ari fleischer.ke to him earlier from new york. welcome. ari: thank you. howie: let's start with jim acosta and the president's conduct. you were there in that room with president bush. are these different than the kinds much questions bush got? ari: totally different. challenging the questions one thing. but to use the briefing room to espouse hire personal point of view, that's what acosta has been doing. that more than anything than that physical altercation which was a nothing altercation. howie: but then he kept on talking like i'm talking over you now. he wouldn't give up the mic. was it an overreach or misstep for the white house to suspend his credentials? ari: in the bush white house i would have tried to take advantage of that moment and say, jim, i hope you get your op-ed published tonight. i would deflect and try to use humor and try to make everybody laugh at him instead of being an editorial writer rather than a journalist. i'm not going to defend jim acosta. it's not the role of white

the g20 summit in buenos aries. so this final hour of trade will speak volumes about whether investors interpret any real or substantive trade deals are being struck. right now, markets rising in late afternoon trade and hitting session highs after a chinese official just told reuters quote, consensus is steadily increasing on a trade agreement between the u.s. and china. so that was about 15 minutes ago. boom, the dow shot up about 107 points. we are still pretty close, up about 98 at the moment. but will that consensus, will a solid deal really happen? sources telling fox business you never know with president trump. he can be capricious and make unilateral decisions and strike deals. we are watching every single bit of every single headline that comes out of this g20. >>> the president has left the site of the g20 summit. he is at this moment meeting with staff at the u.s. embassy here in argentina. it's been an event-filled day, i can tell you here so far. the president wrapping up a bilateral meeting with austr

ari, the president is claiming fraud. rick scott says the democrats are trying to steal the election. jeb bush has gotten involved, mar marco rubio is involved. and the president said this today. that large numbers of few ballots showed up out of nowhere and many ballots are missing or forged. an honest vote count is no longer possible. ballots possibly infected. must go with election night. pick this apart for us, ari, explain it. >> well, you laid it out well and our reporting on the ground is not indicating there's any kind of fraud. we're seeing the kind of recount process mandated by law. and as you note the authorities haven't found those kind of problems. i was just in the building behind me which is ground zero for this recount, and we saw 12 different voting machines processing the recount of this somewhat controversial ballot which of course has the senate race down in the bottom here. that could be a key issue if it is a tight margin. but the bottom line is they're doing the normal process and separating out th

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>> oh my gosh, ari. i think two most obvious. we asked constitutional scholars, they came up with nine. i'll give you the two that are the most obviously. one is the corruption. it says in the constitution the president can never take a payment from a foreign country. this president takes payments from a foreign country every single day. he's for seam. they know it. he's buying. it's obviously true on a daily basis. the second is obstruction of justice. if you look at the last three days. just the last three days. it's happened since he got into office. but in the last three days, he's fired the attorney general and put in an acting attorney general who has publicly written an op-ed saying the mueller investigation should be reined in. it's out of control the witch hunt and he said, mr. trump said on wednesday, if the house of representatives performs its constitutional function of oversight of this president, that if the democrats do what the constitution orders them to do as their job, that he will adopt a quote war-like stance

president trump is on air force one right at this moment heading for buenos aries for the g20 summit. earlier, he stopped and talked about his trip before boarding marine one, saying he thinks he's very close to doing something with china on trade, but adding that he's not sure he wants to do it because tariffs are adding billions to the state coffers. the mixed message sending markets to the low of the session, the dow tumbling 163 before a "wall street journal" article or report that says team trump has been talking to the chinese ahead of this summit and that sparked a slow afternoon recovery. we are near session highs at this point. markets also getting a late boost from the fed minutes, out just an hour ago. stocks as i mentioned, we have reversed almost 253 points. the dow as you see trading up by 97, the s&p 500 also seeing advances and the nasdaq on track now for its best week in seven, adding to yesterday's massive rally. we are going to go live to argentina for the very latest from the g20, including the president's surprise position on a meeting with vladimir putin. blake b

here's the thing, ari. law, as you well know, there's no law, no statute that stipulates that the justice department is independent of the president. it's a tradition. mostly a post-watergate tradition, in reaction to these abuses by richard nixon. what donald trump has always claimed, he said it publicly, he believes he controls the justice department. he's often said, i could wade in but i've chosen not to. this is the theory of the unitary executive. many legal scholars disagree, but this is unsettled law. the idea that he could order the justice department to investigate his political enemies. imagine what would have happened if that order actually was transmitted. i think you would have seen mass resignations at the justice department, but perhaps eventually he would have found people to put in those jobs to actually carry this out. >> although it also goes back to what the power is and what the abuse is. the president has the power to drop bombs in realtime. we don't have a mechanism to stop it in rea

