nati "politics nation" this weekend at 35 p.5:00 p.m. that does it for this hour. just answer the questions, let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. this is the week when donald trump began to worry. he knows that the mueller probe on which all else rides is closing in. he said as much this afternoon. that the investigation is quote, ending now. >> the witch hunt as i call it should never have taken place, it continues to go on, i imagine its ending now from what i hear its ending and i'm sure it'll be just fine. you know why its going to be just fine because there's no collusion. >> from what i hear its ending. well, trump also notes that the

democrats are coming and in greater strength with up to 40 new seats in the house of representatives, the body that impeaches president. yes the past week has been a sobering reckoning for president trump as he sinks increasingly deeper into possibly the most perilous situation of his presidency. he has lost ground on several fronts. a rebuke at the hands of the american people in last week's midterm elections. he faced defeat in his war with the media after a federal judge ordered his administration to restore a white house reporter's press pass and, of course, there is that looming inspector of special counsel robert mueller's investigation and the existential threat it poses to his presidency and to the liberty of his family members. well, today, trump was asked about his twitter rant against the special counsel and his team yesterday and what may have triggered it. >> on twitter yesterday, you seemed agitated about what you might be receiving -- >> i'm not agitated. the whole thing was a hoax.

there was no collusion. >> did anything trigger that set of tweets -- >> not at all. i'm very happy. >> trump also weighed in on one of the most contentious aspects of mueller's investigation announcing he'd completely the written answers to questions in the russia probe insisting he'd done it all by myself. >> my lawyers aren't working on that. i'm working on that. i write the answers. my lawyers don't write answers. you write answers. i was asked a series of questions. i've answered them very easily, very easily. i'm sure they're tricked up because they like to catch people -- you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions, but -- no, the questions were very routinely answered by me, by me. >> i'm joined right now by white house reporter from bloomberg news, michael schmidt, cynthia axion, david xiaory who is no longer affiliated. i love the way -- no longer

known as a republican. let me go to michael on this. can you report now what is in the questions that trump says are so easy to answer but he hasn't done it yet? >> they have had the questions since february -- since march of this year. they know what the topics are, they knew in september that mueller would take written responses. they said the responses were going to go on wednesday. they still haven't gone. why haven't they gone? what is holding them up? mueller wanted to sit down with the president, he made the accommodation to allow him to give written answers. he is gone that far, why is it that the president can't hand it over? what is hold -- >> let's go to the possibility that there's a conflict between the president and his attorneys because three days of arguing with them, he's come up with nothing. he doesn't want to release, so somebody says, i want to release

and somebody says don't do it. >> whatever it is -- >> cynthia, do you think there's a part that says, in the end, you don't testify if you don't have to the oldest rule for the defendant. >> the oldest rule. there is zero chance that any lawyer would allow him to answer the questions and ever get in front of the grand jury and talk to mueller. that is never going to happen. if it goes up to the supreme court and the supreme court rules, he's just going to take five. this president is never going to testify. >> what about this take home exam? >> first of all, this business about i wrote them myself and all that excitement that he had today for us, that just didn't happen. that's just a lie. >> why would he lie -- >> he lies about -- >> by saying i personally put these words on this paper, doesn't that put him more into a perjury trap -- >> yes, absolutely. he's giving away a defense because one defense was always to be the lawyers made me right

that. he's giving that away. >> these are his questions to answer them. you can't have your lawyer go in and testify. technically, he has to be the one to answer the questions. now we know like michael said he's working on -- the lawyers have been working on these questions for weeks but he has to be the one who says he answers them. >> if he signs it, if he signs the statement, does that make him culpable for perjury even if he didn't write them? are you responsible -- >> yes. if he signs them, but you can see him saying to the american people or testifying later or going to trial or something and saying, well the lawyers just told me to do that. the truth of the matter is i was very busy, i was negotiating treaties with north korea and trying to avoid nuclear war and they made me sign it and i didn't pay much attention and therefore i had no intent. >> go ahead. >> here's the thing, he wants this to be over. he doesn't want it to drag on so whatever is stopping this is so powerful that it is continue to go allow this to drag on.

