the community doesn't just have small businesses, it is small businesses. and that's why american express founded small business saturday. so, this year let's all get up, get out and shop small on november 24th. i got croissant. small business saturday. a small way to make a big difference. good morning, everybody. i'm david gura. this is "up." we are here every saturday and sunday at 8:00 eastern time. on this saturday, deadline florida. the cutoff just hours away to get all ballots counted. and the races for governor and the senate could not be closer or nastier. >> i will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of florida. >> under fire, new questions

about the new acting attorney general. just what is his relationship with the president? >> i don't know matt whitaker. he worked for jeff sessions and was always extremely highly thought of and still is, but i didn't know matt whitaker. >> i can tell you, matt whitaker's a great guy. i mean, i know matt whitaker, but i never talk about conversations that i had. >> the cover-up and explosive new report just how involved the president was in funneling hush money to porn stars. >> there is no question that donald trump conspired with michael cohen to commit a felony. >> it is saturday, november 10th, and florida -- not again. >> this -- this is very exciting. okay? there is no words more reassuring to democratic politicians than "florida recount." >> "up" with me this morning,

hosting "the gist" a daily podcast, and a reporter for the "washington post," and legal analyst, author of the book "on your case." there is a ton to talk about today, but i want to begin with the high-stakes showdown over vote counts in florida. what's happening in georgia and arizona as well. looking at the latest numbers here this morning, the margins in both florida races for senate and for governor are tightening, and the big deadline is noon today. election supervisors have to turn in results by then. in the goob inubernatorial race leading. and the senate race close whicher with republican rick scott ahead by fewer than 15,000 votes as we wait for word on whether there will be recounts. there were already fights underway in the courts. and president trump has weighed in as well ripping into the democrats and questioning the integrity of this process. in one tweet the president writes, don't worry, florida. i'm sending much better lawyers

to expose the fraud. meanwhile, in georgia, democrat stacey abrams refusing to concede in her race for governor. her campaign is laying groundwork for a runoff election as nbc news continues to report this morning that the contest is too close to call. and in the race for an open senate seat in arizona, democrat kyrsten sinema also is waiting for the final tally to get in. and in the last few weeks following all this, push ahead to noon, hallie. what are you watching and what will we learn at noon today? >> reporter: push ahead to noon. that is the deadline we're operating under that all candidates, supervisors of all 67 counties here in florida have to give final tallies to the secretary of state here in tallahassee. overnight a few legal developments. i'll leave lisa green to be the ultimate arbiter in a little bit. basically three things we're

looking at. two filed by rick scott in palm beach county and broward county saying the problem they don't know how many votes are left to tally. a fair question. a point in the race they should still be tallying the votes, provisional, absentee ballots and those votes, but broward county and palm beach county folks have not been able to exactly say how many votes are left. basically the legal action rick scott took in the middle of this week and they were supposed to have it done by 7:00 last night. in palm beach county the supervisor would not comply. broward county, partially complied but still missing pieces to that puzzle. the rick scott campaign has legal wins under their belt, not necessarily the tangible results they're looking for from that. on the other side. nelson folks filed something in federal court regarding provisional ballots and how they're cured or counted. basically what signatures are matched and how they're matched how they basically make those votes count. a federal judge yesterday said he wasn't going to grant their

emergency injunction, a request to stop the process, longer past the noon deadline. the judge saying he doesn't see the emergency in that instead saying if he believes the votes should be cured and counted, provisional ballots, make the order later when they go to court and have that hearing. that legal fight basically saying we're operating on a noon deadline. as some lawyers here with experience in florida recounts have cautioned us, this timeline is good until a legal battle basically makes it not good. david? >> ah. we bring in ally. your reaction where we are? looking back to 2000 as well. >> absolutely deja vu and ally did a masterful job laying out the legal consequences. keep two dates in mind. november 20 and november 30. november 20 is the day that these election results are supposed to be certified by a three-member panel that includes the governor of florida. so here we are in america.

