please welcome john heilemann and alex wagner! nd applause ) ( band playing ) >> stephen: alex, good to see you again. >> good to be here, sir. >> stephen: good to see you, john. let's get right to the heat of the meat. ( laughter ) there's some news -- we've got to, we've got to. there is news it's possible a lot of the members of the audience don't know about because it happened moments before we came out to record the show. tell audience what happened with paul manafort. >> paul manafort made a plea deal with robert mueller. ( cheers and applause ) >> jon: for real? >> stephen: yeah! that might be the biggest ovation paul manafort ever gets right there. >> true. >> stephen: so he's flipping >> he may be pleading guilty, he may be cop ago bigger deal. we're not sure of the specifics, but it looks like the trial that is supposed to start now is not going to start. >> stephen: hold on. he's pleading guilty or making a deal? we don't know? >> we don't know. he's making a plea deal so he's going to cop a plea to something and the tri

back with us, tim o'brien and john heilemann. ecretary of defense getting basically a assassinate, kill any way you want to assad and maybe that means go to war, kill all of them, what does that mean? does that mean an invasion? who knows what it means because the secretary basically ignored it according to woodward. >> i think there are two separate questions there. one question is what did trump mean by it? and the answer is i'm sure trump had no idea what he meant by it and it was the typical trump gibberish coming out of his mouth. sought defense secretary did what we have all been hoping and praying people in these positions have been doing. woodward apparently describes it in someplace here in the book because it's been quoted in "washington post" and other places as an administrative coup d'etat. that puts a negative spin on it. others would say guardrails for humanity. guardrails of the safety of the planet. is that some of these people like jim mattis are in this job precisely to do this very thing, which is to stop the p

and with us on set, john heilema heilemann, nbc news, msnbc national affairs analyst and co-host and executive producer of showtime's "the circus" which is back sunday and daniel goldman, district attorney for the southern district of new york. let me start with you, chuck, because we've had a lot of conversations about what manafort might do. you've often warned us that this kind of development could come at any time. but did anything about today's cooperation agreement go further than what we thought we were warned to expect in terms of a plea? >> you know, as cooperation agreements go, it's fairly standard. he's going to answer every question about every one and everything they've done for any federal state or local prosecutor. and that's fairly typical language. what's not surprising is this. and you have a bunch of really smart fbi agents and prosecutors, me excluded on your show today. >> that's not true. >> you know, it's true. >> you are, too. >> but what's true is this. almost every target becomes a defendant. almost every defendant becomes a convicted felon. and almost ever

and john heilemann, co-author of both "game change" and "double down." gentlemen, welcome to you both. john, home field advantage. first question goes to you. where do you stand on whether or not this anonymous author is a hero, whether he or she is better off staying or now leaving, and where do you stand on the kind of enter-moll ji of figuring out who this is? one word that jumped out at me, a word i highlighted on this broadcast when it first appeared in the nomenclature of national security, malign. about five people in the world use that word with any regularity. it's brand-new on the word radar, along with load star does get your attention. >> i went from malignant tonight on twitter. well, first of all, i am fully with our friends steve schmitt on this, which is great to hear from you. thank you for -- thank you for sending out this message in a bottle to the world. >> now tell us who you are. >> now it is your obligation if you genuinely, given the news in this, which is not -- all of it is confirmation of things we already know except for one th

jill wine' banks, msnbc legal contributor and john heilemann, national affairs analyst for nbc news and co-host and executive producer of show times "the circus." i want to start with lisa, and lisa, what we learned from michael avenatti in this last hour, which by wednesday if not possibly sooner he will be presenting what he calls both a witness and a victim of brett kavanaugh. it sounds like he means during brett kavanaugh's high school years because he says that what she will describe took place over a number of years. rachel read in detail an e-mail that michael avenatti sent to the staff members, who you know the staff members on the senate judiciary committee about what information he has because they inquired of him what information he has. i'm going to do a short reading of it, lisa, and i'm going to get all your reactions how you expect the counsel to deal with this. michael avenatti suggested to the committee they ask brett kavanaugh even in private in preparation for this, the following questions. did you ever target one or more women for sex or rape at a house party? did yo

