still with us here tonight is steve schmidt. e, when they write the book on this period, let's say just these last two years, is it going to be written that trump is fortunate to have had a period where the leadership and the republican senate and republican house has been so unencumbered by principles or idealogy or a sense of stewardship over the country that they have allowed trump to just completely take control of that party? >> well, brian, we tend to look in campaigns and say the outcome is determined by the last event that occurs that has meaning. so tonight we saw the president with rush limbaugh, as if that will influence the outcome as opposed to focusing on the first thing that happened. the first thing that happened in this election is this. when donald trump was nau inaugurated, there was trump. lock, stock and barrel, all of them, from lindsey graham on down, there is exactly one elected republican left in the country that has been faithful to his previous principles. that's john kasich. so that decision to surrend

. >> steve schmidt. >> before the next presidential

and steve schmidt's back. he hosts the podcast "words matter." words do matter. steve schmidt, you couldn't make it up if you wanted to teach donald trump a lesson about the ceiling of the tone and tenor of his presidency. >> well, the thing about this election is that it's such a binary choice, and tonight, the country will make a fundamental decision. are we a geography with warring tribes on it where we look at each other as the other, we pit one group of americans against the other? a tribal war conducted by donald trump, a tribal chiefton pitting the country against each other, toke sto stoking this cold civil war? it will either be validated tonight or be repudiated and there is absolutely nothing in between the two. >> jim messina, i want to show you some voices, surprising voices, including steve schmidt, of people urging midterm election voters to vote democratic. let's watch. >> the party of trump must be destroyed politically. >> i am urging everybody to vote straight-ticket democratic in november because i think it is imperative to get some checks and

steve schmidt, what ballot issues are you watching?l these marijuana initiatives and the degree to which they drive younger voters. . personally, i can't think of a stupider thing of this country to spend $60 billion a year on than the war on marijuana and the disproportionate incarcerations of african-americans versus privileged white college kids and down the line. these minimum wage initiatives have passed, even in republican states going back over the last couple of elections. medicaid expansion as you see in rural areas, hospitals being shut down, all of these issues are driving turnout from a specific portion of the democratic electorate, that initiative mix should work pretty well from a turnout perspective from democrats in all of the states. >> fda approving an opioid stronger than fentanyl and we're still debating weed. think about that. what ballot issue do you think matters? >> the reason congress is so polarized is gerrymandering, there are four states that have referendum on fair districts that would take the politics out

i think it was very clear now steve schmidt as usual is absolutely correct. this is a referendum on donald trump, i think the american people have said, the gloves are off, we know who this guy is now, it's not a mystery any more. maybe it was a mystery two years ago, we know exactly who it is, and we want a check on his behavior. and at least the house of representatives going to the democrats is going to give us a start on the check of his behavior. >> we heard weeks ago it was going to be about kavanaugh and the caravan. and that did create this red wave. how can the president capitalize on fear when he's the guy in office. you're saying, look at the bad things that are happening, i'm going to change it. this guy runs the show. >> american politics is degenerated to the point where there's very little sway. he invites as a tribal leader would, his faction pitting them against the other tribe. he's come to the conclusion in the tightly divided country that we have, that his stoking of a cold civil war, his reinvention of the public party as a white ethnonat

. >> those are people, nicolle wallace, steve schmidt who tried to elect john mccain president.rked for the election of republican presidents, breyer to donald trump getting that nomination. when you hear those people talking, are they speaking to you? is that your experience as a voter? >> they're speaking with me. >> with you. that is my experience. right now, the majority party in the house and senate are not fulfilling their oath of office, they are not acting as a check and balance. we must replace with those who will. >> there's another line that you have in your piece, where you say, all leaders must take responsibility and have moral compass grounded in competence, integrity and concern for the greater good. the moral compass seems to be absent. i can't find it, when i look at the republican leadership in washington now. >> if it is there, they're not listening to it, they're not looking at it. >> what do you think, if you could have a moment with the president of the united states, if you could have a minute with him, what would you want to tell him about the way he doe

