>>> former senator al franken says he's considering a return to politics. minnesota democrat resigned back in january after several women accused him of inappropriately touching them. now he says never say never when asked about running again. >> i miss the whole job. i love that job. i love the job of senator. if i say anything there, you'll put it in the story. so i -- i don't know. i don't know. i haven't ruled it out. i haven't ruled it in. >> franken's friend and former colleague senator amy klobuchar didn't exactly get behind the idea of his comeback. >> al made his own decision to resign, so i don't see this in the cards that he's running right now. >> this isn't just wild speculation. he's the one saying he hasn't ruled it out. i guess i'm just wondering, would you like to see him back in congress? >> i'd like to see him back doing good work and using his skills and his passion for public service in a way, but that doesn't mean he necessarily has to run for office. >> that would be a no for amy clo klobuchar. >> that's just so uncomfortable. it's no

when the franken case happened, we had video of franken behaving inappropriately.he woman making the allegation here says she has a tape but even in the interview you just played with cbs she has not produced the tape and ellison said there isn't. shannon: she says she doesn't want to release it and alleged victims should not have to put out things that are embarrassing or humiliating just to be believed. >> her son was brought into this and talked about the fact the tape exists. i understand her pain and anguish. of the story she is telling holds up it is troubling and mister ellison should go away. the good news is there is going to be an election, the voters get to decide whether or not someone who committed these terrible acts, whether they think they are overblown. i like the fact that it is in the hands of the voters. what i don't like is the mainstream media refuses to cover this the same way they cover republican problems. >> we saw congressman chris collins accused of insider trading, paul ryan said there would be house ethics investigation, we have, harri

i'm one of the few republicans who defended al franken.o. >> al franken got kicked out and let's not also forget john conyers, laura, it's only been 72 hours, no evidence coming out, and you are a lawyer. you know as well as i do, let's see some evidence. there has been no evidence. but monica didn't mention roy moore. monica didn't mention representative john conyers got kicked out, along with al franken. >> i did. >> laura: people knew about him for years, though! i've been hearing about him -- i mean, that too me, wasn't even news. monica, there is -- it's fun to look back on some of these montages. i think all allegations should be taken seriously but people shouldn't be condemned before actual facts come out, which i think everybody rushes to judgment. >> you and i have talked about this repeatedly, laura, there is no due process in the me too movement. your point is a critical one about in the political sphere,to if we will apply a standard, it should be applied equally across the board, and you just don't see that happening. part of

do you think franken should run? >> as far as i'm concerned, the most important question in any one of these should run or shouldn't run questions is what do the voters think? i think if he does run, this will be a question where his behavior and his past is fully vetted and they put it up to the citizens of minnesota. to a very large extent, i think we should be asking the american people what they think instead of what a small number of people inside the party think. to me the question that the democratic party has to answer, how are we best going to represent the american people and let their voice be heard. >> so yes or no, tom, are you going to run? do you want to? 2020, you haven't ruled it out. >> hallie, what i have said repeatedly is that i'm going to work full-time as hard as i can through the election day to try to flip the house and take the biggest step forward for the democratic party as possible. i'm going to be watching to see if people are telling the truth to the american people and that's going to

the minnesota state senator karen housley, she won the public and primary, to fill the seat of al franken that was filled by tina smith, the lieutenant governor, now sitting senator. interesting about this, this is not in anybody's radar. it should be. this race could be closer than people think.

with the kremlin something far more mundane as his former lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty to franken tax fraud he

the winner will serve the final two years of former democrat senator al franken's term. karin housley is starting her outreach thing "radical partisanship threatens to stand in the way of confronting the many challenges that face our nation and the people of our stages are better." a big surprise came in the minnesota governor 's race on the republican side with a president trump backed candidate defeating a former two-term governor. >> i support donald trump. i've always supported donald trump. it doesn't mean i always agree. it doesn't mean we have the same style. >> johnson's win marks the end of a comeback by former republican governor and presidential candidate tim pawlenty was a guest of his political career is done. >> the circumstances we live in in the era of a different kind of leadership in terms of a president trump and the like. i just don't fit well into that era come into that picture. so the baton gets passed to jeff and his team and we wish them all.

