so luther strange wasn't going to get there it took d.c.wamp republicans to play this in every way that was wrong. do you know what's interesting, sean? after spending $25 million, you think they would have done some significant opposition research, to see the themes they could have pushed. and i think at the end of this you are right, they can't say donald trump is an anchor weighing down the party because poll numbers according to certain polls are down. when the poll numbers of the -- of d.c. republicans are much, much worse than every poll you look at. let's face it d.c. republicans are not very popular. what i would say is they have to have some humility on these questions. if we lose this race as a party tonight, we have to have some humility about how we handle these primaries. >> sean: one of the exit poll numbers that stood out on the page larry elder had to do with donald trump really not being a factor in this race. but in terms of the liberal media, in terms of the democratic party, in terms of the spin that will go out tomorrow

after luther strange won, he joined steve bannon in endorsing roy moore. that marked a major split for republican leaders called for roy moore to quit the race after accusations of sexual misconduct with teenagers. roy moore denied all of the sexual harassment claims and beyond. the president tweeted his support for the republican candidate. he called doug jones a puppet of democratic leaders and record add robo call for roy moore. he held a rally a few miles away in pensacola where he urged supporters to vote for roy moore. in the end, educated women went heavily for the democrat. african americans turned out in numbers similar to president obama's first white house victory. doug jones is a bona fide civil rights hero. yesterday african americans showed their thanks. let's get back to john roberts who is live at the white house. quite a night. >> it was certainly. you know, for the president, too. he was stuck in a box. he had to support roy moore. he couldn't say look, don't vote for the republican or, you know, write in some candidate there that they kn

because then luther strange might have won. i'm wondering if the dnc or the democrats, they had this information, they knew they had the people that were going to come out with allegations, but they did wait to see if he was going to beat luther strange or not? and then they came out because now he's running against the democrat. so i have a question with that issue. not with why they waited, but why they didn't come out when he was running against another republican. that's a problem with me. >> well, here, we can certainly ask some alabama voters about that, or if they care to answer, they can call in as well. a few comments on twitter about this. one of our viewers this morning saying that they will listen to the voice of the alabama voters on this. so please do call in. there are people around the country who want to hear from you, alabama voters. bill king on twitter says after getting kicked off the alabama supreme court twice for misconduct, how is moore still eligible to run for public service? we'll keep looking for yo

senator luther strange of alabama is the newest member of this body, sworn in just this past february. but he did not waste any time making an impact. in this historic year for the senate, luther quickly emerged as a strong voice on policy and an important vote on landmark legislation. and on a personal level, it didn't take anyone long to realize this newcomer would rank among the most diligent, dedicated, and public spirited members of this institution. at first, we even wondered whether luther might be a little too diligent. upon arriving in washington, the senator dived into the task of meeting his colleagues with friendly earnestness that is his calling card. the first time luther passed senator roberts in a capitol hallway, he stopped to introduce himself and share his excitement to be joining the agriculture committee. nothing unusual there. but i have it on good authority that the very next day, when luther found himself sharing an elevator with senator roberts, the junior senator from alabama introduced himself all over again. not long after, a chance meeting on the train occ

luther strange, roy moore, and mo brooks. essentially, when mitch mcconnell came in to try to defeat mo brooks and boot luther strange, the mcconnell brand was so toxic in alabama but it ended up diminishing luther strange and giving rise to judge roy moore who, tonight, is not giving up. shannon. >> shannon: we will watch nc. it appears as we are getting more votes in that gap between the candidates are widening. roy moore did not concede. he wants to see if this quote will get within the half percentage point between the two primary candidates. if it does, that could trigger a recount. he told folks tonight it's not over, he was going to wait for that and wait to see. as they disperse on their side, many of them believing it is unresolved. we will see because it doesn't look like the boats are moving in that direction. there are a lot still to come in and counted, so we'll let you know. with started drones when income of the balance of the power in the center gets tighter. 51 whatcom, 41 democrats. what happens now? a lot o

