will see you tomorrow. coming up right now, my friend and colleague, hallie jackson. doug jones is already voting in alabama. and in the next hour, we'll see republican roy moore casting his own ballot after riding in on his horse, yep, his horse named sassy. and speaking of sassy, we're talking about a lot of the comments being made in the last 12 to 18 hours as republicans and the razor-thin control of the nat is at stake right now. a win for the dems could put the gop in jeopardy. we are expecting to hear from house speaker paul ryan who may be asked to weigh in on the race. plus, expert analysis on what to watch for. we'll get to the ground running right now because this is a big day, a big morning. nbc's gabe gutierrez is there watching it for us along with the rest of the team on the ground. we have steve kornacki taking a look at the polling.

gabe, i want to start with you. lay it out for us, my friend. the last four hours we have seen action in mountain brook. doug jones is probably going to be there in the next hour. what ya got? >> reporter: one poll shows roy moore ahead, another shows doug jones ahead. it is a toss-up. speaking to voters here, they are excited to cast their ball lots in suburban birmingham. one woman we spoke to said this is something doug jones has been looking for right now, a republican woman. suburban white voter who says she's deeply troubled by the allegations against roy moore and says that she wants to do the hon rabble thing. that's why she voted for doug jones and voted for luther strange in the last primary. doug jones voted for himself casting his own vote. we'll take a listen at what he had to say. >> this is an important time in

alabama's history. and we feel very confident of where we are and how this is going to turn out, but more importantly, we feel so good about what we have done and what we have said to the people of alabama and to the people of the united states. >> now, after largely disappearing from the cane pain trail for almost a week, republican roy moore will continue to deny those allegations of sexual misconduct with teen girls. he held a rally late last night with former white house chief strategist steve bannon. they are now framing this race as a referendum on donald trump and his policies. he blasted the gop establishment as well as democrats. let's take a listen at what he said last night. >> one thing unlike the media said, that a lot of people who are republicans claim they are going to vote for me and just ignore what they believe. i'm going to tell you, if you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me.

>> reporter: the roy moore campaign has been energized by donald trump from several days ago. and the president as he has the last several days is tweeting saying, quote, the people of alabama will do the right thing. doug jones is pro-abortion, weak on crime, military and illegal immigration. bad for gun owners and veterans and against the wall. jones is a pelosi/schumer puppet. roy moore will always vote with us. vote roy moore! so certainly, hallie, the president coming out strong for roy moore. we heard that again last night with steve bannon, just taking on the establishment as he mentioned, within the next hour or so, we expect roy moore to vote himself riding in on his horse named sassy. you can't make this up. >> it's going to be -- it's going to be a moment. gabe gutierrez in mountainbrook, thank you. you'll be plastered all over the network all day along with steve kornacki looking at the data for

us. steve, we talked yesterday about how the polls are everywhere, up in the air, it really is a crapshoot at this point who will be on top. but i want to talk about the coalitions that you think doug jones or roy moore needs to put together in order to pull out a win. >> yeah, let's take a look at it. it's sort of old fashioned. forget the polls now, we'll see who votes, where they vote and who they vote for. let me show you this is, this is what it looks like when they have an election in alabama. nobody really notices because the republicans win in a landslide. this is close if you're jones, if you're the democrats, if you are trying to get the first win in a senate generation race in alabama, how do you do it? two keys to look at, donald trump won this thing by 28 points. number one, look at the parts of alabama that are blue. it's this belt particularly across the state right here. these are largely black counties. the biggest one is where montgomery, the state capital is, large black vote would be very good for jones. the calls from barack obama came out in the last few days. the idea here is to get turnout

up as much as possible in the areas that are democratic. that also includes the city of birmingham as well. it's about 40% black in this county, jefferson county. look, just getting black voters mobilized is not going to get you there in a state like alabama. the voting here is very polarized on racial lines. what the jones campaign then needs is a large number, they think it would be suburban white republicans, particularly white women, they normally vote republican. the idea is they are offended by moore. and those are the voters that the jones campaign is looking at. i'll give you a couple places to keep in mind. we'll look inside shelby county here. this is outside of birmingham, outside of jefferson county. this is very white, a lot of suburbs here. normally, a 50-point win here for donald trump when he ran for president last year. so look, the democrats aren't going to win shelby county, but the goal today would be, instead of trump getting 73% instead of moore getting, excuse me, moore getting 73%, if they can

