presidency, and if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it. i also told him that it was important this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. >> we'll be waiting and watching when the new congress convenes. i want to wish you all a happy thanksgiving and tell you this friday we have a special thanksgiving edition of our show and a very special fall back friday. wile be joined by the members of the new edition in a new interview. "hardball" is up next. supreme rebuke. let's play hardball. good evening. i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. in a rare statement chief justice john roberts from the supreme court today issued a stunning rebuke of the president for challenging the integrity of a federal judge. it began yesterday when the president questioned the independence of the judiciary

saying that a ruling against his asylum policy in the ninth circuit was due to quote, an obama judge. here's trump. >> well, you go to the ninth circuit and it's a disgrace, and i'm going to put in a major complaint. because you cannot win if you're us a case in the ninth circuit. this was an obama judge, and i'll tell you what, it's not going to happen like this anymore. >> chief justice john roberts then took the unusual step of correcting the president saying in a statement we do not have obama judges or trump judges, bush judges or clinton judges. what we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. that independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for. according to nbc news, quote, it's the first time the republican appointed leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism

of trump. late today the president responded to the chief justice say, quote, sorry chief justice john roberts but you do indeed have obama judge and they have a different point of view than the people charged with our safety, adding quote, we need protection and security. very dangerous and unwise. joining me now is democratic congressman jim hines who sits on the intelligence commity tim o'brien is executive editor of bloomberg opinion. and let me start with you, from a legal standpoint here, a couple of pieces here. the president yesterday going after the ninth circuit, and we've heard him do this before. the chief justice, though, then stepping in as we just heard there from john roberts and the president choosing in public to go back at the chief justice. what do you make of that? >> well, it's astonishing and i would say probably unprecedented

for the chief justice to step out in this way. it framers of the constitution understood that the judiciary is not supposed to be politicized. and i think what trump is doing is trying to attack any critics, that is the federal courts that's holding him accountable to capture the referees. the way this is setup are these people have life 10 consider, and they have salary protection for a reason. but we all as americans need to keep our eye on this issue because it really matters who's confirmed to the federal bench. that being said and knowing that justice kavanaugh, my guess is that neither justice gorsuch nor justice kavanaugh would agree with president trump here, and they'd stand in line with chief justice roberts, which is quite interesting. because if this were ever to go to impeachment, this particular presidency and if it were tried in the senate the chief justice would preside over that meeting. and we're teeing up in an all out constitutionalal battle

whether or not he could be subpoenaed by robert mueller, he could be indicted. i think it's probably going to motivate them to be as judicious as possible. and i say judicious, calling balls and strikes based on facts and law and not politics. so i'm 100% behind what chief justice roberts did. i'm happy to see it. >> congressman, to have the president go back at the chief justice like this, be as blunt as donald trump is here, we're in uncharted territory. at the same time i guess i'd ask you a question to take a step back there, this idea trump is putting out there that, hey, yes, these aren't necessarily independent judges. they should be viewed as democrat judges in his word, republican judges. is there something to be said for our idea our entire political system since that 5-4

bush-gore ruling since 2000 there's a degree in which we've been treating it that way. we have all these confirmation fights that are partisan. haven't we collectively? >> you know, there have been certainly some high profile confirmations where that's been the case, some high profile decisions. but i agree. i think it was important for the chief justice to put the brakes on that notion. and the reality is that that's not actually the experience with the court. there have been decisions that conservatives disagreed with, certainly the upholding of the affordable care act, which of course the chief justice was really critical to. of course the decision around marriage equality. so it's just too simple to say the courts are acting in a highly politicized manner, but you do make a good point in that more and more those confirmation fights have been tougher.

