Move of the Mueller Investigation, the president seemed to indicate today he knows its coming to an end. The witch hunt as i call it should never have taken place. It continues to go on. I imagine its ending now from what i hear its ending. And im sure it will be just fine. And you know why its going to be just fine . Because there was no collusion. Remember it was just yesterday he called the inner workings of the investigation a total mess. President s also been dealing with those written questions from investigators. The Washington Post spoke with trumps tremble attorney Rudy Giuliani and reports the president has met with lawyers nearly every day this week in sessions to review his answers including a fourhour session wednesday and 90 minutes wednesday night according to people familiar with the sessions. The t questions roughly two doz focusing on five topics all predate trump winning the 2016 president ial election. Trumps lawyers have not yet agreed to answer a larger sets of questions that relate to his type as president elect and then as president giuliani said. Today it wasre clearly importan to this president to point out he has done all the work by himself. Yeah, my lawyers arent working on that. I write the answers. My lawyers dont write answers. I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. Ive answered them very easily, very easily. Im sure theyre tricked up because they like to catch people, was the weather suy or was it rainy. He said it may have been a good day. It was rainy. Therefore, he told a lie. He perjured himself. Okay . So you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions. But no, its the questions were very routinely answered by me. By y me. Trump was then asked if he submitted the responses himself. I havent submitted them yet. I just finished them. As you know, ive been a little bit busy. But it didnt take very long to do hem they were my answers. You need lawyers for submittal, to go over some of the answers. But theyre not very difficult questions. Now, according to Washington Post giuliani said the special counsel has notsa imposed a fir deadline, but he added that trumps answers could be submitted friday. Another person familiar with the effort said they expect trump to turn over answers before thanksgiving. There is also new reporting are tonight from the Associated Press based on multiple sources about what concerns the president the most these days. For months, trump has told con if i adapts he fears that donald trump jr. Perhaps inadvertently broke the law by being untruthful with investigators in the aftermath of that june 2016 trump tower meeting with a kremlin connected lawyer, according to one republican close to the white house. Trump complained about efforts in the senate by his lock time foe arizona senator jeff flake to introduce leblglation 0 protect the special counsel. Additionally hes said he is deeply frustrated by widespread criticism of his choice of Matthew Whitaker for acting attorney general. He tack note of News Coverage of his former personal tone Michael Cohen arriving in washington this week potentially to meet with temuellers investigators. Thats a lot. There is also the news we reported here last night because of an apparent mistake on a court filing we now know the Justice Department has filed charges against wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Josh ger teen of politico who join us in a moment is a coauthor of a new piece that says the same donald trump who declared his love for assanges website during the 2016 contest may have new concerns whether the focus on assange has a connection to special counsel Robert Muellers russia probe. In case you dont recall, here is some of what trump he can pressed about wikileaks in the closing weeks of the campaign. This just came out. Wikileaks, i love wikileaks. This stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart, you got to read it. Theyve got to Start Talking about wikileaks. The wonder of wikileaks. We love wikileaks. Wikilea wikileaks. They have revealed a lot. Wikileaks, wikileaks. Another one came in today. This wikileaks is like a treasure trove. I love reading those wikileaks that that came out on wikilea wikileaks. Lets bring in our leadoff panel, josh gerstein, senior legal fairs contributor at politico, former u. S. Attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor and daniel gold man, fellow at the Brannan Center for justice at ny school of law. Joyce, id like to begin with you. Do you take the president at scouts honor that this is all his work, that he just hasnt handed it in yet . I think its unlikely that the president answered the questions. I suspect that particularly coming off the sugar high that he had from the prehid term Election Campaign rallies that he was doing, sitting down to seriouslydo thoughtfully and methodically answer these questions was something that he didnt want to do. He might have drafted answers, but the important thing, brian, is he has adopted these answers as his own. He is on the record saying these are his words and his thoughts and he didnt need any help. And if theres anything in those answers that mueller thinks has evidentiary value or is useful to him, they now belong to the president who is formally adopting them. Excellent point. So danielle, if youre representing donald trump and you hear those words, he spoke today at the white house about this being his work product just hasnt been submitted, what goes on within you . Well, i think donald trump is trying to navigate this very carefully as weve seen over the last many months when hes negotiating this. Whats interesting to me is whether this is the first step or last step. In other words, according to Rudy Giuliani and we always have to be circumspect when he speaks, this was only preelection collusion questions. It did not relate to obstruction