Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. President trump tried to erase history last night. The president deleting three tweets he had written in support of appointed alabama senator Luther Strange just hours after strange was resoundingly defeated in a special gop election for Jeff SessionsOld Senate Seat. The election result was a massive embarrassment. He had traveled in alabama to campaign for strange as had mike pence and reportedly spent more than 10 million to prop up strange. None of it worked. Instead roy moore won the race. Moore who was removed as alabama chief justice twice is an antigay birther who says muslims shouldnt allowed to serve in congress and that the september 11th attacks may have been americas punishment. Moores win is just the beginning. Youre going to say in state after state, the people that follow the model of judge moore that do not need to raise money from the elites, new york city, silicon valley. In the wake of moores in the wake of moores victory, trent lot told the the New York Times, quote, every republican senator had better get prepared for a challenge from the far right. Target number one will be the gop establishment, frequently mitch mcconnell. Times reporting that senior gop strategists concludes that the conservative base loathes its leaders in washington the way it detested president obama. Bob corker yesterday announced his retirement. Ambitious politicians are plotting primary challenges that will likely turn very very ugly. As for roy moore, current republican senators are already being asked if they agree with his views. Do you have an issue with any of the things hes saying . I havent had a chance to look through all of those things. Lets give him a chance to advance the agenda that will be good for our country. Indeed instead of fighting to stop him, the gop establishment is welcoming a man who wants to criminalize homosexual conduct. Mike pence, congratulations roy moore. Were thrilled you ran on the the maga agenda and were for you. The president deleted his prostrange tweets was paul in as well. Sounds like a really great guy who won a great race. He elaborated this afternoon. We have a man whos going to be a great senator and im very happy with that. I spoke with him last night. I never met him, never spoke to him. Im very happy with him. Joining me now, moderate Republican Congress charley dent in pennsylvania who announced his own retirement early this month. Should they be working to length roy moore to the senate . Ill leave that up to the senate committee. Ill leave it up to them. Clearly there could be a race now. This is alabama. It should go republican. But i think roy moores nomination certainly gives the democrats some hope that they might be able to make a run at this. Unlikely as it is. Im not sure what theyre going to do right now. If im senator mcconnell, this certainly comp cates his life. This is your party, youre not going to seek reelection. Youre still republican. This is the republican stand in alabama, a man for instance who says Something Like newton or 9 11 is a payback for the fact that america has lost its way, its god punishing us for being immoral. Do you agree with that view . I absolutely do not agree with that view. Ones religious views should not interfere with their judgment in congress. Of course were all guided by our faith as we should be but we have to be tolerant of people who are different than we are. I would not be invest in that race if i were the Senate Republicans. One, they dont need to and two, they need to put their resources where they can do more good in say, nevada or arizona or wherever theres a real challenge. I guess my question is shouldnt the institution let me give you an example. David duke, remember when david duke won a primary and he was the republican standard barer in the gubernatorial race. What you saw was the party from the president to the top said we do not want to associate with this man. That is a possibility if the candidate is judged by the party to be too reprehensible to the party values. What im asking you is does roy moore fit in that category . In my view he comes close to that. I wont say hes david duke. But hes made a number of statements that seem to me to be very intolerant in many respects and need to be condemned. Those statements. I dont know the man, never met the man. But i think this is going to set off potentially a new level of crazy in terms of the political environment, at least for the senate seats. Were going to see more infighting within the republican primaries, particularly in the southern states, in tennessee, in mississippi, potentially arizona, in nebraska even. I think theres some challenges here. But look, the senate has always been the more deliberate body where people tend to make more measured statements in tones. The house tends to be a little more rambunctious. Im curious to see if hes elected to the senate. But it will make life over the republican conference i suspect more complicated for senator mcconnell. Could you tell a voter who is trying to make up their mind in alabama that they should vote for roy moore . Im not going to give the people of alabama any advice as to how they should vote in an election for the senate. Thats up to them. Obviously they made a choice last night and they selected roy moore over Luther Strange and im going to leave it up to the people of alabama to make that decision. I tend not to interfere in their races. Thanks for your time tonight. For more im joined by writer for esquire charlie piers who just got a story and michelle goldberg, whose debut looks at the tear any of the minority. I want to start on that theme. One of the things to keep in mind here. There are 4 Million People in alabama. Roy moore won 262,000 votes last night. That is a sizable minority of the people that vote in the republican primary. But the