they need to get some sort of answers from him before they close the investigation. that is what's delaying it. >> are you suggesting -- this is it. >> we think so. everyone thinks they know what mueller's going to do. we don't know. we think its close. >> there's one thing that is likely holding -- it could be dispute over these questions. it could be that his lawyers have said in exchange for answering these questions they want assurances that this is it. that you're not going to make him come in, that these are going to satisfy you. that you're not going to make him come in still for an in-person interview. if we give you these questions, that's it. you're not going to come back with a subpoena for something else. >> in the politics, most of us watching this, most on the journalist side of the aisle and everybody are watching trump looking like he's caught right now. he doesn't look happy. despite the tanning power he goes to whatever, he doesn't look healthy or happy, he looks

agitated. then we got the word he fought with his attorneys for three days, and then he went out to cover this whole thing up with the smiling number today, but nobody believes it, why, what's wrong? >> at this point i think donald trump should plead the fifth and here's why. the answers he submits will be a sworn statement from the president of the united states and even if the lawyers think they've nuanced it so its not committing perjury or not revealing culpability for criminal activity, robert mueller is not going to agree to no follow-up. here's the reason for the panic. donald trump knows he's in a corner but he doesn't know which corner he's in because he doesn't know what other information robert mueller has gotten from cooperating witnesses and that's the panic. this isn't a matter of donald trump being able to verify, i'm telling the truth based on what donald trump i said a year ago. this is am i telling the truth based on evidence robert mueller has from others that i don't have visibility in to, which is the reason for the panic and i

think at this point the reason donald trump should plead the fifth. >> cynthia? >> i definitely agree. robert mueller would never -- would never make the deal that the lawyers may be pressuring is that they don't ever have to have follow-ups. these questions reportedly do not include anything about the obstruction and there is no way that robert mueller would agree that he's just never going to ask the president question and he's not going to try to do it. that's not in keeping with his character or any prosecutor i've ever known. >> that could be the hold-up. they still want answers to obstruction's questions and the president's lawyers want a guarantee, that you'll leave us alone on obstruction. >> president trump may have unwittingly revealed his true intent to install matt whitaker as his new acting attorney general in an interview today. asked who might replace whitaker as a permanent attorney general, the question that did not mention the mueller probe at all, he digressed into a rant about the russia probe.

whitaker's just somebody that's very respected. i knew him only as he was with jeff sessions and, you know, look, as far as i'm concerned this is an investigation that should never have been brought. its an illegal investigation. he knows why he put whitaker there was to protect him from the russia probe and whoever i put him permanently will keep those people down. >> he's tried to put some distance between himself and whitaker. there's all these stories that different issues that whitaker has and the questions of why he's truly there and the question keeps on moving him closer and closer to the side. >> that's what he does right before he dumps them. >> right before the tweet comes out. >> i don't know nothing. >> but he may be the best bet to do things he wants. >> there seems to be no idea who the next attorney general's going to be. he had two years to think about it. >> does anybody here -- maybe you're the one, does anybody think that whitaker's not going

to be the line on which trump is going to fight and stick with whitaker all the way because i don't know what other game he has -- >> john hugh made -- no, you can't do something, that would have been over. because rosenstein had so much credibility. if whitaker says something, no, you can't subpoena that witness and then whitaker has to tell congress under the rules, whitaker doesn't have the same credibility. mueller might just say, you're not properly assigned. you're not -- >> right. >> there's -- >> if you're trump, you want a guy that's going to back you up and take all the heat. >> because whitaker doesn't have credibility, it weakens his ability to control the investigation ultimately. >> let's talk politics. if you're trump you don't have a lot of option, one is to say, everybody sat around here three weeks ago it has to be rosenstein. this is all in the rules, its all there. all part of our judicial culture. it has to be him, all these little rules and ethic rules and

