In the case of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Tonight, saudi arabia has conceded khashoggi was indeed killed while in the saudi consulate in istanbul, turkey, october 2. They say 18 people are being held in connection with his death. And we will have much more on this still developing story coming up. But we begin this evening with brand new allegations of interference in u. S. Elections, coming even as the president continues his campaign to get out the vote for republicans. And to be clear, this is not about the Russian Election interference in 2016. This is about the russians interfering right now, and in realtime, with our midterm elections that are 18 days away. The Justice Department today revealed its charges against a russian operative, a woman, based in Saint Petersburg with links to vladimir putin, a woman who will never likely see the inside of an american courtroom, the president has spoke been the development during events today in arizona. Nothing to do with my campaign. With all of the hacker, and everything that you see, nothing to do with my campaign. If theyre hackers, a lot of them probably like Hillary Clinton better than me. Now they do. Now they do. But you know, they go after some hacker in russia and they say, oh, but it had nothing to do with my campaign. The governments criminal complaint reveals that a woman has been charged with conspiracy for taking part in a scheme, to quote sow division and discord in the u. S. Political system. In other words, to turn us against each other. Prosecutors say she worked for a russian firm that Robert Mueller first indicted back in february for meddling in the last election in 2016. That same firm was linked to a man known as putins chef, who has also been named in the mueller indictment. Todays criminal complaint says the russian conspiracy to influence our midterm elections, 18 days away, included, quote, posing as u. S. Persons, to operate fictitious social media, to address Divisive Political and social issues or to advocate for the election or electoral defeat of particular candidates. Now, the social media post covered the gamut. Gay rights. Gun rights. The anthem protest in the nfl. Family separation. Criticism of mueller. Criticism of john mccain. Any subject that can divide americans one against the other. Prosecutors say this is how conspirators referred to mueller, as they spread articles attacking him, quote, as a puppet of the establishment, and his investigation, as damaging to the country. This post was also allegedly part of an online propaganda campaign, titled quote, every deported illegal household saves taxpayers 700,000. Todays charges were revealed not long after the nations intelligence chiefs issued a joint statement of warning today, warning of foreign interference in our election, from russia, china, and other foreign actors, and it came just one day before the National Security adviser john bolton heads to meet with russian officials in moscow. Indeed, just within the past month, President Trump has been pushing this new theory, the new line, on election meddling, that it is not the russians, it is the chinese. Regrettably, we found that china has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election. Coming up in november. Against my administration. And just this past week, he has continued to repeat that, along with some other familiar themes. Do you believe that the russians interfered in the 2016 campaign . Election. Well, they meddled but i think china meddled, too. Do you really think i would call russia to help me with an election . Give me a break. They wouldnt be able to help me at all. Call russia. So ridiculous. First of all, there is no collusion. Do you think i would call russia . I need help in idaho. I need help in iowa. Lets call russia. It is a con job. Can you imagine me saying, oh, i dont know what to do, gee, lets call the russians, maybe they can help. Can you believe it . No, can you believe the stupidity of this . Lets call the russians. It was an excuse, made by the democrats for losing an election that frankly they should win. Todays news brought a sobering assessment from an intelligence veteran who is a frequent guest on this broadcast. Here we are on the eve of the midterm elections and were still hearing solid evidence that nothing has changed, nothing has stopped, the social media were consuming is propagated by a foreign adversary. Lets bring in our leadoff panel on a busy friday night. Mi mi, Southern District of new york and a distinguished fellow at the Pace University school of law. Julia ainsley, nbc news justice reporter. Josh gersten, senior White House Reporter for politico, and michael mcfall, a former u. S. Ambassador for russia which makes him a better than average expert on russia. Welcome and good evening to all of you. Julia, i would like to begin with you. What is your number one takeaway from this document we have printed here today . It is like what we used to call the phone book of a mediumsized u. S. City. Thats right. I can remember some phone book, brian. There you go. There is a very detailed, obvious, even when mueller turns out the lights and closes up the special