partisans are involved in certifying election results november 30th, that's the last day to file a challenge to the results. so we may be reuniting to discuss this outcome in weeks. >> a few weeks. >> yeah. >> and you have a question for ally to ask? >> yes. if we remember the 2000, shall we say mishagauss, an official, kathleen harris, republican elected official, many states saw this having elected official in charge of the recount but they essentially scrapped that position. who is "the" person in charge of this? the final arbiter? >> reporter: right now feels to me the final arbiter could be the secretary of state. interesting. now in you a tall the legal bat campaigns are keeping to themselves. we're not officially in recounseled. we're moving towards that. at noon today or right after noon today when the results officially come in, first

canvas, when we go to a recount. we know because of our great chack tracking systems and election results the senate race is absolutely going not just to a machine recount most likely a hand recount, and that will be important especially talking to the nelson legal team. they're looking for this idea of undervotes. discrepancies between the number of voters who voted in the governor's race not the senate race, and that's a question. the nelson team is hoping to get to this in a later stage of this, hand recounts. on the governor's side, that desantis/gillum race, do they hit that .5% automatic machine recount. we think they will. not looking like it will go to a hand recount, right now the campaigns on all sides are sticking to their ground on the governor's side. a holding pattern. the senate side, assured pretty much we're going to a lengthy recount battle. both sides staking out legal turf and spin a little bit. >> eugene, something that's

different between now and 2000, we have twitter and have the president weighing in on this. i read one tweet an sending in better lawyers, cast out on the integrity of the process. close to a dozen tweets he fired off on his way to france about this race and others we're watching closely. how does that complicate things? the folks on the ground in fla,g out the noise from the president? >> that tweet stood out to me. send in better lawyers. i was like, michael cohen-type lawyers? who? rudy giuliani? the reality is none of the lawyers that trump sends in are going to be perceived as being in the best interests of andrew gillum or bill nelson. that's what many voters on the ground are concerned about. they want to know this will be a fair process. concerns about voter suppression, inconsistency and in these ballots. we had voters waiting in line

three hours in some places and predominantly in black neighborhoods in miami. there are lots of questions that people have about what road the president and the political parties could play in this whole thing. >> glad to be back in the studio after the election. you can see behind us here all of the tweets from the president of the united states. weigh in on that as well. what you'll be watching for, yes, on the ground in tallahassee, and georgia and arizona, but also what you'll watch for out of washington as well? >> apparent for us is what the president says. republicans in florida are now also using as part of their talking points like rick scott. right? if the president wants to say something it false, then rick scott is jumping onboard without actually any proving or offering up any type of evidence there is fraud in this situation, and so it's really amazing to me, too, the idea every vote should be counted as controversial in any way. that's the way our democracy should be working, but clearly, you know, some republicans are,

i don't know -- feel otherwise. >> right. >> a lot of talk about the integrity of the voting process in broward county, a predominantly democratic party. rather than fraud, one might argue there's a lack of, like, top-level competence in the way the votes are gathered. >> staffing. >> staffing. a history of issues, but that's not fraud. it may not be the voting system you would engineer or we might be ale to do a better job, but it is not fraudulent to make sure every vote is counted. >> ally, two questions. short shift to the race in florida, results are too close to call, my second question has to do with andrew gillum. he gave that concession speech on election day. any information about regrets? why it happened as it did on tuesday night? >> reporter: i'll take those in order. yes, the ad commissioner rate is very close here. one a democrat pulled ahead by several hundred votes. we're talking about thousands in the senate race and governor's race, talking hundreds in that

race. that's a really close race to watch. your second question regarding andrew gillum and the concession speech tuesday night, we've said the past days those speeches aren't binding but in talking to andrew gillum's campaign it's not at this point expected he will unconcede. they've said throughout the course of the past few days has been urging every vote to be counted. andrew gillum made a facebook video about that. send tweets on that, and in conversations from staffers with him are pushing every vote get counted. they hit that 5% that would trigger a recount. we'll hear from andrew gillum and his lawyer this afternoon and will bring you what we know when we get it. >> you spend 50% of the year in florida, don't have to pay taxes and may be headed in that direction. >> reporter: oh, boy. >> we'll check in in the weeks to come, of course. and we provide pastries here. lisa, you've made good on a promise. you said last time you were on

the show it would be a byop scenario. bring your own pastries. what do we have here today? >> the delicious sugar-topped molasses topped cookies. next to it a seasonal pita pumpkin. semihealthy. long-held dream, finally realized right here. >> breaking into those in the next block i promise. coming up, questions about the legitimacy of president trump's pick to be acting attorney general. what it means for cases in courtrooms across the country, plus a blockbuster report revealing the president played a central role in those hush money payoffs to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. details coming up. moments ago president trump and the first lady leaving the presidential palace in paris. president trump was meted with french president emmanuel macron and told the press corps they had a great lunch. a live report from paris just a little later in the show. ttle lw

