in arizona, democrats flipped the republican seat. it's their first win in that state since 1988. also it's the first woman elected senator there ever. president trump won arizona by about two points, but the win may not be just a win for senate democrats, it may portend a crack in the sun belt as a whole, ahead of 2020, in florida, far different. republicans measuring their drapes as they cry fraud. republican rick scott will be in d.c. attending new member orientation for senators, this a day after ron desantis denounced his transition staff for governor both ahead in recounts in the sunshine state. also both of them embroiled in a republican fight about unfounded allegations of voter fraud. it is a fight being led by president trump and it's one that could preview a strategy for 2020, if it's close, swear it's being stolen. democrats, though, having none of it.

>> we're simply saying let our votes count. >> what's going on in florida is a disgrace. >> do you believe democratic lawyers are trying to steal this election? >> the answer is yes. election lawyers are down here to steal an election. >> if you look at broward and palm beach to a lesser extent, if you look at broward county, they have had a horrible history and if you look at the person, in this case, a woman involved, she has had a horrible history. >> well, you know, we're in an era when people oftentimes speak without having vetted the information, so i'm not sure wheth where the president gets his information from. >> senator nelson is trying to commit fraud. that's all this is. >> our nbc reporters, gary haik in washington, d.c. and kimberly at kins, washington bureau che bureau chief of the washington herald.

rick tyler a conservative strategist and msnbc political analyst. we have a gentler transition in the arizona senate race. let's start there. tell us about that race. >> well, craig, if we're looking the rule about talking about fight club, i can tell you this race was characterized early on by martha mcsally moving to the right in a primary. she faced two primary opponents and had to move more to the right. she ended up staying to the right to get -- when all said and done, we'll see that's what cost her. her opponent was able to focus not just on democratic voters, but independent voters, republicans turned off by the president and cobbled together a coalition that was able to win the senate seat in arizona for the first time since the 1980s. martha mcsally gave a concession speech, a much gentler tone than what we have seen in some of these other races and there is

probably good reason for that. take a listen to some of mcsally's concession speech last night. >> everybody i just called kyrsten sinema and congratulated her on becoming arizona's first female senator. i wish her all success as she represents arizona in the senate. >> reporter: mcsally with her golden retriever, boomer, who we can all agree is a very good job, giving her concession speech and keeping the tone civil. part of the reason for that, craig, there's a decent chance these two women could end up serving in the senate from arizona at the same time. you've got jon kyl, the once former arizona senator appointed to fill john mccain's seat. kyl has made it clear, he doesn't see this as a permanent job, if there's an appointment or a race to fill it, it's easy to see mcsally being in the mix to take a senate seat in arizona, just not this one she lost last night. >> garrett haake in washington. thank you, and yes, that's an adorable dog. mr. tyler, did president trump

cost republicans that seat? >> i think so, absolutely. i think he actually probably had a lot of mccain voters who voted against the republican there, and gave it to the democrat, and look, there's a realignment going on. right now, looking at all the election results cross country, you would have to say that affluent, educated white women in particular, but a lot of men have rejected this president and are voting with a coalition that includes minority, african-americans, and hispanic, and white women, that's a winning coalition. if the democrats hold on to that coalition, they will generationally be in power. it's going to be tough for the republicans to win back or win over any of those groups to break up that coalition. >> in arizona, how much of it, rick, is a demographic shift? how much of this is the result of demographics changing in that state, fairly quickly? >> i haven't seen any specific polling but you have to imagine it's a border state.

what we noticed is as the threat of the caravan was made, as you got closer to the border, people are less concerned about the caravan, the further away you get from the border, people are more concerned about the caravan because people in arizona live with the hispanic population all the time. they're there neighbors, scho schoolmates so there was no concern, so i think president trump managed to offend a lot of those people. >> let's turn to florida here, florida judge has apparently told everyone down there to tone it down a bit with all of this nonsense talk about fraud. >> you're right, craig, yesterday in broward county, judge tutor did urge everybody to tamp down the rhetoric. he made it clear that comments lawyers were making when they left the legal hearings were being heard around the world. certainly we have seen a lot of allegations with no base or evidence to them of fraud. here in leon county where we are in tallahassee is an example of recount process being done right.

