get it? hole? that is a punch card. >> trust me, there is a signature issue in duval county. oh, good luck, america. that's all tonight. "the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> good evening. we have an interview with the top prosecutor who ran this probe and served in the obama justice department. also the incoming chairman on the house intel committee is already making moves to protect mueller against trump's new acting attorney general. we will get into it live. later in the show, my first breakdown of what i think tuesday meant. why the blue wave is so large and some are intent on making you think oils. we met a man quickly becoming the most famous lawyer in america and one of the most controversial. acting attorney mathieu whitaker. breaking right now, we just got

into our newsroom. i want to you hear with your ears this audio unearthed of whitaker denying the russians interfered with the u.s. election. >> the left has tried to sew this theory that essentially russians interfered with the u.s. election, which has been proven false. they did not have any impact in the election and that has been very clear from the obama administration. >> what you heard there sounds a lot more like a political partisan than a non-partisan prosecutor who would be dealing with a probe who has determined the russians did interfere and determined whether they had american help. sometimes on this show we reach for classic pros to understand what's happening all around us. tonight we turn to a saying often attributed to oscar wilde, a true friend establishes you in the front. not the back. >> that is one what i to look at whitaker. he was jeff session's right-hand

man and they'd meet trump at the white house together, whitaker would smile knowingly to trump as he complained about mueller according to new reporting in the washington post. now this looks like a prelude to whitaker nabbing his boss' job. he was the last person to shake jeff session's hand as he departed the doj, stabbing him in the front. taking over his job. the other breaking news is whitaker was probably prejudgeing the announcement of the mueller probe the truth is there was quote no collusion between trump and russia. again, something that is under open investigation. it could be true that there was no collusion. in fact, bob mueller might find that for everyone. but he could find something else. the question is whether this is the right man to oversee that given what he said. i can tell you critics say tonight it is those kind of comments that make whitaker unfit to oversee a probe. democrats warn they will use their new power to investigate

no matter what this investigation tries. >> it is a break the glass moment and i'm hoping that all of my colleagues will rise to the occasion. >> we will fill in the gaps of the russian investigation. we will conduct all the investigations that the republicans were unwilling to conduct. >> we will make sure we hold donald trump and his administration accountable. >> today top democrats leaning on the power that will get if january. they are demanding all materials relating to the firing of jeff session, documents, memos they can use in their own probe investigation. meanwhile, rod rosen stestein i back at the white house. until yesterday, rosenstein was the only thing between mueller and trump because the now departed attorney general did this. >> i have now decided to recuse

myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in anyway to the campaigns for president of the united states. >> that was march 2017 which ban the the rosenstein era for this probe. he was the one approving mueller's big moves. he announced the indictments. today we're on the first full day of what is the whitaker era. he would step out, not rosenstein, that's a striking contrast, given how the two men have spoken about the fundament also of this russia probe. >> the department of justice is not going to be extorted. we're going to do what's required by the rule of law. >> i think what ultimately the president will start doing is putting pressure on rod rosenstein who is in charge of this investigation. >> the indictment alleges the russian conspirators want to promote discord in the united states and undermine public confidence in democracy. we must not allow them to succeed. >> i can see a scenario where

jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to an almost a halt. >> grind the investigation to a halt. >> that is the new acting attorney general. what you are looking at right now are live pictures we are getting in right now 6:05 on the east coast in time's square. when people talk about what the public would do if this turns into a weighted kneecap mueller, if this turns into a constitutional crisis, many experts say we're not there quite yet. but we are there with people in the streets, what look to us based on our reporting what you can see as peaceful marches. these are a part of a plan for marches around the country to quote/unquote protect mueller. can you see from our skycam there just how far back they go. in new york city, you always have a mix of people who are walking around and get caught up in a march to the people who are planning the march. what you are looking at in this live shot in time's square, new

york, obviously, all the way far out in that packed skylean is people marching right now to protect mueller. we've got a lot in our show as i mentioned. water gate special prosecutor nick acker ann, mia wiley, rnc chairman michael steel. he knows his way around a big march. >> oh, yeah. >> it is interesting, nick ackerman, to see that out in the streets. people there want to protect mueller. they don't say at this hour, we're not reporting, any action from whitaker yet. but what do you think is incumbent on the justice department and these professionals who are in the justice department who have a new boss when you see someone who has effectively said in public there is nothing left to do in this probe. if there was no collusion, that's unknown. >> first of all, you got somebody who should absolutely recuse himself from having anything to do with this investigation. he has taken a very hard stance on what he believes this

