Feeling emboldened and rattled lashes out, claiming with no evidence Election Fraud. All of a sudden theyre finding votes out of nowhere. Firing attorney general Jeff Sessions and choosing an acting a. G. Who has described how a sessions replacement could kill the Mueller Investigation. He just reduces the budget so low the investigation grinds to a halt. Already democrats are calling for Matt Whitaker to recuse himself. Joining me this morning, the head of the Republican Campaign committee, Senator Cory Gardner of colorado and Democratic Congressman adam schiff of the House Intelligence Committee. Also a womans place is in the house. A record 100 plus elected, most of them democrats. Two are with us today. Elissa slotkin of michigan and Lauren Underwood of illinois. And some two dozen people have now died in those california wildfires. Well have an update. Joining me for insight and analysis are matthew continetti, editor in chief of the Washington Free beacon, donna edwards, New York Times columnist david brooks and eliana johnson, National Political reporter for politico. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning on this veterans day. 100 years to the day that marked the end of world war i. In the first few hours of Election Night, it looked as if 2016 was repeating itself. Democratic house victories were a mere trickle in the first couple of hours. Republicans were winning big marquee races. We wondered whether democrats would have to wave their wave goodbye. Five days later the election looks like what we expected. Nationally democrats won 52 of the house vote to 46 for republicans. That 46 exactly matches President Trumps popular vote total in 2016. His job Approval Rating in our final poll on sunday, 46 . Which is likely to be it looks like the number in the exit poll itself. Kudos to our pollsters. As of this hour, nbc news projects that democrats will win 231 seats in the house, plus or minus five. Democrats should end up netting somewhere between 35 and 40 seats when all the votes are counted. We have 10 or 11 races still uncalled. In the Senate Republicans have netted two seats but arizona and florida are too close to call with florida headed for a recount and theres that mississippi runoff later this month. President trump reacted with concern and confidence. Concern that House Democrats can now block his agenda and use their newfound subpoena power to investigate Russian Election interference and see if hes profiting off the presidency. And confidence the senate will have his back on those issues and approve his judicial appointments. Meanwhile mr. Trump signalled he has no intention of slowing his assault on the Mueller Investigation, sacking immediately his attorney general Jeff Sessions within hours after the polls closed and choosing Matt Whitaker, who will oversee an investigation hes openly attacked. But it was the growing realization that democrats had won a sizeable victory on tuesday that seemed to have the president rattled. Whether they get a couple more house seats doesnt matter. It doesnt matter. President trump acting emboldened, but newly vulnerable is attacking the institutions which could hold him in check. Claiming Election Fraud in florida without any evidence. And all of a sudden theyre finding votes out of nowhere. Do you have evidence of fraud . I dont know, you tell me. Accusing arizona of electoral corruption and even asking whether it is time to call for a new election. Mr. Trump banned a cnn correspondent from the white house, while threatening to pull access from other reporters. There could be others also. When youre in the white house, this is a very sacred place to be. He also threatened House Democrats, who made their biggest gains since the postwatergate elections of 1974 and will now wield subpoena power in investigations into his personal finances and contacts with russia. They can play that game, but we can play it better. Because we have a thing called the United States senate. And he mocked republicans who refused to embrace him. Carlos curbelo. Mike coffman. Too bad, mike. Mia love gave me no love. And she lost. Most consequentially less than 24 hours after polls closed, mr. Trump fired his attorney general, replacing Jeff Sessions with loyalist Matt Whitaker, lashing out at reporters who asked if he wants his new acting attorney general to rein in Robert Muellers russia probe. What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. The president denied his relationship with whitaker. I dont know Matt Whitaker. But a month ago i know Matt Whitaker. As a tv pundit, whitaker has said mr. Muellers investigation could be turning into a witch hunt and floated ways to weaken it. I see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesnt fire bob mueller but just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. Well, mr. Whitaker crosses the line the moment he accepts the job and doesnt recuse himself, and we know hes not going to recuse himself because the only reason he was appointed was to sabotage the investigation. President trump has continued to mold the Republican Party in his own image, and earned the gratitude of newly elected republican senators who ran like trump. I want to say a special thank you to the president. Special tribute to our president. Thank you, mr. President. On friday, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell made it clear he has no plans to bring a bill to protect Robert Mueller to the floor. Its not necessary. The Mueller Investigation is not under threat. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman adam schiff of california, who will be the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when the new congress is sworn in in january. Before we get to the political news, we want to note the three terrible wildfires that are taking place in your home state, congressman. Last night the death toll rose to 25. 23 of those deaths are in the campfire thats in Northern California north of sacramento. Two more fires are burning north of los angeles. Neither of the fires is under control. Congressman schiff, i know this is not its next to your Congressional District but you and i were just talking and you said theres now some fires actually in your Congressional District. Whats the latest . Obviously theyre doing their best to try to control these fires, but this late in the fire season to have this kind of devastation, it just takes your breath away. People are losing their lives, losing loved ones, losing their homes, and our thoughts are with them as well as these incredibly brave responders. The president tweeted the following yesterday. There is no reason for these massive deadly and costly forest fires in california except that Forest Management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year with so many lives lost all because of gross mismanagement of thor fors. Remedy now, or no more fed payments. Is that what this fire is about, mismanagement of the forests in california . No, its not. There are a lot of root causes about why the fire season has become so much worse over the years, but for the president at a time when people are facing utter disaster to be making a Statement Like this, making a threat like this, this just goes to show how little he understands the job he has. That he would be punitive at a time like this rather than coming to the defense of people facing the worst disaster of their lives. Hes out there making these broad and false statements and threatening to remove funding from a state thats devastated right now. Do you think its a political thing because california is so blue . I do. I do. This is a president who more than any other is punitive. I think we saw that in the tax cut by taking away state and local tax deductions. That was aimed at the blue states. He is only the president , in his view, of those who voted for him. The rest he could care less. I want to ask you about a letter that you guys are releasing this morning. I mean the leadership of the house, the senate, Key Committee chairs, youre a signer of this letter, asking the Justice Departments Ethics Office to carefully review the current acting attorney general Matt Whitakers statements and comments and essentially trying to see if they are advising him to recuse and, if so, are they going to inform congress of that. What more can you tell me about this letter . Well, its signed by all of our leadership, house and senate, myself included, to demand that we find out did they give an ethics opinion. Has one been sought on recusal. It seems to me the facts for recusal are very strong here. This is someone whos made repeated and prejudicial comments against the investigation, its someone who has made false statements about it, claiming that the russians really had no impact on our election. Its someone who has a relationship with one of the important witnesses in the investigation. And i want to say this, if mr. Whitaker does not recuse himself hes not legally required to, even if the Ethics Office says he should, correct . I dont know whether hes legally required to. But heres the thing. We have every right to expect all of the employees of the Justice Department to follow the ethics rules and that means especially the attorney general. But, you know, i want to make this very clear, if he doesnt recuse himself, if he has any involvement whatsoever in this russia probe, we are going to find out whether he made commitments to the president about the probe, whether he is serving as a back channel to the president or his lawyers about the probe, whether hes doing anything to interfere with the probe. Mr. Whitaker needs to understand that he will be called to answer and any role that he plays will be exposed to the public. We dont want there to be any ambiguity about that. Are you convinced that hes constitutionally eligible to hold the position . Im not convinced at all. There are serious constitutional arguments that as a principal officer he cannot be appointed to this position. I think thats certainly the right policy answer, it also may be the answer demanded by the constitution. Im curious what you thought of voter reaction to the Mueller Probe. Our exit poll, we asked about their feelings on the Mueller Investigation. 