You are the reason i stay up at night. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. Tonight, breaking news, after two weeks of obfuscation and angry denials the saudi government has finally admitted that Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi is dead. And that they killed him. Here is their story via the official saudi press agency. The prime mare investigation indicated discussions which occurred between him, that would be khashoggi, and the persons who met him while he was present at the kingdoms consulate led to a quarrel and fighting, which led to his death. They were saying it was an accident, result of a quarrel that got out of hand. Thats what the saudis want you to believe. The turkish Officials Say they have evidence, much of it confirmed by other journalists, that 15 saudi agents flew into istanbul on october 2nd, assassinated mr. Khashoggi, dismembered his body with a bone saw they brought for that purpose, and flew out the same day. One of those agents is a forensic doctor who specializes in autopsies. It doesnt say what has happened to the body of Jamal Khashoggi. Tonight as we mourn the death of a Washington Post journalist at the hands of a government that wanted to silence him, donald trump is currently in arizona preparing for another maga rally like the one he held last night in montana, in which he cheered the criminal, physical assault of a journalist from the guardian by a republican congressman who didnt like the question he was being asked. Representative Greg Gianforte pleaded guilty to that assault. Trump and the crowd loved it. Any guy that can do a body slam, hes my kind of hes my guy. I shouldnt say this nothing to be embarrassed about. I was in rome with a lot of the leaders from other countries talking about all sorts of things, and i heard about it. And we endorsed greg very early. But i had heard that he body slammed a reporter. And he was way up, and he was way up. And i said, oh, this was like the day of the election or just before, and i said, oh, this is terrible. Hes going to lose the election. Then i said, well, wait a minute, i know montana pretty well. I think it might help him. And it did. As trump was making these comments a cnn reporter tweeted i saw one young man in the crowd making body slam gestures, he looked at me and ran his thumb across his throat. I talked to him after the rally was over and he couldnt stop laughing. Seems well past wondering if the rhetoric is just harmless talk. Jamal khashoggi himself who we can confirm tonight has been killed by the saudis, warned last year that the possibility of what he called the trump effect was goading Saudi Crown Prince mohammad bin salman toward more aggressive actions. That made prince mohammad bin salman feel empowered to this impulsive behavior in Foreign Policy . It is dangerous. Joining me by phone from dubai, msnbc a reporter with extensive knowledge. Ayman, what do you make of this report by the Saudi Official News Agency . I think you have to take it in its totality. Anyone who is watching in and has watched what has unfolded the past couple of days will look at this and immediately think this is something that has been in the making for some time. This was clearly a narrative that the saudis were slowly trying to put together and floating and testing to see how much they can buy time until they can come up with an explanation that clearly does not meet any of the questions or answer any of the questions that people had. And we take that step by step. What i mean by that is as you mentioned in the outline, the prosecutors statement that came out tonight identified that Jamal Khashoggi is dead. Interestingly enough the foreign minister put out a statement they acknowledged this was an attempted rendition. They say these individuals who traveled to istanbul to meet with khashoggi did so after it appeared that there was information that they were going to be able to bring him back to the kingdom. So clearly there are a lot of questions that this was not an individual who was just walking in to process some paperwork. There was an operation intended to do something to khashoggi. What that is is why there are still so many questions because as you mentioned 15 individuals dont get in a fight with an individual going in to process some paperwork and then suddenly have his body disappear over an argument. There are a lot of questions. But thats only part of it. The second part of it has to deal with a lot of the secondary announcements that came out of the royal court this evening. And that includes a lot of dismissals of senior members of the Saudi Intelligence Services in addition to a Senior Adviser of the royal court. When you put all of that in its totality, you can understand why people are saying this amounts to a coverup. How is it possible that the deputy general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency carried out an operation, a possible operation of rendition, acknowledged by the Saudi ForeignMinistry Statement without a command or an order from somebody in the royal court . I think people who watch saudi arabia very closely will be quick to say an order like that does not happen without the most senior levels of the royal family aware of it, in specific with the crown prince himself. Why that is significant is because it seems this evening, from all of the movements and all of the different announcements that have happened, the crown prince is not going to be implicated in this. How do we know that . Well, the king issued a decree a short while ago issuing a statement that says hes ordering the formation of a Ministerial Committee to review and implement changes to modernizing the saudi intelligent agency. The person whos going to be heading that is the crown prince. So i think any analyst who watches this, who is saying is the crown prince going to be implicated, did the crown