burger franken beef but what do we know well look i maybe it's not so weird if everybody understood how all their other a food gets to them how they're carrots and peaches and oranges it's all done through a grafting technology so in other words what you're doing is you're taking really one master carrot and just replacing it again and again and again this same thing that's going on with meat now which is that we're taking one cell of a perfectly good part of the cow that's able to replicate itself and we're just putting it in nice happy environment and we're feeding it some sugar and some oxygen and it grows up to be a big boy a big burger now the first one that first burger cost three hundred thirty thousand dollars so i don't know if there's a good retail it's not a happy at all no matter how you eat it now i'm going to be careful because i don't want to make myself sick here thinking about it but when you say it replicates itself the cell replicates itself so are we we're not talking about organ we're talking about things like scar tissue or something that would be able to skin

. >> yeah. >> and al franken had his own stumble with the #metoo movement.nd he was a champion of this bill. i mean, he supported it. >> mm. >> do you think that he was unfairly or too precipitously removed from the senate, or that there might have been a fairer process to adjudicate his stumbles? >> i think that if his stumbles had been revealed right now, there may have been a different reaction. i think we were so much in the heat of what was happening with harvey weinstein, et cetera, that it was like any person that came forward, you know, they were automatically -- they had to resign or whatever the case was. i think a really important point here is that there are different levels of harassment and assault. and we need to recognize that. so, if you have al franken and the allegations here of what happened and you have harvey weinstein way up here, including alleged rape, that's a huge difference. so i think we need to be cognizant of that and not try to lump men all together. but i think it shows that this can be going on behind the scenes to any and a

al franken, who was a sitting senator, resigned his seat for far less. keith ellison tonight is running for the chief law enforcement officer of the state of minnesota with no -- >> one of the reasons franken had to resign is because people like you were chasing him out of office saying how terrible he was and doing that what aboutism like you're doing now. i'm talking about trump and -- >> i'm not going to let you do it. >> i'm not going to let you do it, my brother, because you're -- >> rewind the tape, chris. >> let's blame other people for what they did because that -- >> rewind the tape on al franken. i said al franken should be given due pro es icess. >> due process for -- >> there's ethics procedure in the house to take place, and he was pushed out by democrat. >> what i'm saying is i'm talking about the way the president talks about people of color, and you say let's talk about keith ellison. does that make it okay? >> no, it's not okay. >> if i were charging you with a crime, could you say, but i know this other guy who committed a crime? >> lis

i said al franken should be given due process.er been one to -- >> due process for -- >> there's ethics procedure in the house to take place, and he was pushed out by democrats. >> what i'm saying is i'm talking about the way the president talks about people of color, and you say let's talk about keith ellison. does that make it okay? >> no, it's not okay. >> if i were charging you with a crime, could you say, but i know this other guy who committed a crime? could you get out of it that way? >> chris, i don't think it's okay. from a purely p.r. perspective, why would you give omarosa more oxygen? the best thing the president could have done is simply ignore her. >> that's a good point. sim oeymon symone, dave just made a good point. when you don't sweat somebody, you know what you do? you ignore them? you don't empower them? >> that's what the mayor just said about the guy who wrote his book. >> trump is taking legal action against omarosa. >> he is. the fact of the matter is there's two things. one, omarosa has a very long histor

this was al franken's vacated seat.o see the real failures of the tina smith administration from adding another layer of bureaucracy on top of obamacare to our licensing bureau, and then what i really specialized in and the minnesota senate was taking care of our seniors. they really failed to keep our seniors safe in our nursing home when i have to run against that one, she does not represent minnesota. the one she benefits from having a broader name i.d. than you do because she took over the al franken seat. so she's been there, and incumbent of course that's been there for only about nine months. the emerson poll shows that you are trailing, tina smith at 49%, and you karen housley, but the primary is tomorrow and have the possibility of taking her own in the general election. republicans always think they can win big in minnesota, is there something that's the tipping point this year? >> i think actually a poll that came out this year, it had me down at four. the one i might have got that wrong. >> it's okay, it's g

