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new seats and are now looking to win almost twice as many. they may be on their way to another seat in the u.s. senate. there's hope for democrats in four contests where votes are still being counted. in arizona,ky seen the cinema who was behind when he signed off tuesday night has taken the lead over martha mcsally. in florida, scott's lead over nelson is down to just 15,000 votes, well within the margin that would force a recount. the florida governor's race between andrew gillum and ron desantis also now in the threshold for a recount. in georgia democrat stacey abrams is also hoping to force a runoff. while the republicans seeing the democrats good fortune lashing out, claiming fraud. here's governor scott accusing democrats of, you got it,

stealing the election. >> we've all seen the incompetence and irregularities of vote counting in broward for years. here we go again. i will not sit by while they try to steal the elections from the people of florida. >> president trump on a flight to france today took shots tweeting nine times about the three states still in contention. i'm joined by steve kornacki. steve, i can't believe we're still on election night but here we are on election night friday. >> chrissing, i tell you it does feel like an election night, as we were giving that introduction, we got a giant batch of new votes i can tell you about in the arizona senate race. about 80,000 just came in. these are from maricopa county. sinema the democrat her lead

when you came on the air was 10,000 votes. it is now 22,000 votes because of this new batch that just came in. again they are from maricopa county, biggest county in the state, around phoenix. the margin, i'm looking at the math to see what happened. it was about 54,000 new votes that came in for kyrsten sinema and about 32,000 votes that came in for martha mcsally. what's happening is arizona is a heavy mail-in voting state. so they've been counting over the past couple days, ballots mailed last weekend, a couple days before the election. the expectation would be that they would favor sinema a little, i think they're favoring her more than expected. still with this batch of votes we got, there are still probably about 375,000 votes in arizona yet to be counted.

again, a lot of them from maricopa county. republicans are saying they hope the final batch, ballots people dropped off at the polling place on election day might favor mcsally but she's starting to fall behind in the race and might get to a place there aren't enough votes favorable to her. this is good news for sinema what happened in the last couple minutes. >> let's look at florida. a lot of us have been trying to figure out what's going on with broward county and it's friday night and we're still counting. >> in the senate race here, the margin, nelson is about -- a little less than 15,000 votes behind rick scott. you can see this is two tenths of a point. if it's a less than a quarter of a percent, it will automatically trigger not just a recount but a manual recount, this means they're not running them through the machines.

th they're going to examine them by hand. we expect between now and tomorrow, the deadline for these counties, we expect there was provisional ballots that are going to be favored. expect them to favor nelson, it may shrink the lead a little but still behind rick scott there going into the recount. broward, you mentioned, this is interesting. huge county, 2 million people live, hugely democratic county. here's the thing they found. in this senate race in florida, about 25,000 fewer votes were cast in the senate race than in the governor's race. people got the same ballot, 25,000 ballots or so there was no marking on the senate race. what it appears happened here is that the design of the ballot in broward county essentially took that race and buried it in the lower left corner of the ballot. you have an instruction column,

the senate race is here, the governor's race is here at the top of the page. so did about 25,000 people in this county of 2 million, heavily democratic county of 2 million, did they miss the senate race? when you look at how nelson is winning broward here, if those 25,000 -- we didn't see anything like this in any other county in the state. if those 25,000 voted in that state, you're talking 8, 10,000 votes for nelson he would net in a vote that's less than 15,000. >> it reminds me of people in palm beach county, who had no reason to vote for pat buchanan's politics voted for him because of a ballot. >> even buchanan said they were not votes for me, they were votes for gore. >> it's nice to hear honesty, even in the crudest form. >> thanks so much. i'm joined by ron meyer, jason