prince give the order, the answer tonight is, according to the king of saudi arabia, it is unlikely that the crown prince is going to be implicated in this in any way. And some of the unofficial chatter thats been coming out of the kingdom tonight suggests the crown prince is going to in some way or in some capacity say he had no knowledge of this operation with the specific details it entailed. One item that seems worthwhile to mention, right, is that the saudis have given flatly false statements for two weeks on this. They said he left out of the embassy, of the consulate. They gave an interview to reuters saying he wasnt there. Mohammad bin salman himself, if im not mistaken, says my understanding is he left within an hour of getting there. There has been theres a real credibility issue with the saudi official line. Caller theres absolutely a credibility issue with the saudi official line. For anyone whos been watching this closely, and this is where it gets tricky. Because on one hand you have to trust the turkish government in what they are saying, which is that the turkish government has overwhelming evidence that this murder took place inside the consulate, that his body was dismembered, they put together obviously the list of individuals who traveled to the kingdom. Sorry, who traveled from the kingdom to turkey to carry out this operation. As a result of this right now what you have is the saudi arabiian government essentially saying he died as a result of a quarrel that turned into a fistfight. That immediately raises the question, again, is the Saudi Arabian government lying if they knew he died as a result of a fistfight, why in the world have they not been able to provide evidence of where the body is . Thats a significant question. The turks say they have overwhelming evidence, including an audio recording. It does also put pressure on the turkish government to provide what evidence they have to back up their narrative. But for the most part, as this event has played out from day one, it has been the turks whose story has been somewhat corroborated by the fact that, you know, khashoggis body was never recovered, so far it hasnt been recovered, the notion he may have been alive never materialized and the saudi government today confirmed that. The fact they want to put out the narrative that it was as a result of a fight, they now have to provide concrete evidence as to how they came to that conclusion. Because if its just purely the testimony of these 15 individuals, the turks themselves have not been able to interview these individuals. And theres going to be serious questions as to whether or not, from a justice standpoint, theres going to be a transparent process in which these individuals can be questioned in some kind of form. Some people have suggested it needs to be United Nations to avoid there being any kind of coverup. Youve been hearing the statements coming out of the white house that a lot of people are saying amounts to a washington coverup. Yeah. So i think there are a lot of concerns that the investigation itself, at least coming from the Saudi Royal Court and coming from the saudi public happened to Jamal Khashoggi. Ayman, thank you very much. Senator, let me start with a statement the white house put out after this ridiculous charade the saudis have dragged everyone through over the death of this man. United states acknowledges the announcement from the kingdom of saudi arabia, its investigation into the fate of Jamal Khashoggi is progressing and that it has taken action against the suspects it has identified thus far. We will continue to closely follow the International Investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely transparent and in accordance with all due process. We are saddened to hear confirmation of mr. Khashoggis death. We offer our deepest condolences to family, fiance and friends. Am i wrong that thats inyesterdayly weak . Its embarrassing for our country, truly. Lets take it away from anything else, just look at the story. A man who works for the Washington Post, whos been a critic of the saudi government, wants to get married. And he goes in to the embassy, as i can see the picture, just dressed as a civilian. Didnt look like didnt have anybody else with him for protection. He walks in. He never comes out. And then you see the pictures of kind of an execution squad, you know, coming into the embassy. And we hear gruesome stories. And for us to just say, oh, were so glad theyre doing all this and to see pompeo our secretary of state sit there and smile, i mean, what was his next stop, to visit jack the ripper . I am so saddened for our nation. And then this business of, oh, we you know, we better be careful because they buy 110 billion worth of weapons, now its turned into 450 billion. I dont know what theyre buying. Maybe theyre going to his hotels, Trumps Hotels and spending all that money. This thing just embarrassing. Its sad. Its awful. And at the rally trump then, you know, praises a congressman who committed a felony. Yeah. And beat up a reporter. So this thing is awful. One more point id make, serving so many years on the Foreign Relations committee, with president s republican and democratic, they all had the voice of leadership, morality and, you know, the rest of the world had to catch up with us. We can deal with complications of a relationship. I understand the middle east is complicated. Sure. But this is someone who worked in our nation, who was moving forward with a voice of clarity on freedom of the press. Yeah, he had some things in his past that im sure he regretted. But right now and his last column, if you read it, was magnificent, really, in terms of the importance of the people in the middle east knowing the truth. What did you i want to you mentioned this, so i want to ask a followup question. The president in front of a group of thousands of americans