disciplined dogged by corruption scandals some of which involved tame and his wife that speak to john heilemannin mexico city has been listening into this last state of the union address this is a century enrique pena to us farewell to the country what's been his parting message so far john. he's not used to speaking i think he should be wrapping up soon but he really kicked it off by talking about reforms president pena nieto would really like to be known as a reformer and that's what he tried to do especially in the first two years of his government he tried to reform various sectors from energy to education to telecommunications to the labor market itself in the country and it was quite an achievement to be able to get mexico's big parties together to be able to do that so move those reforms experts say didn't go as far as they should done some of them have been more successful than others of the my down completely and some will probably be just removed like the education report by the incoming administration so that's how we wanted to kickoff we then talked about violence and this really ha

so, john heilemann, you look at what's going on at capitol hill.he place with this kavanaugh hearing on both sides. decisions being made as it pertains to november. at the same time it seems that every time you see favorability ratings of the president or other individual candidates, like for instance in florida, there seems to be a pretty strong wind behind democratic candidates backs. >> right. the generic ballots including the most nbc/wall street journal poll the ballots widen. republicans look on that metric are gaining ground rather than them tightening. generic ballots will tighten. right now they widen across a lot of survey research. we look at races around the country. i'm sick of the notion of wave versus tsunami whatever. there's just a lot of democratic momentum. again, to go to the questions that we've been talking about around this supreme court hearing it's not just that this is bad for the supreme court and ultimately if judge kavanaugh is innocent, it's bad for judge kavanaugh it's being handled this way, it's bad for the process.

>> as i said, john heilemann has been watching along with us. john, what did you make of that moment? let's back up a bit. what do you make of this day? >> well, brian, i thought the moment was a strong one for dick durbin who is not normally a master of political theater, but delivered that line, as you said, clearly rehearsed and setup moment. did it well. i do not think brett kavanaugh's response to it was nearly as strong, for some of the reasons that relate to some of the legal issues that some of your fine legal analysts up there have been suggesting. he could easily embrace two things if he were fully confident of his innocence. one of them would be to ask for an fbi investigation of every serious charge levelled against him, not just by dr. ford but for others. he could ask for his longtime friend mark judge to come forward and testify under oath and be cross-examined. he's not done either one of those things. every time he's given an opportunity to do that, which would not just be a thing that would speak to his confidence, but it would

john heilemann what's happening here? >> it's a single event.erent things happen. one the democratic party -- the face of the democratic party is largely driven by women, nonwhite voters. starting to see that demographic change and the party being reflected in its representative which is not largely a white male party. in this particular state two candidates with not a stark ideological difference. we're seeing a shift and abrupt rounding of the democratic party. it's happening across the country and the party will look a lot more like its base than the republican party, which is how a lot of those representatives have looked for generations. >> she beat him by 18 points, a ten term congressman. and he's no moderate eritrea. going back to his vote against the iraq war 15 years ago, 16 years ago, this guy has been left. he's represented his district and she found some room left of him to win the election. >> i'm not sure it's really about liberal versus less liberal or more liberal. it's generational representation. there's a growing number of pe

and john heilemann to that point, he just made, the economic statistics are very good. the president couldn't ask for better economic statistics and that isn't helping him at all. >> it's one of the most stunning things at all about it. you could argue maybe the economics are a bit better given the wage growth, a few other things. but he has a lot to brag about and he does all the time. you have to work at it to have an approval rating in the 30s with unemployment under 4% and the kind of job growth, which is consistent with more or less what president obama had in the last part of his term, and what you're seeing now is finally this moment where we've seen him in 36 and 38, but what we now is a consistent downward ticking in the polls. the forecaster tweeted tonight each one has approvalal ratings down from the previous ones. the collective weight, not just from a couple of these big moments, helsinki or kids in cages from the border, but the collective weight of all it is finally beginning to settle as we get closer to election day. it's how these things work. >> ther

john heilemann is cohost and executive producer of showtime's "the circus.". we'll start with this very complicated story this morning, the author of a confidential letter accusing supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh of sexual assault more than three decades ago identified herself on sunday. christine blasey ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist in northern california spoke publicly for the first time about the allegations in a report by the "washington post." ford alleges that one summer during high school in the early '80s, kavanaugh and a friend drunkenly corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a home in montgomery county, maryland. ford alleges kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit while his friend watched. when she tried to yell, he put his hand over her mouth. ford told the post, quote, i thought he might inadvertently kill me. he was trying to attack me and remove my clothing. she said she was able to e

