we will go to huntsville where michael is independent. what do you think this morning? caller: i think we need our officials to keep their eye on the ball. that being said, to me, it looks like we have a fella that is likely to come in and the a complete disruption -- be a complete disruption and i have a difficult time understanding why you have what appears to be a reasonable alternative -- and i am talking about mr. jones -- that could come in and on paper work with others and do some would you go for an alternative that is going to cause a disrupt it, and lot of problems at the very beginning and prevent the work of the people? host: when you say that to your neighbors in huntsville who might be roy moore's supporters, what do they tell you? caller: you know, i don't share a lot of people's standing as roy moore's supporters. i don't hear a lot of people standing up as doug jones supporters either. i see a lot of doug jones signs in people's yards. there's kind of an overwhelmingly -- more of that see.of signal that i host: have you ever seen anything like that for

also up here, madison county, up here in huntsville area. look at this, bob vance won it in the chief justice race in 2012 at a time mitt romney was winning it quite handily in the presidential race. roy moore has been vulnerable, but let's look back. that's how doug jones would have to do it. african-american turnout way up. suburban republicans outside here, shelby county, outside of birmingham, suburban republicans saying i can't vote for roy moore and coming over to the democratic side. for roy moore, i want to go back to this race down here. look here in the southeast corner of the state. houston county. you see 64%. right here, this is where you have the christian conservative rural base of the republican party in alabama. down here in the southeast corner, up across the northern stretch of the state. again, are the margins like this for roy moore? if so, he's off to a decent start, but not the margins tonight because we're going to look who is actually coming out to vote. the raw math. is turnout up? is he winning these counties big b

it would not surprise me if a lot of people in huntsville voted for brooks as a write in. host: talking about the results election.ght's alabama, republican line. caller: i would like to make one comment. when our government is big enough to give us everything we want, it will be big enough to need.way everything we that is what happened to a lot of third world countries. a big government and the people of the country suffer. host: how does that relate the last night? caller: it is part of government control. the government wants to control. the liberals want to give everything away. we will get to the point to nothing.have giving away free health care, free food, free everything, we will have nothing. the people in the united states better start taking care of themselves. it is not what the country can do for you, it is what you can do for the country. know about doug jones' take on safety net programs? guest: he will be on board with most, if not all, of the safety net programs. that is his track record and what we know about him. i say you will probably see plenty of do

and then up here in huntsville we're up to 23%. in those bigger urban areas and then the suburbs. does the democratic vote turn out in the cities? right now moore is in competitive race. >> still early, roy moore the republican ahead of doug jones, the democrat. anderson, over to you. >>> doug jones just got a bunch of votes that were tablated. he's behind roy moore. amanda carpeter made the point earlier, roy moore followed the donald trump play book. >> totally, deny deny, deny, deny. it's hike the "access hollywood" play book which the president has since denied that the tape is real, but it's a play book of deny, deny, deny. he knew what his base was. he knew that he had to keep them. as long as the president climbed on board, i think that was hugely important to him endorsement from trump. if moore were to win how important this would be for bannon. i think bannon and trump right now are virtually are indistinguishable. i think it's the same thing. i think trump is -- donald trump, president trump is playing out of the bannon playbook, and if roy moore wins, i think steve ban

flipping white voters, madison county, outside huntsville, suburbs. shelby county outside of birmingham, probably talking about that a lot tomorrow night and in the south, you've got mobile and right next door, baldwin county. that's where jones has to sbeea into that traditional republican support. >> my eyes will be glued to you and that screen tomorrow night. thanks, steve kornacki. >>> accusations against president trump, when we come back in just 60 seconds. ay chec, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪ the ford year-end sales event is in full swing. ( ♪ ) you are going to be a big surprise. (whining) aww, i see a big puppy. i see a b-i-i-g pu-u-ppy. hey greg! that's ford, america's best-selling brand. now get exclusive holiday offers, with 0% financing for 72 months across a

