that's why john merrill is not doing his job. he is saying destroy the evidence and if he certifies this election before we investigate this fraud fully, he is going to be accountable to the voters in alabama and there might be not enough fraud toic ma sure 650,000 people plus, all of those who voted for roy moore whose votes have been altered. he will be accountable. if you care about this, you can call him. him not to certify until the investigation is done and not to destroy the evidence which he argued to do. >> i need to ask you about this polygraph test that roy moore said he has taken that proves he is not lying when he denies all of the allegations that have been made against him. sexual abuse. >> not surprising at all. >> can you give me the circumstances of that polygraph test. who administered it and were there witnesses and so on and so forth? >> that has all been submitted to the court. >> most people are not reading all 84 payments. >> it's a renowned independent expert that he went before and took the polygraph tes

and secretary of state john merrill said, no, we think we should destroy it. by the way, that's a federal crime -- >> janet -- >> -- that brings with it a sentence of $5,000 -- >> does it correspond you that your election machine expert, john condit jr., is a man who said there's an evil shadow jewish government, who claimed it's preposterous hitler -- >> he didn't say that. the guy's an expert, an undisputed expert -- >> janet, he absolutely said there's an evil shadow jewish government. >> i don't believe it. sorry. >> we will post -- >> and i want to say this and i've said it earlier that i don't think you're going to find -- >> we'll post the video, the evidence. >> i don't know much about election machines. that's what john condit knows about. but i can tell you that you would be hard-pressed to find anybody who's more pro-israel. i celebrated when that embassy was moved to jerusalem -- >> he tweeted it and we have the tape. can we put the tape up? do we have the tweet we can put up? evil jews in the jewish shadow government must be highlighted, even thoug

. >>> alabama secretary of state john merrill is standing by. we'll talk to him about his party's nominee and trying to read the tea leaves of absentee ballots in one key county. "kasie dc" is coming back live from washington. >>> we are here to have other availabilities. i can't remember what day we are in now where roy moore is in hiding and comes out only to be seen like the groundhog and every so often to see whether or not he can see his shadow. >> alabama secretary of state john merrill is predicting voter turnout to be at least 25% for tuesday's special senate election between roy moore and doug jones, which would be a big increase from the 14% who turned out for the republican runoff in september. that prediction is based on what merrill describes as a high number of absentee ballots coming in. one placing an absentee ballot in tuscaloosa county. there are six times as many absentee ballots as seen during the primary and runoff, which suggests it's a pretty high turnout on tuesday. that could be good news for the democrat. in his 2012 ra

the governor, attorney general and secretary of state john merrill. they're beginning to certify the results from the special election earlier this month. what had happened is republican roy moore filed a last-minute complaint with the alabama circuit court to intervene and delay the certification based on new allegations of voter fraud and calling for a new special election. but just moments ago, montgomery circuit judge johnny harwick denied the order. that means that doug jones by the end of this hour will likely be headed to washington where he will be sworn in by vice president pence on january 3 next week. secretary merrill's office spoke with me several times today as i tried to understand why this was occurring. just a quick primer in alabama state law. you have 48 hours after certification to petition for a recount. there were no circumstances, so moore did this last-minute effort. however, secretary of state merrill's office, jon, told me they have reviewed all allegations of voter fraud and found there were no instances of that. now, moore'

secretary of state john merrill. just had janet porter on, said there was systemic fraud in the election. did you see it? >> no, john. we've had a number of allegations introduced to us, for us to consider, as of this afternoon, 118 had been introduced to our office. 85 fully adjudicated. leaves remaining 33 to be considered. two from out of state and 31 from our state. we continue to investigate those. >> she said you've destroyed evidence. is that the case? >> that's absolutely not the case. farthest thing from the case. as matter of fact we keep the original ballots that people cast the vote on for a period of 22 months as required by state and federal law. as far as the digital images she continued to rattle on about, thing interesting to me, machines are not capturing those images. not preserved and not available for review. not captured, don't exist, and if they don't exist, can't use them. not there for us to review or use. >> jefferson county, keeps on saying that these anomalies there in voting patterns. do