their political careers until donald trump arrived on the scene. >> former republican strategist, steve schmidt, thank you for joining us, steve. >> you bet. >> sobering, as always. nicolle wallace, you and i were talking about this a few minutes ago off camera. there are republicans who repudia repudiate trump, who call the president out on specific matters and call him out in general in terms of his overall approach to politics and then they quit. nobody calls him out and then votes against him, or stays in office and decides to fight. >> and we shouldn't -- there aren't many. you don't need two hands to count them. but the most specific was bob corker. he questioned his competence, his fitness to serve, he called this west wing adult day care, and then he actually held a hearing to sort of hear expert testimony about the president's nuclear power. >> just before the poll closings in less than two minutes, we've got a call. >> another flip. you have your second flip of the night, this is the 27th district of florida, iliana ross, the republican who designed -- it's going democratic. one that

. >> former governor arnold schwarzenegger sat down with former campaign advisers steve schmidt and david axelrod to talk about polarization in politics. this discussion is one hour. >> i have the great pleasure introducing for luminaries. a lot of people in this room need no introduction. we have four more. i would like to say a few words about the inspiration behind the lecture. bonnie was a friend to everyone in this room. working with her was one of the most rewarding experiences. i'm sure that as ironic as this may sound, she would have loved this event. she would not love the attention, but she would've loved working the rooms, shouting hellos, extracting commitments. you know it's true. she would've loved the lineup of extraordinary speakers and she would have never admitted it, but she would love the fact that her life's work could bring together such an esteemed audience to explore civility in politics. family werept her with her more than the deep partisan divide plaguing america. she wanted to find a solution to the problem. i am humbled to continue her work. i am honored to in

and i am now honored to invite around schwarzenegger, david axelrod, steve schmidt and the moderater to lead us on a discussion on bridging america's political divide. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to the stage these four giants of american politics. [applause] >> wow. let me say bonnie understood what we did. work for an honor to meone, what we're here discussing today. i have to start out today with the knews, i think. we had the headline this morning about explosive devices being found in the homes of the clintons, president obama, george soros, james brennan, eric holder and representative maxine waters. so let's start there. i would like to hear your reaction, governor, and steve and david. and your response to the suggestion that this attack is maybe the direct result of the level of vitriol and partisanship that this country is going through right now. i think that, number one, partisanship or not, it's inexcusable. i don't think that someone should use that as an excuse to commit a crime like that. to me it doesn't make any difference if like last year a c

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be quiet the most, which is, again, i think one of the great insights and we're going to have steve schmidt on today was when steve said earlier this week, hey, you know, donald trump won in part in 2016 because he knew he had to stay out of the way the last ten days. when people were talking about hillary clinton, when people were talking about the letter, donald trump is doing well. when they talk about donald trump, his numbers are going down. willie, i think he's forgotten that strategy. >> yeah. what's the opposite of staying out of the way? that's what the president is doing right now. he's doing two rallies a day going forward. he had another one in missouri last night. he gave a speech on immigration yesterday, sharply worded announcing two immigration policies using the roosevelt room as his back drop, the president vowed to hold undocumented immigrants in detention until they could be deported. in the speech, the president repeatedly highlighted what he said was a threat posed by the caravan of migrants heading towards the u.s. border. >> at this very moment, large, well organized

steve schmidt was the mother of two daughters and the founder of thinks thinks germany her numerous projects have clear goals to break down gender stereotypes so that men and women have equal opportunities challenging sexist opportunities inc and giving children an alternative take on masculinity and femininity. this is our book david and his pink pony a play that we show at elementary schools to show boys that they can like pink and be soft or are cool sticker not sexy yes sexist no it explains what sexism is and what isn't and very important i love pink hate pink vacation. last ping especially in times of the me to debate why men discuss mad hold the door open for women or not it's understandable that society is completely confused we've had feminism for forty years now that's not much if you look at our cultural history and for the first time men are apparently completely excited and confused because now they say that you can't compliment a woman anymore and you don't really know what the right man is or what the right woman is and in this time it's of course a gender marketing which says