nature of american politics is if you win the primary, youre on your way to the u. S. Senate. And it goes beyond alabama right because now youre seeing all of these other senators who are being incredibly responsive either dropping out or going to be incredibly responsive to fair right challenges. When you think about whats happening in this country, you have the situation where people are going into their congressional Representatives Office you know begging, pleading for a hearing, you know, congressmen refusing to meet with their constituents. Because the only people they are really accountable to is that margin. The roy moore voter basically. Exactly. Right. And they just they have no incentive structure for them to take into account the needs or desires even of the majority of their constituents. Charlie, this seemed to me, you know, theres an argument that donald trump is signature figure on tv for years and theres a question of could a nontrump trump happen and i feel like we got our answer last night. Within the Republican Party certainly he can. Both donald trump and roy moore are the products of 40 years of Movement Conservative republican politics within the party. They were cruising for this particular moment in history and it finally arrived. They deliberately married themselves to fear, bigotry and unreason. And when you do that you create a power block within your membership that can flip elections. The idea that 200,000 of my fellow citizens think a, you know, lawless theocratic crack pot should be in the United States senate, thats still terrifying to them. I dont care what percentage of the voting public it is. Theres another way in which i think theres an analogy to trump, which is this, to charlies point. Not only is this person in charlies word a lawless theocrat, hes a french figure. Except hes not a french figure anymore. Hes going to be a u. S. Senator. I want to play this tape. This is so key. One of the things that distinguished donald trump is he didnt know anything about anything having to do with policy and thats course of roy moore. Roy moore goes on a conservative talk radio show during the election with a guy who i think basically wants to support him, hes really into daca and rescinding it and this is the exchange they have on daca. Take a listen. Would you support an end to the d. R. E. A. M. Ers program that President Trump has still wanted to push . Pardon, the d. R. E. A. M. Er . Yes. Youre not aware of what d. R. E. A. M. Ers are . No. This is a big issue in the immigration debate. D. R. E. A. M. Ers are why dont you tell me what it is. Quit beating around. Even bracketing everything, bracketing everything, he doesnt know the first thing about what issues are before the country. I think to him the issues that are before the country are the Ten Commandments and whether were going to recognize the United States as a christian nation and Everything Else is superfluous detail. And the alabama voters are okay with that. The world view couldnt be more different. Donald trump is not a believer. He is not a pious man. Hes not going to put the Ten Commandments in the lobby of trump tower. And yet theres some similarity here. What is it . Some similarity is the deliberate alliance that the Republican Party has made since roughly the late 70s with unreason and with unthinking theocracy. And those people havent abandoned donald trump even though hes far from them. I suspect im closer to most evangelical voters than donald trump is. But i once had an argument with a guy who said that evangelical voters within the secular sphere would vote for anybody as long as they said the right things an xyz issues. I told them that was wrong. I take it back. They all voted for donald trump who doesnt stand for anything except for the ability to point out who is doing who your imaginary enemies are and who are the imaginary people you should hate. That is where you see a similarity. Absolutely. Donald trump is like the secular roy moore. Roy moore has a famous poem called america the beautiful. Its about how america is a quote unquote moral slum. If you look about the language of how the country is completely depraved and defiled, it sounds like carnage. They both have the ideology that the country decline. In the gutter and that only some kind of magical resurrection, you know, either maga or the Second Coming is going to save thing. And theyre both conspiracy theorists, both birthers, and they both speak to similar resentiments and also theyre both kind of the rule breakers. You should also look up antinomian. Its not a mistake that he was backing both of them. How do you beat a Senate Candidate who said newton and 9 1 is 1 happened because america has lost its morals. In just two minutes. Who knew that phones would start doing everything . Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Roy has a very good chance of not winning. In the general election. Its all about the general dont forget. We dont stop here. You got to beat a democrat. Luther is going to win easily and roy is going to have a hard time winning. Thats the hope for democrats that roy moore will have a hard time beating his democratic opponent. And that man is doug jones, a former u. S. Attorney who prosecuted kkk members in the 1963 bombing of a black church which killed four girls. This is jones first run for Political Office but hes raised 100 million to date. The democrat could have little chance in alabama but the man that jones is running against is after all roy moore. In 2003 moore was removed by u. S. Supreme justice after he defied a federal court order for refusing to remove a 10 commandments monument he had made. Again he was removed as chief justice by his peers for his instruction to probate judges to refuse to issue samesex marriage licenses in contravention of the United States supreme court. Then theres moores views on