Earning his salary tonight at the big board and especially watching this has come down to absentee ballots, its come down to exhausting the raw vote tonight. We are fortunate that they apparently are diligent bookkeepers in southwestern pennsylvania, steve. Well have one holdout. It may not matter because we just got a big dose of clarity. Weve been sitting on these numbers for so long, we have to reset here, 579 votes. Thats the lead for conor lamb in this thing. What is done and off the board, all of allegheny. I thought this was the case, this is definitely the case. Westmoreland is all in, the absentee is in, the two outstanding precincts are in. All thats left in this district, we move down to washington and greene. Greene is a tiny county. I love tiny counties. Youre sitting at 200 absentee votes in greene and 1,195 in washington. Were sitting at 1,400 is all thats left. Youre looking at saccone would have to get 90 or something in this. We just saw he probably is going to lose ground in the washington absentees. Well see about greene. This 579 may be the baseline for whats left for lamb, it may go up. That becomes key. The question of whether it goes up or not because what this means right now with those votes left, lamb is sitting at 49. 9. Saccone is sitting at 49. 6, a difference of 0. 3 of a point. Does this law apply to congressional districts or not . Under 0. 5 is an automatic recount. That looks like maybe an outstanding question that emerges. But again, it looks like lamb is going to end this thing in terms of the election day vote, in terms of the absentee vote, in terms of everything we could possibly add up and tell you about, it is looking like hes going to end up on the plus side in this thing and then it just becomes a question of is there some kind of recount. Steve kornacki, im hoping for your sake you can go into some kind of a standby or preheat mode and when we get new numbers, just wave at us again. Well go to kasie hunt and after kasie, Ashley Parker. So kasie, youre on. What do you have to report . Reporter well, brian, the crowd here is slowly dwindling, still waiting for conor lamb to come up on the stage. One of his supporters said he wanted to thank them, wasnt ready to do one thing or another and asked them to stay put. We have not yet heard from conor lamb. That has not stopped the Democratic CongressionalCampaign Committee from already declaring victory and calling tonights results terrifying for republicans. The nrcc, the republican and, has essentially said the opposite. They are digging in, looking to count every legal vote, as they put it. So we havent seen an official statement from conor lambs campaign declaring victory or anything like that. Like i said, were still waiting for him to talk. Again, brian, as we were talking about before, this is clearly something that shows democrats are in a much different position going into the midterm elections than they were obviously in 2016. And that Enthusiasm Gap i think Steve Kornacki might be able to make it up for it all by himself if we just bottled his enthusiasm. It might explain the gap in pennsylvania. Were seeing it in realtime, we saw it in the yard signs anecdotally. A big chunk of this is suburban. Health insurance whe thats where a lot of these races will be won and lost. As much as republicans are going to try to spin this as closer than they told us, they thought it was going to be at 6 00 tonight, this is not great news for them at the end of the day. Kasie hunt, a veteran reporter who knows that yard signs are as measurable as any other indicator in a campaign. A lot of us saw the trump yard signs overwhelming the hillary yard signs that ultimately went that way. Ashley parker started with an exclusive story that the secretary of state was on his way out. We just passed the yard arm into day 14. You wake up earlier than any of us, youre more than generous with your time. I just have one more note about the tillerson departure. Ive heard some people comment on this that in their fraught relationship, Rex Tillerson, captain of industry, at the end of the day Rex Tillerson was a very proud eagle scout, and he is a very proud member of the board of boy scouts of america. If youve had eagle scouts in your life, you know how proud a subset they are of the american population. Of all the taking of offense they had back and forth, he was deeply offended by the president S Performance at the boy scouts jamboree. They presented him with a medal that touched him very deeply. Yes, were talking about president of the United States and secretary of state, as i keep saying a job occupied by jefferson and madison among others, but it kind of went south from there. It certainly did. On the one hand obviously what happened with the president at the boy scouts jamboree is not why rex till aerson was forced t today but it added insult to injury the president showed up and was invited in West Virginia and basically held a campaignstyle rally and brought politics to the boy scouts, which is just something you dont do. So tillerson was offended by that. But i do have to say this relationship began fracturing almost from the very first day. The president chose him because he was impressed with the texan swagger, felt like he was out of central casting, the broad shoulders, the silver hair but he didnt like that swagger and confidence and that Rex Tillerson entered that job according to the president too establishment in his thinking. Rex tillerson would be arrogant and condescending in meetings. You guys reported he called the president a moron at one point. There was a long list of things that finally led up to today when the president sort of unceremoniously fired him. It stunned washington but on the whole it wasnt necessarily unexpected. Ashley parker, terrific friend of our broadcast. Thank you so much for a day of your reporting thats become a night of your reporting as well. Ashley, in this exclusive story we should tell our audience was one half of a writing team of Ashley Parker and phillip