trump says, look, i've been shooting the moon all my life. i'm not going to play by your rules. i'm going to pick my guy and i'm going to dare you to get rid of him and i'm going to keep him there. if this guy mueller gets free rein, i'm dead. that seems to be trump's approach. >> certainly. if you're donald trump and you're trying to pick out a loyal fall guy it is matt whitaker. matt whitaker could do all the dirty work over the next six to eight weeks and then trump could let him go and actually nominate somebody for the next two years and make whitaker the fall guy on terminating the mueller probe. what is different, though, is we've been living through two years where there is no oversight from the united states congress into any of this, no subpoena for testimony from any of these destination officials. that all is about to change and that is why we're going to see donald trump start to play by different rules, rules that even

further confront some of the constitutional norms that we've seen over the past several years. >> is this his avenue months before january 3rd when the new house comes? inn? >> i guess so but whatever he does will still get scrutiny then. i don't know where he has to move. where are the places that he can go? if he does something in this period of time that the democrats don't like, they'll bring it up in the beginning of january. i don't know if it really matters. >> you don't think he's houdini like i do sometimes? >> he's best qualities -- >> you act like he's done, he's finished. >> he might be politically houdini. if he can convince the senate not to remove him from office -- >> they're never going to do that. he's got 91% of the republican party. >> if he can make the democrats look like fools for impeaching him and be like clinton and have his approvals go up -- >> the only republicans that come out against trump are the ones heading out the door. that would be corker, good-bye,

flake, good-bye, charlie dent, go on. they just leave. nobody sticks around for the next election challenges trump. nobody. >> you don't know what they will do. they may do the right thing if the evidence warrants it. you have to have some hope -- >> name the one republican that will stand up. >> i don't. i can't. i've given up -- >> all those people -- >> you have to assume the evidence is going to matter. >> david, it seems like the only people that are willing to stand up against trump are those that don't have to stand against trump with the voters? >> i was a sitting member of congress in december of '17 who called on trump to drop out of the race. there are several reasons i probably lost my last race one was redistricting but that was the other one. you confront this president, you lose. that's a greater test of leadership. instead republicans today have become more trump-like. they've fallen in line on the hill. there's not that howard baker.

we shouldn't expect that from today's republican party, we know that. >> thank you, all. coming up, the justice department is preparing to criminally charge wikileaks founder julian assange. could this help prove the extent of russia's conspiracy to get trump elected in '16? i think so. and dozens are dead and more than 600 are now missing out there in california as those wildfires continue to devastate the state. the president blamed the fires on gross mismanagement and threatened to withhold federal money. what message will the president have when he visits the state tomorrow? plus she's in it to win it. facing opposition within her party, nancy pelosi is launching an intense battle on capitol hill as we speak to regain and hold her speakership. let me finish tonight trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is. hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge

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since the outset of the mueller probe itself, investigators have been establishing the broad scope of the russian conspiracy intended to help elect donald trump in 2016. a key piece of that puzzle is the role of the wikileaks leader, who made it his mission to undermine governments around the world by leaking state secrets. as mueller made clear last july, kremlin operatives gave wikileaks the democratic email they expected that had been hacked to heighten their impact on the 2016 presidential election. now nbc news reports that a court document filed by mistake has revealed that the justice department is preparing to criminally charge assange himself. the clue is found an motion filed last august in a completely unrelated case, a case brought by the same federal prosecutor is investigating wikileaks in the eastern district of virginia. well, that prosecutor accidently stated in the filing that the

complaint would need to remain sealed until assange is arrested in connection with the charges and can therefore no longer evade and avoid arrest and extra diction. assange has been living in london for the past eight years, which makes this potential extradition difficult and while its unclear whether the charges against him would be brought in connection with russia's hacking, his knowledge of that operation or any conspiraciries in that would be a value to prosecutors. i'm joined by senator richard blumenthal and glenn kirshner. how does this all connect? >> well, chris, we've seen with some of the indictments that bob mueller has returned for hacking into and trying to impact our elections. we are about to see, we all believe, the american side of that. as soon as bob mueller shows his cards, whether by returning