multiply that throughout the state in other counties like that, that would be the key for them. so it is suburbanites and the big black turnout. those are two things the jones campaign is counting on. >> later on when the returns start to come in, is that what you'll being willing for? is that what you'll be zeroing in on? shelby county and the returns out of there? >> shelby county and there are other ones to give you. madison county, this is where hunt huntsville is, donald trump won this by 17. consider this one, i think this is one jones has to win tonight. this would be a county if you are a democrat, you want to flip blue from a 17 -- that's a pretty good bell weather there. and if you look to the southern part of the state, mobile, this should be blue tonight if jones is having a good night in winning. it should be fblue by a comfortable margin if he's going to win statewide. so north/central there. >> what time are we going to know, do you think, who won this

race? >> the polls are going to close at 8:00 eastern time. then it is going to be slow going. we have had a couple elections in alabama this year. we didn't get much for the first 90 minutes. if it is as close as the indications are, it may be the wee hours of the morning. >> late night for you, my friend. thank you for coming on the show earlier in the morning. now to buzzfeed's reporter who is on the ground there and "washington post" senior political reporter aaron black joining me here. so let me start off first by laying out some of the stakes on this. our first read team, alek cyxis are looking at control of the senate, president trump and his agenda, steve bannon's rep on the line, perhaps, and broadly the republican party. and the #metoo movement, sexual harassment, powerful men held accountable for the sexual allegations against him. doug jones put this in

perspective when he spoke a moment ago speaking to reporters after casting his ballot. listen. >> fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on me. >> what is the mood there? what are you seeing and hearing? >> reporter: so i've mostly been with democrats and in democratic areas of the state this weekend. really, they are casting the stakes of this race as very dire. and almost apocalyptic. charles barkley got up on stage at doug jones's final campaign rally and said it is time for us to stop looking like idiots to the rest of the world. i was talking to a woman who said she thinks doug jones can win, she wants him to win, and she's scared what it will say about the state if he doesn't. do roy moore being the face of alabama and being on the national stage would just be really bad for the state and really say something about who the state is that a lot of people here don't want it to say. >> let me get to alexi, alexis

laid out the concerns for the democratic voters, but what does it mean for the gop back here in washington or around the county? >> republican senators will have to answer for roy moore's behavior in 2018 and the entire time he's in the senate if he wins. on top of already having to answer again for donald trump's behavior. so while donald trump can pause this as roy moore will vote with us on everything we need. that's fine. >> and he probably will. he'll probably go against mitch mcconnell a lot just like the president would want him to. >> but he'll have to answer for his behavior, that looks terrible for republicans in liberal states in 2018. >> i think we are losing sight of the fact that roy moore's history is much more than these accusations that he faced during this campaign. he was a uniquely extreme politician before all this cam along. >> the question is whether muslims should be in congress? whether 9/11 was our fault because we are not religious enough as a country? >> he was effectively ignoring a judge's ruling in favor of his religious views. this is a big day for

republicans for him being in the senate, that's a liability. but the other important thing is whatever this says about the political environment, sexual harassment, this is just as important as the balance of power. if democrats can win the seat somehow and cut this to 51/49, suddenly the 2018 election, the senate is in play. >> okay, alexis, it is worth noting that the president is 5-0 when it comes to elections. the democrats talking about the enthusiasm they are seeing. i remember right after the last elections in alabama, there are questions on whether the dnc would get involved for doug jones, but democrats don't have a ton to show for it. what changes today? >> yeah, it's -- it's true. up and i don't know that anything changes today. this is still, after all, alabama. and steve kornacki said, normally you don't watch elections here because republicans sweep the floor. and, i think, we saw a similar

