to join us on absolutely free on msnbc.com/bagman. honestly i've been killing myself over this thing, but it's been really fun and i think you're going to love it. anyway, advertisement over. see you tomorrow. and now it's time for the "last good evening, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. and thanks a lot. >> what? >> i guess i'm the only guy in america left without a personal podcast. this show is a podcast but it's not like a personal podcast. you now have the show podcast and another podcast. like chris hayes has another podcast, and i'm sitting here the laiziest man on prime time. where's my podcast? >> let me just say one thing, my podcast is really weird and it's not like a news podcast at all. it's like this lark that i had that i wanted to pursue that came out in podcast form. i think once my podcast comes out nobody will say, oh, gee,

everyone should do one of those. it's kind of a weird idea. so i don't think it's going to create an expectation so here with me in prime time you must also have one. >> i think you just quadrupled your podcast listeners by telling us it's rachel being really weird. i cannot wait. >> we could have called it that. it'd be more fun than bag man. >> that's the boston version, by the way. thank you, rachel. is it really possible that special prosecutor robert mueller's investigation of the strangest presidential election in history in which the strangest presidential candidate in history lost the vote on election night but then won the electoral college anyway? could it be? is it really possible that the special prosecutor's investigation of that election will all come down to the strangest person involved in that election not named trump? anyone who's followed republican

politics for the last couple of decades knows i am referring of course to the most unusual republican campaign operative in history, roger stone. new reports indicate that robert mueller is zeroing in on roger stone, and that makes perfect sense to anyone who knows roger stone's history before he got involved with the trump presidential campaign. the trump presidential campaign attracted the worst misfits in the republican world, people who would never be allowed anywhere near a serious republican campaign for city council never mind the presidency. never mind the most valuable inexperienced republican campaign veterans stayed very far away from the trump campaign and have almost all condemned both the trump campaign and the trump presidency. that left a very big opening for the very strange roger stone who had been banned from serious

republican politics since the 1990s. when he was revealed to be advertising with his then wife for sex partners possibly for mr. and mrs. stone to have fun with. revealing photographs for mr. and mrs. stone appearing in swinger ads before the time those things migrated to the internet. and no, we're not going to show you those pictures. that's what google is for. this wouldn't have been a problem for roger stone in most other occupations. but politics, even liberal politics demand very conservative personal behavior. and of course roger stone was offering his professional services in those days to the party that until the trump year always ran on what they called family values. and those family values never did include married couples advertising for and having sex with other married couples. now, i don't remember a single

liberal democrat being publicly or privately scornful or judgmental in any way about roger stone's choices about what he did in bedrooms. but roger stone's republican clients spent their entire careers trying to control what people do in bedrooms, and so the republican party had no use for roger stone, none at all. and that was the very strangest end i've ever seen of a republican operative's career. and it took 20 years. and the strangest campaign in history to revive the very strange career of roger stone. because roger stone was one of the few people in the trump campaign with any political experience at all. he should have been one of the people who knew it was a crime to try to obtain things of value including information from foreign governments to be used against a presidential campaign opponent. but during the presidential campaign roger stone seems to

know ahead of time that negative information about the clinton campaign was going to be revealed by wikileaks before wikileaks revealed it. and we now know that wikileaks obtained that information from russian government agents, who were stealing it from e-mail servers at the national democratic committee. and today "the washington post" is reporting, quote, last month randy credico, a one time roger stone friend, told the grand jury that the trump loyalist confided during the 2016 campaign that he had a secret back channel to wikileaks, according to a person familiar with the matter. the special counsel's prosecutors have also zeroed in on stone's relationship with conservative journalist and conspiracy theorist jerome corsi examining whether he served as a conduit between stone and assange according to another person familiar with their interest. corsi appeared before another grand jury last month, and fbi agents have recently been

