting -- you know, he's been hunting his entire life. he knows more about guns than anybody i've ever met, but he's also a doctor. and this is deeply offensive to him and deeply offensive to conservative doctors, republican doctors, nra doctors. that is their lane. they're the ones that are having to try to save lives because of rampant gun violence, which is an epidemic. >> yeah, we can talk about gun rights, but as i heard mika read that tweet from the nra, i'm thinking who is running pr for the nra?

taunting doctors is the way to do that? there is no gun owner i know, no member of the nra i know who would ever approve of something like that, would ever sign off on something like that. they would to have the second amendment protected, but like joe manchin who goes into a state like west virginia and says, hey, you know me, i go hunting on the weekends. i'm with you on the second amendment. there are things we can do to prevent things like we saw yesterday from happening. >> this was the 307th mass shooting this year. these doctors are on the front lines in this war. and their ers are triage centers. they have a voice in this. so do the mothers. and you know what, there is never a better time to talk about this. so i'm tired of hearing from the nra about timing, about who exactly is appropriate to talk about this. the people most involved are the people we need to hear from, and that would be the doctors a. and the victims, they have no

voice. they're dead. we'll be right back.

by the way, mika, really quickly, will and i will were just talking about how this guy, the attorney general weightlifter, he actually oppos opposes rover v. madison. it's the bedrock of democracy, checks and balances. yes, it is. >> katty kay, it's so interesting. michael avenatti said the best person to run against trump should be a white male. i'm just thinking these midterms have proved that that might not be true.

>> i don't know, mika, i have had a number of democrats who have said to me almost in a whisper, i'm not sure we can run a woman against trump. he'll make mincemeat of any female candidate. i came out of the midterms thinking the exact opposite. i think the ideal candidate to run against president trump is a woman, partly becaubecause it's baiting a bet. if you put a woman against president trump, he will reveal himself and say something so outrageous that that would turn a lot of women against him and they would pick the female candidate. >> i can't just imagine anybody who would be better against donald trump than nikki haley. was it giuliani who corrected her, or somebody corrected her, and she said -- kudlow. she said, i don't get confused. that is a woman tough enough to take donald trump down in the republican primary.

>> yeah. i think she might have some interest in that. katty, thank you so much. eugene scott, thank you as well. >> it's great seeing you. with the midterms over, the white house braces for new action from bob mueller, possible new indictments or even a final report. the ap's jonathan la mere joins us with his latest reporting. shoes, & he's got wide feet. & with edge-to-edge intelligence you've got near real time inventory updates. & he'll find the same shoes in your store that he found online he'll be one happy, very forgetful wide footed customer. at&t provides edge to edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. that's the power of &. & if your customer also forgets socks! & you could send him a coupon for that item.

. >> i would be dishonest if i didn't say this was hard. this was extremely hard, but you know what, the fight for progress, the fight for change, the fight for what it is we want, it's hard. that just means that you've got to, again, stiffen your spine and square your shoulders to the task. i'm prepared to do that. we've been prepared to do that all along the way and we're continuing that fight today. all i've got to say is let's count every vote and let's bring it home. >> or as tim russert said,

flori florida, florida, florida. welcome back to "morning joe." we have susan del persio, jonathan lemire, david wasserman and jonathan swann. good to have you here at this hour. >> i think it's time to go to florida. florida, florida, florida. >> let's do it. >> you have united states senators actually saying don't count all the votes and cooking up these conspiracy theories like the caravan? i think we need to go down there. >> you were there during the big recount and you know how it works. i think we should go. >> count every vote. count every vote. >> you've got rudy giuliani blaming hillary clinton for what's happening. >> could somebody tell them --

>> isn't it funny, though, all this "lock her up" stuff, it didn't work. this was the worst beating, the worst drubbing republicans had since watergate. so all the "lock her up" stuff, all this other hillary nonsense, all it did was destroy the republican majority, make them lose over 300 seats legislatively -- >> compelling them to run and vote. >> can we talk about something a little more important? i have a headline, jonathan lemire. the breaking up of the series of the red sox. i'm thinking even the orioles are looking good. they're probably going to catch us. if we get in fourth next year, i'm totally fine with that. >> nobody wants to hear this. >> i'm totally fine with that. >> you're setting the bar a little high there, joe. there is going to be a world series hangover, people are

going to leave, people are going to want their own first, it's going to be an exodus of talent. i'm already nervous. we had the day to celebrate. time to move on. >> the yankees will win 121 games. the bluejays are going over 100. >> i'm going to clean my purse out. >> so the question is, can we squeak ahead of the orioles? >> if we go from first to fourth, we lose. >> we've gone from first to worst twice. >> the trough is going to be rocking next year. you have 70,000 fans in there every night. it will be great. >> it's like when you go -- dave wasserman, what are the odds that the red sox end up in fourth or fifth place? what do you think? 90%? >> dave, don't do it.

>> can we ask you about this, dave, really quickly? i've been hearing fort two days that it's not a wave. so every time i hear that it's not a wave, i go to your reports and your twitter feed. something pretty extraordinary is happening, anybody that follows you knows those counts are coming in in california, still, and even candidates in southern california that look like a lock actually may lose the race because, again, it seems like the liberal votes, democratic votes, are being counted later. >> yeah, joe, the more that we take stock of what happened on tuesday, the more of a post-election day beatdown this is looking like for republicans. kyrsten sinema just took the lead in the arizona senate race. we still have hundreds of thousands of votes to count there. david rohrbacher looks done to me. i'm calling that race right now in california.

>> stop it. get out the russian vodka. >> you say dave is done. i'm sure he'll have a nice stock somewhere. >> you go to new mexico, a candidate named georgette small who you will be hearing a lot about, she appears to have won in a late counting. you go to new jersey, and the broker of the obamacare repeal deal, he lost his lead to andy kim in jersey third district. and then in georgia 6th, remember where he raised $35,000 and lost? it turns out he wasn't near as good as lucy mcbath who lost her sun to gun violence several years ago and just won a seat in congress in the northern atlanta suburbs. >> you go to southern california -- who is it in southern california who right

now is actually -- i'm trying to find it on my "new york times" map -- but in southern california, isn't there -- is it -- >> yeah, at a tikatie hill, the democrat, won a seat in santa clarita. she's a very impressive candidate. i met her early on. she helped run an anti-homelessness nonprofit in l. l.a., and she runs that district. she'll be a star in l.a. it's the women who run the house this year that i think you'll hear more about in the weeks and months to come. >> in california, mimi walters, that race is still pretty close. that's tightening, you said -- >> the gap there is closing. there are all kinds of conspiracy theories that are going to be peddled about why these votes are coming in so late and why the gap is closing

in a lot of cases for democrats. the reality of it is that mi millions of votes always are counted after election day, and usually those votes for a variety of reasons, whether they're cast provisionally or they're counted later, tend to go toward democrats, although we haven't had such high levels of absentee in early voting. so in california 45, it's entirely possible that mimi walters from orange county, the republican, could end up losing that race as katie porter potentially takes a lead with those late-counted ballots. this keeps getting worse and worse for republicans and better and better for democrats. their eventual gains could be close to 45. >> i don't know if you're democratic or republican, so i can ask you this question. were you surprised that what you said about every election,

millions of votes still being counted a couple days later, provisional ballots, deadlines on thursday, friday, saturday after the election to count the votes. were you surprised that a united states senator like marco rubio would throw a conspiracy theory out there that just because people in florida are counting votes that somehow they're trying to steal the election from republicans? >> yeah, i am a bit surprised that rubio would go there. i'm not surprised that president trump would go there because he claimed massive fraud after he won the 2016 presidential election fair and square. so look, this is the dirty little secret of election administration, is that votes take a long time to count in a lot of places. and it's going to be a couple weeks before we get to the bottom of some of these races. >> jonathan lemire, what's the president's reaction to all of this? >> the president is indeed keenly interested in this. we saw him weigh in on florida.