there's a difference between the kavanaugh confirmation battle and the gorsuch confirmation battle. i appreciate the chief justice really blowing the whistle and saying this is a way i'm going to stand up in a really unprecedented way. >> do we know, tim, he's been -- the donald trump, the president here when it comes to particularly the ninth circuit, this has been a point of emphasis of his since the beginning of his presidency. sort of his edicts have come into conflict with the ninth circuit, but this one has bothered him from the beginning. >> it has because the ninth circuit is taking on his independence, what he wants to do at the southern border and assess and determine the rules of engagement. he's doing the same thing with jim mattis and the military presence at the border. it goes in this case with both the military and ninth circuit, i think it goes to trump's own

profound anti-institutionallism. he's doing this with a number of u.s. institutions. he did it with the fed and caused the fed chairman jay powpo powell, and he's doing it with robert mueller's investigation. he's done it with state and federal judiciaries. he does it with the media. the overall message here is very clear. he's profoundly authoritarian, and he doesn't believe in american institutions that have long-standing, which by the way is a conservative issue and value is this respect for institutions. the only force in american society right now that hasn't taken on trump full board is the gop. they've aqueoused. >> susan, what do you say to that? >> i think it's important to also look at what's happened today and what we're now not

talking about. and that president donald trump picked a fight with the ninth circuit because he was facing some really bad headlines today. there was a lot of talk about how he was handling saudi arabia after basically saying it's okay for you kill a "the washington post" journalist, we'll still stand behind you. another story came out that he was going after his political rivals, the talk of impeachment was up. we're still not sure what's going on with the testimony with mcgahn. there's a lot of things coming out there. so what does donald trump do, he picks a fight with the ninth circuit and uses that as a way of deflection. it's almost like he welcomed justice roberts coming out, and now he's having a whole other conversation and this is what we're talking about. i praised justice roberts and i also use it to say to the republican leadership that's what a leader looks like, this is what you're supposed to be

doing. republicans should be condemning this president on three fronts today. and it's no-brainer stuff, stuff they've believed in all their lives. but, folks, look at how the justice handled himself. but more importantly let's not forget the stories that came out today because they are really disturbing, and it's more important than a fight with the ninth circuit court. >> the president going after the ninth circuit, that came out after that "the new york times" that trump said he wanted to order the department of justice to prosecute hillary clinton and james comey, which of course is a key witness in the mueller probe. trump has been making public he wanted the department to pursue an investigation of hillary clinton for some time now. this is trump late last year. >> you know, the saddest thing is that because of the president of the united states i am not supposed to be involved with the justice department. i am not supposed to be involved with the fbi. i'm not supposed to be doing the kinds of things i would love to be doing, and i'm very

frustrated by it. i look at what's happening with the justice department, well, why aren't they going after hillary clinton with her e-mails and with the dossier? >> trump went further in january saying, quote, the deep state justice department should investigate clinton, and then he demanded an investigation of the obama administration in may. he then complained in august that jeff sessions never took control of the department. >> the dems are very strong in the justice department. i put in an attorney general that never took control of the justice department, jeff sessions. never took control of the justice department. and look at the crimes that clinton did with the e-mails, and she deletes 33,000 e-mails after she gets a subpoena from congress. and this justice department does nothing about it? there's such corruption. before i got here -- it's from before i got here. it's the obama administration. >> and then in september trump suggested he would clean house at the justice department.

>> just look at what is now being exposed in our department of justice and the fbi. look at what's going on. there's a lingering stench, and we're going to get rid of that, too. >> after all of those threats trump replaced sessions with an unconfirmed acting attorney general who favors prosecuting clinton, that's what he said in 2016 and has echoed his criticism of the mueller probe. congressman hines, let me ask you democrats have spent the last two years saying give us some power on capitol hill, give us a majority on capitol hill, and we will stand up in ways republicans are refusing to. i ask you looking specifically at this report from the "the new york times" about the president questioning within his administration, the white house counsel about the possibility of prosecuting hillary clinton and james comey, now that democrats have a majority in the house, what will that mean in terms of oversight? >> well, of course the president hoping to use the fbi or the department of justice as his

personal police force. i mean it's been said ever since the report came out, this is banana republic stuff. it is completely inconsistent with the rule of law or with the institutions and what we think of as the role of the president of the united states. so i think this may be an opportunity for the congress to do what it hasn't done in the last two years, which is really to get to the bottom how serious this was. we all know this president says things, he tweets things and they walk it back. one of the things we've got to do here now we will actually have a house, a congress acting as a check on the president is to begin to investigate the difference between the things that the president just tweets and just explores or just says at a rally and those things where there may actually be a real effort to erode the underpinnings of our democracy, where they there may be actually be an effort to obstruct justice. you can count on the democratic house of representatives to in a judicious way, of course the