johnson, and susan dell per see owe. thank you all. ron, you start but briefly because we can probably spend a year trying to figure out -- by the way, my question, a simple question, ron, why can't the whole country have one measure of voting, one type of many machine, we can be taught like mr. rogers at eight years old, everyone votes the same way, it's counted the same way, it's on paper, and there's no more of this every election where we're trying to figure out what's going on on tuesday on friday. your thoughts? is it ever going to happen? >> if we could only have one machine and one uniform system country wide it would certainly make things more efficient. look, the florida law gives supervisors of elections, 67 of them around the state of florida, until noon tomorrow to turn in their first unofficial

votes. so the fact we haven't gotten to a final vote point it's disappointing to those of us who want instant gratification to know who is the winner and who is the loser, but the fact is the system allows for a deliberate county process so everybody's vote is counted. that's what's important and critical here. the delay isn't anything other than a desire by the supervisors to make sure all votes are counted and counted properly. >> is there a -- is there a category of votes that don't get counted on election day by nature because they're overseas or whatever? >> we have overseas ballots that come in later. we have a lot of ballots that are being contested as well. florida has a requirement in the law for signature matches for vote by mail ballots or provisional ballots and there are no standards for determining whether signatures match. so there are literally tens of

thousands of ballots that have been rejected, we submit arbitrarily by supervisors of elections that need to be counted. these are people who voted, and depending on where you live, it might be countedover not be counted. that's another source of the delay. we'll go into recount tomorrow when the first unofficial results are tendered. we'll go into a machine recount and that could further alter the results because the under votes and over votes will be segregated out by the tabulating equipment and as if we're less than a quarter percent difference between the two candidates those over votes and under votes will be physically examined by the canvassing team to determine if there's voter intent that can be gleaned. this election is not over yet, nor should it be. . the statutes contemplate a process to maximize the number of ballots counted. now if you're ahead in the

polling, obviously you don't want to do anything that might change that result. those are the kind of delaying tactics and fear tactics we hear from the people such as governor scott who are right now marginally up in the election. he doesn't want these processes to unfold because it might result in a different result. >> of course. thank you ron meyer for your expertise. i want to bring in jason and susan now. it is such a nostalgic moment because 18 years ago, my favorite thing we covered is the recount in florida. people looking up at the ballots. and the person for al gore said that's a good one, the person for bush, that's no good. same ballot. >> you think we would have learned something since high school. there's no uniformity even within the states. within the states there should be uniformity about how the ballots operate. >> the design. >> even the design of the

ballots. >> why would you put the senate vote down at the bottom of the left hand corner. >> when those are the races driving the ticket. >> unless you didn't want to vote. >> exactly. that's what bothers me about what rick scott is doing and brian kemp in georgia is doing. i hope people find a way to keep elected officials from toying with elections that they're on the line for. rick scott shouldn't be threatening to send in cops. >> speaking of which, susan, even before the election last weekend, we're into this weekend, last weekend, brian kemp, the secretary of state of georgia who has the other job of being candidate for governor was claiming fraud there. saying there was hacking into the system by the democrats. now we have the governor of florida, also the candidate for the united states senate in florida claiming voter fraud down there because the democrats want the count to continue until it's done. >> well, here's a funny thing. just so you know on the recount,

if they move to a hand count in florida, they have to be separate counts for governor and then a separate count for senate. so at least two hand counts may be in play, which is just also mind boggling. i think what we see here is something that happens when elections are close, republicans call for a recount, democrats call for a recount. we know it can come down to a couple hundred votes. as a country we should be supporting everyone who voted, people took the time, the energy, we had a lot of new voters out there, and we have systems that are changing as well. states are adapting to new rules and regulations as far as absentee ballot or early ballot. so there is a learning curve. in new york we had a paper jam because our ballots were double sided and a third sheet to reach out to. >> same as with maryland. let me ask about the weekend.

mid evening tuesday night we had somebody come on the show and say no wave. then i see wait a minute, democrats might get twice the vote they needed. they may get up to 40 now potentially still. of course, they're still picking away at the senate. they have a good shot at a senate seat. two women out west, arizona and nevada both won. and in florida where it looked dismal on election night the fight is going on. >> it's a slow moving wave. almost like a caravan, it's moving slow. >> you devil. >> here's the thing the republicans need to understand. this is why this is a wave and it's dangerous and important for republicans to pay attention to. all of these seats, the midwest, i've been saying the midwest were so key -- >> you're right. that was trump's victory area. >> this happened with great unemployment, under a great economy. in 2020 if this economy is not doing as well as it is now, republicans are in trouble.