seeking to interview corsi's associates. "the washington post" is reporting one apparent line of inquiry whether stone lied to congress about his alleged contacts with wikileaks during the presidential race according to the people. last september roger stone met behind closed doors with the house intelligence committee. congressman eric swalwell who was a member of the intelligence committee and was in that meeting will join us in just a moment. today roger stone denied the reporting. he said in this statement to nbc news, i never received anything including allegedly hacked e-mails from the russians, wikileaks, assange or anyone else and never passed anything onto donald trump, the trump campaign or anyone else. last week cnn.com reported that former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his lawyers had visited mueller's office in washington at least nine times

in the last four weeks. that's when paul manafort reached a deal with the special prosecutor. today president trump's national security advisor, john bolton, was in moskow down-playing the effects of a russian interference in the 2016 election. bolton said in an interview, quote, the point i made to russian colleagues today was i didn't think whatever they had done in terms of meddling in the 2016 election, that they had any effect on it. but what they have had an effect in the united states is to sow an enormous distrust of russia. "the washington post" report on roger stone says in recent weeks a grand jury in washington has listened to more than a dozen hours of testimony and fbi technicians have poured over gig bites of electronic messages. prosecutors are both examining public comments and alleged private assertions roger stone made in 2016 suggesting he had a way to reach assange, the people familiar with the investigation said.

on august 21st, 2016, in the presidential campaign several weeks before hillary clinton's campaign chairman john podesta's hack e-mails by wikileaks, roger stone tweeted it would soon be, quote, podesta's time in the barrel. on october 5, 2016, roger stone tweeted this about julian assange and wikileaks. libs thinking assange will stand down are wishful thinking. payload coming, lock them up. two days after that tweet wikileaks published john podesta's stolen e-mails. joining us now democratic congressman eric swalwell. also with us jil wine-banks, and mimi roca, both msnbc legal contributors. congressman swalwell, you were in the room with roger stone when he discussed all this with your committee.

are you surprised of these reports of robert mueller's focus on him? no, not at all. this is someone who had a long-standing relationship with donald trump, had encouraged him in the past to run for president and now had drawn himself quite close to donald trump while he was also talking to guccifer 2.0, talking to wikileaks and assange. now, roger stone would like us all to believe this self-avowed dirty trickster, that's what he called himself, somehow came clean in the election and sat on it side lines when someone close to him, and no one ever to roger stone had ever gotten this close to the presidency. it just doesn't add up. >> how do you characterize his testimony to your committee? >> it wasn't forthcoming because he had to keep updating it as reporting came out. thank god for the free press because a republican led committee did not allow us committee did not allow us to subpoena and find out whether

roger stone was being truthful. so we couldn't look at text messages and bank records, but press reporting revealed he had met with a russian in florida. and so after that came out he updated the house intelligence committee. press reporting told us he had been in contact with wikileaks. he said oh, by the way, i wasn't straightforward with that, here's what i was say with wikileaks. he hasn't come clean, and i think he has a lot to hide. his lawyer would send additional updates to us. we wanted to bring him back in, but the republicans buried the evidence, shutdown the investigation. >> jill wine-banks, this strikes me as an example of the different capacities of a republican run investigative committee in the house and a special prosecutor. >> it is. the republicans have shown time and again that they aren't interested in getting to the truth, so they aren't asking the right witnesses the right questions. and roger stone, as you noted, is one of the more colorful

characters and has a very loose affiliation with the truth so that asking him is not the way you will find out what is really going on. he is someone who should be thoroughly investigated. and i would hope that mueller is the one who's doing that because the congress hasn't done it. >> and mimi roca, roger stone has a huge tattoo of richard nixon on his back, and that's not the strangest thing about roger stone. and this is all part of the -- the picture of who was around donald trump and who was around the donald trump campaign. and when the best people of the republican campaign world will shun your campaign, this is one of the ways you can end up in serious trouble with people like roger stone around. >> right, it's sort of like having michael cohen as your

lawyer, when you have roger stone running your campaign, only the best. and it's interesting because the fact that roger stone so clearly obviously lied during his testimony is in and of itself as we all know by now a serious crime. but the real question is why did he lie, and what is he so afraid -- he's not a man who's afraid to talk. he's not a man who's afraid to talk pretty boldly in ways other people wouldn't admit to things other people wouldn't necessarily admit to. so what is it he's covering up, and i think that is where mueller knows well by now stone had advanced knowledge of these wikileaks. stone has basically said it himself both in the past and now he's trying to walk it back. so the question is how did he know it, and what did he do with that information and did he try to weaponize it in some way for the trump campaign? really what it comes down to is if i know you're going to rob a bank, that in itself is probably a minor crime.