counsels office, we are living in what may be the new normal. We are going to continue to see interference. Primarily, as weve seen, from russia. And they lay out all of the ways they can do it. All of those ways that you can see, that they can sow discord from both sides. What i think has to be taken together is that report that also came out today, from the Intelligence Community, saying that you should be aware of other meddling campaigns, from russia, and they say china, and iran, but what i want to really clearly point out is that we have yet to see evidence of any other country illegally meddling in our elections. Weve seen the president pointing to ads that china might have taken out in a newspaper. Nothing to this extent. Nothing like what weve seen russians do on social media has been able to be charged by one of our federal districts like we saw today. This is a very calculated campaign. And it is the same play book they used in 2016. And they are able to use this same play book, brian, because of the president s reaction. Just like what we saw over the weekend, just like what he told 60 minutes, the president wants to say that he doesnt need help from russia, so therefore, he is not really able to just take on the responsibility as the president , in order to get rid of this Election Hacking and election meddling because it would affect him as the candidate. He is still hung up on his candidacy more than his presidency and as we saw frank point out, there needs to be that kind of action to stop this, or like i said, we are living in this new normal. Those are my takeaways. I heard from an fbi veteran this week, incensed that, effective on the 60 minutes interview, the president has changed his talk can point do you think i would really call russia, as this investigators put it, the allegation, he was in with them somehow, this was compromised somehow and it was a rolling effort and it allows him to ask the rhetorical question, do you think i would call them to help me in this election . Julia, on the last point i want to play for you, former cia director mike haden who was asked on cnn this afternoon, about the presence of china in this intel document. Lets listen. We all have seen all of the details involving russia. Have you seen specific similar details involving china, iran, and other foreign actors . I have not. I think what were seeing is a bit more of just another nation state attempting to influence american policy through traditional tools. I mean you and i may not like theyre taking on a fourpage ad in the des moines register, but thats above board. That is fair play. The russians are doing something more extensive. And more below the surface. So josh, thats what hayden has been saying all along. And other intel veterans. The question to you is, square whats in this complaint with the talking points you have heard from this president over these many months. Well, i mean im struck by the fact that it does seem to reflect a great deal of sub ter fuge and a very insidious effort on the part of the russians because when you read through the complaint, a lot of the tactics theyre using and a lot of the tweet, the meme, some of which you have just shown, brian, it is very hard to tell looking at them that this is some kind of an russian effort. There is no obvious tell here. So it seems the president is trying to minimize this activity. One thing i would say also, im not convinced that the legal system ultimately may be up to dealing with this challenge. It struck me in reading this complaint that a lot of what people are objecting to here goes well beyond politics. When you talk about sowing social discord and turning gay americans against other americans, and black americans against white americans, is that fundamentally about changing the results of the 2018 midterms . Or is that simply about trying to rip apart American Society . If it is the latter, im not sure the Justice System is going to be the vehicle to address it. Mike mcfall is it an article of faith that putin knew about, or just plain ordered this . Well, i dont know that for sure. So i cant call it an article of faith. But i would very surprised if he didnt. It is the same organization, the Internet Research agency, after all, that did the same thing in 2016. A dozen of them were indicted. That indictment was handed over, right before the helsinki summit. And yet, president pu putin a his proxies are continuing. That is because President Trump has not made them pay a price. He continues to deny it. He embraces putin and gets nothing back. And i think until we push back, until we try to deter this kind of behavior, of course we should expect people like putin and other actors, but putin first and foremost, to continue to intervene in our elections, and in our democratic society. Mimi reporta, i am holding in my hand, as they say, this complaint. It is voluminous. A couple of things to know about it. It was filed september 28. We just learned about it today. It was filed in the Eastern District of virginia. So that is question one. Why that jurisdiction . Question two is, why not . Well, the why now question is intriguing. So first of all, it is not