as homeland security and fbi officials say there is no evidence to support bill nelson's claims. cnn's manu raju spoke with senator nelson, as you saw right there on tape this week. manu with us now. so what is senator nelson basing his claims on? why is he willing to go public with that kind of information? >> well, he says he's basing it off information he got from the senate intelligence committee led by two senators, republican richard burr, democrat mark warner, and he says concerns they raised was enough for him to send a letter with rubio, the republican senator in florida, in july, warning about the potential of russian interference in the florida elections. but his statement he made last week went much further than what that letter said. what he told local reporters last week was they penetrated -- already penetrated the florida voting system and the russians have free rein to move around. the letter he told me that he was basing this off of did not go nearly that far. just as a potential of russian interference in 2016 and to urge the states to take additional action to

bill nelson puts criminal aliens before american citizens, which is why it's time to vote bill nelsonut of office. that's what's going to happen. and we have two unbelievable people fighting for florida, they always will, and fighting to make america great again. that's what they'll do. so i'm sure we all say this about our children, but i have great children. and a couple of them plus are here tonight. i have car eric trump who has bn fan tafantastic. he loves his political stuff. eric's wife lara, who is so great, i think she single handily won the state of north carolina for trump. thank you, laxe lara. didn't hurt in pennsylvania either. thank you very much. and we have somebody that nobody ever heard of, ivanka. sthaing you. and we have a big thing happening. look at all of those hats. white ones, red ones, they all have the same thing, "make america great. well make america great again, only to be replaced by keep america great in about, i don't know, i guess we could do it now, but let's wait another year. we could do it right now frankly. we're doing fantastically well. i want

bill nelson voted in favor of sanctuary city. he opposed case law, bill nelson puts criminal aliens before american citizens which is why it is time to vote bill nelson out of office, that is what is going to happen. and we have two unbelievable people, ron desantis, rick scott, fighting for florida, they always will, fighting to make america great again. that is what they are for. so i am sure we all say this about our children but i have great children. a couple of them plus are here tonight. i have eric trump who has been fantastic. he loves this political stuff. eric's wife lera who is so great, i think she hingle handle he won the state of north carolina for trump. thank you, lera. didn't hurt in pennsylvania either. and someone you never heard of, ivanka. and we have a big thing happening, white ones, red ones have the same thing, make america great, make america great again. only to be replaced by keep america great in about, i don't know, i guess we can do it now. we could do it right now. and corey lewandowski, great sup

bill nelson puts criminal aliens before american citizens, which is why it's time to vote bill nelsonf office. you typing in the coordinates? no, i'm paying my brother back before we get going. he scored me a billy big mouth bass. the singing wall fish? for the man cave. i love those things! [take me to the river...] [drop me in the water ...] secure mobile banking from navy federal credit union... our members are the mission. about medicare and supplemental insurance. medicare is great, but it doesn't cover everything - only about 80% of your part b medicare costs, which means you may have to pay for the rest. that's where medicare supplement insurance comes in: to help pay for some of what medicare doesn't. learn how an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by united healthcare insurance company might be the right choice for you. a free decision guide is a great place to start. call today to request yours. so what makes an aarp medicare supplement plan unique? well, these are the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp and that's because they meet aarp's high stan

bill nelson in terms of the senate side of all of this. it seems to be a foregone conclusion, as you mentioned, that rick scott will end up facing bill nelson. could the red tide or other crisis impact rick scott as he vies for the senate seat? is there anything that could derail him? >> i don't think so. i mean, rick scott, again, like i mentioned, the most popular politician in the state of florida. after hurricane irma, he came out look like solid gold. you have to remember that florida, under rick scott's governorship, from 2010 to 2018, has gained like four or five million more people. we're sitting at 21 million people here in the population. and frankly, bill nelson, he's like the groundhog senator. you never see him. you never hear from him. all these new people, all these new voters, they've never heard of bill nelson. they know who rick scott is though. >> interesting dynamic. again, live for us in florida, thank you very much. >>> in north carolina, voters have already picked their midterm nominees. now there's a chance they may