burger franken beef but what do we know well look at maybe it's not so weird everybody understood how all their other food gets to them how they're carrots and peaches and oranges it's all done through a grafting technology so in other words what you're doing is you're taking really one master carrot and just replacing it again and again and again this same thing that's going on with meat now which is that we're taking one cell of a perfectly good part of a cow that's able to replicate itself and we're just putting it in nice happy environment and we're feeding it some sugar and some oxygen and it grows up to be a big boy a big burger now the first one. that first burger cost three hundred thirty thousand dollars so i don't know if there's a good retail it's not a happy at all no matter how you eat it now i'm going to be careful because i don't want to make myself sick here thinking about it but when you say it replicates itself the cell replicates itself so are we are not talking about organ we're talking about things like scar tissue or something that would be able to skin or someth

sabina custard franken has the latest from italy for us so the death toll it was suggested earlier might rise just because of the scale of this is that it appears it is going to rise and authorities here are saying that the search and rescue operation will continue until everybody that is missing is accounted for and that means going into the night as well the italian prime minister has just arrived on the scene just epic want to is in genoa the. transport minister is also expected the deputy prime minister met there salvini has been talking about the matter says everybody who is responsible for this disaster must be held accountable and we need the names and the surnames of each and every one of them now and that's not going to be an easy matter and i'm sure it's going to take quite some time but of course if he will be mourning many dead due to this disaster and now the question is how many more bridges and how many more highways in this country are unsafe to travel there was an incredible report today of a young man a thirty six year old who was in his car was on that bridge the bridg

and al franken's set is open. joining me now, larry sabato, always a pleasure to see you.de from florida, which is a bunch of races there this year this mid-term, is minnesota a state that we should be paying attention to? >> yes, incredibly. minnesota was not that competitive overall. the governorship changed hands a lot. used to be heavily democratic. it's the only state that ronald reagan didn't carry. it's changed. it's evolved. it's one of those states that trump came close to carrying, was within a couple points of carrying but nobody expected him to do well in. we're watching that. yes, governor, two senate seats and four toss-ups in the house out of their eight seats. it's the largest proportion for any state that is a toss-up of any state with more than five congressional seats. >> how would you recommend a candidate to break through the noise? if you have three statewide races, that's huge for any state. then you have all the competitive house races that you mentioned. how would you break out of the noise? >> well, yeah, dana, my advice, which is widely ignored,

in minnesota, there are several closely watched primaries including one for al franken's old senate seat. senator tina smith, who was appointed to fill franken's seat, is running in the democratic primary against richard painter, a former white house ethics lawyer under president george w. bush. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with the historic verdict in a lawsuit against u.s. agribusiness giant monsanto. in a groundbreaking decision, a juryry in california has ordered monsanto to pay $289 million in damages to a school groundskeeper who developed cancer after regularly using the weed killer roundup. the 46-year-old man, dewayne johnson, has non-hodgkin's lymphoma. doctors say he is unlikely to live past 2020. judge suzanne ramos bolanos read the jury's verdict. >> would a reasonable manufacture, distributor, or seller under the same or similar circumstances have warned of the danger or instructed on the safe use of roundup pro or ranger pro? answer, yes will stop was monsanto

with the kremlin something far more mundane as his former lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty to franken tax fraud he also admitted guilt in campaign finance charges allegedly paying off former mistresses of trump for their silence or not orders of the now president in a double whammy trump's former campaign manager paul minor four was also found guilty of numerous personal fraud charges potentially facing years in prison what about the russian links that after all that's what the attorney general authorized special counsel moola to dig up coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of president trump seemingly nothing they could do the right huge which we got our. where is that go loser you know there's no looking for collusion where is the delusion finds a delusion it's a day of embarrassment for trump and bad timing too with midterm elections approaching and democrats looking for any i mean if they can find the president though will view this as a vindication a year and a half later after several investigations the russian leak story still

he said senator al franken should step down.veryone must share the responsibility of building a culture of trust and respect for women in every industry, workplace and that includes our party. fast forward to this month, the dnc statement on ellison allegations is these allegations recently came to light and we are reviewing them. all allegations of domestic abuse are disturbing and should be taken seriously. you think there is a double standard here? >> massive double standard compared to the way rob porter was treated with a huge amount of press coverage for ache sanctions against rob porter the former white house staff secretary. all the previous instances all organizations have to respond. he is the co-chairman of the democratic national committee and the dnc took 48 hours to say something and even then what they said was they are going to punt and not say anything yet. and basically the press let them get away with it. if this had been at the rnc, this would have been a feeding frenzy where the press demanded an answer from