indictments, authoring a report to congress or both. now we've got julian assange and wikileaks right smack in the middle of it. and obviously what i find most intriguing about this is the president was benefiting from the fact that wikileaks had these illegal e-mails, they were disclosing them for obviously political reasons, and we've seen that montage of the president saying wikileaks about 1,200 times, wikileaks, wikileaks, wikileaks. i'll tell you, that's the president exploiting stolen information for his own purposes. and that is yet another potential crime, receipt of stolen property, exploiting it for your own benefit. so i actually think the assange piece is right smack in the middle of the russian piece and the trump campaign piece, and it's going to be really interesting to see what happens if we get our hands on assange. >> as glen just mentioned, wikileaks played a major part in

trump's closing arguments again hillary clinton back in the 2016 election. here's candidate trump repeatedly praising wikileaks that was doing russia's bidding. >>, by the way, did you see another one, another one came in today. this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. this wikileaks is unbelievable. what we've learned about her and her people. >> we love wikileaks. boy, they have really -- wikileaks. they have revealed a lot. >> boy, that wikileaks has done a job on her, hasn't it? >> i'll tell you, this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. it tells you the inner heart. you got to read it. >> now this just came out. this just came out. wikileaks. i love wikileaks. >> senator, i think they call that soft intel in the spy game. it's open right there in the public. i mean, right in public you see candidate trump benefiting and wanting more benefit from the russians through wikileaks.

he knew what he was doing. it looks to me like this would be part of any kind of report from mueller when it comes. perhaps soon. >> it should be part of any report that bob mueller produces and, in fact, i am going to be introducing legislation that requires a report along with full disclosure of any findings and evidence in the event that he is fired or he's forced to resign. and the key word here is the one you used, chris, conspiracy. roger stone, who may well have had advanced knowledge, a close friend of the president and a confidante, others who may have disclose to donald trump about what was going to appear in wikileaks, all of it amounts to a potential conspiracy and that's exactly what the collusion charge may involve. >> there are at least three trump associates who have

reported ties to wikileaks, jerome corsi, roger stone and donald trump jr. there's a hot one. all of whom have been subject of recent speculation of coming indictments. there's a suggestion that corsi had advanced knowledge. and we know that roger stone who clammed to have a back channel to wikileaks discussed the release of those e-mails in a text message conversation just before they were leaked. and "atlantic" said donald trump jr. exchanged messages in the fall of 2016 telling other members of the clinton campaign that wikileaks made contact. let's start with this, glenn. everybody on this program working with me has known that roger stone has been pushing trump to run for president for 20 some years. he joined melania when he came to penn. roger's always close at hand.

always been pushing trump to run. he didn't disown him now, can he or will he? >> that's what makes roger stone one of the potentially big ticket cooperators. if they can crack open roger stone -- >> he doesn't want to go to prison. >> no, he's not going to want to die in prison. he doesn't look like he would thrive in prison. if they can crack him open and get all the information that trump may have had or he may have provided against trump, that's going to be -- looking forward, chris, let's pay attention to if the u.s. gets its hands on assange and can extradite him from the ecuadorean embassy. he's a big fish but mueller will look to cultivate him -- >> why don't we pull one of those israeli numbers and just go grab him. >> they will step to anybody as a potential cooperating witness, except the biggest fish, the president. everybody below him, including assange, is in play.