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welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. president trump asked jeff sessions for his resignation this week and was replaced with mantle how that george whitaker, now acting attorney general and robert mueller's new boss giving him latitude over the investigation and say-so over indictments and who will see the special report at the end of that investigation. matt whitaker said in the past robert mueller is going too far and uncanny similarity that his comments and some from the president.

>> the alleged russian interference in the election i haven't seen any reports of actual evidence that anything happened. >> the russian investigation is a hoax. it's a phony hoax. >> to suggest that there's obstruction of justice here i think is taking a reckless step. >> there's no obstruction. there's no collusion. >> there is a red line here and bob mueller doesn't have the authority currently to look into unrelated trump finances. >> looking into your finances, your family finances unrelated to russia? is that a red line? >> i would say so, yes. i guess you have the most familiarity with matt whitaker since he played in the rose bowl losing to the huskies, the hawkeyes. >> and finished with, i think, 231 in his -- >> i knew i can count on you. i love t. i bring it up to say what have we learned thus far? what more are you looking to learn in coming days?

he's in the job. no period to wait to the see what happens here. what stood out to you as we begin to piece together his biog gra graphy outside of college sports? >> the white house distancing from whitaker. should have known the things he said and seem to be caught unaware he laid out justification in public for ending the investigation. they're scrambling now. here you see president trump saying i knew him, i didn't know him. and calling it a phony investigation. a hoegs. isn't that how words work? noth should whitaker recuse himself, which he won't be. i think he should be investigated by mueller. given hill druthers who would love to find out what promises were made, discussions had in relationship to covering up this investigation. i'm not a lunatic throwing ideas at the wall. i heard the former fib fi

general counsel sas-oy the same thing. a general weakness in the mueller investigation just by being picked for this job. >> and in the "washington post," the way the white house distanced itself from this. what do you make in the pick and the way this happened? >> i'm constantly surprised by the depth of the chaos. that they could be shocked by his statements just seems to defy logic. simply google his name. it's not like he wasn't on cnn or wasn't writing op-eds. he didn't say these things in private or secret. he made it well known publicly how he feels about this inve investigation and the idea he wasn't picked because of that is laughable when we know how the president himself feels about it. >> does anybody really believe that anybody in the white house didn't know what his position was? what we've seen in general since the midterm is what we already know about the president of the united states. he doesn't seem to like

democracy very much and kicked in all of his habits, actions, into full throttle, firing one attorney general, installing another one without having any senate confirmation. by revoking a press pass, starting to verbally abuse certain journalists. all is falling into the same bucket of donald trump i think really reacting and lashing out after what happened on tuesday and trying to, i don't know, maintain some control. making poor decisions. choosing people who seem invalid for this type of position because of his statements. >> lisa, what happens next? duelling op-eds in the "new york times." first one, president trump said, mr. kellyanne conway arguing a legal appointment and another piece in the "new york times" yesterday saying that op-ed was incorrect. i heard on the radio yesterday, talking about this. here's what could happen. the u.s. government has cases on a given day takes place in

courthouses across the country. this is illegitimate because the attorney general is illegitimate. how founded is that? how likely is that? where will you see the protest against this take place? >> two things to watch. that argument is already going to play out in a court in washington, where an associate of roger stone has challenged the validity of the mueller investigation and judges asked both sides, team, you know, special counsel's office and stone's associate to weigh in on a what a post-whitaker world likes like's does it invalidate mueller's investigation? most likely not. and secondly rod rosenstein. called the whitaker appointment a good thing. why would he do that? when any lawyer looking at whitaker's background, involvement in a company, under an ftc investigation, now we read criminal charges. >> when the job should have been his? right? rob rosenstein should have gotten this job?

