void. an in fact, the justice department ignored what they said. epstein hired private investigators. he said my garbage went missing all the time. this story stinks. i think ben sasse is right to have them look into it. >> demand the justice department do just that. and willie, you just helped us with our guest list for tomorrow. we need the police chief of palm beach county and the very few people that were fighting for those young women. well, young girls, not even young women, young girls. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. >> thanks, joe. good morning, everyone. i'm stephanie will, starting with the tariff man c ometh. after the stock market lost nearly 800 points on tuesday as traders are wary of the vague promises revealed in the china deal or no deal at all. the news of an arrest, a big

one, of a top chinese executive in canada. and the state of politics. more shadowy politics revealed. as the investigation into north carolina elections fraud takes aim at a gop operative. in the state of wisconsin, the power grab continues. the wisconsin legislature voted to strip away the power of the incoming democratic administration. >> this is legislation that's clearly designed to undermine the results of the elections we just had and the process through which this is passed was simply embarrassing. >> and no vacancy. saudi lobbyists booked hundreds of rooms at trump's d.c. hotel immediately after the 2016 election. this as a group of bipartisan senators condemned the white house's response to kamal cahas

doshy's murder. >> organized by people under the command of mbs. >> this was republican lindsey graham. the fear and anxiety being felt on wall street and across the country. uncertainty tasking stocks and taking big bites out of your savings. i have a fantastic team to break it all down. even if you don't invest in the stock market, millions of us have 401ks impacted by this. the dow fell almost 800 points on tuesday. that is about 5% of the dow potentially wiped out in the two days.

things certainly feel a whole lot more unstable than they were at the beginning of the week. remember, the name of the game in the market is stability. for one thing, investors are worried about the plan to keep raising rates. the biggest question marks between the united states and china. the talks between trump and xi jinping don't produce a joint statement. a lot of their so-called agreement has been open for interpretation, to put it mildly. the white house says china promised to purchase a substantial amount of u.s. tariffs. saying we will start with agricultural products. to immediately influence the issues that the two sides reached consensus. pay attention to the wording.

nothing about actually buying anything. i need to remind you what they're looking to buy was the plan all along. there's this window for negotiations. china says it will follow a clear timetable to negotiate key issues. but they didn't provide any specific road map. u.s. knnegotiators say they're committed to the three-month window. even though disputes have been sticking points for years. >> we set off with a clear path to deal with issues and i think people should be optimistic with the possibilities. all of this stuff is supposed to happen within the 90 day period. we're not waiting for anything. >> that's navarro. and now there's a new x factor. the arrest of the global cfo at

wawah. it's the second largest smart phonemaker in the world. the daughter of the founder, arrested in canada, but facing extradition to the united states where she's reportedly accused of violating american sanctions against iran. this is massive. china is already calling for her release. unclear how any of that could impact the negotiations. we know it ain't good. all of this is essentially overshadowing the fact that the u.s. economy has been good, wages are up and companies are hiring. why is wall street acting like everything is falling apart? i'll start with msnbc's david g gerra live at the stock exchange. walk us through what is driving markets today. straight out of the gate when

the president says on saturday we had a beautiful dinner, me and xi jinping. and on that day, the daughter of the founder is arrested. nothing is lining up. >> so much of the focus, as you say, is on this dinner. and the dissidents. let's ride that back to tuesday when you had the president of the united states doing what he so often does. then around tuesday, investors realizing they hadn't heard a whole lot. then you saw the drop. yesterday, investors had the day off. i think what they realized is there's still a whole lot they don't know. you mentioned the road map. you mentioned the timetable. there is agreement now that we've heard from the chinese

about that timetable. there's going to be 90 days worth of talks. that's something these two sides hadn't been talking for a long while. but there isn't a whole lot of agreement about what that road map entailed. you've had the u.s. side. talking about 142 points they want to see resolved. the previous administration is concerned about the intellectual property. the previous administration was concerned about industrial capacity. these have not been handled yet. to deal with this in 90 days is very ambitious. this is not a company a lot of americans know about. that is because of these structural issues. mt u.s. has been concerned about cybersecurity.

and concerned about cyber spying. they have said they don't want the largest global supplier of i.t. technology to come into the u.s. market because they're worried about that company spying through a back door. you have the cfo arrested in cana canada. reports are they want her extradited here, the eastern district in new york. what's happening here could really jeopardize those situations about the trade deal. >> this is stunning, david, don't go anywhere. i have to bring my panel in. josh brown, wealth management. and the author of why wall street matters. josh, to you first, it was only a couple of months ago.