luther strange, roy moore, and mo brooks. essentially, when mitch mcconnell came in to try to defeat mo brooks and boot -- boost luther strange, the mcconnell brand was so toxic in alabama that it ended up diminishing luther strange and giving rise to judge roy moore who, tonight, is not giving up. shannon. >> shannon: we will watch and see. it appears as we are getting more votes in that gap between the candidates arec. widening. as a reminder, roy moore did not concede. he wants to see if this quote -- vote will get within the half percentage point between the two primary candidates. if it does, that could trigger a recount. he told folks tonight it's not over, he was going to wait for that and wait to see. as they disperse on their side, many of them believing it is unresolved. we will see because it doesn'the look like the votes are moving in that direction. there are a lot still to come in and be counted, so we'll let you know. with doug l jones winning, the balance of the power in the center gets tighter. 51 republicans

luther strange, roy moore, and mo brooks. essentially, when mitch mcconnell came in to try to defeat mo brooks and boot luther strange, the mcconnell brand was so toxic in alabama but it ended up diminishing luther strange and giving rise to judge roy moore who, tonight, is not giving up. shannon. >> shannon: we will watch nc. it appears as we are getting more votes in that gap between the candidates are widening. roy moore did not concede. he wants to see if this quote will get within the half percentage point between the two primary candidates. if it does, that could trigger a recount. he told folks tonight it's not over, he was going to wait for that and wait to see. as they disperse on their side, many of them believing it is unresolved. we will see because it doesn't look like the boats are moving in that direction. there are a lot still to come in and counted, so we'll let you know. with started drones when income of the balance of the power in the center gets tighter. 51 whatcom, 41 democrats. what happens now? a lot o

they poured a lot of money in for luther strange. an earlier people were saying it might not have been the best idea. it kind of pushed people to the more right wing side of the equation with moore versus a more of a mainstream conservative like the guy i endorsed, which is mo brooks. >> the majority leader was hugely unpopular in alabama. after the primary when there were these postmortems going on to see what were luther strange's biggest problems, his biggest problem was how he received the senate seat from the governor, robert bentley, the former governor who reside in scandal. but his second biggest problem was mitch mcconnell. extremely unpopular with alabama republicans. >> laura: i wonder your take on this. the establishment g.o.p. in washington. did they tilt this in a way that gave this wide running room to someone like a roy moore and then the democrats went in there and these women came out and then it was kind of off to the races again. it's too close to call, basically dead even right now but the turnout and some of the

we said luther strange should be the senator from alabama. luther strange would probably have gotten 60% or 70% of the vote last night. if you are steve bannon come you're saying why didn't roy moore?ack he didn't support our candidate. that is why he lost. host: the washington examiner said you could of gone with brooks and had a better chance that way. , there were some indications there were a lot of votes in -- write in northern alabama, brooks' districkt. t. it would not surprise me if a lot of people in huntsville voted for brooks as a write in. host: talking about the results election.ght's alabama, republican line. caller: i would like to make one comment. when our government is big enough to give us everything we want, it will be big enough to need.way everything we that is what happened to a lot of third world countries. a big government and the people of the country suffer. host: how does that relate the last night? caller: it is part of government control. the government wants to control. the liberals want to give everything away.

all of those who voted for luther strange, the republican who lost in the primary to roy moore, there may be people who legitimately feel depressed about their options in this race and stay home and that's what democrats want. so by sending somebody like barack obama down there, hollywood down there, you have the opposite effect. >> right. what's your view of this? >> i just think that doug jones is the run of the mill democrat and that's the problem. you come back to it, if they had someone who is more of an alabama democrat, he would have been fine. but on issue set after issue set, he's a democrat and that's a problem in alabama. i hate to tell everyone that. i just don't see how -- >> how big of an issue is the abortion issue? >> i think it's a big deal and hurt him right out of the gate and he's done very little to overcome that. he hasn't looked for issues to find common ground with conservatives. now, i do think one of the things i'll be watching on election night is shelby county in birmingham and that's where roy moore won 63% of the vote in 2012 but lost in the primary. that

the reason i enduceed luther strange and numbers went up mildly he would not be able to within the general election roy moore this is not the the alabama and probably not last. there are a few imths we could not forget like the time he waived a tiny gun around a visual to show us how much he loves the second amendment and then there was cowboy roy riding up to place on election day on horse sassy. i'm sure roy poor was dispointed in the loss but i don't think sassy was excited about the prospects of coming to washington. i don't think he would do well on the beltway. >> big election of 2017 in our neck of wide. virginia governor race was watched not just locally but everybody. a lot of analysts were looking to the race as a referendum on president trump. he endorsed ed gillespie gut got out on campaign trail with him. he wanted to keep the president arm's length and didn't want to be tie todd closely and was con ten us is down the stretch. you may be having q election day. and he teamed seemed ready to put the negativity campaign behind him. >> decisiveness and hatred and bigotry and polit

the reason i originally endorsed luther strange, and his numbers went up mightily, i said roy moore will not be able to win the general election. i was right!