whether in montgomery, tuscaloosa, up here in huntsville, that was the huge margin. selma, relatively small county. came in at just the right time, tow. 75 to 25. in dallas county where selma is, that put doug jones in the game. and look at this. i want to show you something. this is shelby county. these are the suburbs just outside. birmingham. roy moore won with 55%, 56% of the vote. let's go back in time when he last ran for chief justice. 63% of the vote here. so his support is down. obviously some crossed over to vote for doug jones. as we go for a recount here, the margin here, 21,300 write-in ballots. there's no question some will be disqualified. but there's absolutely no question republicans that couldn't do this and instead do this helped doug jones to history tonight. >> great work all evening. i appreciate it. i want to bring in joshua green, april ryan, matt lewis, ed martin, and ana navarro. good evening or good morning depending on where you are. how did -- how did he pull it off? african-american voter turnout, was that the key? >> absolutely. it's a

he's making stops in huntsville and around the state here today. it's just polar opposites when watching the two campaigns run, right? you're running a campaign that is essentially a ghost campaign. i was just talking, and i know that the roy moore campaign tells me they are going out and canvassing neighborhoods today, but overall when you look at the two campaign infrastructures, you have the democrat in alabama who is running a robust operation. whether that is enough to get republicans to crossover was something we'll have to tell here in the coming 48 hours. but i want to play you a sound bite, roy moore appeared on local television this morning in what i'm hesitant to call an interview but more of a conversation with a more republican friendly host here on this tv outlet out here who gave him the benefit of the doubt. but this is when he asked roy moore about the allegations. this was the u.s. senate candidate's response just 48 hours out. >> ritual defamation has been around for a long time. that's what this is. they have done this, it's inc

voters aren't really into doug jones, so if doug jones doesn't take birmingham, alabama or huntsville, there is a good chance that roy moore may take the selection. >> and that really speaks to how he's reached out to the african-american community and how he's reached out to republicans who might be potential crossover voters. what is the impact of someone, for instance, like condoleezza rice, an alabama native? i know from talking to her for years and in her book, she talked about how her father became republican because of the segregation stance of jim crow in alabama, and how she actually knew one of the children who was killed in the birmingham bombing in 1963. so for her to come out and say, i encourage you to take a stand for our core principles and for what is right, these critical times require us to come togeth together, but we must insist our representatives are deeply respectful of the values we hold dear. she didn't come out and say vote for doug jones, but that's what she's saying. >> when i read that, andrea, what i thought about was we do have to vote our values. i see

back on september 23, the president went down to huntsville, alabama, campaigned alongside of luther strange and since that time he never went down in the course of the campaign. the campaign alongside the republican nominee, roy moore. was the president embarrassed in terms of campaigning alongside roy moore? is that why we didn't see him down there in alabama? sarah: the president has spoken directly about this race and who he supports and who doesn't. due to the legality of that im not going to go any further and would refer you back to his past tatements. reporter: what is the discorrect as it relates to this white house when it comes to then candidate trump bringing the accusers of bill clinton to the debate against hillary clinton and now the accusers of roy moore making these accusations, and his accusers, what's the disconnect there? sarah: as the president said, he found the allegations troubling. if they were true, he should step aside and ultimately the people of alabama will make a decision in that race. reporter: what about his own accusers? sarah: the president has firs

we were with him in selma, montgomery, birmingham, they had concerts in huntsville. and here today we'll be seeing doug jones any moment at his birmingham field office, where they'll be sending out people to do just that, phone banking and canvassing. he visited three birmingham churches here today. i should note, though, that roy moore still has a decent chance to win this race. on tuesday, we did see him this morning, on a very friendly media outlet that did play, though, on local television stations here in the area, where he addressed the allegations made against him by those nine women just 48 hours out. let's play a sound bite from what he said this morning. >> in moral values, they're attacking me in that area. i understand that, but it's also part of a scheme of political parties today and political candidates in both parties, quite frankly, to degrade your opponent, to take him down so that you appear to go up. >> reporter: this is a candidate you just heard him there, he called it a scheme. he's called this a conspiracy, right, propagating the idea that the