tina smith was looking to fill the rest of the term of a former senator now al franken.ake us through what happened and whether republicans will be targeting that race in the fall. guest: republicans are really excited about their nominee, karen housley, a local state lawmaker. it is known that minnesota is going to be a difficult state for republicans this year. they are hoping she might have the kind of personal appeal that could work in the state. -- running for reelection, there is tina smith and there are a number of house seats in minnesota. that will be one of the states we are looking for in terms of senate majority and house majority and in terms of the makeup of the governorship across the country. believe it. at least three house seats in minnesota are in the most competitive tossup category. take us through a couple of the house races last night. any big surprises? guest: one of the big republican nominees, jing hagedorn ended up defeating carla nelson. handorn only facing dancy in tim walz's open seat. he has made some comments about women that could hurt hi

he's hung by his own franken stein that he created that are now turning on him. >> the question was will this strategy work? >> no t won't work because i keep saying this sex, lives, videotape and audiotape. the proof is there. the truth is the paof. and the problem is the president likes to spepb it this way and craft this nair tfbl but once you have someone who pwhraoedz guilty and tips. and it this t the president can say we waeupbt. but as long as there is video and his voice speaking these truths that we're here hing, he's in trouble. and his is a wounded president trump. we saw a wounded and a weakened president and he was in that east room today in the metal moany. when i received the diagnoses, i knew at that exact moment ... i'm beating this. my main focus was to find a team of doctors. it's not just picking a surgeon, it's picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. visit cancercenter.com/breast i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can

it was in the middle of al franken and harvey weinstein and he was answering a question about paul ryan and it's very important that we believe the women. and he said do you believe the women who have accused president trump of sexual assault. paul ryan does melted into a puddle on the floor. he's bad. thank you very much for being here. that means said. growing up in the area. it is so one of the old party machines. have we get better democrats in these areas where we are so entrenched and the full party politics. i think the utility of the machine are like the legend of the machine is the actual efficacy in this day and age. yes cortez can beat him in queens. that any for lipstick you can't buy the lipstick anymore it's so popular. >> so i think if you run a progressive campaign that represents change give it a shot to win anywhere. and so what we do is if you think the democratic party establishment is calcified in your area find someone to run against them. and some people can do about this primary challenges. it's actually healthy because either you're and went but you're also goin

paul kane writing that many yearrats were harsher last when the senate colleague al franken faced allegationsf groping women and other inappropriate sexual advances within an hour of the first senatoron, heiress and kiersten gillibrand made it clear they would not spare the senator because he was a leading liberal and paul kane also congressional no doubt -- democrats have called for a house ethics committee investigation into allison -- ellison.

on the press donald trump has repeatedly derived elements of the media as fake news and the reason franken the universally acclaimed queen of soul has died at her home in detroit a seventy six year old american singer had been ill with pancreatic cancer. and other stories we're following the former indian prime minister atal bihari i has died at the age of ninety three he had been on life support since wednesday and died in hospital. as best known on the international stage for testing nuclear weapons in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight and ron cowen takes a look back at his life. how he was elected prime minister not twice but three times at all the hari vij by india first for thirteen days in latino to six but was unable to form a majority of that resigned he was prime minister for thirteen months in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight broader coalition partner with troops he was once again forced to resign he completed a full term of almost six years from nine hundred ninety nine. i the international stage he's perhaps best known for testing nuclear weapons and one hundred nine

. >> tucker: al franken was forced out of the senate for something far less.o replace him married her brother? can that be right? >> well, i am still asking myself that question. i got a tip 2 years ago that in fact omar was married to two guys and that her brother was husband number 2. as far as i checked it out at the time, i was -- it seemed to check out. i asked her campaign to comment and they sent me back an email from a criminal defense attorney refuseing to respond to the allegation and calling me a bigot. after i wrote about it on powerline, a local reporter for a small publication online callouts called alpha news followed up on what i had written and she found all kinds of social media evidence supporting the evidence that husband number 2 was in fact her brother. she had never legally married husband number 1 whom she held out as the father of her children and explained she married husband number 2 for a short period of time. 8 years later but refuseed to ve very -- to answer any questions. >> tucker: you think of minnesota as a straight laced stat