>> well, first of all, as always, great to see you, ari. of course, my great leader ed rendell from the great state of pennsylvania. oprah winfrey transcends politics. she is a phenomenal woman. she's able to reach people at the heart level. i think her remarks today were very moving. it was more like a sermon, not a political stump speech. what she's there in georgia doing for stacey abrams is she's reminding voters in georgia of the things that we value in america. that stacey abrams is the leader that we need at such a time like this. so, i think she did a phenomenal job today, and hopefully people write down south florida, up in tennessee where we have an important senatorial race, and all throughout the country we'll hear oprah's message. >> don a we have so much breaking news these days. i don't know if you heard this while we were getting ready for our interview. there is talk about donald trump picking oprah as his running mate. he say she's always his first choice. have you heard about this? >> no, but i'm sure, knowing oprah, that

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ari is saying what does he have to worry about. what's your take, glenn? >> i guess it doesn't surprise me that the president has made the move at this moment. i think it's probably a miscalculation on his part because, you know, if anybody thinks he's going to get to use the sort of midterm election break in time as cover and have people look at this as if it were anything but what it is, which is sort of an incremental step toward getting at mueller, i think this is yet another miscalculation by the president. but i think there's something that we should all take into account, which is -- i'm sorry, i'm a little out of breath because i was running to the uber so i could get to the studio. >> thank you, we appreciate it. >> so i think what people will have to remember about bob mueller, i worked with him for a number of years when he was chief of homicide at the d.c. attorney's office, is he has contingency plans for everything. if anybody believes that he has spent the last 18 months not preparing for a moment like this, then they're miscalculating the p

in the birthplace of tango, there will be a lot of delicate political dancing here in buenos aries. more on that when "countdown" returns from argentina. stay with us. i am a family man.

"the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> good evening. we have an interview with the top prosecutor who ran this probe and served in the obama justice department. also the incoming chairman on the house intel committee is already making moves to protect mueller against trump's new acting attorney general. we will get into it live. later in the show, my first breakdown of what i think tuesday meant. why the blue wave is so large and some are intent on making you think oils. we met a man quickly becoming the most famous lawyer in america and one of the most controversial. acting attorney mathieu whitaker. breaking right now, we just got into our newsroom. i want to you hear with your ears this audio unearthed of whitaker denying the russians interfered with the u.s. election. >> the left has tried to sew this theory that essentially russians interfered with the u.s. election, which has been proven false. they did not have any impact in the election and that has been very clear from the obama administration. >> what you heard there sounds a

the beat with ari melber starts right now. >>> thank you very much. we are covering a lot of news tonight. donald trump overseas right now with world leaders but unable to escape the legal and political firestorm back here in washington. you can see donald trump standing in a line with vladimir putin today but forced to call off their planned sit down with revelations michael cohen was working with the kremlin on potential business in moskow. >>> also later tonight, a beat special report. what happens if donald trump just defies the subpoenas from the new democratic house next year? well, there's actually something pretty major they can do about it. that's later. >>> but we begin with the growing heat on donald trump in this russia probe culminating in pressure now hitting trump's family. also paul manafort's lawyers today facing off with the mueller team in court. this was a new and separate proceeding. this all comingut of th way mueller yanked and blew up the plea deal because he says as you may have heard by now, that paul manafort kept online. so

. >> well, let's break it down, ari. the office of legal counsel, which i respect generally, is not a court. and the courts will test their opinion, which has never been challenged in court before. there is no precedent, none, for this kind of appointment in recent times, the most recent was in 1866 for a week-long appointment of an acting attorney general. the constitution of the united states trumps, permit me to say so, the vacancies reform act of the congress, which they rely on here, and, in fact, the succession clause and act of the statutes also would seem to trump it. so we can make a lot of lawyer's arguments, but we have a denial of senator's right to do their job. >> does that mean for you to win, and i respect your point, you're referring to the office of legal counsel, which is smart and influential, but doesn't have the same power as a court. for you to win, does that mean that office they have to be wrong in 2007 and part of the act has to be wrong? >> not necessarily wrong, because they may have been rely