he is anxious to declare a total victory for himself and the republican party. distance himself from the house losses and grabbed onto the senate wins and a couple key gubernatorial races. two in particular he focused on were in florida, these two that are super close. he has said to me, in our interview with him a couple weeks ago, he is a part-time resident of the sunshine state, a florida man, if you will, because of mar-a-lago. this one he spends a lot of personal time on, this one and the governor's race. there is concern in the white house about it. he has put his reputation behind these races and he is starting to pressure in to get this vote count done. >> another race that he really took personally was tester, which he should have won that race. it's such a red state. he has to be angry that -- again, he hated tester because of -- >> dr. ronnie jackson. >> -- dr. ronnie jackson, and he

lost that race, too. >> in his last event in montana, he had this flurry of rallies that last tleed three days of t campaign, and he won most of them. at least we think so, florida now in doubt. he took a loss personally because of dr. ronnie jackson who wanted to point to the va. even at that rally he suggested that jackson wasn't actually qualified. maybe he was qualified, but he was a good man and shuould have had that job. that's a loss that you would think the republicans should have won. that loss reflected badly. >> frank tweeted last night where actually he looked at the numbers of places where donald trump went. trump endorsed 75 people. only 21 of those 75 endorsements

came through as wins so far. barack obama endorsed 74 people, and 39 of those endorsements came through as victories. >> well, the president's highlighting the big ticket center race. he went to missouri, he went to indiana. he hopes florida hangs on, he hopes georgia hangs on. but we watched that press conference, dr. swann, as you did and we saw the president go under siege, going off the rails a couple times. because of all the numbers david wasserman just laid out for us, the house flipping, all the legislative wins for democrats, 350 or something like that across the country. how is the president feeling about the next two years right now? >> so one of the things i picked up by talking to people who are with the president as the results were rolling in, he was very irritated, and his sunny optimism and total victory he's been declaring was not what he

was saying privately. but one thing that is bothering people around him is even though since very early in the year, forecasters like dave wasserman, nate silver and others were all predicting that republicans would lose the house, the white house took a very long time to even have serious conversations at a senior level about what that would mean. it really took until the end of the summer and beyond that for john kelly to form a small working group to even discuss what that would look like, the legal reality and the investigative reality on capitol hill of what losing the house would mean. so that's been a very recent effort. and then you throw on top of that what was an increasingly toxic and, frankly, in the end, nonexistent relationship between president trump and his former white house counsel don mcgahn. you had almost the entire deputy layer of the counsel office leave and they had to replace

them, so you had an emaciated white house counsel office. i spoke to bill clinton's former counsel, and he said to prepare for this they really need to build washington's best white collar law firm overnight. they are a long way from that and not very well prepared for what's coming down the pike on capitol hill. >> the wave was also on the state level. the nevada independence john ralston tweets, there were six gop constitutional officers, now one. there was a gop u.s. senator before tuesday. not anymore. two at risk d house districts stayed d., large margins. there were 27 d assembly seats, now 29. there were 11 d state senate seats, now 13. that is a wave. >> any republican, if donald trump doesn't run for

reelection, which i don't think he is, but any republicans running in 2020, do they look at nevada and go, man, we just got completely wiped out there. it's not a swing state anymore because of donald trump. >> that's absolutely right. and republicans were trying to get out every last vote that they could of their base, whereas democrats keep expanding the voter pool that they can be attracted to. and that is making a big difference on the legislative races, especially in the suburbs, as we know, but more importantly -- i'll throw it back to you, joe, i wonder, if you were going to run for 2020, would you, as president, is it a good idea to attack republicans who may not have welcomed you into the district but maybe they will be returning to the house? i mean, that strategy seems a little off. i think you need as much support as you would possibly be able to garner. >> that's the story, willie. for the past two years, we haven't been saying it because it's good for our health.

we've been saying politics is a game of addition and not subtraction. trump fights everybody. on tuesday the bill came due. guess what? he really enjoyed attacking mark sanford, a guy that could survive anything. i think mark sanford proved that. and so he attacked him before he lost, he attacked him after he lost. and he offended so many house members, and guess who else he offended? republican voters. so now, instead of having mark sanford's republican vote, and he voted with trump 90% of the time, i'm sure, 95% of the time, got a democrat there for the first time in 40 years. >> what all those rallies were about and what the president achieved on tuesday night were to make his support deeper but not wider. so all the people who were at the rallies cheering and chanting "lock her up," they felt better about their candidates, they felt better about president trump.

they lost people in the virginia suburbs, for example, the suburban woman, suburban voters, who he's going to need desperately. those votes that got counted in wisconsin, that's the difference between being president and not being president and he lost a bunch of those people on tuesday. >> what about going off mia love? that's so insane. >> and carlson rubella, that was one of the people he was making fun of. he tweeted back and we have it here. yesterday trump stated, i am more aligned with him. i may have won. let's check. i lost florida 9-51 the my cleek desantis who is closely aligned with the president lost 46-53.

>> that's something the president is grappling back on. nevada, colorado, virginia, they would point the other way and say ohio and florida are places republicans continue to do well. that would mean if that's the case, the real battleground is going to be the handful of states as last time, too, pennsylvania, nevada, michigan. >> what's the white house going to do today with a guy that they appointed as acting attorney general who, even conservative constitutional lawyers are saying can't sit in that place constitutionally. it's an unconstitutional appointment. you've got sec documents saying this guy did something that scammed people out of their life savings, and now you've got documents coming up where he called the supreme court an

inferior branch, and even said the most important case in constitutional law was wrongly decided. >> well, i think a few points of context are needed here. one is that when i started making phone calls shortly after the president -- the announcement of jeff sessions -- the president forcing him out and then hastily announcing matt whitaker as acting ag, i started calling senior people at the white house and other people close to trump. there were people who should have been in the loop ordinarily for this decision who just weren't in terms of, obviously, at a macro level people knew sessions was on his way out, but they did not know he was going to do it in that fashion. and they've been hit by all these stories. i don't think they were prepared for, for example, this constitutional argument which is not just george conway, it's other conservative constitutional lawyers that we've spoken to like john nu and

john bellinger. so there's been a whole new body of political opinion, there's political dimension and the other story you mentioned, but matt whitaker is somebody that trump has seen as his guy inside the justice department even while he loathed and despised jeff sessions. matt whitaker was jeff sessions' chief of staff, but trump considered him his guy and a loyalist. and he was very much the guy in the room that kelly and trump saw as the only person, really, at the top level of the justice department that they could trust. particularly trump. he did not trust rod rosenstein, and according to white house sources, there is no love loss between rod rosenstein and matt whitaker. >> you would guess not. dave wasserman, final question. what's your takeaway from 30,000 feet about what happened tuesday, what is still happening now, and what it means for 2020? >> well, look. moderate republicans were