the doug jones operation, i was with them in selma, montgomery, huntsville. they had folks out canvassing, making phone calls and quite something numbers to see for a democrat in alabama. >> and there was a comment. >> senator shelby, richard shelby of alabama, of course. he's been in the senate so long, vaughn, he was there when i covered the senate. we're talking about the 1980s. and he's very, very popular. was just re-elected, 64% of the vote. this is what he had to say on cnn this weekend. >> there's a time, we call it a tipping point, and i think so many accusations, so many cuts, so many drip, drip, drip when it got to the 14-year-old story, that was enough for me. i said i can't vote for roy moore. the state of alabama deserves better. i think we've got a lot of great republicans that could have won and carried the state beautifully. and served in the senate honorably. >> so steve kornacki, what do we think is going to happen? who is going to come out and vote? >> that is the cliche in politics it, comes down to turnout. but it all comes down to turno

huntsville, birmingham, mobile, suburbs in the eastern shore there. that's where democrats think they can make a big score. the republicans, they're trying to run up numbers in the rural parts of the state. for democrats this is a tall order. big significance if they win this because next year control of the senate is up. democrats are never in a million years supposed to win. if they pick it off tonight, the math next year for winning back the senate becomes potentially doable for them. >> but turnout's never been more key. >> they need huge numbers, absolutely. >> steve kornacki, good to have you here tonight. >>> president trump's propensity to wage battle by twitter has charges of sexism. this time over a 280-character attack on a female u.s. senator in which he says she would do anything for campaign contributions. tonight the target of those words senator kirsten gillibrand who called on the president to resign is fighting back. our white house correspondent kristen welker has details. >> reporter: facing accusations, president trump lashing out

look around huntsville, madison county. talk about the suburbs. college educated and economically upscale white voters. look outside birmingham right there we'll talk about this a lot tomorrow night. i think that's shelby county. remember that name and then look down to the southern part of the state. republican mobile and baldwin county, you're looking for a shift. can the suburban republican voters, is moore the one republican they can't pull the lever for? that's the question. >> steve, do you have a soar throat because you're sick or you were cheering loudly for a football game? >> i thought i was covering it up. i'm going to try to save it for tomorrow night. >> do me a favor. sleep well tonight and take cough syrup. >>> kristen welker and steve, thank you very much. and a group connected to a former 2016 presidential candidate is weighing in on this race. >> what if she was your little girl and daughter, or sister? what if she was 16 years old or 15? or even 14? would you let a 32-year-old man be alone with her? date her? undress her? >> sta

madison county, this is where hunt huntsville is, donald trump won this by 17. consider this one, i think this is one jones has to win tonight. this would be a county if you are a democrat, you want to flip blue from a 17 -- that's a pretty good bell weather there. and if you look to the southern part of the state, mobile, this should be blue tonight if jones is having a good night in winning. it should be fblue by a comfortable margin if he's going to win statewide. so north/central there. >> what time are we going to know, do you think, who won this race? >> the polls are going to close at 8:00 eastern time. then it is going to be slow going. we have had a couple elections in alabama this year. we didn't get much for the first 90 minutes. if it is as close as the indications are, it may be the wee hours of the morning. >> late night for you, my friend. thank you for coming on the show earlier in the morning. >>> now to buzzfeed's reporter who is on the ground there and "washington post" senior political reporter aaron black joining me here. so let me start off

outside mobile, in the huntsville area. so much energy on the democratic side. you did not have the trump surge for the republicans in those suburban defections from the republicans. >> steve kornacki, you are working it so hard, you're losing your voice. i love it. that is a passion for politics. our own steve kornacki. i've got to bring in our white house correspondent, nbc's peter alexander. peter, i went to bed with quite the gracious tweet from president trump. i think we may have woken up to something else. >> yeah, plenty of wednesday morning quarterbacking as you'd imagine here at the white house. the president trying to frame this the best possible way after a humiliating defeat after picking the wrong horse in alabama now twice. this morning he wrote the following. he wrote the reason i originally endorsed luther strange, and his numbers went up mightily, he notes, is that i said roy moore will not be able to win the general election. i was right. roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him. the white house really over the course of the last c

held few public events, democrat doug jones spent the weekend holding get out the vote rallies from huntsville to mobile. finishing with one last push in birmingham. >> we've got to make sure that at this crossroads in alabama's history we take the right road. >> reporter: the former u.s. attorney's support of reproductive rights is a big sticking point for many. with the allegations overshadowing moore's run and calls from other prominent republicans for him to step aside, jones' supporters see victory within reach. >> let the resident of the great state of alabama decide who to vote for. >> reporter: huge implications for the trump white house and blend agenda. nbc10 news, montgomery, alabama. >>> and more democrats are calling for president trump to resign after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior. three appeared on "today." some said trump kissed them on the cheeks without asking. the white house dismissed the claims calling it nothing more than political theater. >> the president has addressed these accusations directly. and denied all of the