i want to take you through where we are because you can see behind me that they're in the process of recounting these votes. we're in the automatic recount phase of this recount, and we are told they should be finished here in the next few hours and that's really important. i know we're focussed on places like broward county, struggling to meet that thursday deadline. this is an example of the place, one of the 67 counties that's doing it correctly, and doing it expeditiously. the other part of the equation is the supervisor of elections here has been subpoenaed in the signature matching case that we have been talking about. he's going to appear to talk about their practices and how they cleared those absentee and vote by mail ballots as they clear those signatures. that's a process we're going to be looking at very closely the next few days. >> dan, you know what, i'm going to ask you a question that you may not know the answer to, but that's not going to stop me from asking, in florida why are the elections always so wacky, it's always florida that keeps us waiting or talking at nauseam for a week or so. what is it about your state?

>> it's our reputation, our brand as a state. we continuously want to take and hijack the national narrative and put ourselves in direct position po juto just be at the forefront of everything. i think we are a 50/50 state as you see, rick scott and bill nelson have obtained 50% of the vote at this time. you look at it in those dynamics, you have it split down the middle and have it polarized politically. florida was going to do a florida thing and this is definitely a florida thing. >> how does this compare to 2020, and what are people on your radio show saying about all of this as we watch it play out? >> they're absolutely split by this. they find themselves in a position where republicans are very angry, thinking democrats are stealing the election. democrats are angry thinking that republicans are, you know, trying to impede on the diplomatic and democratic process, and i think that it's kind of interesting because, you know, how it compares to 2000,

it's not much there. brenda snipes was not put into office there, and she was appointed by a republican governor in 2003, and then she asked for funding to update all of her equipment just three years ago by a republican governor named rick scott. he told her no. she finds herself in a position, that yes, she's incompetent and the shop she is running down there is always at the forefront of scandal, but it's an incompetence that we have seen, that has been there historically, so the idea that they're trying to steal the elections is an illegitimate claim. >> kimberly at kins, the florida election feels as if it is quite personal for this president. why is he so deeply involved in this messaging of fraud, never mind he doesn't have a single bit of evidence and why cry fraud when you're ahead in both of the recounts? >> look, we saw this president in his own campaign in 2016 as

election day neared saying that the system was rigged when he seemingly believed he was going to lose the election, already putting in place a message to take away the legitimacy, sorry, craig, i need more coffee, of that election, before it was even done, so in this case, i think he was doing the same thing. as these elections, as these counts go close in the bigger counties come in that tend to be more democratic, the vote count gets closer and if he was nervous about it, or just wanted to ensure that he was casting doubt in the places where the democrats are, he wants to cast doubt. he's also thinking about 2020. florida is an incredibly important state, in any presidential election, and he wants to back the republicans as much as he can, and plant the seeds of doubt that he can sew again in 2020. >> one of the republicans who lost this cycle has apparently found someone to blame, and the

blame has been unusual here, this is future excongressman jason lewis of minnesota. he said john mccain did it. specifically mccain's vote to kill the obamacare repeal. do you get the sense that republicans have come to grips with the reasons behind their losses a week ago. >> i don't think so, and i think if you look at arizona in particular, republicans really need to pay close attention because what we are talking about is a definite shift there. that was a red state that was already seemingly in the grips of democrats. hillary clinton lost that state but only by about 3 1/2 points. there was already a shift there. and arizona voters have watched very closely, president trump attack both of their senators throughout most of his presidency, and they have seen this message, and they rejected it. and yes, it played out in the suburbs, a lot of focus on white suburban women, but it also

played o ut -- out in communities of color. communities of color came out and rejected donald trump. we saw kyrsten sinema talk to latino voters in spanish there. it was a completely different message that won at the end of the day, and republicans need to heed that and see in some places donald trump is a liability. >> rick, one of the top republicans in the house seems to agree, says that maybe part of the problem here is republicans getting their message straight. this was steve scalise on fox business. >> we've got to be, i think a lot better at articulating the things we stand for as conservatives. that's one thing that i think we didn't do well, we've got to do a lot better at and we're going to get there. >> rick, was messaging the problem or was it the substance of that message that voters seemed to have a problem with? >> well, look, as a conservative, i would agree with steve there are a lot of ways to arct articulate the conservative message. that's been done too rarely in