energy and similar amounts of money running in for john, but this got a lot more heights on the democratic side than this one did. and the excitement came later. it is several firsts, when roy moore got the nomination and looks like a democrat would have a chance because of his controversial past. when the sexual harassment charges came out, it was a new poll in this race. >> you have the latest from steve bannon after that rather remarkable, i guess, campaign rally in alabama. and steve has this piece out talking about how steve bannon is trying to work to rescue roy moore's campaign and he says, specially, that bannon developed support for moore looking to old soviet and nazi propaganda techniques. this is something that has slid under the radar, but it is a holy cow kind of moment. >> this is something that has been, something that bannon has

said before. he's often said he admired andrew breitbart, for instance, because of his ability to talk about things and kind of a propaganda way. this isn't terribly new, but i think it is uniquely applicable to this moment in time because there's a sense that everybody is out to get roy moore, i think, among the republican party. >> and his wife tried to defend him in another holy cow moment. listen. >> fake news will tell you that we don't care for jews. i tell you all this because i have seen it all, so i just want to set the record straight while they're here. one of our attorneys is a jew. we have had close friends that are jewish and rabbis and we also fellowship with them. >> does that do anything to

change anybody's mind? >> i think speaking directly to the republicans in alabama who sort of love this steve bannon-backed candidate. they rejected luther strange who was backed by trump. they are clearly responding positively to the type of holy cow behavior, as you put it, which is surprising. >> alexis down in birmingham, good luck to you today. thank you for coming on the show. i'm going to ask you to hang out here because we are watching what is happening on capitol hill behind me. senator kirsten gillibrand is set to appear on capitol hill as she and donald trump are in a twitter feud. more on that, plus the president and his legal time firing back against accusations of sexual misconduct. senator gillibrand any minute on the hill. we'll bring that to you live and monitor it as we get it. that's next. r-end sales event is in full swing. ( ♪ ) you are going to be a big surprise. (whining) aww, i see a big puppy. i see a b-i-i-g pu-u-ppy. hey greg!

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so this morning the president is tweeting about two things seeming to conflate them into one, the russia

investigation and the resurfacing act sacusations of misconduct. this calls for a special counsel investigation into the department of justice and the fbi. here's the quote, despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the democrats have been unable to show any collusion with russia. so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women that i don't know or who have never met. fake news! well, that's a lot to unpack. my colleague kristen welker is at the white house to help us with that. kristen, the president talking about two, again, separate stories. first with the russia investigation and the new reporting you have from the president's legal team about what they want, as it relates to the doj and the fbi. >> that's right, hallie. we are seeing a tougher strategy, i think, unveiled by the president's legal team. jay secalo said there have been a number of conflicts. he wants the conflicts investigated. the most recent one, the senior

justice department bruce orr was demoted last week. he concealed meetings with those behind the anti-trump dossier. he says the department of justice and fbi cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by obvious conflicts of interest. the new revelations acquire the appointment of a special counsel to investigate. now, hallie, i want to emphasize the other point that sekulow is making. this is not about bob mueller according to sekulow. this has nothing to do with bob mueller or mueller's team. so important to keep that in mind. but taking a step back here, hallie, it goes back to the tweet a little bit that you read, this is clearly getting under the president's skin. i think there's real concern about the fact that this investigation continues on now. we're heading into the new year. it's something the president feels is overshadowing his agenda, his presidency. he has a lot of confidence around him saying to him, you've got to get tougher. your legal team has to get tougher. and i think we're starting to

see the beginnings of that strategy. with this new quote, this new call for a second special counsel. >> so kristen, the second part of the president's tweet is also raising eyebrows here. he talks about what he's described as false accusations against him from the women accusing him of sexual misconduct. and even just this morning, we have yet another accuser coming out, she is previously, she has talked about this but doing her own interview with megyn kelly, right? >> reporter: that's right. the white house and president remains defiant in the face of all the accusations. but we are hearing from another woman today, a woman, melindmel who is coming out with accusations of sexual misconduct. take a listen to what she had to say earlier. >> i think that we've got to have higher standards in this country. and we need to hold these people very accountable. and he has to face the music. he can't get away with this. >> reporter: now, that comes