of justice investigation it, did not relate to anything within the transition period. And we know of a lot of meetings with russians, Michael Flynns guilty plea related to that transition period for false statements. So the question then becomes is this all that hes going to be asked . Is mueller going to accept this or is he going to push for him to answer more questions with the threat of a grand jury subpoena on the back on the heels of that conversation. Also, joyce, one more quick one. Whats the chance that what were watching is a president who has just come out of these sessions with his lawyers who have told him in effect how bad it is and also his new guy is over at justice who i presume has checked in with the Mueller Investigation and may have told the boss how bad it is . You know, its always been a mess. Its been clear from the point in time where trump fired then fbi director jim comey that all was not going to go well with this white house. And so leaving aside for a moment any of this preelection collusion which mueller seems to be in the process of gathering some evidence about whether it reaches the president or not, the president has in realtime in front of the American Public engaged in collusion. Its very hard to see how he doesnt understand that the only protection he has is to the extent ha doj policy keeps mueller from indicting a sitting president. He may avoid formal indictment but mueller can tell the story of trumps conduct through his indictments. Hes issued these detailed indictments about hacking that have told a complete story. Theres nole reason to believe that trump might show up as an unnamed unindicted but clearly identified coconspirator when mueller issues his final package of indictments. So josh, you guys have led the way on the lets call it the walls closing in reporting. There is as i just kind of back referenced, a lot of evidence of that this week. Oh, yeah. Theres a number of indications that people who are or were close to the president could be facing indictment shortly. I also began to pick up other indications from folks, officials close to the Mueller Investigation that it was working its way towards some sort of crescendo. I know that the president and the white house are describing it as moving towards a conclusion. Thats never exactly what i picked up. It was more along the lines that there was some sort of mo meantous kind of event expected in the weeks after the midterm elections possibly an indictment, possibly a report. But asly i say, ive never had anybody really give me firm indication that this meant that the investigation was coming to an end or a conclusion more than it was coming to what could be a very Pivotal Moment and awkward and you be pleasant moment for the white house. Andaniel, whats the chance that these written answers are completely unimportant to mueller, that hes only asking out of a sense of duty and fairness to hear the president out and that he didnt need the president to make his h case . I m think theres a good chae of that in the obstruction of justice investigation balls even as we sit here, we know most of what the acts are that he engaged in to potentially obstruct justice. James comey firing, orchestrating don juniors lies about theor june, 2016 meeting. Thats all out in the open. And part of the reason that mueller may decide im not going to subpoena him, im not going to pursue this is that on the obstruction angle it really is an opportunity for trump to explain his side to, give his defense. If he doesnt want to do that, theyre not going to force it. On the i could be spircy front, what we call colorado lugs, i do think they want to know what he knows because he doesnt use email so much of the evidence related to him at the top is going to be conversations, witness statements and one critical component of that is going to be what conversations did he have with Paul Manafort who is now cooperating, was the campaign chairman. So i think they would like to get those answers and maybe they just decide lets short circuit this. Were not going to go into months of litigation, go to the Supreme Court whether a grand jury subpoena is appropriate here. Well do the written questions, which is incredibly unique and unusual for prosecutors to do. But well give him an opportunity to explain his story. But you raise a good point because theyre not building their case based on tts testimony or answers to these questions. Joyce, when he talks about this perch ril trap he sounds bds absolutely peshian sometimes. Can an honest man get caught in a perjury trap. Its this sort of unicorn that defense lawyers class after. No prosecutor worth his or her salt and every prosecutors on muellerss team uses it. Its a waste of time and resources and the sort of thing that doesnt help build a case. These are serious people. Theyar want to build a case. There will be no effort to trap the president or to play got cla. What theyll actually be looking for here will be evidence of his intent. Its exactly what dan says theyre looking for. Theyre trying to see if the president has expull patory evidence, information that indicates that hes notce guilt or thatth might counteract of t some of the stamms and evidence that theyre getting from people like Paul Manafort and rick gates who are cooperating. Every target is given this opportunity to go into the grand jury and tell his side of the story. Rarely do they accept it. Trumps status is sort of nep bu lus. Hes notbu really a target becae of the protection that weve all talked about, but still theyre giving him this opportunity and its up to him to decide whether to seize it or not. To the extent hes a subject or a witness, mueller is entitled to subpoena him. Were going through this awkward proceeding whereth the presiden underlines his inability to comply with the rule of law and insinces hes above