. >> tucker: al franken was forced out of the senate for something far less.e interesting to see. the woman who was just nominated tous replace him marrying her brother, cannot be right? >> i'm asking that question, i got a tip two years ago that in fact ilhan omar was married to two guys and her brother was husband number two and so far as i was able to check it out at the time, it seemed to check ou out. i asked her campaign to comment on what i had found and they sent me back an email from a criminal defense attorney refusing to respond to the allegations and calling me a bigot. after i wrote about it on power line, a local reporter for a small publication, small online publication followed up on what i had written and she found all kinds of social media evidence supporting the evidence that husband number two was in fact her brother and as ilhan omar explained at the time she had never legally married as husband number one who he is comic she has always held out and explained that she married husband number two for a short period of time but has refused to

. >> i want to switch gears and ask you about al franken.resigned in this me too movement where he was seen pretending to grope a sleeping woman before he was ever a senator. yesterday, he talked, he was asked on a minds cbs station in an interview, he said i miss the job. i love the job as senator, and he said he had not ruled out running again and trying to get that job again. could you like to see him run again? >> he made his own decision to resign, so i don't see this in the cards right now. i think he went back to minnesota, a school that he worked on, i was glad that he was there for the opening of the school. i think he said he is says what he does. this is not just wild speculation. he says he has not ruled it out, would you like to see him back in congress? >> i would like to see him back doing good work and using his skills and his passion for public service in a way, but that doesn't mean that he necessarily has to run for office. and i'm really pleased that he is continuing to do good things like go to that indian school and wor

also in minnesota tonight, karen owsley won the republican primary to fill the seat of our franken thata smith. interesting about this. it is not anybody's radar. it should be. this is closer than people think. owsley is the wife of buffalo sabers head coach phil housley, former washington capitals, former nhl hall of fame -- >> had to work the stanley cup in there. >> you know that hockey place in minnesota so don't discount this race. it is not one that is on the front burner but it could be one that is really close in the end. >> let's stay in minnesota for a second because mike emanuel mentioned keith ellison. it is not just about a state attorney general. in the me too era you have allegations of domestic abuse that he sharply denied and he said he will talk more about it but this is someone who is the first muslim american elected to congress and the beauty dnc chair, supposed to be a rising star. he's in a lot of trouble now. >> you will see more questions now that he's over the hump. it is fascinating to watch media coverage or lack of coverage. you have allegations against chri

jakes you have not seen al franken who was not a radical, but traveling to the south in the word of godtha franklin was doing this every step of the way. i got to add, don, we talk about aretha franklin of this wonderful singer and voice but she also pushed the artistic boundaries of music by doing everything, she played the piano and did the arrangement. "amazing grace" is still the greatest gospel ever made. she did songs with lauren hill and stevie wonder and curtis mayfield. there is nobody who stands at the level of aretha franklin. she's the singer of america's music. >> aretha franklin will take you to church and she will make you dance in the club, right? >> yeah, mark said it best. her voice was one of a kind. i spent today in preparation of the piece i have coming out in rolling stone for tomorrow looking at two key points of african-american history, one was when she sang "precious lord take my hand" and when she sang for obama's inauguration, her ability to take standard songs and speak through to us, she was a walking icon and legend to us all. >>. >> she took your songs an

century america but the whole world harvey was included in a section called heroes and icons with and franken the kennedys and mother teresa. so he was only one to be included in the most influential individuals in the h century but there is a wonderful documentaryfu about him and just the honors that he has received that he received from president obama the medal of freedom the highest honor that you can get in 2009 to proclaim an annual milk day they had a stamp with his image in 2016 the secretary of the navy announced the ship was being built and was named after him and i don't know how he would like that but i say that because he was so against airport expansion a terminal was named after him. [laughter] so what i tried to do in the book what randy scholz did not present but i should say his papers are important and vital for anyone who doessa research so i studied his papers at the san francisco public library for the material that that they did not include in his book that i did include in mindful i'm very grateful but i try to suggest in the book harvey's complexity he was a very comp