to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and he started getting money put into states like huntsville, alabama and houston, texas. infrastructure money on technology that worked with the space program. kennedy created his first year, the peace corps, alliance for progress. what's trump known for? all over the world he's seens a bully. that's the net take-away at the end of the year. and perhaps a bigot. and so it's very hard to see why history is going to be shining a great flashlight on a president with a 35% approval rating, the lowest since polls have been taken. whose big home run was the tax bill. that doesn't really excite people. it is a success at the end of the year and he did get gorsuch in. but it's been a very rocky first year. >> dr. sabato, i think he's achieved is that what he said he was going to do. which is largely for better or worse, to reverse obama-era policies. >> you're correct on that, too, michael. let's talk about what that means, though. when you base your presidency around your base, your party base, and you are unable or incapable of bringing some people

we had a really exciting democratic candidate, let's say like a walt maddox or anthony daniels from huntsville or dario melg in from selma, this would be a very different race. doug jones is anotheration white guy like me. we have enough of those in d.c. already. the democratic parties want to succeed. we have some of these men and women who have passion and ideas and that can make the case to a.m. bammians that it is not about the d or the r. it's about what is best to govern in alabama and what's best to move our country forward in the 21st century. we cannot continue to be on the face of the planet if we are going to ever have real change. >> the voters will decide on tuesday. thanks for being here. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we will have complete election night coverage starting tuesday at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. should be a wild ride. still ahead, new mandatory evacuations as wildfires tear through southern california. some of those who can return home are finding ashes where their homes once stood. and disturbing new body cam footage of the moment arizona police shoot and kill an

tonight jones heads to huntsville for an event at a baptist church. these are democratic parts of the state. there is less of an effort to introduce jones to republicans saying they don't want to vote for moore, and more of an effort to get democrats in alabama to vote on tuesday. eric: how are they promoting jones. reporter: they are trying to make the case that rye moore --y moore would only represent roy moore you verters. and doug jones would be different. >> this is about the boring unglamorous every day work fighting every day for folks, taking constituent calls. if they are black, white, gay or straight. it's about representing all of the people. reporter: that's a line many nationally known democrats are pushing. doug jones has been running on a much more moderate platform. cory booker is a supporter of gun control legislation. doug jones has ads reassuring voters he's for the second amendment and owns a lot of guns. but they are trying to cast doug jones with someone who is friendly with d.c. insiders in contrast to moore who is hostile to wa

an emotional meeting i informed my washington staff of my cancer, i was immediately flying to huntsville, and after medical reasons i would be in alabama the rest of the week. based on advice from friends and doctors i chose dr. scott tully as my treating physician. he is widely respected and has performed more than 3,000 prostate ectomies. on thursday we drove to birmingham to obtain insight about treatment options and risk. he advised the removal of the prostate. at his direction, i undertook a heart stress test and nuclear bone scan. timely, i got some good news. my c.t. scan and nuclear bone scan revealed no cancer beyond the prostate. my heart stress test confirmed i was strong enough to undergo the two to three-hour surgery. prostate cancer mortality is compelling. speed is critical in the fight against prostate cancer. in combines complinse with the 2017 house calendar -- compliance with the 2017 house calendar that set year of end votes on december 14 and at some risk to myself, we delayed my surgery until december 15, this friday, and set a post surgery medical procedure for dec