after yesterday, you had a number of women coming forward, talking about their experiences of what they say was sexual misconduct. again, the president, the white house, continued to insist that they are all false. the president even saying he doesn't know these women. and the white house is saying essentially that this is an attempt to undermine the president and his presidency. but you have members of congress calling for an investigation, including some of the president east accusers. and then kirsten jill bragillib calling on the president to resign. that won't happen, but it's sparked quite a bitter back-and-forth between the white house, the president and senator gillibrand. >> that's underscoring it, kristen welker at the white house north lawn. there is back and forth now happening. clearly, the discussion about calling on the president to resign from senator gillibrand has gotten under the president's skin because he tweeted today, and it to pull up the tweet about her, about the campaign

contribution that is she apparently asked for, and we do know she received some, a couple thousand dollars from the trumps. he calls her a total flunky for chuck schumer and a lightweight. she is someone that would come to my office begging for campaign contributions not so long ago and would do anything for them. i asked the white house what that enmomeans. what is the president referring to when he says, would do anything for them? the expectation is, don't forget about this, sarah huckabee sanders has a news conference later today, but she most certainly will be asked about this in a story that, again, means this is going to dominate the day. the discussion about what the president is accused of doing with women before he was elected. >> and i'm so glad you asked about the parenthetical statement. that's sort of an egregious, almost nasty way of wording, would do anything for the donations. what is he suggesting? >> he's talking about something

sexual, that's how -- it is fair at this point to read it without having more information from the white house about what exactly he's talking about. and i have my phone at the ready in case the white house wants to write back to answer that. >> this is clearly trying to plant that seed, but saying it in a way they will deny it and the base will accept the denial. think they we're taking it too far by reading too much into it. this is the danger, though, of these accusers coming forward and talking like they are getting public interviews, they are effectively drawing the president out. a president who, by the way, is having a very difficult time with this whole russia investigation thing seems to be lashing out more and more as the days pass. and that is the danger of this for the white house, that he continues to do stuff like this and really make it look like this is going to be the story. >> but let's do a quick fact-check. the president says he never met the women, but a contestant on his show, "the apprentice," a contestant on one of his beauty pageants, a former business

partner and former receptionist at trump tower, so on and so forth, is that defense going to hold water? >> no, there's no way. the women have evidence of interactions they have had with him and times they have been in same spaces as him. >> this is bothering him. "the washington post" says that some republicans are close to the president and saying they are really concerned how he's going to navigate this now with this resurfacing in the headlines again. >> and that tweet is a really good example of that. throwing to it that parenthetical, saying i've never met these women and don't know them, you know, he threw an and/or in there, which maybe suggests there's one or two of them that he hasn't met before. but like you said, there is a demonstrated pattern of him being in the same spaces as these women, worked with them, the fact that he's saying i didn't know them, kind like roy moore said about his accusers, doesn't hold water. >> there are two separate big pushes here on capitol hill. one, you have seen from calls for the president to resign and the other is for an

investigation. senator feinstein told reporters she doesn't think calling for him to resign is going to be effective, because she doesn't think he will. all democrats are not unified on that. but you have a lot of democrats, wanting democrats in congress and other members in congress to investigate the claims against the president. check out the quinnipiac poll from last week. 70% of americans do want congress to investigate these claims. 56 democratic women in the house are calling on the oversight committee on this. and then you have the senators calling on the president to resign. it's not going to happen. a republican-controlled congress is almost certainly not going to investigate the president. so the democrats are making a political calculation here. >> and the republicans continue to make this a partisan issue, which it shouldn't be when you see the poll that you just referenced when 70% of americans want congress to investigator that. that means americans on both sides of the aisle, right? presumably. and republicans are just denying it and donald trump is denying it and they are supporting roy moore in the midst of all this, it sends a signal. >> there's very little for

republicans to weigh in on this. >> no, because the base isn't demanding it. when you see a poll that says 70% of people want an investigation, people tend to tell pollsters they want an investigation. it sounds fair and good. polls show repeatedly the vast majority of the republicans don't believe the accusations against the president. >> i want you to hang out longer because we have a lot more to talk about on the political front. and we have more to talk about when it comes to the suspect accused of setting off a bomb in midtown manhattan or trying to. what police are now saying about his past and the charges he's facing for the attack. [ keyboard clacking ]