in senator al franken. that will be top of mind for voters. we'll have to see. >> one of the races we'll watch tonight, this one because of these sad allegations, serious allegations. we'll watch these votes tonight and count them tomorrow. thanks for joining us today. hope to see you back here at noon tomorrow. wolf is in now to pick up our coverage. have a great day. >>> hello. i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. we begin with breaking news. the defense in paul manafort's tax and bank fraud trial has rested without calling any witnesses. manafort telling the judge himself he did not want to take the stand. that now sets the stage for closing arguments tomorrow morning. with me now is shimon prokupecz, who's been following the trial. also, michael zeldin, a former federal prosecutor and former special assistant to robert mueller at the justice department. shimon, if i could begin with you first. just to highlight this, this is the

don't forget, sean, minnesota still reeling from the resignation of senator al franken just last year>> sean: thank you for that report. joining us now with reactions to tonight's opening while monolo, alan dershowitz. he has a great book. professor dershowitz, let me begin with you. i think that sara's report tonight, what are the firewalls? i don't have any new information. it sounds very nefarious and to me. >> i have no idea. that's why it from the beginning i call for a nonpartisan complete investigation by expert to all aspects of this whole election. we have to get to the bottom of this. we have to have testimony that's open to the public, not behind closed doors of the grand jury. the american public is entitled to know what these things mean. i have no idea what these firewalls are referring to, but enough to open up some kind of investigation. can i, just briefly on your opening monologue? i wrote a piece for "the boston globe" arguing that if the president revokes the security clearance only of his critics, that would raise a serious first amendment question. it would be a

now most knowledgeable people, as you might imagine, hoped it would be me, al franken. >> well, thereer it would just die. >> the press hadn't been very overly kind. >> yeah, write that stuff. is "saturday night live" "saturday night dead"? >> my favorite is "vile from new york." >> that's funny, that's funny. >> they were having a hard time. and then came the man to save the show, eddie murphy. there was buzz about him so you tuned in. and there was this kind of explosion of talent in front of your eyes. ♪ >> it really kind of rejuvenated the show. >> i am gumby, dammit! you don't talk to me that way! >> after awhile, the show regained its status and clout and became even more of an institution than it had been. >> hey, bob. >> hey, peters. looks great today. >> listen, if you're unhappy with my work, tell me now! >> you'll never work in this town again. >> don't leave me hanging by a thread. let me know where i stand! >> we were a little worried because we had a new cast, but everyone loves us. >> you guys have been so nice to us during our stay. >> isn't that special? >> i am hans.

circumstance was to tell people he thought judge garland was one of his heroes, thought he was supremely al frankenand he was not going to say anything bad about judge garland. i am not sure everyone would have done that, but judge kavanaugh thought that was what he felt and was going to let the chips fall where they may even that -- even if that was going to give him criticism. all these personal qualities are good in their own right, but they are also relevant to his role as a judge and his role as a justice. a magazine published a piece a few days ago, 1200 words on what it does not matter what his character is, does not matter whether he is nice on a great what matters is his philosophy and decisions he reaches. i think when judges take the both to be impartial, it turns upon their character, their honesty, integrity, and the qualities that judge kavanaugh has, his honesty, integrity, his evenhandedness qualities that will make him an outstanding supreme court justice. >> thank you. in a moment i will open this up to questions. i would ask you raise your hands, and when i call upon you, wait un

the minnesota state senator karen housley, she won the public and primary, to fill the seat of al frankenh, the lieutenant governor, now sitting senator. interesting about this, this is not in anybody's radar. it should be. this race could be closer than people think. housley is the wife of the buffalo sabers head coach, phil housley, former washington capital, former nhl former nhl hall of famer -- >> ed: the stanley cup champion there. >> you know, hockey plays in minnesota. don't discount this race. it is not one that is on the front burner but it could be one that is really close in the end. >> ed: and we -- let's stay in minnesota for a second because mike emanuel mention keith ellison. this is not just about a state attorney general race, in the b-2 era, you have allegations of domestic abuse, he has sharply denied. he said that he will talk about in the days ahead. this is someone who is the first muslim-american elected to congress, and as a deputy dnc chair, a big party official, supposed to be a rising star, who is in a lot of trouble. >> i think you will see more questions now