investigation is about. if there is anybody that's got bias and already has formed an opinion before he's even become attorney general, he has no business having anything to do with this investigation. you need to have an attorney general who is out there that is fair and impar recall and will weigh the evidence and look at whatever the evidence turns out to be as a result of this investigation. i mean you wouldn't even put this guy on a jury, if he came in for the manafort jury pool and the government would have kicked him off in two seconds. >> nick ackerman saying he doesn't pass a jury standard, which as many americans will know is a lower standard than being acting attorney general. we will go back to some of these street shots when we have them, so viewers understand we are talking about the controversy around the attorney general and seeking some of these marches in new york and elsewhere. mia, your view. >> i agree with nick. i think one of the things that's so disturbing about what matthew whitaker has said is, he made

statements about whether or not there was the commission of a crime without access to all the evidence and information that bob mueller has. so you're pre judging an investigation in the absence of having all the facts. he should be going directly to the office of ethics and asking whether or not he should recuse himself, but i agree with nick, it's very hard to imagine he shouldn't. he also has a relationship with sam clovis who is essentially someone who has been talking to the mueller investigation. >> on the comments, do you see anything directly disqualifying from his public statements or could he argue, i was providing an analysis on the law, something both of you are doing. if you go back into government service, you both serve. you say now i have a new obligation. >> here's the point, it's the ethics code, it's the appearance of impropriety. it's not whether, in fact. you have a direct influence,

whether it goes to a campaign that essentially prevailed and has -- and the president has -- is not the president of the united states the question becomes, does it create the appearance that any of the decisions that whitaker would make are being made for inappropriate reasons? it's actually important to our system that we not have the appearance of the fox guarden the henhouse. >> michael steel, i'd say nick ackerman puts it the about a ten saying this guy shouldn't be on the jury, mia i'm hearing are about an 8. where are you? >> i'm about a 9. i think for the integrity of the very justice department that he's now in charge of, with these types of questions and the body of evidence, the video as well as audio evidence of his views and his positions and, yes, i get the story, this is when he was a private citizen,

he was opining as an analyst a political pundit-type situation. given the sensitivities of this. given the already vexing nature of this, you got people on the streets as you are showing, ari, i think the important thing is to -- if nothing else, say, you know what, i don't need to touch this particular aspect of what the justice department are doing. there are other things to make sure the institution focuses smoothly. i will focus on that. everybody will be watching every little scintilla he puts forth relating to this hearing, this process by mueller. and i don't know if he can withstand the scrutiny long term let alone short term. >> michael, listen to whitaker with what kicked this off, jeff sessions being too close to oversee it. >> the reason he recuse himself is not because there is anything for him to hide as it relates to the trump campaign and ties to

russia. as a lawyer, if there is an appearance e experience of impr soon as the outrage from the left occurred. he knew as a lawyer that was an appearance of impropriety. people are suggesting, it's a conflict, he has to recuse. zplu know what whitaker sound like right there, michael? >> like mia. >> mia wiley. >> he made her point. he literally made her point. so if -- beyond everything else that the broadcasts are playing, play that sound byte over and over and over again, because it go es to the core of the argument that applied to jeff session and now applies to him. >> you know what we will do, mia? >> we will do, michael is using an old legal dj trick. suppose you see that as a jamaican dance hall, you say, hit it again. >> hit it again, baby. >> we will rerack that sound of mr. whitaker because it is

actually as you just said and mia intuitive before we heard it, and we're getting all this sound. everyone is going through his archive, his record. he was talking about the appearance of impropriety. you have a president here who said what he wanted would be someone who would not be protected. >> that is an elicit goal in the first place. let's listen again to rerack to whitaker the new acting attorney general on why one should recuse. >> the reason he recuse himself is not because there is anything for him to hide. as it relates to the trump campaigns and ties to russia. as a lawyer if there is an appearance of impropriety, as soon as the outrage from the left occurred, he knew as a lawyer that that is an appearance of impropriety, because there are people suggesting he did something wrong, it's a conflict, he has to recuse. >> and what matt whitaker knows because it's been public is that many people in the public