my opinion. i think it was a lot of the tone and a lot of messaging, for instance, the tax cut, you know, the tax cut was sold as a tax cut for middle class americans. it was not. it was to help big businesses. now, you can go out and i can make a great case of why that is a good idea and leads to low unemployment. don't sell it as a middle class tax cut when it's not. there's not much else that republicans had to point to and they certainly, i don't know anybody who's actually out there with a true conservative message that was appealing beyond the republican party. >> allie, bring us up to speed and vote in terms of next steps. what's going to happen after this recount? >> in terms of next steps, we have talked about this thursday 3:00 deadline, places like leon county and other counties across the state are racing to meet that deadline, the interesting thing is what comes next. once they hit the thursday, 3:00 p.m. deadline, they are going to trigger the recount, which is a 1/4% difference,

which is what we're expecting to see in the ag commissioner race. the florida governor's race we don't think is going to hit threshold. we'll be watching to see if the margins continue to narrow. the votes you're talking about when you talk about the next hand recount case, that's the ballots in the cage behind me with the yellow stickers. that's how they're classifying them in leon county. what those are, when they go through the machines and they're feeding the ballots either on the left side it goes through f they see votes in every race or spits it to the right, and they put it in a box because there's something up with the ballot, it's an undervote, they don't see a vote and they want to look if there's a stray mark or an x where there should be a bubble. or an over vote, they see one or more marks in any given race. that's where the hand recount accommodation in, and that's where the bill nelson team thinks they're going to see more votes. >> thank you, garrett, rick

tyler, always a pleasure. deadly fires, the unrelenting blazes burning in northern california. now the deadliest in that state's history as the death toll ticks up hundreds. hundreds are still missing. we'll take you live to the ground for the very latest. on her way out, the homeland security secretary is heading for the exit. is the president looking for a hard liner to replace kirstjen nielsen. on the record, monica lewinsky openly discussing her relationship with former president bill clinton. >> i felt terrible. i was scared and i just mortified and afraid of what this was going to do to my family. i just got my cashback match,

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the death toll from the devastating california wildfires continues to rise. in a state that's unfortunately become synonymous with wildfires, these are the worst ever in california state history. 42 people have been killed in the so-called campfire as searchers pick through the rubble looking for victims. more than 200 people are still missing. two others have died in fires in the southern part of that state. state officials say that the camp fire may not be fully con tauned until the -- contained until the end of the month.

steve patterson in chico, california. steve, what's the situation on the ground like right now? >> reporter: the longer you spend in paradise, california, the more you can truly get a sense and realize just how much is left, which is next to nothing. we're here in chico because firefighters just had their first briefing for the day, getting updated numbers, more information about the situation on the ground which is somewhat positive. first we got the bad news last night, as you mentioned 13 more bodies discovered, ten of them in paradise alone. the information here is that thankfully the critical fire danger from the critical weather events that we see, meaning red flag winds, that is over at this point. that could change, obviously, as the winds could pick up at any time in this situation, but right now, firefighters are dealing with more favorable conditions, so they're able to push that fire sort of away from the city centers to the southwest and the southeast. talking to one of the fire battalion chiefs, though, this

is incredibleme. this is part of what they are doing. there are cadaver dogs mixing with archaeologists, about ten archaeologists on the ground because of this, the fire that has been burning for a thousand degrees for about three or four days. what that does to the human body, what that does to structures is really unthinkable, so they have to bring in these teams to identify human remains, to search for more bodies, as you mentioned, the worst numbers are those health insurance that are still missing, disconcerting for families and residents who lost everything. we spoke to a group of residents who were basically in the fire zone as the fire broke out. this is 19 people, four families, five houses, all gone. we spoke to them last night about how they're doing now. listen to this. >> all i got left is the two dogs. >> yeah. >> and my family. >> reporter: that's it. >> and my car. but my car was at my work.