there are 20,000 police do ploy to in windows areas —— buenos aries.e, people are still out on the street protesting. 0ur correspondent katie watson is with the protestors, just a few kilometres from where the summit is taking place. let's hear from katie let's hearfrom katie watson let's hear from katie watson who is on the street. ....which is the widest avenue in the world, and people are making their way to congress where several different groups will be gathering until later evening. people here are asking, they're out with trump, out with the 620. the people have been at the meeting of world leaders, the say they don't represent the majority of people, poor and marginalised, but mixed in with that, argentina's own problems. president macri is facing an economic crisis here in argentina. inflation is over a0%, growth is sluggish, they've had to take a massive loan out from the inf. people are frustrated so that mix of both the 620 and home—grown problems is what's bringing people out on the streets today. the next few days have been declared a ban

>> well, ari, i wash the show sometimes and i know you like those rap lyrics.l if you were to go to ghetto boys, my mind is playing tricks on me, but the president here, his mind is playing tricks on him. we lost those seats because of the president. those are good members of congress. i understand people didn't vote republican this time around. but they worked hard, they all had an independent streak, and every single day they were dealing from incoming a lot of hate and a lot of tough stuff said their way. and they did their best. and to have the president of the united states mock them on the way out after a tough campaign, i just think it's deplorable and it really bothers me. >> well, congressman, i wasn't expecting you to reach into the vault for ghetto boys. in that song you have an individual describe who thinks he's fighting another person and he ends up realizing his mind is playing tricks on him and he's fighting the cement, punching out the cement and he's hurting himself. >> i think that was bushwick bill. >> so here we are. do you think donald tru

but as your very effective cross-examination indicated, ari, he's not a great liar.you did what an effective prosecutor does, you don't berate the witness, you let him incriminate himself with his own lying words. so to nick's point, no way he figured out that the wikileaks e-mail of -- podesta was forthcoming. again, nobody knew that and he doesn't seem like the brightest bulb on the tree to begin with so the mueller prosecutor is right. it would have been divine intervention for him to know that. the other thing is the forensic evidence. his own e-mail contradicts his story in that it says that he was in touch with julian assange. so, again, that's inconsistent with what he said. and the third thing, ari, is the point you brought up about his now -- in his own admission telling the truth about a lie. so he made up this story with roger stone about the first lie. to a prosecutor, lies are evidence of consciousness of guilt. >> then i want to broaden out from jerome and matt miller, talk about the fact that roger stone had some motivation to n concoct a fraudulent me

donald both's presidency with houses of congress on the ballot, we will speak with mother jones reporter ari berman about the record 36 million americans who've voted early this year. this comes as a trial kicks off challenging the trump administration's decision to put a citizenship question on the census, sparking fears of a vast undercount in states with large immigrant communities. >> the census is supposed t to cocount everyoyone in america, ncncitizen or r citizen. if it islly -- manipulated for political purposes or the count is done wrong, there's no way to fix that. amy: then we'll go to colorado, where voters have managed to get a statewide anti-fracking measure on today's ballot. the oil and gas industry has put tens of millions of dollars against it. and we look at the historic number of women of color running for public office in today's election. at least 255 women are on the ballot as congressional candidates, including a record number of women of color. in georgia, stacey abrams hopes to become the first states black governor and the country's first african-american woman gov

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and that is why msnbc's in-house election lawyer ari melber is in florida tonight. but first here to talk about the democrat's big win in arizona, an msnbc contributor. and john heilemann, national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc. cohost and executive producer of show times "the circus." we saw two women, two members of the house, democrat and republican campaigning against each other in what apparently is the new arizona, politically the first democrat to win a senate seat there since 1988. >> i have to say the very fact arizona was in play, voter latina is part of a coalition and a lot had to do with what was propelling them were the conversations trump was having against the latino community and the fact they were still tasting the sour taste of jeff and all the i would say this particular race is definitely the rise of a new latino community. and they're alert and awake and they're going to make future impact into not just this election but in florida, the fact we saw such a rise and the race between beto and cruz was also so close also had to do with the

i hope so. >> sean: ari, good to see you, monica, good to see you.ck, the only reason piers morgan is actually going to be on the show, because he borrowed her shirt. he did not have one. he takes on hollywood's response to the trump presidency and what he w likes about donald trump ad what he is a critic of. that's next. straight ahead. ♪ my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free. ♪ >> sean: now hollywood is continuing to ramp up their vile daily hatred campaign against president trump. as a part is, for example, this week, and seeing robe