46 disapprove. That is a very familiar number to our viewers, 46 is the president s job rating. The number of the republican vote. So i think we know what that core vote is. But only 41 approved of the Mueller Investigation. Does political opinion how much should it impact what you do in the Democratic Congress these days . Well, Public Opinion always affects us in one degree or another, but i will say this having watched muellers ratings over time. The one thing that we see is around the time he produces indictments, around the time that he produces convictions, the support for his investigation goes up. The longer the lapse between indictments, the more his ratings go down. So what were seeing now, i think, is merely the lull, because in the period leading up to the midterms, he properly took no action. But i think when he issues his report or if there are further indictments, you will see Public Confidence in his work once again rise. There is i know you probably want to get the House Intelligence Committees investigation back on track after your after the uneasy relationship between you and who will now be the Ranking Member devin nunes, but ive heard a lot of investigations democrats want to do. You talked about in another interview thats going to air tonight about investigating what was the president doing with amazon and the postal service. The Incoming House Judiciary Committee chairman was caught on the acela talking about how to investigate the kavanaugh issue. Obviously the Mueller Probe is going to be a part of this. How do you prioritize what to investigate . And at what point do you do too much investigating . Well, this is going to be very important, not just in terms of which investigations ought to go forward, which ought to go forward first, but also our strongest purpose here is to put forward a positive agenda. We dont want that lost in a flurry of investigations. You are worried theres so much talk about investigations, that actually the idea of dealing with preexisting conditions is getting lost . We have to make sure it doesnt get lost. You know, thats really the First Priority for us, its the reason people voted to put us in the majority to put forward a positive agenda. Lets face it, the investigations are sexy, theyre interesting, you bring witnesses and people tune in. The legislative process is less so. Its much less dramatic. But nonetheless in terms of importance to the american people, making sure that they can provide for their families, that they can get health care, they can keep their health care, that has to be priority number one. But we are going to need to ruthlessly prioritize on the Intel Committee which investigative threads we go down, but among the committees also, and weve already started that process. Two quick questions. First, the khashoggi tape that erdogan has said the turkish president said that the United States has a copy of it. You are part of that gang of eight. Is that true . If so, have you heard it . Were going to get a briefing im going to get a briefing this week, so i fully expect to find out. I did have a briefing up until and got information up until recently, but i dont know the answer to that. Im not sure if i did, whether id be able to share it with you anyway. I want to share with you, final number from our exit poll was the favorable rating of nancy pelosi, 36 favorable, 56 unfavorable. It looks like she has the votes for speaker of the house. What do you say to the new members who campaigned on new leadership, campaigned on a new generation of leadership . If the democrats reelect pelosi, hoyer and clyburn as the face of the House Democratic leadership. Were going to have a lot of new people in the leadership. They may not be in the top positions, but were going to have new leadership in the caucus. Weve got a great breadth of talent coming up through the ranks. But i will say this, were going into a fight likely with the president. I certainly hope that this president decides that its in his naked personal selfinterest, because thats the only thing that motivates him, to work with democrats on an infrastructure bill, on bringing down Prescription Drug prices, but if he decides it isnt, if he continues along this path where all he wants to do is rile his base. And run against nancy pelosi. And run against nancy pelosi, we need the strongest general we have, the best tactician, the best organizer. And you believe thats her . Thats her. Theres no one else honest 3 comes close. Adam schiff, who will be the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, thanks for coming on and sharing your views. Good to see you. Joining me now, Senator Cory Gardner, the man who is in charge or till in charge of trying to get republicans elected to the senate. I say still in charge because we have some outcomes that we dont know. Welcome to meet the press, sir. Thanks for having me, chuck. Let me just start quickly with the president s comments about the wildfires. Number one, i was curious what you made of the appropriateness of the president threatening to deny federal help to california in the moment that people were fighting for their life . Well, first of all, i think the colorado thoughts and prayers of our state go out to california. Weve been through this, certainly the catastrophes that we face each and every day we have a forest fire, what theyre going through. Its tragic and terrible. I dont think its appropriate to threaten funding. Thats not going to happen. Funding will be available. It always is available to our people wherever they are, whatever disaster they are facing. I do think, though, this year we came up