. >> shannon: has a clock ticks down to election day in alabama, secretary of state john merrill talkso us in a fox news at night exclusive. ♪ >> shannon: hello and welcome to "fox news @ night." item shannon bream in washington. this is a fox news alert. new developments tonight on the port authority terror attack, where 27-year-old bangladeshi named akayed ullah allegedly tried to detonate a pipe bomb during a busy morning commute. he apparently watched her, instead severely injuring himself and causing a rush hour stampede. the drop administration moving quickly to identify ullah as a immigrant who benefited from chain migration, a major political target for the white house in his attempt to undo decades immigration policy. the department of homeland security weighing in late tonight. dha's tweeting, "we can confirm that the suspect benefited from extended family chain migration. the chain was initiated by the suspect's relatives who became a u.s. citizen after entering the country via a visa lottery program. he entered the u.s. in 2011 receiving a green card after the family-based

not about who john merrill is for or decides to cast his ballot for.e have safe and secure and credible elections for the 3,328,107 registered voters in alabama and we want all of them to participate. >> let me ask you about the voter i.d. law that's relatively recent in your state. >> yes, ma'am. >> do you have any concerns about its implementation? >> no, no, no. we're very excited about what we've been able to do, kasie. see, one other thing that we've done is ensure that each and every eligible u.s. citizen as a resident of alabama is vej sistered to vote and has an i.d. we have 865,117 new voters in alabama. we want to ensure that all of them have voter i.d.s. when people can't go to the mobile units or go to the local registrar offices on numerous occasions, when it's been presented to us that people can't get out and go to those festivals or occasions, we've gone to their homes and given them photo i.d.s because we want everybody to be able to participate at the level that they want to participate. >> sir, do you think that both doug jones and r

i just talked to the secretary of state, john merrill, he invites you to come to his office tonight atetary of state at 11:00 p.m. so he can explain in detail the steps required to from this point on. because you see the vote has to be certified later this month and then, after the boat is -- after the vote is certified if it is within one half of a percent, the law requires for there to be a recount. the military ballots are not even in yet. they have not been counted. so, we thank you for your enthusiasm. we thank the team. we have such a wonderful team. part of them is standing with me here tonight. the most important member of this team, i want to bring him on the stage right now. judge roy moore! [applause] judge moore: thank you. [crowd chanting "usa"] judge moore: thank you. i really want to thank you for coming tonight and realize when the vote is this close it is not over. we still have to go by the rules about this recount provision. the secretary of state has explained that to us and we are expecting the press to go up there and talk to them to find out what the situation is

we will talk with john merrill in a few minutes. we want to bring in diane gallagher in montgomery, alabama. walk us through the specifics of roy moore's complaint. >> so bryanna, initially the goal of the complaint is first they would like a new election. a do-over. if they can't get that, they would like for the secretary of state to investigate the claims of fraud that they alleged determine if they had an impact on the special election result a couple of weeks ago. as far as the lawsuit itself, it's a kitchen sink of voter fraught allegations. the crux is on increased voter turn out. it took the experts, one of whom is a experience theorist who peddles ideas about the assassination of jfk and the murder of staffer seth rich to say that in certain areas they used jefferson county as an example and there was this high voter turn out. jefferson county had a 47% voter turn out. it's also 43% african-american. they are sort of tying those together by saying it's unusual the turn out would be so high. they of wanting them to look into

we're joined now by alabama's secretary of state, john merrill. secretary, thanks for joining us. let's quickly talk about turnout. earlier you predicted, maybe 25% of the electorate would show up and vote. based on what you've seen so far, is that accurate? >> wolf, we still feel comfortable about that particular rate and we think that that's going to end up being the number. it could be a little bit higher. we've seen some numbers that have been a little bit higher in certain aspects of voting throughout the state, than in other areas. but some areas have underperformed. >> is turnout unusually high or low in any specific part of the state? do you want to give us some details? >> well, one of the things that we're seeing in the jefferson county, birmingham area, we're seeing larger numbers than usual. we're also seeing higher numbers in the madison county area, in the huntsville area. and then in balling county and mobile, our numbers tend to be a little bit higher, as well. so that's been very, very interesting to observe those numbers. tuscaloosa county, it was the same way. >