just why now. It was, as you said, sworn out, this affidavit, and the complaint on september 28, a couple of weeks later, it gets unsealed. That was enough time for them to go to the grand jury and get an indictment. Usually prosecutor does a complaint, which is what this document, when they are sort of in a hurry, you know, they dont quite have time yet to go through the indictment process, which is more laborious lengthy process. But the fact that this was done on the 28th and unsealed now, i dont have a great answer yet. But it tells me that we may find out more. There might be more to this timing that we might find out in the coming days or weeks. Because there was something specific that happened, where they got it sworn out, but they decided to hold it until today, and we may never know, but we could know and it could be very enlightening. It could have something to do with her, this woman, why this woman now, and she is the accountant, she seems to be in charge of the money, making sure everyone gets paid. That is an Important Role for sure, in this organization, which this is the same organization, essentially, as several of the other guests have said, that was involved in 2016. It is just continuing. And so you know, but why this woman in particular now . And we may see more about that in the coming days. Okay, the counselor just teed that up for you, julia. What are you expecting in the coming days . Gosh, well, you know, we arent supposed to hear a lot from mueller. We know he is quiet, presumably, heading into the midterm elections. But we may continue to hear this drumbeat of the Public Service announcements from the department of Homeland Security, and others, who want to ensure the election infrastructure. Another thing they want to do, brian, is to make sure that while people are maybe taking a second look at some of the ads, some of the memes, they are seeing online, making sure they know who is purchasing those and how they are being influenced, they dont want them to also lose faith when they go to the ballot box in november. They want everyone to know and it was clear in this report today, that the election infrastructure, what is actually in place, to make sure that that vote that you cast, it remains unchanged, they say that is not under threat. That they have not seen clear evidence of that. That is something that i have heard the department of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen repeat again and again. It is kind of enlightening. Im like mimi, i want to pick this over and figure out why this woman, why today. One thing i heard about the jurisdiction, somehow in the Eastern District of virginia, there may be mini Internet Companies that are crossing through that. It is hard to know. She is not an american citizen. It is not like they picked where she lives. There is something very interesting about the fact that it is Eastern District of virginia, this woman, so close to the midterms. There seems to be a message that theyre sending. I just want to know what it is. Josh, lets go down that rabbit hole. This document, it explains the weird item that your aunt fanny sent you from her facebook feed about families being separated at the border. Theyre hoping it doesnt explain any shenanigans. We have 435 congressional races in 18 days. Weve got local elections. State houses. U. S. Senate. And we better not see any numbers that, as they come in, dont make sense to us. So is there any chance this document is a civic warning . I think that is primarily its function here. I mean there is some chance they are going to be able to pick this woman up somewhere, maybe she is traveling somewhere, or had a plan to go to europe, although frankly i dont even know if you can be extradited on these types of charges from most countries. So i do think the primary role here was to get this out, in advance of the election, as a reminder, to people, that this russian operation is not a thing of the past. It is ongoing. But i think there frankly is supposed to be a little bit of a reassurance here for President Trump, that this is not officially a mueller charge. As we were just discussing, it was brought by prosecutors, in alexandria, virginia, and it suggests that this project of trying to rein in the russian, at least you can do it through the legal system, going to be taken on by the rank and file, bread and butter prosecutors of the Justice Department, and that Mueller Probe will eventually come to a conclusion. So michael mcfall, just to put a finer point thon for our viewers point on this for our viewers who may not get the mechanism here. Some of it was to criticize marco rubio. And some of it was to call the late senator john mccain an old geeser. Some is race ifts. Some is racist. Some are antilgbt. What is the goal since they seem to be disparate topics. You cannot polarize unless there is polarization already there. So lets be clear. The basis has to be there first. At stanford, there are social scientists studying this. I would like to dig deep near. It im not so sure it is just about polarization. It could be more partisan. But there is a bigger issue here, brian. We have not actually figured out where the