Party threw absolutely everything at last nights special election in an effort to keep a deep red district from turning blue. And they failed. Pennsylvanias 18th district is in the heart of what we like to call trump country. The kind of place reporters would go to write their profiles of the working class donors, assembling at diners rallying behind the president a rust Belt Community where nearly 94 of the population is white. Donald trump won the district by nearly 20 points, a huge margin. When he campaigned there saturday on behalf of republican candidate rick saccone, trump came with a message, these are my people. They love me. Because of me, you will win. Theyre all watching. Because i won this district like by 22 points. Thats a lot. Thats why im here. Look at all those red hats, rick. Look at all those hats. Thats a lot of hats. And we just had a poll were more popular now than we were on election day. There should win easily. And hes going to win easily. Hes going to win easily because everyone loves donald trump so much. Not how it worked out. Instead, the blue wave crashed into trump country. Nbc news declaring this morning democrat conor lamb, the an apparent winner what was a very, very tight race. A source tells nbc news the Saccone Campaign will likely ask for a recount but its a very long shot. Republicans are trying to spin the loss in all you ways. Im not making this up, placing the blame on the lackluster candidate and his mustache and they cast lamb as a republican in disguise. Both of these candidates, the republican and the democrats ran as conservatives, ran as pro gun, prolife antinancy pelosi conservatives. I think thats the take away we see here. Well, heres the think. Lamb doesnt oppose abortion rights. If that counts as prolife to ryan, then all of american politics has been upended. Thank you. Lamb isnt particularly conservative having run against the signature policy achievement of the republicans, the gop tax law and ryans spin is especially rich seeing as how republicans spent much of the campaign casting conor lamb as basically nancy pelosi with a buzz cut. His name is conor lamb but in washington, he would be one of Nancy Pelosis sheep. Lamb would join the liberal flock and follow her lead voting the straight liberal party line for at the pels extreme agenda. See . That was what they were say about conor lamb three days ago. Republicans dumped more than 10 million into the race to run ads like that. Hopefully no one was charging 10 million to make that ad. They couldnt buy victory. Even in trump country, there is and chore who is weighing them down. In special elections in the trump era, democrats are outpacing Hillary Clintons performance by more than 12 points. The swing last night was 20 points. While theres a lot of spin today, at least some republicans see the writing on the wall. This is a very toxic environment. And this is a district thats 95 white. Trump won by 20 points. If youre a republican in a safe seat, youd better be ready. Henry olson author of the working class republican, ronald reagan, and leon wolf. Leon, what is your take away . Is this panic time . Its very difficult to put lipstick on this pig if youre a republican. You kind of saw the montage there. If youre looking for a bright light, the honest think you would have to say about lamb is not that he was a particularly skirtive candidate, hes a good candidate. He relates well to the people in his district. Most republican challengers are not going to draw a candidate who is as good as lamb for their opponent. Its worrisome and probably more so are the number of retirements the republicans are facing, redistricting in pennsylvania and wisconsin is going to cost them some seats. The realignment politically may wipe out the gon in north korea and california. Theyre facing a lot of problems going into november for sure. Henry, the biggest warning sign for republicans was this item from politico. Republicans abandon tax cut message in pennsylvanias special election. If you put aside the substance of whether you think it was good or bad policy, put that to the side for now, this was going to be the big winner. I heard republican after republican saying this is the thing we delivered. We got it done. What they found on the ground in this district was people didnt really care. Thats absolutely right. It may excite some hardcore republicans but its not going to move soft former republican leaning voters away. The people who are upset at donald trump who are former Republican Voters are people who are upset about culture, upset about president ial behavior. Theyre upset about chaos in the white house and theres no amount of a tax cut that you can pass thats going to change that. The House Republicans need to look into their bag of magic tricks because tax cuts is not going to work for them. Leon, Kevin Mccarthy was saying were working thinking about another round of tax cuts. I thought, i dont think thats the issue here. No, and you know, i think its most likely youre going to see something very similar to what happened to by clinton in 94 and barack obama in 2010. Its a fairly common phenomenon and might hit trump maybe harder than those guys. At the end of the day, its a fairly common phenomenon. America once we elect a new president and people see what hes all about as in actual governing, they say we need to put the brakes on this a little bit. Probably applies to trump more than even your usual president. That was kevin brady, not Kevin Mccarthy. I do think there is heres my theory of this. I was perusing your book before you came on the air. I think one of the things donald trump did successfully in the primary was connect to a certain part of the Republican Base that isnt really that excited about the supplyside bible and have a bunch of cultural concerns that he spoke to and actually have the sort of impulses about tariffs and protectionism they like. It