he is trying to overtake bill nelson's seat. support fromany the democratic party in the state of florida to help bill nelson retain his seat. the jobs thing is that that have been created in the state of blood -- in the state of florida, or anywhere in the south, r nothing but part-time or low-paying. people need help. in the south more so than d.c. -north. i see nothing but low-paying, no benefits, no respect for anybody's prior history of work. in the interim, people are out on the street, and people are really hurting. i think this authorization, and any organization connected to the democratic party, really needs to travel south. i thank you for taking my call. guest: i think one of the -- i talked about our traveling throughout the country. one of the places i went was in florida. i saw what you have described. i saw people trying really hard to make it work, trying to work multiple different jobs or different jobs throughout different seasons in order to provide a good opportunity for their family and children. you descri

he came out and suggested that bill nelson was making stuff out. the two republican that's he claimed had knowledge of this, burr and rubio, neither one is denying what bill nelson has. said. and then late started to appear to be taking these allegations a little more seriously. they responded by basically scoffing at the senator. then late on friday, the secretary of state wrote a letter to the homeland security department and the fbi asking to reaffirm their commitment to working with florida officials to share any knowledge of florida's threat to systems. then over the weekend senator mark warner, top democrat on the intelligence committee, he put out a statement backing senator bill nelson up directly saying he was right to warn election officials in his state about this quote very serious and ongoing threat to our democracy. i urge officials at all levels of government to lead the warning and work with dhs to address the threat. so we don't know yet how this gets worked out or if partisans in florida will stop treating this as something that w

the president's current governor, rick scott, the gop favor to take on democrat bill nelson in novemberblican race headlines the arizona senate primary for the retiring jeff flake's seat and donald from supporting arizona's greg doocy who is expected to win the primary. the first lady claiming history at the white house with the senate saying the past president, the granddaughter president eisenhower and fifth-generation grandson of james munro planting a tree with milania trump on the self one. >> from the original eisenhower on the east wing garden treated by jackie kennedy close to the tree that shouldering the storm. a hot day to be out there digging around in the garden. 9 minutes after the hour. in a few hours bruce ohr will be grilled behind closed door there for donald trump slammed his connection to the trump russia dossier. >> for him to be in the justice department and doing what he did is a disgrace. rob: two big questions bruce ohr needs to answer. shannon: you will need more money next time you head to the airport. the airline just increased fees for checked bags. ♪ rob: s

governor rick scott of florida is running against bill nelson for senate. t and suggested that senator nelson was just making stuff up. but the two republicans who nelson claimed also had knowledge of this, senator burr and senator rubio, neither one of them is denying what bill nelson has said. and then, late on friday night, the florida secretary of state suddenly started to appear to be taking these allegations a little more seriously. he initially responded by basically scotching iscoffing senator. then late on friday, the secretary of state wrote a letter to the homeland security department and the fbi asking to reaffirm their commitment to working with florida officials to share any knowledge of potential lets threats to florida's voting systems. then, over the weekend, senator mark warner, top democrat on the intelligence committee, he put out a statement basically backing senator bill nelson up directly, saying senator nelson was right to warn election officials in his state about this, quote, very serious and ongoing threat to our democracy. quote,

bill nelson democratic senator from florida has some alarming news he says that russia has hacked its way into the state's voter registration records they have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about well time demand the battle stations this is big news except for some reason no one in florida has ever heard about it there are a rebel from the florida department of state says that no law enforcement is aware of anything of this nature she says they have received zero information from nelson about his claim and that the f.b.i. the d.h.s.s. and all the florida law enforcement have has observed nothing of the kind the department of homeland security in washington d.c. has now confirmed that they've never heard about it spokesperson sarah sendek says that it didn't happen to she says we have not heard any news of compromises by russian actors of the election infrastructure build nelson however says he has obsessional inside information about russian hackers in florida but he can't tell us the details because it's classified he can't tell