>> good evening, ari. i think it also reflects a white house that has become all too comfortable with the republican congress that has just given them free passes in this environment for the last two years, where they can get away with whatever they want, and not be held to account. that is going to change in about 39 days when the new congress comes in. we're going to fill in the gaps on the russian investigation, we're going to seek to protect robert mueller, and understand why the president continues to have these transactional relationships that 3u9 hput his transactions above his country's values. that happened with russia, and it's more important than the characters of roger stone. it's about the rule of law. and it's playing out right now with jamal khashoggi's death, where a u.s. resident working for a u.s. publication, was killed on the soil of a nato ally. and we are almost acting as accessories after the fact to help the saudis cover it up because of the president's transactional relationship. t

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thanks for making time on a busy weekend. >> thank you, ari. i'm here in pennsylvania and there are no cacti like that. >> no, but your hat is green. >> that's from west virginia. i'm hitting all the bases here in the last few days. >> everything you can do. i want to get in to economics and jobs with you. in a minute we have stuff like that. we start with the politics and you see the polls not only showing democrats up, but cook, which is nonpartisan, show him up by a lot. taking over 30 seats which would be a clean sweep of the house. what's your view tonight? >> i'm warning against it now. do not listen to the polls or the pundits. it was wrong before. people in the weekend before the election in 2016, democrats were all excited and everybody was feeling like it was in the bag and even the "new york times" on the day of the election said there was only a 15% chance of trump winning that day. do not pay any attention to this. do not listen to nancy pelosi when she goes on stephen colbert and said we have victory in our sights. no, we don't. y

ari: for a decent period of time.ew level of competition and innovation, and we are thrilled to deliver and happy to bring reggie and his team over and start solving some problems. lowering costs for investors and increasing investor confidence. caroline: you just mentioned areas yet to be addressed. where else is going to be addressed? where do you see low hanging fruit right now? in fixed income, there is a lot of innovative structures the market is yet to involve. we brought equity rules inside of extent, and brought transparency and tighter spreads. and there are pockets outside of the united states that have been slow to adopt etf's. i think if you look at the regulatory framework around the globe, there are only five market that have adopted rules for etf's. there is a lot more growth to be had, a lot more opportunity to deliver our values into the marketplace. right? etf evangelist, i believe the entire industry will adopt the etf format at some particular time because of competition, prices coming down, and it

ari, i think there are three possibilities.nefarious is that his dude matt whitaker is in charge of the investigation, he's getting information from mueller. i hate to think that he's sharing that information with the president but you can't rule that out. other more benign possibilities are that he is debriefing or his legal team is debriefing other witnesses to the grand jury and they're allowed to tell anybody what happens. prosecutors can't say what happened but witnesses can. the third possibility is his own lawyers are meeting with special counsel mueller. prosecutors usually give defense attorneys a heads up about what's coming down the pike, what could be coming down the pike is more indictments, including against roger stone or against donald trump jr. >> you mentioned donald trump jr., he was out saying he's not worried. jason, take a look. >> are you scared you could go to jail? >> i'm not because i know what i did and i'm not worried about that. that doesn't mean they won't try to create something. we've seen that h

"the beat with ari melber" starts right now. good evening. >> good evening, chuck. it feels a whole lot simpler. tonight, we have a very big show. this is our first-ever election eve on "the beat," and this is live pictures of the beginning of our coverage, msnbc, the vote, america's future. that is a live look at rockefeller center. and the historic ice rink out there right now. later tomorrow, you'll hear of all of your experts project the winners, and ultimately record the winners. that special election coverage begins right now and on through tonight. here on "the beat," we have some tremendous experts as part of our coverage right here at the election center with me in new york. and chris hayes in texas, katy tur in georgia and what president trump has achieved for the middle class. let me give you the stakes right now. there are close polls that make predictions worthless. president trump is in indiana right now, we're not broadcasting that, but we will update. another president out on the trail with a horse voice. listen for it, in virginia today. >> people w