massacre of the students one of the worst crises during president enrique pena nieto his tenure with john heilemann joins us live now from mexico city john so today is the fourth anniversary of the disappeared students tell us what's been happening there. we can probably see behind me quite a long sort of spread out marches heading towards the central plaza of mexico city this probably thousands out here but before then a little bit earlier on today as you mentioned the president elect lopez obrador met with the parents of the students and said what we're going to do is we're going to start a new investigative committee we're going to try and open up this investigation again and try and find out what happened to the students what's been important to him and pull the parents because really the investigation that the current administration is really carried out about this they were very slow to react their investigation was criticize is riddled with errors and when independent investigators very respected ones from other countries they came in to try to do an independent investigation there are obsta

taking the promise comes as protesters gather to mark the fourth anniversary of the incident john heilemann has more from mexico city. flicker of hope for those still campaigning for justice in a case that outraged many mexicans it's the fourth anniversary of the night that forty three students were kidnapped by police in collusion with a gang they became symbols of the tens of thousands of missing in the country the slow moving and deeply flawed government investigation into the tragedy also became symbolic of official indifference towards the disappeared. the students' parents have never given up their fight for it says now a new government is about state power and that they're into belief that things could change. it's the first day in four years that we feel hope the first day that the government has yes i'm going to help you yes we'll get to the truth that's why we're content and have our hearts full of hope the. president elect and his mother daughter met with the parents made the right noises proposing a new committee to take charge of the case and inviting back international experts

i'm curious, john heilemann, to gel your input on everything that happened yesterday but first i want from "hardball" and this is charlie sykes last night. >> i do think that the second allegation in some ways has had the effect of undermining the credibility of the first one, because, look, this is the moment where you want solid credible information that lines up. this is also why, i think it's a huge mistake for republicans not to re-open the fbi investigation if they are concerned about these false allegation, make people tell them to the fbi. >> john, i heard that from a lot of never trumpers yesterday. i heard that from a lot of former republican friends of mine. one former republican friend told mika and me if this goes on another week i'm going to become a republican again. sort of gallows humor. watching the news and i'm just repeating what i'm hearing, believing that this is becoming less fair by the day, that everybody that's not on fox news has convicted him as a rapist or a serial predator. what do you think of charlie's statement that the second investigation, the second

government is expected to tackle several new policies poverty and corruption and energy reform john heilemann is looking at. it's a historic new mexican congress for the first time since democracy the left has a clear majority. for your own party morena and its allies swept the board giving populist president elect and his money well lopez obrador a legislative power not seen in twenty. yes it's used to promise a new austerity plan that would have the salaries of lawmakers and dramatically cut their perks bodyguard's teams of consultants and international travel. they say something that a public tired of rich out of touch politicians needed to see. there can't be such a marked inequality in society so much poverty in the countryside and a group of privileged politicians with everything. there's another big shift for the first time they'll be almost as many female lawmakers as men in part the result of the quotes a system where. there could be a different vision with women involved in the country's direction not just to highlight the problems we have domestic and social violence but to do thin

control of mexico's congress for the first time in twenty years with almost as many women as men john heilemann reports from mexico city on what's behind the changed political landscape. going to see it's a historic new mexican congress for the first time since democracy the left has a clear majority. for your old party morena and its allies with the board giving populist president elect and his money well lopez obrador a legislative power not seen in twenty years it's used to promise a new austerity plan that would have the salaries of lawmakers and dramatically cut their perks bodyguards teams of consultants and international travel they say something that a public tired of rich out of touch politicians needed to see where there can't be such a marked inequality in society so much poverty in the countryside and a group of privileged politicians with everything. there's another big shift for the first time they'll be almost as many female lawmakers as men in part the result of a quota system where. there could be a different vision with women involved in the country's direction not just to hig