decimated but it's not because they didn't sidle up to trump, trump is the reason they lost in a lot of districts. keep in mind that mia love lost reelection most likely on a very gerrymandered map. but the reason a lot of democrats broke through in a lot of suburbs was because president trump has been the best fundraiser for democrats that they've ever had and they were able to overcome some of that gerrymandering disadvantage with all the money they raised. for 2020, my takeaway is this. we're going to have a normal battleground of michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin, and we're going to have a sunbelt battleground of north carolina, florida and arizona. states like colorado and virginia are off the map to the democrats. states like iowa and ohio are off the map to the republicans. so this is going to be a narrow battlefield for 2020. >> dave wasserman and jonathan swann, thank you both. still ahead, the newly elected governor of ohio,

republican mike dewine, joins the discussion next on "morning joe." and he's been back and forth covering arizona politics for the last two years. he's been in his home state the last few weeks covering the costly senate race there, and john rhilliard is breaking it down to five words. this race is absurdly close. he joins us next on "morning joe." joins us next on "morning joe. - [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations, so shark invented duo clean.

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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. for t held on to his u.s. senate seat, reelected to a third term on tuesday. but the contest replaced the term-limited gop governor john kasich went to republicans again along with the state's four downed ticket races and the republicans maintained a lead in the ohio house delegation. joining us now as the newly elected governor of ohio, the state's current attorney general

and former u.s. senator, republican mike dewine. good to have you on board this morning and congratulations. >> good morning. thank you very much. >> senator, we want to ask you to be political analyst because that's not why you're here, but my gosh, ohio certainly is looking red top to bottom for the first time in a long time. it's considered one of the key swing states. what do you think -- what's made the difference? why did republicans avert the blue wave that swept through a lot of the industrial northeast? did kasich and other republicans do a pretty darn good job over the past eight years? >> i think the answer to that is yes, and i think also, you know, the president's tax cut has helped the economy. our economy is moving forward. we are obviously -- you always can do better, and we're going to focus a lot on children's issues and getting kids ready for kindergarten because ultimately that has a huge impact on their ability to, you

know, live the american dream. we're going to focus on the drug problem. so things are not perfect in ohio, but i think that people feel ohio is headed in the right direction. ohio is headed in the right direction and my goal as governor would be to build upon what the governor and the legislature have done so far. >> what's your -- what was your message on health care? what's your plan for ohio's health care? obviously the top issue in america right now, and a lot of americans seem to be in suspended animation because republicans talked about getting rid of the affordable care act, but a real solution, at least, coming from washington, seems to be it's just not forthcoming. >> democrats in this race spent about $10 million attacking the claim that i would not, you know, mandate that insurance companies cover preexisting illness. i told them that was absurd for somebody with eight kids and 23

grandkids, my family understands medical problems, like most families do. that's simply not true. my commitment has been if the federal law has indeed changed, we'll step in in ohio and do what we need to do to make sure those folks are covered. proactively, though, what we're going to put a lot of focus on, first starting with our state employees and then moving to our adult medicaid population, is wellness. we think that there is great models out there, the cleveland clinic, for example, has a great model they've done with their employees where they've not taken things away from them but given them incentives to hit certain marks. it stabilized the cost of medical care and has made for a much healthier work force. >> prevention is very important, but bottom line, does every resident in the state of ohio have a right to health care? >> we want every resident to have care, we certainly do, and we're going to do what we can in

regard to that. medicaid expansion, we are continuing medicaid expansion or will continue when i'm governor of the state. we'll have a wellness component with that, and we think that will make a big difference. >> governor-elect, it's willie geist. just to follow up on that, you've talked about the medicaid expansion sign and it started with governor kasich. you said, we're going to keep it but its unsustainable. how do you keep the medicaid expansion that covers some 700,000 in your state. what sustains it? >> it may be unsustainable. what happens in two or four years if the federal government decides not to be paying 90% of that and drops it back to what the federal government is paying for other medicaid people? >> how do you change that? >> you work toward the wellness component. you try to help people -- one of the things that i have seen, because of the drug problem and my work in regard to the drug problem that's been very positive with medicaid expansion is the coverage of people who

are frankly coming out of jail. we have sheriffs who are signing people up for medicaid so they can get into treatment coming out. our goal is to keep people off medicaid, get into treatment so they can get off the bench and into the game. that's really what the goal is. >> would you be willing to freeze enrollment in that program as some have suggested? >> we're not at that point at all. that's not our plan. >> i want to clarify you said you want everyone to be covered, but do you believe everyone in your state has the right to health insurance? >> we want everybody to be covered. >> that's a different answer, though. do you believe they have the right -- >> we can talk about rights or not. look, the goal is, my goal as governor of the state, is to make things better for the state of ohio and work for them. we have an economy that's moving forward. we have to make sure people are covered for preexisting illnesses. we're going to put a lot of emphasis on infant mortality,

for example. we're going to be very aggressive. we're going to triple the size of the program of home visits for pregnant at-risk moms. these are very tangible things that the dewine-husted administration is going to do. we're fired up and ready to go. >> i know health care was a top issue in ohio and the entire nation. what do you see other than health care as ohio's top challenge? we'll play this tape for you in four years or eight years and play it back for you. what do you want to see in eight years progress the most? >> i think we have to reach young kids who are at risk. i think that's the biggest determination of where we're going to go in the next decade, is how we reach those kids. we also have to really focus on this drug epidemic. we're going to put a lot of emphasis on prevention k through 12. we're going to do something that i'm not sure any other state is

doing, and that is k through 12, every grade, every kid, we're going to have something in regard to prevention every single year. if you do that every year for 13 years, we think the data clearly shows you're going to have a much healthier population and fewer kids are going to go down the path of addiction. >> all right, ohio governor-elect, mike dewine. thank you. i talked to a lot of governors who became senators. they didn't really like that switch. i've talked tie lo a lot of sens who became governors and they felt they could do a whole lot more. good luck. i hope you get that opportunity. thank you for being with us. great to see you again. >> thank you very much. we're also following a major swing from election night in arizona's u.s. senate race as democrat kyrsten sinema takes the lead, separated from manager rhett mcsally of 9,600 votes over 9 million cast.

sinema's lead expanded to half a percentage point last night after being down nearly a point at the start of the day. green party candidate angela green received 2.3%. there are still 5 million votes to be counted and she is confident. political reporter vaughn hillyard just back from arizona. >> that's your home, isn't it? >> miit's my homeland. >> since it's your homeland, we hear a lot of votes are coming out of kyrsten sinema's -- >> maricopa county. >> is that the majority of the votes? did democrats and political analysts who are looking at where the votes are coming from, do they right now give the advantage over the next week? >> maricopa county is about 75% of the remaining vote that's out. this is phoenix. this is -- essentially makes up