believe he's only in the position to interfere with robert mueller's investigation. >> that appearance, whether or not it's true, that appearance in and of itself is a significant impediment to him serving in that role and the idea that we would be as a public looking at every little decision he makes because of the fear that he would not be faking decisions independently of whether or not he was protecting donald trump personally, which is not the job of the u.s. attorney. >> that in and of itself is so outlandish that he would serve without recusing from that. i don't even know what to say about that for that reason. and he. has made the argument. >> i don't think it's the appearance. it's impropriety, period. he should not be deciding anything to do with this russian investigation after having made the statements that he would cut out the money, he'd cut out the

funding. he thought the whole thing was bogus. >> that there was no conspiracy between the russian government and the trump campaign. i mean, we know exactly what donald trump did. he the i'd the same thing he did in picking kavanaugh to be on the supreme court. he look for somebody that would basically be a get out of jail card free. now he's got two cards out there. kavanaugh and this new acting attorney general and that is just improper. it's not even the appearance. it's improper. >> two card in the deck. it raises the question, what happens when are you holding two aces and bob mueller is holding what? we don't know. we don't know what he's holding. i'm going to turn to -- briefly, michael. >> i was probably saying he's holding two jokers. that's another day. >> jokers wild, right? i don't know what that means, don't tweet me. tweet me if you want. thank you very much. i turn now to another special guest we were telling you tonight. when rod rosenstein appointed

mueller, the investigation into the election had been up and running. but when it first began. this was back before the election, of course, in the summer of 2016 and many different people were in charge then. loretta lynch was attorney general, james comey running the fbi, chuck schumer oversight, deputy mccabe, fbi director. all the agents reported up to the justice department where there was a key official, a former federal prosecutor who led the counterintelligence division dating back to 2014. he was on the job until this football. until that time he helped oversee two of the most significant investigations that you've certainly heard about the clinton e-mail probe and the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election up until mueller was named special counsel. so we're talking about someone with extraordinary insights into everything that happens inside the powder keg of the doj, especially right now. i am pleased to say david lough

lynn jones me right here on "the beat." >> good to joan you, ari. >> let me play the sound the viewers are playing for the first time, which is trump picked someone to be acting attorney general who said russian interference did not even occur. what is your reaction to that? is he wrong and does that affect his ability to oversee this probe? >> well, i associate myself with the views that your previous guest at a minimum there is a horrible appearance here that in and of itself should cause mr. whitaker to request an ethics opinion, to tee up the process for obtaining an ethics opinion to assess he has an appearance that the disabling and as to which he should recuse himself. as a practical matter, we all know that's not going to happen the reason he was happened picked on this job, unmistakably he gave an opinion to the president under no circumstances would we have a recusing of

himself. we have an ethics war with the ethics officials undertake analysis on whether the acting ag should recuse. he refuses to submit to that opinion. >> twa are you saying number one the normal process is to request it. that what happened with sessions. he got the advice to step aside and did. number two, you are saying if this person doesn't recuse, there is something important to back it up. donald trump told people, whitaker is loyal and would not have recuse himself from the investigation, according to multiple people in the washington post today. you are say figure that doesn't happen, there could still be the ethics effort to push this up. how would they do that and would that be good for the probe and good for the country i guess? >> well, it's possible that ethics officials within the department and the ethics process is centered in the deputy attorney general's office, rod rosenstein's office, they could initiate some process

even if whether whitaker did not request it. >> that would be numpblt usually it's the individual, himself, that would request it pr acknowledgment which es in the 81 take of that analysis. >> that doesn't seem to be in the card right now. so it's un-- there is no reason to believe he will recuse himself. we don't know what role mr. r s mr. rosenstein will have in the investigation. that's something to watch closely and carefully. look the department of justice needs to enjoy public confidence in its impartiality in its integrity and unless. nowhere is that more essential in an investigation as sensitive and high profile as this, public confidence needs to be at its ze knit in the department's handling of this investigation. there is no way we can get to that point with mr. whitaker in the position he's now been given. >> hmm. that's strong words coming from you. finally, briefly, if mueller moves forward, the question of