>> we didn't even cover these races because they were such sweeps way before election night people like bobby casey in pennsylvania by ten points, debbie stabgnaw they all swept reelections in states that went for trump and nobody talked about it. and then, of course, the marginal cases came through. i'm wondering if we missed a big part of the story in not counting with any surprise or excitement, the democratic victories in the midwest and northeast. >> when we look at polls in the media we see the horse race. when we look at polls in the campaign we are looking for gettable votes. and what republicans saw were there was only the tried and true turnout model of midterm voters, base voters, that's all we could get. the democrats saw if they could get their message out, they could reach new voters, nontraditional midterm voters, and that's where the energy

went, and that's really where i think all of us kind of missed seeing this wave coming is the amount of increased participation with new and nontraditional midterm voters. >> i also think that democrats being people that fall in love rather than fall in line, they do work with their hearts, and there was so much heart in those races that andrew gillum would win, that abrams would win that beto o'rourke would win in texas. these were long shots and didn't win, at least not yet in florida and georgia, it wasn't a great night. by any normal standard when you pick up twice the number of seats and take over the house of representatives and the power to protect social security, medicare, and tax law, all of that won on tuesday night. thank you ron mieer, jason johnson and susan delpersio.

coming up, have we met? it looks like donald trump knew matthew whitaker before he didn't know him. plus the nra bashes the medical community for labelling firearms a public health risk. tell that to the shooting victims' families. and president trump said he had no part in the hush money payment to those women, but new information today says prosecutors have evidence he was up to his neck in it. michelle obama is out with a new book and she says she'll never forgive donald trump putting her family at risk with the crazy birther charge about her husband being born in kenya. this is "hardball," where the action is. kenya. this is "hardball," where the action is. jen: matt started turning into his dad. matt: mm. that's some good mulch. ♪ i'm awake. but it was pretty nifty

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there's no evidence of anything illegal happening in the 2016 election really with

the trump campaign. >> the truth is there was no collusion with the russians and the trump campaign. >> i just don't see that there is a, you know, criminal or a political, you know -- most likely an impeachment case to be made against the president. >> welcome back to "hardball." you know why that guy was picked that was matthew whitaker in 2017, on an investigation he now oversees saying there's no case to be made against the president. and now outrage about this person being picked who's never been confirmed by the senate, to hijack the probe. now the president is trying to contain the damage. in a feeble attempt to separate himself from his hand picked attorney general, president trump claimed five times that he

didn't know matt whitaker at all. >> i don't know matthew whitaker. he worked for jeff sessions. in all fairness to matt whitaker, who i didn't know. he's a highly respected man but i didn't know matt whitaker. >> he knows his name. the problem for trump is less than a month ago he said he did know matt whitaker. >> i can tell you matt whitaker is a great guy. i know matt whitaker. >> let's watch that again. trump today followed by trump last month. >> i don't know matt whitaker. >> i can tell you matt whitaker is a great guy. i mean, i know matt whitaker. >> oh, those damn tapes. his attempt to undercut his relationship with whitaker was further undercut by a report tonight. it was reported during his time as chief of staff to jeff sessions, he provided advice to the president about how the white house might be able to

pressure the justice department to investigate the president's political adversaries. and one source said whitaker was extracting as much as he could from the justice department as he could. joining me now is eric swalwell of the house committee, heidi and glen kerser. i want all three of yous to go at this thing. what do you make of the president basically lying saying he didn't know the guy he just picked. why did he pick this guy? >> same reason he picked kavanaugh. >> he did know him? >> yeah. he knew what he wanted to do, ha he said in private conversations. he hired a hitman to take out the mueller investigation. if this had happened on monday, we were powerless in the house. but this happened on wednesday. we're not powerless anymore. the voters sent a democratic majority to put a check on these abuses of power. >> just like in the god father