but if i help figure out the time the security guards are gone or i help figure out how to get the money of the bank, i'm part of the conspiracy. and i think that's the question with stone and other people part of the campaign. >> congressman swalwell, "the new york times" and when they obtained a version of the things mueller wanted to ask the president, one of the questions to the president that robert mueller wants to ask is what did you know about communication between roger stone, his associates, julian assange, or wikileaks? it seems to me if the special prosecutor's asking that question the special prosecutor already knows something about that. >> the president's knowledge when he was a candidate is so important here. whether it relates to roger stone or the trump tower meeting and what his son did or did not tell him. i think something so telling about the relationship between roger stone and trump, you're going to see trump distancing.

donald trump sat after being interviewed as president, one of the busiest persons in the world, you have time to sit down for this netflix documentary? that shows you how close they are, and i think that will be evidence to show the closeness if roger stone does go down. >> jill, what do you make of this fact that robert mueller wants to ask the president specifically what communication did he have, what did he know about any communication between roger stone and wikileaks? >> i think it shows that the prosecution office knows the answer to that, and that's why they're asking. it is not a question you would ask if you didn't know the answer, and roger stone and the president were both mentored by roy cohn. they go back a very long way in terms of their closeness.

and it's probably pretty clear that he does know a lot, and they have documents that could show that he's lying when he says the opposite. so i don't think we want to get roger stone for perjury. we want roger stone to tell the truth and maybe he'll realize he is really trapped by the fact they have documents and other evidence of what they know. sam nunberg has always said when he comes out of the grand jury, he's shocked by how much they know, the details and everything that they want to ask about, they pull out a document and show. and that's what's going to happen to roger stone. >> and mimi, are there prosecutorial techniques when you're dealing with someone like roger stone and what you really want is the information he can give you beyond his own involvement? are there some techniques that the prosecutors bring to that moment to try and get that person to focus on his

willingness to, well, basically turn on the people he's been involved with? >> well, i mean, you get people to cooperate when they realize the evidence against them is very strong. i don't think robert mueller is going after roger stone just for that reason. but if roger stone decides to cooperate because he sees that evidence of him having committed a crime is very strong, i have little doubt that like michael cohen, like manafort, he will. and with stone, you know, what's going to be key here is electronic evidence. i mean, witnesses, he could put witnesses in the grand jury, and they have and they will and they will assess their credibility and try to figure out who's telling the truth but it sounds like there's quite an electronic paper trail -- not paper trail, but trail. and that is going to be key because he can't wiggle out of that, stone. and so that is really powerful evidence when prosecutors have an electronic trail to show a subject or defendant or someone

who is charged or about to be charged because they know they can't get out of it. >> and congressman, quickly before break, i want to get your reaction to john bolton telling the russians today your attack on our election had no effect. >> well, we don't know that because we haven't investigated that. they've done everything they can to bury the investigation. but also why didn't john bolton confront them about the most recent meddling they're doing right now? we had someone indicted last week for meddling in the 2018 election. if his team is doing enough, they're not because they're still meddling and it looks like we missed that opportunity. >> congressman eric swalwell, please stay with us. jill wine-banks, mimi roca, thank you for joining us tonight. and donald trump is in texas tonight because ted cruz is in serious trouble in texas tonight

thanks to beto o'rourke. and tomorrow the turkish president says that he will reveal the truth about the murder of jamal khashoggi. - [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations, so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free.