indictments, would he need whitaker's ascent? >> he will be reporting to whit kerr. under the regs that apply, he will have to socialize with the department of justice in a substantial decisions pr acknowledgmentles he wants to take. so if there is charging digs he wants to make that he hasn't communicated to the department, that will have to go to whitaker. if there are litigation decision to condition test through the courts,ests to avoid contempt citation like mr. stone's associate, that will have to be socialized with the department of justice. when a report is transmitted to the department, how is that going to be resolved? who will decide whether the report whole or in part goes to congress or is made public in whole or in part. all those things we cared critically about. now all roads point to mr. whitaker and how he will handle that. >> you laid it out. with your extraordinary experience, i appreciate you giving us some insights on "the

beat." >> thank you. good to be with you. coming up, we turn to congressman jerry nadler, he would be the chairman of the judiciary committee. later my report on the mid-terms. the fact that there is a growing blue wave and what it means for the trump era. later, my interview with one of the power brokers in washington, john podesta subpoenas all of the above. i'm ari melber. you are watching "the beat" on msnb msnbc.

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. congressional democrats are warning of a saturday nit massacre making a bold and in your face move to demand an emergency hearing on the replacement of mathieu whitaker. jerry nadler joins me in a moment. he is asking for him to recuse because he has this well documented hostility putting the investigation at grave risk. two source close to whitaker tell the washington post he has no intention of doing that. leaders are sending another letter demanding they preserve the key documents relative to mueller in the firing of sessions. a lot of officials put on notice. we remind you that concealing, removing or destroying the documents itself could constitute a crime. thank you for joining me tonight. are you in the middle of it. you are not waiting. why did you come out swinging

and put so many officials on notice and what happens if he does not recuse, mr. whitaker? >> we came out right away. the president is creating a constitutional crisis, his actions fit a clear pattern of interference and attempting of sabotage of the special counsel's investigation. and we think it's very important that the president be put on notice that he is not above the law and the american people will not tolerate his trying to act like a tyrant and a monarch, not like a president. >> this is who the president said about you and your colleague's investigations yesterday. >> they want to do things, you know, i keep hearing about investigations. they can play that game. but we can play it better. because we have a thing called the united states senate. they can look at us and we can look at them and it will go back and forth and it will probably be very good for me politically.

>> do you view that as a threat to use the senate to investigate you, your team, your staff? >> that's a threat to use the senate to interfere with the operations of the house. i mean, they can investigate anything they want. they will not find anything. but the fact is, this is the president trying to abuse his power to prevent, not investigations but to prevent congress from doing its constitutional duty of being a check and a balance on the administration and upholding the president and the administration accountable. >> that is our constitutional duty the republicans in charge of the house and the senate have been derelict, either silent or police it in the face of administration actions to sabotage a special prosecutor and they have been derelict by not doing their document we are going to do our constitutional duty. if the president thinks that's entolerable. well, i think the american people will tell him he is not above the law and he can't act that way. >> congressman, as we are speaking here in your native new

york as you may have heard, it's brand-new 6:00 p.m. open the east coast. we are watching a fairly sizable protect mueller protests. they have been peaceful working down time's square. i wonder, what is your message to those protesters when people say they'll be ready to take to the streets when a red lean is crossed. in your view, how would we know when and if mr. whitaker crosses such a lean? >> well, mr. whitaker crosses the line is moment he accepts the job and doesn't recuse himself and we know he's not going to recuse himself. because the only reason he was appointed was to sabotage the investigation and we know that because the president's only criticism which he expressed for months of attorney general sessions is that he did recuse himself. he didn't sabotage the investigation. he had no other criticisms of him. so the president obviously was not going to appoint someone who

would repeat session's sin of not recusing himself. he put whit der there because he expressed extreme hostility to the investigation. because he prejudged the issue and because he obviously is prepared to do what the president wants, which is to subvert the investigation. i will tell you if mr. whitaker does this and for that matter the president's attempts, these are all further evidence of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. >> strong words. i also want to ask you while i have you given your mandate with the judiciary committee and given another mass shooting today in america. in your committee or with speaker pelosi if she becomes speaker, do you want to see a gun control legislation as a democratic priority or is that not on the top of the to-to list do list. >> -- to do list? >> it's one of our priorities, it won't be the only priority