along with joker willie and me we have national affairs analyst for nbc news john heilemann. bush white house and state department, elise jordan, david ignatius and eugene robinson. and political reporter for "the washington post" and moderator of washington week on pbs, robert costa. >> you know, mika, last hour we were talking about september 11th and talking about it from policy implications, but also, obviously, there's so many personal stories, so many tragedies that happened on that day. but you actually, that was one of your first days at cbs -- >> ah-ha. >> and tell us what happened that morning for you. >> well, we were covering it like any other story. i went running down there. ended up having to run down there in my bare feet because there was gridlock on the streets. i was actually standing next toby ron pit-- to byron pitts. what we saw was unspeakable, people making that horrific decision of whether to jump -- >> you said in real-time, you just, your mind -- >> i couldn't get my mind around it. >> grasp exactly what was happening. even,000 saw it, just your min

it's a -- it's a denial, but it's a pretty soft denial. >> john heilemann?ase for a lot of slashy big names. i maintained based on some conversations i've had that it's a name that is not a household name. somebody you wouldn't recognize if you heard but holds some power within the trump administration, but not a household name. >> that would be a problem. >> i think you're wrong about kellyanne. >> you say conversations, random people on the street? >> no, no. people who may be familiar. all speculation, unless you're one of the three, four editors at the "new york times," you don't know. >> you think our idle speculation is just that? it's not kellyanne. >> respectfully, i do. >> and john, the door is closed now donny is going to speak. >> and i want to bring one thing up a lot of people complaining about an nom itnomity. played right boo what trump does, pick up his gun. of course, i mocked them in a meeting last week, blah, blah, blah. i don't have a problem with an n nom -- annomity, "new york times" will have a lot of explaining to do. i'm farcest from

let's talk about this because your co-host on circus, john heilemann has an interview sunday with julief his accusers. she claims brett kavanaugh and his friends assaulted her in high school. let's -- i'm not sure that's her exact claim. she said his friends did, not that brett did, his friends were part of -- and she witnesses some of the bad behavior of the friends. let's take a look. >> it wasn't that i wanted to come out one day before the hearings. just circumstances brought it out that way. this is something that occurred a long time ago. and it's not that i just thought about it. it's been on my mind ever since the occurrence. as far as it goes, brett kavanaugh is going for a seat where he's going to having that seat on the supreme court for the rest of his life. and if he's going to having that seat legitimately, all of these things should be investigated because from what i experienced firsthand, i don't think he belongs on supreme court. >> so a week investigation, the president said to go ahead. i think she's part of that investigation. what do you think about this? >> well,

along with joe, willie and me we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc analyst john heilemanne to begin? >> well, you may -- wa wos yoha your take away? this book -- >> the woodward book. >> i have to say, even though we knew about it for some time, pretty up close for some time, and other people have been concerned about and most of the republicans on the hill that ever dealt with him know all of this stuff. that said, woodward writing a book about it certainly makes everybody pay closer attention to it and pay more attention to it than, say, they would with the firend

tune in tomorrow when my guests will be john heilemann and alex wagner from "the circus," judy greer,ght! >> beto for senate: get thirsty for this hot zaddy to beat it up. i hesitate to ask what "beat it up" means. consensual sex is to beat it up. when we were kids it was called pounding out the veal! making picatta! captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ( laughter ) ♪ this is the late late show ♪ you'll love it ♪ this is the late late show ♪ you'll love it ♪ this is the late late ♪ ♪ desk in the chair

leaders they're calling for some drugs to be legalized since banning them has proved ineffective john heilemann reports from mexico this new report on drug policy has a fair amount of weight behind it it's been put together by a group including twelve x. heads of state and its message is simple and stock prohibition has failed it says and the world needs to legalize and regulate drugs. the yeah that's true see what we've done for century has been a mistake prohibition doesn't work it's causing a lot of damage it should be eliminated and instead we should have policies based on brake elation. the group some veiled the report in mexico because it says that nowhere better to shows the failure of prohibition there's been a full frontal assault on cartels here for a decade but it's just because turf. is kingpins of phoolan and others have to take their place. as well as such human cost the report also emphasizes the vast amounts being lost to governments in the form of taxes from what is the largest illicit market in the world the former leaders has got a lot of suggestions of models for legalisatio

my thanks to john heilemann, daniel goldman. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> i'm trying to decide whether hate-watching is an endorsement. >> it is. >> we'll take it, chuck. >> a viewer is a viewer. >> a viewer is a viewer. that's right. a vote is a vote no matter how unenthusiastic they are. thank you, nicolle, happy friday. >>> good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." eve got two major breaking news stories tonight. after making landfall this morning, florence continues to batter the carolinas. it is now technically a tropical storm, but please, that's simply because it is on land, dropping buckets of water on the carolinas. rescue operations are under way, and there are multiple fatalities. we're going to be getting new information about the devastation on the ground and where this storm is headed next. we're going to have all of the details coming up. >>> but we're going to begin tonight with a bombshell piece of news on the political front. president trump's former campaign chief, paul manafort, has flipped. p