>> what he doing? being a good career prosecutor. rallying his troops we have to get along to go along and keep this investigation. i argue it's a patriot act. >> mike, the battle is shaming shaming -- shaping up. move my cookie to see this letter. dear mr. president, he begins, five questions he asks the president about this appointment. there's been some talk since the election about the investigative powers of the congress, less likely to happen in the senate of course, but where do you see that, how do you see that playing out on capitol hill? what happened around this -- >> mcconnell seems to be very undesirous of bringing the various really just one bill that would trigger an investigation if mueller were fired. seems like if mcconnell brought it to a vote maybe the senate would vote for it or at least be put in a tough position. of course, oversight provided by now the democratic house of representatives will be different. of course, no matter what

whitaker does, and he's probably not going to just fire mueller. he'll probably try to starve him. no matter what he does, remember, there are pieces of this investigation already alive. right? southern district of new york, that district in virginia. and, of course, he'll have backed up his files. so the mueller investigation was sort of inside us all the time. it's around. it's not just in the person of mueller. there are -- of course the extreme is that rosenstein will not approve the release of his findings. like, this has to be done. they have to have a formal approval of the release of this findings, but there still seems to be enough fail safes so the truth will come out. >> and all that's happening surrounding michael cohen and a piece in the "wall street journal" yesterday, encapsulating all that's happened with michael cohen saying the president knew about each and every one of these conversations. what's your perspective?

yes, the storiography, what it means from a campaign finance perspective as well? >> two thoughts about the "wall street journal's" story, which was just a wonderful piece of reporting. one is, yeah. tell me something i didn't already know. it all seemed to lead to the president's knowledge of this case, notwithstanding his frequent and ever-changing denials. second, allen weisselberg. >> the cfo. >> of the trump organization, granted limited immunity to talk about dealings with michael cohen. i have to think that he may be the source of some of this additional reporting. fec violations require a high standard of evidence of intent to violate fec laws. lay people, may read it and say that's obvious. you know? it's not as easy to prove as it is to bring. remember john edwards argued in the end. i wasn't trying to cover up my affair for campaign finance reasons. i jut wanted to hide it from my wife. that's an argument that would resonate with a lot of lay people at least. >> what could the punishment be?

seems "post" reporting is right. what's the punishment for such a violation? >> there can be criminal charges, fines. depends on the severity, and it then raises a question prosecuting a sitting president, leads us to a return to some of the mueller questions about can you indict a president? who's a sitting president, justice department general and -- so that all said, to your point, this is a southern district of new york investigation. it's separate from mueller. mueller farmed it out. no matter what happens now, the turmoil in the justice department, that will keep going forward and see where it leads. >> dig into that later in the show more. president trump in france today commemorating or supposed to be, the 100-year anniversary of the end of world war i, criticizing his host along the way and getting something there he could not get at home. he's over there because he wants that military parade? right? marking the 100 anniversary of the ending of world war i in the

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welcome back to "up."

i'm david gura. it's been 100 years since world war i ended and president trump is in france marking that anniversary. after landing the president sent this salvo. the two leaders met a few hours ago. >> we're getting along from the standpoint of fairness and i want it to be fair. we want to help europe but it has to be fair. right now the burden sharing has been largely on the united states, as the president will say. >> president putin is among the world leaders in france this weekend. it is still unclear if he and president trump will meet one-on-one. my colleague kristen welker is in paris and joins us now, and kristen, hate to do this to you, were ut how is the weather there? i gather the weather complicated the itinerary today and the president is no longer making what was going to be a key part of this trip? >> reporter: it's a rainy and overcast day here, david, in paris. you're absolutely right, and that is having an impact on the

president's itinerary. according to white house officials who say he will no longer be able to visit an american cemetery today due to the weather. the fact that it's a two-hour drive to get to this cemetery. instead his chief of staff general john kelly as well as kelly's wife and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff will be going to that cemetery. now, president trump will attend a second cemetery tomorrow. so we want to underscore that point. it's a remarkable start to the trip. as you pointed out, david, the president here to mark the 100th anniversary to the end of world war i, peace among allies yet it started with a clash with the host president. president emmanuel macron with president trump lashing out on twitter calling him very insulting for suggesting that europe should build its own military to protect against outside forces including the united states. now, as you just played, president trump sought to really tamp down the suggestion that there were tensions.