celebrated, dona trump moves our embassy from te aviv, to jerusalem, and he's attacked by fools like steve schmidt let's talk about immigration briefly. dwight d eisenhower, he's not considered a white supremacist is not considered a racist, dwight eisenhower when he becam president of the united states he created a program called operation went back, that's not me, that was him operation went back, what was that? he ordered the military to roundup 1.3 million illegal aliens and deport them. that's exactly what he did. he was supported by the democratic party to. 1960s, cesar chavez the founder of the united farm workers union, he ordered his members at night to watch the southern border and report illegal aliens coming over the border to ims. 1969, chavez, abernathy he'd been that the martin luther kin in 1969ns, walter mondale, he w not they lead i will go on. the president donald trump is threatening freedom of the press ? how so? by calling them out? by exposing them? john adams, would've put in place the sedition act. he actually put some newspapers out of this and put some journalist in pris

for you, steve schmidt as you sat and watched the returns last night, what was the big picture the big for you? >> the big ticket picture is this was a big night across the mid-west, taking back the house of representatives. the government race and state legislative races and the trump fog machine can spin this anyway it wants. if you have the capacity to make up an invasion of the united states by a disease infested hoard of immigrants, for sure you have the capacity to say that though you lost, you, in fact, won. so that's number one. right. so there is a big night for democrats, no what's what they said. to eddie's point, i want to expand on what he said, that reality is that paul ryan was wrong to advise the campaign on the economy and donald trump's instinct were validated in big sections of the country. the incitement strategy, the racial demagoguery, it worked. and we have to understand that we have a billion dollar anger industry in this country. we have a news network in unprecedented fashion functioning as a prop began prof a president that controls it. we have an interconnec

. >> steve schmidt, does anybody grow courage within the republican party because the returning congress will see a shift of power against this president? >> absolutely not. the republican party won't be chastened, they will be emboldened. the republicans who have lost, the lesson that will be taken from this election is they were lost because they didn't engage in trumpism fully. had they engaged in the tactics that would have worked like in the state of ohio, in florida where gillum went down, to desantis. that's the lesson. that's to take away from republicans. but we shouldn't bury the lead here and the lead is this. we know something now that we didn't know this morning. and that is, come january, there is a check on donald trump. democrats hold the subpoena player. the unchecked corruption is out of ten. all trump supporters who have disagreed that very much. our politics is broken. it's paralyzed. there will be chaos but much less able to abuse his power than he was for the last two years. that's the headline out of tonight. the other thing that comes out of tonight is this what i

. >> and those are people, nicolle wallace, steve schmidt, who tried to elect john mccain president. they've all worked for the election of republican presidents prior to donald trump getting that nomination. when you hear those people talking, are they speaking to you? is that your experience as a voter? >> they're speaking with me, that is my experience. right now the majority party in the house, in the senate are not fulfilling their oath of office. they are not acting as a check and balance, and we must replace with those who will. >> there's another line that you have in your piece where you say, all leaders must take responsibility and have moral compass grounded in competence, integrity and concern for the greater good. the moral compass seems to be absent. i can't find it when i look at the republican leadership in washington now. >> if it is there, they're not listening to it. they're not looking at it. >> what do you think, if you could have a moment with the president of the united states, if you could a have a minute with him, what would you want to tell him about the way

he did in 2016, a play book that for him was successful. >> a.b., react for me, please, to what steve schmidt said on twitter tonight. and i quote. the deployment of active duty u.s. armed forces to the u.s./mexican border in an operation named faithful patriot, with lethal force authorized, is a scandal. this is a shameful misuse and abuse of the u.s. military. in service of trump's desperate political stunts." >> well, i think that many people in the military feel that way, but this is not an illegal deployment. it was used -- the same type of operation was used smaller scale by presidents bush and obama. the military says yes to their commander in chief, and no one is going to resign over this as much as this is making people all the way up to secretary mattis uncomfortable. this -- beyond this is the layering over of the birthright citizenship executive order, and now this other fictional executive order about minimizing the -- excuse me, restricting the criteria for asylum. it's very surreal, even by the trumpian threshold. he's gotten into this frantic sort of manic thing where each day