secretary of state john merrill says when he arrived at the state capitol in 2015 that concerned him >> i felt as though we needed a uniform list instead of one that was being used by the registrars from time to time depending on what they thought was appropriate. >> so merrill formed a task force and in august alabama governor kay ivey signed into law a standardized list of crimes that require payment in full before voting rights are restored. >> there was a trial held, these people were convicted and they were sentenced to a term with certain fees and certain fines that have to be paid, period. >> tari williams is the organizing director at greater birmingham ministries, an organization working in the years. >> most states allow individuals to reinstate their eligibility to vote once they've served their time or once they've served their parole and their probation, they don't also require that all fines, fees, and restitution be paid. >> so greater birmingham ministries, along with 10 ex-felons, including lanier have filed a lawsuit against alabama arguing the requirement for payme

i've just talked to the secretary of state, john merrill. he invites you to come to his office tonight at 11:00 p.m. if you're up to going to visit with the secretary of state at 11:00 p.m. so he can explain in detail the steps that are required from this point on because, you see, the vote has to be certified later this month, then after the vote is certified if it's in one-half a percent, the law requires there to be a recount. you know, the military ballots aren't even in yet. they've not been counted. so -- [ applause ] we thank you for your enthusia m enthusiasm. we thank the team. we have a wonderful team. part of them are standing here with me tonight. but the most important member of this team, i want to bring him on the stage right now, judge roy moore. >> thank you. thank you. [ crowd chanting "usa" ] thank you. you know, i really want to thank you for coming tonight and realize when the vote is this close that it's not over. and we still got to go by the rules about this recount provision and secretary of state has explained it to

this is a very red state, john merrill is a republican who supported roy moore. he has looked at this and said there is no irregularity. there were more democrats that came out for jones after roy moore was a very weak candidate with very credible allegations that came out against him. >> rick: perhaps the even bigger headline from this is his election complaint includes an affidavit from moore saying that he underwent a polygraph and confirmed that the allegations with sexual misconduct with underage girls is false. that was in his filing last night. >> interesting he didn't give it earlier. only now a month after the election that he lost that he was expected to win. he should have come out with this before but now it's his own guys, his own lawsuit. he got this polygraph done. everyone can decide for themselves if they want to believe the credibility of this polygraph. he is going to include that because he is trying everything he can to get this reversd. again, even if a judge ruled that the election, there was enough fraud to redo the special election, i don

john merrill was a supporter of roy moore and he just came on cnn and said, look, nothing changes. >> that's right, poppy. this was a last gasp hail mary attempt to delay the certification of the results of the special election in alabama dating back to december 12th. in this affidavit filed last night he demands either a new special election or a thorough investigation of what he claims was voter fraud. let's break down the affidavits. he cites 20 precincts in jefferson county in alabama, this is an area with a high african-american population, and according to the affidavit, the experts say turnout was unusually high and irregular, and so much so it makes the results in jefferson county suspicious, and there's a claim people from out of state were bussed into alabama to vote for doug jones, and he won the election by more than 20,000 votes. these integrity experts are raising eyebrows, and one of them has a colorful past, and he has pushed conspiracy theories about the former assassination of kennedy, and the most surprising thing about the affidavit has to be the admission from roy

bothers the people of alabama and i believe the people will come out in a primary election against john merrill and same with steve marshall. >> porter didn't say moore might be that primary challenger. president trump explained why he supported moore despite the sexual misconduct claims. he told the "new york times" that he supported his opponent in the primary because he knew mr. moore would lose in the general election and insisted he endorsed mr. moore later because i feel that i have to endorse republicans as the head of the party. with us is national political k correspondent for "the washington post" and garrett hang. thanks for being here. it's so interesting, dave, to hear the president talk about roy moore and say that he had to endorse him as the head of the republican party when not only does he talk about the party as they and them, but republican leadership and republicans in general had distanced themselves from roy moore. >> they had. the president had proved exception by sticking by him by disbelieving the accusations made about moore based on his experience in the campaign. hi

and last hour alabama secretary of state john merrill said, people are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. >> there is a number of things that have been introduced, and some of those i'll touch on for you, one was five bus loads of african americans have been brought from mississippi to mobile to vote in the election, that was dismissed after the investigation conducted. second thing is three van loads from people from mexico imported to come and vote and cast their ballot and they had been identified and actually an arrested and in cacarcerated. that was investigated and not true. third, there was a town near alabama where 2200 residents and more than 5,000 people had cast their ballot, that would make some sense and cause a lot of consternation, although there is no town in the state of alabama called that. so that was completely fabricated and made up. >> i want to bring in cnn in montgomery where this election certification is taking place. what else can you tell me? >> reporter: yes, and i apologize because the certification event is going to be starting in ju