larry kudlow said the recession is so far off i can't even see it. fast forward one month. the market soaring off president trump saying things are great. and now down 8 hu00. >> wall street, stock markets in general are discounting mechanisms and they're not concerned with current conditions. >> even though will lure rolls said two days ago it's the media obsessed with the future and the economy is so good, pay attention to what's happening now. >> he's been doing this for 40 years. he knows better. the reality is stocks don't price in how things are going today. when you think about what it might have in store. markets don't concern thmzs with good or bad. they certain thepzs with better than expected or worse than

expected. the situation is worse than expected and actually getting worse if you think this issue has something to do with it. that's one. look, you have a global recession becoming more likely every day. down 40% from their peaks. that is disastrous for investors. china, their stock market's down 30%. it's not just a u.s. issue. there are things given investors concerns. that is what prices will jostle around. it's not about unemployment for the month of november which has already passed. >> whether you're talking about comments from the president,

investors parse through every word you hear from officials who could impact the markets. the market looked at the president. taking the trading note on tuesday. basically calls the president a liar. says his tweets make no sense. tying themselves in knots trying to support them. is chip playi ichina playing th? one analyst says all china is trying to do is drag these negotiations out. by giving the trump administration reason to believe progress is within reach. isn't that stunning? that china could be playing the president? yes, two scoops of vanilla ice cream for dessert and trump's going to walk out and say everything is great but it's not. >> what the chinese know is that the president's political fortunes and probably his fortunes vis-a-vis the mueller investigation ultimately rest on

what he calls the trump boom. you know, trump's operating theory of foreign relations is what's called the theory of international relations. act crazy, freak out the person on the other side, and they're going to capitulate. the mad man theory doesn't work when you're dealing with markets. predictability's incredibly important. it doesn't work because especially when you're looking at the market, this is the most integrated part of the economy. these are companies that require supply chains that are working all the way from china to vietnam to europe. anything that goes into a cell phone has items from many countries. if you start threatening tariffs, giving the market no sense of what might happy over the next three months, they need

to price that in. they need to price that in in the most conservative way possible. it's not going to be a surprise that markets are going to freak out. >> i invite the commerce secretary to come on and hopefully explain this announcement. the commerce department record of reported the gap hit $55 billion in october. the fifth straight increase and highest since october 2008. the deficit in the trade of goods with china rose 7% to a record $43 billion. the gap with the european union widened to a record $17 billion. in addition to inviting ross, i invite kellyanne conway to come on with me. she loves to speak about the president fulfilling campaign promises. this is a big one missed.

>> we have a high beta president, something you can relate. >> what does that mean? >> he's all over the map. you don't know what he's going to say from day to day. >> but it's more than unpredictability. it's about the president putting forth flatout lies. >> clearly, you've got the administration's basis of going forward is it's the economy, stupid. we'll talk up how great things are in the economy. maybe the economy is doing well. you can talk about gdp growth. you can talk about how it's the media's fault. in 1987, the market crashed. we're now talking about being

down 8% from the january high. sometime also the correction is healthy. he talks one thangd ting and th reality is different. you used to like volatility. now we're getting volatility. there's no real good news to talk about. we've got a lot of risk in the bond market. >> last year, they couldn't stop talking about the stock market. there was a tweet every day from a member of the family. advisers, brothers, cousins. >> laura lee trump. she said he turned the economy around. >> people within the organization that don't understand how the stock market works. >> they're still trying that. that's what larry kudlow -- >> here's the box you're in. on friday, tomorrow, you're going to get a bls payroll number for last month.

the number for october was a blowout. you probably don't want to see another red hot number. i think wall street now is in this opposition. where it wants cool thing, things to cool off a little bit. and one of the final rate hikes of the cycle. i think that's an interesting place for wall street to find itself in. which is kind of looking for tepid, lukewarm news. zw >> i need to give credit to citi. whoever gets credit for he said/she said, genius.

the mueller investigation took a pause yesterday but after the explosive detame alils revealed there was bigger detail alils redacted. two more filings expected in the next 48 hours. before we go, after yiea day of mourning, president george h.w. bush will be laid to rest today. funeral services will begin in less than two hours at st. martin's episcopal church in houston, texas, where the former president worshipeded for 50 years. his body will be transported before arriving at the family plot. he will be buried between his wife of 73 years who passed away in april robin. the brightest point of light finally going dark.

