again, nrcc said they're still challenging to see what this result really is.ut conor as a candidate, now lot of republicans say he only won because he ran like a republican. in many ways seems like tim caine perhaps pro-is pro 2nd amendment. they keep saying conor lamb is pro life. is that right? >> he's technically pro choice although he says he's against abortion rights. this is the democrats biggest challenge. they've got races across the country where there are progressive candidates that are outside the main stream of the district they're running in. democrats have an herbal tea party going. they need to be careful who they nominate in these swing districts. the good sign for democrats is they are getting more candidates like conor lamb. but the challenge is in some of the districts, they have so many candidates, it's hard to vet all of them. >> dana: so if you are in a district running against a republican but that you all of a sudden offer destroying ice and you promise to vote to impeach president trump, that's probably not gonna cut it. >> we have a r

>> nrcc i think will move on to next race. looking at november. but take-away from tonight, democrats won whether or not they hold the seat or not. looks like they will. here's big issue, i was product of special election where democrats were wrestling with what was their message at the time, obamacare. and republicans don't have a message. what you're seeing this them reaching for message. attack pelosi, embrace trump, talk about tax cuts? what is it? if you can't win a race that trump won by 20 points, you're offmessage. that's what happened tonight. nrcc is saying what is our message in november to protect the seats that perhaps should be eight-point seats now in jeopardy. republicans don't have a message going into november. >> maria, democrats are looking at -- dave wasserman took us through the numbers. democratic strategist, that's what you want to see. what is biggest risk for democrats in the months between now and election? something they could do to avoid, to compromise that advantage? >> they focus only on the midwest and figuring only

and the nrcc tied with $10.5 million of their own.rce familiar with the nrcc's fund-raising, they're going to line their pockets time night at a fund raiser expected to bring in more than $30 million with key knnote speaker president trump. the president may have his own parents if 2020. john kasich who came in second place in new hampshire in 2016 is heading back to the first in the nation's primary state for a fireside chat. he follows jeff flake who is in manchester new hampshire on friday. i was with flake when he said that he just wants somebody, anybody, to challenge president trump for the nomination in 2020. he doesn't know if it's going to be him. his remarks were pretty well-received by a group of business leaders an activists. there was no big break for applause or cheering at any point but he did get a standing ovation before he left. neil? >> neil: thanks very much. the read on this from the chairman of the house freedom caucus, mark meadows. chairman, this is all despite the tax cuts. a majority of americans now seem to

that's the message that republicans will be hearing in a closed meeting later today from nrcc chairman steve siegers. i'm told by a source familiar with his planned remarks. the big story is donald trump's drag on republicans up and down the ballot. if donald trump were a more popular president, we wouldn't have seen this happen. what we learned from this race or what we're continuing to learn from this race is republicans with their anti pelosi message, their pro tax reform message were not able to overcome donald trump's drag on republican candidates, so that's why we see what we're seeing now, a democrat winning a race where a democrat shouldn't even have been competitive. >> as we speak, steve stooifers, the chair of the national republican campaign committee is meeting with republican house members and telling them be afraid, get your acts together. we he's saying we've got to take this very, very seriously. the political report says there are 47 districts where republicans as vulnerable as saccone. what does this mean? what should republicans be thinking this morning? >> they may

let me turn to a former head of the nrcc, congressman names tom davis and ran the nrcc in the days of. >> when we were winning. >> when you were winning. so we heard a lot of talk from leadership and paul ryan and you've spoken with some folks and the st and the -- the feeling of the day is this guy ran as a republican. it feels like a morale boost spin but tell me -- >> it is true. they had a better candidate. he was out of central casting. >> he fit the district. >> candidates and campaigns matter. joe biden was the only national democrat he could bring into the district without determining -- and these have been cultural alignments for a long time. but the bulk of conor lamb's vote came from the pittsburgh suburbs where liberal democrats and resistance democrats wanted change despite the democratic turnout and we've seen that across the board for the last several months. >> so if you are sitting there as rcc chairs and you are sitting there going -- i think paul ryan is less republican -- or devin nunes is less republican and there is unique -- >> they are in couple ben-- incumbent

i'd say tomorrow morning the nrcc probably sending a memo to people who have suburbs in their districtsast night you saw what happened to saccone, don't be the next saccone. raise money and get out and work a little harder than you used to. >> but mark is trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. >> i don't think -- nobody's listening. >> he said both parties. >> the expectations going into tonight was that conor lamb was going to win before the polls even closed. and guess what. that's not what happened. >> but the facts still remain. donald trump won this district by 20. the president of the united states was just there campaigning for this candidate. and they still lost. >> and scott just said raised tons of money. saccone raised $10.6 million. lamb 1.8. >> but can we -- he did not raise it. if they want to split hairs, he didn't raise it, but the republican party spent that much money. >> they're going to spend more -- >> let bakari make his point and then you guys go ahead. let bakari make his point. >> everything people are saying about the democratic party, and i'm very c