the stakes are high. the consequences of anybody here not turning out and doing everything you can to get your friends, neighbors, family to turn out, the consequences of you staying home would be

profoundly dangerous to this country, to our democracy. >> he's back. that was president obama in las vegas today trying to take a senate seat away from republicans and help elect jackie rosen as nevada's next united states senator with 15 days left until the election, this was a big campaign day for both parties. and each party ends its most powerful voices only to the places where they are most needed. and for the first time in 30 years republicans are really worried about losing a senate race in texas for two reasons. one, a republican candidate, senator cruz was memorably labeled lying ted by the now republican president donald trump, who is more popular in texas than ted cruz. and texas ted cruz has called donald trump a pathological liar, sniveling cowered and utterly amoral. ted cruz swallowed every insult

donald trump ever threw at him, his wife, his father and disgraced himself as a person and senator by bowing to donald trump and clinging to the man who he had said was amoral. clinging to him for ted cruz's own political survival. and the only reason -- the other reason donald trump had to go to texas tonight is because ted cruz's campaign is facing beto o'rourke, and it is -- it is trouble because ted cruz obvious spinelessness and especially as i said because of his opponent beto o'rourke. >> the pettiness, the division, the hatred, the polarization, our confidence, our strength, our big heart, our willingness to see past the differences and come together, that's what's going to allow us not only to win this election on the 6th of november, but to deliver every

single day for the next six years for every single one of us to meet these very high expectations. and we are standing by and for one another. you all ready to win? >> joining our discussion now, eugene robinson, associate editor and pulitzer prizewinning winner for "the washington post," and jennifer palmerry. and eugene, who does beto o'rourke remind you of. there were other reporters around and everybody immediately started talking about who he reminds them of. and for some people it can be bobby kennedy, for others barack obama. he's a very dynamic speaker. >> he is a dynamic speaker. i would go more for kennedy. it's a bit different for obama for me, slightly different approach. what those politicians have in

common is that "x" factor, that things that allows them to reach audiences in a different way, not to just convince them but to inspire them, and to make them want to be better. and to make them think that things can be better. and that's a gift. politicians either have that or they don't. and, you know, you can get elected without it, but it's a big help if you have that. >> yeah, and jennifer, when politicians have that, their campaign doesn't sound very partisan. it's not easy to pull out the partisan bits in a beto o'rourke speech. and tonight we are seeing the president of the united states, donald trump, rushing down to texas because texas is now a problem for the republicans. >> yeah, it is. i mean, it's inspiring to see it and also very encouraging

someone run a race like beto o'rourke has done where he hasn't used pollsters, went very methodically through that state county by county. and i think this is what democracy looks like, and it gets rescued from the ground up. and of course you have another really talented candidate in florida in andrew gillum who did remarkably well in his debate last night. and what i loved about people focused a lot on andrew's closing argument. and what i loved about it is how he tried to lift people up to say let's move past this trump era where we're pitting people against each other and standing on each other's shoulders as opposed to fighting one another. i think that's what it's going to take to get past trump is someone who paints a bigger picture of america where everyone can see themselves, and we're not having for one person to succeed another person has to fail. that's what we've got to push behind -- beyond.

>> so eugene, tonight there's absolutely no doubt that ted cruz is a liar, but you now have to choose which -- when was he lying? was he lying when he said donald trump was amoral or was he lying tonight when he appeared with donald trump and praised donald trump? >> right, and that's the question that attorneys love to ask in cross-examination. when were you lying? >> because we'll take either one. >> were you lying back then or both? i mean this relationship is just so phony and so ridiculous that everyone sees through it. now, they might still vote for him for whatever reasons, they agree with his politics or whatever. but no one can seriously think that donald trump and ted cruz are bosom buddies in any sense even though the president now calls him beautiful ted.