lips are. You quoted my former colleague mike hayden saying, well, an ad, an insert in the newspaper, thats what the chinese do, that is above the line. Is it . Why is it . When sputnik tweets crooked hillary as they did repeatedly in 2016, that is freedom of speech . Is that the russian government . Is that okay . When the saudis pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobbyists to stop legislation, thats a is that a violation of our sovereignty . Is that just the political system . And i think we as america, we really havent come to grips with where those lines need to be, especially when it is so easy to do. Because of these social media platforms. And i do believe it is just the beginning of this conversation, not just, you know, a little howdy doody before the 2018 election. And to any aunt fannies out there, i meant no disrespect. To ambassador michael mcfall, to mimi, our thanks, our discussion continues. Coming up, an apparently ailing Paul Manafort gets welled into court to hear his sentencing date. And later, the president supporters cheer on his most outrageous statements as the red meat gets redder out on the road. The 11th hour, just Getting Started on this friday night. avo life doesnt give you many second chances. But a subaru can. You guys ok . You alright . Wow. avo eyesight with precollision braking. Standard on the subaru ascent. Presenting the allnew threerow subaru ascent. Love is now bigger than ever. They work togetherf doing important stuff. The hitch . Like you, your cells get hungry. Feed them. With centrum micronutrients. Restoring your awesome, daily. Centrum. Feed your cells. Thats gillette clear gel. It goes on clear and keeps you fresh all day. And it doesnt leave white marks on your shirt. Gillette clear gel antiperspirant. And as if that wasnt badur brand new enough, totals it. 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Because if not, youre going to have another two or six years of this craziness. So make sure you vote. Wow, that civic announcement by the man who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump. Apparently not anymore. Michael cohen, former trump attorney, now cooperating with the feds after a guilty plea. He sat down with prosecutors were told as recently as wednesday. And in virginia, today, another former trump associate, back in court, to learn his sentencing date. Though some interesting things to report from this. His former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort pleaded guilty to criminal charges and cooperating with the Mueller Investigation. Though manafort arrived in court today in a wheelchair, in his prison jump suit, his request to wear a suit having been denied, his hair is growing out gray. He was missing his right shoe. According to his attorney, there are significant issues with mr. Manaforts health concerning confinement, and a source told npr, quote, he has a serious medical condition related to his diet. Manaforts sentencing, which has been postponed until his cooperation with the mueller team was satisfied, has now been scheduled, docketed for february 8th. Remain can with us tonight, mimi rocha and josh gerstein. Thank you for sticking around. Mimi, i will admit, none of us are doctors, and we thought, for an amateur doctoring today on television and radio, was either gout or diabetes. There is the carmine, the chin, geganti theory. Legendary new york mobster who made sure to be photographed wearing a fullon bathrobe and that hat, while walking outside court, walking outside his home in new york, hoping for a Mental Illness allowance in his sentencing. Hard to know, isnt it . It is hard to know. And while it is not limited to the italian mob, it is kind of a specialty of the mob, and manaforts activities and background have been compared to the mafia, but it is a specialty of theirs to find illness in order to get more lenient sentences or get out of certain prison conditions that they dont like. Sitting here, obviously, we dont know for sure. Key have developed a condition. He could have developed a condition. But we also heard that maybe he didnt like the solitary confinement that he apparently was in, in the prison that he is being held in now, for his own safety, and so now he might be a able to move to a different prison. It is hard to tell. One would hope now that he is cooperating, that he wouldnt be pulling any of those shenanigans, it doesnt sound like anyone from the government said anything to cast doubt on these claims, but on the other hand, judge el sis not the kind of judge who will not take that at face value. Thats the one thing we have learned about judge ellis, is he scrutinizes everybodys statements. Josh, first of all, let me lead with a huge mobster correction, it was Vincent Vinny the chin giganti, but second, you were there today, were not making light of this, this guy went from the highest of the high life, to the low life of prison and wearing somebody elses jump suit every day, and having no control over your own life. So what was the atmosphere that you saw, and took in, there . Well, well, it was pretty dower. People were fairly surprised when he came into the courtroom with a