60% of the state. the total electorate is in scottsdale, phoenix, glendale, tempe. this is the heart of the suburbs. donald trump won it by about four percentage points back in 2012, and what we're going to see is every day we're going to get announcements at 7:00 p.m. eastern. these were early ballots that were dropped off to the county between friday and monday. and what we've seen across these other states, they're trending toward democrats. we expect sinema to expand their lead. the question is come sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, this is where mcsally believes they can cut that down. these were the early ballots dropped off at the polling location. on election day, it was an r plus 10 advantage. the question is how can mcsally chip away at sinema's lead? >> that's obviously phoenix and

the suburbs? that area should obviously trend democratic, right? >> it will trend democratic and particularly toward kyrsten sinema. we brought this up the other day, that john mccain won maricopa county by 16 points. but the question is donald trump won it by just four. again, this goes to the heart of how do you run a campaign in arizona? run it the way kyrsten sinema did? is that bipartisan candidate like john mccain or like mcsally who ran against donald trump association. voted for sinema, that's what this comes down to, and it's a couple thousand votes in those very individuals we're talking about. >> help me understand this lawsuit from the republican party that is effectively suing to stop the count from mail-in ballots. a tweet from cindy mccain. i was one of those mail-in ballots. i was under the impression my

vote was always counted. >> there are 600,000 ballots in which two counties are going back to verify. either someone didn't sign their ballots, they signed it c mccain instead of cindy mccain, so maricopa county wants to call her up and say, is this actually you? your signature doesn't match with our dmv records. what the party is saying is we want an injunction to halt that process at this time. >> but i don't understand. they don't want every vote to be counted? >> i asked the chairman there of the republican party the other day that exact question. i said, are you in any way suggesting people's votes don't count? he said, voting is good but we wanted it to happen within the rules. and he gave a wink to that. and i want to add, to be fair, the republican party is arguing that if other counties can also go back and cure, as they're

calling it, the ballot discrepancies, but at the same time they clearly argued for an injunction to halt the counting of those ballots in pima and maricopa county instead of making the argument that all votes -- because the same process is not taking place in some of the rural counties. so instead their arguing for the injunction to halt those votes in pima county which is the democratic counties versus the other. >> so the wink was -- okay, vaughn hillyard. thank you. coming up, president trump bruised by the midterms is headed overseas this weekend to meet with world leaders, possibly even vladimir putin. >> he's going to have a lot to answer to for the election this week. >> we'll discuss that ahead on "morning joe."

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a guy just dropped this off. he-he-he-he. so the president is going abroad and there is a lot of international reaction to the midterm elections. alex, put up this der spiegel. >> a good day for america. donald trump must share power in washington with the democrats after the midterm elections.

luckily. >> that's the bottom line. joining us, a democratic representative from california and now president and ceo of the woodrow wilson international center for scholars, jay harmon. also cnn correspondent keir simmons. i don't think we've talked enough about how this looks around the world and what people are thinking as they look at this presidency and the routing of the midterms. >> it really does matter. we as americans, sometimes we'll hear what the head of the labor party in britain is saying. oh, my god, what's wrong with the labor party? of course, in britain and across europe, people are looking at us and going, my god, what's been wrong with america? certainly, again, this is more the idea of what america is, a divided government, madsisomadi dm democracy with checks and

balances. >> i go to a lot of conferences around the world. i was just in asia and tokyo and seoul. where is congress? we need it back. i think a lot of these people ran hard and won not to be a blue wave but to be effective. that's going to be the challenge. joe, when you and i served in congress, it wasn't perfect but it was better than this. >> somebody asked me a couple days ago, did you ever do anything with -- yeah, we did. democrats and republicans worked together. for the democratic party, these midterms suggested a lot of candidates a lot like you, like centrists who were pragmatic women were winners. >> it's exciting. >> that shakes the democratic party. >> i won in the year of the woman, 1992, and lots of people like me lost in '94.

i was just telling you i squeaked by in '94 because every vote was counted and i won in the late absentee votes by 811 out of 225,000. >> how long did that take is this. >> it took two weeks to count and my race was challenged for nine months under the oral contest of elections act. but i was certified and i hope i was effective. i just think that the goal here is to make congress work again, especially in foreign policy where nothing is happening in this reckless war in yemen. congress hasn't done a thing, and syria has a record number of migrants -- not in a caravan, but migrants from the middle east and all through europe and other countries destabilizing things there and the u.s. has always been present. it's 75 years since the end of world war ii and the armistice of world war i. we ought to thank those folks in

the intelligence community and armed forces in harm's way right now protecting us. >> speaking of the armistice, the president going overseas to a summit. there is a dinner or something with vladimir putin. what is going on there? >> we don't know. we clearly know there is a special relationship, if you want to call it that, between president trump and putin. on the armistice, there is a quote that hangs there. the president said the aim of the peace forum this weekend is to make sure the 1914 to 1918 war was avoided by more collective decision making. >> he almost sounded like degaulle in 1968, 1969. also merkel saying we almost can't count on the united states

anymore. >> you cannot underestimate the influence of the united states around the world, even when you're not talking about foreign policy, even when it's all about the midterm elections. everybody is watching, including the russians, and i have to say, dmitri pesco, president putin's right-hand man in moscow, is saying this does not have the prospect of any improvement in relations. >> i was just in normandy. it's not the armistice, but d-day, june 6, 1944. and you see the combined forces. this is a museum about 100 miles wide. on the top of where our troops scaled a 100-foot cliff to take out the german guns, there is a big quote from ronald reagan. let's remember ronald reagan praising the boys who became men and their fight for freedom. this was from all the allied forces that he's talking about, and what happened to ronald reagan's republican party? i mean, if the inf agreement is

now scrapped and if we're not talking about a coherent force in the world for freedom, i don't know what the republican party that's left stands for. >> and ronald reagan saying, at the very end of his presidency, when we stop opening our doors to refugees and immigrants, then we lose the competitive advantage that has always made it such a special place in the world. can i ask you a question about the u.k.? >> yeah. >> what in the hell is happening with brexit? now it seems like -- i don't know, we're starting to hear that maybe there's not a brexit after all? what's going on over there? >> you know, people who know the u.k., this is how difficult it is. people who know the u.k. will know it's an island, right? so the main trade route, really two sea trade routes into the south of england. there are quotes in the last

week from some pro-brexit politicians saying, hmm, it turns out we do have quite a narrow trade route. there may be an issue here because that trade route goes right through europe. >> do you think they maybe should have looked at a map before they did it? he had trouble getting from the continent to britain, and they should have known it's kind of hard to go the other way. >> it is the same politics in the end, which you cannot dismiss, which is that a sizeable number of british people voted against the european union because they wanted to have more control over their politics, their lives, and that's the nub of the problem, you can't just dismiss those people. you dismiss those people at your peril. >> do you think if there were a revote today -- >> how do you have a revote? you get more polarization. here's the thing.

i've said it to you guys before. europe tries to be united, always struggles to be united, always has. they frequently needed washington. they needed the united states to come in and make them do a deal. one of the issues of brexit, it seems to me is, how will the white house -- what approach would the white house take if brexit kind of runs towards a wall? would the white house be able to intervene and how would they intervene? >> jane, the fascinating thing about brexit politics is it's just like trumpism. it cuts across -- you can be talking to somebody that's been in the labor party for 40 years and hates margaret thatcher, and they're for brexit. then you can be talking to a tory somewhere else that's a hard right conservative just this side of u.k., they're not for brexit. it cuts either way. >> it was in june, and trump was in november, and it was the hard

core folk. i think the point is to come up with some better answers, and both parties should be doing this, and oh, by the way, i wish there were a reagan there were a reagan republican party helping out. >> yes. >> doing this to speak to the anxiety of all these people. >> and the mirror image is that the potential coming political battle here after the mid-terms causes more challenges for world leaders, because they are trying to get -- they want stability. they want to know what they are dealing with. the prospect is they won't have that mess. >> thank you so much. and still ahead the year of the woman merges with the blue wave. we'll talk to a democrat who flipped new mexico's governor's mansion. "morning joe" is back in a moment. "morning joe" is back in a moment