trump wanted luther strange. bannon said, no, it must be roy moore.y moore can be the one and trump was right. bannon was wrong. the question now is -- especially if it looks like as is likely mitch mcconnell is going to find a way to get trump's contacts cut through. if that happens, does this further in your trump to bannon's idea of the constant wore within the republican party? does this make trump say no more? >> i think so because the president really likes winning and if he's -- if they're playing pin the tail on the republican, he doesn't want to swap flies with a losing tail. >> no. never swat flies. >> thank you for having me. >> all right. after the results came in, thanked voters in alabama. but roy moore said not so fast. here they are. >> this vote, i've said it before. alabama has been at crossroads. we have been at crossroads in the past. and, unfortunately, we have taken the wrong thwart. tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you took the right road. >> god is always in control. you know, part of the things -- part of the problem with this c

mcconnell told him to endorse luther strange. he doesn't want to be on the losing end again. he sees roy moore has the winner, he's seen him bounce back in the polls and voters forgave him for the allegations or didn't believe them and he feels the same for moore. >> and the whole no outside in, but the president certainly now diving in to this race. and you brought up the example of luther strange, but, jay, does it work one way but not the other, if you know what i mean? does his support help roy moore in this particular situation, where the help for luther strange did not? >> certainly it looks like it will, richard. and donald trump won alabama by 30 points. he remains incredibly popular there. and roy moore is somebody who is much more aligned frankly with his base in many ways. and you saw the most recent polling after the president's endorsement, roy moore's numbers go up. so like ken said, he's leading by more than six points. and i think there's a real sense that donald trump's putting his name on the line and is going all in for roy moore. and if roy moore doesn't w

they can count on a republican vote for their tax bill from luther strange, before luther strange goesome to alabama. but the other reason it seems they are rushing this thing is because this is what it looks like on capitol hill pretty much every day now. [ chanting: i have many disabilities ] >> these were protesters today in the office of alaska lisa murkowski. these were protesters today at the offices of maine senator susan collins. the only senator who got a different reception from these crowds of protesters on the tax bill today was senator bob corker, who is -- you can hear them here, bob corker is short, forgive me, so you can't see him walking through the middle of this crowd, but he happened to wander down this hallway while these people were at another senator's office and he voted against the tax bill, so senator corker in the middle of all of these protesters were greeted with cries of, thank you, thank you, senator. the pressure on this tax bill is intense. it's not getting a lot of beltway media coverage for some reason. but the protests against this tax bill are inten

they had their own state scandal which is what luther strange certainly would have won this race. if we played this hand a little less incompetently, we would have won the seat. the harder question is why did the republicans play this hand so badly? why this terrible series of mistakes. if you lose the easy games, what happens when you have to play the hard games. >> how do washington republicans view steve bannon when they wake up tomorrow morning and see who the incoming senator is from alabama? >> they start saying in public what they've been saying in private. >> and that would all be negative about steve bannon, i take it? >> that would be negative on a scale, and a lot of the stuff that has been only, we talk about, i don't know it to be true but that has been whispered about him, i think that may also start to be said in public. >> thank you for respect being the economy of language needed when we are approaching the commercial break. coming up, donald trump's endorsement did not persuade a majority of alabama voters today. it was a big loss for donald trump and for steve b

and he was the guy who appointed luther strange as u.s. senator.hat accompanied the governor being ousted from office unfortunately hung on to luther strange. >> martha: i'm amazed watching a lot of the women in the state, chris, you know, saying look, we don't like being told what to think. we listen to roy moore. he says he didn't do it and we believe him. these are 40 years ago. he does have support among, you know, some pox of conservative women. we will see how many, i guess. >> going to have hundreds of thousands of votes tonight. it's not like -- if he loses, it's not like he is going away from this empty-handed. i do think this and i think this is something that republicans have to think about going forward into 2018. whatever comes out of this, this has been a collosal waste of time and money for republicans and reputational harm. they didn't need to have roy moore nominee there. if they could have found a way to try do luther strange or some other candidate we wouldn't be covering it tonight. it would be a blip, a technicality. >> martha:

he was a kook that won overwhelmingly in the primary against luther strange. that speaks to the fact that republicans are having a bit of a problem in coming together -- >> shannon: richard, there were none of these allegations against moore when that happened. none of those were public because it makes a huge difference. had they been public during that earlier primary vote, you know, the g.o.p. may have decided on d somebody else. >> i hear what you are saying but let's also remember that roy moore is guilty for saying comments like, lgbtq people should be put to death. his rhetoric was problematic before -- >> shannon: i'm not sure that he said those exactt words. we need to do a fact-check on that. >> i think i'm almost right. >> roy moore is a terrific -- was a terrifically flawed candidate. i think we ought to be honest with ourselves and say that. even though he was terrificallyy flawed, he almost pulled this out, he almost won. as republicans, we need to learn from this. we are having a civil war in our party between the establishment and the conservat

they had their own state scandal which is what luther strange certainly would have won this race. if we played this hand a little less incompetently, we would have won the seat. the harder question is why did the republicans play this hand so badly? why this terrible series of mistakes. if you lose the easy games, what happens when you have to play the hard games. >> how do washington republicans view steve bannon when they wake up tomorrow morning and see who the incoming senator is from alabama? >> they start saying in public what they've been saying in private. >> and that would all be negative about steve bannon, i take it? >> that would be negative on a scale, and a lot of the stuff that has been only, we talk about, i don't know it to be true but that has been whispered about him, i think that may also start to be said in public. >> thank you for respect being the economy of language needed when we are approaching the commercial break. coming up, donald trump's endorsement did not persuade a majority of alabama voters today. it was a big loss for donald trump and for steve b

when he beat luther strange, like luther strange stole something, luther won birmingham, huntsville, the cities, roy moore's coalition, they're in the rural counties, the bible belt. the people who love to go to church on sundays, the one who want to build the wall and keep brown people out of the united states. those are his people. those people are coming to vote. the ones not answering poll questions. when he beat luther strange, they had luther strange winning this race before the election. then roy moore came back and won even though trump as president came to the state of alabama and held rallies for luther strange, appeared in luther strange ads, roy moore still won. >> that point about the bible belt, there was a heinous and notorious defense of roy moore's sexual pedophilia -- you know, going after young girls. the defense was take joseph and mary. mary was a teenager and joseph was an adult carpenter, and they were the parents of jesus, which is anti-biblical because mary is supposed to be a virgin. let's listen to a roy moore supporter supporting roy moore even if he did i

you know, had they nominated luther strange, luther strange would still be in the u.s. ge." >> would not have been strange. >> the genius of these ridiculous -- these sound bites from the president -ou wearing that get-up, but go ahead. >> oh, yeah, i thought we were just not gonna acknowledge it the whole time, [laughs] which would have been great. so, the thing about these sound bites is the president knows he can totally shift the news narrative. >> yeah. >> as much as he hates the news media, he controls -- >> he doesn't hate the news media. >> no, but he controls the news media, and he knows it. so every time he says something about the nfl kneeling, that's all we talked about for like a month. >> well, remember what happened that weekend. >> right. >> obamacare didn't get replaced and repealed. >> exactly. >> we weren't talking about the nfl. the nfl kneeling controversy was just about dead. >> yeah. >> and then you had mike pence go to that colts game and do that whole stunt. >> for five minutes. >> and then he tweeted out the picture of him and karen from

he endorses luther strange. luther strange loses.a state that went for him by 28 points. >> it's the kiss of death. >> roy moore loses. i always said in politics and usually said about an entitlement system that is going to bankrupt america, demographics is destiny and demographics is destiny in politics as well. look at the two college towns. two college towns that went strong for every republican presidential candidate over the past 30 years. tuscaloosa county, trump plus 20 just a year ago. now, yesterday, tuscaloosa county went for doug jones by 16 points, a 36-point swing. if you go east, southeast plus 23 for donald trump lee went for plus 17 doug jones yesterday. that's a 40-point swing. in a conservative area. you look at those numbers and then combine those, steve schmidt, with the numbers of black voters that turn ed out fr barack obama in 2008. in historic proportions. nobody believed. none of us believed that that would ever be matched again. certainly not in an off-year election, in a special election where turnout -- wh