crenshaw or whether it's a candidate, you c without accusing of fraud, you get the sense of what steve schmidting about, the coalition of the decent is still out there and immensely hungry for moments like this because donald trump has reminded us, again, how thin all of this is. >> and she was a uniquely american first lady. one of the moments that i loved was early on in the presidency when they went to the uk and she went to the buckingham palace and she put her arm around queen elizabeth and people went, oh, my gosh, that's what an american first lady does. we are the country that escaped from a monarchy, we put our arms around people. i thought that was so fantastic. that is what -- that's the warmth that people crave. its not about being observing some old order. >> she also -- and she and jen are the perfect people to tell the story, she also had been the few grace moments in our politics where menl traump was welcomed to barbara bush's funeral in houston last spring, welcomed by michelle obama and president obama and the bush family at other sort of moments of crisis. donald trump has

former california governor arnold schwarzenegger sat down with former presidential campaign adviser steve schmidt and david axelrod to talk about polarization. this is an hour.

continue her work at the institute and honored to invite arnold schwarzenegger, david axelrod, steve schmidt and carla to lead us in the discussion on bridging america's political divide. ladies and gentlemen join me in welcoming these four giants of american politics. [applause] >> while --wow. let me say as a member of the press, bonnie understood what we did. it was an honor to cover someone -- a progressive democrat who worked for republican governor. with some of the most respected analysts. i have to start today with the news. morninghe headline this about explosive devices found in the homes of the clintons, holder,t obama, eric representative maxine waters. let us start there. i would like to hear your reaction governor and steve and david. and your response to the suggestion that this attack is a direct result of the level of partisanship this country is going through. number one, partisanship or not, it is an excusable. i do not think someone should use that as an excuse to commit a crime like that. , ais not make any difference congressman was gunned down because he was a republic

people like rick and steve schmidt and others, they don't have to look five years from now. he's doing it. they won a couple of red seats in the reddest of red states where donald trump won by 20 points. big deal. they're getting routed on the state level. they're getting routed on the local level and they got routed in congress. >> beto o'rourke didn't win, stacy abrams, we'll see whether or not she prevails there. you lose the house, you have all the power and we learned how important that power in the house will be based on the fact that the president may -- we'll talk about the firing of jeff sessions. in january, those governorships will start. >> we all know democrats taking control of the house gives them certain powers to check this presidency and to compel him to answer questions, for example, to release his tax returns in a way that he has not experienced before, possibly in his life given what we've seen and what we know about this individual, about this president. and that's the thing that i think shocked him the most yesterday and in our experience and the patte

chuck todd, kasie hunt, steve schmidt. you all probably have four hours of sleep combined. >> who had that. >> split decision last night, chuck. everybody talked about the blue nwave, thision that democrats were going to come roaring back in the midterms. do you a think it was blue wave? >> no. democrats won the popular vote and the republicans won the electoral college i feel like in some ways, a deja vu meaning. look, more people went for democrat in address than not. that's why democrats won the house. that's why they have got this majority. but the h president enough support in enough places to win big races in states that have large enough rural populations to either offset suburban america or what are. so, yes, this was a realignment election. not a wave election. this is simply the country sorting itself to its poll tirks. >> kasie, some people say it's checks and balances and some people say it's going to be like gridlock. if you were to look into your crystal ball and tell us what's going to happen for the next co

. >> former governor arnold schwarzenegger sat down with former campaign advisers steve schmidt and davi

among those gathered is steve schmidt.campaign. starting to look like christmas in new york city. the tree has arrived in new york city. the 70-foot tall norway spruce is in place and ready to be decorated with 50,000 lights. there will be a televised lighting ceremony on went, november 28th, after thanksgiving, pete. the tree will stay up until january 7th. and those are your headlines. pete: i assume it will drop a little bit there, but it usually drops. katie: it gets into shape. pete: gets into shape for christmas. you're right. but after thanksgiving -- one at a time, folks, one at a time. well, french' emanuel macro in with a veiled anti-trump message in front of world leaders this morning. >> patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. pete: sebastian gorka joins us to react live just ahead. ed: think he's fired up? hmm plus illegals voting in the midterms. democrats' lawyers, they want those illegal immigrants, they want their votes to actually count. david bossie here

