ex-white house aide says moskow was behind the claim. multiple stories on the impeachment inquiry overall and again another big main photo taking up most of the front page. four columns wide in "the post" fiona hill arriving for her testimony under the big headline, whirling week of testimony wraps up, a warning that conspiracy theories advance russia and divides americans. and the st. louis post dispatch from missouri. all caps bold headline. it says fictional narrative, hill says she predicted ukraine efforts would blow up. and then you've got the other bold headline there from fiona hill over the picture of her while she's testifying, quote, in the course of this investigation i would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance russian interests. you see the headline below that for the self-supporting story with a warning about russia, blitz of testimony in-house wraps a. it's one thing to watch these hearings live as we've been doing for these last couple of weeks and keep up with the roiling

intelligence officials saying russia has engaged in a years long campaign to shift the blame away from moskow for interfering in the 2016 election and put it onto ukraine. i want to bring in matthew rosenberg who first broke this story for "the new york times." thank you for joining us on this news as we're getting it this evening. so walk us through reporting tonight that the ukraine conspiracy theory is actually a russian intelligence operation. >> you know, this began soon after the 2016 election. russia was eager to shift the blame, say, look, we're the not the people who interfered. and they picked out there were a few individuals on the ukrainian side who clearly did want hillary clinton to win. the ambassador wrote an op-ed, somebody tried to leak parts of that manafort ledger which turned out to be real. and the russians tried to pick this up and tried to spread that out. they used oligarchs and other intermediaries to get this to prominent americans, politicians, some journalists all of whom we believe were unwitting and through this way spread this idea that, you know, it's really u

kind of how far we've fallen in terms of our politics that you can have something originating in moskow the secretary of state and united states who's supposed to be standing up to that kind of disinformation from russia? in fact, at the end of the obama administration we had a unit of the state department funded to combat russian disinformation across the west. they zeroed out funding of that. and now instead of standing up to that kind of disinformation, they're spreading it themselves. >> in order to justify what the president asked president zelensky doing -- to do, that is permeating throughout the republican party. mike pompeo just said it. senator kennedy yesterday or the day before yesterday talked about how ukraine could have done it. this was on sunday. he tried to walk that back. let's play him -- let's play him first saying and then walking it back. >> senator kennedy, who do you believe was responsible for hacking the dnc and clinton campaign computers, their e-mails? was it russia or ukraine? >> i don't know. nor do you, nor do any of us. ms. hill -- >> let me interrupt to

we hear from people inside the state they're ready to ditch moskow mitch and replace him with somebodys in kentucky. mitch mcconnell stopped representing years ago, and i think when we have a democratic candidate who's willing to put kentucky first, we're going to see kentuckians come out and vote for them. >> ben selfe, kentucky's democratic party chairman thank you for joining us tonight. and when we come back after this break, tonight's warning for mitch mcconnell, you just heard it, it is not looking good for mitch mcconnell and his re-election campaign. and one thing we can guarantee you donald trump will not be campaigning for mitch kgb kaumc the night before the election. . make fitness routine with pure protein. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. >>> it was a historic night in virginia tonight where democrats have won control of the statehouse and the state senate for the first time in the 21st century. let's go to steve kornacki for

the attorney general says i'm going to recuse moskow, and i said why the hell didn't he tell me that i put him in? the only reason i gave him the job because i felt loyalty. >> welcome back to "hardball." those were just some of the examples of president trump's public attacks on his attorney general jeff sessions who was forced out last year by the president. sessions now wants his old job back as senator from alabama. he's expected to join what is already a crowded field, however, of republicans running to unseat democrat doug jones in 2020 next year. "the new york times" reports that president trump sent word to session, quote, he would publicly attack him if he ran. what is the point of this? and "the washington post" reports that the president has even joked to senators and white house aides he would move to alabama and compete against sessions himself in the primary. what does that mean? for more i'm joined by robert costa, and hal raines. robert, why would a president talk about going down and competing in a primary in a senate nomination when he's already president of the uni

quote, in the past american diplomats worked closely with kiev in any talks with moskow. they presented a united front with the kremlin, they tried to reassure a nervous ukrainian public. but now the united states is largely absent from the political and diplomatic process over resolving the war in the east. the leader of one pro-u.s. political party in ukraine telling "the washington post" today, quote, ukraine is now kind of naked. we are alone confronting russia. david ignaceous -- excuse me that was in "the new york times" not "the washington post." david ignaceous of "the washington post" raising much the same alarm today. trump's ukraine machinations have yielded the diminution of u.s. power and a corresponding increase in the leverage. the united states was an important backup for ukraine. losing that support puts kiev in a weaker bargaining position. how is the united states shaping events as ukraine is balanced now? america really isn't a player. trump said in september while meeting zelensky, quote, i really hope you and president putin can get together and solv

foreign policy objectives in europe including in ukraine where moskow wishes to reassert political dominancehe cause of this investigation i ask you please not promote falsehoods that promote russian interests. as i told the committee last month i refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize the ultimate narrative that the ukrainian government is the u.s. adversary and ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016. but we must not let domestic politics stop us from defending ourselves against the foreign powers who truly wish us harm. >> i will not be part of an effort to legitimize that alternative narrative perpetrated and propagated by the russian security services that ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016. she says please do not promote politically driven falsehoods like that so clearly advance russian interests. this alternative narrative perpetrated and propagated by russian security services that ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016, where did that theory come from? that theory came from russian security services. who has propagated it? it started off with russian security services but n

the ministry of agriculture in moskow just announced their scientists created special virtual realityr to show in other words warm weather and green pastures. the thinking goes a virtual reality will calm the cows down and calm cows produce more milk. now, if you're a cow mother russia is happy to tweak your reality for op. results and it's not just cows. next time you're in russia try pulling up the forecast or a map of the region on an apple device and you'll notice something odd. crimea before it was annexed by vladimir putin in 2014, a move that got russia kicked out of the g-8 and got them sanctioned, that crimea now appears on maps and weather forecasts not as part of ukraine, not even as disputed territory. if you're inside russia looking at that map on an apple device crimea appears as a russian territory. despite the fact that for the rest of the world beyond russia crimea appears an maps as what it is, disputed territory. this tweak to the maps, this alternative reality, if you will, is straight from vladimir putin's wish list. putin's government lobbied apple to reconfigure