obviously, he was for luther strange and now roy moore.ing, i think it's a stinging motel. >> with the governor's race, he's 0 for 3 right now. let me ask you about the lessons learned out of this. what do you think democrats have learned out of this for 2018? what have republicans learned out of the alabama senate race 2018 take-aways? >> i think for republicans, they have learned that steve bannon has his limits. while he was seen as someone in touch with the base and really understood what he was doing, mitch mcconnell has said for a long time that he believes steve bannon is not very good at picking candidates and actually understanding what it's going to take to vet someone properly. i think there's pause there. for the democrats, it says two things, one, you can essentially run on the fact that you're not your conservative opponent. democrats were wanting to say they were trying to run a race that wasn't just on referendum on trump. i think this shows they can do that. the second thing, you have to have a candidate that have real con

luther strange, who was defeated by roy moore in the republican primary issued a statement saying "the people of alabama made their voices heard last night, i respect their decision and i congratulate doug jones on a well-earned victory." >> harris: jonathan, thank you very much. president trump is tweeting this morning that his instincts told him roy moore was going to have an uphill battle. the president referred to his opponent in the primary, saying "the reason i originally endorsed luther strange and his numbers went up, my belief is that i said roy moore was not able to win the general election. i was right. he worked hard but the deck was stacked against him. the president saw this coming, he said. let's bring in deputy white house press secretary, does this prove the president's right, what are you talking about inside the white house on this? >> look, the president obviously didn't support roy moore in the beginning, he supported someone like luther strange and made luther strange a very popular candidate in the state of alabama but at the end of the day it was a binary choice

he is not luther strange.t of the reason why the president wanted to endorse luther strange is because roy moore could be a wild card. he is very much his own man and won't necessarily bend to whatever the president tells him. >> i think you are absolutely right. he has run a campaign against mitch mcconnell. it is difficult. i think what the president has gone to is the only ground that he could go to saying look. i'm stuck with this. mathematically, doug jones is a no vote on everything we need to move the country forward with. and judge moore is an absolute wild card. he may be a continued embarrassment. actions taken 40 years. gloria allred dropped the ball and said the yearbook was signed and filled out by judge moorement she limoore. she lied about it. >> at this point, only part of it is beverly young nelson saying it is just the end of the thing. the date and location. the president highlighted that. you know, obviously that is something that is latched on to at this point. i want to move on. talking a

luther strange, when luther strange got beat down by roy moore, luther strange was one of the most racepaigns i've ever seen. roy moore has done it in a way in which he talked about immigration and building a wall. he has all these brown people on camera to say we don't like them. that is what his campaign is based upon. >> tucker: luther strange is not running for anything now. >> i'm telling you. >> tucker: ran a racist campaign against roy moore in a primary that doesn't even make sense given the demographics of alabama. i don't even know what you're talking about. >> and that's what he did! it does make sense. that's the beauty of it. he's trying to create racially charged -- he was trying to create the campaign to make it racially charged and that's what he did and he got whipped. however, now we have roy moore who is doing something similar. >> tucker: here's the point, -- >> i'm trying to educate you about it. >> tucker: there are a lot of reasons that you might be against roy moore. i think you could take his accuser seriously, you might not like his position on x, y, or z, but

luther strange got whooped by roy moore. there's the first mistake.he general election. most people thought he should win because alabama has not elected a democrat in 25 years. >> when did the president say he wasn't going to win? >> never. it he doesn't have the facts straight. but that's not unusual. the problem for his people, he is looking to distance himself from what happened last night. >> correct. >> in order to do that, that means somebody else will have to take the fall. is it bannon? >> i think bannon will be one of the people. some blame will be pointed toward mitch mcconnell. i think this is not going to help his relationship with jeff sessions whose seat this was. and the president has had a very difficult relationship with his attorney general this year because of the reaccusal in the rush is that-related probes. i think it is too soon to say where it's going to go. people in the white house will urge him to stop listening to steve bannon. he remained very influential figure in the west wing. >> he took a shot at trump's daughter. >> h