wheelchair. There was sort of a hush that fell followed by murmuring and people elbowing each other and saying do you see he is coming in a wheelchair, what is going on. It was not something that people had expected. Although i will say, towards the end of the trial, that wrapped up a couple of months ago, he was looking not terribly well, to me. He had sort of a palor to him. Maybe that is just the effect of having been in jail since june but there were also times emotionally it seemed his lawyers were trying to console him or he might have been croying or breaking down a little bit toward the end of the trial. So i cant tell you that i was really shocked to hear that he might be suffering from some health issues. He was kind of shifting around, in the wheelchair at tircht times. B at different times. But i dont think he is in any crippling condition given the amount of help he has been given to the Mueller Investigation in the last few weeks. Thank you for sticking around. One of the many stories were covering tonight. Coming up tonight, it turns out the saudis killed Jamal Khashoggi. We will ask have a four star retired general and a former fbi official what they think about the explanation for the cause of death, when we come back. Was f, and my dad, adventure. They baptized me in mud and christened me on rock, so i got tougher. 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And did you know that geico. lips smacking offers mo. coughing motorcycle insurance . Hoho. My lips are burning. laughs ah. No, my lips are actually burning. Geico. Over 75 years of savings and service. See how much you could save at geico. Com. Its too hot. Oh, this is too hot, mate. Tonight, the saudis announced to the world what the world already new. Journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead. Saudi state media said after khashoggi entered the saudi consulate, seen here october 2, he got into a fight with people there, leading to his death. Saudi arabia says 18 saudis have been arrested and are being investigated in connection with the case. Tonight, the Saudi Embassy in washington said a number of senior government officials have been dismissed, including a top saudi intelligence official, and a royal court adviser. Reacting to the news, our own chief Foreign Correspondent richard engel, said, quote, very few people around the world are going to believe this. Earlier tonight, before his rally in arizona, President Trump reacted to the news. He started by calling it a good first step and then he continued. Saudi arabia has been a great ally. But what happened is unacceptable. We are going to see, they have arrested, just for the people at the table, a large number of people having to do with the event that took place in turkey, in the consulate, the saudi consulate. And it is a big first step. It is only a first step. But it is a big first step. Do you consider it credible . I do. Again, it is early. We havent finished our review, or investigation, but i think it is a very important first step and it happened sooner than people thought it would happen. As a result, mr. Khashoggi was killed well, that was a theory that is thrown out. I dont think anybody said that. But theyre saying there was a fight, that was a teheory that was put out. But they would give a full report. And the president said he would prefer not to cancel the 110 billion military order from saudi arabia that he keeps talking about and that he would be working with congress on how to move forward. And a reminder here, the Washington Post repeatedly points out that figure, the president keeps pointing to, is false. Joining us now, are military analyst, retired four star u. S. Army general barry mccaffrey, a decorated combat veteran of the war. And extensive experience in the middle east and especially with the saudis. And National Security analyst shawn henry, former assistant director at the fbi. General, i would like to begin with you. A u. S. Resident, a u. S. Based journalist, killed in a saudi facility in turkey. What do you make of it . What should we make of it . You have to start by recognizing that saudi arabia is a vital ally of the united states. Not just because of its incredible production of oil on the world market but also as a hedge against iranian terrorism and expansionism. So we are going to have to be thoughtful how we deal with this. Having said that, though, this was a brutal murder, a clumsy murder, by agents who are clearly under the control of the crown prince. And we have to react to it. We have to react on principle. Im shocked that the u. S. Governments response, secretary pompeo, very intelligent, capable, experienced guy, congressman, cia director, harvard law school, he goes in to see the crown prince and it is more of a diplomatic slap and tickle than it is a stern rejoinder to sort out the murder of a u. S. Resident. So we are in a very troublesome situation. This is not the first incident of mbs, the crown prince, the war in yemen, the blockade of qatar, the core tour, abuse, and extortion of several hun torture, abuse, and extortion of several hundred family members, in the riyadh carlton hotel. This fella is moving saudi arabia to the