the nrcc is saying this is too close to call, as is the associated press. they gave you one more chance on that point. how confident are you on that point when even the associated press, nonpartisan news organization, is saying it's too close to call. >> like i said, we take these things seriously. we would not have declared the fact that we believe conor is the winner if we didn't have a lot of data backing that up. i trust my colleagues here. they are very smart in terms of analytics and data, and we believe there is no path forward for rick saccone. >> ed: okay, meredith kelly from the house democratic on them. good luck in the days ahead as these ballots are counted. >> thank you, ed. >> ed: bret, i want to bring you win, you can react to that. in the last few days, there was this poll by the news organization axios. saying there are states like missouri and montana where the president carried some of these states by double digits, that the democrat incumbents there were struggling, that the president was outperforming there is still. do you think that

. >> in texas, sure, that's one where pete session who is ran the nrcc, tireless campaigner, if you startmocrat wave that's one that you will see fall and if it does, it'll be a long night for republicans, that's one to watch for in election night. heather: we will see what happens. still little ways away, things could change. thank you, chris. >> you bet, thank you. heather: time now is almost 20 minutes after the top of the hour, world war iii may be brewing in the middle east, iran taking aim at israel, the new threat as tensions escalate and former california governor arnold schwarzenegger wants a republican 2020 challenge and thinks he has a perfect candidate in mind to run against president trump, cheryl casone with the online reaction. ♪ ♪ heather: facebook users still not buying apology for cambridge analytica. >> this was a major breach of trust and i'm really sorry that this happened. we need to make sure that there aren't any other cambridge analyticas out there, we are going to go now and investigate every app that has access to a large amount of information. heather: maybe sh

anybody who might have data like the nrcc they are calling here asking for information.hanks very much. 8% of the vote is now in. 2,000 votes ahead. c conor lamb. you've been looking closely where the numbers are coming in. what are you seeing? >> when you look at the precincts that are in, conor lamb is running ahead of where he is. but as john pointed out, you've got a lot of these coming from allegheny, but i think they're coming from a part of allegheny where what conor lamb is doing is pretty impressive. in green county he's right with the gop on this. he's really way ahead of where i think he should be. again, the early precincts, but right now it looks like it's going well for conor lamb. >> you ran in these precincts approxima? >> yeah. i'm not looking as closely as joe s but what i would say is that those numbers and they're primarily allegheny county numbers, that's pretty much where he needs to be. if they're from the western part of the district, western part of allegheny county, those will be great numbers. i don't think he'll get those numbers from there. i

>> i do think the rnc and nrcc's get out to vote effort all the way through lelection day has outperformed. more republicans showed up to vote even if they disagree with the president, they come home to the republican party vote. interestingly, with that lead-in clip about donald trump, the two ends of pennsylvania avenue tonight. what does donald trump do tomorrow morning? does he try to suggest that somehow he made the republican candidate better in pennsylvania? does he suggest that about for him it would have been worse? but the other end of pennsylvania is also important, because i don't see a pathway tonight for how republicans keep the house in november. it is hard to see a pathway for republicans holding a majority in november, given the fact that this was a 20-point seat that they nearly lost or perhaps lost tonight. >> and maria, i'm not trying to be a shameless promoter, counting down to this vote, but it does occur to me, the enthusiasm on both sides, david mentions the rnc. on the democratic side i think we may be getting a test in the next few minutes. absentee ballots. did t

>> i do think the rnc and nrcc's get out to vote effort all the way through election day has outperformed. more republicans showed up to vote even if they disagree with the president, they come home to the republican party vote. interestingly, with that lead-in clip about donald trump, the two ends of pennsylvania avenue tonight. we saw how drum -- drum reacted with roy moore. what does donald trump do tomorrow morning? does he try to suggest that somehow he made the republican candidate better in pennsylvania? does he suggest that about for him it would have been worse? but the other end of pennsylvania is also important, because i don't see a pathway tonight for how republicans keep the house in november. it is hard to see a pathway for republicans holding a majority in november, given the fact that this was a 20-point seat that they nearly lost or perhaps lost tonight. >> and maria, i'm not trying to be a shameless promoter, counting down to this vote, but it does occur to me, the enthusiasm on both sides, david mentions the rnc. on the democratic side i think we may be getting a test