the law and doesnt have to do what any other person involved in an fbi investigation would do. Josh, into this flies the Julian Assange hand grenade mistakenly included in a filing last night. Heres the story in our laps. Yeah, it revealed apparently due to a cut and paste error that there was some court action apparently an indictment or some other charges against Julian Assange that were put under wraps. Kind of sirn dippy us for some folks that would come out now, but also putting folks on both sides of the spec rum in a bit of an awkward position. You have people who were vi dentally againstwe julian assan who seemed to beia rallying to e side of wikileaks sort of like thoses clips you show of the president during the election anden frankly you do have folksn the left, as well who were sort of defenders of assange, said maybe hes controversial abu entitled to all those protections who are now out there rallying at the side of the Mueller Probe and suggesting everybody involved should be brought toer account. If assange really becomes a significant figure, gets indicted in the context of the russia investigation as opposed to something else, it may be awkward pore those folks to suddenly make an about face in the public positions that theyve take. And were told dont place any bets as to whether or not well see him face justice in this country. Josh gerstein, joyce vance, daniel goldman, our great thanks for starting our broadcast off on a o friday night. Coming up, why the president might be polling those around him about his own vp. And later, the president gets about as much wrong as you can get wrong about the california wildfires. Hes preparing for his trip there. The 11th hour just Getting Started on this friday night. The 11th hour just Getting Started on this friday night im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. If youre age 50 to 85 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. A price you can afford, a price that cant increase, and a price that fits your budget. Im 65 and take medications. Whats my price . You can get coverage for 9. 95 a month. I just turned 80. Whats my price . 9. 95 a month for you, too. If youre age 50 to 85, call now about the number one most popular whole Life Insurance plan available through the Colonial Penn program. It has an affordable rate starting at 9. 95 a month. No medical exam, no health questions. Your acceptance is guaranteed, and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. And with this plan, you can pick your payment date, so you can time your premium due date to work with your budget. So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. [ready forngs ] christmas . No, its way too early to be annoyed by christmas. You just need some holiday spirit thats it this feud just went mobile. With xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. And with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. Youre about to find out you dont even know where i live. Hello see the grinch in theaters by saying get grinch tickets into your xfinity x1 voice remote. A guy just dropped this off. Hehehehe. I want to thank you, mr. President , i want to thank you for speaking on behalf of and fighting every day for the forgotten men and women of america. Because of your determination, because of your leadership, the forgotten men and women of america are forgotten no more and we are making America Great again. Vice president mike pence has shown he knows how to love all over donald trump, with his words, yes, but often with just a look. So it was odd to read the reporting today from the New York Times about donald trump starting to question the loyalty of mike pence. In recent weeks with his Electoral Prospects two years from now much on his mind, mr. Trump has focused on one hob has tethered his fortunes to him. He has asked aides and advisers is mike pence loyal. Trump has repeated the question so many times, he has alarmed some of his advisers. The president has not onlily suggesting dropping pence from the ticket and picking another running mate but those kinds of questions usually indicate he has grown irritated someone. A spokesperson said the president absolutely supports pence. What are we to make of this moment from just a week ago when the president was asked about his potential running mate in 20 . Will the Vice President be your running mate in 2020. I havent asked him but i hope so. Mike, will you be my running mate . Stand up, please, race your right hand. No, im only kidding. Will you . The answer is yes. Thank you, sir. That was unexpected but i feel very fine. Well, here to talk about all of it, nita kumar from Mcclatchy Newspapers and Jonathan AllenNational Political reporter. Jonathan, i didnt doubt the reporting when i saw it today. I found it curious. You being smarter than me took it seriously. Why . Well, you know, brian i dont agree with you on the your theory there about smartest but i take it seriously. This would be the trumpiest maneuver of all time to number one publicly ask mike pence to be his Vice President again and then a week or two later dump him. Most president s would look at Something Like that as an admission they had made a bad decision in the first place. The public releases disaster ensuing from that they would see as a bad thing. Trump likes to fire people or have other people fire people. I think he might be looking for something to jazz up his ticket going into 2020. He obviously just got his hat handed back to him in terms of house elections. He watched governor and senator races in those big key 2016 states, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan turn to the democrats. So you know, this is a moment where i think hes looking for someone. Big question is, who would take that on because its a big risk for somebody with a future in terms of looking at their political