Him. Im president , youre not. Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez on her campaign to get young people to vote. We call b. S. That us kids dont know what were talking about, that were too young to understand. How the government works. All in starts right now. We call b. S. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. This morning the president of the United States floated a wild theory that socalled rogue killers could be the blame for the death of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Tonight there is new reporting, the kingdom of saudi arabia is considering changing its story and its lining up with the president s suggestion to say that the death was a result of a kidnapping gone wrong. The Washington Post columnist was last seen two weeks ago walking into a saudi consulate in turkey and he has not been seen in public since. Turkish officials have said theyre confident khashoggi was murdered and dismembered inside the consulate, signing audio and video recordings they say prove t. For nearly two weeks saudi arabia has consistently denied the accusation, even trying to sell a story that khashoggi had left the consulate. But tonight comes new reporting that the saudi government is now considering a different explanation. Nbc news reporting tonight that saudi arabias government is discussing a plan to admit that missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed after entering the saudi consulate in istanbul. One source told nbc news, quote, the kingdom will claim that rogue operatives killed khashoggi during an interrogation or a rendition attempt that went horribly awry. Theres that phrase again, rogue operatives. Nbc news report goes on to say that this plan could give crown prince muhammad bin salman, plauzable deniability to say he didnt order the killing and didnt know about t. In other words, saudi arabia just meant to kidnap, interrogate, possibly torture Jamal Khashoggi and his murder was simply an unfortunate accident. Now, this news comes mere hours after the president of the United States took it upon himself to stand before the cameras and defend the honor of the saudi monarchy. The king firmly denied any knowledge of it. He didnt really know. Maybe i dont want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like these maybe could have been rogue killers. Who knows. Its unclear if the rogue killers hiypothesis is somethin donald trump thought up on his own or if it came from Saudi King Salman or if the president of the United States was trying to set the stage for what very much looks like a cover up of murder from the saudi government. Here now Deputy National security advisor under barack obama and nbc political contributor ben rhodes. The phrasing is the same, rogue operators. It sounds like the president was floating the cover up trial balloon for the saudis this morning. Right from trumps lips to your reporting. And, look, chris, we have to be very clear here. Anybody who has worked with the saudis knows that is a top down centralized Decision Making tree there. And that has on the money become more so under muhammad bin salman, the notion this kind of operation 15 people flying to turkey, to at a minimum, render a very prominent journalist. The notion that muhammad bin salman wouldnt know about it is unbelievable to anybody who has had experience working with the saudis. It seems to me what weve seen with the russian ands skripal. They attempted to murder him on english soil and did a lot of Yada Yada Yada gaslighting. We watched the saudis do this, and the president is participating with them. He is complicit in the cover up at this point. Theres basically three steps. One, they want this to get attention. The whole deterrent the whole point, right, is for any other dissident, journalist anywhere in the world to know i might not be safe anywhere in the world if i criticize muhammad bin salman. Thats the first point. The second point is how do we get through this . People arent coming to our investment conference, how do we kind of weather this for a few weeks and come out on the other end, suddenly the western investors come up, people are praising muhammad bin salman again. Thats the problem they have to solve. 3, donald trump steps in and says just like he said standing next to vladimir putin. He makes a credible case, i believe him. King salman says he didnt do it, these are rogue killers. Hes reindicating the basis for them to put this on a glide path to avert the attention of the west, avert the consequence they should be facing. He is the blocking back for a regime that stands accused of murder. This is the president on denials, forcibly deny it only if its the right person. Take a listen. He denies it. Thats all i can tell you. He denies it. By the way, he totally denies it. I will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. He says hes innocent, and i think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that hes innocent. I just spoke with the king of saudi arabia who denies any knowledge of what took place with regard to, as he said, his Saudi Arabian citizen. Ive asked, and he firmly denied that. The add verb doesnt work, strongly firmly truly denies it. Meanwhile Elizabeth Warren has to produce dna evidence. Barack obama has to provide a birth certificate. The saudis and russians are both people who maybe have been working with trump in various ways to support his political interests. If somebody who he believes has either information on him or has investments in things that hes done which the saudis very well may have, Jared Kushner, suddenly we believe their denials. I want to say one more thing. The saudis have already used this game plan with the civilians theyve killed in the yemen war which the u. S. Is supporting actively. We didnt bomb the school bus. They didnt, they did, were sorry about it. There