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we're starting january 1st, a federal judge denied a request to block a ban by the vague claims in the government's argument. more than 50 world leaders are rejecting life and money into the fight against climate change. do you know who is not going to be there? president trump. he pulled out of the u.s. out of the paris climate accord in june. he was not invited to the summit at all. and french president manuel macron said this morning it was extremely aggressive for donald trump to pull out of the deal. and he will not renegotiate the paris treaty. and the president hopes he will change his mind and welcome him back if he wants to return. and south korea reportedly asked the u.s. to put off joint

military exercises until after the winter olympics in february to try to lower the chances of any kind of north korean aggression during the games. north korea often, as you know, blasts the joint exercises. earlier this month the white house national security adviser hr mcmaster warned of chances for war increasing every day. this will accept south korea's request to delay. and other news coming out of new york city, you have new information now on the prosecutors getting ready to bring federal charges against the suspect arrest in yesterday's failed terror attack in new york city. the attempted attack. the 27-year-old akayed ullah was charged with terrorism offenses including a possession of weapon, an act of terrorism and terrorist threats. he detonated a bomb in the threat of isis to avenge muslims around the world and had a

holiday kr holiday christmas display that set him off. >> this is an individual who came from bangladesh, he was living here, went through a number of jobs, was not particularly struggling financially or under any known pressure, who was not on our radar at the nypd, not on the fbi radar, and he's somewhat characteristic of what we have been seeing across the world, which is somebody who turns up one day out of the blue. >> nbc's justice correspondent pete williams is joining me. what else do we know about this guy is? >> we are, you are right about charges coming. and this is a foregone conclusion this is a federal case because the fbi has jurisdiction when there's an attempted terrorist attack.

so we'll probably get a lot of the charges within the next hour and probably hear from prosecutors in new york, in maybe an hour and a half or so, and the interesting thing is, hallie, you have a person willing to carry out an attack knowing he could potentially kill or wound dozens of people. and yet the moment he's arrested, the moment he's taken to the hospital, gets treatment for the burns that he suffered when his device malfunctioned, he begins to tell his story to the fbi. and that is what he did for several hours yesterday, telling them that he was inspired by isis propaganda videos. that he studied how to make a pipe bomb by looking at the isis propaganda videos and looking at the magazine inspire. that's where he learned to make a pipe bomb. fortunately, he didn't do it correctly. and it dissipated the force in a way that it did not shatter the pipe, that would have caused

injuries from people being hit by flying shrapnel. so the damage is much less what it could have been. but he says he wanted to do this in retaliation for u.s. bombing in syria against isis. so it appears that he became radicalized after he came to the u.s. seven years ago. isis was not a factor and wasn't pumping out propaganda seven years ago. so since coming here, he's made several trips back to bangladesh. of course, bangladesh is where his family is from. there are few terrorist cases in the u.s. involving people from bangladesh. so this is something of a rarity. he did come here on the kind of immigration visa that allows someone to come and join family members who are already here, which some people call chain immigration or chain migration, something that president trump has criticized and said that it should be stopped in order to enhance u.s. security, hallie. >> nbc's pete williams is staying on top of that. thank you, pete. i want to go back down to

alabama as the final hours of the senate race unfold. voters all across the state are at the polls right now. and support from evangelical christians is important to candidate. wale lo we'll look at what is motivating many of them to stand by roy moore after the break. i'm not buying this. you gotta come a little harder dawg. you gotta figure it out. eh, i don't know. shaky on the walk, carriage was off. randy jackson judging a dog show. i don't know dawg. surprising. what's not surprising? how much money lisa saved by switching to geico. wow! performance of the night. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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if you have inflammatory bowel disease tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. with less joint pain, watch me. for less joint pain and clearer skin, ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. you are looking live at capitol hill where kirsten gillibrand is holding a news conference. she's talking transportation, not donald trump, at least not