she's working for it. >> up next for arie?ored as billboard's 2018 woman of the year in new york thanks in part to the success of her album "sweetener," >>> speaking of sweet and sexy. >> you had to go there. we stumbled upon this gem that we had to share with everybody. >> it's good. >> let's flashback the king and his queen. >> sharon, you're so bad. >> like that's not why you married me. >> in 2019 thriller "obsessed" beyonce played his wife, but actually she was newlywed to jay-z. >> are you okay? >> yeah. >> what did he think of your scenes with idris because women love idris? >> idris is a good looking man. th>>ink worked very r. he taught me how to improv. i've never done that before. >> come on baby not tonight. you know this is important to me. >> you guys have some pretty hot steamy scenes. was it weird or was it -- do you think whoa, her husband's a pretty big guy? >> it's acting, baby. you know it ain't nothing like that. honestly i think beyonce did a phenomenal job keeping her private life away from her work life

trish: the president just touching down in buenas aries, argentina. he canceled his big meeting with vladimir putin. but he's still meeting with the big honcho from china. so we'll see what happens with xi. we have new reaction tonight. the president making headline after headline. there he is. you see the president exiting the plane alongside his wife, melania. there is much talk and hope he'll be able to get something done with china. china is a problem no president has been killing to take on until this president, at least in such a public way. the $600 billion a year the chinese are stealing in intellectual property from us, he intends to try to make some progress on that. but nonetheless, a pretty tough row ahead. check in challenges are very, very real with china. their economy is struggling. let's not forget house in the driver's seat. we are china's biggest customer. so we have some leverage. in china they don't have to vote their people in and out of office. they can put in place a plan that might be difficult for their people. so they have l

ari. >> that's right.poke with the ways and means committee, breaking news, they do intend to request president trump's tax returns. that's important because, as you know and as we have reported, this is something that does not require the senate, it does not require even a full house vote. under federal law, the chair of the ways and means committee has the power to request anyone's tax returns. they believe that includes, flatly, the president of the united states. so this is coming to us now. we are seeing the ramifications of democrats on these committees who have this kind of power. this is richard neil, this is the ranking member of the ways and means committee, who would become chair if our projection holds that they are basically democrats taking over the house. getting your hands on those trump tax returns, as everyone knows, would be a big deal for the committee. it doesn't mean they would automatically become public, but it does mean the democrats are coming out swinging tonight. they're not wai

for more on this, let's bring on ari ari fleischer.rning to you. >> good morning. >> sandra: where do we begin? you've been listening to the show, following the news this morning. it's a tough moment right now. >> yeah, there's just so much going on in washington. the horrible turmoil after the midterm. people trying to figure out what comes next. let me start with the department of justice. i think the acting attorney general, there is a process in place for people to recuse. jeff sessions followed it, and for democrats to say that he needs to recuse without even leaving stomach -- he has no reason to recuse unless the ethics experts say that he should. i think that this is all part of the normal trumpet delirium, where anything that he does, the democrats oppose. given his opinions as a pond and the mueller probe, that doesn't mean that he will take action as the attorney general. i hope no action is taken against bob mueller. he should be able to finish this report. >> bill: the exchange that is getting a lot of attention. we asked

the g20 summit in buenos aries.r of trade will speak volumes about whether investors interpret any real or substantive trade deals are being struck. right now, markets rising in late afternoon trade and hitting session highs after a chinese official just told reuters quote, consensus is steadily increasing on a trade agreement between the u.s. and china. so that was about 15 minutes ago. boom, the dow shot up

ari, i want to start with the legitimacy of this transition here. the new acting attorney general being appointed under the federal vacancies reform act, which only applies if an attorney general, for example, resigns or dies in office or something like that. if complication here is that jeff sessions was fired. he wrote a letter today saying that he was resigning at the request of the president. so as you read that letter, ari, is that a resignation letter that complies with the necessities of the federal vacancies act or was he fired? is it not legal to put in this acting attorney general this way? >> it's a great question, lawrence. in short he was very clearly fired in every sense of the word. legally the letter at least gives the administration a framework and cover to assert that the attorney general himself states that he resigned, and thus they will say that's what occurred. >> matthew miller, this acting attorney general wrote a piece where he said it would cross a line, it would be improper for the special prosecutor to investigate the fam