republicans are just waiting for that opportunity to point out to an investigation that's like the republican investigation, benghazi and what have you, an overstep. but in a judicious way this congress will finally be joining the instinct of the chief justice, the media and stood up for the president and actually start saying, no, this is not the way the system works, mr. president, we're going to hold you accountable. >> in terms of the special counsel robert mueller is out there, a story like this hits "the new york times" yesterday, how does something like that land in the special counsel's ufs a? >> my guess is they they have their heads down and working diligently to move through what i assume at this point is a mounting amount of facts, witnesses they have to think about, expansion potentially of the scope of the investigation, all with the noose of mr. whitaker around their neck so to speak, and he's made a chess move on the board that puts him personally in a lot of power

with respect to mr. mueller. i think all of this is of a piece what happened with chief justice roberts, what we're talking about with the media, what we're talking about with the justice department and that is we are potentially slipping into a totalitarian state and autocracy. the framers of the constitution knew this was a possibility which is why we have three branches of government. the other two branches need to check the other branch's papers and as mentioned the republicans have not done anything. we have to hope through the house and potential whistle blowers and the criminal justice system and neutral judges and the voting public who need to step up and educate themselves about the implications here and not be asleep at the wheel because we're a 230-year-old democracy, and we're all seeing it actually unfold before our eyes. and mueller is right at the heart of it, and we all have to just hope that he hangs in there. >> kim whaly, congressman jim

hines, thank you for being with us. and coming up president trump reaffirmed his support for saudi arabia, practically dismissing the cia's findings that the saudi crown prince likely ordered the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. the president went onto thank the saudis for low gas prices. and we've got another election coming up, mississippi. it's one of the most racially polarized states in the country when it comes to voting. that runoff there, the key one, less than a week away. the contest has evolved into what politico calls a bear knuckle brawl infused with racial politics. plus democrats saw some historic numbers in the popular vote for the house of representatives in the mid-terms. is that a signal for 2020? and with the next record the democrats may likely break. this is "hardball," where the action is.

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it's all about for me very simple, it's america first. saudi arabia if we broke with them, i think your oil prices would go through the roof. i've kept them down. they've helped me keep them down. it's a very simple equation for me. i'm about make america great again, and i'm about america first. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump yesterday explaining why he is standing by saudi arabia despite the cia reportedly concluding with high confidence that saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman ordered the killing of a "the washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. in a tweet this morning trump echoed that sentiment and wrote, oil prices getting lower, great, like a big tax cut for america and the world enjoy. thank you for saudi arabia but let's go lower. saying, quote, it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event. maybe he did and maybe he

didn't. several of trump's republican colleagues on capitol hill slammed his defense of the saudi regime. >> i am astounded that the type of response that was put out by the white house. we have a crown prince that i believe directed the killing of a journalist, and i just at the language that was used, it was as if they were writing a press release for saudi arabia not for the united states. and it was unnecessarily provocative in the way that he did it. >> here's what i believe, saudi arabia needs us more than we need them. it's not too much to ask an ally not to butcher a guy in a consulate. this is not world war ii so i'm not going to look away at what mbs did. >> and joining me now is the global opinions editor at "the washington post." thank you for joining us. what is your reaction to this is your colleague who was murdered,

this is the president's reaction. what's your reaction to what the president is saying? >> you know, again, it's been a week full of falsehoods and lies. even if you're going to entertain this idea that oil prices are worth the life of a "the washington post" journalist, first of all we get more oil from canada which produces 40% of our imported oil than we do from saudi arabia which produces 11% of our imported oil. if anything saudi arabia has agreed to back a proposal from opec to reduce productions. so all of what trump is talking about is a fantasy. as far as the relationship trump is talking about with saudi arabia, nobody is calling for an end to the diplomatic relationship between the united states and canada. i think right now what is on the table and should be on the table is our relationship with crown prince mohammed bin salman. and even this issue of, you