. >> tonight doug jones is at another event as we speak up in huntsville. he's keeping busy as he tries to catch roy moore in the polls. >> get some rest. it will be a busy couple days. >> wildfires continue to rage in california. the largest now leading to new evacuation orders. officials telling residents into coastal towns about two hours west of l.a. to get out as the thomas fire inches closer. the deadly blaze, one of five wildfires scorching their way across southern california, consuming hundreds of homes and buildings. jerry brown giving a bleak perspective on the weeklong wildfires calling them the new normal. will joins us now. what are the conditions on the ground that the sour. >> rick, overnight the santa ana winds really picked up. that caused the fire to explode across the ridgeline but when the sun came up it's good news, the wind calmed down and they stayed very low throughout the course of the day for this fire has really crept down the hillside. there are a number of homes up on that ridgeline. we just drove up there exactly what firefigh

have got to perform well and get really high turnout in the metropolitan areas, mobile, montgomery, huntsville, and then in the suburbs we have to see jones performing well above hillary clinton. hillary got 25 in some places, and he has to tie or win them by a little. those are the two keys things we need to see. it's a turnout game because it's a special election, but we have to do better in the college suburban areas. >> we will be watching. you have to think doug jones, a few months ago, he probably never thought he was going to go into a polling station with the chances that he has today. >> he was supposed to be the democrat that would lose to luther strange and now has a chance. >> if you need a reminder. look at the countdown clock, special coverage on cnn in seven hours and 35 minutes and 14 seconds. >> thank you for being with us. >>> brand-new information about the suspect that tried to blow himself up in a subway in new york. where he got the materials for the bomb, that's next. >>> also a quick check of the markets this morning before the opening bell. the future is pointing to a

when the army needed slaves to construct fortifications in the vicinity of huntsville, he impressed that care should be taken to equalize the number in all instances. number tosufficient do the ordinary business of a farmhouse. unfortunately for buell, his beliefs undermined him. williams characterized him as a mcclellan without charm or glamour. and suggested that was the reason he was so unpopular. as the war involved so did , political military attitudes. buell cared nothing for popularity, not for the approval of others. but mcclellan and sherman were harder on him than buell was. -- were harder on villagers than buell was. both men recognized the implications of military operations dictated by military policy. he was reluctant to modify policies, even when it became evident that they had adversely affected the morale in the ranks. he was emotionally distant and was unaware of how soldiers viewed his policies. they saw him only when he made his hasty sour mouth inspections. the good he took for granted. it was the less good he was looking for, and he seldom failed to find it. some su

the big counties in terms of population, the birmingham, huntsville stuff like that. the votes take longer. doug jones people are hoping they'll have a wig enough lead in this is those counties to offset the many rural counties where moore does better. >> how much into play will come the push by the democratic party to get new voters in as we've seen with the minority groups especially african-americans. >> it's not just the africa rn americans. if you use the roy moore platform we're talking about muslims, homosexuals, a groups that are anything but white christian. >> all of these groups are likely to feel threatened much more after tonight than they did before tonight. because now we have a real ally in the senate. a trump ally. you have to expect a real kerfufle in the senate among republicans. when you heard judge moore talking today he wasn't talking about beating the democrats. he was talking about the republican leadership that's who he wants to replace. you can see right now particularly if he wins the big fight for the heart and soul of the republican party.

look outside of huntsville. do republican voters and moderate voters go away. what do they do here? the suburbs and do moderate voters stay home or vote for doug jones. that's another thing to look for? it's not secret where y the president did a rally in pensacola, florida. he was talking to the mobile area. we count the votes and is there any blue in this part of the state? if that's the case, doug jones will be in play. here's something else. how many republicans will write in a candidate? roy moore just cracked 50% in 2012. a lot of democrats think doug jones think he can't crack 50%, but maybe can get to 48%. can they bring roy moore down and lower the line of victory? we will count the votes starting in eight hours. roy moore knows what voters are thinking about. he frames it this way. >> one thing i don't like that the media say that a lot of people who are republicans claim they will vote for me and ignore what they believe. i am going to tell you, if you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me. >> roy moore last night. let's go around the table and set the stakes.

>> reporter: when you talk about 2020, we were on the ground with jones, through selma, huntsville, montgomery. at the time, we tried to articulate the fact that there was this manager behind this campaign. you saw it in signs across yards. along highways across the state. you saw it in individuals who said they never volunteered in their lives to canvas and phone-bank for him. we talked to republicans on the ground who said they never voted for a democrat in their life but this was their chance. but there's still a level of skepticism, right? donald trump a year ago received 2 to 1 margin over hillary clinton. so there's skepticism, because you knew how much of a challenge it was going to be for doug jones in order to win. but he did. he pulled out 30% of the voting share was made up of african-american voters even though blacks make up 25% of the actual population. he also brought in an overwhelming crossover of republicans over to his side. despite us hearing all of that on the ground, there's still that level of skepticism, just because you know how much it's going to take for him to actua