florida has heard of it the department of homeland security has not heard about it but let's take bill nelson at his word let's say the russians actually have hacked into the voting records don't you think that bill ought to be giving whatever information he has to the d.h.s.s. and to florida officials shouldn't he be telling them before he tells the media if they haven't heard about it yet shouldn't they have heard about it now and shouldn't they now take that information and stop the breach why is bill not swing into action getting all the local and federal officials involved well that's classified so classified that bill is holding all the cards and leaving the rest of america in the dark talk of russia is certainly a headline grabber but this time no one is rushing in to save the unnamed counties in florida and that's what makes it a bit too fishy it sounds a bit like somebody isn't telling the truth and that somebody is a lot closer to miami than the moscow. spade know surpassed both italy and greece as europe's main entry point for among different arrivals with almost thirty thousand pe

the senator from florida, bill nelson, who is facing re-election this year. d by the serving republican governor of the state, senator nelson says that there is a cyber attack underway that is targeting florida local election systems and in his words, the russians are in there now and have free reign to move about at will. the state through governor scott appears to be dismissing this and calling him all but crazy for bringing this up. from a law enforcement, cyber security perspective, what is your overall reaction to that? >> my reaction is that on the one hand it points to the natural defensive reaction we get from state officials, which is understandable and we need to account for it. nobody likes to admit they have been hacked. but the fact is that we know that in 2016 florida was one of the seven states identified by dhs where the russians not only were circling, but they were in their system. so i agree with the spirit of what senator nelson has said today. the other thing i think it points to is i made the point on your show a couple weeks ago that we

bill nelson spoke to the tampa bay times. >> they have already penetrated certain counties in the statew have free rein to move about. >> reporter: when cnn asked senator nelson for specifics about what the russians had c e done, he didn't elaborate, saying that's classified. the florida department of state and the department of home hand security say they've seen no evidence to support nelson's claims. u.s. intelligence officials recently said the russians don't appear to be as aggressive as they were in 2016. >> relative to what we have seen for the midterm elections, it is not the kind of robust campaign that we assessed in 2016 election. >> reporter: still, dan coats says the warning lights are blinking red on america's digital infrastructure. how could russian hackers get into florida's voter registration system? >> it's using a phishing e-mail. this piece of malware would do things like record passwords and user names to log into the voter registration system and then they would be able to use those credentials as their own. >> reporter: then experts say they can inflict chaos at

, giving bill nelson a tough challenge for re-election.ertainly doesn't help. >> regardless, what is the state and all 67 counties running the elections, what are they doing now in light of this? are they doing anything different? >> you know, they're getting some federal funding to tighten up their systems. i think right now they're just sort of clamoring for some specific information, and it's one of those things that there seems to be a gap. if there's classified information that can't be shared with those local election supervisors, that's not necessarily constructive. that's just causing concern and doing presumably what the russians would want to do, raise doubts about the sanctity of our voting system. >> what are you hearing from folks there? it seems something's got to give in terms of nelson's -- i mean, i assume nelson needs to clarify, at least speak with you guys to clarify a second time of what's going on here. >> yeah, but there again, if you're dealing with classified information, he can't clarify potentially. he got himsel

if you have rick scott and bill nelson. >> bill nelson, i've seldom seen a person fail us thoroughlyural incentives that you have. beating an incumbent senator is very hard. bill nelson sat on his hands for months while rick scott who is self funding, he's a hugely rich human being, self funding coming out after him. he's already got a big name and relatively successful run as governor, and bill nelson just stinks at this. it's a mystery for the ages about how he has been so flat-footed. >> martha: before i let you go, half a minute, your thoughts on how the president handled the passing of john mccain? >> that was an awful long time to take in a lot of ways to goodwill for something that he ended up doing anyway to be dragged to this position, and waste the time and waste the goodwill and politicize all of this when all these people around him inside the white house and his administration were saying, please, do the right thing. why waste the time and why waste the goodwill. we want good to see you as always. when we come back, celebrating the life of the late senator john mccain, i