yet, but she may be asked about the back-and-forth after the president's tweet about her. we'll keep an eye on that and bring you developments as soon as we get them. and we are keeping an eye on what is happening in alabama where voters right now are headed to the polls. listen to what some of them had to say. >> reporter: why are you supporting judge moore? >> because he's a man with christian values. >> i like his christian values and the fact that he runs on a lot of trump's values with the abortion, with gun control. >> he's right on the issues, he's right on abortion. >> judge moore is a good christian man. and all this bull crap that is going on is nothing but bull crap. >> well, you heard it there. a lot of alabama voters citing roy moore's christian values as one of the reasons they will be casting their ballots for him. nevermind he faces the allegations of sexual misconduct, which he repeatedly denied, or that he's been removed twice from the state supreme court for not complying

with federal law over the ten commandments and gay marriage. to a lot of folks, this is about choosing the candidate to fight for their religious liberties. vaughn hillyard is talking through this, how critical is the evan yegelical vote in this particular race? >> reporter: here in alabama, you have about 49% of alabamans considering themselves to be evangelical christians. and one of the critiques of roy moore's candidacy to this point has been his lack of focus on issues. but when we talk about issues in a broader discussion, we talked about health care, education, the military, the economy, things that roy moore has provided a little substance about, but for roy moore, he insists he's talking about the issues. the issues are transgender rights, gay marriage, the likes of referencing sodomy. this is a man who is playing to a strong base, though at the same time, considering that 49% of this state consider themselves evangelicals, it

should be noted that, i want to take you back to louisiana, back in 2015, david vitter, involve in a prostitution scandal back in 2007, he was running for governor against a democrat. and he lost by 15 points in that race. so i don't think that we can always paint evangelicals as one voting bloc. there is discrepancy on where they stand. and that is the republican electorate that doug jones is going to have to bite off a chunk here over the next ten hours, hallie. you look at across the state, he needs to rely on the crossover republican voters. i want to play you one from amanda adams who we just talked to this morning, she's one of the republicans, who said she's voting for doug jones, the democrat. >> i just could not see sending roy moore to washington, d.c. >> i thought about writing in a candidate, but i knew that was not organized and could be a wasted vote. so i chose doug jones. >> reporter: so the question is,

how many amanda adams' is doug jones able to pull off. because he needs a fair share today, hallie. >> vaughn hillyard is reporting for us. and i have robert costa, for "the washington post," and david brody, whoover night compared coming on this show to getting a root canal on live tv. hi, david, let's start with you. >> i liked my last root canal, actually. >> how can the christians claim moral high ground here if roy moore wins? >> in the last few years, they have seen a seismic cultural shift. they are looking at the microcandidate. and i know that might bother folks, but the truth of the matter is it is more of a cultural issue. this is what i mean, they with claim the moral high ground and answer your question by saying, look, we are voting for a culture that is out of control. we are going to stop it and they believe that is the right moral thing to do. >> i want to get into that, what is out of control with the culture? you heard the woman that vaughan talked about there who said

essentially this is about character to her. is it not then about character? is it not about on the micro level, what roy moore has been accused of, and what he allegedly has done? >> 100% character counts for sure. and then what i'm saying is, the culture at times, no pun intended, trumps some of that. and i think it is important to point out, if donald trump was, for example, go to trump for a moment, if he was a pro-choice candidate for president in the general election, he's not in the white house today. he loses. >> so you're saying that it sounds like the abortion stands from doug jones and roy moore super seeds the character issues that roy moore would have. >> absolutely. >> bob, you have been in alabama for the last week and are back in d.c., but you spent a ton of time there, what did you see when it comes to evangelicals? does that article reflect what is happening on the ground? >> there's a stark divide among the evangelical christians in the community that i was reporting from, in the sense that many of the evangelicals look at these accusations