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travel and have my share man ♪ i have been everywhere, i have been to log den, mapletop, farmington, lovedale, river is dale, sulfurdale, springdale, oakley,ing sodale and sandy. i have been everywhere. springville, parp ra gona. amanila a garden city, mona, lehigh, draper, huntington. >> ha, ha, ha. >> wow. >> you noticknow, mika, you wer awe of mitt romney, all the money he'll ever need. doesn't need this he could have gone home. >> he doesn't need this. >> but he felt a calling from his country. which one of the reasons i'm always optimistic is it seems that always when america faces

crises, you see men and women of both parties stand up and be counted. i think mitt romney is unof those people. i thank god for him. i look forward to his leadership in washington. >> he wants to serve. he is serving as he can. he is tweeting at the president in the way he believes. i think he will be a rail pain in the president's butt. i do. >> if the president tries to brooch constitutionalal norms. we already saw this with his tweet about the mueller investigation. that's important. that's so important for a republican to have the courage and the strength to stand up to donald trump. >> because some of those republican was have been doing that are leaving. obviously, some passed away, corcoran, flake, retiring. does he step into that role? >> first of all a nice tribute to johnny cash there pulled that off with the song. mitt romney, it's interesting, too, to go into the senate.

a guy that has been a ceo a governor, head of the company, run the olympics to go from that job to become one of 100. that's different kind. >> he will do everything he can to serve and let's not forget his wife ann is amazing. tuesday night, rick scott was projected to win florida's senate rice, now his lead has shrunk to 15,000 and he's mad. he's blaming left wing activists and rudy guiliani is blaming hillary clinton. >> because all they want is for all the votes to be counted. >> he's not winning now. we'll have the latest on the floor. >> are the republicans against all the votes being counted now? >> yes, it doesn't serve them. attorney general jeff sessions has been replaced with a trump loyalist. this guy a big weight listeria. he's super cut. former acting solicitor. >> ftc said he scammed people -- >> to put this really cut guy as interim attorney general. >> it's a power clean.

>> ahead on "morning joe." . >> by the way, he's also against the supreme court.

i would be dishonest if i didn't say that this wasn't hard. this is extremely hard. but you know what the fight for progress the fight for change the fight for what it is we want, it's hard. and that just means that you got to again stiffen your spine and square your shoulders to the task. i'm prepared to do that.

we have been prepared to do that all along the way. we're continuing that fight today. so all i've got to say is let's count every vote and let's bring it home. >> as we're seeing the democratic gains keep growing. guess what? it's a wave. it's a wave after all. winners in some races still haven't been declared. we all know democrats in the house will pick up at least 31 seats. >> wow. >> that number could go as high as 38. we mentioned yesterday, that is the gop's worst beating in a mid-term election since watergate. it is a wave, a big blue wave, powered by a record number of inspiring women candidates. it seems that president trump finally had to pay a price for his miss onogeney. florida races could possibly go to the democrats as the votes

get counted and recounted, trumpism was on the ballot on tuesday. it was all about donald trump and trumpism lost. no matter how this cornered president spins it, the numbers are clear. the facts are clear. >> you can go not only in the house races, you look across the country over 300 losses, willie, over 300 seats lost and legislative races. of course, we talked, every day, after the 2016 election about how devastating the las for barack obama over eight years. donald trump, man, he's on pace to eclipse barack obama. if this continues the republican party will be absolutely gutted. i got to say for our friends who are republican was watch this, this conservatives have been warning you for two years that this day was going to come and it hit him hard. >> more than 300 state houses

across the country at the local level, more than that even. we haven't talked about arizona either, where sinema has pulled ahead. >> incredible. >> he's the democrat. remember martha mcsally. >> the caravan candidate. >> ask questions about health care so nobody cares. let's talk about the caravan. now sinema has won yet. she is up by so,000 votes. >> those votes they are recounting are from her old district. we have msnbc political analyst susan del percio and reporter for the washington post eugene scott with us. and washington anchor for bbc world america katty kay is with us as well the latest numbers show democrats won the popular vote in the house by 5.9 percentage points and could grow's he as 7%. >> that would be more than three times hillary clinton's margin of 2.1% in 2016.

>> but donald trump did say -- >> yeah. >> -- this election is all about me. >> it was all about him and trumpism. it was the blue wave and the president. >> he lost the popular vote in '16. are you telling me, mika, from these numbers you said, he did three times his worse, people got to see what he did. >> you can tell on his mood the day after that crazy press conference perhaps he did actually know these numbers were turning against him. as this "new york times" map illustrates. >> donald trump lost by 6 million votes, i'm sorry. go ahead. >> 317 of the 435 district moved towards the democrats from 2016. current political report breaks it down this way. in 2006, 2010, the party riding the wave won an average of 57% of tossups. 19% of opposite lanes and 9% of opposite likely races.

in 2018, democrats won or are leading in 57% of tossups. 7% of lean republican races and 3% of likely races. quote, in the house, this was a wave. and here's one example yesterday. republican congresswoman karen handel conceded in georgia's 6th district the seat wince held by newt gingrich. and where a multi-million dollar special election battle took place in 2017. handel was defeated by democratic newcomer lucie pittsburgh bath, a former flight attendant, breast cancer survivor and gun control advocate whose teenage son jordan davis was shot and killed in a 2012 following a dispute over music at a gas station. >> so, susan, we're already seeing the impact in the united states senate of donald trump's

humiliating loss on tuesday and we're seeing it in the form of senators that clearly went to mitch mcconnell yesterday and said, no, we're not following donald trump over a cliff. if are you corey garden, you got to go, i don't live in missouri. i live in colorado, i'm up in two years. susan collins, guess what, i don't live in colorado, i'm in maine. >> that garbage you have been preaching for two years, that's not going to work. steply the emperor has no clothes. they don't fare him. mitch mcconnell came out and clearly said, no, we're not going to stop the mueller investigation. donald trump, as we all said has awakened to a new reality in washington. >> if you look at it, george bush said he took a trumping. barack obama said it was a shellacking. it looked like it was a trumping. all of these democrats were

trumped. they were really able pull through. i think the other thing when it comes to the senate, you look at the lab voices in the house on the republican side, there is actually going to be a fight for leadership a frightening shot. there is a good possibility the freedom caucus may grow and become stronger within the minority. that's going to have the senate really reacting i think in strong opposition to go too far off that cliff. >> you eugene, you see the freedom caucus spinning their on conspiracy theories about rod rosenstein and chairman burr from north carolina, another swing state, no, actually russia interfered in the election. i just, first of all, what's your take away from what we are seeing evolving from tuesday night? and also how much tougher is it going to be for donald trump over the next two years?