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special counsel robert mueller is set to make public a sentencing memo after the government said the former trump campaign chairman of reaching his plea deal, accusing him of, quote, crime and lies. that ain't good. muler is expected to release a memo about the former lawyer and fixer michael cohen who is cooperating with four

investigations. those two new memos come after tuesday's memo about former trump national security adviser michael flynn. in which the special counsel recommended no jail time. citing flynn's substantial cooperati cooperation. joining me now, white house reporter for the los angeles times, eli stockles. former federal prosecutor glen kersner. and msnbc contributor barbara mcquaid. we should remind our audience it was michael flynn's lawyer months ago who said if given the opportunity, michael flynn, has a story to tell. your new op-ed, i love the title. mueller sends a message to targets. be a good cooperator like flynn and be rewarded. explain. >> one of the chunks that was

not redacted was timeliness. it was clear flynn was rewarded to a recommendation of probation in exchange for not only providing truthful n fuful info but doing it in a timely manner. it also allows investigators to get information and evidence before it goes stale. early cooperation is particularly valuable to prosecutors. michael flynn's been quiet for a long time. it's been a year since he was prosecuted and pled guilty. now which know how he's been spending that year. >> 19 occasions. all right, glen, what were your key takeaways? besides that they used a whole lot of black ink? >> i think there are three data points that paint a very ominous picture for the president. the first comes from page five.

what bob mueller's team says is flynn was one of the first hand with firsthand long-term insight into what the special counsel is investigating. which we know is russian coordination with the trump campaign. data point one. two, some time ago, the reporting has now resur falsed. even into the transition, michael flynn was brought in regularly to calm trump down. but a picture of mike flynn emerges during the campaign and the transition period as the trump williamswhisperer. if any of us believe they weren't often and early discussing russia, i think that's a hard cell. if we think back to what trump said to then director comey,

hey, can you lay off flynn? can you go easy on flynn, we have all come to learn that trump is loyal to no one. perhaps as children, we'll learn more about that. but he really couldn't possibly have been driven by loyalty. that's not why he asked comey to lay off flynn. when you look and connect them, i think it's a really onminous picture with respect to what flynn provided to special counsel. >> the president has been sort of snappish and not in a great mood over the last couple of days. up clear how much of that has to do with being marblginalized by the state funeral or a lot of anxiety manifesting itself. and the obvious sentencing memo might be michael flynn is

okayne okaynesoka ominous. this is a president who said repeatedly no collusion. that is talking point number one. it is not redacted in this memo. the special counsel's office says flynn had been very helpful in that area. maybe establishing a fact pattern, providing information on the matter of collusion as well as perhaps the obstruction. >> take a look at this headline. he writes, mueller's flynn memo should worry kushner and trump. you mention the president trump's family members. why should kushner be so concerned? it was jared kushner and his wife, first daughter ivanka trump, that were insistent, that pushed for flynn to get that position and be rewarded for his loyalty to the president.

>> it's a great point. kushner is knee deep into this. i think the fact that michael flynn had such a close relationship with president trump, and by extension, it's hard to believe he didn't have that close day to day interaction with the jared kushners, with the don juniors. as barb said, mueller has recommendled zero time. you can't get more lenient than zero time. flynn's crimes are substantial, they're consequential. they ran the real risk of damaging our country. and yet he gets zero time, gets away scott free, as some have said. he must have provided so much information about kushner, about don jr. and others. i think there's a lot of trouble

coming down the pike. >> remember, acting attorney general sally yates recommended that something be done about michael flynn. because of the communication he had. he put himself in a position he could be blackmailed by a foreign government. and he's getting no jail time. >> barbara, what does this memo say to you? >> one of the key things to know is he got what is known as substantial assistance. that means he provided something of value into the investigation and prosecution of others. it wasn't just very interesting information, it was useful information. i think it means other people are likely to be prosecuted as a result of michael flynn's information. the other thing to think about is people only get cooperation agreement typically about people who are higher up in a criminal organization or whose conduct is more egregious.

there's a very small cast of characters who would fit that. president trump, don trump jr., jared kushner. it does make me think the walls are closing in on at least some of that group. >> what are you hearing about the memos and how the white house is bracing? >> i think it's obvious the manafort memo is not going to be like the flynn memo with the special counsel recommending zero time. this is a person who's already been found guilty in one criminal trial. and said he would cooperate and then found to have lied. i think the message will be the opposite of the one being sent via the anybody memo which is cooperation. the message to manafort will be if you mess with us, we'll throw the back at you.