the runoff between roy moore and luther strange was 15%. that's horrific, not many people are voting, when are we going to see something totally different tomorrow? >> well, that's the challenge for doug jones, is that he's got to juice turnout up above 25% overall to have a chance. there are a lot of voters in this state, who have no use for roy moore. the challenge for jones, a lot of them are not enthused enough to show up for an election on december 12th. a state that mark knows very well, which is kind of the precise opposite of alabama, which is his home state of massachusetts, there was a special election there, where the republican won, and you had similarly unique circumstances, a weakens democratic candidate running, and a republican that caught fire at a time of great energy. i think there are some similarities here, i would say the challenge is even moore here to win in bama for a democrat. >> what's your feeling for tomorrow night. how long of a night will it be? >> different way to count? >> i've been through many newsroom ele

jack kingston, you actually campaigned for luther strange. how big a problem for republicans is it if moore does, in fact, win? >> he is a wild card because he does really when he says i don't like the establishment, he means everybody. he's a -- who is probably in washington, d.c. >> he may not vote along with president trump on everything. >> i actually asked an elected official today in alabama how hard would he be -- how much opposition will he give mcconnell? he said as long as mcconnell's in office, probably the whole time. and so i think he is definitely a wild card. that's part of his lure and why his fan base is so loyal. that's why i think the rural voters in particular will show out rain, snow or whatever. >> ana navarro, the sheer list of people that the roy moore campaign or roy moore himself have blamed or cited as part of a conspiracy, mitch mcconnell, mainstream republicans, the dnc, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, in their words radical homosexuals, transgender groups and criminals and the "washington post." >> george soros. >>

we said luther strange should be the senator from alabama.uther strange would probably have gotten 60% or 70% of the vote last night. if you are steve bannon come you're saying why didn't roy moore?ack he didn't support our candidate. that is why he lost. host: the washington examiner said you could of gone with brooks and had a better chance that way. , there were some indications there were a lot of votes in -- write in northern alabama, brooks' districkt. t. it would not surprise me if a lot of people in huntsville voted for brooks as a write in. host: talking about the results election.ght's alabama, republican line. caller: i would like to make one comment. when our government is big enough to give us everything we want, it will be big enough to need.way everything we that is what happened to a lot of third world countries. a big government and the people of the country suffer. host: how does that relate the last night? caller: it is part of government control. the government wants to control. the liberals want to give everything away. w

what's confounding is moving beyond the fact he was with mitch mcconnell when they backed luther strange in the republican primary. of course strange loses to moore. moore loses last night. is that when it got to the point of backing judge moore? judge moore, who had numerous allegations lodged against him from women who said that he dated them when they were teenagers or that they sexually assaulted them. donald trump chose to break from his republican establishment from the republican congressional leaders and endorse judge moore. i think that is very, very hurtful now for republicans heading into 2018. i can tell you this, jim. the only thing that happened that was good for republicans in the last 24 hours is that judge moore lost. you imagine what, how they would be able to deal with an election in 2018 having him as somebody that the president endorsed and he won. >> no question. or being photographed with him in the senate chambers. april, when you look at trump's track record with who he's backed, just in the last couple of months, look at the list. he backed ed gillespie in virgi

luther strange in the runoff race. other the president is endorsing roy moore, the president has been fairly transparent about. he wants and needs his vote in the u.s. senate. now all this has put the president at odds with members of his own party to include the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. but also tim scott, the republican senator from south carolina who spoke with our own chuck todd this morning on "meet the press." take a look. >> are you comfortable that the leader of your party is all in for roy moore? >> well, there are a number of people in my party that are not, including myself and many republican senators. >> reporter: to include senators, you heard tim scott to include richard shelby, the senior republican senator from alabama who said that he could not vote for roy moore and also said that the people of alabama deserve better. richard? >> geoff bennett there very close to the president this weekend. thank you, appreciate that. >>> now we'll bring in our guest who is a congressional reporter for

and then, "the reason i endorsed luther strange is i is he roy moore will not be able to win the general election. i was right. roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him. after strange lost, the president deleted a bunch of tweets that supported strange and that is what we're seeing here. the president trying to distance himself now from his own endorsement saying he always thought moore couldn't win and only as president trump can do, twist this major loss into some personal victory of being right. you might remember, he said something similar when after months of questioning president obama's birthplace, then mr. obama produced his birth certificate. mr. trump congratulated himself. the president didn't think moore would be able to win. he could have done a lot of other things. he could have not weighed in. he could have left it to the voters of alabama to decide. he could have stayed out of it, he could have called for moore to step aside like many republicans did. the president did not stay out of it. he went all-in. he tweeted at least five times dating back to moore's pr