about j-f-k conspiracy theories.janet porter/roy moore campaign spokesperson: "it is the job of john merrillure the elections are free and proper, and they are fair" merrill - the alabama secretary of state - said some claims he received were not true.john merrill/alabama secretary of state: "to date, by the time i left the office and came over here, we had 115 of those complaints for this particular election. more than 60 of those have already been adjudicated and dismissed, but several are active and we will continue to investigate."once jones is seated, republicans will only have a 51-49 advantage in during a critical midterm election year. in washington, i'm natasha chen reporting. reporting.chen reporting. still ahead...recreational marijuana in california is just four days away.the campaign launched by the city of san francisco to make sure kids...aren't lighting up. plus....apple now issuing an apology after coming clean about slowing down older iphones. tele vo))((grant))for your money tonight...apple is now apologizing for secretly slowing down older iphones. ((vicki))the company sa

john merrill. suzanne marie miazga. joseph kenneth miller. jewel mitchell. jane and morgan. on. helga mosey. rituals minette t. mulroy, john, sean mulroy. karen elizabeth newman. mary murphy. thomas mitchell. >> daniel emmett o'connor. denice o'neill gwen it's a win. robert opened. martha owings. laura abigail owens. robert owens. michael papadopoulos peter pierce. michael pescatore. >> sarah s.b. philipps james andrew campell pet. david platt. walter porter. pamela lynn posen william pugh crisostomo estrella quiguyan, rajesh tarsis priskel ramses 35, anmol, garima, suruchi rattan. anita reeves. and my husband, elia strattas. >> mark allen rein. jocelyn reyna. i represent louise rogers of syracuse and -- syracuse university. diane marie rencevicz edina roller. janos roller. andrea victoria rosenthal. daniel peter rosenthal. myra josephine royal. arnaud david rubin jean sarah city. scott saunders. teresa saunders. johannes otto schauble robert thomas schlageter sally elizabeth scott's. i represent amy schapiro. mridula shastri irving stanley siegel. joan sheanshang martin simp

let's bring in alabama secretary of state, john merrill. thank you for joining us, sir.now you had a long night. is it over? >> chris, i know a lot of people would say it's never over until it's over but the margin of victory for doug jones at this time looks like a difficult amount of votes to overcome as the remaining votes out there to be counted next week begin to be considered at the local level. >> what is the actual rule? i know that the state has standards for automatic recount verses an optional recount. what are the rules? >> yes, sir. chris, the recount cannot occur until after the certification occurs and that will occur sometime between the 26th of december but no later than the 3rd of january. if the margin between the two candidates is less than half of 1% an automatic kick-in provision -- an automatic provision will kick in, and an on demand recount is available. >> you have to pay for it, right? it's not on the state to do it? >> yes, sir. if it's automatic the state will pay for it. but the state -- >> what is the percentage chance this race winds up be

joining us now is the alabama secretary of state john merrill. joining us. >> thanks for allowing me to be your guest. >> what are kind of turn out are you expecting? voting started several hours ago. >> reporter: it did. we anticipate about 25% of the electorate participating. we have 3,328,117 voters. that means 835,000 people may be participating if we reach 25% threshold. >> that are would be the goal in the august primary. there are 250,000 more republican votes than democrats. how does this break down. republican versus democrat registered voters? >> reporter: we don't have party registration, wolf. what we have is party participation and one of the things that continued to happen over the last few years, there is more and more republicans voting in the primary process and fewer and fewer democrats voting in the primary process. as a matter of fact and i know you know this because you always do your homework, but judge roy moore received more votes in the republican primary than all the democrats combined in that process. it will be interes

i just got off the phone with the secretary of state of alabama, john merrill. he's predicting a vote of at least 25%. absentee ballot requests are up six times more than what they were at the runoff. i just got off the phone as well with the county clerk in tuscaloosa. this is a place where back in 2012, mitt romney won tuscaloosa county by 20%. roy moore won it by just 5%. why is this significant? democrat doug jones is going to need high voter turnout among democrats. these are the first indications that we're seeing there is at least interest and these applications are going out there. when you're looking -- there's clearly some alabamans that have made their way here to pensacola, andrea. >> good job, john. just ignore it all, all that's going on around you. >> things made sense for a moment. >> i love the reporting, the detail. that's exactly what political reporting is all about, as ann gearen knows. you've been on the road for months. will people turn out? will the african-american vote be encouraged by an appearance we are expecting from, in fact, john

