Efforts. And to say, willie, that Mitch Mcconnell carries his words carefully is an understatement, he wanted to send a message to the president and the republican senate. Thats the equivalent of him to say president elect, which he hasnt been able to bring himself to say. Lets stop and pause and say were about a month away from election day, and its news that the Senate Majority leader made an innuendo and hinted at the fact that the duly elected president of the United States is the next president of the United States. Thats sort of where we are, its big news that he suggested that joe biden is, in fact, the next president. Youre right. And well show later some states, theyre at a breaking point with this ludicrous lawsuit situation, that along with attorney general bill barr breaking with President Trump over he has false claims of Election Fraud, and we seem to be at an inflection point. Plus, new reporting that the president had discussed pardons for his eldest three children. Why in the world would you need a pardon if you hadnt chitted committed a crime . Pardon me. Im confused. Are these the same people that stood up at trumps First Convention and talked about how, if you plead the 5th, you must be guilty. Right. My god, of course as Michael Flynn who was guilty twice and lied to the court and he got away with his federal crime, and so, again, why would you have to pardon people . Let me ask you, mika, youre an expert in white houses. You started going to a white house at 9. Did jimmy carter pardon amy carter before she left the no, amy had her cat and tree house and enjoyed just, you know. So she had her cat, and she left with the cat, she had a tree house, she left with the tree house. But she left with her cat but didnt have to get a president ial pardon for herself or her cat. No, because the cat was hers. She didnt steal it. Im not really good with history, but you have worked with jenna, im curious, both the bushes and the obamas had two children, two girls, two young girls at the time, when they left the white house, they were a little older. I cannot remember right now because they dont really dig into president ial history, but george w. Bush have to pardon his two daughters or did barack obama have to preemptively pardon his two hours . Is this something that just happens . No, it doesnt. Im only smiling because i know jenna so well, she must have appreciated a just in case pardon. You never know whats going to happen. This is not something that normally happens. I might have needed one for running over a world leader with a golf cart, but it was a mistake. Was it . Jared, ivanka, eric, were allconnect 1200 in a rare break from the president told the Associated Press that the Justice Department has not found any evidence of voter fraud that would overturn an election that joe biden won. He also said there was nothing to substantiate any claims about the wild theory surrounded Voting Systems that trump and his allies keep saying were rigged. This is the attorney general bill barr. Barr was actually at the white house on tuesday for what the white house stressed was a previously scheduled meeting with the chief of staff. It was unclear if he met with trump who was yet to react to barr, but its pretty clear how he feels if you scroll through his twitter. Not happy. Barrs remarks prompted a Swift Response from trumps Legal Team Led by Rudy Giuliani who wrote in part with the greatest respect to the attorney general, his opinion appears to be without knowledge or investigation of irregularities of fraud. The department of justice stated despite some efforts to the contrary it has not stopped investigating Election Fraud, and stressed if it receives credible allegations, it will continue to pursue these types of cases. To date, the Trump Campaign has filed 40 lawsuits, pertaining to the election, and so far none of them have found a single instance of fraud. What are they, one for 38 . One for 39 . This is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the mid70s. These guys just cant win a lawsuit. Think about what attorney general barr did, and you know, ive had some friends call me up saying, oh, you look at what Rudy Giuliani is saying outside of the courtroom, you look at what sydnidney powell is saying outside of the courtroom, theres a lot of thetheyre there. What theyre willing to put in the pleadings in federal court, those are two completely different things. One is just bs, one is just a press conference where youre just trying to stir up a cloud of dust, but when you put your name on a pleading and you allege widespread voter fraud in a pleading inside federal court, you have set yourself up for sanctions. Thats always been the real tell here. They would say, oh, widespread voting fraud outside the courthouse. Rudy giuliani wont claim it inside the white house. He knows he doesnt have the evidence, knows he might be disbarred. And so you just go up and down the food chain, and whether youre talking about the attorney general of the United States, whether youre talking about the secretary of state for georgia, whether youre talking about the governor of arizona, or the Maricopa County republican board of electors or whether youre talking about a single bureaucrat on a local level who refuses to break the law and not certify the vote these republicans all talk a big game but when its time to actually undermine the election. When its time to actually put their legal future on the line, suddenly they do the right thing. Yeah, thats the point exactly, when they go into the courtroom, theyre actually not