seems like the republicans have ended up with the worst of both worlds. They dont have that part of the mess and seed to those voters and have a guy who seems reckless in the white house as opposed to the best of both worlds. They cant change the guy in the white house. He can change himself. The last poll that came out in this race, the monmouth poll that had lamb winning by a few points also has tariffs winning in this district. House republicans need to understand the swing voter who can be moved back is the voter who actually wants direct Government Action to help people on the ground whether its gun violence or tariffs to protect american jobs. Supplyside is not a political elixir and not going to save the republicans when it comes around to november elections. Leon, theres Something Like 100 seats that are more competitive than this one at least on paper. Do you think it the Republican Party is ready for the amount of contested seats they might face . Yeah, i mean, think that the one saving grace is, of course, kind of the senateside of the equation is going to be a very difficult road to hoe for democrats for them to pick up two seats which is they would need to take the senate. Privately a lot of people are saying is the house could be a bloodbath if not worse. If so, you have to wonder what trump will be able to be accomplish in the remaining two years of his first term. Thanks for your time tonight. Joining me former missouri secretary of state jason cantor. And msnbc political analyst cornell belcher. Your big take away from last flight . Revolt in the suburbs. You see these suburbs around the urban areas, College Educated moderate, especially women who have been breaking republican over time are turned off by the president. They dont think this president represents tear values. Theyre uncomfortable with that. We can say how great a candidate he was all we wan. Lamb was a great candidate. We dont flip a 20point district without a backlash to donald trump. That is being seen with moderate suburban women in particular. Jason, what i find most remarkable here, the president , they throw everything they had at this race. When it first popped on the map, the race exists because the former prolife congressman tried to get his mistress to have an abortion. When that race first pops on the map, no one thinks its going to be contested. It fliesed you the radar. They toll everything they have at it, the president , Vice President , done junior in the hair net in the candy factory and cant get it done. Democrats didnt run a candidate 15 months ago in this district. Yeah, its a pretty big swing. And what it says to me is that the momentum that you feel out there, its real. To anybody out there knocking on doors making phone calls should know that this is real. Whats happening. Ive been to 34 states campaigning for democrats, speaking to democratic audiences since President Trump took office. What ive seen over and over again is an enormous amount of people who have gotten involved politically for the first in their lives since january 20th, 2017. This is quite real and they can expect more of it. One thing that happens when were analyzing exit polls we slice up the electorate. One thing my sort of first look at the precinct by precinct is what lamb did was he did better across the board. Even in the places that werent his go to democratic strengths, he performed higher than Hillary Clinton had and saccone performed worse. That seems like a key through line. Actually, were seeing democratic performance better than 2016 in a bunch of different subgroups. Not only is he performing in support better but also, this is something that i think you and i have talked about before. Off year elections democratic precincts dont turn out the same as renes. What we saw in virginia and last night, were seeing democrat precincts overperform and just raw numbers. You have more democrats. Thats why virginia, had you an electorate more partisan democrat than it was when mcauliffe won. Youre seeing that across the board. Ive got to tell you in, 2006 when we saw a wave election, we didnt see suburban College Educated women breaking this hardaway from republicans. I got to tell you, if they spent 10 million in that district and lost it, it opens up the battlefield for democrats in a way we didnt see in 2006. Heres my question to you, jason. Someone who has been on the grounds. Is that being channeled effectively with the existing infrastructure and fundraising and organizing to take advantage of the terrain as it currently is constituted . Yeah, thats a great question. The key to taking advantage, everybody says theres this is energy out there. Its simple. You harness it. You ask people to do more than call their member of congress six days a week. Its important, dont get me wrong. At some point people say, my member of Congress Knows what i think. Give them the opportunity to knock on doors and make phone calls. Clearly lambs campaign did that. Whats what we were able to do in virginia and other states where were active. Everybody has to remember, this is not a weather event. This is not something are avs very upset with this president. They are upset with the president. People are upset with their republican members of congress who wont stand up to him. Its not magic. Youve got to do the work. If we keep doing the work, this is going to keep happening. One aspect of this is organized labor in this district where it is strong, where you had the Steel Workers and mine workers both working for lamb and a vision of what has been eviscerated in a lot of parts of the country where what formerly was a presence of organized labor on the ground you dont have. It can be speak to blue collar whites in an important way and in the rust belt, theyre a very important part of the democratic coalition. They showed muscle in this past election in a way that you we havent seen in a long, long time from