edge of the cliff. Shawn, a couple of things dont add up here. Number one, that this started as a fight. Someone said late today, the translation is different. It wasnt so much a fistfight as a head lock. But still, 15 of you, in a van, we might get in a fight, so bring the bone saw . Answer me that. And also, answer me, i know the fbi aint going to be invited to turkey it a saudi facility to investigate this. How is the u. S. Going to conduct a review . Well, i think you have to look at the totality of the circumstances here. First, starting with the time line. When people arrived, saudi officials arrived, when they got to the consulate, when khashoggi arrived, and then when they subsequently left, took off, went to one of the residences, and khashoggi never leaves. So we know he is gone. As you say. Theres implications that they brought certain types of equipment. Different personnel that were there, that were medical examiners, or they do autopsies, so people that you wouldnt expect to be conducting a particular type of an interview. So when you look at the circumstantial evidence, it may have been premeditated, as opposed to something that happened spur of the moment. Maybe it was a rendition that was botched. They were talking to him, trying to get limb to come back to saudi, he didnt, they got into a fight, and this happened. If in fact, that happened, where is the body . If somebody dies unexpectedly, it is an accident, where is the body . So i think the u. S. Looks at that in totality. There are two pieces here. The fbi is not going to go to turkey. They would have to invited in, they had a particular investigation to offer and they wont be invited by the saudis into the consulate. There is a lot of information that the u. S. Intelligence may have collected through signals intelligence or human intelligence, both on their own volition, but also through our allies who they have regular contact with who might have intelligence that would add further color to what happened inside that consulate of the Intelligence Community can provide, and will provide that information to the president , to the administration, in terms of a report, and then the u. S. President can make policy decisions based on on that report. Not necessarily releaseding all of information that is contained there in, which may be classified, but he certainly could use it to make policy decisions. General, bob bare, former cia official not given to hyperbole was on cnn last night and i will paraphrase, the methods of this crown prince have become unsound and in his view he has to can taken out of has to be taken out of management. His father only has several lucid hours every day. And it is a mess over there. Do you concur come. If you go back ten years ago, the saudis are not normally fighters, they bribe people, they lie, they form alliances, they are totally under the umbrella of protection of the united states. So i think mbs, the crown prince, has taken up a new aggressive, very disruptive control over his own people, never mind his neighbors. So i think we are in trouble with this guy. And i would be unsurprised, given his extortion attempt, over his fellow royal family members, if he is not personally at risk in the coming months and years. This guy is a menace to the royal family. Maintaining their enormous wealth. Shawn, 30 seconds of brilliance. How is it that the turks would know what was going on inside a saudi consulate . Well, you suspect they have some type of surveillance coverage, technical coverage inside, whether it be audio and or video. Even potentially human. Somebody they may have, their Intelligence Service may have co opted who is working inside the consulate there. It is standard surveillance trade craft, when operating in a foreign country you have to suspect that the host country is watching what youre doing and trying to determine what your motivation might be or any activity you might be conducting in order to collect intelligence within that particular country. Thats another piece of this. The u. S. Intelligence is going to look at it. Our great thanks tonight, it to general barry mccaffrey, to shawn henry, a veteran of the fbi. Gentlemen, cant thank you enough. Thanks very much. Coming up, a look at what sells on the road these day, and what connection it hay have to the truth. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Thats it . Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. 