against roy moore say they are credible and disturbed by them. and others do not believe the media. so it comes to this broader point of where are they in the political wars? it's a moral choice for some of them, but others because of the political winds in this country see it as more of a political choice. >> and i would see, just on bob's point, that some of the latest polling shows 8% of the evangelicals are no longer supporting roy moore. so we have seen evangelicals drop off the roy moore train. >> can doug jones do more to win over the evan yegelicals? >> no, obviously, african-americans, need to turn out for doug jones. he's not going to get -- he did not have the evangelicals at hello. roy moore had them at hello and has done things problematic to lose some of that support. so we'll have to see. >> isn't roy moore -- the allegations against roy moore, you believe that these are credible allegations. we are talking about this and

how we are not a religious enough country. >> he's made a wlot a lot of uncomfortable comments. he won the whole voting bloc, but as vaughn pointing out, he's not. all evangelicals believe that, specifically. >> the president has support among the evangelicals. the latest poll shows 78% from evangelicals down to 61%. and his endorsement with roy moore changed the political view, do you think? >> he's embraced roy moore, but because of the nomination of beneath gorsuch to the supreme court, his recent efforts on considering jerusalem to be the capital of israel, he's made overtures to them that regardless of what happens in alabama, he'll still have a bond with them politically. but this is a test of president

trump more broadly, not only of the evan yegelical base in the p south but his clout to cross the finish line. >> the morale character is important. there are a lot of christians around the country that look at what roy moore has been accused of and go, no matter how strong my faith, a guy accused of sexually abusing a young girl is a bridge too far. >> for sure. there are a lot of folks that believe that. and there was a lot of hold your nose vote for donald trump within the evan yell call community. >> do they hold their nose to roy moore? >> if the culture did not have a seismic shift in the last few years the way evangelicals see that, then i think there would be a different outcome. but because the culture has gone haywire the way they see that, they see donald trump and all the folks coming against what they believe is political correctness run amok. >> both candidates say this,

doug jones and roy moore, i want to play a little of what they have to say. >> the differences between my opponent and me are vast. abortion he favors full term. transgender rights, he believes in transgender rights. he thinks that because i favor traditional marriage ordained of god, that that's the wrong position. >> i'm not going to worry about the fact that roy moore's been kicked out of office twice. i'm not going to worry about the fact that he took money from a charity. and you know what? i believe those women. it is time that we put our decency, our state, before political party. >> robert, is the evangelical vote going to make the difference in alabama? what are you going to be watching for when the returns start rolling in? >> i'm not looking at only the evangelical vote. when you look at doug jones and

i followed him last week, he was making a pitch to the business minded republicans, suburban republicans, in mobile, huntsville and montgomery, and wondering, can they go over the line? they may not support abortion rights, but because of the temperament question, alabama's own identity, can they come over? that's the voter, the swing voter we saw in virginia, in november in the swing voter tonight, is the suburban republican. >> hallie, just ten seconds to say a potluck conversation at church after the service among evangelicals is that god uses all sorts of people, yes, a moral people, in the bible. look at king david, not the most moral guy in the world. saul who became paul, not the most moral guy in the world killing jews all over the place. they can see a roy moore and a donald trump to get the mackerel win in tend. >> not all of us have been accused of what roy moore was.

coming up, republican lawmakers rush to tie up loose ends on one of the biggest policy goals of the year. they are trying to get the tax deal on the president's desk by christmas. tomorrow is a big day for it. we'll walk through what is in the latest version and what it means for what you pay. give families a second chance. but to help others, they first had to protect themselves. i have afib. even for a nurse, it's complicated... and it puts me at higher risk of stroke. that would be devastating. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®... to help keep me protected. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner... ...significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. it has similar effectiveness to warfarin. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least 6 blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. for afib patients well-managed on warfarin,