labor. And if they can replicate that through the rust belt, i think democrats can do really well. A lot better this time around with blue collar whites than we saw in 2016. How much, jason, do you think the underlying structuralen conditions are going to sort of are baked in, how much does what happens in the next six months matter . Well, what happens in the next six months matters a lot. What has to happen in the next six months, weve got to execute and do the work. The Structural Conditions are people see a rez the basic deal that will President Trump made with everybody was you dont like me or the way i treat people but its made me very successful. Ill do that for the country. Its not like people said, oh, thats awesome. A lot of people said, well im willing to give that a try. What happened was they still dont like him. Hes still not nice to people. Now he just does it for himself. Thats the Structural Condition is that thats the big thats the bigbee trail of trump that people dont talk about. Hes not looking out for the little guy. Hes not doing that. Hes looking out for himself. One of the remarkable things, youve got a situation in which the top line economic numberses in gdp growth and employment should be favorable to the incumbent party. Even with that, it is not. Were i advising republicans, it would be warning signs. Thanks for being with me. Still to come, across the country today, students of all ages walked out of schools taking part in remarkable gun violence protests across the nation. Can these scenes precipitate real change . Well talk about it ahead. Next as the president cleans house, the latest threat to the Justice Department by way of Jeff Sessions in two minutes. Sometimes a cough gets in the way of a good nights sleep. Thats when he needs vicks vaporub. Proven cough medicine. With 8 hours of vapors. So he can sleep. Vicks vaporub. Goodnight coughs. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. There was another alarming turn in the president s attack on the american Justice System today. Former Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe may be fired before he can officially retire because an internal fbi review is recommending it according to the new york times. Theres a recommendation from the internal disciplinary review. Heres the thing. It is hard to know if that is why he may lose his pension or if its because hes been a wilvillain to donald trump who made clear mccabe should be fired and complained he was about to retire with full benefits. Mccabes pain sin seems he is married to a women who ran for office as a democra the decision was to allow fbi officials to speak critically of Hillary Clinton. The final fate reports to Jeff Sessions as his reports of his dismissal continue to surface. More what donald trump is up to, harry lipman in the department of justice, former attorney general. This is the entire conundrum of this president. On the one hand, an internal review that seems to indicate mccabe may have misled investigators about allowing his people to the press and should be fired for it, on the other hand, the president has been railing against him and it is hard to trust the good faith here. What do you make of it . Its impossible to trust it because the fact is, yes, there was an internal review but the process has not run its course. The process provides for another step for mccabe. Thats review at the attorney general level. Thats what happened if you recall with john yu at least as controversial figure on the left as mccabe is on the right. He had his final review and opr issued disciplinary recommendation. That recommendation was lowered. That is part of the process here. There is no way they can force him out by sunday which is what theyre trying to do. Unless they short circuit that process and that means no way they can do it unless its by political pressure from the very top based on spite and mean spiritedness. Thats interesting. What im hearing from you you view this as a jam job. That trump tv has been railing against mccabe. Youve got the process that hasnt played out yet. The white house sort of berating the ag and how sessions might be next to go. Basically this is the white house attempting to get this done via vendetta. 100 jam job. Again, because of the timing. In a couple months, if the process had played out as theyre claiming it will, he had had the sort of chance that john yu had to make his case and the professionals in the department had dismissed him, that would be one thing. But here that hasnt happened. We havent run the full course. Theyre using it as a shield to try to shoo him out of there. Jam job is the exact word. So heres a bit of reporting from gabe sherman at vanity fair. Things resolution in tumult at the white house. Two republicans in regular contact with the white house there have been talks trump could replace Jeff Sessions with epa administrator scott pruitt who would not be recused from overseeing the russia probe. Your reaction to that in. Would that be the classic trump move . For sessions to oust mccabe absolutely cementing his reputation as loathed within the department and then reward him by firing him as he had done say to mitt romney or chris christie. It would put on display so many of the characteristic called qualities of the president. And pruett has proven himself to be an absolute water carrier for the president. It would be an absolute tour de force. You wouldnt think things could get much lower an the department of justice. This would be the test of that. We have watched the president in the open attempt to subvert the independence of the department of justice at every turn from firing comey and telling him to let flynn go to berating the attorney general to telling his White House Council to fire mueller and direct mueller to be fired, berating rod rosenstein. He has not been it appears not been successful particularly, not gotten rid of muelle