provisional ballot and that's judged later whether it's accepted in or not secretary of state john merrill said it doesn't appear there's enough to trig their automatic recount. beyond that, i'm not sure what recourse roy moore has everybody from both national republicans, some state republicans, and democrats are acting like doug jones is the winner yes, it appears roy moore will have to concede. >> thank you very much for more on the alabama vote, head to cnbc.com to find out why some people are blaming steve bannon for the republican's loss. >>> italy plans to hold a general election on the 4th of march next year. according to several media reports, president sergio materella will dissolve the party later this month and an election will kick off in january. >>> feel free to e-mail the show, streetsignseurope@cnbc coming up on the show, we get the outlook for the retail industry as dixons carphone reports latest results that and more after the break. your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with reca

." >> alabama secretary of state john merrill assures voters the secret ballots are just that, secret ballots. le said that he had concerns about the ad and brought them directly to highway 31, but got nowhere. so then he went to google which he says has now removed the ads from youtube and other digital platforms. as for the democrat in this race, doug jones, he's reaching out to women, talking about the issue of sexual harassment that is making both national headlines as well as headlines in this alabama senate race. he praised the women coming forward and reporting abuse. >> so alabama, this is our time to say we are part of that movement. we're not going to lag behind like we did so many other of the social movements in this country. >> shep, jones mentioned the latest issue of "time" magazine which features some of the women at their people of the year. back to you. >> shepard: jonathan serrie live for us. there's word that gop leaders may back down as republicans blasted part of their tax plan, cutting deductions for state and local taxes. gerri willis will be here with a look a

david, alabama secretary of state john merrill has already said he sees no evidence of voter fraud. here are some numbers to crunch here. some more numbers. more than 1.3 million people cast votes. in order for a recount to be triggered, the race had to have been decided by less than .5%. about 6,700 votes. do moore and his supporters really think they can get this election turned around or is this merely a political ploy? >> i think roy moore continues to show just what a terrible candidate he was. and the reality is by contesting this, he continues to push this narrative of how entitled he felt as a republican. we can't overlook the fact that this was also trump's republican party. we know the similarities between roy moore and donald trump. this notion that facts don't matter. and if the facts don't matter, then there's no accountability. what you see right now in roy moore to take jeff flake's adjectives of the weekend are the last remaining spasms of the roy moore republican brand in alabama. the alabama voters spoke. they chose a candidate other than roy moore. roy moore is be

that is when alabama's secretary of state john merrill says he's going to certify the elections of this month's special senate election officially making democrat doug jones' victory final. moore is hoping for a political hail mary, though. he has filed for a potential election fraud in state circuit court, claims what he says are irregularities in jefferson county. that's around birmingham. he added in the statement that he passed a polygraph clearing him of any misconduct allegations. remember this thing in the election a few weeks ago? take a look at what roy moore is claiming. this is where things stand with all the votes. secretary of state poised to certify this thing. what roy moore is saying here, a couple different claims, though. the big one seems to center around turnout, casting aspersions on the turnout in jefferson county. jefferson county is birmingham and the suburbs. you can see this is a big democratic county. it typically is a big democratic county. even hillary clinton carried this in the presidential race as te she was blown out of alabama. but the point roy moore i

alabama secretary of state john merrill said it will take a couple of weeks to certify. it won't happen until after christmas. so it is is likely that doug jones won't be scorn in until the new year. chris, alyson, there is no word on when we'll hear from roy moore next. >> kaylee, appreciate it. let's bring in gregory and professor ron brownstein. gregory, you heard people saying this is nationalized. it's all about alabama. keep it local. it wasn't. both parties ran down to have an outcome. now we have an outcome. what are the implications? >> we are living in an age where politics are so unpredictable. this is a stunning example of that. alabama has just sent a democrat to the united states senate. and, you know, the "star wars" movie is coming out of the weekend. i think we can say the empire strikes back. a rejection of a style of politics that is defined by steve bannon and donald trump. their own voters don't come out in the same numbers that they did for donald trump for roy moore. incredibly flawed, morally repugnant candidate in roy %-p politics. disturb an vot

and we'll be joined by alabama secretary of state john merrill who has supported roy moore through it