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and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. . today you've got members of the house and senate hard at work hammering out the details of the final tax bill with paul ryan promising in just the last couple of minutes that americans will, quote, see some tax relief

before christmas. so let's talk through some of these sticking points. right? you've got this issue of state and local tax deductions. both bills call for those, but will there be changes to bring, say, california republicans on board. you've got questions about what the corporate tax rate will be, pass through business tax rates, whether to make the individual tax rates permanent or not and repealing the individual mandate. lots to get to with our next guest. richard ruben. debut appearance on this show. richard, thank you. alexi and aaron back with us as well. richard, let's start with what you're hear and what you're reporting is telling you about where members of congress are on figuring out what ultimately is going to be on the president's desk. >> so they say they're making a lot of progress in these private talks that republicans are having now exchanging offers between the house republicans and senate republicans. you listed the issues on the table. the alternative minimum tax. we don't have a lot of clarity yet. but they're saying they're going

to be ready to vote probably next week. >> and you've got this treasury department memo that's supposed to support the republican message on the bill. it seems as though that memo, that one-page memo on this massive tax bill relies on assumptions about not just this tax plan but other parts of the president's economic agenda which have not even been rolled out nor have they been developed yet. >> yeah, i mean, what that study does is take the growth rate that the president's budget estimated earlier this year and then say how much revenue was the tax system produce if you had that growth rate? it doesn't attempt to say would this tax bill as written now create that tax rate? create that growth? and the studies we've seen from the joint committee on taxation, non-partisan group here in congress says it would not pay for itself. >> it sounds like the senate bill may not actually pay for itself in the long run. >> no. i mean, independent estimates say absolutely it wouldn't pay

for itself in the long run. there would be modest gains in growth and tax cuts broadly across income groups, but that no, there wouldn't be gains that pay for themselves in any way. >> but, richard, i expect that tomorrow when president trump gives what we understand is going to be a speech selling this tax plan, he will probably talk about what it means for economic growth and the rest of the country. what do you think the president is going to say to make people come on board with this plan when it's clear that this bill -- either of these bills, both bills will benefit the wealthy more than the middle class? >> it's unquestionable. this is what all the estimates show. the new estimate that republicans are citing as you mentioned doesn't really back up that core claim that this is going to lead to all that growth. and that's really what this entire thing is premised on. the problem for democrats in trying to beat this bill is there's no way to beat that except to point to estimates. you're talking about something that's going to happen in the future. republicans are assuring their

base. their members believe it's going to happen to justify the bill. it seems like at least the key votes on this bill want to get to yes. susan collins is defending this, citing that report over the weekend. she seems like she wants to vote for this. somebody who is a key vote. >> we reported yesterday, the trump is going to use anecdotes from middle class folks that will be at these rallies into why they should be happy about this bill which in the short-term will give people tax cuts but long-term is not helpful. >> quickly richard, yes or no. is this going to get done by christmas? >> all signs point to they're going to get something done. i wouldn't underestimate the imperative here. >> glad to have you on the show. please come back. also we'll be right back with today's big picture.

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for today's big picture, we do not want to lose sight of what's happening out west in california. major wildfires happening today. i want you to check out these firefighters outside santa barbara. it is a gorgeous area. this is what it looks like now. they're trying really hard to try to get these fires under control as it gets closer to people's houses. you've got 8900 firefighters on the front lines working 24 to 36-hour shifts. these folks have had some success recently but the fires are far from over. they're hoping for some relief soon. we are thinking and praying for them for sure. photographer here for the santa barbara county fire department via the ap.

we'll love to hear your thoughts on facebook, twitter, snapchat, instagram too. headed over to the white house this afternoon where i will see you. for now more news with my colleague chris jansing. and i might see you later in the show too. >> few things to talk about from the white house. >> for sure. >> thank you so much, my friend. good morning, everyone. i am chris jansing. it is tuesday, december 12th. let's get started. >> i'm going to tell you. if you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me. >> fake news would tell you that we don't care for jews. one of our attorneys is a jew. >> it really does. that was a prepared remark. controversial statements roy moore has made over the years. so here are some of them. his contention that muslims should not sit in congress. >> in response to a question from one of