but soon enough. we are seeing these mass murders increasingly frequently and only in the united states. only in the united states. when you look at the number of victims of gun violence in great britain and england and japan. >> yeah. >> it's under 100 or 150. here it's 33,000. our people are not ten times as mentally ill as people in western europe or in japan and we must have reasonable regulations. we don't want to take people's guns away, but military assault rifles ought not to be in civilian hands, proper background checks. the house i'm sure will take them. >> congress knapp, jerry nadler on a range of big issues tonight. are you busy with the committee and your work under way. i appreciate your making time for us on "the beat." >> thank you. i mentioned earlier in the show. i will speak for the first time on this blue wave and my take on

what has just hit america when we are back in 30 seconds. >>. now to my special report on this blue wave that just hit. america, it is large and a rejection of trump border than many d.c. pundits appear to realize. this matters because the actual public support can shape what happens next. there is only one national race last night for the house where americans in every state voted. the senate not a national race. most of its members not up for

re-election the states that did vote on senators have about 75% of the population. you see there, overall, did you know more people in those races backed democrats by 15 points overall? it's the smaller states that went republican that get the same number of senators under our constitution. then in the race where i mentioned every vote can count at this hour a 6% edge over republicans. when past president versus lost the house, they admit it. >> if you look at race by race, it was close. the cumulative effect, however, was not too close. it was a thumping. i said that the elections were close. the cumulative effect. >> it's a thumping. >> i'm not recommending for every future president that they shake sa s take a shlacking like did last night. >> trump may use bluster and try

to overcome the other moves like ousting his attorney general after the election. that's trump. what about everyone else? especially these self declared experts on our elections? the fact is this week more americans chose democrats than trump. just like they did in 2016, showing a consistent preference for democrats and against trump this blue wave in the house was historic. i don't mean historic as like a debatable adjective. i literally mean historic in the sense of history. take a look at dem results in the past 40 years. this is the number of seats they won in a race and right here this is what they just one this week. you are looking at a projected 35 seats, the largest gain for democrats in four decade, which is more seats than the so-called thumping in 2006. headlines were blaring that that was a wave of voter unrest and democrats rested control from republicans. it's more than any other

election sense the democratic wave against nixon who was historically unpopular because of his criminal presidency. >> that is a big headline this week even if some don't want you to know it the d.c. pundits who under estimated trump before he became president for the electoral college may have noticed this. now they're over estimating trump, under estimating this blue wave and pundits keep talking about this divided result. the washington post called this a split decision. that's one angle that fox news has seized on. >> it was not the blue wave that a lot of people predicted. >> david gregory the fact that there is this divided result. >> you got divided government, which is a very american reality situation. >> voters were not divided this week. most chose democrats. it's that simple. but d.c. cliches can overwhelm facts like the cliche that

american politics zigs an zags in races, it's a presidential pendulum. we hear so many declare america is divided and centrist ris. >> america the country is as divided as it is in 100 years since the civil war. >> whatever the people want i don't think they going to get. because people are so frustrated in this country. >> but americans have not been going back and forth when deciding which party should when the white house. voters preferred a democrat for president in six of the last seven presidential races. here's the popular vote mar you'ins in the '90s, big and blue with clinton as president. in the 2000s, people preferred gore. voters preferred obama twice in a row and clinton last election when trump did win the electoral college. you see what you had up on the screen with all that blue? that's not a zig and a zag. it's mostly zig.