the nrcc. they called this disturbing cover-up by the congresswoman.s saying she is staying put and not resigning. she is, however, apologizing and saying she should have handled it a whole lot better. this is someone who was once very powerful in her former chief of staff tony baker and these some very serious allegations. allegations that she physically assaulted a staffer in her office, a woman by the nail of ana cain. and she said that cane threatened her so much so that she had to get a restraining order against him. baker through her spokesperson does not dispute it but he does deny punching her. in a statement, she said i shared my story but this isn't about me. this is about a flawed system designed to protect powerful people and that isolates and ignores those who need it most. the congress swom apologizing. she said i am sorry that i failed to protect her and provide where a safe and respectful work environment that every employee deserves, to the survivor and anyone else on my team who was hurt by my failure to see what was going on in my of

the nrcc, the republican and, has essentially said the opposite. they are digging in, looking to count every legal vote, as they put it. so we haven't seen an official statement from conor lamb's campaign declaring victory or anything like that. like i said, we're still waiting for him to talk. again, brian, as we were talking about before, this is clearly something that shows democrats are in a much different position going into the mid-term elections than they were obviously in 2016. and that enthusiasm gap i think steve kornacki might be able to make it up for it all by himself if we just bottled his enthusiasm. it might explain the gap in pennsylvania. we're seeing it in realtime, we saw it in the yard signs anecdotally. a big chunk of this is suburban. health insurance whe that's where a lot of these races will be won and lost. as much as republicans are going to try to spin this as closer than they told us, they thought it was going to be at 6:00 tonight, this is not great news for them at the end of the day. >> kasie hunt, a veteran reporter

we understand -- the saccone tells me there are lawyers from the rnc, nrcc to advise them on what they can do, and they will be making a decision later today. why is this race so significant? people on the ground, people in washington have considered this a referendum on the trump presidency. trump won this district in 2016 by some 20 points. the last two congressional races, 2014, 2016, the democrats did not even field a candidate. massive amounts of money spent here, some $10.7 million spent by outside republican groups to prop up this saccone campaign. as we're looking forward, however, despite this money and the symbolism, what it may come down to is symbolism. the pennsylvania supreme court decided that the congressional districts were so gerrymandered that they had to redraw the map. looking forward to november, these two candidates could be running in two different districts. chris. >> alex on a cold morning in pennsylvania giving us the cold hard facts. thank you. >>> joining us the chairman of the democratic national committee tom perez. good to see you. >> great to be with yo

. >> but raise money and knock on doors an do the basic blacking and trackling and the rnc and the nrccnot come and save every single person, you have to do it yourself. >> the president of the united states didn't like when the rnc -- he thought the rnc was meddling in the presidential primaries. why is he getting involved in senate primaries in nev nevada. >> i believe this is the best chance to keep the senate seat and take the house seat by having -- >> will he get involved in more primaries, clearing the arizona or the mississippi field -- >> i think he will take a look at it on case-by-case basis. this is another race that tarkainan could get into with the benefit of both of them if they win. >> mark lotter, former special assistant to the president and now on the side and probably liking that some days. thank you very much. >>> up ahead, could the russians shut down our nuclear grid or power plants if they just simply press a button. we'll talk about that coming up. who were sure of it. others who felt a connection. many more who never saw it coming. but now they know... they des

national republican congressional committee matt gore monday saying we are absolutely not conceding, the nrcc is waiting for provisional ballots to be counted by friday. and a recount has not been ruled out. did i speak with one attorney on the ground here he said he was asked by the saccone camp to watch the overnight count of absentee ballots going on in washington county. ultimately it was the democrat conor lamb who picked up the votes that evening. the process was far from perfect. more broadly he is hearing of multiple irregularities and would not be surprised to see some legal challenged in the coming days. meanwhile the democratic victory in this once relinably red district is reverb rating in washington. >> it's 20-point trump district. you know, that's a wake-up call. it sure is. >> i think in some ways it was a wake-up call but i wouldn't go any further than that. >> a wake-up call, harris. a lot of eyes will be looking to the mid terms after this. but, regardless of who is declared a winner in this race, this district will soon no longer exist. and either of these candidates and n