. >> ari melber, that seems to be a question to me here, has this open investigation, is this the sort of thing you'd expect he'd be interested in? if so, what angle would he be interested in it from? >> absolutely. the only thing worse than firing an fbi director because he's investigating your white house is trying to get that fbi director prosecuted or jailed. that is what we're told the request is, that's the reasoning, that is banana republic territory. everything that don mcgahn knows, bob mueller knows. he has an obligation to disclose, he's a lawyer. i'm not doing primary reporting on this, i imagine he has it wrapped up to be the elements of obstruction. an angry statement there is different than a prolonged pattern to try to black ball, destroy the liberty of individuals or key witnesses involved in the obstruction probe. i think the "new york times" today has one of the biggest stories we've seen in the entire mueller probe. >> the "new york times" -- the president has not shied away from publicly speaking out on james comey. >> comey is a leaker and he's a liar. and not onl

because boy, a lot of things have happened since then. >> ari melber, stay close. i may want to come back to you if you have time. i want to turn to natasha. one of the things that struck me as we heard the president of the south lawn was the way he talked about paul manafort and the way that he talked about michael cohen. the president lamenting how poorpoo poorly paul manafort, his former campaign chairman has been treated by the special counsel's office, and of course reportedly earlier this week manafort, his plea deal was snatched back by the special counsel's office because he allegedly has been lying to them after the deal was reached. natasha, what do you read into the contrast between michael cone and paul manafort, the way that they've behaved with the special counsel's office and the way the president has spoken about them publicly? >> yeah, i mean, i think it's fairly straightforward, craig. i think it's just that the president knows that paul manafort has not flipped on him. he knows that because of course he has had this kind of deal with paul manafor

you've noticed we're talking about this with you're ultimately album you know when you do something with ari on the ground for example the clicks are in the millions it's incredible what could classical music do to help get this sort of attention maybe i need to go into a duet with ariana grande no i don't think it would be like i have the love for sure she would love that to answer your question i think you know i sort of a lot of b. to use on you too many places so orchestra reaching out to people in places in the middle of the park in the middle of the of the mall that's really no idea i really that's one of the thing but to be honest in the classical music we have the same problem of jazz music too we don't have that hope from the media in general but it television and radio and i know the media in general we don't have a lot of help from anything that is i grew nor because the sometimes people go for the easy way to reach big amount of people and in a pub music is easier a lot easier maybe people a bit worried that jazz is complicated that just don't understand it i mean i love jazz but

>> i say that, ari, and i say it again.now whether the allegations of michael cohen are true? >> i know there's evidence here tonight. i'm asking you about the evidence. let me play something donald trump said about michael cohen, he hasn't talked this way about you. >> i know what he said. >> let me play it, i'll get your reaction. here it is. >> he is a weak person and by being weak, unlike other people that you watch, he is a weak person and what he is trying to do is get a reduced sentence. he is a weak person and not a very smart person. >> jay, final word, is that any way to talk about your former lawyer? >> i spoke to him once in the 24 years i represented trump, once. i foupd him to have -- found him to have earmarks of weakness. when you're an experienced trial lawyer, you can size up the person. he would never subject himself to walking down the aisle with people banging their metal cups against bars saying you're going to be my wife. he is a weak person based on information that i have from -- i can't go into whe

>> i don't think he is, no. >> martha: so the big question for america, as ari pointed out, a lot of people don't care about the deck chairs when they move around on the deck, but they do care about homeland security and they do care about who is running the country, jason. so when you look at the administration, you look at the cabinet, do you think changes need to be made, or is this not appropriate? >> the president has taken a very tough strands on immigration. when you talk to people within it the bowels of the organization, there is talk that maybe secretary nelson has not moved fast enough or aggressive enough. >> martha: congress has to make these changes. she is not going to pay for the wall, not going to build a wall herself. congress needs to make these changes. i don't how much more she could have done. what you think she could have done, jason? >> i think the secretary has to go to congress and help make that case and understand what is going on and not going on at the border, and the imperative. look, i'm very supportive on the outside, but behind the scenes, there is o

i'm concerned that history might repeat itself in 2018. >> ari berman, good information, thank you sor helping us explain this issue to our viewers and shedding some light on an issue that i know you're passionate about, that's so important for all of us as citizens. >> thank you so much, ana. >> good to have you with us. tune in at 9:00 tonight for the cnn special report, "democracy in peril: the war on voting rights," right here on cnn. we're drowning in information. where in all of this is the stuff that matters? the stakes are so high, your finances, your future. how do you solve this? you partner with a firm that combines trusted, personal advice with the cutting edge tools and insights to help you not only see your potential, but live it too. morgan stanley. five-year cancer survivor. being diagnosed with cancer made me rethink everything in my life. the things that became important to me were the relationships with people. we pulled together closer as a family. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments, to prepare me for anything i would've