this fact is staring us in the face even if it doesn't fit that d.c. pundit narrative. it's also much bigger than trump. when the american public votes for president, it's not a center right country. more people pick democrats most of the time. in the legislative branch, the senate is not a dreams it is weighted toward small red states. politicians have rigged the house. they use gerrymandering. so they pick the voters instead of the voters picking them. remember when the electorate went peak brauvenlth they voted to reelect him and voted for democrats by 1.2 points. but those rigged gerrymandered districts overruled that big blue popular preference you just saw and then the very politicians who rigged that out.com out and they claim they won popular support. queue the self interested swampy pablull about yes divided government. >> the american people have spoken. they've re-elected president

obama and they've again re-elect a republican majority in the house of representatives. >> that was 2012 and the american people did speak. they said they wanted democrats to run the house. instead they got boehner. now, none of this changes the practical fact that the gop held the house in 2012 under the rules when they got fewer votes or the trump needs a president despite getting viewer votes. any lawyer can tell you if you control the rules, are you more likely to win. when all those pundits and experts march across your screen, they aren't talking who won. we already know. that they are declaring what the people want. what you want as voters and what has a mandate and whether real america backs trump or clinton or boehner or obama, they're shaping what this system we live in perceives is possible so why do fact-free cliches about america endure? well a lot of people, including those of us in the media, we live inside the rules of our politics and it gets uncomfortable for some. we have to admit that this

system in our constitution is not a democracy. >> that the person who comes in second can end up running the country and the people who win more votes, untils more votes, they go out and give speeches and get lectured about how to hand him their loss gracefully within they actually won more support for the voters. this gap between what americans vote ford and what the elected branches do, this goes beyond candidates. take an example we all know about that's relevant tonight. nine out of ten americans support gun background checks. the senate rejects those checks because the senate is not responsive to nine out of ten americans. it's tilted towards teeny states. when that happens as a reality, you don't stand back and say, well, i go es the american people don't want background checks after all. we must be a center right anti-background check nation. golly. no obviously, the take away is

the senate does not reflect the public's view. it is blocking. that if that's so clear. why do people act like trump had more support in 2016 or boehner's side won in 2012 or this giant blue wave a 40-year high wasn't as big as it was? well, i think partly because this is politics so there are powerful agendas behind the propaganda and second, it's human nature to want the plot to make sense. so al gore has to be a loser, even to many democrats. because considering the opposite, if the wrong guy took charge and we're living in an alternate universe, that's too much for some people to bear. we are living right now through an ero of tremendous civic strain. i think we have too much politics in the sense of analysts spin and battle and way too little democracy in the sense of the popular will shaping what our government does. that is an uncomfortable dynamic

to sa i the least. which is why you bring up the popular vote. try it at a party, people end up fighting whether al gore and hillary clinton were great candidates. maybe they weren't. >> that has nothing to do with the growing democracy deficit in our country. which is not about personalities. a system that repeatedly overrides the voter's preference. your voting preference is likely to stoke division and eventually if that continues to undercut its own legitimacy. a big thing america is divided is the voting opposition to donald trump was larger than the support for donald trump from his first day on the job. he entered the white house with the lowest support of the voting public of any president in history. a trend that continues on to this week with what we showed you tonight a 40-year record blue wave in the house. some of these factors are unlikely to change the founders did deliberately make the senate

undemocratic. some other factors have to change. if voters want the house of representatives to be democratic and not be a rigged gerrymandered public farce. and as with so many crises in the trump era, the first step on all of this is getting our facts straight. that's my take on the election. coming up, i will be joined by a democratic power broker john podesta, his live interview and a lot more straight ahead. sw and a lot more straight ahead. coaching means making tough choices.

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♪ welcome back, former clinton campaign chair and obama official john podesta jones me now. i want to begin with the blue wave we were just discussing, john, 35 seats the largest returns in 40 years. why do you think that happened? and do you think as with some

criticisms of the coverage of the clinton campaign in 2016, for whatever reason, d.c., the pundits are under reporting that blue wave? >> yeah. ari you just did a great job before the break if laying out what the real facts were. and i think you asked the question why? i think it was a rejection of the way donald trump is governing this country. his job approval is low for this point of his presidency. i think people wanted the appropriate checks and balances put in place in washington and i think when you think about those, that the fact that we had a 40-year high in switches in the house combined with seven governors flipping, eight-state lenlts lators flipping. you know, it was quite a night for democrats and against. >> on your point -- >> against a gerrymandered background as you pointed out, it was even harder. >> we will put the screen back up.