he waited for mom to die. >> he'd take more losses. >> glen, this is pretty broad daylight. he's just taken over basically the supervisor of the investigation of himself. >> chris, none of us are surprised that we see the president contradicting himself, he is completely untethered to the true. i thought we were going to come in this evening and talk about how many conflicts whitaker has, whether it's representing sam clovis, the statements he makes when i look at this through the eyes of a career prosecutor, taking the stance there is no evidence of collusion, he hasn't seen anything. he went embedded in mueller's investigation. so all of those things he should have seen whether he had conflicts and needed to be recused. >> they're not going to recuse this guy. >> we have moved so far beyond that with this vox report that just broke that says according

to multiple sources that whitaker is sneaking over, basically two-timing on the department of justice employees, sneaking over to the oval office, advising the president, here is how we can go against your enemies and distract from the mueller investigation. with the president standing up and saying i don't know him, and this report was accurate and he was in the oval office a dozen times and one on one phone calls with the president. at a minimum, whitaker is a witness in the mueller probe, maybe a subject. maybe they're all conspireing. >> you covered everything. >> the chief of staff -- what? >> he covered everything. >> where was sleepy jeff sessions during the time his chief of staff was working to undercut him and replace him? >> the question is if he knew. according to the vox report, like glen said, he was actually two-timing, he was, to use the word, a mole. working to pressure rod

rosenstein and sessions in-house and advising the president how to do it. this is a step -- look, this is way beyond anything that jeff sessions did that demanded a recusal. this is actually trying to use -- showing that he was willing to use the justice department for the president's own political ends. >> the difference is they're all coming to congress now. before they would have got a free pass. now they have to come to congress and explain what the pledges were, it's not a free pass. >> somebody said you're dumping on democrats without giving thoughts. i have a thought, can't you ask whitaker under oath what that has your contact been with the president? >> absolutely. if he lasts that long. >> there's a growing sense of concern over the negative backlash to matthew whitaker. they were surprised by the criticism and believes it could jeopardize the chances of whitaker remaining in the

post -- that part i don't believe, mr. cnn. heidi knowing the media, you put this guy in as the president's mole and now he's going to be acting attorney general? >> the question at this point to the congressman's point, what are the levers. i talked with some lawyers who are looking at their options right now. and they do believe that this is unquestionably unconstitutional to circumvent the advice and powers of congress. so the question is, they're going to be all over him like glue. whatever his first move is that they can find a plaintiff or person with cause, the legal terms, they'll be going after him. it's not a question of if. it's a question of when. >> let me go back to the tough politics. the president has 53, maybe 4 senators coming in january. he doesn't need the two women that seem to have problems with him on issues of choice and other things, but he's got a little padding there. can he confirm a guy like chris christie? >> no.

>> or another kind of guy that will do what he wants. >> i don't think he can confirm someone who won't allow the mueller investigation to continue. >> will that be the condition? will the republicans set as a condition we'll make you ag at the president's request, we'll adds vise a consent, but you have to promise under oath now that you will not dump this probe? >> the reason i think so, there were 900 protests yesterday, many had thousands of people on the outside. the map the senate had in the last election was the best in a hundred years, the next map is worse for them -- >> they only need 51 votes. they don't need a single democrat. so that's a good question. >> let me against about the legality. any way to throw out this presidential ringer? >> i don't think if they can throw him out, if the office of professional responsibility, the ethics officers say you are conflicted, you must recuse, i