this isn't -- eric schmidt, not a steve balmer, not a mark cuban wrap their arms around a string of thek, on the problem. denying a friday is the exact opposite of a good leadership is. >> jonathan, let me ask you. this is the company did all the graduates, data mining geniuses want to work out. the stock is down. morale at the company is down. how is it going to innovate facebook into whatever it is that will ultimately get the stock higher. >> it's an additional problem. these are the problems bad management keeps incurring. it's kind of like in an appeal management. every time there's a banana peel on the sidewalk, these guys are finding it. it's just so simple. if you charge a little bit of money from a modest amount, hunter money thrown out to the bad actors. if you charge a little bit of money coming you can then not need to have to sell so much data and violate people's privacy, et cetera to such a degree. he doesn't want on this problem. she seemingly more angry the way someone says some in about how was handled than about the actual problem. >> jonathan, can you put the genie b

steve bannon. helped install manafort. kept for close periods in close contact. this brings it closer to the person at the top and to the top level of the campaign. >> mike schmidt, do you have any indication that steve bannon or roger stone have tripped themselves up legally in any of this process? are they under any additional scrutiny or renewed scrutiny from any of the committees to which they testified before? because these all seem like new revelations and things we've never seen or heard before. >> yeah, in terms of if bannon has criminal exposure, we have no indication he's under investigation for this. he's a witness that's gone in, has cooperated extensively with mueller. appears to have told mueller about a wide range of things spending many hours with him. no indication he's a target. obviously, mueller spending a lot of time looking at stone and part of stone's problems that some people believe is his testimony to congress. stone last year going up to the hill, testifying about, you know, a wide range of issues that went on during the campaign, his contacts. and does he have, you know, does that testimony line up with what mueller has found about and

steve, we're going to ask you to remain on station. we're coming back to you later. for now more with our panel. mike schmidtillip rucker, kimberly atkins, frank figliuzzi. michael, we have been quoting a piece of reporting you did earlier this year that has come roaring back and become so important, and that was when mr. dowd, the long-time washington lawyer, worked for donald trump, the notion that he was mentioning, dangling, giving the briefest credence to perhaps a commutation or a pardon to people. remind us what you reported then, why it's so important right now. >> there were discussions many, many months ago, last year, between dowd and lawyers for mike flynn and paul manafort. mike flynn being the former national security adviser who pled guilty to making false statements in this investigation. and obviously manafort. and that is something that mueller has been looking at himself. mueller was looking at the question of why is it that the lawyer was offering a pardon? why was he discussing a pardon? it was among the 49 questions that mueller wanted to ask the president, that had fallen to the obstru

schmidt who broke the story as well as senator richard blumenthal on "hardball" now. >> trump wanted to prosecute his political opponents. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm steve kornacki, in for chris matthews. a bombshell new report reveals president trump discussed using the department of justice to pursue his political enemies, raising questions about abuse of power and hillary clinton and james comey. mcgahn said while he could request an investigation, that, too, could prompt accusations of abuse of power. to underscore his point, mr. mcgahn had white house lawyers write a memo for mr. trump warning if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rival, he could face a range of consequences, including possible impeachment. the "times" points out the encounter was one of the most blatant examples yet of how mr. trump used the typically independent justice department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. this comes after the president's appointing of acting attorney general matt whitaker has raised questions about the independence of the justice department. in fact, whitaker said he would indict hillary clinton in a 2016 "usa today" op-ed.

schmidt who broke the story as well as senator richard blumenthal on "hardball" now. >> trump wanted to prosecute his political opponents. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm steven for chris matthews. a bombshell new report reveals president trump

steve bannon. were there contacts other than those reported by "the new york times"? we'll have to wait for the mueller investigation to tell us. >> because we can bet that robert mueller does. mike schmidt, frank figliuzzi, matt miller, thank you for starting us off. >>> playing hard ball to protect the robert mueller investigation. one republican with nothing to lose says he won't vote to confirm any new judges until legislation is brought to the floor to protect the probe. and a brand-new admission from donald trump that may look like obstruction justice to a careful investigator. >>> also coming after the break, the big blue wave keeps growing. more house seats added to the democratic column bringing their tally to 35 seats picked up in the midterm. sounds like a wave to me. stay with us. billions of mouths. billions of problems. morning breath? garlic breath? stinky breath? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath fresh breath oral rinse instantly fights all types of bad breath and works for 24 hours. so you can... breathe easy. there's therabreath at walmart. discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their firs