you are a part of that history. you were in democratic politics at a very high level. we will put 40 years back up. you were there in the '90s. you worked with obama. he obviously galvanized a lot. look at '08. what do you think? are you basically giving credit to whatever the democrats and a lot of new candidates, women candidates we have been covering, whatever they did on tuesday was bigger than what was going on partly when you were running things? >> no, i think absolutely you saw it virtually the day off the inauguration with the women's march. it continued open. there is tremendous enthusiasm in the field. people are, you know, going door-to-door. election night was especially sweet for me. my daughter was reelected to the california school board. >> congratulations. >> you see candidates going out particularly these younger people, historic number of women getting elected. a lot of those switches in the house were first time women

candidates. >> right. >> it was an amazing night. and it's full of enthusiasm to take our country back from the chaos that this president is causing his complete disregard for the constitution as is evidenced by his appointment of mr. whitaker. >> donald trump is effective at certain things. he's more effective than some people initially realized. but the notion that he is a political mastermind was really 81 cut last night. this was the first time we seen him work with the difficulty of mid-terms. as i mentioned, you have been through it. rachel maddow is speaking object that and his hand-picked mid-term candidates failed. >> presidentially endorsed katie arlington lost that seat. trump endorsed senator dean heller last night lost his re-election race. trump endorsed candidate danny targetanian he lost that race. he announced his full and total endor

endorsement for kris kobach who lost the kansas governorship. >> some of those were red places where the people that trump opposed might have done with be. do you think he miscalculated? >> look, i think he was are a mixed bag. i think he activated some people in the reddest part of the country and maybe in a few races that helped. i think in most of america and across america, not just in very blue places but in oklahoma and texas, you see switches in the house, particularly in suburban america people are just i think fed up with the division that he sews in american politics. and their only out. for that was to vote for candidates that they thought would restore some balance in washington and again to fulfill the solemn constitutional responsibility of oversight in the house of representatives. >> and they are telling me, i'm over time in a sentence or two,

that's the difference in your view between winning a white house race and winning a school board race? >> well, in the case of my daughter, she was able to knock out every door in the district. i think in the white house you have to problemt the future. >> aha. >> -- in a way that is really intermediatated by the media. put it that way. >> personally meeting with every voter would be hard in the national reagans. >> exactly. >> i appreciate you coming on "the beat" tonight. >> thanks. from the white house pushing out these new false lying doctored videos, there is an important story this week on the newsing of fox media machine and the trump white house. -- fusing of the fox media machine and the trump white house.

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now to developments in an important story that you may have missed with everything else going on, and we're showing you this not because it involved a news competitor or a media competitor because it involves the going degradation of news a facts by the white house. they have bun unveiling results of a corporate mergen between fox news with an assist from alex jones' conspiracy site info wars. the government press secretary sarah sanders paid by your tax dollars circulated, it would seem to show a cnn reporter attacking this white house intern, but cnn and other analysts have taken the video and they say this was doctored to make it look more aggressive

and different than the actual original factual video. info wars created it, days after sean hannity and other fox personalities took the stage to officially campaign in an in-person endorsement of the republicans and donald trump at the midterms and publicly said they wouldn't do that. >> by the way, all those people in the back are fake news. the one thing that has made and defined your presidency more than anything else, promises made, promises kept. mr. president, thank you. >> hannity had told everyone who listens to him he would not be taking the stage, which shows you what he thinks of his own followers. a fox spokesperson afterwards said this appearance was, quote, a distraction that has been, quote, addressed. it was no distraction. it was the core of the premidterm event. >> i have a few people that are

right out here and they're very special. they have done an incredible job for us. they have been with us from the beginning also. i'm going to start by saying sean hannity, come on up. sean hannity. >> that is what everyone saw. and the official white house pool report from that event notes that afterwards, sean hannity high fived another government paid worker, bill shine. he's the white house communications director. he was also sean hannity's longtime boss at fox news. begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time.

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tomorrow's friday, and i want you to know, we have a special fallback with legends like george clinton, carole king, and harry smith tomorrow on "the beat." don't miss it. right now, it's "hardball" with chris matthews. >> hijacked. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. we have a big show for you tonight. it's becoming clearer that donald trump was handed a crushing defeat on tuesday night. when all the votes are counted, democrats are on track, catch this, to gain an astounding 35 to 40 seats. a huge victory for the democrats. in the wake of that defeat, the president's