>> reporter: how are you handling all of this? >> i'm really not. i'm still in shock. >> i was hopeless. i literally watched it go from that little bit of a stack to it just engulfing the whole mountain, cresting and everything. i watched explosions go up. >> reporter: so the fire now 130,000 acres. there is about 30% containment on the fire at this point, as i mentioned, firefighters hopeful because of favorable weather conditions. they can continue to pare down the fire. the teams searching through paradise for the lost, the missing, the dead, that's where the focus is at this point, it's heartbreaking work. >> it is, and our thoughts and prayers, not only people dealing with the fires, in terms of lost housing and memories but also those firefighters who have been at this day in and day out, night in and night out. thank you, steve. be safe out there. thanks for your reporting. back here, amazon, delivering on its promised

second headquarters location after a yearlong search, the tech giant confirming it is going to split the location between queens, new york, and arlington, virginia. amazon says that the move is going to create 50,000 jobs over those two locations. the new jobs will pay roughly $100,000 a year on average. amazon also promises the sites will generate billions of dollars in revenue, but the decision is not without controversy. newly elected congress member, alexandria ocasio cortez releasing on twitter, writing, amazon is a billion dollar company, the idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need more investment, not less is extremely concerning to residents here. 20 years after the scandal that nearly brought down the white house, monica lewinsky on the record about her affair with former president bill clinton. >> the truth is that i think it

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another shakeup in the trump administration could be

imminent. "the washington post" reporting that the president is preparing to remove his embattled dhs head, kirstjen nielsen. that report coming days after the president forced jeff sessions resignation as attorney general. nick mirof who wrote the store for the post is joining me now. what did you learn? why does the president want to make this move and why now? >> well, we spoke to five current and former white house officials who said the president has told his aides that he's made the decision to move on and that he wants nielsen out as soon as possible. i think the timing is up in the air, could happen in the coming days or weeks, and we know that white house chief of staff john kelly is pushing back at this. he's always been nielsen's biggest supporter, he picked her for that job, and this is coming down to a contest in some ways between the president and his chief of staff. >> so far, nick, some 44 top

officials have departed this administration either through firings, or resignations, there's a full screen there. there's a look at 44 top administration officials, the most recent of course, attorney general jeff sessions. you cover national security "the post" what impact could these changes have for the national security, sessions and potentially nielsen. >> unfilled positions as well. the department of homeland security, the deputy secretary rule, the number two has been vacant since april when elaine duke left. we have had 7, 8 months that the white house hasn't put forth a nominee for that role, and if nielsen were to go, that would leave the top two jobs at dhs vacant. yo you know, i don't know if i could point to a specific threat this produces but it's a high degree of turnover and produces a lot of uncertainty for officials, you know, who are, you know, doing the nuts and

bolts work of protecting the country. >> you mentioned general kelly, nielsen's a propertege of the cf of staff, what does this say of general kelly staying in the white house? >> i think it's been diminished. nielsen was chosen last fall at kelly's behest when he was at the peak of his power and had come in to put things in order in the white house, and you know, all indications are that distance has grown between the president and his chief of staff, and i think, you know, this is going to be a real test of where things stand with kelly, and we have also heard from some white house aides that his future in the white house is once more looking shaky and that he could go. >> nick miroff, "washington post." thank you, sir, solid reporting there. president trump's move to tap matt whitaker as acting attorney general, that move has faced a lot of criticism over the past week, but today the state of

maryland is taking that criticism a step further. challenging the president's appointment in federal court. here with the latest on that lawsuit is our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, break it down for us. what's happening here? >> well, the president put matt whitaker into this job using something called a federal vacancies reform act. it gives the president, the white house says, three choices and they chose door number three which allows the president to put someone into a vacant job like attorney general if that person has been there at least the 90 days and makes a certain amount of money as a senior official. the state of maryland is saying to a federal judge today that that law is trumpd by a different -- trumped by a different law which says when there's an vacancy in the office of attorney general, the deputy attorney general may take over. that's a legal argument. they say the president's action is trumped by a different statute. second they make a constitutional argument, they

say under the constitution's appointment clause, no person can serve in a senior cabinet job like attorney general unless they have already been nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate. and they say, in fact, everyone who's ever been acting attorney general has been in some job where they have been nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate, so they say, for a statutory reason and a constitutional reason, the president can't do this. they say the actual attorney general is rod rosenstein, and they want the judge to say that. this comes in a lawsuit that maryland filed against the trump administration that included jeff sessions as one of the defendants over the future of obamacare. so with sessions out, the question is who's going to take his place on the lawsuit, and the state of maryland says it should be rod rosenstein, that he's the acting attorney general, and they want this judge to say that. >> justice correspondent pete williams there with the fight over the attorney general here now moving to a federal court room. pete, thank you, sir.

