Well have more on that vote and its consequences coming up this hour. Also today, republicans appear to have lost control of their big tax bill as senator Barbara Boxer was just saying to chris hayes moments ago, she praised that they lose this thing and looks like thats possible. Yesterday we talked about the fact republicans appear to be speeding up the approach to the tax bill in the wake of the big loss in the Alabama Senate race tuesday night. The idea is once the wheels start coming off your car, you should probably make the race your car is in end sooner than you were previously planning. Well call it a day here. Today, though, that effort to get to the finish line sooner than planning appears to have cost them the support of some of their own senators who were previously planning on voting for this thing. This is a very dynamic situation. Its fascinating. Given this is happening right at the very end of the process for a bill that would be the biggest changes to the tax code in 30 years and nobody involved in trying to pass this thing appears to have a complete handle what is in it. So were going to have more on that including a live update on the very fluid situation tonight. That is still a developing story tonight. If you were one of the people whose been protesting against the tax bill around the country or on capitol hill, you want to see the report on that tonight. Its possible your efforts are paying off more than you might have expected them to. We mentioned last night one of the consequences of not just the republican partys failure in alabama but the president s embarrassment in alabama is the question of what republican senators are willing to do for the president in washington. And whether that may be changing now. If the president is trying to use his own personal political power to bring republican senators along to do things they would be otherwise disinclined to do, that personal power, that personal influence on his part has just been weakened by what has happened in these last few elections where he has played a role. Just in the last couple of months, the president put his name behind and endorsed ed gillespy who lost and endorsed luther string in the Alabama State prior marimary that lost endorsed roy moore for alabama senator that lost. If the president had never gotten involved in the elections, the outcome would be important but wouldnt have weakened him in washington. Visavis other republicans. They wouldnt have weakened him in washington on the question of whether other republican lawmakers fear him or hope to benefit from his favor. Who fears him or worries about him at this point . He doesnt appear to have much political juice. There is a bad run for the president politically and after that, one of the consequences may be the yanking on two trump ju didicial nominations, those judge nominations were pulled. Republicans decided they did not want to go to bat for the particularly embarrassing nominees. After the nominees were yanked, republican senators yanked another major and fairly highprofile trump until knnomi wlrnlt y whether or not you care about the individual nominees, as the president loses juice, as he loses popularity in supposedly protrump areas of the country, that will result in republicans on capitol hill not wanting to go to bat for him. Not wanting to go to bat for the more embarrassing things the president and his administration are trying to get him to do. Well have more, thats an important thing going on in washington. We got word tonight from, where else . The kremlin that our President Donald Trump and the russian president Vladimir Putin have had yet another meeting. They had yet another one on one call today. And one thing this means is trump and putin continue to have lots and lots and calls and meetings but this is also at least the fourth time where there has been a meeting or call between our president and russia but we have had to learn about it first from russia. This is such a weird dynamic and it keeps happening. There is a big robust White House Communications department we pay for and every day that goes reams of information who the president will be speaking with and meeting with and what the point is of his daily schedule and white house briefings and advisors who you call and get data from who let you know when something is about to happen. Thats all true about this white house but none of that apparently applies when it comes to trump talking to russia. In that case, notification comes from moscow. The last time trump talked to putin, which well, at least as far as i know, was november 21st. The first notification there was of that in the english language that trump would be speaking to putin that day, first english language notification is when reuters translated an agency that reported trump and putin would be speaking that day and it was the first any of us in this country heard of it. Two weeks before that the big asia trip where the people of United States of america learned they would be meeting on the side line and learned from a kremlin staffer and american reporters took that information and asked and before that the Oval Office Meeting with President Trump and Russian Foreign minister and russian am basketball tor ambassador and not only informed us in our country that event took place and russian and and he got our record of those meetings. Got a nice read out from Vladimir Putin about a conversation that took place between donald trump. The white house confirmed yeah, that happened. Why does this keep happening . Why do we consistently have to get news about the behavior and the meetings and the conversations of the american president from the russian government . It is very strange. And while were on the subject, we also got late word tonight from a new report in the Washington Post that right after trump announced he was running for president , he announced in june 2015 this happened in july 2015, there was yet another instance when he was offered a one on one meeting with Vladimir Putin, according to the Washington Post tonight, the same russia connected publicist who later set up the trump tower meeting where he promised russian government dirt on Hillary Clinton to the top levels of the Trump Campaign, a year before the meeting happened, he made a direct offer via email to Donald Trumps assistant at trump tower telling her that he would be happy to set up a Putin Meeting for this new president ial candidate donald trump. Trumps assistant is a woman named rona graft, i have spoken with her in the process of trying to set up trump interviews, shes very, have nice. Shes very efficient. We had known that graph is on the witness list for the House Intelligence Committee looking into the russia scandal. The wall street journal said for the House Intelligence Committee interview with her, trumps assistant and also and house intelligence interview with felix sater, a russian born and worked on the secret trump tower moscow project during the Trump Campaign, republicans for some reason decided that for those who interviews for graph and satyr, they would not do them on capitol hill and decided to send their staffers to new york city to do those interviews in the setting that would be more convenient for ms. Graft and apparently also for mr. Satyr. Having staff korch duconduct th interviews, that is convenient for the witness but has the effect of it. They are not happy about it. Donald trump downyojunior sayin a minute. I run this and i have to go down i imagine its awkward. A lot going on tonight. One thing we have to keep track of on the show, who works at the white house. This administration is 328 days old. In that time there has been an unusual large number of people who have turned over, who have served in the Trump White House for sometime, some of them in very senior roles but got fired or chose to leave for some reason or another and im sure that we have missed some but just