Roy moore. For weeks, Congressional Republicans have distanced themselves from the Senate Candidate in alabama, but not donald trump. The New York Times reports trumps reasons for sticking with moore may be more personal than political. Quote, he sees the calls for mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now infamous access Hollywood Tape that of course was the 2005 tape unearthed during the election in which trump was caught on hot mic boasting about being able to grope women. Lets listen again. Now im automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. Its like a magnet. Just kiss. And when youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. Grab them by the [ bleep ]. Well, that assertion would directly contradict trumps own words in the hours after the tape was revealed last october. Here is what he had to say then. Ive said and done things i regret. And the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words dont reflect who i am. I said it. I was wrong. And i apologize. And now he is saying he never said it. Today White House Press secretary Sarah Sanders wouldnt directly answer whether the president still accepts the authenticity of the tape, but said he hasnt changed his position. The president addressed this. This was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the president and the fact that he is sitting here in the oval office today. Hes made his position on that clear at that time, as have the American People and their support of him. Anyway, over the weekend, the president reinforced his severe thunderstorm for moore by attacking his opponent, democrat doug jones. The president went on twitter. He wrote there, quote, the last thing we need in alabama and the u. S. Senate is a schumerpelosi puppet. He went on to adds jones would be a disaster. In his second tweet, i endorsed Luther Strange in the alabama primary. He shot way up in the polls, but it wasnt enough. Cant let Schumer Pelosi win this race. Liberal jones would be bad. Nine women have made accusations of Sexual Misconduct against moore, most teenagers when this occurred. One says he sexual abused her when she was 14. Moore has denied all the allegations and President Trump has expressed skepticism about moores accusers. For more on trump by peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Annie linskey, National Reporter for the boston globe, and eugene robinson, a columnist with the Washington Post. Peter baker here, what is going on here . You guys are reporting that trump is now denying there ever was such a tape, it has no authenticity which means according to im looking up on websters. Basically, he is denying its factual, that there is no real tape. What does he mean by that, there is no authenticity to that tape . No, exactly. He seems to be suggesting that the thing is a fake like Everything Else he says is a fake. Fake news media, fake reports, fake investigation, fake collusion with russia, fake everything. And it just seems to be part of this is a president that sets his own reality. And once he decided on a version of events and a version of facts as he sees them, he tends to stick to them. Whats surprising is he already previously acknowledged the authenticity of the tape. So then switch around and try to pretend or to convince himself or convince others that fact is not a real thing is a pretty big switch. You heard Sarah Sanders today. She really wasnt denying he had switched his view on it. She tried to duck the question. He has been telling people in private that he doesnt think the thing is real. Well, annie, just like peter said, whats her name, Sarah Sanders today said well, he was elected. Therefore i guess what he said matters and its okay. But looking up in websters, authenticity, worthy of acceptance of belief as conforming to or based on fact. Now there is a factual question here. Was there in fact him speaking on that bus in that access Hollywood Tape. Did that actually occur . Did we actually hear it . Or is it like groucho marx . We either believe him or believe his tape. What world we live in here where a president can deny what is obviously manifestly a fact . There. Are so many pieces and bricks that hold that story up that it was actually donald trump speaking. Billy bush, his voice was also on that tape. He lost his job because of it. And donald trump apologized because of this. I mean, another thing to look up in websters is the word credibility. Because, chris, every time every time donald trump pulls one of these stunts, he does something much larger to his presidency which is erode credibility. And thats something the United States president , the leader of the free world really needs when push comes to shove and he begins to ask americans to do unpopular things. Its sort of like he is trying to create his own reality. But its just not even slightly believable, because he himself has acknowledged it before. Too bizarre. Anyway, the access Hollywood Tape is not the first time trump bragged about his own inappropriate behavior towards women. In a 2005 interview with howard stern trump talked about walking in on contestants at the miss universe, miss usa pageants when he was owner of the franchise. Lets listen to his bragging here. Well, ill tell you the funniest is ill go backstage before the show. Yes. And everyone is getting dressed and ready and Everything Else. No men are allowed anywhere. Im allowed to go in because im the owner of the pageant. Im inspecting. I want to make sure everything. Is everyone okay . Stand there with no clothes. Is everybody okay . And you see these incredible looking women. So i sort of get away with things like that. Over the course of the campaign, more than a dozen women accused trump of Sexual Assault or misconduct. He calls the claims against him totally and absolutely false and attacked the women making the charges. Lets listen to him. These people are horrible people. Theyre horrible, horrible liars. Have no idea who these women are. I have no idea. When you looked at this horrible woman last night, you said yongts. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over. You know, gene, i think were in the midst of fun house mirrors here. I dont know what to describe it as. Trump brags about what he doesnt admit to doing relentlessly. The larger thing here, i want to talk about this. It seems to me he actually is afraid right now. He is afraid that the sleaze of roy moore is going to slip off on to him. Therefore he is determined even as he defends him, he doesnt want to be accused of being like him. That seems to be what he is worried about this week or even today. Well, good reason he would worry than. Because obviously if he is going to defend roy moore has he has been doing, then people are going to look back to that more than a dozen women who have accused him of Sexual Misconduct. But so now with this maybe its not authentic there are only two possibilities. He is lying. He is plain outright lying, or there is some kind of dementia going on. The president no im serious. That if the president can convince himself that a tape which he has apologized for, acknowledged and apologized for, is not authentic, if he can convince himself of that much less anybody else, you actually have to wonder about the president s mental condition. You really do. You know, peter, i go back to not that there is any moral equivalence necessary here. But remember clinton . Remember he had that tape with the old girlfriend and was it flowers. Gennifer flowers with a g. And in the tape, we all heard the tape. It sounded like his voice. In fact had to apologize to the late mario cuomo over it. But carvel, his guy went around, james carvel saying that was all edited tape. He kept saying edited. Here we are back again to reality check in a different case. I mean, we all watched that tape a one zillion times. Now he is saying its not authentic to your people. I think you two sources on this. Are they recent sources . How do we put these in context here of denial . The sources are recent. One of the conversations with the senator i think took place earlier in the year but was recounted to us recently. And its just so its not entirely in the context of roy moore. But its coming out now in the context of roy moore. You see him defending, if not defending roy moore exactly or sort of defending roy moore, definitely attacking his opponent and giving the impression whats his political move here . What is trumps move between now and december 12th . Does he want moore to win . Does he want him to lose . Is he setting it up that he has a winwin here . Whats going on . It is a winwin in the sense that if roy moore wins, he will claim undoubtedly it is because he stuck by him while the rest of the National Republican party didnt. If roy moore loses its because the republicans picked the wrong guy. Remember, he endorsed Luther Strange in the primary. So therefore people should listen to him in the first place. No question he will cite it is a mark of his influence either way. But he is not going down there. Sarah sanders said today his schedule does not allow him to go down to alabama between now and december 12th to campaign for roy moore. And thats his choice as well. Whether he doesnt want to be too associated with him, even though ship here defending him and sort of saying that he is being unfairly attacked, in effect like he thinks or at least he is saying he thinks. He was unfairly attacked last year. He is giving him a full gillespie in other words, what he died the guy in virginia to lost. Gillespie didnt have the same kind of allegations, to be fair. No. No but he also wouldnt be seen with the guy. So is he somehow the president you want to say you should be elected by, but you dont want him to be seen with you . What is the nuance here, annie, if you get in here. Yeah. Why do people want trump to endorse them but they dont want to be seen with him . Or he doesnt want to be seen with them. Yeah, i think its a bit of the opposite where i think roy moore would welcome donald trump with open arms down there. This is a lifeline for his campaign. With gillespie in virginia, there was a bit more ambivalence about whether trump would be really helpful for him because you have all these suburban voters. But at this point, roy moore is a republican on life support. And if he is able if he wins down there, which he may very well do, i think absolutely donald trump is going the take credit for that and just swim in it. And as well he should. The polls that have come out since trump has been supportive of roy moore have switched and have changed the dynamic down there quite a bit. Weve had one upset in alabama recently. Meanwhile, some republican senators all but campaigning against moore. South carolinas Lindsey Graham and tim scott, both from South Carolina. Both called on moore to exit the race for the good of the Republican Party and the country. Lets listen. I dont know what winning looks like with roy moore. If he wins, we get the baggage of him winning and it becomes a story every