the shoes drop on them seems like every day. the sense i'm getting is the president, even though he's been dealing with this investigation for a long time, is also privately pretty worried. >> the shoes drop on them on a daily basis. and the argument is always let's get through the next cycle. except the investigation is not going away. i've got to move now back to the big story this morning, market madness. you heard that bell. the stock market just opened. the floor of the new york stock exchange. wow, markets have opened 15 seconds ago and the market is down 420 points. most recently, the arrest of the chinese executive, the cfo of one of the largest phonemakers on the planet.

the ccfo, the daughter of the founder. i want to bring in dom chu and . we might neat a correction. sometimes it's a buying opportunity. i don't see a buying opportunity. >> if you like where the markets were a week and a half ago, you'll love where they are now. we're cheaper than we were back then. the issue comes down to whether or not the same things driving the market downside since the beginning of october are still in play. you mentioned the arrest in canada at the u.s.' behest. that's what will drive more tension in the marketplace. pundits will say this, this does

not signal some kind of trade truce happening. add on to that lower oil prices which is not as good for the american worker who's tied to the oil and gas industry. we're the biggest producer of oil in the world now. none of those things really resolved. it's not as if many feel it will be a straight path to the downside but they feel there are reasons to be a little more risk averse. it's not to say there aren't opportunities for those who have the tolerance to take back on risk. >> josh, you call this the year no one made money. walk me through this. record unemployment. why is it that that is not enough to offset issues around global growth and stuff around

tariffs? >> the reason it's not enough to offset is because all the good things about the economy, and there are many. by the way, this might be the first year since the great financial crisis ten years ago where main street outperformed wall street. i manage money for a living but my clients live on main street. i'm happy about that development. but all the things you've cited that are good, quote/unquote good, were pulled forward in 2017. we had a rally in the s&p. we had only four days where the markets had a 1% or greater sell-off. we're having one of those every other day now. it's a different environment. but we stole a lot of these positive developments and this year you pay the piper. if you average out the two years. we're flat so far. last year, up 24%. okay, that's 12% a year since

trump took office. it's not terrible. the question now is whether some of these reckless and quite frankly ill thought out trade ideas the president has harbored for 30 years are going to take what's currently a volatile market and turn it into a bear market. you can see that priced into. it is startling to get this level of volatility in compressed period. >> it's stunning to watch free market enthusiasts like larry kudlow who were writing pieces against tariffs -- >> right. it's not their ideas. their job is to say those things. >> -- explanation to support -- >> correct. >> nonsense that the president is putting forth. david, i want you to speak to

that. the united states is the largest economy. one of the reasons people continue to trust and invest here is because we are the stable trustworthy superpower. have we ceded that position with the president on a regular basis putting forth nonsense ideas that aren't backed up by fact? >> the degree to which investors pay attention to what the president is saying. what the president is -- the team working on these trade issues is that president trump has decided that lighthizer is going to take the lead here. over these last six months, that was not clear. you remember well the screaming and the yelling in the bureau in beijing when these talks were occurring. when steven mnuchin was there

and no one could decide who was taking the lead on these talks. i go back the distance. there's distance on the president's part in terms of what he wants. i think investors are right to be concerned or flat-out wonderings who goiwonder i who is going to take the lead here. >> cohen said peter navarro not welcome on my team. i remember when hope hicks announced she was leaving. and wilbur prworked his way int the office. i remember that chaos. clearly, the market does today. we're going to leave it there. senators on both sides of the aisle furious at the white house. after receiving a briefing from

the dcia on the murder of jamal khashoggi. amid a new report that saudi funded lobbyists paid for 500 hotel rooms can you guess where, trump's d.c. hotel, just one month after the election. before we go, one marine has been killed and another five are missing in the sea of japan aft two u.s. planes, an f/a-18 hornet and a refueling aircraft collided. the u.s. military called the accident a, quote, mishap. the exact cause of the crash remains unclear. i assure you it will be investigated. your insurance rates skyrocket