macron did so as well when he was talking about his vision for the military moving forward. he said, yes, of course, europe wants to have a military that is strong and robust. both leaders trying to tamp down the optics of any tensions. at one point macron reached over and touched president trump's leg. worth noting. president trump didn't at least in that moment return the favor. this is so striking, because these two leaders were once so close, their relationship was described as a bromance. well, i spoke to a foreign policy expert here in paris who advised then candidate macron when he was on the campaign trail, and he said, look, the sense they still have a bromance doesn't exist anymore. he said it is fizzling because there have been so many clashes between these two leaders on a range of foreign policy issues, from trade to iran to climate. so all of those issues are going to be at the forefront this weekend, but, again, the focus here is the fact that they want

to stress this 100-year anniversary of the end of world war 1 and peace amongst allies. >> and we know trump already met with macron and don't know if he'll meet with putin's do we have any idea who else he could possibly be meeting with? >> reporter: gene, that's what we are going to be watching for very closely. as you point out, president putin is going to be here. so that is one of the big headlines. now, will the two leaders have an official meeting? the white house says they're not going to officially meet on the sidelines. we know they will at least interact tonight at a dinner and then there's another lunch with more than 80 leaders as well tomorrow. but will they decide to have a more robust discussion on their own? that's something we'll pay very close attention to and underscore, this is the first time that president trump and president putin will interact at all since that very controversial summit the two had in helsinki over the summer.

just to remind viewers, that was when president trump on the world stage seemed to believe president putin's denials of meddling in the election over his own people. will the president meet with any other world leaders? nothing on his schedule. he won't be attending a peace for um set for tomorrow. that's supposed to be the bick for -- big meeting hosted by president macron and something seen as a snub with world leaders here undoubtedly expressing concerns that it means the u.s. president is not interested in peace. david and gene, back to you. >> yeah, kristen. i wonder how much domestic french politics are driving macron's hand? he's very unpopular in france. perhaps less than trump is in america. i'm wondering floating this idea of a european arm, which worked out so well in the 20th century, is this a real thing, a trial

balloon? something to appeal to the french public? what's the analysis of that? >> reporter: i think that's a really important point. his approval ratings at last check were hovering around the 20s. i can tell you based on my conversations here there's a lot of concern in the wake particularly of that last meeting that president macron had at the white house that he was embarrassed. remember that moment when president trump brushed dandruff off of his shoulders in talking to a number of folks here, said it was completely humiliating and president macron was infuriated and said as much when he came back here on french soil. so was that a show of strength? was that his attempt? it may very well be. i do think, however, there has been a real focus on building up the military. not only by president macron but by president trump as well. that's been a focus obviously for this president, and president trump has spent a lot of time talking about fairness, and the need for other countries to pay their fair share. so i think you saw both themes

at play. will we actually see europe build up its own military? that remains to be seen, but i wouldn't be surprised if macron makes some type of moves in that direction. guys, back to you. >> kristen, thank you very much. from paris this afternoon. her time this morning. and being investigated for bilking customers out of millions of dollars. a new report says he was working directly with the president to help launch an investigation into secretary of state hillary clinton. why a growing chorus is calling for matt whitaker's ouster, next. er, next (whooshing)

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welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. who is acting attorney general matthew george whitaker? we're learning new details. the "washington post" reporting a company he was tied to is being investigated by the fbi according to two people with knowledge of the inquiry, and the "new york times" reports he tried out for a position on the president's legal team last year. let's do what we assume president trump did a few days ago nap is, go through matt whitaker's resume. the u.s. attorney for the iowa district from 2004 to 2009. five years after that whitaker ran for senate and lost. he spent almost a decade in private practice and last fall whitaker joined the justice department as chief of staff to the man he would eventually replace. that is attorney general jeff

sessions. he was also on the board of a company called world patent marketing, and a company shut down as we discussed by the federal trade commission for cheating customers. spent the last few days looking at what matt whitaker has said. al a commentator and bund it in 2017 saying robert mueller's investigation was a witch-hunt in an op-ed, and claimed federal judges should be people of faith who take this -- quotation "a biblical view of justice." whitaker weighed in on separation of powers. the supreme court is supposed to be the inferior branch of government. my panel is back with me here in new york and i bring in nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken delanian. talking a bit about his biography earlier reliving the rose bowl 1991. what stood out you you, piecing it together and gauge this person's aptitude for this guy to have the job he has?