>> indeed, i think what woe are seeing from tuesday night, it's many of the groups people wondered they would show up. millennial's, people of color showed up. women we knew were going to show up. they have a message saying where the country is going is not where we want it to go. i think they gave it, them ideas and homepe and an agenda to say you could push harder than you thought before and you perhaps were afraid of doing. this is something that shoulder thefy trump. th -- should terrify trump. i think it's interesting seeing whether or not the republican law center in congress stick with the base who is still with trump or they realize, hey, we have a lot of people we have to represent in our respective

districts that are not on the trump train. >> the republicans still despite having the most favorable maps in recent history, they're still sitting at 51. they may lose florida. they may lose arizona, it certainly looks they can they will lose one of those two. if that's the categories, a senate year that should have left them with seats are suddenly gridlocked. while everybody is looking forward to the 2020 election, it's all of those republicans, 2-to-1 republicans in blue states that are having to run for re-election in two years that will never win as trump-style candidates that may have more of an impact on how washington is run over the next two years than any presidential campaign. >> yeah, 48 hours after the vote, this looks very different than it did on election night. democrats certainly have a lot more to celebrate, both in the house and potentially in the senate as well and those

republicans who are up in bluish states in 2020 have to be looking at the demographics that came out of the mid-term night and say to themselves, this is a really tough time for republicans. yes, donald trump seems to be this rather formidable candidate with his base. he can get that big chunk of people out and that certainly hems him. but let's take donald trump out of the equation and look at what the country looks like at the moment for republicans. it doesn't look good. if you don't have a trump-like candidate who is the standard bearer who is flying around the country and rallying white often female voters in conservative rural areas of the country, then it clearly looks better. the map of the country at the moment clearly looks better for democrats. democrats are growing in the areas where the country is growing amongst first times and in the suburbs. >> the news gets worse for republicans. they've known what i always said, which is kind of keep your head down. make it survive to the off year

election the voters are always older wider and more conservative and this wave happened in an off year election. the electorate expants, more women will go out. more hispanics will go out. more black voters will go out. the democratic coalition only expands two years from now. >> it's two more years for donald trump to do what donald trump does. >> that could be a drag on republicans and republicans in the senate have to make sure how closely they want to attach themselves to him. i have a phrase, florida recount. as we mentioned in florida the state that brought the 2011 elections to a crawl the races both now appear to be headed for recounts, returns come income from broward county and pushed andrew gillum and senator bill nelson closer to their republican opponents.

in the race for senate just over 15,000 separate rec scott and bill nelson. under florida law a margin smaller than half a point triggers a machine recount. if it falls to below a quarter of a point a more thorough manual recount is placed. s placd in broward county, more than 24,000 people voted for a gubernatorial candidate but did not vote for a senate candidate. a theory is some missed it because of how the ballot was designed. test on the bottom left corner away from the races that got more votes. governor rick scott has now filed a lawsuit against broward county supervisors of elections and the palm beach county supervisor of elections, demanding access to ballots

there. he's accusing them of rampant fraud and ordered florida's department of law enforcement to investigation. >> we have seen this for years. but here we go again. i will not sit idly by while uneth unethical liberals try to steal this from florida the left wing activists have been coming up with more and more ballots out of nowhere. we all know what's going on. every person in florida knows what is happening. that i are trying to find more votes until the election turns out the way they want. >> last night president trump weighed in on twitter writing law enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal. florida voted for rec scott. florida senator marco rubio weighed in, writing in part

democrat lawyers are descending on florida. they are not here to make sure every vote is counted. they are here to change the results of the election. broward is where they plan to do it. rudy guiliani pointing the blame at hillary clinton. >> oh my god. >> rudy wrote this. hillary's lawyers trying to steal florida election. they are still counting or creating ballots just in democratic broward and palm beach. >> can you believe where this guy has gone? >> where is he now? can you believe how much he has tarnished his reputation. america's mayor? the guy that guided this city after 9/11. he is humiliating himself every day. so, susan, you actually have republicans parco rubio in the feefrd swamp of conspiracy theories. you talked about trumpism. actually saying and rick scott and donald trump are all arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder saying

it's a conspiracy for every vote to be counted? rick scott's freaking out. he doesn't want ballots to be counte counted. >> can he be less air force base? >> this is third world republican stuff who i would think they would be fighting every vote counted interest for 30 years i have been working with republicans. always when they're behind and it's this close they're always fighting for that recount. so this is just ludicrous they would change it. what's also when you look back to donald trump in 2016, is that he has been questioning the integrity of our elections, that's what scares seems to me that these comments that they're making have been brought out by the president over time. now he's calling on law enforcement to make sure that this conspiracy theory doesn't exist when it's the same law

enforcement he didn't believe when the russians are involved in our election. he tries to muddy the waters. >> still ahead on "morning joe" jeff sessions is out, trump loyalist in. a new column says matthew whitaker's appointment at the doj is both unconstitutional and illegal. we will talk to one of the authors of that piece, former soliciting general and the other one married to kellyanne conway next on "morning joe." y next on "morning joe." green book is the feel

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[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. the left is trying to sow this theory that essentially russians interfered with the u.s. election, which has proven false. they did not have any impact in the election and that has been clear from the obama administration. >> joining us now the acting u.s. solicit or general in the

obama election from george town university, kneel katia. good morning. he is here with george conway the husband of kellyanne conway. it's timed trump's appointment of the acting attorney general is unas soon as the tushl. in it they argue this. -- unconstitutional. neil, explain that, what in the constitution would prevent whitaker from being the acting attorney general? he has not been through confirmation process for starters. >> i am old school. i thought attorneys general he'd need to be confirmed by the

senate. you can't install your own lackian. i'm talking about the founding design of the constitution, that's what the piece i wrote with joshlg conway is about which is you know why do we have this thing called senate confirmation? because in article 2 of our constitution, it says that the president can't install heads of the department on his own. there is a whole deep reason for this and justice thomas who happens to be the favorite justice for the president. wrote an opinion, said look our founders are worried maybe we're going to have a corrupt president one day. ut can't have him install his lackeys in as heads of the department. because that would destroy the checks and balances in the executive branch, itself. >> you know, it's interesting, neil, there are quite a few conservatives, not just conservative attorneys and constitutional scholars, rank and file conservative,uto be

clear, can you have an acting attorney general like sally yates, can you not have an acting attorney general who has not been through a confirmation process for an ag position. yates was confirmed as a deputy ag. whitaker has not. of course, there is a professor and a constitutional lawyer who, you know, was about as expansive for george w. bush and framing presidential authority. he cable out and said this is so unconstitutional. a president does not have this authority. is there that's 100% right. obviously, can you have emergency situations and you know the tomorrow dies or is forced out or something like that. you need to have someone temporarily to fill their place. but that's always been understood to be someone who is senate confirmed. here you got a whole bunch of people who are senate confirmed like the deputy attorney general and like the solicitor general.

when congress confirms those people. they know one day those people could step in if the attorney general resigns or something like that. but we've never had a situation like this. certainly not in our lifetimes in which the president kind of reaches down into the bowl bowels of the justice department to pick a lackey in the line of succession at the justice department. which is something enumerated by law, by congress. i think there is a deeper numberal problem here. which really under scores this president's constitutional enthusiasm. i have once one of the things we thought about is look have you these emergency authorities. can you use them in terrorism and cabinet you know things and all sorts of stuff, but have you to be really sir couple spect -- circumspect in using them. what's the crisis here that requires skipping over the people in the justice department who have been senate confirmed? there is only one crisis.

and it looks like donald trump. he's afraid of mueller. he's afriday aid of what's goin so he's willing to use the constitution to stop it. >> that california lawyer. >> that conservative lawyer that worked for george w. bush who offend liberals at berkeley, john yu, of all people, c'mon, look i'm for expansive presidential powers but this is not close. this is unconstitutional. >> sorry. >> i this i that that really underscores the kind of concert. you know, george conway and i are writing this, we do not see things eye-to-eye. we come from other sides of the political spectrum. but the constitution is profoundly a bipartisan document. absolutely you can get scholars on the left and right and ordinary citizens who say what is this? how can the president bypass our fundamental parts of of our

constitution, if are you in a time of war, what's the emergency here that could possibly justify doing this? >> thank you very much for being on this morning. >> thanks a lot. coming up on "morning joe," two of the candidates from the democrat's blue wave and, yes, it was a wave. new mexico's incoming governor, michelle lung michelle lujan grisham. michelle lujan grisham the new lincoln mkc. connecting the world inside, with the world outside. so you can move through both a little easier. introducing the well-connected 2019 lincoln mkc.