rucker. Phillip is remaining for us to take a question before we let him go pursue his life and get ready for a full day. Ive heard you ask various strands of this today, what does this episode firing a senior official by twitter say about donald trump . Well, it says a couple of things. Donald trump is someone who became famous in sort of pop culture for saying youre fired, for firing people on reality television, but he doesnt seem to have what it takes to do that in person as president. Weve seen it time and again where hes fired people unsay unceremoniously. He sent that letter to jim comey. Reince priebus was donald trumped on the tarmac in the rain. Weve seen this play out in a pretty horrible way for Rex Tillerson. Ti tillerson was asleep in his hotel room in nairobi with a stomach bug. He was there to clean up a mess that the president had created with his comments, calling african countries shole countries. So ki so tillerson is there doing his cleanup and heard that the president was mad and we were hearing all sorts of rumors at the white house that the president was about to make a move on tillerson. Tillerson just seems to be the one who didnt know. As we always tell to our viewers, dont tell everyone that our broadcast every night is tubactually about print journalism and the people producing sastounding print journalism every day. Thank you, friend. Steve kornacki, i guess were going to live in a splitscreen world, steve. Were on every night from 11 to 12, unless we have a barn burner in pennsylvania and then we have a twohour shift. Do you have anything in terms of updated numbers . I have a number but not a new one. Washington greene basis on your interview with that county clerk, she said three hours, they were just opening. Thats probably after 2 a. M. Theyre going to count these in washington. Saccone to catch lamb in the election day almost has to get every single one of those. One of the keys to keep in mind why lamb is leading right now and in such a strong position, we know he did really well in allegheny county, the pittsburgh suburbs, the other thing is the turnout level. It looks like about 45 of all votes that were cast in this district today came out of allegheny. Thats higher than in the 2016 election. In the 2016 election, we were talking a lot about surge turnout in areas like this, these outlying rural areas where trump did so well. What were seeing here is more than a surge in the special election in the suburbs. When you look at the margin that close, the difference of 45 coming out of allegheny and 23, thats a big difference. Sorry, steve. I had someone talking to me. I thought you paused to get numbers. No. Ill level with you, im happy to talk as much as we can. I dont think were getting new numbers until based on your interview with the county clerk, which is the best information out there right now in the world on this, she estimated three hours. She said shes going in to count with her team, its going to be three hours. Thats 1,200 absentee ballots in washington. Washington is probably the last piece of a numerical information were going to get. Maybe theyre super fast down there but if shes true to what she told you, i think about 2 a. M. Were getting numbers out of there. It would take something beyond a miracle for saccone to catch lamb in those numbers. We dont blame anyone in gre Greene County for turning in early. Theyve had a day of offandon snow. We have a lot of vamping to do to get to 2 a. M. Listen, john heilemann, while i have you, the subject of russia, a friend of mine when this race tightened tonight half in jest got in touch and said are the russians in southwestern pennsylvania . I no what he was saying half in jest. Its the kind of thing that can decrease your confidence in our elections and your crademocracy the role russia has suddenly played in american life. The president has had a kind of obvious carveout. Hes bent over backwards not to lay blame at putin and the russians. How big a factor was russian in the disconnect and his now former secretary of state . Theres no doubt that tillerson is not that outspoken, particularly outspoken on russia. Hes someone who we thought when he first came in because of his relationship with putin was someone that trump was picking partly because he would reinforce trumps desire to have a friendlier, softer relationship with russia because tillerson was great friends with putin and putin had given him medals and all that stuff. At the end of the trip when putin weighed in on the question of whats going on in britain right now, it seemed either like he knew he was on his way out the door and suddenly felt free to speak his mind on russia or potentially was the last nail in the coffin where trump had already decided he was going to let him go and when he heard that that may have to do with all the clarity tillerson spoke with. I want to say about tillerson, trump treated him terribly. Immediately when someone hats been fired, you want to feel sympathy for them, especially at the hands of donald trump and in this reality way. You have the big four, theyre big jobs. The reality is theres a lot of consistencies in them. Theres no doubt that he lost a job because he didnt manage a consistency. The other reality is that Rex Tillerson really did not have a constituency anywhere that was on his side. People at the state department thought he was a terrible manager. He was gutting the state department, reducing 30 . Didnt seem to have any respect for career diplomats there. He had no constituency within the building. He didnt have constituency on capitol hill. He didnt have a constituency in the press for the longest time. Our friend Andrea Mitchell will stand there and get him to answer questions. And he would ignore her. He wouldnt take the press initially on his trips around the world, something that the secretaries of state would always do. There was no one on his side. He seemed to think he could arrive in washington and that he didnt have to do any of the things that every cabinet secretary but