making the case that theres voter fraud. They have said it out loud, this is not a fraud case. Rudy giuliani said, in pennsylvania. The rest of it, what you saw there, Rudy Giulianis statement about attorney general bar, its theater, what theyre calling hearings. Theyre not hearings, state by state, theyre meetings, many in hotel rooms organized by republicans in the states and made to look like hearings. Its a show, theyre not making this case in court, and as you say, they have been losing again and again in court as officials across the country, many of them republicans as you rightly say are standing up and saying, no, you cant come in and meddle with our election. In georgia, we saw an extraordinary moment where an Elections Official admonished the president of the United States and said knock it off. Stop, people are going to get hurt. Were getting Death Threats in our office. A lot of us voted for you, supported you, were republicans. Knock it off. Well play that moment in a bit, but yes, this is thee oretical with a lot of consequence. Jonathan lemire, nbc news capitol hill correspondent, casey hunt, New York Times reporter and Msnbc National Security analyst, and former chief of staff at the cia and department of defense, an nbc news National Security analyst, jeremy bash. Good morning to you all. Jeremy, let me start with you. What is the significance of attorney general barr making that Public Statement about fraud yesterday even if he did later walk it back a bit or the Justice Department did say were still looking into it but so far we have found no evidence of widespread fraud. What does it mean that he came out and said that . Hes stating the obvious and i personally dont think we should applaud him or stand up and give him credit for stating what we know which is that joe biden won this election with more than 81 million votes, a difference of more than 6 million votes in the popular vote and 306 Electoral College victory margin. I dont think we should give the attorney general credit for stating a fact anymore and i dont think we should applaud a republican if they stand up and say, no, we shouldnt throw out africanamerican votes in wayne county or count the votes of all voters thats not in dispute and not particularly heroic to state. I dont think we should give him any credit. I think the walls are closing in on bill barr, he knows he had to acknowledge something, basically the bear minimum he could get away with and took other measures to placate the audience of one, placate trump on his way out. Willie. Lets talk about the other big story that broke last night. First start with a story that you had later in the afternoon that rouge was shopping around looking for a pardon. Late last night, news breaking about the chief judge for the dc circuit and releasing information about a possible bribery scandal involving pardons, what can you tell us . Sfl f s for a long time, there have been concerns around the president about how he handles pardons, he did it for friends and allies. He was not playing in the normal pardon process. He wasnt having the pardon attorneys at the Justice Department provide recommendations that he was following, and applications to sort of right wrongs of justice. These were trinkets he was handing out. We have suspicions about how the pardon practice is practiced. You were saying theres this federal judge in washington who released pages and pages of documents from a ruling about whether the government can look at materials, what documents show is the Justice Department has been investigating whether theres a conflict in prison who has a lawyer and someone else working for them, and one of those people may have been interacting with the white house, offering to make political donations or funnel some money of some type in exchange for a commutation, getting someone out of prison early or a pardon, some form of that, and there was this sort of full blown federal investigation into this. Such a full blown investigation that the government had electronics that they wanted to look at and see whether they were protected by attorney general privilege. So this was going on in the summer and the fall, that coming out last night, along with these reports that we have had about the president talking to giuliani last week about the possibility of a pardon, about a preemptive pardon, and the president s concerns and discussions that hes had that his children will need pardons as well because he thinks that a biden Justice Department will seek retribution against him, you know, in his political gamesmanship, however he sees the world and that his children need pardons. So mika, lets be clear. His children and jared may be in trouble legally not because of a Biden Department of justice but because the Senate Intel Committee passed along criminal referrals for both don jr. And Jared Kushner. Let me say that again, the news broke, i guess it was about a month ago, that the republican run Senate Intel Committee passed along criminal referrals for don jr. And for Jared Kushner so, no, this is not a biden thing. This is a republican Senate Intel Committee thing. And kasie hunt, with news breaking like that, and we say this over and over again, with this news breaking, will this lead to republicans break something. No. I mean, my question for you is even behind the scenes, are there any republicans who have been staunchly sticking by this corrupt gang of people around the president and the president himself. Dont they see . Are they blind . Are they blind to these headlines and to the people that theyre attaching