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. >> congratulations to jon tester. congratulations. i'm sure you are very unhappy about that. >> i don't know what that means. >> no, that was nbc news' peter alexander breaking news. >> he's hired this weight listeria guy that now is saying madison was wrongly decided on the supreme court. >> he is cut, though. >> he is cut. >> even though he cut a lot of people that they're savings. they say he scammed a lot of

people. >> a part of a scam investigation. enough of. that that was peter alexander breaking the news to president trump on live television that senator jon tester won re-election for a third term in montana. >> that despite president trump winning that by 20 points in 2016. >> is he the guy that beat up the reporter and trump is proud of it in. >> yes, he celebrated the fact. yes, the president also traveled to montana four times in four months to personally campaign. >> oup. >> i got to tell you, willie. that's got to sting. >> that's got to hurt the governor of the great state of maurnths the national governor's -- montana, the national governor's association. >> did he try to beat you up? >> no no no not on that race. >> weight lifting competition? >> but he did. that's donald trump won montana that year by 20 points.

i won by 40 points. so 25-to-30% of my voters also voted for donald trump. >> association plain how that happened. you know in the house of representatives, a great year for democrats, but from we were told not a single democrat won in a district where donald trump won by five points or more. joe manchin. trump won by 87 points or something. tester who trump absolutely despised. you who do you do it? how do you win in areas that trump was strong? >> first of all, i actually show up. i don't have the luxury of going where there is big blue pockets. i have to go out, engage people, listen to them. give them a reason to vote for me. that's the way i win elections and govern. mine legislature is two-thirds republicans, yet, somehow by working hard got medication

expansion placed. record investments, public education. one of the post-progressive laws in the country that says if you are going to spend in our election, you have to disclose where it comes from. we continue do it unless we will go out not just in the traditionally blue areas and in places to give people reasons to vote for us. >> somebody comes up and says, you know what, i'd vote for you but are a democrat. i voted for donald trump. he says are you a bad guy. what do you say? >> he labels you. >> about a quarter of the folks, right, when i got elected did vote for donald trump. i this i what they saw is at the end of the day when i'm talking about issues that matter to them, most folks lives are too busy for politics, what does he want? a safe community a decent job, clean school, keen air, clean water, what you can do better for your kids and grandkids than what you had. if we focus on that, how are we improving people's lives?

folks believe they're in there to improve their lives. they can look past a couple things they might have agreed with me on. >> in a state donald trump wins by 20 points, you laid it out. you are a democratic governor, pro choice. you've expanded medicaid and spending on education. you've protected the environment from corporate interests. what itself the fight been like internally? you said it's two-thirds republican in your legislature. what are the discussions? what's the give and take in there? some people turn on the tv and say it's a brawl. >> fundamentally, it's the election. that's the problem, we are becoming so divided, the influence of money, because of the failure to look beyond the next election the fight in montana is saying we all agree rural hospitals are important. right f. you lose a rural hospital, you've lost that community and i'll never forget when i was trying to get

medication expansion through. 43% of the people who walked through those doors, they would lose that community. >> after 2019, though the ballot initiative didn't allow to you expand medicaid past 2019 because your rural hospitals, i have a conservative brother who supports donald trump. or supported. i don't know if he does. we don't talk politics anymore. he walk baseball. he was talking how the cuts in medicaid were devastating to the rural hospitals that he worked with. >> states that didn't pass medicaid had six times greater closings. than those that did. we went from 70% today. we increased the tobacco toox. tobacco companies spend $20 million defeating that. but i think just like they did in 2015, republicans still

recognize having health care is something that ought to be a baseline in our community so i'll work with them. democrats and republicans, to say we can't step back on the gains we had in montana by expanding medicaid. >> you are also chairman of the national association. it was a good night for democrats, flipping seven seats, including a few, michigan, wisconsin, nevada. they will play states that play significant roles in 2020. tell me why that is so important as you gear up to take on donald trump. >> first of all, it's critical, in so many of these states, people realize the maps that are so gerrymandered governors have a role in setting these maps. so first and foremost that is critical. second of which when you look at the gains that we had in states as you say like michigan and wisconsin, those are states that president trump won, demonstrates that if you personalize and localize, elections are about what's

happening in your house, you know, your coffee table, at the bar. if people feel like they're connected, it's fundamentally changes things. >> so tell me, jonathan was asking how important those states going democratic would be for the party in 2020. we got a lot of people in washington, d.c. that want you to run for president in 2020. i'm sure it's way too early and you're not blah blah blah. >> never would think it. >> but i have been hearing this for some time. hey, you got to meet this guy. are you thinking about looking into running in 2020? >> well, fundamentally looking forward -- >> can i tell you something? you're from montana. sow can't be too cool about this. you need to jump this there early, man, if you are going to do it. introduce yourself to the world. >> i think actually washington, d.c. would be working a lot better if it was a little bit more mike montana as much as we can bridge these divides, as much as we can make people have

a reason to believe the government can work and in a broken political system that matters. looking forward, look, i do think we need to find somebody that can unite these big divides in our country, getting the economy working for most folks and how broken the political system is. i'll continue to go out, that you can to folks, listen to them and see where that goes. >> do you worry, governor, some of the candidates being talked about are too far left? in other words, your progressive credentials are there, we read them off. no one from the left would be able to criticize you for that, at the same time the people that worry people like elizabeth warren or corey booker, whoever it is, bernie sanders, of course, you have that middle. you have worked with republicans in your state. balls you had to, do you worry about the democratic nominee being too far left? >> well, i think that we've got do nominate somebody that can bridge some of the divides we have. when you look at our political -- this didn't just start with donald trump.

politics in washington, d.c. has become a zero sum gain because of the influence of money, because of the hyperpartisanship. because we won't look beyond the next election. and whoever it is, we got to find somebody that says, this is about our kids and grandkids. this isn't just about the next election. from that perspective. i think folks see that and will ultimately do it. >> by the way, governor, thank you so much for being here. but you know with the kids in his home state are talking about right now. >> all across montana. >> they go to church. but before they go to church, the one thing that unites montana red, white and blue, sunday morning today with "willie geist." >> i had no idea. >> that was a big satchel page triple windup. >> we love the show. >> i didn't know where that was going. thank you very much. we are huge in billings,

bowsman. >> bose speaks the truth on a sunday morning. my kids are always waking up first thing. >> nice. >> this is the best promotion we've ever had, by the way, thank you, governor. this sun is for you, our sunday sitdown is with the queen herself. claire foy the crown on netflix, of course, she was the queen for two seasons. . she aged out of oit the queen is getting older. she is not playing that role anymore. but she is now starring in the "girl in the spider would be" from the steve larsen's book, the girl with a dragon tattoo in a bad a -- tattoo action star. a little different. >> i love her pay story, to. >> claire foy is incredible. she's coming up on sunday. >> governor, nice to meet you. let me say you should run in 2020.