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serious allergic reactions may occur. see me now. i'm still clear. how sexy are these elbows? get clear skin that can last. ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. you have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of mbs. if the saudi government is going to be in the hands of this man for a long time, i find it difficult to be able to do business because i think he's crazy. i think he is dangerous. and he has put the relationship at risk. >> well, another very clear rebuke of the trump administration and that of

course was lindsey graham. a group of bipartisan senators just introduced a resolution calling saudi bin prince complicit. nbc's garrett haake joins me from the hill. it's not just the killing of khashoggi. break it down for us. >> think about this in two parts. first, the senators condemn saudi arabia for this killing and they link the crown prince's directly. saying high confidence that the crown prince was complicit in khashoggi's murder. the second part deals with more broadly saudi arabia's alleged misdeeds. so it would call on the saudis to negotiate a truce with the rebels in yemen. it could call on them to come up with some kind of deal with their neighbors in qatar. and would call on them to

release a blogger who's been a political prisoner. this is senators taking some control over foreign policy. where they have seen the trump administration lacking. the critical figure here will be mcconnell. he was in that same briefing that lindsey graham and bob corker were in earlier this week where they came out spitting fire, furious at the saudi crown prince. mcconnell has said nothing. if he's willing to move forward with this resolution, i think it would be a strong signal to the trump administration that senators are fed up with the way the administration has handled saudi arabia and with saudi arabia's behavior over the last year or so. >> this is amazing. you have guys like lindsey graham, guys like bob corker, saying that mbs, if there was a jury, would be convicted of murder in 30 minutes. i want to bring my panel back. what do you make of this split between republicans on the hill and the white house?

right? mike pompeo and jim maltess carrying the president's water on oh, many sides, who knows. then you have republicans who listened to the brief saying no way. >> i'm glad that lindsey graham went to whatever -- had been deposited and repositioned it back into his body because that's the lindsey graham -- >> it's more than just words. this new resolution is action. >> right. it's important that someone say this loud and clear to the saudis. because you remember, last week or the week before that shameful statement directed by president trump, saying basically it's okay if you go murdering "washington post" columnists so long as you are purchasing american equipment and for all we know, perhaps also motel rooms in the trump hotel in washington.

mike pompeo thinks he's practicing the argument that we're going to need the saudies. they can be friends with the russians. an understanding it's the united states that has this. we're their pat trorn. we can dictate terms to how that government behaved. they can't move to the kind of surveillance we're going to get in yemen, the kind of protections they get. so we ought to be exerting power over them to bring mbs to heel. not simply rolling over on the false notion that somehow because saudi arabia claims but isn't paying $110 billion in arms that we're somehow in their debt. >> when he references hotel rooms, i must share this.

it is clearly money, power, politics. "washington post" reporting that stunning piece that saudi-founded lobbyists paid for 500, that's a five with two zeros after it, at trump's d.c. hotel in the course of three months. in all, the lobbies spent 700,000 grand. this information came from organizers of the trips and documents obtained by "the po " post." does it raise more questions about the conflicts of interests? yes. what do you make of this? and to those vets who didn't even realize. >> clearly influenced by -- no surpri surprise. they buy influence on the cheap. sounds like they got a bargain. >> isn't that stunning?

>> right into trump's, you know, mind-set. these guys must be my friends. they're spending in my hotels. they're also buying supposedly $125 billion worth of military equipment. trump is mercenary. we know that. we know he was trying to build a trump tower in moscow during the campaign. all you have to do is look at his face to see how frightened he was. >> but he did win. so what -- what does that mean for the united states -- >> we know, this is not a new thing, he said he wasn't going to divest his ownership in his hotel company, his recreation company, whatever it is. mike bloomberg was talking about divesting bloomberg if he was going to run for president. our president now doesn't even think like that. stephanie what it means is

patronage. >> what it means is we have a president susceptible to bribery. i don't think the country's secure with it. the real question is are republicans secure with it? >> president george h.w. bush is buried. every person who got up there spoke about diplomacy and honor and dignity. it was george bush who was one who originally worked on nafta and those complicated diplomatic deals. what does that mean today? we've deemed the president hijacked our republican party. >> well, america buried john mccain. when mark buried george h.w. bush, it buried everything that was good about the republican party and some other kind of vehicle needs to come up and represent a decent form of

conservativism. >> lindsey graham found some -- you know, the republican senators, the republican leaders in this congress have to find some spine to stand up against this president. who was purely in it for his own pocketbook and own self-agrand ditzmen self-agrandisement. why aren't they standing up against the president of the united states? they're our best hope. >> and his pocketbook is winning. i wonder who those republicans think they're winning long term. new disturbing details are revealed in north carolina as the investigation into potential election voter fraud gets even bigger. somehow chris kovac is not working on this voter fraud commission. i wonder why. come on dad!