themselves to and blindly defending . How long can they do this and still survive with, i dont know, something remote to what might have been their core values, how about their commitment to the country or the oath to the offices they took . Well, i think what joe just said about what has actually unfolded, the actions that have been taken quietly, privately in a classified setting tells you a lot about what you need to know about where actual feelings are. However, you are correct that so far publicly, and remember, we trust what is leadership, what is the definition of Political Leadership, it is public, speaking to the people that you lead. They are not doing that right now, and right now, they are in this vice that is the two Senate Runoff elections in georgia, and i dont anticipate that anything fundamental changes for republicans here. They have been worried this entire time about their political standing, their own political futures and thats all hinging on two races in georgia, whether they have power or not. Thats hinging on making sure they dont set off the still president of the United States kwh who has been out there saying and suggesting that the election be called off entirely, that the votes cant be trusted, that republicans shouldnt go out there and vote for these two senators, although its been more of his conservative allies and conservative media, that have made the suggestions that are driving republican senators crazy. We started off the show with Mitch Mcconnell saying, acknowledging, using the phrase new administration. They know whats happening. No one is under any illusion that anything else is going to happen here. But they are choosing to continue to approach this the way they have for the last four years. And you know, catty k, the man, guinness book of World Records has called the dumbest senator to ever be sworn in in this constitutional republic, im speaking of course of ron johnson said that william barr must show his evidence that he has no evidence. Mr. Attorney general, you must prove a negative. Seriously, the stupidity makes my teeth hurt. Yeah, impossible to ask somebody to provide evidence of having no evidence. Of course, i do wonder whether beyond the january the 5th runoff in georgia youre even then going to see republicans here in washington break from President Trump because all he has to do is carry on saying im going to run. Whether he announces that on inauguration or some other moment, all he has to do is say 2024 is going to be all about me. All he has to do is say that, and youre going to see this incredible silence from republicans in washington who are worried about being primaried and worried about trumps continued roles in the primaries. I think this stretches beyond the georgia runoff. They may be telling themselves, this is about georgia and saving the senate for the republicans. I dont know how they get out of this. This is a machiavellian power that Donald Trump Holds over this hem. And you hear the news that President Trump wants to have his own announcement on Inauguration Day that he doesnt plan to attend, willie, the inauguration, which is part of the peaceful transfer of power to show visually, symbolically that there is a transition taking place. I would imagine he would even give republicans a choice as to where they are going to show up that day. That would be very trump. You can see that. Theres some axios reportings that says hes planning an event on Inauguration Day that he wont attend. Nbc has matched the reporting, that he will not attend the inauguration, will not perform the visual representation of our transfer of power on Inauguration Day and may launch his 2024 campaign, whether or not he follows through after launching it remains another matter. Jonathan la me Jonath Jonathan lemire, you can weigh into all of this. Obviously he is backed into a corner, spends his days tweeting out conspiracy theories about this election, all of which have been disproven at this point, and all to keep the ball in the air, and by the way, raising a ton of money doing it. Theres an expectation in trumps circle long before election day that if he were to lose there was no chance on january 20th he would appear at the capitol with then incoming president elect joe biden as he takes the oath and trump would be there clapping along. Thats never been believed to be in the cards. We know he is indeed toying with the idea of announcing his candidacy right there on Inauguration Day which would be a remarkable split careen ascre show of defiance, and what we have been talking about, his hold on the republican parties. How would other members of the party, senators, congressmen, in any other Inauguration Day would be there to note the incoming president , even if it was a president not of their party, and yet here they would be doing so and risking the wrath of the outgoing president , one thats trying to be viable. And whether or not he declares that, its clear hes going to remain as relevant as possible and to make money. An adviser said the biggest adjustment for donald trump is not being in every headline. Hes going to do his dammenedes to keep that up. Theres no effort, no belief, no hope that any legal challenges will come to fruition. The president wants to see the fight continue. Bill barr of course yesterday threw a lot of cold water on that in an interview with my colleague at the Associated Press saying he didnt find any of this evidence. He was then had a meeting at the white house. We should know it was previously scheduled before the interview, though it did last three