it is the job of john merrill to make sure the elections are free and proper and that they are fair.a secretary of state who certified the election results last week says that moore and his supporters are just flat-out wrong. >> up i don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind that followed this election objectively that this election has been conducted with the utmost integrity, that it's been safe, secure, it's been credible. the results have the credibility to protect the people of alabama. they expect and demand it. >> eliana, when you talk about the race, doug jones is going to be seated on wednesday. and you have to talk about steve bannon. he was very instrumental in this race and said the ship has sailed on roy moore. in some ways, he's sort of on that ship as well. >> sailing away. >> sailing away, possibly. what do you make of how powerful bannon is now in the wake of what happened in alabama? >> you know, in general, i think bannon's power has been overstated. he joined the trump campaign after it was well off the ground and after trump had gained a lot of popularity.

all right, or take the alabama republican in charge of elections, john merrill, he told "the beat" lastore but not endorsing roy moore. >> the evidence that has been introduced, i need to continue to see what's out there. i need to continue to hear information. >> but merrill, who ultimately was a moore supporter, says people who don't clear the state's hurdles to voting are "lazy." >> if you're too sorry or lazy to get up off of your rear and to go register to vote, or to register electronically, and then to go vote, then you don't deserve that privilege. >> do you have it as a privilege? a lot of people say voting is a right and alabama's been making it even$<Ñe harder to do, closi1 offices that provide the i.d.s you need to vote. will any of this shape tonight's results, in an hour and six minutes? "the new york times," scott lug das writes after al implemented a strict voter i.d. turnout, turnout in racially diverse counties declined by almost 5 points. the last time roy moore ran for office hi won by 4 points. joined by scott douglas, birmingham ministries, a group suing to block t

and unfortunately, the tro that we had against the state secretary and the secretary of state john merrillrder to preserve those ballots was overturned by this republican supreme court in the state of alabama. if you really want to preserve the vote, why in the world would you not want to keep the scan of those ballots so we can make sure that our election was not compromised in the state of alabama? >> representative coleman, we obviously still don't have a result tonight. it's ten minutes to 10:00 on the east coast, 10 minutes to 9:00 where you. we got 61% of the vote. in and according to nbc, this is still too close to call. regardless who wins, do you think this was a transformative election for the party in alabama? did this change the capabilities of the democratic party in your state? >> sure. sure. i was elected first in 2002 when the democrats were in the majority. i came in a super majority as a democrat. and then in 2010, the republicans swept all three constitutional offices in addition to the state legislature. now here we are in 2017 with this race being this close. this real

the secretary of state john merrill told me on friday that he expects at least a 25% voter turnout, which is not insignificant here for the state of alabama. >> okay. buck kem up, le up, be 48 hours. jeff benefit is following the president in west palm beach, florida. good sunday to you. let's get new reaction here this morning on the russia investigation from the ranking member of the house intel committee. what all did he say? >> reporter: good morning. adam schiff the top democrat on the house intelligence committee in and a prolific trump critic this morning said if you look at the pattern and chronology of events surrounding the russian influence campaign, the various meetings between russian officials and trump campaign officials, and the wikileaks dump of hillary clinton campaign e-mails, he says all of that points to one conclusion, that the trump campaign colluded with the russians. take a look. >> the russians offered help. the campaign accepted help. the russians gave help. and the president made full use of that help. and that is pretty damning whether it is proof i don't unde

john merrill tells us it will take a couple of weeks to certify election results. it is very likely that jones won't be sworn into the senate until the new year. that gives a new sense of urgency to republicans trying to get it passed before washington. we do not know when we will next hear from roy moore. >> kaylee, thank you very much. >> let's bring in cnn analyst maggie haberman and most of" smerconish" michael smerconish. did you have jones winning last night? >> i didn't have either winning last night. i think the indicator was when the exit polls showed that moore believed the accusers by a margin of 49-45. >> more people. >> than disbelieved, right. >> moore certainly does not believe the accusers. >> i said yesterday this was very unusual in so far as each national party needed to root for the other guy. so i believe that last night was a big victory for the gop. >> because? >> they have rid themselves of roy moore. others have noted this. every republican in the 2018 midterm would have been saddled with this guy for the next year. so they have vanquished