don't think he can survive that and continue to fumble forward, particularly given these revelations. we all know the white house doesn't vet the background of anybody, scaramucci or dr. ronny jackson. i predict that matt whitaker's tenure as the acting attorney general is slowless than anthon scaramucci. >> fumbling is a great metaphor. trump's attempt to mislead reporters about his relationship with whitaker puts all his claims about whitaker in doubt, including this claim about the russia probe. >> have you talked with whitaker at all about the mueller probe? >> i didn't speak to matt whitaker about it, i don't know matt whitaker. >> does the president get in trouble for lying? >> eventually. >> i'm sorry. trump also had this to stay when asked if he expected whitaker to reign in mueller. >> do you expect matt whitaker

to be involved in the russia probe? >> that's up to him. >> do you want him to reign in robert mueller? >> what a stupid question that is. what a stupid question. >> that's nice talk. >> a little defensive. >> congressman the question was, do you expect him to reign in mueller? >> we're going to prevent that. again, the days of them just getting away with the stuff are over. it's not going to happen. >> starting january 3rd. >> we have a budget battle right now and we're going to insist on protecting mueller if they want democratic votes. >> can you insist that he fund more? >> mueller is funded through next september, i believe. >> heidi? >> he didn't have to issue the comey oath of loyalty there because there was all of this, you know, footage of him on tv, whitaker on tv, showing that he was loyal. let's just tell people the vox reporting is that he not only met several times in the oval office but had one on one phone

conversations with whitaker as well. >> i think the answer to the question, do you want the mueller investigation to be reigned in, his answer, that's a stupid question, you're stupid, mueller is hearing that as consciousness of guilt. the answer is, of course, i want it reigned in, why do you think i just appointed whitaker. >> i'm not sure that's what he wanted us to hear, but you did. thank you all. up next a battle brewing after the nra warns doctors to stay in their lanes over gun control. "hardball," where the action is. control. "hardball," where the action is. , we'll replace the full value of your car. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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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! >> that's powerful and it's true, and it's a mother. welcome back to "hardball." that's a call for gun control from a mother's victim of california's shooting. we've had 307 mass shootings in

2017 and we're in the 313th day this year. the nra published an article criticizing the american health association for criticizing guns. a swift response from doctors today. one doctor, the doctor of emergency surgery and a survivor of gun violence tweeted i cannot believe the nra making such a divisive statement. we take care of these patients every day. where are they when i'm having to tell all those families their loved ones have died. so you have -- luckily i've only been watching it on television over the years. you have to walk into the waiting room at the hospital. >> chris, let me first say thank you very much for having me. you know, that communication and that rhetoric that we've heard from the nra is a clear

demonstration to myself, the medical community, and frankly americans all across this country that they are not serious about moving the needle forward on this issue. and the reality is, i have to walk into that waiting room and sometimes when i look at the faces of those mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers, i realize that what i'm about to do is rock their world. i'm about to change their life. i often think of my own experience and what my family must have thought as the surgeon came out to talk to them. that's something -- >> you were shot? >> yes, sir. >> what was that circumstance? >> i was a 17-year-old high school student and it was after a high school football game, and i got hit in the throat with a .38 caliber bullet. at the age of 17, i don't know how you were, but most 17 year olds they have no idea what they're going to do the rest of their life. that really inspired me.

inspired me to go into medicine, become a trauma surgeon and work at how do we work at the intersection of medicine, public health and public policy. >> when i hear the politicians talk, the evangelicals, they talk about your second amendment rights, as if it's so important where you deal with taking bullets out of people's brains. you have to do that as a surgeon, save the lye lives of those are that are unsaifbl. >> this is a public health crisis. it's not a republican or democratic issue. it's an american issue. >> why? the japanese, british, french, they don't have 350 murders a year in one city like baltimore their whole countries they don't have it. >> you're right. that's why this is a unique american problem. until we deal with it like a

public health crisis we're not going to be able to move the needle forward. when you look at the statement by the nra, the reality is no single individual, organization can do it by themselves. this requires an approach requiring stakeholders from all walks of life. i'm surprised because medical organizations like the american college of surgeons have engaged the nra so for them to say we should stay in our lane i think is a little bit off basis and they need to analyze how best to move this -- >> i wonder how the supreme court does this. it's out of your field but the supreme court said the right to cary the gun has nothing to do with the militia, or dealing with muskets. these are glocks. this guy plugged everybody in the room. nobody knew of such an instrument when we wrote the constitution when we could do