career, the name nikki haley comes up. Shes seen as a likely potential republican candidate in 2024. Its not clear to me that would be a good move for her. Anita, this from politico, chief of staff john kelly working to convince the president that will secretary of Homeland SecurityKirstjen Nielsen is not to blame for a recent surge in arrests at the u. S. mexico border that has enraged donald trump according to two sources familiar with the conversations. Nielsen has other supporters including secretary of state pompeo who have told trump nielsen cannot control account Border Crossing rate. We have this going on and the president , an nhtsa ta, saying he largely likes the people in his cabinet. Well, i does say that but he also said that he was going to look at shaking up the cabinet or shaking up the staff once the midterms were over. So people have been kind of waiting. Obviously his firing of Jeff Sessions happened immediately after election and now theres this lull and everybodys kind of looking at each other wondering who is going to be next. With the dhs secretary, weve been hearing for months, for a long time that the president has been unhappy with her. But he does have a lot of supporters in the Administration Like number one john kelly. So she has stuck around and has been around, but everyone sort of feels like shes probably the next one, but you know, the president has said he hasnt made a decision on it. Now everybodys just kind of waiting to see what happens. John, in the strange bedfellows, bed persons area, we have one George Conway, kind of universally agreed to be an esteemed attorney in washington. He was rumored to be taking a Justice Department role early on as the campaign became the presidency. He did not. He has said the following allowed. Well talk about it on the other side. Allowed. Well talk about it on the other side im watching this thing and you know, its like the administration is like a [ bleep ] show in a dumpster fire. And im like i dont want to do that. I dont know. And then its like then youve got the comey firing. And then you got him going on tv saying, i had russia on my mind. And its like, oh, no. And then its like, then you know, ill driving home one day in from new york and its like Robert Mueller appointed special counsel. And i realized had guy is going to be at war with the Justice Department. Reminiscent of the clack friends of saddam sketch on snl. John, wa do you make of that . You know, first of all, obviously their marriage is between them. However, the point of tension here between kellyanne and George Conway is interesting because it points out something which is kelli anne understands politics as well as anybody in this country. George conway is an expert on the rule of law. And in this administration those two things are in conflict. One of the things that has protected our republic for generations is politics and the rule of law worked in concert. So that tension point that we spill out that spills out as we see these two characters working in the public sphere is something very important i had i for americans to consider. A good point. Well made. Anita, you have been among those reminding our newsroom that the president is eventually going to go down to maralago. One is temmed to ask, what could go wrong but explain to our good viewers what tends to happen when the president is in marala maralago. There is a precarious time for the president , time of year really. Next week is thanksgiving. Hes going to go to maralago for five plus days where he will be with some aides but not nearly as many as when hes at the white house. He has the flight down and the flight back. Next hes going to go right after that, hes going to go to argentina. So the long flight down there for a quick foreign trip and then hes back at maralago for two plus weeks around the holidays this is a time where hes going to be in the plane, hes going to be away from aides. Hes going to be thinking about his staff, what he wants to do. Hes going to be fretting about things and hes going to be tweeting. So anything really can happen in the next few weeks. As we say what could possibly go wrong. Mucho bliged to both of you. Coming up, ten days after the pid terms and the georgia governor race has been called Steve Kornacki back at the big board tonight with that and the races that remain wide open. Board tonight with that and the races that remain wide open. America. Land of blue jeans. And burgers. And while blue jeans got all skinny on us. I cant feel my legs. No way are we giving up on burgers. Thats why i created the allamerican ribeye burger, made with 100 ribeye beef, ribeye burgers are back, america. Try my allamerican made with 100 ribeye beef fresh spring mix, and provolone cheese on a potato bun. Its a burger as american as bald eagles. I get it, im bald. Fast foods first and only ribeye burgers are back, america. Try them today. Lets be clear. This is not a speech of concession. Because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith, i cannot concede that. But my assessment is the law currently allows no further viable remedy. The Democrat Stacey Abrams announce earlier tonight she is ending her campaign to be governor of georgia, but refusing to go quietly. In at times a fiery speech she accused her opponent brian kemp of pinning his hopes for victory on Voter Suppression in georgia and it should be noted in fairness that as georgias secretary of state, he was in a position to do just that. Nbc news has since called kemp the an apparent winner of this race. President trump greeted kemp on his victory in what well call ans a typically magnanimous message congratulations to brian kemp on becoming the new governor of georgia, Stacey Abrams fought brilliantly and hard. She will have a terrific political future. Brian was unrelenting and will become a great xwempb for the