are routine bomb beings in yemen. You were working the white house when the u. S. Government started to back the saudi war in yemen. What do you think about what is happening now in did you get that wrong and what should happen . Yeah, i think we did. Our thinking was if we supported it but put restraints on it. So sometimes we would withhold weapons from the saudis if there were civilian casualties incident. We were trying to pressure them into a diplomatic solution. We thought we could shape their actions. That was wrong. This is a humanitarian cat strofr i. Millions of people are about to starve. This khashoggi case is not the first proof weve had of muhammad bin salmans nature. Now we see his darker side. His darker side is on display every time a child is killed. A Prime Minister in another country was held hostage inside of saudi arabia. It was on display when he rounded up a bunch of political opponents put them in the ritz carlton. Possibly tortured one to death, unclear. On the brutal side, at the same time donald trump and Jared Kushner has embracing him. He thought he had impunity. Now we see the results of him being treated with impunity from the leader of the free world. Thank you for your time. Analyst, journalist and friend ever Jamal Khashoggi and philip rucker, White House Bureau contributor to the Washington Post. The piece all about the relationship with Jared Kushner and the saudi crown prince. You know, we have, philip, we have David Ignatius wrote this remarkable thing about how back before the big purge of his family, Jared Kushner is staying up late in a hotel room, apparently kind of coplotting a family coup with muhammad bin salman. These guys are very close. They are extraordinarily close, chris. I think both of them from the beginning of the Trump Presidency saw that this could be a mutually beneficial relationship. Prince muhammad saw jared as somebody who could vouch for him, who could champion him as a reformer, as someone who would bring saudi arabia into modernity. Jared kushner saw muhammad as somebody who could help him, you know, advance his middle east peace deal that hes wanted for israel and the palestinians, as someone who could present this beautiful sort of first foreign trip for President Trump with the red carpet and the fighter jet fly over and all the bells and whistles that trump expected from that trip. And were finding out now that there is a bit of a reckoning for Jared Kushner. Hes having to realize that prince muhammad is not everything he thought he was. Whats your response to that . Well, he didnt think that he was that, but why was he slipping to him information classified intelligence that he knew he would use to liquidate these opponents. I mean, to call muhammad bin salman is like calling david duke a civil rights activist. You need just to look at, from the moment he took power two years ago, even as defense minister, bombing to oblivion, starving people to death. I might not have access to all of them, but the president does. Jared kushner does. So to say that he believes a king who is 8 years old who has dementia over his intelligence, that means he wants to cover up this because americas Foreign Policy today under this administration boils down in all its vul garregarity you can away with murder. Buy weapons and buy apartment from trump. Philip, the president is sort of running a little bit of cover for the saudis today floating the rogue elements. Steve mnuchin, everyone has dropped out of this conference. Except for steve mnuchin. A except for steve mnuchin, you have pompeo going there. It seems the white house is trying to figure out how to save the saudis and save bin salman having been caught redhanded murdering someone. Who threatened them, chris. Theyre trying to buying a little bit of time. The decision has not been made of the treasury secretary. He remains on the agenda for this conference later in the week. The white house may end up pulling him depending how this meeting with secretary of state pompeo has in riyadh over the next couple of days. Whats the what is pompeo there to do as far as you can understand . As far as we know, chris, hes been sent by the president , by trump, to try to get to the bottom of this and find out whats going on, what happened in that consulate in istanbul. But im not sure hes going to hear anything other than what king salman told President Trump and other than what prince muhammad, mbs told donald trump last week, vehement denial. There does not seem to be any indication that pompeo can do a true investigation on the ground there. Sure. But of, course, he could be there to workout a deal if the saudis were to own up to this interrogation gone wrong cover story. What does it do for the region, for journalists from the region around the world, and political dissidents around the world that this is happening in plain sight the way it is . Look, they used to say in the middle east, if you are an intellectual this is a thing jamal used to tell me. If youre an intellectual, you cease to be in the middle east or you cease to be an intellectual. They made sure journalists who lived in washington cease to exist, the saudi regime, sending a message to all of us, you will be we will come after you regardless. And the fact that the president is covering up this hideous crime and Jared Kushner is bragged to somebody saying kushner is in my pocket, now we know how deep the pockets are. Its a blood saudi money who is buying consensus. And basically telling the saudis for the first time, threatened, even americans, i believe that they put statement two days ago where they said, if you come after us with sanctions, basically, it will be we will stab your economy. They used the word stab. This is the regime that sent a death squad, basically, to with forensic expert with a bone saw and now is claiming that they know