know, ordering jamal's death which the cia has reported with high confidence and which also other countries have the same intelligence, this is about his wave of repression. are we going to be allies and friends with a man that would butcher journalists, that has bombarding yeminen, bringing ito the brink of famine with children who are starving to death, this does not sound like a stable path for saudi arabia or for the middle east at all. >> have you or has your newspaper since this happened, have you had any contact, i'm asking here, with the white house? >> i think we have been engaging with the white house, i mean since the very beginning we're attempting and not just the white house but also saudi arabian officials, turkish

officials including members of the governments, we have been vocal in calling for an independent international investigation and, you know, ideally the united nations. because saudi arabia clearly can't be trusted to investigate itself. but, you know, i think for us we're calling for the administration particularly for congress to take the right steps and investigate, call for sanctions if necessary. and i think that the story isn't done. we're still pushing for justice. >> thank you for joining us. in an interview with cnbc, saush's foreign minister denied the saudi arabian government was involved in khashoggi's murder. and also batted down a report that some in the royal family were considering removing mohammed bin salman in the line of succession over the uproar.

>> it's a red line for every saudi, man or woman. the country is totally supportive of him. every saudi feels represented by his leadership, and every saudi represents his or her leadership. >> john, you heard lindsey graham in that clip we played say, hey, saudi arabia needs us more than we need them. what could the united states do? take the trump approach and say if the united states wanted to punish, make some example or statement here against saudi arabia, against the crown prince, what could the united states do here? >> well, the united states could simply say we no longer have confidence that we can work with mohammed bin salman. it's not our business. he's not the king. salman's father is the king. we can get a message to the king that we judge that the crown prince is reckless and

untrustworthy and is -- there was great hope last year that he would be a creative reforming force and break up some of the sclerotic freeze that is the politics and culture set of saudi arabia. but the disbehavior, it's not like we can count morally that a guy who can do this, one journalist who can have him dismembered, it's hard to think you can sit across from him and think what can we do about the israeli-palestinian situation. we've lost conference in him. you've got to find somebody else to deal with us. it's not our job but remember he is not the king. he's been assigned this job by the king, and we can tell the king somebody else has got to interface with us. >> what do you think of that? >> i think we can do that and do more, right?

we can also cut off weapons sales to saudi arabia. we can take a much harder line supporting the war in yemen, and you could really make mohammed bin salman, i think with one thing that's already happening is congress has triggered the magnitsky act again so that trump will actually be forced to make a determination as to whether or not mohammed bin salman is or isn't responsible. and either he says he's not responsible, in which case there is a series potentially of congressional hearings about why he is ignoring the guidance of the american intelligence agencies and kind of what was the process by which he came to this ludicrous conclusion, or they find out he is responsible and that triggers certain kind of sanctions and repercussions. to me the question now is you have republicans furrowing their brows and saying that they are appalled by this, although i can't quite imagine why they're shocked by this. this was the most trumpy

statement imaginable. to me the question is whether you know linda graham kind of famously si famously sink ofantic will actually stand up to the president. >> in six weeks democrats will take control of the house. he will be go at this. he is not a fan of saudi arabia historically, and the idea that, you know, there are two points of contact here, one in which is our policy ignoring the intelligence findings and all that and then secondly is what exactly is going on with business connections between the trump organization, saudi arabia, the kushner organization, saudi arabia. democrats are going to want to start burrowing into this question of the private interests of the president and his family, and this controversy is the perfect vehicle to mover

into that territory. >> right. and i think that can't be emphasized enough, this is not about putting quote-unquote america first, even if you accept a sort of brute realist version of foreign policy. this is very much about trump using the power of the presidency to enrich himself. this does not help american interests in any way possible, nor is it true that this mythical $400 billion weapons sales, which is really quite a bit less is creating a lot of american jobs. it's not true that saudi arabia is driving down oil prices. oil prices are coming down for a bunch of reasons including the fact the economy is slowing down because trump is mismanaging his trade war so terribly. but this is about, you know, mohammed bin salman has said that jared kushner is in his pocket. and so we need to know what that means and the extent to which that is -- the extent to which kind of the refinancing of jared kushner's various business