when you go around talking to people from selma, to huntsville down to rural areas where we were last night, you talk to people, they know about the race. they know the voting happens on tuesday. it feels similar to the likes of iowa or new hampshire in an presidential election. the likes of charles barkley. he's a native of alabama. steve bannon the former white house chief strategist, couldn't find somebody who could i guess provoke more or insight more excitement among the republican, that base that roy moore is going to rely on in order to turn out those voters here in just a few hours. >> vaughn hillyard, live for us in montgomery, alabama, what is shaping up to be an exciting race to watch. >> absolutely. >>> the suspect in yesterday's terror attack here in new york city remains in the hospital after failed attempt to set off explosive device during busy rush hour commute. second to hit the city in just two months. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more on the investigation and why the man carried out this act of violence. >> reporter: police and federal agents de

virginia is in huntsville, alabama, a democrat. virginia, go ahead. >> caller: yes, i already voted because i voted with the absentee vote. and i voted for doug jones. and i think that the problem is there are so many women that has -- i'm sorry. so many women that have low self-esteem, and they don't understand what it means for a man to come on to them, try to make passes at them. and they accept it. but i was raised that, you know, you don't have to accept anybody violating you. and i believe these women. i believe the women that said that he did -- that roy moore had violated them. and i believe the women that said donald trump had done it. the women are coming out now. they have been empowered. they are coming out, and they are making it known. there should never be a statute of limitation on a woman being able to come forward -- [ inaudible ] because of the fact that it takes them years for this to soak into them and to know that they cannot live with this forever. so it probably would take 20 or 30 or 40 years before you can

there's huntsville up north, madison county. 56 for trump. closer he gets to 50, i'm talking about moore and the republicans, the more suggesting he could be in for a long night. >> dana: president trump won alabama by 28 points. republicans are obviously strong there. we will see what happens tonight. thanks for coming on to explain it. we'll see how i goes and we'll have you back with the midterms in 2018, it will be pretty interesting. most of the attention in alabama has been on roy moore. his opponent in the senate race seems confidence he will be the focus after the polls close tonight. we'll check in on doug jones' campaign in just a moment. >> dana: stocks moving higher on wall street. dow and s&p500 on track for a third straight record close with banks leading the way as the fed meets to discuss interest rates and the economy. the fed is expected to raise rates tomorrow for the third thyme year. that's good news for banks, which can charge more to lend money. democrat doug jones expressing confidence today in his campaign. watch. >>

huntsville, the aerospace industry. this is number two in terms of the percentage that have four-year college degrees. a lot of engineering degrees. donald trump won with 55%. a place mitt romney took 60%. today roy moore only able to get 40%. it's the real discomfort with roy moore that we saw in these suburbs. these are terrible numbers for republicans to be racking up in these places and you look and we think of that virginia gubernatorial race and the suburbs outside washington, d.c. common characteristics in terms of the voters we are talking about. that could have implications in 2018. >> did you sense anything the last week or two. watching this dynamically that this was going gradually to jones? >> yeah, i mean we didn't see mass defeks from republican leaders, but the president trump of the united states decide to get involved in the race, but we saw richard shelby. his refusal to make the endorsement. that's what i was thinking of when i saw the turn out figures in this part of the state. when i saw the turn o

on september the 23rd, the president went down to huntsville, alabama, to campaign with luther straits. he never went down in the course of the campaign alongside the republican nominee, roy moore. was the president embarrassed alongside roy moore can make is that why we do not see him in alabama? >> secretary sanders: deborah president has spoken directly and who he supports and who he doesn't with lee out -- report back what is the disconnect when it comes to candidate trump bringing the accusers of bill clinton and now the accusers of roy moore making accusations. one of the disconnect? >> secretary sanders: as the president said, allegations are troubling. and if they were true, then he should step aside and ultimately the people of alabama will make a decision in that race. >> reporter: >> secretary sandee president has firsthand knowledge but he can speak directly and he has come and he has addressed them. i have nothing further to add. >> reporter: this is spinning and focused on him now. >> secretary sanders: he has addressed it directly to the american people. >> reporter: peo