nothing about this murder, that it was a rogue. Now we have a rogue prince who is committing atrocity the last two years. It seems to me everyone is waking up to a reality now about bin salman and the saudis, which has been true for a very long time, even predating muhammad bin salman. Yeah, well, but prince muhammad, mbs as he was named the crown prince last year, there was a real Media Campaign to try to present him as this reformer. He allowed women finally to drive in saudi arabia, and that has been held out as an example of how advanced he is in his thinking, and yet its completely overlooked how brutal and ruthless he has been in consolidating power inside the kingdom, which we have now seen with the suspected killing, murder, gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Two questions i think the white house has to answer is, the extent of their financial entanglement with the saudis because we dont know anything, and what the u. S. Government knew about this. There are some reports intelligence intercepts picked up on this. They should say what they knew. The president will not be doing anything. He loves his dictators. He hates journalists so it doesnt matter. He keeps insisting jamal is a saudi citizen. He keeps repeating that. Its somebody else. Now we are in the hand ever congress. People around the world is looking up to congress, and for the next thats why the Midterm Election is important. Its about morality, legality, the rule of law, and saving american democracy. All right. Thank you both for being here tonight. Thank you. After the break, donald trump puts himself on the ballot as said, democrats and republicans making the mid terms a referendum on the presidency. See if he can turn it into a Winning Strategy in two minutes. Heres to the people who do what it takes to build it. To keep it running. The people who understand no matter what the question, the obstacle or the challenge, theres only one answer. Lets do the work. engine starts, hums coaching means making tough choices. Ljim youre in . But when you have high Blood Pressure and need Cold Medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. Coricidin hbp is the 1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your Blood Pressure. Coricidin hbp. Unstopand its strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. Which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. Well almost anything. Leave no room behind with xfi pods. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Click or visit a retail store today. Nobody has been able to do what ive been able to do. Remember that. Nobody has been able to do anything like this. Actually, most people didnt even try because they knew they didnt have the ability to do it. Leslie, its okay. Im president and youre not. There you have the donald trump doctrine. Hes the president and youre not. His entire world view has been centered on the notion he matters more than anyone else. It was the central theme of his Convention Speech in which trump described a nation in free fall and insifrted, quote,sted, i al it. Casting the mid terms as a referendum as a party on him and him alone. Im not on the ticket, but i am on the ticket because this is a referendum about me. A vote for marcia is a vote for me. A vote for cindy is a vote for me. A vote for me. Pretend im on the ballot. Remember this, a vote for david is a vote for me. Im not on the ballot, but in a certain way im on the ballot, so please go out and vote. That can go both ways of course. Here to discuss, staff writer, and reporter and Polling Editor at the huffington post. You have a new piece about Newt Gingrich and the politics he pioneered and how much he loves donald trump. This strikes me as extremely similar in that trumps model of this, and its worked well so far, base, base, base, base, base. Thats the people, the 39 to 40 of the country that are with you, thats all that matt erdos and that is the way he is campaigning into the midterms. Yeah, theres no question. One of the things that struck me about Newt Gingrich is when he talked about donald trump, he didnt talk about him as this great, you know, ideological visionary, certainly not historian or intellectual the way he sees himself. He compares him to the grizzly bear in the revenant. He talks about the aggressive, combative, angry force to be reckoned with. Thats what he loves about donald trump. Its not his ideas or anything else. Its his attitude and his style. And i think that frankly thats what a lot of the Republican Party likes about donald trump. But its always been what theyve liked about him regardless of all the policy discussions and the kind of ideological ideas we try to overlay on top of donald trump. As we know, ariel, from polling and reporting, a lot of people dont like that, and there are a majority of the country on election day in 2016 and the majority of the country now. It seems to me inescapably, trump is embracing what is true no matter what. The mid terms end up being a referendum on him. You have to data that shows trump disapproval and the democrats approval on the ballot. It is a similar poll. Thats what were seeing in the numbers, right . Yeah, i mean, i think trump is actually completely right as a political scientist. The question is the wisdom of that as a political strategy. And, you know, mid terms obviously, its going to be a lot about who you can motivate to turnout. Hes going to motivate his base to turnout. The question is, is he also going to motivate his opponents to turnout . And when you look at the percentage of his opponents who strongly disapprove of him, thats always been so much higher than the percentage of his supporters who really approve of him. That asymmetry has been key. What republicans are banking on, if turnout is low, the republicans hold onto the house by one seat. Theyre banking on the fact that