>> senator, what do you know about how close this report is coming? we had people on tonight, smart people. cynthia and michael of "the new york times," they know what's going on. they all seem to be suggesting that the last element in this whole report by -- i'm losing the names -- by mueller, that it's all coming to an end once they get the written answers from trump. is that your understanding that we're getting close to the end here? >> my hunch, and it's not much more than an educated guess, is that the special counsel still has a good deal of work to do. remember that the written answers to these questions pertain only to the pre-election period. so far donald trump has refused to answer any questions involving the transition or postinaugural period, which has to be unacceptable to the special prosecutor.

the special prosecutor may well seek oral answers to these questions, as he probably should. i think we still have a ways to go. you said earlier that donald trump is looking like he is caught. i think the walls seem to be closing in. and as manafort and rick gates and michael cohen continue to cooperate, remember they were all active just this past week and talking to the prosecutors, there is still more information to be gleaned here. robert mueller is nothing if not methodical, determined, by the book and meticulous. >> i think the reckoning is a really serious one. i don't think trump is going into that room and answering questions in a live situation. i just don't think he's capable of it. i think he'll be told he's not capable of telling something like the truth.

thank you, both. and very helpful to understand this. >> up next, dozens killed and hundreds are unaccounted for. after threatening to withhold federal fund because of what he calls gross mismanagement of the forest, what will trump's message be when he visits the state tomorrow? he's got to say something nice. this is "hardball," where the action is. -fridge, weather. -clear skies and 75. -trash can, turn on the tv. -my pleasure. -ice dispenser, find me a dog sitter. -okay. -and make ice. -pizza delivered. -what's happened to my son? -i think that's just what people are like now. i mean, with progressive, you can quote your insurance on just about any device. even on social media. he'll be fine. -[ laughs ] -will he? -i don't know. -will he? with advil liqui-gels, what stiff joints?

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he also talked about funding for that state. at least 71 people confirmed dead and a growing number, over 1,000 now unaccounted for, thousands more also displaced. now, back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." at least 66 people have now died and more than 600 remain missing as wildfires continue to ravage california. three are major wildfires burning north of sacramento and west of los angeles. and last friday the camp fire in northern california engulfed the town of paradise, leaving an apocalyptic landscape in its wake. there it is. the camp fire is now california's deadliest and most destructive fire in the state's history. look at this. this is like after borld world war ii there. president trump had this to say in an interview with fox. >> california, purpose of your trip tomorrow.

>> just to see the firefighters. nobody's ever seen what's going on over there. now they're saying there could be as many as 600. this just came out before we met. could be as many as 600 killed, up by 400. it's incredible what's going on. and burned beyond recognition. they can't even see the bodies. it's incredible. >> for the latest i'm joined by the mayor of chico. what are we dealing with there. >> chris, you just said it, its catastrophic. no one's seen anything like it before. i don't even know how to describe it. you said it looks like the aftermath of world war ii, the analogy i made to someone today, i was talking to the bbc and i'd seen pictures of when london was bombed after world war ii with st. paul's cathedral standing up, that's what it looked like.

>> what's it like when it strikes? we hear about people getting killed. most of us are used to fires that move -- well, not at a human pace. they don't usually catch up to people if they get a jump on it. tell us what happens to people when they get caught up in this inferno. >> well, you end up seeing what your clip what the president just said. you end up with a lot of dead people. the fire was moving at a rate of almost 800 yards a minute. the inferno wasn't that fast but it was jumping that quickly. so there were people that didn't get out. what's extraordinary is 50,000 people evacuated, 63 dead so far. i'm surprised the number's not higher. they did an amazing job getting people out of that town. >> let's talk about the people who escaped and are in your city of chico. what do you have? how do you handle, what is it, 50,000 people who just come? >> we don't know how many exactly are here. we have a small humanitarian crisis here. we're a very compassionate community. there are people in homes,

people in sanctioned shelters, people in unsanctioned shelters, people in parking lots and when i say we've got a humanitarian crisis, we've got the noro breaking out in some of the shelters, fema and oes are just starting to get a handle on that as we move more and more people into proper shelters. >> what are you going to ask the president if you get to meet him tomorrow? >> i don't know what i'd ask him. i'm going to give him a paradise football ball cap and ask if he'd wear it in honor of the football team. i'm going to say thanks for coming. chris, we don't get national politicians in northern california in the rural valley. the governors don't come up here, the presidents don't come up here, so the fact that people are paying attention and we're getting the full cooperation of the federal and state government is huge to the citizens of paradise. >> what do you want to ask for the american people to do right