after all, former senator al franken stepped down for doing far less than what allison is accused ofs said they are going to investigate the allegations against ellison, which we should note, because we always do, are mere allegations and not approved. but we would like to know if they are true. so we reached out today to find out if the party has made any progress in this investigation. seems like investigators have not made a lot of progress, they may have hired the same investigators who looked into joy reid's hacked blog post at nbc. trying to figure out how the access hollywood tape got to "the washington post," to investigations that are ongoing. we will keep you posted. ♪ there are some obvious upsides to storing classified information on a private server in your basement, but one of the downsides is that foreign adversaries could hack it. it wouldn't be that hard. according to "the daily caller" news foundation, that happened to miller clinton. they say a chinese owned company did it and we have had real-time access to emails during her tenure as secretary of state. the fbi i

al franken is in the forefront of people's minds.r kiersten gillibrand talked about the backlash for saying that he ens essentially should leave the senate. you have another woman accusing a powerful man in the age of me too. many think they believe the woman. that's how the party should present itself. some people are, of course, defending ellison. >> all right. kasie hunt, we know you'll continue to stay on top of it. good to see you. >> you, too. >> thank you. >>> along with minnesota, there are primaries today in wisconsin, connecticut, and vermont, where democrats are eyeing potential pickups. steve kornacki is here with what to pay attention to. steve at the board. great to see you there. we love when you're at the board. what are you going to be watching for today? >> a lot of stories all over the place. let's focus in on this one right now. after the 2016 election, republicans were bullish looking to 2018. dpr democrats a little nervous at this dynamic. what you see here are the democratic senators. ten of them up for re-elec

also a state that has had another person in power caught up in the #metoo movement in senator al frankenl be top of mind for voters. we'll have to see. >> one of the races we'll watch tonight, this one because of these sad allegations, serious allegations. we'll watch these votes tonight and count them tomorrow. thanks for joining us today. hope to see you back here at noon tomorrow. wolf is in now to pick up our coverage. have a great day. >>> hello. i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. we begin with breaking news. the defense in paul manafort's tax and bank fraud trial has rested without calling any witnesses. manafort telling the judge himself he did not want to take the stand. that now sets the stage for closing arguments tomorrow morning. with me now is shimon prokupecz, who's been following the trial. also, michael zeldin, a former federal prosecutor and former special assistant to robert mueller at the justice

other people such as al franken trying to make a comeback. >> our sources say pressure is building ones on her own position. >> my is on the 2018 election. so the race for congress is very important obviously, the race for senate also important. governors races are hugely, h e hugely important for democrats. this is the way they prevent republicans from being able to draw these maps all over again because they have monopolies on a lot of these throughout the country. there's concern that's not being treated seriously. and the prospects are not as good there. i think we're going to see a push over the next couple months to make sure there's an adequate focus. stakes are very important. arguably even more important than whether they can win the majority in the house by a couple votes. >> aaron, kevin, kimberly thank you. >>> we want to wrap up with today's big picture. for it, we're heading over to yemen where we told you about the saudi-led strike. i it wouldn't warn you, this is intense. a wounded little boy. he's in torn clothes, covered in his own blood, dust all over his face. he w

al franken wishes he didn't.ush he didn't in some bizarre way. >> senator menendez didn't. >> and he's about to get re-elected. >> the atmosphere here now is not only that anything goes, but in your face. >> it's brazen. >> if there's a brazen got to it i think if the american people if brought properly to their attention, aren't going to like. >> the mar-a-lago country club stuff with the -- first of all, when you read that the marvel entertainment chair is calling the shots at the va, i don't even know -- it just seems like parody. >> it does. i think it all goes into this idea that trump is running a grievance campaign where he sees -- he paints everyone as attacking him and so no allegation sticks. if you look at the connections, his love affair with vladimir putin, if he could get away with that, then this idea that he has other people running the va, the idea that he's sort of benefitting from his presidency in a financial way, it's harder to make those things stick. >> everybody that does an argument only