schemes is now changing the entire moral complexion of american foreign policy. >> if you just take the money out of it, jared kushner and trump and the administration have put all their eggs in the basket of mohammed bin salman, and the idea that we can change-up the geopolitics of the middle east, that clearly is not going to work. and the problem is if you take out the corruption issue, they don't have a plan b. the whole thing is clearly based on saudi arabia making -- and mohammed bin salman's incredibly reckless and psychopathic behavior has now totally thrown that idea out of the -- you know, and trump is saying we're standing by saudi arabia. we can't standby saudi arabia. >> it's a story you may not have heard the end of yet.

thank you both for being with us. up next why are mississippi republicans suddenly stressing about a senate race that we all thought would be a cakewalk. is it still going to be one for them? we're going to take a look at the story. a numbers tale, this is "hardball," where the action is. how much horse power does this thing got? doing great dad! looking good babe! are you filming. at booking.com, we can't guarantee you'll be any good at that water jet thingy...

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all right, welcome back to "hardball." well, look, we've been talking about those late arriving votes

in the house races all across the country. still a few outstanding pieces of business there. but also on the senate side there is one biggy. it is in the state of mississippi, and it's setup for next tuesday. the runoff in this race. this was election day in mississippi. remember there is a special election here. cochran left the senate. cindy hyde-smith, republican got elected. the top two you see it's hyde-smith versus espy. the establishment republicans said, look, we will be fine in this race in this runoff as long as we nominate cindy hyde-smith and not chris mac daniel. she makes it oo the runoff and then she's started stepping in and made several inflammatory comments there, questions whether she's handled them in the aftermath. the bottom line, we don't have much polling here, but we have democrats getting a little hopeful about this, republicans

getting a little bit nervous about it, and next tuesday of course that will be the runoff. a couple of things to keep in mind here why republicans still hope i should say to win this thing. it's mississippi. it is the last time a democrat won a senate election in mississippi you have to go back to 1982. mississippi is one of the most polarized states when the comes to racial voting in the country. to give you an idea, go back and take a look at this. we don't have exit polling for 2016, but we do in 2012, and barack obama did about as well as democratic presidential candidate these days can do in mississippi. he got 44% of the vote in mississippi in 2012. we had an exit poll in 2012 how that broke down. among black voters in mississippi obama won, that should be a 9 there, 96% to 9% he won black voters in mississippi.

among white voters in mississippi mitt romney, 89 to 10 he won among white voters. that is one of it biggest gulfs you're going to see anywhere. and that is what democrats trying to win this seat are up against. you need a high turnout barack obama got, you need that kind of level of support but then you have to do something difficult, you've got to get 20% plus with white voters as well. the failure for democrats to do that is one of the reins mississippi has become such a staunchly republican state. that's what democrats need to undue if they're going to win this thing on tuesday. obviously for democrats they're very happy with how the house ended up. if they could ever pull off a senate race in mississippi that would be the cherry on the cake, chero on the pie, whatever for them. coming up what the latest popular vote tallies tell us

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welcome back to "hardball." last night the mississippi senate candidates participated in their own debate before next week's runoff. the jackson free press reported that hyde smith's campaign requested the candidates receive note pads. hyde smith appeared to be reading off her notepad when she read her remarks. >> for anyone that was offended by my comments, i certainly apologize. there was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statement. i also recognize that this comment was twisted and it was

turned into a weapon to be used against me, a political weapon used for nothing but personal and political gain by my opponent. that's the type of politics mississippians are sick and tired of. >> in an interview today with nbc espy criticized hyde-smith for reading off that notepad. >> i looked and she had her head down and she was reading it. my mother always told me that when you apologize to someone you look them in the eye, you tell them that you're sorry and you offended them, and you try to make reparations if you can. so i can't judge her sincerity. >> smart move taking off the sunglasses before he talked about looking in the eye there. let me just go around and take the temperature of the table