now. i want to give you a chance to make a pitch for help. >> what a great question. thank you so much. i got two things. number one, i'm going to ask for continued prayer because that's what we need. and number two, the town of paradise needs hope and it needs money to rebuild. the best two places to do that are the north valley community foundation, nvcf.org and golden valley bank. they're both local institutions. golden valley bank you can find it online. all that money will go to the victims of the fire. its not going anywhere else. its not going to admin. it will go directly to rebuilding a fantastic town that right now is part of our city and we're happy to have them but we're also anxious to get them back where they want to be. >> just give me that address again. >> north valley community foundation is nvcf.org. nvcf.org, locally run, very, very well run.

i know the executive director. the over one is our local community bank, golden valley bank in chico, california, they've got a donate button right on the front page and they've been here for years. we will make sure all -- they will make sure all those donations go to the right places and don't get sucked up into admin and other things. >> i've learned over the years that the "hardball" viewers, a lot of them respond to these pleas and it looks like you need them. thank you so much, sean morgan, mayor of chico. >> thank you for spreading the message. a big showdown looming on capitol hill as nancy pelosi ramps up her campaign to get the speaker's gavel back. 17 democrats are now saying they will not vote for her but nancy pelosi says she's ready to call their bluff. is that the right phrase? you're watching "hardball." here we go.

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back to "hardball." house minority leader nancy pelosi is working overtime these hours to win the support of her party. and with it the gavel of the speaker of the house. in a sign that she's in it to win it, pelosi has begun making concessions on a couple issues. in a meeting with the congressional black caucus, "the washington post" reports that pelosi, quote, pledged to give committee chairs a free hand to move legislation through their panels, a major issue for the cbc, which counts five incoming chairs in its ranks. nancy pelosi was willing to provide key committees, we agreed that there should be opportunities not only for season cpc members but also for our brand-new cpc members, many of whom bring particular issue-area expertise. will these concessions be enough to corral the party behind her bid for speaker? tiffany cross is managing editor

of thebeat.dc. chris louis and let me start with you tiffany, is pelosi going to make it? >> i think she will. we've seen this time and again. i remember when she first ran for speaker against harold ford and made these sexist comments. i remember the last time tim ryan challenged her and when she passed all those reporters in the hallway and she just said two-thirds because she got two-thirds of the vote. they're actually necessary steps to take to involve an increasingly diverse democratic party. i think it makes sense for her to come out and endorse the rooney roll. it makes sense for her to create room for rising stars in the party. she has to make room for people like that to come to the forefront. she's totally fine. i know she's been -- >> how do you get past the people who promised their voters they're going to vote against

pelosi and they say present. >> i think its challenging. i'm not a vote counter. she's one of the vote counters there are. i think she will get there and she should get there. i will tell you -- >> you're not answering my question. how do you say to your voters for months i'm going to vote against nancy pelosi in your ad campaign and then get a picture on c-span of you voting present? >> she's going to make some concessions. clearly there needs to be new blood in the party and i think she'll try to bring more people into her leadership team and in the end she may have to make the concession she'll just serve these two years. at this point we're about to embark on an epic fight for the next two years. we don't have the luxury of having a speaker who needs on-the-job training and she's the right person for the job. >> that's a normative argument and political argument. you're a determine freshman, the first vote you cast betrays your promise, how do you deal with that? >> you say i couldn't vote for the other guy. if the sky is blue -- >> but the people know this.