up next -- what, i'm just saying. >> just lost you a lot of republican votes, that's probably a good thing. >> all right. the incoming governor of new mexico is coming up next. michelle lujan grisham joins the conversation. keep it right here on ""morning joe." kwpts ep it right here on ""morn joe. kwpt

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. joining us now from albuquerque the governor-elect of new mexico. three-term democratic congresswoman michelle lujan grisham. her historic win marks the first latina democratic governor in the united states and replaces republican governor susana martinez who made history in 2010 when she became the first latina governor elected in the u.s. we are having technical issues, but her story, susan del percio, is incredible on so many levels and not the one you would think.

she's dreamed at the age of 18 of playing baseball. she served two-plus terms in congress. she's a widow a grandmother, she's a care giver for her mother. she's a small business owner. and everything about her lives and breathes the state of new mexico. even her bachelors and law degrees. so this is quite an incredible win and a gain for the state of new mexico. >> it's a huge win. it's also symbolic of what we seen of women running. the candidates, themselves. they have very interesting stories. it's not surprising that women can do so many things. because and that's what every day women i think are attracted to. they are care givers, they do work. they have family. >> that i have gone through trials and tribulations. >> that i have a hard time making end meet and see people just like them saying, let's go and do my service to help

everyone. she also is really turning her state dark purple from that conservative bid. >> democrats won every state wyeth wide race in new members colorado it was one porte control. new mexico was considered a swing state. this is one you start in the 2020 map in the democratic's column it would take a lot to leave it. >> we will take a quick break and have the governor-elect on the other side, hopefully, we'll be right back. mowbray

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all right, it's time now for business before the bell with cnbc's dominic chew. what are you watching this morning? >> google is taking steps to revamp the way it handles issues like sexual harassment. after thousands of employees walked off the job last week. the ceo september ont out a mem laid out plans to provide more transparency. if it includes things like including ways to report incidents, training, making arbitration optional and not mandatory. while the overall job market still looks healthy, it's not good for many employees at sears. they laid out plans to close

another 40el stores next year. that's in addition to 142 announced stores it plans to close in the next few months. it will hold liquidation sale also starting late next week. there may be more relief at the pump coming for americans. oil prices slated for a tenth straight day of declines as saudi arabia and russia continue to pump oil at near record levels. the average price, $2.72 a gallon. it was 2.91 cents a month ago. speaking of the holidays, how about getting into the thanksgiving spirit with some pringles chips in turkey, stuffing and country pie flavors. they sold out in under an hour, mika. >> dominic chu, thank you. joining us now, congressman michelle lujan grisham, thank

you for your patient, thank you for your service. >> you're welcome, good morning, mika. >> good morning. so what did you campaign on, what was the key to your win? >> i really think it had everything to do with being completely focused on public education reform and tieing that to bolstering our economy. >> interesting take, i want to hear yours, on how constituents, how residents of new mexico, how have they fared from what you heard out on the road on immigration. and also what you thought of the president's take on the caravans? >> so immigration in new mexico, like so many of the other border states, and while we have a much smaller border area than, say, texas, we're clear that a wall is not going to make us safer. it is a fourth century solution to a 21 century problem is not

something most mexicans, the vast majority, have any faith in and understands it creates trade issue, tensions with our neighborhoods and ecosystems and environmental problems. what we want something is that give us the ability to focus law enforcement efforts and the wall and family separation and sending our national guard troops doesn't get us there. so most are concerned about the president's proposals and like i do oppose it. >> we talked about this before the break about the political trends in the state. a state that used to be consider a swing state not that long ago. why do you see this state that's one that's probably safely in the democrat ic column? >> it certainly appears that way. i would not completely go there.

this is still a defense contracting state, proud military state, in many ways, that can certainly be viewed as purple and more independent. like many areas, including ours, new mexico, lots of independent voters. but given that incredible raw natural resources here that have not been utilized, so renewable energy. making sure out outdoor economy and tourism really have a fair shot, these are very progressive ideas that have really resonated with new mexico across political spectrums. in areas where we've got new national protections. like the mountain peak area. if we're going to call it a blue wave, that's what got a brand-new congresswoman over the edge. that is really beginning to be core issues with new mexico.

>> susan. >>congratulations, governor. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. you have one of the highest poverty rates in your state. as governor, how -- i would assume you see this as somewhat connected? how do you plan on tackling it? >> let's also point out that i have incredible numbers of women now in the new mexico house. and given that dynamic, nearly half of the members in our house body are women. so really dedicated to getting public education right. we have an opportunity to do a moon shot in education and that has never occurred before. three things. one, we have resources to invest and make sure they're in the classroom. two, we also have resources to do universal pre-k, which we're one of the last states to fully

embas embrace that you need to start with 3-year-olds. and a court decision that said you've not been meeting the neats of some students which continues greatly to our lack of low graduation rates. if you address all three things at once, which we're planning to do and have legislation for the session that does that. we believe unequivocally this will give us that moon shot to change our entire public education system. and that's what we need and we deserve. no more incremental small shifts or punitive accountability measures. let's fully embrace and invest in public education. >> thank you very much. congratulations. >> thank you. how honored and lucky am i to serve in the state that i believe in and love. >> that's fantastic. >> thank you so much. fantastic.

>> thank you. >> as we close the show this week, i think it's fair to say it actually was a blue wave. and it could get bigger. >> i'm going to optimistic today, which i rarely get to do. the voter turnout this cycle just really is something for us as a country to be proud of. we've gotten more young people, we've gotten more diversity. i wish that was existence in my party, it is the republican party. just saw democracy works and it's a good thing. >> there's an expectation, we've reported, people in the white house, around the president, believe that something is coming soon, particularly in light of jeff sessions' departure. whether it be today, next week, the week after, there's a real sense that mueller's going to be

heard from soon. >> it seems the installation of whitaker and the question as to whether or not it's legal or constitutional, it really seemed like a self-destructive petulant move on the part of the president. i'm not trying to play any games. i don't see the logic in it. given the fact there is this probe going on. >> yes. i don't see the logic in it either. i want to end this week actually being hopeful. hoping against hope that there will be enough republicans in the senate and the house that will stand up and speak out and move the president to a position where he can make deals. you know, bill clinton, we ran hard against bill clinton in 1984 and yes, we impeached him in 1999, and it was ugly at times, but together, a democratic president and republican congress that loathed each other balanced the budget.

passed welfare reform. paid down the dead. did some pretty extraordinary things together. even when things were tough and ugly. let's hope. let's just hope. that somehow republicans can talk to the president and we can have a better two years moving forward than last two years we just had, so let's try something new. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. >> thanks, mika, thanks, joe. good morning, everyone, i'm stephanie ruhle. three days after election day, there is no clear winner in over a dozen races. and some battles only escalating. >> all i've got to say is let's count every vote and let's bring it home.