but senator bill nelson is standing by his statement and he's offering some important detail. ator, republican member of the senate intelligence committee marco rubio is not disputing senator nelson's account. today he released a statement taking no issue with any son's remarks and declaring his state's elections systems have been and will remain a potentially attractive target for attacks by foreign actors. the tampa bay times also reports bill nelson's account was partly corroborated by two county officials who said they heard a similar warning at a private meeting with rubio earlier this year in may. senator nelson says both he and senator rubio warned florida election officials about their current russian intrusion in a letter last month. he says he sent that letter to local florida election officials specifically at the request of the republican chairman and the democratic vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. >> we were requested by the chairman and vice chairman of the intelligence committee to let the supervisors of election in florida know that the russia

so is bill nelson a happier man today or not? >> i would think bill nelson has a skip in his step not just because andrew gillum is out there and he has shown he can juice the black vote, he gets high margins and a high turnout but so does shawn shaw. the first florida democratic official who is running as the attorney general nominee. so you've got two historic african-american picks on the democratic ticket. that's really good for bill nelson, really good for democrats running statewide. >> and you made the algae bloom nugget, st. lucie county, rick scott -- >> martin. >> martin county where the algae bloom is the worst. >> martin county has been particularly hard hit by the toxic algae scandal or poisoning. what we saw is that rick scott was running against an unknown republican who just runs all the time. it turns out he got 190,000 votes statewide even though no money was spent. 20% of the republican vote in martin county went to rocky. a lot of people are looking at that result and a lot of that is toxic algae related. >> i

same with bill nelson. we have two concurrent statewide races where we might have very different approaches to how to win in a swing state like florida. host: where do you think the president as far as direct involvement -- will they continue on as far as florida is concerned? guest: i imagine they would. we have seen rick scott try to distance himself since he decided to run for senate. will unclear how much it help him, but it seems clear ron desantis' strategy involves around the president's involvement. host: let's turn to the arizona senate, two women running for this spot to be in the senate. what were the results? guest: in arizona we had kyrsten sinema. that is no surprise, she was uncontested and we have known for quite a while now. the republican nominee was a bit more up in the air. primary three-way between sheriff arpaio, he made news during the trump administration, and kelly ward. martha mcsorley -- mcsally would be the most likable. in a primary, it's hard to know beforehand even with a bit

. >>> more news we're following here in the united states, florida senator bill nelson now says russianve penetrated some of his state's voting systems. the only problem, the state of florida, the secretary of state there says it has zero information to back up the senator's claim. ovascular death for adults who have type 2 diabetes and heart disease... ...and lower a1c, with diet and exercise. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, and trouble breathing. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction. symptoms of an allergic reaction include rash, swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing. do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. other side effects are sudden kidney problems, genital yeast infections, increased bad cholesterol, and urinary tract infections, w

he will take on bill nelson, the democrat. we can show you the early polling on this race. this one has surprised people in both parties. if you average together the polling out there right now, scott is actually slightly leading bill nelson. a bit of a surprise because florida always competitive. it was a trump state in 2016 but only by a small margin. those democrats in trump states, they seem to be the ones that trump won by 30, 40 points. he is in a dogfight with rick scott. he won the race for governor in 2010 and 2014. he rarely won both of those. he may not be that popular, it may not be the year for him climatewise. he was fighting what he thought to be political gravity. we will see. if republicans can knock off bill nelson, very, very hard, almost impossible, to see democrats picking up control of the senate, so this will be a premiere race. another one, we set it up a minute ago with that news out of arizona, but we'll show you again the official winner on the republican side, the establishment gets their wish here. martha mcsally, national republican said they b