>> here's the guy who spoke at the republican convention and refused to actually endorse donald trump in his speech to the republican convention. tonight he's saying i look forward to campaigning along side him in 2020. and jennifer, that'll be the first time he campaigns alongside if he does. let's listen to more what ted cruz is up against with beto o'rourke in texas. let's listen to beto o'rourke. >> we're here for everyone. we're going to make sure that we win this for everyone. so is everybody ready to vote? >> yes! >> is everybody ready to win? >> yes! >> i'm ready to do this for you. thank you for being here today. >> jennifer, the president of the united states is out there calling the other side a mob. he's saying if you don't vote republican you're part of a liberal mob, and there's beto o'rourke welcoming everyone.

he specifically welcomes republicans in all of his speeches. >> you had a clip of president obama earlier saying it's dangerous to not vote in the mid-terms. and i think this is really a sober moment for the country. it's the first elections that we've had since donald trump has become president, and we have a president who lies every day. we have a president who seemingly, you know, is conspiring with the saudis to mix-up a story on what really happened to that journalist. you see he's stoking fear and lies, and this is a big moment for the united states of america to reject that or not. it can be -- we can get sort of caught up in the day to day machinations of politics, but what i hope -- and it's really on democrats and consciously minded republicans and independents to turn out and vote anywhere where you are in

the country no matter you're in a competitive race or not. the other side really it's truly remarkable all the republicans have to run on right now are lies. they're saying they're for the pre-existing conditions, and they are not. the president is saying he'll pass a middle class tax cut two weeks from now, which he's not. they're focused on a caravan that should be within their power sense they control the borders to manage, to scare people. and this is a big moment for us to say, you know, midway through this presidential term that he is not american. i fear what will happen if we do not. >> eugene, beto o'rourke is 7 points down in the most recent poll. that's the margin of gap that could be closed by a surge by the democrats. and the houston post is reporting today really a surge in the first day of voting in tex.

63,000 for the this election. the previous record, less than half that. >> right, look, everyone was expecting a big turnout in this election. that number is astounding. again, you figure that the early vote is to some measure cannibalizing, you know, the day of vote. but we don't know how much or clearly not all of that is cannibalization. and so a lot of people are going to vote. and i have a feeling, this is not a scientific feeling. but after the experience of pollsters essentially underestimating the trump vote in 2016, my gut is that there's been something of an overcompensation in all of the sort of likely voter screens and filtering done to polls is being carefully weighted not to make that mistake and maybe to make the opposite mistake. so i would say stay tuned in texas.

>> yeah, polling is an art and not or a science. or it's a mix of art and science, and we will see how it turns out on election day. thanks for joining us in that round. and when we come back, the president of turkey says that he will reveal -- he personally will reveal the truth about the murder of jamal khashoggi tomorrow. congressman eric swalwell will join us on that. (whispers) with the capital one venture card... you'll earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day... not just "airline purchases". think about all the double miles you could be earning... (loud) holy moley that's a lot of miles!!! shhhhh! ♪ what's in your wallet? shhhhh! i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family.,

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tomorrow could be an important turning point in the investigation of the murder of "the washington post" journalist jamal khashoggi who was last seen entering the saudi consulate in istanbul.

turkey's president erdogan has promised to speak publicly about the case tomorrow in ankara. turkish government agents have been gathering evidence against the saudis in the weeks since khashoggi disappeared. president erdogan has said that tomorrow he will reveal the truth of the murder, quote, in full nakedness. cia director gena haskell traveled from washington to turkey today as part of the investigation into the murder and president trump's utterly vacus son-in-law gave an interview today in which he said this about the official explanation of how and why they murdered jamal khashoggi in what they said was a fistfight that got out of control. >> do you see anything that seems deceptive? >> i see things that are deceptive every day. i see it in the middle east, i see them in washington. >> and back with us democratic

congressman eric swalwell of california. and to see an advisor of the president in this case jared kushner laugh about this, asked about the deception of the saudis and to say i see things that are deceptive every day and just laugh about it and include it in the deceptive things that he sees in washington and he laughs about it, when his father is the producer of more deceptiveness in washington. >> and has more financial interests long-standing with the saudis. and i think the human thing to do with the fiancee who was killed is first say turn over the remains. we're not even going to talk to the saudis until they turn over the remains to the family, so they can have closure, some measure of closure. then i wouldn't even send steven mnuchin to give more credibility or elevate their status. the fbi should be involved because i don't even trust the turks, to tell you the truth.