monica lewinsky opening up in a new interview what she would now say to hillary clinton if she had a chance. >> and oprah winfrey giving a boost to michelle obama's memoir. we're going to talk to the first lady's long time chief of staff, and their take aways and surprises from michelle obama's new book. and surprises from michelle obama's new book we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that tie. voya. helping you to and through retirement. gimme two minutes. and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything.

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this morning a and e net work releasing clips from its highly anticipated docu series, the clinton affair. it's an inside look at the impeachment of president bill clinton. lewinsky detailing on camera what was going through her head during the early stages of her affair with president clinton. >> it's not as if it didn't register with me that he was the president. obviously it did. but i think in one way the moment we were actually in the back office for the first time, the truth is that i think it meant more to me that someone who other people desired desired me, however wrong it was, however misguided, for who i was in that very moment at 22 years old, that was how it felt. >> joining me now to talk about it, "new york times" chief white house correspondent and msnbc analyst, peter baker.

he has covered clinton's impeachment extensively, he detailed it in two books, and nbc national correspondent kate snow is with me. kate, let me start with you. what do we expect to learn now that we haven't known for the past 20 years or so? >> it's an interesting question. it's a three-day extravaganza on a and e. it starts on sunday night. they have interviewed more than 40 people, more than 50 actually, everyone from lawyers to people we know, names we know, like ken star, bob bennett, cindy blooming that will -- blumenthal, people who were involved in the moment, and most importantly the woman you just showed, monica lewinsky, and she talks about when she started talking with investigators and she details what that felt like. they wanted her to wire. she said she was terrified. here's how she describes being interviewed.

>> there was a point for me somewhere in this first several hours where i would be hysterically crying and then i would just shut down, and in the shut down period, i remember looking out the window and thinking that the only way to fix this was to kill myself, was to jump out the window, and i just, i felt terrible. i was scared and i just, i was mortified and afraid of what this was going to do to my family. and, you know, i still was in love with bill at the time. so i just, i felt really responsible. >> it's hard to listen to. i mean, there's a lot of emotion there. i talked to someone close to monica lieu wiewinsky a couple hours ago about this process for

her. this is a year she has been reliving this history, which obviously on a very personal level is very painful. >> why now? why do this now? >> they came to her. she says part of it, she wrote an article today in vanity fair. so that's why i have any inkling what she is thinking about this, she says part of it was women are involved in this projects at the highest levels, a lot of women producers, one of the directors is a woman, and she felt that that would bring a unique perspective to it. i mean, it's actually called the clinton affair rather than the lewinsky affair, the series, which is telling. >> which is how it has been referred to over the past years. >> she says in the vanity fair article, she saying an important part of moving forward is excavating, often painfully what has gone on before. politicians duck and dodge saying that's old news that's in the past, yes, that's exactly where we need to start to heal, she says with the past, but it's not easy. she also said in that article, craig, that she wants to help other women, you know, she's

been a big part of the kind of the chorus around me, too. she has written about that earlier in vanity fair. she felt this was a moment to try and re-examine some of what happened with a new lens. >> peter, part of what she did in this vanity fair article is talk about what she would say to hillary clinton now if given the opportunity. monica lewinsky writing in part if i were to see hillary clinton in person today i know that i would summon up whatever force i needed to again acknowledge to her sincerely how very sorry i am. peter, as you know, hillary clinton has over the years continued to defend her husband's behavior back then, his response to over the past two decades. do you think that this in any way, shape or form changes that? >> well, look, you know, monica lewinsky has been one of the most human figures out there in a very ugly moment in our history. she was a very real person