this is alabama secretary of state john merrill. sec.errill: i would hope judge moore would look at what we had done, and if he would have a personal conversation with me, i would be happy to point to him, and many people outside of the sound of my voice right now about what our process and procedures are, because i do not think that anybody has a doubt that they have been objective and they have looked at this, and they know what has occurred is legitimate. amy: african american voters helped propel doug jones to victory by more than 20,000 votes, after at least nine women accused roy moore of sexually harassing them or assaulting them when they were teenagers, one as young as 14 years old. as record-breaking cold spell continues to freeze parts of the northeast and midwest united states, president trump took to twitter to try to use this week's cold weather to cast doubt upon many decades of scientific evidence about global warming. trump tweeted, quote, "in the east, it could be the coldest new year's eve on record. perhaps we could u

amy: meanwhile, alabama secretary state john merrill says the votes from tuesday's election will be certified and januarymber 26 3. doug jones victory means the republicans majority in the senate will narrow to 51 to 49. for more, we're joined by pema levy, political reporter for mother jones who has been following voter turnout and voter suppression in this race closely. her latest article is headlined "doug jones rides a perfrfect gp ststorm to the senate." welcome to democracy now! start off f with your respsponso whatat happened yesterdayy and e staggering vote of african americans, particularly african-american women. >> yeah, i mean, what happened last night is a really big deal. i think it shocked the entire country when doug jones pulled this off. and absolutely it could not have been done without the support of african-american voters. i think there was a lot of worry leading up to yesterday that those voters would not turn out. even leaders in the african-american community i spoke with were worried they would not be there. but i think what we're seeing is this is a wave and african

. >> that's where john merrill is not doing his job.ng destroy the evidence. don't let us save those valid images and if he certifies this election before we investigate this fully, then he is going to be accountable to those voters in alabama. >> you can watch the entire interview that dana bash did with her. it is important and fascinating. diane gallagher is "outfront" in montgomery, alabama. the last 24 hours have been high drama. i bet you thought 24 hours ago you would not be there, but there you are. what is roy moore saying about the options that he thinks he has left at this point? >> so roy moore isn't really talking at this point. he also hasn't officially conceded yet, but he did issue a statement pretty soon after the election results were certified. want to read you a quick little excerpt from it. he said election fraud experts across the country have agreed this was a fraudulent election. he then says i have stood for the truth b about god and the constitution for the people of alabama. i have no regrets. to god be the gl

john merrill has said jobs will be certified as [indiscernible] has found noe evidence of fraud. angela merkel promised support labs.other term for the stalemate since the election may be working against the acting chancellor before coalition talks with social democrats begin in the new year. barack obama has been donald trump in the gallup poll to be the most admired. others in the list include the elon muskohn mccain, and jeff bezos. hillary clinton was the most admired woman for a 16th straight year. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. guy: bitcoins tumble has resumed. sunk to around 14,000. 20% down from its mid-december high. paul dobson is with us on set. is this the risk for 2018, the regulatory site that could end crimping the cryptocurrency story? paul: that is something that people will have to pay a lot of attention to end it will be good for the long-term. a frameworkmore behind it. if that is the sort of thing that deters people from getting in their it will cause the kind of volatility we have se

. >> i've just talked to the as is john merrill.e invites you to come to his office tonight at 11:00 p.m. if you're up to going to visit with the secretary of state at 11:00 p.m. so he can explain in detail the steps that are required from this point on. because you see the vote has to be certified later this month, and then after the vote is certified, if it's within 1/2 a percent, the law requires there to be a recount. you know, the military ballots aren't even in yet, they've not been counted. so -- [ cheers and applause ] we thank you for your enthusiasm. we thank the team. we have such a wonderful team and part of them are standing with me tonight. but the most important member of this team, i want to bring him on the stage right now, judge roy moore. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. you know, i really want to thank you for coming tonight and realize when the vote is this close, it is not over. and we've still got to go by the rules about this recount provision. and the secretary of state has explain

let's hear from john merrill, his reaction. secretary, great to have ufos. what can you tell us about turnout? we thought it was going to be critical. >> the people of alabama really responded in this campaign, unlike anything that was expected. when you see exactly what happened with more than 1.2 million alabamians participating, this is a record participation effort and the people of alabama are to be applauded for their encouragement and support of bothth candidates and both campaigns. >> shannon: we've talked a lot about it. not only a special election, a special specialci election. it's part of a run off now and there been so many competing stories and scandals in all these kind of things. and that o gets us to tonight. you and i've had many conversations as this has unfold in the last few weeks about writing votes and i want to talk about something that comes from steve hayes, i'm sure from your office, he says "jones votes, 640,000, 520. about 9,000 votes difference. he says writings were 22,044. those folks who decided to have write in votes instead