what stood out? >> not a man who fits the profile are somebody you would expect to be appointed the attorney general of the united states, even in an acting capacity, bu he's essentially a politician. he was a right-wing political commentator. dabbled in fringe theories about ben gauzy and about the clintons, and -- look, to the central question, he has made public conclusions about every question that is under investigation in this mueller investigation he is now having to supervise. he said that the russians didn't interfere in the 2016 election. that's not true, obviously. that goes against what the intelligence community has said. he also said that even if they did interfere, definitely no collusion on behalf of the trump campaign. exactly the biggest question in the mueller investigation and also said no obstruction of justice by president trump. that's obviously an open question being investigated by robert mueller. how can a man who reached sweeping conclusions now oversee the mueller investigation?

and you said, talked about the scope, exactly the question he'll really have to siddecide. what direction mueller can go and already given an opinion mueller has gone too far and shouldn't investigate trump's financesof that crosses a red line. he's deeply conflicted's there is no record in the administration to seek recusal. sir, we think it's best you step aside. appearance of impartialarity. he doesn't have to listen to that. >> and consultation with what the justice department advises what does that mean? >> the real world alluded to justice department officials including jeff sessions, seek out ethics counsel advice. >> jeff sessions said he did before the mueller investigation, and recused himself.

>> the regulations call for that. but in our new world, that probably won't happen and in this case like you're speeding down a highway. you pull over. wave down the state patrol sand a, can you ticket me? y a think i was speeding's that's not going to happen here. what that indicates among many other problems is the possible crisis of kocompetence in the justice department when led by an individual who seems to think regulations don't apply to him, you have serious morale issues for an organization that's already under constant attack by the president of the united states. >> i want to ask you what you've pieced together, and i had fun looking at his twitter page earlier this week before he finally blocked it, but left a lot of crumbs on the trail to piece together who he is and where he's been and what he's been up to. >>y you pointed out various of his statements, he how feels about investigation of powers and threatens people defrauded by the company he was on the board of.

one other thing i want to point out. you know, you made the joke at the top donald trump spent the last couple of days researching who whitaker was. this is something that the trump presidency has been planning for for a very long time fop get rid of jeff sessions. we know that since that original sin of recusing himself from the mueller investigation, trump has wanted sessions out and probably been delayed by advisers, by members of congress, people who told him it wasn't going to look have good and had to wait it out in this moment, the day after the midterm elections. not like there wasn't a lot of forethought put into who exactly would be put in this position. just take all of that into account when you're looking at whitaker's record. >> quite frankly, when you look at his record, whitaker is not a problematic individual to many people in trump's base. so he thinks this whole thing is a witch-hunt. so do they. he thinks many of the jumps should have a biblical world view. so do many of them.

a strong man jock background that drew so many people to trump in the first place. he's unorthodox harks a business background, a bit of a questionable business background. i mean, really what he has put forward, the president has put forward, is someone who could be a mini trump and we've seen a lot of people in trump's base get behind. >> back here in a moment. ken delanian thank you for your time. looking forward to have ying yo on-set next week. and a blue wave washed over tuesday's election's some of the biggest stars in the democratic failed to catch that wave. and still margins how much a victory for progressives? >> the reign of the middle age white man is on. talking about driver-assist technology

talking about cars that talk and listen. talking about the highest customer loyalty in the country. but that's enough talking. seriously. that was a lot of talking. back to building that was a lot of talking. iyou may be at increased riskf for pneumococcal pneumonia -a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that can disrupt your routine for weeks. in severe cases, pneumococcal pneumonia