senate primary and he'll be going up against bill nelson. we'll bring you the results as we have them. but first, sit tight, and buckle up, time for our jam-packed opening monologue edition. ♪ >> sean: tonight we are blowing this case about bruce ohr, fisa abuse, wide open. i've been on the phone with the sources all day and all nights, people who were in the room during ohr's testimony. we learned that he said that he understood this b-17 dossier would never have been accepted in a court of law. he understood it, 65 pages of notes and texts, and meetings between him and christopher steele. he said the fbi knew about the cd relationship with steele. so much to cover, stay with us, we'll break with it. there is no doubt that a conspiracy to commit fraud against fisa court judges did in fact take place. let's dive into the testimony from bruce ohr today. remember, he is the twice demoted doj official who once helped ex-foreign spy paid for by hillary christopher steele spread all these anti-trump russian lies throughout the highest levels of o

>> as you said in the intro, governor scott is challenging bill nelson.gs that democrats didn't expect was rick scott to jump in the race, because he was going to pump so much of his own money in and they thought this is going to be a democratic blue wave year. president trump is unpopular. well, rick scott jumped in the race. the blue wave has yet to really materialize. rick scott has spent about $20.5 million of his own money. and right now he's nominally leading in the polls. there's a lot of concern in the democrats that bill nelson is kind of not getting it done. but we have to remember, this is florida. we have a history of just razor-thin election margins. and these top of the ticket races in november will be no exception this year. >> given the tight races, what's the determinant both tonight and in november in florida? is it turnout? is it how national polls feel? what's the thing that we're looking for? >> this race, unlike any other midterm we've seen in the state, at least when it comes to a governor's race, is all about the president. this is

bill nelson going to be the republican nominee there. here's the interesting thing. to face off against rick scott, the governor. the polling in florida, trump won the state by less than 2 points and yet look at what we're seeing here. rick scott, if you average the polls together in florida, he's running slightly ahead of bill nelson, so again, you think of that senate math for democrats. even if they hang on to a west virginia, a montana, a missouri, a michigan, wisconsin, all those, if they hold on to all those, if they lose florida, the odds of the democrats being able to pick up the senate then, they diminish dramaticlially if they can't get florida. the flip side, though, we said last night, arizona, republicans breathing a sigh of relief because the establishment choice is their nominee. arizona is one of these states, there aren't that many on the map, we're seeing there's four right now, republican seats where democrats seem to have some kind of a shot. arizona is one of them and if republicans hadn't nominated sally, i think democrats would have had more th

we are talking about rick scott, the governor, right now, of florida, going up against bill nelson.didn't need to follow this one. it was a washout. against bill nelson, two big names in florida and that could be an interesting race. >> big names and big dollars, the most expensive campaign in america. rick scott has dumped in $20 million of his own money, a nice bit of pocket change and a lot of outside money coming in. if you look at the politics average of polls, it is very tight, it will encourage more spending and an exciting race to watch. jillian: the florida gop governors race that a lot of people are watching because at one point adam putnam was ahead and then ron desantis got the donald trump endorsement and comes away with the win. >> if ever there was a race where you can call the trump bump this is one of them. so he won, a big win for the president and well poised in that space to take on a democratic contender. rob: that trump bump, 3000 votes in that race, incredible. south florida, a familiar name, donna shalala versus a former news anchor and republican. >> reporte

i voted for bill nelson. he has been doing a good job.eps his head down, he does not slander other people -- i am so proud of him. and i live in a district where i did not vote for gates. is living and a trout echo chamber and i want to representative in congress who will think for himself -- he is living in h -- he is living in a trump living and a trout eo chamber and i want to representative in congress who will think for himself echo chai want a representative in congress who will think for himself. please, everybody get out and vote. in gates'sis mary district in florida. before we leave, two more ads to show you. here is congressman ron desantis's ad. [video clip] a proud veteran, a top, brilliant cookie. ron desantis. [applause] we can make ours state about economic opportunities that we continue with stronger, conservative policies by getting the constitution back in our classrooms, we can fight illegal immigration. we can verify and stop sanctuary cities. pres. trump: everyone needs to support ron desantis. host: ron desantis bei