we'll begin on capitol hill and as john heilemann was saying, the backdrop of the white house and the on going daily reaction is interesting to gauge. there's the hearing room. the first day of questioning for judge kavanaugh as he attempts to seek to be placed to nominate -- being nominated for the vacancy of justice kennedy. i am joined here in the studio by stephanie ruehl. this is her hour and contributing to the coverage of this and we want to start with phil rucker covering the white house for "the washington post" and, phil, you have been busy already with at least one tweet outgoing aimed at the bob woodward book. talk about that. what it says and how it matches against reality. >> well, the president is pushing back aggressively against the reporting and his tweet this morning was about libel laws suggesting that they should be toughened. but look. it is difficult for the white house and for the president to challenge woodward's credibility because he's written so many books and has a meticulous way of doing the reporting and the portrait in the book of president trump is tru

four years ago the one in the west crises during the time of president henrique a pena nieto john heilemann reports. the flicker of hope for those still campaigning for justice in a case that outraged many mexicans it's the fourth anniversary of the night that forty three students were kidnapped by police in collusion with the gang and they became symbols of the tens of thousands of missing in the country the slow moving and deeply through government investigation into the tragedy also became symbolic of the fishermen difference troops who disappeared. the students' parents have never given up their fight fronts is now a new government is about state power and that they're into belief that things could change. it's the first day in four years that we feel hope the first day that a government check yes i'm going to help you yes we'll get to the truth that's why we're content and have our hearts full of hope of the. president elect and his mother his or her daughter met with the parents made the right noises proposing a new committee to take charge of the case and invite him back internationa

is notorious for the legal drugs war and cartels smuggling cocaine north to the united states john heilemann has more from mexico city. hall from the more than one hundred sixty scholes the room so if found in this mass grave the state's attorney for vera cruz said more than one hundred identifications and that's going to be in a very sad way gold for a few of the families in that state there are crews that are searching for their lost loved ones because it provides a clue to their possible resting place many of these families have been searching for their loved ones at the years and that's a constant tool for them at least some of them might be able to get closure from this now in the context of mexico more than one hundred sixty skoal sounds like a big discovery but this isn't even the biggest mass grave in this state there are crews at the incoming interior minister who's going to take power with the incoming administration in december said that the country is full of musgrave's that the country's moves of full of unidentified bodies there's more than thirty seven thousand disappeared peo

december then the test will be on for him if he can live up to be expectations thank you for that john heilemann live for us in mexico city. brazil's president says hundreds of years of history have been destroyed in a massive fire at the national museum a two hundred year old building in rio de janeiro have twenty million items including some of the region's best preserved human fossils and ancient egyptian artifacts natasha going to aim has more. flame shot through the french windows and ornate iron balconies of this former nineteenth century palace. museum employees and art lovers watched in frustration. as firefighters try to say who rio de janeiro's national museum and in doing so preserve centuries of cultural and artistic history you know we'll be you know i just saw a piece of my history the house of the emperor where the emperor don petter the second of brazil used to live being destroyed i see the history of my country becoming ashes it has no price i am devastated. president michelle to mayor echoed that sentiment calling this a sad day for all brazilians who have watched two hundred

athens ten year it's thought the students were turned over to members of an organized crime group john heilemann has the latest from mexico city. this is the fourth anniversary since the tragedy in mexico in which twenty three students were kidnapped by police in collusion with a local guy had a huge impact on a country this is a country that's had more than thirty thousand people been disappeared over the last few years and this really these forty three shooters became a potent symbol of not just that phenomenon but also the impunity and the lack of really concern from government forces the government was very slow to react to what happened with the students the investigation that was riddled with errors according to you to the n.g.o.s in the country and according to relatives looking for their lost loved ones now four years later it seems that things might move again with this case the president elect andres manuel lopez obrador says that he's committed to the truth coming out about what happened to the students he's going to make sure that the case gets an investigating committee that's going