that. >> chris, i agree with that point. but let me bring it back to what i think is critical. this is not about taking away guns. you know, folks want to make it into that discussion and polarize it. when you talk to most gun owners we have more in common than we have that's dissimilar. the reality is, there's a disparity that exists between the leadership of the gun lobby and the membership. >> i hope so. you know what, they said this guy that did the shooting and then shot himself, the 13th victim of his own hand, they said he was known to local authorities. you know what that story is. >> yes. >> he was dangerous, he was a problem, and nobody could do anything about it under the law. thank you, doctor. >> thank you. up next, trump said he had nothing to do with the hush money payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, but new reporting tonight shows he played a central role. of course he did. now it's reported. he was approving that spending by his buddy at the newspaper.

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whenshe was pregnant,ter failed, in-laws were coming, a little bit of water, it really- it rocked our world. i had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. sergeant baker, how are you? they were on it. it was unbelievable. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa- now that's a privilege. we're the baker's and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today. welcome back to "hardball." while president trump appears to be trying to protect himself from mueller's investigation by naming matt whitaker as the new acting ag he remains exposed in other investigations outside of mueller's purview "the washington journal" reporting tonight that donald trump played a central role in the hush money payments made to adult film star

stormy daniels and playboy model karen mcdougal. the journal found that mr. trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements. he directed deals and phone calls and meetings with his self-described fixer michael cohen and others. trump initially denied knowing anything about the hush money payments but walked back that claim during the summer. >> later on i knew. later on. but you have to understand, what he did, and they weren't taken out of campaign finance, that's a big thing. that's a much bigger thing, did they come out of the campaign? they didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me. >> we'll see about that. michael cohen pleaded guilty in august to charges that included campaign violations relating to those payments. and he said he did it at trump's direction. let's bring in the round table, ginger gibson, ashley pratt, and jamal simmons. i want to start with ginger on

this because you have done reporting on this. now we know he was directing it. not only directing it but the money was coming from the guy who owns the "national enquirer" which one could argue is a campaign contribution. >> the president likes to make the point that the money didn't come out of his campaign. but what he seems to continue to miss had the money come out of his campaign, it wouldn't have been a campaign violation, michael cohen wouldn't have anything to plead guilty to. it was the fact it did come from his campaign and wasn't disclosed by his campaign. as well as the fact that the "national enquirer" may have been paying money to bury stories. >> catch and kill. >> catch and kill as they call it. they had possibly been doing this -- >> as a personal favor to a guy they divested themselves to. he was their horse in this race and they were going to make sure he won. >> right. i believe it was pecker who said to him in the meeting, how can

we help you in the campaign? >> yes. it's in the reporting. >> very campaign oriented. so i don't know how trump really escapes this one and the connection here and how he was so involved in it. plus these reports now about his son saying he's fearing a possible indictment. trump has to be on edge this week with the midterm elections, this report from the "the washington post," this isn't the cnn, "new york times" that he calls fake news, right, this is "the washington pos "wall street journal" one that should be in trump's corner. >> he has a lot of stuff coming at him that could cause big charges. >> i just imagine the people in mueller's shop sitting there coming across this evidence of wrong doing, where does this go? i don't know. give it to the guy in new york. what about this one? i don't know. give it to -- what we're discovering is that trump, as we thought, is involved with a lot of nefarious dealings and now

we're getting to evidence that will probably lead to something legal, but can they indict him? >> the notoriety doesn't bother him. the people decided they're for or against him. i do argue he paid a price for "access hollywood" in this campaign. >> but he can't be embarrassed. >> he paid the price. he didn't pay the price in 2016 for "access hollywood." he paid the price this week for "access hollywood" in 2018. there was this notion trump could defy political gravity. we saw that it can catch up with him and it's going to keep catching up to him. >> former first lady michelle obama is blasting donald trump in her memoir coming out next week. the book is called "becoming," graet title. she denounces president trump's birther campaign, questioning her husband's birth, as putting