here. i look at this race and i say other republicans have made this more complicated than you would normally say it is. on the other hand you compare mississippi to alabama and i say roy moore which is about as catastrophic as if gets still got 49%. how do you look at this? >> it's mississippi. and that sticks in my head no matter what i see. but i do see positive things between mcdaniel and hyde-myth got only 58% of the vote combined. what i didn't know are there are 80 black mayors in mississippi including chuck wade, and so if we can build off the statements that were made about hanging and so on and build off the momentum that has existed probably until the mid-terms than i think he

has a shot. i feel good about his chances, but, you know, again in the back of my mind it's mississippi. >> do either of you think this is losable for republicans on tuesday? >> i don't. >> yeah, i mean -- >> i think it's going to be a winnable seat no matter what. i think what republicans probably don't like to see is the fact it's probably this close. but i think if you want to blame anyone you can blame the candidate and what you said earlier about stepping in it, this is very careless and reckless statement she said. i was proud wal-mart asked for their contribution back. you know, this should send a signal to everybody if you're running for public office or doing anything, come on, think about what you say. this was extremely inappropriate, but will she ultimately win, yes. look at what wicker won by. if you look at who is in the state and the dynamics in the state as far as the different sectors, it's going to go republican.

i just don't like the fact it's this close. >> to be fair, we don't really know how close it is. the polls haven't been closed to show what the effects are in. just making a lot of little mistakes and seeming unsure of herself during the debate, which is not what you want to see. and normally that's totally fine because the republicans have such an advantage in the state. the only reason ware talking about this are the dual tail winds of a her comments and b the elections. it's really hard to see how the democrats pull this off. it would be -- i mean it would be far more shocking than the dramatic wins of the democrats on the house. >> speaking of those wins for democrats on the house side, as of earlier today democrats led republicans in the cumulative house popular vote nationally by

about 8.69 million votes. of course there are votes still coming in. the previous record for the largest lead was back in 1974, the watergate year. democrats led republicans by 8.71 million votes there. and of course the big sort of factor in getting an advantage that big in the popular vote it's not just winning, it's getting the giant turnout that we saw this year, 110 million counting on that side. >> according to michael mcdonald the turnout was almost at 50% this higher, which is far higher than anything we've seen essentially in the mid-term elections. not only in the house seats, obviously the democrats won a lot of house seats, but if you look at the demography of who won those races, if you were to run into a person of color on capitol hill on the house side next year ten to one odds that

person is going to be a democrat. it's the highest turnout we've seen -- it's higher than any presidential election in 2004, and the result is a really demographically diverse and democratically leaning congress, that's a big flag. >> you've got to look at the fact of the voter turnout. this is historic. mid-terms are normally sleepers. we're not doing election coverage on mid-terms very much where everything is shutting down. these people were turning out enrecoein record forms. look at florida, brenda snipes said the reason she couldn't handle everything was because of the influx of voters. >> what trump will say or what the folks who are supporting trump will say is that clinton and obama recovered from bad mid-terms and say look in 2020 trump voters come back out. do you think there's anything to it? >> yeah, i do.

and we're already gearing up and looking at house seats we're going to target to try to flip it back, to try to flip the house back in two years to be back republican now. and i think that -- and republicans i don't feel like were asleep at the wheel, st. and we have breaking news and different topics and different issues to focus on 24/7. >> as a democrat, let me flip the question around, though, you look black at clinton, obama recovered from a brutal 2010. do you have any feeling trump will be able to turn it around? >> it still is tenuous. as you said 2008, i would say -- but let me talk about obama forty-second because remember he ran around the party. he didn't use the party to get elected, and we lost about, almost a thousand votes in the years he was president. what encourages me about these results is it seems like the

party's infrastructure is being rebuilt. that's because we have a depth of the electorate. i think we have really qualified candidates that ran, and they ran not to be managerial, which is typically what you see in an election, and i think that's the form moving forward. up next, how to survive thanksgiving with the family in a country growing more divided. and don't miss the "hardball" holiday special where chris matthews and his guests look at the personal candidates emerging for 2020. this friday at 7:00 p.m. you're watching "hardball." where my father's family came from in colombia. they pinpointed the colombia and ecuador region and then there's a whole new andean region. that was incredibly exciting because i really didn't know that. it just brings it home how deep my roots are and it connects me to them and to their spirit and to their history. this holiday, give the gift that's connected millions to a deeper family story. order your kit at ancestry.com