about j-f-k conspiracy theories.janet porter/roy moore campaign spokesperson: "it is the job of john merrille sure the elections are free and proper, and they are fair" merrill - the alabama secretary of state - said some claims he received were not true.john merrill/alabama secretary of state: "to date, by the time i left the office and came over here, we had 115 of those complaints for this particular election. more than 60 of those have already been adjudicated and dismissed, but several are active and we will continue to investigate."once jones is seated, republicans will only have a 51-49 advantage in the senate during a critical midterm election year. in washington, i'm natasha chen reporting. (grant) coming up... several east bay families say they are being kicked out of their homes. and now they say they have no place to go. (vicki) plus... last year's storm season caused more than a billion dollars in highway damage across the state. hear what caltrans is saying about the impact climate change is having on bay area roads. hi i'm reporting a train jackknifed.a train?(grant) tonight l

capitalized and can bring on as many employees as they need according to john shin, who is a foreign exchange strategist at bank of america merrill lynch. in fact, i think he is quoted as saying companies are sitting on a large amount of cash. they're not financially constrained. shin, who conducted a survey of more than 300 companies asking their plans for a tax overhaul. and said they're all basically focused on their shareholders and engaging in buybacks. so as the fed looks at this, and they're saying there is not a linkage between the tax cuts in investment. in fact ceos are saying they're going to do share buybacks. as the fed is looking at that and your policies, are share buybacks generally, are they going to increase wages? >> well, i don't think share buybacks would increase wages. the usual linkage would be investment in capital and equipment would if they occur order to the extent that they occur would help raise the productivity of the labor force. and in boosting their productivity, would likely end up raising wages. but the linkage occurs through capital spending and not through share buybacks. >> yeah, share buyba

to the secretary of state, john merrill, he invite you to come to his office tonight at 11:00 p.m.re visit with the secretary of state at 11:00 p.m. so he can explain in detail the steps required to from this point on, because you see the vote has to be certified later this month and then, after the boat is certified if it is within one half of a percent, the law requires for there to be a recount. the votes are not in yet. they have not been counted. so, we thank you for your enthusiasm. we thank the team. we have such a wonderful team. hard of them is standing with me here tonight. the most important member of this team, i want to bring him on the stage right now. judge roy moore! judge moore: thank you. "usa"]chanting judge moore: thank you. forally want to thank you coming tonight and realize when the vote is this close it is not over. we still have to go by the rules andthe recount provision the secretary of state has explained that to us and we are expecting the press to go up there and talk to them to find out what the situation is but we also know that god is always in cont

i just talked to the secretary of state, john merrill.e to his office tonight at 11:00 p.m. if you have to going so he can explain in detail the steps required from this point on. the vote has to be certified later this month. then after a certified if it's within one half a percent the law requires a recount. the military ballots are not even in yet. they have not been counted. [applause] we thank you for your enthusiasm. we have such a wonderful team. partner standing here tonight. most important member i want to bring on the stage, judge roy moore. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. i really want to thank you for coming tonight. and realize when the voters this close, it is not over. we still have to go by the rules about the recount. the secretary of state has explained it to us. where expecting the press will go up and talk to them and find out what the situation is. we know god is always in control. [applause] part of the problem with the campaign as we have been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light. we have be

i just talked to the secretary of state john merrill. he invites you to come to his office tonight at 11:00 p.m.. he can explain in detail the steps that are required from this point on. the vote has to be certified later this month and then, after the vote is certified, if it is within one half of 1%, the law requires it to be recount. the military ballots are not even in yet. we thank you for your enthusiasm. we thank the team. the most important member of this team, i want to bring him on the stage right now. judge roy moore. [applause] mr. moore: thank you. thank you. [crowd chanting "u.s.a."] thank you. you know, i really want to thank you for coming tonight and realize when the vote is this close that it's not over. and we still got to go by the rules about this recount provision and the secretary of state has explained it to us and we're expecting that the press will go up there and talk to them to find out what the situation is. but we also know that god is always in control. you know, part of the thing - part of the problem with