i don't know why they're being so fourth coming. but erdogan isn't trustworthy. we shouldn't rely on the turks. they should be part of an investigation, they shouldn't be leading an investigation. a u.s. person, u.s. media outlet and u.s. allies specced of murder. >> now, as a member of the intelligence committee you mind normally hear from cia director gena haskell making a trip to turkey today. at some point i would expect you to hear from her about her trip to turkey. but with republicans in control of that committee they may never ask her a question about it. >> and with republicans we've been on recess since september. so congress isn't even around, and republicans want to fold it up and go out to thir districts. and again we're seeing the abdication of our responsibility to hold the administration

responsible, and now we're just trusting them to check themselves. and we know that they won't. >> the -- the turkish president we don't know what he's going to say tomorrow and if he's not under pressure to say what he's going to say. that could be what the cia director job is, and part of her assignment tonight could be please get control of erdogan and don't allow him to turn over all the cards, don't allow him to release any audio recording they might have. and it seems certainly the way the trump administration has approached this, there's no reason for any americans to trust anything that the trump administration is doing here. >> no, and the president keeps trying to connect this to jobs. but i think most americans would prefer that we have allies in people who buy weapons from us who are not out killing journalists, and that we don't just look the other way or the cost of looking the other way is a couple $100 million

investment. i think we hold ourselves out to be better than that. >> and germany has already pulled out of an arms deal with saudi arabia over this. but also saudi arabia is dependent on our arms. they're already invested in them. they have bought into american weapons systems. they -- not only do they need our weapon systems, we could charge them a premium for them because they're already invested in them. the other competitors aren't even close to us on this. >> donald trump may need the saudis more than he needs us, and that seems to be a play right now. >> if democrats get control of the congress there could be investigations that actually reveal answers to tham. >> legislation that would cleanup the emoluments clause. it would say no president, no vice president, any famolef the president could make any money off a foreign national while in the white house. and when we come back the democrat leads in the florida

governor's race. a big lead, and the democrat is in a tie in the georgia governor's race. those two candidates could make history on election night. that's next. since my dvt blood clot i was thinking... could there be another around the corner? or could it turn out differently? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot...

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by 12 points, 54-42. there are other polls showing a tighter margin in that race. early voting is already under way in florida, and the votes appear to be pouring in at a record pace. andrew gillum campaigned with joe biden at his side today in jacksonville. >> election day has already started, and right here on this campus today is election day. i don't care what the polls say. i don't care what the pundits say. i don't care -- i love my mama but she thinks i'm going to win -- i don't care about that. because the only thing that matters is what we do on election day. today is election day usf. >> one of the 930,000 ballots that have already been mailed in florida is this one from parkland shooting survivor ema gonzalez.

ema gonzalez and several of her fellow parkland survivors have been organizing a nationwide campaign to turn out new young voters motivated by gun violence. in georgia where democrat stacey abrams is locked in a very tight race for governor with republican brian kemp, polls have also seen a surge in early voting this year. the governor's race in georgia is now a statistical tie between the democrat and a republican. the last time georgia elected a democratic governor was 20 years ago. is this the year when a surge in democratic turnout will make history in the south and elsewhere around the country? gene robinson and jennifer pall merry will answer that question next. checkout is at 4pm. plenty of time to enjoy your ride. (bicycle bell sound) ♪ ♪ (bicycle bell sound) ♪ ♪ (bicycle bell sound) ♪ ♪ explore more with a guaranteed 4pm checkout at over 1,000 fine hotels and resorts.

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last night democratic candidate for florida governor andrew gillum made his closing argument to voters at a debate. >> my mother and father would have to get up so early in the morning to go to work. they would load us into the car and drive us to our grandmother's house where she would have a ritual. she said bring it home for your mama, for your daddy who get out there and work on somebody else's job. bring it home for your little brother and little sister. and what my grandmother was just about me. it's about all of us. and in trump's america we've been lead to believe we have to step on our shoulder and their face and backs in order to get ahead. i reject that.