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welcome back to "up." as voting count continues in some corners of this country, republicans and democrats are trying to figure out what worked and what did not in the 2018 midterms. a big question for democrats is about the future of progressives in the party. they attracted a lot of national attention, but congressman beto

o'rourke did not win in texas and we know how close things are in georgia with stacy abrams and in florida with andrew gill m. there's plenty to talk about. i read this looine this week fr david frum. he writes for the atlantic and he argues there is no progressive majority in america. there is no progressive plurality in america and there certainly is no progressive electricer to recall college coalition in america. i want to spend a few minutes looking into the progressivism. look at what was written in the "new york times" this week by alex burns and jonathan martin. they said the theory, the charismatic and progressively leaders might transmute republican bastions into purple political battlegrounds proved largely fruitless. is that your read about what happened here?

what does it say to you about the faction going forward? >> that's my read if you look at texas, florida and georgia. but the democratic party had some big wins that perhaps voters weren't as focused on. kansas, opening gay lawmaker, we saw a democratic governor come back to wisconsin. we saw some gains in illinois and so i think what's been really interesting, if you look at progressivism is perhaps there are place necessary this country that the left perhaps has given up on because they thought they were much more traditional. the reality is there are places that are still open to a message if the democrats have a message and that it's not built around a personality. >> we've heard so much about how there is no room for centrism in this country. the argument that's being advanced is that, perhaps there is room in the center.

maybe it's not as sexy. >> i think it's sexy. i think shared brown is jurod b sexy. >> thank you, mike. >> whey did was went through every primary that the dcc made its endorsement in. they're loathed by the left. they're seen as putting their boot and dictating who gets to run. so my analysis shows there are a ton of examples where the centrist candidate didn't like it and that candidate won. and there is a bunch of races in the house where a progressive candidate got through and i think they blew a few house races. i think nebraska's second is an example of that. if you look at duncan hundredor, there could have been a -- and it's complicated, but instead of nominating the navy s.e.a.l., they went with the more progressive candidate and i think that was a pick up

opportunity lost. but if the argument is let's look at texas, florida and georgia, progressives lost, they did so much better than the centrists who came before them. so i think the thesis should be this. in areas that are ripe like in brooklyn, queens, in areas that are deep blue, progressives can unseat centrists. if areas that are more in the purple, with centrism often plays better unless you have tran tending candidates. >> when you look at the democratic party after the 2016 election, there was this autopsy, how are they going to figure this out. there was the divide on the republican side, as well. two years loesser to that, are we closer to figuring that out? how much of a progress is this? >> does anything ever happen after an autopsy?

>> right. it's very much like the body, yes. >> i think it's been very easy to try to discount what happened on tuesday and the results of the midterm elections because people think it's go big or go home, that it's all or nothing. that is very much not the case. in states like texas, like georgia, like florida, the fact that these candidates did as well as they did is something to be lauded and something to be noticed. now there's a progressive caucus in the house of representatives that isn't necessarily supporting nancy pelosi to be speaker of the house again and you had much higher turnout than ever before. you had more yun people, more hispanic voters. all of these things are good signs for progressives and for democrats. s. they're one of the same whole and that's something that just shows that this change is

happening, no matter what. the party has a long way to go. at least they learned you can't just run against donald trump. you need more of a message. >> we will leave it there. lisa green, legal analyst and pastry chef, thank you very much. you should say. appreciate it. coming up, we know president trump demands loyalty. what happens when he doesn't get it? plus, recount deja vu. the latest from florida as uncertainty surrounds two, make that three if you count the agricultural commissioner important races. e agricultural commissioner important races. s joint pain... [woman 3] ...and clearer skin. [man 3] proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... [woman 4] ...with humira. [woman 5] humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. humira is the number one prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. [avo] humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including

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good morning. welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. a reminder this week for the rest of president trump's cabinet, they work for a president who demands loyalty. >> even my enemies say that jeff sessions should have told you that he was going to recuse himself and then you wouldn't have put him in. the only reason i gave him the job is because i felt loyalty. >> loyal. we could use more loyalty. >> these are my people. these are my people. >> so matt whitacre, a trump loyalist appears to have the equal thefications the president wants. here is what the president told the "new york times" about who he wants as the nation's. top law enforces. holder totly