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I know montana pretty well. I think it might help him. And it did. President trump defending a congressmans attack on a journalist because it worked to a republicans advantage at the polls. It is not the first time we have seen this kind of scorched earth approach to the presidency. Last week on 60 minutes, he defended his attack on Christine Blasey ford at a rally where he publicly mocked her testimony. You mimicked professor blasey ford you mimicked her. Had i not made that speech, we would not have won. And you are saying that she had lied. I am not going to get into it because we won. It doesnt matter. We won. With us to talk about it, all of it, bill kristol, a veteran of the reagan administration, editor at large, in the weekly standard, what he is doing in los angeles, we will never know, but thank you for making time for us. I have to ask you about the end justifies the means. This is a guy whose name has been on the ballot once. What about the gop members of congress who come up every two years, who have to run different kinds of campaigns, and they have to run on the results . Lets see what happens am a couple of weeks in the election. It is just not true that these tactics necessarily are winning tactics. The republican in montana won a very close race and a race that should have been a 20point republican victory as i recall. Kavanaugh got confirmed because flake and collins insisted on an extra week. The fbi looked. They at least, in flake and collins judgment didnt find anything they really confirmed mrs. Fords account and they thought they could confirm kavanaugh. It is not clear that trump helped at all. He takes credit for these things. And he associates the victory in these matters, with the victories, with his rhetoric, and no one really rebuts him on the republican side. That is what is so dangerous i think. Here is something else. We heard Rudy Giuliani say, it was Newt Gingrich on fox news, earlier this week, if theyre successful, the campaign will be about two words, kavanaugh, caravan. We have aerial pictures of the caravan between guatemala and mexico. This bridge of humanity. Later, we saw people jumping into the water. Bill, is this an issue that will cut well for at least the trump base of the gop . The trump people believe they won the republican primary because of their stance on um gratio im gation because of the muslim ban and stance on mexicans and the stance on the border wall. I dont know if it helped in the general election or not. We will see. But again, this is why this election is so important in two weeks. It is important obviously who wins the house, who wins the senate, governorships, the usual reasons, why elections matter, it matters who is governing the country, but it really is, we have taken so much, by republicans, in particular, as something of a verdict on trump. I mean trump managed to win in 2016, which we didnt expect him to. Mccain had lost. You can argue, until youre blue in the face. He was a much tougher candidate than Hillary Clinton and all kinds of reasons that mccain and romney lost. Nevertheless, trump seemed to have the magic that had victory. If the democrats pick up a couple of seats and pull some surprise, them im afraid, i see very little resistance from my point of view in the Republican Party or the conservative movement almost to these kind of tactics, to this kind of rhetoric, even though it seems so obviously, in my judgment, bad for the country. We will pause our conversation. We will get in a break. Bill stays with us. When we come back, the comedy and political chops of a future political republican star. mom vo its easy to shrink into your own little world. Especially these days. dad i think its here. mom vo especially at this age. big sister where are we going . mom vo its a big, beautiful world out there. little sister woah. big sister wow. See that . mom vo sometimes you just need a little help seeing it. vo presenting the allnew threerow subaru ascent. Love is now bigger than ever. Discover. O. I like your card, but im absolutely not paying an annual fee. Discover has no annual fees. Really . Yeah. We just dont believe in them. Oh nice. You would not believe how long ive been rehearsing that. No annual fee on any card. Only from discover. Your insurance rates a scratch so smallr you could fix it with a pen. How about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead . For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I get it. You wanted an indian woman. But Elizabeth Warren failed her dna test. Actually, when the president found out that i was indianamerican, he if i was from the same tribe as Elizabeth Warren. She also had some biting manafort material last night. Outgoing u. N. Ambassador nikki haley showing off his comedy chops in new york last night. Raised 4 million for catholic charities. By the way, she was introduced to the crowd by the stellar comedian and loyal 11th hour viewer jim gaffagen who said ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the united states, and that got the crowd going. Especially considering we last heard from her on the day her resignation was announced while sitting next to the president in the oval office. I will say this, for all of you that are going to ask about 2020, no, i am not running for 2020. I can promise you what ill be doing is campaigning for this one. I look forward to supporting the president in the next election. Bill crystal remains with us from los angeles. Before i even get to my question, i want to play one of the serious comments she had for the crowd. This was particularly interesting. Well talk about it on the other side. In our toxic political environment, ive heard some people in both parties describe their opponents as enemies or evil. In america, our political opponents are not evil. Well, bill, the meaning there was very clear. The question to you is, would