>> jean robinson is back with us. i haven't heard a more sharper contrary argument to trumpism than what we heard. >> it was good. i thought he was very good in that debate. and his closing argument makes the point in a way that i think will convict with a lot of people. he's done very well in the polls and this certainly could be the year for the democratic governor and first african-american governor. >> there are tighter poll than this latest cnn poll that has come out and so we have to wait a couple of days to see if there's a trend here where he's pulling away. to see both of the candidates, as competitive as they are, in minimum type races is a really extraordinary thing to be watching. >> yeah. and gillumm after he won the primary, there was a chatter he

wouldn't do well in the general election. i think people see has a compelling and unifying message. and, you know, florida is a hard place to poll. it's basically five different states. it's different ethnically. each of those five different parts of the states so it's a tough place but you see he has unifying message and you can see democrats be pretty excited there, too. and a lot of good reason. he's just a real talent and the country is seeing that now. i saw that -- he was a good servant during the clinton campaign. bill clinton told me about him. >> eugene, what stacy is doing in georgia amazes me. any democrat could be in a tie in a republican in a georgia's

governor race. >> she's an extraordinary candidate. the democrats came up with some real good candidates this time. one thing i'm going paying attention to in both of the races on election night is african-american women. who, if you recall, not quite a year ago who elected a democratic senator in alabama. who provided folks the margin there about 14% of the population in alabama. they were 17% of the electorate voted. and they voted 98% for doug jones. i think there's a potential for black women to deliver surprising numbers for stacy. >> if they're going to do that

in georgia, they have to do it over some voter suppression techniques that the republicans are trying to use in georgia. >> yeah. it's outrageous. gene is right. gene wrote a column about black women bringing democrats to victory. almost any time a democrat wins, usually it's because black women voted for them. they're the best voters in the country. i mean they're the one demographic most likely to turn out and vote. and in georgia, you have stacy abrams. i was there campaigning last week. they are having to work so hard against this backdrop of stacy abrams' own opponent, the secretary of state actually throwing voters off the rolls in the tens of thousands, i believe it's up to 50,000 names.

this is what i said earlier the republicans have left. and it really is, you know, it's a serious matter to consider. all they have left to try to make it harder for people to vote, to suppress the vote or throw people's names off the roles. this is a systemic effort. started about ten years ago to make it more difficult for people of color to have their voice heard in the country. for 200 plus years we try to make it easier for to vote. and the last ten years republican-led efforts to make it harder. so both stacy abrams and lucy have to come to try to overcome that and there's a good chance they will but it's really shocking and something people should understand and look into more how much effort is being made to make it hard for people to vote. >> let's listen to what stacy abrams said today about early voting.

>> i usually vote on election day. >> and, gene, the voting early is one of the methods to overcome voter suppression. >> there is. if there's a problem you find out early. you have a potential to be able to correct it. >> thank you both for joining our discussion tonight. we appreciate it. time for tonight's "last word." that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats moderate to severe plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla,75% clearer skin is achievable.

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>> president trump told reporters today that he gets along well with senator ted cruz saying, quote "he's not lying ted anymore. he's beautiful ted."

if that's beautiful ted, then you're lying donald. seth meyers gets tonight's last word. tonight, none of it matters. what they said about each other. how family members were attacked. none of it. because tonight donald trump and ted cruz acted like best friends at a rally in texas with the midterms approaching. we've got steve kornacki at the big board with numbers. plus our national security adviser john bolton goes to russia and tells them their election meddling had no effect on 2016. but would the intelligence community agree with that? and on the russia front roger stone feeling the heavy-duty mueller's attention. the reporter who broke the story joining us tonight with details. "the 11th hour" on a monday night begins now. good evening from our nbc headquarters in new york on a monday night.