especially if you run one of those big four agencies, youve got to cultivate hopefully all of those constituencies but if not all of them, some of them. And he had none of them. I feel sympathy for the guy for how he was treated by tdonald trump but i have to say he brought a lot of the failure on himself. If we could dial up the graphics that Andrea Mitchell prepared for tonight about the state department that Rex Tillerson leaves behind. People are scurrying. Are these the numbers . It a hollowed out husk of a building. Key ambassadors not appointed, 38 of them. Assistant secretary vacancies, 16. And undersecretary vacancies and sooner or later youre talking about the Leadership Structure of the u. S. Department of state, 6. That is saying a lot. Yes. He did not he seemed look, all of these departments in washington could use some restructuring and use some rationalization and many of them probably could do with being a little smaller, but this is a place in which theres so much of a repository of knowledge about the world, this complicated world in which we live and this guy who obviously does know a lot about the world Rex Tillerson exxon is like a nation state. This is someone who knew a lot about the world, economic and strategics level. It made it all the stranger he seemed to have so little regard for the career public servant, civil servants, who had been in the job for so long. He seemed to come in and say i dont need up here, i dont care about your service, i dont care what you know, it not relevant to what im doing. It foolish and selfdefeating. It part of the reason why he no longer has his job, in addition to all the problems with donald trump. Remember, he called him a moron and didnt do what everybody else around trump does when they get on his bad side, which is they go out and lie for them. He refoouts to go out and say, oh, i never said that. People were still saying did you say that thing about trump, did you call him a moron . He refused to say no, i didnt and he refused to say yes, i did. When you spend any time in washington, there are four word, Career Foreign Service officer. Rex tillerson did not venerate that title as much as many prior secretaries of state. We are following a race that is so far too close to call. You know whats awesome . Gigspeed internet. You know whats not awesome . When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. We are back. Heres a quick look at a glance of the breaking news were covering. Here it is, 12 23 a. M. East coast time when we are airing this for the first time. Difference of 579 separates these two men in a race that its fairly clear is going to come down to a kind of count, recount and absentee ballots. Well have an update on this in just a second. Because of the nature of this day and tonight, we are balancing competing news stories and competing interests. And for that we are happy to be joined by telephone by john brennan, former director of the cia and newly minted msnbc Senior National security and intelligence analyst. Director brennan, youll very curious to get your take on the personnel moves today that followed the word that Rex Tillerson would be leaving as secretary of state. Well take first things first and that is there. Pompeo leaves your old agency and goes to state. It is said that he made an impression on donald trump by being his daily braeiefer. I know it is a role you served in for bill clinton in 94 and 95. So your opinion of mr. Pompeo as he goes over to state from cia. Well, i think hes demonstrated over the last 14 months hes a very loyal and strong supporter of donald trump and someone who has been able to establish good rapport with him, which is a real positive when it comes to having a secretary of state who is aligned with a president. So i think donald trump saw in mike pompeo someone who obviously is very smart. He also have very partisan but i think above all mr. Trump values loyalty and i think mike pompeo has demonstrated that. Whats he going to be like toward the russians . Thats a good question. I think when pressed he has had to say that he certainly supports the cia assessment about russian interference in the 2016 president ial election, and he has met with his russian counterparts. I hope hes going to take a very firm and hard line with the russians. I think russian activities continue around the globe. I see recent indications of the u. K. , the russian reports of the poisoning of the individual and the daughter. I think its currently important for the secretary of state if he is confirmed to hold a hard line and also make sure that donald trump understands just how dangerous the russians can be and the need to demonstrate strength and resolve toward them. Of course this move creates a vacancy at your beloved former headquarters in langley, virginia. Pore th for that the president has put for the name of gina haspel, not without controversy herself. Because of her involvement, there are degrees of her involvement people argue in torture at black sites aft after 9 11. I heard a longtime colleague of hers say on television today lets not judge her for actions in 02 based solely on 2018 standards. By this he meant we were all some form of crazy back then. We were all mourning, we were all shaken and we had kind of given our proxy to a whole lot of people at the top of our government to do what it was required to keep us safe, and a whole lot of democrats and a whole lot of republicans had given the president and his administration a lot of leeway. So having set that up for our audience, your view professionally of gina haspel who is the nominee to take over as head of cia. First of alls are gina is an exceptionally well respected individual, and shes very competent. I think she has the experience and breadth and depth dealing with these Foreign Policy issues, that shell be able to provide the unvarnished, apolitical intelligence and input to donald trump and others. Yes, the cia was involved in a very controversial program, the Detention Interrogation Program but that was direct