. >> luther strange determined to drain that swamp. >> initially throwing his weight behind luther strangeweeks, the president threw his full support behind roy moore. >> so get out and vote for roy moore. >> even defending him against the allegations. >> well, he denials it. look, he denies it. >> but fell short. with african voters and young people showing up. for even the unlikeliest of voters. >> i'll be honest. i've never seen the excitement or interest in an election like i've seen for this little senate race. >> krasy james is a lifelong republican who comes from a long line of republican political leaders. today she cast her vote for a democrat. >> i have felt empowered. not only as a republican but as a woman making the right choice. >> a night of history. >> thank you! >> pass an over party lines culminating in victory. >> i don't care how we did it. we did it. >>> next, meet the podcast host becoming the face of nothing. the minimalist teaching overwhelming consumers the art of downsizing. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. but to help others, they first

at the time luther strange did not. alabama's present senator with us right now. senator, very good to have you. >> thank you, neil. glad to be on with you today. >> how do you feel about this? must be mixed emotions. >> better sweet. i've loved my time in the senate. we accomplished a lot. even with the repeal and replace of obamacare. so it's disappointing. i've been honored to serve and looking forward to the next chapter. >> it's no accident that a lot of folks have said and polls seem to indicate that had you gotten that nomination, all of this drama wouldn't have been necessary. that you probably would have won. we'll never know for sure. >> right. >> neil: are you bitter? >> no, not at all. i'm not one to look back. i have a motto many our family, there's no whines in politics. i accented the appointment to give me two years to become a good senator. the governor changed the date of the primary, which threw us into this situation. so turnout was involved. a lot of factors. the failure to repeal and replace, as i said. i'm proud of my service. i think we acc

and so sadly i had to say today this was the democrat that was willing to lose to luther strange and then that didn't happen. we know what happened there. doug jones is a nice guy. he is a good liberal exact. and liberal democrats just don't win in alabama. but he has a real shot here. >> david gergen, gloria boringer, bill brit. we'll get a quick break in. also when we come back the gary tuckman a friend of leo corfman who tells a story that leo said to her about what she says happened with moore. later another report detailing russian efforts it seems to reach out to the trump campaign. confidante home hicks will tell you how seriously the fbi took it at the time. looking at my account, and i've got all this extra cash back. yep. that's your cashback match. only discover will automatically match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year. you matched everything i earned this year? yeah. whoo! more money! more money! it's all very exciting. i'm going to spread the news! spread it wide! it's cashback match people! people! you know that. you all work here. n

when he came here for luther strange moved the needle a little bit but not enough. this will help roy moore, because it gives those people that are on the fence a reason to vote for moore. >> gloria, if this might be alabama as bill was just saying, why not just go to alabama? i mean, i know when they announced this trip president trump hasn't fully endorsed moore but he has now. >> yeah, the white house said the president was too busy, that he wasn't going to go to alabama. and now of course they have changed their mind. so they are being kind of cute, you know, and they are in pensacola which as you guys pointed out is exactly the same thing. i think the president now thinks that roy moore has a good shot at winning. and he thinks that the seat is worth more than just about anything, including the republican party. and the question of how the republican party survives generally having embraced, having a president who embraces roy moore given the sexual questions that are confronting him. and so i think trump decided himself to go all in on this, even though it's r

let's take a quick look at the most recent one between luther strange, the incumbent republican right now, and roy moore. this was a primary back in september. look, roy moore won by 10 percentage points. where luther strange did better than roy moore, was in cities such as birmingham, huntsville and mobile, which is home to more traditional voters and for doug jones to do well today to win today, he's going to have to try to get some of the republican voters who supported luther strange in september to vote for him now. let's move on and look at the last election right now. when you look at richard shelby, who is the incumbent senator in 2016, he defeated ron crump by 28 points, the democrat. what doug jones needs to do overperform where ron crumpton did well. you see the blue line across the middle of the state, that is called the black belt. no surprise that we saw barack obama do a robo call yesterday to try to get out the votes, specifically african-american votes, and in addition to that we saw vice president joe biden do a robo call and that call was directed towards trial lawy