you accept nikki haley by acclimation as either president or gop candidate . I would love it if she ran against donald trump in 2020. I dont think thats impossible. We did a poll about a month ago in New Hampshire and hawaiowa, the strongest opponent at this stage even, were willing to consider haley against trump. I thought it was very interesting, the joke about Elizabeth Warren is a little bit of a dig at donald trump. I thought that was an astute point. She managed to take on both warren and trump at the same time. More importantly, the clip you just played, she said we have opponents here and not enemies. Trump has called democrats evil on two or three different occasions in the last week or two weeks. Thats a pretty direct dig at her still boss, soon to be former boss donald trump, and then she goes on to say we do know about evil in the world, and she mentions, i think the Syrian Government and the sudanese government. Everyone had in mind surely the actions of the saudis which she didnt directly comment on. Shes i think, positioning herself as a very different kind of republican than donald trump but someone who also likely she worked in the trump administration, she did her best to help secure some good Foreign Policy, but ultimately she would take the country in a different direction. I think shes a nice place for people who have reluctantly supported trump who said i wasnt wrong to vote for trump once but now time for a change with nikki haley and people like me who are antitrump would be comfortable with h aley. I just saw the clips, the couple you played and a couple others, it seemed like an impressive performance. Shes a talented politician whos now got Foreign Policy credentials as well. Bill crystal, its always such a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for making the time in l. A. And joining us on a friday night. We appreciate it. And coming up, its been two years since the 2016 campaign, and a funny thing happened when we went back and looked at some of those trump rallies. Well show you the results after this. Hi. I just wanted to tell you that chevy won a j. D. Power dependability award for its midsize carthe chevy malibu. I forgot. Chevy also won a j. D. Power dependability award for its lightduty truck the chevy silverado. 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Last thing before we go tonight, it was Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post who just yesterday shared her own finding that donald trump rallies are events frozen in time. As she puts it, attendees dance to the same blaring hits from decades ago, roar as the president enters, listen to his trademark attacks on alternative facts, boo liberals and the media, chant the classic chants and relive the drama of Election Night that trump recounts nearly every time. She goes on to note that not even fox news carries every rally live anymore, and quote, some attendees will wait hours to see the president , then leave before he has finished speaking to beat the traffic. Indeed, when we look back at 2016, our archives revealed some of the repetition shes talking about. Polls have just closed in the state of montana. Trump has won montana. The vote is in. The polls have close instead kentucky. Donald trump is the winner. We won ohio by so much that it took one second before they called. Pennsylvania was always the person that got away. You know, my son comes up here. Does anybody know that . Where are the guys that go hunting with my son . My son is here all the time, don, a big fan. Hes a hunter. Hes a hunter. We have tremendous crowds no matter where we go, and it really is. Its a movement. No matter where we go we have crowds like nobodys ever seen before. We have tens of thousands of people outside every arena. They have to Start Building larger arenas in this country. For a long time i said, oh, the cameras are very modern. They dont move because my wife would always say you never show the crowd. They never turn the cameras. I go home, ib say to my wife ho did the crowd look . They only show your face. We dont win anymore. You people dont win, thats for sure. You just have to look at the statistics, the jobs. Were going to start winning again. Were going to win so much youre going to get sick and tired of winning. The only reason to vote democrat is if you are tired of winning. Then you should vote democrat. And so on. Thatll do it for our friday night broadcast and for this week. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Have a good weekend. Good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in washington, d. C. As condemnations pour in from around the world over the brutal murder of a Washington Post columnist and u. S. Resident, the american president celebrates the violent assault of a reporter at the hands of greg gianforte. Greg is smart, and never wrestle him. You understand . Never. Any guy that can do a body slam, hes my kind of i had heard that he body slammed a reporter. I said, oh, this is terrible. Hes going to lose the election. Then i said, well, wait a minute, i know montana pretty well. I think it might help him, and it did. Wow. And heres how the crew working with fox news