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there are new twists in the growing controversy surrounding the ballots in north carolina's district. her absentee ballot was collected illegally. both federal and state investigators have now launched

probes into possible election fraud involving absentee ballots in this district. that has led to the state board of elections twice declining to certify republican mark harris' apparent 905-vote victory over democrat dan mccready. they've issued subpoenas to harris' campaign, according to the local station. leann caldwell is in north carolina. i want to thank you. i am so glad you are there on the ground covering this. one of the two counties at the center of this controversy and you spoke to that woman who said her absentee ballot was collected illegally. i'm not even sure how that works. a stranger knocks on your door and says i'm going to bring that in for you? >> reporter: that's exactly what happened, steph. big news broke overnight. nbc news has obtained documents from the state board of elections, perhaps just the first traunch here that shows

just two people, mcray dallas and jessica dallas have collected 775 absentee ballot applications in addition to our own reporting where we've found a handful of people have collected and turned in dozens and dozens of absentee applications. >> who are those people? are they private individuals? do they work for the state? >> yeah, they're private individuals. mcray dowless has been at the center of this investigation, reportedly hired by the mark harris campaign to help harris win bladen county and harris has reportedly hired dozens of people to help him go around and collect these absentee ballots and turn them in. sometimes he hasn't turned them in and sometimes they are

looking into if they've been tampered with. we spoke with one woman who says that her absentee ballot was illegally collected. here is what she had to say. >> a young lady came to the door. she knocked on the door, asked if she could have the absentee ballot. i broke the seal in front of her to show it was never opened. i filled out two boxes. she said she would fill the rest out, that it wasn't important. i signed it, it was not filled. she said she would fill it, come back to me and show me that it was filled. i never got a show back from her. >> and so you found out, though, that your absentee ballot was never turned in? >> yes. the investigators came. he came and showed me that my name was on the list but my absentee ballot did not come up in the system. >> reporter: yeah. so, steph, this is one of two women we have spoken to. but these numbers we're finding, the 775 between these two people

and the dozens of others we've come across on our own are big numbers especially since republican mark harris is leading in this race and unofficially by just 905 votes. the scope seems to be getting bigger in this scenario. it's up to the election board to determine how big it is and if it will change the outcome of this election. steph? >> i appreciate your investigative reporting growing even deeper. i need my panel to weigh in on this. i'm not an election expert, bill, but this stinks. why haven't we heard much from anyone in congress on this? >> i think you will, stephanie, because i spent six years in north carolina. north carolina does not like to be in the national spotlight in this way. it's one thing if duke wins the national championship, that's okay. but to be in the national spotlight in this way for something this egregious, i think they'll do something the right way very quickly. it sounds like they're starting to do the right thing with these subpoenas and investigations and

then in congress they'll have to do something, too. >> voter fraud, that is a term, a topic that the president actually loves to talk about. the voter fraud commission put together and then dismantled because there was nothing to do. president trump hasn't said anything here. >> where is crisco batch when you need it? this strikes me of giving every evidence of real fraud. what really worries me is what's happening in wisconsin and michigan. that's real theft. to take the wisconsin case, the wisconsin legislature is trying to strip the incoming democratic governor of his powers before he's able to assume office. and they were able to do this in a late-night session. the question is now before outgoing republican governor scott walker, whether he signs it. this is ukrainian style politics. this is very dangerous, just as -- republicans should ask themselves, two can play that game.

democrats can do it to republicans as well. if we go down this road, we are headed straight toward banana republic-dom and that's an insult to bananas. >> we can completely understand why republicans are frustrated. they lost. when you lose the election you have at least four years to deal with what comes next. what they're doing now, it is unamerican. thank you so much. this was a really important hour. it's not over. you know how we like to end this show, no matter what, we think good news ruhles. and this one takes place in walmart. the owner of the new orleans saints and pelicans recently spent money at a walmart but not for christmas decorations or black friday shopping. instead benson wrote a big check for nearly $100,000 to pay off nearly 400 layaway items at one walmart in new orleans. the saints say it was benson's

gift to her community for the holidays. if you're any one of those people who has a layaway payment you owe to that walmart, it's gone. merry christmas. i'm stephanie ruhle. find me any time on twitter. coming up is hallie jackson. >> thank you, stephanie. i am hallie jackson. a significant 24 hours in the russia investigation. that now scratched plea deal with paul manafort. michael cohen, his sentencing and just what he played ball on. the new reporting on russia questions that robert mueller may already know answers to. after saudi arabia reportedly reserved hundreds of nights at trump's dc hotel, why they did it, when they did it and why critics are wondering who else is plumping up the presidential pocketbook, when we watch what's going on in d.c., we're watching the partisan politics in