her family's safety at risk. this is hot stuff. the whole birther thing was crazy and mean spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and seen phobxenophobia hardly . but it was also dangerous deliberately meant to stir up the wing nuts and cookooks. and criticizes him how he appears to stalk hillary clinton in the debate, his message was, i can hurt you and get away with it. here we go. when he comes in behind her, the really gruesome stuff there. ashley, that is creepo. >> yeah, a lot of what he has done has been that word there, creepo, when i look at the affairs, scandals, talks about

women, calling christine blas si ford uncredible, making fun of people with special needs at his rallies. what he does is not fitting of a president of the united states. we've known that for a long time and michelle obama is highlighting things that the american people knew and rebuked by sending a democrat congress, specifically female. >> will he take on michelle obama? >> it's hard to take on michelle obama. most normal politicians, you would say not. but trump flipped it and went after barack obama. >> she said she was worried about her family. >> she put a human face on this thing that was so -- it's so compassionate. and people love michelle obama. i think it's hurtful. >> sticking with us, the round table team, and up next these

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ginger, tell me something i don't know. >> donald trump had $35 million in his reelection campaign as of last month, and for comparison, barack obama started his reelection campaign at the same point in his administration with $2.3 million in his account. >> so he's more randy to run than obama was. >> he's got a lot of cash already squirrelled away. >> being from the great state of new hampshire, i have heard a lot of rumblings that senator kelly ayott no longer in the senate is now being considered on the short list or attorney general. >> attorney general. >> along with pam bondi, two key states, new hampshire and florida. so now there's a lot of discussion about her around ag, and operatives i've been talking to in new hampshire, she's been closed off to media lately.

that could be something right there. >> i think she'll be very successful, whatever she gets. jamal. >> a lot of democrats are upset or feeling down about what happened on tuesday to the two darling candidates for governor in jgeorgia and florida. we haven't been hearing about two lieutenant governor candidates, african-americans, gilchrist in michigan and barnes in wisconsin who are the new lieutenant governors in those two states. >> they won. >> they won. two african-americans poised for state leadership and perhaps more than that, and they're both young, 35 and 31. they're young guys. >> jamal, that's exactly what i want this segment to be about, blow our minds with stuff we completely overlooked. thank you, ashley pratt and jamal simmons, and ginger -- i started with ginger, ginger gibson. we'll be right back.

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trump watch, friday, november 9th, 2018. what a weekend it's been for the democrats. they went into it hoping to win just, well, 23 seats needed to control the house of representatives and they end up the week with the possibility of winning almost twice that number, up to 40 seats they might win this week. think of how these victories change the political reality in this country. instead of issuing orders to a congress marching in lockstep, trump now faces a world in which he has no power to affect tax policy, no power to cut entitlements like social security and medicaid. and thanks to what mitch mcconnell said yesterday, a total surrender on obamacare. trump himself is unlikely to admit defeat, never does. but this time he really doesn't have to admit it. the house of congress where tax and spending decisions originate, the holder of the country's purse strings, the people's house, the house of representatives is now in the secure hands of the democratic

opposition. let's see how trump gets used to that fact. it's hardball for now. thanks for being with us, "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in". >> whoa. i didn't know what happened. >> bombshell reporting from "the wall street journal." >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- -- >> tonight the new report that the president of the united states himself directed a criminal conspiracy to help get himself elected. >> we'll have to pay -- no, no, no, i got -- >> i can tell you, matt whitaker is a great guy, i know matt whitaker. >> the president caught pretending he doesn't know the man he appointed to oversee the mueller probe. >> i know matt whitaker. >> i don't know him. >> and growing bipartisan fears over what matt whitaker is up to. >> do you want him to