in an arena last night, doing his best to bring out the worst of the people, these people who if they came across ben jacobs who left with his glasses open, offered him aid, would have felt sympathetic to him, outraged if this happened to him. But the president has the ability to make people be terrible. Its one of his most, i think, dangerous qualities. What did you think of that moment . Well, its another horrifying moment. But, you know, i dont i cant blame the president for everything. These are people there that are applauding this. What are they thinking . What is the message to our children . Im a grandmother. I wonder whats going, sinking into those minds. I have an 11yearold and a couple of 9yearolds now, and an adult one at 23. I wonder whats sinking into their minds. Hes gone after the press in ways, again, that belie the very basis of our nation, which is freedom of speech, freedom of the press. The press makes every elected official crazy. I can tell you that right now. But thats their job since watergate. Youve got to be expecting that thats going to happen. Another point id make is the president often talks about abraham lincoln, one of the few president s he thinks is better than he, maybe. But president lincoln said he wanted to appeal to the better angels of our nature. And what this man does is he goes out and brings out the worst in people. Yes, the people go along with it, which is thats a whole other topic. But the fact is, hes supposed to lead us, lead us in a way that makes us proud. And he does the opposite. All right, barbara boxer, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Here with me now, josh leaderman, a National Political reporter. Josh, i couldnt help but notice this report is released at 1 00 a. M. Riyadh time which makes one think that the audience for this is not domestic, but the friday here with me now, josh leaderman, a National Political reporter. Josh, i couldnt help but notice this report is released at 1 00 a. M. Riyadh time which makes one think that the audience for this is not domestic, but the friday news dump here in the u. S. Its funny, chris, we talk about mastering the friday night news dump in the United States, it seems like if theres one aspect of how to deal with Crisis Management that the saudis have picked up its that you do it at a time like friday night, middle of the night in riyadh, when nobody is going to be awake to see this. But its also important to note, chris, that since khashoggi disappeared, what has been distributed to the public in saudi arabia has been very different than what we are all reading and hear about all around the world. The focus inside saudi arabia has been really focused on how, you know, people are trying to disparage the kingdom and attempts by turkey and qatar to spin up misinformation, really portraying the kingdom as a victim in all of this. It shouldnt be surprising that now even as they are coming clean about parts of this that they are not doing it in a way thats totally forthcoming to their public. The white house and the president himself have seemed to be at pains to signal precisely to the saudis what would meet their threshold for everyone to sort of wash their hands and say, okay, weve gotten past this. I wonder how you think this will be received in washington past the white house, particularly in the senate Foreign Relations committee among Congressional Republicans and democrats. Not well, chris. Weve already seen statements on twitter and actual written statements from folks like senator lindsey graham, elliott engle, the top democrat on the House Foreign Affairs committee, saying this does not seem like credible, that people do not buy this explanation in congress. And elsewhere in the Foreign Policy community. Whether the white house is going to say that they accept this is another story. And i think the big unanswered question here is how much intelligence is already out there within the u. S. Government about what happened . Because if theres intelligence that contradicts the public line which was that the saudis didnt send people to kill him, they sent him there to have a discussion with him, something went wrong, and there was some type of a fistfight and he died, if that is contradicted by intelligence thats out there, its going to be very difficult for the white house to try to ignore all of that. Theres also some question about any sort of official actions happening in congress. I mean, there are things that congress could do. There are provisions about stopping arms sales, there are votes they could take, the u. S. Continues to aid and abet the saudi led war in yemen responsible for the greatest humanitarian led crisis in the world right now, do you think this is going to carry over by the Time Congress comes back . Absolutely. I think it will. And there are several options available to congress from what weve heard from lawmakers so far its pretty clear there will be an attempt to use the global magnitsky act to sanction individuals who might have been involved in what looks like egregious violations of human rights. There are other steps that could be taken. Senator feinstein has talked about cutting off arm sales with the kingdom as youve alluded to. Theres also been talks within the senate and senate Foreign Relations committee in particular, cutting off discussions going on between the United States and saudi arabia about the one, two, three agreement. Letting the u. S. Work with saudi arabia to rebuild Nuclear Power plants there. And there are some in congress and the senate particularly who are saying we should stop those discussions until we get this fully resolved. All right, josh ledderman, thank you for taking time tonight. Ahead, 18 days out, the incredible republican strategy of telling voters theyre the ones who will protect obamacare and coverage for preexisting conditions. That story in