the nrcc, the national republican congressional committee chairman mat gorman says we're not conceding. they're waiting for provisional ballots to be counted. i spoke with one attorney for rick saccone. ultimately it was the democrat connor lamb that picked up a few votes overnight, but the process was far from perfect. more broadly, the attorney tells me that he heard of multiple irregularities and would not be surprised to see legal challenges in the coming days. meanwhile, the democratic victory or likely victory in this once reliably red district is reverberating in washington. >> it's a 20-point trump district. that's a wake-up call for sure. >> in some ways, it's a wake-up call. but i wouldn't go any further than that. >> and one thing worth noting is that this district literally is not long for the world. it will not exist as drawn today. if the candidates run in may, may primaries, will be running in a newly-drawn district. the previous district lines were the result of gerrymandering via the gop. the gop is challenging that as well in pennsylvania. very busy in the pennsylvani

even facing $10 million of ads run by the nrcc and other outside groups trying to tie him to nancy pelosind make him into the boogie man. it did not work because his profile was too strong. >> let me ask you if the issue of guns have changed. we had thousands of students walking out all over the country. we were on the air when the tragedy was ongoing and i heard law enforcement officials saying something has to change in the gun debate before we even knew the scale and the scope taf tragedy there in parkland. do you think the gun issue is changing? >> it is changing. otherwise you wouldn't see that bill being signed in florida last week. >> a republican governor -- >> by a republican governor. that is a significant defeat for the nra. and these walkouts are probably one of the strongest cultural challenges the nra has faced in a long timeme a long time, and on the other hand we're talking about a congressional race in pennsylvania where the democrat was elected against gun control legislation. >> he supported some pieces. >> some of the background. but he went out of his way to add where

. >> so the big nrcc dinner last night, donald trump and the republicans raised $32 million.hat big hall. they like the guy. >> that's something that i don't know. thank you. when we return, let me finish with a look at our two political parties as they stand today. you're watching "hardball." i'm all about my bed. this mattress is dangerously comfortable. when i get in, i literally say, ahh. introducing the leesa mattress. a better place to sleep. the leesa mattress is designed to provide strong support, relieve pressure and optimize airflow to keep you cool. today is gonna be great. read our reviews then try the leesa mattress in your own home. experience the leesa difference before you buy, at any west elm. or go to buyleesa.com and get $100 off. and free shipping too. olay regenerist shatters the competition. hydrating skin better than prestige creams costing over $100, $200, and even $400. for skin that looks younger than it should. fact check this ad in good housekeeping. olay regenerist. ageless. tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to time to bask..

for example, i learned as a subcommittee chair my dues to the nrcc increase dramatically.y how much? well, let me just say that dectster has to wash dishes at the capitol hill club to clear our account. and steve stivers told me two more election cycles for you and we might be done for. unfortunately, that's what pollsters are saying about the gop, too. now, stage, four, depression. losing control of the house. finally i got a shot of the chair i always wanted, foreign affairs. something happened. republicans lost control of the house. it was like lucy taking the football away from charlie brown or as moe udaul put it, the american people have spoken, the bastards. don't get me wrong. you still get a nice office, you get a good staff. just so you know it's like coming in second in a popularity contest but having to work with person who beat you, or as hillary clinton would call it, president obama's first term. but you guys in the press know what this is. being a minority is the worst. just and paul ryan what it's like for him during any gop caucus meeting. but i kid. i me

the nrcc just dumped over half a million dollars, they spent millions trying to prop up their candidatemocrats have somebody who really fits the district. he's from there. he's a veteran. people who have seen him speak say, hey, this guy is really pretty impressive. so, i think the tide is really turning. >> conner lamb, 48%, rick saccone 45%. this is a district 20% for trump. it is a republican district. this race should not be close and you know, i was going to even say the day after if the republicans only win by one or two points that's still going to be another example of massive underperformance by the gop in 2018. >> yeah. this is just the next data point. and obviously there's another week before the elections, so we'll see how it ends up. >> right. >> but it is clear that trump is playing politics with all of this. i think chris and mike are both making compelling points about the resonance of the politics. >> is that the new word, playing politics? how about winning elections. is that playing politics? >> we have higher expectations of our president. why don't we have a presid

to say this sort of district is a concern for republicans, the nrcc put in. they put money into this race. at the same time this was big for democrats here because this was their golden opportunity. you're talking about recruiting candidates. this is a guy who fit the district. you were mentioning the guy who said that he was making a vote for decency. that was a republican. there was also a republican woman over the weekend that called conor lamb every mother's dream. this was conor lam who was the former marine, the former federal prosecutor, everybody knows that story but it came down to those local issues and i talked to this man anthony ross who i first met on monday in washington county and he had the time -- he was a trump voter and he was unsure how he was going to vote. i called him up late last night and he told me he cast his vote for conor lamb and he said what fried rick saccone's butt was his unwillingness to concretely say where he stood with labor in this district. this was a man that worked for 42 years at a sheet and tubing steel facility in