bill nelson has voted for higher taxes over 300 times. governor we lost 832,000 jobs. clear choice with ron desantis and me saying we are going to keep this economy going and continue to focus on the families of florida. not on some big government agenda. brian: interesting governor. you used to be behind in the polls. ran for election behind 20 points and now you are up three. how do you keep that lead and continue to separate? because you know the democrats, the machine is going to come at you with everything because the balance of power is at stake. >> first off do you remember i was never ahead in the polls in my two governor's races it's totally different now. first off, there walls no blue wave. we saw in the primary no blue wave in florida. more republicans voted 1.6 million voted 1.5 million democrats. higher percentage of republicans come out to vote than democrats. in the last year more republicans have registered to vote than democrats. and with absentee ballots with a very contest i had democrat governor primary we still had a

. >> there are democrats that are worried about bill nelson, i believe that the bill nelson machine willrevail. >> is there one though? >> he got reelected quite a few times. i think it will be a tough race. >> christian: this could be a big change, a big pickup for republicans in a number of states. but in others, specifically missouri, montana and west virginia, it's really a big change. there's a change in this whole blue wave dynamic. and with florida i think likely retaining a republican governor, it illuminates the ability of the democratic party to generate stars outside of the left-wing progressive atmosphere. >> we will be watching and covering it here. in the meantime, the secretary of defense makes a new announcement. attention on the rise after president trump suddenly canceled mike pompeo's trip to pyongyang. now future military exercises on the peninsula will go forward. what does this mean for efforts to denuclearize north korea? we are glad to have former state department advisor manafort here to weigh in on that. stay tuned. >> we took the step to suspend a several of th

scott has been slightly ahead of bill nelson, republicans would badly love to knock off nelson if they could do that. the odds of democrats taking over the senate would go to very, very, very slim. we'll talk about this. two big races in florida this fau, big one in arizona, as well. more rachel maddow right after this. ring your alarm clock... with new*! zzzquil pure zzzs. a drug-free blend of botanicals with melatonin ...that supports your natural sleep cycle... ...so you can seize the morning. new! zzzquil pure zzzs. >>> joining us for the interview is someone i would very much like you to meet. someone with a great deal of high level experience in a place that is basically news central for us these days. his name is david loftman. he served in the department of justice under republican and democratic administration. before he stepped down from the justice department in february of this year, he served in the national security division at doj. he was the chief of the counter intelligence and export control section in the national security division. now, in that capacity he oversaw i

. >> with bill nelson, more waiting, more talk and more algae. >> reporter: nelson snapped back sayingm voters, figure it out, now. >> experpts do not expect it to go away until the weather cools and that will be around midterms. we continue with wolf blitzer. he is in the "situation room." >>> happening now, blame game. a week after michael cohen's guilty plea turned president trump into what some experts are calling an unindicted co-conspirator and after the chairman was convicted of fraud. the president offers his latest conspiracy theory, accusing google of rigging search results to make him look bad. >> trial delay. a new delay in paul manafort's second trial. how he skirted for

bill nelson and the senate.hat he will energize the trump voters, much more than putnam. it'll be interesting to see how that race plays out. it is a race to keep an eye on. >> brett: we put this up all the time, democrats need 23 states to take control the house. the wisdom to him is that they are going to get there. it is not a done deal as of yet. your pick? >> 49th district and my state in california. it is mike leven against dian harkey, levin is the democrats. this is an area that is one of the red pockets of the state of california. a very blue state. this includes la jolla, a part of san diego, this has been a changing demographic. i think this is one seat that could certainly flip in favor of democrats. it'll be interesting because if that happens, in sacramento in san diego. >> california has one of the risky places for the republicans the cycle. >> brett: byron, wrap it up. >> the north dakota senate. the republicans have been handicapped by having such a tiny majority. if they're going to make it any