homosexuality itself. Do you think homosexual, homosexuality or homosexual conduct should be illegal today . Thats a yes or no question. Homosexual conduct should be illegal, yes. Should be illegal . Yes. Hes consistently ruled against gay parents. Hes called islam a quote false religion and said that muslims like representative Keith Ellison should not be allowed in congress. He has suggested that the attacks of 9 1 is on gods punishment for abortion and sodomy, a position he still wont deny. One of the questions that people are going to be bringing up immediately is youre saying that americas lack of acknowledgment of god, a lot of these situations, 9 11, the shootings and killings im not god. I dont know what god. Im saying its the lack of morality in our country which has led to these things and the only basis of morality in this country is god and its shown in our history. Written extensively on the politics and joins me now. The question that was floating around, democrat doesnt have a chance. Does doug jones have a chance . Its definitely an uphill climb for doug jones, but this is not impossible. I mean if you look back at 2012 when roy moore last ran for office now, a lot has happened since 2012. Roy moore ran in a race against democrat named bob vance. Bob vance got 48 of the vote in that election. Republican voters either undervoted in that election, they dont vote for either candidate or they crossed over and voted for the democrat in that election. So thats giving doug jones an democrats in this state a little bit of hope that this might be within reach whereas if Luther Strange or another candidate had won the nomination last night that that wouldnt be the case. One of the things that we saw happen in the president ial election with donald trump was this idea that i think people strategists the democrats had was hes going to turn off these Suburban Country ClubRepublican Voters who are going to be so offended by hymn theyre going to vote for hillary clinton. And while the margins, there was some improvement for instance over mitt romney or decline over mitt romney, this didnt bare out. That seems to be the question here. People are going to come home to the Republican Party is the bet that the republicans are making. Yeah. Thats look, the democrats dont have any illusions like that in alabama. Thats not something that theyre banking on here. What i do think youre going to see doug jones coming out with is hes going to emphasize a very positive campaign. He has a very tough needle to thread here because roy moores magic trick is that roy moore depends on his opponents to do a lot of the work for him. So if you attack him for being a religious nut, well his base then gets that much more agitated and that much more likely to turn out. So he has to emphasize a very positive campaign that hes not going to embarrass alabama and i think youre going to hear doug jones using a phrase that republicans tend to use instead which is emphasizing the rule of law. Here is a judge who has twice been removed from the bench because he violated the law. And emphasizing the hypocrisy of that and using that to appeal to the conservatives. The instinct, and we saw this play out in the election, you play all of the greatest things that he said that may offend people and what im hearing from you is thats a trap. If you try to do that you will make him stronger. You can but you have to do that in a targeted campaign. You run it through social media, facebook. Make sure that message is being received by the audience who needs to hear it, not a mass audience. You dont go on television using attack ads against roy moore as Luther Strange just learned the hard way. Do you think that backfired against strange . Strange had a lot of baggage coming into this. And i hope people outside this state understand that. He got this appointment through really auspicious means. We had a governor here who his office, when he was attorney general was investigating and he basically put that investigation on hold, you know, stonewalled, an impeachment investigation into governor bentley. At the same time hes going to the governor soliciting the appointment to Jeff SessionsOld Senate Seat and that did not sit well with anybody here. A lot of people saw that as gross and corrupt. And i think for a lot of people here last night, this was not even so much a vote against roy moore as it was a referendum on robert bentley. All right. Kyle whitmire, thank you. Thank you. Still to come, republicans now warning the white house to gets its act together in puerto rico to avoid a katrina style event as the president gives a head turning answer as to why more shipments are not headed to the island. More on that next. Jimmys gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors. Yup, hes gone noseblind. He thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this. Luckily for all your hardtowash fabrics. Theres febreze fabric refresher. Febreze doesnt just mask, it eliminates odors youve. Gone noseblind to. And try Febreze Unstopables for fabric. With up to twice the fresh scent power, youll want to try it. Again and again and maybe just one more time. Indulge in irresistible freshness. Febreze unstopables. Breathe happy. There are new questions today about whether the federal government is doing everything it possibly can to help the more than 3 million americans in puerto rico who remain without power following the devastation from hurricane marina. Congressional democrats and republicans have joined together to call on the president to waive a 100yearold shipping restrictions that makes it much harder and more expensive for nonamerican ships to deliver goods. In this case emergency supplies like water, medicine or fuel. Congressman gutierrez made the last night. The jones act, it means that you add an inordinate new cost to anything you receive on the island of