"the beat with ari melber" starts now. >>> we begin with big election news. a november surprise from tudona trump's fixer, michael cohen, arguing his former boss, donald trump, is quote racist. if this seems like a loud perfectly timed attack almost trumpian, he was executing trump tactics. he was saying he is his pr guy. tonight, trump is being trumped on pr, using a classic media maneuver, devastating leak at a devastating time. telling "vanity fair" donald trump would privately use racist language, including while he was running for president. cohen is putting it out now to warn voters about trump's true nature before midterms, alleging trump privately uttered chilling racist language in one on one conversations. that he told cohen his rally attendees were mostly white because black people are, quote, too super i did to vote for me. challenging cohen, name one country run by a black person that's not an ass hole. the language matches a term trump used about several island nations while serving as president. he says driving through a poor chicago neighborho

ari, i want to go to you. first on this issue. we'll go backwards here.ll start with the challenges the republican party faces in state like california, all those electoral votes, and then going to texas where the republicans struggles in the dallas area, losing -- pete sessions lost his seat. other republicans fell. what's going on there? and what about moving into 2020? does this require recalibration of strategy? >> look, laura, i continue to think that the republicans have got to expand with the hispanic rotors -- voters and african-american voters. if we think our ideas are the best to lift up and help all americans, we can and must do better. donald trump did do better with those two groups than romney did and we have to do better than that. that's going to be a key to success in 2020 in addition to turning out the blue-collar americans who increasingly are become republican. >> laura: byron i want to go to you. big news in this fight that cnn had with the white house. a trump appointee district court judge at least temporarily ordered that the whit

>> ari, i think you're right in terms of they've got a tough row to hoe up in maryland.ether under the bush administration. he's a good man. he's a hard worker. >> he may be a hard worker. do you know -- i know you're building to your "however." do you know why, as a good man who has a law degree, he says the courts should be inferior? which is flatly contradicted by the most canonical supreme court precedent of marbury? >> i haven't talked to him about this specific issue, but i think -- >> a big issue. >> big issue. he might cite our favorite precedent, which is "hamilton: the musical." alexander hamilton wrote years and years ago that the president should have not unchecked, but certainly broad powers to make these appointments. yes, with advice and consent of the senate. but we've got an unusual situation here where there's a vacancy, and i think overall, ari, the supreme court, who may decide this case, would defer to the president of the united states. >> nick, i feel like what guy is saying is enough to make you as mad as if somebody taxed your whiskey. >> that co

joining me from broward county, florida, ari melber, host of the beat with ari melber.a, i'm glad you're down there. what is the latest out of florida on the recount? >> the bottom line on the recount is the count is going on. so i was back behind me in that supervisor's building -- >> fake news, fake news. >> we see energy including some people around here tonight.lu but the recounts are continuing. so what you basically have is a process somewhere, the machine counting is going to continue until thursday. and if the deadline thursday shows that it is within a quarter point, then you get into that manual recount, which is t even more crucial, chris.s >> so you've got the automatic recount mandated by the state that's happening in all the counties right now, that is a machine recount.un and the big question, it seems, right, is whether the big under voted broward county, where a lot of people left that senate race off, whether that was a machine error or not, right?th >> that's right. and so this is the big thing that people will remember. t it's similar, but not the same issue as the 20

ari is here because we're actually trying to deal with the voting issues. have a super-charged turnout, we assume there's a chance for more issues. i guess so far pretty good news, just your standard issue problems. >> my report which is good for participation in america. a lot of talk about this and debates in georgia. texas, which has a strict voter i.d. law. we've seen last-minute litigation. but the bottom line is as of this hour, we're not seeing any massive voter irregularity or problems that would make people concern about the totals integrity. one thing i want to emphasize here at msnbc, which is if you're out there and anyone tells you in the afternoon in this late day that you can't vote, you have a right to go and ask for your name to be rechecked. you have a right to request a provisional ballot. and you can always call the department of justice. we will put that number up. i have it here 1-800-253-3931 to report anything that happens. that's sometimes true late in the day as we see issues. can you is ask for a provisional ballot and report anyt