day about whether or not you believe the women or roy moore should he stay in the senate, should he be expelled. Its pretty clear to me the best thing roy moore could do for the country is to move on. Explain the new south will, you . Theyre not that many miles apart between South Carolina. Is South Carolina now to the left of alabama . It seems like it. Apparently. Look, the senators from South Carolina are part of the republican establishment. The republican establishment is at war with the Republican Base in many ways. And its a Republican Base in alabama that is supporting roy moore. And look, look at roy moores ads. His campaign right now is more against Mitch Mcconnell than it is against the democrats. Its an extraordinary thing. I just wanted to comment one other aspect of this whole story, though, which is the idea from Sarah Sanders today that winning an election voids anything that you did before. Completely voids all these allegations, these credible allegations of Sexual Misconduct against the president and presumably if roy moore were to win, would void the allegations against him. Thats nonsense. Its not true. It doesnt just make it all go away. Yeah. You know, gene, thats why youre a great columnist. This is a real turn in the wind, that now if you get elected, then everything you said is true, no matter how dishonest it was. It reminds me. I watched a Football Game this weekend where a quarterback jumped up in the air and threw the ball over two lines of scrimmage and hit the guy in the end zone. I said we have seen something close to the forward pass this weekend. Brandnew. Anyway you caught the pivot in history there. Thank you. I dont want to have too many comparisons here. Eugene robinson, annie linskey, and peter baker. Good work on the times again. Coming up, former National Security adviser Michael Flynn have stopped talking to Donald Trumps legal team, signaling flynn may have flipped to become a witness for special prosecutor Robert Mueller. What does this mean for trump and muellers investigation . Thats ahead. Plus senator al franken says he has a long way to go to win back the trust of his supporters. His renewed apology comes as nancy pelosi is under new criticism of her defense of congressman john conyers. And using a ceremony honoring the navajo code talkers who helped us win world war ii to repeat his oft repeated nickname for senator Elizabeth Warren. And senator warren has responded. And trumps mere near the top 1 . This is hardball, where the action is. But at home. She thinks shes the boss. She only had me by one grade. We bought our first home together in 2010. His family had used another insurance product but i was like well ive had usaa for a while, why dont we call and check the rates . It was an instant savings and i shouldve changed a long time ago. Theres no point in looking elsewhere really. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Roy moore is back on the campaign trail tonight. Meanwhile, he is out with a new ad, slamming liberal elites and the republican establishment. Lets listen. Five state campaigns, 40 years of honorable service. Roy moore has been intensely scrutinized and not a hint of scandal. But four weeks before the election, false allegations, a scheme by liberal elites and the republican establishment to protect their Big Government trough. Well be right back. sigh dad molly trash whoo mom hey, molly . Its time to go bell ringing class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. Who would like to read . molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. welcome back to hardball there are potential signs of another shoe to drop in the trump russia probe. Led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Nbc news has confirmed the reporting from the New York Times that lawyers for michael t. Flynn notified the president s legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsels investigation according to four people involved in the case. An indication that mr. Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal. There are good reasons why flynn could strike a deal. He has a lot of potential legal exposure. And as we learned this month, mueller has gathered another evidence to bring charges in the investigation. However, trumps defenders have publicly downplayed any possible consequences for the president himself. Trump attorney jay sekulow warn nod one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about general flynn cooperating against the president. And a white house official told nbc news there is no concern at the white house that flynn will implicate the president. Abc news also reports that flynns lawyer met with muellers team this morning. Im joined by two msnbc contributors. Matt apuzzo broke the story in the New York Times and Barbara Mcquade is a former federal prosecutor. Lets get the news, matt. What do we know now factually in terms of the situation with flynn, his attorneys and their relations with the white House Attorneys . Sure. Its common practice in these complicated white collar investigations for people involved in the case, whether its witnesses or subjects to have either formal agreements or informal agreements to share information, kind of keep each other abreast about whats going on in the investigation. Last week, Michael Flynns lawyers cut off President Trump and his lawyers and said we cant play ball anymore. And thats a clear sign that Michael Flynn is either cooperating with mueller or is negotiating some sort of Cooperation Agreement with