dealing with real emotions as you see in that interview, even now raw for her 20 years later and i think she did obviously regret what happened. it wasn't what she, you know, she was 22 at the time. and it's, you know, it's been a real ghost that's haunted the clintons ever since. hillary clinton was interviewed earlier this year and said that the difference between what happened with monica lewinsky and these other me too type incidents is she was a grown consenting adult, but that of course overlooks the fact that there are other women who accused president clinton of events that are not consensual, and i think that's being relooked at in this me too moment 20 years later, people who defended him are taking a second look in light of the way we should be thinking about these things, we shouldn't have, kristen gillibrand, the senator from new york says he probably should have resigned. monica lewinsky was asked recently, how does she look at it differently, the power differential that exists between a president and former intern was so fast that she now

understands that made this different than simply consenting adults. so i think we're looking at these adults of 20 years ago in a new light given our current situation. >> peter, bill clinton, for a long time was the go-to guy in terms of democratic fundraising. if you wanted to pack a room and raise a ton of money, you would call bill clinton. the waning days of the midterm elections he was nowhere to be found on the campaign trail. how much of that do you think is a result of this? >> i think it's exactly because of this. i think it's exactly because of this me too moment. suddenly he is, again, a figure to keep a distance from if you're a democrat. you don't want to be asked questions about the sexual scandals that involved that president. that's not what you as a candidate wanted to focus on this fall, so better off to keep him away, and you're right, it's a real change. he managed to get out of the white house with a high popularity figure. he had managed to put some of these scandals behind him, but now 20 years later, they are kind of coming back again.

>> peter baker of the "new york times," thank you. i know you're working on this for tonight and tomorrow morning, but it is, you know, this is one of those parts of our country's history that you feel like over 20 years, we have heard from all sides, but this feels different for some reason. >> it does. i also want to point out, much like the o.j. story, which came back in a docu series, think about, we were just talking about watching this and the interns who work here, who are 20 something, they don't remember this history. >> you're right. >> so for a lot of viewers, i think, this may be the first time they really encounter what happened 20 years ago. so that's just an interesting perspective, too, for the young people. >> kate snow, thank you, thank you, thank you, and again, a big thanks to peter baker as well. coming up, we're going to talk to two of michelle obama's closest aides, these are people who know her very well. we're going to talk about that former first lady's current relationship with melania trump, that new book she just wrote, right after this. book she just right after this wasn't bad enou,

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today marks the release of one of the most anticipated books of the year, former first l lady michelle obama's memoir "becoming", detailing some of

her most intimate experiences from her childhood in chicago all the way to the white house. last night michelle obama returned to her former high school in chicago. she hosted a discussion with students there. the book already at the top of amazon's best seller list but yesterday it got quite another boost, earning a spot in oprah's coveted book club. >> i got an advanced copy of what everybody's calling the book of the season. former first lady michelle obama's new book, "becoming", and i got to tell you, i loved it so much, i already read it twice. she just opens up herself, it's so vulnerable, and i'd say that even if i didn't know her. i knew i had to choose it as my latest book club selection because it's so great. i couldn't not choose it. >> joining me now, two women who work side by side with the former first lady, her former chief of staff and assistant to the president, tina chen, former white house social secretary desiree rogers is also with me.

tina, let me start with you. you were by mrs. obama's side during her time there in the white house. first of all, have you had an opportunity to read the book? did you get an advanced copy? >> i did and i have. and i'm like, oprah, i'm almost through it twice. >> what strikes you most about it? >> well, here's what i hope people will take from it is this really honest story that could only happen in america of a young girl from the south side, and it's beautiful. it's poetic, the first line of the book is from my childhood, i heard the sounds of striving and it goes on to tell the story of her family through the great migration to what become this amazing woman who went to the white house. >> there's also a part based on the excerpts where she talks about her love affair with barack, and their first kiss. >> she did, and she talks about how there was lust and romance, all, you know, she uses the word lust, which is a little unusual for a first lady.

>> i know. >> she talks about the struggles, too, craig, when i think people relate to is it isn't just the rosy movie picture of their romance. it's also the struggles, she was having to do it alone and although he knew about the distance love, because he was separated with his mom a lot, she knew about close family love, and she had to the learn that difference and they had to find each other and the love and work their marriage out. and the experience. >> and she also talked to the abc about offering the hand about the current first lady melania trump. let's listen. >> i know that laura bush reach reached out to you, and she said, you need any help, i am a phone call away. and you talked the about how you extended that same courtesy to melania trump, and has she reached out to you?