>> if the wave is blue, nancy pelosi will be speaker. >> you can vote for john lewis -- >> they're not ready. >> its going to be binary like clinton against trump. they're going to say that nancy pelosi -- she just won the best democratic gain against watergate -- >> one thing about politician that's people don't like, bill clinton runs around in arkansas give me one more term, i won't run for president. they're used to this stuff. teddy roosevelt said i didn't run because i promised not to. i didn't want to be a politician like everybody else. so the first step you make is you say i'm a politician. >> i'm not a democrat. no one cares what i think. >> i have to say as i get older. i'm a little tired of the argument that we need young -- i don't want young people in there. i want experienced people in there so if i look at my party, i want experienced people running who have experience with their job. look at the president of the united states, he's not young but he had no experience with the job.

>> here you go, again. so president trump loves this guy mike pence, he's very religious, pious even, is he going to keep him? >> of course. >> are you sure he's loyal? >> he likes to punk him. he likes to keep everybody on edge to make them know in the pecking order that he's in charge and put them on edge. he's doing that with kirstjen nielsen who was behind him today. >> the president's beginning to question the loyalty of another member of his white house, repeatedly asking aides and advisers in recent weeks in vice president mike pence is loyal. he's repeated the question so many times that he's alarmed some of his advisers. the president has not openly suggesting dropping mike pence from the ticket, but those kinds of questions indicate that he's grown irritated with someone just last week, trump was asked whether pence would be joining him on the 2020 ticket. >> well, i haven't asked him.

mike, will you be my running mate? stand up. raise your right hand. i'm only kidding. will you? thank you. okay. good. the answer's yes. >> chris, what do you think? >> there's always idle speculation like this in the white house. >> he's the one doing the speculation. >> that's the important part. the key thing in "the new york times" story is a recognition in the white house that perhaps the demographics of the republican party aren't big enough to make a winning coalition. can any vice presidential candidate really expand trump's base significantly and -- >> how about female? >> possibly, but -- >> oprah's not going to do it. >> i don't think you matters on the ticket. this is a lesson. donald trump won. you can put kanye west as his running mate and he's not going to win. >> if he picks nikki haley, she looks like somebody that wants to be president and will get there. >> she'll outshine him, though. and he doesn't like that. >> i don't think people pick the

president based on the vice president. >> you never looked, you never thought that way in your life, my first vote i cast, i voted for humphrey and mussky would get us out of the war. >> you're the only one. >> if you look at very close elections -- no, rick you're not old enough. >> vice presidents don't really make a difference. which state do they bring. >> that's the only time they make a difference. >> what about lewinsky? why is monica lewinsky, 20 years later, after the relationship with the president she coming back for a three part docuseries on it? >> i don't want to speculate about why she's doing it but from my perspective this is ancient political history. >> not for her. >> hillary clinton's not the president, she's not going to be a presidential candidate. >> really? you didn't read mark pence's piece the other day. >> i did. i will say this.

this is -- for those people that don't realize what happened with impeachment 1998, they should watch this. anyone in the democratic site who's clamoring to impeach donald trump, when bill clinton fini finished -- he won five seats in the house. >> you think -- this sunday a&e is premiering the new document series the clinton affair and monica lewinsky is telling her side of the story in a scandal that captivated the country 20 years ago. here's a bit of it. >> its not as if it doesn't register with me that he was the president. obviously it did, but i think in one way the moment we were actually in the back office for the first time, the truth is, i think it meant more to me that someone who other people desired desired me. however wrong it was, however misguided, for who i was in that very moment at 22 years old, that was how it felt.

>> what do you think? >> listen, we are close in age and i remember -- i was in college when all this happened and i know what's it like to have the seduction of power of an older man go after the 22-year-old. she was taken advantage of and she was the casualty of this republican effort to target bill clinton. i'm so happy that she is telling her story in her terms in her own voice. she deserves that. >> i've been reading this in her words that she felt that she was betrayed by clinton when he denied the relationship. >> he was betrayed by clinton and linda tripp and bullied by the investigators who targeted her. everyone's gotten to move on except for this girl. if i was judged by the decisions i made at 22, i would not be sharing this panel here with you tonight. >> tiffany's so right. i love this story. i want to relive this. i love politics and history. i think we should go through this again and see it through the new lens, through the me too movement, through what happens through a new lens of history and she finally gets to tell her