senate race to replace luther strange. luther strange was an appointed senator who was installed in that seat in the senate to finish out the term of long-time alabama senator skref sessions who is now the nation's attorney general. luther strange had the misfortune of being primaried by the yosemite sam of unreconstructed hard right alabama republican politics, roy moore. even though lots of people would love to tell you what is going to happen in this race tomorrow and why, i honestly would not put a bet on it either way. special elections are notoriously hard to poll anyway, even in relatively normal races. this is not a normal race. and last-minute polls ahead of tomorrow's balloting show either a big lead for republican roy moore or a big lead for democrat doug jones. take your pick. demanding on the poll. honestly, there's no use speculating at this point. we will know how it's going to turn out by this time tomorrow. one thing you can know for sure in advance is that tomorrow's result will all depend on turnout. but

i would suspect a lot of them were for luther strange. keep in mind, president trump went down to alabama for a big luther rally to rally him around the folks during the primary over roy moore because the presidents had said that roy moore couldn't win and as it turns out he was right. ainsley: mitch mcconnell also was supporting luther strange. both of them wanted him to win. the president just tweeted about it. he said the reason i originally endorsed luther strange and his numbers went up mightily is that i said roy moore will not be able to win the general election. i was right. roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him. steve: one of the other things remember a up pell months ago. luther strange sitting in congress right now was supported by the g.o.p. establishment and mitch mcconnell. and to many republicans, especially steve bannon, he represents the swamp. they wanted to drain the swamp. rather than support the g.o.p. candidate, the establishment candidate in luther strange, steve bannon went 100 percent behind this gu

bannon backed moore in the primary against establishment republican luther strange., thanks to steve "the wonder corpse" bannon, republicans lost the reddest state in the country. and they're not happy. just listen to new york congressman and grocery store manager who doesn't like the look of those teenagers in the dairy aisle, peter king. >> this guy does not belong on the national stage. he looks like some disheveled drunk that wandered onto the political stage. >> stephen: perhaps it was john mccain's daughter, megan, who had the most eloquent takedown. "suck it, bannon!" >> jon: oh, wow! >> stephen: i'm sorry, didn't you hear anthony scaramucci? that's what bannon's been trying to do this whole time. ( laughter ) it's an oldy but a goody. but the real loser here is donald trump, because he was all in on roy moore. a source close to the white house said, "it's devastating to the president. this is an earthquake, like virginia, but on steroids." coincidentally, "like virginia but on steroids" is the alabama state motto. ( laughter ) but to the president's credit, a

then luther strange might've won. am wondering if the dnc or the democrats had this information of the people that were going to come out with allegations, but did they wait to see if he was going to beat luther strange are not and then they came out because now he is running against a democrat. i have a question with that issue -- not with why they waited, but why they didn't come out when he was running against another republican. that is a problem with me. some we can certainly ask alabama voters about that or if they care to answer, they can call in as well. a few comments on twitter about this. one of our viewers saying that they will listen to the voice of the alabama voters on this. please call in, there are people around the country that want to hear from you, alabama voters. bill king says "after getting kicked off the alabama supreme court twice, how is moore eligible to run for public service?" we will keep looking for your tweets this morning. it is @cspanwj. this conversation about the alabama senate race

luther strange lost in the runoff, he went with roy moore.ald trump is still learning politics. he is still trying to figure out where he stands and he is all over the map. that is what creates chaos in washington. trump sent out tweets and alienates potential allies and is all over the map in terms of who his friends and enemies are. rajini: arithmetic-wise, it is not good for donald trump in terms of congress and policy reform. josh: right, if you want to get his agenda passed him he needs to maintain control of the house and keep the senate. the senate looked like it was pretty safe for republicans, no matter how tough an environment the environment would be in 2010, but no one saw alabama becoming a blue state. rajini: josh, i'm going to pause you there, because president trump is not letting the fallout from alabama get in the way of tax reform agenda. let's look at one of the promises he made earlier about tax reform. president trump: today is a very important day and we want everybody to be covered accurately. i'm excited to announce t