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. welcome back to "hardball," a new poll asked americans how they feel about discussing politics at thanksgiving, 15% said they were looking forward to it. 40% said they hope to avoid it. 45% said they don't care either way. back with the round table. put me in the hoping to avoid it category. i'd rather talk about something else. anybody eager to talk politics with the family tomorrow? >> i will always get the question in my household. but you know what, your political brain encourages you to fight your point. in fact, you should do the opposite. don't say anything and actually ask more questions. when you put people in a safe space where they have the ability to probe their own sort of thinking and ideology they feel more comfortable listening to other points of view. >> ask questions, can you please

pass the cranberry sauce. >> i do not think so. i think the biggest thing that you can do is get like a plastic bag and some to go containers and get the heck out of there if it goes south. because some of these things could pretty -- get pretty heated. you've got, you know, anti this, anti that, and they come together and they might like kind of start off kind of nice and then all the sudden a couple glasses of wine, a couple of beers and it's like division city. so i don't know. i think the best thing is, be ready to hit the door. >> how about you, philip, are you printing out how to talk to your family members guides? >> me and my wife and my 2-year-old. i think we can handle it. i'm sort of fascinated by how many families don't share a unified political vision at this point in time. one of the things we've seen is this sort of bifurcation in america. if you look at the last election, 25% of trump supporters all said they knew some clinton supporters, 19% of clinton supporters knew some trump supporters. i'm curious how many families

there are where you have different sides of the political aisle that come together and sit down. my recommendation would -- like everyone else, look, if your family can't survive arguing over thanksgiving, you should see therapy anyway. >> if you're lucky enough to get your whole family together for thanksgiving, enjoy it and don't let this stuff get in the way. thank you to my panel. when we return, let me finish tonight with the record democrats may break in 2020. you're watching "hardball." ♪ ♪

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let me finish tonight with the record democrats may break in 2020. remember those crowded debate stages republicans had back in 2016? ten candidates standing side by side and those ten were the lucky ones, there were also six more candidates who didn't make it onto the stage. they ended up getting their own debate before the main event. they called that one the kids table debate. no one wanted to be in that. at their peak republicans had 16 major candidates running for president at the same time, the biggest simultaneous field ever. but records, of course, were made to be broken and this one may not last for long. the midterms are now over and democrats are starting to step forward for 2020. here was sherrod brown the ohio senator today taking the temperature on twitter. he's looking to run for president. we all know that joe biden is looking too. and probably wishes he'd done it the last time. his decision, supposedly coming at the end of the year. cory booker, we learned today, is talking strategy with

consultants in iowa, home, of course, to the leadoff caucuses. and speaking of iowa, kamala harris was there just a few weeks ago. and kirsten gillibrand isn't in iowa now, but she was on stephen colbert's show two weeks ago. she told him she's giving "long hard thought" to running. this is scratching the surface here. elizabeth warren and bernie sanders, teasing runs too. michael b michael bloomberg, tom steyer, and on and on. heck, senator bob casey from pennsylvania this week said he might even take a look at it too. even candidates who lost this year, they might turn around and run. that's what richard ojetta who fell short in a congressional race in west virginia is already doing and who knows about beto o'rourke. donald trump who is president by virtue of 77,000 votes is a tempting target. candidates they they could beat

him. he may also be an inspiration to them as well. if he can pull it off, democrats may be saying to themselves, who's to say i can't. when it comes to logistics, the democrats might have a tougher challenge than the republicans did the last time around. that is all for "hardball" now. happy thanksgiving. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in," new questions about the president's pick to oversee the mueller probe. >> the stakes have never been higher. >> tonight a deep dive into the sketchy past of matt whitaker. >> can you answer a question, if you've ever had a discussion with the president about investigating hillary clinton or james comey? then, why the chief justice of the supreme court issued a rare rebuke of the president. >> you people know better than anybody what's happening. it's a disgrace. plus, is the president shrugging off a saudi murder because he thinks it will keep oil prices low? >> if we broke with them i think your oil