truly capitalized wonderful people of georgia. It also appears tonight that Florida Senate race nearing the end of the road there. Back at the big board again for us on the, Steve Kornacki, our National Political correspondent. Hey, steve. Brian, we may finally have clarity in the sunshine state. In this recount now, the manual recount in the race in florida playing out. Nelson has been trying to overcome the 12,000 vote gap against scott. The manual recount statewide going to continue till sunday. They wont release a final total till then. Today it finished. It starred and finished in the critical county of Broward County. Heavily democratic. Massive Broward County and again the issue weve been talking about in Broward County it is the ball game in the election. Its the undervote. If you looked at the senate race, total number of votes that were cast in broward, if you looked at the governors race, same ballot, total number of votes cast thats an undervote of more than 26,000. The contention from the Nelson Campaign, the reason why there was still suspense they said there were votes cast, 20 plus,000 of them in the senate race that the machine didnt read and the manual count would ach ca that. The other pablt, it was the ballot design. They opened up all the ballots today. They looked at all the undervotes and guess what, basically people missed the race. They did not vote in this race. They were true undervotes. It looks like that giant leap in votes the Nelson Campaign banking on just not there for them. You say this race was missing. Keep this in mind. The federal commission that gives advice to states on how to run their elections, they said in their report that vertical instruction treatments cannot share column space with contests on ballots. In other words, what Broward County did the federal commission that gives best practices and guidelines said do not do this because people will miss the race. Thats the bottom line in florida. Quickly on the house side, one more call we can tell you about tonight from nbc news. More votes coming in in the 45th district of california. An original county district. Republican incumbent mimi walters nbc news says shes fallen short. Shes been unseated. Democrat katie porter wins that see the bringing the net gain for democrats in the house up to 36. 36 is the current net gain for democrats. And it could still climb a little bit higher. Unbelievable all of it from florida all the way to california. Steve, thanks very much for coming on. Coming up for us, the cia reaches a conclusion on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Well talk to one of the reporters who broke the story tonight about what could happen next. Were back with that after this. Next were back with that after this. Today is the day youre going to get motivated. Get stronger. Get closer. Start listening today to the Worlds Largest selection of audiobooks on audible. And now, get more. For just 14. 95 a month, youll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two Audible Originals exclusive titles you cant find anywhere else. If you dont like a book, you can exchange it any time, no questions asked. Automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you dont use them. With the free audible app, you can listen anytime, and anywhere. Plus for the first time ever, youll get access to exclusive fitness programs a 95 value free with membership. Start a 30day trial today and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime and your books are yours to keep forever. Audible. The most inspiring minds. The most compelling stories. Text listen27 to 500500 to start your free trial today. Take care of the hands that take care of you. Thats me in back in 1987, when i gave isotoner gloves to all my teammates. Now i have a different set of teammates. My family. And they all want isotoner gloves for christmas because they keep getting better. Theres smartouch. For selfies whenever, wherever. Then theres four way stretch for flexibility. They even have smartdri. See . Stays dry. So get isotoner gloves for the whole family. Take care of the hands that take care of you. About the Colonial Penn program. Here to tell you if youre age 50 to 85 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. A price you can afford, a price that cant increase, and a price that fits your budget. Im 65 and take medications. Whats my price . You can get coverage for 9. 95 a month. I just turned 80. Whats my price . 9. 95 a month for you, too. If youre age 50 to 85, call now about the number one most popular whole Life Insurance plan available through the Colonial Penn program. It has an affordable rate starting at 9. 95 a month. No medical exam, no health questions. Your acceptance is guaranteed, and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. And with this plan, you can pick your payment date, so you can time your premium due date to work with your budget. So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. Welcome back. Our cia has formally concluded what intelligence officials had long suspected, the Saudi Crown Prince ordered the murder of judicialist Jamal Khashoggi according to a source briefed on the assessment, the Washington Post broke this story and adds this detail, the cia examined multiple sources of intelligencive including a phone call that the princes brother khalid bin salomon, the saudi ambassador to the United States had with khashoggi and khalid told him he should go to the saudi consulate in istanbul and gave him assurances it would be safe to do so. Turkish Authorities Say khashoggi was murdered almost immediately after he entered the consulate and that his body was dismembers. According to the post, the cia does not know the location of his remains. According to the people familiar with the agencys assessment. The saudis have denied crown prince muhammad bin salmon