>> no. no, she hasn't. >> and in response melania's communications director said that melania trump is a strong and independent woman who has been navigating her role as first lady in her own way, and if she needs advice she seeks it to the professional people within the white house, and can the current first lady need her help? >> well, what she did and i did, too, as the chief of staff is that i reached out the laura bush's chief of staff and s secretary clinton's chief of staff in the white house, and there is an amazing support, there because there are so few people who have lived through that experience in the white house, and it is a very small group and no other place like the white house, and nothing in your life that you have ever done can prepare you for working in the white house. so getting that experience and wisdom from both sides of the aisle is something that i earn sli valued and i know that mrs. obama did, too. >> tina, thank you for your

time, and desiree, you, too, the book is revealing and mrs. obama is opening up about the childhood and the pregnancy struggles, and what struck you about it? >> well, it really gives you an insight into what she was thinking and how she was thinking through so many aspects of her life, and so it is so real, and so truthful, and vulnerable, and it is a real person. this is the first opportunity to really hear from her about so many aspects of her life. >> she was on abc this morning, and she talked about it to 20/20 and this is part of the conversation. >> you know, i think that at this point, everybody is qualify and everybody should run. i was like, i might even tap sasha. sasha, you got some free time? i think that you would do a great job. >> are you saying that because

of what we currently have? >> where i am is that right now, we should see that anybody who feels the passion to get in this race, we need them in there. and i think that the process will play itself out. >> and naturally she laughs off the idea of running herself, and desiree, do you think that she should reconsider? >> no, i don't believe she is going to run, but she has an enormous influence on really telling other people, you know, look, if you want to run, you should run. i mean, you have an opportunity. i had an opportunity, and i am not -- and she said that she is not a politician, but i think that she is the inspiration and can be the inspiration behind so many people that really this is their life's calling. she is doing her life's calling right now. >> yeah, it seems as if, and also having visited with her e briefly a couple of weeks ago here, and she seems really happy, and really enjoying the life that she has helped to create for herself right now. >> absolutely right.

i think that the title is so revealing and so many ways that it is becoming michelle obama. and she is michelle obama, and she describes for u and tas, an us through her walks of life and takes us through the point she is at and really happy and the opportunity to be thrilled to the travel this country and talk about her experiences and hopefully influence others that they can, too, become who they want to be. >> desiree rogers, thank you, and tina, you as well. this is something to make you smile on a tuesday. it is always exciting to the catch the first snow of the season, right? check this out. a ro brother and sister overcome with joy as they experience their first snow ever. dancing and twirling and giggling in their oversized coats there. they arrived as refugees from east africa to the new home in

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this hour of msnbc live and i will see you tomorrow bright and early on "today." and it is andrea starting -- oh, it is not andrea mitchell, but it is my friend kasie hunt. h hello, kasie. >> and coming up, power play, as the recount deadline is to bet met. the republicans in those contests are transitioning to the jobs they don't officially have yet. while arizona sends a democrat to the senate for the first time in 25 years and the first woman ever from that state. >> we must be an active part of the solution. we must be willing to the put down our sticks that are sharpened for battle, and we must be willing to turn to our neighbors and pick them up instead. >> cabinet shuffle? after months of tension between the president and the homeland security secretary, new reports surface that kirstjen neilson is about to be pushed out.

>> secretary nielsen, and what do i say about you? >> and the affair. monica lewinski opens up in a new interview about the scandal that nearly brought down a presidency. >> you know, i was in love with bill at the time. and so i just felt really responsible. >> good day. i'm kasie hunt in for andrea mitchell, and we will begin this hour with breaking news and msnbc exclusive report. the chief white house correspondent hallie jackson is joining with us the breaking news. and what are you reporting? >> hey, kasie, a couple of things about the future of chief of staff kelly. and this is unreported details of the clashes with the first lady melania trump and this is a source of tensions that sources have talked to myself, and kristen wend