in terms of high profile jobs, we try to keep a running tally of notable officials that fled or been fired from the Trump White House. The Vice President s chief of staff for example has left as has the white house chief of staff, as has the Deputy White House chief of staff, as has the first White House Communications director and second and the White House Press secretary and Vice President s press secretary and the Deputy National security advisor, the deputy chief of staff on the security counsel and head of the office of government ethics, the white house chief strike thategists a found out he couldnt get a security clearance, he left, too. And also, the secretary of health and human services, he left. Thats not even counting the highprofile Law Enforcement people that have been flung out likes ssa sally yates. Its a long list of people that served in significant roles who are already gone. Well, this week we got two more names to add to the list. One of whom got a lot of Media Attention for her departure. Omarosa numan. She was the Communications Director for the office of public liaison, which reminds me the director of the office of public liaison, thats another person that left. Can we add that guy to the list, too . Thank you. Mrs. Numan was the Communications Director for the office of public liaison, which is not a highprofile office, let alone not a high profile job in that office. The beef with her among white house reporters is that nobody was quite sure what she did at all but she is personally a highprofile person because of her reality show career. Her departure this week attracted a lot of attention but one other at the pawhite house attracted attention. Her name is dena powell. She was working at goldman sachs. Gary cohen was the president of goldman sachs. I was thought maybe she was in gary cohens or bit. She was named the deputy seek security advisor for strategy and republicans, never trump republicans put faith in her thinking she might be a potentially moderating influence in the administration more broadly but security counsel specifically and the National Security counsel and policy making in this administration is of particular concern. Remember the National Security counsel initially was set up by mike flynn and we all know how well that worked out. And remember, after flynn got appointed, after flynn being appointed National Security advisor, the next shutter of fear that went through National Security circles is when Trump Campaign ceo and white house the Trump Campaign ceo arranged to get himself a seat on the National Security counsel, as well. Remember that . People are like really, steve bannon has a permanent seat on the National Security counsel . This is a guy that run as right wing website and makes movies how the duck dynasty guy looks like jesus. Really . Permanent seat on the National Security counsel alongside Michael Flynn running it . I mean, i dont mean to pick on mr. Bannon. He had a bad week. Alabama was as much his hue m l humiliation as the president s. The point was to flex his steve bannon muscles and prepare for a global domination plan to run against every sitting republican senator like he did with roy moore. Well, given how that worked out, the only people that may want to pay steve bannon to enact that plan is democrats. Steve bannon is having a bad week. Everybody thought he might be this fierce spector in trump era politics in some continuing way. But, you know, if you think before this disastrous failure he had in alabama this week, the last big round of attention he got was when he was fired prfro the white house. Before that, it was the time he was fired not from the white house but security counsel. They demoted him from the National Security counsel then fired him from the white house. Flynn and ban nonon were a weir idea. Both of them. Flynn ended up resigning in the russia scandal for things that resulted in him pleading guilty and hes looking for a prison sentence and cooperating witness. Bannon left not that long after but those guys had really set up the National Security counsel in the first place and once they were gone, it raised the question of what would happen to the people they installed, forgive me, not kind. What would happen to the odd balls . Would happen to the Free Thinkers they had installed at very senior levels of the National Security counsel, which is a very important thing. In particular, when it came to dena powell, there was speculation on the National Security counsel she might replace this guy. Dena powells title was Deputy National security advisor for strategy, Deputy Assistant for the president for strategy planning. Those two are a match. If i came to work every day and i was the host of the Rachel Maddow show but there was somebody else on staff in an equally senior position that was the host of Rachel Maddow show. I expect there would be a fight to death and only one of us would keep the job in the long run. Dena powell was expected to replace this man Kevin Harrington, one of the original lets call them Free Thinkers installed in a very important National Security position back when steve bannon and mike flynn were in charge of that sort of thing. He came to this very senior job at the National Security counsel with zero experience in Foreign Policy. Zero. Now hes supposed to be die recking strategy for National Security for the United States of america . Never worked in Foreign Policy a day in his life, however, he had worked at one of peter teals hedge funds. Peter teal, the anti democracy billionaire that made money at paypal and prigawked at the webe for printing things he did not like. Work experience for running strategy at the National Security counsel is he worked at a peter teal hedge fund and before that worked at a different peter teal hedge fund. Well, this week we learned that not only did dena powell not end up replacing him, she is levering administration and he is still at the National Security counsel. And we know that in part because the Washington Post reports today in the remarkable epic 50source story that he, Kevin Harrington is one of the prorussia officials remaining in the white house who actually supports President Trumps s submissiveness. His position for prorussia positions is reportedly a little its free thinking. Is that the word were using . Kevin harrington brought into shape National Security strategy saw close ties with oil and gas rich russia as critical to surviving an energy apocalypse. They said he discussed frequently and that he depicted as inevitable. I cant believe this guy is still there. I remember being amazed at peter teal people being considered at the beginning. They were reportedly going to put a guy in charge of the fda and the reason he wanted the job running the fda is because he believed we could all become im mortal. Or at least some of us could and he was working on that. Thats why he wanted to run the fda. This guy is from the same crisper drawer in the same fridge and still there and dena powell is leaving. As dena powell leaves, the person left running strategy at the National Security counsel is somebody that believes the end and near and only putin can save us. And this is like point 34 that we learn today out of 100 pieces of information the washington broke with this big story. According to the post and this remarkable story, there is an important National Security story to tell about the consequences of trump refusing to admit to or grapple with trump interfered. The result is without obvious parallel in u. S. History, a situation in which the personal insecurities of the president , his refusal to accept objective reality at the have impaired the governments response to a hearing. The president s daily intelligence brief is structured by his briefers to avoid upsetting him with any information he might not like to hear about russia. And i have to say this is a piece of reporting that raises troubling conc