was consisted in any way. With us to talk about it, greg miller, pulitzer prices winning correspondent for the Washington Post and the author of a new book the apprentice, trump, russia and the subversion of american democracy. Greg, woman back to the broadcast. Give us the overview. What leads the cia to this assess the . Well, i think that its important to note that this assessment isnt just based on what we have been seeing coming out of turkey and the turkish government for several weeks now. There is independent intelligence that the cia is weaving an flow its own assessment here, its own collection efforts. The material gathered by other governments. As well as its profile of mohammad bin salman and the way he operates. And the way an operation like there would have to go down in a system like the saudi government. So its a combination of all these things and i think its interesting and important that the cia attaches high confidence to this assessment. Ob top of your usual work and your beat and your lifes work, what have you learned in reporting had story where our eyes and ears including that of our allies overseas, about our intelligence capability . You know, so theres one of the interesting things and we try to get at this in the story here is that the u. S. Intelligence agencies had information in their databases that they were able to pull up, able to surface africa show gi disappeared that let them go back and find conversations that nobody had taken note of at the time that showed that the saudi royal family was trying to lure khashoggi back to riad, trying to bring him back into the kingdom. When that failed, they turned to this alternate operation which led to his death on october 2nd in the consulate in turkey. Let me just raise a the hypothetical. If the white house is not excited about drawing heat on the crown prince and they want to find some wiggle room, can the cia stand behind this finding of high confidence . Is that their way of saying were about assure as we can be . It is. I mean, thats a that is exactly what that language is intended to signal. Youre right. This puts the white house it puts President Trump in a very difficult position i think because they have been trying to find ways to minimize this to try to minimize the possibility of muhammad bin salmons direct involvement in it. But the agency is also in a tough position. This is what it has learned. This is what its analysts believe. And this is what those analysts have told congressional committees just this week. They cant tailor that message to congress and have a different version go to the white house so theyve told trump these very say things and it will be interesting to ehow the white house reacts in the coming days. In our closing seconds, having read your book, im so curious to hear from you having written the book on all things russian, what it is youre looking for, be listening for, waiting for perhaps in the coming days. Oh, i think that were just were waiting to learn so much from Robert Mueller. Every indictment that weve seen from the special counsel has told us something really new about russias interference in 2016 and its relationship to figures in trumps inner circle. I just think that that will coil and were bound to learn remarkable new things as new indictments arrive. We thought that would happen this week and it hane. But i expect were going to see those sooner than later. Greg miller of the Washington Post, always a pleasure. Thanks for returning to our broadcast. We appreciate it. And coming up, the president preparing to visit california after a tragedy that he has blamed on california. When we come back. S blamed on california when we come back. California, the purpose of your trip tomorrow. Just to see the firefighters. Nobodys ever seen whats going on over there. And now theyre saying it could be as many as 600. This just came out before we met. Could be as many as 600 killed. Up by 400. Its incredible whats going on. Burned beyond recognition. They cant even see the bodies. Its incredible. President trump ledding to california tomorrow just to see the firefighters and in his interview with Chris Wallace of fox news to air sunday. The president confuses the number of missing people which stood at 600 with the number of fatalities which sadly now stands at 71. Since that interview, the number of missing has now grown to over 1,000. He also returns to his theme of blaming california. It was after all, his First Response to these fires remember hes apparently been led to believe its bad management of state lands. Today he seemed to blame the fires at least in part on a lack of preemptive raking of underbrush. I was watching the firemen the other day and they were raking areas. They were raking areas. The fire was right over there and theyre raking little trees like this little bushes that you could see are totally try. Weeds. Theyre raking them. Theyre on fire. That should have been all raked out. What about the argument you wouldnt have the fire what about the argument climate change, its drier and hotter and thats contributinging. Maybe it be contributes a little bit. The big problem is management. We should note the head of the Firefighters Union call cad the president s mismanagement charges irresponsible, reckless and insulting and their pasadena local told the president directly you are wrong. Only 3 of california woodlands are run by the state of california. Its just one chapter in this presidency but its enough to discuss tonight with the pulitzer prizewinning author and president ial historian john mech chum. His latest work is the soul of america, and as far as were concerned, is he. Jon, talk about president s and empathy. I heard Sarah Huckabee sanders interviewed by her dad tonight on fox news say that this trip to california, and this was notable, she said this will be one of