story. its a great redemption story and people should watch it. >> this was not a bright moment for either the two parties so i think a lot of people would rather put them behind them. this is a powerful -- its a sense to see how far this country has come in terms of the me too movement. >> hugh jackson is doing this movie on gary hart -- >> i'm so excited about it. >> snakes come in pair. the roundtable is sticking with us. you're watching "hardball." ♪ no matter when you retire, your income doesn't have to. see how lincoln can help ensure you still have income every month of your retirement, guaranteed, at lincolnfinancial.com. our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition... for strength and energy! whoo-hoo!

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"hardball" round table. tell me something i don't know. >> 80% of venture capitalist firms do not have -- a sing egg black investor. they fund platforms like buzz feed and axios. >> why is that the case? >> people are trying to change it. the pipeline for diversity isn't easy. it's not risky. the blame line is we don't know where to find the people. there's a group to change that. >> what's the name of the group? >> i don't remember, i'll tweet it out. >> all of the talk was hispanic turnout. 77% for democratic candidates in nevada and virginia, and in orange county where they make up 20% of the population. it's a clean sweep for democrats. >> what is the group, vietnamese? vietnamese americans? >> chinese-americans, indian americans, 77% voted democrat. >> why do you think? >> i think it's a lot of cultural issues, i think it's immigration, the rhetoric.

but republicans are making a play for them on affirmative action. >> i would say without denigrating any group, asian-americans would seem to be the most entrepreneurial, the most interested in having free opportunities economically in this country than being a social welfare state. >> a lot of it is the rhetoric. >> the cultural trashing of people. that makes sense. rick, you have time. >> democrats should run, 2020, someone who can beat florida in swing state, georgia, arizona, north carolina. >> oh, you're the new breed. i know you. >> listen to me, democrats, or they have to win michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania, some combination of those, or two of those states and one other swing state, you're in, you're done. >> the new breed guys are pushing this arizona, georgia. >> i haven't changed. >> i'm pushing the same old, same old. pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan.

thank you to my panel. when we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. you're watching "hardball." (burke) fender-biter.

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trump watch friday, november 16th, 2018. i began this week speaking about robert kennedy with the 92nd street y up in new york. next friday, the day after thanksgiving i'll be signing books at mitchell's bookstore in nantucket. i'm convinced in the deepening interest in bobby kennedy is the necessary reaction to what we're getting from our political leadership in the white house. i cannot remember or ever imagine the president attacking minorities so nastily and personally as this one has so recently. donald trump seems to save his worst vitriol for african-american women, whether

he's calling congresswoman maxine waters a low iq person, or insulting my friends and colleagues and april ryan for their "racist and stupid questions." he reserves a nastier tone for people below the border, grouping them as gang joining criminals and rapists. the hero in my book could not have been more different. he would campaign in an open car in gary indiana. he wanted to unite, not divide people. bobby was the first mainstream american politician to take up the cause of the latino farm workers in california, joining in a religious bond with the great caesar chavez. he never broke faith with the white working class families that came out to mourn him. i'm asking you to go with me on this weekend and get this story out i've written about this man in paperback, it's what i believe america can and should be. i believe good leaders show us

ourselves as opposes to the tribal bitterness donald trump has shown. thanks for being with us. "all in" starts with chris hayes right now. tonight on "all in". >> i write the answers, my lawyers don't write answers, i write answers. >> all eyes on the mueller probe as the president claims to have answered the special counsel's questions. >> i was asked a series of questions, i've answered them very easily, very easily. >> tonight the signs that something is happening behind the scenes as the world waits on possible indictments. >> i imagine it's ending now from what i hear it's ending. then, the inadvertent revelation of undisclosed criminal charges against julian assange. >> this just came out, wikileaks, i love wikileaks. plus, the fight for leadership in the house. >> i intend to win the speakership with democratic votes. and an update on potential ambassadors for the united states. >> daytime, midnight and the