the hardest trips of the presidency thus far as if she was trying to apply qualities of emotion and etch think to her boss. Yeah, you know, ive always been careful not to rush to judgment and to say that theres no way the president will change or grow in office because our greatest president s have in fact changed and grown. And you never want to be shut yourself off from the possibility of redemption and growth. But i think were pretty much past the possibility of redemption and growth here. President s who we remember, the ones we want to commemorate, the ones we want to emulate are the one who have in fact signalled that they cared about what was unfolding in the country, what was happening to our people. And also those who were able to learn from experience. Woodrow wilson said even before he became president that the president of the United States by law and custom has the capacity to be as big a man as he can. And President Trump has repeatedly turned out to be as small as he possibly can. He points fingers instead of opening his arms. He fails i think repeatedly to rise to the occasion. He never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity and i suspect this weekend will fall into that pattern. You know the story and ive discussed it with Michael Beschloss on this broadcast. Post hurricane louisiana, no power, Lyndon Johnson climbs on a berm with a flashlight in his hand, shines it up from his chin and says to the people within the sound of had his voice, this is your president. And that was a kind of the custodial role, the bigness of the job in a small venue. Johnson also said that nothing opens the soul of a man the way the presidency does. That all the concerns, all the cares of the people become his cares, and his concerns. George w. Bush really became president on that friday in september after the attacks. He gives that very formal remarkable speech in the cathedral and then he flies to ground zero and he is standing on the rubble and is among those first responders. And if you talk to president bush about it, it was very much about wanting to problem to those men and women who were covered in the soot of death that he was with them. And he found his voice. President trump has simply i dont think had i hes tried honestly. Theres certainly no evidence he has. He may simply be incapable of performing that empathetic role. What if he becomes defined by and cannot can be outrun or outgrow a bake fear of whats coming . Well, its going to get worse. Its as if king lear had an iphone but that may be unfair to king lear. I think as things unfold. I think he had an android but im not sure. Or cordelia did. They didnt take it away in time which i suspect other people have tried. You know, were entering a very fascinating phase here. Director mueller is out there clearly part of the drama of the past eight days or so has been that the president s team received these interrogatories so they got the first sense of what director mueller might have. Mueller showed his cards for the first time privately. Weve seen even more erratic behavior. So i dont think it takes a great deal of genius 0 guess that were in for an even rougher ride. Jon meacham, it is always a pleasure. Thanks for adding your voice to our friday night broadcast. Coming up for us, an honor only the president gets to bestow. Today, it was Donald Trumps turn to do the bestow. When we come back. Turn to do the bestow. When we come back. Im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. If youre age 50 to 85 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . 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The last thing before we go tonight is about one of those honors a president gets to bestow, the president ial medal of freedom was established by john f. Kennedy and while its presumably supposed to speak for all of us and award those consensus people who deserve awarding, it pretty much gets to be the president s choice because as we always say, elections have consequences. The rules are pretty close on who gets to qualify as an awardee. Those who have made a meritorious contribution to the security or National Interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. Trumps first class of honorees today included dr. And megadonor miriam aid del son wife of slel done adelson, Roger Staubach and minnesota Supreme Court justice alan page, senator orrin hatch and some people who arent around, elvis, babe ruth and justice scalia. It was interesting at times most notably when the president ad libbed whether it was about orrin hatch, about Antonin Scalia in front of his widow or finally about elvis presley. Senator orrin hatch, a friend of mine, great friend of mine. He liked me right from the beginning and therefore, i like him. That helps. Thats the way life works, right . The second recipient we honor today is one of the greatest truly was one of the greatest jurists ever to be our country, Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. Joining us for this ceremony is his wife maureen and their nine children. Anne, jeanne, john, catherine, marie claire, paul, matthew. Christopher and meg. You were very busy. Wow. I use knew i liked him. Our final med of freedom the king of rock n roll, the true king and you have to say that, elvis aaron pressley. O, lord, my god that was elvis. That was my idea. I said give me a little song. Id like to hear the rest of the song. I dont know why they cut it off. They have no promotional ability. Thats why. Tonight on all in. I write the answers, my lawyers dont write answers, i write answers. All eyes on the Mueller Probe as the president claims to have answered the special counsels questions. I was asked a series of questions, ive answered them very easily, very easily. Tonight the signs that something is happening behind the scenes as the world waits on possible indictments